Aesthetic Resistance Podcast

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Brecht Jonkers, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: upcoming documentary about Terry Ork, theft of the mid-term elections? Saudi Arabia-Yemen conflict, managing imperial decline, decline of the US empire? -->it must be demons, lizard people and aliens. Music track: “Where did you sleep last night?” by Leadbelly (public domain). See Aesthetic Resistance...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Brecht Jonkers. Music track: “Matchbox Blues” by Blind Lemon Jefferson (public domain). See Aesthetic Resistance on Substack for links to some sources mentioned in the discussion.

Participants: John Steppling, Lex Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The EU and China talk about their trade deficit, asset stripping of Europe, the botched execution of Christa Pike, Hegseth wants a televised execution, Zionism gone global, Brazil turns right, incompetents and incompetence in high places, inter-generational resentment, screen-based reality vs. what’s r...

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The botched execution of Christa Pike, the death-defying, reality-defying Lie Dubai flight to Tel Aviv, Mossad-staged protests in Iran (2026/01), the arrogant Western drive to fix the flaws of other nations, Weirdos and Beardos?–Hegseth’s reforms of the US military, did the world want communism, or di...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Brecht Jonkers, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Tommy Tuberville and the furries, no protest as Trump violates the UN Charter in his speech to the General Assembly, Arc de Tr(i)ump for America, US think tanks call for moving US bases farther back from Japan, Japan doesn’t want to be classified as an “enemy state” anymore, Jon Stewart’s softball int...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Brecht Jonkers, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Ed Sheeran misreads the public mood on Zionist atrocities, Kash Patel’s unusual testimony in the US Senate, the history of Yemen and the Saudi-Yemen conflict, the importance of “meaningless” social interactions, customer service, what the Unabomber’s manifesto said about hobbies, the inexplicable tole...

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Trump in the rubble on 9/11, 2001? purge at the Smithsonian, the compatible left, the loss of cinema literacy, the problematic history of the IAEA, two histories of American empire—continental and global, report on the Commonwealth of World Chinatowns and the Penang Peace Dialogue, September 5-6, 2026...

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, and Dennis Riches

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: children flying kites targeted in Gaza, writer for The Guardian admits he fabricated malicious lies about Iran, the fate of America with a president who is a malignant narcissist with dementia, the invisible commie threat, know-nothing know-it-alls in the commentariat, leftists who still can’t tell th...

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, Lex Steppling, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: ICE agent brutality, frauds in academia, mutiny on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the US failure to prepare for rivals in possession of precision weapons arsenals, Senator Ossoff takes aim at Trump, the myth of surveillance camera infallibility, illiteracy and the decline of reading, the void...

Participants: John Steppling, Jeptha Storm, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: ICE agent excesses, mutiny on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump dodges assassination on Air Force One? Ukraine headed for its “South Vietnam (1975/04/30) moment”, Fauci still revered, still has apologists, demographic collapse—engineered or organically formed? the illiteracy of film creators and film audie...

Participants: John Steppling, Lex Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: ICE agent excesses, the demonization of Ibrahim Traore, the rehabilitation of Freud’s work, demonization of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, no bang for the buck from the US military budget, liberals’ preoccupation with the vices of artists, Joan Baez still fawning over Anthony Fa...

A Conversation with Guy Zimmerman & John Steppling: Theatre and Culture (Part 6) (Lecture 14)

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: ICE agent murderers and detention center abuses, the demonization of Ibrahim Traore, debunking liberal democracy as the pinnacle of socio-political evolution, plans to hand over the organizing of the World Cup to a Kushner corporation, Jakarta Method II for South America. Music track “Dark Was the Nig...

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: ICE agent murderers, the “Cuban threat to America”, Testosterone Pete’s Workout Videos, the Middle East protection racket fails to protect, the decline of reading and teaching to read, the rise and fall of societal solidarity. Music track “Lonesome Road Blues” by Sam Collins (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the 2026 World Cup: the fix is in, NATO summit in Ankara, the wars are back on again, the MoU was a farce, Jacques-Louis David’s “The Death of Marat”. Music track “Motherless Children Have a Hard Time” by Blind Willie Johnson (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the 2026 World Cup: the fix is in? Trump administration rejoices in the departure of the Iranian team, NATO leaders proud of their role in the war on Iran, the Western governance clown show, unqualified amateurs at the helm. Music track: “Chinatown” by The Mills Brothers (1932, public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Zionist sadism, how Israel is worse than apartheid, questionable calls by referees in the 2026 World Cup, Israel calls out antisemitism everywhere but Ukraine—not a word about its glorification of Nazi collaborators, earthquakes on the same day in Venezuela and Japan, the media’s go-to explanation of...

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: billionaires’ escape plans, the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, 2026 World Cup, the upside of social media. Music track: “Baby Please Don’t Go” by Big Bill Broonzy (public domain).

A Conversation on Theatre with John Steppling & Guy Zimmerman (Part Five)(Lecture 13) by John Steppling

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Albania’s Sazan Island, Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry at Tribeca, the drones and missiles stalemate of contemporary war, the science fiction notion of runaway A.I., computer wargaming in 1951, death of legacy news media, the coming societal reckoning with technology, female sex tourists in Africa, Music track: “Ninet...

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Albania and Bolivia fight back against the Trump family takeover, the death of CBS News, Zionism boasts of going global, the evolution of political consciousness since the end of the USSR, ecological footprint of the military, acting secrets—what draws an audience to a performer? Music track: “Minglew...

Participants: John Steppling, Ray Hosseini, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The mysterious data center construction boom, the history of antisemitism, Trump links the Abraham Accords to a deal with Iran, late-stage capitalism and the looting of what’s left, witness testimony of the Gaza atrocities. Music track: “All Going Out and Nothing Coming In” by Bert Willi...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The mysterious data center construction boom, the US thinks it can indict Raul Castro for terrorism, unanswered questions about the true intent of the attack on Iran, the fascist cults of billionaires, the writing of Benjamin Labutut, panpsychism, why have no aliens landed? Music track: “Minglewood Blues” by Cannon’s...

Participants: John Steppling, Ray Hosseini, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Strait of Hormuz supply shock kind of looks like the sanctions suffered by Iran for decades, UN charter’s “enemy state” clause and the 2+4 treaty concerning German reunification in 1990, what’s behind the big push for data centers? windmills tilting the ecological balance, low morale in the US military,...