Why Theory
Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.
Episodes
Michael Clayton
On this episode, Ryan and Todd cover writer-director Tony Gilroy's 2007 political thriller masterpiece, Michael Clayton. The hosts weave in Sartre's notion of committing oneself to a project from the previous episode and work through the narrative and formal elements that make Michael Clayton's intervention exceptional for Hollywood film.
Existentialism Is A Humanism
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss Jean-Paul Sartre's 1945 lecture titled "Existentialism is a Humanism." In it, Sartre answers criticism that existentialism has received from lay people, concerned Christians, and Marxists, and clarifies what existentialism means and (more importantly) what it hopes to do and inspire in action. The existential method that Sartre advocates is univ
Impossible Professions
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss Freud's idea of the "impossible professions." First articulated in 1925, Freud is drawn to the idea that psychoanalysis is like government and education in that it proposes a necessary function without end. The intrinsic endlessness to the impossible professions often leaves them ripe for tendentious scrutiny. As we've seen over the last dec
Avarice
Following up some of the discussion points introduced in the previous episode on Ambition, this episode takes a stab at the deadly sin of Avarice. Beginning first with a historical and etymological look into Avarice and Greed, looking at when Greed overtook Avarice in common parlance and when the word moved from referring to a wider programming of miserly hoarding to a specific rapaciousness towar
Ambition
On this episode, Ryan and Todd tackle the fading specter of ambition as a tragic or negative quality. Far from being a minor rhetorical or social phenomenon, the two trace the embrace of ambition to the broader injunction to sell oneself as a brand. This episode will lay some theoretical groundwork down for the following episode which will be on Avarice (a return to long fallow Seven Deadly Sins s
Transcendental Analytic (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason)
On this episode, Ryan and Todd return to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason to discuss the Transcendental Analytic section of the text. Topics include: form and content, Kantian causality, whether example(s) can work for exploring Kant's philosophy, the subject vs. subjectivism, simultaneity, and Super Metroid. Plus Ryan makes an Announcement. (Bonus points go to any listener who currently liv
Rob Reiner: An Overview
On this episode, Ryan and Todd take a short break from their Kant Odyssey to discuss one of the podcast's most admired filmmakers: Rob Reiner. Coincidentally being released on Oscar's Sunday, the hosts dedicate their time to Reiner's first seven films--This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally..., Misery, and A Few Good Men. While discuss
Transcendental Deduction (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason)
On this episode, Ryan and Todd cover the next major idea in Kant's first critique: the transcendental deduction. While explicating the trajectory of Kant's argument, the pair continue to track the latent and manifest influence of this section on Fichte, Hegel, Freud, Heidegger, and Lacan. Later, they try to bring film examples to bear on this section of Kant--including the stark difference between
Transcendental Aesthetic (Kant's Critique of Pure Reason)
On this episode, Ryan and Todd return to Kant and discuss the Transcendental Aesthetic from his Critique of Pure Reason. The hosts work through a sketch of Kant's idea, why he's proposing it, and why even the form of its argumentation is significant for the history of philosophy. The hosts also work over the influence of this section on Heidegger and propose a possible influence on Freud. Later th
Superegoic Enjoyment
On this episode, Ryan and Todd return to the topic of the superego to discuss--for the first time at length--the enjoyment particular to it. Superegoic enjoyment is an idea that first appears in Freud though it is not fully developed as a concept until Lacan (briefly) and Žižek (massively). For Žižek, transgression of the written law enables the group identification with a suspension of the law. T
Structural Violence
On this episode, Ryan and Todd cover the topic of structural violence in both U.S. and global contexts. Beginning with an implicit debt to Slavoj Žižek's influential book Violence, the hosts move to clarify the idea as how unwritten dictates of oppression sustain themselves through their being unwritten Where it is easier to see the violence of a thrown punch, for example, structural violence
Pluribus
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the recently concluded first season of Apple's Pluribus. Taking on the ideas of duration, repetition, alienation, and isolation presented by the show, the hosts analyze how Pluribus delivers a fascinating treatment of life under contemporary capitalism. The hosts foreground how Pluribus dramatizes the tension between the group and the individual, a deftly
Millennium Christmas
On this year’s exploration of the Christmas film genre, Ryan and Todd look to three films from the early-2000s: The Family Stone, Love Actually, and The Family Man (but not Elf, to one host’s disappointment). The hosts theorize two core concepts across these films and, by extension, the Christmas films they have covered in general: deepening the cut in the family dynamic to integrate an antagonism
The Episode
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the episode--a fading television art. Beginning with a brief history of what early American Broadcasting aestheticized about television as form (e.g., its liveness), the hosts theorize the unique cut of the television episode, an analysis typically reserved for film media. The cut has been aesthetically mobilized by television (as seen in the banal yet artist
Lacan's Seminar 19: ...or Worse
In this episode, Ryan and Todd continue their commentaries on Jacques Lacan's seminars by turning their attention to Seminar XIX: ...or Worse. Lacan deepens his consideration of the non-relation in this seminar, further breaking from the signifying chain that had defined much of his earlier and middle work. Lacan also turns more toward mathematics and set theory to ground his discursive inquir
Lacan's Seminar 18: On a Discourse...
On this episode, Ryan and Todd continue their series of commentaries on Lacan's Seminars, this time bringing their attention to Seminar XVIII: On a Discourse that Might not Be a Semblance, which was recently published in an official English translation by Bruce Fink for Polity. The hosts work through the stakes and questions of this "morning after" seminar for Lacan's toward the quadratic formulat
Voice
In this episode, Ryan and Todd complete their Gaze & Voice duology. While gaze & voice both enter into psychoanalytic theory as objects through Lacan's work at the same time, voice has received less critical attention since. The hosts put voice through a theoretical wringer, analyzing it at the levels of everyday life, aesthetics, and politics. Ultimately, the episode takes up the ques
Gaze
In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss one of psychoanalytic theory’s most influential ideas: the gaze. The hosts talk about how Laura Mulvey’s gloss on “the male gaze” made the idea widespread across film theory and cultural studies in different formulations. Yet often missing in these accounts is how the gaze is a challenge to mastery, rather than a confirmation of it. The hosts work through two
Robert Redford
In this episode, Ryan and Todd pay tribute to the recently deceased film actor, director, and producer Robert Redford. Working through dueling top ten film lists, the hosts draw out a political and moral throughline that distinguishes Redford's long career. As the hosts contend, Redford's filmography is defined by an exploration of Kantian moral law and the nonverbal expression of an exces
The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
In this episode, Ryan and Todd conclude their Marx duology by working through the excellent Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. The hosts focus on Marx's narrative and progressive understanding of history as well as the famous notion of repetition expressed in the work's first two lines. The discussion concludes with a critical engagement with Marx's concept of the psyche and the p
1844 Manuscripts
In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss Karl Marx's posthumously published Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, colloquially known as the 1844 Manuscripts. They begin by discussing how teachable and approachable the text is before underlining the book's core arguments. While not intended for publication by Marx, this text nonetheless offers a highly structured look at Marx's de
The End of History
In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the so-called "End of History" in Hegel's thought. Francis Fukuyama's 1989 essay "The End of History?" thrust Hegel unexpectedly into mainstream political conversation. The first half of the episode discusses the legacy of Fukuyama's essay and considers how appropriate it is to regard the End of History as a purely Hegelian not
Top Ten TV Series of the 21st Century
In episode 201, Ryan and Todd work their lists of the Top 10 Television Series of the 21st Century. The hosts operated by the following rules: 1. Only completed series. No currently in production series.2. No series could be included, even if completed, if there is pre-production or production being done on a continuation to the original series. (Not a total spoiler but spoiler-adjacent comment: o
Top Ten Films of the 21st Century
In Why Theory's 200th episode, Todd and Ryan work through their own respective lists of the Top Ten films of the past 25 years not know what the other person's picks are. No spoilers in the episode description. Thanks to everyone who has listened over the previous 199. You mean the world to us.
The Musical
In this episode, Ryan and Todd return to their film genre series to discuss the musical through interlocked analyses of The Jazz Singer, Top Hat, The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, and Carmen Jones. The hosts' theoretical intervention focuses on the musical as vehicle for technological innovation in Hollywood history, as well as how the genre operates as a site for excess becoming inte
Common Sense
On this episode, Ryan and Todd put the idea of common sense through the theoretical wringer. Working through examples both banal and world threateningly serious, the hosts present the argument that changes in what we often refer to as common sense fundamentally alter one's relationship to the everyday and that this is vital terrain for articulating a politics of liberation.
On Narcissism
In this episode (recorded prior to such events as the Trump - Musk breakup and the National Guard being sent to L.A.), Ryan and Todd discuss Sigmund Freud's essay "On Narcissism: An Introduction." Freud's notion of narcissism clashes with the increasingly commonplace idea of narcissism that is largely informed by a pop-psychology importation of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Group Psychology
On this episode, Ryan and Todd work through Sigmund Freud's under discussed Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. The hosts first lay out how Freud establishes the group, rather than the individual, as the psyche's primary formation. They then devote time to teasing out the consequences of group dynamics as Freud writes about them in the figures of the Church and the Military, whil
Racecraft
In this episode, Ryan and Todd dedicate a full-length treatment to one of the podcast's most frequently referenced works: Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields. The hosts move from engaging the term racecraft itself (which, not for nothing, both gets a red squiggle when I write it and the computer keeps separating the two words from each ot
A.I.
In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the effect artificial intelligence is having on higher education, primarily through commentary on ChatGPT. They first discuss how immediacy and the elimination of labor are key to ChatGPT's appeal before moving to discuss how it produces an idea of what Lacan would term the Big Other and how its ruling logic is one of emergent consensus. They end by argui
Slavoj Žižek: An Overview
Kicking off a new Overview sub series of podcasts, Ryan and Todd discuss the influential ideas of Hegelian-Lacanian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek. After discussing Žižek's defining contribution in bringing the study of Hegel and the study of Lacan together, the two hosts move through three ideas apiece that each influenced their own work and their own thinking.
Euphemism
Ryan and Todd discuss the political implications of the societal tendency toward euphemism. They theorize euphemism ultimately as a tool of the reactionary forces and as a way of blunting the necessity of critique. Euphemisms make the people employing them feel better while furthering the very structure of oppression that the euphemism claims to ameliorate.
The Symptom
Ryan and Todd define and explore the key psychoanalytic concept of the symptom. They contrast the psychoanalytic understanding of the symptom with the therapeutic version and then think about how we must respond to the symptom, including what it means to enjoy one’s symptom. In the discussion of changing the relation to the symptom, they discuss the disaster film as a paradigmatic form of response
The Public
In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the erosion of the public under contemporary capitalism. Using Jurgen Habermas's influential writing on the public sphere as a jumping off point, the hosts move to discuss different challenges to imagining a vision of the public untethered to capitalism and self-defeating notions of inclusivity.
Embracing the Void
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss Rick Boothby's terrific recent book, Embracing the Void: Rethinking the Origin of the Sacred. First they discuss how the book begins its argument by intervening in the gap between Freud's and Lacan's notion of religion (in both its social and psychical import). They then move to highlight Rick's original theorizing that links das ding to an en
Lacan's Seminar 16: From an Other...
Ryan and Todd discuss Lacan’s Seminar XVI: From an Other to the other. They focus on Lacan’s modification of Marx’s surplus value into surplus enjoyment and the implications of this discovery for the interpretation of capitalism. They frame this seminar as the end of the most fecund era of Lacan’s thought, a culmination that produces one of his greatest insights and the basis for a psychoanalytic
David Lynch
Ryan and Todd pay tribute to David Lynch’s life and work by discussing each of his ten feature films in order of value as artworks (in the view of one of the cohosts). They explore the role of fantasy in Lynch’s works and how he implicates the desire of the spectator in the films.
Seminar X: Anxiety
Ryan and Todd work through Jacques Lacan’s Seminar X: Anxiety. Since this is the seminar that provides a great deal of Lacan’s initial theorizing of the objet a, they devote much of their time to this concept. Additionally, they discuss how Lacan responds in this seminar to existentialism, especially through his redefinition of anxiety. They conclude with an analysis of the role that sacrifice pla
Lesbian Christmas
In their annual Christmas special, Ryan and Todd explore the Lesbian Christmas film and the theoretical contribution that this specific type of film makes to the Christmas film genre. They discuss Carol, Happiest Season, and Let It Snow in terms of their depictions of desire and the importance of desire itself coming out.
Hegelian Praxis
Ryan and Todd explore the possibilities for praxis in the vein of the notorious philosopher who expresses disdain for the possibilities of a philosophical praxis—Hegel. They look at instances of Hegelian praxis in action, including the church of contradiction developed by Peter Rollins. Hegelian praxis focuses on contradiction, failure, disappointment, and universality. Most importantly, it never
The Beautiful Soul
Ryan and Todd explore Hegel’s concept of the beautiful soul as he lays it out in the Phenomenology of Spirit. They discuss the contemporary political situation in terms of this figure and theorize about its predominance in today’s landscape. The beautiful soul also becomes a way of thinking through the difference between Kant and Hegel or between morality and politics.
Hegel & Feminism
Ryan and Todd address the fundamental connections between Hegelian philosophy and feminism. They discuss the role of contradiction in both lines of thought and focus on some of the major feminist readers of Hegel’s philosophy, including Gillian Rose, Catherine Malabou, and Rebecca Comay.
Aufhebung (Sublation)
Ryan and Todd work to explain Hegel's central idea of Aufhebung (translated as "sublation"). This unique German term, which means to cancel, to preserve, and to lift up, provides the key for understanding the movement of Hegel's philosophy, but it is also the site for misunderstanding Hegel's project, which the show discusses.
Contemporary Horror
Ryan and Todd continue their discussion of the horror film by focusing on the genre since Psycho. They discuss Night of the Living Dead, Carrie, The Shining, The Blair Witch Project, It Follows, and The Substance. Their theorize the modern horror film in relation to the psychoanalytic notion of the death drive.
Fredric Jameson
Ryan and Todd pay tribute to the recently deceased theorist Fredric Jameson. They note his deep and wide-ranging contributions to a variety of fields and his unique ability to find something valuable in the object of his critique.
Horror Film
Ryan and Todd explore the classical horror film in terms of the antagonism between life and the beyond, inclusive of death. They focus on the films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Frankenstein, Invisible Man, Godzilla, and Psycho.
Heist Film
Ryan and Todd develop their theory of the heist film as a genre, which they see as structured through the opposition between desire and its object. They examine closely Rififi, The Killing, Heat, Ocean's 11, and Inside Man, as well as touching on many other key films of the genre.
Hugh Manon's film noir podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aQXewYjXrMtTjwpJ18rg6
Sports Film
Ryan and Todd explore the genre of the sports film, focusing on important entries in the genre such as Chariots of Fire, Rocky, and Heaven Can Wait, among others. They define this genre through the category of the impossible and discuss the relationship between possibility and impossibility as it plays out in the sports film.
New Introductory Lectures
Ryan and Todd discuss what they see as the important moments from Freud's New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis--both its highlights and its lowlights. They explore the role that Freud's 1920 discovery of the death drive plays--or doesn't play--in this work.
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
Ryan and Todd outline the arguments of Freud's Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis and highlight the key ideas that appear in this work. They also discuss what Freud mentions here that he doesn't address elsewhere.
Suture
Ryan and Todd delve into the concept of suture, as first developed by Jacques-Alain Miller. They trace the deformation that it underwent through the history of film studies and examine a few films where we can see the different understandings of suture at work.
Extimacy
Ryan and Todd discuss the Jacques Lacan's neologism "extimacy," which first occurs in Seminar VII and then disappears. But they theorize that this concept offers an excellent starting point for grasping Lacan's entire project, despite his own sparse use of it.
Prequel
Ryan and Todd explore the prequel as a narrative form. They consider its radical potential and how it might function ideologically. They discuss prequels such as Fire Walk With Me and Better Call Saul.
Modernist Novel
Ryan and Todd theorize the modernist novel as a specific literary form, defined not by its time period but by its structural exigencies. They relate this form to the importance of the ending that function as a cut in the narrative movement rather than as a summation of all that has happened, which contrasts it with previous iterations of the novel.
Endings
Ryan and Todd explore the problem of the ending, focusing on when and why the ending becomes important in film and television. They discuss the relationship between the ending of life and the ending of a work of art, especially in terms of psychoanalytic thinking.
Parallax View
Ryan and Todd analyze Slavoj Zizek's contribution in what may be his magnum opus--The Parallax View. They discuss how he builds on the concept of parallax as originally articulated by Kojin Karatani and its implication for Zizek's understanding of politics.
Lacan's Seminar 11: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
Ryan and Todd unpack Jacques Lacan's most well-known seminar--Seminar XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. In doing so, they focus on Lacan's own exclusion as a starting point and then delve into two concepts that Lacan does not list among the fundamental ones--subjectivity and the objet a.
Lacan's Seminar 7: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis
Ryan and Todd analyze the complexity of Jacques Lacan's Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. They discuss the various notions that appear there--from das Ding to sublimation to death drive to the ethics of desire.
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Introduction
Ryan and Todd continue their exploration of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason with the Introduction. They discuss the importance of his critique of dogmatic metaphysics and the incredible discovery of the synthetic a priori judgment.
Ryan's sports article: https://link.springer.com/journal/41282/online-first
Blue Velvet
Ryan and Todd interpret David Lynch's Blue Velvet by paying special attention to the Kantian dimension of the film. They consider the film in terms of the thing-in-itself and the sublime.
Critique Of Pure Reason -- Preface
Ryan and Todd begin their analysis of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason by working through the prefaces to the first and second edition of the work. They focus on the radicality of Kant's breakthrough and the role that the limit plays in his philosophy.
Symbolic Castration
Ryan and Todd consider the concept of symbolic castration as it develops in psychoanalysis and as it bears on both politics and culture. They relate symbolic castration to some of the key concepts in psychoanalytic theory, including fetishistic disavowal and the phallus.
Dialectical Reversal
Ryan and Todd explore the working of the dialectical reversal, how weaknesses can turn into strengths, how successes can turn into failures. They look at this through a variety of everyday examples and a few choice filmic ones.
Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
Ryan and Todd think through Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, focusing especially on the parallels with psychoanalysis and the work's political significance. They also address the ramifications of the private language argument that Wittgenstein formulates.
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Ryan and Todd discuss Ludwig Wittgenstein's project in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. They begin by looking at this project on its own terms and taking stock of its grand ambitions. Then they examine its intersection with the concerns of psychoanalysis and dialectics.
1980s Christmas
In their annual Christmas episode, Ryan and Todd look at the 1980s Christmas film, focusing on Christmas Story, Trading Places, Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. They discuss the nostalgia that predominates this period of Christmas films and how this limits the political reach of these works.
Discourse on Method
Ryan and Todd examine perhaps the founding text of modern Western philosophy--Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method. They consider how Descartes articulates an egalitarian philosophy through his conception of radical doubt and examine the influence of this text of subsequent thinkers and on theory today.
Envy
Ryan and Todd discuss the structure of envy, its relationship to jealousy, and its political implications. They make reference to Othello and Seven as landmark explorations of envy, while also noting its relationship with the other deadly sins.
Science Fiction Cinema
Ryan and Todd discuss the generic development of science fiction cinema while also addressing its philosophical implications. They include a deeper analysis of Metropolis, The Thing From Another World, Forbidden Planet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
See:
Voyage to the Moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLVChRVfZ74
Metropolis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_4no842TX8
Phantom Empire: https://w
Monadology
Ryan and Todd present the philosophy of Leibniz as articulated in his late work the Monadology. They link this text to the breakthroughs of later thinkers such as Kant and Hegel, as well as discussing how Leibniz anticipates the contemporary situation.
The Prince
Ryan and Todd analyze Machiavelli's The Prince by tracing its influence on later political thinkers, including Hegel, Gramsci, and Althusser. They discuss Machiavelli's novelty and his limitations as a thinker of the political act.
Surplus Enjoyment
Ryan and Todd explore the idea of surplus enjoyment as the basis for a theory of capitalism. They consider the psychic hold that capitalism has in terms of the surplus enjoyment that it both promises and provides.
Surplus Value
Ryan and Todd unpack Marx's concept of surplus value and explore its fundamental role in the interpretation of capitalist society. They discuss the relationship between surplus value and profit, while considering how we should think about the drive to amass surplus value.
Oppenheimer
Ryan and Todd offer their interpretation of Christopher Nolan's most recent film Oppenheimer. They focus on the relationship between the form of the film and its content, while considering the political implications of its depiction of the hero. They think about the film in relationship to the rest of Nolan's filmography.
Barbie
Ryan and Todd interpret the film Barbie while responding to both leftist and rightist critiques of the film. They discuss the film's exploration of fantasy, its highlighting of contradiction, and its emphasis on the role of desire in politics.
Creative Writers & Daydreaming
Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "Creative Writings and Daydreaming." They look first at the theory of fantasy that Freud develops in this essay and then turn to his conception of what generates the work of art, discussing it in terms of the current strike in Hollywood. In their concluding remarks, they deal with problems that Freud runs into in his theorizing here.
Uncanny
Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "The Uncanny" and the broader implications of this concept. They discuss the importance of the uncanny for understanding the horror film and focus on the difference between a psychoanalytic approach to the concept and the notion of the uncanny valley.
Links from the episode:
Žižek & So On podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6S0mig3K8TiuJoXHOG5VnT?si=6a55
Poststructuralism
Ryan and Todd attempt to show why the term "poststructuralism" is inapt for describing any of the thinkers that it usually is thought to indicate. They go through the major theorists known under this moniker and reveal why poststructuralism doesn't exist.
Tribute to Mari Ruti
Ryan and Todd devote this episode to the memory of Mari Ruti, who died on June 8, 2023. They discuss her core theoretical ideas and work through her major works. In addition, they include a few memories of Mari's singular life.
Succession
Ryan and Todd analyze the recently concluded television series Succession. They discuss it in terms of capitalist subjectivity, tragedy, the death drive, and the ideology of the family. There are spoilers at every point in this discussion.
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