Bad Philosophy » drugs

Episode 096: Bestial Anarchy

StephenTorrence — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 05:05:46 +0000

Ever get the urge to just go out with a few friends and completely wreck your entire neighborhood, steal some crap, and set it all on fire when you’re done? No? Congratulations! You may not be among the 11,000 feral, uneducated, illiterate, uncultured under-citizens of the U.K. who took part in the country’s worst riots in years this past week. Max Hastings still hates you though. So why did this happen anyway? Kevin and I threw in our 2 pence this episode with a few ideas. I also got to dust off my British accent for a dramatic reading of some classically classist bigotry. Tally ho, chaps! Have a listen…

This Week’s Post-Show Song Pimpage: “Anarchy in the U.K.” by The Sex Pistols

Episode 094: Justice on Trial

StephenTorrence — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:17:07 +0000

To quote a tired but relevant saying, we like to believe that “our courts are the great levelers.” They exist to ensure that criminals be punished, that the innocent are heard, that justice be done for one and all. But every once in a while someone goes through our courts and gets away with murder. Yep, I’m referring to Casey Anthony of course. Why did this happen? And what light can it shed on the nature of law? Into this raging flame war we ventured this week, brave souls Matt Legler and newcomer Carson Cummings boldly throwing in their 2 cents. Serial killers? We got ‘em. Meth chefs? Them too. Tuxspeedos? Um… listen to find out!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Pink Houses” by John Mellencamp

Questions Answered in This Week’s FormSqueeze:

Post-show Music Selection

Epistemology Paradox

Hypothetical Question

Episode 091: The Book of Wire

StephenTorrence — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:19:56 +0000

Theatre Alert! Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of South Park infamy) recently launched a Broadway musical that’s getting the exact opposite flavor of attention their work usually garners. Praise is sweeping across the play from all directions. However, we love our dirt here at BF, so in this episode we explored the ‘dark’ side of this happy-go-lucky romp into postcolonial issues. Here to explore this subject with us IN PERSON were BF mainstay Kevin Saunders and newly minted doctoral student Amy Guenther. So put on your best proselytizing tie and come with us through the war-torn race issues of Uganda all the way to the war-torn race issues of Baltimore and back again.

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Way Down in the Hole” by The Neville Brothers

Questions Answered in this Week’s Formsqueeze:

Latin American Countries, Explaining Sound

Episode 090: Squeezetravaganza

StephenTorrence — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:47:46 +0000

So in case you hadn’t heard, a few weeks ago we shot some guy in the eye and dumped him in the ocean, then cheered exuberantly about it for a few days. With this hefty moral conundrum we began our first ever all-Formsqueeze episode, answering a slew of YOUR questions from our Formspring account.We covered everything from Bin Laden to root beer, episode transcription to Oreo cookie innovations, and sci-fi TV to overindulgent restaurants. Yes, we’ve got answers GALORE, and we hope you enjoy them. After all that answering we could use a re-up though, so hit up that little white box on the right and submit your question(s) today!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Blowin’ in the Wind” (Punk Cover) by Me First and Gimme Gimmes

Episode 086: Reeks of Humanity

StephenTorrence — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:52:57 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, Charlie Sheen has been #WINNING lately. Or so he claims, at least. For some people, “winning” is banging 7-gram rocks with porn stars in a hotel room. For others, it’s resurrecting an ancient brand with crazy new products through the power of pop music. For us on BF, it’s getting to talk about all of this while eating copious numbers of jelly babies. Kiki, Simon, and Kevin join me this episode to live the Sheen dream. So strap into your F-18, set your gear to GO, and prepare to get your face melted off… it’s BF time!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Songify This / Winning” by The Gregory Brothers

Episode 082: Saunders on Saunders

StephenTorrence — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:51:57 +0000

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

Episode 075: A Minor Detail

StephenTorrence — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:52:01 +0000

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 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

Episode 072: Rule of Some Number Around 70

StephenTorrence — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:35:20 +0000

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)

Episode 067: We Love You, Torgo!

StephenTorrence — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:11:20 +0000

Howdy, folks! Yes, you may throw tomatoes at me now. I really thought that graduating and coming home for the summer would leave me with more time. Sadly, this has not been the case. BUT we are back now, with an episode that’s almost a month old but still delightfully entertaining. Kiki and her friend Bess joined me for a quintessentially BF drive along the fringe of Twilight. I hear Kevin is back in town, an AWESOME fan donated enough money for us to buy an HD camera, and aside from building a vacuum table this weekend, I am FREE! So expect new episodes right around the corner. Thanks for sticking with us and enjoy the episode!

Oh, and if you’re wondering who the heck Torgo is, go check the cool cat out. He works for RiffTrax. We love him.

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Cody Monkey (Frugal Glucose Mix)” by Jonathan Coulton and emerson

Episode 065: Whoa…

StephenTorrence — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:02:48 +0000

It should come as no surprise to y’all out there that a great percentage of the world indulges in the wily wonders of psychotropic drugs. Whether it’s that requisite pot of coffee in the morning or just… pot, lots of folks like to take a walk on the wild side of the mind every now and then. In this episode of BF Kevin Saunders, Bryan Mitchell and I explore some of the philosophical and political issues behind psychotropics in a solid B-isode. Oh, and we get TOTALLY BAKED at the end. Really. Listen all the way through. It’s hilarious.

This week’s post-show song pimpage: “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” by William Shatner (seriously, Kirk singing a drug song, it’s awful)

Episode 051: Reading Rainbow

StephenTorrence — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:31:55 +0000

It’s easy to take our perceptions for granted. Colors, shapes, smells, and so forth are for the most part universal. But some people have this kickass condition called synesthesia, where their wires get crossed and their perceptions get… interesting. BF was privileged to get a man who sees letters and numbers as colors on the show, Shawn Brackett. Never one to miss out on a good freak show, Damn Good Philosopher of Religion Dr. Mark Webb also decided drop by, with Numero Uno Fanboy Jed Cummins and the Uke-tastic Kevin Saunders. Best f***ing believe, it was the trippiest BF ever. Take a look…

This week’s post-show song pimpage: “Roy G. Biv” by They Might Be Giants

Episode 022: Baldwin Bonanza

StephenTorrence — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:38:15 +0000

Title psych! In this episode we actually focused on the man, the myth, the legend himself, Mr. Joss Whedon, and all his crazy nephews (shows). Despite last-minute panelist panic, we successfully procured Jed and Michael and had a Baldwin blast of a time. So brush up on your Mandarin, grab a wooden stake, and set your TiVo to record Dollhouse… it’s BF time!

Episode 008: Microwave THIS

StephenTorrence — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:39:40 +0000

A friend of a friend told me that if you listen to Bad Philosophy on a Microsoft Zune while preparing a Hot Pocket, the microwaves resonate with the current in the headphone wires and cause your ears to secrete Jello! Really … this totally happens … … Okay, you caught us. It’s a pure urban legend, just one of many we discuss on this fine yarn of an episode. Local genius Nick Bergfeld and the beautiful Kimberly Stewart both joined us for the first time, adding a touch of magic and some unintentional cuteness to the occasion. Oh, be sure to meet your swallowed spider quota after listening, or Osama Bin Ladin will forward you knock-knock joke emails from now until the end of the Mayan calendar.

PS. If you’re wondering what happened to Episode 007: Pretentiousism… well, it will forever be known as the “lost episode,” since the sound quality on the recording was discovered to be catastrophically horrendous after the fact. We might attempt to recover it someday, but until then it will be lost forever to the sands of time. On the bright side though, our ordinal and cardinal number sequences are now in sync. (i.e. episode 8 = the 8th episode) Yay…