Tag Archives: Peter Rollins

AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB 214: PETER ROLLINS on SIX SPIRITUAL REVELATIONS

22 Feb

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Friends,

The intellect is important, but only serves as a two-dimensional reflective surface without the combined depth of experience. I try to make as much of what I say as possible stem from the ways my life has been shaped by spiritual experience meeting my philosophical and political outlook. I wanted to pull on this thread a bit, and to push the boundaries of what I discuss on AEWCH.

So I invited one of the most frequent (and liked!) guests on AEWCH to meet me in this: my friend the theologian and philosopher Peter Rollins.

This episode is a bit different: Peter and I each tell three short stories about moments of spiritual revelation and formation in our lives. Then we discuss them with each other and try to find the patterns there.

It’s a very personal episode for both Peter and I, but it’s also a picture of friends walking our separate paths, together.

I am so excited to share this with you.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO
Though it’s not directly related to the content, I’m recommending AEWCH 81, with theologian and writer (not to mention Peter’s friend)s, Padraig O’Tuama, as a complement to this episode. Padraig and I talk at length about God, but rather than grounding that in experience per se, we ground it in poetry. It’s another way to address revelation.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
Since we’re on the topic of spiritual autobiography and revelation, you may want to read Rudolf Steiner’s Autobiography: Chapters in the Course of My Life, 1861-1907, to look into the life events of a spiritual teacher and how they informed his path forward.

MORE ON PETER
Support Peter’s patreon here. And also, there’s lots on Peter’s website . Two of Peter’s many books include The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith and the first book I read by Peter, The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales. Two recent appearances on the podcast include AEWCH 167 on Lacanian therapy, and AEWCH 200 with Mark O’Connell about transhumanism and God.

Until next time, friends,
CH

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AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB 200: PART 2 – MARK O’CONNELL & PETER ROLLINS on IMMORTALITY + SARA GRAN & UNA MULLALLY on ART!

4 Oct

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Friends,
Part two of the massive, mighty AEWCH 200 is upon us! AEWCH 200 is three episodes over three weeks, featuring six conversations, each conversation has two previous guests of AEWCH in conversation with me on a theme. Here’s part one, in case you missed it!

These are people I’ve loved talking to (most of them have been on the show more than once) in conversation with someone they might never talk to without AEWCH bringing them together. The idea is a sort of conversational alchemy. What happens when people in different disciplines speak? What sort of new substances arise?

For instance:

What happens when a paranormal expert talks with a mortician? What happens when an occult teacher talks with a mystic comedian podcaster? What happens when a new age scholar talks with an anarchist organizer?

This time it’s Part 2: IMMORTALITY and ART Transhumanist critic Mark O’Connell talks with radical Lacanian theologian Peter Rollins + horror/mystery writer Sara Gran talks with journalist/artist Una Mullally!

SHOW NOTES GUEST WEBSITES & SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Sara’s website • Come Closer • The Book of the Most Precious Substance

Una’s website • Una’s column for the Irish Times

Mark O’Connell’s website • To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death

Peter’s website • The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

Being up to 200 episodes means AEWCH is in a tiny tiny percentage of podcasts that have lasted this long – something like 2%. I can ONLY keep doing this show if people support it on patreon.

I know post-pandemic times and economic roller coasters are affecting everyone in different ways. That said, the art and culture you love are great places to center support and love.

If you don’t already, please do the following to keep AEWCH going:

  • Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib
  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Tweet and Insta quotes from and thoughts inspired by episodes!

Thank you so much for everything, and enjoy all this big talk.
Love,
CH

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Everything you’ve always wanted to know about Lacanian analysis * (* but didn’t know you were afraid to ask) It’s AEWCH 167 with Peter Rollins!

19 Oct

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ONApple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

FRIENDS: Do you find this podcast meaningful? Support it! This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon! Thank you so, so much.

Buy Peter’s books and all the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 167 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback! 

Interested in Lacan? Sign up for my patreon at the $10 level or higher to join me + other patrons for a live discussion on Lacanian analysis on October 30th!

Friends,

The core of AEWCH is the spiritualization of the material. That is, I want to present a truly non-materialist way of viewing the world, where spirituality is seen as the wellspring of existence, and informs how we talk about ourselves, politics, economy, art, and more. But to that end, I’m not just inspired by spiritual thinkers. Instead, I draw on the work of humanistic philosophers, dialectical materialists, political theorists, atheists, and more.

One of the thinkers I’ve learned the most from is French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan (1901- 1981). I think Lacan’s work has tremendous potential to be leveraged as a spiritual project (despite most Lacanian’s protestations!), particularly in its formulation of its three clinical diagnoses: Neurosis, Perversion, and Psychosis. That’s it. Just three. And they can all be used in radical ways to affect culture/politics/economy. But Lacan is notoriously hard to understand. So I invited my friend, theologian and philosopher Peter Rollins, back on the show to break down Lacanian psychoanalysis in an understandable and clear way.

Peter is the most AEWCH of AEWCH guests, with this being his fifth appearance on the show – we also talked on AEWCH 14, AEWCH 55, and AEWCH 70 (with Todd McGowan), and AEWCH 135 (with Elliot Morgan).

That’s because Peter is one of my most important provocateurs; we agree on so much and so little all at once. For me, talking with Peter is electrifying, fun, and friendly.Of course, Peter and I are friends so we wander out into the jargon-y weeds from time to time, but we always pull it back! This is as good a place as any to get your Lacanian start.

SHOW NOTES

• Support Peter’s patreon here. He gives tons of content to patrons. And listen to his great religion & psychoanalysis podcast (with Elliot Morgan), The Fundamentalists; some recommended episodes are “Success,”  “Socialism,” “Fascism,” and “New Normal.” But you can really just start anywhere.

• One of the best resources on Lacan is nosubject.com, which is basically a wiki for all things psychoanalysis, particularly Lacanian psychoanalysis.

• For a look at how standard psychotherapy diagnoses models differ from psychoanalytic ones, here an article using depression as the example: “The Failings of Depression: A Review of Lacanian Psychoanalytic Critiques“

• Some other psychoanalysis-oriented episodes of the show not featuring Peter include AEWCH 162 with Dr. Gwen Adshead, AEWCH 101 with Katherine Angel, and AEWCH 47 with Todd McGowan.

Until next time, friends,
XO
CH

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How do we believe in things without killing each other? I talk to Peter Rollins & Elliott Morgan of The Fundamentalists podcast on AEWCH 135!

16 Dec

LISTEN HERE OR ON iTunes • Spotify • Overcast
This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon!  Thank you so, so much.

Want to buy the books mentioned on this ep? For Peter’s books, and other books mentioned on or related to this episode, please go to my booklist for AEWCH 135 on bookshop.org. It will  help support independent bookstores, and the show gets a small financial kickback, too.

Friends,
As the year comes to an end, we find ourselves surrounded by people holding seemingly incommensurable sets of beliefs and ideas – and those sets of beliefs and ideas are being held onto more tightly, not less, as the ship seems to be aimless. While some of you might be finding a sense of relief in the changing of the guard in the US, and the presence of a vaccine, many others feel agitated by both.
2020 was the year that one community, one group of people trying to dominate and humiliate the other, seemed to rule.At the same time, we’ve seen these amazing outpourings of mutual aid, of togetherness, of new demands for the structures that are supposed to be serving us. I wanted to understand all of this, I wanted to have a conversation about belief and politics, and the unknown.
So I invited my friends Peter Rollins and Elliott Morgan to the show. You might know Elliott as part of the YouTube comedy group The Valleyfolk, or from his standup; and Peter from his work as a psychoanalytic theologian, or his previous appearances on AEWCH 14, AEWCH 55, and AEWCH 70 (with Todd McGowan); but I was interested in having them on together because they’re cohosts of the philosophy and psychoanalysis chat show, The Fundamentalists. On each episode, Elliott brings his everyday but perceptive concerns about the world, and Peter pulls them apart with psychoanalysis.
This is, I think a special conversation because of that belief piece, that ideology piece – because we all have different pathways through belief in our lives, from Peter’s sport of strange revelation upon seeing an exorcism take place after leaving the theater – he’d just seen Gremlins 2 – with his friend, to Elliott’s church experiences with something called the Holy Laughter Revival, to mine growing up without much religion and then finding my life infused with occult philosophy.We also each have different psychological structures, which we discuss on this show.And we each have different intellectual mentors and perspectives. Lately, Elliott has taken up Jungian psychology, which stands in some opposition to Peter’s Lacanian/Hegelian view, and both in some opposition to my occult view deeply informed by Rudolf Steiner.
So we spend a lot of this episode fleshing out some of those differences and nuances – how current events, how thinking, how the unconscious, and more, can be seen from each perspective.Gradually, throughout the episode, you get a sense of a sort of peace process. Not because Peter and Elliott and I were i some sort of deep conflict to begin with, but because the ideas and ways of living and structures of psyche meet each other and rest with each other without violent disagreement. The show presents three people, not trying to resolve contradictions and certainly not trying to win out, but rather simply taking an interest in one another.

In some ways, it offers an antidote to clinging to belief on the mast of the sinking ship of our politics, economy, and culture.

ON THIS EPISODE

  • Our journeys through belief
  • Different sorts of exorcisms and possessions
  • The interpretations of the concept of the lack in psychoanalysis
  • Why didn’t going to school for science make Elliott an atheist?
  • What the unconscious looks like for Freud, Jung, and Steiner
  • How each of – Peter, Elliott, and I – us fall into a psychoanalytic structure, and what those structures are
  • How to avoid turning anxiety into violence
  • How communism and liberalism have dovetailed with each other into a big mess
  • Comedy creating stability
  • The way love and knowledge meet to become violence in our time

SHOW NOTES

• For more on The Fundamentalists, my recommended episodes are “Success,” “Socialism,” “Fascism,” and “New Normal.” But you can really just start anywhere.

• Right off the bat we get Gremlins 2 and Alabama Snake references, which I feel like is a call to watch both.

• John E.L. Tenney went to a Catholic exorcism and we talked about it on AEWCH 133.

• Here’s a short video on the Holy Laughter Revival, and it is…well…funny!

• Jodorowsky’s Dune is one of my favorite movies about magic and art. (Below are character sketches for the film by Moebius.)

• I love AEWCH 116 with Are Thoresen about nothingness and Christ.

• Here’s a brisk intro to Franz Mesmer.

• Here’s the episode of The Fundamentalists about hot takes and the global pandemic.

• The Duncan Trussell Family Hour I talk about re: my prediction of the occluding force is here. And the other episode I mention is here.

• Slavoj Žižek comes up a bit, and if you’re looking for a good book to start with that relates to the topics here, I would say The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity is as good as any.

Until next time, friends,
XO
CH

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Peterson vs Žižek vs Lacan vs Deleuze & Guattari vs Psychoanalysis vs The Left: AEWCH 70 is the first ever Against Everyone event is me + Peter Rollins & Todd McGowan!

14 May

AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB 70: TODD McGOWAN & PETER ROLLINS or PSYCHOANALYSIS vs THE LEFT

LISTEN HERE OR ON iTunes • Spotify • Overcast • Soundcloud

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Friends,

On my first ever Against Everyone live event, I talk about psychoanalysis, leftism, and identity politics with two of my favorite AEWCH guests, Todd McGowan and Peter Rollins! The event was part of the theology-meets-psychoanalysis conference Wake, in Belfast, in North of Ireland.

Peter Rollins is a philosopher and theologian who’s been on the show before (way back on AEWCH 14, and more recently on AEWCH 55). Todd McGowan is a psychoanalytic theorist and film studies professor; he’s also the host of the great podcast, Why Theory, and author of many amazing books. He originally appeared on AEWCH 47.

We talk about ID politics, Lacan vs Deleuze, Peterson vs Zizek, psychoanalysis and the left, and more!

This episode is very different than others, not the least of which because there’s a Q&A after – which I always long for with my epsiodes! and not just because it was in front of an audience. It’s different because there is some tension and conflict (though not any animosity, of course! I love Peter and Todd). It was even a bit difficult for me, for reasons I lay out in the introduction. That said, I also think it turned out great.

In fact, I’d love to do more live events, as this one was a bit of a test run for me. So if you’d like to organize an AEWCH event in your city (or a city nearby) with a locally-situated guest, give me a shout out, and we’ll see what we can do. Email me: againsteveryonewithconnerhabib[at]gmail[dot]com

(No show notes this week; the ep is pretty self explanatory, but back to them next week!)

Until next time!
XO
CH

Peter Rollins

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The State Of Philosophy 2019: Peter Rollins returns to AEWCH!

8 Jan

LISTEN HERE OR ON iTunes • Spotify • Overcast • Soundcloud

PATRONS GET ACCESS TO THE FULL YOUTUBE VERSION HERE  

FOR TICKETS TO MY UPCOMING ONLINE EVENT WITH PETER & CAITLIN DOUGHTY, GOD SEX DEATH, CLICK HERE  (ARE YOU A PATREON PATRON? YOU GET A DISCOUNT!)

Friends!
I’m so excited to welcome my friend – theologian, author, organizer, and Doctor of Philosophy, Peter Rollins – back to the AEWCH to kick off my “The State Of” series of AEWCH in January! For the next few episodes, I’ll be reviewing the state of something in 2019: what’s on the scene now and what to look for in the coming year.

Peter and I talk about what’s going on in the philosophical world and focus a bit on the big movement towards psychoanalytic philosophy (and why it matters!), how identity politics fail us, why Jung doesn’t work, Jordan Peterson as anti-philosopher, why postmodern philosophy is threatening to the right (and left!), the ways people dismiss philosophy from the right (and left!), how there are no philosophical communities, the rise of Peter Sloterdijk, why Judas is like the socks you get on Christmas, and more!

Lots to link to and read in the SHOW NOTES

aewch 55 title card

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NEW ONLINE EVENT: GOD SEX DEATH featuring CONNER HABIB with CAITLIN DOUGHTY & PETER ROLLINS on 1/20!

1 Jan

GSDE.jpeg

God Sex Death is an online course that takes on three fundamental aspects of being human, featuring short lectures, conversation, and Q & A with three of today’s innovative figures in conversation: Theologian Peter Rollins, Sexpert Conner Habib, and Mortician Caitlin Doughty.

But there’s a catch! Rather than talking about the topics they know best, they’ll each be taking on each other’s area of expertise.

This is a course that examines the intersections of human experience like no other. What does someone who knows so much about death have to say about sex? What does someone schooled in the profane have to offer on the sacred? And what can an expert in the eternal illuminate about the end of everything?

After each short presentation, we’ll talk with each other and then turn the questions over to YOU. We’ll be answer all your nagging God Sex Death questions!

Can’t attend the day of? Not to worry, a standard ticket gets you exclusive access to a recording of the whole thing for 90 days!

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician, the bestselling author of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory and From Here To Eternity: Traveling The World To Find The Good Death. She’s also the host of the YouTube series Ask A Mortician, where she answers every question conceivable about death. From “What’s the most horrible way to die?” To “What happens to whale carcasses?”

Conner Habib is the host of the podcast Against Everyone with Conner Habib, and an internationally recognized expert on pornography, sexuality, and culture. His essays appear in Salon, Vice, CR Fashion Book, and more. He gives lectures at universities and organizations around the world, and he’s probably the only person alive who’s won awards for teaching, writing, and performing in porn.

Peter Rollins is the author of multiple books, including The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction, Insurrection: To Believe Is Human To Doubt, Divine. Each year in Belfast, Peter hosts Wake, a five day festival that explores the nature of belief, God, doubt, and politics. Peter hosts the podcast The Fundamentalists, on which he is made fun of weekly by comedian Elliot Morgan.

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS

There are three different tickets types.

Standard: You’ll get access to the course, the Q&A, and the recording of the course for 90 days. 15.00

Plus: You’ll get everything above and you’ll also get: The exclusive God, Sex Death Reading List curated by Caitlin, Conner, and Peter. Each of us will recommend one book on each of the topics. 20.00

Gold: You’ll get everything from the Standard and Plus tickets and: Three Exclusive 2019 God Sex Death Tips Videos from Caitlin, Conner, and Peter! That’s right, you’ll get three separate videos (one from each speakers, each speaking about their area of expertise), giving you a tip on how to explore, think about, and think more deeply about God, sex, and death! These are short videos with a personal feel ONLY available to Gold ticket holders, telling you how to go deeper into each topic! 30.00

HOW DOES IT WORK?

A few days before the course starts, you’ll receive a link to the live webinar and instructions on what to do when you get to the site.

It’s simple, and all you need is your computer, the internet, and a few clicks to get started!

Plus and Gold ticket holders will get their benefits within 48 hours of the conclusion of the course!

***

For groups of three or more, please contact me for group registration rates!

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Conner and Peter Rollins talk religion without God on AEWCH 14!

17 Nov
Watch above or listen to the podcast version: iTunes • Stitcher • Soundcloud
Well hello everyone! AEWCH 14 is me and Peter Rollins — author, philosopher and radical theologian — talking about religion without God, about desire and psychoanalysis, about the way pleasure and pain are intertwined. I have to say, this is my favorite episode so far!
A small but fun-fact backstory: Peter and I used to be roommates – I was a fan and I hit him up and we hung out and then a year later we were living together. If you like our conversation, please consider supporting Peter’s Patreon as well:
IN THIS EP
  • How to have religion without God: 1:20
  • Why do we hide under the covers to protect ourselves?: 5:50
  • The way we enjoy our fears and oppressions: 8:00
  • The only true analysis in the second before you die 9:05
  • It’s difficult to know what you don’t believe, but the unexamined life is not worth living: 10:10
  • Young Conner vs Dracula: 11:35
  • “One of life’s great pleasures is having enemies…the trick is picking the right one”: 14:28
  • Love Trump’s hate: 14:45
  • We have not seen the enemy and it is us: 17:10
  • What if this is the world we want? How would we make it better?: 18:35
  • Whether you like Freud or not, here’s his point that we should all be grateful for: 21:45
  • Why gamblers don’t want to win: 24:35
  • The value of being a utopianist: 26:10
  • Conner’s brushes with atheism, and how Simone Weil saved him: 38:15
  • CS Lewis meets an obscure Italian occultist in the light: 52:05
  • How to act when you’re a mystery to yourself: 55:50
  • “Monogamy is the most widespread perversion”: 1:00:20
  • The value of grace and forgiveness: 1:10:00
  • Why are people suspicious of pleasure: 1:23:40
 As always, I invite you to support the show and my work via my Patreon. Your contribution is so helpful and helps me not lose my mind with all the time I dedicate to this and other projects.
And also, as always, the show notes are up on my Patreon here.
Love!
CH
MAP

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Update: What Do Dan Savage, Peter Rollins, the CBC, & A Flying Golden Penis Have In Common? Me!

5 Dec

Lots going on in my funny version of the world.

HONOR/AWARD

First, I won a Sexual Freedom Award! Hurray! The Sexual Freedom Awards in the UK have been running for over twenty years now, honoring people who are working for progressive sexual values and pushing on our culture’s fundamentalist sexual boundaries.

I was honored with the Best Publicist Award – “publicist” because the Best Writer categorysfa has been absorbed into this one, but it’s largely an award for writers. Past winners include Frankie Mullin, Brooke Magnanti (of Secret Diary of a Call Girl fame), and Carol Queen. Whoa!

It’s a huge honor, and the golden flying penis statue is probably the most, um, functional trophy I’ve ever received. *ahem*

***

MEDIA APPEARANCES

hmwds

DAN SAVAGE

First, I’m on Dan Savage’s new Audible.com radio show, Hot Mic! Here’s the gist: Audible started doing something called Audible channels, which features podcast-style web shows that you can subscribe to. Dan asked me on to discuss sex work, porn, LGBT issues, and more. So there you have it!

Click here or on Dan’s mug to listen.

 

screen-shot-2016-12-05-at-11-34-07-amPETER ROLLINS

You may or may not know that for some of 2015 and most of 2016, I lived with my friend, the philosopher and theologian, Peter Rollins. Before I met Peter, I was a huge admirer of his work after having read his amazing book of zen-like parables, The Orthodox Heretic. In fact, I was a big blabbermouth supporter, as follower of mine on twitter who pulled up this 2013 tweet (which apparently no one cared about at the time haha) recently to remind me. Anyway, a few years later I met Peter, we were fast friends, and he was moving in to my apartment for a year. We had lots of deep (sometimes contentious!) philosophy talks while we lived together but never did any sort of public event. So on the day before he moved out, we recorded a short conversation about spirituality, faith, marginalized identities, and psychoanalysis, which you can watch below!

CBC’s OUT IN THE OPEN 

I appeared on The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s show, Out in The Open, hosted by the excellent Piya Chattopadhyay! Totally mehonored, because my favorite podcast, Writers & Company (hosted by the forever amazing Eleanor Wachtel) is on the CBC. But also, it’s kind of great that I was on a government-sponsored channel talking about having sex in bathrooms. The producer reached out to me after having read my essay about sex at rest areas on Salon.com a few years ago. Anyway, it’s me, discussing where sexual tensions come from, why men have sex in bathrooms, and why that’s not going away any time soon.

I say stuff like, “If there’s a place where men are going to stand next to each other with their genitals exposed, there’s going to be sex happening there at some point or another.” Well. Yeah. They erroneously label me as a “former” adult star (I’ve got a movie coming out soon!), but that aside, it’s a fun show. Click here to listen to my segment!

WHAT ELSE?

I’ve got a few things up my sleeve before the year ends! A huge Christmas/New Year sale on my writing coaching services, a one session pop-up class, my annual year-end round up, and info on my upcoming projects!

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