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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
Thursday Dec 02, 2021
Thursday Dec 02, 2021
In this episode, the discussion begins with Rory wriggling out of Jack's earlier demand that he come prepared with at least one joke to tell; to compensate for this failure, Rory explains to Jack a new social media project he has been developing, tentatively titled 'Philosophy in a New York Minute.' After some brainstorming about this project, the conversation turns to an examination of existentialism and absurdism, especially through the lens of works by Sartre and Camus. Jack and Rory have some small (or perhaps not so small) disagreements about the merit and usefulness of both of these schools of thought, but the pair ultimately agree on one of the central concerns for both existentialism and absurdism: the importance of meaning-making for humans. Finally, the topic of nondualism returns once again, with the interlocutors focusing this time primarily on the phenomenology of nondual experience: what might it be like to live life so thoroughly decentered from the conventional boundaries of the body and mind?
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