Overthink podcast

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Overthink podcast

Hosted by your new favorite professors, Ellie Anderson and David Peńa-Guzmán, Overthink offers fresh takes on perennial questions.

Come to us for deep dives on challenging concepts and unexpected connections to everyday life and pop culture.

16/12/2025

🕰️It’s time for something new!

🍑In episode 152 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a deep dive into Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, Volume 1. From the repressive hypothesis to the role of confession in producing the truth of s*x, your hosts get into all of the juicy content of this seminal book. They also talk about the difference between “ars erotica” and “scientia s*xualis,” two key concepts in Foucault’s treatment of s*xuality. Why does Foucault reject the view that s*xuality has been repressed? What is the function of power in s*xuality? How does the desire for truth about oneself produce various discourses of s*xuality? And, when all is said and done, are Foucault’s reflections on power in this work too homogenous?

🎙️In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss the pedagogization of children’s s*xuality and Foucault’s problematic treatment of a historical case involving the s*xual abuse of a minor.

📚Works Discussed:
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Volume 1

*xuality *xuality

13/12/2025

Professor Ellie Anderson is here with four books to gift the philosophy lover in your life 🎁

11/12/2025

Sneak peek at our bonus for Meritocracy 👀 Go to our Substack (link in bio) for extended cuts of all episodes!

09/12/2025

⚖️We’ve all been sold the ideal of meritocracy. The American dream, our education system, and our politics are all based on it. But what if meritocracy is actually impossible—and based on a misunderstanding of how society works?

🪜In episode 151 of Overthink, Ellie and David put meritocracy in the spotlight. They think through the inherent inequality of meritocracy, its tendency to skew toward conservatism, and what Trump’s attacks on DEI reveal about how society favors merit. How does meritocracy create vertical social distance between those in power and the working class? And is meritocracy even a worthwhile ideal?

☁️In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts get into the role that merit plays in Christian theology and the promise of heaven.

🔖Works Discussed
Christopher Hayes, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy
Judith Lichtenberg and David Luban, “The Merits of Merit”
Michael Young, The Rise of the Meritocracy

07/12/2025

Listen to David discuss 5 books that have been on Overthink Podcast recently 📖 and the full video is on our Substack!! 🤩 overthinkpod.substack.com in bio

06/12/2025

Rocking the Overthink merch 💗 Link in bio 😚

04/12/2025

😖 on the pessimism of the Aztecs!

Hear more about Aztec philosophy from Sebastian, Ellie, and David on episode 150 ⭐️

02/12/2025

😁What would it be like to live without happiness being your highest goal?

🫂In episode 150 of Overthink, Ellie and David speak with philosopher Sebastian Purcell about the philosophy of the Aztecs, detailed in his new book The Outward Path: The Wisdom of the Aztecs. They discuss Aztec pessimism, how the Aztecs take an “outside-in” approach to the self, and how their view of the mind as inherently chaotic shapes their moral outlook. How can the Aztec notion of ‘right speech’ help us gain control over the internal chaos of the mind? And why did they Aztecs reject the possibility of redemption?

🌧️In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts dive deeper into the pessimism of the Aztecs and the claustrophobia of the Spanish conquest.

📕Works Discussed:
Sebastian Purcell, The Outward Path: The Wisdom of the Aztecs
Jacques Soustelle, Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest

29/11/2025

The study of knowledge they said 🧠

Credits:

27/11/2025

Surfing: Flow or Conquest? Aileen Moreton Robinson reveals how the language surrounding surfing changed when it was appropriated by white settlers.

25/11/2025

🌊Hang loose!

🏄In episode 149 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about all things surfing. They explore the long history of wave-riding across the globe, from Peru to West Africa, and consider how surfing helps us to reimagine social issues and what surfing reveals about the connection between flow and freedom. Is surfing the pinnacle of human life? How has the sportification of surfing directly contravened surfing’s anti-capitalist ethos? Why is the average surfer an image of white masculinity? And how is this image tied to indigenous erasure?

🌅In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss the similarities between surfing and skating, surfing as an art, and the existential risk of surfing.

🏝️Works Discussed:
Daniel Brennan, Surfing and the Philosophy of Sport
Kevin Dawson, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora
William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
Aaron James, Surfing with Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry Into a Life of Meaning
Peter Kreeft, I Surf, Therefore I Am: A Philosophy of Surfing
Aileen Moreton Robinson, “Bodies That Matter: Performing White Possession on the Beach”
Peter J. Westwick and Peter Neushul, The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing
Wade in the Water: A Journey Into Black Surfing and Aquatic Culture (2023)

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