Recorded 4/16, reflecting back on Avicenna and Postman: Should we do more from the Middle Ages and/or in communications studies? Arendt and Fichte coming up! The status of our Discord server. Will PEL ever end? How non-philosophical should these Nightcaps get?
PEL Nightcap Late April 2021
Recorded 3/30. We reflect on nutrition and self-care choices, then on how our not-so-secret podcaster identities fly among our day-job acquaintances. Finally, a heated discussion on the justification for unearthing and covering more pre-20th-century women philosophers.
PEL Nightcap Early April 2021
Recorded 3/16, with a little genetic testing talk, then teaching/audience interaction things we have considered doing. We look forward to Avicenna and an Indian philosophy episode, consider Emily Dickenson, and talk more about our parameters re. what to cover in light of the fun we had with Lear, which was both a secondary source (bad) and basically a third Plato episode in a row (also bad).
PEL Nightcap Late March 2021
Recorded on March 2 after the Phaedo and before recording on Jonathan Lear’s Open Minded. We talk death, arrogance, and answer letters: one from Cambodia and one asking “IS PEL OVER?” It is not.
PEL Nightcap Early March 2021
First the weather: Seth’s stories of the blizzard in Austin that made him miss Timaeus. We look back at that, then forward at Phaedo, Avicenna, and some other possible topics.
PEL Nightcap Late February 2021
We do some post-gaming on ep. 263: How did you like us covering a secondary source and having two guests sitting in for two hosts? We think about an Badiou episode; should we invite a guest for that? Should we ever cover secondary literature again? Finally, we anticipate Plato’s Timaeus.
PEL Nightcap Early February 2021
Recorded on Jan. 28, we first consider the question “what are the dumbest ideas in philosophy? We consider again the Angela Davis episode idea as a way of getting into a discussion of our coverage or inclusion of controversial or even criminal writers and guests. Finally, Seth expresses some COVID-related fatigue about reading philosophy, particularly if that philosophy is more abstract and less political.
PEL Nightcap Late January 2021
Recorded on Jan. 14, we give some off-the-cuff updates to our take on the pandemic and our coping strategies. Plus, updates on PEL book, transcripts, and a potential black history month episode (Angela Davis?).
PEL Nightcap Early January 2021
An extra-long Nightcap looking forward to PEL coverage in 2021, with some political dialogue on the state of the country and what we might want to do about it. Plus, we respond to listener emails: Will doing philosophy put a crimp in your science career (or other prep for your legit day job)?
PEL Nightcap Mid December 2020: New Intro to ep. 37 Locke on Political Power (Citizens Only)
We try something new for a Nightcap: a new intro to an old episode, in this case ep. 37 on Locke’s political philosophy. Our hope was to connect this to the current series on epistemology, but we ended up more applying it to modern disputes in political theory, which was also fun. Check it out and then re-listen to the old episode!
PEL Nightcap Late November 2020 (Citizens Only)
Some post-election hot takes, more on Locke’s project and responding to listeners about Kropotkin, philosophical journaling, and more.
PEL Nightcap Mid November 2020 (Citizens Only)
An extra long Nightcap: Should you go to school for philosophy? Have kids? Plus we launch Verbal Correctness Corner, and we talk about note-taking: what we do and the notes of famous philosophers in the margins of books they read.
PEL Nightcap Early November 2020 (Citizens Only)
We talk about interactions with author-guests: How much should we talk, how much should we let them talk? Should we keep them on for part two? Who should our next one be? Who might we get for an ep on trans issues?
PEL Nightcap Late October 2020 (Citizens Only)
We talk about why we left academia and what our current stances are toward it now. Dylan relates his true life Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance adventure. We talk a bit about PEL decision-making, pandemic coping, and back in the day in grad school at U. Texas.
PEL Nightcap Early October 2020 (Citizens Only)
We talk about the decision to pull part 2’s behind the paywall, whether we’re “woke” in treating policing, Butler, etc. Wes confesses to anti-wokeness, Mark hypothesizes re. whether we can classify a practice as racist if it’s part of a racist tradition. Seth investigates Femsplainers and Jordan Peterson.
PEL Nightcap Late September 2020 (Citizens Only)
We answer listener emails and/or reflect on what secondary sources we use, anarchism, having on as guests adherents of the philosophy we’re discussing, which reading that we’ve covered that’s pleasantly surprised each of us the most, and how to front-load our episodes so that non-paying listeners are more OK with only hearing part one.
PEL Nightcap Early September 2020 (Citizens Only)
The fourth in our series of fun, supporter-only, extra fun off-week discussions. Here we anticipate our Habermas reading, talk about our favorite podcast apps, non-gendered pronouns, the (sub)Text launch, and we discuss listener feedback asking about the history of “rights,” and blasting the approach in our early episodes. What kinds of criticism are worth responding to?
PEL Nightcap Late August 2020 (Citizens Only)
More listener email and postings about things we could potentially cover. Edith Stein? Dietrich von HIldebrand? Fichte? Schelling? F.H. Bradley? Eric Hoffer? What’s everybody’s favorite era of philosophy? One listener suggests we do another political one surrounding the upcoming election. Or maybe redo things we covered many years ago.
But first, more about podcast and lecture listening habits. Hear Wes on vacation without his real microphone!
PEL Nightcap Early August 2020 (Citizens Only)
Our supporter exposure continues! This time we talk about whether we should do more non-Western philosophy, and if not, does that make us racist? Also, maybe more episodes on communications and rhetoric? Or finally personal identity? Also, outreach to supporters re. PEL Live Remote 2020 and ongoing topic suggestions.
PEL Nightcap July 2020 (Citizens Only)
Introducing supporter-only banter, listener mail, behind-the-scenes, and misc. philosophizing. Today: Do PEL hosts listen to episodes that they don’t appear on? Plus, a listener suggests “scalar” utilitarianism.