Paul got in a Twitter fight about his relationship to the Kochs. In response, the Impolitic boys do a thorough postmortem on the spat, exploring everything from funding’s role in shaping knowledge to the effect of social media on political discourse. At the episode’s end, they talk about Ben Shapiro’s misadventures with mood affiliation.
This week, after a short discussion of the Mueller Report, Paul and Sean do a little more arguing than usual as they debate the Green New Deal’s vision of a carbon neutral future. It’s a must listen if you love either salt mines, ducks, or cement. (As you can tell, Impolitic specializes in giving the people what they want, as long as what they want involves heavy industry or quacking.)
This week, Paul and Sean discuss what the conversations surrounding “alt-ac” jobs get wrong and what graduate programs in the humanities can do to help alumni navigate life after tweed. Then, in a follow up to their two-parter on Karl Marx anime The Leader, they take a deep dive into the comic strip version of Friedrich Hayek’s libertarian classic, The Road to Serfdom.
Paul declares his affection for Beto O’Rourke and becomes the object of Sean’s ribbing. Then Paul argues that Andrew Yang is, surprisingly, the most significant candidate in the 2020 race. Finally the guys discuss the rest of the Chinese propaganda anime “The Leader” about the life of Karl Marx. (We can only imagine that the title of the inevitable Hollywood remake will be “Jenny’s Deathbed.”)
Impolitic gives the people want they want, which in this case meant watching the first episodes of The Leader, a Chinese Communist Party produced anime about the life of young Karl Marx, his love of Jenny Westphalen, and turgid philosophical one liners. Then Sean and Paul discuss Simon van Zuylen-Wood’s article (29:45) about socialist hipsters in fair Brooklyn before Paul describes (58:30) his idealized health insurance system in the magical land of Libertopia. Finally, the guys wish (1:32:05) Bill Weld well in his Presidential aspirations.
In this week’s episode, Paul and Sean discuss the national emergency that wasn’t; America’s dawning realization that Donald Trump is a feckless and impotent leader; Bernie Sanders’s prospect for winning the White House (and more importantly, winning his policy goals); “Davos Dude” Rutger Bregman; and the role of money in politics.
Musical Credits: Kool & the Gang, “Emergency”; DJ Steve Porter, “Bern It Up (Remix)”; Junior Parker, “Taxman.”
It’s another grab bag episode! This week, Paul and Sean discuss everything from the shortcomings of the 1980s and Donald Trump’s movie tastes to Paul’s penchant for chatting up rideshare drivers and Sean’s successful prediction about the outcome of the government shutdown. By episode’s end, however, they turn their focus to the dangers of a US intervention in Venezuela and the importance of seeing Venezuela as a real country with a real history rather than a mere litmus test for leftist policy.
