At last, the full, public release of this discussion between Wes Alwan and Bill Youmans covering Shakespeare’s 1611 play about revenge, forgiveness, and authorship. Or maybe it’s about exploitation, or how we react to changes in status, or perhaps how a liberal education can give you magical powers! Listen and decide for yourself!
You can also see them organized by topic. For episodes marked "Preview," you can access the full episode at our store, or you could become a PEL Citizen and get them from our Free Stuff for Citizens page.
Episode 217: Discussing Calderón’s “Life Is a Dream”
On the 1636 comedy by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, considering destiny (Christian vs. Ancient Greek), skepticism, meta-theater, and the ethic of honor. Listen to our performance first. With guests Bill Youmans and Erica Spyres.
End song: “Pulling Apart” by Jonathan Segel. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #38.
Please fill out our bonus material survey at partiallyexaminedlife.com/bonus. Please support PEL!
Sponsors: Visit TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for a free month of online learning. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
Episode 217: Discussing Calderón’s “Life Is a Dream” (Citizen Edition)
On the 1636 comedy by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, considering destiny (Christian vs. Ancient Greek), skepticism, meta-theater, and the ethic of honor. Listen to our performance first. With guests Bill Youmans and Erica Spyres.
End song: “Pulling Apart” by Jonathan Segel. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #38.
Glimpse: Machiavellian Politics (for Partially Examined Life #14)
Given our treatment of Game of Thrones and Life Is a Dream, and the way in which end-justifying-the-means logic plays endlessly in our real-life political situation, it’s time we looked back on our episode 14 on Machiavelli. I reviewed that episode and recorded a little essay about practicing Machiavellian politics to get you back in this spirit.
PEL Audioplayers: “Life Is a Dream” by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
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.
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Sponsor: St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
PREVIEW-Ep 216 Game of Thrones’ Fantasy Politics (Part Two)
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 Follow-Up: Reflections on the End of Game of Thrones (Citizens Only)
Mark and Wes continue discussion of the TV show after its finale. Listen to our ep. 216 first.
Yes, of course this is now full of spoilers. How does the end of the show affect its overall political message? Was it really (as George R.R. Martin depicted) about the irreducible complexity of politics (given that any character named or unnamed can actually make a difference, at least destructively) or qua TV Show is it forced to zero-in on a select set of powerful characters that we are meant to identify with? Also, does it make sense to be performing feminist critiques on a show based on the premise of people murdering each other for power?
We welcome your feedback re. future treatment of pop culture topics (via a spin-off podcast?).
Episode 216: Game of Thrones’ Fantasy Politics
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
Episode 215: Brave New World: PEL Live 10th Anniversary Show
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.
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Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part Two)
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.
Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part One)
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.
Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Citizen Edition)
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 his “new tablets” that tell us what habitual and destructive ideas we have to flush out of our systems before we can be vital and creative. And don’t count on reaching overman status; innovators are generally sacrifices to the future and only get the goal half right.
End song: “Upright Man” by Rachel Taylor Brown, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #91.
Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part Two)
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.
Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part One)
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.
Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Citizen Edition)
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!
End song: “Sacrilicious” by Hedflux, i.e., Steve Young, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #92.
Episode 212: Sartre on Literature (Part Two)
Continuing on What is Literature? (1948).
Sartre gives a phenomenology of reading and writing that makes reading into a creative act of completing the writer’s work, and calls this cooperation ethical: the work is an appeal to the reader’s freedom, and also the reader’s responsibility to then know what the work reveals. Are you shirking, all you skimmers?
Start with part one, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition.
End song: “Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You” by Sam Phillips, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #90.
Sponsor: For a free trial of unlimited online learning, visit TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/PEL.
Episode 212: Sartre on Literature (Part One)
On Jean-Paul Sartre’s What is Literature? (1948), ch. 1 and 2.
What’s the purpose of literature? Why write prose as opposed to poetry? Sartre argues that while poetry is about the words themselves, prose is about the ideas, so it’s necessarily political. A written work is essentially an ethical appeal for a reader to apply his or her own faculties and experiences to complete the work through the act of reading.
Continue on part 2, or get your ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
Sponsors: Please visit calm.com/pel for 25% off a stress-reducing subscription and the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
PEL Live is this Saturday 4/6 4-6pm Eastern time! We will post live-stream info and other details at partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live.
Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Part Three)
Moving finally on to Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Black Orpheus” (1948), where he introduces a book of black poetry by praising its revolutionary spirit as embodied in “negritude.” Is this a legitimate consciousness-raising exercise or a weird fetishization of blackness?
Listen to parts one and two first, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition, which will also get you access to (sub)Text#5 on Checkhov’s Uncle Vanya. Please support PEL!
End song: “Punch Bag” by Godley & Creme as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #3.
Sponsor: Visit TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for two months of unlimited learning for 99 cents.
(sub)Text #5: Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” (Citizens Only)
Wes Alwan is joined by actress, podcaster, and educator Monica McCarthy to discuss Anton Chekhov’s 1898 play about family dysfunction and potentially wasting your life.
Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Part Two)
Continuing on Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate (1946).
Is there an “authentic” way to respond to persecution? As part of his critique of anti-semitism, Sartre criticized the responses of some Jews to this situation, e.g. denying that the persecution exists, pretending to not be Jewish, or in any way accepting the terms of anti-semitism and setting up one’s life in reaction to it. Sartre instead recommends solidarity and “concrete liberalism,” which we try to figure out.
Listen to part one first. Don’t wait for the last part; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Join us for PEL Live on 4/6!
Sponsors: Visit TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for two months of unlimited learning for 99 cents. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
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