One of the most striking developments in recent intellectual life has been the convergence of critics from both the conservative and Marxist traditions, united in their skepticism toward the excesses of progressive liberalism. Few outlets embody this shift as much as Compact magazine, where unlikely allies have found common ground in challenging America’s domestic administrative state, its global reach, and the pressures of cultural conformity. The intellectual touchstones of this post-liberal moment are names like René Girard, Christopher Lasch, and above all, Alasdair MacIntyre.

Our guest, Nathan Pinkoski, has been central to this conversation. He’s the translator of Emile Perreau-Saussine’s new biography of MacIntyre, and the author of “Actually Existing Postliberalism,” an article that reframed the post–Cold War transformation not as a triumph of globalization, but as the rise of new hierarchies shaped by finance and the fusion of state and society.

In our conversation, we ask him what first drew him into philosophy and political theory, why MacIntyre remains essential reading today, and how thinkers like Judith Shklar and Samuel Moyn fit into this broader debate. We’ll also explore his analysis of globalization’s hidden architecture, the late Cold War’s imprint on U.S. foreign policy, and what the 1990s really meant for the world we inhabit now.

This is a wide-ranging discussion about the erosion of liberal order, the paradoxes of American power, and the uncertain horizons of our post-liberal age.

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In this episode, we sit down with historian Greg Grandin to discuss his new book America, América, which reimagines the hemisphere’s intertwined republican traditions and confronts the United States’ monopolization of the very idea of “America.” Known for landmark works such as The Empire of Necessity and The End of the Myth, Grandin has long illuminated Latin America’s central role in the making of the modern world.

We explore how Latin American thinkers used immanent critique to measure U.S. democracy against its own ideals, and why common republican foundations led to divergent political paths across the hemisphere. We also ask how his earlier prediction of a more repressive United States after the closing of the frontier has held up, and whether America, América offers an alternative diplomatic and intellectual horizon.

Along the way, we consider the Catholic and scholastic legacies in Latin American thought, comparisons of racial orders across the Americas, the contested meaning of independence for the dispossessed, and the enduring tensions of social democracy in the region. 

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On this episode, we're excited to present an interview Pat recorded on July 10th with the author and researcher Aaron Good. As with other upcoming interviews, this was a great opportunity to break out of the inherent insolation of social media and inform our positions on the interstate order by engaging with one of the brightest perspectives in the political science discipline. In addition to offering an invaluable backstory to the phenomenon of 'the deep state' and its progeny like Jeffrey Epstein, the discussion ranges broadly around the means and methods of narrative control, as well as how would-be knowledge producers can navigate the modern prison-house.

Aaron Good hosts the American Exception podcast, appears regularly on Youtube in discussion with major figures like Jeff Sachs, Oliver Stone, and Daniele Ganser, and has taken the torch of counter-intelligence research from mentors like Peter Dale Scott and David Talbot. In this hour, they address what the JFK assassination signified for those authors, and what Aaron has contributed since, to our understanding of involvement by the mob, teamsters, and Mossad. Pat also asks him to describe his intellectual journey, the state of academia in the empire, his top 5 podcasts, reflections on the relationship between literature and espionage, and the way our institutions are promoting narrative capture, even as they are falling in credibility.

More about the author:

Aaron is host of the American Exception Podcast and author of 'American Exception: Empire and the Deep State,' which you can check out here.

You can find more of Aaron's work on his engaging, provocative and regularly updated Substack where he covers a host of topics related to the Deep State: 

• The Gray Alliance and JFK's Assassination
• The Lansky-Teamster Syndicate and the Deep State Global Drug Connection
• The Gray Alliance: How Ultra-Zionist Neoconservatism Took Over the American Deep State

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[Recorded on 26 April 2025]

After the End of History discusses The Grayzone's interview with Andres Duran. 

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[Recorded on 14 April 2025]

In this week's discussion, ATEOH take a look at the New York Times long read, "The Secret History of the War in Ukraine." What "revelations" has the article surfaced, and how does this all bode for the broader implications of the war? Is NATO headed for collapse? What are the strategic lessons for future conflicts, particularly with China?

Our conversation concludes with reflections on the US's declining global influence and the limitations of proxy wars.

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[Recorded 31 January 2025]

A continuation of our discussion on Marx's "forgotten text," Herr Vogt: A Spy in the Workers' Movement. 

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We sat down to discuss Karl Marx's scattered writings on Latin America, where he considers the Incan communitarian societies, the War of Independence, and the modern states' 'weak' geopolitical stature. Pat helps unpack the controversy touched off by Marx's attack on Simón Bolívar, putting it into context alongside writings on the American Civil War and the anthropological turn in the Late Marx. Along the way, we gloss major figures in Latin American Marxism from the last two centuries, such as Mariátegui, Aricó, and García Linera. Abandon all hope, and smash ye the play button!

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[Recorded on 6 September 2024] 

ATEOH's second discussion on Emmanuel Todd: A Review of the Most Interesting Cultural Analyses of the West. 

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[Recorded on 8/28/2024]

In episode 6 of this season, ATEOH conducts a review of the most interesting cultural analyses of the West.

Texts: 

• Niall Ferguson - “We’re All Soviets Now” - Niall Ferguson: We’re All Soviets Now | The Free Press (thefp.com)
• “Could Dementia in National Security Workforce Create Security Threat” RAND Corporation Study. Could Dementia in the National Security Workforce Create a Security Threat? | RAND
• Tanner Greer - “American Nightmares: Wang Huning and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Dark Visions of the Future” American Nightmares: Wang Huning and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Dark Visions of the Future – The Scholar's Stage (scholars-stage.org)
• Emmanuel Todd, The Defeat of the West

Thanks for listening,
Mario, Pat and Tom

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Karl Marx's Herr Vogt - Episode 1: This episode is related to our recent concentration on Debord and our interest in recuperating a tradition of how the Left has historically responded to the problem of state intelligence infiltration and propaganda. 

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