Eric Taxier and I discuss Aristotle's take on courage by investigating chapters 6-7 of Book 3 of the Nicomachean Ethics.

This episode concludes Aristotle's discussion of the voluntary and issues related to that concept.

This is a special short episode for my wife's third grade class. It addresses "Cross Domain Application" (taking something you learned in one area and applying it to another). That may sound heady for the third grade, but it is all about learning to appreciate learning.

Eric Taxier and I continue our discussion of the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle by interpreting Book 3, Chapters 2-3. This portion of the treatise (Book 3, Chapters 1-5) is a fascinating investigation of human choice and the voluntary. These two chapters deal with choice and deliberation, respectively.…

This is a very special short episode designed for a third grade class my wife teaches. It features a short exploration of what it takes to be kind to and care for others by examining the differences between sympathy and empathy. Listen for the shoutouts to the various members of the class!!

Eric Taxier and I explore Chapter 1 of Book 3 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Forrest Gump comes in for some rough treatment--in service of the greater cause of understanding moral agency.

Eric Taxier and I finish discussing Book 2 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. We revisit the "key passage" concerning the Doctrine of the Mean (from chapter 6) then discuss the arrangement and choice of virtues and Aristotle's advice for self-improvement.

Eric Taxier and I discuss chapters 5 and 6 of Book 2 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. These books truly introduce and start to define the Doctrine of the Mean but immediately demonstrate that the concept is much more complex than summaries of Aristotle often allow.

Eric Taxier and I discuss Book 2, Chapters 3-4 of Aristotle's celebrated Nicomachean Ethics. We explore how one enters the circle of learning, the monkeys typing Shakespeare thought experiment, consequentialism, and more.

Eric Taxier and I explore the opening two chapters to Book 2 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. We discuss the two types of virtue (virtues of character and virtues of mind) and spend some real time on the learning paradox--if you learn to build by building, how do you get started if you don't know already how to build?…

Eric Taxier and I conclude our discussion of Book 1 of Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics.

Eric Taxier and I discuss Chapters 10-11 of Book 1 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. These chapters ask the rather odd question of whether we can truly say someone is happy before they are dead.

I'm joined by Eric Taxier to continue our discussion of Book 1 of Aristotle's celebrated Nicomachean Ethics. This episode covers chapters 8-9 of Book 1.

Eric Taxier and I discuss chapter 7 of Book 1 of Aristotle's celebrated Nicomachean Ethics. This is arguably the central chapter to the first book and provides the initial "outline" of Aristotle's take on happiness and the human good.

Eric Taxier and I discuss Chapters 5-6 of Book I of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. We discuss various candidates for happiness and what they are lacking and then examine Aristotle's critique of Plato's Form of the Good.

Eric Taxier and I discuss chapters 3 and 4 of Book 1 of Aristotle's celebrated treatise, Nicomachean Ethics. We discuss the differences between two forms of attaining or justifying knowledge (demonstration and dialectic), the nature of proof and whether ethical thought can be proven or demonstrated (and to what extent), and many other things.…

I'm joined by Eric Taxier in the first of several episodes exploring Aristotle's celebrated treatise, the Nicomachean Ethics. This episode carefully examines chapters 1 and 2 of Book 1.

This episode examines the relationship between ambiguity and ambivalence and looks at two indie rock songs: "Oh Comely" by Neutral Milk Hotel and "Mississippi Swells" by Nana Grizol.

This episode looks at the issue of ambiguity in art and then examines "William, It Was Really Nothing," by the Smiths, looking at the ambiguous nature of the lyrics and the music.

This episode looks at the materiality of language, particularly in the use of rhyme and examines MF DOOM's idiosyncratic approach to rhyme and what is sometimes termed holorime.

This episode continues to explore the narcocorrido, now focusing on Chalino Sanchez and the theme of agency striving against fate.

This episode looks at the border genre of the narcocorrido (a Mexican folk music genre based on drug trafficking) in relation to the rhetorical nature of borders, the law, and the self.

This episode explores the role of suffering and self-developed narrative in the forming of a self in the music of Edith Piaf.

This episode explores the nature of the subject position in popular music (the implicit or explicit "I" in a song). It posits that most songs ask us to identify (or disidentify) with the subject but that some songs, including Björk's "Bachelorette" question the very notion of what it means to be a subject in the world.…

This episode examines Tom Waits's debts to Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and the notion of melancholy. It examines "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Invitation to the Blues."

This episode looks at Randy Newman's vision of the American as essentially out of balance. I examine songs including "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," "Sail Away," and "Rednecks."

This episode looks at Cole Porter and the comic list song as exemplified by "Let's Do It."

This episode uses Aristotle's Rhetoric to examine the use of wit in the music and lyrics of Cole Porter. I begin by considering general characteristics and functions of wit. Then I turn to Aristotle's three elements of rhetoric and his notion that rhetoric is central to human experience. Finally, I analyze the verse of Porter's "Just One of Those T…

This episode continues my discussion of lyrics, now by paying attention to the lyrics in their materiality (rather than semantics), focusing on rhyme, repetition, and the notion of the lyrics as museme (that is, as a musical element--not a linguistic center of gravity).

This episode begins to explore how we might think about lyrics beyond considering them as a "key" to the meaning of a song.

A continuation of my conversation with Eric Taxier on Seneca's On the Shortness of Life.

This is the first of two episodes in which I'm joined by Eric Taxier to discuss the Stoic philosopher Seneca's letter On the Shortness of Life. In this episode, Eric and I discuss some themes of the letter and introduce the larger context of Stoic philosophy and Seneca's place within that tradition.

I'm joined by Ade Fielder to discuss video game music. We look at different approaches to understanding video game music, ranging from "narrative transportation theory" to film theory to theories of interaction. We also consider games in which music plays a more featured role, including Zelda, Guitar Hero, and Grand Theft Auto.…

I'm joined by Laura Nunez to discuss BTS's Maps of the Soul releases and how the group adapted ideas espoused by Carl Jung to suit their ongoing pursuit of questions of identity, belonging, and self-love. The first segment explores BTS's concerns with self-love; the second examines Jung's ideas as adopted by BTS, particularly in the song "Intro: Pe…

For this episode, I'm joined by Christopher Vogt to discuss the experimental hip hop group Death Grips and how they might relate to the philosophical/political views described as Accelerationism. The first segment discusses the early career of Death Grips and focuses on the notion of the post-human, using "Full Moon (Death Classic)" as the main exa…

This episode looks at the early career of the Beatles and their emphasis on both fun and artistry. I employ a perhaps unorthodox reading of Kant to buttress the idea that fun is a gently subversive intrusion of an unknowable Outside into the acceptable "inside" of society. Then I look at the use of Girl Group music in the early output of the Beatle…

I am joined by my stepdaughter Iris Smith to discuss Taylor Swift's re-recording project, its origins, the problems it seeks to solve, as well as its aesthetic and ethical implications.

This episode examines Taylor Swift's battle with Spotify and asks why that battle and why then? What did that fight have to do with Swift's career at that moment and what she was attempting with her transition from country to pop music?

Starting by reviewing some basic concerns about capitalism and the need to emphasize desired values rather than focus on direct personal harm, this episode then examines the anti-capitalist work of hip hop artists including the Coup, dead prez, Immortal Technique, Lowkey, and Bambu.

This episode explores certain 90s hip hop groups and artists who embrace and glorify capitalism. The first segment discusses Strain Theory, the idea that the American Dream encourages its realization even through criminal enterprise. The second segment discusses the Mafioso Rap of Kool G Rap, Raekwon, Jay-Z, and Big Pun; while the last segment look…

This episode explores four understandings of the relationship between the soul and the body (from Descartes, Marx, Merleau-Ponty, and Fanon) and applies that thinking to readings of songs and videos by India.Arie, Jill Scott, Maxwell, D'Angelo, and Erykah Badu.

Starting with a review of Marx's ideas concerning temporality in capitalism, this episode then explores how the notion of genre involves a temporal understanding--particularly the genre of 90s neo-soul, a term coined by producer Kedar Massenburg. Finally, I apply thinking about temporality to the musical and visual elements of neo-soul in songs and…

This episode opens with a thought experiment: just what might have Ronald Reagan have understood (all-too-well) in Chapter 2 of The Communist Manifesto. In particular, I examine Reagan's and neoliberalism's take on class struggle--and what class deserves to prevail. Then I turn to Reagan's policies (particularly his economics, foreign policy, and a…

This episode examines the political side of hardcore punk. Starting with a discussion of the distinction between the first generation of punks and the new generation of hardcore punks and their differing relationship to style and politics, the episode then considers the implicit politics of moshing, the influence of Marxism on bands like the Dils, …

This episode applies Marx's thinking in Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto regarding the corporate nature of the evils of Modern Industry to the situation of the Rastafarians in Jamaica. The episode then considers reggae's move from a local to international culture/genre and how that impacted the proliferation of Rastafarian ideas.…

After discussing the ambiguities of the Marxist position on violence, I discuss subjective versus objective violence and the linkages between the two. I then proceed to an examination of the fraught political and economic landscape of Jamaica, concentrating on the 1960s and the era of independence. Finally, I explore the notion of violence in the s…

Using Karl Marx's notion of surplus value, I ask: what is the felt surplus in Golden-Age Gospel music (Thomas Dorsey, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Mahalia Jackson)? I suggest various ways in which it may emerge.

Starting with some of Karl Marx's thoughts on religion, we turn to the rise of Pentacostalism, the emphasis on entire sanctification and speaking in tongues as well as the ecstatic nature of "getting happy," and then examine the recordings in the mid-20s by blind singer and pianist Arizona Dranes.

This episode uses Marx's notion of the "commodity fetish" to explore how music developed as a commodity in its own right during the late 1920s into the Depression era.

This episode looks at changes in the record industry in the 1930s and, using the Marxian concept of base-superstructure, examines how the music of the era reflected the underlying economic infrastructure of the late 20s and 30s.