August at PEL began with political philosophy, as a live discussion of the Federalist Papers asked whether the American system is working as its architects intended or whether some of its problems were there from the beginning. The month then turned toward the philosophy of mind. A conversation on Donald Davidson offered one way of fitting reasons, causes, and mental events into the physical world, while a discussion on Daniel Dennett took aim at the intuitive picture of consciousness a.k.a. the “Cartesian Theater.” Closereads also continued the summer’s engagement with Peirce, moving from his account of knowledge to his system of categories.
The rest of the network covered quite bit, starting with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, continuing through nearly fifty years of Steven Spielberg’s aliens, and finally to Elizabeth Bishop’s “map-like imagination.” Philosophy vs. Improv talked with an Iranian philosophy researcher about Islamic philosophy and life in contemporary Iran. Education, improv, and a new co-host also took center stage. Nakedly Examined Music featured Dan Montgomery and Glenn Morrow, and the PEL blog published an excerpt from Chris Sunami’s Free Your Mind. Below is everything published across the PEL network in August, in order of occurrence.
Ep. 397: Federalist Papers LIVE (Part One)
August 2nd, 2026
To celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, we gathered in front of a lovely audience near Madison WI to discuss Federalist Papers 70, 78, 39, 54, 10 by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison from 1787-1788, Anti-Federalist Papers 78-80 (aka Brutus 11 and 15), and Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Speech (1852)…
Pretty Much Pop #227: The Odyssey: Epic Film
August 5, 2026
We discuss the already over-discussed Christopher Nolan adaptation of Homer’s classic poem. Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al discuss their cinema-going experiences, Ludwig Göransson’s soundtrack, choices re. the book-to-film transition, the various performances, the Emily Wilson connection, and more…
PvI#122: Hello from Iran w/ AmirAli Maleki
August 6, 2026
AmirAli is a philosophy researcher in Iran who tries to make Islamic philosophy speak to and with the West. We hear about doing philosophy in the “Islamic Republic of Iran,” life during wartime, the relationship between play and philosophy, Islamic philosophy in Arabic vs. Persian, Amanah (“sacred trust”), philosophy as empathy, plus the Dream Police and fun with imperialism…
Announcement: Mark’s “Key Ideas in the Philosophy of Mind” Fall 2026 Class
August 7, 2026
It will be nine 75 min sessions, running from late Aug. to mid Dec., starting with Aristotle and Descartes but then spending the rest of the time on the most influential texts in this area since 1950: Alan Turing, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, John Searle, Hilary Putnam, etc…
Ep. 397: Federalist Papers LIVE (Part Two)
August 9, 2026
We now have a free-form discussion in light of what was raised in part one about the Federalist Papers and Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Speech: What should we do about the problems identified? Is the system broken beyond repair? Was it built with fatal flaws in it? Is it just working as normal, and the pendulum will inevitably swing away from madness as the system reasserts itself? …
NEM#258: Dan Montgomery: Direct Communication
August 9, 2026
Dan was Ben Vaughn’s sound-man and released his first solo album of Americana rock in 2004. We discuss “Busted” from his eighth album (produced by Vaughn), the just Dan-and-his guitar effort Dispatches from the Desert, then “Beaumont” from Cast-Iron Songs and Torch Ballads (2023), “Favorite Color” from Rosetta, Please (A Love Story) (2006). End song: “Lookin’ for a Fight” also from the new album. Intro: “Always” from Man from Out of State (2004). More at danmontgomery.bandcamp.com…
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part One)
August 16, 2026
On “Mental Events” (1970) and “Actions, Reasons, and Causes” (1963), featuring Mark, Wes, and returning guest Chris Heath. We often talk about people having (mental) reasons for engaging in (physical) acts, and that physical things (say, a sunrise) cause mental occurrences (my perceiving and thinking about the sunrise). Does this mean that mental events are part of the closed physical, mechanical system that science studies? Wouldn’t this imply that we don’t have free will? Davidson, in “Mental Events,” argues that …
Closereads: Peirce’s New Categories (Part One)
August 19, 2026
How shall we break down the universe into basic types of things? Peirce has an idiosyncratic way of thinking about this problem and coming up with his division, revolving around the steps and presuppositions involved in predicating something…
PMP#228: Spielberg’s Alien Fetish
August 19. 2026
We discuss the various films Steven Spielberg has released about alien encounters: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982), War of the Worlds (2005), and our inciting film, Disclosure Day. Of these, Spielberg had a story or writing credit for all but War of the Worlds, and they form a semi-coherent narrative between them. Featuring Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al…
(sub)TEXT: A Map-Like Imagination in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (“The Moose”)
August 19, 2026
A poem about a map opens North and South, the first collection of the great twentieth century poet Elizabeth Bishop, and since, maps have been associated with her poetic vision—at once telescoping and binocular—and with the polarities and preoccupations of her work. The map’s privileged, sweeping, bird’s eye view of the earth is also hand-held, man-made, intimate…
PvI#123: Brain Spritzing w/ Bill Arnett and Jenny Hansen
August 20, 2026
Future co-host philosophy Jenny joins past co-host improviser Bill along with the usual rabble (Mark and Mary) for some tag-team mud swimming, hot takes about The Odyssey (we recorded this on July 23), and discussion and play about Bill’s return to school, Maslow’s hierarchy, gamified syllabi, some dweeby math stuff, and academic dishonesty. Our shared conversation space shall now be referred to as THE CAVE…
Excerpt – Free Your Mind: New Philosophy
August 22, 2026
As the rest of us sat back down after our break, one man remained standing. I initially perceived him as generically White, but then I thought he might be Jewish, Arabic or even Latino. He had very dark hair, strong features, and a bit of color in his face. He was dressed in a charcoal-gray tailored suit jacket, like a businessman, but underneath it, he was wearing the most amazing sweater-vest…
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part Two)
August 23, 2026
We finish up “Mental Events” (1970) and move on to “Actions, Reasons, and Causes” (1963), still with guest Chris Heath. Start with part one. Davidson gives us some more technical ways to think about the difference between the mental sphere and the physical. The failure of behaviorism to give us robust laws about the mental should be a lesson that mental explanation does not uses laws in the way that physical explanation does…
NEM#259: Glenn Morrow (Bar/None): Songwriting Re-Emergence
August 24, 2026
Glenn was a central figure in the Hoboken punk scene, fronting the band “a” in the late ’70s (no released albums) and then The Individuals (one album and an EP) in the early ’80s. His next band, Rage to Live (two albums), was the first release from Bar/None records in 1986, and Glenn then joined the label as a partner and signed They Might Be Giants, Yo La Tengo, etc. He started recording his own music again in the early 2010’s and has now released three albums as Glenn Morrow’s Cry for Help…
Ep. 399: Dan Dennett’s Model of Mind (Part One)
August 30, 2026
On Daniel C. Dennett’s Consciousness Explained (Ch. 1, 5, and a bit of 12; ep. 400 will complete ch. 12 along with 13). Featuring Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Chris Heath. What is the mind? Dennett claims that we are intuitively Cartesians: It seems like sensory input gets fed into us, processed unconsciously, and then the conscious mind examines the result (this is our stream of consciousness) and initiates some reaction…
There’s more to come in September!
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