Why Theory

Ryan and Todd offer their interpretation of the television series Twin Peaks: The Return. After Ryan explains the role of the series in peak tv, they explore what the final season of the series has to...

9 Aug 20211h 33min

This episode unpacks the reasons that drove Jacques Lacan to invent the four discourses in Seminar XVII and then analyzes the structure of each discourse. Ryan and Todd also touch on Lacan's developme...

25 Juli 20211h 17min

Ryan and Todd devote a third and final episode to Joan's Copjec 1994 classic Read My Desire, focusing the entire time on the final chapter in the book, "Sex and the Euthanasia of Reason." They address...

12 Juli 20211h 41min

In this second of three episode devoted to Joan Copjec's Read My Desire, Ryan and Todd focus on Copjec's insights into the strength through weakness of the populist leader, the role of anxiety in poli...

27 Juni 20211h 27min

In this special requested episode, Ryan and Todd recount their experience of graduate school. They discuss the difficulties of engaging in theory and their attempts to carve out a theoretical path non...

27 Juni 20211h 32min

Ryan and Todd devote this episode to unpacking Joan Copjec's groundbreaking first book, Read My Desire. In this first part of a two part series, they focus on the first four chapters of the book, devo...

13 Juni 20211h 18min

Ryan and Todd discuss the emergence of Slavoj Zizek's first book in English, The Sublime Object of Ideology. They work through its impact and historical significance. They then work through the ideas ...

30 Maj 20211h 23min

In this episode, Ryan and Todd delve into the life and thought of relatively unknown theorist Alexandre Kojeve, who they claim may be the most influential thinker--for better or worse--of the 20th cen...

17 Maj 20211h 24min