Fruitless

It's the Fruitless Christmas special. Chris Barker and Alien (aka Stewie Griffin DJ) join Josiah to discuss Children of Men (2006), the incredible craft behind the film, and the politics of hope and futurity.

Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
Check out Fruitless on YouTube
Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

Follow Josiah on Twitter & Bluesky @josiahwsutton

References

• Children of Men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
• Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher
• The Possibility of Hope, an archival documentary about Children of Men on the Arrow Blu-Ray release.
• There Is No Future, video appreciation about Children of Men by Philip Kemp on the Arrow Blu-Ray release.
• "Count-Down to Dystopia," Armond White https://www.nypress.com/news/count-down-to-dystopia-DGNP1020080109301099976.
• O-Bi O-Ba, The End of Civilization (1985). I (Josiah) kind of mischaracterized the ending of this movie. It's a lot more ambiguous than that, and I kind of projected a hopeful ending on a dreamy, weird final scene. Watch it for yourself and decide what the ending means: http://exmilitai.re/film.html.
• "Why Children of Men haunts the present," Gavin Jacobson, https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2020/07/children-of-men-alfonso-cuaron-2006-apocalypse-coronavirus.
• No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive by Lee Edelman
• Out of the Red Closet, https://files.libcom.org/files/out-of-the-red-closet-kasama-pamphlet_0_0.pdf.

Music & Audio credits

• Children of Men (2006)
• Interviews with James Lovelock, Slavoj Zizek, and Naomi Klein from The Possibility of Hope, an archival documentary about Children of Men on the Arrow Blu-Ray release.
• O Come, O Come Emmanuel, played by Kaleb Brasee, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLnlhpXV5IM.
• Yesterday – bloom.
• In My Dreams – bloom.

This is the third installment of the Fruitless Bookclub, a show-within-a-show, featuring Chris Barker and Jake the Lawyer, where we read all those nonfiction books we've been meaning to read. Today's episode is about How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

Next month: Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll

Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
Check out Fruitless on YouTube
Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

Other references

• "Reconsidering a Classic: Walter Rodney's 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,'" Vanderbilt University on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCiuFRiOW28.
• Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
• Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Slavery in Brazil, edited by Robert Edgar Conrad, quote from Section 2.9. "There Are Plantations Where the Slaves Are Numb with Hunger": A Medical Thesis on Plantation Diseases and Their Causes (1847). We got the quote from a smarter person than us on an r/AskHistorians thread, which is here https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ztoexl/comment/j39waqr/.
• "One Giant Leap: Emancipation and Aggregate Economic Gains," Richard Hornbeck and Trevon Logan, Becker Friedman Institute, https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/one-giant-leap-emancipation-and-aggregate-economic-gains. This is the UChicago article about how slavery is, in fact, unprofitable--the worst thing in the world to UChicago.
• "Oh Dearism," directed by Adam Curtis. I (Josiah) kept referencing the "oh dear" sentiment from this six-minute Curtis documentary but forgot to actually bring it up, so it's right here for the citation perverts reading these notes: https://thoughtmaybe.com/oh-dearism.

Music

Yesterday – bloom.

In My Dreams – bloom.

Josiah is joined by Brian Alford (@SpocksBrian) from The Worst of All Possible Worlds to discuss HGTV's Home Town, the Napier family, and Laurel, Mississippi, alongside Showtime's new series, The Curse.

Follow today’s guest on Twitter.
Check out The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
Check out Fruitless on YouTube

Find more of Josiah’s work here

Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

References

• The Curse, Showtime. Season 1, Episodes 1 - 5 are out at time of recording.
• Reddit thread about Home Town's race problem, https://www.reddit.com/r/HGTV/comments/il7bet/home_town_seems_like_white_town.
• "Behind the Scenes on ‘Home Town’: A Season 4 Participant Spills the Details," Claudine Zap in Realtor, https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/behind-the-scenes-home-town.
• "The dark side of Home Town," Jim Cegielski in The Laurel Leader Call, https://www.leader-call.com/opinion/columnists/the-dark-side-of-home-town/article_48770330-a7c6-11e8-bbf4-333e68883245.html. In the episode, Josiah flounders a bit because he's dumb and didn't re-read the article before the episode, but the gist is that Greg Burroughs, a man with a repeated history of abuse, had allegedly murdered his girlfriend, Katherine Sinclair. He called the local judge (who he was friends with) before he called 911 and multiple other strings were pulled to get him out of trouble. The author of the opinion piece, Jim Cegielski, claims he had local advertisers pull out because he chose to cover the story. His point is that there is a very clear monied class in Laurel that everyone is pretending doesn't exist. After this article was published, Greg Burroughs was acquitted.
• "Southern Newlywed: At Home with Erin and Ben Napier," Southern Weddings, https://southernweddings.com/2014/06/06/southern-newlywed-home-lucky-luxe. This is the interview that got the attention of an HGTV producer and led to the show.
• "‘Home Town’ Reflects an Incomplete Picture of Laurel’s History of Disenfranchisement," Jonathan Odell in Mississippi Free Press, https://www.mississippifreepress.org/35581/home-town-reflects-an-incomplete-picture-of-laurels-history-of-disenfranchisement.
• "Here's Why 'Home Town' Star Erin Napier Has Been Silent About Black Lives Matter on Social Media," Kelly Wynne in Newsweek, https://www.newsweek.com/heres-why-home-town-star-erin-napier-has-been-silent-about-black-lives-matter-social-media-1508776.
• "'Home Town' Star Erin Napier Gets Flooded With Comments After Sharing Parenting Rule," Katie Bowlby in Country Living, https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a42321936/home-town-erin-napier-parenting-rule-fan-reactions.
• Napiers' nonprofit to get kids off social media, OSPREY, https://ospreykids.com/about.
• "'Home Town' Star Erin Napier Shares "Terrifying" Instagram Post that Has Fans Flooding Her with Support," Katie Bowlby in Country Living, https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a39903660/erin-napier-terrifying-instagram-post-fan-reactions.

Episodes of Home Town watched

• S1E1 Big Renovations in a Small Town
• S2E1 Home Town Holiday Special
• S3E10 Small Budget, Big Style
• S4E3 The Church House
• S5E10 Retreat Yourself
• S6E5 Grand Millennial 
• S7E2 The Family Tree (only Brian got around to this one)

Music & audio credits

• Yesterday – bloom.
• In My Dreams – bloom.
• "Home Town" CBS Segment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYscsBliWZ8

THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/94255461

Josiah is joined by his college roommate, Evan Sand, to reminisce about the good old days. And also discuss life in Des Moines, IA and Rapid City, SD after graduating college during a pandemic.

Music by SHADE08

Amelia Schafer (Indian Country Today, Rapid City Journal) joins Josiah to discuss her reporting on indigenous affairs in South Dakota, and the issues facing Indian Country, particularly the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Follow today’s guest on Twitter, and remember to check out her work here.

Find more of Josiah’s work here

Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

Donate

• COUP Council, https://coupcouncil.org/donate.
• Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation, https://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/projects.
• One Spirit, https://www.onespiritlakota.org/donate.
• Native American Heritage Association, https://www.naha-inc.org/donate.

References

• "Former school employees sue tribal officials over banishment", Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/former-school-employees-sue-tribal-officials-over-banishment.
• "Gov. Noem's drug comments disturb Crow Creek officials," Keloland Media Group, https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/gov-noems-drug-comments-disturb-crow-creek-officials.
• "Lakota tribe issues State of Emergency due to high rates of violence," Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/lakota-tribe-issues-state-of-emergency-due-to-high-rates-of-violence.
• "Survivors speak out against domestic abuse," Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/survivors-speak-out-against-domestic-abuse. 
• "Finding Karson," Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/finding-karson.
• "Walking while native a dangerous endeavor," Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/walking-while-native-a-dangerous-endeavor.
• "NDN Collective prepares for DC rally," Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/ndn-collective-prepares-for-d-c-rally.
• "Wounded Knee 'killing fields' one step closer to return to tribes," Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/wounded-knee-killing-fields-one-step-closer-to-return-to-tribes.
• "Protestors Block Highway To Mount Rushmore Amid President's July 4th Celebration," NPR, https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03/887178376/protesters-block-highway-to-mt-rushmore-amid-president-trumps-july-4th-celebrati.
• "Uncovering the history of Rapid City Indian School," Indian Country Today, https://ictnews.org/news/uncovering-the-history-of-rapid-city-indian-school.

THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/93631193

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Josiah catches up with Alien aka Stevie Griffin DJ. Discussion topics include sports, Matt Johnson, Italian exploitation movies, Max Landis, Armond White, early silent film, Béla Tarr, Wang Bing, cop shows, movies being too long, animated kids movies, Harmony Korine, Dogma 95, Charlie Kaufman, and Next (2007).

Music by SHADE08

Keanu Heydari joins Josiah to discuss the history of Palestine, Zionism, and the state of Israel in light of the war in Gaza. As always, he is incredibly insightful.

Follow today’s guest on Twitter, and remember to check out his podcast and his website.

Find more of Josiah’s work here

Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

Resources

• The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History by James L. Gelvin
• Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick
• The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi
• The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé
• The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories by Ilan Pappé
• Shell Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel's Gaza Assault by Mohammed Omer

Other texts mentioned

• The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington
• Orientalism by Edward W. Said
• Israel and South Africa: The Many Faces of Apartheid by Ilan Pappé
• Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria by Joshua Cole
• Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, c. 1800-1900 by Julia A. Clancy-Smith
• Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World by Ussama Makdisi

Music

Yesterday – bloom.

In My Dreams – bloom.

THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/iowa-democrats-92538451

Justin Comer (Rock Hard Caucus) and Gavin Aronsen (Iowa Informer) join Josiah to discuss the Iowa Democratic Party's attack on University of Iowa Democrats after they issued a statement supporting Palestine. While this is a local Iowan story, it's also a case study in a broader trend of liberals attacking Palestinian solidarity, both on campuses and in their own ranks, especially surrounding the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." 

Music by SHADE08

This is the audio for the first ever Fruitless video essay on YouTube. If you choose to listen here, you will only get half the experience. For the full experience, check out Fruitless on YouTube.

The video essay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWKncAp6gE
The Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIZWDsDrQ0XvDQFWzE6s2gg

THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fruitless-91915168

Josiah and Jackal open up the Discord voice channel to take calls from former Fruitless guests, Phil Cozzi and Jake the Lawyer. They talk about horror and try to get Josiah into anime. This episode is brought to you by Cloverfield.

Music by SHADE08