Hotel Bar Sessions

The HBS discuss Hegel, the black radical tradition, and the history of Philosophy with Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan J. Johnson.This week we are joined by Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan J. Johnson to talk about their book Phenomenology of Black Spirit, which reads Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit against the tradition of black thought from Frederick Douglass to Angela Davis. It is a stunning demonstration of a relationship to philosophy that is at once creative, breaking the boundaries between exegesis and history, and politically committed, reading for the struggle for liberation. It is a book that profoundly challenges what it means to do philosophy, and raises the question as to what philosophy offers the struggle for abolition and black liberation. In our conversation we talk about the book, Hegel, dialectics, and what it means to do philosophy. Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-125-the-phenomenology-of-black-spirit-with-biko-mandela-gray-and-ryan-johnson-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts discuss post-COVID demands to get "back to normal."In 2020 the NCAA canceled its basketball tournaments for the year. Over the next several months, mitigation measures became more widespread and strict. In some places more quickly than others, we all eventually “returned to normal.” Did we though? In some ways, normalcy seems to be an irresistible pull. But is “normalcy” not the same as the status quo? And shouldn’t we be critical of both? We can look at other contexts in which we either have found a normalcy or feel the need to get back to normal: Climate change (who is doing anything about it?), anti-democratic presidents (well, that’s just the new normal!), xenophobia is now a baseline in the U.S., the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, the list can go on and on. It is the "new" normal? And what do we do about the intransigence of normality?Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-124-back-to-normal-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts chat about heroes without capes. In a world saturated with fictional caped crusaders and masked vigilantes, we want to redirect our attention to the unsung champions who make a tangible impact in the lives of others, in other words, “real life” people who display acts of courage, compassion and commitment and who transcend the confines of comic book fantasies.Not all heroes wear flashy costumes or flashy costumes, and they don’t all possess superhuman abilities. Often, they emerge from diverse but garden-variety backgrounds, with regular lives and more or less regular jobs, but find a way to navigate challenges that test the limits of human fortitude, and mange to exhibit the skills or qualities of character that we want to emulate.What makes a “real life hero” heroic? And how can we keep ourselves from turning them into idols? Are heroes a "childish" fantasy that we should dispense with, or are they necessary to character formation?Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-123-real-life-heroes-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts dig into Jacque Derrida's philosophy to see if it really is responsible for everything that's wrong with the world.There are very few philosophies that are blamed for so much as deconstruction. Introduced by Jacques Derrida in the late 60s, deconstruction rose to popularity in the late 70s and 80s, fought a real battle to be accepted as something other than a “fad” in the early 90s, and really built up steam in the late 90s, after having been adopted by other humanities disciplines as a method of analysis and exposition. However, by the end of the 21st century aughts, deconstruction was already being edged out of favor by many of its critics and some of its heirs. Today, in 2024, deconstruction has been refigured and disfigured so dramatically that it has become a chimera. One of its faces is reductive and banal, but mostly harmless, as seen in so-called “deconstructed” dishes or clothing on reality TV. The other face, though, is hyperbolically menacing: distorting reality, poisoning discourse, undermining traditional values, and sneakily turning all of us into nonsense-babbling relativists.So what is deconstruction all about?Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-122-deconstruction-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts return to the movies to learn why men are cheaper than guns.The Magnificent Seven, produced in 1960 and directed by John Sturges, has a significant place in the history of the western in the U.S. Some have claimed that it is, in fact, the last true western. In fact, the movie practically says this itself. It is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film, The Seven Samurai, placing it in a different genre and a different cultural context. Kurosawa, apparently, told Sturges that he loved the film. The Magnificent Seven deals with questions of the use of force, the capitalist function of thieves and bandits, the meaning of courage, and the loss that war brings. And it has an amazing score, written by Elmer Bernstein. So why are we watching this film? “It seemed like a good idea at the time!”Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-121-hbs-goes-the-the-movies-the-magnificent-seven-1960-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts don their nightgowns, cozy up to the fire, and contemplate wax.There is, perhaps, no more famous statement in the history of philosophy than Rene Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.” This conclusion is reached in the Second of Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy and is seen as one of the crowning achievements of modern philosophy, at least that kind of philosophy usually called “rationalism.” In fact, this claim can be said to be the founding moment of a trajectory in philosophy that goes from Descartes, through Spinoza and Leibniz, Kant and Hegel, into Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology. It has been the target of a great deal of criticism as well. Some insist it is the origin of a dualism of mind and body. Others insist that it is the founding moment of a kind of subjectivity that is set over and against the material world. And others point to the class antagonism that is contained in the statement. Enrique Dussel goes so far as to insist that before there is the “ego cogito” there is the “ego conquero.” What does Descartes actually argue in this founding text? How does he conclude that “I exist as long as I am thinking?” And what consequences does he draw. Let’s bring Descartes into the bar and ask him WTF? Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/decartes-second-meditation/-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts discuss the meaning of trust, and how it is built, broken, and restored. Trust acts as both a glue and a sieve, holding together our personal and professional worlds while filtering and determining the depth of our relationships. It’s the invisible thread weaving through the fabric of our lives, influencing everything from the simple exchanges of daily interactions to the intricate negotiations of politics and economics. How do we establish trust? What ruptures this fragile yet resilient element? And crucially, how do we repair it once it’s been fractured? Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-119-trust -------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts ask Chris Long how philosophers contribute and how best to value their contributions. TThis week, we are joined in the bar by Christopher Long to talk about thought leaders, universities prioritizing public engagement, and the ways in which activities like podcasting are and are not valued by university administrators.Christopher P. Long is MSU Research Foundation Professor, Dean of the College of Arts & Letters, Dean of the MSU Honors College, and Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. He has written extensively on Ancient Greek Philosophy, Reiner Schürmann, and public philosophy. Most relevant, perhaps, to our listeners, is that he has written collaboratively with Rick for almost 20 years. He has been an early and strong proponent of the use of technology in research, writing, and publication of philosophical work. While we have thrown deans under the bus quite a bit in this podcast, if there have to be deans, they should all be like Chris!Full episode notes at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-118-thought-leaders-with-christopher-p-long-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS co-hosts learn why it's not just about pronouns.In recent years, society has witnessed a seismic significant shift in our understanding of gender. For some, the binary notion of gender, once seen as immutable and fixed, has given way to a more inclusive and fluid understanding of identity… a transformation that has brought to the forefront the lived experiences of transgender individuals, who have long grappled with issues of self-identity, societal acceptance, and the philosophical underpinnings of gender itself.For others, the emergence of trans issues and trans people has motivated a passionate and often violent kind of re-entrenchment. The refusal of trans recognition and trans rights, for those on the political right, is not just a matter of attitudinal disposition or theory, but actual legislation.Transgender individuals often find themselves at the intersection of various philosophical disciplines, from ethics to epistemology and metaphysics. Questions about the moral obligations society owes to its transgender members, the authenticity of one's gender identity, and the implications of gender fluidity for our understanding of reality are just a few areas in which trans philosophers have made important contributions in the past several decades. Philosophy can also be blamed—or credited, depending on one’s views—with the rise and influence of trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs, whose rhetoric and views sharply divides not only philosophy Twitter, but the discipline itself.But discussions about trans philosophy extends beyond academia into the realm of social justice and activism. Trans issues encompass a wide range of concerns, including healthcare access, legal recognition, and the protection of civil and human rights. These practical considerations are deeply rooted in philosophical discussions not only about sex and gender, but also about fairness, equality, and the social contract, adding an urgent and concrete dimension to the work of people like our guest today, Talia Mae Bettcher (California State University, Los Angeles), author of the 2019 essay "What is Trans Philosophy?".Full episode notes at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-117-trans-philosophy-with-talia-mae-bettcher-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts explore what is lost when we choose documentation over narration.We live in an era that can be said to be documented more than it is narrated. First, on the most immediate level every event, from mundane to world shattering, is photographed, live streamed, or tweeted, producing a real time account of events all over the world. Second, there is no shortage of documentaries or docudramas, every crime, scandal, and disaster seems to get its own series or podcast recounting the events that have happened. However, the same period has also been marked by a decline in stories about itself, of works of fiction or film. It is not too much of an exaggeration that we do not really have a story that could be said to be about the Gulf War, the 2008 crash, the Trump presidency, or Covid. There have been a few films about the first few entries on that list, but Covid generally only shows up in film and movies in the behind the scenes photographs which often show a crew wearing N95 masks filming unmasked actors. It appears that the closer we get to the present the harder it is to come up with convincing stories about the present. One could also argue these events seem to be already written, the shutdowns of Covid seemed to imitate every movie about plagues and social breakdown. Maybe we already made a covid movie years before it happened. In a similar manner you often hear that we are past the age of satire, Trump seems to make all satires of the stupidity and brutality of our politics from Being There to Idiocracy toothless and redundant. Are we past the point of fiction?Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-116-the-stories-we-tell-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★