What do we mean when we talk about silence? Is it the absence of sound—or something more complicated? In this episode, we dig into the many meanings of silence: as a weapon and as a refuge, as an imposed condition and a chosen strategy. We consider the roles silence plays in protest, punishment, pedagogy, intimacy, and oppression, and ask whether some kinds of silence can speak louder than words. We dig into political gag orders, awkward classroom silences, and the long pauses that say more than words ever could, asking what’s at stake when speech is withheld, delayed, or denied. Can silence be a form of resistance? Or is it always complicit?

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

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This week, we're unpacking the Trump administration’s war on so-called “radical ideology”—a campaign targeting what it calls “gender ideology” and “equity ideology.” We explore what these terms are meant to signal, what work they do rhetorically and politically, and how they function to delegitimize trans and BIPOC lives. Drawing from Marxist accounts of ideology, we examine how ideology obscures injustice by presenting hierarchies as natural and dissent as dangerous. We also discuss the increasingly viral framing of ideology as something one can “catch,” especially in classrooms, and what’s really at stake when education, protest, and critical thought are labeled as threats. This episode asks: What counts as ideology? Who gets to decide? And what can philosophy offer when reality itself is under assault?

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/the-war-on-radical-ideology

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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!

Who or what rules the world today? And by what right?

In this episode, your favorite philosophers-on-tap—Talia Bettcher, Rick Lee, and Leigh M. Johnson—pull back the curtain on one of political theory’s most enduring (and most elusive) concepts: sovereignty.

From dusty monarchs and divine right to corporations, constitutions, and contested rights, they explore how sovereignty continues to shape the world we live in—often in ways we no longer recognize. What is sovereign power? Can it be shared? Is the individual sovereign over themselves—or is that just a liberal fantasy? And in an age of global crises—climate catastrophe, AI proliferation, corporate overreach—does the nation-state still make sense at all?

Drawing on thinkers like Jean Bodin, Hobbes, Rousseau, Agamben, and Judith Butler, this lively and rigorous conversation confronts the paradoxes at the heart of sovereignty, including the terrifying possibility that we’ve inherited concepts that no longer serve us… if they ever did.

Grab a drink and settle in for a provocative, globe-spanning conversation on what it means to rule, obey, resist—and live together.

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

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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!