Best Slavoj Zizek Podcasts (2025)

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Special: Žižek on “The Oeuvre of Slavoj Žižek” 41:11

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24d ago41:11

41:11

We just published the new issue of Crisis and Critique, which is devoted to the wok of Slavoj Žižek. Today we are excited and honoured to have Slavoj Žižek himself for this “special edition” to mark the publication of the issue of the journal. The full issue is available at the link below: https://www.crisiscritique.org/ You can listen to our podca…

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Jean-Pierre Dupuy on René Girard, doomsaying, Borges, metaphysics of time… and a lot more! 1:43:42

2h ago1:43:42

1:43:42

Frank Ruda and Agon Hamza sit down with the French philosopher Jean-Piere Dupuy to discuss his new book “Vertigos: Thinking with Borges”, the enlightened doomsaying, nuclear apocalypse, metaphysics of time, politics and economy… and much more! You can listen to our podcast here: https://anchor.fm/crisisandcritique If you like this and other episode…

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Nepal, DAOs and Secret Voting with Aragon CEO Leuts.eth 1:00:13

2h ago1:00:13

1:00:13

I spoke to Leuts.eth, CEO of Aragon, a DAO tooling protocol that gives organizations the tools to build, govern, and accrue value effectively onchain. Aragon was probably the first organization I became interested when I got into crypto since they were the first to take seriously the potential for DAOs and onchain governance, We spoke about the his…

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Žižek's Concrete Eurocentrism w/ Matthew Flisfeder 1:10:24

1d ago1:10:24

1:10:24

Alright, this week is PART ONE of our conversation with returning guest and friend of the show MATTHEW FLISFEDER author of Algorithmic Desire toward a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media. and his latest book The Hysterical Sublime: Humanism in the Age of Post-Human Capitalism. Matt is professor of Rhetoric & Communications at the University o…

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#129 The Decline of the West (Vol. II - Chapters IV-VI) - Oswald Spengler w/ Gabe Sinclair 2:09:30

4d ago2:09:30

2:09:30

Gabe Sinclair and I talk about the 'Cities and Peoples' section of the second volume of Spengler's The Decline of the West. Cities versus nomads, Spengler's particular definition of race, language, landscape, The Elder Scrolls, and a whole lot more. Gabe on X: @ezrarunnaround Tooky's Mag on X: @tookysmag VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has publishe…

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The struggle for the good life | Massimo Pigliucci on ancient philosophy for the modern era 29:29

10d ago29:29

29:29

We all want to live the good life. But how many of us can claim to be truly content? Join philosopher and evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci as he argues that pleasure, character, and a healthy dose of doubt, form the basis of the good life, and that purpose in life is crucial to realising our potential. Massimo Pigliucci is a renowned philos…

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Sleep Capricorn w/ Jack Norman 1:29:11

10d ago1:29:11

1:29:11

Sleep Capricorn is an absolutely fantastic short story collection by Jack Norman, to be published soon by Bonfire Books. Formally inventive with some of the best prose I've read in years, everyone should go get a copy from www.bonfirebooks.org. Jack on X: @Thingol2006 Jack on Substack: thingol.substack.com VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has publis…

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259 - Kenneth Roth: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and How to Shame a Dictator 1:13:32

10d ago1:13:32

1:13:32

Support our sponsor, FarmKind, to fix factory farming: https://www.farmkind.giving The code “ROBINSON” will increase your donation by 50% with a bump from large donors. Kenneth Roth is the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor at the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs. Until August 2022, he served for nearly three decade…

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Episode #236 ... Meditations - Marcus Aurelius 36:57

11d ago36:57

36:57

Today we talk about the collection of journals known as Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. We mark the differences between Stoicism, modern Stoic ethics, and the journals of Marcus Aurelius. We talk about the divine logos, indifferents, and how metaphysical assumptions ladder up into the virtue ethics of the ancient Stoics. We talk about some of the c…

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Psychedelics and the structure of reality | Julian Baggini, Eileen Hall, and James Rucker 46:51

14d ago46:51

46:51

Truth, delusion and psychedelic reality Do psychedelics reveal hidden layers of reality, or are we simply tripping? Psychedelics are back in the cultural zeitgeist, this time as a treatment for mental health issues. However, critics argue that psychedelics only work by replacing mental illness with a distorted view of reality - but, is this an accu…

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The unconscious mind: Is the unconscious real? 48:58

16d ago48:58

48:58

The unconscious has become a well-known feature of our human lived experience since Freud. We often refer to unwanted impulses, suppressed thoughts, unconscious desires, and the like. But what IS the unconscious? Is it just an easy excuse for our behaviour? Or is it a necessary piece of what it means to be human? Join our diverse and rich panel as …

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#128 Cyclomancy: The Secret of Psychic Power Control - Frank Rudolph Young w/ Capitalisimo 2:20:10

17d ago2:20:10

2:20:10

Cyclomancy: The Secret of Psychic Power Control (1966) is a self-help book written to give readers access to their Primal Autoconscious. Why would someone want access to their Primal Autoconscious? Because they want to have psychic powers. And why would anyone want psychic powers? If the examples given in this book are anything to go by, to make su…

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Episode #235 ... The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism - Byung Chul Han 38:19

22d ago38:19

38:19

Today we talk about one of Han's earlier books where he offers an alternative to classic western ideas about subjectivity. We talk about Zen as a religion without God. Substance and emptiness. Alternatives to the reified self. Dwelling nowhere. Original friendliness. And death as an event we desperately try to control. Hope you love it! :) Sponsors…

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A landscape of consciousness | Robert Lawrence Kuhn and Hilary Lawson 41:19

22d ago41:19

41:19

Will we ever reach a conclusive, agreed-upon theory of consciousness? Over the millennia of recorded history, countless stories, theories, and arguments have emerged to explain the origins of consciousness. And yet, here we are in 2025 - post-Plato, post-Descartes, post-scientific revolution - and still we don't understand the phenomenon of conscio…

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258 - Richard Wolff: Donald Trump’s Tariff War Dissected 2:07:47

24d ago2:07:47

2:07:47

Support our sponsor, FarmKind, to fix factory farming: https://www.farmkind.giving The code “ROBINSON” will increase your donation by 50% with a bump from large donors. Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tr…

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Will psychedelics revolutionize mental health treatment? | Matthew Johnson, Shayla Love, and Kevin Sabet 49:34

27d ago49:34

49:34

The psychedelic revolution Will LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, and Ketamine treatments live up to the hype? For decades, psychedelics were derided as dangerous recreational drugs; now many claim they have the potential to revolutionise the treatment of mental health. With hundreds of clinical trials now taking place, the psychedelic therapeutic market is p…

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NETWORKED REALISM: Whoever Controls the Infrastructure, Controls Reality 1:38:02

29d ago1:38:02

1:38:02

It's feeling like we're living in a very strange moment in time where liberal norms of openness have been shattered by the same class of tech industry titans who expressed these values just a decade ago. In this episode I spoke to Nick Houde and Severin Matusek from co-matter, a research and strategy studio based in Berlin, who recently published a…

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The illusion of separation | Jessica Frazier on the Monism of Hindu philosophy 24:39

29d ago24:39

24:39

Indian philosophy and the search for unity In our everyday lives we act as though we are all separate individuals, but is this really the case? Jessica Frazer argues that reality is ultimately unified, and that this shift in perspective can change the way we live our lives. It can help you lose your isolated ego and escape feelings of alienation fr…

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Critique of Pure Desire w/ Russell Sbriglia 1:00:11

29d ago1:00:11

1:00:11

⁠BUY THE ALBUM HERE! ⁠ Alright, this week we’re drinking the blood from Oedipus’s eyes with returning guest and friend of the show, the great Russell Sbriglia to talk about his new album ⁠Critique of Pure Desire⁠ which, according to Ryan Engley, sounds like if King Crimson were throwing an Eyes Wide Shut party. The album is a psychedelic mix of phi…

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#127 The Decline of the West (Vol. II - Chapters I-III) - Oswald Spengler w/ Gabe 'Faustian Extraordinaire' Sinclair 1:33:05

1M ago1:33:05

1:33:05

I (Jack) am joined by Gabe of Tooky's Mag to talk about the first three chapters of Spengler's best book: The Decline of the West, volume II. This will hopefully be a semi-regular series where we talk about a few chapters of this book in-depth. Prepare for levels of autism never seen before or since the German Conservative Revolution. Apologies for…

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The limits of nothingness | Peter van Inwagen 27:44

1M ago27:44

27:44

From philosophy to science, metaphysics to psychology, the idea of 'nothing' is central to the universe, existence and experience as a whole. But the nature of 'nothing' is even more bewildering than we might first imagine. Parmenides argued that non-being is impossible because thinking about nothing is still something. Join philosopher Peter van I…

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257 - Carl Hart: The Neuroscience of Drugs and Their Role in the Good Life 1:45:37

1M ago1:45:37

1:45:37

Carl Hart is Mamie Phipps Clark Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, where he researches the behavioral and neuropharmacological effects of psychoactive drugs in humans. In this wide-ranging conversation, Robinson and Carl discuss drugs from many different angles, touching on the neuroscience of addiction, the opioid crisis, drugs’ conne…

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Slavoj Zizek on Network States 17:21

1M ago17:21

17:21

The one and only Slavoj Zizek published a piece on Network States and of course I had to read it and share it with you all. It's normally behind a paywall on his Substack but was put on Fileverse by recent guest Naomi for all to read. Check out the article on Fileverse here. I really want to know who is in Zizek's ear talking about crypto stuff so …

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Season 7 Episode 25: Jake Departure/Season Finale/Fun Shit 1:54:47

1M ago1:54:47

1:54:47

After a four-year run on the show, Producer Jake is saying goodbye. (Although presumably he'll be saying "hello" again on some future episodes as a guest.) One of his predecessors, Producer Cale, joins us to see the lad off. Jay Zeroni, who's never been a GTAA producer but is still a good guy, joins us in the postgame for patrons. We're having some…

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Episode #234 ... The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera 35:03

1M ago35:03

35:03

Today we try to produce a philosophical guide for the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. We talk about Parmenides, Nietzsche's eternal recurrence, kitsch as something more than just an aesthetic category, existential codes and his animal test of morality. Hope you love it! :) Sponsors: ZocDoc: https://www.ZocDoc.com/PHILO Nord…

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Is free will an illusion? The chemistry of freedom | Patrick Haggard, George Ellis, Jennifer Hornsby 40:10

1M ago40:10

40:10

The question of free will - and whether we have it or not - is age-old across philosophy, religion, and human thought in general. Having free will allows us to have meaning, responsibility, reward and punishment. Yet discoveries in neuroscience have put our ability to choose, outside of a set of neuronal reactions, in question. Do we have free will…

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#126 Welcome to the Desert of the Real - Slavoj Žižek w/ Stephen G Adubato 1:10:14

2M ago1:10:14

1:10:14

Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002) is Slavoj Žižek talking about 9/11 from a Lacanian, Hegelian, Ljubljana-slobber-in-a-stained-Lenin-T-shirt perspective. For this episode, the wonderful Stephen G Adubato of Cracks in Postmodernity helped me navigate Žižek's discursive 'It feels like I'm reading five books at once' style. Cracks in Postmodern…

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Season 7 Episode 24: Meagan Day vs. the Tradwives 1:23:27

2M ago1:23:27

1:23:27

Jacobin writer and editor Meagan Day joins us to talk about what reactionary "tradwife" influencers are latching onto, and how social democracy can actually help families in a way that ugly anti-feminist culture war can't. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument on what the Epstein scandal says about our late capitalist hellscape. (No postgame to…

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How Urbit Failed with Adina Glickstein 1:05:23

2M ago1:05:23

1:05:23

In this episode, I talk with Adina Glickstein — Master’s student in Media Studies under Nathan Schneider at UC Boulder and editor-at-large at Spike Art Magazine — whose recent Compact Mag article, The Rise and Fall of Urbit finally gave me the excuse to talk about Urbit on the podcast and why its failing. We unpack what Urbit is trying to be (altho…

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Has the world gone to Hell? | Slavoj Žižek on fascism, shame, and dirty jokes 41:11

2M ago41:11

41:11

Žižek: "Trump did what The Left couldn't" As we look around at the state of the modern world, it's very easy to get disheartened - and that's putting it lightly! From pointless wars and endless suffering to the decline of social bonds and trustworthy institutions, there really is a lot to get you down. Fortunately, maverick philosopher Slavoj Žižek…