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Two philosophers—or what comedian Mel Brooks fondly refers to as "bullshit artists"—from different generations join in deep yet casual conversation covering a wide range of topics, including especially politics and the human condition. Jack Crittenden—professor emeritus of political theory at Arizona State University—and Rory Varrato—PhD candidate in the Philosophy and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University—have known each other for more than ten years, first as teacher-student and later as friends. During that time, they have had countless conversations together (usually over coffee), and some of those chats have even been interesting. The purposes of this biweekly podcast, then, are to provide a new venue for these conversations (especially now, during the pandemic) and to enable these dialogues to reach an audience of more than two. Both interlocutors hope that—at their best—they can offer to each other and to their listeners something like the lighthearted verbal jousting of 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' crossed with the stimulating pleasures of a 'My Dinner with Andre'-caliber conversation: organic, cerebral, funny, unguarded, and chock-full of bullshit.
Episodes
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
After some housekeeping and a brief revisit of police violence, Rory and Jack begin this episode with a consideration of COVID-19, especially focusing on its possible origins and the widespread resistance in the US to vaccination. This topic then segues into a larger discussion of systems-level thinking, including particularly the absence of that capacity among the general public and the subsequent failure to act on or even to perceive various systems-level problems in society. Next, the conversation turns to the education system's utter inability to facilitate the development of such thinking skills among students—a shortcoming that Rory suggests is a deliberate one operating in service of the schooling system's sociological function of replicating and perpetuating capitalist social arrangements. Finally, Jack asks Rory a series of questions about his beliefs regarding political revolution in the United States, which the pair examine in light of the looming climate crisis.
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