Adam Kadlac

Department of Philosophy, Wake Forest University

The Magic Kingdom and the Meaning of Life (Polity Press, fall of 2025)

Pre-order at Bookshop.org, Amazon, or contact your local bookstore!

“With poignant philosophical insights and moving personal stories, Kadlac’s wonderful book shows how Disney is a surprisingly rich lens through which to think about identity and pleasure, princesses and hipsters, and so much more. Regardless of how you feel about the Disney empire, this inspiring book will provoke you to ask big questions about how pop culture influences our ideas about what it means to live happily ever after.”

~Skye Cleary, Columbia University, author of How to be Authentic

“Kadlac leads us on a lively ride through philosophical themes inspired by Disney’s parks -- the tension between the aristocratic and ordinary in the concept of the ‘princess,’ the strange irony of being anxious about being insufficiently happy, the underappreciated merits of waiting in long lines, the idiosyncratic and private nature of each individual’s reaction to a mass experience. Philosophical culture criticism at its finest.”

~Eric Schwitzgebel, University of California, Riverside, author of The Weirdness of the World

The Ethics of Sports Fandom (Routledge, 2022)

"Sports fans have long argued amongst themselves about the ‘right’ way to be a fan, their duties to ‘their’ teams, and the comparative value of everything from their favorite players to women’s versus men’s athletics. The Ethics of Sports Fandom aims to settle some of these classic disputes and raise new ones, with a philosopher’s eye to questioning even the most dearly held beliefs of die-hard sports fans, while it defends fans from their unkinder critics."

~Erin Tarver, Emory University, author of The I in Team

"Adam Kadlac’s The Ethics of Sports Fandom is an engaging and compellingly argued book. Kadlac argues that fans need to view their teams from an appropriate distance: we did not win at the weekend, the team did. One might think that this pushes the fans away from the team and makes fandom less important, yet Kadlac does an admirable job of arguing why fandom is a valuable part of our lives, rather than mere escapism. Along the way, he addresses a variety of ethical issues, like the ways fans objectify players, the harms players suffer, how fans so rarely are fans of women’s teams, and the divisive nationalism international sports can arouse. In doing this, he shows both how fandom can be valuable, but also the ways in which we need to change in order to avoid some of the ethical problems fandom can bring."