In this episode we talk about Antonio Gramsci’s book The Modern Prince. Written while imprisoned by the fascists in Mussolini’s Italy, the work is a reflection on the party as a form of organization and the importance of leadership for revolutionary socialist politics. We discuss Gramsci’s realist approach to politics as an art and science, his insistence on ... Show More
Apr 6
132 TEASER | Marxism and Religion, Part II: The Gospel According to Terry Eagleton
In this episode, we discuss Terry Eagleton’s defense of religion. We focus on his diagnoses of the Enlightenment, modernism, and post-modernism as different kinds of post-religious movements. Post-modernism is the only “truly atheist” one, which is one reason it got along with ca ... Show More
8m 27s
Mar 6
130 | Max Horkheimer: What Makes Critical Theory Critical?
In this episode we talk about Max Horkheimer’s essay “Traditional and Critical Theory”, which serves as a kind of manifesto for the Frankfurt School of Marxist thought. We talk about how he defines these categories, reflect on whether the distinction holds up, and ask ourselves w ... Show More
1h 4m
Nov 2022
Virtue Ethics and The Quest for Character
<p>Massimo Pigliucci, philosophy professor and author, joins Breht once again, this time to discuss his newest book <em><a href= "https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/massimo-pigliucci/the-quest-for-character/9781541646957/"> "The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and ... Show More
1h 5m
Nov 2019
74 | Stephen Greenblatt on Stories, History, and Cultural Poetics
An infinite number of things happen; we bring structure and meaning to the world by making art and telling stories about it. Every work of literature created by human beings comes out of an historical and cultural context, and drawing connections between art and its context can b ... Show More
1h 6m
Feb 2024
Climate Leninism w/ Jodi Dean and Kai Heron
<p class="MsoNormal">Transition is inevitable, we're past the point of literal climate denialism. Even the fossil fuel industry, which has known about the dangers of climate change for decades now, has a plan for transition. In fact, one could argue that when it comes to being pr ... Show More
1h 4m
Oct 2023
What Is To Be Done? with Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante
<p class="MsoNormal"><em>What Is To Be Done?</em> This is the question so profoundly posed by the Russian Revolutionary and Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, in his landmark text of the same name. Although it was written well over a century ago, this text, the questions it asked, ... Show More
1h 54m
May 2019
Adam Gopnik Wants to Make Liberalism Great Again!
Adam Gopnik, the celebrated New Yorker writer whom Tina worked with for many years when she was editor in chief, talks with her about his new book, A Thousand Small Sanities, born of a talk he had with his teenage daughter on the night President Trump was elected. In the book, Go ... Show More
41m 19s
Jul 2024
Righteous Indignation, Love, and Running for President w/ Dr. Cornel West
<p class="MsoNormal">Righteous indignation, truth, justice, and, maybe most important, love. These are some of the pillars that support the work that <a href="https://x.com/CornelWest">Dr. Cornel West</a>, today's guest, has been committed to throughout his entire life.</p> <p cl ... Show More
1h 20m
<p><a href="https://www.upstreampodcast.org/">UPSTREAM</a> INTERVIEW W/ BREHT AND ALYSON: </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em>What Is To Be Done?</em> This is the question so profoundly posed by the Russian Revolutionary and Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, in his landmark text of the ... Show More
