Where the real philosophy happens

Hotel Bar Sessions is a podcast where the real philosophy happens. Academic philosophy conferences can be esoteric and boring, but the conversations that happen when philosophers meet up at the end of a long conference day to chop it up at the hotel bar are often where the best philosophy is done. HOTEL BAR SESSIONS recreates that laid-back, slightly-intoxicated, and whip-smart vibe, as our three philosopher co-hosts-- Dr. Jason Read (University of Southern Maine), Dr. Rick Lee (DePaul University), and Dr. Leigh M. Johnson (Christian Brothers University)-- belly up to the hotel bar once a week to dig into that week's episode topic. We cover straightforwardly "philosophical" topics, of course, but also a LOT more: politics, religions, technology, pop culture, economic conditions, and some of today's most pressing moral issues. HOTEL BAR SESSIONS is not a series of academic lectures or classroom lessons. It's a smart conversation between smart friends about important topics, unscripted and stripped of academic jargon, that attempts to get some clarity, some insight, some knowledge-- or, at least, just some rudimentary understanding of what the other co-hosts are thinking-- about things that matter to us and, we think, should matter to you. .
 

We started this podcast in March 2021, still during the pandemic, as a way to keep us sane... but also to keep philosophical dialogue alive while we were all isolated! Our initial aim was to bring big ideas to a curious--though not necessarily philosophically "trained"-- audience to show that complex topics can be discussed without resorting to academic jargon. Hotel Bar Sessions episodes are not lectures, and we don't imagine our listeners as "students." We genuinely believe that philosophy is best done in conversation, and that if we can't have smart conversations in the vernacular, then we don't actually know what we're talking about.

Hotel Bar Sessions frequently features guests on our podcast as well. For the most part, we invite guests who are best-suited to talk about whatever topic we have chosen, though sometimes we choose a topic because we want to talk to a particular guest!
 

Hotel Bar Sessions releases one episode each week on Fridays. Each of our seasons is 15 episodes long, and we usually take a 3-4 week break between seasons to relax, re-set, and prepare for the next season. All three co-hosts have "day jobs" as professional (academic) philosophers: Rick Lee is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, Jason Read is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Maine University, and Leigh M. Johnson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Christian Brothers University.

We record episodes once a week and it takes roughly 5-7 days to edit/produce each of them, so there is at least 2-3 weeks between the recording and the release of HBS episodes. Because our three co-hosts reside in different cities (Chicago, Portland, Memphis), and because our guests are often in different locations/time zones/countries, scheduling episodes is sometimes a bit of a challenge. As a podcast, we are especially committed to making our guests sound the best they possibly can, so post-production is probably the most time-consuming part of our work.

At present, our Hotel Bar Sessions is self-sustaining, largely thanks to our Patreon supporters at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions. We also provide opportunities on our website at hotelbarpodcast.com for listeners to support us through Venmo, PayPal, and CashApp.
 

We are an independent, non-sponsored, listener-supported podcast... and we would prefer to stay that way.

(DISCLAIMER: we often make jokes soliciting sponsorship in our episodes, but those are "mostly" jokes... we put "mostly" in scare-quotes there to indicate that we would *definitely* consider sponsorship from a sponsor that did not compromise our vision!)

We have basically two visions of the potential "benefits" of philosophical podcasting:

(1) It provides us the opportunity to reach genuinely curious, open-minded, and civic-oriented listeners who are interested in conversations about philosophical, political, social, ethical, technological, and environmental concerns that affect all of our well-being.

(2) It provides an alternative model to "publishing" for (especially younger) academic philosophers, who are saddled by the "publish or perish" model of higher education, despite the fact that most of the peer-reviewed publications and/or monographs they will publish will have a readership of <100 people. As all three of our co-hosts already have tenure, we are committed to demonstrating the value of public-facing philosophy, the importance of our younger colleagues' contributions to public discourse... and the importance of having it count toward their tenure and promotion!
 

Hotel Bar Sessions records its episodes on Zoom, because all three co-hosts are located in different cities, but we do not use the Zoom audio recording at all. (Zoom just helps us have a more "natural" conversation, because we can all see each other.) We each record separate audio files on Audacity, as do our guests, and the individual audio files are combined and edited afterwards. Our post-production work employs various software, including: Audacity, Levelator, Descript, Techsmith for Camtasia, Adobe Audition, etc.

Our podcasts are not "scripted"; in fact, it is very important to us that we let the conversations go wherever they go. Prior to any recording, we begin with a very general "outline" of what we would like to cover in the three "segments" of any particular podcast. Sometimes we stick to the outline, but quite often we do not. Our co-hosts do quite a bit of research in advance of each episode, though (apart from whatever "common reading" we might be discussing) we do not share our prep research with one another, in order to keep our responses to one another spontaneous and natural.

We do not share our "rough outlines" with our guests-- again, because we want to keep the conversation as spontaneous and natural as possible, However, we allow everyone-- co-hosts and guests-- to stop at any point and start a thought/comment over... it all gets worked out in editing later!
 

Hotel Bar Sessions podcast is on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. Our subscriber and download metrics make it difficult for us to determine which of those platforms are the most beneficial to us, but we suspect that a large part of our audience is Gen-Z or older, which would incline us to believe that our Facebook presence is significant. We post episodes on YouTube one week after they are released on podcast platforms, but our YouTube engagement is not insignificant. Our primary "outreach" platform is Twitter.

We've had two major "jumps" in HBS listeners since we began: in July 2021, when we made our first change in co-hosts (Charles F. Peterson and Rick Lee replaced Ammon Allred and Shannon Musset), and then again when we made our second change in co-hosts (Jason Read replaced Charles F. Peterson).
 

Our first, completely and not-at-all-original, advice would be: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. The relationship between podcaster and podcast-listener is a strangely intimate one. You're going to be in their earbuds while they're exercising, or on their speaker while they're cooking. If you don't know who you are speaking to every time you press "record," you're missing the whole entire point of podcasting.
 

Hotel Bar Sessions podcast website:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions on Patreon at:
https://www.patreon.com/hotelbarsessions
Hotel Bar Session on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/hotelbarsessionspodcast
Hotel Bar Sessions on Twitter/X:
https://twitter.com/hotelbarpodcast
Hotel Bar Sessions on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH8qDWEJF3VNjb7GjD_4ROQ
Hotel Bar Sessions on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@hotelbarsessions