Literally Everything

We complete our discussion of iconoclasm, monuments, and statues. How do symbolic and material inequalities interact in the public sphere? What is the relationship between statues of racist Americans and structural racism in America today? Ethan schools Max on structuralism in order to make it all make sense. This wraps up a yearlong journey for this particular topic — we are excited for you to hear this conversation, which has overcome many technical obstacles to reach your ears!Send us your thoughts at literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com

Ethan and Max literally make a podcast about people literally storming the US Capitol Building instead of going to therapy.The triumphant return of Literally Everything is overshadowed by troubling events in Washington D.C. Continuing a debate we have had in private over the past four interminable years, we discuss how the "events" of January 6th put the alarming dynamics of the Trump movement in sharp relief. But what should we call these events, and how alarmed should we be? What is at stake, indeed, in debating terminology? "Coup," "Putsch," "White Supremacist Terror," and yes, even the F-word (you know which one we mean) make appearances. Listen up, and send us your thoughts at literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com.IG: @literally_everything_podcastTwitter: @lit_every_pod

Literally Everything is back with a two-part discussion of iconoclasm: the destruction of statues. The topic is in the news today, with monuments around the country and indeed the globe coming down, either toppled by protestors or removed quietly by local governments. But this phenomenon has deep roots in our history, which is what we discuss in part 1. We look at Jewish and Christian attitudes towards icons, the relationship between images and texts, and try to excavate the mysterious significance that public monuments hold, both for iconoclastic revolutionaries and the defenders of "preserving history."Music by George Floyd

Ethan and Max discuss the CoVid-19 crisis "as an epistemological event." Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with knowledge — what do we know to be true? What criteria do we use to decide what is a fact? How do we organize our knowledge? We all have intuitive answers to these questions, but they have been put under tremendous pressure by the amount of often conflicting yet critically important information we are receiving about the pandemic. Our conversation touches on everything from telephoto lenses, to data visualization, Westworld, and the question of free will. And, of course, the Scientific Revolution. Send any comments to literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com.

Max and Ethan discuss the history of apocalyptic thought, from its roots in post-exilic Hebrew literature, to its central place in early Christian thought, and finally its secularized modern form. To what extent is our understanding of contemporary crises shaped by religious ideas from thousands of years ago. We use climate change as an example, because we recorded this in February! Not a single mention of COVID 19 in the entire episode. Oops! Send any feedback to literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com

It's a supersized episode this week! First, Max and Ethan debrief after watching their hometown teams go head-to-head in the Big Game, the Literally Everything Bowl. Ethan's Chiefs won, but it's okay because Max is already over it — so over it, in fact, that he doesn't even bring up how problematic the Tomahawk Chop is. Then, we have a long conversation about antisemitism: is there any way to synthesize everything from right-wing message boards, to street-level altercations in Brooklyn, to criticism of Israel? Maybe! Is the answer the typical centrist pablum that "both sides are bad?" Probably not! Join us on this journey, draw your own conclusions, and send any screeds to literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com.

We're back! Max and Ethan discuss criticism of the literary canon. Is it worth it to read great books? Should we expand the canon to include authors who are not white men? Unsurprisingly, we think that the answer to both questions is yes. But there's much more to it than that! Give it a listen, and make sure to send any feedback to literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com.

A deep dive on circumcision! We talk about the various contexts that intersect on this highly sensitive issue — much more sensitive than other issues, to hear some people talk about it. From public health to religious freedom, we cover, or uncover (depending on your preference) it all. Most of all, we try to understand: why is it that European liberals, crunchy antivax-types, and online alt-rightists all agree that male circumcision is such a serious problem?  Karin Neutel's article on the subject is discussed at length: https://tif.ssrc.org/2018/04/23/not-in-the-body/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lit_every_pod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/literally_everything_podcast/  

At long last, the fabled second segment from our most recent episode! We discuss Mohammad Hassan Khalil's excellent book, Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism. Khalil persuasively argues that the New Atheists — a group of "rationalist" critics of religion who hold that Islam commands its adherents to kill unbelievers — uncritically adopt the radical, aberrant understanding of key concepts like jihad and martyrdom put forth by figures like Osama Bin Laden. We talk about the book and then broaden the discussion: why is it that Western societies insist that a religion must be a list of beliefs backed by decontextualized scriptural citations? How might we complicate the secular understanding of religion? All that and more on this week's LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Israel is holding an election and we go deep on its implications for the future of the country itself, the occupation, and American Jews' relationship with Zionism. What is Netanyahu's position within the Israeli right? What abou the Israeli left — remember them? And what are American Jews supposed to think about it all? We go long on this topic, so we will be releasing the second segment of the episode (teased in the introduction) separately. Don't forget to send any feedback, questions, or angry diatribes to literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com.  Also, there were some unexpected glitches in the version we first uploaded: some of our audio tracks fell out of the time/space continuum. The episode has been modified to minimize the disruption: for better or worse, it now ends with Ethan giving a kind of soliloquoy. Buckle up! 

Lately it seems like our world is headed back to the Middle Ages, with its brutal violence, strict hierarchies, and absolute monarchs. Worse yet, some people on the alt-Right think this is a good thing! We discuss how scholars of the Medieval period grapple with the use (and abuse) of their field of study, and whether identity politics can help sort any of this out.  In the second segment, we discuss Curtis Yavin, aka Mencius Moldbug, "philosopher" of neoreaction and the alt-right. Max presents his book Patchwork, which harkens back to Medieval systems of power while remaining thoroughly techno-dystopian in its outlook. Once again, we ponder far-right affinities with the Middle Ages and think about the best ways to respond to them. Programming notes: please email any questions or comments to literallyeverythingpod@gmail.com. And be sure to follow us on Twitter (@lit_every_pod) and Instagram (@literally_everything_podcast). Finally, in response to listener feedback, we want to mention that you don't have to listen to the episodes in order. Jump in wherever you like!

This week, Max calls in from Italy, where he is traveling with his European in-laws. We regale you with tales of the original summer vacation, the so-called "Grand Tour" taken by young British artistocrats to sample the beautiful scenery and classical sites of the Continent. Ethan discusses how the young, rich, and sexy authors behind English Romanticism (Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, et al.) made spending summers in Rome into a thing. Later, Max discusses the recent book "Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power" by Byung-Chul Han, which argues that the economic arrangements of our time completely separate our present moment from all of history.

We begin with a discussion about whether hotdogs are sandwiches — and how the debate illustrates the difference between realism and nominalism, the two rival movements within medieval philosophy. Then, we talk about a recent article on race relations in Hawaii, indigeneity, and settler colonialism. A technical note: due to editing difficulties, the first segment has a slight echo. We figure it's okay, because we're talking about medieval stuff, and it sounds like we're in a Romanesque cathedral.

We discuss the ongoing controversy about a mural in San Francisco's Washington High School. Does the mental health of students outweigh the artistic merit and pedagogical value of the mural, which is critical of America's history? More importantly, what kinds of assumptions and vocabularies are operative in this debate? We try to develop a more critical approach to the topic with assistance from Talal Asad and Saba Mahmood's essays on the Danish Cartoon Controversy, published in the 2009 volume "Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech."

It's the first episode of Literally Everything! Ethan and Max host a podcast about politics, culture, history and literature — all the ideas that shape the world around us. In this episode, we discuss Trump's attitude toward Iran and North Korea within the framework of "Orientalism," adopting a comparative approach to the ways in which Western attitudes are formed. Then we critique the omnipresent metaphor of the "political spectrum," and talk about how political ideas exist in history, rather than from "right to left" in abstract geometric space.