Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

Dropping the first episode in a new series from NRP's Embedded podcast:  Reporter Zach Mack thinks his dad has gone all in on conspiracy theories, while his father thinks that Zach is the one being brainwashed. In 2024, after the latest round of circular arguments, they decided to try something new, an attempt to pull each other out of the spell each of them thinks the other is under. Can one family live in two realities? To hear the who series, head to NPR's Embedded podcast. [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510311/embedded]

During the first Trump presidency I produced a radio drama with Jonathan Mitchell at The Truth Podcast about camp MAGA. In 2017 the idea of Trump locking up Americans in camps was a bit silly… that could never happen here? But in 2024, as private prison stocks soar to new heights, things like a little different.  Perhaps Marx got it wrong. Perhaps the repetitions of History are both farcical and tragic.

Earlier this year I read a book called The End of Reality [https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781541703155]  by the writer Jonathan Taplin. The book is a meditation on the outsize power and influence of four billionaires: Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, and Elon Musk. After the election I rang Jonathan up for a special post election conversation about his book and our new Oligarchy.  Also, Radiotopia is running its annual fundraiser right now, we only do this once a year. If you can donate please do! Support this show and indy podcasts.

A few years ago I put together a story about the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory with the writer and historian Martin Jay, today in 2024 the Cultural Marxism Industry is stronger than ever. An update for 2024.

Joel Whitney’s book Finks [https://orbooks.com/catalog/finks/] is a seminal book about American intellectuals and American security agencies,  mainly because it illuminates the real story behind the CIA’s involvement with the founding of a little magazine called The Paris Review  which hit the scene in the early 1950s at the height of the Cold War.  In Joel Whitney’s new book Flights [https://orbooks.com/catalog/flights/],  he continues his historical excavations -  more stories about writers intellectuals and activists who found themselves in the cross hairs of American security agencies like the CIA and the FBI.  Your host discusses both books with Joel Whitney and the discipline of secret history itself.