Terrifying Questions

Did you ever want something and not want it, or love somebody and also hate them? If you did, does that mean there are two different things inside you and they are having a war? Or are there three? This week Eric and Taylor look at the idea of internal conflict, internal peace, what it all means, and what if anything can be done about it. They also reply to two letters from nonimaginary listeners.

Are ordinary experience and everyday life hopelessly benighted and delusional, a realm of shadows, full of spectacle and drama but signifying nothing? This week Eric and Taylor descend into the most famous four pages in the history of Western philosophy: Plato’s allegory of the cave. Tune in and overcome your fear of truth, wisdom, and the beautiful.

Some things are obviously horribly bad and wrong. Is it possible to make them right? Do some people deserve satisfaction while others deserve punishment or mercy? When juries deliver verdicts and judges impose sentences, are they speaking the truth or just fumbling in the dark and settling on the least bad outcome? This week Taylor and Eric reflect on the possibility, the impossibility, and the necessity of justice.

Does the lure of fame and fortune necessarily get in the way of making great music? Or is it okay to make some fun ear candy as a way of putting food on the table? This week Taylor and Eric chat about artistic integrity and the temptations of popularity and money with singer, songwriter, philosopher, violinist, and attorney at law, Andrew Choi – also known by musical nom de plume, St Lenox. As a bonus, find out how Bob Marley was inspired by the Banana Splits.

Is revenge a dish best served cold, hot, or not at all? Should we all go on a revenge diet, or is it just too tasty? Could hitting back be so much fun that we can’t give it up? Or is the best revenge the serene feeling of being above revenge? Even if we know that vengeance inevitably leads to an endless cycle of vengeance, is it possible to get off the not-so-merry-go-round? How did Athena help the Furies become the Kindly Ones? Join Taylor and Eric as they confront the terrifying fact that human beings seem to be addicted to revenge.

This week Taylor and Eric are joined by philosopher Kieran Setiya, author of Life Is Hard, which they agree it is. It’s especially hard if you think you’re doomed to failure. Are you? Not necessarily. But if you don’t worry about success and failure, are you just going to be swimming in a soup of nothing matters and who cares? Tune in and find out how and why we judge life projects, careers – and people themselves – as successes or failures. Should we be making these judgments? Would our lives be better if we didn’t?

Were poststructuralist, postmodern, postrespectable French philosophers like Michel Foucault the real masterminds behind identity politics, critical race theory, cultural appropriation, and pumpkin spice latte? Will civilization survive the rampant, unchecked questioning of grand narratives? Join Taylor and Eric as they unravel this bundle of phone cords and contemplate equality, freedom, civility and mutual respect, Foucault’s historical counternarratives, pronouns, green hair, nose rings, and the myth of trigger warnings.

Is there any pain as great as recalling past happiness from present misery? If so, why do we do it? Do we get pleasure from tormenting ourselves about losing something (or someone) we loved? Was Socrates right that living well means learning how to die? Does being comforted too quickly mean we never really cared? And if so, how quick is too quick? Join Eric, Taylor, Dante, Dostoevsky, and William Blake for an unsettling yet strangely consoling meditation on the paradox of grief.

What does it mean to be deep? Is profundity something good or is it pretentious and boring? Are there different kinds of deepness? Is shallowness itself a kind of depth? Is it only shallow people who try to sound deep? Are profound utterances dark oceans or plastic mirrors? Join Eric and Taylor on this, their first video episode as they plum the depths of shallowness and skate the surface of the abyss.

What is it to be? We be, and we be jammin’ but what about other things? Is a hole a thing? Or just a lack of dirt? Unicorns aren’t real, but are they in some other way? Perhaps unicorns are, but don’t exist. But if so, what about non-existent unicorns? What’s their deal? What is the “metaphysics of presence,” and why did it annoy Martin Heidegger? Do all why questions have answers? If so, why? If not, why not? Tune in and turn on and help Taylor and Eric grapple with the question (and the mystery) of being.

Actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician Fred Armisen joins Eric and Taylor this week to ponder the twin mysteries of morality and moral motivation. Do we do good only out of a fear of blame and punishment? Would most people do wrong, if they knew no one was looking? Tune in and learn what Plato said Gyges did with the invisibility ring he found in a ditch. Also find out what Fred thinks Stone Age comedy probably looked like.

This week Eric and Taylor are joined by Michael Thaddeus, professor of mathematics at Columbia University, as they ponder the worrisome thought that technological progress might threaten something essential and/or precious about human existence. Are we sacrificing quality for efficiency? Are distraction and shallowness replacing focus and depth of thought and feeling? And why do phones sound so much worse now than they did in the 1970s?

Can we try to become cool, or is trying to be cool by definition like totally uncool man? Is it like keeping yourself up trying to fall asleep? Maybe it’s impossible, like trying to look at the edge of your visual field. If you make a deliberate effort to be happy, or to be a loving person, are you doomed to fail? Join Eric and Taylor as they (try to) confront these unsettling questions head on.