About the show
Co-hosts Emmet and John plumb the depths of history, culture, and philosophy to understand why it is that despite calamities and rapid change nothing feels possible anymore. Guests include artists, scholars, and thinkers from all over the world.
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Episodes
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Episode 63: Public Writing, Public Thinking ft. Oliver Traldi
November 3rd, 2021 | 1 hr 3 mins
american politics, crt, philosophy, polarization, political philosophy, politics, woke
Writer and philosopher Oliver Traldi sits down with Emmet to talk about what it means to be a public intellectual today, what being a writer's really like, CRT, how woke politicization has homogenized every other endeavor in the humanities, and more!
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Episode 62: The Coming Wave of Sex Negativity ft. Default Friend
October 27th, 2021 | 1 hr 43 secs
college, community, dating, hookup culture, identity, sex positivity, woke
Default Friend returns to ex.haust to talk about the death of sex positivity, the coming wave of sex negativity, affinity community online, how our identities are formed now, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
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Episode 61: Two Piece: Resigning from Being Superfluous
October 19th, 2021 | 1 hr 5 mins
incels, obama, peak oil, strike wave, the great resignation
Emmet, John, and Canada Mike talk through two pieces: one on superfluous men by Alex Gendler and another about bullshit jobs and people quitting the workforce by John Michael Greer. They talk about the Great Resignation, the strivewave, why many men have been historically superfluous, incels, and ponder if we need new ways to think of being modern.
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[teaser] The True and Only Heaven 4: The Sociological Tradition and the Idea of Community
October 17th, 2021 | 6 mins 43 secs
Emmet and John forge ahead in the Lasch reading. This time they watch Lasch take on Burke, Marx, Weber, Tonnies, and more. They discuss development theory, the systematic view of history's progress, what they think Lasch is up to, what Schopenhauer did for them, and more.
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Episode 60: Double Feature '84: The Terminator and A Nightmare on Elm Street ft. Josh Bregman
October 12th, 2021 | 1 hr 17 mins
arnold schwarzenegger, christopher lasch, final girl, freddy krueger, horror, james cameron, slasher, terminator
It's Halloween season. To help celebrate, Emmet and frequent guest Josh Bregman sit down to talk about two favorites: The Terminator and A Nightmare on Elm Street. They talk about the slasher genre, collapse of American confidence, the terror of the past, the horror of the future, and more.
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Episode 59: Political Ossification ft. Luke Thompson
October 5th, 2021 | 1 hr 15 mins
america, american history, conservatism, history, liberalism, politics
Political consultant and podcaster Luke Thompson joins Emmet to talk through different conceptions of political ossification. They talk through realignment theory, conceptions of political time, and, of course, why nothing feels possible.
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[teaser] The True and Only Heaven 3: Nostalgia ft. Canada Mike
October 4th, 2021 | 7 mins 46 secs
cormac mccarthy, lasch, nostalgia, progress, progressivism
Canada Mike fills in for John for the third installment of our series on Lasch's True and Only Heaven. Mike and Emmet detail Lasch's argument and consider the necessary relationship between progressive ideology and nostalgia. They talk about living in an eternal present, Cormac McCarthy as subverter of American tropes, the frontier as a "zone of innocence" and more.
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Episode 58: American Canon: John Milius
September 28th, 2021 | 1 hr 26 mins
america, american culture, cold war, film, john milius, milius, movies
Emmet and John discuss the life and times of writer and director John Milius, looking specifically at his movies The Wind and the Lion and Conan the Barbarian.
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Episode 57: Into the Fairy Castle ft. Sam Biagetti
September 21st, 2021 | 58 mins 48 secs
aoc, bernie, borgen, history, house of cards, liberalism, liberals, met gala, politics, victorian history
Emmet sits down with historian, podcaster, and writer Sam Biagetti to talk about his latest piece for American Affairs, "Into the Fairy Castle: The Persistence of Victorian Liberalism." They about Gilbert and Sullivan, Borgen, the downfall of the Bernie movement, meritocracy and more.
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[teaser] The True and Only Heaven 2: The Idea of Progress Reconsidered
September 19th, 2021 | 2 mins 46 secs
In this one, we embark on the second chapter of Lasch's The True and Only Heaven to talk about his historical understanding of progress and his underlying critique. We talk about millenarianism, what progressivism isn't, the family as a buttress against the market, Adam Smith's fatalism, the challenge of republican ideals, and more.
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Episode 56: This Film Is Dedicated to the Brave Mujahideen Fighters of Afghanistan ft. Phil Cunliffe
September 14th, 2021 | 58 mins 48 secs
9/11, afghanistan, bush, islam, neoliberalism, terrorism, war on terror
Emmet talks with author and cohost of Aufhebunga Bunga Phil Cunliffe about the bungled evac of Kabul, the Afghanistan War's aimlessness, historical amnesia, and more!
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Episode 55: Ex.haust Birthday Q & A
September 7th, 2021 | 1 hr 22 mins
To celebrate ex.haust's one year anniversary, Emmet and John respond to listener questions.
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[teaser] The MILF Hitler Theory ft. Canada Mike
September 6th, 2021 | 3 mins 31 secs
In this one, Emmet and Mike discuss cultural narcissism, Mike's MILF Hitler theory, the societal threat unguided young men pose, Sheller's abortive USMC protest videos about the Afghanistan exit, the officer corps as a societal bellwether, and more!
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Episode 54: "My Hand Is A Fleshgun": Culture Without Context Ft. Alexi and Sam from Nymphet Alumni
August 31st, 2021 | 1 hr 9 mins
culture, fashion, gen x, gen z, milennials, tiktok, zoomers
Emmet sits down with Alexi and Sam from the fashion and culture podcast Nymphet Alumni to talk about how culture does or doesn't get handed down, our contextless existence, the state of fashion, the absolute state of zoomers, and more!
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Episode 53: The Lasch Files: The True and Only Heaven pt. I
August 24th, 2021 | 1 hr 19 mins
chesa boudin, christopher lasch, cold war, gop, history, leftism, progress, progressivism, republican
Emmet and John begin their series on Lasch's book The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics."
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Episode 52: American Canon: HP Lovecraft and Harlan Ellison ft. Canada Mike
August 17th, 2021 | 1 hr 12 mins
america, american history, apocalypse, dystopian, ellison, fiction, horror, lovecraft, weird, weird fiction
Canada Mike, Emmet, and John discuss HP Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulu" and Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream."