Hotel Bar Sessions

 This week, we're unpacking the Trump administration’s war on so-called “radical ideology”—a campaign targeting what it calls “gender ideology” and “equity ideology.” We explore what these terms are meant to signal, what work they do rhetorically and politically, and how they function to delegitimize trans and BIPOC lives. Drawing from Marxist accounts of ideology, we examine how ideology obscures...

Who or what rules the world today? And by what right? In this episode, your favorite philosophers-on-tap—Talia Bettcher, Rick Lee, and Leigh M. Johnson—pull back the curtain on one of political theory’s most enduring (and most elusive) concepts: sovereignty.  From dusty monarchs and divine right to corporations, constitutions, and contested rights, they explore how sovereignty continues to shape t...

The central debate this week? Whether interpretation goes “all the way down.” Leigh stakes out a position, arguing that even the simplest acts of clarification are interpretive performances grounded in systems of meaning. Talia, donning her analytic hat, pushes back hard—insisting that certain discursive acts, like clarifications and first-person avowals of emotional states, are distinct from inte...

Is it time to panic? In this episode, we invite rhetorician Ira Allen to the bar to explore the possibility that, yes, it might be—and that panic isn’t just an irrational breakdown but a vital, even necessary, affective response to the ongoing collapse we’re all living through. Allen’s recent book Panic! Now: Tools for Humanizing in an Age of Staggered Collapse challenges the neoliberal injunction...

How can we talk, or think, about "private parts" in a philosophical way? In this provocative and unexpectedly tender episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , co-hosts Leigh M. Johnson, Rick Lee, and Talia Mae Bettcher unpack the philosophical complexities of “private parts.” What starts as a playful premise quickly becomes a deep exploration of bodily privacy, modesty, and the moral and social codes that g...

Can the University be saved? Should it be saved?  In this sobering and timely episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, co-hosts Leigh M. Johnson, Rick Lee, and Talia Mae Bettcher tackle the existential crisis facing higher education in the U.S. and beyond. Nothing is off limits in this conversation!  From the increasing defunding of universities to their alignment with neoliberal capitalism, we're looking a...

In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , your favorite philosophical trio—Leigh Johnson, Rick Lee, and Talia Bettcher—dive headfirst into the squirmy, complicated world of cringe . From wedding speeches gone wrong to tone-deaf icebreaker confessions, they unpack the peculiar affective cocktail we experience when someone's self-presentation dramatically misfires. Cringe isn’t just about secondhand e...

Sean Kirkland unpacks living on the edge of "was" and "not yet." What if time isn’t just something we move through—but something that shapes us, wounds us, and makes us who we are? In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , Leigh and Rick sit down with philosopher Sean D. Kirkland (DePaul University), author of Aristotle and Tragic Temporality , to talk about what Aristotle can teach us about the tra...

In this season-opening episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , Rick Lee and Leigh Johnson welcome new co-host Talia Mae Bettcher , a leading voice in trans philosophy and feminist theory, to dive into the deceptively simple but persistently perplexing question: What is philosophy? This wide-ranging conversation explores whether philosophy is defined by its methods (argument, critique, concept creation), i...

What can Frantz Fanon and Friedrich Nietzsche teach us about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? [NOTE: This episode originally aired on October 11, 2024.] This week, we're joined by Zahi Zalloua (Whitman College) to discuss the final chapter of his most recent book The Politics of the Wretched: Race, Reason, and Ressentiment (Bloomsbury, 2024)-- entitled "Zionist ressentiment , the Left, and the Pa...

The HBS co-hosts learn why it's not just about pronouns. [This episode originally aired in November 2023.] In recent years, society has witnessed a seismic significant shift in our understanding of gender. For some, the binary notion of gender, once seen as immutable and fixed, has given way to a more inclusive and fluid understanding of identity… a transformation that has brought to the forefront...

Who, if anyone, is speaking truth to power these days? In the Season 12 finale of Hotel Bar Sessions , we take a deep dive into Michel Foucault’s late lectures on parrhesia , the ancient Greek concept of "fearless speech." But don’t be fooled—this isn’t a dusty historical exercise. With campuses erupting in protest, free speech weaponized by the powerful, and truth-tellers increasingly under threa...

Do universals “exist”? Are they real? And why are we talking about porcupines so much?! In this episode, Leigh, Rick, and Devonya dive headfirst into one of philosophy’s oldest and knottiest questions: Is “porcupine-ness” a real thing, or just a name we slap on pointy animals? Starting with the simple question of what makes a beer a beer (and not a Long Island iced tea), this wide-ranging conversa...

Can democracy be saved from totalitarianism?  In this episode, the co-hosts are joined by political theorist Dr. Peg Birmingham (DePaul University) for an urgent discussion on the topic of totalitarianism. Starting with a critique of what counts as “the people” in democratic systems, our conversation unpacks the entanglement of nationalism and racism, the dangerous erosion of the rule of law, and...

Carlos Amador on Latin American aesthetics, precarity, and what it means to be completely f*cked. In this episode, the HBS crew welcomes Carlos Amador —Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature at the University at Buffalo SUNY—for a raw and wide-ranging conversation about lo jodido : the aesthetic, political, and material condition of being well and trul...

This week, we're pulling up a seat at the intersection of faith, governance, and democracy as we take on the Establishment Clause—that little First Amendment provision that’s supposed to keep church and state in their own lanes. But is that how it’s really playing out? Leigh, Rick, and Devonya dig into the history and contemporary implications of the separation of church and state, from school pra...

Who's afraid of DEI? And why? Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives have become institutional mainstays in corporate and academic settings—but they are currently under attack. In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , Leigh and Devonya sit down with Freedom Rider and retired Associate Professor of History at Boston College, Paul Breines , to reflect on the evolution of s...

When does decorum keep us civil-- and when does it keep us silent? From courtroom etiquette to the Oval Office, from department meetings to NFL sidelines, decorum shapes our public interactions—but who gets to decide what counts as “proper” behavior? In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , Rick, Leigh, and Devonya take on the contested role of decorum in social and political life. Is it a necessar...

Who gets to decide who we are? In this episode, Rick Lee and Devonya Havis pull up a chair with philosopher and political theorist Falguni Sheth to talk about the ways identity is shaped, claimed, and—more often than not—forced upon us. From census categories and legal definitions to personal choices and political struggles, they dig into the tensions between how we see ourselves and how we’re see...

When nothing is clear, how do we decide? Many people prefer their morality to be straightforward—right or wrong, good or bad, clear as day. But more often than not, human life is a mess of contradictions, competing values, and gray areas. In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , Rick, Leigh, and Devonya wade into the murky waters of ambiguity—what it means, how we experience it, and why we’re often...

Can anyone be trusted anymore? Trust is the glue that holds our social world together, yet it’s one of the most fragile bonds we have. In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , Rick, Leigh, and Devonya dive into the complexities of trust—what it means, how it functions, and why it’s so easy to break but so difficult to restore. From everyday acts of trust, like believing the grocery store clerk’s na...

Who gets to judge right and wrong? And on what grounds? In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions , Leigh, Rick, and Devonya talk about judgment —what it is, when we need it, and whether it’s a skill or just a faculty of reason. They start with Aristotle’s distinction between knowledge and judgment, move through Kant’s ideas about moral and aesthetic judgment, and consider how judgment functions in et...

How, and for what, are we responsible? What does it even mean to be responsible? Is it about blame? Credit? Or something else entirely?  Leigh, Devonya, and Rick hash it out over drinks, tackling everything from personal accountability to collective responsibility, and digging into big questions about freedom, moral agency, and how our social and political systems shape what we’re capable of doing...

Is ChatGPT usurping the authority of the "Author"? Or is it just a pretender to the throne? We're opening up the question of "authority" to extend well beyond the usual suspects of kings, generals, or politicians. To borrow a line from Tennyson's poetry: “authority forgets the dying King.” That is, power begins to slip from the grasp of political authorities as they weaken, as respect for and obed...

The HBS co-hosts savor the complexities of a dish best served cold. Is revenge ever ethical? Can it be a form of justice, or is it always about personal satisfaction? In this episode, Rick Lee, Leigh Johnson, and Devonya Havis take a deep dive into the philosophy of revenge. From the timeless allure of stories like Kill Bill and The Count of Monte Cristo to the rise of cancel culture and online ha...