Thales’ Well

On Metaphysics, Objects and Decent Politics with Graham Harman

This week I had a fantastic conversation with Prof. Graham Harman about his unique theory of Object-Oriented Philosophy. Our discussion was wide-ranging, we discussed Graham’s background, metaphysics, HP Lovecraft, art, architecture, Bruno Latour, contemporary Marxism, and Graham's views on the current politics of the United States.

Graham is a Professor of Philosophy at Sci-Arc in Los Angles. He has authored several articles and over 15 books. Most recently his work includes Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018, Pelican) and Speculative Realism: An Introduction (2018, Polity). You can read the article Graham and I discussed about Bruno Latour here. Also, here you will find a link to the article Graham mentioned where he responds to Marxist criticism. Graham is a prolific blogger and you can find more about his writing and upcoming events there. You can also follow him on Twitter: @DrZamalek

With thanks to Niki Young of the University of Malta. 

You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. You can also subscribe for free on iTunes. Please leave a nice review. You can follow me on Twitter: @drphilocity

On the Geography and Politics of Light with Tim Edensor

I had a fascinating discussion with Tim Edensor this week on the geography and politics of light. Tim has a brilliant talent for making us think  differently about something we take for granted. During our chat we talked about our changing perceptions of light, the politics of light, the aesthetic appreciation of light, and how one's willingness to decorate your house at Christmas might be a key factor in the Brexit vote. Most importantly we talked about Tim's great affection for  the Blackpool Illuminations. 

Tim is a Reader in Cultural Geography at Manchester Metropolitan University. He researches geographies of tourism, national identity, industrial ruins. and urban materiality. Tim is the author of From Light to Dark: Daylight, Illumination and Gloom (University of Minnesota Press, 2017). You can find out more about Tim here. 

You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. You can also subscribe for free on iTunes. Please leave a nice review. You can follow me on Twitter: @drphilocity

On Forensic Linguistics with David Wright

This week I am talking about forensic linguistics with Dr David Wright from Nottingham Trent University. We chatted about how forensic linguistics is used in crime detection, authorship analysis, expert witnessing, aiding policing investigation as well as some of the landmark cases where forensic linguistics has been used. We also spoke about David's research on the language of sexual violence in online forums. 

David Wright is a forensic linguist. His research applies methods of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis in forensic contexts, and aims to help improve the delivery of justice using language analysis. His research spans across a range of intersections between language and the law, evidence, crime and justice. He is co-author of An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence. You can read some of David's article at The Conversation.  He is on Twitter also: @WrightDW

You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. 

You can also subscribe for free on iTunes. Please leave a nice review. You can follow me on Twitter: @drphilocity

Horror, Ghosts and Monsters with Sorcha Ní Fhlainn

This week, as we approach All Hallows Eve, we turn to the ghastly, the monstrous,  the shocking, the ghoulish, the spooky and the downright eerie. I am talking to Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn who is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies and American Literature. She is a founding member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. We spoke about all things Gothic, the endless fascination with vampires, working class werewolves, ghosts, zombies, as well as how Gothic horror speaks to political questions. Sorcha also tells us about her love for Clive Barker.

You find out more about Sorcha’s work here: https://goo.gl/V1VK9k She tweets at: @VampireSorcha

The movie which Sorcha could not recollect towards the end of the podcast was Love at First Bite

You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. 

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On US Politics, Edmund Burke and Trump with Michael Baranowski

With the upcoming US elections I thought it would be a good time to see what a political philosopher has to say about it all. I am joined by Michael Baranowski who is a political scientist from Northern Kentucky University. We talked about Mike’s intellectual origins, the political philospher Edmund Burke, the legacy of John McCain, the possibility of socialism in America, and of course President Donald Trump, as well as the forthcoming elections. You can find out more about Mike here.  Mike is one of the hosts of the very brilliant podcast The Politics Guys.For anyone with an interest in American politics I thoroughly reccomend subscribing. 

The David Foster Wallace piece we mentioned in the show is called Up Simba! and is available as an ebook. Here is a link to the original Rolling Stone article about John McCain's 2000 election campaign. 

On the Law, Consent and MeToo with Heidi Matthews.

 

This week I had a really interesting discussion with Prof. Heidi Matthews about law, consent, and the MeToo movement. Heidi is an Assistant Professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. She co-directs the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security. Her research area is international criminal law, the law of war, political theory and law and sexuality, with a specific focus on global regulation of political violence in relation to history and gender. You can read Heidi’s Aeon article on sexual consent here. You can follow Heidi on Twitter @Heidi_Matthews

We recorded this conversation prior to the Blasey Ford/Kavanaugh hearing in the US Senate, and the subsequent confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. Heidi has since published an article in The Conversation commenting on these events. 

During the podcast, Heidi recommended listeners to consult the work of Paul Clark of Garden Court Chambers on the impact of economic austerity on the legal profession in the UK.

 

On Sex Robots and Personhood with Kathleen Richardson

This week I talk to Dr Kathleen Richardson about sex robots and notions of personhood, consent, loneliness and inter-dependence between humans. Kathleen is  a professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at De Montfort University. She completed her PhD at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Her fieldwork was an investigation of the making of robots in labs at MIT.  She is the author of, amongst others. An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines. She is currently working on a manuscript called The Robot Intermediary? An Anthropology of Attachment and Robots for Children with Autism. If you would like to find out more about Kathleen's intellectual work you can visit her website here. Kathleen is the director of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, you can find out more about her activisim here.

You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. 

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On Emile Zola with Dan Rebellato

This week I am talking about the great French novelist Emile Zola with Prof. Dan Rebellato of Royal Holloway University. We talk about Zola's life, his novels, the place of philosophy in his work, and Zola's famous "J'accuse...!" which is celebrating it's 120th anniversary this year. 

Dan is an academic and playwright whose expertise focusses on post-war and contemporary British theatre.  He is the author of 1956 and All That (Routledge, 1999). He also has composed a short monograph called Theatre & Globalization. He has also published Modern British Playwriting 2000-2009, The Suspect Culture Book, and Contemporary European Theatre Directors. He is currently working on a book project called Naturalist Theatre: A New Cultural History. As a playwright his work has been performed throughout the UK, Europe and the United states on both stage and radio. He was a major contributor to the BBC Radio 4 series  Emile Zola: Blood, Sex & Money which was an adaptation of Zola's 'Rougon-Macquart' cyle of novels. 

You can find out more about Dan here. He is also great fun on Twitter: @DanRebellato  His nightly tweets to the US President have reached legendary status.

You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. 

You can also subscribe for free on iTunes. Please leave a nice review.

The Philosophy of Football with Stephen Mumford.

This week I am talking about football with Prof. Stephen Mumford. We talk about how football makes you think, the role of causes, dispositions, luck, space and of course victory. Stephen also explain why football is a far superior game to rugby. Stephen is a Professor of Metaphysics at the University of Durham. He is the author of, among other things, Dispositions (Oxford, 1998), Russell on Metaphysics (Routledge, 2003), Laws in Nature (Routledge, 2004), David Armstrong (Acumen, 2007), Watching Sport: Aesthetics, Ethics and Emotion (Routledge, 2011), Getting Causes from Powers (Oxford, 2011 with Rani Lill Anjum), Metaphysics: a Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012) and Causation: a Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2013 with Rani Lill Anjum). 

You can visit Stephen's webpage here. 

He is also great on Twitter: @SDMumford 

 You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. 

You can also subscribe for free on iTunes. Please leave a nice review.

On the Mind and Panpsychism with Philip Goff

This we talk about all things mind. Philip Goff is a philosopher and consciousness researcher at Durham University. He works mainly on the problem of how to integrate consciousness into our scientific worldview. Goff’s 2017 book Consciousness and Fundamental Reality (Oxford University Press) argues against materialist accounts of consciousness and defends panpsychism as the best account of the place of consciousness in nature. Panpsychism is the view that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the natural world. As well as publishing over 40 academic articles, Goff has written for the Guardian, Aeon and Philosophy Now. He is currently working on a book on consciousness and panpsychism aimed at a general audience, Galileo’s Error: A Manifesto for a New Science of Consciousness, which will be published in August 2019 (Pantheon in US, Rider in UK). 

You cand more info about Phillip here: 

 Twitter: @philip_goff

Website: www.philipgoffphilosophy.com

Blog: www.conscienceandconsciousness.com

 

You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Podbean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. 

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