Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Comedy podcasts and philosophy - Saeed Ahmed guest post

I have been writing about academic podcasts on philosophy for quite some time. After getting a bit stuck on the notion of "synthetic apriori," I have decided to take a diversion and have been sampling funny podcasts.

Not surprisingly, there is plenty of philosophy to be found here. The series I previously posted about, WTF by Marc Maron, provides an example.

Mark talks about a heavy "WHAT THE FU**?" and a light "what the fu**?" The first, according to Marc is "external", like when you are surprised or shocked by something. The latter is "kind of an internal thing," like when you are ready to take a risk. Take that, Bishop Berkeley.
He even covers the notion of temporality when he discusses leaving his cats for more than a few weeks, and they don't treat him quite the right way when he comes back. "They probably think I died and are bit confused when they see me". "Is it really the same guy, they may wonder." Martin Heidegger must be turning in his grave, but in sort of good way. (feed)

I am getting addicted to Maron's musings and interviews (he is a very good interviewer, and generally interviews other comedians). But if he is not for you, there are a number of other good comedy podcasts out there.

On Comedy and everything else, one of the regulars asked "has someone ever dared you 'if I give you a million bucks, would you do a naked handstand in times square.'" "What kind of a question is that; I don't acknowledge it as test of moral standing, and don't enter the hypothetical." Now if it truly were a million, then perhaps he would enter the discussion. (feed)

A couple of others:
Comedy Death-Ray Radio (feed)
Nerdist Podcast (feed)

And they are all free, although contributions are welcome, as many of these comedians are not regularly employed and do these podcasts between gigs.

Saeed Ahmed

Photos that changed the world - Jonathan Klein on TED

Jonathan Klein of Getty Images speaks of famous images and of their impact on our understanding, on public opinion and on our politics.


More TED:
Karen Armstrong on The Golden Rule,
Media revolution and the effect on power - Clay Shirky,
Shay Agassi's visionary plan to bring electric cars to the world,
Elizabeth Gilbert,
Bill Gates.