Aesthetic Resistance Podcast

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, John Bower, Lex Steppling and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Accessories to the crime of genocide promise “recognition of Palestine”, criminalizing the homeless and other proposed solutions for them, below replacement—economic and sociological causes of low birth rates, modeling complex systems and the failure of the Biosphere project (1991-94), remem...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Genocide in Palestine, artists against apartheid, artists against Zionism, historically inaccurate portrayals of race in contemporary entertainment, a fitting farewell for Hulk Hogan and Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, “The Autobiography of Malcom X”—its relevance to contemporary culture, leftist nostalgia for the Bols...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the importance of outdoor sports in childhood, why are there still politicians in the closet, and why are they the meanest ones? endgame in Ukraine, Mossad infiltration of the US government, J. Epstein and the previous 50-year reign of blackmail under FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, “Trump’s” Iran war or the US war on...

Participants: John Steppling, John Bower, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the disappearing Epstein file, Shakespeare’s atypical tragedy “Coriolanus”, what’s behind the “No Kings” lawn signs? pro-vaxers who turned anti-vax when they got tired of the official guidelines for mRNA injection, the deep state and “deep events”, Iran-Contra and Tom Cruise’s biopic of CIA mercenary Barr...

Participants: John Steppling, Aghogho Akpome, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the new artists against apartheid: summer rock festivals express the popular uprising against enablers of genocide, why Russia and China avoid direct confrontation with the zero-sum thinking of the US-NATO bloc, the latest “Washington Accord” for the ongoing resource extraction amid the Congo-Rwanda c...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: ICE, the “Mara Lago look” of Trump’s appointees, theater of war/war as theater, ritualized warfare, hypocrisy, shortcomings and contradictions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), changes coming to the Congo-Rwanda conflict, Tulsi Gabbard, the US occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Music track: “Baby Love” by Jack...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Trump becomes Bush, the pale criminal, Franz Fanon on colonial war and mental disorders, is the Israel-Iran conflict a controlled demolition of the Zionist state? curbing one’s enthusiasm for schadenfreude, BBC obeys Israeli state censorship rules, the Scofield Bible and its influence on American politics, the color...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Daniel Broudy, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Palestine, a few words in honor of the life of Christopher Black, police actions in Los Angeles against migrants and minorities and their defenders, Mike Davis’ “No One is Illegal” (2006), Alexandre Havard-Dianine on Descartes, Rousseau, and Nietzsche, Jacinda Adern’s career after the covid years in Ne...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Palestine, US backtracks on General Langley’s hostile rhetoric about Burkina Faso, US plays dumb while Ukraine provokes Russia toward nuclear war, Lindsay Graham grandstanding on another trip to Ukraine, Sartre’s theory of “bad faith,” Freud vs. evolutionary psychology on the unconscious and self-deception. Kenyans f...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: A.I. apocalypse or A.I. decline? Who still sees a purpose in art? Ann Carson, OSLO Freedom Forum, the mayor of Hamburg asks for “living space” for Israel. Do all podcasts have to converge into the same format of book reports and interviews? Was Carlos Castaneda run by MK-ULTRA? Why do spies wannabe novelists and why...

Participants: John Steppling, Roger Johnson, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Normalization of punishment of dissidents, the end of free speech protections, A.I. companions, Chicago Sun Times lets A.I. make its summer reading list and the result is non-existent titles, why is Israel in Eurovision and why can’t its team be jeered? What happened to the Carlos Castaneda cult? Music track: “Just a M...

Participants: John Steppling, Roger Johnson, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Ann Carson’s lecture on handwriting, poetry and living with Parkinson's, Trump’s whirlwind Middle East tour, Burkina Faso and Congo, Yemen damages the US Navy, New Zealand emigration, sign of the times: a sculpture of “someone just like us” for Times Square, Andy Warhol and the creation of artistic tas...

Participants: John Steppling, Roger Johnson, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Ann Carson’s lecture on cursive writing, poetry and living with Parkinsons, plans, structure and improvisation in the creative process, the brazen, shameless attitude of Israel in its attacks on Gaza, why satirists shouldn’t get close to politicians. Bonus track: Partial interview with John Steppling o...

Participants: John Steppling, Cory Morningstar, Roger Johnson, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Ibrahim Traoré, Canadian federal election, is entertainment being made for profit or pacification? April 30th—50th anniversary of Vietnam’s liberation, May Day, US and French officials speaking openly about the need to rule Africa again, recycling when we know the material is not bein...

Participants: John Steppling, Roger Johnson, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The history of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, Seymour Hersh’s “The Samson Option” (1991), death of the Pope and the conclave, Italy marks the annual date of the end of fascism—April 25th, Schwab dethroned at the WEF, Ibrahim Traoré, Jon Hamm: from “Mad Men” to “Your Friends and Neighbors”—same show,...

Participants: John Steppling, Roger Johnson, Hiroyuki Hamada, Cory Morningstar and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: A.I. promoters want an expansion of nuclear energy, the use and abuse of youth “to save the world”, dealing with despair during a genocide that seems unstoppable, tariff wars and the end of brand value on luxury goods made in China, lost culture: journeys to family reunions, Kafka’s ap...

Participants: John Steppling, Roger Johnson, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The “hands off NATO” protests against Trump, anti-NATO protests in Belgrade, tariff shocks, Japan’s US T-bill selloff, the power of blackmail, or lack thereof, the decline of movie theaters/going out to the movies, editing movies for television (films of the 40s vs. films of the 80s) the films of Val L...

Participants: John Steppling, Roger Johnson, Cory Morningstar, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Palestine, war fever in Europe while the US turns away, Norway’s surrender of neutrality, tariffs, the Inquisition (13th to 19th century) and anti-communism (19th-21st century), feudal Japan’s anti-Christian inquisition (15th-19th century), Ernst Bloch on Marx and surplus value. Music...

Participants: John Steppling, Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Palestine, war fever in Europe while the US turns away (dog wags the tail, tail wags the dog, now the tail wags itself), Sweden’s surrender of neutrality, reification, commodification, the normalization of prostitution and surrogate pregnancy. BONUS FEATURE at the end of the podcast: John Steppling’...

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Newly released information in the JFK assassination files, the normalization of scriptwriting by A.I., writers who describe E.U. governance as “communism”, Elon Musk’s grandfather’s connection to Technocracy and its resemblance to the Trump plan to establish a North American sphere of control, Errol Morris’ new docum...

This track consists of excerpts from a previous podcast episode. Edited together, these excerpts form the second lecture that attempts to sort out the confusion in contemporary discourse about fascism, communism, capitalism and liberalism. Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Shaenah Batterson, Hiroyuki Hamada and Dennis Riches.

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the ceasefire arrangement made by the US and Ukraine, driving cab in New York and Vancouver, youthful naivete, the lasting impact of toxic people, art influenced by the censorious grant application process. Music track “Match Box Blues” by Blind Lemon Jefferson (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Shaenah Batterson and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: The Trump-Zelenski feud, Freud and the working class, Russell Jacoby and psychoanalysis, Brecht, Film: A Complete Unknown—are biopics performed by actors or re-enactors? Who will save Europe from itself this time? RFK Jr.’s chances of success, in reforming Health and Human Services, Music track “The...

Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, Shaenah Batterson and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: the death of sports under capitalism with American characteristics, every athlete is a mercenary, cultural franchises vanish in corporate transactions, American citizens flee to greener pastures, pushing the message that there is no alternative, the philistinism that leads to political an...

Participants: John Steppling (writer of “Rambo III”), Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Phase 2 of the American war against Europe, documentary film “No Other Land”, Adorno on “adults acting like the adults they never became,” why our present leaders don’t even rise to the level of mediocrity (rhetorical question), celebrity activists who fall silent or fall for dubiou...