Bad Philosophy

Bad Philosophy Episode 085 "Three Long Pigs" Recorded 02-26-2011 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, Kiki Canon Imagine yourself stuck in a mine. It's just you and two other people, and the food runs out. One of the others pulls you aside and suggests the unthinkable. You're mortified... but that third survivor's thighs look as tasty as a 50-piece Nugget Meal from McDonald's. What do you do? The prospect of cannibalism continues to fascinate humanity, and we here at BF are no exception. This episode Kiki, Kevin, and I dive deep into this forbidden dish and explore our boundaries on the issue. Where a couple of us draw the line may surprise you! So put on your best chain mail, grab some tasty insect munchies, and bring down that bottle of your best BBQ sauce, it's time for BF... This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Timothy" by The Buoys

Bad Philosophy Episode 084 "Safe for Work" Recorded 02-05-2011 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kiki Canon, Jediah Cummins Ever get the feeling that society is holding you back? Like a ball and chain are just wrapped around your ankles, and if you could only break free and be your own person, the world would miraculously become your sandbox? Well according to Ayn Rand, that ball and chain are nothing more than your own inhibitions. Success is there for the taking! Oh, but just remember to bring a plow. This week on BF we tackle quite possibly the most controversial piece of philosophical literature to ever spend 50 years in development hell before they finally made a crappy movie out of it: Atlas Shrugged. Joining me to bite into this tasty morsel were recent Rand reader Jed Cummins and Rand resister Kiki Canon. Ready for some self-interested Objectivismania? Well get on board! This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "The Trees" by Rush (suggested by @treycaliva)

Bad Philosophy Episode 083 "An Unexceptional Episode" Recorded 01-31-2011 Bad Philosophers: Kevin Saunders, Stephen Torrence, Kiki Canon President Obama's State of the Union address? Meh. Practicing all your life one of two classical instruments because your mother says so? Snore. Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes? F***ING AWESOME. Okay, so we couldn't exactly hit the mediocrity hat trick. BUT on a week when Internets were down in Egypt and Chicago, sickness spread across the nation, and broom closets became our only refuge, we still managed to pull together a whopper of an episode for you peeps. Enjoy it while sitting by a warm fire, sipping some hot cocoa as you await your inevitable frozen fate this fine winter... This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: Jascha Heifetz plays Ibert "Le Petit Âne Blanc"

Bad Philosophy Episode 082 "Saunders on Saunders" Recorded 01-17-2011 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders Imagine if falling in love was as easy as taking a pill. Scary? Exciting? Kind of rad? Well, to make up for the distinct lack of anything resembling actual philosophy last week, we decided to delve straight into this and other hardcore questions, courtesy of George Saunders and his recent short story in The New Yorker. Don't let the sub-par audio or the happy-go-lucky children chuckling in the background of Panera Bread fool you. We got REAL SERIOUS AND STUFF. You can tell by the caps lock. Drip on? Hell yeah! This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton

Bad Philosophy Episode 081 "Totally Cuffless" Recorded 01-01-2011 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, Jediah Cummins, Matt Legler, Kiki Canon 2011 is here, everybody! That's right, Twenty Eleven. Five syllables. The perfect length for pronouncing a year. Incidentally, it's also the first of our many predictions for the upcoming year and observations regarding the last. This New Year's Day we got a smashing smattering of smart and smarmy panelists together... plus Kiki! We had a grand ol' time finding the ideal abandoned hotel conference center to have our show and an even grander time kissing 2010 goodbye, helping her move out her things while exuberantly texting 2011 to come on over as fast as annually possible. Enjoy the show, everyone! We invite you to post YOUR bad philosophical predictions for 2011 in the comments. Be raunchy, be clever, and most importantly... be prescient! (It makes us look good) This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "New Year's Resolution Song" by Rhett and Link

Bad Philosophy Episode 080 "Bullet-Ridden Candy" Recorded 12-21-2010 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, Kiki Canon, Simon Ponder It's that time of year, everyone! Considering we're probably already in Santa's "Don't bother checking this year, I already know the answer" filter for the Naughty/Nice List, we decided to kick the raunch into overdrive this fine Christmas morning. Elves taking dumps? We've got 'em! Dominatrix Claus? Him too! The most delicious cumshot cookie you've ever tasted? Oh yeah, SO got it. Kevin, Kiki, Simon and I, along with the whole gang here at Bad Philosophy would all like to wish you a very Merry Christmas. Why, we even made you a BRAND NEW INTRO SEQUENCE! Sadly, we were unable to pick a suitable gift wrapping in time. Use your imagination... This Week's Post-Show Song Pimpage: "Chiron Beta Prime" by Jonathan Coulton

Bad Philosophy Episode 079 "Twelve Inch Razor Blades" Recorded 11-29-10 Always one news cycle behind, we here at BF have decided to tackle the TSA groping/scanning debacle with our own flavor of punditry. This week Kevin, Simon, and Kiki joined me to figure out how the system is broken, how to make it better, and how droids might become involved in the process. Oh, and Kevin shaved. For art. This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads

Bad Philosophy Episode 078 "Big Bad TV Daddy" Recorded 11-21-2010 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, Simon Ponder, Matt Legler As I hope many of you are already aware thanks to various sources around the Internet, FOX recently announced that the best sci-fi series currently on television, Fringe, will be moving to the "Friday Night Death Slot" when American Idol returns. Obviously, we here at BF are upset about this, so we assembled a panel of crack commentators to dig into the broken TV ratings system that led to its demise. Kevin and Simon played devil's advocates, Matt Legler played his 78, and I drank a little too much mead. Have a listen! And don't forget to record this in your Nielsen journal. This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: Theme from "The Honeymooners"

Bad Philosophy Episode 077 "The Untimely Death of Stephen" Recorded 11-04-2010 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Jediah Cummins, Kevin Saunders, Simon Ponder Imagine having an army of workers ready to do your bidding, no matter how menial and trivial, as long as you pay them some semblance of a decent wage. That's Amazon Mechanical Turk in a nutshell, with which people are doing strange and wonderful things. To discuss this and other randomness, we had the pleasure of bringing back Numero Uno Fanboy turned Bad Philosopher Jed Cummins, alongside newly-minted Clear Channel savant / amateur foley artist Simon Ponder. Oh yeah, and Kevin Saunders got to host half the episode. How the hell did that come about? Well, have a listen!

Bad Philosophy Episode 076 "Dalai Lama For Realz" Recorded 10-24-10 As we approach Halloween and the cool weather starts to move in, the Bad Philosophers reconvene for yet another intellectual foray into this excitingly dynamic world. Recently Kevin had a chance to see His Holiness, the Dalai Lama in person. We discussed his newfound insights into the human condition, religion, and crowd control, as well as Facebook's latest ploy to take over your social life and Google's prototype of the Johnny Cab. Have a listen! This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "We're All Gonna Die" - featuring Kiki Canon, Devo Spice and Schaffer the Darklord

Bad Philosophy Episode 075: "A Minor Detail" Recorded Oct. 4, 2010 Bad Philosophers: Kevin Saunders, Stephen Torrence, Kiki Canon This past weekend, the Facebook movie (aka. "The Social Network") premiered in US theaters, racking up a cool $22 million at the box office. Even before the film launched, This Week in Google discussed the film's "anti-geek" tone and Jeff Jarvis slammed it in his review. Copyright reform advocate Lawrence Lessig also critiqued the film on a number of counts. Before all this controversy, The New Yorker wrote a long and revealing piece about "the real" Mark Zuckerberg, contrasting him with Aaron Sorkin's character in the movie. Over the weekend Kevin, Kiki, and I all watched the film, and we had a few rebuttals to make on the its behalf, partially inspired by webcomic author and blogger Tom Brazelton. Have a listen! This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Baby, You're a Rich Man" by The Beatles

Aaaaaand, we’re back! For those of y’all who were keeping track, our 2-year anniversary was last month. That means BF has been around for… well… yeah, you can do the math. ANYWHO. Kevin and Kiki joined me to discuss brain damage, Neal Stephenson’s writing experiment, and a little ol’ movie about Facebook. No news stories this time, just a good old-fashioned F-isode. Enjoy! This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Creep” Cover by the Scala and Kolacny Brothers

Bad Philosophy Episode 073 "The Royal We" Recorded 09-06-2010 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kiki Canon Yep, we're back. It may be a week late, and these stories are probably completely irrelevant by now, but just pretend we've brought you a time machine and taken you back to last week for a look at the news! Yeah, it may be last week's news, but... TIME MACHINE. Anyways, Kiki joined me for this episode to shoot to the proverbial shiz about the following stories. Check 'em out and enjoy the show! 1. Duke Nukem Forever Makes Comeback 2. Hate the iTunes 10 Icon? Think You Can Do Better? 3. The Museum of Soviet Arcade Games 4. Craigslist Adult Services Section Shut Down 5. Language and Memes 6. The largest whorfian study EVER! (and why it matters)

Bad Philosophy Episode 072 "Rule of Some Number Around 70" Recorded 08-30-2010 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders In these tough economic times, it's always nice to be able to take a break from all the chaos and watch the demented apparition of a shark tear through the souls of Peter Jackson's brethren. Not sure what the hell we're talking about? Well, here's the dealio. Kevin and I reconvened for another romp into the new and the strange in the headlines this week. Once again there was beer involved, but we pushed ourselves and did *one whole article* more than last time! So pop your favorite beverage into a brown paper bag and smoke 'em if ya got 'em. It's time for some BF! 1. Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws is the ultimate sharksploitation flick 2. Internet may phase out printed Oxford dictionary 3. Pirate Bay documentary raising money on Kickstarter 4. More students feel lunchtime crunch 5. Paper Bag Monologue from The Wire (Kinetic Typography) This Week's Post-Show Song Pimpage: "Just as Long as Me" by Jonathan Coulton (stretched to the length of the episode using Paulstretch)

Bad Philosophy Episode 071 "What's in the News, Robin?" Recorded 08-16-10 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders For no particular reason we've decided to try something *BRAND NEW* on this week's episode of Bad Philosophy. Kevin and I pulled a few articles and a comic out of the news, grabbed a couple of beers, and dove in to the stories for an hour. What came was something of a nice balance between F-isode and B-isode. We hope you agree! Here are the articles if you'd like to read them first: 1. Neil Patrick Harris expecting twins 2. SubNormality - "Do Something" 3. Beware of fake Facebook 'dislike' button 4. Man tries living on coupons for a year This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "The Princess Who Saved Herself" by Jonathan Coulton, part of the Many Hands album for Haiti relief. Buy this song or hell, buy the whole album. Haiti might not be in the news cycle anymore, but they still need help rebuilding. Do your part!