The Gay Science #13 (III.132 - III.147)

We incomprehensible ones - how our thought branches in every direction, how willing we are to shed our bark, to grow, to change! In this episode, we discuss, among many other sections, important passages such as "What is Romanticism" - in which Nietzsche explains how he departed ... Show More

In this chapter of our readthrough, we confront "the problem of the actor". Nietzsche predicts that things shall become ever more "artistic" in Europe, as the actor's talent self-falsification becomes developed in all members of society. Whereas in the Middle Ages, the individual ... Show More

The grand experiment continues with a series of naturalistic explanations for the origins of ideas or modes of life. The scholar's intellectual habits are inherited "in blood and instinct"; Spinoza's philosophy is sourced to his sickliness; Darwinian theories of evolution are a p ... Show More

We're talking Jesus Christ, Žižek's Christian Atheism, and Christmas. How do Christ and God figure in Žižek's work? Is God Dead? Also, the Big (m)Other. From the pod to you, merry Christmas—especially to the atheists. Thanks to all our listeners. https://www.patreon.com/zizekands ... Show More

UNLOCKED: Today we're talking Žižek's chapter in his book Absolute Recoil called "The Violence of the Beginning". The reading begins with the notion that there is "nothing prior to the loss" of the sense of lost origins. Žižek then sets into play the idea of the self-alienation o ... Show More

There is a long and complex history around queer people and Western Christianity. We trace that history, and talk about how it's being weaponized in our current political environment. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether religion can still be seen as a way of interpreting and judging good and evil in modern western civilisation and examines what the discoveries of Darwin and our knowledge of the true physiological nature and history of man has done for us i ... Show More

Sam Harris speaks to Bart Ehrman about his experience of being a born-again Christian, his academic training in New Testament scholarship, his loss of faith, the most convincing argument in defense of Christianity, the status of miracles, the composition of the New Testament, the ... Show More

Christian scripture and tradition have overwhelmingly shaped American attitudes toward sexuality. And in the past year, our national attention has been riveted on sexual scandal within the Catholic Church. In this program, we crack open the difficult subject of Christian traditio ... Show More

In this extensive dialogue between Dr. Brian Besong and Steven Nemes we discuss whether theology can be done -- or even should be done -- without anathemas. Leading up is a discussion of phenomenology, epistemology, eating racoons, ethics, and a whole bunch else aside. Good luck ... Show More

Wrath. Envy. Pride. For some, these are cardinal sins. For a professional Sin Eater in 1700s England, it’s what’s for dinner. Chris interviews a woman whose job it is to gobble down evil deeds so people may find safe passage into heaven. Talk about giving new meaning to the term ... Show More