Name: Event by Why Theory
Duration: 1 h 17 min 4 s
Description: Ryan and Todd explore the philosophical concept of the event, tracing its trajectory through three thinkers--Martin Heidegger, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek. They make this discussion concrete with an extended discussion of the current revolutionary feminist actions occurring in Iran.

Another great episode! Have fun in my shitty country tomorrow btw!

interviews have the reputation of The Sound Of The Smiths when they should have the reputation of Hatful Of Hollow

i have to say, i struggle to leave team badiou-hegel on this one. (although being on the same side as both badiou and hegel feels pretty secure.)

Long time listener. Few time caller. When it comes to citing, I have kind of a layman's point. In a kind of musical way, to me, Zizek's book on event seemed more like his riff on Badiou's concept - Zizek seeing what he could get out of the idea in his Hegel/Lacan genre to extend the metaphor. Can't wait for more Badiou talk!

So it sounds like you’re saying is the Event is an installation of either a new Master Signifier or S(/A) (I forget which one you guys decide on in the missing signifier episode)

Ryan and Todd explore the philosophical concept of the event, tracing its trajectory through three thinkers--Martin Heidegger, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek. They make this discussion concrete with an extended discussion of the current revolutionary feminist actions occurring in Iran.

Event

Ryan and Todd trace the history of how thinkers have dealt with the problem of love--the varying definitions of love, the view of love's role in society, and love's philosophical importance. They begin with Plato's Symposium, touch on the New Testament, explore the role of love in Hegel's thought, discuss Badiou's love event, and conclude with the psychoanalytic conception of love, as developed by Jacques Lacan and Mari Ruti.

Love

This is a special Why Theory episode that was recorded live at the Impakt Festival that took place in Utrecht, Netherlands. Ryan and Todd discuss the theme of the festival--"the curse of smooth operations"--in terms of our relationship to technology. They question how technology provides enjoyment for us. 

The introduction ends at 4:53, and the question and answer period starts at 57:48.

Technology

Ryan and Todd discuss Todd's latest book Enjoyment Right & Left, which examines the political divide in terms of the different forms that enjoyment takes. They engage with this divide across a variety of issues, from anti-trans violence to the controversy surrounding the World Cup.

Enjoyment Right & Left

Ryan and Todd discuss the role that debt plays in the structure of capitalist society and in the psyche necessary for sustaining this society. They explore debt as a subject matter in film and television, as well as debt's relationship to the lacking subject.

Debt

In an annual attempt to theorize the Christmas film, Ryan and Todd examine the concept of the misfit in three famous stop-motion Christmas films from the 1960s and 1970s: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and The Year Without a Santa Claus. They discover the politics of nonbelonging at work in these films as it is figured through the idea of the misfit.

Clips:
We’re a Couple of Misfits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDHF08vEZTg)

The Island of Misfit Toys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr6GbKciNCY)

Silver and Gold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY-XDQN6ipE)

 The First Toymakers to the King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8NSlCUAI4M)
 
My World is Beginning Today (Jessica’s Trippy 2001/ Vertigo song; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSCq34_49Ws)
 
Snow Miser (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPrbccEdI5o)
 
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (Springsteen; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76WFkKp8Tjs)
 
Father Christmas (The Kinks; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPPCPqDINEk)

Misfit Christmas

Ryan and Todd discuss the first half of Jean-Paul Sartre's magnum opus Being and Nothingness. They cover the difference between the in-itself and the for-itself, bad faith, temporality, the unconscious, and other important concepts. The next episode will cover the second half of the book.

Being and Nothingness Side A

Ryan and Todd conclude their discussion of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness with a focus on Sartre's conception of freedom. They discuss the strengths and weaknesses that follow from how Sartre theorizes subjectivity in relation to the social order.

Being and Nothingness Side B

Ryan and Todd engage with Freud's late essay "Negation" (1923). They look at the radical insights that he comes to as well as address the moments where he leaves various theoretical points undeveloped. They make a claim for the outsized importance of this brief essay.

Negation

In their second episode devoted to the classical Hollywood genres, Ryan and Todd explore the western by focusing on some of the most popular and some of the most theoretically compelling. They discuss directors John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Anthony Mann, as well as devoting time to the western 3:10 to Yuma. Their theorization of the western stresses the way that the genre lays out the social antagonism between law and lawlessness, in which the western hero functions as a vanishing mediator.

Western

Ryan and Todd delve into the western in its most radical manifestation, but they use as a starting point, the paradigmatic western Shane. They then examine more contemporary films that turn from the individual hero into a collective one.

The Radical Western

Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.

Event

Why Theory

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