What do myths, film, and existentialism have in common? They all make us ask: what does it mean to be human.
In this episode of Good Is In The Details, Gwendolyn Dolske and Rudy Salo sit down with one of the most celebrated and wide-ranging thinkers in contemporary philosophy — Dr. Lewis Gordon, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut and author of Fear of Black Consciousness (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Dr. Gordon's work spans existentialism, phenomenology, Africana philosophy, aesthetics and philosophy in film, philosophy of race, and social and political philosophy. This conversation travels across all of it. What begins as a discussion of myth and meaning takes an unexpected turn into film, philosophy of existence, and the deep human need for stories that are retold — stories that enter our lives as something meaningful.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why myths require repetition to produce meaning — and what that tells us about how humans make sense of the world
- Existentialism beyond the European canon — and what Africana philosophy adds to our understanding of freedom, identity, and consciousness
- The philosophy hidden inside film — how movies function as modern myth and what they reveal about the human condition
- The work of Frantz Fanon, W.E.B. Du Bois, and black existential thought
- What it means to live an examined, self-aware life in the 21st century
Whether you're encountering existentialism for the first time or you've spent years with Sartre and Fanon, this episode will leave you thinking differently about the stories you tell yourself — and why they matter.
Guest: Dr. Lewis Gordon — philosopher, author, and public intellectual whose work engages fundamental questions about existence, race, liberation, and what it means to be human.
Books mentioned: Fear of Black Consciousness · Existentia Africana · Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism · What Fanon Said
Good Is In The Details is hosted by Gwendolyn Dolske, Ph.D. and Rudy Salo — a philosophy and books podcast exploring big ideas in the spirit of Socrates, with the aim of a more curious, knowledgeable, and examined life.
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Keywords: existentialism, philosophy podcast, Lewis Gordon, Africana philosophy, black existentialism, Frantz Fanon, W.E.B. Du Bois, myth and meaning, philosophy of film, phenomenology, philosophy of race, consciousness, free will, identity, meaning of life, what is a human being, education podcast, philosophy lecture, Socrates, examined life, Good Is In The Details
Learn more about Professor Gordon: https://philosophy.uconn.edu/person/lewis-gordon/
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