Bad Philosophy

Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, and Matt Legler haven’t been together for years. With a global pandemic on and humanity facing immanent extinction, the Bad Philosophers made time to reunite, share COVID stories, and encourage each other. No frills. Just friendship. Hope y’all enjoy this.

• Kevin Saunders is at tinyletter.com/kevsaund
• Matt Legler is many places online at “legmar”
• Stephen Torrence is at www.stephentorrence.com and www.monasticacademy.org

Is all culture based in appropriation? What do Canadians really think of the United States? And what do we call people who live in “America” anyway?

Podcasting from a recording studio eerily reminiscent of our Texas Tech days, Stephen met up with our favorite synesthete Shawn Brackett at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada (eh!) to tackle these questions and more while Stephen was passing through on his Vision Quest. Kevin elected not to wear pants (again), and it went great.

We hope you enjoy this thoroughly academic’ed show, y’all! If you feel so inclined, leave us a comment with your preferred English-language demonym for people-who-live-in-the-United-States-of-America.

And if you like listening to BF, would you help us out on Patreon? Even at a buck a show you’ll be doing us quite a flavor. And for a little more we’ll give you exclusive stuff like lossless audio tracks and hilarious sound bite collections. As Simon says, “It’s a song at twice the price”

Recorded on April 18, 2016

“Yankee Doodle Dandy“ by Mickey Rooney (?!)

Oftentimes the fruits of our actions now don’t ripen until far in the future. About 3 years ago we interviewed Austin writer Jon Fortenbury on his “deconversion” from the Christian faith. Jon considers this a significant shift in his life, so a year on from that episode we recorded a follow-up to see how it was going. That episode then sat on my computer for 2 years, and Jon just recently reminded me that I never posted it. Things were tumultuous in my life back then, and certainly haven’t let up, but those are paltry excuses for keeping such a candid and important discussion as this one from seeing the light of day.

I’m sorry, Jon. Please forgive me.

With that, enjoy Deconversion 2…

Recorded on July 26, 2014

If you like listening to BF, would you help us out on Patreon? Even at a buck a show you’ll be doing us quite a flavor. And for a little more we’ll give you exclusive stuff like lossless audio tracks and hilarious sound bite collections. As Simon says, “It’s a song at twice the price”

By now, the seemingly unstoppable march of Progress has left most film photography formats lying in society’s waste heap. Nevertheless, a vocal plurality of stalwarts holds fast to the pleasant graininess and magical quality of this once-ubiquitous medium. Our friend Simon Ponder is one such individual (sort of). We invited him on to settle the Great Debate between Film and Digital once and for all… and actually ended up having an exceedingly enlightening exchange. Enjoy the show!

If you like listening to BF, would you help us out on Patreon? Even at a buck a show you’ll be doing us quite a flavor. And for a little more we’ll give you exclusive stuff like lossless audio tracks and hilarious sound bite collections. As Simon says, “It’s a song at twice the price”

Recorded on March 6, 2016

Watch the live recording on YouTube

“Kodachrome” by Paul Simon

It’s a “classic” American (and European) “tradition.” Every February 14th — otherwise known as (St.) Valentine’s Day — you sally up to your beloved with that most chivalrous of gifts — a bodacious bouquet of artificially-preserved and slowly-decaying cut flowers from somewhere thousands of miles (or kilometers) away. This past V-Day, we decided to ask a simple question… Why the ever-living fuck do we do this?! Seriously! It’s super weird, and apparently entangled with some core contemporary injustices. Hope y’all enjoy this show, as Kevin hosts Ana Huertas and Stephen Torrence (currently stationed in snowy Toronto) to dive into the Global Zombie Plant Gift Industry of Love®…

Recorded on February 14, 2016

Watch on YouTube

Update: Chau (aka “Jacobo Jaime”) shared some lengthy criticism on this episode. We’ve included his full comments below and recommended further reading here.

“Let’s Fall in Love” (Tank Girl Version) by Ella Fitzgerald

Lo and behold, we’re back! Stephen’s been on a vision quest since last April, Kevin’s been literally running from zombies, and somewhere in there we all got a little bit older. Unfazed by the time lapse, we got the band back together to talk about The Year 2015 (kinda), permaculture (ish), and the Tiniest Board Game in the World (fuck yeah). Chock full of all the awkward banter, terrible segues, and ridiculous Rabbit Trails you know and love… it’s Bad Philosophy! Enjoy…

“Oil” by Formidable Vegetable Sound System

—George Orwell

Blasting in from several months ago, it’s my pleasure to bring you this episode / interview with Marc Powell — local poet, San Francisco ex-pat, and former (?) iPhone virus writer, among many many many other things. Heavy leitmotifs of highfalutin postmodern riffing in this one. An F-isode for the record books (if we kept them). Enjoy…

[Production Note from Stephen: This episode was originally recorded on May 17, 2015. Yes. Quite a long time ago. I recommend re-listening to (or watching) Episode 151 for a hint at where this came from. My personal frustration with an inability to effect change in the world came to a head last year around April 2015. Many “necessary” things in my life had fallen away, and I saw a new path open up before me. I’ve been following this path ever since, and it has required almost all of my time and dedication. Now, in an interlude of sorts, I’m picking up some of the pieces of BF that I left hanging and getting them out into the world, starting with this rather odd Betweenisode. There’s another excellent episode coming, and a lot more information too. Thank y’all for your patience, understanding, and support.]

Kevin and Stephen reflect on episodes 160, 161, and 162, then refresh the rule framework of BF with a change, removal, and addition. Once again, we had to make an addition on behalf of the audience, and Kevin threw quite a curve-ball with his change on this one.

For more on Stephen’s “EcoTexan” path so far, check out…

Also in the meantime, Kevin has launched a Fiasco podcast!

Change: HOST | Kevin

You can see the official “diff” on GitHub here.

Fan Fiction! You might know it, you might have written it, and you might have no idea what it is, but there’s a good chance it’s touched your life somehow. This episode, we welcomed our friend Katherine, a long-time fan fiction fan and Bad Philosophy Certified Guest Expert®, to help us unpack this juicy topic. We had so much incredible discussion that we decided to break our rule and go a Feature Length 90 minutes! Enjoy, everyone…

[Production Note: I must apologize for the 4-month delay in releasing this show. I have been traveling in Europe as part of a major life transition that began a few days after we recorded this episode, and that’s thrown a heck of a wrench into my capacities to edit and release the show. But that doesn’t mean we’re over! Just means it might take longer to get new shows posted… a lot longer. Please listen to the forthcoming Rule Set Update E episode for more.]

Recorded on March 30, 2015

“Gimme the Prize [Kurgan’s Theme]” by Queen

What does it take to create a successful startup company these days? Should you go Lean? Go Green? And wait… what does “success” even mean?! Special guest Dania Toth joins us to mull over these questions and more.

A Message to Entrepreneurs by Biondo