Can philosophy produce unique insight into art and aesthetic experience? Dave takes up this question, and a number of others, in conversation with Russell Duvernoy, Associate Professor of Philosophy at King’s University College in London, Ontario. Russell and Dave discuss stuffed childhood companions, the great lakes region, their respective journeys in academic philosophy, prehistoric cave art, the relationship between philosophy and visual art, aesthetic feeling, Kantian universalism, trans-species sensation, Zen Buddhism, the art of dying well, and more.

Russell’s recommendations:

Tren Brothers, “Blue Trees”

Shinmon Aoki, “Coffinman: Journal of a Buddhist Mortician”

David Lynch, “Lost Highway”

Russell’s Profile

Are philosophy and literature really so different? Dave takes on this question, and a number of others, with the help of German literature scholar and visiting assistant professor of German studies at Whitman College, Rob Mottram. Rob and Dave cover the possibility of tossing out the philosophy/literature distinction altogether, the history and magical power of the novel, the relationship between philosophy and religion, the art of wearing the same clothing for many years, and Rob’s approach to reading as a way of thinking other people’s thoughts.

Rob’s recommendations:

Gustav Mahler’s 9th Symphony

Apocalypse Now

Adalbert Stifter’s Limestone

Dave sits down for an extended conversation with Berlin-based American-Hungarian filmmaker and critic Miranda Siegel. Miranda and Dave discuss Miranda’s autobiographical documentary film (“Ignore Your True Feelings at Your Own Peril”), their common experiences with bipolar disorder, and, among other topics, the psycho-sexual power of stockings, illustrated by a curious anecdote from Miranda’s life.

—

Miranda’s recommandations:

Zack McDermott, Gorilla and the Bird

Todd Solondz, Palindromes

Doe Paoro, Divine Surrendering

Miranda’s Film

Dave sits down with Australian environmental activist and social organizer Andrew George. Andrew recounts his experience preparing for the cyclone then on his doorstep, and he and Dave use this as a jumping off point to examine questions about the human/nature relationship, the global climate and extinction crises, settler-colonialist land-use paradigms, the future of democratic organizing, and the masturbatory destructiveness of mother earth.

—

Andrew’s recommandations:

Kneecap

New Experiences

—

Become a deadbeat philosopher, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life—from a former professor, future skeleton.

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Hildegard von Bingen, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Franklin, Rousseau, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, Douglass, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Kafka, Leopold, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Sellars, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, domestic and international politics, institutional analysis, education, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, climate, and extinction, race, gender, and the politics of race and gender, racism, colonialism, sexism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, nationalism, stoicism, daoism, confucianism, buddhism, pragmatism, feminism, rationalism, German idealism, romanticism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, modernism, postmodernism, phenomenology, critical theory, deconstruction, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart

Deadbeat headquarters

Dave sits down with mycologist, microbial biologist, and soil ecologist Dan Thomas. Dave and Dan chat about their experiences as expatriate Americans stranded in Germany, Dan’s research in the Fichtelgebirge woodlands outside of Bayreuth, the fungal microbiomes we live with and as everyday, Dan’s experiences working in and advocating for the Los Cedros Forest Reserve in Ecuador, the concept of non-human personhood, and, last but not least, the ecological importance of cycles of death and life.

—

Dan’s recommandations:

The Dawn of Everything

Earl Scruggs

Entangled Life

Dan’s webpage

—

Become a deadbeat philosopher, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life—from a former professor, future skeleton.

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Hildegard von Bingen, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Franklin, Rousseau, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, Douglass, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Kafka, Leopold, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Sellars, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, domestic and international politics, institutional analysis, education, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, climate, and extinction, race, gender, and the politics of race and gender, racism, colonialism, sexism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, nationalism, stoicism, daoism, confucianism, buddhism, pragmatism, feminism, rationalism, German idealism, romanticism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, modernism, postmodernism, phenomenology, critical theory, deconstruction, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart

Deadbeat headquarters

Dave sits down with marketing writer, air force veteran, and medieval history aficionado Ross Heintzkill. Dave and Ross talk about institutions and bureaucracy—the good and the bad, in the US and in Germany. They chat about the US founding fathers (especially Hamilton), the value of reading primary historical texts, the 4th Crusade (1202–1204), and about Ross’s relationship to death, as a veteran, a partner, a dog-papa, and a human being.

--

Ross’s recommendations:

Jonathan Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople

Project Hail Mary

Severance

Terms of Enlistment

Ross’s webpage

--

Become a deadbeat philosopher, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life—from a former professor, future skeleton.

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Hildegard von Bingen, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Franklin, Rousseau, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, Douglass, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Kafka, Leopold, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Sellars, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, domestic and international politics, institutional analysis, education, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, climate, and extinction, race, gender, and the politics of race and gender, racism, colonialism, sexism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, nationalism, stoicism, daoism, confucianism, buddhism, pragmatism, feminism, rationalism, German idealism, romanticism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, modernism, postmodernism, phenomenology, critical theory, deconstruction, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart

Deadbeat headquarters

Dave sits down with fellow philosopher, academic adviser, and long-time friend and research-collaborator, Lauren Eichler. Dave and Lauren talk about their winding journeys majoring in philosophy and advising students potentially interested in doing the same. They also talk about Lauren’s body of research on and personal connection to genocide, dehumanization, and the holocaust. 

Lauren’s recommendations:

The Good Place

Maquia

Aniara

Lauren and Dave’s co-authored articles

Lauren’s webpage

—

Become a deadbeat philosopher, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life—from a former professor, future skeleton.

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Hildegard von Bingen, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Franklin, Rousseau, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, Douglass, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Kafka, Leopold, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Sellars, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, domestic and international politics, institutional analysis, education, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, climate, and extinction, race, gender, and the politics of race and gender, racism, colonialism, sexism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, nationalism, stoicism, daoism, confucianism, buddhism, pragmatism, feminism, rationalism, German idealism, romanticism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, modernism, postmodernism, phenomenology, critical theory, deconstruction, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart

Deadbeat headquarters

Dave gives you a nutshell introduction to the Deadbeat Philosophy multi-verse, then has a chat about asteroid destruction and anthropocentrism with Montreal-based political scientist Thibaud Henin.

Thibaud's webpage: https://www.henin.net/thibaud-henin

Become a deadbeat, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life. 

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion video. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Montaigne, Descartes, Hobbes, Rousseau, Franklin, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Douglass, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud, Beauvoir, Fanon, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, political critique, institutional analysis, education, politics, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, and climate, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart: https://hegel-haus.de

Deadbeat headquarters: https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

#PhilosophyPodcast #Ethics #PostAcademic #BooksAndMusic #Philosophy

Chris Anderson is a Roman Catholic theologian, high school theology and philosophy teacher, college instructor, and pastoral minister based in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Chris was a student of Dave’s during their overlapping time at Seton Hill University, and in this conversation the two revisit and expand upon themes they had first discussed years prior, including the relationship between philosophy and theology, the value of a liberal arts education, Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, the phenomenological and narrative richness of Augustine’s Confessions, and existentialism from Heidegger to Beauvoir.

Along the way, Chris shares his reactions to the selection of an American (and Augustinian) pope, his approach to the concept of kenosis, his relationship to mortality in light of his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in early adulthood, his view of the relationship between AI and human mortality, and much more.

Chris’ Recommendations:

“Black Mirror” (TV Show)

Martin Heidegger, “Poetry, Language, Thought” (Book)

Sarah Bakewell, “At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails” (Book)

David Baumeister, “Kant on the Human Animal: Anthropology, Ethics, Race” (Book)

Thibaud Henin is a Canadian political scientist based at Concordia University in Montreal.

Dave and Thibaud chat about artificial intelligence from a variety of angles. They focus on algorithms and their interface with patterns of human and non-human behavior, thought, history, life, and physiology. They discuss the concept of AI agency, and of the creation within AI systems of delegated management, agency, and meta-agency roles. They debate the question of whether AI could in fact produce “truly innovative” poetry, art, or literature, or whether it might be condemned to an eternal repetition of wholly non-innovative cultural mush.

They touch on examples such as AI art, AI poetry, AI philosophy, AI lawyers, AI in the justice system, AI music, AI film, AI YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok channels. They touch on the nature of innovation and creative novelty itself, and question whether even human innovation is not simply a matter of random mutations occurring within otherwise fully-patterned natural iterations. They share experiences encountering AI in academia (from the position of professor and researcher) and as parents. They end on a note of skepticism regarding whether it can be ruled out that this podcast is itself a product of generative AI.

Thibaud's webpage

Thibaud’s Recommendations:

Stephen Hawking, “The Illustrated A Brief History of Time” (Book)

Jennifer Clapp, “Toxic Exports: The Transfer of Hazardous Wastes from Rich to Poor Countries” (Book)

Classic Punk Albums by Ramones, Sex Pistols, and NOFX (Albums)

Reverend Tasha Brownfield is a Pantheist, Unitarian Universalist chaplain, minister, and educator. Currently, Tasha serves as the outpatient oncology chaplain at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, senior minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Smithton, PA, and a professor of religious studies and philosophy at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA.

Tasha and Dave chat about Tasha’s life as a chaplain at one of the world’s largest and most cutting-edge hospitals, including accompanying patients and their families in transitions from life to death. They discuss the home Tasha has found in the Unitarian Universalist church and her experiences studying at Seton Hill University (where Dave and Tasha met) and at Yale divinity school (where Tasha’s uniquely open approach to ministry sparked several nationally covered scandals). They cover Tasha’s long-held commitment to and exploration of Pantheism and the Pantheistic worldview, her breakthrough drag-king performance-persona (Reverend Morningstar), and much more.

Tasha’s Linkedin Page

Reverend Morningstar on Instagram

Tasha’s Recommendations:

Yōko Ogawa, “The Memory Police” (Novel)

Jesse Welles, “Under the Power Lines” (Album)

Mary-Jane Rubenstein, “Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters” (Book)

Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” (Book)

Delores S. Williams, “Sisters in the Wilderness” (Book)

The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host, Dave Baumeister, and the guest, Rev. Tasha Brownfield, and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institutions, employers, or organizations associated with them.

Jim Martin is an American author, composer, musician, editor, photographer, and long-time Genesis fan living (like Dave) in Stuttgart Germany.

Jim and Dave chat about ex-pat identity, about Jim’s upbringing at a military school in the US, about the unpredictable multiplicity of the creative process, and about Jim’s musical theatrical directorial debut scheduled for later this year. They cover mortality, Alan Watts and Joseph Campbell, Zen Buddhism and Taoism, the slippery moral quandaries that emerge when one commits oneself to “going with the flow,” Irish poetry, Mrs. Dalloway, Genesis, Gustav Mahler, and more.

Tickets for Jim’s upcoming musical (“Die stumme Symphonie”), July 17–20, 2025 in Stuttgart

Jim’s Music Blog (with links to and stories about some of Jim’s favorite pieces of music)

Jim’s Recommendations:

John O'Donohue, “Eternal Echoes” (Book)

Virginia Woolf, “Mrs. Dalloway” (Novel)

David Myers, “Genesis on Piano” (Album/Performance)

Gustav Mahler, “Symphony No. 2” (Composition)

Gaea Schoeters, “Trophäe” (Novel)

Additional Recs:

Bill Moyers' interview series with Joseph Campbell

A summary of Campbell's teachings

Patrick Reinhardt is a book collector, publisher, illustrator, and self-defined “atavistic gentleman scholar.” Patrick and Dave chat about Patrick’s lifelong obsession with books, beginning with childhood readings of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, all the way to his running of an independent classic literature publishing outfit today.

They talk about developing an identity based around reading and designing books and the power of description, atmosphere, and plot in fantastic, speculative, and literary writing. They discuss Patrick’s “dayjob” working the night shift at the post office, the proverbial “midlife crisis,” and their shared affinity for objects and styles from bygone eras. Patrick also shares the story behind his upward-curling mustache and walks us through some of his favorite books and book series, including several that he has re-released himself.

Patrick’s publishing house: https://curiouser.house/

Patrick’s recommendations:

Hope Mirrlees, “Lud in the Mist” (Novel)

Jandek (Musician)

Mervyn Peake, “Gormengast” (Novel Series)

Joris-Karl Huysmans, “Against the Grain” (Novel)

Justin Hagge is an EMT-Firefighter on Lopez Island–one of the San Juan Islands in Washington State, USA, just below the US border with Canada. Justin was previously director of the Lopez Island Dump, and before that a high school social studies teacher in Denver, Colorado.

Justin and Dave chat about what it’s like to live on Lopez Island, which has a permanent population of just over 3000 people. Hint: it’s not always as quiet and cozy as you might think! They cover Justin’s transition from school teacher, to technical infrastructure support, to waste management, to emt, and now to emt-firefighter. 

They talk about life and death situations, acting under intense mental and physiological stress, and what it is like to be present as Justin’s patients (and fellow islanders) pass away into unhaltable death, as all are eventually slotted to do. They also discuss the fantasy and sci-fi novel genres (including the “Wheel of Time” series), German youth slang (“Hey, Fatty!”), the excessive waste produced by contemporary Americans, grindcore music, and much else besides.

Statement on Justin’s transition from the Lopez Dump to Lopez Fire and Emergency Medical Services.

Justin’s recommendations:

“The Waste Stream” (Upcoming 2025 Documentary)

James S.A. Corey, “The Expanse” (Book Series)

Trap Them, “Darker Handcraft” (Album)

Lucy Schultz is associate lecturer of philosophy and co-director of the environmental studies minor at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Lucy is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on, among other topics, environmental philosophy, modern Japanese philosophy, Hegel, aesthetics, phenomenology, climate change, and is the co-editor of the “Tetsugaku Companion to Nishida Kitaro” (2022).

Lucy and Dave chat about place and spatiality, modern Japanese philosophy, the notion of “eastern vs. western” philosophy, Tetsuro Watsuji’s work on the intersection between nature, climate, and culture, Martin Heidegger, René Descartes, G.W.F. Hegel’s philosophies of nature and history, the unhealthy relationship to death prevalent in mainstream culture today, the sixth mass extinction, climate grief, our responsibility towards future generations, and more.

Lucy’s Webpage

Lucy’s recommendations:

“Satoyama: Japan’s Secret Water Garden,” Part 1 and Part 2 (Documentary)

Andreas Malm, “How to Blow Up at Pipeline” (Book)

Daniel Goldhaber, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” (Film)

The War on Drugs, “A Deeper Understanding” (Album)

Aidan Beatty is a historian at Carnegie Mellon University and the current president of the American Conference for Irish Studies. Aidan is author of the books Masculinity and Power in Irish Nationalism, 1884-1938 (2016), Private Property and the Fear of Social Chaos (2023), and, most recently, The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism (2024).

Aidan and Dave chat about Irishness, ideology, whiteness, stereotypes, the history of private property, Marx & Engels, the Russian Revolution, Jewish history and identity, martyrdom, disciplinary divergences and overlaps between history and philosophy, and much else besides.

Aidan’s Webpage

Aidan’s recommendations:

Black Ox Orkestar, “Nisht Azoy” (Album)

R.I. Moore, “The Formation of a Persecuting Society” (Book)

Angela Bourke, “The Burning of Bridget Cleary” (Book)

Dave sits down with Eva Hoffmann for a chat about teaching philosophy at the high school level (something virtually non-existent in the US, but relatively common in Germany), post-academic cross-continental life, and the perils of navigating the death of a furry mammalian family companion. Eva holds a PhD in German Studies and teaches philosophy, among other subjects, at a high school (Gymnasium) in Bayreuth, Bavaria.

Eva’s recommendations:

Trampled by Turtles, “Wild Animals” (Album)

Anything by Margaret Atwood

Arundhati Roy, “The God of Small Things” (Novel)

Barbara Kingsolver, “Demon Copperhead” (Novel)

Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall” (Film)

While producing the podcast and creating bizarre philosophy-themed YouTube videos over the past months, Dave has also been working on three books in progress–“Animality and Finitude,” “On the Kanthropocene,” and “A Bipolar Manifesto.”

Parts of each book have been released on a rolling basis on the Deadbeat Philosophy homepage (deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com), and episodes 20, 21, and 22 of the podcast will feature readings of available sections of each.

In this episode, Dave reads the first six parts of “Animality and Finitude”:

1. Life is a Journey. Death is Where that Journey Ends

2. On the Animality of Cookie Monster, Grover, Elmo, and Oscar the Grouch

3. On the Question of Ethical Eating

4. Against Sustainability: Six Theses

5. The Paradox of the Easter Bunny

6. A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Paradoxical Medicine Go Down

With this episode, the Deadbeat Philosophy Podcast will shift to an every other week format–at least until the end of summer and the conclusion of all inglorious summer-related travel.

Thanks for tuning in, and until soon.

Ivo Martin is a philosopher, educator, and musician based in Stuttgart.

Dave and Ivo chat about the relative places of philosophy in the education and social systems of Germany and the USA, the (non?)relationship between studying philosophy and acting ethically, teaching philosophy to young children, the expectation of “neutrality” in the teaching of philosophy and politics, the value of anti-democratic philosophy in democratic states, the philosophical possibilities of rap music, spontaneity in music and thinking, the human/animal relation, anthropocentrism and the anthropocene, ecological nihilism, and more.

In the second half, Ivo shares his recently recorded rap (under his rap alias “Nautilus”) “Was ist der Mensch?” (“What is the Human?”), which Dave and Ivo unpack and discuss.

Hear “Was ist der Mensch?” again

Ivo’s Recommendations:

“Triangle of Sadness” (Film)

Otfried Preußler, “Krabat” (Novel)

“It Takes Two” (Video Game)

Brian is a poet and novelist based in Colorado, USA.

Dave and Brian chat about writing, relating (or not relating) to previous versions of oneself, mortality, grief, memory, identity, delusion, attachment, parenthood, marriage, divorce, loss, depression, solitude, nerds, my little ponies, and the philosopho-therapeutic value of literature and art.

They discuss in some detail early twentieth Japanese novels by Natsume Sōseki (“Kokoro”), Osamu Dazai (“No Longer Human”, and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (“Kappa”).

And along the way, Brian reads to us a number of his (really excellent) poems, which Dave and Brian unpack and discuss.

Brian’s Recommendations:

Natsume Sōseki, “Kokoro” (Novel)

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “Kappa” (Novella)

Conway Twitty, “That’s My Job” (Song)

In this first of two “year in review” episodes, Dave shares two of his favorite pieces from the past year–a pair of “philosophical smackdowns” featuring titans from the history of western philosophy. The first pits Plato against Immanuel Kant, the second Aristotle against Friedrich Nietzsche. Who will win out? Whose text should you gift to your mother on mother’s day? Watch to find out!

Featuring analyses of the following works:

Plato, Republic

Plato, Phaedo

Aristotle, Politics

Aristotle, Poetics

Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals

Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

Kristen Jakstis is a researcher at the Institute for Landscape Planning and Ecology at the University of Stuttgart. In this episode, recorded live at the Museum Hegel-Haus, Dave and Kristen explore the power of storytelling as a vehicle for optimism, critique, and experimentation in the midst of the unfolding global environmental crisis. They cover Kristen’s doctoral research in urban ecology, the contribution of the history of philosophy (and of Hobbes and Rousseau in particular) to how the human/nature relationship is framed today, and the need for a “Swabian Sasquatch.” They also open a window onto the interdisciplinary project they are co-leading this semester: “Stories for a Better Future: The Power of Myth in Philosophy, Urban Ecology and Politics.”

Kristen’s Recommendations:

Miles Richardson, “Reconnection: Fixing Our Broken Relationship with Nature” (Book): https://findingnature.org.uk/2023/04/25/reconnection/

Rob Hopkins, “From What Is to What If” (Book): https://www.robhopkins.net/2019/10/10/first-review-of-from-what-is-to-what-if/

Modest Mouse, “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” (Album): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_News_for_People_Who_Love_Bad_News

While producing the podcast and creating bizarre philosophy-themed YouTube videos over the past months, Dave has also been working on three books in progress–“Animality and Finitude,” “On the Kanthropocene,” and “A Bipolar Manifesto.”

Parts of each book have been released on a rolling basis on the Deadbeat Philosophy homepage (deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com), and episodes 20, 21, and 22 of the podcast will feature readings of available sections of each.

In this episode, Dave reads the first six parts of “On the Kanthropocene”:

1. Jack and the Beanstalk of Reason

2. With All Due Respect to Cephalopods

3. The Kanthropocene Is

4. The “Global Environmental Crisis”

5. The Kanthropocene and Us

6. Infanticidal Hominins in the Space of Reasons

Info about live podcast recording on 8.8.25

Andrew George is an Australian environmental activist and social organizer. Dave and Andrew chat about Andrew’s life on an uninsurable floodplain, the material weight and faux-permanence of urbanized consumer-capitalist existence, the peril and promise of social media and AI in our age of environmental crisis, Rousseau, Roger Hallam, and the dialectic of revolution and collapse shaping the (in)human future of planet earth.

Andrew’s newsletter (subscribe!)

Andrew’s Recommendations:

Rutger Bregman, “Humankind: A Hopeful History” (Book)

“KPop Demon Hunters” (Film)

Renata Rosa, “Zunido da Mata” (Album)

Jacob Barto is an expert in German literature and language, currently adjunct assistant professor of German at Bellevue College. In this Halloween-themed conversation, Dave and Jacob claw their way through a splattering of spooky classics from European literary history, encountering as they go child-seducing ghosts, philosophical demon-devil hybrids, and even a few subversively bloodthirsty lesbian vampires. They end by sinking their teeth into the question: what accounts for the power that horror as a genre has within society today?

Works discussed, among others: Goethe, “Erlkönig” (Poem, 1782); Goethe, “Faust” (Verse Tragedy, 1808/1832), Schubert, “Erlkönig” (Lied, 1815). Dante, “Inferno” (Poem, 1321), Sheridan Le Fanu, “Carmilla” (Novella, 1872), Benjamin, “The Origin of German Tragic Drama” (Book, 1925), Murnau, “Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens” (Film, 1922), Herzog, “Nosferatu the Vampyre” (Film, 1979).

Jacob’s Recommendations:

Mikhail Bulgakov, “The Master and Margarita” (Novel, 1928–1940)

Ludwig van Beethoven, “The Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92” (Symphony, 1811–1812)

Akiyuki Shinbo, “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” (Anime, 2011)

How can philosophy be defined? Who can philosophize, and what roles do age, language, or geography play in one’s aptitude for philosophizing? When and where in planetary history did philosophy “begin” and will it someday “end”? To what extent should knowledge of past philosophy and philosophers determine how philosophy is done today?

In this episode, Dave approaches philosophy “in a broad way” and “in a general sort of sense,” drawing upon Aristotle’s identification of philosophy with wonder and defending his own idiosyncratic definition: philosophy as the art of asking questions.

Caleb Ward is postdoc in philosophy at University of Hamburg and leader of the DFG project “Moral Opposition and Political Agency under Oppression.” Author of multiple articles and book chapters, their monograph–on the philosophy of Audre Lorde–will appear in 2026.

Caleb’s webpage.

Sierra Deutsch is an interdisciplinary political ecologist in the department of geography at the University of Zurich. Dave and Sierra chat about Euro-American academic identity, Sierra’s grueling recent trip to the top of Africa’s highest mountain (where she nearly developed altitude sickness), the global economic-political-environmental polycrisis, the deep tradition of Marxist environmental theory, the importance of foregrounding Indigenous voices in our efforts to combat entangled structures of colonialism and capitalist environmental exploitation, and more.

Sierra’s Recommendations:

Zero 7, “In the Waiting Line” (Song)

Nancy Fraser, “Cannibal Capitalism” (Book)

Indigenous environmental theorists–among others:

Winona LaDuke, Kyle Powys Whyte, Taiaiake Alfred

Rob Mottram is a scholar of modern European literature and culture, and senior lecturer in German studies at Whitman College.

Rob and Dave chat about sandwiches, nostalgia, encountering computers as kids in the 1980s and early 1990s, AI (including AI term papers and AI podcasts), the overwhelming power of aesthetic experience, Goethe’s Faust Pt. II, and Rob’s transformative melding into Caspar David Friedrich’s “Mountain Landscape with Rainbow.”

Rob’s Recommendations:

Don’t Go to Montana and Don’t Enter Academia!

The Flaming Lips, “At War with the Mystics” and “Embryonic” (Albums):

George Steiner, “Real Presences” (Book)

Tatjana Schönwälder-Kuntze is a philosopher based in Munich and the author of, among other books, Freiheit als Norm? Kritische Theoriebildung und der Effekt Kantischer Moralphilosophie, Philosophische Methoden, and Judith Butlers Philosophie des Politischen: Kritische Lektüren.

This is the first (but probably not the last?) German-language episode of the podcast. Recorded with a live audience at the Städtisches Lapidarium Stuttgart: https://www.lapidarium-stuttgart.de/

Tatjana’s Recommendations:

Ilija Trojanow, “Der Weltensammler” (Novel)

Prince, “Sign o’ the Times” (Album)

Lasse Hallström, “Gottes Werk & Teufels Beitrag” (Film)

While producing the podcast and creating bizarre philosophy-themed YouTube videos over the past months, Dave has also been working on three books in progress–“Animality and Finitude,” “On the Kanthropocene,” and “A Bipolar Manifesto.”

Parts of each book have been released on a rolling basis on the Deadbeat Philosophy homepage (deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com), and episodes 20, 21, and 22 of the podcast will feature readings of available sections of each.

In this episode, Dave reads the first three parts of “A Bipolar Manifesto”:

1. What This Book Plans to Do

2. The Bipolar Appeal of Kant

3. Bipolar is Like . . . Wintering in Antarctica