The Observing I

Not Yet: The Philosophy of Ernst Bloch

Hope isn’t optimism. It’s a philosophical position.

Mar 17 • David Johnson

38:31

Leszek Kolakowski, the man who autopsied his god

What do you do when the thing you used to explain everything stops explaining anything?

Mar 10 • David Johnson

37:09

Vladimir Solovyov and the Philosophy of the World Soul

Some people spend their lives chasing something real that cannot be held. The chasing is not the failure. The chasing is the whole point.

Mar 3 • David Johnson

40:58

February 2026

Nikolai Federov: The Librarian who declared war on Death

What if your maturity is just surrender with better posture?

Feb 24 • David Johnson

47:49

Jan Patočka and the Philosophy of Living in Truth

What it means to live without the comfortable lie

Feb 17 • David Johnson

2

1

52:51

Mikhail Bakhtin and the Unfinished Self

The monologue you call your identity is about to break

Feb 10 • David Johnson

44:13

Lev Shestov and the Violence of Reason

You think you're free. You might be wrong.

Feb 3 • David Johnson

2

56:22

January 2026

The Berdyaev Problem: What If You're Afraid of Freedom?

On persons becoming things, and why creating is the only resistance left.

Jan 27 • David Johnson

4

1

53:32

Dostoevsky: Patient Zero of the Nervous Breakdown

The Crystal Palace and the Spiteful Soul

Jan 20 • David Johnson

1

36:51

Kafka and the Machinery of Modern Dread

Existential crises delivered ad-free.

Jan 13 • David Johnson

4

42:00

Welcome to 2026

And what we have in store for the podcast

Jan 6 • David Johnson

1

3:02

December 2025

The Vanishing of Vernon Pale

On the ethics of obligation, and what it costs to become no one.

Dec 16, 2025 • David Johnson

1

46:39