Deadbeat Philosophy

Justin Hagge is an EMT-Firefighter on Lopez Island–one of the San Juan Islands in Washington State, USA, just below the US border with Canada. Justin was previously director of the Lopez Island Dump, and before that a high school social studies teacher in Denver, Colorado.

Justin and Dave chat about what it’s like to live on Lopez Island, which has a permanent population of just over 3000 people. Hint: it’s not always as quiet and cozy as you might think! They cover Justin’s transition from school teacher, to technical infrastructure support, to waste management, to emt, and now to emt-firefighter. 

They talk about life and death situations, acting under intense mental and physiological stress, and what it is like to be present as Justin’s patients (and fellow islanders) pass away into unhaltable death, as all are eventually slotted to do. They also discuss the fantasy and sci-fi novel genres (including the “Wheel of Time” series), German youth slang (“Hey, Fatty!”), the excessive waste produced by contemporary Americans, grindcore music, and much else besides.

Statement on Justin’s transition from the Lopez Dump to Lopez Fire and Emergency Medical Services.

Justin’s recommendations:

“The Waste Stream” (Upcoming 2025 Documentary)

James S.A. Corey, “The Expanse” (Book Series)

Trap Them, “Darker Handcraft” (Album)

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Lucy Schultz is associate lecturer of philosophy and co-director of the environmental studies minor at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Lucy is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on, among other topics, environmental philosophy, modern Japanese philosophy, Hegel, aesthetics, phenomenology, climate change, and is the co-editor of the “Tetsugaku Companion to Nishida Kitaro” (2022).

Lucy and Dave chat about place and spatiality, modern Japanese philosophy, the notion of “eastern vs. western” philosophy, Tetsuro Watsuji’s work on the intersection between nature, climate, and culture, Martin Heidegger, René Descartes, G.W.F. Hegel’s philosophies of nature and history, the unhealthy relationship to death prevalent in mainstream culture today, the sixth mass extinction, climate grief, our responsibility towards future generations, and more.

Lucy’s Webpage

Lucy’s recommendations:

“Satoyama: Japan’s Secret Water Garden,” Part 1 and Part 2 (Documentary)

Andreas Malm, “How to Blow Up at Pipeline” (Book)

Daniel Goldhaber, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” (Film)

The War on Drugs, “A Deeper Understanding” (Album)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Aidan Beatty is a historian at Carnegie Mellon University and the current president of the American Conference for Irish Studies. Aidan is author of the books Masculinity and Power in Irish Nationalism, 1884-1938 (2016), Private Property and the Fear of Social Chaos (2023), and, most recently, The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism (2024).

Aidan and Dave chat about Irishness, ideology, whiteness, stereotypes, the history of private property, Marx & Engels, the Russian Revolution, Jewish history and identity, martyrdom, disciplinary divergences and overlaps between history and philosophy, and much else besides.

Aidan’s Webpage

Aidan’s recommendations:

Black Ox Orkestar, “Nisht Azoy” (Album)

R.I. Moore, “The Formation of a Persecuting Society” (Book)

Angela Bourke, “The Burning of Bridget Cleary” (Book)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Dave sits down with Eva Hoffmann for a chat about teaching philosophy at the high school level (something virtually non-existent in the US, but relatively common in Germany), post-academic cross-continental life, and the perils of navigating the death of a furry mammalian family companion. Eva holds a PhD in German Studies and teaches philosophy, among other subjects, at a high school (Gymnasium) in Bayreuth, Bavaria.

Eva’s recommendations:

Trampled by Turtles, “Wild Animals” (Album)

Anything by Margaret Atwood

Arundhati Roy, “The God of Small Things” (Novel)

Barbara Kingsolver, “Demon Copperhead” (Novel)

Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall” (Film)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Can philosophy produce unique insight into art and aesthetic experience? Dave takes up this question, and a number of others, in conversation with Russell Duvernoy, Associate Professor of Philosophy at King’s University College in London, Ontario. Russell and Dave discuss stuffed childhood companions, the great lakes region, their respective journeys in academic philosophy, prehistoric cave art, the relationship between philosophy and visual art, aesthetic feeling, Kantian universalism, trans-species sensation, Zen Buddhism, the art of dying well, and more.

Russell’s recommendations:

Tren Brothers, “Blue Trees”

Shinmon Aoki, “Coffinman: Journal of a Buddhist Mortician”

David Lynch, “Lost Highway”

Russell’s Profile

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Are philosophy and literature really so different? Dave takes on this question, and a number of others, with the help of German literature scholar and visiting assistant professor of German studies at Whitman College, Rob Mottram. Rob and Dave cover the possibility of tossing out the philosophy/literature distinction altogether, the history and magical power of the novel, the relationship between philosophy and religion, the art of wearing the same clothing for many years, and Rob’s approach to reading as a way of thinking other people’s thoughts.

Rob’s recommendations:

Gustav Mahler’s 9th Symphony

Apocalypse Now

Adalbert Stifter’s Limestone

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Dave sits down for an extended conversation with Berlin-based American-Hungarian filmmaker and critic Miranda Siegel. Miranda and Dave discuss Miranda’s autobiographical documentary film (“Ignore Your True Feelings at Your Own Peril”), their common experiences with bipolar disorder, and, among other topics, the psycho-sexual power of stockings, illustrated by a curious anecdote from Miranda’s life.

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Miranda’s recommandations:

Zack McDermott, Gorilla and the Bird

Todd Solondz, Palindromes

Doe Paoro, Divine Surrendering

Miranda’s Film

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Dave sits down with Australian environmental activist and social organizer Andrew George. Andrew recounts his experience preparing for the cyclone then on his doorstep, and he and Dave use this as a jumping off point to examine questions about the human/nature relationship, the global climate and extinction crises, settler-colonialist land-use paradigms, the future of democratic organizing, and the masturbatory destructiveness of mother earth.

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Andrew’s recommandations:

Kneecap

New Experiences

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Become a deadbeat philosopher, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life—from a former professor, future skeleton.

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Hildegard von Bingen, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Franklin, Rousseau, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, Douglass, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Kafka, Leopold, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Sellars, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, domestic and international politics, institutional analysis, education, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, climate, and extinction, race, gender, and the politics of race and gender, racism, colonialism, sexism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, nationalism, stoicism, daoism, confucianism, buddhism, pragmatism, feminism, rationalism, German idealism, romanticism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, modernism, postmodernism, phenomenology, critical theory, deconstruction, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart

Deadbeat headquarters

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Dave sits down with mycologist, microbial biologist, and soil ecologist Dan Thomas. Dave and Dan chat about their experiences as expatriate Americans stranded in Germany, Dan’s research in the Fichtelgebirge woodlands outside of Bayreuth, the fungal microbiomes we live with and as everyday, Dan’s experiences working in and advocating for the Los Cedros Forest Reserve in Ecuador, the concept of non-human personhood, and, last but not least, the ecological importance of cycles of death and life.

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Dan’s recommandations:

The Dawn of Everything

Earl Scruggs

Entangled Life

Dan’s webpage

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Become a deadbeat philosopher, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life—from a former professor, future skeleton.

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Hildegard von Bingen, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Franklin, Rousseau, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, Douglass, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Kafka, Leopold, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Sellars, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, domestic and international politics, institutional analysis, education, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, climate, and extinction, race, gender, and the politics of race and gender, racism, colonialism, sexism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, nationalism, stoicism, daoism, confucianism, buddhism, pragmatism, feminism, rationalism, German idealism, romanticism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, modernism, postmodernism, phenomenology, critical theory, deconstruction, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart

Deadbeat headquarters

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Dave sits down with marketing writer, air force veteran, and medieval history aficionado Ross Heintzkill. Dave and Ross talk about institutions and bureaucracy—the good and the bad, in the US and in Germany. They chat about the US founding fathers (especially Hamilton), the value of reading primary historical texts, the 4th Crusade (1202–1204), and about Ross’s relationship to death, as a veteran, a partner, a dog-papa, and a human being.

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Ross’s recommendations:

Jonathan Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople

Project Hail Mary

Severance

Terms of Enlistment

Ross’s webpage

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Become a deadbeat philosopher, and read Dave’s deadbeat philosophical scribblings, at https://deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com

Deadbeat philosophy = sideways investigations into philosophy, politics, and the contradictions of modern life—from a former professor, future skeleton.

Podcast. Books in progress. Weird stop-motion. Modern life dissected.

New podcast episodes drop every Thursday. New writing posted all the time.

Historical philosophers on the table include, among others: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Hildegard von Bingen, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Franklin, Rousseau, Kant, Jefferson, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, Douglass, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Kafka, Leopold, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Sellars, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, and many more.

Topics on the table include, among others: the meaning of life, ethical dilemmas, theoretical frameworks, domestic and international politics, institutional analysis, education, religion, mental health, arts and literature, environment, nature, animals, climate, and extinction, race, gender, and the politics of race and gender, racism, colonialism, sexism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, nationalism, stoicism, daoism, confucianism, buddhism, pragmatism, feminism, rationalism, German idealism, romanticism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, modernism, postmodernism, phenomenology, critical theory, deconstruction, German culture, history, and politics, expat life, and much more.

A co-production with the Museum Hegel-Haus, Stuttgart

Deadbeat headquarters

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com