Public

A reading of "Counterrevolutionary Subordination in Trump's America" originally published April 10 on Substack! 

What should we think when an academic Humanities journal unsuspectingly publishes a paper that's been written as a hoax, full of fashionable jargon and deliberately specious arguments? Does this demonstrate that the Humanities set a higher value on shallow intellectual trends than on rigorous scholarship - or is there something more nuanced and complicated going on?

To celebrate our 2500th show, long time KEEN ON friend David Masciotra interviewed me about the current perilous situation in America. We discuss why I’ve renamed the show KEEN ON AMERICA and my thoughts on the U.S’s increasingly pivotal role in 21st century history. We discuss America's changing "operating system" as it struggles to reinvent its 20th century industrial identity. We explore America’s age old relationship between technology, entertainment, and politics, particularly in how Trump represents a kind of apotheosis of Neil Postman’s warning about the convergence of politics and entertainment. I express ever so cautious optimism about America in 2025, highlighting the country's historic capacity for reinvention, self-creation and, above all, defiant resistance to the stupidity and evil of you-know-who.

5 TAKEAWAYS

* I’ve renamed the show to "Keen on America" because I see America at the "cockpit of world history" in the 2020s, and I wants to focus on exploring American themes and the country's changing identity.

* I see America as reinventing its "operating system" - moving beyond its 20th century identity while maintaining its uniquely American characteristics rather than becoming more like Europe.

* As an immigrant, I value America as a place for continual reinvention and second chances, reversing Fitzgerald's infamous remark that "there are no second acts in American lives."

* I have evolved from my earlier tech pessimism to cautious optimism about America's future, noting that historical periods of transition produce both "monsters" and "angels."

* We discuss how Trump represents the complete convergence of politics and entertainment, where entertainment isn't just replacing serious discourse but becoming "the ontological reality" itself.

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

It’s Beatles day! In this deep dive into one of music's most legendary partnerships, Ian Leslie and Tyler unpack the complex relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Leslie, whose book John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs examines this creative pairing, reveals how their contrasting personalities—John's intuitive, sometimes chaotic approach and Paul's methodical perfectionism—created a unique creative alchemy that neither could fully replicate after the Beatles split.

They explore John's immediate songwriting brilliance versus Paul's gradual development, debate when the Beatles truly became the Beatles, dissect their best and worst covers, examine the nuances of their collaborative composition process, consider their many musical influences, challenge the sentiment in "Yesterday," evaluate unreleased tracks and post-Beatles reunions, contemplate what went wrong between John and Paul in 1969, assess their solo careers and collaborations with others, compare underrated McCartney and Lennon albums, and ultimately extract broader lessons about creative partnerships.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded March 4th, 2025.

Help keep the show ad free by donating today!

Other ways to connect

• Follow us on X and Instagram
• Follow Tyler on X
• Follow Ian on X
• Sign up for our newsletter
• Join our Discord
• Email us: [email protected]
• Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

Photo Credits: Chris Floyd

Peter Singer is one of the world's leading philosophers, renowned for his challenging and often controversial views. From animal ethics to effective altruism, Singer has shaped the philosophical landscape. In this episode we uncover the key events in his life that led to his ideas, and hear him answer his critics and defend the convictions that have made him the force that he is today.

"The Dangerous Philosopher." - The New Yorker

Peter Singer is the most prominent figure in contemporary ethics. He has made groundbreaking contributions to animal welfare, bioethics, effective altruism and practical ethics more broadly.

He is a founder of both Animals Australia and The Life You Can Save, and has been a key figure in the Effective Altruism movement - an initiative that uses evidence and careful analysis to find the very best way for individuals to do good. Singer has received multiple accolades for his work, including a nomination as one of Australia's ten most influential public intellectuals and the $1 million Berggruen Prize in 2021.

And please email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions on the episode! What do you think about effective altruism?

To witness such topics discussed live buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/

And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/

You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What makes one sentence easy to read and another a slog that demands re-reading? Where do you put information you want readers to recall? Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, psychology and psycholinguistics, Writing for the Reader’s Brain (Cambridge University Press, 2025) provides a practical, how-to guide on how to write for your reader. It introduces the five 'Cs' of writing - clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence - and demonstrates how to use these to bring your writing to life.

Dr. Yellowlees Douglas is the founder of ReadersBrain Academy and has spent over twenty-five years teaching writing to everyone from professors to freshmen.

This interview was conducted by Renee Hale, who holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and works in R&D for the food and beverage industry. She is the author of The Nightstorm Files, a voracious reader, and enjoys sharing the joy of new perspectives with listeners.

This week on the Prospect Podcast, philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek joins Ellen and Alona.

Slavoj discusses fatherhood and Netflix’s Adolescence, as awareness grows around young male radicalisation via the “manosphere”. He also talks about feminism and his criticisms of #MeToo.

Plus, with the release of his latest book, in which he argues that the left has hit its “zero point”, is there any hope for its recovery? He draws a through line from the left-wingers of 1968 to the politics and personality of Elon Musk—and gives his analysis on Starmer’s Labour as a "moderate, centre-right party" wrestling with the populist right. Slavoj suggests: does the left need a Trump figure?

Slavoj’s latest book, Zero Point, is out now (Bloomsbury, £9.99 paperback)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation about David Jones’ “In Parenthesis” with Tim Noakes, Head of Public Services, Special Collections at Stanford University. Songs in this episode: “A Fool No More” by Peter Green, and “Machine Gun” by Jimi Hendrix.

Economist Yanis Varoufakis says we shouldn't underestimate Trump - he has a plan to shock the global economy, force foreign countries to buy crypto-currency in return for a deal on tariffs, and ultimately pay down debt and keep the US dollar at the centre of the global financial system. But it's a high risk strategy that also paves the way for the "tech bros" to make a lot of money.   

• GUEST: Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economics at the University of Athens, Co-Founder of the political movement DiEM25 and author of Technofeudalism - What Killed Capitalism. 
• PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer

Harvard University will not 'yield' to demands from the Trump administration to roll-back diversity initiatives and 'root out' activists, despite threats of $9bn USD in withdrawn federal grants. Meanwhile, another pro-Palestinian student from Columbia University has reportedly been detained by immigration authorities. 

• Guest: Bruce Shapiro, Contributing Editor for the Nation, Executive Director of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University