Episode 65: The High Church of Wokeism ft. Joseph Keegin

November 16th, 2021  |  1 hr 3 mins

divinity school, gender, ibram kendi, progressivism, protestantism, race, robin d'angelo, unitarian universalism, woke, wokeism

Emmet sat down with Joseph Keegin to talk about his pice for Tablet, The High Church of Wokeism, which traces certain elements of woke ideology back to Unitarian Universalism. They talk about the unacknowledged power of divinity schools in shaping American progressivism, repairing the "broken middle," identity talk as soul talk, and much more.

Episode 64: Solving the Opioid Crisis ft. Percy Menzies

November 9th, 2021  |  54 mins 34 secs

addiction, crime, dopesick, drug treatment, drugs, fentanyl, heroin, methadone, opioid, opioid crisis, oxycontin, sackler, war on drugs

Emmet sits down with Percy Menzies of Assisted Recovery Centers of America to talk about the opioid epidemic in America. Percy walks through the history of opioids, how OxyContin changed everything, and how fentanyl has changed everything again. He and Emmet discuss misunderstandings about addiction, the forces aligned against solving the crisis--including the methadone lobby--and more.

[teaser] The True and Only Heaven 5: The Populist Campaign Against "Improvement"

November 7th, 2021  |  15 mins 14 secs

american history, lasch, liberal, liberalism, politics, populism, progressive

Emmet and John dive into Lasch's overview of populism. They start to get glimpses of Lasch's commitments here. Touring classical conceptions of republicanism to people like Paine, Cobbett, and Brownson, Emmet and John track how they frustrate our contemporary interpretations of republicanism and liberalism can't or don't apply to them. Thinking with Lasch on historiography, they close the chapter discussing 19th-century artisans, populism, the New Deal, and the triumph of Taylorism.

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!

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.

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.

[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.

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.

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.

[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.

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.

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.

[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.

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!

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.

[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!