After a BIG announcement (!!!), your hosts David and Ellie get into the economic and psychological features of the state no one wants to be stuck in: unemployment. How does capitalism structurally construct “wageless life” while nonetheless treating it as a personal failure or unhappy accident? What’s the connection between unemployment and reactionary politics? And is AI going to put us all out of a job? Correcting misconceptions about automation, UBI, and more, your hosts take you through some significant arguments about the impacts of unemployment and reflect on why this socially-constructed position can make us feel so worthless even when we know that we’re not the problem. In the Substack bonus segment, Ellie and David reflect on the end of Overthink and share some reasons for it.

Works Discussed:

Aaron Benanav, Automation and the Future of Work

Aaron Benanav, “Is the AI Bubble About to Burst?”

Eloundou et al., “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”

Charles Babbage, On the Economy of Machines and Manufactures

Michael Denning, “Wageless Life”

Wendy Brown, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism

Regina Bateson, “Perceptions of pandemic resume gaps: Survey experimental evidence from the United States”

Start your business today with the industry’s best business partner, Shopify. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/overthink

Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

If you’re ready to stop talking yourself out of finding care and making progress, then head to rula.com and take the first step.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Beauty is big business, and the rise of looksmaxxing and increasingly invasive treatments is raising the alarm on the ways that our looks matter in our personal and social lives. Ellie and David speak with philosopher Heather Widdows about how the emphasis on beauty in the present day constitutes a real shift from previous eras. Beauty is no longer taken as a sign of moral goodness, but itself has become a moral ideal. This applies worldwide. The “beauty ideal” is seeping into practically every culture and coming to be expected of more and more people for longer periods of their lifespan. They touch on the four elements of the beauty ideal that Widdows identifies and reflect on their own beauty practices and what it means to be complicit in a toxic system. In the Substack bonus segment, they touch on Lacan, America’s Next Top Model, and image-based profiles.

Works Discussed:

Heather Widdows, Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal

Start your business today with the industry’s best business partner, Shopify. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/overthink.

Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

If you’re ready to stop talking yourself out of finding care and making progress, then head to rula.com and take the first step.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is it easier to cheat now than ever? In episode 177 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about cheating. From micro-cheating on your girlfriend to doping in sports, cheating appears to have escalated in various domains. Your hosts explain the relationship between cheating and rule-breaking, then question norms surrounding cheating in romantic relationships. Why is cheating considered the ultimate dealbreaker? Is it always dishonest? Finally, they address the rise of generative AI cheating in schools and the ethical numbing that promotes it. How is ChatGPT different from using a calculator? And has it become rational for students to cheat? In the Substack Bonus Segment, Ellie and David question whether we should even use the word ‘cheating’ for romantic relationships rather than infidelity.

Works Discussed:

Stuart Green, “Cheating”

Natasha McKeever, “Is the Requirement of Sexual Exclusivity Consistent with Romantic Love?”

Deborah Rhode, Cheating: Ethics in Everyday Life

James D. Walsh, “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College”

Go to https://surfshark.com/overthink or use code OVERTHINK at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!

Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/overthink.

Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are you paying attention when you scroll online? In episode 176 of Overthink, Ellie and David draw your attention to attention. They explain why attention is so hard to define and debate the extent to which it should be equated with consciousness. Is attention the same thing as consciousness? Or are there important differences between these concepts? They consider different ways that attention has been classified, from “overt vs. covert” to “effortful vs. effortless” to “voluntary vs. involuntary.” Ellie and David then discuss the commodification of attention and how it has been intensified by the digital era, or what Chris Hayes calls “the age of attention.” How has social media changed the way we attend to the world, to ourselves, and to others? Is our attention still our own? Or has it become alienated? In the Substack Bonus Segment, Ellie and David talk about Simone Weil’s and Iris Murdoch’s ethical approaches to attention.

Works Discussed:

Jelle Bruineberg, “Rethinking the cognitive foundations of the attention economy”

Chris Hayes, The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource

William James, The Principles of Psychology

Carlos Montemayor and Harry Haroutioun Haladjian, Consciousness, Attention, and Conscious Attention

The Friends of Attention, Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Subscribe to our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Play it cool and play this episode. In episode 175 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about what it means to be cool. From swag gap relationships to Mark Zuckerberg and the manosphere’s failed attempts at being cool, your hosts examine coolness’s ties to youth and subversion and its opposition to displays of wealth. They trace how coolness emerged from Black American culture in the 1930s, before being associated with Beat Poets and punk musicians. They consider precursors to cool, like the Italian term sprezzatura, and question the ontology and the morality of coolness. Is coolness an attitude or a state? Is it inherently narcissistic? Can you ever successfully “try” to be cool? In the Substack bonus segment, Ellie and David discuss coolness through an ethical perspective.

Works Discussed:

Joel Dinerstein, “Jazz Cool”

Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz

bell hooks, We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity

Dick Pountain and David Robins, Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Subscribe to our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What resources do Indigenous studies provide for addressing the crisis of human-made climate change? And how is the climate crisis linked to settler colonialism? In episode 174 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with Indigenous philosopher and activist Kyle Whyte about his work on climate action. They discuss how Indigenous people are often blocked out of conversations about environmental impact, the common mischaracterization of the land back movement, and the importance of kinship. How are certain groups disproportionately affected by climate change? Is climate change actually a new problem? And how can respecting land rights of Indigenous people offer some solutions to climate change? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts question who is called upon to respond to the crisis of climate change and how non-Indigenous people should engage in discussions surrounding climate change and colonialism.

Works Discussed:

Kyle Whyte, “Climate Action at the Speed of Consent”

Kyle Whyte, “Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene”

Kyle Whyte, “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice”

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Subscribe to our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thou shalt not miss this episode! In episode 173 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about theft. They discuss our moral intuitions around theft, how feudalism and capitalism may be founded upon an original (and large scale) act that of theft, and the gendered association between kleptomania and women. They also critique the lack of legal repercussions for tech companies that steal information to train new AI models. Finally, they look at representations of theft and capital in film and television. What does the move from heist films to grift docudramas say about 21st century capitalism? And why do we love to take the side of thieves? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss the ethics of stealing from large corporations.

Works Discussed:

Elaine Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store

Anna Kornbluh “Falling Heists, Rising Grift: Filming Capital in the Already Long Twenty-First Century”

Robert Nichols, Theft Is Property! Dispossession and Critical Theory

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Does decolonization require violence? In episode 172 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, “the bible of decolonization.” They discuss Fanon’s bold stance on violence, his condemnation of rituals and dance, and some potential criticisms. They also question what the subjectivity of colonized people looks like given colonialism’s psycho-affective effects. What does violence do for the colonized? Who gets liberation movements off the ground? And what are the challenges that a newly independent nation might face once a colonial power has been overthrown? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts talk about Fanon’s critique of Africanism and some of the clinical cases Fanon incorporates into this important work.

Works Discussed:

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of The Earth

Concerning Violence (2014)

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bottom, rump, booty, fanny, tush, and derriere! In episode 171 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about butts. Why do humans have bigger rear ends than other animals? Why are butts often seen as a site of aversion? And is anal sex a metaphor for the universe? They discuss the evolutionary history of butts, how the music industry helped normalize bigger butts, and how the exploitation of Sara Baartman in the 19th century is part of a larger story about the sexualization of black women. In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts talk about Marquis de Sade’s discussion of anal sex and appeals to nature in justifications of human sexual practices.

Works Discussed:

Georges Bataille, “The Solar Anus”

Leo Bersani, “Is the Rectum a Grave?”

Janell Hobson, “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture”

Dinah Holtzman, “Ass You Lick It: Bey and Jay Eat Cake”

Sadiah Qureshi, “Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus’.”

Heather Radke, Butts: A Backstory

Christopher Wallner et al, “Interethnic Influencing Factors Regarding Buttocks Body Image in Women from Nigeria, Germany, USA and Japan”

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The discourse around today's crisis of care responds to the shredding of America's social safety net, but leaves out the most vulnerable almost entirely. In episode 170 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss how this works with Premilla Nadasen, author of Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. They discuss how gender fits into the care industry, the harms of associating care work with emotion, and how the practice of care has been commodified. How is it that we deny the most basic care from those who need it most? What are the harms of framing care workers as family members? And how has racial capitalism produced the explosion of the care economy that we're seeing today? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about the distinction between the practice of care and care itself and how labor workers can learn from care workers in their modes of organizing.

Works Discussed:

Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart

Premilla Nadasen, Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.