This month at The Psychology Podcast we discussed pornography and philosophy with Stoya and the importance of commitments for living a fulfilled life with David Brooks.
Foucault, Heteronormativity, and Good Porn with Stoya
Stoya has been working with sexuality for over a decade. Her writing credits include the New York Times, The Guardian, and Playboy. Her first book of essays, Philosophy, Pussycats, & Pornis available through Not A Cult Media, and her experimental porn project lives at ZeroSpaces.com.
In this episode we discuss a wide range of topics, including:
- What is porn?
- What is good porn?
- Can there be feminism under capitalism?
- Stoya’s critique of “liberal feminists”
- The importance of values that transcend sexual preferences
- How our collective conception of “normal sex” leaves out a whole lot of sexual preferences that “normal” people have
- Focault on how preventing the discussion of sex is making us even more obsessed with sex
- The science of sexual fantasies
- Are there any sexual fantasies that are damaging to normalize?
- What we can learn about privacy from pornstars
- The benefits/disadvantages of choosing a porn career
- Comparing/contrasting BDSM with monogamy
- Why BDSM is too wide a category to be considered a sexual orientation
- Why Stoya has to be physically aroused in order to be creative in a porn scene
- How Scott and Stoya know each other
- Which author - from anytime thru history - would Stoya like to go out partying with? And what would her drink of choice be for such an occasion?
- The link between ADHD and creativity
The Quest for a Moral Life with David Brooks
Today we have David Brooks on the podcast. Brooks is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times and appears regularly on “PBS NewsHour,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He teaches at Yale University and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the bestselling author of a number of books, including The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement; The New Upper Class and How They Got There; The Road to Character, and most recently, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life.
In this episode we discuss:
- The evolution of David’s thinking about character
- The relationship between our commitments and our fulfillment in life
- Brook’s criticism of self-actualization taken to the extreme
- The four crises of our time
- David’s current stance on reparations
- Why David is a “border stalker”
- How David reconciles the need for commitment with identity fluidity
- Commitment vs. individualism
- The importance of healthy transcendence
- The enunciation moment
- What we can do about the current political landscape
- David’s thoughts on polyamory and the single life