Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Did he deserve it?  Along the way we talk about Adam Kirsch’s article “The Meaning of Bob Dylan’s Silence.”  Minor Correction: Sigmund Freud didn’t win the Nobel Prize, though he was nominated many times.  Sorry for the slip!  (Intro: Cold Funk (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Porch Blues (edited) by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.)

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George Orwell said that politicians use vague language to cover up policies that are “too brutal for most people to face,” and that political language infects all of us and makes us have “foolish thoughts.”  Was he right?  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Dance of the Stargazer (edited) by US Army Blues, from the Free Music Archive, Public Domain Mark 1.0 license.)

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https://alexrajczi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farrell-rajczi-ep10-politics-and-the-english-language.mp3

Harper Lee’s second novel Go Set A Watchman has caused a literary uproar.  In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus’s defense of Tom Robinson looks like a model of racial justice. However, in the new novel, Atticus seems to be a racist.  Is he?  And if so, can we still admire the Atticus that we knew in Mockingbird?  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Something by Kai Engel, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 license.)

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Together with our special guest Seth Lobis, we ask: which four artists should be on a new monument to American culture?  We got the idea from a segment on the Slate Culture Gabfest.  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: RSPN by Blank & Kytt, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.)

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https://alexrajczi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farrell-rajczi-ep08-a-cultural-mount-rushmore.mp3

On our second try, can we actually manage to discuss Taylor Swift’s 1989?   We get a little help from Nathaniel Rich’s article “Hit Charade.“   (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Moon Child by Karissa Hobbs, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.)

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https://alexrajczi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farrell-rajczi-ep07-taylor-swift-again.mp3

Does the Constitution guarantee an individual right to own guns?  We discuss the interpretive methods used by Justices Scalia and Stevens in District of Columbia v. Heller.  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: White Flag by Karissa Hobbs, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.)

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https://alexrajczi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farrell-rajczi-ep06-the-right-to-keep-and-bear-arms.mp3

Why is James Patterson the world’s most successful novelist?  Are we snobs for not liking him? Our discussion is inspired by a great New York Times article by Jonathan Mahler.  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: In the Dark by BrokeMC, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.)

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https://alexrajczi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farrell-rajczi-ep05-james-patterson-inc.mp3

Is Taylor Swift’s new album as great as people say?  Is taste in art entirely subjective anyway? (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Scott Joplin’s Ragtime Dance, anonymous piano roll, from the Free Music Archive, Public Domain Mark 1.0 license.)

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https://alexrajczi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farrell-rajczi-ep04-taylor-swift-19891.mp3

Is there wisdom in David Foster Wallace’s famous commencement address to Kenyon College?  (Intro: AcidJazz by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.  Outro: Little Black Balloon by Fog Lake, from the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 license.)

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https://alexrajczi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farrell-rajczi-ep03-this-is-water.mp3