Philosophy vs. Improv

The author of The Accomplished Creative, a sort of anti-self-help book based around Jeremy’s improv experience and what he learned as a philosophy major, joins Mark and Bill to talk impostor syndrome and benign violations, get real meta about Die Hard scenarios, and have a cheese intervention.  Follow @JeremyRichards. Listen to Jeremy’s podcast Think Like An Improviser. His Seattle improv venue is Unexpected Productions. Jeremy also wrote a musical about Nietzsche. The image is by Blair G. If you’d like, you can watch this episode as unedited video: Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Sponsor: Visit FactorMeals.com/improv50 (code improv50) to get 50% off America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit.

It’s our season three premiere, and the elephants are in the room! It’s St. Lawrence University philosophy prof Jenny (a frequent PEL guest) in the ring with UIC Theater instructor/Podcaster with Hey Riddle Riddle and Hello From the Magic Tavern Adal, along with Mark and Bill, of course. And the Bullshot is flying! Who will be hit? Who will master the rings? Who will shoot from the hip? Who will tell it like it is? Who will have the narrowest viewpoint? The big promotion? The most clear and succinct tattoo? Oh, also, this is another philosophy of language episode. PEL will actually be covering Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” in a more systematic way very soon. Care to watch this episode on video? Do it: At the end, Adal recommended the comedian Theo Von as a good example of bullshitting as comedy. Follow Adal on Twitter and Instagram. Jenny is too cool for social media, but you can follow her in your mind, if that’s not too creepy. Adal appears to have a brand NEW podcast, “The Word Association.” The image here is by Anshika, and for the first time, we have audio of the artist explaining her work and how it uses colors “like blue and yellow.” Sounds like I need to start a child’s art appreciation podcast! Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Sponsor: Visit FactorMeals.com/improv50 (code improv50) to get 50% off America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit.

Philosopher Matt, host of the Elucidations podcast and frequent PEL guest, finally gets in on Philosophy vs. Improv in this, our Season Two Finale. And many is he a de dicto. Or is he a de re? Slowly learn the difference as we make things personal through scenes of shit-talking and crime reporting. Follow @ElucidationsPod. The image is from a story about Hong Kong. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions, video of this episode, and other exclusive bonus content. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Sponsor: Check out The Good Life Method by Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko.

How does new technology affect ethics? Anthony (who is on strike, but that doesn’t apply to improv) is an improviser with a computer science degree who now coaches kid TV actors. We talk personal identity, transhumanism, genetic engineering, AI, organizational ethics, Black Mirror, Beastars, and transporter virginity. Listen to more transporter talk on The Partially Examined Life’s episode on Derek Parfit. Follow Anthony @anthonyleblanc and @anthonypaulleblanc. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions, video of this episode, and other exclusive bonus content. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. The image was pulled from a child’s review of a Star Trek film. If you like our podcast, check out another show: Articles of Interest.

The guests are away, and so Billy and Markaroony will play. This fast-paced, sweet-moving discussion covers the genius individual artist and how that might or might not allow collaboration, genres and definitions, strife, and more. Mark just can’t WAIT for a canoe, and getting CRAZY at the salad bar. Oops, we forgot to determine a winner, so YOU decide. The image was pulled from Reddit and is supposed to depict Nostradamus picking lottery numbers, which is not really relevant to anything we discussed apart from the word “numbers.” Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions, video of this episode, and other exclusive bonus content. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. If you like our podcast, check out another show: Articles of Interest.

Watch this episode as a video. This includes the full post-game segment, so you can see what you’re missing by not being a supporter to this podcast. Don’t you think it’s time you became one? Monica is an actor and writer who ran a live-on-stage philosophy podcast called The Happier Hour, and so naturally we talk about happiness, or flourishing (eudaimonia). Can babies with cancer be relied upon to responsibly spend donations? How can Bill get his hands on one of those rings of Gyges? Is philosophy necessary for the good life? Is humility? Does every philosopher carry a slide rule? Is an ethic “fulfilling your potential” problematic? Are some people’s happiness fundamentally opposed to others’? Also, reacting to the unusual, undertunity, and lawn care ideology. The image was snatched from this site. Cancer sucks! Take an online course this fall from Mark at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Sponsors: Visit HelloFresh.Com/improv50 (code improv50) for 50% off (plus free shipping) of America’s #1 Meal Kit. Visit Twit.tv/apple for three great podcasts about all things Apple.

Watch this episode in its unedited video form. Chris has an act called “I Am the Show” where he improvises to a film that he hasn’t seen that’s playing silently, making up all the dialogue and sound effects. Here’s an example. Mark and Bill talk to Chris about being a spectator or critic of art: To understand a work, is it good or necessary to try to divine the artist’s intentions, or is meaning in art something that happens after a work becomes an objective thing, such that the artist’s intentions are not really relevant, and in fact the author might not have any better idea than you do of its meaning? This spurs us for some reason to enact some scenes initiated by pantomime, i.e. silence. Darts, anyone? Listen to the Partially Examined Life episode where we talk about “death of the author” and related concepts. The image, which for some reason came up when I searched for child’s drawings of monkeys, is from here. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Follow Chris @RidingontheWall and @00george. Read his blog. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. Sponsor: Visit HelloFresh.Com/improv50 (code improv50) for 50% off (plus free shipping) of America’s #1 Meal Kit.

We are ALL this mess. Genevieve is a comedian, podcaster, and she was a philosophy major who’s studying for her doctorate in Divinity (in the Science of Mind/New Thought tradition). We talk about the idea that “we are all one” (and thus we are all God, if you want to call the sum of all things by that name) that’s in various traditions. Ralph Waldo Emerson called this the “oversoul.” Unique to this episode, we pretty much front-load the philosophy and spend our second half under the bleachers not making out, get bored at the Grand Canyon, get nervous before the big show, and consider everyone’s food allergies. For a more through take on Genevieve’s theology, watch this other interview that’s not interrupted with our nonsense. Listen to Genevieve and Mark on Pretty Much Pop talking about disgraced entertainers. Listen to Just Genevieve and Not Just Genevieve. The image is by Lily, ripped from this page. Audio editing as always by Tyler Hislop. Follow Genevieve @catfightj0y and @CAtFightJOy. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content, including the unedited video recording of most recent episodes (but not this one!). Sponsors: Get 16 free meals and free shipping via HelloFresh.Com/improv16 (code improv16). Check out the Skeptoid podcast at skeptoid.com.

Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff of the Brain in a Vat podcast join Bill and Mark L. (aka Alf) to talk about rationality, broadly construed, while not moving a couch and not giving each other Christmas presents. Does “reason” by itself tell us what to do and what to believe? Is trypophobia really just bigotry? (It is not.) What’s the rationale for making negative comments online about a podcast? Are bigots bigger than bigamists? Was Ayn Rand a cannibal? The image is from this site, and truly, you do not want to be there. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop, who is looking for more podcast editing clients, if you want to reach out to him. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content, including the unedited video recording of this episode. If you like our show, check out the Banned Camp comedy podcast.

Zach is an improvisor who’s written for MST3K, been a commentator for Resistance Pro Wrestling, and has been a recurring guest on Hello From the Magic Tavern. He joins Mark and Bill to discuss competitiveness in all its forms. Is strife part of utopia, or would all conflict be removed in an ideal political situation? Is the controlled competitiveness of sports or improv games fundamentally different than mere aggression? Also, we chase a dog. Follow Zach @PocketThunder. The image is by “Charlie,” and is on several websites that seem too unsavory to link to, but you can find it by searching on these keywords: child’s drawing wrestling dream house. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content, including the unedited video recording of this episode. Sponsors: Get 16 free meals and free shipping via HelloFresh.Com/improv16 (code improv16). Check out the Skeptoid podcast at skeptoid.com.