Why Theory
167 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago - ★★★★★ - 492 ratingsWhy Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.
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Episodes
Seminar 7
March 30, 2024 02:03 - 1 hour - 80.9 MBRyan and Todd analyze the complexity of Jacques Lacan's Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. They discuss the various notions that appear there--from das Ding to sublimation to death drive to the ethics of desire.
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Introduction
March 16, 2024 23:08 - 1 hour - 72.2 MBRyan and Todd continue their exploration of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason with the Introduction. They discuss the importance of his critique of dogmatic metaphysics and the incredible discovery of the synthetic a priori judgment. Ryan's sports article: https://link.springer.com/journal/41282/online-first
Blue Velvet
March 03, 2024 23:14 - 1 hour - 72.5 MBRyan and Todd interpret David Lynch's Blue Velvet by paying special attention to the Kantian dimension of the film. They consider the film in terms of the thing-in-itself and the sublime.
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Preface
February 18, 2024 15:11 - 1 hour - 73.3 MBRyan and Todd begin their analysis of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason by working through the prefaces to the first and second edition of the work. They focus on the radicality of Kant's breakthrough and the role that the limit plays in his philosophy.
Symbolic Castration
February 05, 2024 03:51 - 1 hour - 84.1 MBRyan and Todd consider the concept of symbolic castration as it develops in psychoanalysis and as it bears on both politics and culture. They relate symbolic castration to some of the key concepts in psychoanalytic theory, including fetishistic disavowal and the phallus.
Dialectical Reversal
January 22, 2024 01:09 - 1 hour - 69.1 MBRyan and Todd explore the working of the dialectical reversal, how weaknesses can turn into strengths, how successes can turn into failures. They look at this through a variety of everyday examples and a few choice filmic ones.
Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
January 08, 2024 21:50 - 1 hour - 65 MBRyan and Todd think through Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, focusing especially on the parallels with psychoanalysis and the work's political significance. They also address the ramifications of the private language argument that Wittgenstein formulates.
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
December 24, 2023 00:07 - 1 hour - 77.9 MBRyan and Todd discuss Ludwig Wittgenstein's project in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. They begin by looking at this project on its own terms and taking stock of its grand ambitions. Then they examine its intersection with the concerns of psychoanalysis and dialectics.
1980s Christmas
December 12, 2023 00:42 - 1 hour - 75.3 MBIn their annual Christmas episode, Ryan and Todd look at the 1980s Christmas film, focusing on Christmas Story, Trading Places, Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. They discuss the nostalgia that predominates this period of Christmas films and how this limits the political reach of these works.
Discourse on Method
November 26, 2023 22:50 - 1 hour - 129 MBRyan and Todd examine perhaps the founding text of modern Western philosophy--Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method. They consider how Descartes articulates an egalitarian philosophy through his conception of radical doubt and examine the influence of this text of subsequent thinkers and on theory today.
Envy
November 13, 2023 23:27 - 1 hour - 130 MBRyan and Todd discuss the structure of envy, its relationship to jealousy, and its political implications. They make reference to Othello and Seven as landmark explorations of envy, while also noting its relationship with the other deadly sins.
Science Fiction Cinema
November 02, 2023 21:12 - 1 hour - 167 MBRyan and Todd discuss the generic development of science fiction cinema while also addressing its philosophical implications. They include a deeper analysis of Metropolis, The Thing From Another World, Forbidden Planet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. See: Voyage to the Moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLVChRVfZ74 Metropolis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_4no842TX8 Phantom Empire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qbf6KX8O98
Monadology
October 12, 2023 23:44 - 1 hour - 141 MBRyan and Todd present the philosophy of Leibniz as articulated in his late work the Monadology. They link this text to the breakthroughs of later thinkers such as Kant and Hegel, as well as discussing how Leibniz anticipates the contemporary situation.
The Prince
October 01, 2023 00:14 - 1 hour - 134 MBRyan and Todd analyze Machiavelli's The Prince by tracing its influence on later political thinkers, including Hegel, Gramsci, and Althusser. They discuss Machiavelli's novelty and his limitations as a thinker of the political act.
Surplus Enjoyment
September 16, 2023 23:59 - 1 hour - 137 MBRyan and Todd explore the idea of surplus enjoyment as the basis for a theory of capitalism. They consider the psychic hold that capitalism has in terms of the surplus enjoyment that it both promises and provides.
Surplus Value
September 02, 2023 19:22 - 1 hour - 140 MBRyan and Todd unpack Marx's concept of surplus value and explore its fundamental role in the interpretation of capitalist society. They discuss the relationship between surplus value and profit, while considering how we should think about the drive to amass surplus value.
Oppenheimer
August 19, 2023 21:46 - 1 hour - 148 MBRyan and Todd offer their interpretation of Christopher Nolan's most recent film Oppenheimer. They focus on the relationship between the form of the film and its content, while considering the political implications of its depiction of the hero. They think about the film in relationship to the rest of Nolan's filmography.
Barbie
August 05, 2023 19:48 - 1 hour - 164 MBRyan and Todd interpret the film Barbie while responding to both leftist and rightist critiques of the film. They discuss the film's exploration of fantasy, its highlighting of contradiction, and its emphasis on the role of desire in politics.
Creative Writers & Daydreaming
July 22, 2023 22:15 - 1 hour - 142 MBRyan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "Creative Writings and Daydreaming." They look first at the theory of fantasy that Freud develops in this essay and then turn to his conception of what generates the work of art, discussing it in terms of the current strike in Hollywood. In their concluding remarks, they deal with problems that Freud runs into in his theorizing here.
Uncanny
July 10, 2023 17:46 - 1 hour - 134 MBRyan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "The Uncanny" and the broader implications of this concept. They discuss the importance of the uncanny for understanding the horror film and focus on the difference between a psychoanalytic approach to the concept and the notion of the uncanny valley. Links from the episode: Žižek & So On podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6S0mig3K8TiuJoXHOG5VnT?si=6a55de55c2f24b22 Shibui (minimal groove quartet): https://shibuimusic.bandcamp.com/ Joseph Aisenbe...
Poststructuralism
June 24, 2023 19:15 - 1 hour - 137 MBRyan and Todd attempt to show why the term "poststructuralism" is inapt for describing any of the thinkers that it usually is thought to indicate. They go through the major theorists known under this moniker and reveal why poststructuralism doesn't exist.
Tribute to Mari Ruti
June 12, 2023 18:31 - 1 hour - 127 MBRyan and Todd devote this episode to the memory of Mari Ruti, who died on June 8, 2023. They discuss her core theoretical ideas and work through her major works. In addition, they include a few memories of Mari's singular life.
Succession
May 29, 2023 20:39 - 1 hour - 151 MBRyan and Todd analyze the recently concluded television series Succession. They discuss it in terms of capitalist subjectivity, tragedy, the death drive, and the ideology of the family. There are spoilers at every point in this discussion.
Bottle Episode
May 28, 2023 17:39 - 1 hour - 148 MBRyan and Todd explore the concept of the bottle episode from the production and analysis of television. They discuss a variety of its manifestations along with its theoretical importance as a form. Ryan's article: https://www.academia.edu/82724525/The_Limitation_of_the_Bottle_Episode_Hegel_in_Community_preprint_
Beyond Good and Evil
May 15, 2023 03:05 - 1 hour - 137 MBRyan and Todd explore the important ideas from Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, focusing especially on Nietzche's historical critique of morality, his perspectivalism, and his notion of the will to power. They situate Nietzsche's breakthrough in relation to Freud's.
The Racist Fantasy
April 30, 2023 21:37 - 1 hour - 134 MBRyan and Todd discuss Todd's recent book The Racist Fantasy, which explores the psychic structure that underlies racism and that allows it to deliver enjoyment to those invested in it. They cover the role that fantasy plays in social life and the prospects for fighting racism. https://forgeorganizing.org/article/building-resilient-organizations https://www.baylorpress.com/9781602587359/trauma-and-race/ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lacan-noir-david-s-marriott/1139152118 https://www.you...
Ryan and Todd delve into the formal limitations that define the medium of Twitter. They analyze the politics of Twitter and the impact of the takeover by Elon Musk. Ryan's article cited in the episode is available here: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol24/iss4/
The Radical Western
March 31, 2023 12:01 - 1 hour - 170 MBRyan and Todd delve into the western in its most radical manifestation, but they use as a starting point, the paradigmatic western Shane. They then examine more contemporary films that turn from the individual hero into a collective one.
Western
March 18, 2023 21:20 - 1 hour - 163 MBIn their second episode devoted to the classical Hollywood genres, Ryan and Todd explore the western by focusing on some of the most popular and some of the most theoretically compelling. They discuss directors John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Anthony Mann, as well as devoting time to the western 3:10 to Yuma. Their theorization of the western stresses the way that the genre lays out the social antagonism between law and lawlessness, in which the western hero functions as a vanishing mediator.
Critique of Dialectical Reason
March 05, 2023 22:22 - 1 hour - 165 MBRyan and Todd lay out the key points in Jean-Paul Sartre's vast attempt to marry existentialism and Marxism--The Critique of Dialectical Reason. They discuss the best moments of this work and then attempt to clarify how it goes awry. Its huge unspoken influence on more recent French thought is also a topic.
Analysis Terminable & Interminable
February 18, 2023 18:36 - 1 hour - 147 MBRyan and Todd delve into Freud's late essay "Analysis Terminable and Interminable." They focus on the role that the death drive plays in this essay and in Freud's later thought. They view this through the lens of Freud's claim in this essay that psychoanalysis represents one of the three impossible professions.
Negation
February 05, 2023 22:05 - 1 hour - 139 MBRyan and Todd engage with Freud's late essay "Negation" (1923). They look at the radical insights that he comes to as well as address the moments where he leaves various theoretical points undeveloped. They make a claim for the outsized importance of this brief essay.
Being and Nothingness Side B
January 23, 2023 20:04 - 1 hour - 147 MBRyan and Todd conclude their discussion of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness with a focus on Sartre's conception of freedom. They discuss the strengths and weaknesses that follow from how Sartre theorizes subjectivity in relation to the social order.
Being and Nothingness Side A
January 08, 2023 22:41 - 1 hour - 142 MBRyan and Todd discuss the first half of Jean-Paul Sartre's magnum opus Being and Nothingness. They cover the difference between the in-itself and the for-itself, bad faith, temporality, the unconscious, and other important concepts. The next episode will cover the second half of the book.
Misfit Christmas
December 21, 2022 21:07 - 1 hour - 144 MBIn an annual attempt to theorize the Christmas film, Ryan and Todd examine the concept of the misfit in three famous stop-motion Christmas films from the 1960s and 1970s: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and The Year Without a Santa Claus. They discover the politics of nonbelonging at work in these films as it is figured through the idea of the misfit. Clips: We’re a Couple of Misfits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDHF08vEZTg) The Island of Misfit Toys (http...
Debt
December 10, 2022 23:07 - 1 hour - 131 MBRyan and Todd discuss the role that debt plays in the structure of capitalist society and in the psyche necessary for sustaining this society. They explore debt as a subject matter in film and television, as well as debt's relationship to the lacking subject.
Enjoyment Right & Left
November 26, 2022 17:16 - 1 hour - 147 MBRyan and Todd discuss Todd's latest book Enjoyment Right & Left, which examines the political divide in terms of the different forms that enjoyment takes. They engage with this divide across a variety of issues, from anti-trans violence to the controversy surrounding the World Cup.
Technology
November 12, 2022 19:44 - 1 hour - 143 MBThis is a special Why Theory episode that was recorded live at the Impakt Festival that took place in Utrecht, Netherlands. Ryan and Todd discuss the theme of the festival--"the curse of smooth operations"--in terms of our relationship to technology. They question how technology provides enjoyment for us. The introduction ends at 4:53, and the question and answer period starts at 57:48.
Love
October 29, 2022 17:36 - 1 hour - 160 MBRyan and Todd trace the history of how thinkers have dealt with the problem of love--the varying definitions of love, the view of love's role in society, and love's philosophical importance. They begin with Plato's Symposium, touch on the New Testament, explore the role of love in Hegel's thought, discuss Badiou's love event, and conclude with the psychoanalytic conception of love, as developed by Jacques Lacan and Mari Ruti.
Badiou
October 15, 2022 18:00 - 1 hour - 131 MBRyan and Todd provide an introduction to the philosopher of contemporary French thinker Alain Badiou. They begin with his insistence on the importance of mathematics and then move on to his understanding of truth in relation to the event. They also discuss the contrast between Badiou and Hegel.
Event
October 02, 2022 21:56 - 1 hour - 137 MBRyan and Todd explore the philosophical concept of the event, tracing its trajectory through three thinkers--Martin Heidegger, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek. They make this discussion concrete with an extended discussion of the current revolutionary feminist actions occurring in Iran.
Neurosis
September 17, 2022 22:22 - 1 hour - 145 MBRyan and Todd discuss the diagnostic categories of psychoanalysis, beginning with neurosis. They analyze the three forms of neurosis--hysteria, obsession, and phobia--while also focusing on the different manifestations of these three forms in the contemporary political arena.
Hegel's Absolute Knowing
September 04, 2022 20:56 - 1 hour - 141 MBRyan and Todd conclude their series on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit with a discussion of the Absolute Knowing section. They explore the relationship between this section and the rest of the book as well as considering what this section has to say about the relationship between mediation and immediacy.
Hegel's Religion
August 20, 2022 18:00 - 1 hour - 135 MBIn their penultimate episode on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Ryan and Todd analyze the religion section of the book. They focus most on the comic work of art and the revealed religion sections as they try to make sense of why Hegel gives religion such a prominent place in the Phenomenology. Ryan was recently a guest discussing graduate student conferences, which one can listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/lclcoralhistory Barry Manilow’s “misunderstood” Dr. Pepper song: https://www.y...
Screwball Comedy
August 06, 2022 22:44 - 1 hour - 155 MBRyan and Todd begin a series of discussions about the classical Hollywood genres with the screwball comedy, a genre that centers on the sexual antagonism. They look at the film that kicks off the genre, It Happened One Night, as well as the high point of the genre, Bringing Up Baby, in addition to others. Ryan was recently a guest discussing graduate student conferences, which one can listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/lclcoralhistory
Mourning and Melancholia
July 23, 2022 18:17 - 1 hour - 151 MBRyan and Todd are joined for the episode by James Godley, who recently organized a conference on mourning and the pandemic, entitled "In the Wake of the Plague" (which one can access here: https://sites.dartmouth.edu/wake-of-the-plague/), to discuss Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia." They probe the cultural resonances of the text and question the reasons for its massive popularity among Freud's writings.
Wild Psychoanalysis
July 09, 2022 23:07 - 1 hour - 149 MBRyan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "Wild Psychoanalysis" and delve into the problem of treating symptoms with knowledge rather than addressing the enjoyment that they offer. Even though this is a minor Freud essay, it provides one of the pillars for a psychoanalytic approach to politics.
Abortion Theory
June 25, 2022 21:04 - 1 hour - 144 MBIn this special episode, Ryan and Todd address the newly minted US Supreme Court decision that overturns the nationwide right to abortion access. They delve into the history of the famous decision granting abortion rights and theorize what has changed. During this discussion, they use the so-called abortion episode from the television series "Maude" as a reference point. The works referenced in the episode can be found here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6e2rff and here: https://www.y...
Quilting Point
June 11, 2022 15:34 - 1 hour - 146 MBRyan and Todd investigate the concept of the quilting point (point de capiton), as originally coined by Jacques Lacan and then in additional permutations. They attempt to develop this concept in further directions that challenge Lacan's original theorization of it in order to uncover its political efficacy.
Seminar 3
May 29, 2022 21:27 - 1 hour - 151 MBRyan and Todd provide their reading of Jacques Lacan's Seminar III devoted to the psychoses. They focus on the idea of the foreclosure of the paternal signifier while also addressing the role that Lacan theorizing the imaginary having in psychosis. They also outline the theory of the signifier that Lacan articulates in this seminar and how it relates to his later theorizing.