In the first third (yes, third!) of the episode, your bois catch up on their adventures. Andrew sings the praises of the Milwaukee weather and the South Milwaukee DMV, and Ryan talks about gallivanting through the Scottish countryside. After they're done catching up, they begin a discussion about the notion of protest. Are all protests monolithic? If not, what are some of their key differences? What are the proximal and distal consequences of protesting in specific manners? Ryan and Andrew seek to answer these questions; and, in doing so, they come to conclusions about the specific benefits of Occupy Wall Street, the Travel-Ban Airport Protest, and The Women's March.

In the second third of the episode, Andrew and Ryan take a surprising amount of time (note: time well spent) to respond to a follow up email about the Jordan Peterson/PragerU series of episodes. In doing so, they further explore the potential meanings of the term indoctrination, the question of indoctrination vs propagandizing, the problem with lack of viewpoint diversity in the humanities, and the baffling absence of biblical teaching (i.e. Bible as fiction) in the English language canon, specifically for students studying American literature.

In the final third of the episode, your hosts touch on the commentary surrounding the Helsinki press conference. This serves as a springboard into Trump's particular rhetorical style--the rhetoric of superlatives, dodging, and absurdist message dilution. They then talk about how this rhetorical style shapes the mindsets and attitudes of the strongest section of his base, and how this phenomenon promotes growth of deeper ideological and tribalistic roots among everyone.

Music Notes:
"You'r in my Head" from the album "I Can't Tell You How Much it Hurts" by Moow
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/moow-beatmaker/tracks
Band Camp: https://moow-beat.bandcamp.com/

HOW TO FIND US:
Website: www.seatedinaction.com
Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/seated-in-action
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seated-in-action/id1375517639?mt=2
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_pRDw72eDnL1f5j8oCkLMQ
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

Today’s episode is atypical—Andrew is moving to Milwaukee and Ryan is vacationing around the United Kingdom, and, thus, they will not be able to put together an episode during the third week of July. So, they thought ahead—for once—and planned a bonus episode while they do their thing.

So, while the bois are away, take a listen to this episode, wherein we talk about world cinema. Originally, your hosts wanted to put together an international movie podcast, but it wasn’t in the cards; however, as the podcast grows, and as we talk more and more about soft, cultural power and global politics, it now makes sense to repurpose this original idea within the context of Seated in Action’s values (which continue to morph and change, unsurprisingly).

HOW TO FIND US:
Website: www.seatedinaction.com
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iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seated-in-action/id1375517639?mt=2
iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/seated-in-action-29346647/
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Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

In the first half of the episode, your hosts discuss the next set of claims laid out in the PragerU video; they start their discussion off by talking about the differences between those who hold power within the university system and those who interface with students (hint: they are not often the same group of people). They then talk about the various levels of professorship within the academy and the types of classes each level of professor teaches. After defining terms and showing how the different levels of professorship function, Ryan and Andrew then tackle the claim that professors’ primary objective is to overthrow or subvert Western culture and deconstruct free market capitalism with their postmodern Neo-Marxist ideology. Finally, they round out the first half of the episode with a brief discussion about Ryan’s boi, Karl Marx, and his myriad influences.



In the second half of the episode, Ryan and Andrew talk about how imperialism and colonialism have contributed to international and international conflicts, especially in the developing world, as a result of drawing arbitrary borders and exploiting extractive economic models—they then discuss how people on the left and the right establish colonialism and imperialism within their hierarchies of global harm. Your hosts then turn to a series of three claims about speaking, writing, and succeeding within the university system and beyond. At the end of the day, they attempt to provide a summary/takeaway and hope this whole decision to tackle Peterson doesn’t blow up in their faces.



You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.



Musical Notes:

“Slaves” by teeho x VYVYCH



Links:

PragerU’s video “Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LquIQisaZFU



HOW TO FIND US:

Website: www.seatedinaction.com

Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/seated-in-action

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_pRDw72eDnL1f5j8oCkLMQ

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

In the first half of today’s episode, your hosts tread carefully into the deep, hot water (though Andrew flubs this by making a spicy joke right off the batt) that is Jordan B. Peterson’s political and philosophical oeuvre. Your hosts begin their critique of Peterson’s PragerU by talking about the way the federal and state governments allocate funds into the education system (both lower and higher education systems) in order to address the first of many claims Peterson makes. They also attempt to articulate and demystify the fundamental differences between different types of colleges and, by extension, the differences in the types of students who attend said colleges. They round out the episode by discussing the many benefits of the American University system and discuss some, obviously not all, of the major flaws (real flaws) that plague an otherwise healthy institution of intellectual pursuit.



In the second half of the episode, your hosts read their first listener email. In an attempt to set a precedent, Andrew reads the email in its entirety and responds to it point by point. Your hosts then tackle the next claim with which they take issue: the notion that the left is uniquely violent and goaded into violent action by their progressive professors; in doing so, they talk about antifa, right-wing violence, political indoctrination, and the politically motivated madness that seems to be festering in some pockets of the academic world.



You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.



Musical Notes:

“Not Just Your Song Anymore” by Apache Tomcat



Links:

David Pakman’s video “The Myth of the ‘Violent Left’”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Coc4NScW4Y

PragerU’s video “Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LquIQisaZFU



HOW TO FIND US:

Website: www.seatedinaction.com

Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/seated-in-action

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seated-in-action/id1375517639?mt=2

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_pRDw72eDnL1f5j8oCkLMQ

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

Today’s episode is something of a departure from the norm. Here at Seated in Action, we don’t really like to talk about people; rather, we like to explore ideas, arguments, and rhetorical strategies—that said, we feel as though our hand has been forced. A couple of weeks ago, the notorious Lobster King himself, Jordan B. Peterson, professor of psychology at University of Toronto, produced a video with PragerU (titled “Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids”). Normally, your hosts would not take the time to pick apart a PragerU video, but we contend that the video contains an inordinate amount of not optimally valid and, at times, troublingly alarmist claims.

Before we seek out to address the video point-by-point, we want to set the table for a broader conversation about said claims; in doing so, your hosts articulate the nature of their exposure to Peterson’s body of work, express their general feelings about Peterson as a public intellectual, and, in the spirit of Stasis Theory, define some key terms (e.g. Postmodern Neo-Marxism) before diving headlong into a critique of the video. This episode primarily functions as a an effort to steel-man Peterson’s views; and, as such, your hosts do not directly comment the arguments made in the video. We will deliver, though, and you, dear listener, can expect at the very least two more episodes about the content of this strange five-minute video.

You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.

Links:
PragerU’s video “Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LquIQisaZFU

ContraPoints’ video “Jordan B. Peterson”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LqZdkkBDas

HOW TO FIND US:
Website: www.seatedinaction.com
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Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

In the first half of the episode, your hosts talk about the issue of moral reframing as presented in Rob Willer’s Ted Talk, “How to Have Better Political Conversations,” which asks a difficult question: why do we attempt to persuade someone by employing arguments that we find compelling (as opposed to arguments that our interlocutors might find compelling)? In doing so, they talk about how to reconfigure political arguments within other moral matrices. Does this sound Machiavellian? Yeah, maybe it’s a little Machiavellian, but the conversations need to take place, and our messages, whatever they might be, need to be palatable to another person before they can hope to accept said arguments as valid.



In the second half of the episode, Andrew further explains how moral matrices are, to some extent, genetically predetermined; that is, moral frameworks are dispositional in nature, and, thus, an individual’s genetics and their environment push them towards one moral matrix over another. They then extend this notion to other domains of philosophy and politics and attempt to make connections between Confucianism, Marxism, and other foundational philosophies. In an attempt to reframe (see what we did there?) the issue in rhetorical terms, your hosts talk about Kenneth Burke’s terministic screens, which highlight the realities that individual words select and deflect.



You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.



Music Notes: “Swimming” by Ryan Anderson. To find more of Ryan Anderson’s work, visit https://music-for-sync.com/



Links:

Rob Willer’s Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V6p1tgHfm0

George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” https://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/Politics_and_the_English_Language-1.pdf



HOW TO FIND US:

Website: www.seatedinaction.com

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_pRDw72eDnL1f5j8oCkLMQ

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

In the first half of the episode, your hosts finally introduce the topic of effective altruism. This topic was briefly alluded to in the previous episode (about global aid), and Andrew, of course, articulates the principles central to the effective altruistic movement by disparaging mainstream, traditional charitable organizations. Ryan re-centers the conversation, and the two discuss, at great lengths, the rational, empirical methodologies the effective altruists employ when determining the effectiveness of a given charity, the criteria they use to determine which global problems to address, and the goals they lay out when prompting people to rethink the ways they give to charity.



In the second half of the episode, Andrew discusses the merits of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative and the Sight Savers organization; Ryan, then, discusses the merits of the Against Malaria Foundation and an organization called “Give Directly.” They then provide some practical advice about charitable donations and lay out a framework detailing how you, our beloved listener, can literally save a life.



You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.



Links:

Effective Altruism Homepage: www.effectivealtruism.org

Give Well (Effective Altruist Charities): www.givewell.org

The Life You Can Save (Peter Singer’s Organization): www.thelifeyoucansave.org

Schistosomiasis Control Initiative: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/schistosomiasis-control-initiative/

Sight Savers: https://www.sightsavers.org/

Against Malaria Foundation: https://www.againstmalaria.com/

Give Directly: https://givedirectly.org/



HOW TO FIND US:

Website: www.seatedinaction.com

Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/seated-in-action

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seated-in-action/id1375517639?mt=2

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_pRDw72eDnL1f5j8oCkLMQ

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

In this episode, Ryan and Andrew discuss the rains down in Africa. Responding to the documentary, Poverty, Inc, they articulate some of the ways that programs meant to help those living in poverty don't always achieve their intended effect. The conversation takes a turn into economics and sociology as they discuss which economic policies work best for connecting people with a steady income and how bad policies can effect even the most primal of human behaviors. The conversation also diverges when the hosts discuss which services should be incentivized with a profit motive and which shouldn't. They also provide some practical advice to make sure that your charity donations get to the people who need them most.

You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.

Links:
https://www.povertyinc.org

HOW TO FIND US:
Website: www.seatedinaction.com
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Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

In today’s episode, Ryan discusses the concepts and notions advanced in Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson’s Why Nations Fail. In the first half, Ryan summarizes some of the main arguments—namely their claims about what types of policies are effective and which are not. Your hosts then discuss the disconnect between the efficacy of specific policies and the values that voters hold; in doing so, they pose the following question: If a policy that clashes against your values is effective at achieving its goal (and let’s assume this is a favorable, positive outcome), would you want to uphold it despite the fact that it runs counter to the values you hold most dear?

In the second half of the show, Ryan talks about the notion of extractive versus inclusive nations and policies; to illustrate this point, Ryan assesses the pros and cons of feudalism and colonialism. He then argues that there are certain prerequisites to which all effective policies must adhere (among these being safeguarding both property rights and individual liberty).

You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.

Music notes: “Eternal Youth” by RUDE; to find more of his work, visit his SoundCloud page at https://soundcloud.com/itsrudeboy or send him a tweet at @_imrude_

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity/dp/0307719227

HOW TO FIND US:

Website: www.seatedinaction.com
Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/seated-in-action
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_pRDw72eDnL1f5j8oCkLMQ
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seatedinaction

In the first half of the episode, Ryan and Andrew discuss Jonathan Haidt’s Ted Talk about what he calls The Righteous Mind (this later became a book of the same name). Haidt suggests that there are five pillars of morality, and that said pillars manifest through political outlooks and ideologies. For the first half, Ryan and Andrew discuss three of these pillars: care/harm, fairness/reciprocity, and in-group loyalty. In the second half of the episode, they discuss the remaining two pillars: authority/respect and purity/sanctity.



In their discussion, Ryan and Andrew lay out how liberals (or, put another way, progressives) configure their moral matrix in a different manner than traditional conservatives. They disagree on a few issues that arise out of the conversation; but, they try to figure out the nature of the disagreement and diffuse the situation while maintaining the values articulated in the mission statement.



You can reach out to Seated in Action by email us at [email protected] Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, check out our website at www.seatedinaction.com, stayed tune for our next episode, and leave us a (preferably favorable!) review on your podcast app of choice.



Music Notes: “Minute by Minute” by David Hilowitz; to find more of his work, visit www.davehilowitz.com



Links:



Jonathan Haidt’s TedTalk, “The Moral Roots of Liberals & Conservatives”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc



Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics & Religion https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525998087&sr=8-1&keywords=jonathan+haidt