In a world that has developed a collective fear of the dark, how can we navigate the not-so-positive feelings that we experience? In episode 121 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with philosopher Mariana Alessandri about her book, Dark Moods. They talk about how the obsession with light fuels toxic positivity, the ways shame amplifies dark moods, and the harmful effects of associating light with good and darkness with bad. Why does society disregard negative emotions? Does the medical field ...
Hello and welcome to Overthink, the podcast.
Where two philosophers show you that things that society often deems bad are actually maybe not so bad, or at least more complicated, in this case, less bad.
Sure.
I am Dr.
David Pena Guzman.
Sure.
David's looking at me like you went on way too long.
And I am ellie Anderson.
I'm Dr.
Ellie Anderson.
Hello.
From a young age, the 20th century Chicana feminist philosopher Gloria Ansaldua was a friend of the darkness.
As a young girl growing up in the borderlands of Texas, Ansaldua would walk around with books by Nietzsche and Kierkegaard in her backpack.
Honestly, so cute.
Oh, my God.
She was the ideal student, the student that we all want to have.
Well, I'm not so sure about that because she also described herself as an alien from another planet.
Part of the reason that Ansel Duo was carrying Nietzsche and Kierkegaard around is because she was, from a young age, very interested in philosophy.
No wonder then that she became an extremely prominent thinker.
And I would say now somebody that you basically can't go to a philosophy conference or a feminist conference today without somebody mentioning Ansel Dua's work.