Ellie: Hi, I'm Ellie Anderson.
David: And I'm David
Pena-Guzman
Ellie: And we're your favorite new professors.
David: We're super excited to share with you our new podcast, Overthink.
Ellie: Let's tell our listeners a little bit about how we
decided to start this podcast.
You and I have known each other for almost 10 years.
We met in graduate school where you were a couple of years above me in the PhD
program in philosophy at Emory University.
David: I am your senior.
Ellie: You are!
I love to rub it in.
And, um, we found ourselves last summer, taking a road trip from your place in
San Francisco up to Ashland, Oregon together for our friend's wedding.
So we were having all kinds of amazing conversations on this trip,
David: And I remember that this is when you pitched the idea to
me of starting a podcast together.
Ellie: I was eating a strange combination of an entire avocado, which
I was peeling on the spot, and laying anchovies on top of it while driving-
David: Yes.
Driving and speeding while holding a slippery avocado, and some anchovies.
Thank you for reminding me of this near death experience I once had.
Ellie: And I think it's really important to note that this emerged
out of a conversation and conversation is a profoundly philosophical genre.
This idea that it's multiple people speaking back and forth, trying to
clarify concepts and figure out what they believe-- a sort of friendly debate.
There's such a long history of that stretching back millennia in philosophy.
David: Yeah, there is Socrates and Plato with the dialogic form.
There is a major epistolary tradition in the early modern period-
Ellie: People writing letters to each other back and forth.
David: Exactly.
And in those cases, you see philosophy really emerging and growing out of a
communal situation rather than being a monologue that one has with oneself-
Ellie: Definitely!
Because I think sometimes philosophy gets a bad rap for
being a little bit backwards.
No offense to Kant, love The Critique of Pure Reason, but that's far
from all of what philosophy is.
Philosophy is also, and has always been, a practice of thinking with other
people, whether it is through writing letters, speaking in the marketplace,
having intimate, private conversations.
David: And so our goal in creating this podcast was to create new spaces
where people could have intellectual conversations or at least listen to
an intellectual conversation because you and I, for example, had a lot of
these discussions as graduate students.
We knew each other in an academic setting, we built a friendship in this setting
constantly immersed in the history of philosophy, in contemporary theory-
Ellie: And in interdisciplinary conversations too, with people from a
lot of different academic backgrounds.
David: Yes.
Ellie: I see this podcast as an opportunity for people to think critically
about their everyday lives and things that are happening in contemporary culture.
So the goal of this podcast is to get under people's skin in a way
that transforms and shapes their everyday existence, without the
kind of gatekeeping that typically characterizes academic spaces.
David: So Ellie, let's tell our listeners a little bit about who we are.
Ellie: I'm an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College
in Claremont, California.
I'm originally from Los Angeles, where I currently live.
A former theater kid with a background in musicals and improv comedy, I'm
really excited to be hosting this podcast and having a chance to speak to people
outside of my classroom, including David.
In my research I write about concepts of selfhood and the philosophy of
love, especially feminist critiques of monogamy and sexual ethics.
If you're into the academic specifics, my research primarily
concerns post-World War II, French philosophy, especially phenomenology,
post-structuralism, and existentialism.
I teach classes on Continental European philosophy, philosophy of race and gender,
love and friendship, and aesthetics.
I also write cultural criticism.
And I'd say that in general, I'm committed to intersectional feminism, anti-racism,
and anti-capitalist critiques.
Although recognize that we live in a capitalist,
patriarchal, and racist society.
And this means having to struggle within it.
David: And I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities and Liberal
Studies at San Francisco State University in the Bay Area, where I teach a host
of classes in the history of philosophy, contemporary humanities, critical theory,
and the history and philosophy of science.
My research combines scientific and philosophical approaches to animal
behavior and animal cognition, and I'm very interested in the
question of how we know whether or not other animals are conscious.
I identify as a leftist progressive, and I am committed to global
social justice, classic equality, and decolonizing academia.
I live in the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco and you'll typically find
me either nerding out at home, reading a book, writing, or, being an NT nerd
and socializing and playing sports.
I love playing volleyball, I love playing tennis, so it's an
essential part of my existence.
Ellie: That is one thing we don't share, David, right?
We had so many good memories of dancing together, of having philosophical
conversations together, of traveling, being in Paris together, right.
But, the sports thing; something we don't share.
I do love watching you play volleyball, though.
David: So, yeah, this is one thing about us is that we're
both a nerds plus another thing.
So you're like the nerd plus fashion girl, which is already
a kind of weird combination.
And I am the nerd plus gay jock combination, which is
like, a monstrosity of itself.
Ellie: One last thing to note here is that David and I had such grand plans
of this fancy recording studio at Pomona College, that we were going to use.
We had all these ideas for the kinds of support we were going
to get, and then COVID hit.
So here we are, podcasting straight to you listeners from our closets.
David: It's only for you, Ellie, that I would go back into the closet.
Ellie: Well on that note, listeners, please enjoy the episodes
that we've prepared for you.
We can't wait to hear from you!
Please email us at dearoverthink@gmail.com.
You can also reach us on Instagram and Twitter at @overthink_pod.
David: And for the record, even for you Ellie, I still
wouldn't go back into the closet.
Ellie: Thank God.
All right, David much love and see you soon!
David: See you all in the episodes!
Goodbye.
You can email us with questions, feedback, or even requests for life
advice at dearoverthink@gmail.com.
Ellie: You can also find us on Instagram and Twitter at @overthink_pod.
We want to thank Anna Koppelman, our Production Assistant, Samuel P.K.
Smith for the original music, and Trevor Ames for our logo.
David: Thanks so much for joining us today.