Emmet and John talk about America's delight in self-serving, cruel narcissists via the movies Vice and GoodFellas in addition to an essay by Jim Shepard. The conversation ranges from the political culture during the Iraq War, the uncanny similarities between Dick Cheney and Henry Hill, what it means for the American government to be normatively strong, but administratively weak, and more!

"No Regrets: Goodfellas and American Hardball" by Jim Shepard.

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Bibliography.

Twitter.

Closing Song: "Dallas Beltway" by Chat Pile.

Writer and co-host of the Aufhebungabunga podcast Alex Hochuli joins Emmet and John to talk about his latest article in American Affairs: "The Brazilianization of the World." They talk about Alex's article, the alleged end of the "End of History," anti-politics, and more!

"The Brazilianization of the World" by Alex Hochuli.

Pre-order Aufhebungabunga's book here.

Bibliography.

Twitter.

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Closing Song: "Black Sea" by The Farmers.

Photo by Gustavo Leighton on Unsplash.

John and Emmet talk about facts, bureaucracy, science as a social process, the social telos of internet moderation as a culture, and more.

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Emmet's essay on Alien Covenant: https://dumbaristotle.medium.com/who-wrote-ozymandias-creativity-fallibility-and-mystery-in-art-34ffd6f8d5da

Bibliography: https://exhaust.fireside.fm/articles/p7

Closing Song: "Little Dead Bodies" by Algebra Suicide

Emmet sits down with economic historian Edgardo Sepulveda to talk about the history of the electrical grid in America from the 1920s until the closure of Indian Point. They talk vertical integration, the dawn of public utilities, the rise of monetarism and neoliberalism, the birth of the RTO system, and whether or not it's feasible to reform this precious infrastructure in an age of diminishing expecations and possibilities.

Bibliography.

Twitter.

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Closing Song: "OK FM DOA" by the Dillinger Four

Emmet and John use three articles to talk about our woke empire and how much it feels like the neocon heyday of the early 2000s. We talk about the major cultural resonances between the post-Trump era and the aftermath of 9/11, how the Greater War in the Middle East disabused us of optimism, why in the next few years there will be American Sniper but about an activist, and more!

The essays:

Fixed Opinions by Joan Didion

Bibliography.

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Closing Song: "Good Bass Lines, Really Good Bass Lines" by MANS.

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Episode Image.

Mark Nelson returns to the pod to explain Germany's Energiwende policy and its dependence on Nordstream 2 pipeline from Russia. Emmet and Mark talk about American green Malthusianism's influence on the Energiwende, Germany vs. American traditions of government-market relations, how the rest of Europe should respond to the pipeline, and more!

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Bibliography.

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Closing Song: "Sniper Song" by Naked Raygun

Special Guest: Mark Nelson.

We discuss the movie Jasper Mall, which follows the small-town Alabama mall's decline over the course of a year. They discuss the movie, what killed Sears, our lives working and hanging out at various malls around the country, and ponder the prospects of small-town America, and more.

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The movie's available on Amazon Prime, or you can rent it here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx6k0eN0CKM

Emmet sits down with Default Friend of After the Orgy about her piece on the Culture of Confession, the emotional history of the internet, millenial blues, how tumblr turned the academy woke, and more.

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Closing Song: "Juliette's Window" by Black Print.

Founder of the Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal, [Madison Czerwinski](@Madi_Czerwinski), sits down with Emmet to talk about the closure of the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York, the status of the US nuclear fleet, and what a nuclear future could look like.

Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal.

Bibliography.

Patreon.

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Closing Song: "Saint Pepsi - Mac Tonight x Mannie Fresh - Real Big (KEIFERGR33N Remix)"

Emmet and John talk about Eliot's essay on what it means for a writer to fit into a tradition. We talk about what that means for us, how we shape the past as we make our present, the confessional poets as a response to Eliot, and Borges on Kafka.

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The essay: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent