Theory Underground

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Theory Underground episodes

April 30, 2023 The Introduction of Alenka Zupančič’s What is Sex? - Dave with Cadell Last of Philosophy Portal
Enroll to What is Sex at https://theory-underground.com/courses/what-is-sex/

Watch 3 Reasons to Read What is Sex? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvTYUgowWjE&t=7354s

Welcome to Theory Underground.

If you want to better understand yourself and the world by asking the hardest questions, wrestling with the most complex problems, and reading the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy and theory, then welcome. Theory Underground is for and by working class intellectuals, renegade PMCs, and adults who don’t belong or see a future in anything on offer.

Buy us some food or coffee:
https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb
https://paypal.me/theorypleeb
Or become a monthly subscriber at https://theory-underground.com/donate/

Interested in getting involved? Join the Theory Underground open forum today. Most of the forums are closed until certain readings or courses have been completed, but this is the one that is open! Welcome. https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/MAIN

Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/ Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links: https://theory-underground.com/support https://theory-underground.com/events
Follow Theory Underground on Duolingo: https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEI
See Theory Underground memes here: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/ https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground Missed a course at Theory Underground? Wrong! Courses at Theory Underground are available after the fact on demand.
https://theory-underground.com/courses
Dave’s first book, Waypoint, is available for free at Theory Underground in blog and audio formats. https://theory-underground.com/waypoint/ ^There you can also purchase the text for significantly cheaper than it is on Amazon.

MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode Song: Bust Down Artist: 808 DEATH CLUB License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense Also used in many videos: 🎵 Album: Rear View 🎧 Artist: EVA Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
2 hr 43 min
April 28, 2023 Todd McGowan on Michael Downs AKA The Dangerous Maybe #FreeMikey
Todd joins Dave for the 2-day Marathon stream to make a tribute to Mikey, a working class intellectual hero.

Read The Dangerous Maybe here: https://thedangerousmaybe.medium.com/

If you get something from it, then consider becoming a patron to The Dangerous Maybe here: https://patreon.com/TheDangerousMaybe
Mikey teaches Dave Lacan 101 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TJ0Y4ox09fVlMRBnPRE-L6q
Mikey teaches Dave Žižek 101 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TLAdlfWS3bfPL7HpQh0Y3r7

If you get a lot out of that and want to go way deeper, it is never too late to sign up for the For They Know Not What They Do course: https://theory-underground.com/courses/FTKNWTD

ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS Welcome to Theory Underground. If you want to better understand yourself and the world by asking the hardest questions, wrestling with the most complex problems, and reading the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy and theory, then welcome. Theory Underground is for and by working class intellectuals, renegade PMCs, and adults who don’t belong or see a future in anything on offer. Buy us some food or coffee: https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb https://paypal.me/theorypleeb Or become a monthly subscriber at https://theory-underground.com/donate/ Interested in getting involved? Join the Theory Underground open forum today. Most of the forums are closed until certain readings or courses have been completed, but this is the one that is open! Welcome. https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/MAIN Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/ Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links: https://theory-underground.com/support https://theory-underground.com/events Follow Theory Underground on Duolingo: https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEI See Theory Underground memes here: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/ https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground Missed a course at Theory Underground? Wrong! Courses at Theory Underground are available after the fact on demand. https://theory-underground.com/courses Dave’s first book, Waypoint, is available for free at Theory Underground in blog and audio formats. https://theory-underground.com/waypoint/ ^There you can also purchase the text for significantly cheaper than it is on Amazon. MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode Song: Bust Down Artist: 808 DEATH CLUB License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense Also used in many videos: 🎵 Album: Rear View 🎧 Artist: EVA Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
1 hr 33 min
April 24, 2023 Three Reasons we’re reading Being and Time this Summer | Nick Castellucci of the Vanishing Mediators
We each share three reasons we're reading Being and Time. Sign up for this course today at https://theory-underground.com/courses/btdiv1/

Welcome to Theory Underground.

If you want to better understand yourself and the world by asking the hardest questions, wrestling with the most complex problems, and reading the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy and theory, then welcome. Theory Underground is for and by working class intellectuals, renegade PMCs, and adults who don’t belong or see a future in anything on offer.

Buy us some food or coffee:
https://www.venmo.com/u/Theorypleeb
https://paypal.me/theorypleeb
Or become a monthly subscriber at https://theory-underground.com/donate/

Interested in getting involved? Join the Theory Underground open forum today. Most of the forums are closed until certain readings or courses have been completed, but this is the one that is open! Welcome. https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/MAIN

Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/ Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links: https://theory-underground.com/support https://theory-underground.com/events
Follow Theory Underground on Duolingo: https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEI
See Theory Underground memes here: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/ https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground Missed a course at Theory Underground? Wrong! Courses at Theory Underground are available after the fact on demand.
https://theory-underground.com/courses
Dave’s first book, Waypoint, is available for free at Theory Underground in blog and audio formats. https://theory-underground.com/waypoint/ ^There you can also purchase the text for significantly cheaper than it is on Amazon.

MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode Song: Bust Down Artist: 808 DEATH CLUB License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense Also used in many videos: 🎵 Album: Rear View 🎧 Artist: EVA Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
2 hr 20 min
April 11, 2023 Self-phone addiction, philosophy of technology, McLuhan, Heidegger, and the announcement of a new course!
Theory Underground is preparing to launch a new course: Digital Literacy and CMT (Critical Media Theory), which begins this May and takes place every 2nd Sunday of the month for six months. Where media theory, philosophy of technology, and critical theory meet practical tools, social science, group work, and reflections in a way that is structured to still give you a breather, or to fall off and get back on without missing everything.

Go to https://theory-underground.com and check out the course listed there. In the course details you can read the bios of the two instructors, David McKerracher and Ann Snelgrove. That is also where you can access the video of them announcing the course, or listen to it on the Theory Underground podcast.

1 hr 41 min
March 27, 2023 Week 12 Theory Underground update - Announcing Digital Literacy & Critical Media Theory
ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS

Welcome to the Theory Underground.
Theory Underground aims to make challenging philosophical and theoretical work accessible, not by summarizing, but by aiding those who seek to engage in this work as a way of life.
SUPPORT this work at https://theory-underground.com/support

Do you have questions, comments, or something to share that would be better off on the community site? Join the public forum here: https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/main/
If you take a course or join a discussion, there will be a group with dedicated forums on the website. Because fuck Discord. We want to honor quality questions, not bury them. We want to honor people who actually read as opposed to staying glued to their phones all day, so we aren't going to become reliant on a "community" app that is so attention-demanding.

Forums give people time to think and come back later to ask questions or add to discussions.
Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links:
https://theory-underground.com/courses
https://theory-underground.com/support
https://theory-underground.com//events
Also the Theory Underground instagram and TikTok are both where it's happening:
https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/
https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground
MUSIC CREDITS
Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
59 min
March 22, 2023 ŽIŽEK 101 Bartleby the enjoyment of scapegoating - D&M S2e21
Mikey is back to teach Dave the basics of Žižek’s theory of ideology.
If you have been learning Lacan 101 and now Žižek through Mikey and Dave’s conversations, you might want to dive into the deep end.

Check out the course on Žižek’s For They Know Not What They Do, which starts on February 25th: https://theory-underground.com/courses/ftknwtd/

ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS
Welcome to the Theory Underground. Theory Underground aims to make challenging philosophical and theoretical work accessible, not by summarizing, but by aiding those who seek to engage in this work as a way of life. Interested in getting involved?
Join the Theory Underground open forum today. Most of the forums are closed until certain readings or courses have been completed, but this is the one that is open! Welcome.

https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/MAIN Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/

Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links:
https://theory-underground.com/courses
https://theory-underground.com/support
https://theory-underground.com//events
Also the Theory Underground instagram and TikTok are both where it's happening: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/
https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground

MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
Song: Bust Down Artist: 808 DEATH CLUB License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
33 min
March 20, 2023 ŽIŽEK 101 The Politics of Enjoyment and Timenergy as a Universal Lack - D&M S2e20
Mikey is back to teach Dave the basics of Žižek’s theory of ideology.
If you have been learning Lacan 101 and now Žižek through Mikey and Dave’s conversations, you might want to dive into the deep end.

Check out the course on Žižek’s For They Know Not What They Do, which starts on February 25th: https://theory-underground.com/courses/ftknwtd/

ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS
Welcome to the Theory Underground. Theory Underground aims to make challenging philosophical and theoretical work accessible, not by summarizing, but by aiding those who seek to engage in this work as a way of life. Interested in getting involved?
Join the Theory Underground open forum today. Most of the forums are closed until certain readings or courses have been completed, but this is the one that is open! Welcome.

https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/MAIN Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/

Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links:
https://theory-underground.com/courses
https://theory-underground.com/support
https://theory-underground.com//events
Also the Theory Underground instagram and TikTok are both where it's happening: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/
https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground

MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
Song: Bust Down Artist: 808 DEATH CLUB License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
41 min
March 18, 2023 Unveiling by Alenka Zupančič’s ”What is Sex?” COURSE- with Cadell Last of Philosophy Portal
Dave is joining forces with Cadell Last of Philosophy Portal to do short course and deep dive into Alenka Zupančič's What is Sex.

This is about the three reasons this text matters. Alenka Zupančič is a fellow traveler of Slavoj Žižek and is one of contemporary theory's most cutting edge thinkers.

SIGN UP for the course here: https://theory-underground.com/product/what-is-sex/

Referenced Link: Derrida: On The Private Lives of Philosophers https://youtu.be/bay7Wh8D-HM

Welcome to the Theory Underground.

ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS
Welcome to the Theory Underground. Theory Underground aims to make challenging philosophical and theoretical work accessible, not by summarizing, but by aiding those who seek to engage in this work as a way of life. Interested in getting involved?
Join the Theory Underground open forum today. Most of the forums are closed until certain readings or courses have been completed, but this is the one that is open! Welcome.

https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/MAIN Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/

Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links:
https://theory-underground.com/courses
https://theory-underground.com/support
https://theory-underground.com//events
Also the Theory Underground instagram and TikTok are both where it's happening: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/
https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground

MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
Song: Bust Down Artist: 808 DEATH CLUB License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
2 hr 11 min
March 06, 2023 Week 9 - Dave is done for + ”the discourse”
ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS

Welcome to the Theory Underground.
Theory Underground aims to make challenging philosophical and theoretical work accessible, not by summarizing, but by aiding those who seek to engage in this work as a way of life.
SUPPORT this work at https://theory-underground.com/support

Do you have questions, comments, or something to share that would be better off on the community site? Join the public forum here: https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/main/
If you take a course or join a discussion, there will be a group with dedicated forums on the website. Because fuck Discord. We want to honor quality questions, not bury them. We want to honor people who actually read as opposed to staying glued to their phones all day, so we aren't going to become reliant on a "community" app that is so attention-demanding.

Forums give people time to think and come back later to ask questions or add to discussions.
Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links:
https://theory-underground.com/courses
https://theory-underground.com/support
https://theory-underground.com//events
Also the Theory Underground instagram and TikTok are both where it's happening:
https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/
https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground
MUSIC CREDITS
Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
1 hr 12 min
March 06, 2023 ŽIŽEK 101: Jouissance and BBQ | S1:ep19
Blue Collar Anti-PC "Inherent transgression" Jouissance in the workplace

Mikey is back to teach Dave the basics of Žižek’s theory of ideology.
If you have been learning Lacan 101 and now Žižek through Mikey and Dave’s conversations, you might want to dive into the deep end.

Check out the course on Žižek’s For They Know Not What They Do, which starts on February 25th: https://theory-underground.com/courses/ftknwtd/

ABOUT / CREDITS / LINKS
Welcome to the Theory Underground. Theory Underground aims to make challenging philosophical and theoretical work accessible, not by summarizing, but by aiding those who seek to engage in this work as a way of life. Interested in getting involved?
Join the Theory Underground open forum today. Most of the forums are closed until certain readings or courses have been completed, but this is the one that is open! Welcome.

https://theory-underground.com/forums/forum/MAIN Help beta trial this at https://theory-underground.com/

Check out the courses, patron tiers and books, as well as events listed at these links:
https://theory-underground.com/courses
https://theory-underground.com/support
https://theory-underground.com//events
Also the Theory Underground instagram and TikTok are both where it's happening: https://www.instagram.com/theory_underground/
https://tiktok.com/@theory_underground

MUSIC CREDITS Logo sequence music by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
Song: Bust Down Artist: 808 DEATH CLUB License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
35 min

About Theory Underground

From the publisher's feed

Thanks for listening! Please review us on your favorite podcast app so that the haters don't win.

Become a member of Theory Underground here: https://theoryunderground.com/subscribe

Tier 1 and higher get access to the courses and seminars going monthly throughout 2026:

Intro to Theory, The Philosophy of Stewardship, and The Philosophy of Religion with David McKerracher.

Tier 2 and higher get access to a monthly writers or speaking workshop.

Tier 3 includes the book or thesis writer's cohort. All members get access to the monthly Post Duopoly (de)Radicalization Starter Pack reading group, which is a collaboration between TU and 1Dime. https://theoryunderground.com/subscribe

David McKerracher is an organizer, theorist, husband and father (not in that order), and the founder of Theory Underground. McKerracher is the author of Timenergy: Why You Have No Time or Energy (Foreword by Slavoj Žižek), as well as the chief editor of Underground Theory (Volumes one and two are available now, with volume three in the works).

Office hours: The first Monday of every month at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, or if you wait around after lectures/seminars.

Theory Underground (TU) is dedicated to making challenging philosophical and theoretical work accessible for a non-college audience. TU emphasizes audio-based learning for real-world application of big ideas, operating both online and through an international tour that has hosted events in over 20 U.S. cities, 9 countries throughout Europe, as well as cities in Canada and Mexico.

Mission: To provide accessible, rigorous, and wide-ranging educational material for three types of people:

- dropout workers with earbuds getting into big ideas during daily routines

- burnt-out postgrads seeking to supplement their journey

- parents who take a deliberate role in their children's education through keeping alive their sense of wonder.

Vision: A world that is timenergy-rich, meaning that parents and teachers have large, energy-infused, and reliably repeatable blocks of time throughout their day, week, and month. Such a world would construct and cultivate a culture of active leisure for the sake of discovering and stewarding one’s own talent and the talents of future generations.

Lectures: Ongoing and archived sessions on key thinkers and topics, including:

📚Intro courses: Intro to Theory (monthly throughout 2026), Intro to Marx, Intro to Heidegger, Political Theory, Intro to The Idea of the University, Intro to Žižek, Intro to Lacan, Intro to Land, Intro to Illich, The Philosophy of Nature, Intro to the PMC, Intro to Critical Social Theory, and The Philosophy of Religion (2026).

📚Advanced courses: Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, Emmanuel Levinas' Totality and Infinity, and Slavoj Žižek's For They Know Not What They Do, The Autistic Subject and the Clinical Structures of Psychoanalysis.

📚Seminars: Critical Media Theory (2 years), Critical Doxology & Timenergy (1 year), The Philosophy of Stewardship and Home Economics (monthly throughout 2026).

Publishing: Underground Theory Volumes 1 and 2, Timenergy: Why You Have No Time or Energy, as well as serial releases of chapters, original thoughts, and upcoming books.

Community: Conferences, retreats, and international tour. TU’s hybrid and experimental grassroots (self-funded) tour events have occurred in prestigious private universities as well as people's garages and backyards, on campus quads or downtown in busy urban areas, as well as deep in the wilderness. TU is virtually everywhere and always on tour, but physically it is based on a small regenerative farm in North Idaho.

Renowned professors at Theory Underground have included Slavoj Žižek, Benjamin Studebaker, Nina Power, John D. Caputo, Peter Rollins, Chris Cutrone, Iain Thomson, Alenka Zupančič, Leon Brenner; Todd McGowan, as well as lesser-known but nonetheless amazing lecturers such as Tony Chamas, Bryan Weeks, Michael Downs, and Elton L.K. of the Working Class Intelligentsia and the Democratic Socialists of America education podcast called CLASS.

Music Logo Sequence Music is always either by https://olliebeanz.com/music https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode or “What's Left” Adam Leher. Thanks! If you are an artist who has something that might be good for TU's unique vibe, you can always send it to us a [email protected]