Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
0:00 Introduction – Bonus chapter for Waypoint 2nd edition
0:07 Book & Project Announcements – Waypoint audiobook + Canon TCG reveal
3:50 Sai Ewald introduces himself & talks up David
4:39 David’s self-characterization – mediocre Renaissance man, farmer/philosopher/husband/father
5:12 Life-changing lecture at Duquesne – Partially Examined Life panel
6:25 Conference experiences & finding funding as a non-traditional student
9:41 Impact of the public philosophy panel – Arendt, Greek freedom, public happiness
13:08 Plebeian theorizing – keeping philosophy accessible
15:34 Reading practices & AI – reading aloud vs silent, ideology of “proper” reading
18:31 Juissance in philosophy – Lacanian enjoyment beyond the pleasure principle
19:49 Formative experiences & political puzzles
23:23 Wonder, knowledge pursuit & not getting stuck on any one thinker
26:41 Reading strategies – slipstreaming Marx & Heidegger, Neil Postman shout-out
30:00 Online communication challenges & digital unreliability
33:40 Influencer experience & voluntary exit – audience capture
39:48 Left activism critiques – cowardice, capture, persona traps
43:00 Philosophical goals – power, capital, ethics vs protest futility
47:00 Post-revolution realities & energy limits
50:00 Influencer constraints & why he left
55:00 Final thoughts on Theory Underground – international tour & real relationshipsThanks for watching! Thanks even more for liking, sharing, and commenting—whether it be something thoughtful or just for the algorithm. It definitely makes a difference.
Become a member of Theory Underground here: theoryunderground.com/subscribe
Tier 1 and higher get access to the courses and seminars going monthly throughout 2026:
Intro to Theory, The Philosophy of Stewardship, and The Philosophy of Religion with David McKerracher.
Tier 2 and higher get access to a monthly writers or speaking workshop.
Tier 3 includes the book or thesis writer's cohort. All members get access to the monthly Post Duopoly (de)Radicalization Starter Pack reading group, which is a collaboration between TU and 1Dime. theoryunderground.com/subscribe
David McKerracher is an organizer, theorist, husband and father (not in that order), and the founder of Theory Underground. McKerracher is the author of Timenergy: Why You Have No Time or Energy (Foreword by Slavoj Žižek), as well as the chief editor of Underground Theory (Volumes one and two are available now, with volume three in the works).
Office hours: The first Monday of every month at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, or if you wait around after lectures/seminars.
Publishing: Underground Theory Volumes 1 and 2, Timenergy: Why You Have No Time or Energy, as well as serial releases of chapters, original thoughts, and upcoming books.
Community: Conferences, retreats, and international tour. TU’s hybrid and experimental grassroots (self-funded) tour events have occurred in prestigious private universities as well as people's garages and backyards, on campus quads or downtown in busy urban areas, as well as deep in the wilderness. TU is virtually everywhere and always on tour, but physically it is based on a small regenerative farm in North Idaho.
Renowned professors at Theory Underground have included Slavoj Žižek, Benjamin Studebaker, Nina Power, John D. Caputo, Peter Rollins, Chris Cutrone, Iain Thomson, Alenka Zupančič, Leon Brenner; Todd McGowan, as well as lesser-known but nonetheless amazing lecturers such as Samuel Loncar, Tony Chamas, Bryan Weeks, Michael Downs, and Elton L.K. of the Working Class Intelligentsia and the Democratic Socialists of America education podcast called CLASS.
Music Logo Sequence Music is always either by olliebeanz.com/music creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode or “What's Left” Adam Leher. Thanks! If you are an artist who has something that might be good for TU's unique vibe, you can always send it to us a hell.theoryunderground@gmail.com
0:00 Introduction – Bonus chapter for Waypoint 2nd edition
0:07 Book & Project Announcements – Waypoint audiobook + Canon TCG reveal
3:50 Sai Ewald introduces himself & talks up David
4:39 David’s self-characterization – mediocre Renaissance man, farmer/philosopher/husband/father
5:12 Life-changing lecture at Duquesne – Partially Examined Life panel
6:25 Conference experiences & finding funding as a non-traditional student
9:41 Impact of the public philosophy panel – Arendt, Greek freedom, public happiness
13:08 Plebeian theorizing – keeping philosophy accessible
15:34 Reading practices & AI – reading aloud vs silent, ideology of “proper” reading
18:31 Juissance in philosophy – Lacanian enjoyment beyond the pleasure principle
19:49 Formative experiences & political puzzles
23:23 Wonder, knowledge pursuit & not getting stuck on any one thinker
26:41 Reading strategies – slipstreaming Marx & Heidegger, Neil Postman shout-out
30:00 Online communication challenges & digital unreliability
33:40 Influencer experience & voluntary exit – audience capture
39:48 Left activism critiques – cowardice, capture, persona traps
43:00 Philosophical goals – power, capital, ethics vs protest futility
47:00 Post-revolution realities & energy limits
50:00 Influencer constraints & why he left
55:00 Final thoughts on Theory Underground – international tour & real relationshipsThanks for watching! Thanks even more for liking, sharing, and commenting—whether it be something thoughtful or just for the algorithm. It definitely makes a difference.
Become a member of Theory Underground here: theoryunderground.com/subscribe
Tier 1 and higher get access to the courses and seminars going monthly throughout 2026:
Intro to Theory, The Philosophy of Stewardship, and The Philosophy of Religion with David McKerracher.
Tier 2 and higher get access to a monthly writers or speaking workshop.
Tier 3 includes the book or thesis writer's cohort. All members get access to the monthly Post Duopoly (de)Radicalization Starter Pack reading group, which is a collaboration between TU and 1Dime. theoryunderground.com/subscribe
David McKerracher is an organizer, theorist, husband and father (not in that order), and the founder of Theory Underground. McKerracher is the author of Timenergy: Why You Have No Time or Energy (Foreword by Slavoj Žižek), as well as the chief editor of Underground Theory (Volumes one and two are available now, with volume three in the works).
Office hours: The first Monday of every month at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, or if you wait around after lectures/seminars.
Publishing: Underground Theory Volumes 1 and 2, Timenergy: Why You Have No Time or Energy, as well as serial releases of chapters, original thoughts, and upcoming books.
Community: Conferences, retreats, and international tour. TU’s hybrid and experimental grassroots (self-funded) tour events have occurred in prestigious private universities as well as people's garages and backyards, on campus quads or downtown in busy urban areas, as well as deep in the wilderness. TU is virtually everywhere and always on tour, but physically it is based on a small regenerative farm in North Idaho.
Renowned professors at Theory Underground have included Slavoj Žižek, Benjamin Studebaker, Nina Power, John D. Caputo, Peter Rollins, Chris Cutrone, Iain Thomson, Alenka Zupančič, Leon Brenner; Todd McGowan, as well as lesser-known but nonetheless amazing lecturers such as Samuel Loncar, Tony Chamas, Bryan Weeks, Michael Downs, and Elton L.K. of the Working Class Intelligentsia and the Democratic Socialists of America education podcast called CLASS.
Music Logo Sequence Music is always either by olliebeanz.com/music creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode or “What's Left” Adam Leher. Thanks! If you are an artist who has something that might be good for TU's unique vibe, you can always send it to us a hell.theoryunderground@gmail.com
