Culturally Determined

Will Sommer talks about his new book, "Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America." Why didn't January 6th deflate QAnon? How has conspiracy thinking changed the GOP? Is the "cabal" that Q believers see themselves fighting against just…capitalism? Plus: Do Fox News hosts believe their own nonsense? Recorded March 23, 2023 Follow Culturally Determined on Twitter @Cul...

Journalist Nicky Woolf discusses his podcast "The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome." What really caused the strange symptoms afflicting American diplomats in Cuba? What, if anything, do loud crickets have to do with it? Is the whole thing simply a mass delusion? And why hasn't Biden acted to undo the damage Trump did to Cuba? Recorded March 17, 2023 LINKS The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome on...

Stephen talks about his new book, "On Writing and Failure." Aryeh and Stephen discuss morality and art, Canadian vs. American literary culture, the link between writing and mental illness, and more. Recorded February 22, 2023 LINKS Stephen's new book, "On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer" https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Field-Notes-Stephe...

A kooky tweet from Rebekah Jones, the Florida Covid whistleblower who might not actually be a whistleblower, inspires Aryeh and Nick to debate whether the left has a grifter problem, the morality of Al Sharpton, whether liberals willfully misunderstand the right, Joe Biden's tall tales, and more! Recorded February 15, 2023 LINKS Nick's tweet that launched the debate https://twitter.com/NickClairmo...

Aryeh speaks with his cousin Ora Peled Nakash about the growing Israeli protest movement, which was sparked by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's move to limit the independence of Israel's judicial system. Ora explains why she was personally motivated to join the protests and to give a speech at the first large rally in Tel Aviv. They discuss how Israeli politics reached this perilous point, the many...

Raina Lipsitz discusses her new book, "The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics." Are charismatic figures like AOC and Bernie responsible for the resurgence of socialism in the US? Or did structural/economic forces make a left revival inevitable? What lessons have organizers learned from the failures of past generations? Is "defund the police" a good p...

Writer and "BookTok" expert Leigh Stein tries to assuage Aryeh's fears about the wildly popular video app. Should we be worried about TikTok's Chinese origins? Is the app poisoning the minds of America's youth—or is that idea just the sign of a xenophobic moral panic? Could Gen Zers teach Millennials how to stop looking at their phones? Plus: The two self-confessed Twitter addicts discuss whether...

Comedian Sophie Zucker talks about her new one-woman musical, "Sophie Sucks Face," which tells the story of a young Jewish woman who makes out with her cousin at their grandfather's funeral. Recorded November 21, 2022 LINKS Sophie Sucks Face https://www.sophiezucker.com/sophie-sucks-face Sophie's Instagram @stringcheesezucker https://www.instagram.com/stringcheesezucker/?hl=en Follow @sophierzucke...

Josh Barnard, a software engineer and tech-industry veteran who worked at Twitter during and after the 2016 election, discusses Elon Musk's chaotic changes at the company. Were Twitter's employees a bunch of woke leftists? Does Musk understand how to code? Could the site suffer a massive technical failure? Plus: Can the moderation dilemma ever be solved? Recorded November 18, 2022 Follow @barndawg...

Kat discusses her recent essay in National Review, "Why I Keep Getting Mistaken for a Conservative." Has online political life swallowed offline political life? Has technology made concerns about book bans a thing of the past? Plus: Is Aryeh a Twitter bully? Recorded November 9, 2022 LINKS: Kat's essay, "Why I Keep Getting Mistaken for a Conservative" https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/1...

Aryeh and Dave Karpf, an associate professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, discuss Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter. Is he going to run the company into the ground—and would that be good for America? Is Twitter in fact the online public square? What would a non-toxic version of the site look like? Plus: Why does Mark Zuckerberg think we all want to join...

Laura Mayer talks about "Shameless Acquisition Target," her new podcast series about how market forces and bad choices have changed the podcast industry. Mayer has worked as a radio and podcast editor, producer, and executive—but this is her first time hosting her own show. Recorded October 27, 2022 LINKS Shameless Acquisition Target website https://www.shameless.biz/ Shameless Acquisition Target...

Aryeh and Joanna analyze Nathan Fielder's HBO series "The Rehearsal." What is the show actually about? Can the viewer separate reality from "reality"? Is Nathan the show's villain, hero, or something else? How sympathetic should we feel toward Angela? And what does the final scene actually mean? Recorded September 11, 2022 LINKS Trailer for "The Rehearsal" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cp...

William Deresiewicz, author of the new book "The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society," discusses how technology is changing our sense of self, how every aspect of higher education is failing, the late Harold Bloom, Great Books courses, and more! Recorded August 18, 2022 LINKS: Bill's new book, "The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society" https://www.amazon.com/...

Photographer and writer Chris Arnade talks about his project of walking across foreign cities. Recorded August 11, 2022 LINKS Chris's newsletter, "Walking the World" https://walkingtheworld.substack.com Aryeh's conversation with Chris about his book "Dignity" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culturally-determined/id981282353?i=1000441345930 Chris's walking tips https://walkingtheworld.substac...

Historian Daniel Bessner discusses his recent cover story in Harper's about the waning of US global hegemony. In a wide-ranging conversation, Aryeh and Daniel debate human nature, the true toll of the Cold War, whether conflict with China is inevitable, whether American culture is decadent, and more. Recorded July 25, 2022 LINKS Daniel's essay, "Empire Burlesque" https://harpers.org/archive/2022/0...

Kaitlyn Tiffany talks about her new book, "Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It," a study of how fans of the boy-band One Direction changed online life.  Recorded July 13, 2022   LINKS Kaitlyn's book, "Everything I Need I Get from You" https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-Get-You-Fangirls/dp/0374539189 Follow @kait_tiffany Follow @Aryeh...

Filmmaker Kirby Ferguson, creator of the series "Everything Is a Remix," recently announced that he is retiring from content creation. I spoke to him about that decision, redoing his classic series on remix culture, conspiracy theories, the "vibe shift," and more! Recorded June 2, 2022 LINKS: "Everything Is a Remix Remastered" youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc Kirby's website everythingisaremix.info...

Film critic Dana Stevens discusses her new book "Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century."   Recorded May 26, 2022   LINKS:   Dana's book, "Camera Man" https://www.amazon.com/Camera-Man-Invention-Twentieth-Century/dp/1501134191   Follow @thehighsign Follow @AryehCW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comedy writers Toria Sheffield and Shawn DePasquale cohost the podcast "Oh, Mr. Sheffield!," which recaps Fran Drescher's '90s sitcom "The Nanny." They discus how the show depicted Jewish themes and gay characters, why it was mostly forgotten by the culture, and what its legacy is today. Recorded May 12, 2022 LINKS "Oh, Mr. Sheffield!" on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oh-mr-...

Max Read, who writes the tech and culture newsletter "Read Max," argues that Elon Musk won't save Twitter, but he won't ruin it either—because the famously lousy site already works just great for him. Recorded May 2, 2022 LINKS: Max's essay, "Elon Musk won't fix Twitter (but he won't kill it, either)" https://maxread.substack.com/p/elon-musk-wont-fix-twitter-but-he?r=u0oj&s=r&utm_campaign=...

Author Sam Lipsyte discusses his recent cover story in Harper's, "Ghosting the Machine: Humans, Robots, and the New Sexual Frontier." We talked about "digisexuals," sex bots, virtual reality, Las Vegas, loneliness, and the gamification of everything. Recorded April 29, 2022 LINKS: Sam's article, "Ghosting the Machine" https://harpers.org/archive/2022/05/ghosting-the-machine-humans-robots-and-the-n...

On a special crossover edition of "Culturally Determined" and "The Wright Show," Aryeh asks Bob about cognitive empathy and how to apply it to Putin's war in Ukraine. Plus: Is Mickey Kaus infecting Bob's brain? And does Bloggingheads.tv still have a reason for being? Recorded April 13, 2022 LINKS: The Nonzero newsletter https://nonzero.substack.com/ The Wright Show on Bloggingheads.tv https://blog...

Comedian and musician Howell Dawdy talks about writing a funny song in just 30 minutes, the vanished artistic medium of Twitter Fleets, magicians who make Facebook videos of women using banana peels to slowly tie-dye their underwear, and more! Recorded March 31, 2022 LINKS: "Howell Dawdy's Fast Track" podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/howell-dawdys-fast-track/id1558186545 Howell's Patr...

"Culturally Determined" is back! Aryeh speaks with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman, author of the recent essay "Is It Funny for the Jews?". They discuss Jewish comedy in a time of rising anti-Semitism, whether Jewish characters should be played by Jewish actors, Dara Horn's recent book "People Love Dead Jews," "The Merchant of Venice," Philip Roth, how younger Jewish comedians understan...