Outsider Theory

Theory on the outside, theory of the outside, outside of the theory

About the show

Outsider Theory is an interview-based podcast exploring the mutations of theories outside of the authorized spaces of intellectual life as well as theories of that ever-alluring figure, the outsider, and related subjects.

Outsider Theory on social media

Episodes

  • Neither Intellectual, nor Dark, nor a Web? with Oliver Traldi

    May 27th, 2021  |  1 hr 32 mins
    bret weinstein, helen pluckrose, intellectual dark web, james lindsay, jordan peterson, quillette, sam harris, substack

    Oliver Traldi joins Outsider Theory to address rumors that he is a member of a shadowy organization called the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW), and to assess the IDW's position within online culture war dynamics.

  • The Non-Dupes Err with Tom Syverson

    May 13th, 2021  |  1 hr 34 mins
    donald trump, frederic jameson, georg lukacs, jacques lacan, marxism, materialist analysis, oj simpson, real housewives, reality tv, slavoj zizek, the bachelor

    Tom Syverson, author of the new book Reality Squared, makes the case for why reality TV is an essential form for grasping our bewildering contemporary panorama.

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    The Domestication of the Literary Outsider with Alex Perez

    May 6th, 2021  |  1 hr 30 mins
    bad boys, literature, outsiders, pascale casanova, pierre bourdieu, prestige, roberto bolaño

    Fiction writer and cultural critic Alex Perez joins Outsider Theory to discuss Bolaño, the prestige economy of literature, and the prospects for literary outsiders today.

  • Documenting Countercultures with Alex Lee Moyer

    April 29th, 2021  |  1 hr 15 mins
    amir taaki, cody wilson, countercultures, film distribution, incels, internet censorship, neets, tfw no gf

    Filmmaker Alex Lee Moyer joins Outsider Theory to discuss her 2020 documentary TFW No GF, the landscape of creative work outside of the mainstream, and why the death of the counterculture is exaggerated.

  • Technology's Non-Technological Essence with Michal Sacasas

    April 21st, 2021  |  1 hr 27 mins
    frankfurt school, ivan illich, jacques ellul, marshall mcluhan, martin heidegger, neil postman, technology, technology criticism

    Michael Sacasas joins Outsider Theory to discuss what the tech critics of earlier generations – Ellul, McLuhan, Illich, and Postman – have to say to us today.

  • The Long March Out of the Institutions with Justin Murphy

    April 7th, 2021  |  1 hr 34 mins

    Justin Murphy joins Outsider Theory to discuss leaving academia and reading theory against the grain.

  • RETVRN TO FOUCAULT with Blake Smith

    March 31st, 2021  |  1 hr 24 mins
    barack obama, biopolitics, donald trump, elites, jacques derrida, leo strauss, michel foucault, pedagogy, theory

    Blake Smith joins Outsider Theory to discuss the teaching of theory, the formation of elites, and why Foucault was the original Bronze Age Pervert.

  • Meet the New Paranoia, Same as the Old Paranoia (Mostly) with Jesse Walker

    March 24th, 2021  |  1 hr 51 mins
    adam curtis, conspiracy theory, discordianism, jesse walker, kerry thornley, militia movement, paranoia, robert anton wilson

    Jesse Walker, author of The United States of Paranoia, joins Outsider Theory to discuss why Trump era paranoid politics was not so different from earlier times and Adam Curtis's new documentary.

  • Bidencore Hauntology with Biz Sherbert

    March 16th, 2021  |  1 hr 18 mins
    cottagecore, fashion, generation z, hauntology, jean baudrillard, mark fisher, millennialcore, roland barthes

    Fashion theorist Biz Sherbert joins Outsider Theory to discuss Gen Z online subcultures, Fisherian hauntology, and the centrality of fashion to theorizing late capitalist culture.

  • The Digital Dionysian with Chris Gabriel

    March 9th, 2021  |  58 mins
    apollinian, burroughs, collective unconscious, dionysian, freud, jung, memes, myth, nietzsche, the internet

    Chris Gabriel, creator of the MemeAnalysis Youtube channel, on why memes are now the royal road to the collective unconscious.

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    Based and Marxpilled with Adam Lehrer

    March 3rd, 2021  |  1 hr 10 mins
    art, balzac, engels, houellebecq, literature, marx, nick land, nietzsche

    Critic and artist Adam Lehrer joins Outsider Theory to discuss the mainstreaming of Marxism and the current prospects for dissent in the arts.

  • Joker in the Labyrinth with Mónica Belevan

    February 21st, 2021  |  1 hr 21 mins
    aesthetics, baroque, clownworld, covid, covidian aesthetics, dionysian, joker, labyrinth, monica belevan, sacrifice, scapegoating

    Outsider art historian Mónica Belevan joins Outsider Theory to discuss her various projects tracking the aesthetics of the Covid Era.

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    Meming Theory and Theorizing Memes with Beyond Woke and Problematic

    February 17th, 2021  |  58 mins 57 secs
    felix guattari, gilles deleuze, manuel delanda, memes, nick land, post-structuralism, reza negarastani, structuralism, theory

    The popular dissemination of theory now occurs primarily in the form of the meme. One of the premier posters in the "theorygram" space joins me to theorize the theory meme.

  • The Unacceptable Beauty of Erzsébet Báthory with Alex Kaschuta

    February 14th, 2021  |  1 hr 24 mins
    alejandra pizarnik, erzsebet bathory, marquis de sade, mass murder, sex, valentine penrose, vampires

    Alex Kaschuta joins Outsider Theory to examine the life and cultural legacy of the mass-murdering Hungarian countess Erzsébet Báthory.

  • Toward a Unified Theory of Contrarian Hunting with Oliver Bateman

    February 10th, 2021  |  1 hr 10 mins
    cancel culture, contrarians, grifters, the left, twitter wars

    Writer Oliver Bateman joins Outsider Theory to discuss the contrarian, a marginal yet crucial figure in online spaces.

  • Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God with Gio Pennachietti

    February 7th, 2021  |  1 hr 33 mins
    conspiracy theory, critical theory, schizoanalysis, schizopolitics

    On the life, work, and legacy of the schizopolitical pamphleteer and og shitposter Francis E. Dec, in conversation with artist and writer Gio Pennachietti.