Culturally Determined

How Joanna became a Jeopardy! champion ... The source of Alex Trebek's popularity ... Joanna on who should replace Trebek ... Why Aryeh was happy that he failed to get on Jeopardy! ... Trivia in the age of Google ... Is Vanderpump Rules the perfect reality show? ... A reality TV show starring people who grew up watching reality TV shows ... Aryeh's theory on the secret to the success of Great Brit...

The long history of white people claiming Native American ancestry ... White academics exposed as racial fakers ... Anatole Broyard and those who "passed" ... Katrina on Dances with Wolves, Avatar, and other "going native" narratives ... Aryeh's brief Biden brag ... Drug legalization today and drug panics of the past ... Race and the opioid crisis ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...

John explains how he became a reluctant Trump voter ... How the threat of gun control pushed John towards Trump ... Is a vote against Biden a vote against woke ideology? ... Aryeh: Trump is bad for our brains and our souls ... Can Trumpism exist without Trump? ... Aryeh denies suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome ... Is the black vote in play? ... The party realignment that didn't happen ......

Does Trump deserve to be re-elected? ... Examining "Trump Derangement Syndrome" ... Glenn's verdict on Trump's handling of Covid ... Aryeh: Biden is the candidate of returning us to normalcy ... What is college for? ... Aryeh's biggest college regret ... Issuing a challenge for Trump fans ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan's essay, "How President Trump Ruined Political Comedy" ... Why so many Trump-era Daily Show–style shows have failed ... Trump the insult comic ... Dan: The way liberals and conservatives understand comedy has changed ... Stephen Colbert and Steven Crowder's different varieties of racial humor ... Trump's clownishness vs. Obama's dignity ... Remember when Trump gave a medal to a hero dog? Or wa...

Bill's new book, The Death of the Artist ... Why the "long tail" thesis was wrong ... How did the early dream of the Internet die? ... Blockbuster consolidation in fine art ... Luck and privilege ... Is art school a pyramid scheme? ... What is to be done? Bill has some thoughts ... Will the pandemic finish off the arts? ... Wokism as a moral figleaf for careerist college students ... Hosted on Aca...

Does Trump even want to be reelected? ... Debating Biden's and Trump's relative cognitive declines ... Aryeh: The material conditions will overpower campaign messaging ... Bob fears BLM is objectively helping Trump ... Aryeh's bold election prediction ... A unified theory of Bobism ... QAnon and a world without social media ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris, a scholar of performance studies, defines performance art ... The two most important performance artists in America: Marina Abramović... ... ...and Donald Trump ... When Trump makes a show of "acting presidential" ... Pro wrestling, reality TV, and President Trump—which are real? ... Effective political performance by the Parkland students ... Trump's performance of victimhood ... Chris rev...

Laura's history with online dating ... How men and women use dating apps differently ... Laura and Aryeh's dating profile red flags ... Swiping strategies ... Modern dating as a "game of who can care less" ... First date dilemmas ... Dating during Covid ... Laura's advice for people new to app dating ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katrina on the historical origins of public statues ... Why 1880–1930 was the golden age of American statuary ... Why do we care so much about statues? ... If a statue is pulled down, where should it go? ... The strange saga of Rochester, NY's Frederick Douglass statue(s) ... Katrina on the false dichotomy between "tourists" and "travellers" ... The crucial role world travel plays on dating apps ....

Hamilton arrives on the small screen ... Interpreting the very last moment of the play ... Isaac connects Hamilton and Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 ... Prince Hal's unsympathetic ambition ... The two parts of Henry IV and the two acts of Hamilton ... A brilliant Muppets parody of Hamilton ... Hamilton in Trump's America ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leigh's new novel, Self Care ... Are social justice warriors sincere or cynical? ... On being a white author writing a black character in 2020 ... Why are all these white women apologizing on Instagram? ... The trials and tribulations of being a moderator ... Aryeh: Many of today's controversies come down to forum moderation ... Leigh: There's no restorative justice in cancel culture ... Would eli...

Bari Weiss's very public resignation from the New York Times ... Is the NYT a toxic workplace? ... Why Katie signed the Harper's open letter ... Aryeh: The vagueness of the letter fueled the backlash ... Do we have a cancel culture problem or a Twitter culture problem? ... Katie critiques the counterletter ... The recent failed attempt to cancel Aryeh ... Do online subcultures trend toward toxicit...

Abby's research on "death anxiety" ... Demoralization, purpose, and meaning ... Death anxiety and the quality of life of health care providers ... Abby's experience contracting the coronavirus ... Is religious belief a cure for death anxiety? ... Is life without death worth living? ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Looking for the truth between "Blue Lives Matter" and "ACAB" ... The rarely noted decline in police shootings ... What are the cops thinking? ... Peter: The police will never be fully demilitarized ... Aryeh: The underlying issue is widespread gun possession ... The Buffalo protester and cops who are bad at PR ... Peter: The actions of George Floyd's killer are baffling ... Peter argues that polic...

Bill de Blasio's rise to power as NYC's great progressive hope ... The very strange story of de Blasio and the Park Slope YMCA gym ... The moment that changed everything between de Blasio and the cops ... De Blasio's bungled reaction to the virus ... Bernie's loss and the socialist left's debate over "electoralism" ... Why did the protests go national so quickly? ... Dave: De Blasio is scared of t...

Chris's cancelled tour of "back row" places in America ... Chris on class and the pandemic: "Everything screws the poor" ... The geographic spread of the disease ... Chris draws parallels between Trump and Hugo Chavez ... Aryeh: Boring grandpa Joe will beat crazy grandpa Donald ... How Trump co-opted the GOP establishment ... The Republican senator who loves Chris's book ... Can a right populism s...

Why did Bernie lose to Biden? ... When "common sense" is an ideology ... Daniel sees Bernie as the Barry Goldwater of democratic socialism ... Would a Biden administration do anything for people under 40? ... Aryeh charts his ideological path since 2008 ... Daniel: Republicans are better at politics because they understand what politics is ... The Spanish Flu in historical context ... Hosted on Ac...

Assessing the initial economic response to the pandemic ... What the Federal Reserve's $1.5 trillion injection actually did ... Stimulus checks and other direct assistance ... How a rent strike could lead to a banking crisis ... Should we fear inflation? ... Is a pivot to austerity inevitable? ... The Defense Production Act and the prospect of a wartime economy ... After the threat passes, what wi...

Jesse's new article, "The Rise of PTSD" ... How society viewed traumatized veterans of WWII vs. Vietnam ... Effective treatments for PTSD ... The danger of trauma becoming an identity ... From 9/11 to coronavirus, we live in traumatic times ... Speech policing and social climbing in the name of trauma ... Jesse's forthcoming book, The Quick Fix ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i...

Default Friend's critique of dating apps ... Bumble's false aura of female empowerment ... An infinite number of alternative romantic partners/Netflix shows ... App dating vs. IRL dating ... The phony promise of the "best" mate for you ... Girlbossism, gender differences, and sexual shame ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel's new book, Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today ... Rachel on writing very frankly about her personal life ... The origin and definition of "too much" ... Is the book a defense of too muchness? ... Should women be treated more like men? Men more like women? Neither? ... Embracing your emotions vs. detaching yourself from them ... Trump as the epitome of "too much" ......

Why it took eight years for Kirby to finish This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory ... Kirby: "Conspiracies are logistically impossible" ... Bernie fans get conspiratorial after the botched Iowa caucuses ... Donald Trump, the Conspiracist-in-Chief ... QAnon and conspiracism as lifestyle ... Will Epstein's death be the JFK assassination of our era? ... What should you do if a loved one is falling into con...

When Tim Allen proposed an ideology he called "masculinism" ... The 1950s sitcom as America's mythic Eden ... How Christian churches are grappling with Jordan Peterson ... Bill: There is always anxiety that churches are too feminized ... "Storming Area 51" and the idea that aliens will be our friends ... The strange fight over cultural appropriation and the word "y'all" ... What happened to entert...

James's new book on Trump and television, Audience of One ... When TV was about the "least objectionable programming" ... The 1980s, when cable fractured TV and Trump started to rise ... Trump's postmodern transformation into a signifier of wealth ... How David Letterman and Trump used each other ... Aryeh recalls his days watching The Apprentice ... James: The Trump campaign was "like a plane tha...