This week we talk about Amber A'lee Frost's recent piece for Current Affairs, "Against Domesticity." In the piece Amber argues that, “Attempts to elevate and fetishize household labor are deeply insidious…” because such efforts hide the real work and value behind traditionally feminine labor. We unpack the piece further by asking whether being a consumer or producer makes you freer? Why are those time-lapse cooking videos so popular, and is a gallery wall really worth all the effort? (Yes.) Finally, we close out with a more nuanced understanding of why adulting is so popular among the kids these days.

Link to Amber A'lee Frost's Against Domesticity https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/against-domesticity

How many Transformers movies is Warren Buffet worth? How many Transformers movies could all the OxyContin overdoses pay for? And what ever happened to "Soviet Yugoslavia"? This week, Ljubica gives us a crash course in Yugoslavian history and socialism, as well as OPEC's disastrous impact on the third world, because Joy Ann Reid was being dumb. But first, Adam shares an independent investigative study on how we can have free Transformers movies until the sun engulfs the earth.

Links discussed:

James Robertson, "The Life and Death of Yugoslav Socialism" https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/yugoslav-socialism-tito-self-management-serbia-balkans

Keith Spencer, "Why the Rich Love Burning Man" https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/burning-man-one-percent-silicon-valley-tech/

Joy Ann Reid, "I Don't Know What Yugoslavia Is" https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/888418586473136128

This week has been a bit hectic so instead of a new topic we bring you a bonus ep on last week's topic, conspiracies. Adam and I kept talking long after we turned the mic off, so we decided to pour ourselves a drink and chat a little more on the record. This conversation is more meandering and far reaching, but we still touch on some interesting topics like, why boomers are paranoid, Bin Ladin's death, and chat more about Christianity.

This week we talk Ancient Aliens, the tv show. We discuss why we love it as well as the many things about it that worry us. Then we talk about conspiracy theories at large: how do they function, why do they exist, and which ones are our favorites. Ljubica argues that all conspiracy theories may be reactionary and counter-revolutionary. Adam lends some cred to the episode and our harebrained ideas by introducing us to a thought-provoking essay by Eve Sedgwick about paranoid reading. We also manage to argue about religion.

Links as promised in the episode---

Paranoid and Reparative Reading, or You're So Paranoid You Probably Think This Essay Is About You, by Eve Sedgwick:

https://sydney.edu.au/arts/slam/downloads/documents/novel_studies/3_Sedgwick.pdf

John Titor Conspiracy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

Link no one asked for, Mandela Effect listicle:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/christopherhudspeth/crazy-examples-of-the-mandela-effect-that-will-make-you-ques?utm_term=.hfMDJyNZV#.emVGJPEr6

Adam shares with Ljubica some stuff Hillary Clinton said at a tech conference, and along the way, we discuss a bunch of stuff like conspiracy theories, existentialism, Russian brides, and why we podcast. It’s long so maybe we should’ve released it as a two-parter, but instead just decide for yourself where to pause, we’re not going to tell you how to live your life.

Links Discussed:

Chokwe Lumumba on Democracy Now, https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/26/jackson_miss_mayor_elect_chokwe_lumumba

Adam Curtis on Surkov, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od4MWs7qTr8

This week we do a close read of Megan McArdle's Bloomberg piece, "Beware of Blaming Government for London Tower Fire." It is the angriest episode we've ever recorded, but it also probably has the most laughs. Although Ljubica reads the entire piece aloud, you may want to follow along here: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-16/beware-of-blaming-government-for-london-tower-fire

This week we talk about the Vermont Governor's recent decision to veto a recreational pot bill, followed by a longer discussion about free speech and activism on campus. Are we all triggered snowflakes, or is there more to think about? Should students just sit down and shut up for the sake of their intellectual development, or is there value in thinking for yourself and taking action? We report, you decide.

Today, we read Matt Yglesias’ tweets for young Bernie fans from an old Democrat, which are bad and wrong.

This week, we have a very free-ranging discussion over wine -- we touch on whiteness, reading politics as art, the great "The New Victorians" article from Jacobin a while back, other stuff, our dogs make a lot of noise, and we conclude with a recipe for a traditional Macedonian dish that sometimes we eat seriously every day.

This week Ljubica is excited to share some thoughts on true crime TV shows with Adam. We discuss new versus old and argue that "the real America" is murder shows. What are we exploring through these shows, and what do they do for us? What aspects of broader culture do they reproduce, like why are they all about women? How do murder shows from abroad compare to our homegrown, and what do we think of reenactments?