Ryan and Todd unpack Jacques Lacan's most well-known seminar--Seminar XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. In doing so, they focus on Lacan's own exclusion as a starting point and then delve into two concepts that Lacan does not list among the fundamental ones--subjectivity and the objet a.…

Ryan and Todd analyze the complexity of Jacques Lacan's Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. They discuss the various notions that appear there--from das Ding to sublimation to death drive to the ethics of desire.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Ryan and Todd continue their exploration of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason with the Introduction. They discuss the importance of his critique of dogmatic metaphysics and the incredible discovery of the synthetic a priori judgment.Ryan's sports article: https://link.springer.com/journal/41282/online-first…

Ryan and Todd interpret David Lynch's Blue Velvet by paying special attention to the Kantian dimension of the film. They consider the film in terms of the thing-in-itself and the sublime.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Episode #60 with Kenzie McGowan. Kenzie is long-time friend of mine and is one of the most positive and friendly humans out there. Kenzie joins me in the kitchen studio to chat about Astrology. I sent Kenzie my birth info and we review my charts while talking about the origins of Astrology, horoscopes, how star signs relate and how to read your cha…

Yikes! My bad. Let's try this again. This is the full EP. We've talked about it for a few years, and it finally happened. Mark Warner joins me for EP 59. We talk about Whistler, Skiing and Podcasting. What else would two skiers who have podcasts in Whistler talk about? Mark is the man behind Low Pressure Podcast and the new Freeride Guide Podcast. …

Ryan and Todd begin their analysis of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason by working through the prefaces to the first and second edition of the work. They focus on the radicality of Kant's breakthrough and the role that the limit plays in his philosophy.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Ryan and Todd consider the concept of symbolic castration as it develops in psychoanalysis and as it bears on both politics and culture. They relate symbolic castration to some of the key concepts in psychoanalytic theory, including fetishistic disavowal and the phallus.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Todd Lawson is an author, publisher/photo editor at Mountain Life Media. He is also an inventor and adventurer. We talk about his new book "Inside the Belly of an Elephant" that is out now on Amazon. He tells me about his most recent motorcycle trip with his family through parts of Europe, the UK and I can't remember exactly where... we also talk a…

Ryan and Todd explore the working of the dialectical reversal, how weaknesses can turn into strengths, how successes can turn into failures. They look at this through a variety of everyday examples and a few choice filmic ones.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

In our ongoing series on defense mechanisms we have yet to cover SUBLIMATION. Sublimation is one of our more positive defenses where we can avoid certain thoughts and feelings that make us uncomfortable and sublimate them with something more positive or "productive". Of course sublimating can still be used to avoid or displace particular situations…

Ryan and Todd think through Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, focusing especially on the parallels with psychoanalysis and the work's political significance. They also address the ramifications of the private language argument that Wittgenstein formulates.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Christmas can be one of the strangest seasons of the year because we are supposed to be happy and full of cheer, but often Christmas afternoon is the most depressing day of the year. In this episode we talk with one of our favorite thinkers- Todd McGowan! We use Christmas and desire as a spring board for an hour of curious conversation!…

Ryan and Todd discuss Ludwig Wittgenstein's project in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. They begin by looking at this project on its own terms and taking stock of its grand ambitions. Then they examine its intersection with the concerns of psychoanalysis and dialectics.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

In their annual Christmas episode, Ryan and Todd look at the 1980s Christmas film, focusing on Christmas Story, Trading Places, Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. They discuss the nostalgia that predominates this period of Christmas films and how this limits the political reach of these works.…

Thinking about poetry and dreams and the way it relates to our mind and the ways we interact with the world can be a extremely effective way to get curious about ourselves and others. On this episode we invite our friend Katy Richardson to join us for a super playful and insightful conversation about the ways that we think about the free, seemingly…

Ryan and Todd examine perhaps the founding text of modern Western philosophy--Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method. They consider how Descartes articulates an egalitarian philosophy through his conception of radical doubt and examine the influence of this text of subsequent thinkers and on theory today.…

Ryan and Todd discuss the structure of envy, its relationship to jealousy, and its political implications. They make reference to Othello and Seven as landmark explorations of envy, while also noting its relationship with the other deadly sins.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

We've been hosting No Small Thing for over 5 years now and we thought it would be helpful to address the challenges we face when it comes to practicing what we preach. Being curious can be one of the most challenging things any of us can do! You'll CERTAINLY be able to relate to the ways that we have felt like sometimes we just don't have capacity …

Ryan and Todd discuss the generic development of science fiction cinema while also addressing its philosophical implications. They include a deeper analysis of Metropolis, The Thing From Another World, Forbidden Planet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.See:Voyage to the Moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLVChRVfZ74Metropolis: https://www.youtube.com/w…

Ryan and Todd present the philosophy of Leibniz as articulated in his late work the Monadology. They link this text to the breakthroughs of later thinkers such as Kant and Hegel, as well as discussing how Leibniz anticipates the contemporary situation.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

This week we take a break from our regularly scheduled program to talk about a BIG thing with our friend Pat Hodges (which ironically is No Small Thing!)- a DYSON SPHERE! It could possibly the biggest conceivable human created thing we could talk about! Intrigued!? Listen into this funny curious informative convo to learn more!…

Ryan and Todd analyze Machiavelli's The Prince by tracing its influence on later political thinkers, including Hegel, Gramsci, and Althusser. They discuss Machiavelli's novelty and his limitations as a thinker of the political act.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Ryan and Todd explore the idea of surplus enjoyment as the basis for a theory of capitalism. They consider the psychic hold that capitalism has in terms of the surplus enjoyment that it both promises and provides.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Ryan and Todd unpack Marx's concept of surplus value and explore its fundamental role in the interpretation of capitalist society. They discuss the relationship between surplus value and profit, while considering how we should think about the drive to amass surplus value.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Ryan and Todd offer their interpretation of Christopher Nolan's most recent film Oppenheimer. They focus on the relationship between the form of the film and its content, while considering the political implications of its depiction of the hero. They think about the film in relationship to the rest of Nolan's filmography.…

Ryan and Todd interpret the film Barbie while responding to both leftist and rightist critiques of the film. They discuss the film's exploration of fantasy, its highlighting of contradiction, and its emphasis on the role of desire in politics.By Todd McGowan & Ryan Engley

Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "Creative Writings and Daydreaming." They look first at the theory of fantasy that Freud develops in this essay and then turn to his conception of what generates the work of art, discussing it in terms of the current strike in Hollywood. In their concluding remarks, they deal with problems that Freud runs into in…