Examined Life

Influential Thinkers and The Spaces that Shape their Ideas

Filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

Peter Singer's thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue's posh boutiques. Slavoj Zizek questions current beliefs about the environment while sifting through a garbage dump. Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure. Judith Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco's Mission District questioning our culture's fixation on individualism. And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West--perhaps America's best-known public intellectual--compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be.

Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, EXAMINED LIFE reveals philosophy's power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.

"As inviting and accessible as a smart conversation with fascinating friends." - Jeff Shannon, The Seattle Times

"Part of the fun of EXAMINED LIFE comes from watching these very intelligent thinkers try to make themselves intelligible." - A.O. Scott, The New York Times