Token Gen-Xer Josh Bregman joins Emmet to discuss Robert Downey Jr.'s documentary about the '92 election, The Last Party . They discuss the NGO Industrial Complex, why the culture war is built to be endless, the handoff from the New Left to Gen X, and how RDJ accidentally made Twitter: The Movie in 1992. Subscribe to our Patreon for two extra exclusive episodes a month. Bibliography . Twitter . Closing Song: System of a Down - Lost in Hollywood x Young Thug - Power (KEIFERGR33N Remix)...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 38 min
Emmet and John discuss two articles and try to fine-tune their understanding of who the American elites are and how they've changed over time. Do elites have the same interes? The same culture? Do they even believe in their own institutions? " American Gentry " by Patrick Wyman " Rediscovering E. Digby Baltzell’s Sociology of Elites " by Aaron M Renn Bibliography . Patreon . Twitter . Closing Song: " Slipknot - Wait and Bleed x Chrono Trigger OST - At the Bottom of the Night (KEIFERGR33N REMIX) ...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 9 min
A discussion of Ontario's lockdown and the fight over the grid in Texas turns into a longer conversation about decadence vs. decline, aesthetic education, and how we try to cultivate ourselves and find meaning in a shallow and ephemeral world. We talk about poetry, marriage, LARPing, the sack of Troy, and more. Join our Patreon to hear the rest ! Bibliography: https://exhaust.fireside.fm/articles/p4 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ex_haustpodcast Closing Song: https://moontype.bandcamp.com/track/fe...
Apr 19, 2021•4 min
Emmet and Geoff Shullenberger talk about a mutual favorite film: Cronenberg's Videodrome. They talk about how it pre-empted our fractured digital lives and the inscrutable, parapolitical world we inhabit. Join our Patreon for 2 extra episodes a month! Eratta: Emmet states that Videodrome came out in 1985, but it did not. It came out in 1983. Bibliography. Twitter. Closing Song: "La Flamme dell' Est (Fabio Brienza Remix)" by Lamniformes Special Guest: Geoff Shullenberger ....
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 29 min
Emmet and John sit down to speak with Meredith Angwin about her new book, Shorting the Grid, on America's fragile electric grid. We talk about how and why the grid became fragile, energy auctions, renewables and fragility, the glories of nuclear energy, and much more! Buy Meredith's book . Twitter . Patreon . Closing song: " Vermont " by Tiny Deserts....
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon! John and I had fun with this one. We talk through MacIntyre's analysis of the failure of the Enlightenment's ethical project and the difficulty the idea of telos posed for it. There was a lot of chaos in our respective apartments, so we got a little derailed towards the end. We're going to return to MacIntyre's argument about human rights in greater detail in the next installment. In lieu of that, we had a broader closing conversation abo...
Apr 04, 2021•5 min
In a brief addition to the Lasch Files, we discuss his essay, " The Cultural Cold War: A Short History of the Congress for Cultural Freedom ." We go through the Alger Hiss case, the ACCF, the Korean War as it played out uring McCarthyism, why everything's a psyop, and how Lasch saw psychopolitics coming. Bibliography . Patreon . Twitter . Closing Song: " checkin out " by blasted diplomats....
Mar 31, 2021•1 hr 7 min
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. Ashley was a great guest and we hope to have her return to the pod. Buy her book . Bibliography . Twitter . Patreon . Closing Song: " Ceiling " by Stuck Episode image: Photo by Maximilian Scheffler on Unsplash Special Guest: Ashley Frawley....
Mar 24, 2021•54 min
We review Alex Lee Moyer's documentary TFW NO GF. We talk about loneliness, the shitty American media class, the value of friendship, and a whole lot else. This one's a chiller. You can watch the movie here . Bibliography . Twitter . Patreon . Closing song: " Kerosene " by Big Black....
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 18 min
Last month, CyberCharles joined Emmet to break down what happened with the big SolarWinds hack, how digital supply chains work, how citizens should think about these issues, and much more. This is a sample of their talk. Listen to the full episode by subscribing to the Patreon . Bibliography . Closing song: " Bingo! Dino DNA " by MANS. Photo by Kvistholt Photography on Unsplash....
Mar 15, 2021•4 min
Emmet and John begin their reading series on Alisdair MacIntyre's classic work After Virtue. This episode's a more granular look at MacIntyre's argument to make sure we've fully grasped its fundamentals before moving forward. The episode closes with a discussion of mourning in Anglo-Saxon poetry and Borges' "Borges and I." " Any Oligarchy of Sob Stories " by Emmet Penney. Bibliography . Twitter . Subscribe to our Patreon to get an extra two exclusive episodes a month! Closing Song: "Limp Bizkit ...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 18 min
Emmet talks with energy analyst Mark Nelson about how the Texas grid almost completely collapsed in mid-February and what that means for our future. Mark is sharp as hell and was a joy to speak with. Subscribe to our Patreon for more content like this! Bibliography. Twitter. Closing Song: " Scapegoat " by Atmosphere. Special Guest: Mark Nelson....
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr 6 min
This is a teaser from our first Patreon episode. Subscribe here to listen to the full thing! We talk with Canada Mike about the stastical efficacy of vaccine success studies, how mRNA vaccines are produced, and the downfall of the CDC. Bibliography . Twitter . Special Guest: Mike.
Mar 01, 2021•3 min
Our dear friend Matt Stonks joins us to talk about the whole GameStop thing. Matt helps us with some Markets 101 terminology, and then we talk about the politics of the r/WallStreetBets moment before we close with three different views of what it all means. Matt has some corrections he wanted to issue and some extensive resources he wanted to provide all of which are in the bibliography. Emmet mentioned Matt Taibbi's take on all this, which Taibbi clarified a couple hours after recoring on Feb 6...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 14 min
Emmet sits down with Frank Furedi to discuss his latest book, Democracy Under Siege: Don't Let Them Lock It Down! They discuss Athenian Democracy, the role of expertise in society, how technocrats need wokeness to make their anti-democratic aims palatable, Brexit, and so much more! Buy the book here . Buy his other book, Why Borders Matter, here . Follow us on Twitter . Closing Song: " Never Follow " by Naked Raygun. Special Guest: Frank Furedi....
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr
We talk through three pieces: Leo Strauss's lecture on German Nihilism , Bradley Troemel 's (recently banned from YouTube) video essay on QAnon, and Boris Groys's essay Self-Design and Aesthetic Responsibility to understand the current state of American Nihilism. This one was fun to record, so we hope it's fun to listen to. Sign up for Emmet's lecture on Book I of the Republic. Bibliography . Follow us on Twitter . Closing Song by Tom Inhaler off of the album Distilled . Cover image: Gustave Dor...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 20 min
Canada Mike joins us to talk about why America's vaccine rollout plan doesn't make sense and why it's not going well. First, Emmet talks about watching Erin Brokovich for the first time and Gabor Mate. Then we get into the nitty gritty with Mike while historically contextualizing the US response and the shaping of the Federal Government via crises. Towards the end, it all comes full circle as we talk about our duties as citizens (and parents) in a very based and trad conclusion. Bibliography . C...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 8 min
We conclude (for now) our readings of Poe and Emerson by taking a look at how they conceived of American literary nationalism. John goes deep into Emerson's influences, while Emmet brings in some historical background. Errata: Where Emmet says "John Henry" he meant to say "John Brown." To get updates on Emmet's upcoming lecture on Book I of Plato's Republic, download his free ebook on the Republic here. Bibliography. Twitter . Closing Song: "Work" by Pickpocket . Cover image: Thomas Cole (1801–1...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 8 min
We muse on two articles listed just below and try to think through the problem of anger in politics and in personal life. Does anger corrupt? Is it clarifying? A useful political catalyst or liability? What do we do now that anger is fully commoditized in the digital media sphere in which we live? We stake out our turf as semi-Aristotelians and make our way through these questions and conclude by deciding to do a reading series on After Virtue by Alisdair McIntyre this year. There are the pieces...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 4 min
We offer a brief obit for Flash animation and then discuss how we watched social media take shape over the course of their lives. Then, using the documentaries We Live in Public (2009) and The Social Dilemma (2020) as jumping off points, we talk about the nature of the new epistocracy. This episode was recorded in 2020, before the storming of the capitol, Trump's banning from every social media platform, and the quiet but obvious and opaque purge of accounts on Twitter, etc. We Live in Public ca...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 10 min
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. We talk about Twitch streaming live performances, platform dominance, the NBA bubble, UFC's Fight Island, and why the band Code Orange is the future. Read Ian's pieces here: Who Will Entertain in America? Pt 1: Live Streaming Who Will Entertain in America? Pt 2: NBA - The Return Who Will Entertain in America? Pt. 3 - Code Orange Bibliography . Closing song: " I Have Bee...
Jan 06, 2021•1 hr 17 min
In our end of year recap, we first talk reflect on the year before discussing how vaccines are made, how that's changed, and what that will mean for COVID vaccine distribution. Canada Mike guides us through a deep dive into how single use systems have fragilized large scale vaccine development. This was recorded a few weeks ago, which is why we don't discuss new COVID strains or Fauci's goalpost shifting. Bibliography. Closing song: " Change Is Bad " by Stuck. Complaints Department: ex.haustpodc...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 19 min
We speak with scholar Kyong-Min Son about his book The Eclipse of the Demos: The Cold War and the Crisis of Democracy before Neoliberalism. We cover some of the major themes of the book, but also discuss consumerism, populism, Carl Schmitt's legacy, and why democracy can't just be radical action from below, but needs to become a public institution. You should buy Kyong-Min's book. Bibliography . Complaints Department: ex.haustpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. Closing song: " Old Connecticut Money " ...
Dec 23, 2020•1 hr 1 min
In the second installment in our American canon series, we look at our beloved failson Edgar Allan Poe. We discuss his life, legacy (especially his impact on Borges), and what set him apart from his peers. We look at two stories: Fall of the House of Usher and Masque of the Red Death , the second especially relevant during COVID. It was our first time talking literature for the show, and we had a great time. We hope you enjoy it. Bibliography . Complaints Dept. - ex.haustpodcast [at] gmail [dot]...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 2 min
We revisit the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp, a film about a pentecostal Christian summer camp, to re-evaluate their perspective on the movie and to understand our current political moment. Unlike our experience when it first came out, we were more disturbed by the film makers than the documentary's content. We talk about how everything feels like Jesus Camp now--both form and content--and then talk about the deadlock of victimhood and moral license in American politics. Bibliography. Complaints D...
Dec 09, 2020•51 min
We read two articles: one about a failed jobs program in coal country and another about a bad deal with Foxconn in Wisconsin. They were depressing and enraging. We touch on deindustrialization, the waning of the nation state, the thickening of civil society, the hatred of "white trash" and more. " The Elk, the Tourists and the Missing Coal Country Jobs " by RG Dunlop " The 8th Wonder of the World " by Josh Dzieza Bibliography. Complaints Department: ex.haustpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. Photo by...
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 2 min
We've decided to begin a running series dedicated to the American Canon. We open the episode by talking about why we're doing this before launching into a discussion of our first entry in the series: Emerson's "Self-Reliance." Kojeve's animalization makes a come, Emerson's eternal present, we discuss the roots of American iconoclasm, John explains how Southern aristocrats saw themselves as the descendents of the combatants at the Battle of Hastings, and much, much more. This one was really fun t...
Nov 25, 2020•53 min
To conclude our series on Lasch's Revolt of the Elites, we talk to Geoff Shullenberger about his piece on Lasch's book for Wesley Yang's Correspondence Society. We link the 2020 riots to the rich kids of the 1960s New Left, why Lasch's nostalgia for the 19th century yellow journalism doesn't make sense today, and why it is that the elites are not longer seceding as they were in Lasch's 90's, but in open revolt in the boardroom and on the street. Read his piece here . Bibliography here. Complaint...
Nov 18, 2020•1 hr 3 min
We dive into the middle portion of Lasch's book about the challenges facing democratic discourse. We talk about education, the press, and how "third places" helped them cultivate identities as a sense of civic virtue. This is probably our most autobiographical episode to date. Bibliography here . Complaints Dept.: ex.haustpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com.
Nov 11, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Historian Jennifer Miller joins us to talk about two papers she's written on conservative responses to the rise of East Asia in the latter part of the Cold War. We get into the nitty gritty about international reactionary currents, ahistory in neoconservative thought, overlaps between neocons and Christopher Lasch, and a whole lot else! We were delighted to have her and hope to do so again. The two papers we discuss: “ Let’s Not be Laughed at Anymore: Donald Trump and Japan from the 1980s to the...
Nov 04, 2020•1 hr 10 min
