A talk with novelist and New York Times Magazine columnist Ross Barkan on the demise of the "Resistance" movement, the end of hyperpolitics, and what comes next.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

A talk with Vincenzo Barney on his big Cormac McCarthy scoop, the origins and nature of artificial intelligence, art, and techno-oligarchs.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

Liza Libes joins the podcast for a talk about the humanities, literature, and publishing in the era of DEI and AI.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

Emily Dickenson wrote, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant—Success in Circuit lies.” In other words, truths, especially moral truths, are often best communicated through allegories, symbols, myths—in a word, through storytelling.

Stories shape our conceptions of right and wrong, our past and future, and our identity. They are the reservoirs of memory we draw upon to interpret life, the fertile fields of meaning to which we can always return to find a new harvest in any season. And they accomplish this by capturing our imagination to teach us things in ways indirect—slant and circuitous.

Dr. Matthew Mehan knows something about storytelling. He is the associate dean and assistant professor of government for the Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C. Mehan also contributed a lecture on ancient Rome’s influence on the Founding Fathers to the Florida Civics Seal of Excellence course, a professional development program designed specifically for certified educators in the Sunshine State.

He’s also the author of children’s books: “Mr. Mehan’s Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals” and “The Handsome Little Cygnet.” I own the latter. My kids love it. It’s beautifully written and gorgeously illustrated by John Folley, an artist trained in academic and impressionist painting with a pedigree that reaches back to the workshops of the Renaissance of Northern Italy.

In this episode, we discuss why storytelling matters, what culture really means, and why we shouldn’t surrender the arts or associate them with limp-wristed liberalism. Mehan takes seriously the hard work of fixing our culture. It will not happen overnight, but it is ultimately the only way out of the forest we find ourselves in today. Ernst Jünger wrote that power struggles are preceded by the verification and destruction of symbols. “This is why we need poets—they initiate the overthrow,” he argued.

Mehan will join me for another episode available exclusively to paid subscribers. This one is free—but I encourage you to pick up his books for your kids or get them as gifts for someone else.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.readcontra.com

Ryan Girdusky publishes the National Populist Newsletter and leads the 1776 PAC. He is also the author of “They’re Not Listening: How The Elites Created the National Populist Revolution.” He joins Discourses to discuss the extremely online and extremely unserious state of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. These are things that should concern Trump supporters.

Editor’s Note: The next episode will be behind a paywall, so please consider becoming a subscriber if you are not already.

Sean McMeekin is the Francis Flournoy Professor of European History at Bard College and the author of “Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II.” He joins me for this episode to discuss his latest article for Chronicles, “Putin, Russia, and Ukraine: Historical Roots of a Tragedy.”

It is a lucid and incisive piece of writing that everyone interested in understanding the Russo-Ukrainian War should read. McMeekin is one of the few people with the knowledge and courage to confront the problem with clear eyes. He recently signed the COMPACT statement against interventionism and for de-escalation (my signature is also there).

We touch on key points at the root of the current crisis and more for the hour.

Contra is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

Christopher Mott is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy, an international relations scholar, and the author of “The Formless Empire: A Short History of Diplomacy and Warfare in Central Asia.” He joins me for this episode to discuss the role false flags have played in conflicts throughout history. These are important things to know amid the Russo-Ukrainian War, in which misinformation has now threatened to draw the whole world to blows.

Reading

In Ukraine and Syria, Alluring ‘False Flags’ Demand Strategic Skepticism | The National Interest

Corrupting science: In Syria probe, OPCW erased experts' inconvenient findings | The Grayzone

Contra is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

Dustin Clark joins me for this episode of Discourses, continuing the Round Rock saga. Like the previous one, this interview isn’t paywalled because it deserves as large an audience as it can get.

I wrote about Dustin in my story on Texas’ Potemkin village of conservatism. Here’s a quick recap from my article in Chronicles:

While the Texas GOP continues to dawdle, school boards are raising armies to enforce their policies. That’s not hyperbole. Officers from the Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) Police Department recently arrested two parents.

The arrests followed two separate incidents, CBS-affiliate KTVN reported. In the first case, Dustin Clark, a father and retired Army Captain, told the board that it was illegal for them to pass an unlawful tax increase while district police arbitrarily locked parents out of the meeting. In the second, Jeremy Story, a minister and father of seven, produced evidence that the board had covered up an alleged assault by the superintendent, Hafedh Azaiez, against a mistress. Story was physically prevented from finishing his remarks by police officers operating under orders from the school board president and the superintendent.

The day after the district claims they received Story’s formal legal grievance, he and Clark were simultaneously arrested at their homes, KTVN reported. Both were charged with “disorderly conduct with intent to disrupt a meeting” and jailed overnight at the Williamson County Jail. When NBC-affiliate KXAN asked both the Round Rock board and the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office why a warrant was issued for the two parents instead of a citation, they referred reporters to the RRISD Police Department, even though court documents show the sheriff’s office was the arresting agency. In short, a school district’s police department coordinated with the sheriff’s department to arrest parents at their homes under orders from a school board.

Now here’s the latest update from Fox News:

Two Texas fathers who were arrested for allegedly disturbing meetings of the Round Rock Independent School District school board called on the county attorney to drop the charges against them in light of the school board vote to suspend Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez following a Texas Education Agency (TEA) recommendation.

The fathers had voiced concerns about Azaiez and one of them was arrested after speaking the words "protective order," referring to an order in a domestic case that led the TEA to recommend Azaiez's suspension pending an investigation.

"The Texas Education Agency vindicated me last week by calling for an investigation into Superintendent Azaiez," Jeremy Story, a father of seven children who lives in the district but whose children attend school outside it, told Fox News. "The TEA should expand their investigation into the errant board members who weaponized the police to silence me."

The TEA did not respond to Fox News' requests for comment.

Dustin, along with every other parent swept up in this mess, is doing critical work in Texas, largely without support from the Republican Party. I’m happy to help keep the spotlight on them.

Contra is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

I wrote in November for Chronicles about parents fighting against a Texas school district. Even deep in the heart of the Lone Star State, parents are up against mask mandates for their kids and much more.

While the Texas GOP continues to dawdle, school boards are raising armies to enforce their policies. That’s not hyperbole. Officers from the Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) Police Department recently arrested two parents.

The arrests followed two separate incidents, CBS-affiliate KTVN reported. In the first case, Dustin Clark, a father and retired Army Captain, told the board that it was illegal for them to pass an unlawful tax increase while district police arbitrarily locked parents out of the meeting. In the second, Jeremy Story, a minister and father of seven, produced evidence that the board had covered up an alleged assault by the superintendent, Hafedh Azaiez, against a mistress. Story was physically prevented from finishing his remarks by police officers operating under orders from the school board president and the superintendent.

The day after the district claims they received Story’s formal legal grievance, he and Clark were simultaneously arrested at their homes, KTVN reported. Both were charged with “disorderly conduct with intent to disrupt a meeting” and jailed overnight at the Williamson County Jail. When NBC-affiliate KXAN asked both the Round Rock board and the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office why a warrant was issued for the two parents instead of a citation, they referred reporters to the RRISD Police Department, even though court documents show the sheriff’s office was the arresting agency. In short, a school district’s police department coordinated with the sheriff’s department to arrest parents at their homes under orders from a school board.

Danielle Weston was elected to Round Rock’s school board last November as an “advocate for basic American values,” but since Sept. 20 she has been fighting the resolutions of her fellow board members to strip her of the duties and powers bestowed upon her by voters for being a dissident. She says her legal defense has been costly and that Texas Republicans are nowhere to be found. “I can’t get anywhere with my state senator, or Greg Abbott,” she told me, referring to Republican State Sen. Charles Schwertner. “I told his office, I know Schwertner’s chief of staff, and she said, ‘Danielle, we don’t get involved in politics.’”

Christopher Rufo picked up on my reporting and published his own story. Fox News subsequently ran a story, too.

In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Mary Bone, one of the parents at the center of the fight. She is a trustee of the Round Rock Independent School District. Along with fellow trustee Weston, Bone has come under fire by the school district for advocating on behalf of parents.

Two other parent community organizers, Jeremy Story and Dustin Clark, were arrested at the behest of the school district. They think it was an attempt to silence them for their activism.

The Texas GOP has allowed this to go on with impunity. Republicans talk a lot about family values but do little to help real families when they are in real need.

I plan on interviewing everyone involved in the Round Rock scandal over the next few weeks. These interviews will be free because they deserve as wide an audience as possible. 

Contra is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe

Last week’s episode was received well so I decided to do another. This one is based on reporting that I’ve published on the riots and the Trump administration.

New content for paying subscribers is coming out this week. I sat down for an interview with Malcom Kyeyune, a writer, podcaster, and member of the steering council of Oikos, a Swedish think tank. We talked about building political infrastructure, elites, and more. Stay tuned.

Contra is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.readcontra.com/subscribe