You know what it is.
Covid is back on the rise. Everyone is depressed. The boys breakdown the latest Delta Variant wave of the coronavirus pandemic and the time-is-a-flat-circle nature of American history. Then to try to lighten the mood, we talk about the movie Osmosis Jones (2001). From the guys that made There's Something About Mary (1998) comes the niche biological buddy cop comedy about a plucky white blood cell detective and his cold pill partner Drix going toe to toe with a deadly pathogen inside Bill Murray. What is it trying to tell us about society? Listen and find out!
The boys are back and they are (yet again) talkin' dialectics! Joined by the nicest guy in Pittsburgh, Roman from The No Judgement Zone podcast, we take a deep dive into the shifts in American popular music post- 9/11. From the decline of popular counter-culture in rock, to the uber-patriotism of country, to the evil machinations of the record industry to hyper-exploit hip-hop; the superstructure adjusted in the chaos to fix the problems of the Vietnam era and return to an era of censorship, reaction, and jingoism. What did this mean for radio? What did it mean for music? What does it mean for us now? Find out on this episode!
"The boys are back in the saddle and talking Joe Biden. Brian breaks down the central theme to the new administration, a return to American global hegemony and a revamping of US imperialism. 4 years of Donny Deals has damaged American's standing as the big boss of the world and Biden, his handlers in capital and the CIA, are looking to take back the top spot. From Palestine to Peru, Syria to Haiti...we take a look around the world to see where the different theaters of the US efforts to control the planet--as well as why it might not work this time around. It's an episode against the Empire so get on it!"
The boys are back and eating from the trashcan of ideology again. This time doing a very timely and relevant cultural analysis of the Lord of the Rings. We are joined by Lucas from Fake Ritual Podcast to talk about the differences between the movie/book and how both were products of the time they were released--at the end of WWII and the beginning of the War on Terror respectively. We talk Tolkien and his wacky British affinity for both anarcho-primitive tendencies AND the Queen Mother. We try to figure out what the fuck the Hobbits represented and why they didn't just use the One Ring to establish a global Hobbit empire over Middle Earth. And we answer the most important question of all: is Frodo canceled? So cozy up and join us on the long walk to Mordor.
This is a serious episode about how to own the bad things we do as people and heal. The pod took a hiatus to think about how to address an anonymous email, from someone pretending to be a person from Chu's early childhood, containing allegations (both true and untrue) of sexual assault. As true believers in transformative justice and what that does and does not look like-- we decided to talk together in community and record an interview with Chu as an accountability process in order for him to take responsibility for mistakes made, as well as establish a dialectical understanding of these mistakes as part of a larger cycle of abuse and trauma that stretches throughout his life. In an attempt to keep the conversation honest, we enlisted the help of Nicole Castro, an activist, member of the organization RADTalk and an expert in relational analysis, communication theory and social justice, to guide us through the process. It's a heavy one, so TW/CW and Don't Do Bad Stuff.
The pod is back! Chu & Brian return for 2021 with a brand new episode talking about...coup's. Again. Was the fascist insurrection on 1/6 a coup? Was it an attempted coup? What the fuck is a coup? Who was there? Was it a legitimate threat to "democracy" or just a massive LARP for MAGA and QAnon? What does it mean for the MAGAs? What does it mean for the Left? What is the Biden regime going to do? And where do we go from here? We will try to answer these questions and drop a little knowledge on the concept of "Unity of Thought" and Organization with a little help (sic: a lot of help) from Kwame Ture.
"In their last episode of 2020, the boys quickly run through the state of the world in "lockdown" 2 before giving their loyal dozens of fans a very special Christmas present: a movie night! Breaking down the class analysis of the 1996 Christmas movie "Jingle All The Way" and it's accidental (or intentional?) anti-capitalist subtext. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Phil Hartman, Sinbad and young Anakin Skywalker, the film pokes fun at the very 90s cultural phenomena of Christmas commodity fetishism as multiple Dads battle their way across Minneapolis in a last minute bid to find the hottest holiday toy: Turbo Man. It's got class antagonisms, cucking, cops, Santa Mafia and a classic performance by Sinbad--and Chu & Brian are gonna read too much into all of them!"
The boys bring you up to date on the state of the shitshow: from the Trump coup that never was, to Biden's latest cabinet ghouls and some familiar warnings about the pending eviction crisis, economic depression and the very dark winter of the coronavirus pandemic ahead for the US. Then we examine the short film "Oh Dearism" by British documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis about how the ways the 24 hr news phenomena and reporting the news without political context makes us feel trapped in a cycle of violence we are powerless to stop-- and how participating in mutual aid can be used as a way to escape that feeling.
"The Election is over....or is it? (jk it is). Chu & Brian sit down with friend of the pod, DSA member and retired baker MJ Doe to talk about the new day in American now that Joseph Robinette Biden is the President-elect. We talk about the things that might change, the things that won't change and the things that could get worse. We talk Donny Deal's and his Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad fake Coup and why it's probably just his last big grift. We talk about the corporate suburban defense industry hellscape of Northern Virginia. And of course, we talk about socialism, what it means to us and why we still need to organize for it under Sleepy Joe. Also, leftist infighting!
We did it. We made an election episode and we are fully prepared to get dragged for it (at least Brian is). The Good Boys take you through the season recap of 2020 before we all watch penultimate episode of this season: the 2020 Presidential Election. We break down the minor differences between these two senile old racists and how we got here. We talk about the importance and limitations of bourgeois elections, the fallacies of pinning all of our problems on Trump and the realities of "pushing Biden to the Left" And of course, the importance of organizing work no matter what the result. Tune in, Get Mad & Don't Stop Believin'
"Sick of learning theory? Sick of books? Sick of Brian!? You're in luck because CHU's had enough and he's taking over! Bringing his Chu & A format to the pod to save it from itself, on this episode the boys keep it casual and answer a few questions about life, love, stress and socialism. Also some buddhist stuff. Enjoy, class starts again in 2-4 weeks."
"Jerome and Brian catch you up on all the famous old, sick & dead people from the last two weeks. Then the boys smoke FOUR joints and talk about the philosophy of knowledge and the theory of dialectics. Where does knowledge come from? How do we know what we know? How do we use what we know to change society? Can society even be changed? What's the point of any of this??? It goes about as well as you think."
"Jerome & Brian have a nice casual sit down with fellow loveable Lefty artist, organizer and hyperactive unsupervised child: Max Gonzales (aka @goodboygems). We talk about his life in Chicago and how he got to Pittsburgh, Mexican-Italian cultural relations and what it means to be a "socialist" both in the micro and the macro sence before getting a debate about the phenomena of Leftist infighting--why it occurs and why it never seems to stop. Laughs are had, shade is thrown, questionable jokes are told, pretty sure there was coffee...Tune in for the whole episode to find out if Jerome is still mad at Max!"
The boys talk about the direction of local actions and the recent violent escalations in the conflict between Right and Left factions protesting in the streets of Kenosha Wisconsin and Portland. Taking out their detective hats & using the theory of cultural hegemony, the boys then examine the Reactionary and Right Wing cultural perceptions of violence in the United States and it's latent presence within mainstream sectors of capitalist society--everything from Batman, to disaster movies and internet pino.
"Brian and Jerome update you on the lying lies and dirty deeds of the mayor of Pittsburgh, Bill Peduto. Followed by an intimate fireside chat with the boys about their relationship with their fathers with a SHOCKING twist ending that connects all the dots.
In this episode Jerome & Brian talk to poet Dani Janae about the role poetry in social movements, sex work, prison abolition and the difference between punitive and rehabilitative justice. The boys then do a semi-deep dive on the history of LGBTQ rights in Cuba and compare the differences between how a socialist country and a capitalist one acknowledge and correct their mistakes.
It's the pilot! Obviously ignore the audio quality, we will figure that out, as well as the format. In this episode we discuss COVID-19, what is socialism and what does it look like, protests both nationwide and local and more. ********* Corrections: 1)Cuba only has 9 doctors per 1,000 people. (Sources available) 2)The union in Oakland that shut down the ports on Juneteenth in solidarity with BLM was the ILWU, under the leadership of the unions first Black president Keith Shanklin.
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