Give Them An Argument

Buy tickets now to the VERY FIRST GTAA LIVE SHOW (co-sponsored by This is Revolution and Left Reckoning) at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angels on October 23rd, featuring Ana Kasparian, Nando Vila, Ben Burgis, Jason Myles, Kuba Wrzesniewski, David Griscom, Matt Lech, Daniel Bessner, C. Derrick Varn, and more:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09005D19D53D5C6C

**************************

Ben Burgis and the GTAA chat about the glorious beginning of the reign of "King Charles III", and Ben's article about an Oklahoma teacher pushed out of her job & being denounced by state-wide elected officials for helping her students who wanted to read banned books get public library cards before Jacobin Editor Micah Uetricht joins us to talk about the socialist legacy of the great Barbara Ehrenreich, who passed away at the beginning of the month. After a quick philosophy segment with Dr. Jennifer Burgis, Catherine Liu hangs out in the postgame for GTAA patrons and talks some more Ehrenreich.

Follow Micah on Twitter: @micahuetricht

Follow Catherine on Twitter: @bureaucatliu

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Buy tickets now to the VERY FIRST GTAA LIVE SHOW (co-sponsored by This is Revolution and Left Reckoning) at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angels on October 23rd, featuring Ana Kasparian, Nando Vila, Ben Burgis, Jason Myles, Kuba Wrzesniewski, David Griscom, Matt Lech, Daniel Bessner, C. Derrick Varn, and more:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09005D19D53D5C6C

*******************************************************

Happy Labor Day! Ben Burgis & the GTAA crew start things up by talking a bit about the fairly astonishing number of labor victories around the country since last year's Labor Day, and talk about some egregious (and very funny) instances of conservative hypocrisy on student debt forgiveness, labor unions, free speech, and the value of debate.

The main event is a debate between Ben and Compact magazine founder Sohrab Ahmari. Compact's statement of editorial vision calls for "a strong social-democratic state that defends community — local and national, familial and religious — against a libertine left and a libertarian right."

Ben critiqued that vision and defended the libertine left in an article for Jacobin shortly after Compact's launch:

https://jacobin.com/2022/03/right-wing-social-democracy-conservatism-compact-magazine-media

Follow Sohrab on Twitter: @SohrabAhmari

Follow Compact on Twitter: @compactmag_

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Buy tickets now to the VERY FIRST GTAA LIVE SHOW (co-sponsored by This is Revolution and Left Reckoning) at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angels on October 23rd, featuring Ana Kasparian, Nando Vila, Ben Burgis, Jason Myles, Kuba Wrzesniewski, David Griscom, Matt Lech, Daniel Bessner, C. Derrick Varn, and more:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09005D19D53D5C6C

*******************************************************

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew review Ben Shapiro's video "Marxism Can't Work in America" and correct Shapiro's understanding of American history, Marxism, and socialism, and...well...everything? After that, we play a recent friendly debate Ben (Burgis) had with a third Ben, Ben Spielberg, on how the Left approaches criminal justice reform. The main event is William Paris, the only member of the What's Left of Philosophy? podcast never to have appeared on GTAA, who joins us to talk about utopianism. After a quick philosophy segment w/Dr. Jenn, continuing our fallacy series, it's off to the postgame for GTAA patrons w/Dr. Kuba from This is Revolution. Really good stuff all around.

Read William in Psyche:

https://psyche.co/ideas/utopian-thinking-prompts-us-to-get-real-about-societys-needs

Follow him on Twitter: @whitherutopia

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Our friends Jason Myles & (briefly) Kuba Wrzeniewski from the This is Revolution podcast join Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew to talk about Dick Cheney, Woodstock 99, and a big announcement (LA live show!). The great Ana Kasparian comes on for the second half to talk about subjects ranging from abortion rights to Salman Rushdie to how socialists should talk about crime. The main show is capped off with a philosophy segment w/Dr. Jennifer Burgis. David Griscom and Matt Huber hang out on the postgame for GTAA patrons. Good stuff all around.

Watch This is Revolution:

https://www.youtube.com/c/THISISREVOLUTIONpodcast

Follow Jason on Twitter: @J_Myles_TIR 

Follow Dr. Kuba on Twitter: @DrKuba2 

Follow Ana on Twitter: @AnaKasparian 

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Sean Hannity thinks that if you don't want to be poor you should be willing to work "70, 80, 90 hours a week," so Ben Burgis & the GTAA crew start with that and then review an impromptu debate that Ben & Connor Halbleib (Berniecrat & Democratic nominee in Kentucky's 5th Congressional district) had with a Callin caller on Medicare for All. The main event is Ben's unlocked interview with Rock Perlstein, author of "Before the Storm," "Nixonland," "The Invisible Bridge" and (most recently) "Reaganland," which was previously released to GTAA patrons. At the end of the main show, Dr. Jennifer Burgis joins Ben for a brief philosophy segment (on the what the Ad Hominem fallacy is vs. what the internet thinks it is) and then Mean Djene Bajalan from This is Revolution hangs out in the postgame for patrons!

Watch This is Revolution:

https://www.youtube.com/c/THISISREVOLUTIONpodcast

Order Rick Perlstein's latest book:

https://www.powells.com/book/reaganland-americas-right-turn-1976-1980-9781476793054

...and while you're at it order Ben's latest book:

https://redemmas.org/titles/36536-christopher-hitchens-what-he-got-right-how-he-went-wrong-and-why-he-still-matters/

Follow Rick on Twitter: @rickperlstein

Follow Djene on Twitter: #djenebajal@n

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew start off by talking nuclear war, "doomerism," and cannibalistic mutants. (OK, that last item is just a preview of a conversation w/Jason Myles & Touré Reed on The Hills Have Eyes for GTAA patrons.) "Dead Pundits Society" host Adam Proctor is the main guest, chatting Ben about Jordan Peterson's terrible defense of capitalism and (briefly at the end) Jimmy Dore's odd theory of change. Dr. Jennifer Burgis comes on for a philosophy segment on utilitarianism and rights at the end of the main show and then Ben & the crew get into some spicier Peterson material (he has.....thoughts about porn) in the postgame for patrons.

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Charles Wofford, who appeared on the show once before to debate Ben Burgis on postmodernism and Marxism, comes back now for a more relaxed appearance to tell us all about the philosophy of Theodore Adorno. Before that, Ben & the GTAA crew talk about the Fetterman/Oz race in Pennsylvania and how Joe Biden apparently got high and forgot about his promise to deschedule cannabis and pardon everyone serving time in federal prisons for non-violent marijuana offense.

Bookending it all at the beginning and end of the show, Ben & the crew mark the two-year anniversary of the premature death of perhaps the most talented political communicator in contemporary American left media--Michael Brooks. Without Michael, this show would never have existed, so we thought we'd share a few clips of him. Whether this is your first time hearing about the guy or you miss him every day, we hope you get something out of it.

Read Ben's articles on Michael in Jacobin:

https://jacobin.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-tmbs

https://jacobin.com/2020/08/cosmopolitan-socialism-michael-brooks

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

AMC's "Mad Men" came out 15 years ago this month. The main guest this week is labor organizer, writer, and professor Shaun Richman, who wrote an essay for Jacobin Magazine about the show's surprising points of connection to leftist ideas:

https://jacobin.com/2022/07/mad-men-15-years-advertising-left-ideas-monopoly-capital

Before that, Ben Burgis & the GTAA Crew go over an interesting part of Ben's debate with Tim Pool, Tulsi Gabbard & James O'Keefe where O'Keefe repeatedly dodged Ben's question about whether Project Veritas has wealthy donors. (Shockingly the answer is "yes, of course it does.") We also take a look at a recent incident where (defeating our expectations laid out in Episode 3) Jordan Peterson actually popped his head out from underneath his rock to talk to a leftist (Kyle Kulinski). At the end of the show, there's a philosophy segment on positive rights w/Dr. Jennifer Burgis and then Marcus from Left Flank Vets hangs out in the postgame for GTAA patrons.

Watch the Valley Labor Report episode where they talk about the debate with Tim Pool, Tulsi Gabbard & James O'Keefe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djh4AiC0nTU 

Follow Shaun on Twitter: @Ess_Dog

Ben Burgis faces off against an interesting trio at the Minds.com Festival of Ideas about media manipulation, freedom of speech, and labor unions.

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Ben Burgis faces off against an interesting trio at the Minds.com Festival of Ideas about media manipulation, freedom of speech, and labor unions.

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com

Image Credit, Tulsi Gabbard: Gage Skidmore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/48610003506
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
Image has been cropped and color has been altered.

Image Credit, Tim Pool: Pete Cashmore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mashable/8247087463
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
Image has been cropped and color has been altered.

Image Credit, James O’Keefe: Gage Skidmore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/45553579845
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
Image has been cropped and color has been altered.

Last weekend, James O'Keefe did an ambush interview of Ben Burgis where he tried to claim that the segment Ben, Matt Lech & Producer Jake did last week ("James O'Keefe Hates Free Speech": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKX6tcOZxuQ) was somehow inaccurate. (It wasn't.) He then tried to twist Ben saying that workers who do bad or racist things shouldn't be punished without due process & shouldn't be doxxed to make some stupid anti-union point years later  into Ben saying that racism is good. It's asinine, but we have some fun watching it + the part of the debate Ben did with James, Tim Pool & Tusli Gabbard that was available at the point this episode came out. (The whole thing has been posted since.) We also talk a little Roe v. Wade, showing some of Ben's conversation w/Lillian Cicerchia, Jason Myles shows up to talk a little about his experience of the debate & the rest of the weekend in NYC, and Adnan Husain comes on as the main guest for a philosopher/historian dialogue with Ben on Marxist analytic philosopher G.A. Cohen's book "Karl Marx's Theory of History."  Finally, there's a philosophy segment w/Dr. Jennifer Burgis on Plato's Meno and Noami Karavani hangs out in the postgame for patrons.

Watch Ben's full conversation on fighting for abortion rights after Roe v. Wade with Lillian Cicerchia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvARAN4Bv8k

Read the transcript in Jacobin:

https://jacobin.com/2022/06/roe-v-wade-reproductive-health-movement-abortion

Follow Adnan on Twitter: @adnanahusain

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Visit benburgis.com