Welcome to the newest chapter of Hotel Bar Sessions! We're excited to introduce our new co-hosts, Bob Vallier and Jennifer Kling in this "Meet the Co-Hosts" conversation!

Hotel Bar Sessions podcast extends our sincere thanks to outgoing co-host, Talia Mae Bettcher, for her contributions to the HBS archive.

Even deeper gratitude is owed to former co-host Rick Lee, who worked tirelessly and reliably for 13.5 seasons to craft the "voice" of Hotel Bar Sessions. We know you will all miss Rick's voice. Everyone here at the bar will, too.

Alas and alack, changes come, but we're excited about this new lineup of co-hosts at the hotel bar and looking forward to the topics and guests we've lined up for this season!

Stay tuned! Same bar, same whip-smart conversations, just a couple of new voices to mix things up a bit!

You can find this episode on our website at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/meet-the-new-co-hosts

---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

What does it mean to speak of eternity? Is eternity best understood as infinite time, stretching endlessly forward and backward, or as something wholly outside of time—a changeless, timeless "eternal now"?

In this episode, the hosts wrestle with these competing conceptions, drawing on philosophy, theology, and personal experience to ask whether eternity is a thinkable concept or a regulative ideal forever beyond our grasp.

The discussion ranges from Aristotle’s view of time as the measure of motion to medieval analogies of rivers and "standing nows," from Aquinas’s theology of resurrected bodies to Nietzsche’s dark thought of the eternal return. The hosts consider whether eternity should be tied to perfection, necessity, or redemption, and explore whether such ideas have anything to offer our day-to-day human lives.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/eternity
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!

What makes the difference between a crowd singing in unison at a concert and a mob storming the gates of power?

In this episode, the hosts take listeners into the messy, unpredictable space where solidarity teeters on the edge of chaos. They unpack how naming a gathering as a “mob” is never neutral—it does political work, shaping both public perception and police response. From the joyful swell of protest chants to the frightening intensity of January 6th, this conversation asks: when does belonging tip into violence, and who gets to decide?

Whether you’ve ever felt swept up in the electricity of a rally or uneasy in the crush of a crowd, this episode challenges you to think about what is gained and lost when “we” become something more than the sum of our parts. Tune in, and you may never see gatherings—online or off—the same way again.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/crowds-and-mobs
---------------------
SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes when Season 14 begins in September!
SUPPORT Hotel Bar Podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)
JOIN our (new) Discord server here and participate in our monthly (LIVE) chats, beginning in Season 14!
BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.

Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us!