We are living through a peculiar moment in the long, complicated history of humans and mind-altering substances. After decades of prohibition and stigma, psychedelics have staged a remarkable comeback — not just in underground culture, but in university laboratories, clinical trials, and mainstream news. Researchers are exploring psilocybin and MDMA as treatments for depression and PTSD, and a growing number of philosophers are asking whether the altered states these substances produce might tell us something important about the nature of consciousness, reality, and the self. It turns out that drugs have always been philosophically interesting — but we haven’t always been willing to admit it.

What does it mean to be “sober,” and why has Western philosophy treated sobriety as a prerequisite for truth? If a drug dissolves your sense of self, is there still a philosopher in there doing philosophy — or has philosophy left the building? Is the category of “drug” even coherent, or is it an artifact of colonial trade routes, the war on drugs, and cultural anxieties that have very little to do with what’s actually happening in your brain?

In this episode, we sit down with Justin Smith-Ruiu, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the Université Paris Cité, whose new book On Drugs: Psychedelics, Philosophy, and the Nature of Reality takes exactly these questions seriously. Drawing on the history of philosophy, his own experiences, and a genuinely eclectic range of intellectual sources, Smith-Ruiu makes the case that the mainstream philosophical tradition has been too quick to sweep altered states of consciousness under the rug — and that taking them seriously might force us to rethink some of our most basic assumptions about mind, knowledge, and reality.

Grab a drink and join us as we tune in, turn on, and ask what it means to do philosophy with your whole person.

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

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Philosophers have had many conceptions of the future–metaphysical, eschatological, ontotheological, dialectical, fatalistic, idealist, materialist, and more–and these in turn have been central to discussions of free will and determinism, freedom and constraint, hope and despair. But our guest Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School, is against all of them!

For him, what emerges from Heidegger’s thinking of ecstatic temporality is a radical focus on our historicity, our having-been-ness to inform and improve the present, and this "gritty pessimistic realism” leads him to choose Thucydides over Plato: nothing is ever certain, except for the past, but even the past is a site of contestation and hence not a strong basis on which to make predictions about what is yet to come. Hope for a future is misplaced; instead we must have courage.

So why be “against the future”? Listen in as Simon and the gang discuss the dangers and disasters–ideological, institutional, and philosophical–of investing too much in the idea of the future, and then, after listening to us ramble on about–and against–the future, tell us what you think. Send us your thoughts!

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

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SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

There have been many reports in the last several years of a growing trend of estranged families in the United States. For those who make the decision to go "no contact" (or "low contact") with their family members, the response from non-family members can be a mixed bag of support and judgment... often independent of the person's reasons for making that choice.

What’s going on with the contemporary phenomenon of people going low or no contact with their family members? Is such a decision morally acceptable, or is forgiveness and relationship maintenance something we owe to others, but especially our family? What does a "good" family look like? And why do we so often find ourselves in the position of hoping for the best without any guarantees that things will turn out well?

In this episode, we investigate the ways in which our families shape our identities and how the stories we tell about family relationships often determine how we see and understand others. As you’ll notice throughout the episode, it turns out that nothing gets people going like family! We're joined by Dr. Kiran Bhardwaj, whose work centers on these complex ethical issues and who walks us through some philosophical distinctions that may help in navigating the murky waters of distressed family relations.

Grab a drink and join us as we attempt to think through, rather than simply react to, the long and tangled ties of family.

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

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SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!