Pan-Optic Podcast

Pan-Optic Podcast

Pan-Optic is a podcast featuring conversations between a critical theorist and a management consultant, cohosts (and longtime friends) Juan Pablo Melo and Jason Margaritis respectively. They met during a monotonous work assignment at a Washington-based government contractor in 2013. Jason and Juan Pablo sought refuge in daily extended work breaks musing about the limits of knowledge, the organizations of power, the regrets of Thrasymachus, and so on. Later, Jason received his MA in Government and MBA from Johns Hopkins University. Today, he works as a management consultant specializing in strategic communications and org change. Jason is particularly interested in affecting stakeholder beliefs, behaviors, and culture. Juan Pablo is a doctoral candidate at Stanford University's Program in Modern Thought and Literature. His research interests span media theory, literature, architecture, art history, urban theory, and science and technology studies. "We made this podcast to continue exploring the intersections of our respective disciplines, in a way that others might find useful. Pan-Optic relates theories of communication, power, and technology to practical institutional issues, and everyday life." Become a part of the conversation at www.panopticpod.com.

Episodes

#18 - Reinventing Capitalism—Really? Hayek’s Theory of Prices, Technology, and the Yelp Mafia

October 25, 2020 • 69 mins
Today, Jason and Juan Pablo discuss political theorist Evgeny Morozov’s article, “Digital Socialism? The Calculation Debate in the Age of Big Data” (NLR, 2019, https://newleftreview.org/issues/II116/articles/evgeny-morozov-digital-socialism). In this article, Morozov critiques the idea that technology will somehow reinvent capitalism. He argues that technology-enabled capitalism (technology within the logic of markets) is STILL cap...
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#17 - Radicalization + Ideology (P3) - Notions of the Good & Strategic Communications

September 2, 2020 • 51 mins
Pan-Optic is pleased to present part three of our three-part series on radicalization and ideology. In today’s episode, we address: individuation and socialization; a critique of generalizable interests; existential and absurdist interpretations of the ”ideological grounding” problem; the people side of mergers and acquisitions; applications to change management and strategic communications; and more. The views expressed on this p...
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The Protestant Ethic, Instrumentalizing Everything, and Devotion to Work

August 11, 2020 • 66 mins
Today’s episode is Pan-Optic’s first ever "personal case study" response, where we react to listener Sep’s account of working in big tech and grappling with feeling intellectually and morally limited by her work requirements and the logic of the firm. In reacting to Sep’s personal case study, we explore: Max Weber on the protestant work-oriented ethic; the tendency to justify something’s existence by instrumentalizing its purpose; ...
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#16 - Radicalization + Ideology (P2) - Values, Discrimination, & Reliably Identifying Ideology

July 29, 2020 • 59 mins
Pan-Optic is pleased to present part two of our three-part series on radicalization and ideology. In today’s episode, we address: the moral and legal implications of ideological discrimination; the extent to which government can avoid values-oriented decision making; a clear functional definition of ideology vs. a general definition of ideology; canonical social theoretical literature on ideology (Emile Durkheim and George Herbert ...
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#15 - Radicalization + Ideology (P1) - How to Recruit Pawns & Influence Behavior

July 8, 2020 • 52 mins
Pan-Optic is pleased to present our three-part series on radicalization and ideology. In the knowledge age and especially in the COVID world, institutions are pressured to change the way they operate and do business frequently and rapidly. We spend much time pontificating about the need to transform workforces (us included), but often without considering the psychological precursors to attitudinal and behavioral change. To help add...
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#14 - Philosophers in Firms P.2 - Information Ethics & Philosophically Grounding Change Management

June 17, 2020 • 97 mins
Today’s episode starts off with a 30-minute, ad hoc discussion surrounding the recent murder of George Floyd and the ensuing national campaign against police racism. Please refer to Pan-Optic’s website for additional resources on how to support reputable activist groups in the fight against racism (https://www.panopticpod.com/post/pitching-in-to-fight-racism-and-police-violence). During Pan-Optic’s two-part series “Philosophers in...
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#13 - Philosophers in Firms P.1 - The Organizational Statement of Ethics & Thought Leadership

May 27, 2020 • 64 mins
During Pan-Optic’s two-part series “Philosophers in Firms,” Jason and Juan Pablo investigate the mystery of why Google hired a philosopher and what this individual does. Along the way, we address the following more fundamental questions: Should firms hire philosophers? Does it make good business sense? How does the business case compare to the moral case? Do they conflict? Today’s episode (part one) explores: the downcast job mark...
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#12 - A Prescient Account of Big Data: Democracy and Control

May 2, 2020 • 129 mins
Our Foundations Crossover P.3 — In light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation, today’s segment (part three of our three-part crossover with Our Foundations podcast) couldn’t be more apropos. What happens when you equip strategic actors with predictive analytical power? Some may say we’re living it. In parts one and two, we traversed: the 18th century rise of the liberal public sphere; the 20th century breakdown of communicative-parti...
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#11 - Communications and Law: Why Did We Outsource War Fighting to Corporations After 9/11?

April 8, 2020 • 87 mins
Our Foundations Crossover P.2 — In theory, public discourses should influence law creation in a democracy. But has big advertising undermined the legal objectives of communicative action? After 9/11, why did the U.S. outsource approximately 50% of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to companies like Blackwater? Surprisingly, the answers to these questions may intersect and provide fodder for worrying about strategic applic...
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#10 - Transformation of the Public Sphere

March 14, 2020 • 80 mins
Our Foundations Crossover P.1 — What happens when you arm strategic actors with big data and predictive analytical power? Juan Pablo and Jason are pleased to present Pan-Optic's collaboration with the Our Foundations podcast, further reflecting on some of the challenges (and solutions) posed by strategic communications throughout Western history. As part of this collaboration, we explore: the rise and fall of the bourgeois public s...
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#9 - A Critical Perspective on Automation in the Growth Economy P.2

February 25, 2020 • 63 mins
Episode 9 is part two of our exploration of Aaron Benanav’s critique of the so-called “automation discourse.” We further probe the hypothesis that system overcapacity caused the collapse of manufacturing labor demand. What happens to the job market when manufacturing labor is down and the cost of living is up, chronically? Which possible economic solutions do we have in our toolbox to affect meaningful, productive workforces? In an...
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#8 - A Critical Perspective on Automation in the Growth Economy P.1

February 5, 2020 • 62 mins
Episode 8 is part one of our exploration of Aaron Benanav’s critique of the so-called “automation discourse.” But first, let’s recap: in Episode 7, Jason broke down local political discourses on automation and offshoring. Why does Andrew Yang believe that automation killed 4,000,000 manufacturing jobs in rural America? Why does Elizabeth Warren believe that offshoring has been far more destructive than automation? To answer these q...
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Rambling Politics New Year 2020

January 17, 2020 • 130 mins
Welcome to Pan-Optic’s third “Reflections” episode featuring our most reactionary, stream of consciousness rambling yet. Jason and Juan Pablo relate current, salient political headlines to core Pan-Optic themes and previous episodes. In chronological order, we: brainstorm private sector and non-profit applications of critical theory, and debate the limitations of the “business case”; react to the Democratic Presidential Primary deb...
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#7 - Does Automation Kill Jobs?

January 4, 2020 • 61 mins
To kickoff the New Year, Pan-Optic returns to the subject of automation. In today’s episode, Jason and Juan Pablo uncover dominant political discourses surrounding the fall of U.S. manufacturing labor. Why did 22% of American manufacturing plants shutdown between 2000 and 2014? What happened to the victims of mass job displacement? In the context of the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries, there are at least two relevant discour...
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Holiday Special 2019

December 20, 2019 • 94 mins
Happy Holidays Pan-Optic listeners! Welcome to our second "Reflections" episode and first ever Holiday Special. The purpose of today’s episode is to conduct a “pulse-check” of the podcast. We reflect on the following questions: What is Pan-Optic about? Have we evolved on this question over the last 6 months? Who is our target audience and what do we want our listeners to takeaway from our discussions? Also, who are we -- our backgr...
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#6 - Should We Be Strategic? A Debate.

December 3, 2019 • 84 mins
Today’s episode is part three of a three-part series on strategic communication. But unlike part two, today’s episode is through and through philosophy. We come full circle with Habermas who argues that strategic action is purposive, calculated manipulation of others. While communication itself is oriented towards increasing understanding, strategic action seeks to undermine communicative norms, to produce effects by increasing mis...
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#5 - What is Strategic Communication?

November 13, 2019 • 84 mins
This is the second episode of a three-part series focusing on strategic communication. In today’s episode, we wrap up our conversation on the Socratic Method as a kind of strategic action in disguise; we discuss the value of intra- and interpersonal audits to unveil hidden interests prior to engaging in negotiation, debate, or conflict; and we compare strategic communicative techniques - namely, Harvard Business School’s “principle...
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#4 - The Socratic Method, Truth, and Strategy

October 23, 2019 • 88 mins
This is the first in a three-part series focusing on strategic communication: what is it, how does it work, what are its strengths and limitations, is it morally defensible, and is it even avoidable? In today’s episode, we examine the Socratic Method in practice: a rambunctious debate on the nature of justice between Socrates and Thrasymachus in Plato’s Republic. In theory, the Socratic Method is an open, transparent dialectical pr...
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Joker, Scorsese, & Kluge: Should Cinema Serve the Body Politic?

October 13, 2019 • 61 mins
Reflections #1. This is the first in a series of more reactionary, topical conversations that Juan Pablo and Jason are doing as part of the development of the Pan-Optic podcast. Today, we discuss popular criticism of writer/director Todd Phillips' Joker, the so-called "comic book genre" in general, the role of the markets in directing resources to particular types of cinema (while alienating others), and filmmaker/philosopher Alexa...
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#3 - Artificial Intelligence and the End of Reason

September 25, 2019 • 81 mins
In this episode, we briefly trace the history of automation, consider some of the more salient consequences of modern technology, and review philosopher Bernard Stiegler's dystopic critique of modern technology. What happens when we exteriorize knowledge into automatons? Bad, bad things, says Stiegler. But is all the pessimism justified? Juan Pablo and Jason debate. The views expressed on this podcast are our own. If you enjoy wh...
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