Pure Excess: Capitalism, Commodity Fetishism, and the Promise of More

Pure Excess: Capitalism, Commodity Fetishism,...

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UNLOCKED: In Praise of Prose, Poetry, and the Present Moment

Breht discusses the importance of reading, writing, meditating and spending time alone in nature as essential to a well lived life; as well as mental-emotional protection from the techno-oligarchic assault on our minds, attention spans, and ability to think critically. Learn more ...  Show more

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: Dialectics, Consciousness, and Freedom

Breht sits down with philosopher Colin Bodayle for a wide-ranging exploration of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, one of the most influential and notoriously difficult works in modern philosophy. Together they unpack Hegel's account of consciousness, contradiction, freedom, recog ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

Todd Mcgowan, "Pure Excess: Capitalism and the Commodity" (Columbia UP, 2024)
New Books in Critical Theory

Todd McGowan forges a new theory of capitalism as a system based on the production of more than what we need: pure excess. He argues that the promise of more—more wealth, more enjoyment, more opportunity, without requiring any sacrifice—is the essence of capitalism. Previous soci ...  Show more

PREVIEW: Adrian Johnston & The Inhuman Selfishness of Capital
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Alright, we’re back again with ADRIAN JOHNSTON to discuss more of his book INFINITE GREED: THE INHUMAN SELFISHNESS OF CAPITAL. FULL EPISODE ON OUR PATREON HERE! Adrian takes us through some of the shifts in Freud’s positions on Marxism and this insistence on negativity as history ...  Show more

The Capitalist Gaze
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This week we discuss friend of the podcast Todd McGowan's 2013 essay, The Capitalist Gaze. As Todd explains it, "Although the structure of capitalism is not homologous with the structure of the visual field, thinking about capitalism in terms of the gaze follows from the apparent ...  Show more

The Politics of Pleasure w/ Eric Wycoff Rogers and Zarinah Agnew
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Capitalism's addiction to growth doesn't just show up in the external world. It can also be found inside us—in our manufactured desire for more and better. Not only do we have to keep wanting to keep the machine going, we have to keep wanting what is "scarce" and easily privat ...

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