PlasticPills - Philosophy & Critical Theory Podcast

Jan 21 2025 210 ep. 56 mins 1.3k
PlasticPills - Philosophy & Critical Theory Podcast artwork

The Pill Pod is hosted by a group of PhDs offering their irreverent (and unsolicited) takes on critical theory, philosophy, culture, and politics.

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Pill Pod 197 - "Never were we freer than under Nazi Occupation..." (preview)

Jan 21 2025 8 mins  
This is a preview of an episode on Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism. Find it at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. Please join us to support the show and get all our episodes!

Finally! New Translation of Marx's CAPITAL is out! Interview w/ Paul Reitter

Jan 15 2025 90 mins  
Paul Reitter just finished the first translation of Marx's Capital this century. He joins our episode to educate us on why we need a new version, the difficulties of rendering Capital in English, and of course who's mad at him. Watch the interview here (video): https://youtu.be/pG0rQi6JwkUBuy-the-book link: https://amzn.to/3PvOiwcAll public episodes are ad free on patreon at https:

Pill Pod 192 - Marxism vs. Ideology: Althusser

Jan 03 2025 79 mins  
This is the big one and it's hard to believe we haven't done this particular essay before, but it's the linchpin for the critical theory use of the term "ideology." Check the patreon feed for the pdf if you want to check the source text, and to listen ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills

Pill Pod 191 - Marxism vs. Humanism (ft. Diego Ruzzarin)

Dec 27 2024 83 mins  
This episode is based on an article Althusser wrote in the 60s, Marxism and Humanism, which you can find in "For Marx." He declares that Marxism and Humanism are fundamentally incompatible, which we all agree on because our liberal was at a conference this week.Get all the eps upon release with no ads at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pill Pod 190 - What is Ideology really?

Dec 20 2024 77 mins  
We read Althusser's "Marxism and Humanism," an Essay from his 1965 collection For Marx in which he declares the two fundamentally incompatible. We didn't make it far into the essay because we were having terminological disputes, but we shall return in finer detail soon.Get all the eps upon release with no ads at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pill Pod 195 - Luigi's Mansion

Dec 16 2024 61 mins  
There's big news on the news, and we thought we would take a poke at interpreting this event—if in fact it is one—and giving it an ideological status. Catch up on the whole series on ideology ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

REWIND - Althusser I (Pill Pod 115)

Dec 13 2024 85 mins  
We have been talking about Althusser once again on the Pod, and in advance of our new dive we are re-releasing an episode about why Althusser might be important.

Pill Pod 189 - Theorizing America's Trump Vote

Nov 08 2024 75 mins  
The federal union of the United States has decided to elect Presinald Trump as its leader from the years 2025-2029, as God wills.Here, three Canadians provide you with unsolicited opinions about the meaning of this event or lack thereof.Find this content ad-free for free at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pill Pod 186 - The Post-Political Singularity Everywhere (preview)

Oct 30 2024 11 mins  
Today we take the temperature of all the new futures popping up—the various Acc/s, the radical democracies, the Christofascists, and the Magacomms—and psychoanalyze them as all sharing one trait: they're too optimistic to be believed.Get all the full episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pill Pod 185 - Bataille on Fascist Psychology (preview)

Oct 04 2024 10 mins  
In 1933, Bataille linked Durkheim's sociology and psychoanalysis to the rise of fascism over the border. The parallels to the present moment are hard to miss.Get the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills