John is without Rachel and B, so he brings in some very special guests for this Václav Havel bonanza. First, Jeff Graves – a former co-host with John on a podcast of yore – joins to discuss Havel’s essay Power of the Powerless and play The Garden Party. They discuss ideology as it relates to performativity, […]

In this episode we focus on Neoliberalism as Exception by Aihwa Ong. We begin by discussing the distinction she draws between neoliberalism as exception and exceptions to neoliberalism, looking specifically at the technologies of power that promote the pervasion of market analysis into the details of everyday life. We also explore the ways neoliberalism as a […]

B is out of town but that doesn’t stop us all from recording a new episode, about Living Alterities: Phenomenology, Embodiment, and Race, edited by Emily S. Lee. Discussing two chapters from Lee – the Introduction as well as Body Movement and Responsibility for a Situation – and one from Donna-Dale L. Marcano – Race/Gender and the […]

This episode we discuss Jacques Rancière’s “The Distribution of the Sensible” from The Politics of Aesthetics. We start by parsing the first sentence of this text for several minutes, which sets the tone for a discussion of the interconnectedness between aesthetics and politics and the “self-evident” systems of the political order that determine that which is visible/invisible, […]

Join John as he interviews James Padilioni Jr., a doctoral student in American Studies at the College of William and Mary. Building out from a discussion of Padilioni Jr.’s paper “Mortified but Incorruptible: The Radical Black Mysticism of St. Martín de Porres,” we learn about St. Martín, a mulato lay brother in the Dominican order in colonial Lima, […]

Join The Always Already trio as we contentiously read two selections from Heidegger’s Elucidations of Hölderlin’s Poetry: “Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry” and “As When on a Holiday…” Not only do we get to read poems, but we do some philosophizing about it too! Discerning the essence of language, that of Being, and the […]

Join us for another hearty episode of Always Already Podcast with B, John and Rachel. This time we’ll be discussing Dipesh Chakrabarty‘s “The Climate of History: Four Theses.” Exploring the relationship between capitalism, climate change, and the role of humans as a species in the warming of the planet, Chakrabarty pushes us to rethink narrow constructions […]

Join B and John as they welcome back Rachel and collectively explore two chapters from the now-classic text by Jasbir Puar, Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Topics include issues of empire, frames of war, bodies and affect, the concept of homonationalism, as well as the disposability of certain bodies and identities. You’re also invited to […]

John interviews Abbas Jaffer, Doctoral Candidate in Anthropology at Harvard University on his dissertation project, New Tracks: Digital Publics and Contemporary Music in Pakistan. They talk about how interactions around music and digital media generate publics in Pakistan, how to conceptualize affect and digital affect, the complicated political effects of music production and these digital publics, […]

Join your faithful podcast hosts B and John as they welcome special guest-host Erika Iverson and delve into neoliberalism. We discuss chapter 9 – on American neoliberalism – from The Birth of Biopolitics by Michel Foucault “Neoliberal Worlds” from Constructions of Neoliberal Reason. Weaving the economic, the political, the state, and the historical ontology of neoliberalism is […]