Overthink

You often hear people say “everything is political” and political disagreements feel like a fight. But what if our obsession with debate and rational argumentation is actually making polarization worse?Drawing on Sarah Stein Lubrano's Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds, David explains how endless social media debates cause people to dig their heels in and what we need to do instead. This video was inspired by our episode with Sarah Stein Lubrano which you can find here.If you have more questions for Ellie & David, we’d love to hear them! Whether it’s inspired by one of our episodes, something you’ve been reading, or a random thought you had, anything is welcome :) Leave a comment, or, if you’re a paid subscriber, drop them in our exclusive subscribe chat!We’ll see you on Tuesday for our next episode ;)Love, Overthink This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit overthinkpod.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comWhy do we seek to escape from ourselves? In episode 168 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Emmanuel Levinas’s article “On Escape.” They discuss Levinas’s claim that escape is central to the human condition and explore what exactly we try to escape from and escape to. They explain how this aspect of human existence is crystallized by our experiences of need, pleasure, and even nausea. Are we condemned to being needy beings? How does Levinas’s view of shame put him at a distance from Sartre? And is Levinas right that to be a human is to never be at peace with oneself? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss why escape is the condition of our time and critique Levinas’s reading of idealism.Works Discussed:Emmanuel Levinas, “On Escape”Jean-Paul Sartre, NauseaHighlight: Levinas on the Human Condition* Levinas believes that being human means not being at peace with yourself* David mentions two important terms to understanding Levinas:* Escape* We, by our very nature, are constantly seeking to escape who and what we are* Impotence* We seek to escape, but we fail every time* We’re left with the combination of desire and a yearning for departure that can never come to fruition* This was a very basic introduction, so listen to the episode to hear Ellie & David grapple with more of Levinas’s ideas :)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comAre some people born evil, or are we all capable of evil acts? In episode 167 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about all things evil. They think through the characterization of evil in Disney films, Leibniz’s best of all possible worlds theory, the conflation of evil with badness, and Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil. How does Manichaeism attempt to resolve the problem of evil? Is evil simply the lack of good in the world? And does the concept of evil still have relevance in an age of secular ethics or is the concept too weighed down by its own theological past? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss evil people and how we might categorize them.Works Discussed:Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of EvilHannah Arendt, “Nightmare and Flight”Hannah Arendt, The Origins of TotalitarianismPaul Formosa, “The Problems with Evil”Paul Formosa, “A Conception of Evil”Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, TheodicyGavin Rae, Evil in the Western Philosophical Tradition

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit overthinkpod.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comContent warning: this episode involves discussion of sexual violence and sexual assault.Can pornography be liberating or does it just promote the hatred of women? In episode 165 of Overthink Ellie and David discuss pornography. They talk about the feminist ‘sex wars’ and the pro-porn and anti-porn views that emerged from it. They talk about how the figure of the porn star has changed in the era of OnlyFans, and how porn blends sex with visuality. How might porn endanger women as a class? Can sex in pornography be considered art? And are AI and deepfakes enhancing the harms of pornography? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts chat about Heated Rivalry and discuss the relationship between art and porn.Works Discussed: Laura Bates, The New Age of Sexism: How AI and Emerging Technologies Are Reinventing MisogynyAndrea Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing WomenCatharine MacKinnon, Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex DiscriminationOriana Small, Girlvert: A Porno MemoirAmia Srinivasan, The Right to SexHighlight: Catharine MacKinnon* Mackinnon was an anti-pornography American lawyer, feminist activist, and legal scholar who famously wrote Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination* She also was friends and worked with Andrea Dworkin* She criticized pornography through the lens of anti-discrimination law* Mackinnon argues that pornography violates the rights of women as a protected class* Based off Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, she contends that sexual harassment is to sex what separate but equal was to race* Sexual harassment in the workplace is a violation because it infringes upon women’s rights* She makes the same argument about pornography* By eroticizing the abuse, humiliation, and domination of women, pornography harms women as a class and locks them into a position of social inequality

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comHello Overthinkers! In honor of it almost being spring we will be offering paid subscriptions 20% off until March 20th! Redeem here :) Is the way we interact with technology moving us towards a cyborg future? In episode 164 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Donna Haraway’s seminal essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” in which Haraway critiques the increasing technologization of everyday life and questions what it means to be a feminist and a socialist in the age of informatics and cybernetics. They discuss her critique of identity politics, her notion of the “homework economy,” the increase of miniaturization in technology, and her appeal to pleasure and responsibility. Why should we discard the assumption that technology has deepened mind-body dualism? And what might the theory of the cyborg look like in light of the rise of generative AI? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss how the cyborg can be found in popular media like Severance and Crimes of the Future, and how the cyborg differs to Frankenstein’s monster.Works Discussed:Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto” Dave Yan, “Posthuman Creativity: Unveiling Cyborg Subjectivity Through ChatGPT”Highlight: The Homework Economy and Feminization of Work* Haraway describes the homework economy, characterized by the feminization of work * Technology inevitably impacts our homes and households* For example, workplace changes affects the structure of the family, e.g. male “digital nomads” become domestic subjects, which was traditionally the space of feminity * Ellie and David also connect Haraway’s ideas to AI* Many LLMs, and even AI in general, are feminized* E.g. Siri and Alexa have female voices* What other connections did you see between Haraway and AI?