When we make choices, are these choices free? That is, are we able to choose one thing over another, to do one thing rather than another, independent of the laws of physics, including the biology and chemistry of our bodies and brains? Or are all of our choices determined by processes that could, in theory, be traced back to deterministic causes, if only we had enough information?

Whether we are free in our willing or not, does it matter? And if so, why?

This week, we are joined by Prof. Mark Balaguer of California State University, Los Angeles to talk about not only whether we are our free, but how free we are, and why it matters that we think more seriously about what we understand "free will" to entail.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/free-will
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

This week, we're joined by scholar, editor, and philosopher, Robin James, to talk about her provocative recent essay entitled “We’re through being Cool: Tech Bros, Manosphere Influencers, Ancient Greek Masculinity, and AI,” posted at James' blog, It’s Her Factory. 

When we think about "cool," we think about effortless, confident, style... but being cool has always been about more than style. It’s about resistance to authority, overcoming patriarchy, refusal to fit in. Yet, a cohort of manosphere influencers have recently been rejecting "cool" as a way of affirming their masculinity.  What happens when "bro culture" asserts old forms of masculinity as new forms of mastery, which then get linked with AI hype, making "cool," well, no longer cool.

 If cool is dead, maybe what comes next is something much colder.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/death-of-cool
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

Today, there seems to be an intense distrust of experts in all sorts of fields. From medical experts in the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services, to “elite intellectuals” at Universities and Colleges, no one who has expertise is beyond suspicion. We hear that we should “do our own research” and not trust what those with training and knowledge tell us.

What makes an expert legitimate? What’s the difference between the skepticism that drives science and the suspicion that denies that the experts know? How do we design institutions that are both scientifically rigorous and also democratically responsive and responsible? Let’s talk about how knowledge should be organized, disseminated, and structured so that it benefits the most in a democratic society.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/the-expertise-crisis
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar" sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in the interim

This week, listen to HBS co-host Talia Mae Bettcher talk about her recent run-in with cancer, and the long, dark night of the soul it inspired.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/cancer
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast by subscribing on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar: sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in the interim

This week, listen to HBS co-host Rick Lee talk about what metaphysics really is, how it's often misunderstood, and why it's so important.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/in-defense-of-metaphysics
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast by subscribing on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar: sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in the interim

This week, listen to HBS co-host Leigh M. Johnson talk about what it's like to live in "occupied" D.C. as a new resident.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/living-in-occupied-dc
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast by subscribing on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

This week, the HBS hosts discuss Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil.

In 1961, Adolf Eichmann was put on trial in Israel for crimes against humanity and crimes against the Jewish People. The philosopher Hannah Arendt covered the trial for The New Yorker. Her articles were collected in the book Eichmann in Jerusalem, which had the subtitle, A Report on the Banality of Evil. What did she mean by the phrase “banality of evil?” She remarks that there is nothing monstrous, hideous, or outrageous about Eichmann that one could point to as the root of his evil actions. Rather, she argued, he was “thoughtless,” that is, he lacked the imagination to understand the position of others. In this way, the evil he brought about has its source in a kind of unremarkable everydayness. Is her notion useful to us today to think about the multiple evils we confront?

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/arendts-banality-of-evil

-------------------
If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

In this week’s episode, the HBS hosts talk about positive and negative major life changes.

While change is a part of life, major changes can cause major upheavals in one’s sense of oneself in relation to the world. Indeed, they may teach us to perceive life anew. What might such changes show us, if anything, about traditional philosophical concepts such as the self, the good life, autonomy, and relatedness with others?

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/major-life-changes

-------------------
If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

We all doomscroll. Often late at night, we scroll through social media or news feeds for a “minute,” which turns into hours. We seem to be chasing bad news. What are we looking for, if anything? What do we hope to get out of it? Is this a bad habit, or are there good aspects to it? Doomscrolling just might be changing our sense of time, of responsibility, and of witnessing. So put down your phones, stop scrolling, and join us for an investigation into the practice of doomscrolling.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/doomscrolling

-------------------
If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

Are you even playing the game?

In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, co-hosts Rick Lee, Talia Mae Bettcher, and Leigh M. Johnson dive deep into the meme-turned-metaphor of “NPC Energy,” unpacking its cultural roots and existential weight. Originally a gaming term describing non-player characters who move on rails and repeat scripted lines, “NPC Energy” has become a way to call out people who seem disengaged, overly programmed, or existentially asleep. But is it just a meme—or a diagnosis of modern life under systems that drain our agency and originality?

The HBS hosts explore the difference between NPCs and so-called “main characters,” debating whether the capacity for resistance, awareness, or choice really sets us apart from algorithmic behaviors. With references ranging from Dungeons & Dragons to the DMV, they question if we’ve all become NPCs in a system too vast to escape—and whether flashes of resistance, even subtle or psychological, are enough to reclaim player status. Talia proposes that multiple overlapping “games” may offer exits from oppressive scripts, while Rick and Leigh examine whether our insistence on agency is more therapeutic than real.

As AI develops more dynamic NPCs and human lives become increasingly scripted, the line between the player and the played grows fuzzier. Are we walking into walls of our own making? Or are we being marched along paths we didn’t choose? This thoughtful and provocative conversation calls on listeners to pause, self-interrogate, and maybe, just maybe, write their own dialogue before the simulation resets.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/npc-energy

-------------------
If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

Follow us on Blue Sky @hotelbarpodcast.bsky.social, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!