On "The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality" from Vol. 2 of Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or (1843).

What is choice? Kierkegaard's character Judge William criticizes the aesthete from our previous episode on the earlier part of this book: The aesthete doesn't make any authentic choices and so doesn't develop a coherent self.

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Part 4 of Wes & Erin's discussion of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale."

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Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, Al and special guest Vi Burlew talk about the new film The Marvels as well as more generally what's been coming out in film and TV from the Marvel folks in the latest "phase." Does Marvel have a consistent tone at this point)? What explains the box office poison of the new film? 

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Mark, Wes, and Seth read through more of Kierkegaard's Diapsalmata, translated as "Refrains," which are the aphorisms that begin the book and demonstrate the aesthetic point of view. 

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Continuing on "Diapsalmata" and "Rotation of Crops" from the "Either" portion of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous book. 

We talk through more of K's aphorisms, his narrator's solution to boredom, and we take the critique personally: Is this Romantic view described one that we held as younger people (or now)?

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Kevin is the creator and host of the storytelling podcast RISK! and is the alphabetically foremost member of the MTV-televised, newly reformed, celebrity-infested sketch comedy troupe The State. But can he improvise? Mark and Bill surprise Kevin into a scene about a suspicious hotel.

How does one engineer one's legacy? Will history inevitably either reduce your greatest contributions to mere noise or reinterpret them in light of your final, embarrassing moments? Perhaps the legendary comedy team of Ricky and Lester can serve as a scenic example; let's let them say a little about who they are and how their career reached its current nadir.

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

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Eric Goulden has recorded 29 albums since 1978, typically as Wreckless Eric but also with his wife Amy Rigby or under band names like Captains of Industry and The Len Bright Combo. 

We discuss "Standing Sunday Morning" from Leisureland (2023), "Another Drive-In Saturday" by Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby from their self-titled debut (2008), and "Depression" by Le Beat Group Electrique from their self-titled album (1989). Outro: "Father to the Man" from Transience (2019). Intro: "Whole Wide World" (single version, 1977).

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On the aphorisms ("Diapsalmata") that begin Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or (1843), plus the essay also in the first volume, "Rotation of Crops." What is it to live your life as if it were a work of art? K thinks such a life is unserious and unsatisfying.

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When King Leontes accuses his pregnant wife of adultery, the nobleman Antigonus assumes that Leontes has been “abused and by some putter-on”—in other words, some Iago-like villain has been putting malevolent ideas into his head. In fact, Leontes is the father of his own misconceptions, just as he is the father of his wife’s children. But unlike his children, his ideas might be said to have no mother; they lack corroboration, which is to say, collaboration with a source outside himself. How, then, do we account for the seemingly spontaneous generation of his thoughts? How can false apprehensions arise out of nothing? And what price must one pay for bearing these misconceptions, these “nothings,” into the world? In this episode, the first part of a six part discussion, Wes & Erin discuss one of Shakespeare’s last plays, "The Winter’s Tale."

Mark and Wes Closeread the conclusion to Soren Kierkegaard's On the Concept of Irony (1841), "Irony as a Controlled Element, the Truth of Irony." The discussion starts with the role of irony in good art, and then moves on to discuss the proper role of irony as an existential strategy in a well-grounded, thoughtful life.

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