Nakedly Examined Music is a podcast about making music: Why do we do it? Why do we do it the way we do it? Mark Linsenmayer interviews songwriters and composers famous and otherwise about specific recordings, which are presented in full on the podcast. 
With his roots in folk, Josh released three rock albums in the '90s before his big hit "Camera One," from Useful Music (2001), which is getting a Silver Anniversary rework/reissue (The intro music for this episode is the newly recorded version). He has released seven albums since then, typically as The Josh Joplin Group, but sometimes as Among the Oak & Ash. We discuss Continue Reading …
Ep. 396: Peirce on Knowledge (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. We start by looking more closely at the idea that all mental Continue Reading …
Closereads: Galen Strawson on Panpsychism (Part One)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get previous and future installments of this podcast. On "Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism" (2008). Strawson argues that physicalism should not just be taken as matter in motion. Instead, the physical is a broader category that includes not just chairs and molecules, but also "my experience Continue Reading …
PMP#226: Toy Story Played Out
In light of Toy Story 5, the gang (Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al) consider the Pixar franchise that started in 1995. We consider the premise whereby your toys are loyal slaves that come to life whenever unobserved, the critique of screen-play in the new film, the use of nostalgia in the films, the repetition and/or escalation throughout the series, the horror-adjacency of Continue Reading …
PvI#121: Meat Suit Dolls w/ Maddie Mutations
The LA-based clown, multimedia performance artist, and doll stylist (see maddiemutations.com; she also goes by the name Maddie Forrest) joins Mary and Mark to talk about her Doll Court show, clown types and the role of the fool, failing on stage, cities as women, silly villains, and more. Will Carol overcome her anxiety to go into the big meeting? Will Maddie keep all the Continue Reading …
Ep. 396: Peirce on Knowledge (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On essays by Charles Sanders Peirce: "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities," both from 1868. Featuring Mark, Wes, Seth and Dylan. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. Are Continue Reading …
Ep. 396: Peirce on Knowledge (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." We start by looking more closely at the idea that all mental causation is a form of reasoning, i.e. inference. Peirce sees these as valid deductive (or inductive or abductive) arguments even if they are not sound, i.e. if the premises are false. Continue Reading …
Ep. 396: Peirce on Knowledge (Part One for Supporters)
On essays by Charles Sanders Peirce: "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities," both from 1868. Featuring Mark, Wes, Seth and Dylan. Are there some instances of knowledge that are immediate and intuitive? These would be cognitions that are not caused by another cognition, but caused directly by the things that they Continue Reading …
NEM#256: Bruce Soord (Pineapple Thief): Heartbreaking Prog by Ear
Bruce started as guitarist for the '90s for Vulgar Unicorn and started Pineapple Thief as a solo project in 1999, though it quickly became a full band (and has for the last several albums been a true 4-way collaboration featuring King Crimson/Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison). He's released 16 studio albums with Pineapple Thief and four solo albums (plus a collaboration Continue Reading …
Ep. 395: C.S. Lewis Argues for Christianity (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on Mere Christianity (1952), starting with book 2, "What Christians Believe." Lewis argues that the problem of evil, far from showing that there is no good God, shows that we are endowed with that moral sense that judges the world to be evil, which was Lewis' proof for Continue Reading …
PvI#120: Mark and Mary in the Struggle Club
Your wise and authoritative hosts explore forms of respectful address, what counts as good philosophy, the holodeck full-contact Fantasy Island experience, status in economic transactions, Trek not War, default improv scenarios, fear of playfulness, philosophy or improv as education vs. doing philosophy or improv, and more. The potential future textbook I suggested at the Continue Reading …
Pretty Much Pop #225: Survivor the Constant (with Wes!)
Survivor has remained a top-rated show since its debut in 2000, and some of us (Sarahlyn and our guest Wes Alwan) have stuck with it throughout, Mark just watched when it came out and had to catch up, and some of us (Lawrence and Al) had not previously been on board at all. We talk through the evolution of the show, from torture exhibitionism to now lore-drenched Continue Reading …
Closereads: Hegel on Faith vs. The Enlightenment, aka PEL ep. 394 (Part Three)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get previous and future installments of this podcast. Why are there two audio players in this post? Because the 1st one is the ad-free Citizen version. On Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, sec. 551-559. This is part of the reading assigned for PEL ep. 394 (see parts one and two), but we didn't get to Continue Reading …
Ep. 395: C.S. Lewis Argues for Christianity (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Mere Christianity, a 1952 book crafted from radio broadcasts delivered from 1941-1944. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. Lewis tries to argue to a general audience that Christianity provides a Continue Reading …
Ep. 395: C.S. Lewis Argues for Christianity (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on Mere Christianity (1952), starting with book 2, "What Christians Believe." Lewis argues that the problem of evil, far from showing that there is no good God, shows that we are endowed with that moral sense that judges the world to be evil, which was Lewis' proof for God. Many of Lewis' arguments are still common among Christian apologists today. Continue Reading …
Ep. 395: C.S. Lewis Argues for Christianity (Part One for Supporters)
On Mere Christianity, a 1952 book crafted from radio broadcasts delivered from 1941-1944. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth. Lewis tries to argue to a general audience that Christianity provides a unique and optimal response to the human condition. Specifically, he begins by arguing (like Kant) that we are all aware that we have moral standards that are not derived from Continue Reading …
PEL Summer of Fear Nightcap 2026
Recorded 6/9/26. Mark, Wes, and Dylan sign relief in being done with Hegel and talk phobias, metaphors vs. emotions, apperception of the ego, James Talarico (i.e. liberal Christianity), Survivor (Wes appears on the PMP episode, coming next week!), and situational/business ethics. The Donald Melzer book Wes mentions is The Claustrum. Here's a discussion Mark read about John Continue Reading …
Ep. 394: Hegel on Faith vs. The Enlightenment (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We conclude our treatment for the moment of the Spirit section of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (sec. 527-73). This directly continues part one, though we began on this tear back with ep. 386 in late Feb., so that's a five-month stretch on basically the same book, either reading it or Continue Reading …
NEM#255: Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies): Mellow But Energized
Michael is the songwriter and guitarist for the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies (featuring two of his siblings and a childhood friend), with whom he's released 20+ studio albums and several live albums since 1989. We discuss "Throw a Match" from Such Ferocious Beauty (2023), "He Will Call You Baby" from More Acoustic Junk (2025), remade from One Soul Now (2004), and "Rock and Continue Reading …
(sub)TEXT: Existence and Expectancy in “Waiting for Godot”
Who is Godot? Whether God, objet a, or an abstraction from any object that is supposed to resolve dramatic suspense, it is clear that Vladimir and Estragon imagine him to be an agent of salvation (even if they can’t remember exactly what it is that needs saving). Perhaps the name is meant to satirize any states of expectancy—aspirational, libidinal, political, or Continue Reading …