Wow, I'm almost a serious scholar with a very entertaining presentation style. And the tension between the two... that's what I'm teaching.

We need information to locate ourselves in the world, but information has to hold our attention long enough to reach us. Distress becomes narrative; analysis acquires rhythm; structural problems become compelling characters in an increasingly unmanageable story. Voluntarily exposing ourselves to what troubles us can then produce its own peculiar pleasure—not necessarily because we enjoy the suffering, but because attention, recognition, understanding, and entertainment have begun vibrating together.

This episode tries to interfere with that vibration without pretending it can escape it. If you find yourself enjoying the presentation, perhaps you can observe that enjoyment while it happens. Then you can become critical of it. Then, if things are working properly, you may notice the pleasure of being critical of your own pleasure—and become suspicious of that too.

Somewhere inside this recursion are questions about fairness, productivity, privilege, comparison, and what an equity lens reveals when it is turned toward the conditions that make one person appear more successful than another.

These aren’t even apples.