Episode 60: Capitalist Utopias I - The Self-Help Industry

State of the Theory

This is Episode 60 of the State of the Theory Podcast. Politics. Power. Popular Culture. And other stuff, probably. In this series, we’re like super nerdy philosophical DJs: mashing up Serious Academic Questions with the most topical news and trends in pop culture. Each week, we’ll tackle a new topic and collide it with ‘critical theory’ (we’re pretty loose with our definitions, though, so expect the unexpected). Our aim is to destroy the stuff we know, explore the stuff we don’t and unsettle everything we think we know about the world. We take the obvious, the commonsensical, the certain, and then we rip it all to shreds. We are your theory doctors and we are always on call. In this episode, the first of a two-parter on Capitalist Utopias, we are joined by friend of the pod and special guest Dr Katie Muth to talk about the self-help industry, religion and politics. We discuss the work of science-fiction writer Octavia E. Butler and her use of self-help literature. We also consider as wide ranging a set of texts as The Geeta, The Founder, The Path and the theories of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Our theme music is "The Face of God" by The Agrarians (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Agrarians/The_Jovial_Shepherd/The_Face_of_God) State of the Theory is brought to you by Hannah Fitzpatrick and Anindya Raychaudhuri Find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/stateofthetheorypodcast) or Tweet us @drhfitz and @DrAnindyaR