We Might Be Tables

About We Might Be Tables

In this series, two friends contemplate and examine the nature of the world in all its absurd glory, while analysing anything from television and video games to books and essays. Founded in a passion for philosophy, this podcast, with hosts Dewansh Matharoo and Shrish Sudharsan, is a fresh take on culture, being, and everything in between. What does it mean to be, anyway? After all, we might be tables. E-mail: wemightbetables@gmail.com.

Publisher

Dewansh and Shrish

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

30 Aug 2020

Latest episode

17 May 2026

Latest episodes

47 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 May 2026

   Episode 47: Ima (Perfect Days - Wim Wenders)

   Kondo wa kondo, ima wa ima. Hirayama wakes at dawn to the sound of a broom sweeping the streets outside his modest flat east of the Sumida River. He makes his bed, marks the page on his book, and goes downstairs to brush his teeth, water his plants, and grab his keys and some spare change before going outside to look at the sky, breathe in, and smile. He grabs a coffee from a nearby vending machine, climbs into his van, and gets his music cassette ready. After a quick swig from his can humorously labelled 'BOSS', Hirayama drives off to begin his day as a cleaner of public toilets in Shibuya. Wim Wenders' modern masterpiece, Perfect Days, is a complex meditation on work, routine, and meaning. It touches on a vast array of topics such as capitalism and class, existentialism and relationships, and estrangement and grief. Rarely do films feel so well-rounded in their nuanced exploration of context, politics, and aesthetics, while also being piercingly poignant in what they have to say about transcending the limits of the body and spirit. Perfect Days is undoubtedly one of the great films of the twenty-first century; we could not help but watch it time and again to see and feel everything it has to offer. It is also one that is and will be important in the years to come, owing in no small measure to its thoughtful tone and sublime message, relevant more than ever in a world of growing alienation and individualism. This latest episode is in two parts: this one on Perfect Days, and the other (right before), on a surprisingly similar film by Akira Kurosawa: Ikiru. We had a fantastic time thinking through both stories' impact, and hope you gain as much from our discussion as we did from the films! As always, we would love to hear your thoughts, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us on Instagram, e-mail, or using a voice note on Spotify! References: 1) Criterion Collection article by Bilge Ebiri, on Wim Wenders' filmography. (https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8536-perfect-days-where-the-light-comes-through) 2) Reddit comment on abject loneliness in Perfect Days. (www.reddit.com/r/TrueFilm/comments/1b081zh/perfect_days_2023_i_dont_understand_the_top/) 3) Article on the importance of Lou Reed to Wim Wenders and the former's presence in Perfect Days - Wim Wenders' Life Was Saved by Rock and Roll: Lou Reed is a mighty voice in my new film. (https://www.nme.com/features/film-interviews/wim-wenders-music-rock-lou-reed-perfect-days-3583870) 4) Dewansh mentions an article about how Perfect Days is a sanitized film. We are not able to link the source here (yet). 5) Dewansh reads something about the person experiencing homelessness. We are not able to link the source here (yet). 6) Aoi Yamada (https://www.aoiyamada.com/).

2. 

   3 May 2026

   Episode 46: Living (Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa)

   [Note: Episode recorded in 2024] Tokyo, 1952. Seven years after World War II, Japan's public sector is in shambles: inadequate funding, multi-layered corruption, and bureaucratic apathy have left the people desperate for systemic change. Amidst this turmoil is one man, Watanabe, who has been a civil servant for close to thirty years, busying himself thoughtlessly and monotonously to the point of dehumanisation. However, unbeknownst to anyone, there is something special about him: in less than a year, Watanabe will be dead. Work. Service. Meaning. What is it all for? Are work and labour the same thing? How have we historically envisioned the importance of work as a social and cultural phenomenon? Under the umbrella of state-capitalism, how do workers become Subjects; what are the tensions between community-oriented and nationalist work; fundamentally, by what processes and associations do we ascribe "value" to certain individual and social projects? Ikiru, Akira Kurosawa's daring and dioramic critique of the relationship between individual and community, community and nation, and nation and morality is oft-considered one of the greatest films of all time. Its relevance cannot be understated in a time of growing communal tensions, increased global shifts towards the far-right and jingoism and, of course, the further fragmentation of work and labour. This latest episode is in two parts: the first, on Ikiru, and the second, on a surprisingly similar film by Wim Wenders: Perfect Days. We had a fantastic time thinking through both stories' impact, and hope you gain as much from our discussion as we did from the films! As always, we would love to hear your thoughts, so please don't hesistate to reach out to us on Instagram, e-mail, or using a voice note on Spotify! References: 1) Ikiru screenplay and Donald Richie 2) The Farewell (Chinese film), directed by Lulu Wang 3) Louis Althusser - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus 4) Shin Godzilla, directed by Hideaki Anno 5) Living, directed by Oliver Hermanus 6) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 7) Off/Screen article: A Study of Kurosawa's Ikiru Note: At one point, Shrish refers to Donald Richie as Donald Richardson; we just wanted to apologize for that oversight!

3. 

   24 Mar 2024

   Episode 45: Erased, Not Dead: Ecofeminism Against Speciesism (Ecofeminism Revisited - Greta Gaard)

   An unfortunately longevous legacy of feminism--particularly its liberal brand from the 1970s--is a willful disregard for and violent erasure of ecological politics, specifically species justice. In her 2011 essay "Ecofeminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Replacing Species in a Material Feminist Environmentalism", Greta Gaard surveys the rise and fall of ecofeminist scholarship and activism, noting its frequent clashes with the mainstream. Inspired both by her work and its references, as well as our own academic pursuits into the ecological critique of gender liberation, this is a conversation that has been long in the making. We hope that this serves as the first of many necessary entries for a series on "eco-social critique" (we just made that up). Ecofeminism is not dead! We would like to thank ZHRØ (https://freesound.org/people/ZHRØ/) for their song, chill background music #2.wav (https://freesound.org/people/ZHRØ/sounds/703713/). References in the episode: 1) Ecofeminism and Climate Justice. Interview with Greta Gaard (https://www.the-vegan-rainbow-project.org/post/2019/04/06/greta-gaard). 2) Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. 3) Mind your Buffalo (https://open.spotify.com/show/70Y6Y8FtCo6EFDfF6Xmogb?si=2ca5ff54b34f4087) by Buffalo Intellectual. 4) #OilYouNeed on Nutrition and Flavour with Swetha Sivakumar (https://open.spotify.com/episode/0dvXMhGodV2PmPspki9esy?si=eAY0mUQ9Q0KYxAeIy_QOGQ). Note: Please send us a message if you would like to read the paper! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/we-might-be-tables/message

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