Episode 2 of Park Bench Ontology looks at enframing — the idea that modern systems don’t just control what we do, but how the world shows up to us in the first place.

Using Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, we trace how empathy, humanity, and morality become measurable outputs inside a technological worldview — and what happens when people start treating themselves like machines.

This isn’t about robots. It’s about work, burnout, identity, and why being human now feels like a performance metric.

When everything becomes a resource — attention, emotion, relationships — the question isn’t “Are we free?”

It’s “Free to do what?”

Park Bench Ontology is a lo-fi philosophy series about ideology, culture, capitalism, and existential drift.

New episodes weekly.

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

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🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

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Burnout isn’t an accident.

In this episode, I sit on a park bench and talk about why stillness feels suspicious, why boredom is treated like a problem, and how a society built on constant stimulation quietly teaches people to fear being alone with their thoughts.

This isn’t motivation.

This isn’t productivity advice.

It’s a look at what happens when rest, solitude, and reflection are treated as failures instead of necessities.

Park Bench Ontology is a podcast about identity, systems, and the strange things we’ve been taught to accept as normal.

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

Subscribe and leave a review!

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

Subscribe and leave a review!

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They told us fantasy games were dangerous, but reality was the real cult.

In Episode 8, Gavin looks at how the Satanic Panic became a rehearsal for today’s culture wars — a simulation of evil that kept us from noticing the system running the show.

Featuring dark humor, theory, and a touch of absurdism, this episode dives into the spectacle of fear, nostalgia, and control that defines our era.

Park Bench Ontology — “Simulation / Spectacle: The Real Satanic Panic.”

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

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This week, Gavin looks at necropolitics — the philosophy of who gets to live, who’s left to die, and how power hides behind empathy.

From Charlie Kirk’s empathy shaming to the way immigrants, women, and Black people are turned into election-season mascots, Park Bench Ontology cuts through the moral theater of politics with dark humor and existential clarity.

💀 Necropolitics: Living Isn’t the Point Anymore — a comedy of collapse for anyone trying to stay human under capitalism.

#PhilosophyPodcast #ComedyPodcast #Necropolitics #BlackAbsurdism #PoliticalPhilosophy #ExistentialComedy #LoFiPhilosophy #CriticalTheory #MarkFisher #PoliticalSatire

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

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Everyone loves to talk about “freedom” — but what kind?

The freedom we’re sold isn’t liberation; it’s consumption. It’s “freedom” as brand — the right to choose between identical prisons.

In this episode of Park Bench Ontology, I talk about how control got cute — how social media, the market, and even self-help language turned freedom into obedience.

Because under capitalism, the illusion of choice is the control.

Originally uploaded as ‘Necropolitics.’ Correct title: Freedom From Freedom.

🔗 Watch full episodes & support:

🌐 Website: https://gavinstephens.ca

📼 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

🎵 TikTok: @parkbenchontology

📷 Instagram:@countgavin

🐦 Bluesky/Twitter: @gavinbstephens.substack.com

🎧 Listen to the podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

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In this episode of Park Bench Ontology, Gavin dives into the strange world of psychopolitics — where control doesn’t come from force anymore, it comes from vibes. From influencer culture to “mental health awareness” campaigns, the systems of power learned how to smile while keeping you compliant.

Why are we all marketing ourselves while pretending it’s freedom? How did surveillance turn into self-expression? And why does every form of rebellion now come with a brand kit?

This episode explores how capitalism evolved past discipline into dopamine — how control got cute, and why that’s the scariest form of power yet.

🎧 Listen if you’ve ever felt like even your thoughts are trying to sell you something.

#Psychopolitics #ParkBenchOntology #CapitalistRealism #ByungChulHan #SurveillanceCulture #DigitalControl #AfroAbsurdism #ComedyPodcast #ExistentialComedy #CriticalTheory #MediaTheory #LoFiOntology #PhilosophyPodcast #CulturalCritique

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

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The future isn’t coming — it’s being rewritten. In Episode 4 of Park Bench Ontology: Hauntology, I explore how capitalism erases anything that doesn’t produce value, from WWE’s most absurd gimmicks to the mistakes that make life human. We also unpack how older generations insist theirs was the “best era,” when really culture just keeps repeating itself — sanitized, packaged, and sold back to us.

Listen & Subscribe: https://pod.link/uncolonized

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ParkBenchOntology

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

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In this week’s episode of Park Bench Ontology, we dive headfirst into capitalist realism—the idea that capitalism is the only system that feels “real” and inevitable—and what it means when our identities, style, and culture are co-opted by the market. I share my own bizarre experience buying an Old Navy Malcolm X shirt, and why it made me rethink how we consume revolutionary imagery while participating in the very system it critiqued.

We talk symbolic violence, brand culture, and the absurdity of resistance in a consumerist world—and I unpack how capitalism doesn’t just sell products, it sells identity.

🔑 Topics covered:

• Capitalist realism and cultural inevitability
• Consumerism vs. authenticity
• The commercialization of revolutionary symbols
• Existential dread in everyday capitalism
• 
  

If you’ve ever wondered why your rebellion looks suspiciously like a mall display, this episode is for you.

Listen & Subscribe: https://pod.link/uncolonized

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOStPFwaNyn895S43bUk9HoaZdFEIXlQc

🎙 Park Bench Ontology — existential comedy for the end of the world.

🔗 Follow & Support:

🌐 Website: http://gavinstephens.ca

🎧 Podcast: https://pod.link/uncolonized

📷 Instagram: @countgavin

🐦 Bluesky: gavinstephens.substack.com

🎵 TikTok: @ParkBenchOntology

📼 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@parkbenchontology

Also, Check out the Substack: Dispatch From The Simulation

Subscribe and leave a review!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.