Bad Philosophy

Every once in a while, people come together for an event spontaneously, forming a community of like minds that lives, breathes, and functions like a full-fledged village. This week, leading up to the epic college football match-up between Texas Tech University and the University of Texas, Bad Philosophy will follow the development of just such a place: RaiderVille, TX. Watch and listen as we record our experiences from INSIDE this unique gathering in our new mini-series, RaiderVille Diaries.

Photos: Facebook Album

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Matt Legler, Kimberly Stewart, Michael Atilano

The post Weekly Why 001: RaiderVille Diaries Part I first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Weekly Why 001: RaiderVille Diaries Part I first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

A friend of a friend told me that if you listen to Bad Philosophy on a Microsoft Zune while preparing a Hot Pocket, the microwaves resonate with the current in the headphone wires and cause your ears to secrete Jello! Really … this totally happens … … Okay, you caught us. It’s a pure urban legend, just one of many we discuss on this fine yarn of an episode. Local genius Nick Bergfeld and the beautiful Kimberly Stewart both joined us for the first time, adding a touch of magic and some unintentional cuteness to the occasion. Oh, be sure to meet your swallowed spider quota after listening, or Osama Bin Ladin will forward you knock-knock joke emails from now until the end of the Mayan calendar.

PS. If you’re wondering what happened to Episode 007: Pretentiousism… well, it will forever be known as the “lost episode,” since the sound quality on the recording was discovered to be catastrophically horrendous after the fact. We might attempt to recover it someday, but until then it will be lost forever to the sands of time. On the bright side though, our ordinal and cardinal number sequences are now in sync. (i.e. episode 8 = the 8th episode) Yay…

The post Episode 008: Microwave THIS first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 008: Microwave THIS first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

We’ve started it people, we really have. This time we had no idea what to talk about, so we took what is arguably the first step in the typical death throe sequence of serial entertainment: the Behind-the-Scenes Show (*collective gasp!*). Before you know it we’ll be doing the Blooper Show, followed by the Old-Cast-Member Show, followed by… wait! We’re not dead yet. Why, this week we actually got bold enough to show you our faces. You can watch the full, unedited episode courtesy of Stickam. “Why the heck would I want to see that,” you say? One word: prodcasting. In the future we’ll tweet when we’re recording live, so make sure you’re following one of us.

As for the episode itself, we metaphiles meander through a meta-maze of meta-discussion about meta-this and meta-that. Little history of the show, little thoughts on podcasting, little DNA patenting… You know, the usual. But in the event that we disgust you so much that you must send us a poorly-worded email in ALL CAPS, this is your lucky day. Cheers…

The post Episode 006: Metanoids first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 006: Metanoids first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Do cheaters ever prosper? And what the heck does it mean to “leverage excellence” anyway? We’re not quite sure, but apparently it has something to do with setting baby deer on fire, Ray Kurzweil, and slurpees. Eminent Texas Tech philosopher, fencer, and all-around good guy Dr. Mark Webb joins us to tackle these issues and lend some academic credibility to our incredible little experiment. Don’t panic if his benevolent, authoritative voice puts you into a trance. It’s all part of the plan…

The post Episode 005: Leveraging Excellence first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 005: Leveraging Excellence first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

What do Warhammer, Ayn Rand, and Westerns have in common? Darned if we know. Ben Brown joins us on this episode as we dive into the realm of speculative fiction, sci-fi, and modifying the human body/mind with technology… among other things. Apologies about the awfuller-than-usual sound quality. We tried to use a bunch of different microphones to do the recording, but I think we created some sort of time distortion field that caused all our microphones to record out-of-sync. Subsequently we were left using just the one. I swear that next time we’ll go back to the dependable old MacBook Pro internal microphone. Try to enjoy this one, if you dare…

The post Episode 004: Benn Diagrams first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 004: Benn Diagrams first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

After a rather significant rain delay, the wild of musings of the Bad Philosophers are back. With the healthy addition of founding member Eric Beutlich, we went on a rockin’ roller coaster ride that kicked off with some pondering about free will, meandered around to the homogenization of modern society, and even weathered an unfortunate appearance of Godwin’s Law before dropping precipitously into the depths of the problem of evil and narrowly skirting decapitation. By the end of the ride… well… let’s just say the roller coaster operators had a few “protein spills” to clean up. Enjoy…

I did some meddling with the intro sequence on this one. Also, be sure to listen all the way to end. As you may have discovered already, there will be a different audible morsel following each episode. Collect them all and you might win a pat on the back from a horny penguin!

The post Episode 003: What Would Hitler Choose? first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 003: What Would Hitler Choose? first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

Unbeknownst to our listeners, we intrepid Bad Philosophers have taken a sudden interest in the mating habits of sphenisciformes. Gone are the days of Descartes and neuroscience. Henceforth, we shall devote all our time and energy to covering in laborious detail the intricacies of hot, feathery, penguin sex.

In all seriousness though, we actually just butchered the title of Kevin’s latest article on the futility of opinions into a rather eye-catching title. This week he joined us for a techno-heavy foray into Google, their controversial new Chrome browser, and big company control versus the good of society. Still more tantalized by the prospect of penguin’s getting it on? Well, have we ever got a treat for you.

Be sure to click the handy new iTunes subscription button on the sidebar and get new episodes delivered to you as soon as they’re posted. We wouldn’t want you to miss any steamy penguin action, afterall.

The post Episode 002: The Fertility of Penguins first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 002: The Fertility of Penguins first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

Beyond all odds, lightning has struck twice, and the first “official” episode BF is here. Matt, David, and Stephen discuss Stephen’s article in the campus newspaper, spawning a deep, meandering, extravagantly philosophical discussion on neuropsychology, artificial intelligence, and the possibility of a robot future. Join us for a journey deep into the mind, if you dare…

We are also now officially on iTunes. Click “Subscribe” and enjoy all the philosophical goodness fed automatically to your computer via RSS. You can also manually subscribe by copying the following address into your podcast client of choice:

http://badphilosophy.com/?feed=podcast

Duration: 60:18 | Format: MP3 | Rating: Clean

Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, David Ronderos, Matt Legler

The post Episode 001: Hello EveryWelcome first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode 001: Hello EveryWelcome first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

Every once in a blue moon, the stars align, the burritos are just *that* good, and the right people come together in just the right mindset to make magic happen. Such was it this past Monday, when the Bad Philosophers spewed forth our “first” bit of genius upon a darkening Earth. In layman’s terms: Episode Zero is here. Click “Continue Reading” for show notes and guest list.

Duration: 42:37 | Format: MP3 | Rating: Clean

Web Pick: Spreeder – Free Flash-based speed reading application | http://www.spreeder.com/

Guest List: Kevin “Jeff Mckinzie” Saunders, Stephen “Just the Captain” Torrence, David “Captain and Tennille” Ronderos, Matt “John C. Dvorak” Legler, a few random strangers

The post Episode Zero: MyJority Rules first appeared on Bad Philosophy.

The post Episode Zero: MyJority Rules first appeared on Bad Philosophy.