Bonus Discussion: Wes Interprets Shakespeare's "Tempest" (Part One)
Wes Alwan and Bill Youmans discuss the 1611 play about revenge, forgiveness, and authorship. Or maybe it's about exploitation, or how we react to changes in status, or perhaps how a liberal education can give you magical powers! Note: Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how.
34m Jul 21, 2018
34m
NEM#78: Tara Lynch's Unflinchingly Honest Metal Debut
Tara has long been building her heavy metal guitar skills, but has only recently gone public, building a huge social media following and now releasing Evil Enough, an album featuring musicians who've played with Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Yngwie Malmsteen, etc. We discuss "Antidote" and "Banished from My Kingdom," and close with "Unbreakable." Opening music: "Gui-Tara Rises." Hear more at ta...
1hr 1m Jul 21, 2018
1hr 1m
Alfred Tarski on Truth (Part Two)
Continuing on Tarski's “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics,” (1944), Hartry Field's “Tarski's Theory of Truth” (1972), and Donald Davidson's “The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” (1977). What was Tarski really doing? What are the implications of his project? Does it even make sense to define "truth," and what should a definition look like? Listen to part one fir...
1hr 12m Jul 16, 2018
1hr 12m
Alfred Tarski on Truth (Part One)
On Tarski's “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics,” (1944), Hartry Field's “Tarski's Theory of Truth” (1972), and Donald Davidson's“The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” (1977). What is truth? Tarski gives a technical, metaphysically neutral definition for truth within a particular, well-defined language. In short, a sentence is true if it is "satisfied" by all term...
55m Jul 09, 2018
55m
NEM#77: Shawn Phillips: Uncategorizable from Texas
Shawn started as a '60s folk singer, went to England to cavort with the greats of classic rock, and emerged in the '70s with ten albums of eclectic, progressive music with shamanic lyrics delivered with a twang. We discuss "Woman" from Second Contribution (1971), "A Christmas Song" from Faces (1972) and "Mr. President" from Furthermore (1974), then play two songs from his new album, Continuance...
1hr 7m Jul 08, 2018
1hr 7m
PREVIEWS-Eps 192-193 Allan Bloom & Liberal Education Follow-Ups
Hear highlights from two supporter-only discussions: Allan Bloom on Nietzsche/Freud/etc. and Leo Strauss vs. Richard Rorty on liberal education and democracy.
17m Jul 07, 2018
17m
The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education (Part Two)
Continuing with the current St. John's College president on articles on liberal education by Jacob Klein (former Dean of SJC), Sidney Hook (critiquing the SJC program), and Martha Nussbaum (critiquing Allan Bloom). What's the practical application of a liberal education? Is it really liberating or indoctrinating? How can we justify learning for learning's sake in a world with so many problems ...
52m Jul 02, 2018
52m
The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education (Part One)
Dylan returns to St. John's College, Annapolis to bring its president into dialogue with the PEL clan about Jacob Klein's “The Idea of a Liberal Education” (1960) and “On Liberal Education” (1965), plus Sidney Hook’s “A Critical Appraisal of the St. John’s College Curriculum” (1946) and Martha Nussbaum’s “Undemocratic Vistas” (1987). Ep. 192 got us talking about a great-books-oriented educatio...
51m Jun 25, 2018
51m
NEM#76: Phil Manzanera's Impossible Guitar
Phil was a core member of Roxy Music through the '70s and early '80s, has released 10+ solo albums since 1975 and many collaborations—appearing on around 80 albums in total—with an experimental yet tasteful guitar that's sometimes mistaken for a keyboard or something else. We discuss "No Church in the Wild" from The Sound of Blue (2015), which is a cover of the song by Jay Z and Kanye West base...
1hr 12m Jun 24, 2018
1hr 12m
"The Closing of the American Mind": Allan Bloom on Great Books (Part Two)
Continuing on Allan Bloom's 1987 book critiquing the current fragmented structure of the university that promotes technical and professional education over the ability to think philosophically. Does Bloom's vision require aristocracy, or can a Great Books education be available for all? Bloom thinks we lack a shared culture and consequently a sense of the common good. He gives us a history of ...
1hr 10m Jun 18, 2018
1hr 10m
"The Closing of the American Mind": Allan Bloom on Education (Part One)
On Allan Bloom's 1987 best-seller about why students' disconnection from Great Books has led to relativism and ultimately nihilism. What is the role of the university in our democracy? Bloom relates from his many years' teaching the problem with kids today: They're subject to the evils that Tocqueville warned us go with American-style democracy: They're conformist, superficial, focused on the ...
53m Jun 11, 2018
53m
NEM#75: Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond): Indie Every Day!
Nick has released 22 albums as The Bevis Frond since 1986, alternating jangle-pop with psychedelia and power-guitar rock… pretty much anything '60s-flavored. We discuss "Longships" from Example 22 (2015), "Opthalmic Microdots" from White Numbers (2013), and "Coming Round" from London Stone (1992). We conclude by listening to "Portobello Man" from Valedictory Songs (2000). Intro: “He’d Be a Diam...
1hr 5m Jun 08, 2018
1hr 5m
Conceptual Schemes: Donald Davidson & Rudolf Carnap (Part Two)
Finishing Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" (1974) and moving on to Carnap's "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (1950). Carnap's paper comes 22 years after his Aufbau project that we covered in ep. 67, and is really a response to Quine's 1948 paper "On What There Is," which we covered in ep. 66. His point is that when we use a certain vocabulary, whether talking about phy...
1hr 9m Jun 04, 2018
1hr 9m
NEM#74: Colin Moulding (XTC) Kills and Scatters the Editor
As bassist/co-frontman for XTC, he released around 14 albums between 1978-2000, and for the first time since, he has a new release, the Great Aspirations EP now under the name TC&I. We discuss "Scatter Me" and "Kenny" from this 2017 release, plus "Say It" an 2002 XTC song, and conclude by listening to "Where Did the Ordinary People Go?" the final 2005 XTC single. Intro music: "Making Plans for ...
1hr 11m May 29, 2018
1hr 11m
Conceptual Schemes: Donald Davidson & Rudolf Carnap (Part One)
On Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" (1974) and Carnap's "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (1950). What does it mean to say that we grasp the world through a conceptual scheme? Are schemes different between cultures or even individuals, such that we can't really understand each other? Davidson thinks that this doesn't make sense: For schemes to be really different and no...
56m May 28, 2018
56m
PREVIEWS-Ep 189: Authorial Intent (Part Three) Plus Identity Politics
Listen here to a few highlights from two recent discussions between Mark and Wes: We chase down some issues from ep. 189, relating authorial intent to philosophy of language more generally, then we have some preliminary discussion about the possibility of a future identity politics episode. Get the full discussions by becoming a PEL Citizen or $5/month Patreon supporter.
17m May 26, 2018
17m
NEM#73: David J Colors His Poetry
David J. Haskins gained fame with Bauhaus in the late 70s/early 80s, gained more fame with Love and Rockets, and has since 1983 released around ten albums plus several EPs and other collaborations. We discuss "The Auteur (Redux / Reprise)" a 2018 single (featuring Rose McGowan and Emily Jane White), "Vaudeville Ghost Light" from Carpe Noctem (2016), credited to M.C. Nightshade and the Theatre B...
1hr 6m May 21, 2018
1hr 6m
Film Analysis: "mother!"
On Darren Aronofsky's philosophical 2017 film about humanity's relationship to nature. We discuss the philosophical content of the film (Gnosticism, anyone?) and explore the relation between meaning and the sensuous aspects of an artwork. Can a work be both allegorical and yet have fully fleshed out characters and the other elements that make a film feel real? This was a very polarizing film; h...
1hr 28m May 21, 2018
1hr 28m
Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Part Two)
Continuing on "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967) and "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and finally getting to “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). What could it mean to say that a text, once written, speaks itself, that it no longer really has an author? We get into the specific critiques Foucault has of the cult of the author and what...
1hr 19m May 14, 2018
1hr 19m
Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Part One)
On four essays about how to interpret artworks: “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley (1946), "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967), "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). When you're trying to figure out what, say, a poem means, isn't the best way to do that to just ask the au...
57m May 07, 2018
57m
NEM#72: Sarah McQuaid Kills Her Darlings
Sarah has recorded five solo albums since 1997, starting with traditional folk songs, sometimes guitar instrumentals, and now focusing on originals that mix British and American folk in a style influenced by Joni Mitchell among others. She has lately pared back her songwriting to ensure that every note counts. We discuss the title track and "The Silence Above Us" from If We Dig Any Deeper It Co...
54m Apr 30, 2018
54m
Discussing "Lysistrata" and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Part Two)
Concluding our discussion of Aristophanes's play with Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins. We focus on trying to connect its lessons to the here and now: Is Lysistrata's victory properly described as the ascension of some kind of "feminine spirit" over warlike values, and how does that actually relate to women's struggles now to attain positions of power? Is sex helpful to the state or a threat? Do...
59m Apr 30, 2018
59m
Discussing "Lysistrata" and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Part One)
We are rejoined by actresses Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins to discuss Aristophanes's bawdy play. Listen to us perform it first. Supplementary readings included Jeffery Henderson's introduction to his 1988 translation of the play; "Sexual Humor and Harmony in Lysistrata" by Jay M. Semel (1981); and "The 'Female Intruder' Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae" by Hele...
53m Apr 23, 2018
53m
NEM#71: Aaron David Gleason Is a Wry Observer
Aaron was born into show business, staring young in L.A. in the early 00's with All Hours, then went solo, moved to New York, became an actor, and has now released his first album in seven years, Wry Observer. We discuss the title track from that album plus "Brooklyn at Dawn" (the intro music is from that too: "The Last to Die in Battle"). Then we look back to "Box Office Stud" by All Hours (20...
51m Apr 16, 2018
51m
"Lysistrata" w/ Lucy Lawless, Emily Perkins, Erica Spyres, Bill Youmans & Aaron Gleason
The PEL Players return to perform Aristophanes's comedy (first performed in 411 BCE) about using a sex strike to stop war, using Jeffrey Henderson's 1988 translation. Mark (old men's chorus leader), Wes (old men's chorus and Athenian), Dylan (old men's chorus), and Seth (Spartan sentry) are joined once again by TV's Lucy Lawless (Xena Warrior Princess, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Spartacus, Battlestar ...
1hr 22m Apr 16, 2018
1hr 22m
PREVIEW-Episode 187: The Limits of Free Speech (Part Three)
Three substantial chunks of a follow-up conversation to our free speech episode. Mark and Wes discuss Jordan Peterson on speech, organizations' promoting certain speech (as opposed to restricting), insults vs. arguments, offense vs. harm, "incoherence" arguments like Fish's, fundamental principles in ethics, and more. Get the full discussion by becoming a PEL Citizen or Patreon supporter.
14m Apr 14, 2018
14m
The Limits of Free Speech (Part Two)
Continuing our free form discussion, trying to make sense of Stanley Fish's “There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It’s a Good Thing, Too” (1994) and other potential rationales for prohibiting hate speech. How might the same sentence or idea be used in different speech acts, some of which might be legitimately censured but others not? Listen to part one first, or get the Citizen Edition, al...
1hr 4m Apr 09, 2018
1hr 4m
NEM#70: Amy Annelle's Natural Environments
Amy has recorded nine albums of emotionally stark but often artistically decorated original folk music, punctuated by cover tunes like the opening music here, Townes Van Zandt's "Buckskin Stallion Blues," which appeared in the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.  We discuss "Mouth to Mouth" from The Autopilot Knows You Best (2000), "The Nightjar’s Blues" from The Cimarron Banks (201...
1hr 2m Apr 09, 2018
1hr 2m
The Limits of Free Speech (Part One)
Wes, Mark, Dylan, and Seth have a free-form discussion on contemporary issues regarding potential restrictions on speech, drawing on Stanley Fish's “There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It’s a Good Thing, Too” (1994) and Joel Feinberg’s “Limits to the Free Expression of Opinion” (1975), and also on David van Mill's Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article, "Freedom of Speech," John Milt...
59m Mar 29, 2018
59m
NEM#69: Craig Wedren Catch-Up: "Safe Home/Fadeland"
On NEM#15, Craig introduced us to his songwriting style: How a hardcore aesthetic informs even his most syntho creations, and how whimsicality and beauty can coexist harmoniously. Craig has since then released the Adult Desire album, and returns to talk to us about the song "Safe Home/Fadeland" and about the Adult Desire 360 VR application. Intro: "Amnesian Wedding March." Outro: "I Was a Soldi...
37m Mar 28, 2018
37m
J.L. Austin on Doing Things with Words (Part Two)
Continuing on How to Do Things with Words (lectures from 1955), covering lectures 5-9. Austin tries and fails to come up with a way to grammatically distinguish performatives from other utterances, and so turns to his more complicated system of aspects of a single act: locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary. In doing so, he perlocutionarily blows our minds. #philosophy #language #truth #s...
1hr 12m Mar 26, 2018
1hr 12m
NEM#68: Billy James (Ant-Bee): Experimenting with Idols
Billy now does press for many of his idols, but began as a drummer in music school and started Ant-Bee in the late '80s, as a Zappa-esque improv live act and as a Beach Boys–psychedelic solo recording effort. He's released four albums, increasingly featuring his clients. We discuss two tracks from Electronic Church Muzik (2011): "Flutter-Bye, Butter-Flye" (feat. Michael Bruce) and "The Language...
1hr 5m Mar 22, 2018
1hr 5m
J.L. Austin on Doing Things with Words (Part One)
On How to Do Things with Words, a lecture series delivered in 1955. What's the relationship between language and the world? According to Austin, philosophers have generally taken language as providing descriptions: A sentence is true if it correctly describes some state of affairs. But what about sentences like "I promise…"? Austin says that when you say that, you're not describing your inner ...
50m Mar 19, 2018
50m
Ethics in Homer's "Odyssey" Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part Two)
Continuing with Emily Wilson on her translation of the Greek epic poem. We discuss the value of the oikos, or estate, built on violence, with slaves rewarded for loyalty and killed for preferring a different master. These estates were brought into military alliances through xenia, or hospitality, which you should definitely extend to any gods-disguised-as-beggars that come around, but if actua...
1hr 13m Mar 12, 2018
1hr 13m
NEM#67: RHEMA's Marc Jackson and Jeffrey Casey: Original Gangastas of Techno
RHEMA as a six-piece band produced an album called Voyage of the Rock Aliens that accompanied their appearance in the film of that name. The band then broke up, but songwriters Marc and Jeffrey continued to work together on various projects, and have finally now produced a proper album as RHEMA called Shine, drawing on their '80s roots but incorporating modern electronic music textures. We disc...
1hr 9m Mar 05, 2018
1hr 9m
Ethics in Homer's "Odyssey" Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part One)
On the classic Greek epic poem, written ca. 750 BCE and translated by our guest Emily Wilson (of the University of Pennsylvania) in 2018. Does this story of ""heroes"" have anything to teach us about ethics? Emily wrote an 80-page introduction to her new translation laying out the issues, including ""hospitality"" as a political tool, the value for status and identity of one's home (including ...
50m Mar 05, 2018
50m
Pascal on the Human Condition (Part Two)
Continuing on Pascal's Pensées. More on our human desire and how God is supposed to address that, plus Pascal's views on political philosophy, the relation between faith, reason, and custom… and finally, the wager! We get into the obvious objections. Why not just be a skeptic? Is Pascal right that people suck? End song: "44 Days" by Dutch Henry, written and sung by Todd Long, as interviewed o...
1hr 9m Feb 25, 2018
1hr 9m
Pascal on Human Nature (Part One)
On Blaise Pascal's Pensées (1670). Is it rational to have religious faith? You're likely familiar with "Pascal's Wager," one of the most famous arguments for the existence of God, but it's not clear that Pascal bought into the argument as it is usually understood. To see why, you have to get Pascal's picture of human nature, which is surprisingly insightful, and is what Mark, Wes, and Dylan s...
52m Feb 19, 2018
52m
NEM#66: Arrica Rose's Dreamy Dramas
Arrica has released five albums and 3 EPs of floaty, poetic, California rock since 2006. We discuss "Whole Lotta Lows" and "X-Ray Eyes" from Low as the Moon (2017) and "When the Clouds Hang This Low" from Let Alone Sea (2011). We conclude by listening to "On and On" by Deer County from Low Country (2016). Intro music: "Sail Away" from Antebellum (2010). For more, visit arricarose.com. Hear more...
1hr 14m Feb 17, 2018
1hr 14m
Mill on Liberty (Part Two)
Continuing on John Stuart Mill's On Liberty (1859). We discuss "partial truths" and how free speech may allow us to complete them, whether truth will always eventually overcome persecution, whether we can judge some "experiments in living" as failures once and for all, education, "barbarians," how Mill compares to Nietzsche, and more. Has our culture received Mill's message that nonconformity i...
1hr 6m Feb 12, 2018
1hr 6m
Mill on Liberty (Part One)
Discussing John Stewart Mill's On Liberty (1859) If we disapprove of certain behaviors, when is it okay to prohibit them legally? What about just shaming people for engaging in them? How much shaming is too much? Mill's famous "harm principle" says that we should permit anything unless it harms other people. But what constitutes "harm"? If I call you by a racial slur, have I harmed you? If I t...
1hr Feb 04, 2018
1hr
TEASER: Reflections on PEL 2017
The PEL guys get personal and political and tell you in brief about things like Planet of the Apes, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Vine Deloria Jr. in the second half of our year-in-review discussion. Here you get a taste. You can only hear the meat with the full, ad-free episode, posted for PEL Citizens (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/support!) or at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife.
4m Feb 04, 2018
4m
Reflections on PEL 2017 (Part One)
To what extent has our podcast changed in reaction to current politics? Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan reflect back on our year, discuss how we select texts, and give some thumbnail sketches of potential topics. Attention: Only the first 45 min of this discussion will be posted for the general public. If you like PEL at all, consider just becoming a PEL Citizen or supporting us via Patreon and get...
53m Jan 29, 2018
53m
NEM#65: Jherek Bischoff Risks Every String
Jherek started off as bassist in the late '90s for the Seattle art rock bands The Dead Science and Parenthetical Girls, and has released about five solo albums (and other things) since 2006, the last two being full-on orchestral works. We discuss the title track from Cistern (2016), "The Nest" featuring Mirah from Composed (2012), and "Blackstar," featuring Anna Calvi, from a David Bowie tribut...
1hr 21m Jan 27, 2018
1hr 21m
Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part Two)
Continuing on Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963), on how ordinary people can do—or acquiesce to—horrific things. How do people rationalize this? What's required to cut through the environmental haze and have an authentic moral reaction? What can we apply from this story to our present political circumstances? Also, how was genocide a new type of crime, and what's the...
1hr 22m Jan 22, 2018
1hr 22m
Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part One)
On Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963). Are we still morally culpable if our entire society is corrupt? Arendt definitely thinks so, but has a number of criticisms of the handling of the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Israel used the spectacle to remind people of the horrors of the Holocaust, but missed the opportunity to explore what would make a re...
48m Jan 15, 2018
48m
NEM#64: Mike Huberty (Sunspot): Rock from the Other Side
Mike fronts a hard-working Madison power trio in the glam rock vein that's put out 7 albums and 7 EPs since 2000. He also runs (and records a new song every week for) a podcast about the occult. We discuss "Sulfur" from The Wilderness of Almost Was and Never Were (2017), "Saturday Night Gospel" from Dangerous Times (2014), and "Prozac Girl" from Loser of the Year (2003). We conclude by listenin...
1hr 3m Jan 14, 2018
1hr 3m
More James's Psychology: Self and Will (Part Two)
Concluding on William James's Psychology, the Briefer Course (1892). We briefly cover emotions and spend the bulk of our time on will. Talking about emotions allows us to refresh on James's overall theory of mind: An organism's activity basically involves various signals coming in through the senses and going out to produce reaction. This chain can reach to a greater or lesser extent into cons...
1hr 16m Jan 08, 2018
1hr 16m
More James's Psychology: Self and Will (Part One)
On Psychology, the Briefer Course (1892), chapters on "The Self," "Will," and "Emotions." Continuing from ep. 179, we talk about the various aspects of self: The "Me" (the part of me that I know) that's divided into physical, social, and spiritual aspects, and the "I" (the part of me that has experiences), which is pretty problematic, but which we need not posit as a "soul," but which should p...
1hr 1m Jan 01, 2018
1hr 1m
NEM#63: Revisiting Bradley Skaught, Jeff Heiskell, Steve Petrinko: 2017 Year-end Extravaganza
To celebrate year #2, previous guests return: Bradley  (see #32) talks "Duet" from Take Out the Poison, Jeff (see #5) presents "Still Life with Broken Heart" from Emotional Terrorism, and Steve (see #6) discusses "Wind of Change" from A Tribute to the Bee Gees '66 to '78. Finally, hear Tyler Hislop (see #24) about his "Wounds and Nihilism (Feat. Mark Lint)." Opening music: "Dawning on Me" by Ma...
1hr 8m Jan 01, 2018
1hr 8m