Insights from recent episode analysis
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Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Total monthly reach
Estimated from 11 chart positions in 11 markets.
By chart position
- 🇨🇦CA · Philosophy#7330K to 100K
- 🇸🇬SG · Philosophy#1230K to 100K
- 🇮🇸IS · Philosophy#783K to 10K
- 🇳🇴NO · Philosophy#803K to 10K
- 🇮🇩ID · Philosophy#853K to 10K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
37K to 128K🎙 ~2x weekly·116 episodes·Last published 1w ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
75K to 255K🇨🇦39%🇸🇬39%🇮🇸4%+8 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
41K to 140K
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Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
Recent episodes
#118: Althusser - Idelology and Ideological State Apparatuses
May 1, 2026
Unknown duration
#117: Althusser - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, pt. 1
Apr 17, 2026
Unknown duration
#116: Weil - On The Abolition of all Political Parties, pt, 2
Apr 3, 2026
Unknown duration
#115: Simone Weil - On The Abolition of All Political Parties
Mar 20, 2026
Unknown duration
Guy Debord - The Society of the Spectacle
Mar 6, 2026
Unknown duration
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/1/26 | #118: Althusser - Idelology and Ideological State Apparatuses | In this episode Barry and Mike conclude their discussion of Althusser’s seminal essay, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”. They focus on Althusser’s concept of interpellation and discuss whether he believes it’s possible to get outside of ideology. The conclusion of the discussion asks how Simone Weil, who served as the genesis of this series, conceives of an outside to propaganda and politics. | — | ||||||
| 4/17/26 | #117: Althusser - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, pt. 1 | This is the first of a two part discussion. In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Louis Althusser’s Essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” in relation to Simone Weil. Here, they discuss the state apparatuses and place them in dialogue with Weil’s discussion of party politics and attention. They close this episode by investigating the tension between the individual’s imagined and real relation to existence. | — | ||||||
| 4/3/26 | #116: Weil - On The Abolition of all Political Parties, pt, 2 | In this episode Barry and Mike continue their discussion on Simone Weil’s essay, “On The Abolition of all Political Parties.” They discuss the opposition between the truth seeking individual and the party member, and then pivot to what this question looks like in the current day. | — | ||||||
| 3/20/26 | #115: Simone Weil - On The Abolition of All Political Parties | This is the first of two episodes on Simone Weil’s 1943 essay, “On the Abolition of all Political Parties. In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the distinction Weil draws between “truth” and “ideology”. | — | ||||||
| 3/6/26 | Guy Debord - The Society of the Spectacle | This is a repost of the Guy Debord episode that was originally posted on 3/15/23.In This episode of the Critical Media Studies podcast we discuss Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle. As the book is aphoristic, rather than trying to address the work as a whole, Barry and Mike look at what Debord means by Spectacle and hone in on a few particular sections (24-28). The focus of this episode settles around the question of whether or not there is a continuity between Debord's mediated society and our own digital mediasphere.We hope you enjoy and welcome any feedback or suggestions. | — | ||||||
| 2/20/26 | #113: Merenda - Reading Arendt to Rethink Truth, Science, and Politics in the Era of Fake News | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Federica Merenda’s essay, “Reading Arendt to Rethink Truth, Science, and Politics in the Era of Fake News”. They discuss Arendt’s distinction between factual truths and rational truths and how they reveal of the interplay of truth and politics. | — | ||||||
| 2/6/26 | #112: Kracauer - Photography | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the uncanny ways that Sigfreid Kracauer’s 1927 essay, Photography, anticipates the modern media landscape. | — | ||||||
| 1/23/26 | #111: Siegfried Kracauer - Cult of Distraction: On Berlin's Picture Palaces | Barry and Mike discuss Siegfried Kracauer's 1926 essay "Cult of Distraction: On Berlin's Picture Palaces." Written nearly 100 years ago, the essay is strangely relevant to our current political landscape. We pay special attention to Kracauer's unique notion of distraction, which contra Stiegler, Kracauer views as a stimulus to thought. | — | ||||||
| 1/9/26 | #110: Yudkowski and Soares - If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All” by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. They discuss the main arguments about the inevitability of our demise at the hands of superhuman intelligence and present a few alternatives to this doomsday scenario. | — | ||||||
| 12/26/25 | #109: Rachel Bitecofer -The Whole World Is Getting Dumber (And The Smartphone Did It.) | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Rachel Bitecofer’s substack article, “The Whole World is Getting Dumber (And the Smartphone Did It.)” We question whether her solution of banning smart phones from the classroom will make much of a difference or if we just have to go “scorched earth” on technology to regain our attention and focus. | — | ||||||
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| 12/12/25 | #108: Alberto Romero - AI Video Should Be Illegal | In this episode we discuss Alberto Romero’s Substack article on AI video. While Romero argues that perhaps we should seek legal remedies to the problems of deepfake video, Barry and Mike consider an alternative. They discuss the issues that deepfake video brings to the fore and wonder whether the problems caused by deepfake technologies can be resolved by law or if these technologies should be engaged pharmacologically. | — | ||||||
| 11/28/25 | Alberto Romero - The Most Important Skill in the 21st Century | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “The Most Important Skill in the 21st Century,” Alberto Romero’s polemical defense of boredom in the media entertainment age. They discuss whether it’s possible to be bored today in the way that Romero seems to require. | — | ||||||
| 11/14/25 | #106: Bernard Steigler - Elements of Pharmacology, pt. 2 | This is part two of our discussion of Bernard Steigler's "Elements of Pharmacology". This time, Barry and Michael focus on Stiegler's discussion of the unique challenges posed by new digital 'pharmaka.' | — | ||||||
| 10/31/25 | #105: Bernard Steigler - Elements of Pharmacology | This week on Critical Media Studies, Barry and Michael discuss Bernard Stiegler's "Elements of Pharmacology," a transcription of an interview with the French philosopher from June 2020, just two months prior to Stiegler's passing. This episode focuses on Stiegler's exposition of his key term "the pharmakon" and the defining role it plays in his media theory. | — | ||||||
| 10/17/25 | #104: Juan Fontcuberta and the “paper-hankie picture” | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “The Eye of God”, chapter 2 of Juan Fontcuberta’s book, Pandora’s Camera. They reflect upon the impacts that the shift from analogue to digital photography and consider whether the digital image “kills us just as much as it gives us life | — | ||||||
| 10/3/25 | #103: Fontcuberta - Pandora's Camera | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Juan Fontcuberta’s “Pandora’s Camera” (2014). They discuss his take on Barthes and Kracauer’s theories about the relations between photography, philosophy, modernity, and existence. | — | ||||||
| 9/19/25 | Andre Bazin - Ontology of the Photographic Image | In the “Ontology of the Photographic Image,” Andre Bazin makes the provocative claim that the invention of photography is "clearly the most important event in the history of the plastic arts." At the same time, Bazin questions our naïve faith that the photographic image is just as real as the object that it depicts. He goes on to provide an alternative history of painting and photography, highlighting the ways we value mechanical agency over human creativity. In this episode, Barry and Mike discuss Bazin's essay and also consider how the digitization of images has further altered "the history of the plastic arts." We hope you enjoy it! | — | ||||||
| 9/5/25 | #101: Heidegger - The Thing, pt. 2 | This is the second of two discussions of Martin Heideger’s essay “The Thing.” Please see episode #100 for the first installment, which set the table (jug joke) for this discussion. In this episode Barry and Mike focus on Heidegger’s notion of “nearness” and the “thingliness” of the jug/thing. | — | ||||||
| 8/22/25 | #100: Heidegger - The Thing, pt. 1 | In this episode Barry and Mike begin their two-part discussion of Martin Heidegger’s 1949 lecture, “The Thing.” They focus on his concept of distancenessless as a unique problem of modernity and discuss how what he calls nearness might serve as an antidote. | — | ||||||
| 8/8/25 | #99: On Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Artificial Intimacy | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the idea of “frictionless” relationships in the age of artificial intimacy. ErikaHayasaki – “What Would a Real Friendship With A.I. Look Like? Maybe Like Hers?The New York Times Magazine 7/20/2025TED Radio Hour -- How our relationships are changing in the age of “artificial intimacy"Friday, August2, 2024 | — | ||||||
| 7/25/25 | #98: The Re-enchanted World - Karl Knausgaard | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Karl Ove Knausgaard’s article, “The Reenchanted World: On Finding Mystery in the Digital Age.” They examine Knausgaard’s proposed solution to the problem of the separation of knowledge from experience in an increasingly technological world. | — | ||||||
| 7/11/25 | #97: AI in Art. A follow up to the Rob Horning discussion. | In this episode Barry and Mike continue their discussion of the place of AI in art. They experiment with Suno and discuss the results. You can listen to those results at the links below. Barry's Tomatoes Barry's Tomatoes as Rock and Roll | — | ||||||
| 6/27/25 | #96: Rob Horning - No One's Version | In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Rob Horning’s Substack essay, “No One’s Version” and whether the world needs an AI generated song about Barry growing tomatoes in the style of “Sympathy for the Devil” with the horns from Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” and a guitar line to be determined (we think it does). | — | ||||||
| 6/13/25 | #95: Jenny Odell - How To Do Nothing, pt. 2 | In this episode Barry and Mike continue their discussion of Jenny Odell’s book, “How To Do Nothing,” focusing on the importance of attention in producing critical thought. They then connect these ideas to previous discussions on the Taste Economy. | — | ||||||
| 5/30/25 | #94: Jenny Odell - How to Do Nothing | This is the first of two episodes on Jenny Odell’s book (and talk) “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.” Barry and Mike discuss the broad outlines of Odell’s project and attempt to connect it to Daisy Alioto’s understanding of the Taste Economy.In/Visible Talks 2018: Jenny Odell - How To Do Nothing | — | ||||||
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Chart Positions
11 placements across 11 markets.
Chart Positions
11 placements across 11 markets.