Wish Rogan traveled to Russia for this, it’s better when they’re in the same room. Will obviously listen anyway.
Not too long ago there was an extended interview with Snowden on Democracy Now. I’m sure it’s available online.
Latest podcast I’m listening to a bunch of is Behind the Bastards, which promises to take a deep dive into the worst people in history. The host (Robert Evans, who I’ve previously encountered on the podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind, where he has a less comical style) is probably divisive; I was just OK with him at first but have grown to like him. It’s one of those podcasts where he explains something to a different guest each week, and when the guest goes off on a tangent he is generally knowledgeable enough to have a sensible take.
Like many podcasts of this type, it’s good for expanding your knowledge of something from “oh yea I vaguely know what that is” to a more in-depth knowledge. Good eps so far have included Muammar Qaddafi, the East India companies (“The Most Evil Company in History”), Trofim Lysenko (“The Russian Scientist Who Helped Kill 30 Million People”) and King Leopold II of Belgium, architect of the Congo Free State. It’s depressing material in a way, but it’s delivered in a light hearted but respectful way, and it helps me understand that the world has always been this insane, if not more so.
The East India Companies ep, listening to it I kept thinking about the anarcho-capitalist bros on 2+2 and how they would make this insane argument that a free market would lead to cooperation and the emergence of private security firms. The East India companies literally waged war on each other and conquered entire countries in the pursuit of gaining a monopoly, since monopolies are so valuable. That’s what capitalism not under the control of a state looks like. It was gratifying to see this actually playing out in history.
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British East India Company was voted the most evil company in history in a recent 22 POG game. That would be an interesting listen.
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Here’s a podcast that will make you go, “Wow! I was sure Joe Piscopo was dead!”
Just look at this guest lineup lol
https://twitter.com/joepiscoposhow/status/1193626883914645504?s=21
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I know Preet is widely mocked here, and deservedly so, but his interview with Carl Bernstein is outstanding, largely because Carl is still sharp as a knife and supremely articulate. Start listening at 17:40, his take on how reporters should report on patently horrible bullshit while still being objective and reportorial is going to stick with me for a while.
The Citations Needed podcast is a new listen for me, but damn, the latest episode ("The Hollow Vanity of Libertarian ‘Choice’ Rhetoric) is outstanding. These are maybe the only the only pundits anywhere I’ve seen who have pointed out how patently bullshit it is to pretend that “gig economy” workers don’t have bosses. lol, of course you have a boss; the CEO of Uber is your boss.
Also, “Choice is the Swiss-Army knife of Libertarian bullshit” is a phrase I’m definitely going to steal.
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Have that one up next in my queue. Anyone not listening to that podcast should start–they’re great.
I like to think of myself as anti-choice.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but This Podcast Will Kill You is a podcast I like that’s all about terrifying diseases. It’s great if you’re into science and have a really dark sense of humor. The hosts are two super nerdy grad students who don’t hesitate to go into detail about the science of how these diseases work. Also, they have thematic mixed drink recipes for every show.
I just got done listening to the scurvy episode, learned quite a lot.
Been listening to Citations Needed for over a year now. I think it’s the best podcast for serious political discussion out there.
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Was impressed by a Revisionist History episode by Malcolm Gladwell.
The piece with Mai Elliott on the Vietnam War is fascinating and listenable, as well as good history.
Gladwell is a dumbass wannabe philosopher in my opinion.
He was also on Epstein’s flight logs.
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I just wrapped up Season 3 of Slow Burn. This one deals with the killings of Tupac and Biggie and the whole West Coast/East Coast hip hop rivalry back in the 90s. It was a good listen and I learned a couple things I did not already know. Would recommend
I have misgivings about him too, which is why I limited my praise to the particular episode. Will listen to more, but reserve the right to get annoyed.
Through some weird youtube rabbitholling starting with the video “We don’t Talk about Kenny” which investigated whether The Walking Dead Season 2 video game from Telltale games was an allegory for abusive stepparentism,I gradually stumbled into some Leftist youtubing and found a great series that I’ve been using as a podcast at work.
You may have heard or seen The Alt-Right playbook, but the most recent video also cites a video called “The PewDiePipeline” which is a great look at how the alt-right attempts to use humor as an essential indoctrination tool.
Also, this is another great series I’ve been using as a podcast since the visuals are largely unimportant.
The video about Bill Maher being a grade-A fuckwit is probably my favorite so far.
A friend of my younger daughter was defending pew pew whatever as just joking. Her father also defending Jordan Peterson. Daughter’s friend (probably 17yo) also had never heard of Auschwitz.
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Not every history textbook mentions Auschwitz by name.
Been skimming through them as of late. Kind of sucks the way the system works for picking which textbooks students learn out of. Hell, some of the textbooks in Mississippi were over 20 years old and didn’t cover the Civil Rights Movement
Sorry for being off-topic. But the lack of historical literacy among American students does touch a nerve with me.
It isn’t all the student’s fault though. History in general is taught terribly. School districts pick the books that have the material they want kids to learn. Since nobody wants to learn about the bad shit America’s done, authors are often incentivized to draw up a positive image of America in order to get their books bought. This leads to history books often becoming nothing more than tools of propaganda.
History often taught in a “fact-based” environment. This means that teachers too often focus on memorizing names, dates, and places rather than the narratives around them. It’s the story that’s interesting, not the facts. And when students do get a story, it’s a single narrative that claims to be the universal truth when history is really a mixture of narratives from different perspectives.
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Sadly it’s by design. Similar to how anyone in the south will tell you the civil war was a noble cause, justified in response to protect states’ rights from northern aggression
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