Give Me An Argument - The Ben Burgis Call-In Show: Recent Episodes
Ben Burgis
Ben Burgis takes calls, answers questions, and argues about anything that seems interesting. Should be a good time.
I talk to Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson about the incredibly depressing mess the 2024 election is already shaping up to be and take a few calls. Nathan has written about the distinct possibility of Trump being re-elected:https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/05/donald-trump-could-well-be-the-president-again...and co-written an article with Lily Sanchez about why RFK, Jr. is so far from being the alternative to Biden we desperately need:https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/05/rfk-jr-is-a-lying-crank-posing-as-a-progressive-alternativeDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Callers ask me about toxicity on the Left, the Twitter Files, Ana Kasparian, how to pick your battles in arguments, Judith Jarvis Thomson's abortion essay, Norman Finkelstein's take on Philip Roth's novel American Pastoral, Philippa Foot, Kant's Categorical Imperative, and more. This was a very good time.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Right-wing pundit Curtis Yarvin wrote about Matt McManus on his Substack a little while back. Today, Matt joined me to read through the screed and respond point-by-point to a much as we could in an hour and change. There will be a Pt. 2!Yarvin's Substack on Matt:https://graymirror.substack.com/p/the-historical-guilt-of-the-old-regime?utm_source=post-email-titleMatt's original article on Yarvin:https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/curtis-yarvin-thiel-carlyle-monarchism-reactionaryDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
One my very favorite recurring guests joins me to chat about his forthcoming Sublation article and the state of the American left.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Ethan from the Confronting Capital channel is going to give me his best pitch for why I should be more worried abut AI safety, and we'll take your calls.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
I didn't try to put a chapter listing on this sine (a) it's my birthday and publishing this was the last work task I had to do today, and (b) it's all kind of a piece, but this actually was a pretty interesting one!I argue with anarchist Brent Lengel about an essay and he doesn't by Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels--"On Authority":https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htmFor the other side of the argument, see Marx and Engels's factional rival (the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin)'s essay "What Is Authority?":https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/authrty.htmLink to Brent's indiegogo (more about that at the end of the episode):https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/durruti-shadow-of-the-people-1-2#/Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
University of South Florida graduate student Sam Badger joins me to discuss his recently completed dissertation on the normative dimension of Marxism and take your calls.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Stefan Bertram-Lee joins me to talk about their Sublation essay "Money Over Moralism" and take your calls.You can read the essay itself here:https://www.sublationmag.com/post/money-over-moralismDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Kuba Wrzesniewski of This is Revolution podcast joins me to talk about the current state of the war in Ukraine and take your calls.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Djene Bajalan of This is Revolution joins me to chat about various subjects and take a few calls. We start with my essay “I Know This Will Shock You, But Karl Marx Would Not In Fact Have Been a MAGA Guy”:https://benburgis.substack.com/p/i-know-this-will-shock-you-but-karlDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson joins me to talk about his new article "Democratic Voters Want To Get Rid of Biden—But Will The Party Let Them?" and take some calls.You can read Nathan's piece here:https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/02/democratic-voters-want-to-get-rid-of-biden-but-will-the-party-let-themDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
[Note: Very sorry about the audio issues on this one. I considered not publishing as a result but I think this is important enough that I wanted to get this particular conversation out there despite the audio and tech hiccups.]I'm talked to Ryan Zickgraf about his Jacobin article on the disturbing terrorism charges filed after clashes between protestors and cops in Atlanta:https://jacobin.com/2023/01/domestic-terrorism-charges-cop-city-protests-atlanta-georgiaDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Musician, podcaster, and freshly minted Sublation Magazine columnist Jason Myles is joins me to talk about his last essay for the magazine ("Trump Is Having His Chinese Democracy Moment") and the one he's working on now ("Is the Contemporary Left a Lifestyle Brand?") and take some calls.You can read Jason's work at Sublation here:https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-mylesDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
My chat w/Jacobin columnist Ryan Zickgraf about his Compact piece on Prince Harry + just a little bit of guillotine talk!You can read the article itself here:https://compactmag.com/article/the-prince-of-cringeDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
The great Daniel Bessner—-historian, podcaster (American Prestige, co-hosted w/Derek Davison), and Jacobin Contributing Editor—joins me to take your calls and talk about his new New York Times op-ed on the intersection between the end of history (as an academic profession paying a living wage) and the increasing importance of history to contemporary political debates. (Sorry about the abrupt ending! Turned out to be the only halfway reasonable place to cut it off.)You can read the piece here:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/14/opinion/american-history-college-university-academia.htmlDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Matt McManus just wrote a devastating profile of right-wing blogger Curtis Yarvin for Commonweal:https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/curtis-yarvin-thiel-carlyle-monarchism-reactionaryDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
A lot of great calls in this one on subjects ranging from going on Joe Rogan to a possible primary challenge rom the left to Biden in 2024 to abortion rights to Christopher Hitchens's debate with William Lane Craig on the Existence of God.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Varn Vlog host C. Derick Varn & I talked about enough subjects that I won't try to summarize them here--see the chapter listing!--and took a few calls.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Kurdish-British political commentary, university professor, podcast, and man-about-town Djene Bajalan joined me for a free-wheeling conversation about everything from Brazil to Battlestar Galactica to the myths of meritocracy.Buy tickets to the This is Revolution/GTAA/Left Reckoning live show ft. special guests Bhaskar Sunkara, Emma Vigeland and Sam Seder in NYC on January 22nd:https://www.ticketweb.com/event/this-is-revolution-left-reckoning-cutting-room-tickets/12706315Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
The one and only Jason Myles--musician, author, video essayist, and host of the This is Revolution podcast--joined me for a late-afternoon-on-the-West-Coast AMA. We ended up talking about his new video essay on kayfabe, how politicians brand themselves, the relationship between music and politics, why Jason & I think Force the Vote didn't really make sense (some of the listeners disagree!), and more.Buy tickets to the This is Revolution/GTAA/Left Reckoning live show ft. special guests Bhaskar Sunkara, Emma Vigeland and Sam Seder in NYC on January 22nd:https://www.ticketweb.com/event/this-is-revolution-left-reckoning-cutting-room-tickets/12706315Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
A couple of weeks ago on Twitter, Glenn Greenwald faulted "the Bernie/AOC Left" for not opposing the national security state. Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic pushed back, they got into it a bit, and I invited both of them to come on and talk about their disagreement here. While I'm sure there were times when everyone involved found it frustrating, overall I think it was an interesting and productive discussion.Here's the link to the GTAA episode w/Krystal Ball & RM Brown I mentioned at the beginning:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icxYZA5v1FIHere's the link to get tickets to the joint GTAA/Left Reckoning/This is Revolution live show happening in New York on January 22nd w/Bhaskar Sunkara, Emma Vigeland and Sam Seder:https://www.ticketweb.com/event/this-is-revolution-left-reckoning-cutting-room-tickets/12706315Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Rob Larson--the people's econ prof--joins me to talk about inflation, socialism, the ruling class, and more.Follow Rob on Twitter: @IronicProfessorGet tickets to the joint GTAA/Left Reckoning/This is Revolution "Give Them a Revolution" live show at the Cutting Room in NYC at 7 PM on January 22nd w/Bhaskar Sunkara, Emma Vigeland, Sam Seder, and many more guests:https://www.ticketweb.com/event/this-is-revolution-left-reckoning-cutting-room-tickets/12706315Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Starting today, these things are going to be 4 PM West Coast/7 PM East Coast every day unless I can't for whatever reason any given day, and my goal is to shut up after the first 5 minutes (or first 10 at the outside) and let them be caller-driven.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Ended up taking a lot of calls about philosophy, which was fun & appropriate because of the launch of my new Philosophy for the People Substack:benburgis.substack.comWe also talked about the ways the show is going to be changing in the New Year. Generally speaking, it's going to be at 4 PM West Coast/7 PM East Coast every day unless I'm out of town or for some other reason can't so people know when to expect it and we can try to make it a lot more caller-driven (no more than a few minutes of me blathering on at the beginning). Looking forward to getting that schedule going!Get tickets to the joint GTAA/Left Reckoning/This is Revolution "Give Them a Revolution" live show at the Cutting Room in NYC at 7 PM on January 22nd w/Bhaskar Sunkara, Emma Vigeland, Sam Seder, and many more guests:https://www.ticketweb.com/event/give-them-a-revolution-cutting-room-tickets/12706315Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
If you're on the West Coast where it's not insanely late yet and you're up late wrapping presents or whatnot, listen/call in! I'll probably start out talking about my Yarvin article in Jacobin:https://jacobin.com/2022/12/curtis-yarvin-right-wing-blogger-democracy-monarchismDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
I'll be taking a few calls and talking about my article a couple days ago in The Daily Beast on the Twitter Files ("The ‘Twitter Files’ Are Too Serious to Be Left to Elon Musk’s Pals"):https://www.thedailybeast.com/twitter-files-are-too-serious-to-be-left-to-elon-musks-palsDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
I just wrote an article for the Nation on Josh Hawley's attempt to score populist points by condemning Dems' (very real) betrayal of the rail workers--I'll talk about it and take some calls. Here's the article itself:https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/josh-hawley-rail-strike/Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Taking a break (mostly) from politics today to talk about the work of science fiction writer and self-described "fictionalizing philosopher" Philip K. Dick with the PKD scholar who runs the "Total Dick-Head" blog:http://totaldickhead.blogspot.com/Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Link to the NYC live show:https://www.ticketweb.com/event/this-is-revolution-left-reckoning-cutting-room-tickets/12706315This was an AMA. We addressed all the topics above. It was fun. You should listen.Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Going to talk about this article and take some calls:https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-and-democrats-have-betrayed-rail-workers-and-unions-after-house-and-senate-voteDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
Jacobin's Branko Marcetic joins to me to discuss his article on why it's so absurd for both people who love Elon Musk and people who hate him to portray him as some sort of free speech zealot--he's nothing of the kind--and take your calls. Here's Branko's article:https://jacobin.com/2022/11/elon-musk-twitter-crackdown-left-wing-accountsDownload the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com
It's been a while, but Kuba Wrzesniewski once again joins me for an update on the war in Ukraine. Call in w/questions, thoughts, denunciations, or whatever else!
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I said I'd do something Marx-y I'm going to be talking about an article I wrote a little while back for Jacobin and never did a Callin about--"Ben Shapiro Thinks 'Marxism'Can't Work in America.' He's Very Confused."--and taking some calls! Here's a link to the article:
https://jacobin.com/2022/08/ben-shapiro-is-wrong-about-socialism
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I'm going to talk about my new article (out today in the Daily Beast!) "Jordan Peterson's Politics Make Life Harder for Young Men" + take some calls. Here's a link to the article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jordan-petersons-politics-make-life-harder-for-young-men
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I'm going to talk about my Daily Beast article "The Left Needs a Better Message on Crime" and take some calls! You can read the article here:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-left-needs-a-better-message-on-crime
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I'm going to be talking about my new Jacobin article examining Ben Shapiro's odd views about how visitors from Mars would oppose gay marriage--and arguing that the best way to help people start families isn't by dissolving gay people's marriages but by providing universal economic security--and taking some calls.
You can read the article itself here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/ben-shapiro-gay-marriage-equality-family-support
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Our good friend David Griscom just wrote a Jacobin article about Texas Governor Greg Abbot's power grabs and how politics in the Lone Star State are very bad for working-class people right now. I'm going to interview him about it and take some calls! Here's the article:
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/greg-abbott-reelection-governor-democratic-election-strategy-texas
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I'm going to talk about my Daily Beast article "Why the Hell Haven’t We Ended the Cuba Embargo Already?" and take some calls.
Here's a link to the article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-hell-havent-we-ended-the-cuba-embargo-already
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I’m going to talk about my Daily Beast article about the election results and take some calls: you can read the article here:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-averted-disaster-but-the-working-class-did-not
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I'm going to be talking about my brand new article in Jacobin--"I’m a Socialist. Joe Biden Is Not"--and taking some calls. Probably inevitable that we'll talk some about the midterms too. You can read the article here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/joe-biden-socialism-government-spending-tpusa
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Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic is going to join me to take some calls and talk about his excellent article "Republicans Are Planning an All-Out Assault on the Working Class If They Win Next Week":
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/republican-midterm-victory-plan-policies-far-right
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We're completing the trilogy tonight with this weekend's third consecutive chat about Marx's theory of history and G.A. Cohen's explication and defense of it!
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This is just going to be a follow-up to yesterday's room on Marx's theory of history. You can listen to the published version of that one here:
https://www.callin.com/episode/friday-night-chat-about-marxs-theory-of-history-dWjiGClMOS
I'll throw open the lines to calls at the very beginning so anyone who was still waiting to call in when I had to cut off the episode last night can call in then, and after taking any calls we have to start with I'll go back through some of the material on G.A. Cohen and Marx's historical materialism we didn't get to in Pt. 1!
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Haven't done one of these yet this week and I've been thinking about Marx's theory of history because of a paper I just wrote about it for a collection Conrad Hamilton and Matt McManus are editing called "Flowers for Marx"--so let's talk about that!
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Elon Musk's record gives us exactly no reason to trust that he'll be true to his word on free speech. I strongly support taking our digital public square into public ownership. But some liberals are freaking out for exactly the opposite reason. In this one before I open it up to calls I'm going to go through this truly awful New Republic article Chapo-reading-series style:
https://newrepublic.com/article/168309/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-ruin-america
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I just finished writing an article for Jacobin about the Brett Favre welfare scandal--which was a direct result of the grotesque and frankly Dickensian "welfare reform" law signed by Bill Clinton in 1996 to fulfill Big Dog's 1992 campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it." Turns out that welfare as we then knew it was a whole lot less corrupt. I'll kick off the episode by talking about that and then take some calls (about that or whatever else is on everyone's minds today).
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Anarchist activist Myles Bragg once again joins me to chat about areas of agreement and disagreement on both larger ideological assumptions and practical politics. This was a lot of fun last time and I'm looking forward to rolling in the deep on some of this stuff again today.
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I'm having my good friend and frequent collaborator Matt McManus on the show to explore where we agree and where we might disagree on how the Left should approach the Ukraine war. You can check out several articles I've written to see what I think, e.g.:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-the-cuban-missile-crisis-can-teach-the-us-about-how-to-deal-with-russia-and-ukraine
https://www.thedailybeast.com/noam-chomsky-is-right-us-should-work-to-negotiate-an-end-to-the-war-in-ukraine
https://jacobin.com/2022/07/bernie-sanders-joe-biden-ukraine-russia-putin
https://jacobin.com/2022/04/antiwar-internationalists-isolationists-eugene-debs-russia-ukraine
https://www.sublationmag.com/post/ukraine-and-the-specter-of-christopher-hitchens
Matt mentions some of his thinking on this in his review of Michael Millerman's Dugin book:
https://merionwest.com/2022/04/13/review-michael-millermans-beginning-with-heidegger-strauss-rorty-derrida-dugin-and-the-philosophical-constitution-of-the-political/
I'm not sure what all the nuances of Matt's position are, but my reason for thinking we might see this differently is primarily this tweet:
https://twitter.com/mattpolprof/status/1579870780137279488
If you read the rest of the thread, there's enough nuance there that I'm not sure we actually disagree on any of this but I am curious and since I've never had a bad conversation with Matt I figured it would be both more pleasant and informative to have an actual conversation about this than to try to hash it out on Twitter. If we get calls, we'll take them at the end.
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Haven't done this in the last couple weeks (sorry! a lot going on) so let's do one and chat about, for the most part, whatever people want to call in and talk about. But I'm working on an essay on G.A. Cohen and "Analytic(al) Marxism" so we'll start there!
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I just finished teaching today's session of a class I've been doing on Capital, so we ended up talking about Marx's analysis there for a while, then that shaded into labor rights talk, then the rail workers. Enjoy!
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"Deep State Kuba" from the This is Revolution podcast and I both wrote articles about Gorbachev in the last week so we thought we'd get together to talk about them and take some calls. You can read Kuba's here:
https://www.sublationmag.com/post/goodbye-gorby
...and mine here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/09/mikhail-gorbachev-legacy-transition-postsocialism-ussr
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Friends of the show and frequent guests Matt McManus & Nathan Robinson just co-wrote an excellent take down of right-wing commentator Douglas Murray in Current Affairs. We're going to chat about it and take a few calls. You can read the piece itself here:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/09/taking-white-supremacist-talking-points-mainstream
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Had a few drinks but still coherent, Haven’t done one of these this week. Ask me anything.
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I've been writing a lot for Jacobin, on my own and with Branko Marcetic, about Biden's (very partial) student loan forgiveness for Jacobin--talking about why it's very good and why it's not good enough, and about how the (let's go ahead and use this phrase) "Overton Window" has shifted in a good direction on the issue. I'm going to be talking through some of that and taking a couple of calls (although I probably really will cut the episode at half an hour this time, since I just got to my friend Jason's place in Mexico and I want to, like, wander over to the beach and get a taco.
Links to the most recent articles I've published on this stuff:
https://jacobin.com/2022/08/joe-biden-student-loan-debt-forgiveness-higher-education
https://jacobin.com/2022/08/student-debt-cancellation-overton-window-biden
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Shaun Richman joins me to talk about his new article on independent labor unions in Jacobin. You can read the article itself here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/08/philip-foner-book-review-depression-labor-history
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A second Ben, Ben Spielberg, joins me to talk about the Inflation Reduction Act. After that we get into a polite and good faith debate on criminal justice reform issues.
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I'm doing a quick episode to talk about my latest article for Jacobin ("Salman Rushdie’s Stabbing Should Remind Us That Free Speech Is a Nonnegotiable Progressive Value") and take a few calls. You can read the article itself here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/08/salman-rushdie-stabbing-free-speech-socialist-politics-progressive-value
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Before opening up the lines for calls (on-topic or otherwise, happy to go a few directions with this!), I'll be talking about my Jacobin article published this morning on the Kulinski/Peterson debate and how Dr. Peterson's knowledge of Marx has somehow gone in the wrong direction since 2019:
https://jacobin.com/2022/08/jordan-peterson-kyle-kulinski-debate-marxism-inequality
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Going to talk about my new Jacobin article (out today, same title as the name of this episode!) and take some calls.
Read the article itself here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/07/peter-thiel-superrich-wealth-inequality-political-influence
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Conor Halbleib (Democratic candidate in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District) will be joining me to talk about his run and take some calls.
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Callers ask me about subjects ranging from David Graeber & primitive communism to Peter Thiel’s intellectual influences to a recent attack on Bhaskar Sunkara (my co-author along with Mike Beggs for The Blueprint, our forthcoming Verso book on what a realistically imaginable socialist society might look like). Interesting conversations all around tonight.
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I'm going to do a quick episode to talk about the article I just wrote for Jacobin on the Fetterman campaign and take a few calls (about that or other topics). You can read the Fetterman piece here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/07/john-fetterman-oz-political-communicator-bernie-sanders-pa-senate
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Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic joins me to discuss his new article on Florida Governor, possible 2024 GOP Presidential candidate, and supposed "freedom"-lover Ron ReSantis. Read his article here:
https://jacobin.com/2022/07/ron-desantis-freedom-branding-rights-education-abortion
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One of my favorite people in left media, David Griscom, joins me to discuss his debut article in Jacobin--"Texas Shows the Pitfalls of Liberal Climate Politics":
https://jacobin.com/2022/07/texas-energy-power-abbott-fossil-fuels-gas-gnd
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Doing a quick episode to talk about my Jacobin article on Karl Marx's argument in the early chapters of "Capital" that workers are exploited, the relationship between that argument and the LTV (Labor Theory of Value), and how G.A. Cohen's contributions can help us defend the core of Marx's argument even if you think some of the 19th century economic assumptions are dated.
Link to the article itself:
https://jacobin.com/2022/06/karl-marx-labor-theory-of-value-ga-cohen-economics
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Doing a quick episode to talk about my Daily Beast article earlier this week on the massive contradiction between the populist rebranding attempted by politicians like Ted Cruz and the state platform just adopted by the Texas GOP, which as I say there "call[s] for every possible pro-corporate and anti-worker measure short of reinstituting child labor in coal mines or giving bosses the right of prima nocta." I'll go over the argument in the article a little and then take a few calls.
Link to the article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/culture-war-red-meat-is-all-the-gop-serves-the-working-class
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Frequent guest Kuba Wrzeniewski joins a (currently plague-ridden) Ben for a light chat about whatever's on everyone's minds tonight. Call in with anything within reasn!
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Anarchistic activist Myles Bragg respectively dialogues with me about antifa, the relationship between mutual aid and neoliberalism, and what anarchism means to him.
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Stefam Bertram-Lee returns to continue the conversation from last week. See:
https://callin.com/link/yytUJNoTtx
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Stefan Bertram-Lee makes their first appearance on GTAA/GMAA! See https://jacobin.com/2019/08/the-online-left-goes-to-war for a bit about Stefan's life. They join me today to talk a little Syria and a little Ukraine. Should be a good time.
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I'm back in the United States and I'd like to do a couple of these this weekend. We'll see. But tonight I'm going to hop on to talk about my article in Sublation Magazine (https://www.sublationmag.com/post/ukraine-and-the-specter-of-christopher-hitchens) and take a couple of calls.
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Sorry about the 16 days of no episodes! I've been traveling and time zones and in-person commitments have made it tricky. I'm not flying back to the US until tomorrow but I thought I'd do one tonight. I just finished a weekend at the Hay Festival that included giving a lecture, leading a discussion about the Hitchens book and doing two debates (including one earlier today about inequality and hierarchy where one of the other debaters was Thangam Debbonaire, the Labour MP for Bristol West and current Shadow Leader of the House of Commons). So I thought I'd chat a bit about all of that and then take a few calls.
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Same kinda deal as yesterday's ep--I'm going to talk about my Jacobin review of Meghan McCain's new book (and some things that I couldn't fit into the article) and take a couple calls! I'm going on David Feldman's show at 6:30 ET, though, so there's a pretty hard "out" then!
Read the review in Jacobin:
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/05/meghan-mccain-john-trump-gop-cancel-culture
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In the aftermath of the horrific murders in Buffalo, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called for ramped-up internet censorship. I just wrote an article for the Daily Beast pushing back against that idea for a variety of reasons--including the fact that I'm deeply skeptical that more censorship would actually solve the problem. I'll talk about about that argument and some related issues and then take some calls--though I am going to try to wrap tonight's ep up a little sooner than usual! Here's the link to the Daily Beast article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/censorship-wont-stop-racist-extremism-itll-hurt-the-left
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Sorry about the lack of episodes this week--I've been traveling and I never got a good chance. But we have a special guest today returning to answer your questions about whatever's on your mind--This is Revolution's Djene Bajalan!
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Karl Marx's 204th birthday was earlier this week so I thought it might be fun to do a quick room monologue-ing a bit about the man and his contributions and taking a few questions from callers! Also, I can talk a little about Andrew Sullivan's godawful argument that Marx was "one of the most repellent anti-Semites and racists of the 19th century" since I wrote about Sullivan's screed a few days ago here:
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/05/marx-race-antisemitism-history-andrew-sullivan-enlightenment
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Sorry this is the first ep this week! It's been a busy bunch of days, lots of travel. But I wanted to talk a bit about my new article in the Daily Beast on J.D. Vance's fraudulent "populism"--researching this thing was a trip and there's lots I couldn't fit into the article. Anyway, should be fun. Call into share your thoughts!
Read the article itself here:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vances-unbelievably-phony-populism
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Ruseell Sbriglia is many things--a literature professor, a musician, and a man some people (well ok maybe just me) have called "Slavoj Žižek's American consigliere." He also spends a lot of time thinking about Hegel so I thought it might be fun if we did a philosophy episode here where Russ fills us in a little about the big man at Jena. Call in with all the Hegel questions you've always been afraid to ask!
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This had to be rescheduled at the last minute last time, but now we're doing it for real! Anarchist writer, chess teacher and amateur historian Nick Manley joins me to talk about the history and politics of Soviet chess--and to take your calls. Should be fun.
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I just filed an article for Jacobin on the freshly announced Musk Twitter deal, and since I'm stuck in Dallas for an extra day (my flight got canceled last night, not gonna get home until tomorrow) I thought today would be a better day than tomorrow to do a Callin. So let's chat about the news! Call in to give me your thoughts on online free speech, billionaires owning the digital public square, and the rest.
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Yesterday I did a debate in Texas w/some conservatives, some of them quite odd:
https://twitter.com/mythinformedmke/status/1518022167845294085?s=21&t=_UOkt2HMz5rTOA-NJ5YYrg
We’ll probably have the video for GTAA in about a week but meanwhile I though I’d chat a little bit about how it went, what value I see in doing events like this and etc.—call in with your thoughts!
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Is Marx a liberal? Depends what you mean!
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Real Atheology host Benjamin Watkins joins me for a discussion of arguments about the Trinity--is the idea even coherent? He opened up a can of worms on Philosophy Twitter by suggesting recently that it doesn't seem to be, and that sounded like a fun Callin ep!
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On Tuesday, graphic novelist, album cover designer and Give Them An Argument graphic designer J. Andrew World joins me to talk about the repeal of Title 42 and the larger context of America's long war on immigrants and refugees. We actually got cut-off mid-call (please call back, TJ!) about half an hour in because my phone died so we'll pick up right where we left off.
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[Note: Apologies for the abrupt ending! Andy's agreed to come back to do a Pt. 2 on Thursday.] Graphic novelist, album cover designer and Give Them An Argument graphic designer J. Andrew World joins me to talk about the repeal of Title 42 and the larger context of America's treatment of immigrants and refugees.
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Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson joins Ben to talk about his article "The 'Clash of Civilizations' Thesis is Still Ignorant Nonsense"--and take your calls.
Read Nathan's article here:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/03/the-clash-of-civilizations-thesis-is-still-ignorant-nonsense
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Emerson Green, host of the Counter Apologetics podcast, joins Ben for a friendly discussion/argument about whether “science fiction” hypotheticals can be valuable in helping us reason about moral or other kinds of intuitions—and to take your calls.
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Philosophy Ph.D. and Trinity College Research Fellow Jesse Spafford write an interesting paper pointing out that libertarian arguments against the state given by e.g. Michael Huemer also cut against libertarian conceptions of property rights. If it's illegitimate for the state to use coercion to enforce its prerogatives, why is it legitimate for property owners to to use coercion to enforce their property claims? Jesse lays out his argument and takes your calls.
Read his paper at:
https://jessespafford.com/files/SpaffordSocialAnarchism.pdf
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Socialist writer and Catholic intellectual Dan Walden joins me to continue a conversation about religion that started when we appeared on a stream together about a week ago to discuss the monumentally strange 2014 film (which Dan described as "apologetics porn") God's Not Dead--and to take your calls.
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Fact: Right-wingers sometimes produce good art or entertainment that reflects right-wing values. If you abhor those values, how should you think about it? Musician, podcaster and friend of the show (for real) Conan Neutron comes on to discuss--and to take your calls.
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Jacobin's Deputy Editor Micah Uetricht (now increasingly the lord of this socialist manor now that Bhaskar Sunkara is spending of his time spreading the empire to The Nation magazine) joins me to chat about the state of the Left post-Bernie and how Jacobin fits in--and to take your calls.
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Ross Barkan joins Ben to discuss Andrew Cuomo's recent attempts to rehabilitate him and reframe his disgrace as an unjust cancelation--and to take your calls. Read Barkan's article on Cuomo in Jacobin: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/03/andrew-cuomo-cancel-culture-comeback-democratic-party-new-york
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Some medieval-revivalist ultra-Catholic nutjobs have gotten together with Edwin Aponte (co-founder of The Bellows), Glenn Greenwald, Slavoj Zizek, Ashley Frawley, and a few others to form a magazine called "Compact." I'm joined by regular Jacobin contributor Ryan Zickgraf (original co-founder of The Bellows forced out by Aponte) to discuss what it all means and take your calls. We like some of the names involved despite their involvement but to the extent that there's a coherent political project here it sure doesn't seem like a good one.
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Daniel Muessig is many things--a former criminal defense attorney who did a "Better Call Saul"-esque viral ad, an on-again off-again socialist political campaigner, and the (non-violent) weed kingpin of a Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh. He's about to go to prison for doing what tons of people around the country are now doing legally--all because Joe Biden broke a campaign promise. This interview isn't the kind of thing I usually do but it's personally my all-time favorite episode of this show.
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Should be a fun one!
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David Feldman is a comedian and comedy writer with credits ranging from the Daily Show to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as well as the host of the political podcast The David Feldman Show and the co-host of The Ralph Nader Radio Hour.
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We’re taking a break from WWIII to talk philosophy with Doug Lain. Doug was the editor of Zero Books for years and is now launching a new press, Sublation Media. He’s also the author of several books most recently “Bash Bash Revolution.” Today he says he wants to talk about Hegel and Guy Debord.
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Branko Marcetic joins me to talk about some of his recent Jacobin articles on Russia/Ukraine, the possibility of World War III and related subjects and to take your calls. Read Branko’s work at https://jacobinmag.com/author/branko-marcetic
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Philosophy Professor and cartoonist Ryan Lake joins me to chat about conspiracy theories, when it is or isn’t rational to defer to expert opinion and a variety of other subjects raise by callers ranging from the war in Ukraine to whether the word “woman” should (as one caller strongly believed) be exclusively reserved for “adult human females” to whether people can be morally culpable for ignorance. There are contentious moments but overall it’s a great discussion.
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Political Science Professor Matt McManus, who writes for Jacobin, Areo and many other places as well as co-hosting the Plastic Pills podcast and pumping out a ridiculous number of books, joins me to take your calls and chat about the odd and disturbing ideas of Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher Aleksandr Dugin.
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WWIII probably isn’t going to happen but the situation in Ukraine and between the United States and Russia is still pretty alarming. Might be a good time to listen to an extremely well-informed left-wing foreign policy specialist? Kuba comes back to fill us in on new developments and take your calls.
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Comedian, political commentator and Act.tv host Julianna Forlano joins me to chat about the ongoing apocalypse and take calls.
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Ben went on the Joe Rogan Experience a few days ago. Have stuff to say (positive, negative, some of each, whatever!) about anything that was said in that conversation? Here’s your chance to call in and have your say!
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Kuba came on the show to talk about Russia/Ukraine before the invasion started. He’s back today to update us and take your calls.
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Jesse Singal will answer for his crimes by sitting silently while various callers denounce him. Or failing that we’ll just have a fun discussion of areas of agreement and disagreement and whatever’s on callers’ minds. Either way really.
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Our friend and comrade Cole James Cash joins Ben to hang out and take some calls.
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Musician, socialist commentator and “This is Revolution” co-host Jason Myles talks about his video essay on Bill Cosby and race reductionism and takes calls.
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Kuba from This Is Revolution comes by to chat with Ben about the standoff over Ukraine and take calls.
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Kurdish socialist academic, TIR (This Is Revolution) crew member and man about town Djene Bajalan chats with Ben and takes calls.
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Ryan Zikgraf joins me to talk about his Jacobin article on whether or not we’re sliding into civil war (we aren’t) and take some calls.
Read Ryan’s piece here:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/02/new-civil-war-apocalyptic-rhetoric-news-media-far-right-liberals
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The man, the myth, the podcaster. “Honky-tonk Marxist” David Griscom takes your calls.
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Ben’s wife, Dr. Jennifer Burgis, stops by to chat about which philosophers she assigns in her Intro to Philosophy and Intro to Ethics classes and to playfully “defend” Aristotle’s doctrine about “natural slaves.” Ben talks to a caller about idealism vs. materialism and explains Graham Priest’s theory that logical contradictions can be objectively true.
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Jacobin Magazine’s founder & editor Bhaskar Sunkara stops by to chat. Should be a very good time.
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Ben Burgis and Thaddeus Russell disagree politically and philosophically about almost everything but they both enjoy reading and thinking about Marx. They just finished teaching a Marx class at Renegade University and they have another one planned (on Capital Vol. 1) in May so they start by talking about that but questioners raise issues ranging from Iran to identity politics to Sam Harris to the state of the contemporary Left.
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In what will surely be a very uncontroversial episode where everyone will just nod their heads in sage agreement Branko Marcetic joins Ben to talk about his Jacobin article on why calls to censor Joe Rogan miss the point about vaccine hesitancy—even if his record of COVID comments really is pretty bad:
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/01/joe-rogan-podcast-covid-misinformation-cdc-media
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Today’s guest is “Heem,” a Canadian political & variety streamer on Twitch while working on a PhD in Physics doing cancer research. He started streaming at the start of the pandemic mainly to debunk misinformation though the YouTube algorithm has forced him to expand to other issues as well.
He and his family immigrated from iran as a young child and he considers himself a progressive / socdem. He’s interested in realistic policy solutions to current issues. He’s passionate about universal healthcare, marijuana legalization, increased immigration, increased taxes on the rich, & funding of public education including childcare, to name a few.
You can find him Monday-Friday 5:30-8 am EST on twitch with your coffee in the morning.
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Professor Ryan Lake is back for more philosophy talk.
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Another day of three philosophy professors answering all your questions—Ben Burgis, Ryan Lake and, in a lineup change, Mark Warren. Are there objective moral facts? Does it matter? Are functional explanations in Marxism reasonable? Is there such a thing as cultural appropriation? What should we think about Critical Race Theory?
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Ben and his wife Professor Jennifer Burgis and their friend (and resident GTAA/GMAA free will expect) Professor Ryan Lake answer questions about philosophy, the value of truth, what Christopher Hitchens would have thought about “wokeness,” whether Sam Harris understands how thought experiments work, and more.
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Ben Burgis debated a YouTuber calling himself SOD on economic inequality at 9 PM then did this to continue the discussion with callers.
Link to the debate:
https://youtu.be/y8jF9gteb-k
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“Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters” has been on the shelves for exactly a week! It’s gotten some hate from a few super-fanboys who don’t think his late-in-life foreign policy positions were wrong and from some gate-keeping leftists who think Hitch was so problematic no one should talk or write or think about him and some love from those on the left who continue to have mixed feelings about this ultimate problematic fave. If you have opinions, positive or negative, call in and let me know!
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Ben Burgis is joined by Jacobin writers Daniel Bessner and Branko Marcetic to talk about renewed interest in 1/6 on the one-year anniversary and take calls. Was it an ugly right-wing riot or a genuine threat to democracy? Should we be more worried about similar events in the future or about it being used to justify a dangerous expansion of the national security state? Are Democrats wasting their time by focusing on it or are leftists who “minimize” such events the problem?
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One of our favorite young Marxist intellectuals, Lillian Cicerchia, talks about theory and takes calls.
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(Take two, this had to be canceled last week!) Christopher Hitchens died ten years ago this month.. Ben wrote a book about him that’s coming out on New Years (https://redemmas.org/titles/36536-christopher-hitchens--what-he-got-right--how-he-went-wrong--and-why-he-still-matters). Ben and guest Josh Strachan, who was one of Hitchens’s students at the New School, are going to talk and take calls about what was good (sometimes very good—see many of his books and debates) and bad (sometimes horrifically bad—see his support for the Iraq War) about “Hitch” and his many legacies.
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At 8 PM Ben is going to be doing a debate on Marxism vs. Postmodernism with Charles Woffors (moderated by Matt McManus). You can watch that here:
https://youtu.be/eCWjrRsi3nQ
At 10 Ben will be on Callin continuing the conversation with anyone who wants to call in to keep talking about these and related subjects.
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Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson joins Ben to take some calls.
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Callers ask Ben about subjects ranging from panpsychism to the DSA/Jamaal Bowman situation.
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