Good Question!

Many people would say they learned deep truths from art — truths about happiness, meaning, and morality.  But is that just an illusion?  Has the art fooled us into thinking we’ve learned things even though we haven’t? (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal […]

Some biographers try to explain why their subjects made the choices that they did. But is biography like that impossible? In fact, can we ever explain why anyone did what they did? (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Swan Song (edited) […]

The novelist Patricia Highsmith is rarely praised for her characters. But are the critics making a mistake? And does the way we assess a novel’s characters say more about us than we might think?  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Spy […]

It seems like people used to believe that important cultural conversations and insights could be found within fiction.  Has that changed?  And if so, why?  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Dance of the Stargazer (edited) by U.S. Army Blues Band, […]

Many fans think The Dark Knight is the greatest superhero movie ever made.  But what do they love about it?  And are they right? (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: The Way by Heavy Links, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY-SA […]

In this episode we discuss Aldus Huxley’s celebrated novel Brave New World.  Does the novel still have things to teach us?  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: We Start the Cure in Paris (edited) by lo-fi is sci-fi, from The Free […]

Major soccer leagues and tournaments are adopting VAR, a video replay system. But is it ruining soccer? (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Someone Else’s Memories (edited) by Revolution Void, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 License.) Subscribe on iTunes […]

What can we demand of celebrities, athletes, and artists?  Should Magnus Carlsen have played on in the last world chess championship rather than taking an easy draw?  Should George R. R. Martin spend more time writing Game of Thrones books? (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 […]

Many of you emailed questions after our last podcast about single payer healthcare. In this episode, we discuss your questions about the effects of uninsurance, the financial consequences of single payer, the politics of healthcare, and many more things as well. (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music […]

As we approach the 2020 election, we hear a lot about single payer healthcare. But what is it? Should we like it? Along the way we discuss Alex’s new book, The Ethics of Universal Health Insurance.  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: […]

After our last podcast about utopia, we wondered if utopias are more credible in science fiction than in realistic fiction. Are space adventures like Star Trek the place to look for a utopian vision?  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Peace Within (edited) by […]

Few people enjoy reading about utopia. Why do we prefer visions of chaos to dreams of order? Are we all dystopians at heart?  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: You Happy? (edited) by BJ Block & Dawn Pemberton, from The Free Music Archive, […]

In this episode, we conclude our nine-part series on contemporary art that was inspired by Ossian Ward’s book Ways of Looking.  Looking back, are the works of contemporary art more valuable than they seemed to us at first?  And if not, why does the art world prize these works so highly?  Artworks discussed include James […]

Sometimes modern art doesn’t seem to offer any deep insights into life, but neither does a traditional landscape or still life.  Are they more similar than they seem?  Is modern art valuable for the same reasons that traditional art is valuable?  We ask these questions as we discuss the idea of “Art as Spectacle” from […]

Some contemporary artists seem to mock the art world itself, suggesting that its patrons and consumers are fools who’ll buy anything. Does that mean that modern art is a deliberate scam? Could it be a collective delusion? If contemporary art doesn’t have the power to provoke valuable responses, what keeps the art world afloat? While […]

One traditional role of art has been to offer a message. But do artistic message have to be ambiguous and indirect in order to be powerful? We discuss two contemporary works from chapter five of Ways of Looking: Play Pit (2000) by Miroslav Balka and The Green Line (2004) by Francis Alwys.  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind […]

In chapter four of Ways of Looking, Ossian Ward says that some contemporary artists make art out of human performances, including eccentric performances like punching a time clock every hour for a year. Are these really works of art? Can they be good art? We discuss these questions while examining Tehching Hsieh’s One Year Performance 1980-1981 […]

Some contemporary artists take moral risks in order to confront an audience with what they think is the truth. Some even use other people as part of their works. We discuss artworks from the third chapter of Ways of Looking:  Thomas Hirschhorn’s Touching Reality (2013) and Santiago Sierra’s 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People (2000). Note […]

Chapter two of Ways of Looking leads us to several questions about art that aims to be entertaining:  Can a work of art can be worthwhile if you could get the same experience at a children’s playground? When curators assess contemporary artworks, are they really just assessing their monetary value? Is it enough for works […]

We discuss two artworks from chapter one of Ward’s book Ways of Looking: Christian Marclay’s film The Clock (2010) and Martin Creed’s museum piece Work No. 227: The Lights Going On and Off (2000)  Do works of art like these need to provide us with profound insights on topics like life, death, and time?  Or is it enough for […]

Modern art can be strange and baffling. Sometimes we even think “I could do that!” So, is there value in modern artworks? In this podcast, we kick off a 9-part discussion of contemporary art inspired by Ossian Ward’s book Ways of Looking. You don’t need to read the book, but if you’ve ever wanted a […]

Critics disagree sharply about whether The Old Man and the Sea is a good book. Is that because they evaluate books based on their own moral outlooks? And should they? Along the way we discuss an essay by Katherine Jobes and the works of Cormac McCarthy. (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, […]

Earlier this year, Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.  The critics have their opinion of Ishiguro’s work, but what does Ishiguro say is the point of his work?  Why does he think it has significance?  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Love (edited) by PC-ONE, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY […]

Sigmund Freud’s work had a vast influence on psychology, art, and popular culture.  But what did Freud’s theory say?  Is it backed by the evidence?  Why does Freudian theory continue to fascinate people?  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Haul Away Joe by Howie Mitchell, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 […]

Philosophers like Bruno Latour have maintained that important aspects of human life are just “social constructions.”  But what is a social construction?  And should we think that some key parts of life are constructions of the human mind?  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Love is Dying ft. Fliss (edited) by Agenda 23, from The […]

In Meaning in Life and Why It Matters, the philosopher Susan Wolf offers a theory of how to live a meaningful life.  Is Wolf right?  And can her ideas help us live more meaningful lives?  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: City of Dreams by Mise, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 US license.) […]

For decades a strange taboo has haunted literary critics, keeping them from referring to the intentions of authors.  In this episode, we discuss John Farrell’s new book explaining why that happened and why it matters.  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Arabion Dream by Naran, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 […]

Our previous discussion of H.P. Lovecraft leads to bigger questions:  Is there something terrifying about modern science?  Should we fear superior alien life?  Does fiction require us to paint some people as evil?  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: The Face of God (edited) by The Agrarians, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC-SA […]

Was H.P. Lovecraft a talented writer of cosmic horror fiction, or should we be horrified by the stories themselves?  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Violins and Tea, Instrumental (edited) by Loch Lomond, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.) Subscribe in iTunes, download the episode by right-clicking here, or stream it online: […]

Marcel Duchamp submitted a urinal to an art competition, and it became the most influential artwork of the 20th century.  But is it any good?  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Jellyfish in Space (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 License.)  Subscribe in iTunes, download the episode by right-clicking here, or stream it […]

Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Did he deserve it?  Along the way we talk about Adam Kirsch’s article “The Meaning of Bob Dylan’s Silence.”  Minor Correction: Sigmund Freud didn’t win the Nobel Prize, though he was nominated many times.  Sorry for the slip!  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license. […]

George Orwell said that politicians use vague language to cover up policies that are “too brutal for most people to face,” and that political language infects all of us and makes us have “foolish thoughts.”  Was he right?  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Dance of the Stargazer (edited) by US Army […]

Harper Lee’s second novel Go Set A Watchman has caused a literary uproar.  In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus’s defense of Tom Robinson looks like a model of racial justice. However, in the new novel, Atticus seems to be a racist.  Is he?  And if so, can we still admire the Atticus that we knew in Mockingbird?  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from […]

Together with our special guest Seth Lobis, we ask: which four artists should be on a new monument to American culture?  We got the idea from a segment on the Slate Culture Gabfest.  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: RSPN by Blank & Kytt, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.) […]

On our second try, can we actually manage to discuss Taylor Swift’s 1989?   We get a little help from Nathaniel Rich’s article “Hit Charade.“   (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Moon Child by Karissa Hobbs, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.) Download the episode by right-clicking here or stream it online: […]

Does the Constitution guarantee an individual right to own guns?  We discuss the interpretive methods used by Justices Scalia and Stevens in District of Columbia v. Heller.  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: White Flag by Karissa Hobbs, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.) Download the episode by right-clicking […]

Why is James Patterson the world’s most successful novelist?  Are we snobs for not liking him? Our discussion is inspired by a great New York Times article by Jonathan Mahler.  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: In the Dark by BrokeMC, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.) Download the episode […]

Is Taylor Swift’s new album as great as people say?  Is taste in art entirely subjective anyway? (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Scott Joplin’s Ragtime Dance, anonymous piano roll, from the Free Music Archive, Public Domain Mark 1.0 license.) Download the episode by right-clicking here or stream it online:      

Is there wisdom in David Foster Wallace’s famous commencement address to Kenyon College?  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Little Black Balloon by Fog Lake, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 license.) Download the episode by right-clicking here or stream it online:    

Was Chinua Achebe right that Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a racist book? (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Views of the Holy & Divine by The Agrarians, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC 3.0 US license.) Download the episode by right-clicking here or stream it online:      

Was Luis Suarez’s handball in the 2010 World Cup contest between Uruguay and Ghana just part of the game, or was it something more?  We discuss the ethics of sports.  This was our first try at podcasting, so the audio quality isn’t great. Hang in there — the sound gets better over the next few […]