The WBT Podcast

Fredrik "Freddie" deBoer, PhD, joins WBT's Adrian Bonenberger to discuss de Boer's controversial new book "The Cult of Smart." DeBoer argues that the current academic system is incompatible with a true meritocracy. The two also discuss the positive impact that the original GI Bill had on US society, with de Boer arguing that its impact has been underestimated.

Adrian Bonenberger of The WBT is joined by Brian Castner, writer, veteran, journalist, and author of "The Long Walk," and Matt Gallagher, writer, veteran, journalist, and author of "Empire City" to discuss George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia." The trio try to make sense of the politics of the time, with varying degrees of success, and then attempt to compare 1930s Spain to today's troubled American political scene. Highlights include Bonenberger resolving to do more research for future podcasts, Castner proposing that the memoir is a comedy, and Gallagher observing that Orwell would have been well suited to Twitter in addition to using his superior knowledge of the work and Orwell's biography to make several fascinating points about how things *really* went down in Barcelona.

WBT's Michael Carson, David James, and Adrian Bonenberger discuss Isaac Babel's short fiction collection "Red Cavalry," as well as Babel's life, times, and unorthodox (revolutionary?) literary project.

WBT editors Andria Williams, David James, and Mike Carson discuss the relationship between silence and the imagination in the work of J.M. Coetzee. We cover Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K, and Disgrace, but also, as always, find time for a debate over the value of literature in an unjust world.

Check out David's essay on Coetzee here: https://www.wrath-bearingtree.com/2017/03/coetzee-master-cape-town/

Jennifer Orth-Veillon discusses her recent WBT essay, Reading Camus’ ‘The Plague’ in 2020: A Dispatch from Lyon, France, by Jennifer Orth-Veillon and John Tyrrell, from the May issue of WBT.

Read Jennifer's essay here: https://www.wrath-bearingtree.com/2020/05/reading-camus-the-plague-in-2020-a-dispatch-from-lyon-france-by-jennifer-orth-veillon-and-john-tyrrell/

Mike Carson, David James, and Adrian Bonenberger sit down to talk about Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's masterwork novella, "The Royal Game," aka "Chess Game" ("Schachnovelle" in the original German). It's a cold open, and recorded on Zoom so the audio goes in and out, especially near the end, but the quality of the interrogation of Zweig is enough to tolerate the occasional and brief disruptions.

An interview conducted in May with J.T. Blatty, a U.S. Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, a photojournalist, and documentarian. Jenn was getting ready for photography exhibitions that were received well, in Chicago as well as elsewhere--a link to one news story about the exhibit, of photos taken of Ukrainian volunteers, is here: www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/photo-exhib…r-in-the-donbas/

One can find more work by J.T. at her home page, jtblatty.com. Furthermore she is on Instagram at @jtblatty.

Wrath-Bearing Tree / The WBT editor Adrian Bonenberger talks Stolen Valor with Kristiana Willsey, PhD, a folklorist who specializes in military culture and storytelling. Dr. Willsey can be found on Twitter (@BlueWindGirl) and Instagram (SpindleWise), and currently lectures at the University of Southern California.

WBT editor and author Adrian Bonenberger interviews journalist and author Nolan Peterson about Peterson's debut short fiction collection: Snow-Blind. The book is available via Amazon, here: www.amazon.com/Snow-Blind-Other-…ook/dp/B07F2DBHHF

Amalie Flynn, Michael Carson, and David James try to work out the connections between and relevance of the influential liberal American philosophers Richard Rorty and John Rawls.