Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina University) chats with Wendy Syfret (VICE Asia) about her new book The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy. They talk about such things as why the modern world relentlessly seeks meaning in everything, whether nihilism is a viable or liberating response, and whether/how nihilism is reconcilable with strong belief and activism.
3:00 - What is nihilism?
10:35 - When did Wendy come to nihilsm and find it liberating?
16:48 - Why do we in the modern world "find" meaning in everything?
25:41 - Why does "finding" objective meaning satisfy more than creating subjective meaning?
30:38 - Are the young generally more nihilistic than their elders? Where is nihilism in pop culture?
38:59 - How to reconcile nihilism with activism (another thing that Wendy cares about)?
E. John Winner and Dan Kaufman (Electric Agora) talk about the Marx Brothers and their relationship to American Comedy. 1:30 Vaudeville, Burlesque, and Musical...
John’s personal history with punk rock ... Why was punk more political in the UK than in NYC? ... The far reach of capitalism...
Robert Gressis (Cal State Northridge), Dan Kaufman (Missouri State) and Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina) discuss what is and isn't realistic to expect of philosophy....