Exploding Appendix Podcast 6: Greg and Bradley’s Institute of Ideas Diary – Day Three

Today’s episode is the third part of a three part audio diary (Part 1, Part 2) recorded at the Institute of Ideas‘ annual “Academy” event. Every year the Institute of Ideas chooses a topic and delivers a series of lectures on it. In a way, these two days offer an alternative vision of what a university could be like, a space where intellectual rigour is combined with a welcoming of controversial and thought-provoking ideas, where the theorists of the past help us explore the challenges of the present. The theme of this years Academy was “From Universal man to Identity Politics: The Rise and Fall of the Self.” During their time at this event, Exploding Appendix’s Bradley Tuck, and Culture on the Offensive‘s Greg Scorzo, kept an audio diary, where, each night, they would discuss the day. These were often after a few drinks, after the jitters and exhaustion from the day. Because of this, they are not meant to be the final word, but part of an ongoing musing about philosophy, politics, culture and the Institute of Ideas itself. This episode, which was recorded on the 17th July 2017, one day after the weekend, covers topics such as the Enlightenment self, dependency on others, post-modernism, and they discuss talks by speakers at the event such as Frank Furedi, James Heartfield, Josie Appleton and Teresa Bajan. You will also hear James Heartfield discussing the self at the Leeds salon, Mark Fisher discussing identity politics on Episode #198 of Diet Soap with Douglas Lain, and Claire Fox, at the Academy event itself, discussing narcissism.