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.

Subscribe to our Patreon to receive 2 extra exclusive episodes a month: https://www.patreon.com/exhaust

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Episodes

  • 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."

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    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.

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    [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.

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    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.

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    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!

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    Episode 19: Who Will Entertain In America?

    January 5th, 2021  |  1 hr 16 mins
    covid, fight island, music, nba, nba bubble, ufc

    In our first episode of 2021, we speak with Ian Corey about his series of articles on art and entertainment in the age of COVID.

  • Episode 18: Single Use System Shock: Vaccine Production Problems ft. Canada Mike

    December 29th, 2020  |  1 hr 19 mins
    coronavirus, covid19, kanban, logistics, pfizer, supply chains, vaccine

    In our end of year recap, we discuss how vaccines are made, how that's changed, and what that will mean for COVID vaccine distribution.