Ward has issued about ten releases of lyric-driven, stylish pop since 2003. We discuss the title track from Leonard at the Audit (2020), "Titans" from Diminish (2018), and the title track from Pulling Out (2008). Intro: "Sabbath" from Ward White Is the Matador (2014). End: "Bubble and Squeak," also from the new album. For info see wardwhite.net.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon.

L.B. Jefferies has the perfect girlfriend—beautiful, intelligent, wealthy—but too perfect, he insists, for marriage. And so he spends his time spying on the love lives of his neighbors, and ropes his girlfriend into this project as well. Which, strangely enough, turns out to be a really effective form of couples’ therapy. What’s the connection between voyeurism and what Jefferies calls “the intelligent way to approach marriage”? Wes and Erin discuss Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window.

Thanks to CranioDsgn for permission re-purpose his poster for the cover art.

Subscribe: (sub)Text won’t always be in the PEL feed, so please subscribe to us directly: Apple | Spotify | Android | RSS

Bonus content: The conversation continues on our after-show (post)script. Get this and other bonus content at by subscribing at Patreon.

Follow (sub)Text: Twitter | Facebook | Website

Do we owe parents our gratitude for our upbringing? What if they haven’t done such a great job? And anyway, perhaps we inevitably resent all the forces that have shaped the characters that confine and limit us. If so, the quest for filial gratitude is ultimately hopeless. It could even be a kind of madness: a foolish attempt to transcend the same formative forces that we resent in our parents, to be “unaccommodated,” free of the “plague of custom.” Wes and Erin discuss William Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Subscribe: (sub)Text won’t always be in the PEL feed, so please subscribe to us directly: Apple | Spotify | Android | RSS

Bonus content: The conversation continues on our after-show (post)script. Get this and other bonus content at by subscribing at Patreon.

Follow (sub)Text: Twitter | Facebook | Website

An advantageous marriage is Elizabeth Bennet’s only potential escape from a foolish mother, a disinterested father, three very silly sisters, and a house that’s entailed away to her idiotic cousin Mr. Collins. But she turns down fabulously wealthy Mr. Darcy because he’s prideful—and maybe a little prejudiced. But then, so is she. How do we know if two people are well-suited to each other? What makes a successful match? Is Mr. Collins actually the perfect man? Wes and Erin discuss Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Subscribe: (sub)Text won’t always be in the PEL feed, so please subscribe to us directly: Apple | Spotify | Android | RSS

Bonus content: The conversation continues on our after-show (post)script. Get this and other bonus content at by subscribing at Patreon.

Follow (sub)Text: Twitter | Facebook | Website

Thanks to Abbie Smith for allowing us to repurpose her poster for the cover art. And thanks to Tyler Hislop for the audio editing on this episode.

Continuing on selections from this late Platonic dialogue. Starting in Book 4, Plato's characters are discussing how to create a new state ("Magnesia") from scratch. What sorts of laws should it have?

We talk about marriage laws, the nocturnal council, how the law is argued for that everyone has to believe in gods, and more.

Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

Sponsor: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health.

Eric was a major figure in the 1960s NYC folk scene, and his early tunes have been covered by Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and many others. He's released 22 solo albums plus several live albums and two albums with The Band's Rick Danko as Danko/Fjeld/Andersen.

We discuss "Don't It Make You Wanna Sing the Blues" from Dance of Love and Death (2025), "Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam" from Memory of the Future (1998), and "Six Senses of Darkness" from Ghosts Upon the Road (1989). End song: "Time Run Like a Freight Train" from Stages: The Lost Album (recorded 1973). Intro: "Violets of Dawn" from 'Bout Changes and Things (1966). More at ericandersen.com.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Support us on Patreon.

Sponsor: Visit square.com/go/nem to learn about how Square helps local businesses.

On this later dialogue presenting Plato's ideas about the character of laws in a just state. They should all be aimed at making people virtuous, and so should include education to this end. Each law should be equipped with a prelude presenting a rational argument for why people should obey it.

Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

Sponsor: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health.

Mark, Seth, and Dylan add some more detail and thought to our recent episodes, including more about Steven Pinker and re-litigation of the utility of Irigaray's second-wave feminism in light of the distinction between philosophical and political speech.