Overthink

Have you ever wanted to go on a road trip with the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan? After listening to this episode, you certainly won’t! In episode 119 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about the experience of driving and the moral and social dilemmas involved with it. How does driving alter our relationship with time and space? What is the “long distance truck driver problem”, and what does it have to do with animal consciousness? And how should we respond to the rise in self-driving cars? Buckle in and get ready for this ride into the philosophy of driving. Plus, in the bonus they dive deeper into the ethics of self-driving cars, exploring the repercussions hacking could have on self-driving cars. What moral philosophy should be programmed into the self-driving vehicles of the future? And who gets to decide?Check out the episode's extended cut here!Works Discussed:David Armstrong, A Materialist Theory of The MindKenneth Jackson, The Crabgrass FrontierStamatis Karnouskos, “Self-Driving Car Acceptance and the Rule of Ethics”Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of PerceptionCatherine Millot, Life with LacanLynne Pearce, DrivetimeWilliam Ratoff, “Self-driving Cars and the Right to Drive”Mark Rowlands, Animal Rights: Moral Theory and PracticePaul Virilio, Speed and Politics: An Essay on DromologyJamieson Webster, “Riding in Cars with Jacques Lacan”Andreas Wolkenstein, “What has the Trolley Dilemma ever done for us (and what will it do in the future)? On some recent debates about the ethics of self- driving cars”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | [email protected] | Overthink podcast

Get comfy as you listen to this episode! In episode 118 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss all things comfortable…and uncomfortable. They talk through the conflation of comfort and luxury, modern architecture’s prioritization of comfort, and whether our need for comfort is the reason for our burning planet. With everything from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to “the comfort-industrial complex,” this episode will have you questioning what it takes for us to lead a full and happy life. Plus, in the bonus they get into the meaning of the phrase ‘too close for comfort’, alcohol as a destructive form of comfort, and the importance of attachment theory.Check out the episode's extended cut here!Works Discussed:Daniel Barber, “After Comfort” J L Bottorff et al., “The phenomenology of comfort”Matt Haig, The Comfort Book Ryan Heavy Head, “Blackfoot Influence on Abraham Maslow, Presented by Narcisse Kainai and Ryan Heavy Head at the University of Montana”Lynnette Leeseberg Stamler and Ann Malinowski, “Comfort: exploration of the concept in nursing.”A. H. Maslow, A Theory of Human MotivationTeju Ravilochan, “The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow’s Hierarchy”. Peter Sloterdijk, Spheres trilogyChögyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | [email protected] | Overthink podcast

Do you need black skin to be Black? How might concepts such as white privilege be limiting our understanding of how racism works? In Episode 117 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with philosopher Lewis Gordon about his book, Fear of Black Consciousness. They talk through the history of anti-Black racism, the existential concept of bad faith, why Rachel Dolezal might have Black consciousness, and Frantz Fanon’s experience of being called a racial slur by a white child on a train. From the American Blues to the Caribbean movement of Negritude, this episode is full of insight into Black liberation and White centeredness. In the bonus, Ellie and David go into greater detail about how Black liberation is connected to love.Check out the episode's extended cut here!Works Discussed: Steve Bantu Biko, I Write What I LikeW.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black FolkFrantz Fanon, Black Skin, White MasksEdouard Glissant, Introduction à une Poétique du DiversJane Anna Gordon, “Legitimacy from Modernity’s Underside: Potentiated Double Consciousness”Lewis Gordon, Bad Faith and Antiblack racismLewis Gordon, Fear of Black ConsciousnessRebecca Tuvel, “In Defense of Transracialism”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | [email protected] | Overthink podcast

Dinosaurs, mammoths, ibexes, frogs: a great deal of animals have gone the way of the dodo. Are we next? And would the world be better off without us? In Episode 116 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about extinction, from Christian eschatology, to the perils of Anthropocene, to cutting-edge de-extinction technology. They turn to animal ethics and scientific dilemmas in search of the ethical approaches that might equip us to think about the extinction of animals, and perhaps even our own. Plus, in the bonus, they talk love, cyborgs, tech bros, and the ethics of the future.Check out the episode's extended cut here!Works DiscussedThom Van Dooren, Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of ExtinctionElizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural HistoryTodd May, Should We Go Extinct?Jacob Sherkow and Henry Greely, “What if Extinction is not Forever?”Émile Torres, Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of AnnihilationChildren of Men (2006) dir. Alfonso CuarónEpisode 46. Anti-NatalismModem FuturaModem Futura is your guide to the bold frontiers of tomorrow, where technology,...Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | [email protected] | Overthink podcast