Other Episodes

The hosts reflect on the last 100 episodes. What have the learned about each other, and about the issues they’ve discussed?

What makes someone “difficult” in romantic relationships? Putting themselves under the microscope, the hosts explore their own shortcomings and wonder how difficult they are to love.

Romance–with a lowercase “r”–has been a preoccupation in the West since the 17th century. But it’s rarely discussed with any seriousness outside of literature or without pop cultural clichés. The hosts aim to change that.

TAA 0069 – Megastars like Michael Jackson seem to be exempted from critiques of their wealth. Rarely do you hear Jay-Z or Tom Hanks referred to derisively as “the one percent.” Why don’t we care about extremes of wealth in our entertainers?

TAA 0052 – C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood return to the topic of cyclical time. Every year in the Mesoamerican calendar there were five unlucky days between the end of the ritual calendar and the start of a new solar calendar. Are the days between Christmas and New Year a similar experience for twenty-first century Westerners?

TAA 0046 – C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood continue their discussion about veterans. They expand the topic by exploring the ways sexuality and potency are intertwined with violence. Why are “men in uniform” so often the object of sexual desire? How are our identities constrained by these roles? Join us for another wide-ranging exchange.

TAA 0035 – C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood discuss fatherhood. Being sons and having sons informs their exploration of masculinity, pride, misfortune, and the culture’s ambivalence towards traditional masculine values.

TAA 0034 – C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood continue their discussion of Plato’s Noble Lie. The conversation moves to the possibility of progress within human history, and whether or not the human race has time to continue to iteratively improve itself.

TAA 0033 -C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood discuss Plato’s “noble lie.” Are some kinds of myths necessary to promote comity between strangers? Is the American Dream a worthwhile national story? How might we update it in the twenty-first century so that it remains relevant today?

TAA 0032 – C. Travis Webb discusses memes. He argues that typical discussions about memes, from their silliness to the gene-meme theory of Richard Dawkins, miss something very important about their function. He explains why The American Age produces memes and how they’re related to Buddhist prayer flags.

C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood discuss Seph’s recently completed book project. Seph has spent years studying how art museums cadre to and shape public expectations. Is it possible for the museum to be a neutral space of aesthetic engagement, or is it hopelessly bound to a political agenda?

TAA-0030 C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood discuss the various ways that music does and does not shape the work they do. Does music boost or distract from your work? Just as musical tastes differ, so do preferences for listening.

TAA 0029 – C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood begin by discussing Rachel Dolezal, but quickly move to a free-ranging discussion of why we’re so bound up in racial narratives. What’s at stake, and what do African and European Americans gain by focusing on it?

TAA 0028 – C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney and Steven Fullwood swap poems that have moved, inspired, and saved them. If you care about words or love lyrical licks, pop on some cans and give us a listen.

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C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood discuss Roseanne Barr’s apology. How much credit should she get? Can we fight for a progressive political agenda and make room for forgiveness and empathy?

TAA 0021 – C. Travis Webb and Steven Fullwood discuss the role of politics in art. Artists have always been politically engaged, but can too much politics interfere with what is moving and provocative about great art?

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C. Travis Webb and Steven Fullwood discuss UFOs. From the validity of their sightings to the possibility that they are a conscious manifestation…

C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney discuss Michelle Wolf’s performance at the White House’s Correspondence Dinner…

TAA 0017 – C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney discuss whether or not its fair to ostracize intellectuals that have unfashionable opinions…

TAA 0014 – C. Travis Webb and Steven Fullwood talk about the natural tensions that exist between liberty and safety. You cannot maximize both, so what does the current balance between the two in our society say about our priorities and prejudices.

TAA 0016 – C. Travis Webb and Steven Fullwood discuss the perils and the possibilities of a Trump presidency. Does symbolic cultural progress matter, and if it does, what does Trump’s election mean for the country?

TAA 0015 – C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney discuss their decision to go back to graduate school late in life. What does it take to participate in the pursuit of human knowledge, and is it worth the cost?

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TAA 0010 – C. Travis Webb and Steven Fullwood discuss the history of denial in America, from Thomas Jefferson to the 2016 election. Should denial be considered a form of collective madness, and has social media made our denial worse?

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TAA 0007 – C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney discuss corporate responsibility. What does it mean when corporations become the guardians of democracy?

TAA 0006 – C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney discuss Michelle Wolf’s performance at the White House’s Correspondence Dinner..

TAA 0005 – Secrets are an inextricable part of intimate relationships–not only keeping them together, but keeping them from each other. A wide-ranging discussion between C. Travis Webb, Seph Rodney, and Steven Fullwood.

Podcast 0004 – C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney continue their discussion about public outrage. Does expertise bring wisdom? Is outrage at elites justified? This and much more is discussed in this second of a two-part discussion.

TAA 0003 – In this episode, C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney discuss the coarsening of civic culture. What are the results and causes of public outrage? Are they historical or psychological? (Part I of II)

TAA 0002 – In this episode, C. Travis Webb and Seph Rodney discuss faith in the future. Is faith in the future justifiable or naive? Contrasting Ta-Nehisi Coates with Jeffrey Goldberg (the editor of The Atlantic), Webb argues that “faith” isn’t the point, and Rodney emphasizes the importance of honesty in any assessment of the American project.