Give Them An Argument

Special guests RM Brown, Naomi Karavani & Michele Greenstein join Ben Burgis to talk about Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Before that, Ben, RM, and the crew discuss Cornel West's response to Ben's article. In the postgame for patrons, the gang breaks down a "Democrat for DeSantis" article. Listen to Naomi and Michele's new podcast "Cargo Cult": https://podcasts.a...

Playwright and "Succession" staff writer Will Arbery joins the show for the first time to talk about his award-winning play "Heroes of the Fourth Turning"--an intense story about young conservatives set a week after the Charlottesville riots--which came out a few months ago in book form. Before that, Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew take on the absurdly empty pseudo-populist candid...

A few months ago, Give Them An Argument, Left Reckoning and This is Revolution did a joint "Give Them a Revolution" live show in New York ft. special guests Bhaskar Sunkara, Emma Vigeland, and Sam Seder. We're finally making the complete recording public. Jason Myles and Deep State Kuba from TiR, David Griscom and Matt Lech from LR, and Ben Burgis and (off to the side drawing pictur...

A lot of people who don't love capitalism might still worry about the way revolutions can go very, very wrong. In the crumbling Russian Empire a little over a hundred years ago, the Bolsheviks came to power on a platform "land, peace and bread" and "all power to" democratically elected workers councils...and ended up with an authoritarian and often economically dysfunction...

In the first half of the main show, Political Science prof and Jacobin contributor Matt McManus joins Ben Burgis to discuss his new article about another, much more unpleasant Matt--Matt Walsh. In the second half, we replay Ben's dialogue at a Boston Review event last week with socialist philosopher Christine Sypnowich about equality of opportunity vs. equal flourishing. Last but not least, Z...

Left-wing academic philosopher, Jacobin contributor, and "What's Left of Philosophy?" co-host Lillian Cicerchia comes back on the show to talk to Ben Burgis about Karl Marx's book "The Poverty of Philosophy" and, more broadly, different ways of construing materialism vs. idealism debates and the sometimes vexed relationship between moral critiques of capitalism and Ma...

Naomi Karavani, RM Brown, and Branko Marcetic join Ben Burgis to say goodbye to Tucker Carlson's show on Fox. You can read Ben's article "Tucker Carlson Is a Repugnant, Pseudo-Populist Fraud" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/04/tucker-carlson-populism-ruling-class-minimum-wage-medicare-for-all-war/ ...and Branko's article "Tucker Carlson Isn’t an Anti-Imperialist — He’s...

Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza has, as it turns out, made a LOT of videos covering philosophical topics like John Rawls's veil of ignorance and abortion rights, Hume's argument against belief in miracles (D'Souza isn't convinced), and.....something or other about how Nietzsche helps us understand why tech companies censor conservatives? Or something? Anyway, we&ap...

The main event is fan-favorite recurring guest Matt McManus doing a deep dive on the philosophy and politics of Martin Heidegger. Before that, Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew talk about Ben's pilgrimage to New Jersey to walk the picket line in the Rutgers strike (just before that strike ended with massive concessions by management) and watch some footage from a recently-released debate he did wi...

Norman Finkelstein makes his debut appearance on GTAA to talk about his book "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom." Norm is a lifelong, deeply committed leftist who's faced real consequences in his own career for his advocacy on behalf of the Palestinians, so when he says the Left is f*cking up, p...

Ben Burgis is back for an action-packed GTAA episode. The main guest is Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage, who recently wrote an essay called "How the Right Gets George Orwell Wrong": https://jacobin.com/2023/03/orwell-hayek-nineteen-eighty-four-totalitarianism-capitalism-socialism Before that, we get into Ben's written debate Peter Hitchens on the subject of Hitler, talk abut why Ch...

Ben is off this week while traveling, so Super-Producer Jake takes the reins for an episode on labor organizing! He welcomes famed Jacobin labor reporter Alex Press as well as rank and file organizer José Sanchez to discuss some of the biggest current organizing drives in America. Of particular relevance -- José is currently organizing with fellow grad students at Duke to form a union. Before that...

Ben Burgis is finally back after having to take the last couple weeks off! The main event is Justin Clark joining us to talk about the delightfully strange world of the Church of Scientology on the main show. Before that, we talk about Bernie's appearance on Bill Maher, debunk a hit piece, and do some other fun stuff, and in the postgame for patrons our "Give Them a Revolution live show...

Guest host David Griscom and the GTAA crew talk about policing, the right’s lies, and public safety. And then Kurt Hackbarth (@kurthackbarth) joins Dave to talk about how AMLO isn’t threatening democracy--he’s expanding it. Read Kurt's article in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2023/03/amlo-mexico-democracy-national-electoral-institute-reform-law-new-york-times Follow Kurt on Twitter: @KurtHackb...

Two weeks ago, Ben Burgis debated Jon Miltimore of the libertarian Foundation for Economic Education at Texas Tech's law school in Lubbock. In this episode, we unlock the full debate (which is about an hour long). Two of our favorite guests, Ana Kasparian and RM Brown, are brought together for the first time (on GTAA anyway) to talk about it. In the postgame for patrons, Ben, Ana and RM discu...

You know those animations we're always playing of American conservatives as characters in Lovecraftian nightmares? The creator of those, Aamon Hawk, joins us on this episode! We watch his latest ("Yedolf") and a few older videos and chat with him about what he does. In the second half of the show, Jacobin's Nick French talks about his recent article, "How Analytic Philosop...

Philosopher, psychologist, and commentator Slavoj Žižek comes back to the show to talk with Ben Burgis about....well....everything. The conversation hits on everything from the relationship between Hegelianism and Marxism to political correctness to Ukraine to how to think about what comes after capitalism. Before we play the interview--and in the postgame for patrons w/Russell Sbriglia--we touch...

Ben was on a plane back to the West Coast when this aired, but Andy and Cale held down the fort, recapping the big NYC live show and then playing an interview Ben recorded with socialist philosopher and GTAA fan-favorite Lillian Cicerchia about her Jacobin article "socialists Need to Talk About Justice." You can read the article here: https://jacobin.com/2022/12/capitalism-socialism-libe...

For the last regular Monday night show before Sunday's live show in Nee York, we're joined by a power panel of Sam Seder (of the Majority Report), Jason Myles (of This is Revolution), and RM Brown (who's on YouTube). Before that, Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew talk about recent developments in Brazil and the antics of the American Right. Last but definitely not least, Jordan Dubin and...

This ones packed full of podcasty goodness. Professors Adnan Husain & Harvey J. Kaye, both returning  GTAA champions, return for a discussion of Marx's theory of history. Before that, Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew talk about Tim Pool's latest attacks on socialism. At the end of the show, they go over some clips from the debate Ben hosted on his Callin show between Glenn Greenwald and...

We're started the New Year and the new season of GTAA with two of our favorite returning guests, Krystal Ball and RM "Arun" Brown. We discuss Andrew Tate, SBF/Crypto, Trump/DeSantis and many of the other very normal things that happened in the very normal year of 2022. RM sticks around to talk Steven Crowder & Tim Pool in the postgame for GTAA patrons. Subscribe to Ben's ne...

This is Revolution's "Deep State" Kuba Wrzesniewski talks Rod Dreher, NatCons, "post-liberalism" and related subjects and then political theorist Matt McManus joins us for a discussion of liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill's relationship to socialist thought. Last but definitely not least, Rayvanna from TYT hangs out in the postgame for patrons for some good old-fas...

Ben Burgis and Professor Adnan Husain break down G.A. Cohen's essay "Historical Inevitability and Revolutionary Agency." Before that, Ben and RM Brown take a look at the right-wing freakout over the Respect for Marriage Act, which has included Ben Shapiro telling Matt Walsh that even "visitors from Mars" would oppose gay marriage. Last but most definitely not least, Matt M...

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew review the highlights of Ben's debate with Curtis Yarvin, then historian and friend of show Harvey J. Kaye returns to talk about his first book, which was just reissued by Zero Books--the British Marxist Historians. Harvey and prodigal GTAA producer Cale Brooks hang out in the postgame for patrons.   Order the book: https://redemmas.org/titles/37171-the-british-ma...

Journalists Ross Barkan and Ryan Zickgraf join Ben Burgis to talk about the midterm elections. We share a taste of the live show GTAA just did with Left Reckoning and This is Revolution in LA. "Comrade Anders" Lee hangs out in the postgame for GTAA patrons. A very good time is had by all. Follow Ross on Twitter: @RossBarkan Follow Ryan on Twitter: @RyanSmithWriter Follow Ben on Twitter:...