What Is Literature? (Literature and Existentialism)
On this episode, Ryan and Todd complete their Sartre inflected trifecta of episodes by engaging his 1947 essay series What Is Literature? Th...
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Why Theory
Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.
Why Theory Podcast Guide
Listen to Why Theory, a TV & Film podcast by Why Theory. Stream 221 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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20 of 221 episodesMichael Clayton
On this episode, Ryan and Todd cover writer-director Tony Gilroy's 2007 political thriller masterpiece, Michael Clayton . The hosts weave in...
Existentialism Is A Humanism
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss Jean-Paul Sartre's 1945 lecture titled "Existentialism is a Humanism." In it, Sartre answers criticis...
Impossible Professions
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss Freud's idea of the "impossible professions." First articulated in 1925, Freud is drawn to the idea t...
Avarice
Following up some of the discussion points introduced in the previous episode on Ambition, this episode takes a stab at the deadly sin of Av...
Ambition
On this episode, Ryan and Todd tackle the fading specter of ambition as a tragic or negative quality. Far from being a minor rhetorical or s...
Transcendental Analytic (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason)
On this episode, Ryan and Todd return to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason to discuss the Transcendental Analytic section of the text. Topics i...
Rob Reiner: An Overview
On this episode, Ryan and Todd take a short break from their Kant Odyssey to discuss one of the podcast's most admired filmmakers: Rob Reine...
Transcendental Deduction (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason)
On this episode, Ryan and Todd cover the next major idea in Kant's first critique: the transcendental deduction. While explicating the traje...
Transcendental Aesthetic (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason)
On this episode, Ryan and Todd return to Kant and discuss the Transcendental Aesthetic from his Critique of Pure Reason. The hosts work thro...
Superegoic Enjoyment
On this episode, Ryan and Todd return to the topic of the superego to discuss--for the first time at length--the enjoyment particular to it....
Structural Violence
On this episode, Ryan and Todd cover the topic of structural violence in both U.S. and global contexts. Beginning with an implicit debt to S...
Pluribus
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the recently concluded first season of Apple's Pluribus . Taking on the ideas of duration, repetition...
Millennium Christmas
On this year’s exploration of the Christmas film genre, Ryan and Todd look to three films from the early-2000s: The Family Stone , Love Actu...
The Episode
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the episode--a fading television art. Beginning with a brief history of what early American Broadcast...
Lacan's Seminar 19: ...or Worse
In this episode, Ryan and Todd continue their commentaries on Jacques Lacan's seminars by turning their attention to Seminar XIX: ...or Wors...
Lacan's Seminar 18: On a Discourse...
On this episode, Ryan and Todd continue their series of commentaries on Lacan's Seminars, this time bringing their attention to Seminar XVII...
Voice
In this episode, Ryan and Todd complete their Gaze & Voice duology. While gaze & voice both enter into psychoanalytic theory as objects thro...
Gaze
In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss one of psychoanalytic theory’s most influential ideas: the gaze. The hosts talk about how Laura Mulve...
Robert Redford
In this episode, Ryan and Todd pay tribute to the recently deceased film actor, director, and producer Robert Redford. Working through dueli...