Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Continental philosophy • Psychoanalytic theory • Cultural phenomena • Film analysis • Political implications • Hegel and Marx • Freud • Modern media • Literary and artistic critique • Society and ideologyThis podcast, titled "Why Theory," explores the intersection of continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory as tools for dissecting cultural phenomena. The discussions are primarily led by hosts Ryan and Todd, who delve into a wide array of philosophical texts and concepts, using them as a lens to examine cultural, political, and social issues.
The podcast's episodes frequently focus on in-depth analyses of significant philosophical and psychoanalytic works. Discussions range from classic thinkers like Immanuel Kant, Hegel, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Marx to contemporary theorists like Slavoj Žižek and Fredric Jameson. Through these discussions, the podcast draws connections between historical theories and their relevance or application to modern dilemmas, particularly within political or cultural contexts.
Specific topics include examinations of genres and narrative forms in film and television, delving into themes within horror, musicals, and sports films, as well as concepts like envy and common sense. The podcast also covers more abstract philosophical concepts like symbolic castration, the symptom, and dialectical reversal, often grounding these discussions in contemporary cultural artifacts or political scenarios.
A recurring focus on psychoanalytic themes, such as narcissism, group psychology, and the notion of the drive, highlights the hosts' interest in the complex dynamics of human behavior and perception. Additionally, the podcast often critiques and engages with current political issues, using theory as a framework to explore and challenge existing ideologies. By blending philosophical rigor with cultural critique, "Why Theory" offers a rich tapestry of discussion aimed at understanding the underlying structures and theories that inform both personal psyche and the broader social order.
| Episodes: |
Voice2025-Oct-26 72 minutes |
Gaze2025-Oct-12 83 minutes |
Robert Redford2025-Sep-28 101 minutes |
The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte2025-Sep-15 75 minutes |
1844 Manuscripts2025-Sep-01 77 minutes |
The End of History2025-Aug-17 73 minutes |
Top Ten TV Series of the 21st Century2025-Aug-04 111 minutes |
Top Ten Films of the 21st Century2025-Jul-20 106 minutes |
The Musical2025-Jul-07 87 minutes |
Common Sense2025-Jun-22 75 minutes |
On Narcissism2025-Jun-08 79 minutes |
Group Psychology2025-May-26 74 minutes |
Racecraft2025-May-11 73 minutes |
A.I.2025-Apr-28 81 minutes |
Slavoj Žižek: An Overview2025-Apr-13 79 minutes |
Euphemism2025-Mar-30 71 minutes |
The Symptom2025-Mar-16 75 minutes |
The Public2025-Mar-03 83 minutes |
Embracing the Void2025-Feb-17 75 minutes |
Seminar 162025-Feb-02 82 minutes |
David Lynch2025-Jan-20 101 minutes |
Seminar X: Anxiety2025-Jan-05 78 minutes |
Lesbian Christmas2024-Dec-20 95 minutes |
Hegelian Praxis2024-Dec-08 77 minutes |
The Beautiful Soul2024-Nov-25 73 minutes |
Hegel & Feminism2024-Nov-11 77 minutes |
Aufhebung (Sublation)2024-Oct-26 74 minutes |
Contemporary Horror2024-Oct-14 107 minutes |
Fredric Jameson2024-Sep-29 74 minutes |
Horror Film2024-Sep-16 89 minutes |
Heist Film2024-Sep-02 92 minutes |
Sports Film2024-Aug-18 101 minutes |
New Introductory Lectures2024-Aug-04 82 minutes |
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis2024-Jul-22 79 minutes |
Suture2024-Jul-09 73 minutes |
Extimacy2024-Jun-23 73 minutes |
Prequel2024-Jun-11 74 minutes |
Modernist Novel2024-May-27 77 minutes |
Endings2024-May-11 85 minutes |
Parallax View2024-Apr-28 72 minutes |
Seminar 112024-Apr-13 86 minutes |
Seminar 72024-Mar-30 88 minutes |
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Introduction2024-Mar-16 78 minutes |
Blue Velvet2024-Mar-03 79 minutes |
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Preface2024-Feb-18 80 minutes |
Symbolic Castration2024-Feb-05 91 minutes |
Dialectical Reversal2024-Jan-22 75 minutes |
Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations2024-Jan-08 70 minutes |
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus2023-Dec-24 85 minutes |
1980s Christmas2023-Dec-12 82 minutes |
Discourse on Method2023-Nov-26 68 minutes |
Envy2023-Nov-13 72 minutes |
Science Fiction Cinema2023-Nov-02 95 minutes |
Monadology2023-Oct-12 78 minutes |
The Prince2023-Oct-01 74 minutes |
Surplus Enjoyment2023-Sep-16 76 minutes |
Surplus Value2023-Sep-02 78 minutes |
Oppenheimer2023-Aug-19 81 minutes |
Barbie2023-Aug-05 90 minutes |
Creative Writers & Daydreaming2023-Jul-22 79 minutes |
Uncanny2023-Jul-10 74 minutes |
Poststructuralism2023-Jun-24 77 minutes |
Tribute to Mari Ruti2023-Jun-12 71 minutes |
Succession2023-May-29 84 minutes |
Bottle Episode2023-May-28 83 minutes |
Beyond Good and Evil2023-May-15 76 minutes |
The Racist Fantasy2023-Apr-30 74 minutes |
Twitter2023-Apr-16 73 minutes |
The Radical Western2023-Mar-31 95 minutes |
Western2023-Mar-18 90 minutes |
Critique of Dialectical Reason2023-Mar-05 87 minutes |
Analysis Terminable & Interminable2023-Feb-18 80 minutes |
Negation2023-Feb-05 76 minutes |
Being and Nothingness Side B2023-Jan-23 80 minutes |
Being and Nothingness Side A2023-Jan-08 80 minutes |
Misfit Christmas2022-Dec-21 79 minutes |
Debt2022-Dec-10 72 minutes |
Enjoyment Right & Left2022-Nov-26 82 minutes |
Technology2022-Nov-12 79 minutes |
Love2022-Oct-29 91 minutes |
Badiou2022-Oct-15 73 minutes |
Event2022-Oct-02 77 minutes |
Neurosis2022-Sep-17 81 minutes |
Hegel's Absolute Knowing2022-Sep-04 80 minutes |
Hegel's Religion2022-Aug-20 76 minutes |
Screwball Comedy2022-Aug-06 87 minutes |
Mourning and Melancholia2022-Jul-23 87 minutes |
Wild Psychoanalysis2022-Jul-09 80 minutes |
Abortion Theory2022-Jun-25 80 minutes |
Quilting Point2022-Jun-11 82 minutes |
Seminar 32022-May-29 84 minutes |
Hamlet2022-May-14 91 minutes |
Streaming2022-May-01 75 minutes |
The Woman Doesn't Exist (Aphorism 8)2022-Apr-17 72 minutes |
Film Noir2022-Apr-03 81 minutes |
Dualism & Multiplicity2022-Mar-19 75 minutes |
Mystic Writing Pad2022-Mar-06 74 minutes |
Beyond the Pleasure Principle2022-Feb-20 71 minutes |
Superhero Film2022-Feb-07 74 minutes |
Hegel's Spirit2022-Jan-22 80 minutes |
Metalanguage (Aphorism 7)2022-Jan-08 77 minutes |
The Christmas Film2021-Dec-23 78 minutes |
Casablanca2021-Dec-12 81 minutes |
Retroactivity2021-Nov-27 74 minutes |
Id2021-Nov-14 75 minutes |
Ego2021-Oct-31 71 minutes |
Superego2021-Oct-17 79 minutes |
Dialectic of Enlightenment2021-Oct-03 76 minutes |
Introduction to Biopower2021-Sep-19 78 minutes |
Heidegger and Hegel2021-Sep-05 74 minutes |
Breaking Bad2021-Aug-22 79 minutes |
Twin Peaks The Return2021-Aug-09 93 minutes |
Four Discourses2021-Jul-25 77 minutes |
Read My Desire, Pt. 3: Sex, Difference, Relation2021-Jul-12 101 minutes |
Read My Desire, Pt. 2: Democracy, Anxiety, Film Noir2021-Jun-27 87 minutes |
Graduate School2021-Jun-27 92 minutes |
Read My Desire, Pt. 1: Gaze and Excess2021-Jun-13 78 minutes |
Sublime Object of Ideology2021-May-30 83 minutes |
Alexandre Kojeve2021-May-17 84 minutes |
Psychoanalysis & Narrative2021-May-02 78 minutes |
Alienation2021-Apr-18 69 minutes |
Hegel's Reason2021-Apr-04 81 minutes |
Feminism & Psychoanalysis with Mari Ruti2021-Mar-21 79 minutes |
Screen Memories2021-Mar-07 72 minutes |
Civilization and Its Discontents2021-Feb-22 86 minutes |
Jouissance2021-Feb-06 80 minutes |
Lacan's Seminar 22021-Jan-24 93 minutes |
Domestic Terrorism2021-Jan-10 78 minutes |
Tenet2021-Jan-02 78 minutes |
Popular Music2020-Dec-21 93 minutes |
German Idealism2020-Dec-09 92 minutes |
Hegel's Self-Consciousness2020-Nov-24 75 minutes |
Election Special2020-Nov-08 71 minutes |
Deleuze after Guattari2020-Nov-02 91 minutes |
Deleuze Before Guattari2020-Oct-19 78 minutes |
Deleuze with Guattari2020-Oct-05 99 minutes |
Imaginary2020-Sep-20 73 minutes |
Symbolic Order2020-Sep-06 77 minutes |
The Real2020-Aug-23 74 minutes |
Lacan's Seminar 12020-Aug-09 78 minutes |
Aura2020-Jul-26 77 minutes |
Competing Universalities2020-Jul-14 81 minutes |
Interpassivity2020-Jun-28 77 minutes |
Big Other (Aphorism 6)2020-Jun-14 74 minutes |
Capitalism & Racism2020-Jun-03 69 minutes |
Hegel's Consciousness2020-May-23 73 minutes |
Oedipus Complex2020-May-09 75 minutes |
Missing Signifier2020-Apr-24 71 minutes |
Zaddy Fascism2020-Apr-18 69 minutes |
Penis Envy2020-Apr-04 70 minutes |
Coronavirus and Its Discontents2020-Mar-21 77 minutes |
Unconscious (Aphorism 5)2020-Mar-11 74 minutes |
Kant and Freedom2020-Feb-23 80 minutes |
Mirror Stage2020-Feb-08 85 minutes |
New Materialisms2020-Jan-23 74 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Aesthetics2020-Jan-08 79 minutes |
objet a2019-Dec-24 97 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Existentialism2019-Dec-07 77 minutes |
Hegel and Race2019-Nov-18 72 minutes |
Defending Freud (side B)2019-Nov-07 71 minutes |
Defending Freud (side A)2019-Oct-23 71 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Capitalism2019-Oct-09 75 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Disability2019-Sep-20 75 minutes |
Mad Men2019-Sep-01 84 minutes |
Incels, Misogyny, and Castration2019-Aug-14 81 minutes |
Signifier Vs. Sign (Aphorism 4)2019-Jul-30 87 minutes |
Contradiction2019-Jul-08 83 minutes |
An Afternoon with Slavoj Zizek -- Hegel2019-Jun-24 98 minutes |
An Afternoon with Slavoj Zizek -- Lacan2019-Jun-10 82 minutes |
An Afternoon with Slavoj Zizek -- Marx2019-May-29 81 minutes |
Immediacy2019-May-14 70 minutes |
A Signifier for the Left2019-May-07 76 minutes |
Us2019-Apr-20 83 minutes |
Cynicism (Aphorism 3)2019-Apr-05 69 minutes |
Conspiracy Theories2019-Mar-21 76 minutes |
Sexuation (Aphorism 2)2019-Mar-04 70 minutes |
Ethics of Psychoanalysis (Aphorism 1)2019-Feb-10 74 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Racism2019-Jan-26 74 minutes |
Preface to Hegel's Phenomenology2019-Jan-08 74 minutes |
Secular Morality2018-Dec-30 71 minutes |
Theoretically Christmas (side B)2018-Dec-16 74 minutes |
Theoretically Christmas (side A)2018-Dec-12 73 minutes |
(Neo)liberalism2018-Nov-21 77 minutes |
Das Ding2018-Nov-12 70 minutes |
Rupture2018-Oct-29 81 minutes |
Surveillance, Punishment, Crime2018-Oct-12 72 minutes |
Dialectics2018-Oct-05 65 minutes |
Desire & Drive2018-Sep-15 62 minutes |
Political Enjoyment2018-Aug-31 66 minutes |
Master Signifier2018-Aug-16 66 minutes |
The Universal and The Particular2018-Jul-27 56 minutes |
Where to Start 3: Heidegger, Badiou, Agamben, Butler, Derrida2018-Jul-14 63 minutes |
Sports: Ideology, Enjoyment, Contradiction2018-Jun-17 58 minutes |
Where to Start 2: Hegel, Marx, Fanon, Deleuze, Foucault2018-May-18 68 minutes |
Where to Start 1: The Psychoanalytic Theorists2018-May-09 88 minutes |
CGI, Anxiety, The Last Jedi2018-Apr-19 74 minutes |
The Oscars in 2018 and Beyond2018-Feb-28 71 minutes |
Ideology2018-Feb-01 62 minutes |
Seriality2018-Jan-09 65 minutes |
Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be2017-Dec-26 55 minutes |
Fake News2017-Dec-05 56 minutes |
LACK 2017: Social Tie, Universality, Plus, Arrival2017-Nov-11 73 minutes |
Blade Runner 20492017-Oct-23 83 minutes |
Theories of Comedy2017-Oct-23 67 minutes |