On this edition of Parallax Views, we're delving into the shifting political alliances that seem to be emerging as we enter what may be a Second Cold War and an emerging multipolar world. To do this we're joined by Ted Snider , a fascinating geopolitical analyst and regular contributor to Antiwar.Com . We begin the conversation by parsing out the debate over the terms "New Cold War" and "Second Cold War" in the 21st century. The idea of the Second Cold War refers to rising tensions between the U...
Nov 13, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 541
On this edition of Parallax Views, with anti-vaccination sentiments and climate change denial being phenomena in society the issue of what's been dubbed science denial has become a hot, relevant topic. Joining us to discuss this issue in ways that are empathetic, thoughtful, and nuanced are Jack M. Gorman and Sara E. Gorman, authors of Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Science That Will Save Us (formerly Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Facts That Will Save Us ; this is a 2nd editio...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 540
On this edition of Parallax Views, it's a Halloween hangover episode where politics and horror movies collide! Martin Harris, author of Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as Political Satire , joins me to examine filmmaker Tobe Hooper's 1974 cult classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in the context of the turbulent political scandal it was made in the midst of: Watergate and the fall of President Richard Milhouse Nixon. Believe it or not, Hooper himself made references to h...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 539
On this edition of Parallax Views, a previously unpublished with the controversial anarcho-primitivist philosopher John Zerzan from August 2020 about his new book When We Are Human: Notes from the Age of Pandemics (Feral House 2021). Zerzan argues that the root cause of social woes like alienation and neuroses, as well as domination and hierarchies, are the cause of agricultural and industrial civilizations. Moreover, he believes we are in the grips of a techno-madness that is spiritually anathe...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 538
On this edition of Parallax Views, in the age of issues likes pandemics and climate change the subject of science has increasingly become divided along partisan political lines. We live in a moment where portions of the population are anti-vaccination or believe that climate change is a hoax. Science, it appears, has become a topic to avoid as taboo, much like politics and religion, in social interactions. And that has major implications for society. How did this all happen? And, perhaps more im...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 537
On this edition of Parallax Views, we've got a monster-sized treat of an episode to help you get in the spirit of the spooky season as Halloween approaches. Have you ever wondered about the movie magic that's employed to make some of your favorite horror movies? What are the behind-the-scenes secrets of special effects (SFX) and make-up effects (MUFX) in such frightful franchises as HELLRAISER, HALLOWEEN, CANDYMAN, BLADE, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, FEAST, THE EXORCIST, PUMKPKINHEAD, and PIRANHA? Joini...
Oct 28, 2021•2 hr 25 min•Ep. 536
On this edition of Parallax Views, we're preparing for Halloween w/ a number of episodes celebrating the spooky season! First up, the great film historian David Del Valle joins Parallax Views to discuss monsters, character actor, and the horror movies of Hollywood. We talk Orson Welles, Dracula actor Christopher Lee (and taking him to a gay disco), LGBTQ+ horror and vampires, the adolescent love of horror movies, the classic Universal Monster movies and the British Hammer Studio horrors of the 6...
Oct 26, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 535
For the penultimate episode of our Parallax Views Halloween series, John Cussans joins us to discuss his book Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror, and the Zombie Complex . Believe it or not, the zombie wasn't always simply a figure of flesh-ripping, brain eating apocalyptical disease and undead horror. The zombie begins as a figure within Haitian folklore and Voodoo (Voudon) before eventually coming to Western pop culture. John argues that the zombie's migration to the West was underpinned by white W...
Oct 19, 2021•1 hr 56 min•Ep. 534
On this edition of Parallax Views, the late night Fox News talk show Gutfeld! w/ right-wing comedian Greg Gutfeld recently managed to beat out its liberal competitor The Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert in ratings. For liberals and leftists, Gutfeld's "Owning the Libs" brand of humor may not be funny. But it has found an audience. He's not alone either, as similarly-styled comics like Steven Crowder have likewise gained an audience through offending liberal sensibilities. And then there's big name c...
Oct 14, 2021•46 min•Ep. 533
On this edition of Parallax Views, a new movie called The Green Sea tells a story that combines straightforward drama with the magical realism reminiscent of authors like Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood) and elements of the kind of ghost stories bringing to mind M.R. James. Its writer and director has an interesting lineage, to say the least. Oliver Plunkett is the 21st Baron of Dunsany, one of the oldest continuously lived in estates in all of Ireland. He's the ancestor of t...
Oct 11, 2021•2 hr•Ep. 531
On this edition of Parallax Views, Andrei S. Markovits is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and the Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies at the University of Michigan. For some decades now he has written, with a scholarly verve, about issues such as globalization, antisemitism, soccer and politics, anti-Americanism in European culture, Left politics, and more. Now he's written a memoir entitled The Passport as Home: Comfort in Rootlessness . In said memoir...
Oct 05, 2021•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 532
On this edition of Parallax Views, in his new Sandfuture artist Justin Beal looks at the relationship between architecture, its history (and who it is written for), illness (both as actual malady and as metaphor), and inequity through an exploration of the life and times of World Trade Center designer Minoru Yamasaki. Yamasaki made many important contributions to architecture in the 20th century, and yet, according to Beal, remains somewhat obscure in architectural history. Finding this curious,...
Oct 02, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 530
On this edition of Parallax Views, are certain segments of alt media becoming hawkish geopolitically beyond the faltering "Forever Wars"? In other words, is there criticisms to be lobbed at alt media figures who may be becoming more hawkish geopolitically as we enter what appears to be a New Cold War on China? Robbie Martin of Media Roots Radio and Connor Freeman of The Libertarian Institute join me to chat about Saagar Enjeti (formerly of Rising on The Hill and now Breaking Point w/ his former ...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 529
On this edition of Parallax Views, earlier this year a curious new book was published dealing with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Co-written by R. James Woolsey, former Director of the CIA under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1995, and Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former Romanian spy and a noted, high-ranking Eastern Bloc defect during the Cold War, Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin's Secret War Against America argues that the JFK assassination was the result of a plot involving the Soviet...
Sep 26, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 528
On this edition of Parallax Views, it's become a truism that Afghanistan is the "Graveyard of Empire" over the past few decades. It's an idea that's entered the common parlance and the foreign policy lexicon. Even President Joe Biden has mentioned the "Graveyard of Empires" tropes in light of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan this year. The British Empire and the Soviet Unions failed interventions in Afghanistan are used as examples to support the trope and now the U.S.'s 20 year war...
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 527
On this edition of Parallax Views, what is the legacy of Osama bin Laden and the "Forever Wars" that came after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001? The Middle East Institute's James Dorsey, award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, joins us to tackle that question as related in his article "Bin Laden’s legacy probably surpasses his wildest dreams" . James Dorsey is the the man behind the book,...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 526
On this edition of Parallax Views, Russ Bake, Editor-in-Chief and founder of the non-profit news organization WhoWhatWhy and author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, returned to Parallax Views to discuss his latest article "FBI Makes Midnight Release of Shocking New Information on Saudi-9/11 Complicity" . We discuss the lingering questions about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its potential connection to the te...
Sep 16, 2021•48 min•Ep. 525
On this edition of Parallax Views, 2020 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate Spike Cohen joins us to discuss why he, as a libertarian, opposes a government "War on Abortion" and views the Texas Heartbeat Act (Texas SB8) is a pandora's box EVEN IF YOU'RE AGAINST ABORTION that creates a secret police nightmare through a government incentive system. In other words, the Texas Abortion Law brings to the fore the issue of snitch culture and its weaponization. Spike and I discuss the views of ...
Sep 14, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 524
On this edition of Parallax Views, the great Scott Horton, an inspiration for Parallax Views, the host of The Scott Horton Show, and the author of both Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan and Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terror, joins us to provide a down-and-dirty history lesson on the War on Terror and how neoconservative war hawks played right into bin Laden's hands in the aftermath of 9/11. Bin Laden, Scott argues, wanted the U.S. to react to 9/11 by getting involved ...
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 523
On this edition of Parallax Views, it's the 20th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks that took down the World Trade Center buildings and damaged the Pentagon (another plane was headed for the White House but ended up crashing in Shanksville, PA). Questions remain, even after the 9/11 Joint Inquiry and the 9/11 Commission, about the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the events of that fateful day. A lawsuit by the 9/11 victims' families is underway. Joining us to untang...
Sep 11, 2021•54 min•Ep. 522
On this edition of Parallax Views, has the post-911 Forever Wars created a slew of forever policies that'll live with us long after American military incursions in Afghanistan and Iraq are decades behind us? That's the case Karen J. Greenberg, of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, joins us on this edition of Parallax Views to discuss that subject as outline in her recent TomDispatch piece "Will the Forever Wars Become Forever Policy?" and her new book Subtle Tools: The Dismantling o...
Sep 09, 2021•40 min•Ep. 520
On this edition of Parallax Views, environmental lawyer Larry Schnapf and Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation join me to discuss the efforts of Larry and others to get the last of the documents promised by the JFK Records Act released to the public. Efforts appear to have been made to keep the last of the records from being released vis-vis a memo that in the estimation of activists like Larry Schnapf and Mark Adamcyzk wouldn't hold up in court as a reason for further release de...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 519
On this edition of Parallax Views, on June 6th, 1968 Robert F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gun shots at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. After the assassination, a Palestinian man, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted for his death. Over 50 years later, in 2021, Sirhan Sirhan has been recommended for parole. Joining us to discuss why Sirhan Sirhan is up for parole and why he should be released is his defense attorney Angela Berry. Berry argues that Sirhan Sirhan is no longer a threat ...
Sep 02, 2021•33 min•Ep. 518
On this edition of Parallax Views, U.S. military forces have left Afghanistan after 20 years. But the D.C. foreign policy Blob's arrogance is still going strong, as figures like Max Boot, Leon Panetta, and H.R. McMaster. Our guest on this edition, libertarian gadfly James Bovaird, has a personal experience he's decided to share with us about this kind of hubris that he details in his article "Washington Arrogance is Incurable" . Jim recounts a telling conversation he had with a "good Washingtoni...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 517
On this edition of Parallax Views, there's been a political blame game at play since President Joe Biden announced the U.S. withdrawal of its military forces from Afghanistan. The last of the U.S. forces officially left on August 30th, 2021. What now? What does this mean for U.S. foreign policy going forward? Will it open up a debate about U.S. foreign policy since 9/11? And what are the lessons that need to be learned from the U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan? We have two interviews delvi...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 516
Interview Start Times: Trita Parsi - 02:22 Nadia Ahmad - 27:14 On this edition of Parallax Views, we have two interviews relating to U.S. foreign policy. First, up Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft co-founder and executive vice president Trita Parsi joins us to discuss how U.S. foreign policy needs a change. For Parsi, that means a shift towards a foreign policy of restraint that rejects militarism and economic warfare like sanctions. He argues that U.S. Grand Strategy is not worked ou...
Aug 30, 2021•59 min•Ep. 515
Ret. Air Force Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski begins at 04:00 Ron Paul begins at 1:04:00 On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our "Reflections on Afghanistan" series with a double feature episode. First up, Ret. Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski joins us to offer an insider's perspective the Pentagon during the Bush years and to offer insights about the neoconservatives that got us into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We'll also delve into the latest developments in Afghanistan with Ka...
Aug 27, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 513
On this edition of Parallax Views, journalist Eric S. Margolis joins us for the latest in our "Reflections on Afghanistan" series. Margolis, the author of American Raj Liberation Or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World and War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet , has years of experience covering Afghanistan with his reporting their going back to the 1980s. He discusses a number of issues including the corruption of the Gh...
Aug 27, 2021•38 min•Ep. 514
On this edition of Parallax Views, we take a break from our "Reflections on Afghanistan" series and turn our attention to Iran. Dr. Pouya Alimagham, author of Contesting the Iranian Revolution: The Green Uprisings, joins us to discuss the 2009 Green Uprisings, Islam, and Iran and its history more generally. At the beginning of our conversation deals alot with Dr. Pouya's own journey as an Iranian-American, the problem, of Islamophobia in the United States (we debunk fears of Sharia Law coming to...
Aug 25, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 497
On this edition of Parallax Views, it's a monster-sized edition of our "Reflections of Afghanistan" series with not one but two guests join us for a nearly two hour roundtable conversation asking about how we got to this moment, what the past 20 years of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan says about our society, and what our withdrawal portends for a future in which China's rise looms and climate change seems ready to change the world. Joining us is long-time friend of the show JP Sottile aka "The ...
Aug 23, 2021•2 hr 1 min•Ep. 512
