David Grubbs moderates a discussion with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the world of the academic conference, digging into their antecedents, their peculiarities, and why Gilmour doesn't much like them. The last third of the episode is dedicated to dreaming up better ways to do conferences. Among the ideas, people, and stereotypes we dig into are Plato's Symposium, the Royal Society, the MLA, the blustering pedant, the perpetual sneer, and the academic conference's drinking problem.