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The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
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Subtext: Conversations about Classic Books and Films
by Wes Alwan and Erin O'Luanaigh
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Ranking history · United States
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Latest episodes
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A Map-Like Imagination in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (“First Death in Nova Scotia,” Part 2)
October 19, 2026 · 31 minA coffin like a little frosted cake, a lily of the valley for the dead boy’s hand, an invitation to serve as a page at court: the second half of “First Death in Nova Scotia” keeps borrowing the imagery of a royal wedding. Why does Jack…
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A Map-Like Imagination in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (“First Death in Nova Scotia”)
October 11, 2026 · 33 minIn the cold, cold parlor of Elizabeth Bishop’s “First Death in Nova Scotia,” a child is lifted up to say goodbye to her little cousin Arthur, laid out beneath chromographs of the British royal family and beside a loon shot and stuffed by…
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A Map-Like Imagination in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (“The Moose,” Part 2)
August 24, 2026 · 43 minA poem about a map opens North and South, the first collection of the great twentieth century poet Elizabeth Bishop, and since, maps have been associated with her poetic vision—at once telescoping and binocular—and with the polarities and…
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A Map-Like Imagination in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (“The Moose”)
August 17, 2026 · 38 minA poem about a map opens North and South, the first collection of the great twentieth century poet Elizabeth Bishop, and since, maps have been associated with her poetic vision—at once telescoping and binocular—and with the polarities and…
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Curses and Colonizers in “The Mummy” (1999) – Part 2
August 3, 2026The very apparatus of the mummy’s tomb—his body locked in box upon box, his organs apportioned to canopic jars, hieroglyphic inscriptions on every surface—suggest the complexity of the undertaking. What might these two strands of the…
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Curses and Colonizers in “The Mummy” (1999)
July 29, 2026As a cinematic monster, the mummy seems less an embodiment of revenge against colonial forces than a figure invented by colonialism itself. On the one hand, the mummy represents mystery, romance, magic, and the East. His wrappings suggest…
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Existence and Expectancy in “Waiting for Godot” (Part 2)
June 29, 2026 · 44 minWho is Godot? Whether God, objet a, or an abstraction from any object that is supposed to resolve dramatic suspense, it is clear that Vladimir and Estragon imagine him to be an agent of salvation (even if they can’t remember exactly what…
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Existence and Expectancy in “Waiting for Godot”
June 23, 2026 · 49 minWho is Godot? Whether God, objet a, or an abstraction from any object that is supposed to resolve dramatic suspense, it is clear that Vladimir and Estragon imagine him to be an agent of salvation (even if they can’t remember exactly what…
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The Romance of Self-Destruction in “Withnail and I” (1987) – Part 2
May 18, 2026 · 35 minWes & Erin continue their discussion of the cult classic “Withnail and I,” and whether our capacity for sublimation suffers less from the crisis of modernity than from our attempts to transcend it. Upcoming Episodes: Waiting for Godot…
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The Romance of Self-Destruction in “Withnail and I” (1987)
May 10, 2026 · 44 minIt’s 1969, and as drug guru Danny tells us, “the greatest decade in the history of mankind is over.” There will, he says, be many refugees, and the film’s implication is that Withnail—who combines self-importance and lofty ambition with…
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The Ethics of Seeing in Susan Sontag’s “On Photography” (Part 2)
March 23, 2026 · 39 minPhotography is a technology of contradictions. It is at once mechanical and mysterious, even magical. It furnishes evidence of presence while being a token of absence. It can show us proof but can’t, without accompanying narration or…
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The Ethics of Seeing in Susan Sontag’s “On Photography”
March 17, 2026 · 44 minPhotography is a technology of contradictions. It is at once mechanical and mysterious, even magical. It furnishes evidence of presence while being a token of absence. It can show us proof but can’t, without accompanying narration or…
About the show
Subtext is a book club podcast for readers interested in what the greatest works of the human imagination say about life’s big questions. Each episode, philosopher Wes Alwan and poet Erin O’Luanaigh conduct a close reading of a text or film and co-write an audio essay about it in real time. It’s literary analysis, but in the best sense: we try not overly stuffy and pedantic, but rather focus on unearthing what’s most compelling about great books and movies, and how it is they can touch our lives in such a significant way.