Episode 98: THE END OF THE SHOW AND THE END OF HISTORY

January 28th, 2023  |  1 hr 22 mins

John returns and they finish out the show by finishing Fukuyama's book and reflecting on the experience of working on the show.

Thanks to all of our listeners! It was a great run and we were overjoyed to have you with us.

Episode 96: [UNLOCKED] The End of History and the Last Man: Our Pessimism

January 28th, 2023  |  1 hr 13 mins

Emmet and John begin their series on Fukuyama's seminal The End of History and the Last Man. They talk through its context, Fukuyama's background, trouble some of his assumptions, and kick the tires of his liberal triumphalism in the opening 50 pages.

Episode 97: [UNLOCKED] The End of History and the Last Man pt. II: The Old Age of Mankind

January 28th, 2023  |  1 hr 38 mins

Matt Kelly rejoins the boys to talk about Fukuyama's weird liberalism, econ theory, the triumphalism of the 90s, Fukuyama as an OG anti-Islamic type, and more!

Episode 95: [UNLOCKED] Sanctions and Self-Interest ft. Phil Cunliffe

January 20th, 2023  |  59 mins 49 secs

britain, electricity, energy, energy crisis, gas, natural gas, neoliberalism, oil, putin, sanctions, ukraine, united kingdom

Phil Cunliffe joins Emmet to talk about his opposition to the UK's sanctions against Russia, the politics of self-interest, what happened to the nation-state, and more.

Episode 94: Engineering Engineers ft. Mark Nelson

December 11th, 2022  |  1 hr 21 mins

Mark Nelson returns to the pod to talk with Emmet about becoming an engineer. They talk about the history of the profession in America, how engineers think, what they study, and how they look at the world.

[teaser] Leo Strauss and the Three Waves of Modernity ft. Alex Priou

November 26th, 2022  |  20 mins 1 sec

america, american history, carl schmitt, leo strauss, liberal, liberalism, modernity, political philosophy, politics

Alex Pirou from the New Thinkery podcast sits down with Emmet to talk about Leo Strauss and his posthumously published lecture "The Three Waves of Modernity. They talk about the split between the ancients and the moderns, what Strauss was really after, the tasks modernity presents us with today, whether or not we can recover lessons from the ancients, and more!

Episode 92: The Dirties ft. PsyOp Cinema

November 18th, 2022  |  1 hr 23 mins

cinema, columbine, film, programming, psyop, school shooter, social engineering

Brett and Thomas from PsyOp cinema join Emmet to talk about the school shooter movie The Dirties (2013). They talk about Columbine, the role media plays in "traumatizing" its audiences, social engineering, media saturation as grand social atomizer, and more!

[teaser] Latour and the Problem of Science ft. Jacob Shell

October 28th, 2022  |  15 mins 3 secs

bruno latour, climate change, covid, philosophy, postmodernism, science

Geographer and author Jacob Shell joined me to talk about his obituary of the late Bruno Latour who rose to prominence critiquing science and then turned his back on his most influential works of critical theory in 2004. We discuss the postmodern turn, science as ideology, the problem of critical theory, epistemic authority, "trusting the science," and more!

[teaser]Democratic Pluralism ft. Michael Lind

October 22nd, 2022  |  20 mins 10 secs

american history, degrowth, democracy, economics, economy, industry, managerialism, new deal, political economy

Author Michael Lind joins Emmet to talk about his research speech on democratic pluralism in the 21st century. They discuss regime type, managerialism and technocracy, sector bargaining, the beauty of big, dumb, and simple, his forthcoming book on labor called Hell to Pay, and more.

Episode 89: The Agony of the New Left ft. Leighton Woodhouse

October 14th, 2022  |  1 hr 21 mins

american history, history, libertarianism, new left, nihilism, progressivism, san francisco, woke, woke ideology, wokeness

Journalist Leighton Woodhouse joins Emmet to talk about the New Left of the 1960s and the values of the managerial class. They talk about progressive libertarianism, the difference between the old managerial order of the immediate postwar era and the post-70s era, cultural path dependency, the Port Huron statement, and more.

[teaser] Millennial Canon: Napoleon Dynamite, Juno, and Scott Pilgrim

September 30th, 2022  |  15 mins 7 secs

Kat Dee joins Emmet to talk about movies they couldn't stop texting each other about which they think define, in part, the millennial vibe. They talk about movies that give a shit that you're watching them, what happened to music as part of identity formation, the sexual weirdness of all three movies, being awkward as an early millennial meme, what millennials did to language, and more!

[teaser] Shock of the New: The Future That War

September 26th, 2022  |  15 mins 9 secs

Emmet and Josh wrap up their series on the Shock of the New.

They discuss the modern art museum, Hughes's sick burns on everyone and everything, Superbowl Commericals as art appreciation ritual, Don Draper, and mourning the death of painting.

Episode 88: Oceania Has Always Been At Culture War With Eastasia ft. Michael Cuenco

September 23rd, 2022  |  1 hr 13 mins

conspiracy theory, culture war, end of history, marshall mccluhan, neoliberalism, oligarchy, populism, trump

Essayist Michael Cuenco joins Emmet to talk about the totalizing permanence of the culture war. They talk about Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, liberty, republicanism, oligarchy, living in a post-literate tribal world, and more!

[teaser] Shock of the New: From Munch to Warhol

September 5th, 2022  |  50 mins 14 secs

Josh and Emmet talk over episodes 6 and 7 of Robert Hughes's The Shock of the New. They get into Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Rothko, and the dawn of the Weak Universal Forms.

They discuss art as a window into the past and the schizo-world of television. And if painting can't matter in the way it used to, why did Hughes bother with the series?

Episode 87: The King and the Duke: So Long, Vince McMahon ft. Oliver Bateman

August 19th, 2022  |  58 mins 11 secs

con artist, huck finn, kayfabe, pro wrestling, scandal, trump, vince mcmahon, wrestling, wwe

King of The Work and co-host of What's Left, Oliver Bateman joins Emmet to talk about the illustrious career of pro-wrestling mogul Vince McMahon after he stepped down from WWE. They talk about the hustler and con man as American architects, the intimacy of kayfabe, what people get wrong about their stale "politics as pro wrestling" takes, and more!

[teaser] The End of History and the Last Man: The Old Age of Mankind

August 15th, 2022  |  1 hr 41 mins

Matt Kelly rejoins the boys to talk about Fukuyama's weird liberalism, econ theory, the triumphalism of the 90s, Fukuyama as an OG anti-Islamic type, and more!