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Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Continental philosophy and psychoanalysis • Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Lacan, Žižek • desire, anxiety, narcissism, symptom, superego, gaze/voice • capitalism, public sphere, structural violence, race • film/TV genre and auteur theory, narrative form/endingsThis podcast brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory into sustained conversation in order to interpret cultural forms and contemporary political life. Across the show, the hosts offer close readings of major texts in the philosophical canon—especially Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, and Lacan—working through key sections, concepts, and argumentative structures, and tracing how later thinkers inherit, revise, or break from them. Psychoanalytic ideas recur as interpretive tools, including the symptom, anxiety, narcissism, group formation, the superego, objet a, extimacy, gaze and voice, and the relation between desire, law, and enjoyment.
Alongside this conceptual work, the podcast regularly treats film, television, and literature as privileged sites for theory. Discussions range from auteur-focused and career-spanning considerations of prominent filmmakers and performers to analyses of genres and narrative forms such as horror, heist, sports films, musicals, Christmas movies, prequels, endings, the television episode, and the modernist novel. These cultural objects are used to clarify theoretical claims about form, repetition, cuts and breaks in narrative, spectatorship, and the way ideology and fantasy structure experience.
The show also addresses explicitly political and social questions—structural violence, race and inequality, euphemism, the erosion of public life, capitalism and alienation, and debates about “common sense”—often linking them to psychoanalytic accounts of group identification and to philosophical problems of contradiction, universality, and moral law. Contemporary concerns such as artificial intelligence in higher education are analyzed through these same theoretical frameworks.
| Episodes: |
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Ambition 2026-Apr-13 71 minutes |
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Transcendental Analytic (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason) 2026-Mar-29 80 minutes |
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Rob Reiner: An Overview 2026-Mar-15 88 minutes |
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Transcendental Deduction (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason) 2026-Mar-02 84 minutes |
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Transcendental Aesthetic (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason) 2026-Feb-15 74 minutes |
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Superegoic Enjoyment 2026-Feb-01 82 minutes |
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Structural Violence 2026-Jan-19 76 minutes |
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Pluribus 2026-Jan-04 71 minutes |
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Millennium Christmas 2025-Dec-21 80 minutes |
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The Episode 2025-Dec-07 71 minutes |
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Lacan's Seminar 19: ...or Worse 2025-Nov-23 75 minutes |
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Lacan's Seminar 18: On a Discourse... 2025-Nov-09 75 minutes |
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Voice 2025-Oct-26 72 minutes |
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Gaze 2025-Oct-12 83 minutes |
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Robert Redford 2025-Sep-28 101 minutes |
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The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte 2025-Sep-15 75 minutes |
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1844 Manuscripts 2025-Sep-01 77 minutes |
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The End of History 2025-Aug-17 73 minutes |
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Top Ten TV Series of the 21st Century 2025-Aug-04 111 minutes |
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Top Ten Films of the 21st Century 2025-Jul-20 106 minutes |
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The Musical 2025-Jul-07 87 minutes |
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Common Sense 2025-Jun-22 75 minutes |
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On Narcissism 2025-Jun-08 79 minutes |
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Group Psychology 2025-May-26 74 minutes |
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Racecraft 2025-May-11 73 minutes |
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A.I. 2025-Apr-28 81 minutes |
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Slavoj Žižek: An Overview 2025-Apr-13 79 minutes |
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Euphemism 2025-Mar-30 71 minutes |
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The Symptom 2025-Mar-16 75 minutes |
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The Public 2025-Mar-03 83 minutes |
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Embracing the Void 2025-Feb-17 75 minutes |
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Lacan's Seminar 16: From an Other... 2025-Feb-02 82 minutes |
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David Lynch 2025-Jan-20 101 minutes |
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Seminar X: Anxiety 2025-Jan-05 78 minutes |
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Lesbian Christmas 2024-Dec-20 95 minutes |
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Hegelian Praxis 2024-Dec-08 77 minutes |
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The Beautiful Soul 2024-Nov-25 73 minutes |
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Hegel & Feminism 2024-Nov-11 77 minutes |
Aufhebung (Sublation)2024-Oct-26 74 minutes |
Contemporary Horror2024-Oct-14 107 minutes |
Fredric Jameson2024-Sep-29 74 minutes |
Horror Film2024-Sep-16 89 minutes |
Heist Film2024-Sep-02 92 minutes |
Sports Film2024-Aug-18 101 minutes |
New Introductory Lectures2024-Aug-04 82 minutes |
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis2024-Jul-22 79 minutes |
Suture2024-Jul-09 73 minutes |
Extimacy2024-Jun-23 73 minutes |
Prequel2024-Jun-11 74 minutes |
Modernist Novel2024-May-27 77 minutes |
Endings2024-May-11 85 minutes |
Parallax View2024-Apr-28 72 minutes |
Lacan's Seminar 11: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis2024-Apr-13 86 minutes |
Lacan's Seminar 7: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis2024-Mar-30 88 minutes |
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Introduction2024-Mar-16 78 minutes |
Blue Velvet2024-Mar-03 79 minutes |
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Preface2024-Feb-18 80 minutes |
Symbolic Castration2024-Feb-05 91 minutes |
Dialectical Reversal2024-Jan-22 75 minutes |
Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations2024-Jan-08 70 minutes |
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus2023-Dec-24 85 minutes |
1980s Christmas2023-Dec-12 82 minutes |
Discourse on Method2023-Nov-26 68 minutes |
Envy2023-Nov-13 72 minutes |
Science Fiction Cinema2023-Nov-02 95 minutes |
Monadology2023-Oct-12 78 minutes |
The Prince2023-Oct-01 74 minutes |
Surplus Enjoyment2023-Sep-16 76 minutes |
Surplus Value2023-Sep-02 78 minutes |
Oppenheimer2023-Aug-19 81 minutes |
Barbie2023-Aug-05 90 minutes |
Creative Writers & Daydreaming2023-Jul-22 79 minutes |
Uncanny2023-Jul-10 74 minutes |
Poststructuralism2023-Jun-24 77 minutes |
Tribute to Mari Ruti2023-Jun-12 71 minutes |
Succession2023-May-29 84 minutes |
Bottle Episode2023-May-28 83 minutes |
Beyond Good and Evil2023-May-15 76 minutes |
The Racist Fantasy2023-Apr-30 74 minutes |
Twitter2023-Apr-16 73 minutes |
The Radical Western2023-Mar-31 95 minutes |
Western2023-Mar-18 90 minutes |
Critique of Dialectical Reason2023-Mar-05 87 minutes |
Analysis Terminable & Interminable2023-Feb-18 80 minutes |
Negation2023-Feb-05 76 minutes |
Being and Nothingness Side B2023-Jan-23 80 minutes |
Being and Nothingness Side A2023-Jan-08 80 minutes |
Misfit Christmas2022-Dec-21 79 minutes |
Debt2022-Dec-10 72 minutes |
Enjoyment Right & Left2022-Nov-26 82 minutes |
Technology2022-Nov-12 79 minutes |
Love2022-Oct-29 91 minutes |
Badiou2022-Oct-15 73 minutes |
Event2022-Oct-02 77 minutes |
Neurosis2022-Sep-17 81 minutes |
Hegel's Absolute Knowing2022-Sep-04 80 minutes |
Hegel's Religion2022-Aug-20 76 minutes |
Screwball Comedy2022-Aug-06 87 minutes |
Mourning and Melancholia2022-Jul-23 87 minutes |
Wild Psychoanalysis2022-Jul-09 80 minutes |
Abortion Theory2022-Jun-25 80 minutes |
Quilting Point2022-Jun-11 82 minutes |
Lacan's Seminar 3: The Psychoses2022-May-29 84 minutes |
Hamlet2022-May-14 91 minutes |
Streaming2022-May-01 75 minutes |
The Woman Doesn't Exist (Aphorism 8)2022-Apr-17 72 minutes |
Film Noir2022-Apr-03 81 minutes |
Dualism & Multiplicity2022-Mar-19 75 minutes |
Mystic Writing Pad2022-Mar-06 74 minutes |
Beyond the Pleasure Principle2022-Feb-20 71 minutes |
Superhero Film2022-Feb-07 74 minutes |
Hegel's Spirit2022-Jan-22 80 minutes |
Metalanguage (Aphorism 7)2022-Jan-08 77 minutes |
The Christmas Film2021-Dec-23 78 minutes |
Casablanca2021-Dec-12 81 minutes |
Retroactivity2021-Nov-27 74 minutes |
Id2021-Nov-14 75 minutes |
Ego2021-Oct-31 71 minutes |
Superego2021-Oct-17 79 minutes |
Dialectic of Enlightenment2021-Oct-03 76 minutes |
Introduction to Biopower2021-Sep-19 78 minutes |
Heidegger and Hegel2021-Sep-05 74 minutes |
Breaking Bad2021-Aug-22 79 minutes |
Twin Peaks The Return2021-Aug-09 93 minutes |
Four Discourses2021-Jul-25 77 minutes |
Read My Desire, Pt. 3: Sex, Difference, Relation2021-Jul-12 101 minutes |
Read My Desire, Pt. 2: Democracy, Anxiety, Film Noir2021-Jun-27 87 minutes |
Graduate School2021-Jun-27 92 minutes |
Read My Desire, Pt. 1: Gaze and Excess2021-Jun-13 78 minutes |
Sublime Object of Ideology2021-May-30 83 minutes |
Alexandre Kojeve2021-May-17 84 minutes |
Psychoanalysis & Narrative2021-May-02 78 minutes |
Alienation2021-Apr-18 69 minutes |
Hegel's Reason2021-Apr-04 81 minutes |
Feminism & Psychoanalysis with Mari Ruti2021-Mar-21 79 minutes |
Screen Memories2021-Mar-07 72 minutes |
Civilization and Its Discontents2021-Feb-22 86 minutes |
Jouissance2021-Feb-06 80 minutes |
Lacan's Seminar 2: The Ego in Freud's Theory...2021-Jan-24 93 minutes |
Domestic Terrorism2021-Jan-10 78 minutes |
Tenet2021-Jan-02 78 minutes |
Popular Music2020-Dec-21 93 minutes |
German Idealism2020-Dec-09 92 minutes |
Hegel's Self-Consciousness2020-Nov-24 75 minutes |
Election Special2020-Nov-08 71 minutes |
Deleuze after Guattari2020-Nov-02 91 minutes |
Deleuze Before Guattari2020-Oct-19 78 minutes |
Deleuze with Guattari2020-Oct-05 99 minutes |
Imaginary2020-Sep-20 73 minutes |
Symbolic Order2020-Sep-06 77 minutes |
The Real2020-Aug-23 74 minutes |
Lacan's Seminar 1: Freud's Papers on Technique2020-Aug-09 78 minutes |
Aura2020-Jul-26 77 minutes |
Competing Universalities2020-Jul-14 81 minutes |
Interpassivity2020-Jun-28 77 minutes |
Big Other (Aphorism 6)2020-Jun-14 74 minutes |
Capitalism & Racism2020-Jun-03 69 minutes |
Hegel's Consciousness2020-May-23 73 minutes |
Oedipus Complex2020-May-09 75 minutes |
Missing Signifier2020-Apr-24 71 minutes |
Zaddy Fascism2020-Apr-18 69 minutes |
Penis Envy2020-Apr-04 70 minutes |
Coronavirus and Its Discontents2020-Mar-21 77 minutes |
Unconscious (Aphorism 5)2020-Mar-11 74 minutes |
Kant and Freedom2020-Feb-23 80 minutes |
Mirror Stage2020-Feb-08 85 minutes |
New Materialisms2020-Jan-23 74 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Aesthetics2020-Jan-08 79 minutes |
objet a2019-Dec-24 97 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Existentialism2019-Dec-07 77 minutes |
Hegel and Race2019-Nov-18 72 minutes |
Defending Freud (side B)2019-Nov-07 71 minutes |
Defending Freud (side A)2019-Oct-23 71 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Capitalism2019-Oct-09 75 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Disability2019-Sep-20 75 minutes |
Mad Men2019-Sep-01 84 minutes |
Incels, Misogyny, and Castration2019-Aug-14 81 minutes |
Signifier Vs. Sign (Aphorism 4)2019-Jul-30 87 minutes |
Contradiction2019-Jul-08 83 minutes |
An Afternoon with Slavoj Zizek -- Hegel2019-Jun-24 98 minutes |
An Afternoon with Slavoj Zizek -- Lacan2019-Jun-10 82 minutes |
An Afternoon with Slavoj Zizek -- Marx2019-May-29 81 minutes |
Immediacy2019-May-14 70 minutes |
A Signifier for the Left2019-May-07 76 minutes |
Us2019-Apr-20 83 minutes |
Cynicism (Aphorism 3)2019-Apr-05 69 minutes |
Conspiracy Theories2019-Mar-21 76 minutes |
Sexuation (Aphorism 2)2019-Mar-04 70 minutes |
Ethics of Psychoanalysis (Aphorism 1)2019-Feb-10 74 minutes |
Psychoanalysis and Racism2019-Jan-26 74 minutes |
Preface to Hegel's Phenomenology2019-Jan-08 74 minutes |
Secular Morality2018-Dec-30 71 minutes |
Theoretically Christmas (side B)2018-Dec-16 74 minutes |
Theoretically Christmas (side A)2018-Dec-12 73 minutes |
(Neo)liberalism2018-Nov-21 77 minutes |
Das Ding2018-Nov-12 70 minutes |
Rupture2018-Oct-29 81 minutes |
Surveillance, Punishment, Crime2018-Oct-12 72 minutes |
Dialectics2018-Oct-05 65 minutes |
Desire & Drive2018-Sep-15 62 minutes |
Political Enjoyment2018-Aug-31 66 minutes |
Master Signifier2018-Aug-16 66 minutes |
The Universal and The Particular2018-Jul-27 56 minutes |
Where to Start 3: Heidegger, Badiou, Agamben, Butler, Derrida2018-Jul-14 63 minutes |
Sports: Ideology, Enjoyment, Contradiction2018-Jun-17 58 minutes |
Where to Start 2: Hegel, Marx, Fanon, Deleuze, Foucault2018-May-18 68 minutes |
Where to Start 1: The Psychoanalytic Theorists2018-May-09 88 minutes |
CGI, Anxiety, The Last Jedi2018-Apr-19 74 minutes |
The Oscars in 2018 and Beyond2018-Feb-28 71 minutes |
Ideology2018-Feb-01 62 minutes |
Seriality2018-Jan-09 65 minutes |
Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be2017-Dec-26 55 minutes |
Fake News2017-Dec-05 56 minutes |
LACK 2017: Social Tie, Universality, Plus, Arrival2017-Nov-11 73 minutes |
Blade Runner 20492017-Oct-23 83 minutes |
Theories of Comedy2017-Oct-23 67 minutes |