Published by Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey
Society & Culture
Philosophy
The Partially Examined Life is a podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a short text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion. For links to the texts we discuss and other info, check out www.partiallyexaminedlife.com. We also feature episodes from other podcasts by our hosts to round out your partially examined life, including Pretty Much Pop (prettymuchpop.com, covering all media), Nakedly Examined Music (nakedlyexaminedmusic.com, deconstructing songs), Philosophy vs. Improv (philosophyimprov.com, fun with performance skills and philosophical ideas), and (sub)Text (subtextpodcast.com, looking deeply at lit and film). Learn about more network podcasts at partiallyexaminedlife.com.
To celebrate our nation's 250th birthday, we gathered in front of a lovely audience near Madison WI to discuss Federalist Papers 70, 78, 39, 54, 10 by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison from 1787-1788, Anti-Federalist Papers 78-80 (aka Brutus 11 and 15), and Frederick Douglass' Fourth of July Speech (1852). Is the American experiment working out as planned? We talk about the Founders' arguments regarding the unitary executive, the independence of the judiciary, factionalism, the 3/5 compromise for representing slaves, and finally, whether slavery corrupted the whole thing. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel . Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. Learn about Mark's fall philosophy of mind class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class .
With his roots in folk, Josh released three rock albums in the '90s before his big hit "Camera One," from Useful Music (2001), which is getting a Silver Anniversary rework/reissue. (The intro music for this episode is the new version.) He has released seven more albums since then. We discuss "Goodbye Berlin" from GpYr (2025), "History of I Do" from Figure Drawing (2023), "Juniper" from Boxing Nostalgic (1997), and conclude by listening to "High, Low & Wide" from the self-titled album by his folk unit, Among the Oak & Ash (2008). More at joshjoplingroup.com . Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com . Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic .
Continuing on "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." We talk about inference, the self, introspection, willing, the limits on what kinds of terms can have meaning, and more. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel . Learn about Mark's Key Ideas in the Philosophy of Mind fall class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class.
On "Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism" (2008). Strawson argues that physicalism should not just be taken as matter in motion. Instead, the physical is a broader category that includes not just chairs and molecules, but also "my experience of red." Yet he's not trying to say that experiences are just brain states; they clearly include qualia (what it's like to experience red). And he's also not just trying to solve the problem by redefining "physical" to include "mental" (though he is doing that). Instead, he's claiming that we have no warrant to claim that the properties of the physical are exhausted by what third-person science can investigate, and that we can't solve the mind-body problem unless we posit that (at least some) physical objects have a mental aspect. Sounds like Spinoza to us! Subscribe to Closereads (and get a link to this text to read along) at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy ; follow us there via the free tier to part two and many other episodes like this one ad free, or pay us to get parts 2-5 and everything else we've recorded. (Alternatively, support both PEL and Closereads at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife for a nice combo deal.)
In light of Toy Story 5 , the gang (Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al) consider the Pixar franchise that started in 1995. We consider the premise whereby your toys are loyal slaves that come to life whenever unobserved, the critique of screen-play in the new film, the use of nostalgia in the films, the repetition and/or escalation throughout the series, the horror-adjacency of living dolls, the emotional manipulation, and whether enough is enough. Get more at prettymuchpop.com . Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop . Sponsors : Get 15% off OneSkin with the code PMP at oneskin.co/PMP . Get started with Claude AI at claude.ai/pmp .
On 1868 essays by Charles Sanders Peirce: "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." Do we know when knowledge is intuitive? Is there any such thing as intuitive knowledge? Do we directly experience the self or anything introspective, or do we just infer facts about ourselves from external perspectives? Peirce provides counter-intuitive responses to all these questions. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel .
The LA-based clown, multimedia performance artist, and doll stylist (see maddiemutations.com ) joins Mary and Mark to talk about her Doll Court show, clown types and the role of the fool, failing on stage, cities as women, silly villains, and more. Will Carol overcome her anxiety to go into the big meeting? Will Maddie keep all the nice dolls to herself? What should the demands of the LA doll union be? How edgy can a clown be? We wrap up with an exercise about numeric levels of joy. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com . Support the podcast and listen ad-free at patreon.com/philosophyimprov . Sponsor: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code IMPROV at oneskin.co/IMPROV .
Bruce started as guitarist for the '90s for Vulgar Unicorn and started Pineapple Thief as a solo project in 1999, though it quickly became a full band. He's released 16 studio albums with Pineapple Thief and four solo albums. More at brucesoord.com and pineapplethief.com . We discuss "Pillars" from Ghosts in the Park (his 2026 solo album) and some Pineapple Thief tracks: the title track from It Leads to This (2024), "Clapham" from 10 Stories Down (2005), remixed for 3000 Days (2008), plus to conclude "Alone at Sea" from Magnolia (2014). Intro: "Private Paradise" by from Abducted at Birth (1999, originally called Abducting the Unicorn ). Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com . Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic , which will get you access to a bonus episode with Bruce from 2018 .
Continuing on Mere Christianity (1952). We discuss his take on the problem of evil, how happiness is impossible without Christ, our potential to evolve from bios (biological nature) vs. zoe (spiritual nature), sexual morality, pride, and more. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel . Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health.
On Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, sec. 551-559, which are sections assigned for but not actually covered on PEL #394. We get more info on how The Enlightenment supposedly mischaracterizes faith, but also how faith sees The Enlightenment and what Hegel considers to be good points coming out of The Enlightenment's critique.
Survivor has remained a top-rated show since its debut in 2000, and some of us (Sarahlyn and our guest Wes Alwan) have stuck with it throughout, Mark just watched when it came out and had to catch up, and some of us (Lawrence and Al) had not previously been on board at all. We talk through the evolution of the show, from torture exhibitionism to now lore-drenched soap-operatic beach games. Is this show designed to be watched in the background? What makes for a good player? What criteria to the jury members use to vote for a winner? What is the target audience for the show? Are the games well designed? How does the show deal with racism? Get more at prettymuchpop.com . Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop .
On Mere Christianity (1952), where Lewis presents the moral argument for the existence of God and present Christianity as uniquely solving the human conundrum that our moral phenomenology presents, i.e. that the moral law is real in us yet we can never fulfill it. Once you're on board with that reasoning, faith is a matter of sticking to your realization even though Christianity's moral rules are extremely stringent. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Don't miss the PEL Live show in Madison, WI on Saturday afternoon, July 11 . See partiallyexaminedlife.com/live for details. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel .
Your wise and authoritative hosts explore forms of respectful address, what counts as good philosophy, the holodeck full-contact Fantasy Island experience, status in economic transactions, Trek not War, default improv scenarios, fear of playfulness, philosophy or improv as education vs. doing philosophy or improv, and more. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com . Support the podcast and listen ad-free at philosophyimprov.com/support .
We conclude our treatment for the moment of the Spirit section of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit , sec. 527-73. Hegel's diagnosis: The Enlightenment and faith only seem to be in conflict because they are two sides of "pure consciousness," i.e. thought as a retreat from the actual world. So yes, if you see faith as mere belief, as a thought about some unprovable matter of fact, that is not going to stand critical scrutiny. Hegel's conception of faith will instead be an involved, behavioral, social engagement with the world. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Don't miss the PEL Live show in Madison, WI on Saturday afternoon, July 11 . See partiallyexaminedlife.com/live for details. Sponsors : Don't get caught running yesterday';s security on today's web: visit nordlayer.com/browser . Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel.
Michael is the songwriter and guitarist for the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies (featuring two of his siblings and a childhood friend), with whom he's released 20+ studio albums and several live albums since 1989. We discuss "Throw a Match" from Such Ferocious Beauty (2023), "He Will Call You Baby" from More Acoustic Junk (2025), remade from One Soul Now (2004), and "Rock and Bird" from The Caution Horses (1990). End song: " Unanswered Letter" from The Wilderness-The Nomad Series, Vol. 4 (2012). Intro: "Misguided Angel" from The Trinity Session (1988). More at cowboyjunkies.com . Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com . Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic .
Mark and Al share their mutual interest in fantasy novels. Is "high fantasy" fundamentally different than what enjoyed as kids? Did Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and HBO's Game of Thrones show us that these big books are adaptable, or were they exceptions? We're anticipating the upcoming Mistborn/Cosmere adaptations , as we're both into Brandon Sanderson. We also talk about The Wheel of Time , Rings of Power , Earthsea , Shannara , Joe Abercrombie, Robin Hobb, Stephen R. Donaldson, Patrick Rothfuss, Tad Williams, and of course Harry Potter. Get more at prettymuchpop.com . Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop . Sponsor : Get started with Claude AI at claude.ai/pmp .
On Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), sec. 527-73, i.e. "Faith and Pure Insight" and "The Struggle of Enlightenment with Superstition." Picking up where we left off in this book, an intangible part of us ("pure consciousness") escapes the attempts of culture to define us. This spiritual part has two sides: pure insight, which is the destructive critical faculty popularized by The Enlightenment which sees through all hypocricy and unwarranted belief; and faith, which Enlightenment either dismisses as superstition or chases into a little corner isolated from the real, empirical world. Eventually, the tension between these leads to a conception of faith that Hegel finds more congenial: Awareness of God is just a function of self-consciousness itself, though we don't typically recognize this. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Don't miss the PEL Live show in Madison, WI on Saturday afternoon, July 11 . See partiallyexaminedlife.com/live for details. Sponsors : Don't get caught running yesterday's security on today's web: visit nordlayer.com/browser . Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel.
What would PvI be with zero masculine energy? This episode features your usual co-host Mary Hynes and our frequent guest Jennifer Hansen ( philosopher at St. Lawrence University ). They chat about being hot in a hostile world, interacting with AI, fighting with parrots, and they act out scenes involving the f*cks store and the actress who is too perfect. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com . Support the podcast and listen ad-free at philosophyimprov.com/support .
Concluding our treatment of Ch. 2 of Hegel's Faith and Knowledge (1802). Hegel wants to connect various ideas in Kant: The idea of an "intuitive, achetypal intellect" which we have to refer to in explaining biology, the synthesizing imagination that makes experience possible, and the unknown agency that makes things-in-themselves suitable for processing by our knowledge faculties and vice versa. For Hegel, these things all point to Reason as both the way we know God and the activity of God Himself: Hegelian Reason is the bringing together of seemingly opposite things, and so underlying our minds must be some greater kind of mind that brings together mind and world to create experience. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors : Don't get caught running yesterday's security on today's web: visit nordlayer.com/browser . Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel.
The golden-voiced son on Richard and Linda is more tied to '50s/'60s rock and country than he his to his parents' folk influences, and he's recorded ten albums of tuneful, straightforward but highly idiosyncratic rock and country tunes since 2000. We discuss "Come Back" (and listen at the end to "So This Is Heartache") from Never Be the Same (2026), "Move At Speed" from Heartbreaker Please (2020), and "I Should Get Up" from Separate Ways (2006). Intro: "In My Arms" from A Piece of What You Need (2008). More at teddythompson.net . Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com . Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic .
Ranking source
Apple Podcasts rankings supplied by Mato Topic Intelligence Platform.
Observed July 30, 2026.
Apple and Apple Podcasts are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
