[Note: This is actually from last Thursday--just getting to sticking it up on the podcast feed now. The plan going forward is that (a) the new Thursday Night Debate Breakdowns will go up on the podcast feed for everyone the morning after they're on YouTube, and (b) over the course of the next several months, the 29 Sunday Night Debate Breakdowns we did over the course of Seasons 1 & 2 will go up in podcast form for GTAA patrons.] Remember the Sunday Night Debate Breakdowns? They're on Thursd...
Sep 17, 2021•2 hr 58 min
So much good stuff in this episode. One of our favorite people, David Griscom, returns as the main guest. The new weekly philosophy segment with Jennifer Burgis debuts at the end of the episode--she weighs in on Ayn Rand's angry rant about the influence of Immanuel Kant. But here's the bad news: We're spending almost the entire episode watching and discussing Prager University videos. Sorry--but this is happening. Follow David Griscom on Twitter: @DavidGriscom Follow Left Reckoning on Twitter: @...
Sep 15, 2021•2 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Charlie Kirk has said that democratic socialism is "the greatest scam in history." Ben Burgis has said that "Charlie Kirk is full of shit--like all Trumpists, he pretends to care about working-class people in the heartland but he doesn't want to raise their wages or give them healthcare." Ben thinks he and Charlie should have a discussion about this, and a lot of people seem to agree--enough money has been pledged in charitable donations by people who want to see this conversation happen to pay ...
Aug 26, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Season 2Ep. 28
"American Prestige" co-hosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison join Ben for a deep dive on foreign policy. Follow Danny on Twitter: @dbessner Follow Derek on Twitter: @dwdavison Follow their podcast: @AmPrestigePod Donate to help people in need and also pressure Charlie Kirk to debate Ben: https://townsircle.com/events/89 Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis. Patrons get a bonus episod...
Aug 17, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Ben and the crew talk about Cori Bush's protest and what a socialist housing policy might look like, Ben and Cale discuss the new Contrapoints video and preview and discuss Ben's conversation with Matt McManus (dropping for patrons on Thursday), and Ben talks to Lillian Cicichera (prerecorded) about an interesting philosophy paper she wrote about class: https://www.academia.edu/49996564/Why_Does_Class_Matter_final_ Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame after the regular episode ...
Aug 10, 2021•1 hr 59 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Matt Lech (Left Reckoning, Majority Report) comes back on GTAA to take patron questions. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (re...
Aug 05, 2021•10 min•Season 2Ep. 24
About a week and a half after the Capitol riot, Ben co-wrote a Jacobin article with fellow TMBS alumnus Daniel Bessner in Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/trump-capitol-riot-fascist-coup-attempt Ben and Danny think that the case they were making in the article has only gotten stronger in the last several months. Their friends (really, not just a courtesy, we like these guys) Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell disagree. Matt and Sam criticized the article on the last episode of their (other...
Aug 05, 2021•1 hr 40 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Larry Sharpe was the Libertarian Party's candidate for Governor of New York in 2018. He joins GTAA this week to argue with Ben about libertarianism and democratic socialism. (Also, Ben, Cale and Andy talk about Critical Race Theory and banning private beaches.) Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: www.patreon.com/benburgis Patrons get a Thursday bonus episode every week, postgames after regular Monday night shows, acc...
Aug 03, 2021•1 hr 41 min
Current Affairs founder Nathan J. Robinson and historian Djene Bajalan join Ben to take apart the many terrible arguments made by Ben Shapiro--an individual The New York Times once chose to call "the cool kid's philosopher." Nathan's recent article on Shapiro can be found here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/0... Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode ...
Jul 27, 2021•1 hr 44 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage joins Ben to talk about the many inane things said in the most cursed possible context--an interview of James Carville by Chris Cuomo. Luke's original article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/james-carville-centrist-politics-television To access the whole episode, become a GTAA patron by going to patreon.com/benburgis. As well as the weekly Thursday bonus episodes, patrons get access to the Discord server, patron-exclusive postgames on Monday nights, a “Sopranos” ...
Jul 23, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Ben answers some Q&A questions and reads an unpublished fragment by Michael Brooks. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis. Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regu...
Jul 22, 2021•2 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Michael Brooks died a year ago on Tuesday. After an interview with Richard Wolff on his most recent book and how he thinks we can move beyond capitalism, the rest of the episode is devoted to a Michael tribute. Joshua Kahn Russell joined for the postgame for patrons Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access...
Jul 20, 2021•2 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 20
NYMag's Eric Levitz makes an argument about how the left talks about crime. It's good stuff. To access the whole thing, become a GTAA patron by going to patreon.com/benburgis. As well as the weekly Thursday bonus episodes, patrons get access to the Discord server, patron-exclusive postgames on Monday nights, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats)...
Jul 16, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Jacobin Magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara (@sunrayray) and Age of Napoleon host E.M. Rummage (@Trillburne) join Ben for a special Bastille Day bonus episode on the French Revolution and its enduring significance for emancipatory politics. Subscribe to Jacobin today for a special Bastille Day discount: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe?code=BASTILLEDAY Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgi...
Jul 15, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Ben talks to the crew about Cuba. Pascal Robert talks about Haiti. Ben's Cuba article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/us-emb... Pascal Robert is the co-host of the This is Revolution podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9W... Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a Thursday bonus episode every week, access to the Discord server, a Sopranos Recap Bonus Episode...
Jul 13, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic joins Ben to discuss the life of anti-war former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel. To access the full episode become a GTAA patron at patreon.com/benburgis. Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ben...
Jul 08, 2021•9 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Left-wing history and foreign policy gurus Djene Bajalan and Kuba Wriesniewski join Ben to weigh in on all the recent discourse about Stalin (and to talk about FDR a bit while they're at it). Ben explains why he's been gone. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with...
Jul 08, 2021•2 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Ben had to be gone tonight due to a family situation. Cale Brooks & Harvey J. Kaye kindly stepped in with a History Q&A.
Jul 06, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Season 2Ep. 16
It has somewhat recently come to light that the NFL created a different scoring scale for Black players versus players of other races when it came to deciding how affected a player was by traumatic brain injuries occurring during their time on in the NFL. If a player was Black, they needed to demonstrate a higher level of impaired cognitive function than players of other races. Strangely, this has made a lot of people angry, confused, and just totally baffled, not least because the NFL freely ad...
Jul 02, 2021•8 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks and Jacobin's Weekends show, Jason Myles of the This Is Revolution podcast, and some members of Buffalo DSA join Ben to talk about everything that's going on this week--from India Walton's stunning victory in Buffalo to why police privatization is a uniquely horrifying idea. There's also a preview of the bonus episode with Roberto Aspholm (dropping for patrons on Thursday), a breakdown of Dennis Prager's thoughts about socialism, and a preview of Ben's discussion...
Jun 29, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Ben is joined by Rick Perlstein, author of “Reaganland,” and they discuss a group of weird right-wing economists that developed theories around supply-side economics in the mid-‘70s. The Laffer Curve, the two Santa Claus theory, and other supply-side theories unfortunately were stupid and did not work. That was the downside. Luckily, Jimmy Carter won the presidency, cancelled a bunch of Single Santa Claus projects, and also ruined that side of economics. Not a great period all around. Enter Rona...
Jun 27, 2021•8 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Marco Rubio once again reveals that "right-wing economic populism" is a sick joke. There's a preview of the interview with Rick Perlstein for GTAA patrons. Daniel Elder is canceled and moves to the right. Luke Savage comes on the show to chat about Barbara Lee's prescient anti-war stance after 9/11 and Victor Bruzzone tries to convince Ben that sortition is better than electoral democracy. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on ...
Jun 22, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Kurt Hackbarth talks to Ben about the reforms that Mexico's governing left party MORENA has implemented in the last three years. (In the rest of the episode, they get into drawbacks, limitations, and looming problems.) To get the full episode and every other Thursday patron episode, as well as the Monday postgames, support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons also access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine,...
Jun 17, 2021•10 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Slavoj Žižek shouts out Ben's new book in his article "The Difference Between 'Woke' and a True Awakening" (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/526235-zizek-woke-cancel-culture-awakening/). Anti-Palestinian ghouls attack Ilhan Omar. Ben, Producer Forrest and GTAA YouTube Manager Kelly Carey discuss this and more and play a preview of the patron bonus episode with Kurt Hackbarth on AMLO and the last election in Mexico, and then Ryan Grim makes his GTAA debut. The episode is called we *still* stand with Ilha...
Jun 15, 2021•1 hr 50 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Ekin Erkan joins Ben to read through and talk about Herbert Marcuse's correspondence with Martin Heidegger about Heidegger's role in the Third Reich. Find Ekin Online: https://twitter.com/ekinerkan4 Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, ...
Jun 11, 2021•11 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Philosophy professor Jamie Lombardi joins Ben to talk about "heartbeat bills" and other current threats to abortion rights, and to revisit the arguments in classic papers on the subject by Don Marquis ("Why Abortion is Immoral"), Judith Jarvis Thomson ("A Defense of Abortion"), and Margaret Olivia Little ("Abortion, Intimacy, and the Duty to Gestate"). Jamie is starting a chapter of Corrupt the Youth ( https://corrupttheyouth.weebly.com/ ) at her college and raising money for Garden State Equali...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Jacobin staff writer Alex Press joins Ben to chat about Chipotle--a company where management "ignores the rats and punishes the workers." Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord...
Jun 03, 2021•5 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Ben Udashen makes his first appearance on GTAA for a two-Ben debunk of (we swear this is a real, non-made up thing) Mike Huckabee's "The Kids Guide to Fighting Socialism." Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a Thursday bonus episode every week, access to the Discord server, a Sopranos Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosney Lambre,...
Jun 02, 2021•1 hr 39 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Ben and Forrest were both traveling this week, hence no new regular GTAA episode on Monday or patron ep on Thursday, but here's Ben's complete appearance on MR to talk about his new book and how the left should think about cancel culture. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode ev...
May 28, 2021•1 hr
Chess teacher Nick Manley joins Ben to talk about the history of chess in the Soviet Union. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voic...
May 20, 2021•10 min•Season 2Ep. 6
