Aesthetic Resistance Podcast

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,...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: opposition to data centers, data centers claimed to be national security assets, Japan’s militarization and growing protests against it, Bill Gates “ticks” all the boxes as a loathsome plague on the health of humanity, MAGA diehards think Trump is playing 5-D chess, social pressure to stay in the polarized left-right...

Fourth installment of a discussion between Guy Zimmerman and John Steppling.

Participants: John Steppling, Cory Morningstar, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran, USS Gerald Ford sails home, Marxism and environmentalism, data centers and electricity supply, A.I. proven mathematically to lead to rapid economic collapse, weird scenes inside the White House Correspondents Dinner, Japan ramps up military exercises in...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Ray Hosseini, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran, food shortages on US Navy ships, Western Marxism, the forgotten US-Iran Algiers Accord of 1981, oil refineries exploding everywhere, the mysterious deaths of nuclear scientists everywhere all at once, pejorative terminology: who defines what is “hardline,”...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran, responsibility of the Western NGO complex for supporting excuses for the war, the failure of the bad faith ceasefire, blockade upon blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, witting and unwitting limited hangouts, the lack of anti-imperialist critics of the war, the Artemis moon...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Ray Hosseini, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Iran-US+Israel ceasefire? Zionist refugees flee to Cyprus and Argentina, “Heaven’s Gate” and the end, in 1980, of an era in film-making, Hollywood done with Cimino, Friedkin and other directors who made films for adults, plastic surgery and the Mar a Lago look, nicknames for Trump’s dementia and his Ira...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Jonathan the 193-year-old tortoise, Bertrand Russell, Napoleon and ancient the tortoises on St. Helena Island, Trump’s falling star, No Kings protests—performance art with no demands, US allies back away nervously from the Israel-US war on Iran, Iran War as a Project Hail Mary, the atrociousness of Israel exceeds tha...

Participants: John Steppling, Luna Nguyen, EJ Johnson, Hiroyuki Hamada, Cory Morningstar and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The branding and marketing of US military organizations, the aesthetics and excesses of military and ICE agent uniforms, military propaganda embedded in all entertainment, the mental decline of Donald Trump, Hegseth’s holy war, the struggling U.S. Navy fleet, reactions in Vie...

Participants: John Steppling, Ray Hosseini, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Contradictory retroactive justifications for war, the struggling U.S. Navy fleet, Trump administration meltdown and clown show, clown shoes. Israeli officials missing in action, A.I. fakes as proof of life, Stalingrad is to Germany as Iran is to the U.S. The impossibility of mythic journeys in a world g...

Participants: John Steppling, Cory Morningstar, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Contradictory retroactive justifications for war, migrant workers stranded in the Gulf States, Erika Kirk qualified for high-level public office? Western Asian states jostle for position in the coming post-empire order, Trump administration clown show, war motivated by eschatological motives, fog of...

Topics covered: The liberal left’s conditional criticism of the war against Iran, the problem with the liberal attack on the “illiberalism of the Iranian regime”, Jon Stewart recycles stale anti-Muslim jokes from 2001, pretends not to know why Iran attacked US bases in the Gulf States, the communist leadership of Vietnam goes along with Trump’s plan for Gaza Board of Peace (Bored of Peace), govern...

Participants: John Steppling, Cory Morningstar, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the hybrid war on Iran, US Navy within stinking distance near Iran, report from Cuba, report from Vietnam, the Epstein Regime, ICE and the prison industrial complex, Los Angeles lawyer Harry Weiss’ pool parties (circa 1970). Music track: “Dos Gardenias” by Roberto Sanchez.

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the buildup for war against Iran, Vietnam’s long war for independence, Marco Rubio and AOC do the Munich Security Conference, Epstein files, the labor and materiel shortages and the ecological limits of nuclear arsenal maintenance. Music track: “Perdido” by Duke Ellington (public domain).

This is a panel discussion with four Iranian citizens who live in Japan. They wanted to expresses a dissenting view of the present state of Iran to counter what has been said in official channels about the recent challenges faced by the Iranian government. Participants: Ray Hosseini, Zeinab Bahrami, Elahe Jafarzedeh, Somaiyeh Taheri. Moderator: Dennis Riches. Two of the participants wanted to spea...

PODCAST 196 by John Steppling

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Ray Hosseini, John Bower and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: extra ICE in the Minnesota winter, Greenland, Iran, Palestine, Davos, Mark Carney, Michael Parenti. Music track: “Trouble Trouble (Every Time I Speak My Mind)” by Betty Roche (public domain).