Mark Linsenmayer (host of The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast) and Bill Arnett (head of the Chicago Improv Studio) each try to teach each other their crafts via conversation, scenes, and what can only be called performance art. No taking turns! 
Bill starts us with a scene: Behold the Doctor's Office, where anything can happen, and often DOES. Is this whole thing a bad idea? Do you think you're BETTER than this idea? Do you? If you need to tell yourself that, that's OK. In the post-game, we talk a little about Stoicism (listen to PEL about it, ego issues, and ephemeral art. Our recommendations include: Bobby Huff Continue Reading …
Philosophy vs. Improv #2: Real Lava Accommodation
Mark starts us off this time: What is reality? Bill pushes back, which is rather his point this round. Hilarity ensues, given that the world is just a construct of our minds and we want it to do so. Hilarity doesn't really do much else besides ensuing, does it? Lazy bastard. Learn more about Kant's phenomena vs. noumena in this very old episode Partially Examined Life Continue Reading …
Philosophy vs. Improv #1: We Have Always Already Been Improvising
What is this? Listen to the PvI trailer. The gauntlet has been thrown. In this first episode, Mark Linsenmayer and Bill Arnett channel their respective muses to try to enlighten each other about something having to do with ethics on the one hand and the continuity of improvisation with regular life on the other. Which lesson shall produce the most profound effect? Does this Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Mid July 2021
Recorded June 22, 2021. Wes is on vacation, Dylan is late. Mark and Seth start with some discussion of our former guest Lynda Olman's book called Sins against Science: The Scientific Media Hoaxes of Poe, Twain, and Others and her perhaps coming back to talk about feminist philosophy of science or more generally standpoint epistemology. Just as an update on the critical race Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late June 2021
Recorded June 9, 2021. We anticipate our Schelling reading and talk about comedy: Louis CK, Bo Burnham, and Hannah Gadsby. Can music lyrics be poetry? What if you put existing poetry to music? Finally, what's our relationship to owning books? The humor book Mark mentioned is Simon Critchley's On Humor. Transcript 0:00 Mark: Hey, this is your partially examined life Continue Reading …
Advance Release: Philosophy vs. Improv #2
Yes, this is happening, and you're getting this second installment in the new series in lieu of a Nightcap this week, as we couldn't get it together to record one between our two Fichte recordings, though we've already got one for you ready for the run-up to Schelling. Four episodes of PvI have now been recorded, and the website should be up within the next week. This Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late May 2021
Recorded on 5/14/21. We anticipate our German idealism discussions, starting with a two-session run on Fichte's The Vocation of Man. Here's the Stanford article if you want a Fichte overview. Then we talk Apocalypse Now. Wes' (sub)Text podcast recorded on this, presumably right after their most recent release, the book on which it was based. We talk about the appeal of Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Mid May 2021
Recorded on 4/27/21. Seth is late, causing us to question Slack as a mode of communication a la Postman and Nightcap as a worthwhile creation. But then we go ahead and have a pretty darn interesting conversation that started with audio books, went through improv comedy, and then thought about how improv techniques could apply to doing philosophy. Finally Seth grouses about Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early May 2021
Recorded on April 16 after our Neil Postman discussion. We start by talking about discussion options on our sites (read Jason's post that prompted this). Discord will be coming for all Citizens (when we get to it)! We then reflect on (half of us) having read Avicenna and whether we're ever going to finish even a minimal treatment of the Middle Ages (we will!). Should we Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late April 2021
Recorded on March 30, after Avicenna but not at all reflecting back on that. Dylan starts us by telling us about Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman, which turns to all of our attitudes toward nutrition and dieting. Seth covers is kale shard with a side of cigar. Then a question from Seth for the group: How do our Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early April 2021
Recorded on March 16, after recording on Jonathan Lear. We start off with some genetic testing talk, then chat about the kinds of comments we receive and what we can and can't reasonably respond to. This leads to some recounting of our various engagement attempts over the years and what we might we willing to do in terms of seminars or course offerings, so long as we can Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late March 2021
Recorded on March 2, after Phaedo and before our upcoming episode on Jonathan Lear. You might want to get ahold of his book Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul. We read chapters 1, 10, 7, and 4, in that order; they all concern Plato. Dylan tells us about Wim Hof, and then we talk about death! No, that argument that we shouldn't fear death because either a) it's Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early March 2021
Recorded on Feb. 21 after our Timaeus discussion, we start with Seth's tales of Austin with no power, which is why he missed that discussion. Dylan was traveling in the northwest and was also affected. But this is not just all about the weather. We fill Seth in on what he missed and look forward to the Phaedo, and later, Avicenna with Peter Adamson, and we're looking at Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late February 2021
Recorded on Feb. 5 after the Lise Van Boxel discussion, we engage in some focused post-gaming on that: How did people like PEL covering a secondary source in this way? How did you like our having two guests; was it just as good as having the four of us on? We also consider a potential future episode on Alain Badiou, who's been often requested. Should we invite a scholar Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early February 2021
Recorded on Jan. 28, we first consider the question "what are the dumbest ideas in philosophy?" The particular Philosophers' Zone episode that our questioner pointed us to was this one on "The Worst Argument in the World." 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 Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late January 2021
Recorded on Jan. 14, we give some off-the-cuff updates to our take on the pandemic (see ep. 241), including our coping strategies. Also, an update on the PEL book (which you will not see soon), and relatedly, should we do an Angela Davis (Are Prisons Obsolete?) episode for black history month? (Looks like this is not going to happen, but probably later.) Finally, our transcript Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early January 2021
Recorded on Dec. 22, 2020 after our final Locke recording, this is our extra-long year-end edition. Granted, a lot of what we ALWAYS do in Nightcap is talk about what we might want to read in the future, and we really don't plan specifically more than a few episodes ahead, but here we lay out at least how we're feeling right now about how things might go in the coming year: Continue Reading …
Mark Lint’s PEL Network Holiday Party 2020: Merry Chatting and Songs
Join the office Christmas party at the PEL network. The hired band is Mark Lint’s Dry Folk, playing their entire album, and the guests are considerate enough to only talk between the songs. BYOB! Mark holds mini conversations on philosophy, art, and life with all the PEL and PMP co-hosts, plus special guests Ken Stringfellow (a guy who played with REM and Big Star also sang Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late November 2020 (Citizens Only)
Recorded on Nov. 13 after our first Locke recording (so we're back in sync!), we talk a little more about Locke's overall purpose and use this to respond to listener criticisms about the "spin" of various episodes and whether we should have guests on just to make sure that de rigueur attitudes are reflected. Should we talk about politics? It looks like we'll have an Continue Reading …
“The Last Messiah” by Peter Wessel Zapffe: An Overview and Critical Analysis
The Norwegian philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe is little-known to most Anglophone readers. He was greatly inspired by Arthur Schopenhauer and has been called one of the “bleakest thinkers of all times and places.” Zapffe was also an avid mountaineer and a friend of fellow Norwegian philosopher — and originator of deep ecology — Arne Næss. His only major work is his doctoral Continue Reading …