Aesthetic Resistance Podcast

Participants: John Steppling, Dennis Riches, Shaenah Batterson, Max Parry, Lex Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, & Johan Eddebo. Discussed in this edition: Escalation of war in Ukraine, the genocide in Palestine continues, was Joe Biden ever a “good, kind man”? protests in L.A. against the sale of Palestinian land reported as “antisemitism,” organizing, protests, group infiltration, group dogmatism, and group drift toward mainstream parties, Russia as a fixed point of reference for Western populations being flown to ruin by their leaders, can smartphones be regulated and stopped from acting as virtual bodily implants for surveillance and control? Closing music track "Big Plans" by Jack Littman, used with permission.

Lecture 3: Theatre & Death (or introducing cinema) by John Steppling

Participants: John Steppling, Dennis Riches, Shaenah Batterson, Max Parry, and Hiroyuki Hamada. Topics covered: The green agenda, barriers to fossil fuel replacement, the energy footprint of artificial meat, the war on farmers, small business owners: are they the bourgeoisie or proletariat? splittism, dogmatism and purity tests of the Left, Russia accused by the West of being a colonial and expansionist power, how psychology became “adjustment therapy” in the West, glyphosate: a widespread toxin, the corporate coup d’etat blamed on a “Marxist” takeover, Maria Zakharova psychoanalyzes Emmanuel Macron, Rod Stewart booed in Germany for hoisting the Ukrainian flag onstage, trees cut down to make way for bike lanes, officials now denying reality by claiming authentic videos are “deep fakes”. Closing music track: “Rapture” by Jack Littman, used with permission.

Lecture 2: Theatre and Mimesis by John Steppling

Participants: John Steppling, Dennis Riches, Shaenah Batterson, Johan Eddebo, Max Parry, and Hiroyuki Hamada.

In this episode: Palestine and slave revolts. Surreal Politik: "Ukraine is winning", two mentally incompetent presidential candidates in the United Stats, a “peace conference” in Switzerland without one side in the conflict invited, provoking and waging war while pretending to care about climate change… Nukes for Sweden? Has climate change anxiety swept away all concern for other environmental problems— toxic spills, train derailments, superfund chemical cleanup sites, pesticides, nuclear waste, abandoned mines and oil fields etc.?

Music by Jack Littman: "Suffer Me (The Ballad of Salome)". Used with permission.

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Johan Eddebo, Hiroyuki Hamada, Max Parry, Dennis Riches.

Theme: A vast regression in public consciousness, sleepwalking to full war in Europe.

This is the first in a series of lectures, or educational video and audio programs, that will cover art, philosophy, culture, psychology, sociology and history. The learners we have in mind for these lectures are not only the familiar readership and listeners of John’s Aesthetic Resistance blog and podcast but also they are the younger everyman and everywoman who is struggling to make sense of the strange, unmoored times we are living through. These lectures are also for people who work in different fields of knowledge and people who are busy with their work in other fields.

Participants: John Steppling, Lex Steppling, Varun Mather, Shaenah Batterson, Cory Morningstar, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, Johan Eddebo, Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the slave revolt in Palestine, the financialization of the economy (case study: the live concert business), the individual's alienation from consumed cultural products, alienation from the founding mythology of Western civilization, sleepwalking to war with Russia

Participants: John Steppling, Lex Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Johan Eddebo, Hiroyuki Hamada, Varun Mathur, Max Parry, Dennis Riches.

Topics discussed: a week of assassination attempts, coups and suspicious deaths, Wikipedia censorship, Swedish Nazi "war heroes" in Ukraine, the clown world of Western leadership, Anthony Blinken rocking Kiev, the ICC case against Israel, education reform and neo-liberalism, the uses and abuses of bilingual education, educational philosophy, the foundational mythology of education systems

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Max Parry, Cory Morningstar, Dennis Riches.

In this episode: Gaza, Palestine, Trump derangement syndrome (2024 version), educational decline, True Detective (season one), the environmental and cultural impact of lawns and lawn mowing, two varieties of family reunions in Canada and Thailand.