You Kant Say That‪!‬ Na'ama Carlin and Melanie White

If you love reading fiction, and you LOVE closure, you're going to mildly like today's episode! In the final episode of season 1, Na'ama and Melanie conclude this season on 'the self' by talking about animals and plants. What are the limits of selfhood? Do plants have selves? How is fiction helpful in thinking about these existential questions? Spoiler: we do not have answers.

What should I read?
This week, we're reading J M Coetzee's The Lives of Animals and Han Kang's The Vegetarian.

One day Jacques Derrida got out of the shower and realised he was caught naked by his cat, who was staring at him. What followed (get it) was a 10 hour lecture on - among other things - the limits of the human/animal/divine, the human/self and animal/other, being naked and knowing it, and being naked and not knowing it.

In our penultimate episode, Melanie and Na'ama talk all things feline and deconstruction. Bonus: our refurbished studio has sound effects!! Melanie is pleased.

What should I read?
This week, get into Derrida's The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow) (2002)

Jakob von Uexküll (1864–1944) is a founder of the field of behavioural physiology. He explored what makes ticks... tick. But how does Uexküll's work shed light on what makes us tick? For that and more, join Melanie and Na'ama in a soap bubble and go on a stroll. Bonus: Melanie's first ever introduction to Aussie icons Kath & Kim, and a dramatic reading of a tick sniffing out blood. 

Henri Bergson (1859 - 1941) was an influential philosopher, nobel prize winner, and international celebrity. He is the epitome of philosophy in action: his commitment to a life of social justice, ethics, and equity saw him lead in the League of Nations (1920 - 1925). In this episode, we take on Bergson's project and his attempt to describe the indescribable: life itself. What sense of self does Bergson theorise? What does Jurassic Park have to do with it all?

What should I read?
Henri Bergson Creative Evolution. Take your time. 

This week we consider the work of Frans de Waal, a primatologist exploring empathy in primates. Are humans bad to the core? What do we have in common with primates, and why does that matter? This episode is monkey business and then some! Plus: the never before revealed 'Ikea theory of morality', Na'ama shares her Hobbesian tinder bio, and we learn about the social universe of Melanie's pets!  
What should I read?
Frans de Waal's Tanner Lectures on Human Values lecture, Morality and the Social Instincts: Continuity with the Other Primate (2003) is a treat! 

Monkey sounds safe words and breast milk, oh my! This week, we look at the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930 - 2004), and things get wild. Derrida is most well-known for the method ("it's not a method!") of deconstruction. We explore Derrida's deconstruction of the Cartesian legacy that defines much of how we see, understand, and treat the world we live in.

Join us this week as we discuss what is 'the animal'? What are the ethical and lived consequences of human privilege? Was Derrida popular in school? What should we eat???

Forget what should I eat! What should I read?
We have a couple of things you might be interested in this week!
Rene Descartes Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting one’s Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences (originally published 1637)

Jacques Derrida ‘Violence Against Animals’ in For What Tomorrow: A Dialogue (2004)