Matt McManus discusses his review of Gabriel Rockhill's Temu-Stalinist conspiracy theory of "western Marxism." Read Matt's review of Rockhill's "Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?" in Damage magazine: https://www.damagemag.com/p/western-marxism-through-the-looking Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Consider donating to Andy's GoFundMe so he can replace his computer and fully go back to doing what he does best: https://ww...
Apr 14, 2026•1 hr 17 min•Season 8Ep. 27
A day late because Ben had to write a Jacobin article about all this instead of doing the episode (sorry about that!) but there's a lot to cover. Last Friday he recorded a debate on the war in Iran (hosted by philosopher Spencer Case). In this episode, we play the debate and chat a little bit about the truly bizarre developments since it was recorded. Ben argues that it's good to be clear on what TACO Tuesday was, because that strengthens the anti-war case going forward. Watch the debate on Spen...
Apr 09, 2026•2 hr 8 min•Season 8Ep. 26
Last week at York University in Toronto, there was a panel to pre-launch a book of essays called "Analytical Marxism and Democratic Socialism in the 21st Century: Revisitng G.A. Cohen" co-edited by Ben Burgis and Matt McManus. Contributors Les Jacobs and Christine Sypnowich spoke first, then Matt and Ben. Q&A includes some spicy exchanges on dialectics and whether analytical Marxism is too academic to be of much use to the workers' movement. In this episode, Ben starts with some context on C...
Apr 01, 2026•2 hr 34 min•Season 8Ep. 25
Matt McManus joins to discuss the complicated legacy of philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died last Saturday. Read Matt's article "Jürgen Habermas Showed What Philosophy Could Be" in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2026/03/habermas-obituary-critical-theory-philosophy Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Consider donating to Andy's GoFundMe so he can replace his computer and fully go back to doing what he does best: https://www.gofu...
Mar 17, 2026•59 min•Season 8Ep. 24
Returning champ Matt McManus joins us once again, this time to explore a reactionary weirdo who somehow hasn't been the subject of a GTAA episode yet! Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Consider donating to Andy's GoFundMe so he can replace his computer and fully go back to doing what he does best: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-andy-get-back-to-creating-art-jtwet Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging fr...
Mar 09, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Season 8Ep. 23
We're back, baby! Ben Burgis breaks down the idiotic arguments made by the MAGA faithful in defense of Trump's decision to wage an unprovoked, illegal, open-ended war against a country with far more capacity to defend itself than Afghanistan had in 2001 or Iraq in 2003, and makes the case that opposing it isn't just a question of anti-imperialism or harm-minimization (though it certainly is all that) but that there's a basic question of American democracy at stake. Read Ben's article in Jacobin:...
Mar 04, 2026•1 hr 3 min•Season 8Ep. 22
Ben Burgis and Matt McManus chat with Laura K. Field about her excellent new book "Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right." Order the book:: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691255262/furious-minds Follow Laura on Twitter: @lkatfield Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our...
Jan 16, 2026•1 hr 36 min•Season 8Ep. 21
Deep State Kuba and New York Cynthia join Ben Burgis to talk about Curtis Yarvin's demented new essay "The Situation and the Solution." Follow Kuba on Twitter: @DrKuba2 Follow Cynthia on Twitter; @c_cook1988 Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going: patreon.com/benburgis...
Jan 14, 2026•2 hr 26 min•Season 8Ep. 20
Marxist Twitter has been fighting about Vivek Chibber lately. Ben Burgis takes the opportunity to address the immediate controversy but also the much broader value of Chibber's work. Read the Jacobin Chibber interview on the origins of capitalism that everyone is freaking out about: https://jacobin.com/2025/12/colonialism-transition-feudalism-capitalism-history-economy Read Ben's essay "Taking the Red Pill: William Clare Roberts vs. Vivek Chibber on the Class Matrix": https://benburgis.substack....
Dec 22, 2025•2 hr•Season 8Ep. 19
Ben Burgis talks about why he doesn't buy Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò's defense of identity politics in Táíwò's book "Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)." Check out the book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture Read Ben's review: https://damagemag.com/2025/06/11/uncaptured-identity-politics-is-no-substitute-for-a-politics-of-class/ Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerou...
Dec 19, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Season 8Ep. 18
Are service workers part of the "productive" part of the working class? And what does that mean? How about public sector employees--if they're not productive workers, does that mean that their interests don't align with productive workers and socialists shouldn't support the welfare state after all? Ben Burgis talks about what the Trotskyist leader and Marxist economist Ernest Mandel gets right and wrong in his introduction to Capital Vol. 2. Read Ben's essay: benburgis.substack.com/p/are-servic...
Dec 17, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 8Ep. 17
Many-time GTAA guest Ana Kasparian went on Bill Maher's podcast Club Random. Ben Burgis watches the part where they argue about Gaza and breaks it down. Read Ben's article "The “Human Shields” Defense of Bombing Gaza’s Civilians Is Morally Bankrupt": https://jacobin.com/2023/11/human-shields-bombing-gaza-palestine-israel-defense-forces-morally-bankrupt Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional p...
Dec 15, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Season 8Ep. 16
Nick Fuentes is comically vile. So, why is it so hard to exile him to whatever dark corner of the discourse he deserves to go back to? One problem is that, when the whole landscape is soaking in ethnic essentialism, it's hard to draw the line at one particular version. Read Ben's essay: https://benburgis.substack.com/p/fuentes-is-a-symptom Link for Andy's show: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/meat-for-tea-presents-le-cirqu/1201459995272451/ Link for the Tallywacker one: https://brendanboogie.s...
Dec 12, 2025•54 min•Season 8Ep. 15
The new edition of "Capital" has been getting a lot of buzz. But...guys...it's really bad. Read Ben's essay: benburgis.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-the-fowkes-translation Read Matt Huber's thread: https://x.com/Matthuber78/status/1962512243343385070 Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our undying love and gratitude for helping us ke...
Dec 10, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Season 8Ep. 14
Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani's critics on the Left think he's a sell-out for not backing a primary challenge against Hakeem Jeffries or firing Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Some of them are about ready to denounce him as a fascist collaborator for sitting down with Donald Trump. Do any of these arguments add up? Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to t...
Dec 08, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Season 8Ep. 13
Donald Trump, who we keep hearing is a peacemaker, said his speech for the 250th anniversary of the founding of Navy that the U.S. only lost the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan because we got too "woke" about war tactics. Ben Burgis breaks it down. Get tickets to the election night show in NYC: https://www.barfreda.com/#/events/156966 Read Ben's article in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2025/10/trump-vietnam-afghanistan-war-woke Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show ...
Oct 21, 2025•1 hr•Season 8Ep. 12
Both supporters and opponents of the Labor Theory of Value often assume that the LTV and Marx's theory of capitalist exploitation are a package deal. Others, like G.A. Cohen, have questioned that link. Ben Burgis takes a look at the debate, arguing that these two ideas are related...but not in the way a lot of people assume. Sign up for Ben's Capital classes at patreon.com/benburgis Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous ben...
Oct 16, 2025•1 hr 32 min•Season 8Ep. 11
Last week, Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti had an interesting mini-debate on whether states and cities that don't cooperate with ICE are doing something wrong on the grounds that it involves a "neo-Confederate" rejection of federal supreamcy. Ben Burgis breaks it down. Watch the 32-hour workweek video previewed at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr35Wr0H9mM Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from...
Oct 14, 2025•52 min•Season 8Ep. 10
Ambiguously fascist JD Vance guru Curtis Yarvin has written an odd little essay called "You Can't Handle the Truth." Ben Burgis responds! Read the essay: https://graymirror.substack.com/p/you-cant-handle-the-truth Read Matt McManus's essay on Yarvin: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/curtis-yarvin-thiel-carlyle-monarchism-reactionary Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames eve...
Oct 13, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 9
Libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick made a classical argument against redistributing wealth and economic resources in his book "Anarchy, State & Utopia" based on a thought experiment about the basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. Marxist philosopher G.A. Cohen takes it apart piece by piece. Ben Burgis discusses! Read Ben's article about this in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2024/12/capitalism-freedom-nozick-cohen-philosophy Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show...
Oct 09, 2025•40 min•Season 8Ep. 8
Today is the 2-year anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. Ben Burgis breaks the absurdity and evil of the way many people have tried to defend it, and puts the issue in a larger context. Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going: patreon.com/benburgis Read the weekly philosop...
Oct 07, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 7
Ben Burgis talks about his Jacobin article "Democrats are Screwing Up the Shutdown" and subsequent developments. Read the article: https://jacobin.com/2025/10/democrats-shutdown-health-care-bernie-aoc Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going: patreon.com/benburgis Read the weekly philosophy Substack: benburgis.substack.com ...
Oct 06, 2025•37 min•Season 8Ep. 6
It's Friday! Let's end the week with something fun and watch Zohran sparring with the ladies on The View about Palestine, electability, and more. Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going: patreon.com/benburgis Read the weekly philosophy Substack: benburgis.substack.com Visit benburgis.com...
Oct 03, 2025•52 min•Season 8Ep. 5
That's the claim made by Neil Vallelly in a shockingly poorly-informed article for Jacobin (reviewing Christopher Schuringa's book "A Social History of Analytical Philosophy"). Jacobin editor Nick French defended analytic philosophy in a counterpoint review of the same book ("Is Analytic Philosophy a Class Ideology?") published the same day. In this episode, Ben Burgis argues in this episode that French is correct but that the whole exchange suffers from ignoring the overlap between analytic phi...
Oct 02, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Trump's new national security directive classifies all of the following as indicators of incipient political violence that need to be investigated and disrupted before they come to fruition: • anti-Americanism, • anti-capitalism, • anti-Christianity, • support for the overthrow of the United States Government, • extremism on migration, • extremism on race, • extremism on gender • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, • hostility towards those who hold traditional...
Oct 01, 2025•56 min•Season 8Ep. 3
Ben Burgis addresses the controversy about the article he and Meagan Day wrote about political violence and free speech after the Charlie Kirk assassination, all of the ways the most tedious and unhelpful people on the Left found to miss the point, and the broader perils of this moment. Read the original article: https://jacobin.com/2025/09/charlie-kirk-murder-political-violence Follow Meagan on Twitter: @meagankday Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GT...
Sep 30, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 8Ep. 2
We're back! This last weekend, Ben Burgis was at an international conference of socialist, communist, and labor parties in Mexico City hosted by the Partido del Trabajo (the smallest but furthest left of the three parties in Claudia Sheinbaum's coalition). He introduced Richard Wolff to the assembled delegates, and Wolff have a barn burner of a talk outlining just what's happened to American society in the last few decades. We share the video + Ben gives some background on the conference and get...
Sep 29, 2025•54 min•Season 8Ep. 1
After a four-year run on the show, Producer Jake is saying goodbye. (Although presumably he'll be saying "hello" again on some future episodes as a guest.) One of his predecessors, Producer Cale, joins us to see the lad off. Jay Zeroni, who's never been a GTAA producer but is still a good guy, joins us in the postgame for patrons. We're having some fun with our Season 7 finale before we take a break (at least from full episodes) for a couple weeks, and then we'll be back with some big format cha...
Aug 16, 2025•1 hr 55 min•Season 7Ep. 25
Jacobin writer and editor Meagan Day joins us to talk about what reactionary "tradwife" influencers are latching onto, and how social democracy can actually help families in a way that ugly anti-feminist culture war can't. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument on what the Epstein scandal says about our late capitalist hellscape. (No postgame tonight, sorry!) Read Ben's Epstein Files article: https://jacobin.com/2025/08/epstein-scandal-trump-clinton-bipartisanship Read Meagan's article "The N...
Aug 09, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Season 7Ep. 24
The crossover event the world has eagerly awaited is here (OK, well, some of us are excited)--Matt McManus and Stormin' Norman Finkelstein on the same podcast episode. As it turns out, they share an interest in John Stuart Mill, so we thought it might be interesting to explore that. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument on Bret Stephens's absurd genocide denialism. Watch Norm deliver a lecture on Mill to the Communist Party of Great Britain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt3WmzLM5G0 Read M...
Aug 01, 2025•2 hr 24 min•Season 7Ep. 23
