A second venture into this new series (four of which have now been recording; the website should be up fairly soon for all to listen to) where Mark and improv comedy instructor Bill Arnett engage in mutual edification.
PEL Nightcap Late May 2021
Anticipating our German idealism episodes, some book recommendations, new projects, Israel, news dieting, and more.
PEL Nightcap Mid May 2021
Recorded on 4/27/21. Seth is late. We question Slack and Nightcap itself. Then, audiobooks, improv comedy and how we might apply its tenets to philosophy, Seth’s homeowner complaints, and Wes’ Stoicism “course.”
PEL Nightcap Early May 2021
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)?
Mark Lint’s PEL Network Holiday Party 2020: Merry Chatting and Songs
Join the office party, where Mark holds mini conversations on philosophy, art, and life with all PEL and PMP co-hosts, plus Ken Stringfellow, Jenny Hansen, and the members of Mark Lint’s Dry Folk, whose 12 tunes are presented in succession with nary a partridge in sight. Will these 12 spirits turn you (or Mark) from errant ways? BYOB!
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.
“The Last Messiah” by Peter Wessel Zapffe: An Overview and Critical Analysis
The Norwegian philosopher Peter Zapffe is little-known to most Anglophone readers. “The Last Messiah” is a 1933 essay that stands out as an important work in the sphere of philosophical pessimism. The views expressed are a kind of evolutionary existentialism. For Zapffe, angst, despair, and depression are due to our overly evolved intellect: we have an overabundance of consciousness. We think too much for our own good.
The Influence of Insomnia on the Life and Work of Emil Cioran
The Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran long struggled with insomnia, although he did not exclusively view it as a curse. He actually found insomnia to be an insightful condition, casting it as something distinctly human, as well as a state that could be highly productive for the philosopher.
Stop Playing the Parlor Game!
The confusion caused by categorical reasoning in the cancel culture debate.
Murdoch, Williams, and Why I Miss My Friends
The passing of nature seems to provide an immediate therapy, “a self-forgetful pleasure in the sheer alien pointless independent existence of animals, birds, stones and trees.” I’ve found this to be true during my attempts to wade through high grass near my house. The fact that the birds have no idea what’s going on in my mind has been reassuring; their indifference to our condition provides what Murdoch describes as “unselfing,” as I reposition my concerns in the wider world.
Lucifer: How a Decent Deity Got a Bad Rap (Part 4)
In this final post in a series on the history of Satan, Vincent Czyz shows us how in the early centuries of the Christian era, the serpent in the Garden of Eden came to be identified with the Prince of Darkness, and the details of the story of the Fall From Heaven, familiar to readers from Paradise lost, were filled in.
Lucifer: How a Decent Deity Got a Bad Rap (Part 3)
In the intertestamental literature, written between the Old and the New Testaments, Satan continues his dual evolution into both the personification of Hate and God’s opponent. The New Testament exhibits completely contradictory versions of Satan: Sometimes he is the Tester, as in Mark, Matthew, and Luke; but in other places, as in Revelations, Persian dualism seems to hold sway.
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