Aesthetic Resistance Podcast

Participants: John Steppling (writer of “Rambo III”), Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Phase 2 of the American war against Europe, documentary film “No Other Land”, Adorno on “adults acting like the adults they never became,” why our present leaders don’t even rise to the level of mediocrity (rhetorical question), celebrity activists who fall silent or fall for dubious causes, politicians as effigies for global financial interests, writing “Rambo III” in 1988. Music track “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” by Charles Mingus (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, Shaenah Batterson and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Trump Derangement Syndrome: the sequel. Liberals hating Trump for all the wrong reasons. Clinging to illusions of the potential for progressive victories. The right calls liberals “commies”, liberals describe themselves as anti-communist capitalists. The Gnosticism of some conspiracy obsessions. The downfall of USAID and NED. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in athletes. Persistent myths and misunderstandings in anti-communist propaganda.

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, Lex Steppling and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Gaza to be under “new ownership”, rebuilding on blood-soaked Gazan soil, early Zionist atheists, Zionism’s religious piety as a worn-out mask over conventional imperialism and US power projection, duopoly as a distraction, how Hollywood films solidify and perpetuate historical narratives that were proven false long ago (narratives about Serbia and Rwanda, for example), why the Democrats must be the focus of criticism and why they must take the blame for Trump. A short tribute to the life and work of Keith Harmon Snow. Music track “Tourist Point of View” by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Do the Democrats understand why they lost? Does Trump understand why he won? Trump’s tariffs and economic warfare on allies. RFK Jr. faces an inquisition by Democrats. Why don’t billionaires spend money a good tailor? 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Music track “Desafinado” by Stan Getz (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Aghogho Akpome, Lex Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. The passage read aloud at 1:24:10 is by Luciano Canfora, “From Stalin to Gorbachev: How an Empire Ends”—Afterword for Domenico Losurdo, Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend (2008, English translation by Iskra Books, 2023) 343-344. Music track “Walk on the Wild Side” by Big Band and Jimmy Smith (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Max Parry, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: confirmation hearings for Trump’s appointees, Trump’s Greater Israel ambitions, change in Iran’s foreign policy? implications of the Israeli ceasefire, Los Angeles fires, the history of California fires, building back better, disaster recovery, housing and rental accommodation shortages, Trump’s expansionism and the 19th century history of US territorial expansion—“transactional colonialism,” “no, the app is not more convenient or efficient.” Music track “Just a Mood” by Red Norvo Sextet (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Aghogho Akpome, Daniel Broudy, Hiroyuki Hamada, Max Parry, and Dennis Riches. First podcast of 2025. Topics covered: Los Angeles fires, Trump’s expansionist rhetoric—“transactional colonialism”, Operation Gladio, domestic terror attacks in the U.S., self-censorship in academia. Music Track: “My One and Only Love” by Art Tatum/Ben Webster Quartet (public domain)

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Lex Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Max Parry, and Dennis Riches. Final podcast of 2024. Topics covered: The “canon” of television serials: The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Lost. Also mentioned: Blood in, Blood Out, Snowfall, Homicide--Life in the Street, Quarry. Related works in film and theater: The Caretaker (play by Harold Pinter), The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Mission, Stalker (directed by Andrei Tarkovsky). Music track: “Every Day I Have the Blues” by Count Basie (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Aghogho Akpomé, Max Parry, Shaenah Batterson, Hiroyuki Hamada, Lex Steppling, and Dennis Riches. Topics discussed: International law vs. the rules-based international order. “The Hague invasion act.” The empire has exhausted its ability to exploit NGO’s, so reactionaries become the social critics. “We see with the mind, not the eyes.” The history of UN general secretaries failing to push back against US power. The ecological and human cost of green energy. Progressive signifiers—driving a Tesla and putting a Black Lives Matter sticker on it? What’s up with the drone or alien invasion over New Jersey? Music track: “Perdido” by Duke Ellington (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Dennis Riches, Max Parry, Shaenah Batterson, and Hiroyuki Hamada. Topics discussed: Murder of a health insurance corporation’s CEO, green marketing of things people don’t like—why can’t we have systemic ecosolutions that people like? Healthy for the planet, not for you necessarily. Assad falls from power, but will Syria survive as a state or be balkanized? Biden in Angola while the shit goes down in Syria. American railways for Africa. Can BRICS survive the attempts of the US to pull away its members? Music track: “Blue in Green” by Miles Davis (public domain).