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The Nietzsche Podcast

The Nietzsche Podcast

Untimely Reflections 266 Episodes Jun 30, 2026

A podcast about Nietzsche's ideas, his influences, and those he influenced. Philosophy and cultural commentary through a Nietzschean lens. Support the show at Patreon. A few collected essays and thoughts are available on a blog.

Episodes

Q&A #15 Jun 30, 2026 02:49:52 You know what it is. Questions get answered. The Gay Science readthrough begins in a week's time.
144: Georges Bataille, part 2 - 1944 Diaries Jun 23, 2026 01:44:22 "You, whoever you are, reading me - take your own chance. Just as, at the moment of writing, I gamble with you." The much-awaited conclusion to season six is here! The year is 1944, and we follow Georges Bataille through the months of February to August as he recounts the end of the Nazi occupation of France, while writing of his daily encounters, his inner experiences, first-hand accoun
143: Georges Bataille, part 1 - On Nietzsche Jun 16, 2026 01:54:09 The two-part conclusion of season six begins. We're delving into the work of Georges Bataille, with a focus on his book, "On Nietzsche". Bataille is one of the most interesting intellectual nodes of 20th century philosophy. For a long time, his work was obscure in the English-speaking world, often eclipsed by those he influenced, such as Derrida and Foucault. However, among the postm
Untimely Reflections #46: Stuart Kendall - On Georges Bataille Jun 9, 2026 01:20:10 Today, I'm speaking with independent scholar, translator, and lecturer, Stuart Kendall. Stuart is responsible for helping to bring new translations of Georges Bataille's work into English, and he joined me for a conversation about Georges Bataille and his influence from Friedrich Nietzsche. We discussed the notion of expenditure, the metaphor of the potlach, the will to chance, war as a
142: Commands, Symbols & Games - Nietzsche, Cassirer & Wittgenstein on Language Jun 2, 2026 01:37:07 In this episode we're going to explore three very different thinkers who nonetheless converge on their theories of language. We're going to see if we can't extract an intelligible whole out of the ideas generated by this trio: the Nietzschean theory of language as command, the view of Cassirer that man is a symbolic animal, and Wittgenstein's concept of the language-game.
141: Ernst Cassirer - Language & Myth May 26, 2026 01:40:03 In this episode, we're venturing into the life and thought of Ernst Cassirer, the last humanist of the Enlightenment tradition. Cassirer is widely known today for his debate with Heidegger at Davos, in which Cassirer appeared as the old style philosopher against the new world signified by Heidegger's radical existentialism. And yet, the very fact that this debate was taking as symbolic of
140: Anti-Schmitt May 19, 2026 01:34:49 This is an audio version of the first two sections of a planned series of political writings, gathered under the name Antipolitik: I. The Birth of the State at the End of Warre, and II. Anti-Schmitt. I've grouped them under the name Anti-Schmitt because these two sections form a polemical unity, against the philosophy of Carl Schmitt and his friend-enemy distinction. Enjoy!
Untimely Reflections #45: Nick Nielsen - Philosophy of History May 12, 2026 01:16:20 I spoke with Nick Nielsen (Geopolicraticus), who publishes a regular newsletter, and the series, Today in the Philosophy of History. We discussed Augustine's theory of history; the differing views of history of Hegel and Schopenhauer; the Renaissance and the Reformation; textual gaps in the Middle Ages; Nietzsche's "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life"; Nietzsche & Machiavelli as the monument
Untimely Reflections #44: Christopher Satoor (The Young Idealist) - Friedrich Schelling May 5, 2026 01:21:51 Chris joined me for a conversation on Friedrich Schelling & German Idealism! In spite of his prominence, Schelling tends to be underdiscussed in popular philosophy circles when it comes to the German Idealist tradition. In this episode, we talk about his essay Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom, the dialectic of potencies that develops out of nature-philosophy, and the r
139: Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations, pt 2 Apr 28, 2026 01:25:55 In our continuation of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, we'll discuss Wittgenstein's arguments against the possibility of a private language, which culminates in the position that all subjective experiences of sensations are not communicable. Thus, language must be doing something else, other than communicating inner experiences, with its words that seem to refer to these e
138: Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations, part 1 Apr 21, 2026 01:43:35 In this episode, we're finally talking about a book near and dear to my heart, Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations" (this book took second place in a Patreon poll, and I decided it was time). What is language? How is the meaning of words determined? Wittgenstein initially proposed a pictorial theory of the meaning of sentences, but after his return to philosophy, Wittg
Untimely Reflections #43: Joe Folley (Unsolicited Advice) - Camus & Absurdism Apr 14, 2026 01:23:41 Joe Folley joins me for a conversation on Albert Camus and the absurdist response to the death of God. We begin by comparing and contrasting Camus and Nietzsche, and their differing approaches to the devaluation of values. Taking inspiration from Nietzsche, Camus searches for an attitude to life akin to amor fati, but defined by a defiance against dogmatic certainties and nihilistic abandonment of

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