The Fundamentalists

In this weeks episode, the boys use Instagram, Second Life and Deepfakes to explore the notion of subjectivity. Is there a substantive self, what is that self, and are we all, at the end of the day NPCs?

In light of Elliott's recent engagement, the boys celebrate the news and tackle the issue of marriage. In this episode they talk about how to tame sexuality, move from desire to love and fail productively in relationships.

Fantasies are a central part of our lives, but what are they, why do we have them and what function to they play? This week the boys look at fantasy and how fantasies connect with ideology, loss, depression and objects of desire. 

What is madness? This week we jump into the issue of what a psychotic delusion actually is and what it has to do with lobsters.

This week Elliott gets to talk about his favorite band - Weezer. During the conversation we touch on a number of themes including Death of the Author, the difference between the Jungian and Freudian unconscious and how to turn the water blue in your toilet.

This week we offer a friendly, philosophic-ish take on the battle that recently erupted between r/WallStreetBets and Wall Street. In the chat, Peter refers to a speech that you can hear by clicking this link https://youtu.be/-OP5OLBauCg

Some of us feel a too-muchness in our lives. A sense that there is something excessive in our experience that we must try to get rid of. In short, the feeling that we need an exorcism. This week Peter and Elliott talk about this experience and how it manifests in the contemporary world. Along the way, they veer into the territory of politics by exploring the social meaning of the Real and Ideology...

This week Peter and Elliott sit down to discuss their respective thoughts on what's happening in the US with the most recent unrest in Washington DC. Along the way they touch on the Northern Irish Troubles, Repression and the Politics of Difference.

What is the relationship between thought and reality? Can we know anything? Is truth possible? Or is everything we believe simply a product of our environment. Join Pete and Elliott as explore the scope and limitations of knowledge. 

Is lasting happiness possible? Perhaps. But at what cost? This week the boys jump into the distinction that is made in psychoanalysis between happiness and desire. Happiness being a position that lacks the courage to grasp desire. Along the way Peter's interest in Hegel and Elliott's belief in aliens briefly meet in the idea of Hegaliens.

Is it the end of the world, or the end of our world? This week the boys explore the hidden messages that exist in people's anxiety about the apocalypse and alien invasion.

Freud called dreams the 'royal road to the unconscious'. In other words, your seemingly bizarre and random night-time visions can offer a unique insight into the forces that drive us. In this episode, Peter and Elliott talk about how we might go about deciphering these secret messages that we send to ourselves.

This week Pete and Elliott talk about The New Normal, Hegel’s Bad Infinity, The Vow, Unproductive Therapy, and how to work out whether Trump or Biden will win.

This week the boys dissect the nature of success and who we’re trying to be successful for. This episode is all about desire... other people's desire.

This week the boys talk about freedom, stoicism, neurosis, and the mysterious Big Other.

This week the boys explore why we often try to surround ourselves with people who think like us, and discuss the idea that our real fear of others isn’t to do with them being different from us, but rather that they might expose our own difference to ourselves.

This week The Fundamentalists take on the philosophical notion of The Gaze and use it to help analyze the fundamental conflict that exists between the Republican and Democratic experiences of the world.

Today the boys talk about something they’ve been said to be experts in… Ignorance. Along the way, they talk about the difference between standard ignorance, willful ignorance, and learned ignorance.

Hot on the heels of last week's discussion of Socialism, Peter and Elliott tackle another increasingly used political term... Fascism. Looking at it in its political, philosophical, and psychological dimensions, they aim to give a broad definition of the term as something more substantive than ‘someone I don’t like’.

Who’s Afraid of Socialism? The word ‘Socialism’ is being used a lot these days, so this week we discuss what it actually means. Along the way we talk about Marxism, Capitalism and the End of History

What is the Oedipus Complex, what’s it got to do with satisfaction and do we really want to sleep with our mothers? These, and other questions you’ve never asked, are explored on this episode.

A very common problem people face is bringing love and desire together. Too often we can love one person and desire another. In this episode Peter and Elliott discuss romance as the art of weaving these two dimensions together.

What is sacrifice, why do you need it in your life and what has it got to do with quantum mechanics? Pete and Elliott explore the relationship between destruction and meaning, look at the nature of commitment and answer the question, ‘what does the miser lose when they lose their treasure’.

The boys are back! After a few months of hibernation, Pete and Elliott promise to return, and give an outline of what you can expect. As well as some brief conversation about dreams.

What does it mean to be an individual, does the public exist, and why does Peter watch Person of Interest? These questions, and more, are answered in today’s Fundamentalists.