Ellie and David discuss fun, from its aesthetic opposition to the highbrow realm of beauty, to questions like: what role does fun play in the good life? How does fun relate to art, play, and ritual? Can you really have fun by yourself? And what happens when the lines blur between the fun and the political?

Ellie and David discuss civil disobedience in the present context of university activism for divestment from genocide in Gaza. They chart the concept in political theory, from Thoreau and MLK through to today. Together with guest Noëlle McAfee, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Emory University, they reflect on the relationship between legal protest, civil disobedience, and political dialogue, and think about why activism must be part of any healthy democracy.

In episode 99, Ellie and David talk all about zombies and their unfortunate legacy in the thought experiments of academic philosophy. Their portrait as brain-eating and consciousness-lacking mobs is a far cry from their origins in the syncretic sorcery at the margins of Haitian Voodoo. Your hosts probe beyond limits of the tradition when they explore zombification in animals, in reading, in Derrida, and beyond.

Cultural appropriation is a common charge today, but what does it mean? How do we determine in-group out-group identity, and who decides what the line is between appreciation and cultural appropriation? Two philosophy professors discuss.