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PEL Audioplayers: “Life Is a Dream” by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

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Your hosts are joined by real actors to do an unrehearsed read of Calderón’s 1636 comedy La Vida Es Sueño, using Stanley Appelbaum’s 2002 translation. Ep. 217 will cover the philosophical issues the play raises.

Recorded in NYC on 4/7: Talene Monahon (Rosaura), David Epstein (Segismundo), Bill Youmans (Clotaldo), Erica Spyres (Estrella), Chris Martin (Basilio), Mark Linsenmayer (Clarín), Seth Paskin (Astolfo), Dylan Casey (soldier 1 and servant 1), and Wes Alwan (soldier 2 and servant 2).

Music by Jonathan Segel, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #38.

Please help us to do more audioplays by supporting PEL.

Sponsor: St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.

PREVIEW-Ep 216 Game of Thrones’ Fantasy Politics (Part Two)

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Get teased re. Mark and Wes’s post-finale, spoiler-filled continuation of the discussion of the show.

How does its conclusion affect its overall political message? Does it make sense to be performing feminist critiques on a show based on the premise of people murdering each other for power?

To hear the full discussion, become a PEL Citizen or $5 Patreon supporter. For more about these options see partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Listen to our part one first, of course.

Episode 216: Game of Thrones’ Fantasy Politics

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Discussing the TV show (2011-2019) based on the books by George R.R. Martin.

What’s the role of a mass-consumed fantasy series in today’s society? Is it our “fantasy” to have all these horrible things happen to us? Is this an edifying prompt to engage in public moral thinking, or a spectacular distraction of the kind that those Marxist theorists keep warning us about? We get into the function of fantasy and how a more “realistic” show plays with that, the extent to which we’re supposed to identify with the characters, depiction of moral complexity, low art vs. high art, identity issues, and more. With guest Sabrina Weiss.

End song: “Fire and Blood” by Sacrifice Feat. Mark Lint; hear the interview on Nakedly Examined Music #24.

Keep an eye out for a Citizen-only spoiler-filled follow-up discussion between Mark and Wes to be released this week!

Sponsors: Check out Bill Nye’s Science Rules and thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL

NEM#98: Phil Judd Entertains Himself

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Phil founded New Zealand’s Split Enz with Tim Finn in 1972, recorded a seminal punk single with Suburban Reptiles, had an Australian #1 hit with The Swingers, then moved to solo and soundtrack work until 2006, since which he’s recorded five thickly textured solo albums including extensive one-man-band work.

We discuss the title track from Flightless Bird (2019), “Kite Flying Day” from Play It Strange (2014), and “Lamplight” by Schnell Fenster from The Sound of Trees (1988). We conclude by listening to “No One’s Best Man” from Novelty Act (2016). Intro/outro: “Sweet Dreams” by Split Enz from Second Thoughts (1976).

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon. Check out Mark’s new album.

Sponsor: Bandzoogle for 30 days free and 15% off a year of a great band website (use promo code NEM).

Episode 215: Brave New World: PEL Live 10th Anniversary Show

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On Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel, recorded at Manhattan’s Caveat on 4/6/19, with audience participation.

If we harness the power of society to employ available technologies to really focus on making people happy, what would the result be? This is Huxley’s thought experiment, but is it in all respects a dystopia, and is it a fair test of the ideal of social improvement or merely of a flawed view of human nature? You can watch this episode instead.

End song: “Brave New World” by Mark Lint. Read about it.

Get the commemorative T-shirt, and save $10 with the coupon code revealed at the beginning of the Citizen Edition of this episode. Please support PEL! Contact us to share your PEL stories.

Sponsor: Visit garyjohnbishop.com and get his new book Stop Doing That Shit: End Self-Sabotage and Demand Your Life Back.

PEL 10th Anniversary “Brave New World” Song

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A new Mark Lint tune written specifically to air with our live show #215. Mark mainlines Ramones and chuffs out this ode to the PEL project.

“Just four white men, why four white men? ‘Cause that’s just how it happened back before 2010. And we’ve read a lot of texts. We’re still sticking out our necks, speaking off the cuff at length enough to have almost examined this…”

Saints & Simulators 15: #WiseAI

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Another possible strategy for fending off the robot apocalypse is to ask if there are characteristically human traits or characteristics that are humanity-preserving, and if so, can those be passed along to our machines? What is it that has given us our identity as a species, all these years, and that, if we lose, we run the risk of losing everything?

Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part Two)

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Concluding Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885).

What’s the wise way to live? We start in earnest into part three, treating the “spirit of gravity,” where socially imposed values cover over your uniqueness; omni-satisfaction vs. being choosy; “Old and New Tablets,” where Nietzsche explores various ethical and meta-ethical issues (e.g., is self-overcoming a matter of one-time self-actualization or is it continual?); and more on the Overman and eternal recurrence.

Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Upright Man” by Rachel Taylor Brown, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #91.

Sponsor: Get your free trial on a world of knowledge with thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL.

NEM#97: Taking Danny Seraphine Back to Chicago

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Danny drummed with Chicago from its founding in 1967 through 1990 and wrote several songs for the band during the mid-late ’70s, often with David “Hawk” Wolinski.

We discuss “Little One” (and our intro music, “Take Me Back to Chicago”) from Chicago XI (1977), “Street Player” from Chicago 13 (1979), and “Devil’s Sweet” from Chicago VII (1974). End song: “The Real World” by California Transit Authority from Sacred Ground (2013). For more, see dannyseraphine.com.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon. Check out Mark’s new album.

Sponsors: Bandzoogle for 30 days free and 15% off a year of a great band website (use promo code NEM), and skylightframe.com (code NEM) for $10 off a great Mother’s Day gift.

Saints & Simulators 14: #FriendlyAI

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Given how likely killer robots are, and how clearly the paths we are currently embarked on lead to that eventuality, can this destiny be averted? Acceptance of the unstoppable inevitability of progress is the motivation behind yet another approach to artificial intelligence called “Friendly AI.” It starts with the assumption that runaway technological progress is inevitable, that some one among the many teams around the world working on artificial intelligence will soon succeed, and that disastrous robotapocalypse is the far most likely result. Given that, the belief of the Friendly AI camp is that it is absolutely essential that we ensure the first artificial superintelligence is “friendly,” meaning that it has the best interests of humanity at heart, and is willing and able to protect us from its nastier cousins.

Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part One)

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On the remainder of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885).

How can we keep our spirits up and avoid nihilism? We consider Nietzsche’s “solution” of eternal recurrence, why he uses a poetic, allegoric style, and more.

Don’t wait for part 2. Get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsor: Get $10 off a Skylight Frame in time for Mother’s Day at skylightframe.com using promo code PEL.

Saints & Simulators 13: #PushyAI

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For a more realistic portrait than Kurzweil’s of what a future dominated by technology might look like, one plausible place to start is with our present domination by technology, and how it is already transforming us as human beings. For example, why has our society become so oriented around statistics to the point that they mean the difference between success and failure, promotion or demotion, profit or loss, in so many different realms of life? As it turns out, what the computers do not see—what they cannot see, what is invisible both to the computer and to all those at the upper-level of management who see through the eyes of the computer—are all the purely human interactions of any job. And depending on what the job is, it can end up being the core competencies of the profession that end up neglected.

Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part Two)

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Continuing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, books 1 and 2 (1883).

We talk through Nietzsche’s symbolism (tightrope walkers and gravediggers and snakes, oh my!), the path toward the overman, his screed against the state, the Will to Power as the will to overcome oneself by reconciling oneself with the past, and more.

Listen to part one first or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Please visit calm.com/pel, thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL, and openculture.com.

NEM#96: Andrew McMahon Throws in All His Favorite Things

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Andrew has put out nine albums and a few EPs of piano-and-vocal-based pop using various band names since he was in high school in the late ’90s.

We discuss two of his Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness tracks: “Blue Vacation” from Upside Down Flowers (2018) and “Synesthesia” from The Pop Underground EP, then “Me and the Moon” by Something Corporate from North (2003), and conclude by listening to “Swim” by Jack’s Passenger from The Glass Passenger (2008). Opening music: “I Woke Up in a Car” by Something Corporate from Leaving through the Window (2002). For more, see andrewmcmahon.com. 

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon. Check out Mark’s new album.

Saints & Simulators 12: #BadAI

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In 1989, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the second major iteration of the durable televised Star Trek science fiction franchise, introduced a terrifying new villain called “the Borg.” An unhallowed melding of a humanlike life form with cybernetic technology, the individual members of the Borg were born, raised, lived, and presumably died entirely surrounded by technological innovations. There was no such thing as “natural childbirth” for them, they were cloned mechanically, nurtured in artificial wombs, and raised to maturity in pods. An implacable collective intelligence, they mercilessly converted any creatures they encountered into extensions of themselves, cannibalizing their planets for raw materials, and sucking other intelligent lifeforms into the inescapable machine.

Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part One)

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On Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, books 1 and 2 (1883).

What is wisdom? In this text whose style parodies the Bible, we get pithy advice and allegorical imagery to guide us away from self-defeating, life-denying attitudes and orient us toward creative self-overcoming (i.e., exertion of the Will to Power). The Last Man who no longer knows how to give birth to a dancing star is a rotten egg!

Don’t wait for part 2! Get your ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi. Listen to the Hi-Phi Nation podcast at hiphination.org.

Tidying Up With Socrates

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Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant devoted to uncluttering our households. Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher devoted to uncluttering our minds. Can their methods of tidying up help us live happier lives?

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

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