PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy

The Pill Pod is off this week for mental recuperation, so please enjoy this unlock of one of our episodes from back in the summer: a 5 course, two-hour-long discussion of Nietzsche, his significance to 20th century philosophy, our interpretations, and finally, the DANGER of his thought.   For more good theory video and audio content, join the Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills    

This is the first Pill Pod & Plasticpills co-release on the philosophy, cultural significance, and reception of Slavoj Zizek. Check out the video at www.youtube.com/c/plasticpills .   Keep up with us on twitter! @plasticpills @mattpolprof @t8erik @victorbruzzone Join the Patreon for more theory audio and video content www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Today we discuss the pervasive pastiche and corny conservatism of all our favourite nerd culture products (but not Star Wars 'cause it sucks ass). Find the full episode and our other content on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Is the sky falling? The Pill Pod (@mattpolprof, @Victorbruzzone, @t8erik, @plasticpills) take down this top shelf topical episode considering CRISES: of capitalism, of the spectacle, of meaning and of ecology. Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on all our exclusive episodes.

Join us for a relaxed topical episode discussing some of our local news, as well as the shifting place of "News" in the new media ecology, including its phenomenological effects on the embodied mind. We drop some Benjamin, McLuhan, and Merleau-Ponty, but this really serves as our collective detox of the last month or so. Chill vibes.        

Here is a preview of our second episode in the series on Cybernetics & Systems Theory, the rest of which will be up on the Patreon www.patreon.com/plasticpills. Otherwise, check back later in the week for more free content! Here's the main book link: https://amzn.to/3kldF1V

Here's a new experiment! Pill Pod's Victor (@victorbruzzone) meets up with Michelle Charette (@michgenevievec) to co-host this interview with Professor Meredith Schwartz. They talk COVID and applied ethical philosophy.   For more, check out Meredith's book The Ethics of Pandemics ( https://amzn.to/34ODXoK )

We asked our patrons to give us a topic this week, and they were thirsty for this Derrida hottie. Catch the full episode up on our Patreon, https://patreon.com/plasticpills

Pure theory. Join @plasticpills and @t8erik for an introduction to cybernetics and systems theory. Politics has tired us out so we are retreating to the high bastions of abstract thought--where we feel safe. The rest of this series, including the concepts of autopoiesis, feedback, and the perturbations of social media on our collective unconscious, will emerge on our Patreon soon at https://www.pa...

The Pill Pod gets schooled by Jacobin associate editor, Shawn Gude on American socialism past and present. We talk intra-left spats, whether theorists have a purpose, and the urban/rural divide in the history of American and Canadian organized labour. Find Shawn's work here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/shawn-gude   More of our various creations at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Today we are #blessed by the presence of OG Deleuze scholar and translator Charles Stivale, who is descending to impart his wisdom on Deleuze and "The Deleuze Seminars." The translated transcripts of these rare audio recordings offer an indispensable resource into the collaborative environment which spawned Deleuze (and Guattari's) works, and will certainly help both new and experienced readers ge...

Hey ya'll. Join us for a tour de Mark Fisher, as we read "Exiting the Vampire Castle" as well as  Tankies' comments on Matt's article on liberal socialism. Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to dose up on this and future exclusive episodes. Articles: Vampire Castle: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle Matt's article, "Socialist Don't Want to Destroy Liberali...

Victor (@victorbruzzone) and Matt (@mattpolprof) grill Igor (@ishoikhedbrod) on his bold new book, Revisiting Marx's Critique of Liberalism, which argues that liberal notions of justice and right are not only not inimical to Marx's political vision, but are necessary shared foundations for a Marxist project (it is said that tankies everywhere wept on the eve of its publication).   Get the book or...

Returning to the Frankfurt School, the Pill Pod (@mattpolprof, @t8erik, @plasticpills) + guest SHALON, figure out a plan for using a few small Neo-Marxist books to stop the tsunami of popular music, film, art, and news. No problem! Find Shalon's blog and site at: https://www.shalonvantine.com/secondasfarce . Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on exclusive ep...

The Pill Pod is joined by Professor Ronald Beiner, author of Dangerous Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Return of the Far Right (Link: https://amzn.to/33JC7DR ). According to Beiner, the intellectual left has too uncritically accepted Nietzsche and Heidegger, who are extolled by modern fascists, and thus we are compelled to engage more rigorously with their illiberal philosophies.   Check out...

Pour a coffee, or something stronger, because this is a special one: a 5 course, two-hour-long discussion of Nietzsche, his significance to 20th century philosophy, our interpretations, and finally, the DANGER of his thought. Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on this and future episodes.

It's a political philosophy hour with @MattPolProf and @Victorbruzzone, who offer a leftist reading of John Rawls' concept of justice, and how it might be deployed in the organization of more equitable societies.   Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on this and future episodes.

Chris is back with Plastic Pills to talk about ontology and metaphysics, contrasting the "major philosophy" of substance metaphysics with the "minor philosophy" of process metaphysics and its significance to Deleuze and his canon of philosophy. Galaxy Brain.   Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on this and future episodes.

It's Culture War Day as the Pill Pod suits up to read the second worst take on Marxism ever, evidently served up to quell the debilitating anxiety of both conservative boomers and very-high-IQ 20-year-olds. From Quillette we read "The Challenge of Marxism" ( https://quillette.com/2020/08/16/the-challenge-of-marxism/ ), which is at least as erroneous as it is popular.   Check out www.patreon.com/pl...

If you've heard of Kojeve, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Althusser, Lacan, or Zizek, you have heard some version of the dialectic of recognition. No surprise, it originates with Hegel. We have Borna back with us again to guide us through the Phenomenology of Spirit and beyond.   Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on this and future episodes.   Hegel's Phenomenology...

Our colleague BORNA joins @mattpolprof, @t8erik, @plasticpills to attempt the impossible: explain Hegel's politics of the State. Is Hegel the bad Walmart of philosophy? Or may his ethics yet have emancipatory potential for left-minded thought? We sometimes offer definitive answers and even evidence in accordance with the historical development of our freedom. Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills...

@Plasticpills, Matt McManus, Erik, and Marion offer a rundown of what we consider the most important concepts of Foucault's thought and doubles as an introduction if you're rusty.    Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on this and future episodes.    

@Mattpolprof, @plasticpills, @victorbruzzone, @t8erik and guest, Marion, take an open approach to understand two words: State and Power. We pretty much end up just discussing Foucault for an hour and half.   Check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to support the Pill Pod and dose up on all future episodes.  

The party (@Mattpolprof, @plasticpills, and @victorbruzzone) discusses the fearsome cancel culture, the opposition fantasies of wokists and anti-wokists, and have a first read of the literati's Harper's letter.  Check out Patreon to support the Pill Pod and dose up on all future episodes  

PlasticPills and Chris sit down with Ian Buchanan, founder and editor-in-chief of the Deleuze and Guattari Studies Journal. In Part 2 we discuss the work of Deleuze and Guattari's notion "deterritorialization" with respect to racism, their concept of 'The Refrain' from Thousand Plateaus, and Ian stokes some philosophy drama between Deleuze, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek. Oh yea and we talk about...