“Pet a cat when you encounter one in the street.” - Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (Rule 12)
“The carceral texture of society assures both the real capture of the body and its perpetual observation; it is, by its very nature, the apparatus of punishment that conforms most completely to the new economy of power and the instrument for the formation of knowledge that this very economy needs.”
- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats).
In his bestselling 12 Rules for Life, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson metonymizes reprieve from unavoidable suffering in the form of feline-human communion. Though well-intentioned, our feline host finds Peterson's cat-petting strategy both ableist (excluding those with extreme cat allergies and ailurophobics) and, more troublingly, harboring potential to encourage additional and undue human control over vulnerable feline bodies. He meows his case for over twenty minutes, awaiting a response from Dr. Peterson, who has declined multiple requests for his input.
In the spirit of transparency and open debate, we request that this week’s viewers solicit Dr. Peterson’s comments on this urgent matter.
This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats).
Praise for Meow: A Novel
"Breathtaking... a revelation." - Stubbs, Unaltered Domestic Shorthair
"Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow. Meow? Meow." - Joan Didion
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