PvI#84: Interesting? w/ Lorraine Besser

Simon is a professor at New York's New School for Social Research and moderates the New York Times' philosophy offering, The Stone. He joins Mark and Bill to discuss his new book, On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy, and we used the occasion to explore how art and mysticism might be connected, including engaging in improv rituals. You can watch this on unedited video. We do some post-game discussion for the first time in a while (not on the video) where we reflect on the episode, and Mark connects it to PEL's current topic, Ludwig Feuerbach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a TEAM PLAY episode just in time for the holiday season! Returning guests improviser and podcaster Sarah and recovering Philosophy Bro Tommy join Mark and Bill to talk AND EXPERIENCE friendship, with our longest single improv scene to date. What is friendship? Is it gendered? Do you know your friends enough to imitate them? Does one friendship or fast-casual restaurant have to die so that another may emerge? Can Bill even get to the end of the call? Watch this on unedited video. The image was swiped off Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike hosts the Hitchhikers and Appetizers podcast, and we recorded this episode a bit before Halloween, before the election and the consequent mass exodus, as a sort of memo to the future, i.e. you. We blister our way through many topics including discovery, hospital dramas, time travel sex, self-experimentation, ancient aliens, sharkNATO, Flintstone furniture, the first Wisconsin Thanksgiving, Subway nation-states, and more. Watch this episode on video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lorraine teaches at Middlebury college and has recently written The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It. How does "the interesting" fit into human flourishing? How do we know when some attractive stimulation is really in our interest and really good? Can we find something interesting even the most tedious, repetitive tasks? Is it interesting to start an improv scene by declaring that your scene-mates are dealing with alcoholism and divorce? Certainly it is rude. Also, Happiness 12 Step Programs. You can choose to watch this on unedited video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the beginning of a new round of shenanigans on Philosophy vs. Improv. Let the senior slump begin! Your hosts Mark Linsenmayer and Bill Arnett here talk a blazin' stream of consciousness and then have a pretty long improv scene. Are we already always philosophizing? Watch the proceedings unedited on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chicago's iO Theater was graced on August 21 by Mark, Bill, and special guest theater educator James Whittington, who spoke about embodiment (see Maurice Merleau-Ponty), the possible disconnect between meaning and tone, and being in the physical presence of greatness. They acted out scenes (while still sitting!) about an unsuccessful party and Experiences-R-Us.  Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast at philosophyimprov.com/support. You may choose to watch the proceedings live on stage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our long lost episode. Consider it a mystery box. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. You can choose to watch this on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Internationally best-selling author David wrote a book (and made a film) called How We Got Here, which traces the gradual path in the history of ideas from the ancients through various forms of perspectivism, relativism, and post-modernism to the post-truth discourse that authoritarians and wanna-be authoritarians engage in. David's book is in a very terse style, in line with his overall career emphasis on brevity, so we talk about this choice and how it means in most cases not actually explaining any of the ideas involved much less arguing for his interpretation of them. Instead, a series of quotations and short explanations prompt readers to see the lines of influence themselves. This is not a dismissal of post-modernism due to its deleterious consequences, as he sees the current liberal absolutist reaction (there IS objective truth and morality and Trump and his ilk are ignoring) as foolishly antiquated. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. You can choose to watch this unedited on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny was in a sketch troupe called Maximum Party Zone back in the day with your improv host Bill, and they've now revived that trio to create the MPZ Listening Party podcast, which workshops sketch ideas in real time as a fun form of conversation. So we try out some of their tricks, such as combining two properties (in this case nominally The Apprentice and Argyle to create a pretentious reality show) and brainstorming about serial killer branding and palliative quantum leaping. Plus, intent vs. impact, your legacy, auditioning for a mystery reality show, fake Roman names, you would be just as bad as Biden at debating, and infinitely more. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. You can choose to watch this unedited on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tamler teaches philosophy at The University of Houston and hosts the Very Bad Wizards podcast. He joins Mark and Bill to talk about personal identity and whether the “self” is necessarily co-extensive with a particular body. Plus: meditation, Daniel Day Improv’s method acting, All of Me vs. Regarding Henry, what does “metaphysics” mean to YOU, dreams as improv, unstuck-in-time Grandma the last slaveholder, and more. Hear more PvI. Support the podcast! You’ll get all of our post-game discussions and other exclusive bonus content. You can choose to watch the proceedings unedited on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices