In episode 65 of the Podcast for Social Research's "Practical Criticism" series, the game has changed. For a special live recording of the final episode of 2022, everyone knew in advance that the sonic object would be Pink Floyd's landmark concept album—and favorite laser light show accompaniment—Dark Side of the Moon. A gathering of dedicated listeners joined Rebecca and Ajay "in studio" for an immersive collective listening experience to this classic of prog rock on vintage vinyl. And the surprises spun out from there, beginning with a musicological breakdown of borrowed sounds, followed by a detour through Franz Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle (with insights from Adorno on poetry and escape), thoughts about the concepts at work in concept albums, plagal cadences and passacaglia, receptiveness to the sounds of ordinary life, the reverb of history, the history of lasers, and much more. 

This podcast includes the whole of the approximately 45-minute album, so if you’re short on time, hop off at minute 5:56 and tune back in for the conversation that picks up again at minute 49:05. If you’re in it for the complete experience, this is one to listen to with headphones on!

For the second installment of Faculty Spotlight, hosts Mark DeLucas and Lauren K. Wolfe sit down with faculty Paige Sweet—writer, writing consultant, literary theorist, and practicing psychoanalyst—for a wide-ranging conversation about the many eclectic aspects of her work, including the unconventional classroom and how it transforms pedagogical practice; what constitutes literary “theft” (from Kathy Acker’s Don Quixote to everyone’s Emily Dickinson); the self in autotheory and what it means to theorize “from the skin”; the risky business of writing; how politics enter the psychoanalytic clinic; and thinking with queer-of-color performance theorist José Muñoz. If you enjoyed the podcast, keep an eye out for Paige’s upcoming BISR course on Autofiction in February.

In the second episode of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Isi and Ajay take up the latest addition to the Star Wars universe, Tony Gilroy’s television series Andor. Their talk touches on topics large and small, from animatronic garbage droids, ordinary social life in the Star Wars universe, and the petty middle managerialism of empire, to labor militancy, Wagner’s Ring Cycle, early Hollywood genre conventions, and more.

Shownotes:

• Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, scored by Philip Glass
• Kyle McCarthy for Lux Magazine, on ballet and feminism
• Bayonetta 3 controversy
• Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
• Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp
• Mark Fisher's blog post on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• Franz Neumann, Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944
• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
• Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth
• Arash Abizadeh on Hobbes' state of nature
• John Locke, Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
• Films mentioned: Brian de Palma, Carrie; Ridley Scott, Alien; John Carpenter, The Thing; Bernardo Bertolucci, The Conformist; Jennie Livingston, Paris is Burning; Robert J. Flaherty, Nanook of the North; Jacques Tati, Playtime; Terry Gilliam, Brazil; Jean-Pierre Melville, Army of Shadows; Jean-Pierre Melville, Le Samouraï