Hey, folks. We're looking for audio clips of no more than 2 minutes reacting to this episode and/or telling about how PEL has affected your life. We'll patch some of these together to make some kind of ep. 300-accompanying release and/or maybe hold a recorded Zoom call with up to 10 of you to follow the public version of this episode. Send your submissions as mp3s to Continue Reading …
Ep. 299: Philosophy in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. What role does money have in human psychology? This is one of several philosophical questions that William Shakespeare's least popular play explores, and Mark, Wes, and Dylan start off our rumination on these with special guest Sir Jonathan Bate, editor of this new complete edition of Shakespeare's plays for the Royal Continue Reading …
Ep. 299: Philosophy in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one, instead of Jonathan, now actor Sarah Manton (from our performance) joins us, plus Seth is back. We start out by re-litigating what Timon's problem is at the beginning of the play, which sets up his fall. Then we move to explicitly considering the Cynic school the historical figure of Diogenes. Is Timon really a Cynic? For a nice, concise Continue Reading …
Ep. 299: Philosophy in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” (Part One for Supporters)
What role does money have in human psychology? This is one of several philosophical questions that William Shakespeare's least popular play explores, and Mark, Wes, and Dylan start off our rumination on these with special guest Sir Jonathan Bate, editor of this new complete edition of Shakespeare's plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, who played Flavius in our Continue Reading …
NEM#178: Chastity Brown in Wonderment
The daughter of a blues musician in Tennessee and originally a saxophone player, Chastity has since 2007 released seven albums from Minneapolis that she calls "new blues," but which spread into pop, Americana, soul, and Irish-flavored spirituals. We discuss "Wonderment" (co-written with Dan Wilson) and listen at the end to "Back Seat" from Sing to the Walls (2022), "Drive Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Episode 300 Retrospection
Recorded 8/5/22 in anticipation of having reached this milestone. After sharing our current spiritual state and activities, we share some recommendations for diving back into our catalog: Dylan: Ep. 154 Sellars on the myth of the givenMark: Ep. 59 Macintyre's After VirtueSeth: Ep. 249 Dewey on educationWes: Ep. 183 Mill on liberty Mark talks about the podcasts he's been a Continue Reading …
PvI#36: Authentic Authenticity w/ Skye Cleary
Skye teaches and Columbia and the City University of New York, and she recently published How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment. She joins Mark and Bill to talk about what authenticity might mean for an existentialist, how it relates to truth, responsibility, and picking a theme for your birthday party. For more on this ladder of Continue Reading …
Not Ep. 299: Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free plus tons of bonus content. Continuing our performance from part one of William Shakespeare's play, finishing things up with acts 4 and 5 plus some post-performance discussion with the cast. This is the part of the play where Timon either has gone crazy or become enlightened, such that he's trying to out-cynic the cynic philosopher Continue Reading …
Pretty Much Pop #130: CODA and Deaf Culture
The 2022 Oscar winner for Best Picture was CODA, a story about a musically inclined girl with a deaf family. Kambri Crews, herself a CODA and author of a much darker story about this called Burn Down the Ground, joins your host Mark Linsenmayer, writer Sarahlyn Bruck, and jack-of-many-intellectual-trades Al Baker to talk about how deaf culture interacts with film. Films tend Continue Reading …
NEM#177: Susan Cattaneo Leaves Nashville and Finds Herself
Susan teaches songwriting at Berklee and has released six albums since 2009. As she tells us, she started wanting to be a Nashville songwriter, decided to then sing those country songs herself, but decided that it was too much of an act. Her subsequent, meticulously crafted Americana albums in Boston better reflect her unique sensibilities. We discuss “Broken Things” (and Continue Reading …
Not Ep. 299: Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay Feat. Jay O. Sanders, Michael Ian Black, and Michael Tow (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. The PEL Players are back, with more players than ever, doing an unrehearsed reading of William Shakespeare's least popular play, co-written with Thomas Middleton in Shakespeare's later years, probably around 1605. The play is about money and cynicism, where a man gets to see where his friends go when his money runs Continue Reading …
Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing our performance from part one of William Shakespeare's play, finishing things up with acts 4 and 5 plus some post-performance discussion with the cast. This is the part of the play where Timon either has gone crazy or become enlightened, such that he's trying to out-cynic the cynic philosopher Apemantus. Meanwhile, Socrates' former admirer Alcibiades has been Continue Reading …
Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay Feat. Jay O. Sanders, Michael Ian Black, and Michael Tow (Part One for Supporters)
The PEL Players are back, with more players than ever, doing an unrehearsed reading of William Shakespeare's least popular play, co-written with Thomas Middleton in Shakespeare's later years, probably around 1605. The play is about money and cynicism, where a man gets to see where his friends go when his money runs out and let's say doesn't react well. This is our largest Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Ficino-Flavored Nightcap Early August 2022
Subscribe to get this recording in its entirety. In this hybrid discussion between Mark and Wes (is it a part three or a Nightcap?), we spent the majority of our time going through some more passages from Ficino's Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love. Listen to our discussion with Peter Adamson first. This preview presents more thinking about love as reproduction and Continue Reading …
Pretty Much Pop #129: Wherefore the Cover Song?
Is re-playing or re-recording a song written and performed by someone else an act of love or predation? Mark is joined by Too Much Joy's Tim Quirk, the Gig Gab Podcast's Dave Hamilton, and the author of A Philosophy of Cover Songs Prof. P.D. Magnus to talk about different types of and purposes for covers, look a little at the history, share favorites, and more. A few of the Continue Reading …
Ep. 298: Marsilio Ficino on Love (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Nightcap featuring more Ficino discussion, which you can preview. Continuing from part one on Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love (1475), with guest Peter Adamson. Peter gives us some context in terms of other Renaissance theories of love, and then we're back to the text, considering the role of beauty Continue Reading …
PEL Ficino-Flavored Nightcap Early August 2022
On 7/11/22, Mark and Wes first discuss a few more passages from Ficino's Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love, including one on five types of desire: How the two most extreme ones are "daemons," i.e. primal urges (one towards procreation, one towards God), and in the incarnation of these in human psychology, we have to have a desire that's a compromise between the two: Continue Reading …
PvI#35: Submarine Observations w/ Chris Rathjen
We talk about observations and how they relate to theories and other types of preconception. Is there such a thing as pure observation? For our pen-pen-ultimate episode here of season one, I must say that these were some of my favorite scenes we've ever done. We tour a submarine and plan a party. There is no Chumbawamba in either case. Improv guy Chris starred in Continue Reading …
Ep. 298: Marsilio Ficino on Love (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love (1475), with guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy podcast joining Mark, Wes, and Seth. Attention: We'll be live-streaming video for our big ep. 300 on Friday, Aug. 19 at 8pm ET. More info at partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live. Leading up to that episode, Continue Reading …
NEM#176: Bill Lloyd’s Power Pop from Nashville
Bill is a highly successful Nashville songwriter, co-writing country hits for artists like Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, and Robert Ellis Orral as well as his late '80s duo Foster and Lloyd. His country collaborations go back to the late '70s, and he has a long connection to Rusty Young's latter-day iterations of Poco. But his true love has been power pop, starting Continue Reading …