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?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comCan Buzzfeed quizzes, Myers-Briggs Types, and Enneagrams tell us anything valid about who we are? In episode 163 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss personality. They talk through the Big Five personality test and its legitimacy, the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI), and how the concept of personality emerged out of abnormal psychology. Why did the concept of personality replace using literature to understand the self? How does the concept of personality presuppose a fixed concept of the self? And what is the connection between MBTI and World War II? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about how personality tests might be susceptible to the Barnum effect and their reduction of the self to egos.Works Discussed:Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian PersonalityMerve Emre, What’s Your Type? The Story of the Myers-Briggs, and How Personality Testing Took Over the WorldColin Koopman, How We Became Our Data: A Genealogy of the Informational PersonHighlight: The Big Five* Ellie & David took a popular personality test in preparation for this episode, known as the Big Five* The term “Big Five” was coined by Lewis Goldberg in 1981* Openness measures open-mindedness to new ideas and experiences* Conscientiousness measures thoughtfulness, impulse control, and goal-direct behaviors* Extroversion measures sociability, assertiveness, and talkability* Agreeableness measures levels of kindness, cooperation, and altruism* Neuroticism measures emotional instability* This way of “measuring” personality does not type people, as those like MBTI do

Hello Overthinkers! Happy Friday :)David gave us some insight into his course load this semester at San Francisco State University. Which course sounds the most interesting to you? 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.comWhat does it mean to be spontaneous? In episode 161 of Overthink, Ellie and David get spontaneous. They look at Aristotle’s theory of spontaneous generation, at spontaneity’s role in politics, and at the dark side of spontaneity. How do different cultures and physical spaces enable or inhibit spontaneity? What is the relationship between spontaneity and human freedom? And is Lenin correct in arguing that leftists need to resist spontaneity in political organizing? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think through the relationship between spontaneity and habit, how spontaneity plays into the recording of Overthink episodes, and the habitual spontaneity of those with Tourette’s Syndrome.Works Discussed: Aristotle, Physics Lucy Cooke, The Truth About Animals Jonathan Gingerich, “Spontaneous Freedom”Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure ReasonVladimir Lenin, What is to Be Done?Highlight: Vladimir Lenin on Spontaneity* Vladimir Lenin was a central figure in the Bolshevik party and played a prominent role in the 1917 Russian Revolution* In the second half of the 1975, there was growing discontent with the Czar and conditions were getting worse for the people, so spontaneous uprisings arose* Lenin asked how do we transform society? and how can spontaneous actions lead to collective change?* He understood spontaneity as something that “comes out of the blue” in a way—nobody could have predicted that it would happen now rather than a week ago* Spontaneously alone is not yet an organized struggle that is supported by a party and has revolutionaries devoted to it* Consistent uprisings require consciousness * Without consciousness, Lenin warns that just spontaneity would (1) make people only worry about what’s happening to themselves and their network and (2) cause reform, not a revolution

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comHello Overthinkers! We hope you enjoy another episode in our Closer Look format. We’d love to hear your thoughts about the episode and any questions or comments you have for Ellie and David :)What does it mean to say that the good life is a life of pleasure? Although you might think of champagne and caviar, Hellenistic philosopher Epicurus actually considered the good life to be more about appreciating the simple things in life and letting go of the things that bring us only temporary pleasure but lead to pain in the long run. Why has Epicureanism so often been misrepresented, and what did Epicurus really say? In episode 160 of Overthink, Ellie and David investigate the teachings of Epicurus in The Epicurus Reader. They explain his four-part cure on how to life a better life, including why we shouldn’t be worried about death. They also offer critiques on his view of justice and its lack of application to political life. How can attaining ataraxia lead us to achieving eudaimonia and living the good life? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts elaborate on whether or not Epicurus’s argument that we should not fear death is convincing.Works Discussed:Brad Inwood and Lloyd P. Gerson, The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and TestimoniaHighlight: Epicurus’s Four Part Cure* What’s good is easy to get* The good pleasure, or the absence of pain* What’s terrible is easy to endure* Do not add suffering to our pain; embrace life* Don’t worry about death* Don’t fear Gods or the gods in plural* Ellie and David discuss more about points 3 and 4 in the episode! Namely (1) why would we fear them in the first place and (2) how do we overcome that fear?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comWhat does it mean to be ill? In episode 159 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss illness. They explore how illness has been mythologized, how it may alienate us from our bodies, and how it impacts social relationships. Is science the solution to the mythologization of illness, or is the scientific model of illness its own form of mythology? How should we conceptualize illness? Is it as a “deviation” from a norm? And if so, what norm? Finally, what can we learn about illness from a phenomenological approach that centers the patient’s first-person experience? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about the distinction between the mental and the physical in connection to illness and the intersection between mind and body in illness.Works Discussed:Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the PathologicalHavi Carel, Illness: The Cry of the Flesh,Susan Sontag, Illness as MetaphorSK Toombs, The Meaning of Illness: A Phenomenological Account of the Different Perspectives of Physician and PatientHighlight: Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor* Susan Sontag famously argued that illness has often been mythologized and treated as metaphor, which then leads to dangerous and problematic consequences* She gives two main examples: tuberculosis and cancer* Before treatments were developed, they were both seen as arbitrary death sentences that essentially fell from the sky and could target anybody* The way we describe these diseases has important social consequences, like treating patients to be socially shunned and treated as contagious, even if the disease is not actually contagious* Another facet of Sontag’s argument is that fatal diseases are thought to be obscene* Our deepest fears become associated with disease* With tuberculosis, patients were thought to have a spiritual problem that caused them to contract it

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.comHello folks! Ellie and David just hosted an exclusive live yesterday which you can find here. We would love your thoughts in the comments or in our chat, as well as any questions or comments you have for the podcast :) Without further ado, we hope you enjoy the episode!Should we be sympathetic towards manipulators? In episode 157 of Overthink, Ellie and…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comHow do new forms of social control under capitalism foreclose the possibility of social critique? In episode 156 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a deep dive into Herbert Marcuse’s 1964 classic, One-Dimensional Man. Marcuse analyzes how 1950s conformism narrows the private space of human thinking, turning us into one-dimensional beings. Your hosts talk about Marcuse’s diagnosis of life under capitalism, and his assessment of how analytic philosophy’s obsession with formal logic encourages conservatism and prevents us from subversive thought. In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss what freedom looks like for Marcuse and how critical Marcuse would be of Overthink.Works Discussed:Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional ManStephen Whitfield, “Refusing Marcuse: 50 Years After One-Dimensional Man”Paul Mattick, “One Dimensional Man In Class Society”Highlight: False Needs* Marcuse writes about a classic Marxist distinction between real/vital needs and false needs* Real needs are objectively necessary for humans, e.g. food, shelter, and social contact* False needs include a new phone or clothing from a specific brand* The difference between real and false needs is not always evident to us* We just experience all our needs as the same type of need* Many of our false needs come from external forces that are serving other interests* Advertising for a company will make us want that object, which ultimately benefits the company and not us* Then, the false needs that have been fed to us distract from other, more substantive criticisms