Episode 33: Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of the American Electric Grid ft. Meredith Angwin

April 6th, 2021  |  1 hr 7 mins

Emmet and John sit down to speak with Meredith Angwin about her new book on America's fragile electric grid.

[teaser] After Virtue II: The Waning of Telos and the Problem of Human Rights

April 4th, 2021  |  5 mins 3 secs

John and Emmet discuss the failure of the Enlightenment's ethical project and highlight MacIntyre's skepticism of human rights.

Episode 32: The Lasch Files: The Cultural Cold War and the Birth of Psychopolitics

March 30th, 2021  |  1 hr 6 mins

christopher lasch, cia, cold war, congress for cultural freedom, cultural cold war, korean war, mccarthyism, nixon, psyop

Emmet and John discuss Christopher Lasch's essay, "The Cultural Cold War: A Short History of the Congress for Cultural Freedom."

Episode 31: Thinking Through Happiness, Misery and Freedom ft. Ashley Frawley

March 23rd, 2021  |  53 mins 49 secs

capitalism, covid, democracy, freedom, happiness, knowledge class, marx, plato, social distancing, socialism, the elightenment, therapy

Emmet sits down with Ashley Frawley to talk about her work on the semiotics of happiness, the knowledge class, and the how to think about freedom.

Episode 30: TFW NO GF: A Pro-Friendship, Anti-FUDposting Movie Review

March 16th, 2021  |  1 hr 17 mins

alex lee moyer, altright, charlottesville, incel, kantbot, loneliness, media criticism, tfw no gf

Emmet and John review Alex Lee Moyer's documentary TFW NO GF.

[teaser] Understanding SolarWinds, Cybersecurity, and Attribution ft. CyberCharles

March 14th, 2021  |  4 mins 27 secs

cia, cold war, cybersec, cybersecurity, fsb, national defense, national security, natsec, nsa, russia, solarwinds, supply chains

For our second Patreon episode, Emmet talks with a cybersecurity expert about the SolarWinds attack.

Episode 29: After Virtue Pt. I: Emotivism and Its Discontents

March 9th, 2021  |  1 hr 17 mins

after virtue, alisdair macintyre, christopher lasch, communitarianism, cultural decay, culture, ethics, marx, marxism, politics

Emmet and John begin their reading series on Alisdair MacIntyre's classic work After Virtue.

Episode 28: What Happened In Texas?: Grading Without a Curve ft. Mark Nelson

March 2nd, 2021  |  1 hr 6 mins

climate change, coal, electrical grid, energy markets, energy twitter, free markets, gas, nuclear power, oil, renewables, rick perry, solar power, texas, the grid, wind power

Emmet talks with energy analyst Mark Nelson about how the Texas grid almost completely collapsed and what that means for our future.

Episode 27: [teaser] Vax Traxx III: Medical Nihilism, mRNA Production Rundown, and the Downfall of the CDC ft. Canada Mike

February 28th, 2021  |  3 mins 15 secs

bayesian statistics, corona, corona virus, coronavirus, covid19, logistics, pfizer, supply chains, vaccine

A teaser for our first Patreon episode.

Episode 26: Line Go Down: A GameStop Debrief ft. Matt Stonks

February 23rd, 2021  |  1 hr 13 mins

chamath, deepfuckingvalue, economics, elon musk, finance, free markets, gamestop, populism, the big short, wall street bets, wire card

Matt Stonks joins the lads to talk through financial fundamentals, what happened with GameStop, and what the whole kerfuffle might mean for the future.

Episode 25: Democracy Under Siege ft. Frank Furedi

February 16th, 2021  |  1 hr 11 secs

athens, democracy, frank furedi, hamilton, philosophy, plato, politics, psychology, technocracy, woke

Emmet sits down with Frank Furedi to discuss his latest book, Democracy Under Siege: Don't Let Them Lock It Down!

Episode 24: The Self-Design of American Nihilism

February 9th, 2021  |  1 hr 20 mins

altright, borges, capitol riots, conspiracy theory, heidegger, incel, leo strauss, nihilism, philosophy, politics, qanon, yukio mishima

We talk through three pieces: Strauss's lecture on German Nihilism, Bradley Troemel's video essay on QAnon, and Boris Groys's essay Self-Design and Aesthetic Responsibility to understand the current state of American Nihilism.

Episode 23: Vaccine Breakdown II: Decentralization Boogaloo ft. Canada Mike

February 2nd, 2021  |  1 hr 7 mins

america, american history, christopher lasch, corona, corona virus, coronavirus, covid19, ivan ilich, logistics, pfizer, supply chains, vaccine

Canada Mike joins us to talk about why America's vaccine rollout plan doesn't make sense and why it's not going well.

Episode 22: Poe, Emerson, and Literary National Identity

January 26th, 2021  |  1 hr 8 mins

19th century history, america, american canon, emerson, german philosophy, national identity, nationalism, philosophy, poe

We conclude (for now) our readings of Poe and Emerson by taking a look at how they conceived of American literary nationalism.

Episode 21: Two Piece: Anger And Its Limits

January 19th, 2021  |  1 hr 4 mins

1/6, anger, capitol building, justice, neostoicism, politics, ryan holiday, stoicism, taleb

Emmet and John discuss two different articles that take on stoicism and anger.

Episode 20: We Are the Information Supervisors

January 12th, 2021  |  1 hr 10 mins

cancel culture, facebook, flash animation, joshua harris, social media, tristan harris, twitter

We offer a brief obit for Flash animation and then discuss two documentaries that deal with the problem of social media.