A podcast for people who are interested in the philosophy of Slavoj Žižek, and are looking for an entry point into his work. The hosts discuss his interventions in philosophy, culture, politics, and art—with special attention paid to his most recent books, and the evolution of his thinking.
PREVIEW - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Social Division
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
Alright, we’re Living in the End Times, and this is the fourth and final episode in our series on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or as Žižek sometimes puts it, the Four Riders of the Apocalypse.
So far in our series we’ve taken a look at the economy focussing on intellectual property, the biogenetic revolution, nature and the ideology of ecology, and today we’ll look at the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, the one Žižek locates in the space of the global commons of humanity, what he describes as the explosive growth of social division or new forms of apartheid, new walls and slums...
Žižek says we are approaching a whole series of critical points, and the question is: can the global liberal democratic system – the capitalist system – deal with them or not?
A special thank you to everyone who has been reaching out to us about this new series, it's been much appreciated!
After this we're taking a season break for two weeks but there'll still be some PATREON episodes!
See you in Paris!
Ž&…
10/21/2024 • 12 minutes, 12 seconds
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Nature & Ecology
Alright, we’re Living in the End Times!
The commons of our culture has been captured and this is the third episode in a series we’re doing on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or as Žižek sometimes puts it, the Four Riders of the Apocalypse.
This week we’re talking Nature & Ecology. Does Nature exist? Can you eat plastic ice cream?
Žižek says we are approaching a whole series of critical points, and the question is: can the global liberal democratic system – the capitalist system – deal with them or not?
See you in Paris!
Ž&…
10/13/2024 • 57 minutes, 45 seconds
PREVIEW - Whistleblowers at the End of the World
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
Alright, here's another PATREON EPISODE PREVIEW
This week we’re talking Spies for the People, Whistleblowers, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and the Logic of the Bomb.
Slavoj Žižek asks, "Did WikiLeaks open our eyes to the illusion of freedom?"
Was the only surprising thing about the WikiLeaks revelations that they contain no surprises? Or did we learn exactly what we expected to learn?
The real disturbance was at the level of appearances: we can no longer pretend we don’t know what everyone knows we know…
Alenka Zupančič says that “Knowledge thus adopts a new and different role: it is no longer simply something to be disavowed but - paradoxically - something that can help us disavow (the real of this same knowledge).“
So what happens when someone yells THEATRE in a crowded fire? Why doesn’t revelation necessarily liberate? Is Julian Assange an Antingone figure?
What does Norm Mcdonald have to tell us about the register of truth in the public domain?
Thanks to our Patreon @tarryingwiththenegative for this weeks episode idea!
See you in Paris!
Ž&...
10/7/2024 • 11 minutes, 17 seconds
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Biogenetics
Bring Me My Philips Mental Jacket!
Alright, we’re Living in the End Times, the commons of our nature has been captured and this is the second episode in our series on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or as Žižek sometimes puts it, the Four Riders of the Apocalypse.
This week we’re talking biogenetics!
Žižek says we are approaching a whole series of critical points, and the question is: can the global liberal democratic system – the capitalist system – deal with them or not?
SUPPORT US ON PATREON!
See you in Paris!
Ž&…
9/30/2024 • 59 minutes, 22 seconds
PREVIEW - SHORT SESSIONS: NEUROTHEOLOGY
LISTEN HERE!
Alright, this is the third episode of our new Patreon series SHORT SESSIONS and we’re taking a look at one of Slavoj Žižek’s most recent Substacks “The Uses & Misuses of Neurotheology”.
We’re talking Out-of-Body experiences, LSD & dolphins, non-consensual encounters with dimethyltryptamine crocodiles, and climate controlled neurological dystopias.
Big thanks to our Patreon @cassandrandranoid for the episode request!
UP NEXT IS THE SECOND EPISODE IN OUR FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE SERIES: BIOGENETICS!
See you in Paris!
9/22/2024 • 11 minutes, 22 seconds
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Intellectual Property
Alright, we’re Living in the End Times, the commons of our culture has been captured and this is the first episode in a series we’re doing on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or as Žižek sometimes puts it, the Four Riders of the Apocalypse.
This week we’re talking intellectual property and the economy.
Žižek says we are approaching a whole series of critical points, and the question is: can the global liberal democratic system – the capitalist system – deal with them or not?
SUPPORT US ON PATREON!
See you in Paris!
Ž&…
9/15/2024 • 46 minutes, 36 seconds
PREVIEW: Adrian Johnston & The Inhuman Selfishness of Capital
Alright, we’re back again with ADRIAN JOHNSTON to discuss more of his book INFINITE GREED: THE INHUMAN SELFISHNESS OF CAPITAL.
FULL EPISODE ON OUR PATREON HERE!
Adrian takes us through some of the shifts in Freud’s positions on Marxism and this insistence on negativity as history’s “real motor”.
Are we worth our weight in gold? What is the link between infinite greed and philanthropy? How do we account for the shift in leftist concerns along identitarian lines with the seemingly repressed exception of class differences? How to shift it? What can be done about this curious case of theoretical amnesia?
Are we still within capitalism or not? Are we techno-feudal, post-capital? What is Adrian’s position on the claim that we have moved beyond capitalism today?
Stick around for some updates at the end about his new co-written debate book with Slavoj Žižek that is in the works.
Thanks for all your support, up next we have a brand new series on Slavoj Žižek’s Living in the End Times and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!
9/8/2024 • 10 minutes, 46 seconds
Infinite Greed w/ Adrian Johnston
Alright, you've been asking for it, and here it is... Adrian Johnston is back talking about his new book INFINITE GREED: THE INHUMAN SELFISHNESS OF CAPITAL.
If you want more episodes and to support our project head to PATREON!
Adrian says, “The capitalist socioeconomic system in its entirety thus resembles a person who shoves his own head up his own ass precisely in order to eat his own shit, or a snake that swallows its own tail specifically so as to consume its own feces.”
That’s right, we’re talking Marxian enjoyment as it corresponds to Lacanian pleasure, and Marxian enrichment as it corresponds to Lacanian enjoyment.
We all know by now that Marx created the symptom, but did he also create the Drive? Is selfishness essential to capitalism? Why did Marxism move away from economism? Are we technofeudal, neo-feudal, or post-capital? Where the hell are we? Find out as we go down the toilet with Adrian.
STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!
Enjoy!
9/1/2024 • 55 minutes, 37 seconds
Žižek's Scatology
Alright, we’re back…plumbing the depths of psychoanalytic marxism! This week we discuss Slavoj Žižek’s Scatology through Adrian Johnston’s most recent book Infinite Greed: The Inhuman Selfishness of Capital.
Jacques Lacan points out that we are born between urine and faeces, and that man is the only animal for whom waste disposal is a problem. What is the relationship between money and waste? Freud points out this strange coincidence of the highest form (gold) and the lowest (shit), so why is shit a gift that keeps on giving? What does all of this have to do with Japanese hamburgers & Marx?
We’re talking the political and libidinal economy of shit from the Scatalogical Rites of Nations & the Interpretation of Dreams to Uncut Gems, Cool Runnings, & Laporte’s History of Shit.
SUPPORT OUR WORK ON PATREON FOR MORE EPISODES AND INTERVIEWS!
Up next we have two interviews with Adrian Johnston, & we’ll see you in Paris.
Aufhebung(hole)!
8/19/2024 • 58 minutes, 47 seconds
Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves w/ Todd McGowan
Alright, Todd McGowan is back again on the podcast to talk more about his most recent book Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves.
TO HEAR OUR FIRST CONVERSATION WITH TODD ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK YOU CAN LISTEN HERE!
You can also listen to our episode on Alienation as a concept in Żižek's work here!
Are there good and bad forms of alienation? We're talking the politics of non-belonging, alienation in cinema, the defence of lost causes, Friends and the failure of beginnings and the impossibility of endings, Lacan's debt to Jean Paul Sartre, identitarian politics, and Slavoj Žižek.
SUPPORT OUR PROJECT ON PATREON!
Up next we have a new SHORT SESSION on Žižek's recent Substack which you can find here!
Enjoy!
8/12/2024 • 43 minutes, 46 seconds
Embracing Alienation w/ Todd McGowan
Alright this week Todd McGowan is back on the podcast to talk about his most recent book Embracing Alienation Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves.
SUPPORT OUR PROJECT ON PATREON!
You can also listen to our episode on Alienation as a concept in Żižek's work here!
The subject is divided from itself even in the form in which it is completely at home...so in this first episode we're talking the status of alienation in our current context of serial crisis and what Anna Kornbluh describes as cultural immediacy.
What does a politics of alienation have to say about ‘the day after’ or how would it look in the day after? What is the significance of place and community? Why is the violence of the death drive and its self-sabotage the first emancipation that subsequently establishes the pattern for all later political acts of emancipation?
We also get into Žižek's ontology & fate, determinism, and the forced choice of alienation.
Part two will be out next week...
Enjoy!
8/5/2024 • 52 minutes, 24 seconds
PREVIEW - Let's Get Alienated!
Alright, we’re back…LET'S GET ALIENATED! This is a PATREON PREVIEW of this weeks episode where we discuss Todd McGowan's latest book Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn’t Try to Find Ourselves.
TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE SUPPORT OUR PROJECT ON PATREON!
We’re talking the Politics of Alienation, Separation, What’s in a Name, Failing with Style, Toy Story, & so on…
Up next is our two part interview with Todd...so stick around!
More info on Todd's book here!
See you in Paris.
Enjoy!
7/29/2024 • 8 minutes, 49 seconds
A Reader's Guide: The Sublime Object of Ideology w/ Rafael Winkler
Exciting news! For the first time Bloomsbury has published a book length overview and guide to Slavoj Žižek's 1989 text The Sublime Object of Ideology and we're talking with it's author Rafael Winkler about his reading of Slavoj Žižek's famous text.
Rafael is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He’s the author of Žižek’s The Sublime Object of Ideology: A Reader’s Guide (London: Bloomsbury, 2024), Philosophy of Finitude: Heidegger, Levinas, and Nietzsche (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), Identity and Difference (ed.) (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), Phenomenology and Naturalism (ed.) (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), and Identity and Difference: Contemporary Debates on the Self (ed.) (London: Palgrave, 2016)
More on the book from Bloomsbury.
First published in 1989, The Sublime Object of Ideology was Žižek's breakthrough work, and is still regarded by many as his masterpiece. It was an iconoclastic reinvention of ideology critique that introduced the English-speaking world to Žižek's scorching brand of cultural and philosophical commentary and the multifaceted ways in which he explained it. Tying together concepts from aesthetics, psychoanalytic theory, cultural studies and the philosophy of belief, it changed the face of contemporary commentary and remains the underpinning of much of his subsequent thinking.This compelling guide introduces all of the influential thinkers and foundational concepts which Žižek draws on to create this seminal work. Grounding the text's many and varied references in the work of Peter Sloterdijk, Saul Kripke, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Immanuel Kant and G.W.F. Hegel, amongst others, helps students who are encountering this mercurial writer for the first time to understand the philosophical context of his early explorations. Each of Žižek's key arguments are unpacked and laid out, alongside an invaluable account of how The Sublime Object of Ideology impacted the critical terrain on which it landed.
Enjoy!
7/22/2024 • 55 minutes, 2 seconds
PREVIEW - Fantasy
Alright, this week on our PATREON we’re talking Fantasy & reading from Slavoj Žižek’s Plague of Fantasies. It’s coffin pillows, being there at your own conception, roguish reporters, and the most famous blanket in cinema.
HEAD TO OUR PATREON TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE!
PATREON.COM/ZIZEKANDSOON
Next week we have Rafael Winkler on to discuss the new Bloomsbury Reader’s Guide to Žižek’s Sublime Object of Ideology.
Enjoy being dead,
and we’ll see you in Paris.
7/15/2024 • 9 minutes, 24 seconds
SHORT SESSIONS: Carol & the End of the World
Alright, we’re trying something different, a brand new monthly – or thereabouts – PATREON series on the podcast called SHORT SESSIONS…This week we're talking disaster films and the 2024 Netflix American adult animated apocalyptic comedy drama Carol & The End of the World.
Is it subversive to NOT enjoy the end of the world? Through the usual suspects like Alenka Zupančič and Slavoj Žižek we discuss the ongoing Serial Crisis, Whistleblowers, the Biden v Trump debate, Bartleby Politics, Disavowal, the Production of Community, the Popular Attachment to Catastrophe...and why you should tell your loved ones you hate them when you're going to die in a plane crash.
Big thanks to our Patreon @shitforbrains for the episode request, and if any of you out there have an idea for an episode email us at [email protected]
…Short sessions, variable length sessions, however you wanna put it, in these episodes we’ll wrap them up because of something that is said, rather than the tyranny of the clock…
SUPPORT US ON PATREON!
See you in Paris,
Enjoy!
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
Welcome back...is it the Same Shit on a Different Day or Different Shit on the Same Day? This is PART TWO of our interview with ALENKA ZUPANČIČ on the undeadness of crisis, adaptation, Boredom, Bartleby Politics, the Right Words at the Right Time, Masters, Żiżek’s Frankfurt Book Fair Speech, Whistleblowers & Julian Assange, and if we can still Handle the Truth!
LISTEN TO PART ONE HERE!
Big thanks to all our PATREONS for their support, up next we have some really big interviews and so on and so on.
Enjoy!
7/1/2024 • 9 minutes, 11 seconds
Disavowal w/ Alenka Zupančič PART ONE
Alright, the End is Near and this week we're talking with Alenka Zupančič about her latest book Disavowal with Polity Press that came out this week.
In this first installment we're talking serial crisis, the Fire Within the Fire, knowledge, belief, deception, and the indispensability of concrete analysis.
HEAD TO OUR PATREON TO HEAR THE SECOND PART OF OUR INTERVIEW!
See you in Paris.
Enjoy!
6/24/2024 • 59 minutes, 1 second
PREVIEW - Nightmare on Alenka Street
Support the podcast on PATREON and LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
Alright, the podcast is back for a new season. Don’t wake up! This episode we’re talking Alenka Zupanċič’s latest book Disavowal. Father, can't you see that I'm burning? What is disavowal and why does it function differently today? We’re talking knowing, fear, nightmares, and deception. Catastrophe, serial crisis, immediacy, alienation, and the apocalypse.
Next week we’re talking to Alenka, let us know if you have any questions for us to ask.
A big thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last few years and we have a lot of big interviews and episodes coming up!
GET THE BOOK HERE!
See you in Paris.
Enjoy!
6/17/2024 • 7 minutes, 28 seconds
In New York w/ Slavoj Žižek
This week we're joined by Slavoj Zizek! We discuss his new book, Christian Atheism, Judith Butler, the mafia, and where to find a good diner in New York.
To support the podcast and gain access to many more episodes, join our Patreon
Enjoy!
5/1/2024 • 55 minutes, 9 seconds
PREVIEW - In New York w/ Slavoj Žižek
To access the full episode and support the podcast, join our Patreon!
This week we're joined by Slavoj Zizek! We discuss his new book, Christian Atheism, Judith Butler, the Mafia, and where to find a good diner in New York.
Enjoy!
4/24/2024 • 3 minutes, 18 seconds
Mladen Dolar Part 2 - The Ljubljana School
This week, the second half of our conversation with Mladen Dolar. We talk about the early days of the Ljubljana school, the structuralist revolution, the choice to read Hegel through Lacan, and the Frankfurt school. Mladen was there for it all.
Thank you to all our Patrons!
Up next we have our interview with Slavoj Žižek from our time with him in New York.
Listen to the first interview we had with Mladen here!
4/18/2024 • 56 minutes, 33 seconds
Enjoy Your Obscenity w/ Russ Sbriglia
This week we're joined by Russ Sbriglia to discuss Zizek's upcoming events in the tristate area. Slavoj will be at Seaton Hall University in New Jersey on Monday April 11th! Zizek will also be in New York City, at NYU and the New School (sign up online for those events!)
After technical updates we discuss Russ' recent essay, "Enjoy Your Trump". We talk politics of enjoyment, the upcoming election, and yes he's back again, Trump.
To support the podcast and gain access to many more episodes, join our Patreon
Enjoy!
4/5/2024 • 56 minutes, 20 seconds
PREVIEW Mladen Dolar Part 2 - The Ljubljana School
This week, the second half of our conversation with Mladen Dolar. We talk about the early days of the Ljubljana school, the structuralist revolution, the choice to read Hegel through Lacan, and the Frankfurt school. Mladen was there for it all.
For access our full conversation and to support the show, join our Patreon!
Thank you to all our Patrons! More to come soon. Make sure you book your spot in the upcoming Zizek events in New York in early April!
3/27/2024 • 6 minutes, 24 seconds
Mladen Dolar - A Voice and Nothing More
This week, we present the third episode in our series of interviews with the Troika — after Slavoj Žižek, and Alenka Zupančič . We’re speaking with Mladen Dolar, Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Ljubljana.
Dolar is the co-founder of what has become known as ‘the Ljubljana School’. His principal areas of research are psychoanalysis, modern French philosophy, German Idealism, and art theory. He has lectured extensively at universities in the US and across Europe, and he is the author of over a hundred papers in scholarly journals and volume collections. Apart from ten books in Slovene, his book publications include most notably A Voice and Nothing More and Opera’s Second Death.
We’re talking the voice, May 68, the early days in Ljubljana, Lacan, rumours and gossip, what’s in a name, and the decline of paternal authority.
For access to many more episodes, join our PATREON!
Thanks Mladen!
3/20/2024 • 59 minutes, 15 seconds
PREVIEW - Mladen Dolar - A Voice and Nothing More
FULL EPISODE HERE
This week, we present the third episode in our series of interviews with the Troika — after Slavoj Žižek, and Alenka Zupančič . We’re speaking with Mladen Dolar, Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Ljubljana.
Dolar is the co-founder of what has become known as ‘the Ljubljana School’. His principal areas of research are psychoanalysis, modern French philosophy, German Idealism, and art theory. He has lectured extensively at universities in the US and across Europe, and he is the author of over a hundred papers in scholarly journals and volume collections. Apart from ten books in Slovene, his book publications include most notably A Voice and Nothing More and Opera’s Second Death.
We’re talking the voice, may 68, the early days in Ljubljana, Lacan, rumours and gossip, what’s in a name, and the decline of paternal authority.
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for access to extra episodes and the ongoing production of the show!
3/13/2024 • 2 minutes, 52 seconds
UNLOCKED - Immediacy w/ Anna Kornbluh
This week, the fellas are back with Anna Kornbluh. When we spoke with Alenka Zupančič recently, she told us we should interview Anna about her new book Immediacy, or The style of Too Late Capitalism. So we did!
We’re talking mediation, the negative, Van Gogh immersive experiences, Sartre, Žižek’s early work on film, and the end of futurity.
Enjoy!
3/6/2024 • 1 hour, 26 minutes, 11 seconds
PREVIEW: Immediacy w/ Anna Kornbluh
This week, the fellas are back with Anna Kornbluh. When we spoke with Alenka Zupančič recently, she told us we should interview Anna about her new book Immediacy, or The style of Too Late Capitalism. So we did!
We’re talking mediation, the negative, Van Gogh immersive experiences, Sartre, Žižek’s early work on film, and the end of futurity.
This is a PATREON preview of our 90 minute interview, for the full episode and to SUPPORT the podcast LISTEN HERE!
Our next interview is with MLADEN DOLAR...
Enjoy!
2/29/2024 • 8 minutes, 53 seconds
Elon Musk Ruined My Sex Life
This week, the fellas scroll through Zizek's new substack. Tying together three articles, we move from 'tech talk' (Elon Musk, Apple Vision, the profound suffering of microchimpanzees), to a Zizekian theory of sexuality, and finally to the fine art of smoking (and other surplus enjoyments).
To stay up to date and access many more episodes, join our Patreon (we'll be speaking to Anna Kornbluh and Mladen Dolar very soon!)
Zizek's Substack articles:
ELON MUSK RUINED MY SEX LIFE
NOTES TOWARDS A HEGELIAN SYSTEM OF SEXUALITY
SMOKING CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE FINE ARTS
2/21/2024 • 1 hour, 18 seconds
PREVIEW - Inherent Transgression
FULL EPISODE HERE
This is an excerpt from this week's Patreon episode. We're talking the inherent transgression of the law. Michael buys tickets for the big apple, Peter is freezing in a field, and Will reviews Stalker and the Third Man.
Enjoy!
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for access to extra episodes and the ongoing production of the show!
2/9/2024 • 4 minutes, 18 seconds
UNLOCKED - The Struggle for Freedom
Move your Buridan's Ass!
This is an UNLOCKED PATREON episode demanded by the listeners wherein the fellas discuss Žižek's new book on Freedom. They touch on the freedom of philosophy, the philosophy of freedom, the pitfalls of Anarchism, Wittgenstein, Sartre, and Canadian Thanksgiving.
Support the podcast on our PATREON for all of our Patreon episodes, interviews, reading groups and so on.
Enjoy!
1/24/2024 • 49 minutes, 33 seconds
PREVIEW - Rumours & Gossip
FULL EPISODE HERE
This week the gang are talking Mladen Dolar’s “On Rumours, Gossip and Related Matters” from Objective Fictions as we prepare for the big interview!
Mladen Dolar is a Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst, cultural theorist, and film critic. He is one third of the Troika with Alenka Zupančič and Slavoj Žižek and the co-founder, together with Slavoj Žižek of the Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis
Rumours brought down old mate Socrates and there’s one going round that the big Other doesn’t exist.
In the beginning there was – not the Word, logos, as in the Bible, not the act, as with Faust – in the beginning, there was a rumour.
Will combats 5G with a Feng Shui mirror, Michael covers his windows in aluminium foil, and Peter defends himself against the metric system.
Enjoy!
1/18/2024 • 6 minutes, 16 seconds
Zizek's Jokes
It's 2024 and we’re back! We're talking what happens when you mean one thing but say amother.
What role do jokes have throughout Žižek's work? This week we’re taking a look at Žižek’s Jokes via Todd McGowan, Jamil Khader, and Broderick Chow.
In pod news, the final jewel of our Ljubljana crown…we’re talking to Mladen Dolar! Keep an eye out for upcoming episodes on his work as we prep for the interview.
Thank you to everyone for being with us over the last four years, support us on Patreon to keep the Žižek & So On Podcast going!
Read along: Broderick Chow , Alenka Zupancic, Zizek's Jokes
-Enjoy!
1/10/2024 • 52 minutes, 24 seconds
PREVIEW - Podžilla
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
That's right, we're talking Godzilla Minus One this week. Also, the fall, the good, Schindler's List, Lacan and his (Hegelian) concept of empty speech, and what's new in the movies. Thanks everyone!Enjoy!
This is a preview of this week's episode. For full access, please think about joining our Patreon!
12/13/2023 • 2 minutes, 52 seconds
Conspiracy Theories w/ Alenka Zupančič
This week, the second half of our conversation with Alenka Zupančič; focusing on the different modalities of conspiracy theory, desire, drive, and her forthcoming work on disavowal.
Special thank you to our Patreons and all listeners who have reached out over the last four years asking if we could speak with Alenka.
To support the pod, and to find access to many more episodes, join our PATREON !
Enjoy!
11/29/2023 • 50 minutes, 17 seconds
PREVIEW - Conspiracy Theories w/ Alenka Zupančič
This is a PREVIEW of the second conversation we had with Alenka Zupančič, focusing on the different modalities of conspiracy theory, desire, drive, and her forthcoming work on disavowal.
To listen to the full episode here over to our Patreon.
Special thank you to our Patreons and all listeners who have reached out over the last four years asking if we could speak with Alenka.
Enjoy!
To support the pod, and to find access to many more episodes, join our PATREON !
11/26/2023 • 8 minutes, 3 seconds
What IS Sex w/ Alenka Zupančič Pt. I
This week, we're speaking to Alenka Zupančič, author of many texts, including What IS Sex, and Let Them Rot: Antigone’s Parallax. Zupančič. As a member of the "troika" (along with Mladen Dolar and Slavoj Zizek) Alenka is a central figure of the Lacanian-Hegelian Slovenian school we all know and love.
We’re talking the early days of the troika, What IS Sex, the modalities of conspiracy theory, desire, drive, and disavowal.
To listen to the full episode here over to our Patreon.
Special thank you to our Patreons and all listeners who have reached out over the last four years asking if we could speak with Alenka.
Enjoy!
To support the pod, and to find access to many more episodes, join our PATREON !
11/22/2023 • 47 minutes, 18 seconds
PREVIEW - What IS Sex w/ Alenka Zupančič Pt. I
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE
Today we have the PATREON preview of PART ONE of our interview with Alenka Zupančič, author of many texts, including What IS Sex, and Let Them Rot: Antigone’s Parallax. Zupančič, as a member of the "troika" (along with Mladen Dolar and Slavoj Zizek) is a central figure of the Lacanian-Hegelian Slovenian school we all know and love.
We’re talking the early days of the troika, What IS Sex, the modalities of conspiracy theory, desire, drive, and disavowal.
To listen to the full episode here over to our Patreon.
Special thank you to our Patreons and all listeners who have reached out over the last four years demanding and wondering if we could eventually speak with Alenka.
Enjoy!
11/15/2023 • 8 minutes, 11 seconds
True Lies
This week, the fellas are back discussing Alenka Zupančič's Problemi essay, 'Lying on the Couch'. How does the psychoanalytic framework allow us to make sense of culture and lying, what is the asymmetry of a truth and a lie, and what did we think of the new Beatles song? Mike is hot (again), Will has moved (again), and Peter kind of liked Killers of the Flower Moon. Enjoy!
For access to many more episodes, check out our PATREON! Thank you to all of our Patrons! See you again soon
11/8/2023 • 38 minutes, 42 seconds
UNLOCKED - Derrida & Zizek
Alright, we’re back with another UNLOCKED PATREON episode and we’re talking Jacques Derrida, the difference between parallax and différance, How To? with John Wilson, Krzysztof Kieślowski, documentary and fiction cinema, a deconstruction of Smash Mouth’s All Star, and the (w)hole in the picture.
Thank you to all of our Patreons, we have our interview with Alenka Zupančič coming up soon!
Enjoy!
10/25/2023 • 50 minutes, 4 seconds
PREVIEW - The Struggle for Freedom
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
This week the fellas discuss Zizek's new book on Freedom. They touch on the freedom of philosophy, the pitfalls of anarchism, Wittgenstein, Sartre, and Canadian Thanksgiving. Enjoy!
This is a preview of this week's episode. For full access, please think about joining our Patreon!
10/18/2023 • 6 minutes, 16 seconds
Zizek Interview PART 2: Freedom a Disease Without a Cure
Žižek & So On Podcast
LISTEN: https://www.tinyurl.com/zizekpodcasts
This is PART TWO of our interview with Slavoj Žižek for the official book launch with Bloomsbury Publishing of Žižek’s latest book Freedom: A Disease Without A Cure. We’re talking the the wired brain, the Opium wars, freedom and politics, quantum physics and determinism, fate and the role of Subject, concrete and abstract freedoms, the ontology of sex, and why we need an authentic master today.
Thanks to Bloomsbury and all our new Patreons, next up we’re speaking with Alenka Zupančič.
Purchase the book here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/freedom-9781350357129/
Enjoy!
10/11/2023 • 40 minutes, 24 seconds
Zizek Interview Pt 1: Freedom a Disease Without a Cure
Žižek & So On Podcast
Today we’re speaking with Slavoj Žižek for PART ONE of the official book launch with Bloomsbury Publishing of Žižek’s latest book Freedom: A Disease Without A Cure.
For PART TWO join our Patreon, where you can hear it now!
On this episode, we’re talking freedom, knowledge as a fetish, global warming, why the struggle for freedom is always the struggle for what freedom means, Jean Paul Sartre, Wittgenstein, Foucault, Kant and Hegel, contingency and necessity, and the strange temporality of freedom.
We’re also about to start our READING GROUP on Freedom: A Disease Without A Cure in our Discord which you can sign up for through our Patreon!
Thanks to Bloomsbury and all our Patreons, next up we’re speaking with Alenka Zupančič.
Purchase the book here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/freedom-9781350357129/
Enjoy!
10/4/2023 • 56 minutes, 40 seconds
UNLOCKED - Desire, Drive, & Football w/ Jack Black
Unlocked from our patreon: this week, we're joined again by Jack Black, Associate Professor of Culture, Media, and Sport at Sheffield Hallam University. We're talking football, melancholy, and English football anthems. How does football, or 'soccer', serve as an emblematic example of the Freudian/Žižekian concept of drive? Jack explains!
For access to many more interviews and other episodes, check out our PATREON! Thank you to all of our Patrons, we have some VERY SPECIAL guests coming up, so stick around.
Enjoy!
9/29/2023 • 1 hour, 3 minutes, 52 seconds
PREVIEW - Desire, Drive, & Football w/ Jack Black
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
This week, we're back for a joined again by Jack Black, Associate Professor of Culture, Media, and Sport at Sheffield Hallam University. We're talking football, melancholy, and English football anthems. How does football, or 'soccer', serve as an emblematic example of Freudian/Zizekian concept of drive? Jack explains. Give a listen!
For access to the full episode, and access to many more interviews, check out our PATREON! Thank you to all of our Patrons, we have some VERY SPECIAL guests coming up, so stick around.
Enjoy!
9/21/2023 • 3 minutes, 1 second
The Mask
Alright, it's our 100th episode and we're talking masks. From Jim Carrey's The Mask to the Kardashians it's an important concept that crops up throughout Žižek's work where he emphasises that the truth is in your mask, the truth is in what you are doing. The intimate stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, are usually a fake...
We're running the official book launch with Bloomsbury Publishing for Žižek's new book Freedom: A Disease Without A Cure in early October with an interview, events...and some special guests over the following few weeks!
Thankyou to everyone for listening over the last 100 episodes, support us on Patreon to keep the Žižek & So On Podcast going!
Enjoy!
9/15/2023 • 50 minutes
PREVIEW - Derrida & Žižek
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
Alright, we’re back with another PATREON episode and we’re talking Jacques Derrida, the difference between parallax and différance, How To? with John Wilson, Krzysztof Kieślowski, documentary and fiction cinema, a deconstruction of Smash Mouth’s All Star, and the (w)hole in the picture.
Thank you to all of our Patreons, we have some VERY SPECIAL guests coming up, so stick around.
Enjoy!
9/7/2023 • 6 minutes, 47 seconds
Looking Awry
This week the fellas read through Žižek’s Looking Awry. We’re talking anamorphosis, Shakespeare, Zeno’s Paradoxes and the end of the world. Will is in the woods, Peter is at a gathering and Michael’s cat is out of the bag.
Thank you to all our fellow Thespians,
Ž&…
For access to many more episodes, and to support us, check out our Patreon!
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8/22/2023 • 51 minutes, 9 seconds
PREVIEW - Moby Dick & Lacan
FULL EPISODE HERE
This is a PREVIEW for PART TWO of our conversation with professor RUSSELL SBRIGLIA and we're talking Lacanian theory and Moby Dick, the Kantian and Hegelian Sublime, Master Signifier and the Thing, the Whiteness of the Whale, and Orca attacks.
We have some big interviews coming up and some
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Thank you to all of our PATREONS and everyone who listens and supports us.
Enjoy!
8/16/2023 • 5 minutes, 4 seconds
Lacan and Literature w/ Russell Sbriglia
Part 1 of our interview with Russell Sbriglia on his book Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Literature but Were Afraid to Ask Žižek.
We're talking Lacanian psychoanalysis as a way to interpret literature, Žižek's bad taste in novels, toilets, the object from inner space, why Beckett is better than Joyce, and what Tony Soprano's major was.
Join our Patreon for extra episodes, and the back catalogue of dozens of extra episodes.
Buy Russell's book here!
8/9/2023 • 49 minutes, 31 seconds
PREVIEW Barbenheimer
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
This week, since everyone else is, we're talking Barbie and Oppenheimer. We talk the role of fantasy in ideology, and the culture war as a distraction from class antagonism. Along the way we chat about Indiana Jones, Paul Verhoeven, and Michael's favourite Australian actors.
Thanks for listening!
zizekandsoon
8/2/2023 • 2 minutes, 35 seconds
PREVIEW - Žižek & Quantum Physics w/ Adrian Johnston
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
This is a PREVIEW of PART TWO of our conversation with Adrian Johnston, you can hear the whole thing and support us on our Patreon getting access to all of our Patreon episodes, the Discord and our courses.
The gang is back for the final part of our conversation with Adrian Johnston. It's a big one!
We're talking Žižek's relationship with Kant, Schelling and Hegel, the Roberts (Pippin and Brandom), Quantum Physics, the genesis of subjectivity, materialism, Catherine Malabou and Plasticity, nature, biology and neuroscience, cognitive science, Badiou, Althusser and Spinoza.
Big thanks to our Patreons for all of your support! Got some cool things coming up over the next few months, so stay tuned!
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7/19/2023 • 6 minutes, 36 seconds
Žižek's Ontology w/ Adrian Johnston
It’s summer and the fellas are back! Today we're talking with Adrian Johnston, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico.
In this first part of a series we’re talking the philosophical foundations of Žižek’s work, the equivalence between negativity and Death Drive at the core of Žižek’s theory of subjectivity, Transcendental Materialism, and Johnston’s efforts toward changing the reception of Žižek’s work.
Adrian has published and co-edited a number of books notably his essential trio on Slavoj Žižek in “Žižek’s Ontology”, “Badiou, Žižek, and Political Transformations: The Cadence of Change”, and “A New German Idealism” and his groundbreaking work in the Prolegomena series and soon to be published "Infinite Greed: Money, Marxism, Psychoanalysis".
To LISTEN to PART TWO of our interview head to our PATREON where you can gain access to all of our previous episodes, interviews, courses, and the Discord community and our Reading Groups.
Enjoy!
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7/12/2023 • 55 minutes, 25 seconds
Seriality Continued w/ Ryan Engley
In this wide-ranging second part of our interview, Ryan talks Seinfeld, Peep Show, Sartre and seriality, Batman, Barbie, and Tom Cruise. This is where the conversation really gets going, folks. Don’t miss it!
Join our Patreon for 2 extra episodes per month, and the back catalogue of dozens of extra episodes.
Subscribers can also sign up for our brand new reading group on Lacan's Seminar XI - The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. $5/month! You will also get access to our Discord server, a thriving community of Zizekians.
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6/28/2023 • 1 hour, 18 minutes, 13 seconds
PREVIEW - Seriality pt. 2 with Ryan Engley
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
In this wide-ranging second part of our interview, Ryan talks Seinfeld, Peep Show, Sartre and seriality, Batman, Barbie, and Tom Cruise. This is where the conversation really gets going, folks. Don’t miss it!
Join our Patreon for 2 extra episodes per month, and the back catalogue of dozens of extra episodes. Subscribers can also sign up for our brand new reading group on Lacan's Seminar XI - The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. $5/month! You will also get access to our Discord server, a thriving community of Zizekians.
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6/21/2023 • 4 minutes, 2 seconds
Why Seriality w/ Ryan Engley
This week, the fellas speak to Media Professor Ryan Engley of 'Why Theory'. We talk Freud, Lacan, the correct spelling of Todd McGowan, and how Seinfeld reveals the existential concept of seriality.
Enjoy!
To support the podcast and find access to many more episodes, join our PATREON
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6/14/2023 • 59 minutes, 53 seconds
PREVIEW - Freud and Frankenstein
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
Join our Patreon for 2 extra episodes per month, and the back catalogue of dozens of extra episodes. Subscribers can also sign up for our brand new reading group on Lacan's Seminar XI - The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. $5/month! You will also get access to our Discord server, a thriving community of Zizekians.
This week we're talking Mary Shelly, myth & monstrosity, family, Freud and Frankenstein. For this episode, we've read "History and family in Frankenstein” in Zizek's In Defense of Lost Causes. Why are stories so often posed through the motif of the family drama? Does the myth of the family distract from the real historical frame of the novel? Who coined the term capitalist realism? Is the mistake of calling the monster "Frankenstein" like calling a soda "Coke"? Enjoy!
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6/7/2023 • 5 minutes, 22 seconds
Illusions Without Owners w/ Robert Pfaller
UNLOCKED - Ž & So On is back with part two of our conversation with Austrian philosopher, and lovely guy Robert Pfaller. We’re talking les non-duped errant, interpassivity and soccer, delegated enjoyment, cuckholds and drinking games. Will is breathing mould in Paris, Peter’s drinking coffee without cream and Michael gets bitten by a spider. Big thanks to our Patreons for all your support. We have some cool interviews and episodes lined up, stick around!
If you missed PART ONE listen here:
Ž&...
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6/1/2023 • 49 minutes, 55 seconds
Hegel and the Wound of Spirit
UNLOCKED: Today we're talking Žižek's chapter in his book Absolute Recoil called "The Violence of the Beginning".
The reading begins with the notion that there is "nothing prior to the loss" of the sense of lost origins. Žižek then sets into play the idea of the self-alienation of spirit in the realm of translation to show the original brokenness of God Himself.
We also question who the real James Bond is, hystericize Eliot's Prufrock, and discuss Emmanuel Carrere's novel The Moustache, all the while wondering—if we really meant what we said.
Dig it!
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5/17/2023 • 54 minutes, 6 seconds
PREVIEW - Looking Awry
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
This week the fellas read through Žižek’s Looking Awry. We’re talking anamorphosis, Shakespeare, Zeno’s Paradoxes and the end of the world. Will is in the woods, Peter is at a gathering and Michael’s cat is out of the bag.
Thank you to all our fellow Thespians,
Ž&…
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5/10/2023 • 5 minutes, 48 seconds
Žižek & Digital Culture w/ Clint Burnham
This week, the fellas speak to Clint Burnham, professor at Simon Frasier University, and author of "Does the Internet Have an Unconscious? Slavoj Žižek and Digital Culture". We get into Žižek & the internet, perversion and technology, and viral psychoanalysis.
Clint Burnham is the author of The Jamesonian Unconscious: The Aesthetics of Marxist Theory (1995), Fredric Jameson and The Wolf of Wall Street (2016), Does the Internet Have an Unconscious?: Slavoj Žižek and Digital Culture (2018), Lacan and the Environment (2021)
To support the podcast and find access to many more episodes, join our PATREON
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Thanks everybody
5/3/2023 • 1 hour, 11 minutes, 33 seconds
PREVIEW - Chat GPŽ
To hear the rest of our discussion head to our PATREON.
In which the fellas dish on the recent developments in AI technology, the Žižek-Herzog (bad) "infinite conversation", coffee without cream, the interpassivity of artificially generated emails, learn what a billabong is from the resident Australian, that Will doesn't know how to use a mic, and get Peter's version Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai.
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Articles:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ai-post-human-future-by-slavoj-zizek-2023-04
https://www.sublationmag.com/post/chatgpt-says-what-our-unconscious-radically-represses
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-an-endless-conversation-with-werner-herzog-can-teach-us-about-ai/
4/25/2023 • 7 minutes, 49 seconds
Interpassivity w/ Robert Pfaller Part 1
This week, the fellas chat with Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller, Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Theory at the University of Art and Design in Linz, and a founding member of a Vienna based psychoanalysis research group. We’re talking Illusions without Owners, Interpassivity, delegated enjoyment, What Life is Worth Living For and of course the sexual practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Will is in Paris, Peter is enjoying live music interpassively and Michael is subject to a gag order. To hear the rest of our discussion head to our PATREON for PART TWO, Discord access and many more episodes!
Thank you to everyone for all of your support!
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4/20/2023 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 3 seconds
PREVIEW - Interpassivity w/ Robert Pfaller Part 1
Alright, this week we’re speaking with the Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller, Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Theory at the University of Art and Design in Linz and a founding member of a Vienna based psychoanalysis research group. We’re talking Illusions without Owners, Interpassivity, delegated enjoyment, What Life is Worth Living For and of course the sexual practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Will is in Paris, Peter is enjoying live music interpassively and Michael is subject to a gag order. To hear the rest of our discussion head to our PATREON and stay tuned for PART TWO!
Thank you to everyone for all of your support!
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4/12/2023 • 5 minutes, 47 seconds
How is Lacan Hegelian?
This week, &... talks Hegel's influence on Lacan. Working off Zizek's Most Sublime Hysteric, the fellas find themselves in Germany, a dance club in Argentina, and experience a perfect day with Lou Reed and Pavaratti
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4/5/2023 • 51 minutes, 43 seconds
PREVIEW - The Wound of Spirit
This is a preview of a full episode available on our patreon.
Today we're talking Žižek's chapter in his book Absolute Recoil called "The Violence of the Beginning".
The reading begins with the notion that there is "nothing prior to the loss" of the sense of lost origins. Žižek then sets into play the idea of the self-alienation of spirit in the realm of translation to show the original brokenness of God Himself. We also question who the real James Bond is, hystericize Eliot's Prufrock, and discuss Emmanuel Carrere's novel The Moustache, all the while wondering—if we really meant what we said.
SUPPORT THE PODCAST
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3/29/2023 • 5 minutes, 57 seconds
Žižek Responds!
Alright, the gang is back and this week we're talking the newly published book "Žižek Responds!" where we focus on Todd McGowan's entry in the collection: "Slavoj Žižek Is Not Violent Enough". Is the violence of the death drive and its self-sabotage the first emancipation that subsequently establishes the pattern for all later political acts of emancipation? Can Will grow a moustache? Does Žižek play classical piano? Stick around to the end to hear the fellas talk about their recent meeting with Žižek, Todd McGowan & Russell Sbriglia.
We've got some very interesting interviews coming up, please support us on Patreon to keep us going!
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FTKNWTD COURSE
3/22/2023 • 54 minutes, 59 seconds
PREVIEW - Algorithmic Desire w/ Matt Flisfeder - Part 2
We continue our conversation with Dr. Flisfeder on his book "Algorithmic Desire, Toward a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media". Matt also gives us the behind the scenes scoop on the 'Debate of the Century' with Jordan Peterson.
Enjoy!
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3/15/2023 • 4 minutes, 4 seconds
Algorithmic Desire w/ Matt Flisfeder - Part I
This is part one of our interview with Dr. Matthew Flisfeder, associate professor at the University of Winnipeg, and writer of books on Žižek and film theory, postmodernism and Blade Runner, and most recently, "Algorithmic Desire, Toward a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media".
Dr. Flisfeder taught a four month course on Žižek's book "For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor" with us which you can access through our Patreon and Discord here: FTKNWTD COURSE
Big thanks to Matt for taking the time to talk to us and stay tuned for part 2!
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3/8/2023 • 55 minutes, 4 seconds
PREVIEW - Pervert's Guide to Sophie Fiennes: PART TWO
This is a preview of part two of our conversation with acclaimed director Sophie Fiennes about her Pervert's Guide series. We discuss the Pervert's guide films, William Shatner, space and the abyss of freedom, as well as the recent Rockhill hit piece on Slavoj. Special thank you to Sophie Fiennes for giving us so much of her time and to everyone who has supported us over the last three years. Share the episode if you can as it really helps both the podcast and getting the final Pervert’s Guide out into the world. We have some great interviews and episodes coming up so stay tuned. Enjoy!
SUPPORT US AND LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
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3/1/2023 • 8 minutes, 38 seconds
The Pervert's Guide to Sophie Fiennes: Part One
Alright, we're back! Today we're talking with acclaimed director Sophie Fiennes about her Pervert's Guide series.
We discuss film, ideology, AI, politics, Slavoj's close encounters and the early stages of the third instalment of her series: The Pervert's Guide to Utopia.
Special thank you to Sophie Fiennes for giving us so much of her time and to everyone who has supported us over the last three years.
Share the episode if you can and keep an eye out for part two coming soon!
Check out the FTKNWTD course with Matthew Flisfeder and our other Patreon episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
1/30/2023 • 54 minutes, 34 seconds
For We Know Not What We Pod
Though we've been busy working through the ongoing reading group with Matthew Flisfeder on Žižek's For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor we managed to get together to do an episode on enjoyment and prohibition as it is developed in FTKNWTD. Peter talks schoolyard pornography, Michael lost his job and Jake is back, what more can I say?
Thanks to Lorelai Gilmore.
Žižek & So On Podcast Presents
For They Know Not What They Do: A Reading Group with Matthew Flisfeder
The audio recording of the first four sessions are now available for you to listen to on our Patreon which can be found here:
FTKNWTD AUDIO SESSIONS
Get on the Discord with us as we continue to prepare for the sessions together!
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11/30/2022 • 49 minutes, 32 seconds
Lacanian Ethics
Today we're discussing Zizek's 2005 book "Interrogating the Real", and his afterword on Lacanian ethics.
What does not giving way relative to one's own desire mean? How does Lacan's maxim on desire contrast with Buddhism, and its conception of desire?
Join us on our Discord by subscribing to the Patreon!
We've got ongoing book and film-clubs, and our upcoming reading series with Matt Flisfeder on Žižek's "For They Know Not What They Do", beginning in October.
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9/23/2022 • 45 minutes, 51 seconds
PREVIEW - Surplus Enjoyment
This is a clip from the full episode, available on our patreon.
Today we're talking about Žižek's new book "Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide For The Non-Perplexed", as well as an essay by him on the same topic. We touch on political correctness, surplus value, and the obscene drive of football. Enjoy!
Listen to the full episode here.
Also, subscribe to join our message board on Discord, our book and film-clubs, and our upcoming reading series with Matt Flisfeder on Žižek's "For They Know Not What They Do", beginning in October.
9/9/2022 • 3 minutes, 27 seconds
The Capitalist Gaze
This week we discuss friend of the podcast Todd McGowan's 2013 essay, The Capitalist Gaze.
As Todd explains it, "Although the structure of capitalism is not homologous with the structure of the visual field, thinking about capitalism in terms of the gaze follows from the apparent neutrality that both structures share".
Peter has lost a finger, Michael is sick and Will cannot remember The Usual Suspects.
Take a break, have a Kit-Kat and find the essay here:
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/527298
For access to many more episodes and our Discord, please support us on our Patreon!
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8/25/2022 • 48 minutes, 8 seconds
PREVIEW - Content on Form
On this week's patron ep, we talk the relation between form and content. Zizek suggests that, "the very gap between content and form is to be reflected back into the content itself, as an indication that the content is not all, that something was repressed/excluded from it". For Zizek, both form and content are incomplete; form itself becomes part of its content.
For access to the full episode (and many more), join our Patreon!
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8/8/2022 • 2 minutes, 57 seconds
Ayn Rand
This week, the fellas talk through Žižek's 2002 essay, 'The Actuality of Ayn Rand'. For Žižek, Rand's over-orthodoxy to the capitalist ideal (unintentionally) undermines the ruling ideological edifice. Will has a haircut, Peter has a t-shirt, and Michael's roof is leaking. Subscribe to our Patreon for more content!
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7/28/2022 • 1 hour, 3 seconds
PREVIEW - Did Somebody Say Melancholy?
The fellas are back, working through Zizek's writing on the Freudian concept of melancholy in his 2001 work, 'Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?'. The conversation orients around the melancholic as an expression of postmodern ideology, the function of objet petit a as a lost object, and where melancholy as a political orientation finds its limits. This patron ep is a bit short, but cut us some slack, Peter is baking in the sun on some farm. Enjoy!
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7/14/2022 • 8 minutes, 21 seconds
PREVIEW - A Pascalean Wager
To hear the whole episode, subscribe to our patreon: patreon.com/zizekandsoon
Just when we thought we were done with covid, it pulled us back in. Peter's got no mic. We're talking Pascal's Wager, freedom, Sartre's "No Exit", Hell (is other people), and scientific determinism.
Thanks to all our patrons for your support!
Today's reading is from Sublation Mag
6/14/2022 • 4 minutes, 31 seconds
The Möbius Strip
This week the fellas talk Žižek's use of the Möbius strip. Žižek writes that "the Möbius strip stands for the basic dynamics of the order of being, for what was traditionally called the dialectical 'coincidence of opposites'". While working through the concept, &SoOn talks art, Top Gun, and Midnight In Paris.
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6/2/2022 • 54 minutes, 57 seconds
PREVIEW - Last Exit to Communism
Yes, folks, Jake's in the house and Will is in the Hamptons (???). Michael thinks it's winter, and Peter's super(calafragalisticexpialadoshus). More importantly—we're talking Zizek & Communism, the contemporary political deadlock, and why we need a third (red) pill. Enjoy!
We read from Zizek's recent article "Last Exit to Communism" from https://www.philosophy-world-democracy.org/articles-1/last-exit-to-communism
Head to zizekandsoon.com or patreon.com/zizekandsoon for the Žižek & So On Podcast
New episodes every week — Join us on our Patreon for Discord access and many more Patreon exclusive episodes.
5/22/2022 • 5 minutes, 42 seconds
PREVIEW - Politics of Enjoyment
Our new Patreon episode:
A long-overdue topic, for an overdue episode (sorry about that). We're talking jouissance, the contemporary political scene, and the coming winter in Australia. Enjoy!
The reading for this week is Jodi Dean's essay, "Why Žižek for Political Theory?".
Head to zizekandsoon.com or patreon.com/zizekandsoon to access the episode!
4/30/2022 • 4 minutes, 3 seconds
The Gaze
This week, the fellas talk the Lacanian notion of 'the Gaze' as discussed in Todd McGowan's 'Looking for the Gaze: Lacanian Film Theory and Its Vicissitudes'.
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4/7/2022 • 1 hour, 2 minutes, 6 seconds
PREVIEW - Hitchcock
All the way back in our first episode we said we needed to do an episode on Zizek and Hitchcock. And here it is! This week we read "The Hitchcockian Blot" essay in Looking Awry. Along with this text, we talk about Rear Window, Psycho, and The Birds &... Enjoy!
For the full episode (and many more), visit our patreon.
4/1/2022 • 4 minutes, 35 seconds
Talking Shit
This week, the fellas are talking shit: subjectivity, the secrets of the Egyptians, and the Anal Object.
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3/23/2022 • 45 minutes, 30 seconds
PREVIEW - Did Marx Invent the Symptom?
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We dive into the first part of The Sublime Object of Ideology (again) and discuss Marx, Freud, the Symptom, and the Commodity Form. Enjoy!
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3/14/2022 • 3 minutes, 13 seconds
Return to Freud
We're talking Freud's essay "Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through". How does remembering come to be replaced by repetition in analysis? Why did Tony Soprano fix Dr. Melfi's car? And how does Nietzsche's concept of eternal return compare with Freud's notions of repetition and working through?
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3/2/2022 • 49 minutes, 39 seconds
PREVIEW - How To Read Lacan
All work and no play makes Jake a dull boy and now he’s back to talk Žižek’s book "How to Read Lacan" and the empty gesture.
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2/24/2022 • 7 minutes, 40 seconds
They Live
Unlocked from our Patreon
We're live with They Live—our episode on Žižek's famous interpretation of John Carpenter's wonderful 1988 film. We touch on Ž's points concerning "the glasses" of the critique of ideology versus the conventional notion of ideology—the rose colored glasses. We also think about the film as a Žižekian example, and push an interpretation of the film's alien beings as the "figure of" ideology.
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https://www.zizekandsoon.com/
2/17/2022 • 46 minutes, 30 seconds
PREVIEW - The Beautiful Soul
On this week's Patreon episode, the fellas talk the concept of the Beautiful Soul in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, it's political position, and place in Zizek's work. Sartre, Anne Frank, and Neil Young come up too
For access to the full ep and our Discord community, join our Patreon:
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Also, Mike won't shut up about our new website:
https://www.zizekandsoon.com/
2/10/2022 • 3 minutes, 7 seconds
Red Pilled on The Matrix
Unlocked from our patreon:
Welcome to the desert of the Real. We're talking the Matrix, and the much discussed new installment, The Matrix Resurrections.
For more episodes and access to our Discord, join our pateron.
We read this article for this episode.
as well as this.
2/2/2022 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 9 seconds
The Wheels Are Coming Off w/ Matt Christman
This week, Matt Christman (of Chapo Trap House) joins us to talk hinge points, the experience of history, and the impasse of electoral politics. Thanks Matt!
Join our Patreon for more episodes and access to our Discord:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
Micheal wants you to check out our new website:
https://www.zizekandsoon.com/
1/26/2022 • 52 minutes, 54 seconds
PREVIEW - The Matrix Repetitions
Subscribe to our patreon for the full episode: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
Welcome to the desert of the Real. We're talking the Matrix, and the much discussed new installment, The Matrix Resurrections.
We read this article for today's episode: https://www.lacan.com/zizek-matrix.htm
as well as this: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-muddle-not-a-movie-slavoj-i-ek-reviews-matrix-resurrections
1/19/2022 • 7 minutes, 9 seconds
PREVIEW - Žižek and Comedy w/ Jack Black pt. 2
Listen to the full episode on our patreon: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
We're back with Jack Black. More on Lacanian theory and comedy, with examples ranging from the Black Eyed Peas to Philomena Cunk. We begin with discussing celebrity and false comedy, and later engage (again) with covid and conspiracy theory. We also get the dish on Jack's favourite premier league team, interpassivity and sports, and decide, once and for all, that the Matrix surpasses Blade Runner as the paradigmatic film for Žižekian theory. More on that soon.
1/11/2022 • 10 minutes, 50 seconds
Žižek and Comedy w/ Jack Black pt. 1
This week, the fellas are joined by Jack Black, Senior Lecturer at Centre for Culture, Media and Society, Sheffield Hallam University. Oriented around Jack's new book, 'Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy' (Routledge), we talk 'true' and 'false' comedy, the concrete universal, the Office, and racist jokes. Thanks Jack! Get the book: https://www.routledge.com/Race-Racism-and-Political-Correctness-in-Comedy-A-Psychoanalytic-Exploration/Black/p/book/9780367508937 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackstblack
1/7/2022 • 57 minutes, 9 seconds
Christian Atheism
We're talking Jesus Christ, Žižek's Christian Atheism, and Christmas. How do Christ and God figure in Žižek's work? Is God Dead? Also, the Big (m)Other. From the pod to you, merry Christmas—especially to the atheists. Thanks to all our listeners.
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
Reading this week:
"The Deposed God" from Disparities
12/21/2021 • 1 hour, 5 minutes, 27 seconds
Jaws
This week, reading through Rex Butler's 'Slavoj Zizek: Live Theory,' the fellas talk the Master Signifier and Jaws, and somehow devolve into a Lacanian interpretation of Austin Powers.
Join our Patreon for more eps!
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
The Book:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-live-theory-9780826469953/
12/15/2021 • 57 minutes, 20 seconds
PREVIEW - Neofeudalism or Bust?
For our patreon subscribers: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
After a harrowing month, we reassemble to reassess the assemblage of today's capitalism. But first, have you seen the new Beatles doc?
In a recent article, Zizek has used the term "neofeudalism" to describe new dynamics of capitalism. We go back to the source for this terminology—an article by Jodi Dean—and discuss whether the term is more useful in diagnosing features of political economy than (a critique of) capitalism. Then we move on to Zizek's recent article in Philosophical salon and talk about water fountains, Bane, China, and continuing a critique of capitalism that keeps up with new and emergent forces.
More to come very soon! Thanks to all our patrons for supporting and listening.
Articles:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/neofeudalism-the-end-of-capitalism/
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/beyond-a-neoconservative-communism/
12/9/2021 • 4 minutes, 21 seconds
Violence
This week, the gang discusses Zizek’s 2008 work Violence: wherein a girl gets a dragon tattoo, Pete gets mystical, and it rains again in Australia. For access to our patron episodes and to join our Discord server:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
11/10/2021 • 52 minutes, 24 seconds
Preview - They Live
We're live with They Live—our episode on Žižek's famous interpretation of John Carpenter's wonderful 1988 film. We touch on Ž's points concerning "the glasses" of the critique of ideology versus the conventional notion of ideology—the rose colored glasses. We also think about the film as a Žižekian example, and push an interpretation of the film's alien beings as the "figure of" ideology.
To hear the full episode, subscribe to our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
11/2/2021 • 4 minutes, 2 seconds
45 - The Ideology of the End
For this week's episode the gang discuss Alenka Zupančič’s recent work on freedom-as-a-possibility, repetition, and The End. Jake gets a haircut, Will touches Marx’s chair, it rains in Australia and Pete has a lousy connection.
To subscribe to this and other patron episodes, and to join our powerful Discord server: click here
10/20/2021 • 54 minutes, 2 seconds
PREVIEW - The Purloined Letter
For the return to the patron episodes the fellas discuss Žižek’s writing on Lacan’s notion of “the letter always arriving at its destination”. For Žižek, the letter’s destination becomes a descriptive model triad of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real, and how the three concepts interact. In this episode, & So On explore’s the subject’s interpellation and misrecognition, contemplates Moby Dick, and questions the actuality of the dental dam.
To subscribe to this and other patron episodes:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
To read along:
https://www.lacan.com/symptom16/why.html
10/12/2021 • 2 minutes, 58 seconds
43 - The Next Episode
The fellas are back—and are accompanied by a new member. We dive into two recent articles from the Philosophical Salon. The first is by Fabio Vighi, who charges Žižek with capitulating too easily to new forms of social domination with his acceptance of lockdowns. Vighi argues that we now live “in a neo-feudal inferno where our Lords enslave us in order to protect us, and protect us in order to enslave us.” In his response, Žižek charges Vighi with missing the crucial lesson that the “brutal reality of the pandemic [is] a contingent event,” not some mega-plot knowingly developed and orchestrated by the establishment. The argument laid out by Vighi is, Žižek argues, dangerously close to a paranoid conspiracy theory. Following Žižek, we discuss how Vighi’s position is maintained by the fantasy of a consistent ordering of the antagonism at the heart of the social and the symbolic order.
Yes, we’re back. Thanks to all our listeners, new and old, and our patrons who have stuck with us during our hiatus. More to come!
Episode reading:
Vighi: SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK, EMERGENCY CAPITALISM, AND THE CAPITULATION OF THE LEFT ; Žižek: LES NON-DUPES ERRENT
10/4/2021 • 59 minutes, 13 seconds
42 Preview - Death Drive
The lads compare notes on Freudian-Lacanian-Zizekian concept of the death drive.
For access to the full episode and many more:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydBPm2KRaU&ab_channel=carrieunderwoodVEVO
5/13/2021 • 2 minutes, 59 seconds
41 - Das Neighbor
This week, we talk Žižek’s concept of the Neighbor. In contrast with Levinas’ ethics of the Other, Žižek understands the neighbour to be the site of a kind of inhuman monstrosity. We ask: who are we to speak, who are you to listen?
Žižek’s text:
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo16265666.html
For more episodes, join our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
4/27/2021 • 1 hour, 4 minutes, 18 seconds
40 - Slavoj Žižek Interview &... (Pt. 2)
UNLOCKED patreon episode: Žižek on the politics of psychoanalysis—with reference to Gabriel Tupinambá's new book "The Desire of Psychoanalysis", the limits of Lacan, the crazy philosophy of the Ljubljana school, women and Hegel, and his upcoming works: ecology and Marx (and Hegel), and living and dying in a topsy-turvy world etc. Then some final remarks on television shows and Rammstein.
Join us on patreon for extra episodes and a happening discord server: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
4/19/2021 • 47 minutes, 18 seconds
39 - Slavoj Žižek Interview & ... (Pt. 1)
Part 1 of our interview with Slavoj Žižek. Covid & philosophy; why we need "war communism" &...
Join us on patreon to hear more episodes, and the upcoming second part—
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
4/9/2021 • 1 hour, 18 minutes, 4 seconds
37 Preview - The Relevance of the Communist Manifesto
Patreon Preview - Better late than never, we take on Zizek's 2019 book "The Relevance of the Communist Manifesto''. We discuss how the Manifesto falls short in diagnosing the antagonisms of capitalism in its current iteration, yet also retains its ability to open up a relevant critique of capitalism. The limitations of the text identified by Zizek are problematized by contemporary features of capitalism he insists are crucial for understanding our predicament today—namely, the problem of (the privatization of) the commons, and the failure of the revolutionary subject to present itself. Also, Foucault is cancelled.
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
3/31/2021 • 3 minutes, 37 seconds
36 - For Examples
The andSoOn crew lays the groundwork for understanding how and why Žižek uses examples. With reference to Robert Pfaller’s chapter in “Interpassivity” on Žižek, and relying on Matthew Flisfeder’s idea that materialism and idealism coincide in Žižek’s examples, the hosts discuss the exampling that supports Žižek's idiosyncratic style of intervention and analysis; and, how “the example” is ultimately what makes Žižek “enjoyable”.
This week kicks-off a series of future episodes that will unpack and treat specific reoccurring examples throughout Žižek’s work. (See also our episode on the Antisemitism example, episode 34).
Subscribe to our patreon here
3/16/2021 • 52 minutes, 33 seconds
35 Preview - Do You Believe In Interpassivity?
We are back this week with a Patreon exclusive episode on the concept of Interpassivity. We locate the origin of the term somewhere in-between the thought of Žižek’s and Robert Pfaller. Referring to texts of each, we define interpassivity within the scope of Althussier’s influence in the 90s, as the immanent response/critique to the prevailing ideology of “interactivity”. We discuss a few infamous examples of interpassivity from Žižek’s texts like “canned laughter” and “TiVo”, and consider how interpassivity structures the subject’s relating to the Other as the subject supposed to know, believe, and enjoy. We also try to think through the constitutive role interpassivity plays in the subject/object relation, and how this might furnish an anti-ideological position – or, a secondary ideology that does not rest on becoming a subject, and liberates us from the injunction to “enjoy!”
N.B. This episode marks the anniversary of &SoOn. We want to thank all of you – and especially our patrons – for listening, supporting, and engaging with us this past year. The three of us agree that working on and producing the show has been the best and most redeeming part of an otherwise bizarre 12 months. We have already lined-up what will be some terrific interviews and collaborations over next few months, so we hope you stay tuned. Please like and share our episodes on whatever platform, and if you want to support us materially, you can subscribe to our Patreon. Stay safe out there, and enjoy your symptoms!
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
https://www.lacan.com/zizek-pompidou.htm
https://www.robert-pfaller.com/20-years-of-interpassivity
3/9/2021 • 3 minutes, 3 seconds
34 Preview - Ideology and Antisemitism
Essential to Zizek's thinking on ideology is his denunciation of antisemitism. In this episode, &SoOn discusses how Lacan's 'pathologically jealous husband' is a key to understanding the true evil of antisemitism.
For access to the full episode and our discord, join our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
2/24/2021 • 2 minutes, 33 seconds
35 - Todd McGowan on Capitalism and Desire
In our conversation with Todd McGowan we discuss his 2016 book Capitalism and Desire. Todd brings us through what he argues is the essential role of desire in capitalism—not as something which is repressed by the system, as many have argued, but rather how capitalism perpetuates itself through the very structure of desire. Without coming to terms with this, he says, any attempt to formulate a new system, or find the exit from capitalism, plays into the terms capitalism lays out in the form of “the promise.”
Get the book here.
Check out Todd McGowan’s podcast Why Theory, and his youtube channel.
If you want to listen to extra episodes and join in on the discord group, visit our patreon page.
2/16/2021 • 1 hour, 2 minutes, 44 seconds
33 - The Parallax View
Today we discuss the parallax, one of the fundamental concepts of Žižek’s project. Parallax is “the apparent displacement of an object” wherein the observed difference is not simply relativized, but rather inscribed as a gap into the relation between subject and object. We find examples of the parallax view in the Coen brothers’ film Burn After Reading, and Coppola’s The Conversation; and consider Kant’s designation of phenomena and noumena as setting the framework through which to consider the parallax shift in Hegel’s notion of the subject. We also touch on Heidegger’s “ontological difference”, Lacan’s objet petit a as a parallax object, and the parallax as the very method by which these figures are read by Žižek.
The reading material for the episode can be found here: https://www.lacan.com/zizparallax.htm
And if you want to support us on patreon ($5 USD/month) and join the discord reading group, visit: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
1/26/2021 • 1 hour, 11 minutes, 28 seconds
32 Preview - Coup d'wha?
A Coup d’etat? Unambiguously, NO. Terrorism? Let's think about why that term would be advantageous for the state to use. Insurrection? The right deed for the wrong reason.
Patrons: “We love you. You’re very special”
To gain access to the full episode and our Discord, join our Patreon:
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1/12/2021 • 3 minutes, 10 seconds
31 - Politics of the Problem w/ Agon Hamza
On the podcast this week we interview Agon Hamza, the author and editor of a number of books, including “Reading Marx'', co-written with Frank Ruda and Slavoj Žižek, and “Repeating Žižek”, in which he contributed “A Plea for Žižekian Politics”. We discuss the situation in Kosova, the EU—eurocentrism, and the remainder of the Balkans—the “problem” of Politics, the “borromean knot” of Žižek’s political theory, theory vs. practice, communism, and alienation.
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
Hamza and Ruda’s Interview with Albin Kurti: https://crisiscritique.org/2020/2020kurti.pdf
@Agonhamza
@zizekand
1/5/2021 • 1 hour, 8 minutes, 27 seconds
UNLOCKED: 24 - Hegel in a Wired Brain (Part 2)
In this episode we take a second pass at Žižek’s new book “Hegel in a Wired Brain”, and further discuss the concept of the wired brain and its limitations. Other topics include poetry, Winston-Churchill-Heidegger, the status of Spirit and subject, the signification/meaning distinction, and how singularity can’t take a joke.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hegel-in-a-wired-brain-9781350124417/
12/24/2020 • 58 minutes, 24 seconds
30 Preview - Mad World: The Failed Catastrophe
This week, we take a dive into Žižek's new book: Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a Time Lost.
Thanks for joining us this year, everybody! See you in 2021—
To hear the full episode and many others, join our patreon @ https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
12/23/2020 • 3 minutes, 22 seconds
29 Preview - Philosophy or Psychoanalysis? Yes, Please!
Season 2 soft-launch: The boys are back with a discussion on a 2019 interview with Alenka Zupančič in Crisis and Critique. This piece brings us back to thinking through the importance of psychoanalysis for philosophy, and also opens the door to talking about the ontology of sexuality from the Lacano-Hegelian perspective.
article: https://crisiscritique.org/april2019/zupancic.pdf
12/8/2020 • 3 minutes, 41 seconds
28 Preview - The Superego and the Act
In this Patreon exclusive episode & So On discusses the superego and the act. How does Zizek understand authentic action within the context of the symbolic order, capitalism, and the superego injunction to enjoy? How does an act break the symbolic co-ordinance and bring about an Event in subjectivity? Jake, Peter, and Will take a stab at it.
For access to this exclusive episode and others, go to:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
https://zizek.uk/the-superego-and-the-act/
11/3/2020 • 4 minutes, 31 seconds
27 - Event
This week, we take on Žižek’s concept of the Event and ask: what happens when something happens?
Join our Patreon for more exclusive content:
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10/22/2020 • 57 minutes, 33 seconds
26 Preview - Western Buddhism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Part 2)
In this Patreon exclusive episode, Jake, Peter, and Will pull back the veil of Samsara and chat about the limitations of mindfulness, whether meditation is better than a walk, and contemplate translation issues while Peter eats a piece of bread.
For access to the full episode and much more exclusive content, join our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
10/8/2020 • 4 minutes, 10 seconds
25 - Western Buddhism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Part 1)
This week, we discuss Zizek's approach to Buddhism. From the first Noble Truth, Buddhism describes human existence as an endless cycle of suffering, and posits the path towards enlightenment as the severing of attachment, and the cessation of desire. From a psychoanalytic standpoint, Zizek emphasizes that, in contrast, we enjoy our suffering (as when we fall in love, for example), and that desire cannot be simply done away with. After discussing the finer points of a Lacano-Helgelian critique of Buddhism, the fellas get into Zizek's other major critiques of Western Buddhism; its associations with science and capitalism. Towards this, Zizek writes that Buddhism is perhaps the ideal religion for capitalism and for the CEOs of Silicon Valley, since it's prescription to withdraw from the world, and to see it and one's self as illusory, does little to change the system of oppression itself, and assures the passive acceptance of hegemonic realism.
To hear the second part of this discussion and access many more exclusive episodes, join our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
10/6/2020 • 55 minutes
UNLOCKED: 20 - On The Toilet
On this week's episode, we get into Žižek's semiotic triangle of German, French, and English/American toilets. We discuss the metaphysical stance of the German toilet, the revolutionary posture of the French, and the utilitarian and pragmatic sensibility of the English toilet. We also talk about the waterless urinal, the austerity politics of low-flow taps, and many other excremental subjects. Take a seat and have a listen!
9/29/2020 • 52 minutes, 17 seconds
24 Preview - Hegel in a Wired Brain (Part 2)
In this patreon-exclusive episode, we take a second pass at Žižek’s new book “Hegel in a Wired Brain”, and further discuss the concept of the wired brain and it’s limitations. Other topics include poetry, Winston-Churchill-Heidegger, the status of Spirit and subject, the signification/meaning distinction, and how singularity can’t take a joke.
to hear the full episode and other extra content join our patreon at:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
9/22/2020 • 4 minutes, 21 seconds
23 - Hegel In A Wired Brain (Part 1)
This week, we take on Žižek's recent book, "Hegel In A Wired Brain" in what will be become an ongoing series. By way of introduction, we discuss: our animosity towards Elon Musk, Neuralink, the Singularity and the future of cyborg/human relations, and as always, the Matrix and the Simpsons.
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
Twitter: @zizekand
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hegel-in-a-wired-brain-9781350124417/
9/15/2020 • 53 minutes, 16 seconds
22 Preview - The Real, 9/11
Patron Preview: our 9/11 episode where we talk the WTC, the passion of the real, the interior of capital, and conspiracy theories. Also featured: drones, the Iraq War, and Building 7.
For the full episode:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
9/11/2020 • 10 minutes, 51 seconds
21 - Avoid Your Symptom
This week, the fellas discuss two recent articles concerning the ongoing pandemic, “The Will Not to Know,” by Slavoj Zizek, and “Social Distancing and its Discontents,” by Matthew Flisfeder. Using the articles as a starting point, we talk: the idea of “protest,” neoliberal ideology, the disruption of the symbolic order, and how the virus compels us to enjoy in different ways.
"The Will Not to Know,” by Slavoj Zizek
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the...
“Social Distancing and its Discontents,” by Matthew Flisfeder
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/soc... https://matthewflisfeder.com/
become a patron @ https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
8/27/2020 • 1 hour, 46 seconds
20 Preview - On The Toilet
Episode 20, a Patreon exclusive, is all about toilets. We discuss Žižek’s three examples of toilets (the German, French, and Anglo thrones) that form an ideological tripartite, each demonstrating different ways of dealing with the excrement of the Real. We also talk the austerity politics of waterless urinals and low-flow taps, “green” toilet paper, and how ideology permeates what we consider the most elemental and excremental. Take a seat, and have a listen
join our patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
twitter: @zizekand
8/22/2020 • 10 minutes, 42 seconds
19 - The Subject Supposed to Object? w/ Russell Sbriglia
This week, we return to topics we discussed previously with Dr. Russell Sbriglia, Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Literature Studies at Seton Hall University. We get Russell's take on Graham Harman's recent essay written in response to his book “Subject Lessons”, and get into the weeds on the debate between Object Oriented Ontology, and the Ljubljana school.
"Subject Lessons: Hegel, Lacan, and the Future of Materialism" Edited by Russell Sbriglia and Slavoj Zizek: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/cont...
"The Battle of Objects and Subjects: Concerning Sbriglia and Žižek’s Subject Lessons Anthology" by Graham Harman: https://www.degruyter.com/view/journa...
Join our patreon for extra episodes: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
twitter: @zizekand
8/22/2020 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 36 seconds
UNLOCKED: 18 - Cinema: The Third Pill
This episode, we take another stab at our failed attempt to talk about Žižek and film. Earlier in the week we spoke to Dr. Matthew Flisfeder, the author of the 2012 book The Symbolic, the Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek's Theory of Film— but we did not record the conversation. So, in our second attempt to tackle this crucial topic in Žižek's work, we talk about Matthew's book, as well as "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema", the choice between reality and illusion, the third pill, Hitchcock's MacGuffin, the parallax object, and wonder why film?
Music at the close ("Stromboli") is by Matteo Ciambella https://matteociambella.bandcamp.com/
Dr. Matthew Flisfeder: @MattFlisfeder on twitter, https://matthewflisfeder.com/
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon : @zizekand : https://www.facebook.com/Zizek-and-So-On-126096985581365
8/13/2020 • 59 minutes, 1 second
18 Preview - Cinema: The Third Pill
An excerpt from our most recent patreon-exclusive content. This episode, we take another stab at our failed attempt to talk about Žižek and film. Earlier in the week we spoke to Dr. Matthew Flisfeder, the author of The Symbolic, the Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek's Theory of Film— but we forgot to record the conversation... So, in our second attempt to tackle this crucial topic in Žižek's work, we talk about Matthew's book, as well as "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema", the choice between reality and illusion, the third pill, Hitchcock's MacGuffin, the parallax object, and wonder why film?
Join our patreon @ https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
8/11/2020 • 10 minutes, 31 seconds
17 Preview - The Bean Can of Ideology
In this Patreon exclusive episode, we discuss our evolving thoughts on the covid crisis, then turn to a post-op on the Ben Burgis interview. We wonder how formal logic could be given a Hegelian twist, via Todd McGowan's book, "Emancipation After Hegel".
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
8/5/2020 • 2 minutes, 43 seconds
16 - Ben Burgis, Infinite Guest
This week, we speak to Ben Burgis, professor at Georgia State Perimeter College and author (and co-author) of recent Zero Books publications "Give Them an Argument" and "Myth and Mayhem". Our discussion ranges from the Žižek v. Jordan Peterson debate, to the state of the Left (after its recent social democratic failures), the difference between formal and dialectical logic, and many other topics.
patreon: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
8/3/2020 • 1 hour, 3 minutes, 40 seconds
15 Preview - Eurocentrism and it’s Discontents
On this patreon-exclusive episode we discuss Žižek's eurocentrism. For Žižek, Eurocentrism isn't to be understood as a nationalist idea, but instead as an opening for truly universal political and philosophical horizons. In this excerpt from our Patreon exclusive episode, the fellas discuss Eurocentrism and multiculturalism; and how a return to 'authentic tradition' is an effect of, rather than a challenge to, the capitalist economic system.
Join our Patreon for full access to this and other episodes.
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
7/30/2020 • 8 minutes, 11 seconds
14 Preview - Lenin and McCommie
Patron-exclusive content @ https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
On this episode, we talk about Žižek's intro to Lenin 2017, as well as his 2009 book First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. Our discussion focuses on the idea of communism, especially as it relates to Žižek's Lenin, as well as the included and the excluded, resistance and working through, socialism/communism, the universal and the particular, and some fucked up dreams.
7/16/2020 • 3 minutes, 20 seconds
12 - Marx in the Cave: Frank Ruda on Marx, Plato, and so on
Check out our patreon page for extra content: https://www.patreon.com/join/zizekandsoon
On this episode, we talk to German philosopher Frank Ruda, senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Dr. Ruda is the author of a number of books, including Hegel’s Rabble, The Dash, and, the focus of today’s episode, Reading Marx—co-written with Slavoj Žižek, and Agon Hamza.
We discuss Frank’s essay in the book “Marx in the Cave”—a short circuit between Plato’s myth of the cave, and Marx’s analysis of political economy. We touch on a range of topics, including the concept of an “experimental” reading of Marx, the links between emancipation and myth, Plato’s cave allegory as a depiction of the worker under capitalism, as well as the role of appearance and abstraction in understanding capitalism, the dynamics between the worker and time and freedom, the worker (un)animal, and the subject supposed to revolutionize.
7/8/2020 • 1 hour, 33 minutes, 32 seconds
11 Preview - POWER, APPEARANCE, AND OBSCENITY
On this patreon-exclusive episode, we talk about Žižek's June 22nd article "POWER, APPEARANCE, AND OBSCENITY". We touch on the topics of populism, political correctness, covid, the current protests, and object oriented ontology.
To hear the full episode and to hear more content, check out our patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon
Here's the link to the article:
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/power-appearance-and-obscenity-five-reflections/
6/25/2020 • 3 minutes, 2 seconds
10 - Sbriglia Speaks
This week, we speak to Dr. Russell Sbriglia, Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Literature Studies at Seton Hall University. Our conversation orients around his new collection, “Subject Lessons”, edited with Slavoj Žižek. We talk Žižek, Hegel, subjectivity, and the “Ljubljana School’s” critique of New Materialism and Object Oriented Ontology.
6/17/2020 • 1 hour, 35 minutes, 9 seconds
9 - Slavoj Žižek talks Hegel, Marx, and Utopia
This week’s episode of Žižek and So On, includes an interview with Slavoj himself, conducted on February 1st of this year. In the interview Žižek parses out what he calls the “post-modern deadlock.” This theoretical and political impasse, specific to the epoch of post modernism, is the product of a tension between what he identifies as the broad realist approach and the transcendental. In exploring this deadlock, Žižek speaks about the limits of Marx’s historical materialism, Judith Butler’s gender theory, and Lacanian psychoanalysis, each as separate examples of transhistorical ontology. Beyond this impasse, and in response to the current global situation, Žižek proposes historicizing historicism, in the practice of Hegel, so that we might see the emergence of an immanent, yet entirely new version of utopia, and that in the event of the catastrophic, there is something at work which is both potentially emancipatory, and universal.
5/12/2020 • 38 minutes, 22 seconds
8 Preview - Žižek as Sacrificial Intellectual, PANDEMIC!, and Communism
A preview of the upcoming episode, a patreon exclusive, where Peter and Jacob discuss their interview with Eliran Bar-El; Žižek’s newest book PAN(DEM)IC; Communism and his role as the “sacrificial intellectual”.
5/3/2020 • 2 minutes, 56 seconds
7 - Eliran Bar El on PANDEMIC!, and the Anti-Anti-Zizek
This week on Zizek and So On we spoke with Eliran Bar-El (PhD), researcher at The University of Cambridge for Sociology. We discovered Eliran in reading his article titled “Anti-Anti-Zizek: Public Intellectuals and Global Pandemic” which is his response to the criticism regarding Zizek’s book PAN(D)EMIC!, his most recent work on the COVID-19 crisis. Eliran explains that the style of criticism surrounding Zizek evidences the uniqueness of his public interventions, and with reference to his background in sociology, we explore in conversation the notion that Zizek’s form of dialectic is best described as a kind of performance: that of the sacrificial intellectual.
4/29/2020 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 4 seconds
5 Preview - Off the Cuff on Postmodern Conservatism
https://www.patreon.com/join/zizekandsoon
A preview for our first exclusive patreon content where we talk off the cuff on postmodernism, and upcoming guest Matt McManus' proposal for a thinking of postmodern...conservatism. The episode is our thinking-through topics relating to contemporary politics, postmodern philosophy (is it conservative?), Žižek's universalism, the pretensions of Neil deGrasse Tyson, and much more—in preparation for our conversation with Matt later this week.
4/14/2020 • 3 minutes, 39 seconds
4 - The Sublime Object of Ideology
This week on Žižek and So On, the hosts talk the 1989 English publication of The Sublime Object of Ideology. Access to this complicated and great work is gained by way of the book’s title, as it denotes a synthesis of Marx, Lacan, and Hegel that allows Žižek to perform a nuanced analysis of ideology. Our reading of the book discovers in this new form of analysis, a connection between Žižek’s understanding of ideology and the ontological project at hand in his later work.
4/9/2020 • 42 minutes, 15 seconds
3 - Todd McGowan talks Žižek, Hegel, Lacan &...
This week, on Zizek and So on, we interview Todd McGowan, professor of English at the University of Vermont. Todd’s thought centralizes on the likes of Hegel, Lacan, Freud and Marx, and he is the author of several books, most notably, “Capitalism and Desire: The Psychic Cost of Free Markets”, and last year's “Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution.” His newest book “Universality and Identity Politics” is set to come out this July.
Todd also co-hosts a terrific podcast with Ryan Engley called "Why Theory?" And we encourage you guys to seek it out.
Todd spoke with us this week about the unity of Hegel and Lacan that is present in both his work and Zizek’s, about post-structuralism, the concept of contradiction, and the problem of the subject.
3/31/2020 • 46 minutes, 57 seconds
2 - Žižek on Žižek And So On Part II
The second half of our conversation with Slavoj Žižek in which he talks to us about love, jokes, examples, and the meaning of life.
3/18/2020 • 55 minutes, 15 seconds
Žižek On Žižek and So On
Our conversation with Slavoj Žižek about his work, and the most pressing questions which are occupying him.