The B******t Artists

Rory Varrato
  • 5.0 (5)
  • PHILOSOPHY

Two philosophers—or what comedian Mel Brooks fondly refers to as "b******t artists"—from different generations join in deep yet casual conversation covering a wide range of topics, including especially politics and the human condition. Jack Crittenden—professor emeritus of political theory at Arizona State University—and Rory Varrato—PhD candidate in the Philosophy and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University—have known each other for more than ten years, first as teacher-student and later as friends. During that time, they have had countless conversations together (usually over coffee), and some of those chats have even been interesting. The purposes of this biweekly podcast, then, are to provide a new venue for these conversations (especially now, during the pandemic) and to enable these dialogues to reach an audience of more than two. Both interlocutors hope that—at their best—they can offer to each other and to their listeners something like the lighthearted verbal jousting of 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' crossed with the stimulating pleasures of a 'My Dinner with Andre'-caliber conversation: organic, cerebral, funny, unguarded, and chock-full of b******t.

  1. 02/07/2022

    Encounter #16 — Young v. Spotify, Psychopathologies of COVID-Era Politics, and Questioning the Existence of Elite Universities

    In this episode, Jack and Rory begin the conversation by dissecting the current state of public discourse regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in light of the recent dispute about misinformation between Neil Young and Spotify, the platform that hosts Joe Rogan’s popular podcast. Among other things, the two consider whether or not this spat concerns issues of free speech and censorship, as well as how it connects with the duo’s ongoing fascination with the two prevailing and increasingly politically polarized views of reality in the United States, i.e., what may loosely be considered the conservative and the liberal worldviews. To that end, the interlocutors consider the failings and shortcomings of each of these worldviews, including especially the problems with the mainstream liberal position on certain public health policies that are not adequately supported by scientific research. This turn of the conversation then dovetails with a matter that has been of some concern to Rory, namely, the tendency he has noticed among self-identified leftists—whose perspective on politics ought to be at an elevated level of analysis that perceives bourgeois party politics for the charade that they are—to fall into certain reactionary thought patterns when considering best practices for COVID-related public health policies. Specifically, many supposed leftists have rejected vaccination in a knee-jerk reaction to vaccination mandates, failing to realize that they can simultaneously oppose those mandates while also choosing to get vaccinated because doing so nevertheless serves the common good. Next, the conversation briefly touches on the issue of biomedical surveillance (e.g., in the form of NYC’s Covid Safe app) before turning to a different lens through which to examine COVID-related political dynamics: the psychological dimension, and especially how individual psychopathologies may be coalescing into an aggregation that is more than the sum of its parts. Rory suggests that understanding the malignant narcissism of the typical modern conservative in America, as exemplified by their champion, Donald Trump, could help us to navigate the political task of peaceful coexistence—a claim with which Jack agrees, having written previously about how Trump functions as a cult leader. The dialogue then shifts to an examination of the failures of the Democratic Party, with a particular focus on its anti-worker neoliberal turn, before Jack shifts the shared line of thought onto the question of whether or not elite institutions—particularly, elite colleges and universities like Columbia—ought to exist. The pair ponder this question together, both expressing mixed feelings about the topic, before they bring the conversation to a close with a consideration of the contemporary value of a Great Books education.

    2h 20m

  2. 12/31/2021

    Encounter #15 — Social Media, the Art of Living Beautifully, and a Generational Call to Arms

    In this episode—their final encounter of 2021—Jack and Rory begin the conversation with a brief discussion of the current state of the COVID pandemic. Then, Jack poses a question to Rory about his social media use, particularly regarding the kinds of posts Rory makes on Instagram and the purpose or intentionality behind them (if any). In response, Rory explains some of his personal and general views on social media, which has been a topic of some interest to him dating back at least to his 2013 TEDx talk titled “Friendship in the Age of Facebook.” The conversation continues in this vein, with Rory further elaborating on his philosophy of social media and, more fundamentally, his position that human life is best conceived of as a work of art: the art of living (and, relatedly, the art of living well or beautifully). Weaving back and forth between contemporary aspects of social media use (e.g., selective self-presentation, performativity, etc.) and philosophical and psychological theories of selfhood and identity (e.g., Nietzschean aesthetics, Piagetian developmental constructivism, Hayden White’s notion of metahistory, etc.), the two interlocutors discuss and at times debate the validity of conceptualizing the human experience as a work of art—with Jack ultimately conceding to some of Rory’s claims, but nevertheless remaining unconvinced that “art” is the right word to describe the phenomenon of human life. As the dialogue continues, the focus turns toward an examination of “beauty” more broadly—what it is, whether or not it has (or can have) moral or political value, and what existential impact(s) it may produce (if any). Finally, the conversation concludes with a directive from Jack: activists, scholars, and other engaged humans in Rory’s generation (and younger) need to stop worrying about people over 40, and especially the boomers. In other words, Jack thinks—and Rory agrees—that the urgent transformative social change that is necessary for the survival of complex organized human life on Earth will only result from a concerted, unified, global youth movement aimed at either overtaking or overthrowing existing political institutions. Those few individuals in older generations (such as Jack himself) who are on the same page are welcome to join, of course, but by and large this moment of planetary crisis constitutes an unprecedented intergenerational conflict that the youth must fight and win, post haste.

    2h 29m

  3. 12/02/2021

    Encounter #14 — Rory‘s New Project, Existentialism and Absurdism, and Nondual Phenomenology

    In this episode, the discussion begins with Rory wriggling out of Jack's earlier demand that he come prepared with at least one joke to tell; to compensate for this failure, Rory explains to Jack a new social media project he has been developing, tentatively titled 'Philosophy in a New York Minute.' After some brainstorming about this project, the conversation turns to an examination of existentialism and absurdism, especially through the lens of works by Sartre and Camus. Jack and Rory have some small (or perhaps not so small) disagreements about the merit and usefulness of both of these schools of thought, but the pair ultimately agree on one of the central concerns for both existentialism and absurdism: the importance of meaning-making for humans. Finally, the topic of nondualism returns once again, with the interlocutors focusing this time primarily on the phenomenology of nondual experience: what might it be like to live life so thoroughly decentered from the conventional boundaries of the body and mind?

    2h 22m

  4. 11/11/2021

    Encounter #13 — Student Assessment, the Death of the Author, and Riffing on Comedy

    In this episode, the conversation begins with a brief exchange about jazz music before turning to a consideration of the recent television series Only Murders in the Building. From there, the interlocutors return to a topic that has been of considerable interest in recent encounters—best practices in the classroom—this time with a special focus on assessment, and, particularly, on some criticisms Jack has of the way that Rory has structured his students' midterm exam. After a bit of back and forth, the pair veer into a discussion of film, which quickly morphs into an exploration of whether or not, and to what extent, it is possible or desirable to separate an artist from his or her art. This thread winds its way from Roman Polanski to Dave Chappelle, which, in turn, leads to a general discussion of transphobia—something that both Jack and Rory disdain. Finally, the duo concludes with a broader consideration of comedy in general, and closes with Rory's ill-advised admission to Jack that he has been contemplating giving stand-up comedy a try at an open mic night in NYC.

    2h 1m

  5. 10/21/2021

    Encounter #12 — Time Perception, the Proper Way to Lecture, and Plato‘s ”City for Pigs”

    In this episode—their first after a three-month long hiatus—Jack and Rory begin the conversation by discussing the nature of time perception. In particular, Rory reflects on the phenomenological differences between Sedona and New York—the former a quiet, sleepy village; the latter, a dense, bustling metropolis—and Jack suggests that similar differences in the relativity of time perception may occur across the lifespan, with old age being marked by an accelerated experience of the passing of time. From there, the discussion turns once again to the topics of teaching and learning; both interlocutors reminisce about past experiences in the classroom, and they ruminate about the (perhaps only) correct way to lecture. Finally, the pair conclude with an arcane discussion of an obscure point from Plato’s Republic, namely, why Plato has Socrates describe early in the book an austere, self-sufficient city, which he then, using other interlocutors, uses as a springboard from which to juxtapose the kallipolis, or beautiful city, whose features occupy most of the remainder of the dialogue.

    2h 20m

  6. 07/22/2021

    Encounter #11 — Near-Death Experiences and Consenting to Metanoia

    In this episode, the conversation begins with an exploration of Jack’s thoughts on near-death experiences (NDEs) and similar phenomena, about which he has written extensively, including in his book, 'Stalking White Crows.’ Rory then raises the case of Pam Reynolds, a woman who claims to have had a vivid out-of-body experience while undergoing surgery for a brain aneurysm, and Jack explains why her case is considered by many to be particularly convincing. From there, the pair turn to speculation about why the rigorous study of NDEs and related phenomena remains taboo in the mainstream scientific establishment despite the increasingly overwhelming body of veridical evidence supporting their existence as investigable phenomena. Rory and Jack agree that there are multiple factors—epistemic, ideological, and others related to identity-preservation and social esteem—that, together, inhibit the acceptance of these phenomena as valid objects of inquiry by most conventional scholars. Finally, Rory suggests a certain family resemblance between NDEs, lucid dreaming, and psychedelic experiences, which causes the interlocutors to connect the conversation with the previous encounter’s thought experiment regarding the mass-dosing of the planetary human population via a formalized celebratory ritual or festival involving the consumption of psychedelic substances. Here, again, does the matter of coercion and consent come up, with the discussion now revolving primarily around questions raised by the line of thinking inaugurated by John Stuart Mill’s ‘harm principle.’

    2h 13m

  7. 07/14/2021

    Encounter #10 — The Imposition of Autonomy and the Prospect of a Transformative Rite of Political Passage

    In this episode, Rory initiates the conversation by informing Jack that, during the time between their last encounter and this one, he has had an intriguing thought that he’d like to explore together now. To that end, he begins by digging into an issue from Jack’s published work that, he says, has always bothered him: Jack’s claim, as Rory understands it, that it is immoral for a public schoolteacher, as an agent of the state, to impose through his or her pedagogical practice the development of autonomy (in the robust psychological sense) on a student. Jack and Rory examine and disentangle this claim without coming to any firm conclusion, but that’s fine: the point, as Rory goes on to explain, is to extrapolate this line of thought from the classroom and into the contemporary global political arena. That is, if the human species is truly in a dire and vanishingly brief moment in which drastic, transformative change must be rapidly undertaken if there is to be any hope of the species’ survival, then how, if at all, can the imposition of autonomy (or even postautonomous development) on the global population be justified? Can we, in other words, legitimately force folks to evolve their consciousness? In the course of considering this question, Jack and Rory work through a number of practical and theoretical concerns too numerous to detail here. Ultimately, though, they arrive at the point where Rory can offer the thought that originally sparked this conversation: what if a U.S. President, in his or her official capacity, were to invite—not coerce—the populace to participate in a unifying ritual involving the consumption of psychedelic substances? This celebration could be supported by a variety of cultural sources, and the supplies and infrastructure could be provided by the state. Such an event could serve as both a reconstitution of the body politic and as a collective rite of passage into a higher state of consciousness that would take us beyond what Albert Einstein called “the predatory phase of human development,” namely, the individualistic capitalist one that currently threatens our species with extinction. Jack is enticed by this notion, and the episode draws to a close with many questions left to be explored.

    2h 1m

  8. 06/26/2021

    Encounter #9 — Capitalist Hyperrealism, Transformative Education, and Sinema & 'The Squad'

    In this episode, the conversation begins with a few brief forays into topics relating to the ongoing wildfires near Sedona, AZ (where Rory is located); the soulless hyperreality of Las Vegas; and the corporatization of Arizona State University specifically and higher education generally. From there, Jack and Rory turn their attention to pedagogy, including their mutual disdain for the practice of lecturing and a consideration of transformative education theory. Next, Jack raises the issue of Kyrsten Sinema, one of Arizona’s U.S. Senators and currently the nation’s foremost defender of the filibuster. Jack is perplexed by the incoherence of Sinema’s pro-filibuster argument in her recent editorial in The Washington Post, and Rory suggests that such incoherence is to be expected because Sinema is simply acting in bad faith here. Naturally, the discussion then turns toward the failures and corruption of the Democratic Party, including most disappointingly for Rory the so-called ‘Squad’ of mostly young and ostensibly progressive congresspeople like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who duplicitously failed to unite as a bloc behind the #ForceTheVote movement. Finally, the pair touch on the topic of the Biden Administration’s recent guidance regarding “domestic violent extremists,” and that guidance’s designation of environmental activists and anti-capitalist anarchists (both of which, in their nonviolent forms, are categories that apply to Rory) as terrorists.

    2h 13m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Two philosophers—or what comedian Mel Brooks fondly refers to as "b******t artists"—from different generations join in deep yet casual conversation covering a wide range of topics, including especially politics and the human condition. Jack Crittenden—professor emeritus of political theory at Arizona State University—and Rory Varrato—PhD candidate in the Philosophy and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University—have known each other for more than ten years, first as teacher-student and later as friends. During that time, they have had countless conversations together (usually over coffee), and some of those chats have even been interesting. The purposes of this biweekly podcast, then, are to provide a new venue for these conversations (especially now, during the pandemic) and to enable these dialogues to reach an audience of more than two. Both interlocutors hope that—at their best—they can offer to each other and to their listeners something like the lighthearted verbal jousting of 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' crossed with the stimulating pleasures of a 'My Dinner with Andre'-caliber conversation: organic, cerebral, funny, unguarded, and chock-full of b******t.

Information

  • Creator
    Rory Varrato
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2022
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2021 Rory Varrato and Jack Crittenden. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The B******t Artists