Bad Philosophy

When was the last time you read a newspaper? Oh… you’re reading one now. Well um… I guess I’ll just let you finish then. No, it’s cool, take your time. … Done? Okay, awesome. So… wow, this is a bit awkward. Our topic this week is actually the “death” of newspapers, which probably sounds a lot less interested to you now in light of… yeah. Turns out the news of their death might be a bit exaggerated. On the show to tell us why were print journalism gurus Simon Ponder and Ashley Liles. Back on the show to give them hell was the one and only Kevin Saunders. We do hope you enjoy this romp into the subject… right after you finish the Sports section.

Hey, we actually broadcast this one live, too! Check it out:

This week’s post-show song pimpage: “Hard Times” from Newsies

There is a place where, once a year, every geek worth his or her salt comes together in the magically weird city of Austin. For five days we mingle, bond, network, and bring our alcohol consumption up to par with our 3G bandwidth consumption. We call this beer- and bandwidth-infused tribal gathering SXSW Interactive, and this year a couple of us from BF got the privilege of attending it. BF mainstay Jediah Cummins, photoblogger and Rackspace contractor Simon Ponder, and yours truly gathered in the Austin Hilton to reflect on our experiences, share some thoughts on location-based gaming, and forget to talk about robots. We even managed to match the sucky audio quality of our first episode with our 60th! How is that NOT worth your time? Have a listen…

This Week’s Post-Show Song Pimpage: “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats

So Kevin Saunders decided to send in this little gem of a throwback episode for this week. It’s raw, live, and mostly uncut–in other words, classic BF. So sit back, relax, and listen as Kevin reads the news of the week…

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “That’s the News of the Week” by Paul and Storm

Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Love was in the air. Some relationships soared, others crashed and burned. For those of us on the sidelines, it was quite a sight to behold and discuss. Here at BF we gathered a completely new panel of guests for our most estrogen-infused episode ever. Single ladies Kiki Canon, Megan Brase, and Ivy Filbin came on to discuss holidays, singularity, and commercialized sexism, among many other things. So cook yourself a bloody steak, get some chocolate on the side, and enjoy the show…

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Single and Famous” by MC Lars and K Flay

For most folks fame comes rarely, if ever. Only a few people ever rise above the sea of obscurity, either from their own effort or by the grace of others (or some combination of the two). In the Internet age, this process of fame-making has taken on a whole new dimension, with the advent of alternative paths to fame such as YouTube. Still, culture remains transfixed by mainstream shows such as American Idol and America’s Got Talent. What are we to think of this? Thankfully, we at BF are here to give you some ideas. This episode we were joined by BF newcomer Margaret Kammer alongside mainstay Kevin Saunders. Apologies on the delay! School waits for no one. Enjoy the episode…

This Week’s Post-Show Song Pimpage: “Kenesaw Mountain Landis” by Jonathan Coulton

Quick! There’s an asteroid barreling toward your corner of the earth and you have no chance of escape. The world as you know it ends in 4 hours. What do you do?! Listen to the latest BF, that’s what! On this show we tackled that ever-present subject of the apocalypse. Kevin Saunders joined me alongside the recently crippled Jediah Cummins. We also had our FIRST EVER “caller” on BF, the lovely and entertaining vlogger Margaret Kammer. So sit down, relax, and enjoy your pending doom the BF way!

This week’s post-show song pimpage: “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” by R.E.M.

Remember back when Bad Philosophy was good? Man, that show had some great moments. Recording in taco joints on a single microphone, losing episodes right and left, and always having the same people on week after week. Boy I tell ya, those were the days…

Hmm? Oh yeah, description! This week we decided to talk about nostalgia. Remember? That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you dust off your old Nintendo 64 that your mom was about to throw out, blow the chunks of cat hair out of a cartridge, and remember how frustrating that last level of Starfox was? Yep, that. Nostalgia expert and BF mainstay Kevin Saunders joined me, alongside friend of the show and chiptune guru Bryan Mitchell. Together we reminisced, analyzed, and speculated our way through one of our most F episodes in a while. Enjoy! We hope you remember the experience fondly.

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Those Were the Days” from All in the Family

I know, I know… I was horribly late with the editing on this one, but I swear that two weeks ago we recorded a new BF on the first day of the new decade! This one was a pretty straightforward retrospective, but the first time we actually had an episode one year ago that we could pull our predictions from. That’s right folks! BF’s run now straddles two new years! The venerable Kevin Saunders joined me, alongside Matt Legler, fulfilling his BF-imposed new years’ resolution… one year later. There was reflection, prediction, and a solid dose of classic BF. Have a listen! And have a most excellent decade, everybody.

This Week’s Post-Show Song Pimpage: “Days Aren’t Long Enough” by Steve Earle

Unless you’ve been living under a diamond the size of Manhattan recently, you’ve no doubt noticed the release of the much-hyped movie Avatar, James Cameron‘s latest bulldozer-full of eye candy. It’s got noble savages, heavy-handed environmentalism, and more stunning CGI visuals than anything George Lucas could ever hope to conjure forth. Shortly after BF newcomer and certified geek Kristin DeGroot watched the film, we sat down with Kevin Saunders over Skype to banter and bash on it. Aside from a huge recording fail on my part, we had a darn good episode. Have a listen!

This weeks post-show song pimpage: “DotA” by Basshunter

First off, I would like to express my apologies for the lack of WIN here recently on BF. We are college students after all, with all the lack of sleep, homework, and other rigmarole that entails. BUT we’re back for another episode, though the relevance is about a week late. If you’ve been following Dollhouse, you’ll know it has been rather full of WIN lately, so full in fact that we needed to get an additional Kevin to talk about it all. BF fan and fellow podcaster Kevin Miller joined me and Kevin Saunders to discuss our pet show a bit. There were SPOILERS GALORE, so if you’re averse to that… tough. Suck it up and listen anyway.

This week’s post-show song pimpage: “Barbie Girl” by Aqua