Bad Philosophy

Bad Philosophy

Episode 079

"Twelve Inch Razor Blades"

Recorded 11-29-10

Always one news cycle behind, we here at BF have decided to tackle the TSA groping/scanning debacle with our own flavor of punditry. This week Kevin, Simon, and Kiki joined me to figure out how the system is broken, how to make it better, and how droids might become involved in the process. Oh, and Kevin shaved. For art.

This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads

Bad Philosophy

Episode 078

"Big Bad TV Daddy"

Recorded 11-21-2010

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, Simon Ponder, Matt Legler

As I hope many of you are already aware thanks to various sources around the Internet, FOX recently announced that the best sci-fi series currently on television, Fringe, will be moving to the "Friday Night Death Slot" when American Idol returns. Obviously, we here at BF are upset about this, so we assembled a panel of crack commentators to dig into the broken TV ratings system that led to its demise. Kevin and Simon played devil's advocates, Matt Legler played his 78, and I drank a little too much mead. Have a listen! And don't forget to record this in your Nielsen journal.

This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: Theme from "The Honeymooners"

Bad Philosophy

Episode 077

"The Untimely Death of Stephen"

Recorded 11-04-2010

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Jediah Cummins, Kevin Saunders, Simon Ponder

Imagine having an army of workers ready to do your bidding, no matter how menial and trivial, as long as you pay them some semblance of a decent wage. That's Amazon Mechanical Turk in a nutshell, with which people are doing strange and wonderful things. To discuss this and other randomness, we had the pleasure of bringing back Numero Uno Fanboy turned Bad Philosopher Jed Cummins, alongside newly-minted Clear Channel savant / amateur foley artist Simon Ponder. Oh yeah, and Kevin Saunders got to host half the episode. How the hell did that come about? Well, have a listen!

Bad Philosophy

Episode 076

"Dalai Lama For Realz"

Recorded 10-24-10

As we approach Halloween and the cool weather starts to move in, the Bad Philosophers reconvene for yet another intellectual foray into this excitingly dynamic world. Recently Kevin had a chance to see His Holiness, the Dalai Lama in person. We discussed his newfound insights into the human condition, religion, and crowd control, as well as Facebook's latest ploy to take over your social life and Google's prototype of the Johnny Cab. Have a listen!

This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "We're All Gonna Die" - featuring Kiki Canon, Devo Spice and Schaffer the Darklord

Bad Philosophy

Episode 075: "A Minor Detail"

Recorded Oct. 4, 2010

Bad Philosophers: Kevin Saunders, Stephen Torrence, Kiki Canon

This past weekend, the Facebook movie (aka. "The Social Network") premiered in US theaters, racking up a cool $22 million at the box office. Even before the film launched, This Week in Google discussed the film's "anti-geek" tone and Jeff Jarvis slammed it in his review. Copyright reform advocate Lawrence Lessig also critiqued the film on a number of counts. Before all this controversy, The New Yorker wrote a long and revealing piece about "the real" Mark Zuckerberg, contrasting him with Aaron Sorkin's character in the movie. Over the weekend Kevin, Kiki, and I all watched the film, and we had a few rebuttals to make on the its behalf, partially inspired by webcomic author and blogger Tom Brazelton. Have a listen!

This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Baby, You're a Rich Man" by The Beatles

Aaaaaand, we’re back! For those of y’all who were keeping track, our 2-year anniversary was last month. That means BF has been around for… well… yeah, you can do the math. ANYWHO. Kevin and Kiki joined me to discuss brain damage, Neal Stephenson’s writing experiment, and a little ol’ movie about Facebook. No news stories this time, just a good old-fashioned F-isode. Enjoy!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Creep” Cover by the Scala and Kolacny Brothers

The post Episode 074: Trabbit Rails first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 074: Trabbit Rails first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

Bad Philosophy

Episode 073

"The Royal We"

Recorded 09-06-2010

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kiki Canon

Yep, we're back. It may be a week late, and these stories are probably completely irrelevant by now, but just pretend we've brought you a time machine and taken you back to last week for a look at the news! Yeah, it may be last week's news, but... TIME MACHINE. Anyways, Kiki joined me for this episode to shoot to the proverbial shiz about the following stories. Check 'em out and enjoy the show!

1. Duke Nukem Forever Makes Comeback

2. Hate the iTunes 10 Icon? Think You Can Do Better?

3. The Museum of Soviet Arcade Games

4. Craigslist Adult Services Section Shut Down

5. Language and Memes

6. The largest whorfian study EVER! (and why it matters)

Bad Philosophy

Episode 072

"Rule of Some Number Around 70"

Recorded 08-30-2010

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders

In these tough economic times, it's always nice to be able to take a break from all the chaos and watch the demented apparition of a shark tear through the souls of Peter Jackson's brethren. Not sure what the hell we're talking about? Well, here's the dealio. Kevin and I reconvened for another romp into the new and the strange in the headlines this week. Once again there was beer involved, but we pushed ourselves and did *one whole article* more than last time! So pop your favorite beverage into a brown paper bag and smoke 'em if ya got 'em. It's time for some BF!

1. Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws is the ultimate sharksploitation flick

2. Internet may phase out printed Oxford dictionary

3. Pirate Bay documentary raising money on Kickstarter

4. More students feel lunchtime crunch

5. Paper Bag Monologue from The Wire (Kinetic Typography)

This Week's Post-Show Song Pimpage: "Just as Long as Me" by Jonathan Coulton (stretched to the length of the episode using Paulstretch)

Bad Philosophy

Episode 071

"What's in the News, Robin?"

Recorded 08-16-10

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders

For no particular reason we've decided to try something *BRAND NEW* on this week's episode of Bad Philosophy. Kevin and I pulled a few articles and a comic out of the news, grabbed a couple of beers, and dove in to the stories for an hour. What came was something of a nice balance between F-isode and B-isode. We hope you agree! Here are the articles if you'd like to read them first:

1. Neil Patrick Harris expecting twins

2. SubNormality - "Do Something"

3. Beware of fake Facebook 'dislike' button

4. Man tries living on coupons for a year

This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "The Princess Who Saved Herself" by Jonathan Coulton, part of the Many Hands album for Haiti relief. Buy this song or hell, buy the whole album. Haiti might not be in the news cycle anymore, but they still need help rebuilding. Do your part!

Bad Philosophy

Episode 070

"The Internet Says No"

Recorded 08-08-10

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, Kiki Canon

For the past couple of decades the indomitable Kevin Smith has proudly distinguished himself as a maker of funny, poignant, and outrageously vulgar cinema. We at BF are huge fans of Smith's work and felt that it was high time to devote an episode of our show to discussing the facets of his genius. Appropriately enough, Kevin Saunders and Kiki Canon joined me for a delightfully self-indulgent frolic through the philosophy of the Askewniverse. So grab a Mooby burger, lean against a convenience store, and have a listen!

This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Jungle Love" by Morris Day and The Time