• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • (sub)Text
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List
Phi Fic LogoPhi Fic means Philosophical Fiction. Each episode, we have a candid dicussion on a heady work of of fiction, full of SPOILERS. Join host Nathan Hanks and readers Cezary Baraniecki, Daniel St. Pierre, Laura Davis, and Mary Claire, plus the occasional guest.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Refer your friends to us at PhiFicPodcast.com!

Originating from The Partially Examined Life’s Not School and its Philosophical Fiction group. Sign up for a small recurring donation for access to many more discussions!

Phi Fic #26 The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster

January 23, 2019 by Nathan Hanks 3 Comments

Cezary Baraniecki, Laura Davis-Chanin, and Nathaniel Hanks are joined again by the irrepressible Dan Johnson and Jennifer Tejada as we explore this fascinating and prescient story!

Phi Fic #23 “To The Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf

August 24, 2018 by Nathan Hanks 2 Comments

This discussion first appeared in our Not School Group and the readers at the time were Nathan, Laura, Daniel, and Dan Johnson. As an early recording, please bear with the sound quality—many thanks!

Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #22 “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf

June 5, 2018 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

Listen as Dylan Casey from The Partially Examined Life Podcast joins us to discuss this remarkable novel, in which many scholars believe Woolf found her voice. Written in a stream of consciousness, the plot of the book is written inside the souls, struggles. and angst of the characters.

Phi Fic #21 “Foe” by J.M. Coetzee

March 27, 2018 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

Join us as we delve into Coetzee’s rich, complex exploration of story and authorship in this novel that presents an origin story of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Coetzee writes about Susan Barton, a castaway at sea who discovers an island inhabited by two men, Robinson Crusoe and Friday. Once rescued, she seeks the renowned author Daniel Defoe to help tell her story, but struggles to communicate her experiences.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #20 “Lord Jim” by Joseph Conrad

February 5, 2018 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

It is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge. –Lord Jim
Listen along as we discuss this richly complex novel of responsibility, guilt, shame, and redemption.

Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.

Phi Fic #19 “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann

November 17, 2017 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

To rest in the arms of perfection is the desire of any man intent upon creating excellence… –Death in Venice
Join us for our discussion of the extraordinary novella of beauty, desire, and morality.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.

Phi Fic #18 “The Trouble with Being Born” by E.M. Cioran

October 30, 2017 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

“This very second has vanished forever, lost in the anonymous mass of the irrevocable. It will never return. I suffer from this, and I do not. Everything is unique—and insignificant.” –Emil Cioran
Join us as we dive into this beautiful work of nonfiction (yes, we veered from the path a bit) and luxuriate in the charmingly dismal prose of one of life’s master skeptics.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.

Phi Fic #17 “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino

September 30, 2017 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it…”
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.

Phi Fic #16 Stories by Clarice Lispector

August 27, 2017 by Nathan Hanks 1 Comment

Our chinwag this time concerns two works by the remarkable Clarice Lispector, the novella The Hour of the Star and the short story “The Departure of the Train.”
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.

Phi Fic #15 “The State of the Art” by Iain M. Banks

July 19, 2017 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

This time, we talk about a novella in the late, great Iain M. Banks’s famed Culture sci-fi series, which is centered around a utopian, post-scarcity society that spans various planets (and other habitats) within the Milky Way galaxy.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.

Phi Fic #14 “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov

July 2, 2017 by Nathan Hanks 3 Comments

For this month’s episode, we discuss Isaac Asimov’s famous short story that (repeatedly) asks the question: Can we find a way to reverse entropy?
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #13 “The House of the Dead” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

May 31, 2017 by Nathan Hanks 3 Comments

This time, the group discusses The House of the Dead, Dostoevsky’s semi-autobiographical novel about life in a labor camp.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #12 Stories by James Baldwin

April 21, 2017 by Nathan Hanks 1 Comment

For this month’s reading we chose two short stories by James Baldwin: “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon” and “Sonny’s Blues.” Both stories are included in the collection Going to meet the Man (1965). Unfortunately, Daniel had to be absent this time, but we did get Mark Linsenmayer to join us!
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #11 “The Body Artist” by Don DeLillo

March 20, 2017 by Nathan Hanks 4 Comments

Our book this time is The Body Artist by Don Delillo, an absorbing look at Lauren, a performance artist, and her experience of loss at her husband’s death.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #10 “The Fall” by Albert Camus

February 27, 2017 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

We discuss the novel about what you do when you’re “called” and how you live afterward. You can listen along while Cezary, Daniel, Laura, Mary, and Nathan discuss The Fall by Albert Camus, which Sartre claimed was “perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood” of Camus’s books.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #9 “The Grand Inquisitor” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

January 23, 2017 by Nathan Hanks 1 Comment

We discuss the poem within The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #8 “Erewhon” by Samuel Butler

December 1, 2016 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

For this month’s discussion, Daniel had us read Erewhon by Samuel Butler. We had a discussion that we all enjoyed much more than reading the book.

Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #7 “The Call of Cthulhu” by H. P. Lovecraft

November 1, 2016 by Nathan Hanks 5 Comments

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” —H.P. Lovecraft

Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #6 “The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James

October 1, 2016 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

Join the Phi Fic group for a discussion of The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James.

Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.

Phi Fic #5 “Pale Fire” by Vladimir Nabokov

September 1, 2016 by Nathan Hanks 7 Comments

So, you think Lolita was Nabokov’s best? We humbly submit a solid contender. Structured as a 999-line poem followed by an extensive afterword and index, Pale Fire has been described by the critic Harold Bloom as “the surest demonstration of [Nabokov’s] genius…”

Check out more episodes and be sure to subscribe at phificpodcast.com.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Jay on Ep. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (Part One)
  • Jennifer Tejada on PEL Nightcap Mid November 2020 (Citizens Only)
  • Jennifer Tejada on PEL Nightcap Mid November 2020 (Citizens Only)
  • Jennifer Tejada on PEL Nightcap Mid December 2020: New Intro to ep. 37 Locke on Political Power (Citizens Only)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on PEL Nightcap Late February 2021

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2021 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in