Titus & Telly Davidson talk about the effect of 9/11 on cinema & TV: The darkening of the mood of 21st c. cinema, fantasy as 9/11 reenactment, the absence of great directors in the national memory of 9/11, the difficulty of dramatizing the event & the demeaning ways it's treated out of sentimentality, & finally the madness of the post 9/11 espionage & war shows.

Titus talks about Oliver Stone's most unexpected, most patriotic movie, WTC< a true story that reveals American character at its best--citizenship, public service, nobility, faith, as well as its basis in the middle class family way of life.

Titus & Justin Lee & Dave Woods talk about David Lowery's Arthurian tale, The Green Knight, a reflection on mythical decadence & what it might mean for the young to become men. The movie gives you the confrontation of pagan heroism & Christian faith, of ancient & modern ideas, of fear of death & fear of life.

Titus & Peter Robinson & John Yoo talk about Master & Commander, the Peter Weir seafaring adventure movie, about the Aubrey-Maturin novels on which it was based, about the charm of military adventures & the series we've been reading. Also, we talk about the detective & lawyer novel series & TV shows--Bosch, Lincoln Lawyer--that fascinate us & which will be our next podcast.

Titus & Noah Millman talk about Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro's novels--The Remains Of The Day, Never Let Me Go, Klara & The Sun. All three are about transformations in society & in the soul, the outsourcing of humanity from masters to servants or from humans to robots, the jeopardizing of human longing or love, both through technology & in other ways.

Titus, Carl Eric Scott, and Paul Seaton introduce a series of podcasts on the greatest living French thinker, Pierre Manent, a Catholic Straussian, a critic of liberalism & defender of the democratic nation-state, a political theorist. We will acquaint you with the man’s thought, his questions in political philosophy, & some of his books.

Titus & Sam Goldman talk about Whit Stillman's Barcelona, a story of Americans & Europeans, of two young men looking for love, as well as for manliness, responsibility, adulthood, service, at the point where a vibrant & lawless democracy sweeps such ideals from society! A romantic comedy about how to be an American!

Titus & Mike Anton talk about Machiavelli's republicanism, his fighting spirit, his education for rash young men, & the attempt to educate the very online right away from extremism, toward political success.

Titus & Telly Davidson talk Wag The Dog, David Mamet & Barry Levinson's satire on media & politics in the 90s, the merger of Hollywood & D.C., of news & entertainment, the collapse of politics into rhetoric, & the corruption of elites.

Titus & Sam Goldman talk Ripley, the novel & 1999 movie adaptation, the 50s, the strange transformations of the WASP elite & the middle class, America & Europe, bourgeoisie & aristocracy, art & therapy, evil & the desire for acceptance.