Are we nearing the end of the "Age of Print"? And, if so, what comes next?

The concept of "the Gutenberg Parenthesis" suggests that the era of print – which began in the 15th century, when the printing press was developed by Johan Gutenberg, and extended to the 20th century, when radio and television muscled in – was a unique period for human communication. However, as this week's guest Jeff Jarvis argued in his book The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of the Internet(Bloomsbury, 2023), our emphasis on literacy is historically situated in ways we may find difficult to recognize. After, all, there were not always authors, publishers, editors, or newspapers-- all of which are recent inventions, in the grand scheme of things-- and we may in fact be coming to the end of this age.

Printing as a technology brought with it all manner of social, political, religious, and cultural effects that we now take for granted: for example, that we know who the "authorities" are, that grammar is fixed, that spelling must be consistent, or that our information must be curated for us. If the age of printing is coming to an end, and if the web is our "new" technology, then we might not be in the best position to understand its potentials and implications.

Some contours of the closing of this parenthesis are coming into view, to be sure, but the full extent is not entirely clear. What did print allow and what did it deny? What does the end of print mean for the ways in which we find and digest information about our world? What happens to our ability to communicate complex and subtle ideas? Are we headed toward the promised land... or the apocalypse?

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-153-the-gutenberg-parenthesis-with-jeff-jarvis

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

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What counts as evidence? What makes it good or bad? How do we know?

In court cases, the prosecution, plaintiff, and defendant present “evidence” that something happened or didn’t happen, that it happened in one way or another, that someone did something or did not do something. Evidence is meant to point to something as-yet undetermined. The same goes with scientific evidence, statistical evidence, and anecdotal evidence. Yet, because evidence points to something unknown, sorting it out is often messy business! How do we judge whether evidence is trustworthy or good? Can we determine shared "rules" of evidence? And what about so-called "self-evident" things or claims? This week, we're diving right into this messy business of evidence.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/evidence

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

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When did Jesus start hating immigrants and gays, and loving guns and capitalism?

Many Christians on the political left today no longer recognize the Jesus of the political right in the United States. Despite sharing a text and history, (at least) two dramatically different versions of "Jesus" have emerged in contemporary American Christian discourse, each reflecting a set of moral and political inferences presumably gleaned from the teachings of the historical Jesus, and each set of inferences containing its own problems with respect to verifiability, authenticity, and legitimacy.

This week, we are joined by internationally renowned Catholic scholar Dr. John D. Caputo, author of What Would Jesus Deconstruct? (2007), to re-trace the emergence of these seemingly incompatible iterations of "Jesus," and try to figure out whose Jesus works for whom.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-151-whose-jesus-with-john-d-caputo/

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

The HBS hosts struggle for recognition.

[NOTE: This is a REPLAY episode, first aired on August 11, 2023. The HBS hosts will be back with new episodes for Season 11 starting on September 13, 2024!]

The dialectic of lordship and bondage, more commonly known as the “Master/Slave dialectic,” is a moment in a much longer and exceedingly difficult-to-read (much less understand!) text by G.W.F. Hegel entitled The Phenomenology of Spirit. It’s probably a passage that is referenced in a wide number of fields– psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, literary analysis, any number of “area studies,” and even economics-- though very few of the scholars who reference it have slogged all the way through Hegel’s Phenomenology. Nevertheless, like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave from the Republic and Nietzsche’s story about the lambs and the birds of prey from Genealogy of Morals, both of which we’ve discussed before on this podcast, Hegel’s dialectic of Lordship and Bondage manages to capture, in a concise and powerful way, something both intuitively true and yet, at the same time, utterly mystifying.

This week we ask the question, why has this passage become the hit single off of the dense concept album that is the Phenomenology.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-105-the-master-slave-dialectic

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review!

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The HBS hosts ask Devin Shaw whether and how to punch Nazis.

[NOTE: This is a REPLAY episode, first aired on Jun2, 2023. The HBS hosts will be back with new episodes for Season 11 starting on September 13, 2024!]

Since at least the 2016 election the word fascism has emerged from the historical archive to contemporary political debates. This question has primarily been one about the identity of fascism, what are its minimal characteristics? To what extent can the Trump administration be considered fascist, and so on? We discussed some of this last season with Alberto Toscano. As much as this question of definition is important, a no less important question is what to do in the face of fascism. How to respond. It is on this point that the opposition to fascism divides rather sharply between those who argue that fascism must be countered with the norms of civil society, debated, discussed and defeated in the marketplace of ideas and those who argue that the violence of fascism must be met with counter-violence.

In this episode, we are joined by Devin Shaw, who teaches at Douglas College and is the author of Philosophy of Antifascism: Punching Nazis and Fighting White Supremacy.

Full episode notes at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-95-punching-nazis

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Follow us on Twitter @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

You can also help keep this podcast going by supporting us financially at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions.

Welcome to the desert of the real.

Hotel Bar Sessions podcast is predicated on the idea that the three of us meet up at bar, order-up some drinks, and then settle in to talk philosophy. But—spoiler alert—none of that is true. There is no bar, sadly there are not drinks, and the conversation takes place through the instrumentality of digital technology without us ever meeting up and being together in the same space. It’s all an artifice, or what Jean Baudrillard called "simulation."

We point this out not to ruin your enjoyment but because it is this very issue—simulation—that we are examining in this week's simulated conversation. In keeping with our tradition of ending each season with a "deep dive" episode, we're focusing this week on the short book that made this a subject of conversation: Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation, originally published in French in 1981.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/baudrillards-simulacra-and-simulation

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

Does voting matter?

Voting is often heralded as the cornerstone of democracy, a fundamental right that empowers citizens to influence the direction of their government and society. Proponents argue that every vote counts, that it is through the collective decisions of the electorate that leaders are held accountable, policies are shaped, and societal change is enacted. They highlight the historical struggles and sacrifices made to secure voting rights, particularly for marginalized groups, as evidence of its profound importance. Voting is seen not merely as a civic duty, but also a moral duty, a vital expression of individual agency and a mechanism for ensuring that diverse voices contribute to the governance of a nation.

Conversely, critics of the current voting system note that voting often feels inconsequential. Systemic issues like gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the outsized influence of money in politics distort the democratic process, leading to a sense of disenfranchisement among otherwise enthusiastic citizens. The winner-takes-all format in the US leaves many feeling that their votes do not translate into meaningful representation.

These challenges-- where voters become convinced that their votes don't matter--diminish public trust in the electoral process and fuel apathy, prompting a critical examination of whether voting, in its current form, truly reflects the will of the people or merely perpetuates existing power structures. Does every vote truly matter, or is it just another drop in a vast, indifferent ocean?

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-149-voting

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

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What happens when AI overtakes the role of human journalists?

The HBS hosts are joined this week by Dr. Andrea Guzman, one of the leading experts in human-machine communication studies, to chat about the changing landscape of journalism in the age of artificial intelligence, where AI is not just a tool, but an active participant in content creation and distribution. We examine how journalism has historically adapted to new technologies, from print and radio to the digital age, and how those differ (or don't) from the new challenges it faces with AI's involvement in shaping the media.

Like many 21st C. news consumers, we're concerned with both the unique challenges and the opportunities AI presents, especially as it transitions from being a mere medium to an active "messenger." Dr. Guzman addresses pressing questions about whether journalism is in crisis due to AI, the ethical implications of using AI in news production, and the future landscape for journalists and news consumers. How will human journalists navigate these changes while upholding journalism's (alleged) commitment to truth and accountability? Will AI will mark the end of journalism as we know it or usher in the dawn of a bold new era in media?

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-148-the-future-of-journalism-with-andrea-guzman

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If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!