Episoder
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Thereâs a saying in German: everything has an end, except for the sausage, which has two . . . So it is with podcasts as with human beings. Everything has its end. Everything ends, sometime. Even the sausage, which simply ends twice. Deadbeat Philosophy is no sausage (at least not in the traditional sense). Hence, its end is singular. Just like 2025: it only ends once. And its end, like that of 2025, is now.
In this final episode of the Deadbeat Philosophy Podcast, Dave signs off, and leaves you with a curated sequence of short works released over the past year on the Deadbeat Philosophy YouTube channel, but not yet released as part of the podcast (or via the Hegel-Haus YouTube channel). These segments were released between April and September, and, taken together, feature treatments of 17 and 3/4 (to be exact) essential works of philosophy and literature, ancient and modern.
A huge thanks to each of the fantastic guests who contributed their voices and perspectives to this project over the past year: Thibaud Henin, Lauren Eichler, Ross Heintzkill, Dan Thomas, Andrew George, Miranda Siegel, Rob Mottram, Russell Duvernoy, Eva Hoffmann, Aidan Beatty, Lucy Schultz, Justin Hagge, Patrick Reinhardt, Jim Martin, Tasha Brownfield, Chris Anderson, Brian, Ivo Martin, Tatjana SchönwÀlder-Kuntze, Sierra Deutsch, Caleb Ward, Jacob Barto, and Kristen Jakstis.
Many thanks to all those who subscribed to Deadbeat Philosophy on Substack, including the handful of paid subscribers (see, you actually did help me feed my children!).
Finally, a very special thanks to my skilled and generous counterpart at the Museum Hegel-Haus, Marie-Sophie Hoenle (without whom Deadbeat Philosophy would never have gotten off the ground) and to their excellent team at the Stuttgart StadtPalais. I look forward to our collaborations ahead.
It has been a true joy developing and sharing Deadbeat Philosophy with you during 2025. While this particular project has reached its end, I might someday turn to other experiments in audio-video/new media philosophy, assuming the emerging cohort of AI-generated influencer-philosophers donât use up all the good ideas first.
So, perhaps see you again someday in digital-virtual space. In real life, for a while at least, youâll find me down by the pond. Look around: Iâll be the guy napping under a tree with a piece of straw between his lips, a dusty paperback in his outstretched hand. No smartphone in sight.
Thanks for watching, listening, and reading. Keep up the good olâ fashioned deadbeat work. Adios and auf Wiedersehen . . .
Segments and historical texts featured in the episode:
I. âAncient & Modern Political Philosophy Classics Everyone Should Readâ
* Plato, Republic
* Aristotle, Politics
* Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
* Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality
* Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
II. âA Philosopher Says: Donât Tell Me to âBe Naturalâ!â
III. âAncient & Modern Literary Classics for Everyoneâ
* Homer, Odyssey
* Sophocles, Antigone
* Beowulf
* Dante, Inferno
* Shakespeare, Richard II
IV. âDo Birds Have Language? The Philosophy of Birdsongâ
V. âFive Essential Works of Modern Philosophyâ
* Baruch Spinoza, Ethics
* Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
* Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
* SĂžren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
* Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
VI. âA Prehistoric Feminist Psychoanalysisâ
* Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo
* Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
In this first of two âyear in reviewâ episodes, Dave shares two of his favorite pieces from the past yearâa pair of âphilosophical smackdownsâ featuring titans from the history of western philosophy. The first pits Plato against Immanuel Kant, the second Aristotle against Friedrich Nietzsche. Who will win out? Whose text should you gift to your mother on motherâs day? Watch to find out!
Featuring analyses of the following works:
Plato, Republic
Plato, Phaedo
Aristotle, Politics
Aristotle, Poetics
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Manglende episoder?
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Kristen Jakstis is a researcher at the Institute for Landscape Planning and Ecology at the University of Stuttgart. In this episode, recorded live at the Museum Hegel-Haus, Dave and Kristen explore the power of storytelling as a vehicle for optimism, critique, and experimentation in the midst of the unfolding global environmental crisis. They cover Kristenâs doctoral research in urban ecology, the contribution of the history of philosophy (and of Hobbes and Rousseau in particular) to how the human/nature relationship is framed today, and the need for a âSwabian Sasquatch.â They also open a window onto the interdisciplinary project they are co-leading this semester: âStories for a Better Future: The Power of Myth in Philosophy, Urban Ecology and Politics.â
Kristenâs Recommendations:
Miles Richardson, âReconnection: Fixing Our Broken Relationship with Natureâ (Book): https://findingnature.org.uk/2023/04/25/reconnection/
Rob Hopkins, âFrom What Is to What Ifâ (Book): https://www.robhopkins.net/2019/10/10/first-review-of-from-what-is-to-what-if/
Modest Mouse, âGood News for People Who Love Bad Newsâ (Album): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_News_for_People_Who_Love_Bad_News
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Andrew George is an Australian environmental activist and social organizer. Dave and Andrew chat about Andrewâs life on an uninsurable floodplain, the material weight and faux-permanence of urbanized consumer-capitalist existence, the peril and promise of social media and AI in our age of environmental crisis, Rousseau, Roger Hallam, and the dialectic of revolution and collapse shaping the (in)human future of planet earth.
Andrewâs newsletter (subscribe!)
Andrewâs Recommendations:
Rutger Bregman, âHumankind: A Hopeful Historyâ (Book)
âKPop Demon Huntersâ (Film)
Renata Rosa, âZunido da Mataâ (Album)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Jacob Barto is an expert in German literature and language, currently adjunct assistant professor of German at Bellevue College. In this Halloween-themed conversation, Dave and Jacob claw their way through a splattering of spooky classics from European literary history, encountering as they go child-seducing ghosts, philosophical demon-devil hybrids, and even a few subversively bloodthirsty lesbian vampires. They end by sinking their teeth into the question: what accounts for the power that horror as a genre has within society today?
Works discussed, among others: Goethe, âErlkönigâ (Poem, 1782); Goethe, âFaustâ (Verse Tragedy, 1808/1832), Schubert, âErlkönigâ (Lied, 1815). Dante, âInfernoâ (Poem, 1321), Sheridan Le Fanu, âCarmillaâ (Novella, 1872), Benjamin, âThe Origin of German Tragic Dramaâ (Book, 1925), Murnau, âNosferatu â Eine Symphonie des Grauensâ (Film, 1922), Herzog, âNosferatu the Vampyreâ (Film, 1979).
Jacobâs Recommendations:
Mikhail Bulgakov, âThe Master and Margaritaâ (Novel, 1928â1940)
Ludwig van Beethoven, âThe Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92â (Symphony, 1811â1812)
Akiyuki Shinbo, âPuella Magi Madoka Magicaâ (Anime, 2011)
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How can philosophy be defined? Who can philosophize, and what roles do age, language, or geography play in oneâs aptitude for philosophizing? When and where in planetary history did philosophy âbeginâ and will it someday âendâ? To what extent should knowledge of past philosophy and philosophers determine how philosophy is done today?
In this episode, Dave approaches philosophy âin a broad wayâ and âin a general sort of sense,â drawing upon Aristotleâs identification of philosophy with wonder and defending his own idiosyncratic definition: philosophy as the art of asking questions.
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Caleb Ward is postdoc in philosophy at University of Hamburg and leader of the DFG project âMoral Opposition and Political Agency under Oppression.â Author of multiple articles and book chapters, their monographâon the philosophy of Audre Lordeâwill appear in 2026.
Calebâs webpage.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Sierra Deutsch is an interdisciplinary political ecologist in the department of geography at the University of Zurich. Dave and Sierra chat about Euro-American academic identity, Sierraâs grueling recent trip to the top of Africaâs highest mountain (where she nearly developed altitude sickness), the global economic-political-environmental polycrisis, the deep tradition of Marxist environmental theory, the importance of foregrounding Indigenous voices in our efforts to combat entangled structures of colonialism and capitalist environmental exploitation, and more.
Sierraâs Recommendations:
Zero 7, âIn the Waiting Lineâ (Song)
Nancy Fraser, âCannibal Capitalismâ (Book)
Indigenous environmental theoristsâamong others:
Winona LaDuke, Kyle Powys Whyte, Taiaiake Alfred
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Rob Mottram is a scholar of modern European literature and culture, and senior lecturer in German studies at Whitman College.
Rob and Dave chat about sandwiches, nostalgia, encountering computers as kids in the 1980s and early 1990s, AI (including AI term papers and AI podcasts), the overwhelming power of aesthetic experience, Goetheâs Faust Pt. II, and Robâs transformative melding into Caspar David Friedrichâs âMountain Landscape with Rainbow.â
Robâs Recommendations:
Donât Go to Montana and Donât Enter Academia!
The Flaming Lips, âAt War with the Mysticsâ and âEmbryonicâ (Albums):
George Steiner, âReal Presencesâ (Book)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Tatjana SchönwĂ€lder-Kuntze is a philosopher based in Munich and the author of, among other books, Freiheit als Norm? Kritische Theoriebildung und der Effekt Kantischer Moralphilosophie, Philosophische Methoden, and Judith Butlers Philosophie des Politischen: Kritische LektĂŒren.
This is the first (but probably not the last?) German-language episode of the podcast. Recorded with a live audience at the StÀdtisches Lapidarium Stuttgart: https://www.lapidarium-stuttgart.de/
Tatjanaâs Recommendations:
Ilija Trojanow, âDer Weltensammlerâ (Novel)
Prince, âSign oâ the Timesâ (Album)
Lasse Hallström, âGottes Werk & Teufels Beitragâ (Film)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
While producing the podcast and creating bizarre philosophy-themed YouTube videos over the past months, Dave has also been working on three books in progressââAnimality and Finitude,â âOn the Kanthropocene,â and âA Bipolar Manifesto.â
Parts of each book have been released on a rolling basis on the Deadbeat Philosophy homepage (deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com), and episodes 20, 21, and 22 of the podcast will feature readings of available sections of each.
In this episode, Dave reads the first three parts of âA Bipolar Manifestoâ:
1. What This Book Plans to Do
2. The Bipolar Appeal of Kant
3. Bipolar is Like . . . Wintering in Antarctica
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
While producing the podcast and creating bizarre philosophy-themed YouTube videos over the past months, Dave has also been working on three books in progressââAnimality and Finitude,â âOn the Kanthropocene,â and âA Bipolar Manifesto.â
Parts of each book have been released on a rolling basis on the Deadbeat Philosophy homepage (deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com), and episodes 20, 21, and 22 of the podcast will feature readings of available sections of each.
In this episode, Dave reads the first six parts of âOn the Kanthropoceneâ:
1. Jack and the Beanstalk of Reason
2. With All Due Respect to Cephalopods
3. The Kanthropocene Is
4. The âGlobal Environmental Crisisâ
5. The Kanthropocene and Us
6. Infanticidal Hominins in the Space of Reasons
Info about live podcast recording on 8.8.25
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
While producing the podcast and creating bizarre philosophy-themed YouTube videos over the past months, Dave has also been working on three books in progressââAnimality and Finitude,â âOn the Kanthropocene,â and âA Bipolar Manifesto.â
Parts of each book have been released on a rolling basis on the Deadbeat Philosophy homepage (deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com), and episodes 20, 21, and 22 of the podcast will feature readings of available sections of each.
In this episode, Dave reads the first six parts of âAnimality and Finitudeâ:
1. Life is a Journey. Death is Where that Journey Ends
2. On the Animality of Cookie Monster, Grover, Elmo, and Oscar the Grouch
3. On the Question of Ethical Eating
4. Against Sustainability: Six Theses
5. The Paradox of the Easter Bunny
6. A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Paradoxical Medicine Go Down
With this episode, the Deadbeat Philosophy Podcast will shift to an every other week formatâat least until the end of summer and the conclusion of all inglorious summer-related travel.
Thanks for tuning in, and until soon.
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Ivo Martin is a philosopher, educator, and musician based in Stuttgart.
Dave and Ivo chat about the relative places of philosophy in the education and social systems of Germany and the USA, the (non?)relationship between studying philosophy and acting ethically, teaching philosophy to young children, the expectation of âneutralityâ in the teaching of philosophy and politics, the value of anti-democratic philosophy in democratic states, the philosophical possibilities of rap music, spontaneity in music and thinking, the human/animal relation, anthropocentrism and the anthropocene, ecological nihilism, and more.
In the second half, Ivo shares his recently recorded rap (under his rap alias âNautilusâ) âWas ist der Mensch?â (âWhat is the Human?â), which Dave and Ivo unpack and discuss.
Hear âWas ist der Mensch?â again
Ivoâs Recommendations:
âTriangle of Sadnessâ (Film)
Otfried PreuĂler, âKrabatâ (Novel)
âIt Takes Twoâ (Video Game)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Brian is a poet and novelist based in Colorado, USA.
Dave and Brian chat about writing, relating (or not relating) to previous versions of oneself, mortality, grief, memory, identity, delusion, attachment, parenthood, marriage, divorce, loss, depression, solitude, nerds, my little ponies, and the philosopho-therapeutic value of literature and art.
They discuss in some detail early twentieth Japanese novels by Natsume SĆseki (âKokoroâ), Osamu Dazai (âNo Longer Humanâ, and RyĆ«nosuke Akutagawa (âKappaâ).
And along the way, Brian reads to us a number of his (really excellent) poems, which Dave and Brian unpack and discuss.
Brianâs Recommendations:
Natsume SĆseki, âKokoroâ (Novel)
RyĆ«nosuke Akutagawa, âKappaâ (Novella)
Conway Twitty, âThatâs My Jobâ (Song)
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Chris Anderson is a Roman Catholic theologian, high school theology and philosophy teacher, college instructor, and pastoral minister based in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
Chris was a student of Daveâs during their overlapping time at Seton Hill University, and in this conversation the two revisit and expand upon themes they had first discussed years prior, including the relationship between philosophy and theology, the value of a liberal arts education, Thomas Aquinasâ Summa Theologica, the phenomenological and narrative richness of Augustineâs Confessions, and existentialism from Heidegger to Beauvoir.
Along the way, Chris shares his reactions to the selection of an American (and Augustinian) pope, his approach to the concept of kenosis, his relationship to mortality in light of his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in early adulthood, his view of the relationship between AI and human mortality, and much more.
Chrisâ Recommendations:
âBlack Mirrorâ (TV Show)
Martin Heidegger, âPoetry, Language, Thoughtâ (Book)
Sarah Bakewell, âAt the Existentialist CafĂ©: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktailsâ (Book)
David Baumeister, âKant on the Human Animal: Anthropology, Ethics, Raceâ (Book)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Thibaud Henin is a Canadian political scientist based at Concordia University in Montreal.
Dave and Thibaud chat about artificial intelligence from a variety of angles. They focus on algorithms and their interface with patterns of human and non-human behavior, thought, history, life, and physiology. They discuss the concept of AI agency, and of the creation within AI systems of delegated management, agency, and meta-agency roles. They debate the question of whether AI could in fact produce âtruly innovativeâ poetry, art, or literature, or whether it might be condemned to an eternal repetition of wholly non-innovative cultural mush.
They touch on examples such as AI art, AI poetry, AI philosophy, AI lawyers, AI in the justice system, AI music, AI film, AI YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok channels. They touch on the nature of innovation and creative novelty itself, and question whether even human innovation is not simply a matter of random mutations occurring within otherwise fully-patterned natural iterations. They share experiences encountering AI in academia (from the position of professor and researcher) and as parents. They end on a note of skepticism regarding whether it can be ruled out that this podcast is itself a product of generative AI.
Thibaud's webpage
Thibaudâs Recommendations:
Stephen Hawking, âThe Illustrated A Brief History of Timeâ (Book)
Jennifer Clapp, âToxic Exports: The Transfer of Hazardous Wastes from Rich to Poor Countriesâ (Book)
Classic Punk Albums by Ramones, Sex Pistols, and NOFX (Albums)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Reverend Tasha Brownfield is a Pantheist, Unitarian Universalist chaplain, minister, and educator. Currently, Tasha serves as the outpatient oncology chaplain at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, senior minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Smithton, PA, and a professor of religious studies and philosophy at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA.
Tasha and Dave chat about Tashaâs life as a chaplain at one of the worldâs largest and most cutting-edge hospitals, including accompanying patients and their families in transitions from life to death. They discuss the home Tasha has found in the Unitarian Universalist church and her experiences studying at Seton Hill University (where Dave and Tasha met) and at Yale divinity school (where Tashaâs uniquely open approach to ministry sparked several nationally covered scandals). They cover Tashaâs long-held commitment to and exploration of Pantheism and the Pantheistic worldview, her breakthrough drag-king performance-persona (Reverend Morningstar), and much more.
Tashaâs Linkedin Page
Reverend Morningstar on Instagram
Tashaâs Recommendations:
YĆko Ogawa, âThe Memory Policeâ (Novel)
Jesse Welles, âUnder the Power Linesâ (Album)
Mary-Jane Rubenstein, âPantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monstersâ (Book)
Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele, âWhen They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoirâ (Book)
Delores S. Williams, âSisters in the Wildernessâ (Book)
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host, Dave Baumeister, and the guest, Rev. Tasha Brownfield, and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institutions, employers, or organizations associated with them.
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Jim Martin is an American author, composer, musician, editor, photographer, and long-time Genesis fan living (like Dave) in Stuttgart Germany.
Jim and Dave chat about ex-pat identity, about Jimâs upbringing at a military school in the US, about the unpredictable multiplicity of the creative process, and about Jimâs musical theatrical directorial debut scheduled for later this year. They cover mortality, Alan Watts and Joseph Campbell, Zen Buddhism and Taoism, the slippery moral quandaries that emerge when one commits oneself to âgoing with the flow,â Irish poetry, Mrs. Dalloway, Genesis, Gustav Mahler, and more.
Tickets for Jimâs upcoming musical (âDie stumme Symphonieâ), July 17â20, 2025 in Stuttgart
Jimâs Music Blog (with links to and stories about some of Jimâs favorite pieces of music)
Jimâs Recommendations:
John O'Donohue, âEternal Echoesâ (Book)
Virginia Woolf, âMrs. Dallowayâ (Novel)
David Myers, âGenesis on Pianoâ (Album/Performance)
Gustav Mahler, âSymphony No. 2â (Composition)
Gaea Schoeters, âTrophĂ€eâ (Novel)
Additional Recs:
Bill Moyers' interview series with Joseph Campbell
A summary of Campbell's teachings
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com -
Patrick Reinhardt is a book collector, publisher, illustrator, and self-defined âatavistic gentleman scholar.â Patrick and Dave chat about Patrickâs lifelong obsession with books, beginning with childhood readings of J.R.R. Tolkienâs The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, all the way to his running of an independent classic literature publishing outfit today.
They talk about developing an identity based around reading and designing books and the power of description, atmosphere, and plot in fantastic, speculative, and literary writing. They discuss Patrickâs âdayjobâ working the night shift at the post office, the proverbial âmidlife crisis,â and their shared affinity for objects and styles from bygone eras. Patrick also shares the story behind his upward-curling mustache and walks us through some of his favorite books and book series, including several that he has re-released himself.
Patrickâs publishing house: https://curiouser.house/
Patrickâs recommendations:
Hope Mirrlees, âLud in the Mistâ (Novel)
Jandek (Musician)
Mervyn Peake, âGormengastâ (Novel Series)
Joris-Karl Huysmans, âAgainst the Grainâ (Novel)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deadbeatphilosophy.substack.com - Vis mere