Philosophy vs. Improv

The anonymous policy wonk who runs the Carneades.org YouTube channel joins Mark and Bill to discuss the core concept of his new book, Are All Lives Equal?: Why Cost-Benefit Analysis Values Rich Lives More and How Philosophy Can Fix It. Should economics really be measuring the value of life at all? Can it do this in any principled way? Can economists really understand how much joy cat videos really bring us? What should parasitic micro-organisms value? Does the choo-choo train of peas going in a child’s mouth continue in a similarly fun way within the body? Were all the world’s religions originally infections diseases? No question is off the table! The image is by Sahana Prasanna. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content.

What is personhood? How can a group best collaboratively invent a scene? Sarah is a host of Marty and Sarah Love Wrestling and a repeat guest on Hello From the Magic Tavern. We fit in THREE scenes, some discussion of the various layers of what it is for something to be (or not be) person, and some musings about the weather and such. Follow us @sarahjoyshockey, @btarnett, and @MarkLinsenmayer. Image swiped from here. Can you find all three persons in this picture? Audio edited by Tyler Hislop. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content.

Stephen West from the juggernaut Philosophize This! podcast joins Mark and Bill to learn to say no and talk about reason vs. emotion in grounding ethics. What do the voices in your head (or at your lunch table) say to you? The image came from this site, somehow depicting what went on in both of our improv scenes here. Audio edited by Tyler Hislop. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content.

Mark and Bill break former patterns by each bringing in not a lesson but a question, which we knew about beforehand, and those questions are about pattern-breaking and about what current philosophers worry about. With special surprising scenes conveying cutting-edge podcasting/instructional techniques. Image snatched from this page. Edited by Tyler Hislop. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content.

Jay Sanders, famed not only for his appearances on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The Day After Tomorrow and many many other screens and stages, joins us to talk tragedy, how he’s applied the lessons of improv to his scripted acting, and more. Jump into the improv maelstrom with us! In the post-game, which just this once, we’re sharing with the general public, we more about Jay’s projects and getting recognized on the street for things. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content.

It’s all down to this. Which discipline, which host will prevail? Will a third-party cheater bust in and take the big prize? All stakes are on the table, and if this thinking isn’t critical enough, if these scenes aren’t congruent enough, if we fail the big scan-tron test that is life, then it’s all been for nothing. Get out your cushion and get in the lotus position, clear your mind, and tune in for this, the most exciting single podcast episode you’ve ever heard in your whole goddamned life. Read Bill’s posts on Literate Ape. Watch Bill’s improv reaction videos. Catch up on Mark’s Chickie videos. The art this time (until someone complains about my using it without permission) is by Jean-Michel Basquiat, who is not in fact a small child, through this image sure looks like a small child drew it. But in a good way! Maybe one of you with kids have ask those kids to draw some boxers for our future use. (Boxers, yes, briefs, no. …And with that “joke,” I absolutely lose the humor contest. Sorry.) Audio editing by Tyler Hislop; check out his new Pixel Box Media podcast. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content.

Skye teaches and Columbia and the City University of New York, and she recently published How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment. She joins Mark and Bill to talk about what authenticity might mean for an existentialist, how it relates to truth, responsibility, and picking a theme for your birthday party. For more on this ladder of authenticity, i.e. Beauvoir’s take on ways of lacking, see PEL’s episodes on her Ethics of Ambiguity. The art was snatched off naturalsciences.org, author unknown. Why is it a picture of a snake? Well, I’d called this episode “Authentic Snake Oil,” but Skye didn’t like that much. I was not implying her book is snake oil! As a side note: Is something snake oil as in inauthentic if it in fact oil from a snake and advertised as such? It is authentic but in being so is clearly not “snake oil” in the colloquial sense despite its literal identity as such. In any case, to repeat, Skye’s book is neither snaky nor oily Audio editing by Tyler Hislop; check out his new Pixel Box Media podcast. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions, exclusive bonus content, and help ensure that season two of this podcast happens!

We talk about observations and how they relate to theories and other types of preconception. Is there such a thing as pure observation?  For our pen-pen-ultimate episode here of season one, I must say that these were some of my favorite scenes we’ve ever done. We tour a submarine and plan a party. There is no Chumbawamba in either case. Improv guy Chris starred in the Improvised Star Trek podcast (and stage show) and has been a recurrent guest and now an editor on Hello From the Magic Tavern (hear his first appearance as Baron Ragoon on #51). Image by Zavier, age 6.  Audio editing by Tyler Hislop; check out his new Pixel Box Media podcast. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions, exclusive bonus content, and help ensure that season two of this podcast happens!

Barry teaches at Vassar and hosts a documentary-style philosophy podcast called Hi-Phi Nation, and his most recent season had a four-episode run on David Lewis, America’s foremost philosopher of possible worlds (also covered by PEL), after Dr. Strange, of course. So we talk about that notion, in the philosophy of metaphysics and language, and also in the literal physics sense that Hollywood has so much fun with lately. And WE have fun with it in a couple of variations on a classic diner scene. Cheese salad, anyone? Image by Batiste, apparently, from paintingvalley.com. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions, exclusive bonus content, and help ensure that season two of this podcast happens!

Bill is a sad but steadfast street sweeper. Mark has secret character traits. Filmmaker Jack C. Newell is our inaugural non-philosopher, non-improviser guest, and his film knowledge leads to us talking about ethics in terms of film tropes plus some meta-historical-reenactment. Learn more about Jack’s (non-garbage!) work at jackcnewell.com. Image by The Children of Arendal. The whale has eaten some trash! Audio editing by Tyler Hislop. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions, exclusive bonus content, and help ensure that season two of this podcast happens!