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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.
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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