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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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!

The central debate this week? Whether interpretation goes “all the way down.” Leigh stakes out a position, arguing that even the simplest acts of clarification are interpretive performances grounded in systems of meaning. Talia, donning her analytic hat, pushes back hard—insisting that certain discursive acts, like clarifications and first-person avowals of emotional states, are distinct from interpretation and must retain ethical authority, especially in politically fraught times. Rick mediates, drawing on hermeneutics and pragmatism to suggest that truth itself is an emergent product of interpretation, not a pre-existing ideal.

What results is one of the most spirited episodes yet—complete with sharp disagreements, honest reflection, and even a break to cool off before the bartender makes final call!

Whether you side with “everything is interpretation” or insist on preserving non-interpretive discursive acts, this episode will leave you questioning what it means to make sense of anything. Grab a drink and buckle up—this is the kind of philosophical brawl you don’t want to miss!

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

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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!