When we write, how much is planned vs. improvised? How much is inspirational vs. double-or-triple checked? How does this factor weigh into how much music we release, how eclectic our sound is, and how well we improvise with others?

This discussion features three returning guests:

• Roger Joseph Manning Jr. was the keyboardist/singer for Jellyfish and Imperial Drag, and more recently as a solo artist and with the Likerish Quartet. Hear his solo episode. The end song on this episode "I'm Startin' a Band" from his Radio Daze EP (2023).
• David Christian is the singer/guitarist for Britain's Comet Gain. Hear his solo episode. The intro music to this discussion is "Love and Hate on the Radio" from Radio Sessions 1996-2011.
• Portland-based Rachel Taylor Brown has released 10 solo albums. Hear her solo episode. Her song choice relevant to this discussion was "Stagg Field."

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It's another TEAM PLAY episode, with our returning champions, star of improv stages and podcasts Chris and College of Southern Nevada philosophy prof Cole receiving NOT THE INFORMATION THEY EXPECT and gettin' all rational and such when consoling a friend and wrangling about a math quiz. Luxuriate in the rich characters and philosophy tools!

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast to get all our post-game discussions, a video version of the podcast, and other bonus stuff. 

On the second half of Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), getting into the mechanics of how aesthetic experience work in giving us a midpoint between animality and pure rationality where we can feel free. Also, does art reveal truth?

Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

Mark and Bill talk about the lost art of prank phone calls and act out some "customer service nightmares" with an eye to the foundations of law and creativity that defies artistic rules. The scenes are longer and riskier than normal.

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com.

Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast to get all our post-game discussions and other bonus stuff.

Sponsor: Check out the Totes Recall film review podcast at totesrecall.com.

Episode 2 of Wes's new podcasting endeavor, featuring Mary from the Phi Fic podcast, who's also the managing editor of the PEL blog.

Note: Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how.

Is media trying to brainwash us into being ALL THE SAME? Are the excesses of the mob scaring us into conformity? Mark, Erica, and Brian muse on cultural homogenization and are joined by comedian Dr. Yakov Smirnoff to talk about growing up in a repressive society and the shadow of political correctness over comedy.

For more about this podcast, see prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode, and more episodes in advance, at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is curated by openculture.com and The Partially Examined Life Podcast Network.

Does politics have to be Machiavellian? Do you have to be ruthless to succeed?

Given our treatment of Game of Thrones and Life Is a Dream, and the way in which end-justifying-the-means logic plays endlessly in our real-life political situation, it's time we looked back on our episode 14 on Machiavelli. Mark Linsenmayer reviewed that episode and recorded a little essay about practicing Machiavellian politics to get you back in this spirit.

Support this project at patreon.com/marklint!https://patreon.com/marklint

Concluding on William James's Psychology, the Briefer Course (1892). We briefly cover emotions and spend the bulk of our time on will.

James’s introspective method allows us to distinguish reflex or coerced actions from voluntary, free-seeming ones, and gives us the vocabulary to attribute moral virtue to those who have enough willpower to keep those inconvenient truths in mind (if you eat this, you’ll get fat!) that allow us to successfully resist temptation.

Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Support PEL!

End song: "Join the Zoo/Live Again" by Craig Wedren; listen to him on Nakedly Examined Music #15.

David has recorded seven albums since 2000. Usually one wants to avoid the term "Beatlesque," but David is a Beatles freak who once recorded his performances all 209 Beatles songs over 209 days. We discuss "Time to Go" from David Brookings and the Average Lookings (2016), "Dead Battery" from Chorus Verses the Bridge (2005), and the title track from Obsessed (2007). We conclude by listening to "If I Don't Make It Back" from The Maze (2013). Opening music: "You’re So Right, It Went So Wrong" from the current album.

For more, see davidbrookings.net. Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Please support the podcast at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic.