For the first time, Neil reads a written piece aloud to promote the Speaking Body Substack (speakingbody.substack.com) and to improve his writing by hearing it spoken. 

The piece, titled “The Intersection of Psychoanalysis and Secular Buddhism” with the subtitle “An Ethics That Resists the Seductive Feeling of Being Certain,” describes his long academic life shaped by school calendars and his current summer-like mode of slower research and reflection. He discusses discovering secular Buddhist Stephen Batchelor via the Ezra Klein Show and reading After Buddhism, focusing on Batchelor’s ethics of uncertainty, curiosity, and resisting the tyrannical pull of certainty. 

Neil connects these ideas to Lacanian psychoanalytic formation, plans a new cartel exploring Lacanian praxis and theology, and intends to share biweekly dispatches.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

01:09 Why Read It Aloud

02:14 Piece Title and Structure

02:30 Summer Mode Reflection

04:40 Discovering Secular Buddhism

05:32 Ethics of Uncertainty

06:29 Three Key Bullet Points

06:59 Lacanian Connection and Plans

07:48 Dispatch Format and Footnotes

08:20 Closing Thanks and Goodbye