Slavoj Zizek, Todd McGowan, and Russ Sbriglia explore the points of greatest strength and greatest weakness in the thought of Jacques Lacan. They focus on the notion of surplus enjoyment, the formulas of sexuation, and the four discourses. They frame … Continue reading →
Apr 2025
Slavoj Žižek: An Overview
Kicking off a new Overview sub series of podcasts, Ryan and Todd discuss the influential ideas of Hegelian-Lacanian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek. After discussing Žižek's defining contribution in bringing the study of Hegel and the study of Lacan together, the two hosts move through ... Show More
1h 19m
Feb 2022
Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Explaining the US-Russia Saber-Rattling
<p>Suzi talks to professor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cox_(academic)" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Michael Cox</a> about what is behind Putin’s bluster at the Ukrainian border and the hawkish, confrontational response from the US, UK, and NATO. Is t ... Show More
58m 27s
Aug 2023
Lacan and Literature w/ Russell Sbriglia
Part 1 of our interview with Russell Sbriglia on his book Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Literature but Were Afraid to Ask Žižek. We're talking Lacanian psychoanalysis as a way to interpret literature, Žižek's bad taste in novels, toilets, the object from inner space, ... Show More
49m 31s
Mar 2022
Ukrainian identity and Russian strategy
Mark Leonard is joined by Andrew Wilson, senior policy fellow at ECFR and Ukraine expert, and Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher and editor of the blog Ukraine World, to dissect Russia's war against Ukraine from a Ukrainian intellectual perspective. What concepts defin ... Show More
29m 30s
Dec 2019
Psychoanalysis and Existentialism
In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the possibilities for the marriage of psychoanalysis and existentialism, including the ideas that might render this marriage ultimately untenable. They explore how psychoanalysis and existentialism each provides a critique of the other, touc ... Show More
1h 17m
May 2023
10: Wild Analysis: Problematic Faves and the Anxiety of Influence Teaser
<p>The three of us talk problematic faves, guilty pleasures, comfort food (literal and metaphorical), and the dangers of nostalgia. We focus on thinkers who have been crucial to our own intellectual formation – and who have likewise been meaningful to so many people who have turn ... Show More
2m 12s