Give Them An Argument

Larry Sharpe was the Libertarian Party's candidate for Governor of New York in 2018. He joins GTAA this week to argue with Ben about libertarianism and democratic socialism. (Also, Ben, Cale and Andy talk about Critical Race Theory and banning private beaches.) Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: www.patreon.com/b...

Current Affairs founder Nathan J. Robinson and historian Djene Bajalan join Ben to take apart the many terrible arguments made by Ben Shapiro--an individual The New York Times once chose to call "the cool kid's philosopher." Nathan's recent article on Shapiro can be found here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/0... Independent creators rely on your support to create the cont...

Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage joins Ben to talk about the many inane things said in the most cursed possible context--an interview of James Carville by Chris Cuomo. Luke's original article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/james-carville-centrist-politics-television To access the whole episode, become a GTAA patron by going to patreon.com/benburgis. As well as the weekly Thursday bonus episo...

Ben answers some Q&A questions and reads an unpublished fragment by Michael Brooks. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want!  Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis. Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike...

Michael Brooks died a year ago on Tuesday. After an interview with Richard Wolff on his most recent book and how he thinks we can move beyond capitalism, the rest of the episode is  devoted to a Michael tribute. Joshua Kahn Russell joined for the postgame for patrons Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patr...

NYMag's Eric Levitz makes an argument about how the left talks about crime. It's good stuff. To access the whole thing, become a GTAA patron by going to patreon.com/benburgis. As well as the weekly Thursday bonus episodes, patrons get access to the Discord server, patron-exclusive postgames on Monday nights, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and W...

Jacobin Magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara (@sunrayray) and Age of Napoleon host E.M. Rummage (@Trillburne) join Ben for a special Bastille Day bonus episode on the French Revolution and its enduring significance for emancipatory politics. Subscribe to Jacobin today for a special Bastille Day discount: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe?code=BASTILLEDAY Independent creators rely on your support to cre...

Ben talks to the crew about Cuba. Pascal Robert talks about Haiti. Ben's Cuba article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/us-emb... Pascal Robert is the co-host of the This is Revolution podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9W... Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis​​​​​​ . Patr...

Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic joins Ben to discuss the life of anti-war former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel. To access the full episode become a GTAA patron at patreon.com/benburgis. Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Disc...

Left-wing history and foreign policy gurus Djene Bajalan and Kuba Wriesniewski join Ben to weigh in on all the recent discourse about Stalin (and to talk about FDR a bit while they're at it). Ben explains why he's been gone. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a...

Ben had to be gone tonight due to a family situation. Cale Brooks & Harvey J. Kaye kindly stepped in with a History Q&A.

It has somewhat recently come to light that the NFL created a different scoring scale for Black players versus players of other races when it came to deciding how affected a player was by traumatic brain injuries occurring during their time on in the NFL. If a player was Black, they needed to demonstrate a higher level of impaired cognitive function than players of other races. Strangely, this has...

Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks and Jacobin's Weekends show, Jason Myles of the This Is Revolution podcast, and some members of Buffalo DSA join Ben to talk about everything that's going on this week--from India Walton's stunning victory in Buffalo to why police privatization is a uniquely horrifying idea. There's also a preview of the bonus episode with Roberto Aspholm (dropp...

Ben  is joined by Rick Perlstein, author of “Reaganland,” and they discuss a group of weird right-wing economists that developed theories around supply-side economics in the mid-‘70s.   The Laffer Curve, the two Santa Claus theory, and other supply-side theories unfortunately were stupid and did not work. That was the downside. Luckily, Jimmy Carter won the presidency, cancelled a bunch of Single...

Marco Rubio once again reveals that "right-wing economic populism" is a sick joke. There's a preview of the interview with Rick Perlstein for GTAA patrons. Daniel Elder is canceled and moves to the right. Luke Savage comes on the show to chat about Barbara Lee's prescient anti-war stance after 9/11 and Victor Bruzzone tries to convince Ben that sortition is better than electora...

Kurt Hackbarth talks to Ben about the reforms that Mexico's governing left party MORENA has implemented in the last three years. (In the rest of the episode, they get into drawbacks, limitations, and looming problems.) To get the full episode and every other Thursday patron episode, as well as the Monday postgames, support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis ....

Slavoj Žižek shouts out Ben's new book in his article "The Difference Between 'Woke' and a True Awakening" (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/526235-zizek-woke-cancel-culture-awakening/). Anti-Palestinian ghouls attack Ilhan Omar. Ben, Producer Forrest and GTAA YouTube Manager Kelly Carey discuss this and more and play a preview of the patron bonus episode with Kurt Hackbarth on AM...

Ekin Erkan joins Ben to read through and talk about Herbert Marcuse's correspondence with Martin Heidegger about Heidegger's role in the Third Reich. Find Ekin Online: https://twitter.com/ekinerkan4 Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thurs...

Philosophy professor Jamie Lombardi joins Ben to talk about "heartbeat bills" and other current threats to abortion rights, and to revisit the arguments in classic papers on the subject by Don Marquis ("Why Abortion is Immoral"), Judith Jarvis Thomson ("A Defense of Abortion"), and Margaret Olivia Little ("Abortion, Intimacy, and the Duty to Gestate"). Jamie...

Jacobin staff writer Alex Press joins Ben to chat about Chipotle--a company where management "ignores the rats and punishes the workers." Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus E...

Ben Udashen makes his first appearance on GTAA for a two-Ben debunk of (we swear this is a real, non-made up thing) Mike Huckabee's "The Kids Guide to Fighting Socialism." Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis​​​​​​ . Patrons get a Thursday bonus episode every week, access...

Ben and Forrest were both traveling this week, hence no new regular GTAA episode on Monday or patron ep on Thursday, but here's Ben's complete appearance on MR to talk about his new book and how the left should think about cancel culture. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis ....

Chess teacher Nick Manley joins Ben to talk about the history of chess in the Soviet Union. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wos...

After a Palestine update with the Electronic Intifada's Nora Barrows-Friedman, act.tv host, comedian, and philosophy professor Julianna Forlano joins Ben to talk about philosophy, comedy, and the state of the left. Ben also talks about a big personal decision. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreo...

For this week's patron bonus episode: Ben talked to Fredrik deBoer, author of "The Cult of Smart," about a bunch of his Substack essays. Two of these essays are "a bad partner is worse than rain" about Israel and Palestine and "Perhaps We Cannot Do Both" which talks about the George Floyd and BLM protests and Meghan Markle and the difference between symbolic figh...