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The legendary theoretician Judith Butler is the guest of the 90th episode of La Poudre, recorded in public the 21st of November 2020. With Lauren Bastide, they talked about bodies, grief and Macron.

Lauren’s foreword:

I was scared they might be cold. I was scared they might be complex. I was above all scared they might be appalled by the incapacity of my ordinary brain to grasp the immense complexity of their thinking. In a nutshell, before interviewing Judith Butler, I was struck by a huge impostor syndrome. So I did what one usually does in that case: I overprepared. I literally learned by heart some parts of their writing. I even prepared physically, slept eight hours, hydrated very carefully. And then? Well, not only were they incredibly warm and clear, but they also laughed at my jokes and seemed to think my analysis was of some interest. This interview with Judith Butler ended up being one of the most joyful and smooth interviews in La Poudre’s history. There is probably some lesson to take out of this story but I’m not the philosopher here. 

Episode summary:

Judith Butler is one of the most important philosophers of our time. Their book “Gender trouble” left a long-lasting mark on queer and feminist theory, even though it took more than fifteen years to be translated into French. Its translation has indeed given rise to many misunderstandings, which Judith Butler finds amusing and interesting now, pushing them to explore the cultural resonances their theories find in various countries (05:20). In a global pandemic, these theories unfortunately have very concrete resonances: they had coined the concept of ‘grievable lives’ and are saddened to see it vividly illustrated by the current situation (13:13). Observing the governments using health safety to justify repressing their populations, they nonetheless believe in the force of non-violence and solidarity (25:34). Together with Lauren Bastide, Judith Butler is alarmed by the attacks on universities, especially on gender and postcolonial theory (35:40). For them, this backlash definitely is the embodiment of conservatives’ fear and their refusal to see the world change (32:00). They stay hopeful thanks to the feminist, queer and antiracist movements inventing new forms of mobilisations around the world (47:02) and the strength, always renewed, of their self-determination claims (39:30). If they acknowledge how important rest is in an activist’s life, they encourage to never abandon the idea, the utopia of radical equality until it is reached (51:52) and invite everyone to think about revolution as an ongoing movement to which it is possible to contribute everyday (57:17).

Our deepest gratitude to the Les Créatives festival and their amazing team who made this episode happen.

Executive Producer : Nouvelles Écoutes 

Production, editing and signature tune : Aurore Meyer-Mahieu

Production assistant : Gaïa Marty 

Mixing : Marion Emerit