…which, as I was saying, is right in the middle of a sentence or scene! Sheesh!

How should our personal and family histories shape our behavior, both in real life and in improv scenes? Do these histories, these stories we tell ourselves, nail us down as people? Are we all old before our time? Are those your real parents? Hang on to your poser wallet!

Image by Julia as found here. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop.

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Panpsycast host Jack, the Liverpudliest Liverpudlian of all, brings his promiscuous philosophy of mind to the show, wherein mind is here, there, and everywhere. But what does that mean? Skits about renting a flat for nefarious purposes and designing software for Nozick’s experience machine reveal all! But the question remains… So what? You have to care!

Hear Jack on his own podcast talking about various philosophies of mind including panpsychism. Hear PEL cover the “hard problem of consciousness” with one of Jack’s co-hosts. Listen to the Pretty Much Pop on The Matrix. Watch the Deep Thoughts that Bill refers to. 

Get Jack’s book Talking About the Mind.

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Today’s episode is about questioning: how one might question, what sets the parameters for a proper answer, and how to give those answers in an informative and/or dramatically effective way. Watch out for dream pigs! Also, how to get into the VIP room at Stuckey’s. Perhaps a pair of paralegals can help.

In the post-game, included JUST THIS ONCE for public enjoyment, we reflect on improv in the real world and some potential spin-off improv podcasts from our episode.

The image is from the Children’s Drawing Archive. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop.

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We are joined by the young purveyor of the Reductio podcast, who wrote his dissertation on normality, which was such a normie thing to do. Can “abnormality” be morally neutral, or is that term cursed? We talk disability studies. You down with OTPs? Repeat after mes! How many towels do you need?

Listen to Andrew explain his dissertation uninterrupted. Here’s that offensive theme from Tropic Thunder.

Image by Emily, cribbed from this article. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop.

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Is money the root of all evil, or does it save us from needless cabaret bartering? What is money qua social construction? Should we retain the chocolate fountain? Are you ready to run? Did you bring your NFTs to trade for blue powder? Bill is master of the frustration scene.

Here’s the Stanford article about money and finance.

Listen to Linda and her husband Noah (who was also just our guest) on this other podcast, and also this one. Follow Linda @IrisCutter.

The image by one Miss Thompson was submitted to a Daily Mail article. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop of Pixel Box Media.

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We are guest free! We are unrestrained in exploring various conversational topics in a facetious manner, from hairballs to boogers to color vision among inanimate objects and rules for unicorn play. When the bad-ass, smelly, screaming white ball hits the 5 ball, how does the causality work? Is skepticism about physical forces just conspiracy theory?

Image from this NY Times article, perhaps about COVID? But I’m imagining that those two upper left circle figures are differentially colored billiard balls. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop of Pixel Box Media.

Hear more about Malebranche on causality in the latest PEL episode.

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Thi is a philosopher of games, making him a perfect match for this podcast. Why are games worthy of philosophical study? What counts as a game, anyway? We play a frustration game, finish each others’ sentences, and ask dumb questions on a museum tour. It’s an unusually discussion-focused episode!

Picture is by Zahra, grabbed from this article. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop of Pixel Box Media.

Thi sticks around for the post-game, and we talk about gaming rules, algorithms, quantification, RPGs (he recommends Apocalypse World and Microscope RPG). Bill recommends Painting with John. Get all of our post-game discussions by signing up to support us at philosophyimprov.com/support.

Hear Thi on Mark’s Pretty Much Pop podcast talking about food culture.

Can we have an entertaining discussion inspired by Aristotle’s most boring book? Bill leads Mark and our guest Tommy through some let’s-describe-what’s-in-an-imaginary-room exercises. 

Dark Tourist, I’m Sorry, the bookCan we have an entertaining discussion inspired by Aristotle’s most boring book, The  Categories? Bill leads Mark and our guest Tommy through some let’s-describe-what’s-in-an-imaginary-room exercises. Then Tommy is supposed to give a comedy TED Talk, and chooses Mediterranean food. But what about his estranged father and all those corpses?

For the real skinny on Categories, listen to Partially Examined Life #279. Hear Tommy as Philosophy Bro monologue about Plato then join the PEL fellows on the Symposium on PEL #100. Hear Tommy and Mark talk board games on Pretty Much Pop #108.

The art for this episode is by Martin via this Angie’s List article. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop of Pixel Box Media.

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Sponsor: Learn about St. John’s College at sjc.edu/improv.

There’s trouble at the work site! There are secret shifts of emotion going on. Do they make sense? Later, a guy’s car is blocking a driveway. Does he deserve the electric chair, or a beer? It depends on your theory of punishment.

Ep. art cribbed from a Psychology Today article. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop at Pixelbox Media.

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The scene is its own entity. What else might be its own entity? Can a machine that passes the Turing test know what it’s like to be a bat? We bring in emotions from irrelevant contexts, and we keep hearing them long after they’re gone.

Episode art by Alvin Alvaro. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop at Pixelbox Media.

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Sponsor: Learn about St. John’s College at sjc.edu/improv.