What happens when we follow the letter of the law, while refusing to cooperate with its spirit?

Hotel Bar Sessions is currently between seasons and while our co-hosts are hard at work researching and recording next season's episodes, we don't want to leave our listeners without content! So, as we have in the past, we've given each co-host the opportunity to record a "Minibar" episode-- think of it as a shorter version of our regular conversations, only this time the co-host is stuck inside their hotel room with whatever is left in the minibar... and you are their only conversant!

This week's Minibar episode features Jen Kling's reflections on civil obedience, malicious compliance, and their relation to (or separation from) violence.

Tune in for the first episode of Season 15 on January 23, 2026!

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/minibar-uncivil-obedience-with-jennifer-kling
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SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

What can the body, in pain, teach us about the hilarity of our own finitude?

Hotel Bar Sessions is currently between seasons and while our co-hosts are hard at work researching and recording next season's episodes, we don't want to leave our listeners without content! So, as we have in the past, we've given each co-host the opportunity to record a "Minibar" episode-- think of it as a shorter version of our regular conversations, only this time the co-host is stuck inside their hotel room with whatever is left in the minibar... and you are their only conversant!

This week's Minibar episode features Bob Vallier's reflections on what he learned after a serious automobile-meets-bicycle accident in late-2024. (Bob was on the bike!). The pain, the trauma, the rehab-- and the friendships that showed up along the way to help manage it all-- turned out to be an unexpected lesson in not only what able-bodied people naively assume about their world, but also what insights can be gleaned from the sudden interruption of those naive assumptions.

Turns out, according to Bob, there's a lot more that's funny about our finitude than is immediately obvious in our pain!

Tune in for the first episode of Season 15 on January 23, 2026!

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/minibar-pain
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SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

How might "oppression" be best understood as a "cage"?

This week the HBS co-hosts take a deep dive into a true classic of feminist philosophy: Marilyn Frye’s 1983 article “Oppression.” We unpack Frye’s understanding of oppression and argue about some of Frye’s more infamous examples, such as her claim that men holding doors open for women is sexist. Is she really correct that oppression can occur in the absence of the intent to oppress? Or do people have to know what they’re doing to commit oppression, or uphold the patriarchy?

We also tackle academic philosophy’s tendency to want to clarify and draw clear lines around messy, difficult, urgent phenomena. Frye is seeking to delineate what constitutes oppression: but is that a helpful conceptual project in today’s world? Or should we be focused instead on how to get out of the cage? We worry that, given Frye’s analysis of oppression as an interlocking series of double binds, there seems to be no way out. Depressingly, if she’s right, we might still have agency, but we might always remain pressed down.

Some of us are more cynical, some of us are more hopeful, but at the end of the day, we agree: Frye set the baseline for discussion in an enduring (if a bit dated!) way for feminists and feminist theory alike.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/marilyn-fryes-oppression
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!