Here is the main source on the CIA and US Executive response to Allende: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2010-009-doc17.pdf
2021-04-30 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Come hang for a discussion of cybernetics and Chile. Exclusive livestream Friday April 30, at 1pm ET.
Here is the main source on the CIA and US Executive response to Allende: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2010-009-doc17.pdf
2021-04-29 00:02:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Victor boldly lays out his plan to fix electoral democracy using an ancient Athenian political process.
2021-04-23 12:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Planning something new! Something big! This is to keep you in the loop of what to look for in the coming months. Also I am sorry about that goofy thumbnail, YouTube seems to prioritize smiles when offering thumbnail options.
2021-04-15 18:55:46 +0000 UTC View Post
We're a little late to this one, but we had some different interpretations as to whether Can't Get You Out of My Head is art, history, documentary, art-history, history-documentary or art-documentary. In any case, it's one of the more interesting popular media artefacts we've seen this year (lot of academic hand waving this one away, so we did make a conscious effort to not get to critical on particularities).
Spoilers for Can't Get You Out of My Head: it's free on YouTube!
In response to your suggestions last month, Pills joins the political theory smash bros to discuss Robert Paul Wolff's "In Defense of Anarchism."
Find the article discussed free here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/robert-paul-wolff-in-defense-of-anarchism
2021-04-08 01:18:11 +0000 UTC View Post
The Gaze and the scopic regime of metaphysics, ft. Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, and Wittgenstein. Please leave your comments below, either here or on the video, I'd like a sense if this is on the way to something.
2021-04-02 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
The Pill Pod discusses the rage of elites: ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM. But that's not all! There's also the techno-material conditions for intellectuals, cocaine in coffee houses, and how the university itself has become an anti-intellectual institution.
Why do they Hate us? https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-d...
Erik and Pills (mostly Erik) goes through some examples to explain the more general utility and applicability of C.S. Peirce's triadic semiotic model, as opposed to Saussure's binary semiotic model. We discuss car accidents, interspecies communication, and music adaptations.
Please look at the attached chart to follow along, this one was too difficult to explain without a visual aid!
Here's an hour and a half of content that didn't make the final cut of the latest release!
2021-03-27 00:45:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Just gotta say upfront lots of gratitude that there are people out there willing to support this kind of content. That said, here's an early release that you'll be the first to see, ad-free before it comes out next week! I hope it's informative and thank you all!
2021-03-20 02:06:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Join Pills, Matt, and Erik for your chosen topic: A romp through the Formation of the Intellectuals from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci.
Find the text of this section here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/prison_notebooks/problems/intellectuals.htm
(Erik and I were citing the Reader so there may be some difference in translation: 2021-03-19 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey! As we've done in the past: we record the next exclusive episode on Monday, but before then, we need a topic! Throw your ideas for the four of us in the comments, and we'll record on the most requested topic* to come out next week!
*Some rights reserved
P.S. If you have any questions we can discuss that don't take a full Ep, drop them below and we can get to a few of those as well.
2021-03-11 21:02:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Bit of a loose one here for ya'll as our minds fray at the edges. We went in without a plan because Erik needed the night off, and we ended up discussing pop Marcuse takes, holding ourselves accountable, and movies that Matt likes.
One question raised was whether it was worth it do unplanned chatter episodes when our plans fall apart, toss us your feedback on that if you have an opinion either way.
2021-03-05 13:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
She lost the vote, but that only impelled me to impress her significance upon you.
If you dig this the Kristeva Reader is good and covers her various interests: https://amzn.to/3pHHgVW.
If you want to go through one book, it's gotta be Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection: https://amzn.to/3pSkcDU
2021-02-24 04:15:19 +0000 UTC View Post
An ignorant Pills, without prior knowledge, interviews Erik on his favourite dude: the prolific C.S. Peirce--scientist, logician, semiotician.
We try to get clear on the triadic structure of the sign and seem to just scratch the surface.
If you need some more of this, the intro book is The Essential Peirce I, https://amzn.to/37K2NqG. Take a look at the attached diagram as well!
2021-02-24 04:14:28 +0000 UTC View PostWhat's up? While I work on the bonus content for this month, I'll start thinking about what's next. I have narrowed down the options to what fits in the current trajectory, so here are my ideas and you can make your case to get the people on your side in the comments below--or just vote for all of them. While you're at it if there are other topics you'd like to see covered eventually drop it in there!
2021-02-18 03:18:15 +0000 UTC View Post
The last Patreon vote determined that Burnout Society would be the topic, but in the interest of being less depressing once in a while, I tried to give it a bit of a redemption arc through the psychoanalytic theory of Julia Kristeva. Less explanation and pedagogy, more experience and visuals. In sum, I made this and I hope you like it :)
2021-02-18 03:17:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Matt interviews @Galen_Watts on liberal religion, i.e. those who identify as "spiritual but not religious," using the sociological method of Emile Durkheim. The distinction between politics and religious forms gets blurry!
2021-02-16 20:42:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Before we can get to the other stuff we like in 20th century philosophy, we have to go back to the synthesizer of modern philosophy, the philosopher's philosophy, Immanuel Kant, to lay some groundwork. This is our best attempt to liven up the very dry Critique of Pure Reason.
2021-02-04 21:23:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Don't wait till Friday, watch it without ads!
Guys I could not have that other video sit up there and reflect my work forever. I have spoken a few times about redoing it because it's popularity is a thorn in my mind.
This is a far better reflection, and is more time than I have ever spent on a video's animations (well, except that one that was fully animated). Anyway, even if you have seen the old version this is completely overhauled so I hope you get something out of it.
We get asked this question frequently, and the answer is NO, DON'T GO (or maybe do it). This episode is required listening before making a life-altering decision that you can quite easily change at any time.
We are posting this here because as we said in the episode, we want your feedback, whether your experience is/was similar, different, whether we disenchanted the fantasy or encouraged it, and whether you think online platforms are poised to disrupt the academic status quo. Cheers!<...
Still working on my new release, it's going to be a top tier production.
In the meantime, here's the first content on one of my favourite texts, the tragically unfinished Visible and Invisible, by the late, great Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This doubles as an intro to phenomenology as well!
For more, find the book here: https://amzn.to/3sQR8iZ
2021-01-26 03:47:04 +0000 UTC View Post
You demanded, and we capitulated. Here is our discussion of The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han.
Find the book here: https://amzn.to/3sW85IL
Fascism, folk music, Bannon and Dugin: the Pill Pod's Matt and Victor interview Benjamin Teitelbaum, a scholar of contemporary European radical nationalism, to discuss his new book, War For Eternity (Find it at https://amzn.to/38QrC5q)
This episode will be up on the public feed later, but it's pretty top-shelf so you're the first to get it!
Remember to comment on the previous post to choose what Matt and Victor do nex...
2021-01-18 01:35:54 +0000 UTC View PostHello Audio subscribers. Victor and Matt, the Pill Pod's political theorists, have proposed a patron-exclusive series on a topic chosen by you! You probably know some of their interests already: the history of liberalism v. conservatism, John Rawls, Richard Rorty, Alasdair MacIntyre, the politics of recognition... I could go on.
Please comment below, and like the suggestions of others that you would be interested in hearing. Fascism? Populism? Reactionaries? Interested in some refreshe...
Pseudo-events aren't going to get in the way of our release schedule. This is Pills & Erik's final pod in the cybernetics and systems theory series, before we take off into semiotics for a few weeks. In this episode we discuss systems theory with respect to constructivist epistemology and how social media algorithms are responsible for the storming of the capitol.
Luhmann's Reality of the Mass Media: https://amzn.to/3915wfa...
2021-01-07 02:11:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's my biggest patron offering to date; there have been segments of this up, but here's the whole enchilada. This is Pills at my most academic, and while I am sure of the quality in that respect, I also hope it's not too boring to be valuable to you!
Themes and topics include structuralism and post-structuralism, semiotics, ideology, consumer culture, death, and nihilism.
Any feedback you want to offer on this style or the content is appreciated (also let me know if you f...
2021-01-06 04:30:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a veritable New Years egg basket of news, retrospective, your questions, and our look to 2021, the first half of which will include such topics as semiotics, phenomenology, feminism, and speculative realism. Thanks very much for getting us this far!
2021-01-03 03:29:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Matt (@mattpolprof) calls up Alfie Bown (@Leftist_Gamer) to discuss the politics, psychoanalytic interpretation, and emancipatory potential of video games, for the left-brained.
2020-12-21 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post