100 episodes

Theory Underground is a lecture course and publishing platform for working class autodidacts and intellectual malcontents of various and diverse stripes. Most of what happens at TU is in relatively small and focused lecture-driven courses, however, there are a lot of public-facing dialogues with colleagues, fellow travelers, co-instructors, and ultimately whatever I want to do. Hi, I’m David McKerracher, and the reason this podcast exists is because I want the stuff I’m putting out there to be more widely accessible for people who don’t wanna pay for YT premium. I assume an audience of workers with earbuds, even though most of them are, at this point, post grads from Europe who have given up on existing movements, parties, ideologies, and who, ultimately, want to understand the situation we are in. THE CONTENT YOU WILL FIND HERE IS GOING TO BE WEIRD in a few important ways: 1st. Though I do want to be reachable by the kinds of workers, like me, who want this content, it is extremely niche and not very algorithm friendly. Which results in, 2nd, these episodes are ALL variable -length and unedited. This is because, 3, we are using the medium against its intended purposes. That is why you will find a kind of quality in this content that is not to be found elsewhere. Some of the time I will be posting older content, that is ”canon” in a very serious sense. Other times I will be posting livestreams from the current week. Whereas most ”streamers” broadcast with their live audience primarily in mind, everything I do prioritizes future listeners, and repeat listeners. If you dig what’s going on here and want to support, there are a variety of ways to do that. Patrons just give me money to keep doing what I do best. Subscribers get all kinds of access to past, ongoing, and upcoming closed-courses and monthly seminars. As things progress I will release my audiobook chapters and past courses to the podcast as well. Think of it as a kind of buffet. If you wanna binge all the delicious dishes, then hell yeah, but if you are just here for the interviews, lectures, or Capital Mondays sessions, for instance, then that’s cool too. JUST KNOW that everything here is produced for posterity, i.e. future you, future me, future others who will engage with this material more like texts than as one-off streams. We’re not just talking to ourselves, but fostering a specific kind of future... one with humans still in it. To do that we must foster the conditions to go beyond the current theory scene and develop a robust and dynamic working class intellectual and creative milieu that paves the way for the only thing that gives me a shred of hope, i.e. the future intellectual vanguard that’s needed. Needed for what? Find out here.

Theory Underground theory underground

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.6 • 17 Ratings

Theory Underground is a lecture course and publishing platform for working class autodidacts and intellectual malcontents of various and diverse stripes. Most of what happens at TU is in relatively small and focused lecture-driven courses, however, there are a lot of public-facing dialogues with colleagues, fellow travelers, co-instructors, and ultimately whatever I want to do. Hi, I’m David McKerracher, and the reason this podcast exists is because I want the stuff I’m putting out there to be more widely accessible for people who don’t wanna pay for YT premium. I assume an audience of workers with earbuds, even though most of them are, at this point, post grads from Europe who have given up on existing movements, parties, ideologies, and who, ultimately, want to understand the situation we are in. THE CONTENT YOU WILL FIND HERE IS GOING TO BE WEIRD in a few important ways: 1st. Though I do want to be reachable by the kinds of workers, like me, who want this content, it is extremely niche and not very algorithm friendly. Which results in, 2nd, these episodes are ALL variable -length and unedited. This is because, 3, we are using the medium against its intended purposes. That is why you will find a kind of quality in this content that is not to be found elsewhere. Some of the time I will be posting older content, that is ”canon” in a very serious sense. Other times I will be posting livestreams from the current week. Whereas most ”streamers” broadcast with their live audience primarily in mind, everything I do prioritizes future listeners, and repeat listeners. If you dig what’s going on here and want to support, there are a variety of ways to do that. Patrons just give me money to keep doing what I do best. Subscribers get all kinds of access to past, ongoing, and upcoming closed-courses and monthly seminars. As things progress I will release my audiobook chapters and past courses to the podcast as well. Think of it as a kind of buffet. If you wanna binge all the delicious dishes, then hell yeah, but if you are just here for the interviews, lectures, or Capital Mondays sessions, for instance, then that’s cool too. JUST KNOW that everything here is produced for posterity, i.e. future you, future me, future others who will engage with this material more like texts than as one-off streams. We’re not just talking to ourselves, but fostering a specific kind of future... one with humans still in it. To do that we must foster the conditions to go beyond the current theory scene and develop a robust and dynamic working class intellectual and creative milieu that paves the way for the only thing that gives me a shred of hope, i.e. the future intellectual vanguard that’s needed. Needed for what? Find out here.

    Jacques Lacan vs. Gilles Deleuze with Todd McGowan, Michael Downs, Dave and Nance at Theory Underground

    Jacques Lacan vs. Gilles Deleuze with Todd McGowan, Michael Downs, Dave and Nance at Theory Underground

    There is no greater divide on the internet than Jacques Lacan vs. Gilles Deleuze, but few could articulate how they differ when it comes to their main difference: Their theories of desire! Todd McGowan joins TU to talk about why he thinks Lacan's theory is better.
     
    ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS Become a monthly TU Tier Subscriber to access to the TU HUB, which includes past, ongoing, and upcoming courses, special events, office hours, clubs, and critical feedback that will help you evolve your comprehension capacities and critical faculties, via the website here: https://theoryunderground.com/product/tu-subscription-tiers/ (Whatever tier you subscribe to in the month of March 2024 will be promoted to the privileges of the next one up (e.g. Tier 1 will have Tier 2 privileges, etc.!).)
     
    Don’t have time for that but want to help anyway? Consider supporting the patreon here: Welcome to Theory Underground. https://www.patreon.com/TheoryUnderground
     
    Get TU books at a discount: https://theoryunderground.com/publications
     
    Theory Underground is a lecture, research, and publishing platform by and for working class intellectuals, autodidacts, and academics who want to do more than they are able to within the confines of academia.
     
    Think of Theory Underground like a Jiu Jitsu gym for your brain. Or like a post-political theory church. It doesn’t matter. None of the analogies will do it justice. We’re post-identity anyway. Just see if the vibe is right for you. We hope you get something out of it!
     
    If you want to help me get setup sooner/faster in a totally gratuitous way, or support me but you don’t care about the subscription or want to bother with the monthly stuff, here is a way to buy me something concrete and immediately useful, then you can buy me important equipment for my office on this list (these items will be automatically shipped to my address if you use the list here) https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2MAWFYUJQIM58?
     
    Buy me some coffee: https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb https://paypal.me/theorypleeb
     
    If Theory Underground has helped you see that text-to-speech technologies are a useful way of supplementing one’s reading while living a busy life, if you want to be able to listen to PDFs for yourself, then Speechify is recommended. Use the link below and Theory Underground gets credit! https://share.speechify.com/mzwBHEB Follow Theory Underground on Duolingo: https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEI See Theory Underground memes here: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/ https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground
     
    Missed a course at Theory Underground? Wrong! Courses at Theory Underground are available after the fact on demand. https://theoryunderground.com/courses
     
    MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode Mike Chino, Demigods https://youtu.be/M6wruxDngOk
     
     
     
     
     
     

    • 1 hr 6 min
    Slavoj Žižek talks Nick Land AI singularity, ethics of psychoanalysis, Compact Magazine, and so on!

    Slavoj Žižek talks Nick Land AI singularity, ethics of psychoanalysis, Compact Magazine, and so on!

    From the first time Slavoj Žižek visited Theory Underground, to help kick off our U.S. Tour in 2023! Now being released as a stand alone video. This is the interview that provoked Slavoj to write an article about Nick Land that was published in Compact Mag.
     
    ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS Become a monthly TU Tier Subscriber to access to the TU HUB, which includes past, ongoing, and upcoming courses, special events, office hours, clubs, and critical feedback that will help you evolve your comprehension capacities and critical faculties, via the website here: https://theoryunderground.com/product/tu-subscription-tiers/ (Whatever tier you subscribe to in the month of March 2024 will be promoted to the privileges of the next one up (e.g. Tier 1 will have Tier 2 privileges, etc.!).)
     
    Don’t have time for that but want to help anyway? Consider supporting the patreon here: Welcome to Theory Underground. https://www.patreon.com/TheoryUnderground
     
    Get TU books at a discount: https://theoryunderground.com/publications
     
    Theory Underground is a lecture, research, and publishing platform by and for working class intellectuals, autodidacts, and academics who want to do more than they are able to within the confines of academia.
     
    Think of Theory Underground like a Jiu Jitsu gym for your brain. Or like a post-political theory church. It doesn’t matter. None of the analogies will do it justice. We’re post-identity anyway. Just see if the vibe is right for you. We hope you get something out of it!
     
    If you want to help me get setup sooner/faster in a totally gratuitous way, or support me but you don’t care about the subscription or want to bother with the monthly stuff, here is a way to buy me something concrete and immediately useful, then you can buy me important equipment for my office on this list (these items will be automatically shipped to my address if you use the list here) https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2MAWFYUJQIM58?
     
    Buy me some coffee: https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb https://paypal.me/theorypleeb
     
    If Theory Underground has helped you see that text-to-speech technologies are a useful way of supplementing one’s reading while living a busy life, if you want to be able to listen to PDFs for yourself, then Speechify is recommended. Use the link below and Theory Underground gets credit! https://share.speechify.com/mzwBHEB Follow Theory Underground on Duolingo: https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEI See Theory Underground memes here: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/ https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground
     
    Missed a course at Theory Underground? Wrong! Courses at Theory Underground are available after the fact on demand. https://theoryunderground.com/courses
     
    MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode Mike Chino, Demigods https://youtu.be/M6wruxDngOk
     
     
     
     
     

    • 1 hr 57 min
    You won't want to miss this lecture | Intro to CMT at Theory Underground | Snelgrove-McKerracher

    You won't want to miss this lecture | Intro to CMT at Theory Underground | Snelgrove-McKerracher

    We've made this one public so you can get a taste of what's going on behind the scenes at Theory Underground. Critical Media Theory (CMT) (on the 2nd Sunday of every month 9:00 AM Pacific / 12:00 PM Eastern) may be the most popular and cutting edge field/subject-matter at TU. It's about what we all have in common: Devices that mediate our sensory experience, filter existence, and structure our habits. The McKerracher-Snelgrove synthesis (Dave and Ann) bring a unique teaching approach that combines thinkers such as Marx, McLuhan, Heidegger, Arendt, Baudrillard, Lacan, Ellul, Virilio, Steigler, with popular bestsellers on the topics of smartphone distraction, social media addiction, and more. Through these lecture sessions, the monthly practical experiment/assignments, and presentation/publishing opportunities, students of CMT are able to develop themselves as researchers who are co-pioneering the most relevant field of the most mediated century known to humankind.
     
    ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS
     
    How to get involved with weekly, monthly, or once-in-a-lifetime events (including the lecture series you watched here!) https://docs.google.com/document/d/19pOkceYZGixxcrPcJBv3uzdG3IevZ1ApX1vDi7YpQnY/edit?usp=sharing
     
    Become a monthly TU Tier Subscriber to access past, ongoing, and upcoming courses, special events, office hours, clubs, and critical feedback that will help you evolve your comprehension capacities and critical faculties, via the website here: https://theoryunderground.com/product/tu-subscription-tiers/
     
    Don’t have time for that but want to help anyway? Consider supporting the patreon here: Welcome to Theory Underground. https://www.patreon.com/TheoryUnderground
     
    Get the books at a discount: https://theoryunderground.com/publications
     
    Theory Underground is a theory lecture-course centered platform and publishing house. If you want to better understand yourself and the world by asking the hardest questions, wrestling with the most complex problems, and reading the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy and theory, then welcome. Theory Underground is by and for working class intellectuals, renegade academics, and adults who don’t belong or see a future in anything on offer. Think of Theory Underground like a Jiu Jitsu gym for your brain. Or like a post left theory church. It doesn’t matter. None of the analogies will do it justice. We’re post-identity anyway. Just see if the vibe is right for you. We hope you get something out of it!
     
    If you want to help me get setup sooner/faster in a totally gratuitous way, or support me but you don’t care about the subscription or want to bother with the monthly stuff, here is a way to buy me something concrete and immediately useful, then you can buy me important equipment for my office on this list (these items will be automatically shipped to my address if you use the list here) https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2MAWFYUJQIM58?
     
    Buy me some coffee: https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb https://paypal.me/theorypleeb Or become a monthly subscriber at
     
     
     
     

    • 2 hr 56 min
    The Liberal Arts vs. The Neoliberal University, or Scholē vs. Schooling and Timenergy Theory for normies - The Snelgrove McKerracher synthesis

    The Liberal Arts vs. The Neoliberal University, or Scholē vs. Schooling and Timenergy Theory for normies - The Snelgrove McKerracher synthesis

    Dave and Ann are teaching a course together. In this lecture, Ann lectures on The Liberal Arts vs. The Neoliberal University, and Dave gives a lecture on Scholē vs. Schooling and Timenergy Theory for normies. This is, in a sense, the Snelgrove McKerracher synthesis, for normies!
     
    To get involved with the monthly seminar become a subscriber at https://theoryunderground.com/product/tu-subscription-tiers/
    If you simply want to support, a great way to do that is through https://www.patreon.com/TheoryUnderground
     

    • 55 min
    Anna Kornbluh on Immediacy Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism (2024)

    Anna Kornbluh on Immediacy Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism (2024)

    Anna Kornbluh on Immediacy Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism (2024). Dave and Mikey meet, and interview, Dr. Kornbluh. Capitalism, media theory, aesthetics, rhetoric, and more!
     
    ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS Welcome to Theory Underground. Theory Underground is a theory lecture course-centered platform and publishing house with an app on the IoS and Android stores. If you want to better understand yourself and the world by asking the hardest questions, wrestling with the most complex problems, and reading the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy and theory, then welcome. Theory Underground is by and for working class intellectuals, renegade academics, and adults who don’t belong or see a future in anything on offer. Think of Theory Underground like a Jiu Jitsu gym for your brain. Or like a post left theory church. It doesn’t matter. None of the analogies will do it justice. We’re post-identity anyway. Just see if the vibe is right for you. We hope you get something out of it! Become a monthly TU Tier Subscriber to access past, ongoing, and upcoming courses, special events, office hours, clubs, and critical feedback that will help you evolve your comprehension capacities and critical faculties, either via the app (available on Apple and Google Play app stores) or through the website here: https://theory-underground.com/product/tu-subscription-tiers/ Get the books at a discount: https://theory-underground.com/publications Want to support the YouTube channel, but don't have time or money for full-on courses, or prefer to support via a familiar platform? I started a new Patreon just for you! https://www.patreon.com/TheoryUnderground If you want to help me get setup sooner/faster in a totally gratuitous way, or support me but you don’t care about the subscription or want to bother with the monthly stuff, here is a way to buy me something concrete and immediately useful, then you can buy me important equipment for my office on this list (these items will be automatically shipped to my address if you use the list here) https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2MAWFYUJQIM58? Buy me some food or coffee: https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb https://paypal.me/theorypleeb Or become a monthly subscriber at https://theory-underground.com/donate/ OR become a monthly subscriber on the Apple or Android Theory Underground APP! Download today! Each subscriber tier unlocks special access to weekly events, ongoing or past courses, and so much more. Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/ Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links: https://theory-underground.com/support If Theory Underground has helped you see that text to speech technologies are a useful way of supplementing one’s reading while living a busy life, if you want to be able to listen to PDFs for yourself, then Speechify is recommended. Use the below link and Theory Underground gets credit! https://share.speechify.com/mzwBHEB Follow Theory Underground on Duolingo: https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEI See Theory Underground memes here: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/ https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground Missed a course at Theory Underground? Wrong! Courses at Theory Underground are available after the fact on demand. https://theory-underground.com/courses MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode Mike Chino, Demigods https://youtu.be/M6wruxDngOk

    • 1 hr 37 min
    Alenka Zupančič on The Ljubljana School, Sex, Repression, and Freud / Lacan / psychoanalysis

    Alenka Zupančič on The Ljubljana School, Sex, Repression, and Freud / Lacan / psychoanalysis

    This is from an epic marathon livestream at Theory Underground in January, 2024.
     
    ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS Welcome to Theory Underground. Theory Underground is a theory lecture course-centered platform and publishing house with an app on the IoS and Android stores. If you want to better understand yourself and the world by asking the hardest questions, wrestling with the most complex problems, and reading the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy and theory, then welcome. Theory Underground is by and for working class intellectuals, renegade academics, and adults who don’t belong or see a future in anything on offer. Think of Theory Underground like a Jiu Jitsu gym for your brain. Or like a post left theory church. It doesn’t matter. None of the analogies will do it justice. We’re post-identity anyway. Just see if the vibe is right for you. We hope you get something out of it! Become a monthly TU Tier Subscriber to access past, ongoing, and upcoming courses, special events, office hours, clubs, and critical feedback that will help you evolve your comprehension capacities and critical faculties, either via the app (available on Apple and Google Play app stores) or through the website here: https://theory-underground.com/product/tu-subscription-tiers/ Get the books at a discount: https://theory-underground.com/publications Want to support the YouTube channel, but don't have time or money for full-on courses, or prefer to support via a familiar platform? I started a new Patreon just for you! https://www.patreon.com/TheoryUnderground If you want to help me get setup sooner/faster in a totally gratuitous way, or support me but you don’t care about the subscription or want to bother with the monthly stuff, here is a way to buy me something concrete and immediately useful, then you can buy me important equipment for my office on this list (these items will be automatically shipped to my address if you use the list here) https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2MAWFYUJQIM58? Buy me some food or coffee: https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb https://paypal.me/theorypleeb Or become a monthly subscriber at https://theory-underground.com/donate/ OR become a monthly subscriber on the Apple or Android Theory Underground APP! Download today! Each subscriber tier unlocks special access to weekly events, ongoing or past courses, and so much more. Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/ Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links: https://theory-underground.com/support If Theory Underground has helped you see that text to speech technologies are a useful way of supplementing one’s reading while living a busy life, if you want to be able to listen to PDFs for yourself, then Speechify is recommended. Use the below link and Theory Underground gets credit! https://share.speechify.com/mzwBHEB Follow Theory Underground on Duolingo: https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEI See Theory Underground memes here: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/ https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground Missed a course at Theory Underground? Wrong! Courses at Theory Underground are available after the fact on demand. https://theory-underground.com/courses MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode Mike Chino, Demigods https://youtu.be/M6wruxDngOk

    • 1 hr

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
17 Ratings

17 Ratings

whata goodman ,

Thank you!

Doing a huge service having these long form discussions in an accessible way! Oi oi working class

Instagram for iPad 2 ,

Great podcast!

Oh my gosh I’ve learned so much from the gender theory podcasts. Dave/Lisa is so good at breaking down concepts and explaining them. And I’m totally not the other person in those podcasts by the way.

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