talkPOPc's Podcast
talkPOPc (Philosophers' Ontological Party club), is public philosophy + cognitively-engaged art nonprofit founded by Dr. Dena Shottenkirk, who is both a philosopher and an artist. As a topic-based project (we are now on our fourth) talkPOPc sponsors one-to-one conversations between a participant and a philosopher (who always dons our amazing gold African king hat, along with our mascot Puppet!) These conversations are consensus-building conversations and feed back into Shottenkirk's related artworks and published philosophy. The conversations become collaborative acts of making both philosophy and art. Thus, each topic - #1. nominalism, #2. censorship, #3. art as cognition, and #4 power - has three "pillars" the associated artworks, the published philosophy book, and podcast conversations. Various philosophers participate (see our website talkpopc.org for the list of philosophers) and these conversations happen in various places. For example, we go into bars and have one-to-one conversations. We sit down next to the deli counter and hold a conversation with someone who has walked in to get a ham sandwich and walked out knowing so much more about their own thoughts. We go into the MDC prison in Brooklyn and have conversations. We set up in galleries where the artworks and the philosophy are also displayed. And we listen. Here are some of those conversations.
Change happens when people talk.
talkPOPc's Podcast
Episode 137: Tsee
Timestamps:
- 00:10: Introductions
- 00:45: Where there is power, there's abuse.
- 03:05: Imbalance of power is inevitable. If we don't share power, we hoard it
- 04:05: Can power ever be positive? To take action, we need power. It has the capacity to create good, but without any checks and balances, it goes too far
- 06:45: Institutional power as a result of individual power. We willingly give up power to the institution
- 09:05: How do we get the power back? Only collectively, large scale efforts can shift the power balance
- 12:00: January 6th as a display of power, even if it's misguided
- 14:30: How can we utilize power to make positive strides of change?
- 17:15: Power-seekers aren't those who should have it. Perverse incentives
- 20:30: Randomization as a potential solution to power hoarding
- 21:15: How do we account for lack of knowledge in the randomization scenario? Town halls, bureaucracy, and trial and error
- 24:00: Advisors as the lynchpins of power