Theory Talk
75 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 31 ratingsTheory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session, featuring in-depth discussions of contemporary thought and thinkers. The show is produced by Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins.
Podcast cover photo: "Trouble Light" (1977) by Joseph Nechvatal.
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Episodes
Ep. 74: Futurality
April 01, 2020 13:00 - 1 hour - 65.8 MBJoe and Taylor are back to talk about the future: the inchoate science of the mind; presently-untheorized forms of social organization; transcendental computation. The discussion begins with Laruelle and the belligerence of philosophy.
Ep. 73: Writing / Socrates
November 10, 2019 19:49 - 2 hours - 127 MBJoe and Taylor are back for more than two hours of Theory Talk. In the first session: writing and philosophy; the citational nexus between Deleuze, Guattari, Laruelle and Badiou. In the second session, some meditations on the ancient world with Homer and Socrates.
Ep. 72: Theory Trek
September 27, 2019 23:55 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBCome along on a voyage to where no philosopher has gone before! (Okay, maybe they've gone there.) A brief analysis of the Greek word "nomos" introduces a critical discussion of Star Trek, specifically TOS and TNG, which is the material we are most familiar with. Spatiality and strategy; aesthetics and social transformation; becoming-child, utopian ethics and the absolute. Join Taylor and Joe on a journey to the edge of metaphysical space! Theory Talk is a weird and wonderful philosophy pod...
Ep. 71: Nonstandard Philosophy
September 14, 2019 13:41 - 1 hour - 78 MBLaruelle's nonstandard philosophy. Suspension in Laruelle and Kierkegaard; superposition and aufhebung; philosophy, religion and tyranny; the ethics of decision; inclusivity and futural thought-amplitudes.
Posthuman Life with David John Roden
August 28, 2019 02:53 - 1 hour - 62.6 MBDr. David John Roden, philosopher and author of Posthuman Life. Come explore the edges of the human with us! Speculative and critical posthumanisms; the transhuman problematic; ethics and filters; hyperplastics and dark phenomena.
Ep. 70: Turing Cops
July 13, 2019 19:08 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBJoe and Taylor are back to talk philosophy (of) cybernetics: Turing and Chomsky; general intelligence and stratification; the infinity of the dictionary (and of other regimes of signification); teleology and transformation; language and world-modeling.
Ep. 69: Dreamwork II
July 11, 2019 23:08 - 1 hour - 62.8 MBJoe and Taylor converse about dreams: language and the unconscious; stratification and associative lines; deep time and disconnection; industrial civilization and dreaming-machines; the social function of dreaming. Recommended Reading: The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula le Guin The Book of Chang-Tzu Fragments, Heraclitus Daybreak, Nietzsche
Ep. 68: Rhizomatics
May 11, 2019 17:49 - 1 hour - 66.4 MBJoin Joe and Taylor for a conversation about language with Guattari and Chomsky. Wiener and Simondon; transcendental utopianism; antiproduction; pragmatics and diagrams; the political economy of language. Recommended Reading: Recursivity and Contingency (Yuk Hui) "Introduction: Rhizome" from A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze and Guattari) The Machinic Unconscious (Felix Guattari, tr. Taylor Adkins!)
Ep. 67: Life
March 25, 2019 23:21 - 55 minutes - 50.5 MBJoin Taylor and Joe as they explore the vital individuations of the living form. Zarathustra’s sympathy for unfortunate exceptions and transitional forms; zoological creativity and imagination; natural languages and organic programs; society and animality: the imprinting of an ecology on the individual and the transcoding of living forms between species; life as experimental technology; from morality to ethico-aesthetics. Recommended Reading: “Pure Variation and Organic Stratification” (Jér...
Ep. 66: Amplitudes of Thought
March 04, 2019 01:07 - 1 hour - 59.1 MBJoe and Taylor talk about Taylor and Rocco Gangle's forthcoming translation of "Non-standard Philosophy" by François Laruelle: superpositions; speculative supercolliders; amplitudes of thought; fluctuations of the soul; practical utopia. Support Theory Talk on Patreon today: go ahead, take a second right now and subscribe -- https://patreon.com/theorytalk Thanks so much to all our listeners and supporters. You make the show possible!
Ep. 65: Information and Individuation
February 16, 2019 20:40 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBTaylor shares some thoughts about his new translation of Simondon's doctoral thesis ("Individuation in the Light of the Notions of Form and Information".) The individuation of thinking; the aesthetics of subjectivity; the dialectic of society and technology; the political ramifications of artificial intelligence. Support Theory Talk on Patreon: https://patreon.com/theorytalk Follow @theory_talk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theory_talk
Ep. 64: Mathematics; Annihilation
February 05, 2019 00:38 - 2 hours - 119 MBListen all the way to the second half for a discussion about Laruelle and Levinas with Matt Rosen! But first, Joe and Taylor begin exploring the philosophy of mathematics with Serres and Bachelard: the uncanny power of deduction; grounding formal systems; measurement schemes; the geometry of black holes. Recommended Reading "Synthetic Philosophy of Contemporary Mathematics", Francisco Zalamea "The Birth of Physics", Michel Serres Support Theory Talk on Patreon: https://patreon.com/theoryt...
Ep. 63: Languages; Anti-Oedipus
January 07, 2019 00:45 - 1 hour - 101 MBJoe and Taylor are back to talk philosophy! Laruelle and Simondon; structuralism and relativity; identities and individuations; languages and ideas. In the second part, a pre-hiatus discussion of Anti-Oedipus. Support Theory Talk on Patreon: https://patreon.com/theorytalk Follow @theory_talk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theory_talk
Ep. 62: Phaedrus
October 07, 2018 22:01 - 1 hour - 159 MBJoin Joe and Taylor as they study the Phaedrus together. Madness and love; philosophy and psychoanalysis; trees and forests; writing well. Recommended Reading: "Phaedrus" by Plato "The Postcard: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond" by Jacques Derrida
Ep. 61: Beyond the Pleasure Principle
September 22, 2018 18:47 - 1 hour - 172 MBIn this episode, Joe and Taylor dig into psychoanalysis and Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle". A lot of ground is covered: the death drive; repetition; automatism; the performative and speculative merits of psychoanalysis. What is the value that analysis adds to our lives? (Phaedrus looms here in the background as well, and the status of paranoia...) Recommended Reading: "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", Sigmund Freud "Phaedrus" by Plato See also Joe's "Phaedrus Beyond": https://fract...
Ep. 60: Sophocles
September 09, 2018 22:52 - 50 minutes - 92 MBOn the occasion of Joe's new essay on Sophocles and the Theban Plays, come along with us as we explore the ancient drama, with the help of Freud, Nietzsche, Socrates, Derrida, Deleuze and Laruelle. Recommended Reading: "Oedipus, Narcissus, Odysseus: Notes Towards a Theory of Temporal Structure in Homer and Sophocles" (https://fractalontology.wordpress.com/oedipus-narcissus-odysseus/)
Ep. 59: The Victim (with Joevenn Neo)
September 07, 2018 21:44 - 1 hour - 176 MBWe are very pleased to present this discussion on Girard and Laruelle with Joevenn Neo, a philosophy Ph.D. student and translator of "Philosophic Scripts" by Anne-Francois Schmid. In our roundtable on the victim, we begin with an exposition of Girard's theory of mimesis and the victimage mechanism, and then weave our way around to Laruelle and Guattari through the lens of the victim. Afterwards, a little discussion between Joe and Taylor on similar themes recorded a week later. Recommended R...
Ep. 58: Cynicism
August 19, 2018 18:43 - 38 minutes - 71.3 MBJoe and Taylor discuss the Stoics and the Cynics, and in particular the role of "cynicism" in modern thought; justice and the law; the interface between Hellenism and Judaism. Recommended Reading "The Image of Law: Deleuze, Bergson, Spinoza" by Alexandre Lefebvre "The Pre-Platonic Philosophers" by Friedrich Nietzsche
Ep. 57: The Essence of the World
July 22, 2018 21:35 - 1 hour - 152 MBJoe and Taylor conduct a philosophical thought experiment into the essence of the world, inspired by the thought and literature of new realism (see readings below.) In our second conversation (36:40), we return once again to Ionia and the Odyssey. Recommended Reading “The World Goes On”, László Krasnahorkai “The World Does Not Exist”, Markus Gabriel
Ep. 56: Image of Thought / Odyssey (excerpt)
June 21, 2018 23:12 - 1 hour - 208 MBJoe and Taylor return to Difference and Repetition for an hour of discussion about the image of thought. Then, return to Ionia in an excerpt from our conversation about Homer's Odyssey -- available in full to our patrons. (Thank you!) Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/theorytalk Follow @theory_talk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theory_talk Read Fractal Ontology: http://ontology.io Recommended Reading: - "Image of Thought", ch. 3 of Difference and Repetition (Gilles Deleuze) -...
Ep. 55: Love, Pleasure, Friendship and the Good Life (with James Winchester)
June 01, 2018 02:47 - 39 minutes - 71.9 MBIn this episode, Taylor interviews James Winchester, author of several books, including "Nietzsche's Aesthetic Turn". (Dr. Winchester was also our undergrad philosophy teacher!) Support Theory Talk: https://www.patreon.com/theorytalk Follow Us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theory_talk
Ep. 54: Roundtable on Deleuze (with Justin Murphy)
May 09, 2018 01:15 - 1 hour - 130 MBJoe and Taylor check in, then Justin Murphy stops by to talk Deleuze and politics with us. (This is the first part of a longer discussion available in full on Patreon.) Support Theory Talk: https://www.patreon.com/theorytalk Read Fractal Ontology: http://ontology.io
Ep. 53: ATP; Guattari (Teaser)
April 29, 2018 17:20 - 44 minutes - 80.8 MBThis episode contains an excerpt from our hour-long discussion on Felix Guattari (a special feature for our patrons.) But before that, Taylor and Joe discuss A Thousand Plateaus and collective writing practices. Support Theory Talk on Patreon: patreon.com/theorytalk Follow Theory Talk on Twitter: twitter.com/theory_talk Read Fractal Ontology: http://ontology.io
Ep. 52: Computation
March 25, 2018 23:35 - 1 hour - 170 MBJoe and Taylor make some inroads into the philosophy of computer science. In the first session: halting problems; randomness and short programs; the political economy of cognition. In the second session: what does a sign do if it doesn't signify? Support Theory Talk: patreon.com/theorytalk Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/theory_talk Read Joe's short design-fiction "Getting Started with your Xerocomputer" on Fractal Ontology: https://fractalontology.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/getting-start...
Ep. 51: Difference and Repetition (Teaser)
March 21, 2018 21:59 - 32 minutes - 60.2 MBJoe and Taylor discuss the Spinozist roots of Deleuze's philosophy of difference. This is an excerpt from our special two-hour feature on Difference and Repetition. Become a patron at the $5 level to hear the whole thing today! Support Theory Talk: patreon.com/theorytalk Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/theory_talk Read Fractal Ontology: ontology.io
Ep. 50: Monads / Sport
February 26, 2018 23:20 - 1 hour - 145 MBTaylor and Joe are here to celebrate our fiftieth episode! The discussion begins with monads. In the second half: the philosophy of sport. Support Theory Talk: https://www.patreon.com/theorytalk Follow Theory Talk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theory_talk
Ep. 49: Material of Existence
February 16, 2018 00:27 - 1 hour - 187 MBIn the first session presented here, the discussion begins with blocks and blockages; Derrida’s appearance in a critical section of Anti-Oedipus; structuralism and the science of life. In the second session, from Badiou to acceleration. Support the show on Patreon: patreon.com/theorytalk Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/theory_talk
Ep. 48: Laruelle (Teaser)
January 29, 2018 22:07 - 15 minutes - 27.7 MBJoe and Taylor spent an hour discussing Laruelle in a special feature for our patrons. Here's a sample of that discussion. Support Theory Talk on Patreon at any level to hear the full conversation: patreon.com/theorytalk
Ep. 47: Civilization (Discontent)
January 03, 2018 22:23 - 1 hour - 141 MBJoe and Taylor are back to talk philosophy! In this wintry episode, culture and the unconscious: discontent and double-binds; Rousseau's theory of inequality; minority and segmentarity; what is cultivation? A tiny excursus about Judaism follows the main discussion.
Ep. 46: The Ancients
December 02, 2017 18:25 - 55 minutes - 101 MBJoe and Taylor are back to think about the ancient world: the birth of philosophy from mythology; Nietzsche's portraits of the pre-Socratics; the primal matters of water and fire; Job and Anaximander. Support Theory Talk: patreon.com/theorytalk Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/theory_talk
Ep. 45: America Dreaming
October 24, 2017 01:12 - 1 hour - 132 MBFirst, post-apocalypse and the ruins of the cultural unconscious. Next: checking in on the American experiment. Support Theory Talk: https://patreon.com/theorytalk
Ep. 44: Dark Deleuze (with Andrew Culp)
October 10, 2017 00:12 - 45 minutes - 82.5 MBJoe interviews Andrew Culp, media theorist and author of Dark Deleuze. Support Theory Talk: https://patreon.com/theorytalk Buy Dark Deleuze: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Deleuze-Forerunners-Ideas-First/dp/1517901332
Ep. 43: Abilities
September 24, 2017 01:03 - 1 hour - 131 MBThis week: language and capability; climatology; a non-journalism? Theory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session. Your hosts are Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins, independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the theory weblog Fractal Ontology (https://ontology.io).
Ep. 42: Telepathy
September 18, 2017 02:17 - 1 hour - 156 MBSocial mediation and telepathy; mutations in the image of thought; the transcendental city of multitudes. In the lightning round: the results of a non-philosophical experiment. Theory Talk is a weird and wonderful philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session from Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins. Enjoying the show? Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/theorytalk Links: "Philo-fictions and Experimental Texts" https://fractalontology.wordpress.com/philo-fictions
Ep. 41: Labor of Thought
September 04, 2017 03:57 - 1 hour - 145 MBIn this episode: transcendental aliens; how to be worthy of freedom; are all definitions analytic? --Listen to the end for our new game: the Lightning Round, a mutual interview segment with short answers (less than one minute.) Theory Talk is a weird and wonderful philosophy podcast from Theoretical Media. Your hosts are Joseph Weissman (https://twitter.com/fractalontology) and Taylor Adkins (https://twitter.com/tadkins613). Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher to listen to new and archived epi...
Ep. 40: Archipelagoes
August 26, 2017 23:31 - 1 hour - 122 MBHow do the faculties of thought work? Can thinking become an archipelago -- instead of a battlefield? In today's episode, Joe and Taylor investigate the structure and potential of the image of thought, and offer speculations about the future of philosophy. In the second half: a dream about philosophical territories. Theory Talk is a weird and wonderful philosophy podcast. You can listen to new and archived episodes for free by subscribing on iTunes or Stitcher. While you're there, please g...
Ep. 39: Noumenology
August 20, 2017 00:23 - 32 minutes - 59.7 MBJoe and Taylor are back for another critical thinking jam session. In this episode: the transcendentalism of Kant, Spinoza, Hegel; the transcendental empiricism of Deleuze; mathematical physics and the real; robopsychology and aliens. Theory Talk is a weird and wonderful philosophy podcast from Theoretical Media. Joe and Taylor are independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the theory weblog Fractal Ontology (https://ontology.io). If you enjoy the show, why not let your friends ...
Ep. 38: Virtue and the Humanities
August 16, 2017 03:44 - 1 hour - 183 MBAmidst fake news and creeping fascism, Joe and Taylor discuss a return to the humanities. Also: Socrates and Laruelle; Kant's first critique.
Ep. 37: The Cultivation of Joy
August 07, 2017 01:17 - 53 minutes - 97.8 MBIn this episode, Joe and Taylor think about Spinoza: ethics as a weapon against negativity; the relation between power and desire; ethology and judgments about ways of life; freedom and the differential relation between actions and passions. Theory Talk is a weird and wonderful philosophy podcast from Theoretical Media. Your hosts are Joseph Weissman (twitter.com/fractalontology) and Taylor Adkins (twitter.com/tadkins613), independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the theory web...
Ep. 36: Ecology of the Concept
July 20, 2017 21:14 - 20 minutes - 37.7 MBTheory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session from theoretical media. In today's show Joe and Taylor talk about ecology and culture: Joe offers an analogy between Darwin’s finches and discursive spheres; Taylor probes the critical sense of rationality.
Ep. 35: Stereotypy
June 30, 2017 02:15 - 40 minutes - 73.8 MBDoes all thinking navigate stereotypes? Join Joe and Taylor for a wide-ranging discussion about reading, thinking and writing. Statistics and the intuition; syntax and representation; sense and stoicism; symbols and judgment. Theory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session. Your hosts are Taylor Adkins (@tadkins613) and Joseph Weissman (@fractalontology). Thanks for thinking with us!
Ep. 34: Impossible Dreams
June 23, 2017 03:15 - 58 minutes - 107 MBToday's episode was prompted by Emmet Rensin's article "The Blathering Super-ego at the End of History", a critique of managerial liberalism recently published in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Read it here: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-blathering-superego-at-the-end-of-history/ The discussion is somewhat more narrowly focused on the United States at first (Joe and Taylor are still processing a recent loss by the Democrats in a nearby special election.) However the discussion en...
Ep. 33: "Bach was a Computer"
June 13, 2017 02:03 - 39 minutes - 72 MBToday Joe and Taylor think a bit about situationism: art and the essence of humanity; the construction of the world; modernity and realism; the contingency of capitalism. Theory Talk is our weird and wonderful philosophy podcast! Your hosts are Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins, independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the theory weblog Fractal Ontology (ontology.io). Your support makes the show possible. Leave us a tip at patreon.com/theorytalk.
Ep. 32: Music
May 27, 2017 22:00 - 46 minutes - 85.5 MBIn today's episode, a wide-ranging discussion about music and modes of life. Theory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session with Taylor Adkins and Joseph Weissman, independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the Fractal Ontology weblog (ontology.io).
Ep. 31: Messages
May 18, 2017 02:20 - 35 minutes - 65.8 MBToday's episode is about politics, religion, messaging and the left. Theory Talk is hosted by Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins, independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the theory weblog Fractal Ontology (http://ontology.io). Recorded Wednesday, May 17, 2017.
Ep. 30: Geometry of Affect
April 28, 2017 02:53 - 30 minutes - 56.6 MBTheory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical theory talk jam session. In this episode: affect and individuation; the complicity between Nietzsche and Spinoza; evolution and technology. Theory Talk is hosted by Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins, independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the Fractal Ontology weblog (ontology.io).
Ep. 29: Simulation
April 20, 2017 01:45 - 58 minutes - 107 MBTheory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session. In this episode, a deeper look at automation and society: the sense of simulation; the ethics of artificial intelligence; the politics of the future. Theory Talk is hosted by Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins, independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the theory weblog Fractal Ontology (ontology.io). We make the show because we believe thinking and writing and urgently important today. We're so glad you're t...
Ep. 28: The Whole of the Law
April 15, 2017 13:26 - 1 hour - 123 MBTheory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session. Today's show is in a more Gabfest format, with three twenty-minute segments. First, dreams and revelation; next, wars and drugs; finally, the grandeur of the law. Theory Talk is hosted by Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins, independent scholars in the humanities and founders of the theory weblog Fractal Ontology (https://ontology.io). We make the show because we believe thinking and writing and urgently important today. ...
Ep. 27: The City
April 07, 2017 01:20 - 1 hour - 118 MBTheory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session. In this episode: dialectics and the impossibility of contradiction; the politics of truth; the nature of the city. Hosted by Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins. Recorded Apr. 6, 2017.
Ep. 26: The Unimaginable
April 01, 2017 02:09 - 1 hour - 123 MBTheory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session. In this episode, revolutionary transformation; the limits of the imagination; the future of the planet. But first, a warmup discussion on utopian axiomatics.