About the Podcast

Philosophy, philosophers and philosophical texts. Hosts Mark Linsenmayer, Seth Paskin, Wes Alwan, and Dylan Casey are all recovering philosophy teachers. The format of PEL an informal roundtable discussion, with each episode loosely focused on a short reading that introduces at least one "big" philosophical question, concern or idea. PEL recreates the good old days when these four philosophy teachers would meet up after a seminar to drink beer and talk shop or get some teaching yas out where students couldn't talk back, yet keeps them far away from the profession they escaped long ago!

About the Host

Mark Linsenmayer, Seth Paskin, Wes Alwan, Dylan Casey

Mark Linsenmayer has lived in Madison, WI since 2000, has two kids, and works from home writing about transportation research. He's a musician who's been cranking out albums since 1992 under the name Mark Lint (listen to many tracks here and follow current doings on Facebook. When in grad school for philosophy, he mostly studied continental philosophy and philosophy of mind, with interests in phenomenology and explanations of consciousness. He also taught an ethics course for several semesters at Lakeland College. After growing up as an Air Force brat Seth Paskin went to Reed College in Portland, OR for undergrad and UT @ Austin in 1992 for grad school. Taking a leave of absence from his dissertation he never went back and has spent many years in various roles in the technology industry. Seth is strongly committed to the Austin community, previously serving on the Board of an offender re-entry NGO and currently on the Advisory Board of African Leadership Bridge. In grad school he focused on German philosophy, particularly Martin Heidegger, and spent some time looking at the intersection of Jewish and Western thought. Wes Alwan works as a writer and researcher in Boston, Massachusetts, and Executive Editor of the PEL blog. In graduate school he focused on ancient philosophy, Kant, and Nietzsche. For his undergraduate degree he attended a small "great books" school in Annapolis, Maryland called St. John's college. Dylan Casey studied physics and political philosophy as an undergrad at Michigan State University and experimental high energy particle physics as a graduate student at the University of Rochester, working primarily on the Dzero experiment at Fermilab in Illinois. For the past ten years he's been on the faculty at St. John's College. He has abiding interests in pragmatism, field theory, and the notion of authority. He's currently on leave, living in Middleton, WI, doing research in radiation therapy delivery. He's also Mark's brother-in-law. Dylan is the newest "regular" on the 'cast, but appeared as a guest as far back as episode 13.

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