Bad Philosophy

Bad Philosophy Episode 070 "The Internet Says No" Recorded 08-08-10 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence, Kevin Saunders, Kiki Canon For the past couple of decades the indomitable Kevin Smith has proudly distinguished himself as a maker of funny, poignant, and outrageously vulgar cinema. We at BF are huge fans of Smith's work and felt that it was high time to devote an episode of our show to discussing the facets of his genius. Appropriately enough, Kevin Saunders and Kiki Canon joined me for a delightfully self-indulgent frolic through the philosophy of the Askewniverse. So grab a Mooby burger, lean against a convenience store, and have a listen! This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Jungle Love" by Morris Day and The Time

Recently the wild and brilliant imagination of Christopher Nolan brought forth a true gem of a movie, Inception. It’s been making good money and getting rave reviews all around, and for good reason. It’s a heady and philosophical and hence right up our rabbit trail. This time Kevin Saunders and Kiki Canon joined me to discuss the film, reality, dreams, and the finer points of top physics. Have a listen to this F-isode for the ages! Oh, and insert some sexual innuendo here. Seriously. This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Dream Police” by Cheap Trick

Bad Philosophy Episode 068 "Unfortunate Convenience" Recorded 07-13-10 Bad Philosophers: Kevin Saunders, Stephen Torrence After another long and completely unnecessary hiatus, we're back for another rip-roaring episode! Last week Kevin joined me after returning from his whirlwind theatrical tour of the Czech Republic and greater Eastern Europe. This got us talking about language, culture, music and of course Homestar Runner. Have a listen! This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: 4 Renditions of the Czech National Anthem

Bad Philosophy Episode 067 "We Love You, Torgo!" Recorded 06-11-10 Bad Philosophers: Stephen Torrence - @storrence Kiki Canon - @voiceofkiki Bess - @saintmeewunk Howdy, folks! Yes, you may throw tomatoes at me now. I really thought that graduating and coming home for the summer would leave me with more time. Sadly, this has not been the case. BUT we are back now, with an episode that's almost a month old but still delightfully entertaining. Kiki Grover and her friend Bess joined me for a quintessentially BF drive along the fringe of Twilight. I hear Kevin is back in town, an AWESOME fan donated enough money for us to buy an HD camera, and aside from building a vacuum table this weekend, I am FREE! So expect new episodes right around the corner. Thanks for sticking with us and enjoy the episode! Oh, and if you're wondering who the heck Torgo is, go check the cool cat out. This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Cody Monkey (Frugal Glucose Mix)" by Jonathan Coulton and emerson

Bad Philosophy Episode 066 "6 Years and It's Over" Recorded 05-24-10 Tragedy struck the podcast this past week. As Kevin Saunders departed for his trip to Prague, the plane encountered unusually heavy turbulance over a remote region of the South Pacific (why the pilot was flying over the Pacific to get to Eastern Europe is perhaps an even greater mystery). Kevin's plane and all aboard crash landed in the water, but many washed ashore in relative safety. Now Kevin has been forced to survive as supernatural events and interpersonal intrigue threaten to... OH! Sorry, I was getting that confused with something else. You see, LOST has sorta been on our minds recently, having wrapped up it's sixth and final season this past weekend. In case you haven't had enough post-show commentary already, we decided to throw in our two cents. Lostie Britton Peele joins us in this episode for his first appearance on BF as we discuss religious undertones, shoddy writing, and the occasional double-back over the course of this epic prime time show's run. So sit back and come sail away with us on this totally LOST episode of BF...

Bad Philosophy Episode 065 "Whoa..." Recorded 05-19-2010 It should come as no surprise to y'all out there that a great percentage of the world indulges in the wily wonders of psychotropic drugs. Whether it's that requisite pot of coffee in the morning or just... pot, lots of folks like to take a walk on the wild side of the mind every now and then. In this episode of BF Kevin Saunders, Bryan Mitchell and I explore some of the philosophical and political issues behind psychotropics in a solid B-isode. Oh, and we get TOTALLY BAKED at the end. Really. Listen all the way through. It's hilarious.

Bad Philosophy Episode 064 "Foremanslaw" Recorded 05-11-10 Oh my... *cough* ...wow, I had no idea dust built up that quickly ...on the Internet. ANYWHO. We're back, yes indeed. And we brought along a classic F-isode just for y'all! Yeah it may be last week's news, but apparently Iron Man 2 dropped in theaters. Oh, and apparently Stephen Hawking said something about aliens. So what did Kevin Saunders, Matt Legler, Kiki Grover, Jed Cummins, and I talk about? Why, what NOT to do when the UFO's abduct your sorry ass, that's what! So pull on your Cosa Nostra t-shirt, strap into your Mark IV armor, and slap some 'slaw on your George Foreman grill... it's BF time!

Here at Texas Tech things were shaken up a bit recently with the resignation of Dr. Gary Bell, someone beloved to all of us in the Honors College. Dr. Bell basically built the Honors College over the past 17 years into a mainstay of the university. However, he came into conflict with the upper administration over the past few months on their goal to expand Texas Tech to 40,000 students by 2020 and bring it to to Tier One status. Bell felt that the administration was sacrificing quality education to make this happen. This time on BF we had Kevin Saunders and newcomer Levi Schlegel on to discuss the story and the general issue of research versus teaching in academia. It was a good one, folks. Have a listen!

Bad Philosophy Episode 062 "iKevin2.0.net@blogspot.com" Recorded 04-03-10 Every once in a while we here at BF like to have a gratuitously self-indulgent show that focuses purely on our own half-baked accomplishments and personal history. This time it was all about the K-man, mister Kevin Saunders himself. We had live Skype callers on the show once again, talked a little history, and answered questions about Kevin and the show. It was a jolly good time. Oh, and apologies for taking so long to upload this one. I was abducted by aliens. This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "I Wanna Talk About Me" by Toby Keith

Bad Philosophy Episode 061 "Newspaper Zombies" Recorded 03-28-10 When was the last time you read a newspaper? Oh... you're reading one now. Well um... I guess I'll just let you finish then. No, it's cool, take your time. ... Done? Okay, awesome. So... wow, this is a bit awkward. Our topic this week is actually the "death" of newspapers, which probably sounds a lot less interested to you now in light of... yeah. Turns out the news of their death might be a bit exaggerated. On the show to tell us why were print journalism gurus Simon Ponder and Ashley Liles. Back on the show to give them hell was the one and only Kevin Saunders. We do hope you enjoy this romp into the subject... right after you finish the Sports section. This week's post-show song pimpage: "Hard Times" from Newsies

Bad Philosophy Episode 060 "Rooftop Skinny Dipping SXSW" Recorded 03-16-10 There is a place where, once a year, every geek worth his or her salt comes together in the magically weird city of Austin. For five days we mingle, bond, network, and bring our alcohol consumption up to par with our 3G bandwidth consumption. We call this beer- and bandwidth-infused tribal gathering SXSW Interactive, and this year a couple of us from BF got the privilege of attending it. BF mainstay Jediah Cummins, photoblogger and Rackspace contractor Simon Ponder, and yours truly gathered in the Austin Hilton to reflect on our experiences, share some thoughts on location-based gaming, and forget to talk about robots. We even managed to match the sucky audio quality of our first episode with our 60th! How is that NOT worth your time? Have a listen...

Bad Philosophy Episode 059 "Cheap Chocolate Eve" Recorded 02-14-10 Another Valentine's Day has come and gone. Love was in the air. Some relationships soared, others crashed and burned. For those of us on the sidelines, it was quite a sight to behold and discuss. Here at BF we gathered a completely new panel of guests for our most estrogen-infused episode ever. Single ladies Kiki Canon, Megan Brase, and Ivy Filbin came on to discuss holidays, singularity, and commercialized sexism, among many other things. So cook yourself a bloody steak, get some chocolate on the side, and enjoy the show...

Bad Philosophy Episode 058 "Banana Pancakes" Recorded 02-01-2010 For most folks fame comes rarely, if ever. Only a few people ever rise above the sea of obscurity, either from their own effort or by the grace of others (or some combination of the two). In the Internet age, this process of fame-making has taken on a whole new dimension, with the advent of alternative paths to fame such as YouTube. Still, culture remains transfixed by mainstream shows such as American Idol and America's Got Talent. What are we to think of this? Thankfully, we at BF are here to give you some ideas. This episode we were joined by BF newcomer Margaret Kammer alongside mainstay Kevin Saunders. Apologies on the delay! School waits for no one. Enjoy the episode...

Bad Philosophy Episode 057 "Philocalypse How? Recorded 01-24-10 Quick! There's an asteroid barreling toward your corner of the earth and you have no chance of escape. The world as you know it ends in 4 hours. What do you do?! Listen to the latest BF, that's what! On this show we tackled that ever-present subject of the apocalypse. Kevin Saunders joined me alongside the recently crippled Jediah Cummins. We also had our FIRST EVER "caller" on BF, the lovely and entertaining vlogger Margaret Kammer. So sit down, relax, and enjoy your pending doom the BF way!

Bad Philosophy Episode 056 "I Miss D'n'D" Recorded 01-18-10 Remember back when Bad Philosophy was good? Man, that show had some great moments. Recording in taco joints on a single microphone, losing episodes right and left, and always having the same people on week after week. Boy I tell ya, those were the days... Hmm? Oh yeah, description! This week we decided to talk about nostalgia. Remember? That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you dust off your old Nintendo 64 that your mom was about to throw out, blow the chunks of cat hair out of a cartridge, and remember how frustrating that last level of Starfox was? Yep, that. Nostalgia expert and BF mainstay Kevin Saunders joined me, alongside friend of the show and chiptune guru Bryan Mitchell. Together we reminisced, analyzed, and speculated our way through one of our most F episodes in a while. Enjoy! We hope you remember the experience fondly. This Week's Post-show Song Pimpage: "Those Were the Days" from All in the Family