Theory Underground

By theory undergroundSociety & Culture Science Social Sciences Education Courses

Theory Underground episodes

April 09, 2022 ŽIŽEK’s Theory of Ideology pt. 3: Against ego psychology and transference | feat. Michael Downs of The Dangerous Maybe
Michael Downs put a couple hundred hours of research into this series we started last week. We've also had a ton of prior tutoring sessions on Lacan, Hegel, Baudrillard, and Zizek just to get me to the point where I even know what questions to ask! We hope that even if this is not your priority right now that when you want to dive into Zizekian theory you will know this is a resource available. Our lecture-interviews are long because they are meant to be conversational, accessible to the uninitiated, and able to be listened to while at work or gaming. All of Pleeb’s work has been de-monetized and self-funded for over a year. If you want to give back in any way you can support #FreeMikey at www.Patreon.com/TheDangerousMaybe. Tell him Pleeb sent you.Learning a language? Follow pleeb on Duolingo and use this link so pleeb gets a week of free Plus https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEIGet Pleeb’s updates and thoughts here https://nspleeb.substack.com/Make sure to follow https://www.instagram.com/pleebmemes/ for memes related to pleeb’s work and communityPLAYLISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW:Pleeb 'n Mikey Lecture-Interviewshttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TLvXtp5bYnmCjf_otZw0M2NPleeb interviews and gets schooled by amazing peoplehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TKo5_C6vyIphjsMD7c_fbMwProfessor Pleeb Lectureshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TISAuNvqAdpOexm08Gc8yVhPleeb’s old video essayshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TJpzDw4TRjnW3zR9Al-3_JxPleeb’s Assisted Readings https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TKnWyq5fxA5pMTAMtxGzuExMUSIC CREDITSRoyalty Free Planet - EVA - Rear ViewLicense:Creative Commons Attribution 3.0http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicenseMike Chino – Demigods: https://youtu.be/M6wruxDngOkLicense: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
3 hr 53 min
March 26, 2022 ŽIŽEK’s Theory of Ideology pt. 2 | feat. Michael Downs of The Dangerous Maybe
Michael Downs put a couple hundred hours of research into this series we started last week. We've also had a ton of prior tutoring sessions on Lacan, Hegel, Baudrillard, and Zizek just to get me to the point where I even know what questions to ask! We hope that even if this is not your priority right now that when you want to dive into Zizekian theory you will know this is a resource available. Our lecture-interviews are long because they are meant to be conversational, accessible to the uninitiated, and able to be listened to while at work or gaming. All of Pleeb’s work has been de-monetized and self-funded for over a year. If you want to give back in any way you can support #FreeMikey at www.Patreon.com/TheDangerousMaybe. Tell him Pleeb sent you.Learning a language? Follow pleeb on Duolingo and use this link so pleeb gets a week of free Plus https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEIGet Pleeb’s updates and thoughts here https://nspleeb.substack.com/Make sure to follow https://www.instagram.com/pleebmemes/ for memes related to pleeb’s work and communityPLAYLISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW:Pleeb 'n Mikey Lecture-Interviewshttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TLvXtp5bYnmCjf_otZw0M2NPleeb interviews and gets schooled by amazing peoplehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TKo5_C6vyIphjsMD7c_fbMwProfessor Pleeb Lectureshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TISAuNvqAdpOexm08Gc8yVhPleeb’s old video essayshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TJpzDw4TRjnW3zR9Al-3_JxPleeb’s Assisted Readings https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TKnWyq5fxA5pMTAMtxGzuExMUSIC CREDITSRoyalty Free Planet - EVA - Rear ViewLicense:Creative Commons Attribution 3.0http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicenseMike Chino – Demigods: https://youtu.be/M6wruxDngOkLicense: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
2 hr 45 min
March 19, 2022 ŽIŽEK’s Theory of Ideology pt. 1: Happy Birthday Slavoj | feat. Michael Downs of The Dangerous Maybe
Pleeb n' Mikey did another interview-lecture, this time to kick off a series for Slavoj Žižek's theory of ideology! Michael has put in the work to now argue that Slavoj is one of the greatest theorists of ideology.All of Pleeb’s work has been de-monetized and self-funded for over a year. If you want to give back in any way you can support #FreeMikey at www.Patreon.com/TheDangerousMaybe. Tell him Pleeb sent you.Learning a language? Follow pleeb on Duolingo and use this link so pleeb gets a week of free Plus https://invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWKTP747NSNMAOYEIGet Pleeb’s updates and thoughts here https://nspleeb.substack.com/Make sure to follow https://www.instagram.com/pleebmemes/ for memes related to pleeb’s work and communityPLAYLISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW:Pleeb 'n Mikey Lecture-Interviewshttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TLvXtp5bYnmCjf_otZw0M2NPleeb interviews and gets schooled by amazing peoplehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TKo5_C6vyIphjsMD7c_fbMwProfessor Pleeb Lectureshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TISAuNvqAdpOexm08Gc8yVhPleeb’s old video essayshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TJpzDw4TRjnW3zR9Al-3_JxPleeb’s Assisted Readings https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcbaQ1cp2TKnWyq5fxA5pMTAMtxGzuExMUSIC CREDITSRoyalty Free Planet - EVA - Rear ViewLicense:Creative Commons Attribution 3.0http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicenseMike Chino – Demigods: https://youtu.be/M6wruxDngOkLicense: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bit.ly/RFP_CClicense
2 hr 54 min
October 08, 2021 What the hell is "theory"?
A lecture on "theory." What is it? Is it philosophy? Is it critical or political? What are the strengths and weaknesses of "theory" today? This is episode one for a new series of lectures.
1 hr 59 min
May 14, 2019 TIMENERGY: An existential-analysis of labor-power
A short essay solely dedicated to developing the concept of timenergy! Hope you find it useful. :)

In the terms of the jargon in my field: Timenergy is the phenomenon underlying labor power when analyzed existentially (meaning it brings together the intellectual traditions following from Marx and Heidegger).

If you would prefer to watch the video version of this essay, here's the link to that: https://youtu.be/QI-sysR20A0

If you would prefer to read this essay in a good old fashioned blog post, here's a link to that: https://medium.com/@theorypleeb/timenergy-an-existential-analysis-of-labor-power-5fc5b0071452

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17 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]