For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

Is it easier to cheat now than ever? In episode 177 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about cheating. From micro-cheating on your girlfriend to doping in sports, cheating appears to have escalated in various domains. Your hosts explain the relationship between cheating and rule-breaking, then question norms surrounding cheating in romantic relationships. Why is cheating considered the ultimate dealbreaker? Is it always dishonest? Finally, they address the rise of generative AI cheating in schools and the ethical numbing that promotes it. How is ChatGPT different from using a calculator? And has it become rational for students to cheat? In the Substack Bonus Segment, Ellie and David question whether we should even use the word ‘cheating’ for romantic relationships rather than infidelity.

Works Discussed:
Stuart Green, “Cheating”
Natasha McKeever, “Is the Requirement of Sexual Exclusivity Consistent with Romantic Love?”
Deborah Rhode, Cheating: Ethics in Everyday Life
James D. Walsh, “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College”

Go to https://surfshark.com/overthink or use code OVERTHINK at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.
Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/overthink.
Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.
Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.

Highlight: Ethical numbing

• Repeated exposure to ethical misconduct can produce a form of “ethical numbing,” which is how cultures of cheating take root.

• The more that people see others cheat, the less they regard it as cheating.

• This is evident in AI use in academic contexts. Students feel justified in using it because so many other students are, and they think they will be left behind if they don’t follow suit.

Related articles:

You Are Not Your Own Substack

AI Cheating as a Failure to Love

Learning to live with AI in higher education has not been easy. While some advocates are praising the pedagogical possibilities, many professors are concerned about rampant misuse of AI. Students are using AI to write entire papers for them, to summarize readings, to do their math questions, to create presentations, …

Read more

a month ago · 59 likes · 3 comments · O. Alan Noble

personal scriptures

please cheat on me

There’s something uniquely cruel about a guy who does everything right…

Read more

5 months ago · 972 likes · 84 comments · maisa

The Real Thing

Cheating is Bad. Probably.

Across the anglophone world, the moral consensus on infidelity is settled, firm, and — if anything — getting firmer. Nearly nine in ten Americans say it’s morally wrong. Similar numbers in Australia and the UK. Canadians sit slightly lower, but still strongly in agreement. The moral consensus on cheating is about as close to universal as these things ge…

Read more

6 days ago · 6 likes · Avery D. West

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Go to https://surfshark.com/overthink or use code OVERTHINK at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.
Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/overthink.
Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.
Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.

Highlight: Ethical numbing

• Repeated exposure to ethical misconduct can produce a form of “ethical numbing,” which is how cultures of cheating take root.

• The more that people see others cheat, the less they regard it as cheating.

• This is evident in AI use in academic contexts. Students feel justified in using it because so many other students are, and they think they will be left behind if they don’t follow suit.

Related articles:

You Are Not Your Own Substack

AI Cheating as a Failure to Love

Learning to live with AI in higher education has not been easy. While some advocates are praising the pedagogical possibilities, many professors are concerned about rampant misuse of AI. Students are using AI to write entire papers for them, to summarize readings, to do their math questions, to create presentations, …

Read more

a month ago · 59 likes · 3 comments · O. Alan Noble

The Real Thing

Cheating is Bad. Probably.

Across the anglophone world, the moral consensus on infidelity is settled, firm, and — if anything — getting firmer. Nearly nine in ten Americans say it’s morally wrong. Similar numbers in Australia and the UK. Canadians sit slightly lower, but still strongly in agreement. The moral consensus on cheating is about as close to universal as these things ge…

Read more

6 days ago · 6 likes · Avery D. West

personal scriptures

please cheat on me

There’s something uniquely cruel about a guy who does everything right…

Read more

5 months ago · 972 likes · 84 comments · maisa

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

Are you paying attention when you scroll online? In episode 176 of Overthink, Ellie and David draw your attention to attention. They explain why attention is so hard to define and debate the extent to which it should be equated with consciousness. Is attention the same thing as consciousness? Or are there important differences between these concepts? They consider different ways that attention has been classified, from “overt vs. covert” to “effortful vs. effortless” to “voluntary vs. involuntary.” Ellie and David then discuss the commodification of attention and how it has been intensified by the digital era, or what Chris Hayes calls “the age of attention.” How has social media changed the way we attend to the world, to ourselves, and to others? Is our attention still our own? Or has it become alienated? In the Substack Bonus Segment, Ellie and David talk about Simone Weil’s and Iris Murdoch’s ethical approaches to attention.

Works Discussed:
Jelle Bruineberg, “Rethinking the cognitive foundations of the attention economy”
Chris Hayes, The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource
William James, The Principles of Psychology
Carlos Montemayor and Harry Haroutioun Haladjian, Consciousness, Attention, and Conscious Attention
The Friends of Attention, Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement

Highlight: Spontaneous thinking

• Spontaneous thinking refers to what happens in your mind when you are just existing, not performing any particular task. This activates the default mode network in your brain, and you engage in many spontaneous thoughts; you are remembering things, thinking about your values, daydreaming, etc.

• There is existential and cognitive value to spontaneous thinking, and it is important in consolidating a sense of self.

• The attention economy, by constantly grabbing our attention, stops us from spending valuable time with ourselves. Doomscrolling doesn’t just waste time that we could have spent doing something, but also time where we could have done nothing.

Related articles:

Museguided

The Attention Economy Is Making Us Emotionally Poor

Read more

10 months ago · 396 likes · 173 comments · Tamara

Attention/Devotion

On Attention & Devotion

I think a lot about where my attention goes, and what/who is demanding it at any given moment. Attention is one of the highest currencies in our current economy. It is exceedingly hard to sustain and therefore incredibly precious to have. I watch subway ads flash; I wake up and open pinterest saving things I can’t afford or won’t make; I get phantom buz…

Read more

a month ago · 16 likes · 2 comments · Attention/Devotion

The Empty Cup

What Is "Good Attention"?

Sebastian Watzl is a German philosopher and professor at the University of Oslo. He leads an interdisciplinary European research group that focuses on the ethical, epistemic, and social dimensions of human attention. He is the author of Structuring Mind: The Nature of Attention and how it Shapes Consciousness…

Read more

10 months ago · 25 likes · 1 comment · School of Radical Attention

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Highlight: Spontaneous thinking

• Spontaneous thinking refers to what happens in your mind when you are just existing, not performing any particular task. This activates the default mode network in your brain, and you engage in many spontaneous thoughts; you are remembering things, thinking about your values, daydreaming, etc.

• There is existential and cognitive value to spontaneous thinking, and it is important in consolidating a sense of self.

• The attention economy, by constantly grabbing our attention, stops us from spending valuable time with ourselves. Doomscrolling doesn’t just waste time that we could have spent doing something, but also time where we could have done nothing.

Related articles:

Museguided

The Attention Economy Is Making Us Emotionally Poor

Read more

10 months ago · 396 likes · 173 comments · Tamara

Attention/Devotion

On Attention & Devotion

I think a lot about where my attention goes, and what/who is demanding it at any given moment. Attention is one of the highest currencies in our current economy. It is exceedingly hard to sustain and therefore incredibly precious to have. I watch subway ads flash; I wake up and open pinterest saving things I can’t afford or won’t make; I get phantom buz…

Read more

a month ago · 16 likes · 2 comments · Attention/Devotion

The Empty Cup

What Is "Good Attention"?

Sebastian Watzl is a German philosopher and professor at the University of Oslo. He leads an interdisciplinary European research group that focuses on the ethical, epistemic, and social dimensions of human attention. He is the author of Structuring Mind: The Nature of Attention and how it Shapes Consciousness…

Read more

10 months ago · 25 likes · 1 comment · School of Radical Attention

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

Play it cool and play this episode. In episode 175 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about what it means to be cool. From swag gap relationships to Mark Zuckerberg and the manosphere’s failed attempts at being cool, your hosts examine coolness’s ties to youth and subversion and its opposition to displays of wealth. They trace how coolness emerged from Black American culture in the 1930s, before being associated with Beat Poets and punk musicians. They consider precursors to cool, like the Italian term sprezzatura, and question the ontology and the morality of coolness. Is coolness an attitude or a state? Is it inherently narcissistic? Can you ever successfully “try” to be cool? In the Substack bonus segment, Ellie and David discuss coolness through an ethical perspective.

Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Works Discussed:
Joel Dinerstein, “Jazz Cool”
Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz
bell hooks, We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity
Dick Pountain and David Robins, Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude

Highlight: Ironic detachment

• Ironic detachment, along with narcissism and hedonism, is one of Pountain and Robins’s criteria of coolness.

• It involves a wholesale rejection of sincerity and an unwillingness to express interiority. The cool person doesn’t say what they really care about, and they don’t want to seem invested in anything.

• Pountain and Robins point out that coolness spread in the post-war period. They argue that the horrors of the war led to a widespread disillusionment, where people found it hard to latch onto values. They thus turned inward, focusing on private experience and leading to ironic detachment from the world.

Related articles:

amy_coded

The collapse of cool

Cool is one of those slippery concepts you’re not supposed to interrogate too closely. Everyone wants it, but it’s not cool to admit that you do. It’s a status you can’t claim for yourself without losing it. “Cool” defies definition by design. If you have to ask what it is, that’s proof you don’t have it…

Read more

10 months ago · 1435 likes · Amy Francombe

people's princess

she's a cool girl.

It starts out easy, a shrug of the shoulders, a toss of your perfectly messy hair, just enough to physically say “I’m too cool for this.” Slowly you grasp the fundamentals, your vibe is everything, beauty comes second. Coolness is coveted over looking pretty. Drunk cigarettes, second-hand paperbacks with writing in the margins, vintage purse full of tch…

Read more

a year ago · 1298 likes · 35 comments · sarah cucchiara

doll parts ˖°.𓆩♡𓆪 .°˖

swag gap or... class gap?

Justin Bieber once said, “Swag / Swag / Swag.” A 2010s slang term back in the lexicon, ‘swag’ refers to someone with ultimate coolness. They dress cool, their music taste is cool, they act a certain way; their entire identity is cool. They have swag…

Read more

4 months ago · 12 likes · 2 comments · lucy eaton

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Highlight: Ironic detachment

• Ironic detachment, along with narcissism and hedonism, is one of Pountain and Robins’s criteria of coolness.

• It involves a wholesale rejection of sincerity and an unwillingness to express interiority. The cool person doesn’t say what they really care about, and they don’t want to seem invested in anything.

• Pountain and Robins point out that coolness spread in the post-war period. They argue that the horrors of the war led to a widespread disillusionment, where people found it hard to latch onto values. They thus turned inward, focusing on private experience and leading to ironic detachment from the world.

Related articles:

amy_coded

The collapse of cool

Cool is one of those slippery concepts you’re not supposed to interrogate too closely. Everyone wants it, but it’s not cool to admit that you do. It’s a status you can’t claim for yourself without losing it. “Cool” defies definition by design. If you have to ask what it is, that’s proof you don’t have it…

Read more

10 months ago · 1435 likes · Amy Francombe

people's princess

she's a cool girl.

It starts out easy, a shrug of the shoulders, a toss of your perfectly messy hair, just enough to physically say “I’m too cool for this.” Slowly you grasp the fundamentals, your vibe is everything, beauty comes second. Coolness is coveted over looking pretty. Drunk cigarettes, second-hand paperbacks with writing in the margins, vintage purse full of tch…

Read more

a year ago · 1298 likes · 35 comments · sarah cucchiara

doll parts ˖°.𓆩♡𓆪 .°˖

swag gap or... class gap?

Justin Bieber once said, “Swag / Swag / Swag.” A 2010s slang term back in the lexicon, ‘swag’ refers to someone with ultimate coolness. They dress cool, their music taste is cool, they act a certain way; their entire identity is cool. They have swag…

Read more

4 months ago · 12 likes · 2 comments · lucy eaton

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

What resources do Indigenous studies provide for addressing the crisis of human-made climate change? And how is the climate crisis linked to settler colonialism? In episode 174 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with Indigenous philosopher and activist Kyle Whyte about his work on climate action. They discuss how Indigenous people are often blocked out of conversations about environmental impact, the common mischaracterization of the land back movement, and the importance of kinship. How are certain groups disproportionately affected by climate change? Is climate change actually a new problem? And how can respecting land rights of Indigenous people offer some solutions to climate change? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts question who is called upon to respond to the crisis of climate change and how non-Indigenous people should engage in discussions surrounding climate change and colonialism.

Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Works Discussed:

Kyle Whyte, “Climate Action at the Speed of Consent”

Kyle Whyte, “Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene”

Kyle Whyte, “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice”

Highlight: The “Speed of Consent”

• Mainstream discussions around climate change highlight a sense of urgency.

  • More specifically, climate change is generally labelled as an emergency, as something that must be immediately solved, which urges immediate action without reflection. See: The Climate Clock, The Climate Emergency (UN), etc.

• “Urgency” as it is tied to climate action reinforces settler colonial logics.

  • If climate action is approached with a sense of urgency, it prevents any ability to slow down, weigh decisions, build trust with communities, etc.

  • The language of “urgency” prevents us from understanding and developing dynamics that will lead to constructive climate action.

    • Developing constructive dynamics entails building trust and reciprocity with Indigenous communities.

  • This sense of urgency implores us to use settler colonial approaches of addressing the climate crisis.

    • Ex. Proposals for carbon sequestration technologies are anchored in further taking away the land of Indigenous communities.

• The “speed of consent” means moving at the speed at which Indigenous communities—as well as other communities—consent to climate solutions. In doing so, the rights and freedoms of Indigenous people are respected/enhanced, it is made sure that policies are viable/long-lasting/widely supported, and constructive climate solutions are ultimately more empowered and effective in their implementation.

This is a key concept within Whyte’s paradigm of climate action. This idea has many implications, such as revealing how the discourse around climate change shapes our understanding of what effective climate action really means.

Related Articles:

The Loss and Damage Newsletter

Hurricane Melissa: Climate colonialism and the refusal to take responsibility

‘What we call climate change is not merely an environmental phenomenon; it is a historical process, rooted in the violent transformations that began with European colonization of Abya Yala/Latin America and globalized through centuries of imperial expansion…

Read more

3 months ago · 5 likes · Sophia Brown

Climate Anxiety and Spiritual Resilience

It's All Related: Energy, Conservation, and Community

I woke this morning to the family groupchat, where our cousins in Ireland were sharing the latest: stories of panic buying, long lines, and fuel stations run dry…

Read more

2 months ago · 21 likes · 5 comments · Suzanne Crawford O'Brien

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Works Discussed:

Kyle Whyte, “Climate Action at the Speed of Consent”

Kyle Whyte, “Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene”

Kyle Whyte, “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice”

Highlight: The “Speed of Consent”

• Mainstream discussions around climate change highlight a sense of urgency.

  • More specifically, climate change is generally labelled as an emergency, as something that must be immediately solved, which urges immediate action without reflection. See: The Climate Clock, The Climate Emergency (UN), etc.

• “Urgency” as it is tied to climate action reinforces settler colonial logics.

  • If climate action is approached with a sense of urgency, it prevents any ability to slow down, weigh decisions, build trust with communities, etc.

  • The language of “urgency” prevents us from understanding and developing dynamics that will lead to constructive climate action.

    • Developing constructive dynamics entails building trust and reciprocity with Indigenous communities.

  • This sense of urgency implores us to use settler colonial approaches of addressing the climate crisis.

    • Ex. Proposals for carbon sequestration technologies are anchored in further taking away the land of Indigenous communities.

• The “speed of consent” means moving at the speed at which Indigenous communities—as well as other communities—consent to climate solutions. In doing so, the rights and freedoms of Indigenous people are respected/enhanced, it is made sure that policies are viable/long-lasting/widely supported, and constructive climate solutions are ultimately more empowered and effective in their implementation.

This is a key concept within Whyte’s paradigm of climate action. This idea has many implications, such as revealing how the discourse around climate change shapes our understanding of what effective climate action really means.

Climate Anxiety and Spiritual Resilience

It's All Related: Energy, Conservation, and Community

I woke this morning to the family groupchat, where our cousins in Ireland were sharing the latest: stories of panic buying, long lines, and fuel stations run dry…

Read more

2 months ago · 21 likes · 5 comments · Suzanne Crawford O'Brien

The Loss and Damage Newsletter

Hurricane Melissa: Climate colonialism and the refusal to take responsibility

‘What we call climate change is not merely an environmental phenomenon; it is a historical process, rooted in the violent transformations that began with European colonization of Abya Yala/Latin America and globalized through centuries of imperial expansion…

Read more

3 months ago · 5 likes · Sophia Brown

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

Thou shalt not miss this episode! In episode 173 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about theft. They discuss our moral intuitions around theft, how feudalism and capitalism may be founded upon an original (and large scale) act that of theft, and the gendered association between kleptomania and women. They also critique the lack of legal repercussions for tech companies that steal information to train new AI models. Finally, they look at representations of theft and capital in film and television. What does the move from heist films to grift docudramas say about 21st century capitalism? And why do we love to take the side of thieves? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss the ethics of stealing from large corporations.

Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Works Discussed:
Elaine Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store
Anna Kornbluh “Falling Heists, Rising Grift: Filming Capital in the Already Long Twenty-First Century”
Robert Nichols, Theft Is Property! Dispossession and Critical Theory

Highlight: Expropriation

• Expropriation essentially refers to the fact that the sovereign has the right to appropriate property for the common good

  • All the land in a kingdom belongs to the king, so they can do whatever they want with it

• There were still some limits to expropriation, even within the feudal system

  • Expropriation had to:

    • Be for the common good

    • Lead to fair compensation of the impacted parties

  • If those two conditions aren’t met, then the expropriation is not justified

• Nowadays, we usually use the term eminent domain for this concept

  • There is a legal process laid out for what the state should pay in exchange for private land

Crawdaddy’s Substack

War capitalism: monopoly, expropriation, and slavery

This stage of capitalism – its integration into the world economy as the dominant driving force – is very grim. To the late 15th century, capitalists had occupied small urban enclaves. However, in a search for resources, some European states began to systematically support the extension of capitalism into the countryside and the wider world. This repres…

Read more

a month ago · Rob Crawford

Andrew Pinsent

High-Speed Rail in Eastern Ontario: Rural Backlash, Land Expropriation and Next Steps

The federal project to deliver high-speed rail from Quebec City to Toronto has completed its first round of public consultations…

Read more

a month ago · 4 likes · Andrew Pinsent

Savage Minds

A Two-Headed Hitler

In what is perhaps the best book on Hitler, Allan Bullock wrote in Hitler: A Study in Tyranny that Hitler's philosophy is the natural philosophy of the doss-house, the philosophy of homeless shelters—a philosophy he learned while …

Read more

2 months ago · 142 likes · 1 comment · Boaventura de Sousa Santos

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Works Discussed:
Elaine Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store
Anna Kornbluh “Falling Heists, Rising Grift: Filming Capital in the Already Long Twenty-First Century”
Robert Nichols, Theft Is Property! Dispossession and Critical Theory

Highlight: Expropriation

• Expropriation essentially refers to the fact that the sovereign has the right to appropriate property for the common good

  • All the land in a kingdom belongs to the king, so they can do whatever they want with it

• There were still some limits to expropriation, even within the feudal system

  • Expropriation had to:

    • Be for the common good

    • Lead to fair compensation of the impacted parties

  • If those two conditions aren’t met, then the expropriation is not justified

• Nowadays, we usually use the term eminent domain for this concept

  • There is a legal process laid out for what the state should pay in exchange for private land

Crawdaddy’s Substack

War capitalism: monopoly, expropriation, and slavery

This stage of capitalism – its integration into the world economy as the dominant driving force – is very grim. To the late 15th century, capitalists had occupied small urban enclaves. However, in a search for resources, some European states began to systematically support the extension of capitalism into the countryside and the wider world. This repres…

Read more

a month ago · Rob Crawford

Andrew Pinsent

High-Speed Rail in Eastern Ontario: Rural Backlash, Land Expropriation and Next Steps

The federal project to deliver high-speed rail from Quebec City to Toronto has completed its first round of public consultations…

Read more

a month ago · 4 likes · Andrew Pinsent

Savage Minds

A Two-Headed Hitler

In what is perhaps the best book on Hitler, Allan Bullock wrote in Hitler: A Study in Tyranny that Hitler's philosophy is the natural philosophy of the doss-house, the philosophy of homeless shelters—a philosophy he learned while …

Read more

2 months ago · 142 likes · 1 comment · Boaventura de Sousa Santos

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

Does decolonization require violence? In episode 172 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, “the bible of decolonization.” They discuss Fanon’s bold stance on violence, his condemnation of rituals and dance, and some potential criticisms. They also question what the subjectivity of colonized people looks like given colonialism’s psycho-affective effects. What does violence do for the colonized? Who gets liberation movements off the ground? And what are the challenges that a newly independent nation might face once a colonial power has been overthrown? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts talk about Fanon’s critique of Africanism and some of the clinical cases Fanon incorporates into this important work.

Go to Quince.com/overthink for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Works Discussed:

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of The Earth

Concerning Violence (2014)

Highlight: Decolonization and Violence

• Frantz Fanon argues that decolonization is always violent and there’s no negotiating with a colonial power

• Colonialism is violent in three ways:

  • Economic: resource extraction

  • Physical: military rule and respression

  • Mental: the dehumanization of the colonized

• For Fanon, the violence against the colonizer is restorative since it gives back the humanity that colonialism stole and gives the colonized more agency

Speak Up! Silent No more!

"The Wretched of the Earth"

In the midst of the holiday shopping frenzy, it’s important to remember that the most precious things in life aren’t for sale—they’re found in the love of family. Over the past six months, the Angel of Death has journeyed from Dar es Salaam (TZ) to London (UK), Toronto (C…

Read more

6 months ago · 3 likes · Mohammed Khaku

notes and thought experiments

Fanon would have been 100 Today. We're still The Wretched of the Earth.

Read more

a year ago · 3 likes · Trevor Mukholi

📚 Little Ends

The Wretched Of The Earth

I attended a Frantz Fanon conference organized by CDD West Africa. One of my mentors, Assoc. Prof. Nanre Nafziger, was scheduled to speak there, so I tagged along. She had been bullying me to read Frantz Fanon for some time now. I just couldn’t get myself to do it. You see, Fanon is dense…

Read more

6 months ago · 10 likes · LENGDUNG TUNGCHAMMA

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Works Discussed:

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of The Earth

Concerning Violence (2014)

Highlight: Decolonization and Violence

• Franz Fanon argues that decolonization is always violent and there’s no negotiating with a colonial power

• Colonialism is violent in three ways:

  • Economic: resource extraction

  • Physical: military rule and respression

  • Mental: the dehumanization of the colonized

• For Fanon, the violence against the colonizer is restorative since it gives back the humanity that colonialism stole and gives the colonized more agency

Speak Up! Silent No more!

"The Wretched of the Earth"

In the midst of the holiday shopping frenzy, it’s important to remember that the most precious things in life aren’t for sale—they’re found in the love of family. Over the past six months, the Angel of Death has journeyed from Dar es Salaam (TZ) to London (UK), Toronto (C…

Read more

6 months ago · 3 likes · Mohammed Khaku

notes and thought experiments

Fanon would have been 100 Today. We're still The Wretched of the Earth.

Read more

a year ago · 3 likes · Trevor Mukholi

📚 Little Ends

The Wretched Of The Earth

I attended a Frantz Fanon conference organized by CDD West Africa. One of my mentors, Assoc. Prof. Nanre Nafziger, was scheduled to speak there, so I tagged along. She had been bullying me to read Frantz Fanon for some time now. I just couldn’t get myself to do it. You see, Fanon is dense…

Read more

6 months ago · 10 likes · LENGDUNG TUNGCHAMMA

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

Bottom, rump, booty, fanny, tush, and derriere! In episode 171 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about butts. Why do humans have bigger rear ends than other animals? Why are butts often seen as a site of aversion? And is anal sex a metaphor for the universe? They discuss the evolutionary history of butts, how the music industry helped normalize bigger butts, and how the exploitation of Sara Baartman in the 19th century is part of a larger story about the sexualization of black women. In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts talk about Marquis de Sade’s discussion of anal sex and appeals to nature in justifications of human sexual practices.

Works Discussed:

Georges Bataille, “The Solar Anus”

Leo Bersani, “Is the Rectum a Grave?”

Janell Hobson, “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture”

Dinah Holtzman, “Ass You Lick It: Bey and Jay Eat Cake”

Sadiah Qureshi, “Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus’.”

Heather Radke, Butts: A Backstory

Christopher Wallner et al, “Interethnic Influencing Factors Regarding Buttocks Body Image in Women from Nigeria, Germany, USA and Japan”

Highlight: Heather Radke on Femininity and Butts

• Butts are not simply body parts

  • Butts are complex symbols fraught with all kinds of associations. For women in particular, the size of one’s butt has long been perceived as an indicator of a woman’s very nature.

  • Radke also wants us to be really careful not to exaggerate the evolutionary story of the butt into a belief that men are naturally attracted to women with curves. As Radke notes that we do not know how much about large butts were in prehistory and it is easy to allow evolutionary psychology to create stories that serve the status quo, rather than being scientifically grounded.

• Butt objectification and its’ ties to colonization

  • Radke highlights the story of Sarah Baartman, an enslaved woman from rural South Africa, born in the 1770s. Baartman was brought to England in 1810 to be exhibited in a freak show. Baartman was a source of fascination because of her large butt. As a result of colonization and exploitation, Baartman’s body had a deep impact on the perception of black women and their sexuality in Europe and the US.

Petite Patate

On Eyelash Curlers

Last week, I pulled out my little orange makeup bag from the messy drawer where I keep my contact lenses and the charger for my electric toothbrush. I rummaged through the tubes, compacts, brushes, and sponges, stretching my fingers to hunt for the hard, smooth metal threads of my eyelash curler. As I pulled it out, my three year-old daughter came in th…

Read more

2 months ago · 9 likes · 5 comments · Heather Radke

Field Notes from the Threshold

Writing My Mundanity Anyway

I’m taking a class…

Read more

2 months ago · 2 likes · Shannon Brennen Ramdhan

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.
Head to AquaTru.com now and get 20% off your purifier using promocode O-V-E-R-T-H-I-N-K AquaTru even comes with a 30-day best-tasting water guarantee or your money back.

Works Discussed:

Georges Bataille, “The Solar Anus”

Leo Bersani, “Is the Rectum a Grave?”

Janell Hobson, “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture”

Dinah Holtzman, “Ass You Lick It: Bey and Jay Eat Cake”

Sadiah Qureshi, “Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus’.”

Heather Radke, Butts: A Backstory

Christopher Wallner et al, “Interethnic Influencing Factors Regarding Buttocks Body Image in Women from Nigeria, Germany, USA and Japan”

Highlight: Heather Radke on Femininity and Butts

• Butts are not simply body parts

  • Butts are complex symbols fraught with all kinds of associations. For women in particular, the size of one’s butt has long been perceived as an indicator of a woman’s very nature.

  • Radke also wants us to be really careful not to exaggerate the evolutionary story of the butt into a belief that men are naturally attracted to women with curves. As Radke notes that we do not know how much about large butts were in prehistory and it is easy to allow evolutionary psychology to create stories that serve the status quo, rather than being scientifically grounded.

• Butt objectification and its’ ties to colonization

  • Radke highlights the story of Sarah Baartman, an enslaved woman from rural South Africa, born in the 1770s. Baartman was brought to England in 1810 to be exhibited in a freak show. Baartman was a source of fascination because of her large butt. As a result of colonization and exploitation, Baartman’s body had a deep impact on the perception of black women and their sexuality in Europe and the US.

Petite Patate

On Eyelash Curlers

Last week, I pulled out my little orange makeup bag from the messy drawer where I keep my contact lenses and the charger for my electric toothbrush. I rummaged through the tubes, compacts, brushes, and sponges, stretching my fingers to hunt for the hard, smooth metal threads of my eyelash curler. As I pulled it out, my three year-old daughter came in th…

Read more

2 months ago · 9 likes · 5 comments · Heather Radke

Field Notes from the Threshold

Writing My Mundanity Anyway

I’m taking a class…

Read more

2 months ago · 2 likes · Shannon Brennen Ramdhan

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

The discourse around today's crisis of care responds to the shredding of America's social safety net, but leaves out the most vulnerable almost entirely. In episode 170 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss how this works with Premilla Nadasen, author of Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. They discuss how gender fits into the care industry, the harms of associating care work with emotion, and how the practice of care has been commodified. How is it that we deny the most basic care from those who need it most? What are the harms of framing care workers as family members? And how has racial capitalism produced the explosion of the care economy that we're seeing today? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about the distinction between the practice of care and care itself and how labor workers can learn from care workers in their modes of organizing.

Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Head to AquaTru.com now and get 20% off your purifier using promocode O-V-E-R-T-H-I-N-K AquaTru even comes with a 30-day best-tasting water guarantee or your money back.

Works Discussed:

Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart

Premilla Nadasen, Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Highlight: Racial Capitalism and Care

• Premilla Nadasen highlighted several points where racial capitalism is useful for understanding care

  • Racial capitalism = there is not capitalism without racism and in order to even understand capitalism, we must think about race

• The care system is inequitable

  • Lower-class people have few care services and support than those with more privilege

  • Tends to be people of color, especially women of color, unhoused people, unemployed people, single mothers, formerly incarcerated people, etc.

  • As Nadasen says, “there is a racial hierarchy in terms of how we understand poverty and who as access to care support systems and who does not.”

• She also explains that the care economy is profit extraction from life

  • Companies (e.g. healthcare, education, housing) make money off of our desire and need to care for ourselves and others

  • Slavery, as Nadasen argues, is the best example of this point

    • Beyond just labor exploitation, there were insurance companies, slave holders, and shipping companies that profited from life and the care economy

Free Range Egghead

Filipina Migrant Workers' Same-Sex Romances

This article examines the “leaky fluid” intimacies between Filipina migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, relationships one participant described as “not just friends, not quite lovers, but very romantic.” Around 40% of these migrant workers either are or have been in same-sex relationships, even though most do not identify as lesbian or bisexual. This…

Read more

3 months ago · 1 like · Andrew McLaverty-Robinson

Madeline Landsberg

Informal Care Economy in San Diego Borders

San Diego California is a border city. The first 20 miles North from the San YSidro national border is an entirely different community than the rest of San Diego. This region, North of the border but south of anglo-saxon San Diego county, is a stronghold for Chicanx/Latin American and/or Mexican culture. This space remains largely unexplored, especially…

Read more

2 years ago · 2 likes · Madeline Landsberg

Happy Families

How Did the U.S. End Up With Such a Weak Safety Net for Families?

Last week, J.D. Vance hit the Sunday talk shows to accuse Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and the Democrats of being anti-family and anti-child. To reinforce his own bona fides as a pro-family, normal guy, he said he wants the U.S. to have more children…

Read more

2 years ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Haley Swenson

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Works Discussed:

Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart

Premilla Nadasen, Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Highlight: Racial Capitalism and Care

• Premilla Nadasen highlighted several points where racial capitalism is useful for understanding care

  • Racial capitalism = there is not capitalism without racism and in order to even understand capitalism, we must think about race

• The care system is inequitable

  • Lower-class people have few care services and support than those with more privilege

  • Tends to be people of color, especially women of color, unhoused people, unemployed people, single mothers, formerly incarcerated people, etc.

  • As Nadasen says, “there is a racial hierarchy in terms of how we understand poverty and who as access to care support systems and who does not.”

• She also explains that the care economy is profit extraction from life

  • Companies (e.g. healthcare, education, housing) make money off of our desire and need to care for ourselves and others

  • Slavery, as Nadasen argues, is the best example of this point

    • Beyond just labor exploitation, there were insurance companies, slave holders, and shipping companies that profited from life and the care economy

Free Range Egghead

Filipina Migrant Workers' Same-Sex Romances

This article examines the “leaky fluid” intimacies between Filipina migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, relationships one participant described as “not just friends, not quite lovers, but very romantic.” Around 40% of these migrant workers either are or have been in same-sex relationships, even though most do not identify as lesbian or bisexual. This…

Read more

3 months ago · 1 like · Andrew McLaverty-Robinson

Madeline Landsberg

Informal Care Economy in San Diego Borders

San Diego California is a border city. The first 20 miles North from the San YSidro national border is an entirely different community than the rest of San Diego. This region, North of the border but south of anglo-saxon San Diego county, is a stronghold for Chicanx/Latin American and/or Mexican culture. This space remains largely unexplored, especially…

Read more

2 years ago · 2 likes · Madeline Landsberg

Happy Families

How Did the U.S. End Up With Such a Weak Safety Net for Families?

Last week, J.D. Vance hit the Sunday talk shows to accuse Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and the Democrats of being anti-family and anti-child. To reinforce his own bona fides as a pro-family, normal guy, he said he wants the U.S. to have more children…

Read more

2 years ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Haley Swenson

Read more

For the video, see below! And, if you want an extended version of the audio and video, please support our work as a paid subscriber!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive extended episodes, exclusive lives with Ellie & David, ad-free episodes, and access to a paid subscriber only chat :)

Subscribe now

With the rise of hustle culture, the grind, and capitalist productivity, we often associate discipline with toxicity. But is there still value in disciplining oneself? In episode 169 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a disciplined approach to this question and more! They discuss modern culture’s rejection of discipline and how this manifests on the left vs the right, the association between discipline and punishment, and Michel Foucault’s seminal ideas on disciplinary power. How can we discipline children without resorting to punishment? And are there models of self-discipline that aren’t rooted in punishment of the self? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss Sandra Bartky’s argument that gender norms are a modern form of disciplinary power.

Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Head to AquaTru.com now and get 20% off your purifier using promocode O-V-E-R-T-H-I-N-K AquaTru even comes with a 30-day best-tasting water guarantee or your money back.

Works Discussed:

Joan E. Durrant and Ashley Stewart-Tufescu. “What is “Discipline” in the Age of Children’s Rights?.”

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish

Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality

Adekunle A. Ibrahim and Philomena A. Ojomo. “Discipline and Punishment in Schools: A Philosophical Appraisal.”

Highlight: Foucault on Self-discipline

• Can we discipline the self and to what extent is self-discipline different from punishment?

• We associate discipline with punishment, resulting in an immediate averse reaction to it

  • Discipline may even seem worse when it’s self imposed

• However, there are models of self-discipline that do not suggest punishment of the self

• Foucault’s writings on antiquity explore the notion of self-discipline and how subjects throughout history have carried out different projects that require serious training, commitment, and self exertion to discipline their minds and bodies

  • He uses the Greek term askesis, meaning an exercise or a mode of training that would allow the self to give form to their subjectivity through the application of a certain kind of force

  • We are always forming the subjects that we are through these self-directed forms of discipline

the invisible college

the social media panopticon

One time I was minding my own business, walking down La Cienega Boulevard. The founder of a famous streetwear brand pulled up next to me in his car and started filming me against my will because I was wearing one of his t-shirts. Later that day, two friends texted me saying they spotted me on the founder’s Instag…

Read more

6 months ago · 18 likes · 5 comments · sai rui ge

The Way Out Is Through

Foucault and Self Writing: A Close Reading

Read more

a year ago · 11 likes · 5 comments · Kelly Stith

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Works Discussed:

Joan E. Durrant and Ashley Stewart-Tufescu. “What is “Discipline” in the Age of Children’s Rights?.”

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish

Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality

Adekunle A. Ibrahim and Philomena A. Ojomo. “Discipline and Punishment in Schools: A Philosophical Appraisal.”

Go to Rula.com/overthink for convenient therapy that’s covered by insurance.

Head to AquaTru.com now and get 20% off your purifier using promocode O-V-E-R-T-H-I-N-K AquaTru even comes with a 30-day best-tasting water guarantee or your money back.

Highlight: Foucault on Self-discipline

• Can we discipline the self and to what extent is self-discipline different from punishment?

• We associate discipline with punishment, resulting in an immediate averse reaction to it

  • Discipline may even seem worse when it’s self imposed

• However, there are models of self-discipline that do not suggest punishment of the self

• Foucault’s writings on antiquity explore the notion of self-discipline and how subjects throughout history have carried out different projects that require serious training, commitment, and self exertion to discipline their minds and bodies

  • He uses the Greek term askesis, meaning an exercise or a mode of training that would allow the self to give form to their subjectivity through the application of a certain kind of force

  • We are always forming the subjects that we are through these self-directed forms of discipline

the invisible college

the social media panopticon

One time I was minding my own business, walking down La Cienega Boulevard. The founder of a famous streetwear brand pulled up next to me in his car and started filming me against my will because I was wearing one of his t-shirts. Later that day, two friends texted me saying they spotted me on the founder’s Instag…

Read more

6 months ago · 18 likes · 5 comments · sai rui ge

The Way Out Is Through

Foucault and Self Writing: A Close Reading

Read more

a year ago · 11 likes · 5 comments · Kelly Stith

Read more

Drawing on Sarah Stein Lubrano's Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds, David explains how endless social media debates cause people to dig their heels in and what we need to do instead. This video was inspired by our episode with Sarah Stein Lubrano which you can find here.

If you have more questions for Ellie & David, we’d love to hear them! Whether it’s inspired by one of our episodes, something you’ve been reading, or a random thought you had, anything is welcome :) Leave a comment, or, if you’re a paid subscriber, drop them in our exclusive subscribe chat!

We’ll see you on Tuesday for our next episode ;)

Love, Overthink

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