Overthink

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue! In this episode, Ellie and David talk about weddings. What kind of celebration is a wedding? And what social function do these festivities serve? Do weddings necessarily legitimize the institution of marriage? Or can weddings be dissociated from this legal institution and its problematic history? As they ponder these issues, your hosts walk you down the aisle of hist...

After a BIG announcement (!!!), your hosts David and Ellie get into the economic and psychological features of the state no one wants to be stuck in: unemployment. How does capitalism structurally construct “wageless life” while nonetheless treating it as a personal failure or unhappy accident? What’s the connection between unemployment and reactionary politics? And is AI going to put us all out of a job? Correcti...

Beauty is big business, and the rise of looksmaxxing and increasingly invasive treatments is raising the alarm on the ways that our looks matter in our personal and social lives. Ellie and David speak with philosopher Heather Widdows about how the emphasis on beauty in the present day constitutes a real shift from previous eras. Beauty is no longer taken as a signof moral goodness, but itself has become a moral ideal. This applies ...

Is it easier to cheat now than ever? In episode 177 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about cheating. From micro-cheating on your girlfriend to doping in sports, cheating appears to have escalated in various domains. Your hosts explain the relationship between cheating and rule-breaking, then question norms surrounding cheating in romantic relationships. Why is cheating considered the ultimate dealbreaker? Is it always dishonest? ...

Are you paying attention when you scroll online? In episode 176 of Overthink, Ellie and David draw your attention to attention. They explain why attention is so hard to define and debate the extent to which it should be equated with consciousness. Is attention the same thing as consciousness? Or are there important differences between these concepts? They consider different ways that attention has been classified, from “overt...

Play it cool and play this episode. In episode 175 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about what it means to be cool. From swag gap relationships to Mark Zuckerberg and the manosphere’s failed attempts at being cool, your hosts examine coolness’s ties to youth and subversion and its opposition to displays of wealth. They trace how coolness emerged from Black American culture in the 1930s, before being associated with Be...

What resources do Indigenous studies provide for addressing the crisis of human-made climate change? And how is the climate crisis linked to settler colonialism? In episode 174 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with Indigenous philosopher and activist Kyle Whyte about his work on climate action. They discuss how Indigenous people are often blocked out of conversations about environmental impact, the common mischaracterization of t...

Thou shalt not miss this episode! In episode 173 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about theft. They discuss our moral intuitions around theft, how feudalism and capitalism may be founded upon an original (and large scale) act that of theft, and the gendered association between kleptomania and women. They also critique the lack of legal repercussions for tech companies that steal information to train new AI models. Finally, they l...

Does decolonization require violence? In episode 172 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, “the bible of decolonization.” They discuss Fanon’s bold stance on violence, his condemnation of rituals and dance, and some potential criticisms. They also question what the subjectivity of colonized people looks like given colonialism’s psycho-affective ef...

Bottom, rump, booty, fanny, tush, and derriere! In episode 171 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about butts. Why do humans have bigger rear ends than other animals? Why are butts often seen as a site of aversion? And is anal sex a metaphor for the universe? They discuss the evolutionary history of butts, how the music industry helped normalize bigger butts, and how the exploitation of Sara Baartman in the 19th century is part of ...

The discourse around today's crisis of care responds to the shredding of America's social safety net, but leaves out the most vulnerable almost entirely. In episode 170 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss how this works with Premilla Nadasen, author of Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. They discuss how gender fits into the care industry, the harms of associating care work with emotion, and how the practice of care has been c...

With the rise of hustle culture, the grind, and capitalist productivity, we often associate discipline with toxicity. But is there still value in disciplining oneself? In episode 169 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a disciplined approach to this question and more! They discuss modern culture’s rejection of discipline and how this manifests on the left vs the right, the association between discipline and punishment, and Mic...

Why do we seek to escape from ourselves? In episode 168 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Emmanuel Levinas’s article “On Escape.” They discuss Levinas’s claim that escape is central to the human condition and explore what exactly we try to escape from and escape to. They explain how this aspect of human existence is crystallized by our experiences of need, pleasure, and even nausea. Are we ...

Are some people born evil, or are we all capable of evil acts? In episode 167 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about all things evil. They think through the characterization of evil in Disney films, Leibniz’s best of all possible worlds theory, the conflation of evil with badness, and Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil. How does Manichaeism attempt to resolve the problem of evil? Is evil simply the lack o...

Mansplainers, know-it-alls, and Grammar Nazis. In episode 166 of Overthink, Ellie and David think about the figure of the pedant with philosopher Arnoud S. Q. Visser about his book, On Pedantry: A Cultural History of the Know-it-All. They discuss the history of the pedant, how the charge of pedantry can promote anti-intellectualism, and the inherently gendered nature of the pedant. Why are pedants usually men? Who were considered p...

Content warning: this episode involves discussion of sexual violence and sexual assault.

Can pornography be liberating or does it just promote the hatred of women? In episode 165 of Overthink Ellie and David discuss pornography. They talk about the feminist ‘sex wars’ and the pro-porn and anti-porn views that emerged from it. They talk about how the figure of the porn star has changed in the era of OnlyFans, and how porn...

Is the way we interact with technology moving us towards a cyborg future? In episode 164 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Donna Haraway’s seminal essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” in which Haraway critiques the increasing technologization of everyday life and questions what it means to be a feminist and a socialist in the age of informatics and cybernetics. They discuss her critique of identity polit...

Can Buzzfeed quizzes, Myers-Briggs Types, and Enneagrams tell us anything valid about who we are? In episode 163 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss personality. They talk through the Big Five personality test and its legitimacy, the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI), and how the concept of personality emerged out of abnormal psychology. Why did the concept of personality replace using literature to understan...

To what extent is drug addiction voluntary? In episode 162 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with philosopher Hanna Pickard about her book, What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction. They discuss how the “broken brain model” of addiction emerged to combat the moral model of addiction and explore the consequences of both of these models. What drives some people into addiction?...