Still Dreaming - A Forever Knight Podcast

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Welcome, to Still Dreaming: An Existentialist journey through our Forever Knight. This is a podcast about life, finding meaning, and dealing with the absurdity of modern living. How do we live an authentic life? Each week your host examines the current exploits of Detective Nicholas Knight, a Toronto police detective who is really an 800 year old vampire seeking to become human again. Join us as we analyze each episode through the lens of a selection of Existentialist (or related) philosophical readings. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

Erin Schwartz


    • Dec 15, 2020 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 32m AVG DURATION
    • 18 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Still Dreaming - A Forever Knight Podcast

    Episode 02 Re-release: Two Sons of the Same Earth

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2020 27:11


    A re-recording of episode 2 with better audio! Our existential wandering through Forever Knight continues with part two of the 1992 pilot. Camus writes, "hope is disastrous for humans inasmuch as it leads them to minimize the value of this life except as preparation for a life beyond." Nick Knight's hope for salvation is precisely what damns him. His current quest for mortality is deference, a way of not negotiating the present, not accepting his current state. He pushes his Sisyphean rock up the hill angrily, already hating it for falling down the other side. Can Nick overcome his existential dilemma? Can Schanke figure out anything? What is going on with LaCroix's haircut? Tune in, gentle listeners, as we explore these eternal questions in our Forever Knight. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 01 Re-Release: The Dark Knight meets Sisyphus

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2020 25:52


    A re-recording of episode 1 with better audio quality! There's a series of murders in Toronto, and Nick Knight is a detective on the case, but his colleagues don't know that he's actually an 800-year-old vampire. Nick laments his status an immortal bloodsucker and hopes to someday reclaim his humanity. But can he, if he continues to be shackled to the past? Can understanding Nick's plight through the lens of the existentialist idea of the absurd (as written about by Alber Camus) help us unravel both his struggle and our own quest for meaning? Tune in, dear listener... References: Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) _____. Nuptials. (1938) Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History, (1940) You can find the podcast on Facebook and Twitter @podcast_still --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 13: Room Temperature Milk

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2020 35:52


    What is the role of the body in realizing our radical freedom?  What responsibility do vampires have for their choices?  Is it possible for me to be more bored by a Forever Knight episode?  Tune in, gentle listener... Sources:  General discussion on Sartre and Beauvoir.  For a list of all the sources used on the podcast, and for information on how to support the show, go to your website: stilldreamingpodcast.wordpress.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 12: Breaking the Girl

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2020 49:39


    Oh my...this one...this one really hurt.   Episode 12 of season one is called Dead Issue and deals with issues of abuse and rape.   What is the existential lived condition of internalized oppression?  Can Nick figure out a mystery involving the the wife of an Inspector without destroying his and Schanke's careers?  Why isn't there more Natalie in the episode? And what do the writers have against famed Northern Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch?!? Sources: Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 11: Donut Donny: Man of Action

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2020 46:49


    Don Schanke:  Cop.  Father.  Husband.  Friend.  Man of Action.   But does our favorite side-kick live an existentially authentic life? Or are his choices made in bad faith?  Can Nick help his friend during a time of crisis?  Or will Donut Donny be picked off like the last paczki in the precinct?  Tune in, gentle listener.... Want to support the show?  Fine one time tipping and recurring subscription options at:  stilldreamingpodcast.wordpress.com Twitter:  @podcast_still IG: @stilldreamingpodcast Sources: Sartre, Existentalism is a Humanism. John Messerly, Summary of Sartre's Theory of Human Nature, (2014) reasonandmeaning.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 10: Moody Lounging

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2020 41:28


    Nick is on the radio! He's searching for a serial killer before he can strike again! But first he's got to....throw cards in the air and brood on the floor in robe? Huh? I experience existential befuddlement as we ask about the nature of being as it relates to responsibility to others and our own choices of morality...or something like that. Sources: Sartre, Being and Nothingness. De Beauvior, The Ethics of Ambiguity. Camus, The Rebel. And, The Myth of Sisyphus. Buy Me a Coffee! One time donation at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/StillDreaming stilldreamingpodcast.wordpress.com Twitter; @podcast_still IG: @stilldreamingpodcast --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 09: No Good Deed

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2020 38:34


    Natalie's brother is dying, is Nick the only one who can save him? At what cost? What is the Existentialist basis for Ethical living? If "absurdity challenges ethics" how do we reconcile the need to live in the world with others with the subjective nature of freedom? Sources this week include: Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 1947. Beauvoir, Pyrrhus and Cineas, 1944. Sartre, "Existentialism is a Humanism," 1946. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 08: China is here, Detective Knight!

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2020 42:40


    Forget it, Nick, it's Chinatown. What is the nature of the self in Daoism? How can the Dao help us understand Existentialism? What can Simone de Beauvoir tell us about the nature vengeance? Why is Schanke such an asshole? Do all Toronto gang members know Kung Fu? Tune in gentle listener... 不經一事,不長一智 (Wisdom comes with experience.) Chinese idiom. Sources: Confucius. Analects. 2014. Berkeley: Counterpoint Nivison, David. (1973). Moral Decision in Wang Yang-ming: The Problem of Chinese "Existentialism". Philosophy East and West,23(1/2), 121-137. doi:10.2307/1398068 Wang, Yang-ming. (1963). Instructions for practical living, and other Neo-Confucian writings. Retrieved from https://hdl-handle-net.kean.idm.oclc.org/2027/heb.06056. Laozi, Zhuangzi, Confucius, & Mencius. (2013). The four chinese classics : tao te ching, chuang tzu, analects, mencius. (D. Hinton, Trans.). Wang, Qinjie James. "It-self-so-ing" and "other-ing" in Laozi's concept of Ziran. 2003. (http://www.confuchina.com/05%20zongjiao/Lao%20Zi's%20Concept%20of%20Zi%20Ran.htm) O'Flynn, Pauline. "A Question of Vengeance" Philosophy Now. Issue 69. 2008. Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity," 1947. Ho, David Y. F., "Selfhood and Identity in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism: Contrasts with the West," Journal for the Theory of Social behavior. 25:2. 1995. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 07: Maple Leaf Justice

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2020 40:03


    Will Nick Perjure himself to convict a murderer? Can he ever find a place to really belong? What the is the nature of Truth? How do we determine value and ethics? What the hell is wrong with Schanke? Is the Canadian legal system really this horrifically broken? Sources include: Sartre, Being and Nothingness. Nietzsche, The Gay Science. Heidegger, Being and Time. Charles Guignon, ed. The Existentialists. (Especially the chapters within by Guignon, Nehams, and Solomon). Dale Cannon, "An Existential Theory of Truth," The Personalist. Vol. 12. No. 2 (Fall 1996): 135-146. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 06: Inexplicable Motorcycle

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2020 45:29


    In this week's episode we examine Episode 6, Season 1 of Forever Knight, entitled "Dying to Know You."  What is memory?  What does is it mean to lost to memory?  Why is everyone just okay with this psychic tromping around a crime scene? Why does Natalie think protein shakes will help Nick?   And...oh MY GOD IS THERE A MUSIC VIDEO IN THIS EPISODE?   Sources:  Bergson, Matter and Memory, 1896; (I'm using the 1910 translation by Paul and Palmer).  Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1943 (Barnes translation).   --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 05: Femme Fatale and Will to Power

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2020 38:13


    In this week's installment we consider the Will to Power and an essential human drive that posits our seeking out suffering as a signal of resistance to our will. We also consider season 1 episode 5 of Forever Knight, 'Dance by the Pale Moon Light" about a stripper who seduces men to lie, steal, and kill for her. Can Nick exert his own will to keep from falling into corruption? How did Janette seduce Nick into becoming vampire 800 years ago? Tune in gentle listeners... ----- ------ Sources for this episode include: F. Nietzsche, (1886( Beyond Good and Evil F. Nietzsche, (1882) The Gay Science F. Nietzsche, (1883-5) Thus Spoke Zarathustra Arthur Schopenhauer, (1819) World as Will and Representation Bernard Reginster, (2006) The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Episode 04: The Imaizumi Code

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2020 36:43


    CW/TW: Mentions and discussion of suicide in this episode. ----- Can Nick come to terms with the death of his former lover, who takes her own life? How can we live authentically in a world of frustration and anguish? Where does Janette get her hats from? ----- Notes: no central text, just some general existentialism, including bits and pieces from: Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943) Camus, various works. *Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (1859) *Heidegger, Being and Time (1927) *Yes, I know Schopenhauer and Heidegger were not Existentialists (and even Camus rejected the term). I mention that we can describe Existentialism as a philosophy of "No Excuses" this is also the title of a series of lectures given by the late Dr. Robert Solomon available on The Great Courses.com about Existentialism. I'm not sponsored by that company, but I do recommend this course, it's a fantastic survey of important Existentialist ideas and readings. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Still Dreaming, Still Editing...

    Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2020 1:30


    Episode 04: Do I talk about Heidegger and Sartre? Yes, I do. Do we address the theme of living an existentially authentic life? YES! Does Nick get super drama-queen? ALSO YES! Will it be ready for release tomorrow?!? ...uh. No. Probably not. Sorry, guys, those stupid things called "life" and "work" have conspired to make me have to delay the release of the next episode. Please be consoled that I am taking this as a personal failure on my part, and will mentally beat myself up for it appropriately. Cheers. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    03: Still Dreaming: An Instinct of the Heart

    Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2020 45:50


    Episode 3 of Still Dreaming: An Instinct of the Heart. We watch the next episode of Forever Knight, "For I have Sinned" What can Kierkegaard tell us about hope and faith? Does Nick even want to be human if it's possible? Where does Natalie stand in the spectrum between faith and science? Why did the writers of this episode forget that Nick was IN THE CRUSADES? Why is Schanke such a sexy beast? Wait, what? Tune in, gentle listeners... [The sound quality is better on this one, although I did breath into the mic a couple of times, sorry. ] --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    02: Still Dreaming: Two sons of the same Earth, Dark Knight part two.

    Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2020 29:09


    Our existential wandering through Forever Knight continues with part two of the 1992 pilot. Camus writes, "hope is disastrous for humans inasmuch as it leads them to minimize the value of this life except as preparation for a life beyond." Nick Knight's hope for salvation is precisely what damns him. His current quest for mortality is deference, a way of not negotiating the present, not accepting his current state. He pushes his Sisyphean rock up the hill angrily, already hating it for falling down the other side. Can Nick overcome his existential dilemma? Can Schanke figure out anything? What is going on with LaCroix's haircut? Tune in, gentle listeners, as we explore these eternal questions in our Forever Knight. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    01: Still Dreaming: The Dark Knight meets Sisyphus

    Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2020 24:51


    There's a series of murders in Toronto, and Nick Knight is a detective on the case, but his colleagues don't know that he's actually an 800-year-old vampire. Nick laments his status an immortal bloodsucker and hopes to someday reclaim his humanity. But can he, if he continues to be shackled to the past? Can understanding Nick's plight through the lens of the existentialist idea of the absurd (as written about by Alber Camus) help us unravel both his struggle and our own quest for meaning? Tune in, dear listener... References: Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) _____. Nuptials. (1938) Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History, (1940) You can find the podcast on Facebook. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    00. Not sleeping, still dreaming (Introduction)

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2020 12:24


    Trailer and introduction: This is not a nostalgic podcast about a Canadian vampire show from the 1990s.  It's about crossing over, about memory and identity and existentialism... and a Canadian vampire show from the 1990s. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

    Not sleeping, but still dreaming

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2020 0:59


    Join me, won't you? On this existental wandering through our Forever Knight --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erin-schwartz/support

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