Best Sophistry Podcasts (2025)

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Sophistry 55:36

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14d ago55:36

55:36

Bad arguments are nothing new, so why does it appear as if they have become so pervasive in public discourse? When we watch so-called "debate" videos with titles like "Conservative professor DESTROYS woke student" or "Liberal pundit OWNS Conservative Senator," are we actually watching a rational debate? Is anyone learning anything in these exchange…

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Nostalgia 52:46

7d ago52:46

52:46

"Nostalgia" is a portmanteau coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer, combining the Greek nostros (homecoming) and algos (pain, ache). Hofer was a medical student, and he invented this term to describe a kind of melancholia, a somewhat depressive state–- and so, from its inception, "nostalgia" was viewed as a mood disorder. For the Romantics, it was a sen…

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The Enshittification of... everything? 1:03:08

21d ago1:03:08

1:03:08

This week’s episode takes Cory Doctorow’s term “enshittification” and uses it as a diagnostic for late-capitalist life, not just for tech platforms but for democracy, higher education, and work more broadly. Our co-hosts unpack Doctorow’s three-stage model—platforms start out good to users, then pivot to serving business customers, and finally sque…

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Quiet Resistance (with Tamara Fakhoury) 56:46

28d ago56:46

56:46

Many of us think of resistance as "protest," communicative acts aimed at fighting injustice, and done with others in public. But what happens when that kind of resistance isn’t possible or safe? When showing up, or waving a sign, or making a public speech might get you jailed, or silenced, or disappeared? Is it possible to resist oppression without…

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Therapy 58:12

1M ago58:12

58:12

What does it mean to be “well-adjusted” in a society that might itself be profoundly unwell? And when we use therapy-speak to explain everything from bad relationships to bad politics, do we risk losing sight of moral responsibility for bad behavior altogether? Is self-knowledge even possible in a world built on historical and political denial? Gra…

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Furious Minds (with Laura K. Field) 1:02:15

1M ago1:02:15

1:02:15

This week’s episode of Hotel Bar Sessions brings political theorist Laura K. Field (author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right) into the bar to talk about the intellectuals cranking the rhetoric up to eleven while insisting they’re just “doing Great Books.” We follow the trail from Straussian seminar rooms and conservative think tank…

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Imagination (with Stephen T. Asma) 58:11

2M ago58:11

58:11

The imagination has regularly been subordinated to so-called "rational" or "scientific" models of thought. This week, we're joined by Stephen T. Asma (Columbia College, Chicago), who argues that imagination has deep, perhaps pre-linguistic, roots that ought to be recovered. What if we re-centered the powers of imagination, rooted in imagistic think…

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Comedy 1:00:00

2M ago1:00:00

1:00:00

This week’s episode of Hotel Bar Sessions on the topic of comedy is a gut buster, not least because one of your co-hosts pretends to be a stand-up comedian at night-- the only job for a philosopher that pays less than being an adjunct professor! Comedy is a historically and philosophically rich topic, starting with primitive hominids drawing penise…

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The Hills We Die on 1:09:44

2M ago1:09:44

1:09:44

How do we choose the "hills" that we're willing to die on? Are we actually willing to DIE on them? If not, what would it take to convince us to climb back down the hill and compromise? This week , our co-hosts are digging deep into the question of our "deepest commitments," trying to find where there is room for compromise, and where the lines we d…

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Meet the NEW Co-Hosts! 39:41

2M ago39:41

39:41

How do we choose the "hills" that we're willing to die on? Are we actually willing to DIE on them? If not, what would it take to convince us to climb back down the hill and compromise? This week , our co-hosts are digging deep into the question of our "deepest commitments," trying to find where there is room for compromise, and where the lines we d…

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Eternity 1:04:30

3M ago1:04:30

1:04:30

What does it mean to speak of eternity? Is eternity best understood as infinite time, stretching endlessly forward and backward, or as something wholly outside of time—a changeless, timeless "eternal now"? In this episode, the hosts wrestle with these competing conceptions, drawing on philosophy, theology, and personal experience to ask whether ete…

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Crowds and Mobs 50:33

3M ago50:33

50:33

What makes the difference between a crowd singing in unison at a concert and a mob storming the gates of power? In this episode, the hosts take listeners into the messy, unpredictable space where solidarity teeters on the edge of chaos. They unpack how naming a gathering as a “mob” is never neutral—it does political work, shaping both public percep…

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Free Will (with Mark Balaguer) 1:00:53

3M ago1:00:53

1:00:53

When we make choices, are these choices free? That is, are we able to choose one thing over another, to do one thing rather than another, independent of the laws of physics, including the biology and chemistry of our bodies and brains? Or are all of our choices determined by processes that could, in theory, be traced back to deterministic causes, i…

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How The Manosphere Killed Cool (with Robin James) 1:03:38

3M ago1:03:38

1:03:38

This week, we're joined by scholar, editor, and philosopher, Robin James, to talk about her provocative recent essay entitled “We’re through being Cool: Tech Bros, Manosphere Influencers, Ancient Greek Masculinity, and AI,” posted at James' blog, It’s Her Factory. When we think about "cool," we think about effortless, confident, style... but being …

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The "Expertise" Crisis 57:59

4M ago57:59

57:59

Today, there seems to be an intense distrust of experts in all sorts of fields. From medical experts in the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services, to “elite intellectuals” at Universities and Colleges, no one who has expertise is beyond suspicion. We hear that we should “do our own research” and not trust what …

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MINIBAR: Cancer 20:58

4M ago20:58

20:58

Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar" sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in the interim This week, listen to HBS co-host Talia Mae Bettcher talk about her recent run-in with cancer, and the long, dark night of the soul it inspired. Full episode notes available at this link: ht…

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MINIBAR: In Defense of Metaphysics 16:58

4M ago16:58

16:58

Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar: sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in the interim This week, listen to HBS co-host Rick Lee talk about what metaphysics really is, how it's often misunderstood, and why it's so important. Full episode notes available at this link: https://…

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MINIBAR: Living in Occupied D.C. 14:38

4M ago14:38

14:38

Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar: sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in the interim This week, listen to HBS co-host Leigh M. Johnson talk about what it's like to live in "occupied" D.C. as a new resident. Full episode notes available at this link: https://hotelbarpodcast.…

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Arendt's "Banality of Evil" 1:05:34

4M ago1:05:34

1:05:34

This week, the HBS hosts discuss Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil. In 1961, Adolf Eichmann was put on trial in Israel for crimes against humanity and crimes against the Jewish People. The philosopher Hannah Arendt covered the trial for The New Yorker. Her articles were collected in the book Eichmann in Jerusalem, which had the subtit…

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Major Life Changes 1:00:41

5M ago1:00:41

1:00:41

In this week’s episode, the HBS hosts talk about positive and negative major life changes. While change is a part of life, major changes can cause major upheavals in one’s sense of oneself in relation to the world. Indeed, they may teach us to perceive life anew. What might such changes show us, if anything, about traditional philosophical concepts…

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Doomscrolling 1:00:18

5M ago1:00:18

1:00:18

We all doomscroll. Often late at night, we scroll through social media or news feeds for a “minute,” which turns into hours. We seem to be chasing bad news. What are we looking for, if anything? What do we hope to get out of it? Is this a bad habit, or are there good aspects to it? Doomscrolling just might be changing our sense of time, of responsi…

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NPC Energy 1:10:19

5M ago1:10:19

1:10:19

Are you even playing the game? In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, co-hosts Rick Lee, Talia Mae Bettcher, and Leigh M. Johnson dive deep into the meme-turned-metaphor of “NPC Energy,” unpacking its cultural roots and existential weight. Originally a gaming term describing non-player characters who move on rails and repeat scripted lines, “NPC En…

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Public Philosophy (with Kate Manne) 1:01:51

5M ago1:01:51

1:01:51

Is public philosophy just academic outreach in a new outfit, or is it something else entirely? In this episode, we're joined by Kate Manne (Cornell University) to ask what happens when philosophers leave their usual habitats and try to meet people where they actually live. We talk about the push to be legible outside the profession, the risk of bei…

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Silence 1:03:19

6M ago1:03:19

1:03:19

What do we mean when we talk about silence? Is it the absence of sound—or something more complicated? In this episode, we dig into the many meanings of silence: as a weapon and as a refuge, as an imposed condition and a chosen strategy. We consider the roles silence plays in protest, punishment, pedagogy, intimacy, and oppression, and ask whether s…

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The War on "Radical Ideology" 55:37

6M ago55:37

55:37

This week, we're unpacking the Trump administration’s war on so-called “radical ideology”—a campaign targeting what it calls “gender ideology” and “equity ideology.” We explore what these terms are meant to signal, what work they do rhetorically and politically, and how they function to delegitimize trans and BIPOC lives. Drawing from Marxist accou…

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Sovereignty 56:32

6M ago56:32

56:32

Who or what rules the world today? And by what right? In this episode, your favorite philosophers-on-tap—Talia Bettcher, Rick Lee, and Leigh M. Johnson—pull back the curtain on one of political theory’s most enduring (and most elusive) concepts: sovereignty. From dusty monarchs and divine right to corporations, constitutions, and contested rights, …

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Interpretation 1:12:28

6M ago1:12:28

1:12:28

The central debate this week? Whether interpretation goes “all the way down.” Leigh stakes out a position, arguing that even the simplest acts of clarification are interpretive performances grounded in systems of meaning. Talia, donning her analytic hat, pushes back hard—insisting that certain discursive acts, like clarifications and first-person a…

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Panic Now? (with Ira Allen) 1:04:53

7M ago1:04:53

1:04:53

Is it time to panic? In this episode, we invite rhetorician Ira Allen to the bar to explore the possibility that, yes, it might be—and that panic isn’t just an irrational breakdown but a vital, even necessary, affective response to the ongoing collapse we’re all living through. Allen’s recent book Panic! Now: Tools for Humanizing in an Age of Stagg…

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Private Parts 57:04

7M ago57:04

57:04

How can we talk, or think, about "private parts" in a philosophical way? In this provocative and unexpectedly tender episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, co-hosts Leigh M. Johnson, Rick Lee, and Talia Mae Bettcher unpack the philosophical complexities of “private parts.” What starts as a playful premise quickly becomes a deep exploration of bodily privac…

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The Future of the University 1:16:40

7M ago1:16:40

1:16:40

Can the University be saved? Should it be saved? In this sobering and timely episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, co-hosts Leigh M. Johnson, Rick Lee, and Talia Mae Bettcher tackle the existential crisis facing higher education in the U.S. and beyond. Nothing is off limits in this conversation! From the increasing defunding of universities to their align…

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Cringe 1:05:07

7M ago1:05:07

1:05:07

In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, your favorite philosophical trio—Leigh Johnson, Rick Lee, and Talia Bettcher—dive headfirst into the squirmy, complicated world of cringe. From wedding speeches gone wrong to tone-deaf icebreaker confessions, they unpack the peculiar affective cocktail we experience when someone's self-presentation dramaticall…

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Tragic Temporality (with Sean Kirkland) 1:06:37

7M ago1:06:37

1:06:37

Sean Kirkland unpacks living on the edge of "was" and "not yet." What if time isn’t just something we move through—but something that shapes us, wounds us, and makes us who we are? In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Leigh and Rick sit down with philosopher Sean D. Kirkland (DePaul University), author of Aristotle and Tragic Temporality, to talk…

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What is Philosophy? 59:37

8M ago59:37

59:37

In this season-opening episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Rick Lee and Leigh Johnson welcome new co-host Talia Mae Bettcher, a leading voice in trans philosophy and feminist theory, to dive into the deceptively simple but persistently perplexing question: What is philosophy? This wide-ranging conversation explores whether philosophy is defined by its m…

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REPLAY: Zionist ressentiment, the Left, and the Palestinian Question (with Zahi Zalloua) 1:02:54

8M ago1:02:54

1:02:54

What can Frantz Fanon and Friedrich Nietzsche teach us about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? [NOTE: This episode originally aired on October 11, 2024.] This week, we're joined by Zahi Zalloua (Whitman College) to discuss the final chapter of his most recent book The Politics of the Wretched: Race, Reason, and Ressentiment (Bloomsbury, 2024)-- ent…

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REPLAY: Trans Philosophy (with Talia Mae Bettcher) 58:16

8M ago58:16

58:16

The HBS co-hosts learn why it's not just about pronouns. [This episode originally aired in November 2023.] 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… …

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Fearless Speech (Foucault on Parrhesia) 1:07:28

8M ago1:07:28

1:07:28

Who, if anyone, is speaking truth to power these days? In the Season 12 finale of Hotel Bar Sessions, we take a deep dive into Michel Foucault’s late lectures on parrhesia, the ancient Greek concept of "fearless speech." But don’t be fooled—this isn’t a dusty historical exercise. With campuses erupting in protest, free speech weaponized by the powe…

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Are Universals "Real"? 50:52

9M ago50:52

50:52

Do universals “exist”? Are they real? And why are we talking about porcupines so much?! In this episode, Leigh, Rick, and Devonya dive headfirst into one of philosophy’s oldest and knottiest questions: Is “porcupine-ness” a real thing, or just a name we slap on pointy animals? Starting with the simple question of what makes a beer a beer (and not a…

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Totalitarianism (with Peg Birmingham) 49:56

9M ago49:56

49:56

Can democracy be saved from totalitarianism? In this episode, the co-hosts are joined by political theorist Dr. Peg Birmingham (DePaul University) for an urgent discussion on the topic of totalitarianism. Starting with a critique of what counts as “the people” in democratic systems, our conversation unpacks the entanglement of nationalism and racis…

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El roto, Lo huachafo, Lo jodido (with Carlos Amador) 57:34

9M ago57:34

57:34

Carlos Amador on Latin American aesthetics, precarity, and what it means to be completely f*cked. In this episode, the HBS crew welcomes Carlos Amador—Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature at the University at Buffalo SUNY—for a raw and wide-ranging conversation about lo jodido: the aesthetic, politica…

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The Establishment Clause 54:01

9M ago54:01

54:01

This week, we're pulling up a seat at the intersection of faith, governance, and democracy as we take on the Establishment Clause—that little First Amendment provision that’s supposed to keep church and state in their own lanes. But is that how it’s really playing out? Leigh, Rick, and Devonya dig into the history and contemporary implications of t…

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DEI Then and Now (with Paul Breines) 55:30

10M ago55:30

55:30

Who's afraid of DEI? And why? Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives have become institutional mainstays in corporate and academic settings—but they are currently under attack. In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Leigh and Devonya sit down with Freedom Rider and retired Associate Professor of History at Boston College…

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Decorum 56:54

10M ago56:54

56:54

When does decorum keep us civil-- and when does it keep us silent? From courtroom etiquette to the Oval Office, from department meetings to NFL sidelines, decorum shapes our public interactions—but who gets to decide what counts as “proper” behavior? In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Rick, Leigh, and Devonya take on the contested role of decor…

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Unruly Identity (with Falguni Sheth) 1:05:39

10M ago1:05:39

1:05:39

Who gets to decide who we are? In this episode, Rick Lee and Devonya Havis pull up a chair with philosopher and political theorist Falguni Sheth to talk about the ways identity is shaped, claimed, and—more often than not—forced upon us. From census categories and legal definitions to personal choices and political struggles, they dig into the tensi…

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Ambiguity 58:19

10M ago58:19

58:19

When nothing is clear, how do we decide? Many people prefer their morality to be straightforward—right or wrong, good or bad, clear as day. But more often than not, human life is a mess of contradictions, competing values, and gray areas. In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Rick, Leigh, and Devonya wade into the murky waters of ambiguity—what it…

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Trust 59:15

11M ago59:15

59:15

Can anyone be trusted anymore? Trust is the glue that holds our social world together, yet it’s one of the most fragile bonds we have. In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Rick, Leigh, and Devonya dive into the complexities of trust—what it means, how it functions, and why it’s so easy to break but so difficult to restore. From everyday acts of t…

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Judgment 1:02:27

11M ago1:02:27

1:02:27

Who gets to judge right and wrong? And on what grounds? In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Leigh, Rick, and Devonya talk about judgment—what it is, when we need it, and whether it’s a skill or just a faculty of reason. They start with Aristotle’s distinction between knowledge and judgment, move through Kant’s ideas about moral and aesthetic jud…

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Responsibility 1:02:52

11M ago1:02:52

1:02:52

How, and for what, are we responsible? What does it even mean to be responsible? Is it about blame? Credit? Or something else entirely? Leigh, Devonya, and Rick hash it out over drinks, tackling everything from personal accountability to collective responsibility, and digging into big questions about freedom, moral agency, and how our social and po…

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Authority 1:05:26

11M ago1:05:26

1:05:26

Is ChatGPT usurping the authority of the "Author"? Or is it just a pretender to the throne? We're opening up the question of "authority" to extend well beyond the usual suspects of kings, generals, or politicians. To borrow a line from Tennyson's poetry: “authority forgets the dying King.” That is, power begins to slip from the grasp of political a…

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Revenge 58:44

11M ago58:44

58:44

The HBS co-hosts savor the complexities of a dish best served cold. Is revenge ever ethical? Can it be a form of justice, or is it always about personal satisfaction? In this episode, Rick Lee, Leigh Johnson, and Devonya Havis take a deep dive into the philosophy of revenge. From the timeless allure of stories like Kill Bill and The Count of Monte …

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Virtue 58:04

12M ago58:04

58:04

Is "virtue" an outdated concept? And why is there a bear in this classroom?! This week at the hotel bar, Rick, Devonya, and Leigh are digging deep into the idea of virtue. What does it mean to be virtuous? How do we cultivate virtues? Are they timeless ideals or shaped by culture and history? We talk about Aristotle, sure, but we’re also unpacking …