PlasticPills - Philosophy & Critical Theory Podcast

Today we have a heady one for ya. This is some in-the-weeds political theory, where Ben, Matt, and Victor consider libertarianism via professional sophist, Jason Brennan. Are there good libertarian arguments? Or are they exclusively hasty consequentialist defenses of one sublime object: the market? Find out in our review of Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know. To stay on what Ben's up to follow @BenBurgis, or check out Give them an Argument on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA

Welcome to Round 1 of our new series, which covers theorists' takedowns of other theorists. This episode features an exciting 1977 bout between the young iconoclast, Jean Baudrillard and the king of the French academy, Michel Foucault, as found in the provocatively titled: Forget Foucault. Can a well-timed tag team with Deleuze save Foucault? Or will Baudrillard be forever condemned to circle in the Disneyland teacups alone? Get access to this episode and all the other exclusives up on www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Author Mike Watson discusses Acid Communism, Mark Fisher, and NFTs with hosts in a thought-provoking conversation. Topics cover the relationship between memes, capitalism, and the art market, as well as exploring acid communism, performative activism, and challenges of political leverage in the digital age.

The Pill Pod is joined by Meaghan, a real life cognitive scientist and VR researcher, to answer our ignorant questions about brains, behaviour, and perception while we try to deduce whether or not Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology holds up in virtual reality.   Visit www.patreon.com/plasticpills for this and the rest of our exclusive episodes.

The Pill Pod takes on two definitive philosophers opposed to the fantasies of uploading consciousnesses into machines: John Searle and Hubert Dreyfus. Apologies in advance but we gotta burst your 20-year-old-cousin-who-retweets-Elon-Musk's techno-utopian bubble in a Chinese room.   If you've gone through the public feed there's more exclusive audio and video content on www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Matt and Victor are joined by Meagan Day (@meaganmday) to discuss Michael Brooks' ambitious proposal for cosmopolitan socialism, its relation to particularity and difference, and what it could mean for the future of the left. Find Meagan's article Unions are Essential for Eliminating Racism here www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/multiracial-solidarity-unions If you've finished the public feed, all of our exclusive episodes and bonus video are up at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Matt (@mattpolprof) and Victor (@victorbruzzone) are joined by cartoonist J. Andrew World (@rightaboutnow2) to talk Marvel, DC, and artists' intellectual property. World is perhaps best known 'round these parts as the cover artist for Michael Brooks' Against the Web, and you can find him inking on YouTube (www.youtube.com/jandrewworld) or on Substack: rightaboutnow2.substack.com

So we had some different interpretations as to whether Can't Get You Out of My Head is art, history, documentary, art-history, history-documentary or art-documentary. In any case, it's one of the more interesting media artefacts of the year.   Listen to this episode and our other bonus content on Patreon, at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Matt tricks the Pill Pod into reading analytic philosophy: "Personal Identity" by Derek Parfit (1971), who challenges intellectualist ideas of selfhood with thought experiments about splitting brains and sending your consciousness to Mars. Are you your soul, your memories, or nothing at all? Follow @PodPill and check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to dose up on exclusive episodes and video content.

We'll be back on Friday with our regularly scheduled program, and here's a clip of this week's exclusive content up at www.patreon.com/plasticpills