Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Abby, Patrick, and Dan process last night’s Trump-Harris debate. They talk about the pleasures of domination, perverse and otherwise; the power of identifications over and against appeals to statistics; narcissistic rage in th ... Show More
Mar 21
138: Genocide and the Politics of Hospitality feat. Avgi Saketopoulou
Abby and Patrick welcome psychoanalyst Avgi Saketopoulou for a frank conversation about politics, psychoanalysis, and the politics of psychoanalysts and of psychoanalytic institutions. Recent years have seen multiple psychoanalytic schools, museums, and other entities invite lect ... Show More
1h 32m
Mar 14
137: Repression, Resistance, and Reenactment feat. Séamus Malekafzali Teaser
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Patrick are joined by Séamus Malekafzali, a journalist whose reportage and commentary has proven indispensable to processing the United Sta ... Show More
18 m
Mar 7
136: Ideology and Family History feat. Jordy Rosenberg
Abby and Patrick welcome novelist and academic Jordy Rosenberg to discuss his brand-new novel, Night Night Fawn. Alternately hilarious and devasting, Night Night Fawn is written in the voice of Barbara Rosenberg, an embittered New York Jewish woman penning a deathbed memoir that ... Show More
1h 45m
Jul 2025
She Exposed Epstein, and Shares MAGA’s Anger
<p>Julie K. Brown thinks Jeffrey Epstein didn’t act alone. On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross talks to Brown, the investigative reporter whose work ultimately led to Epstein’s re-arrest, about what the government could release that it hasn’t and how the story is bigger ... Show More
58m 38s
Nov 2024
The Waiting Room of History... (Unlocked Patreon Teaser)
Breht speaks at length about the upcoming election, changes and trends within the two parties, the Democratic Coalition of neoconservatives and neoliberals, the inevitable culmination of this era of American crises, the GOP identity-crisis after Trump, the accelerationist perspec ... Show More
1h 11m
Sep 2025
POP CULTURE BRAIN ROT | guilty pleasure or garbage?
Is pop culture harmless fun or a total waste of brain cells? In this episode, we dive into the psychology of why some people love the “brain rot” of celebrity gossip, reality TV, and trending drama, while others crave intellectual stimulation and deeper conversations. From guilty ... Show More
47m 55s
Apr 2025
Close Readings: 'Vanity Fair' by William Makepeace Thackeray
Thackeray's comic masterpiece, 'Vanity Fair', is a Victorian novel looking back to Regency England as an object both of satire and nostalgia. Thackeray’s disdain for the Regency is present throughout the book, not least in the proliferation of hapless characters called George, ye ... Show More
33m 7s
Jan 2025
What Went Wrong with Liberalism and How We Can Save it, with Samuel Moyn
In this episode Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, explores what he sees as the profound crisis facing liberalism and why many in the West have become disillusioned with it. Drawing from his latest book 'Liberalism against Itself: Cold W ... Show More
47m 37s
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>You can listen to the full episode "Sex, Desire, and the Neoliberal Subject" by subscribing to our Patreon here: <a href= "https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast">https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast</a></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong>A ... Show More
<p>Plus, why you’re wrong about your Zodiac sign.</p><p><strong>On Today’s Episode:</strong></p><p><a href="http://nytimes.com/2025/09/08/magazine/jeffrey-epstein-jp-morgan.html" target="_blank"><strong>How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein</strong></a>, <i>by David ... Show More