Podcasts about bessner

It's a small world. The great David Rieff came to my San Francisco studio today for in person interview about his new anti-woke polemic Desire and Fate. And half way through our conversation, he brought up Daniel Bessner's This Is America piece which Bessner discussed on yesterday's show. I'm not sure what that tells us about wokeness, a subject which Rieff and I aren't in agreement. For him, it's the thing-in-itself which make sense of our current cultural malaise. Thus Desire and Fate, his attempt (with a great intro from John Banville) to wake us up from Wokeness. For me, it's a distraction. I've included the full transcript below. Lots of good stuff to chew on. Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS * Rieff views "woke" ideology as primarily American and post-Protestant in nature, rather than stemming solely from French philosophy, emphasizing its connections to self-invention and subjective identity.* He argues that woke culture threatens high culture but not capitalism, noting that corporations have readily embraced a "baudlerized" version of identity politics that avoids class discussions.* Rieff sees woke culture as connected to the wellness movement, with both sharing a preoccupation with "psychic safety" and the metaphorical transformation of experience in which "words” become a form of “violence."* He suggests young people's material insecurity contributes to their focus on identity, as those facing bleak economic prospects turn inward when they "can't make their way in the world."* Rieff characterizes woke ideology as "apocalyptic but not pessimistic," contrasting it with his own genuine pessimism which he considers more realistic about human nature and more cheerful in its acceptance of life's limitations. FULL TRANSCRIPTAndrew Keen: Hello everybody, as we digest Trump 2.0, we don't talk that much these days about woke and woke ideology. There was a civil war amongst progressives, I think, on the woke front in 2023 and 2024, but with Donald Trump 2.0 and his various escapades, let's just talk these days about woke. We have a new book, however, on the threat of woke by my guest, David Rieff. It's called Desire and Fate. He wrote it in 2023, came out in late 2024. David's visiting the Bay Area. He's an itinerant man traveling from the East Coast to Latin America and Europe. David, welcome to Keen on America. Do you regret writing this book given what's happened in the last few months in the United States?David Rieff: No, not at all, because I think that the road to moral and intellectual hell is trying to censor yourself according to what you think is useful. There's a famous story of Jean Paul Sartre that he said to the stupefaction of a journalist late in his life that he'd always known about the gulag, and the journalist pretty surprised said, well, why didn't you say anything? And Sartre said so as not to demoralize the French working class. And my own view is, you know, you say what you have to say about this and if I give some aid and comfort to people I don't like, well, so be it. Having said that, I also think a lot of these woke ideas have their, for all of Trump's and Trump's people's fierce opposition to woke, some of the identity politics, particularly around Jewish identity seems to me not that very different from woke. Strangely they seem to have taken, for example, there's a lot of the talk about anti-semitism on college campuses involves student safety which is a great woke trope that you feel unsafe and what people mean by that is not literally they're going to get shot or beaten up, they mean that they feel psychically unsafe. It's part of the kind of metaphorization of experience that unfortunately the United States is now completely in the grips of. But the same thing on the other side, people like Barry Weiss, for example, at the Free Press there, they talk in the same language of psychic safety. So I'm not sure there's, I think there are more similarities than either side is comfortable with.Andrew Keen: You describe Woke, David, as a cultural revolution and you associated in the beginning of the book with something called Lumpen-Rousseauism. As we joked before we went live, I'm not sure if there's anything in Rousseau which isn't Lumpen. But what exactly is this cultural revolution? And can we blame it on bad French philosophy or Swiss French?David Rieff: Well, Swiss-French philosophy, you know exactly. There is a funny anecdote, as I'm sure you know, that Rousseau made a visit to Edinburgh to see Hume and there's something in Hume's diaries where he talks about Rousseau pacing up and down in front of the fire and suddenly exclaiming, but David Hume is not a bad man. And Hume notes in his acerbic way, Rousseau was like walking around without his skin on. And I think some of the woke sensitivity stuff is very much people walking around without their skin on. They can't stand the idea of being offended. I don't see it as much - of course, the influence of that version of cultural relativism that the French like Deleuze and Guattari and other people put forward is part of the story, but I actually see it as much more of a post-Protestant thing. This idea, in that sense, some kind of strange combination of maybe some French philosophy, but also of the wellness movement, of this notion that health, including psychic health, was the ultimate good in a secular society. And then the other part, which again, it seems to be more American than French, which is this idea, and this is particularly true in the trans movement, that you can be anything you want to be. And so that if you feel yourself to be a different gender, well, that's who you are. And what matters is your own subjective sense of these things, and it's up to you. The outside world has no say in it, it's what you feel. And that in a sense, what I mean by post-Protestant is that, I mean, what's the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism? The fundamental difference is, it seems to me, that in Roman Catholic tradition, you need the priest to intercede with God, whereas in Protestant tradition, it is, except for the Anglicans, but for most of Protestantism, it's you and God. And in that sense it seems to me there are more of what I see in woke than this notion that some of the right-wing people like Chris Rufo and others have that this is cultural French cultural Marxism making its insidious way through the institutions.Andrew Keen: It's interesting you talk about the Protestant ethic and you mentioned Hume's remark about Rousseau not having his skin on. Do you think that Protestantism enabled people to grow thick skins?David Rieff: I mean, the Calvinist idea certainly did. In fact, there were all these ideas in Protestant culture, at least that's the classical interpretation of deferred gratification. Capitalism was supposed to be the work ethic, all of that stuff that Weber talks about. But I think it got in the modern version. It became something else. It stopped being about those forms of disciplines and started to be about self-invention. And in a sense, there's something very American about that because after all you know it's the Great Gatsby. It's what's the famous sentence of F. Scott Fitzgerald's: there are no second acts in American lives.Andrew Keen: This is the most incorrect thing anyone's ever said about America. I'm not sure if he meant it to be incorrect, did he? I don't know.David Rieff: I think what's true is that you get the American idea, you get to reinvent yourself. And this notion of the dream, the dream become reality. And many years ago when I was spending a lot of time in LA in the late 80s, early 90s, at LAX, there was a sign from the then mayor, Tom Bradley, about how, you know, if you can dream it, it can be true. And I think there's a lot in identitarian woke idea which is that we can - we're not constricted by history or reality. In fact, it's all the present and the future. And so to me again, woke seems to me much more recognizable as something American and by extension post-Protestant in the sense that you see the places where woke is most powerful are in the other, what the encampment kids would call settler colonies, Australia and Canada. And now in the UK of course, where it seems to me by DI or EDI as they call it over there is in many ways stronger in Britain even than it was in the US before Trump.Andrew Keen: Does it really matter though, David? I mean, that's my question. Does it matter? I mean it might matter if you have the good or the bad fortune to teach at a small, expensive liberal arts college. It might matter with some of your dinner parties in Tribeca or here in San Francisco, but for most people, who cares?David Rieff: It doesn't matter. I think it matters to culture and so what you think culture is worth, because a lot of the point of this book was to say there's nothing about woke that threatens capitalism, that threatens the neo-liberal order. I mean it's turning out that Donald Trump is a great deal bigger threat to the neoliberal order. Woke was to the contrary - woke is about talking about everything but class. And so a kind of baudlerized, de-radicalized version of woke became perfectly fine with corporate America. That's why this wonderful old line hard lefty Adolph Reed Jr. says somewhere that woke is about diversifying the ruling class. But I do think it's a threat to high culture because it's about equity. It's about representation. And so elite culture, which I have no shame in proclaiming my loyalty to, can't survive the woke onslaught. And it hasn't, in my view. If you look at just the kinds of books that are being written, the kinds of plays that are been put on, even the opera, the new operas that are being commissioned, they're all about representing the marginalized. They're about speaking for your group, whatever that group is, and doing away with various forms of cultural hierarchy. And I'm with Schoenberg: if it's for everybody, if it's art, Schoenberg said it's not for everybody, and if it's for everybody it's not art. And I think woke destroys that. Woke can live with schlock. I'm sorry, high culture can live with schlock, it always has, it always will. What it can't live with is kitsch. And by which I mean kitsch in Milan Kundera's definition, which is to have opinions that you feel better about yourself for holding. And that I think is inimical to culture. And I think woke is very destructive of those traditions. I mean, in the most obvious sense, it's destructive of the Western tradition, but you know, the high arts in places like Japan or Bengal, I don't think it's any more sympathetic to those things than it is to Shakespeare or John Donne or whatever. So yeah, I think it's a danger in that sense. Is it a danger to the peace of the world? No, of course not.Andrew Keen: Even in cultural terms, as you explain, it is an orthodoxy. If you want to work with the dominant cultural institutions, the newspapers, the universities, the publishing houses, you have to play by those rules, but the great artists, poets, filmmakers, musicians have never done that, so all it provides, I mean you brought up Kundera, all it provides is something that independent artists, creative people will sneer at, will make fun of, as you have in this new book.David Rieff: Well, I hope they'll make fun of it. But on the other hand, I'm an old guy who has the means to sneer. I don't have to please an editor. Someone will publish my books one way or another, whatever ones I have left to write. But if you're 25 years old, maybe you're going to sneer with your pals in the pub, but you're gonna have to toe the line if you want to be published in whatever the obvious mainstream place is and you're going to be attacked on social media. I think a lot of people who are very, young people who are skeptical of this are just so afraid of being attacked by their peers on various social media that they keep quiet. I don't know that it's true that, I'd sort of push back on that. I think non-conformists will out. I hope it's true. But I wonder, I mean, these traditions, once they die, they're very hard to rebuild. And, without going full T.S. Eliot on you, once you don't think you're part of the past, once the idea is that basically, pretty much anything that came before our modern contemporary sense of morality and fairness and right opinion is to be rejected and that, for example, the moral character of the artist should determine whether or not the art should be paid attention to - I don't know how you come back from that or if you come back from that. I'm not convinced you do. No, other arts will be around. And I mean, if I were writing a critical review of my own book, I'd say, look, this culture, this high culture that you, David Rieff, are writing an elegy for, eulogizing or memorializing was going to die anyway, and we're at the beginning of another Gutenbergian epoch, just as Gutenberg, we're sort of 20 years into Marshall McLuhan's Gutenberg galaxy, and these other art forms will come, and they won't be like anything else. And that may be true.Andrew Keen: True, it may be true. In a sense then, to extend that critique, are you going full T.S. Eliot in this book?David Rieff: Yeah, I think Eliot was right. But it's not just Eliot, there are people who would be for the wokesters more acceptable like Mandelstam, for example, who said you're part of a conversation that's been going on long before you were born, that's going to be going on after you are, and I think that's what art is. I think the idea that we make some completely new thing is a childish fantasy. I think you belong to a tradition. There are periods - look, this is, I don't find much writing in English in prose fiction very interesting. I have to say I read the books that people talk about because I'm trying to understand what's going on but it doesn't interest me very much, but again, there have been periods of great mediocrity. Think of a period in the late 17th century in England when probably the best poet was this completely, rightly, justifiably forgotten figure, Colley Cibber. You had the great restoration period and then it all collapsed, so maybe it'll be that way. And also, as I say, maybe it's just as with the print revolution, that this new culture of social media will produce completely different forms. I mean, everything is mortal, not just us, but cultures and civilizations and all the rest of it. So I can imagine that, but this is the time I live in and the tradition I come from and I'm sorry it's gone, and I think what's replacing it is for the most part worse.Andrew Keen: You're critical in the book of what you, I'm quoting here, you talk about going from the grand inquisitor to the grand therapist. But you're very critical of the broader American therapeutic culture of acute sensitivity, the thin skin nature of, I guess, the Rousseau in this, whatever, it's lumpen Rousseauanism. So how do you interpret that without psychologizing, or are you psychologizing in the book? How are you making sense of our condition? In other words, can one critique criticize therapeutic culture without becoming oneself therapeutic?David Rieff: You mean the sort of Pogo line, we've met the enemy and it is us. Well, I suppose there's some truth to that. I don't know how much. I think that woke is in some important sense a subset of the wellness movement. And the wellness movement after all has tens and tens of millions of people who are in one sense or another influenced by it. And I think health, including psychic health, and we've moved from wellness as corporal health to wellness as being both soma and psyche. So, I mean, if that's psychologizing, I certainly think it's drawing the parallel or seeing woke in some ways as one of the children of the god of wellness. And that to me, I don't know how therapeutic that is. I think it's just that once you feel, I'm interested in what people feel. I'm not necessarily so interested in, I mean, I've got lots of opinions, but what I think I'm better at than having opinions is trying to understand why people think what they think. And I do think that once health becomes the ultimate good in a secular society and once death becomes the absolutely unacceptable other, and once you have the idea that there's no real distinction of any great validity between psychic and physical wellness, well then of course sensitivity to everything becomes almost an inevitable reaction.Andrew Keen: I was reading the book and I've been thinking about a lot of movements in America which are trying to bring people together, dealing with America, this divided America, as if it's a marriage in crisis. So some of the most effective or interesting, I think, thinkers on this, like Arlie Hochschild in Berkeley, use the language of therapy to bring or to try to bring America back together, even groups like the Braver Angels. Can therapy have any value or that therapeutic culture in a place like America where people are so bitterly divided, so hateful towards one another?David Rieff: Well, it's always been a country where, on the one hand, people have been, as you say, incredibly good at hatred and also a country of people who often construe themselves as misfits and heretics from the Puritans forward. And on the other hand, you have that small-town American idea, which sometimes I think is as important to woke and DI as as anything else which is that famous saying of small town America of all those years ago which was if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all. And to some extent that is, I think, a very powerful ancestor of these movements. Whether they're making any headway - of course I hope they are, but Hochschild is a very interesting figure, but I don't, it seems to me it's going all the other way, that people are increasingly only talking to each other.Andrew Keen: What this movement seems to want to do is get beyond - I use this word carefully, I'm not sure if they use it but I'm going to use it - ideology and that we're all prisoners of ideology. Is woke ideology or is it a kind of post-ideology?David Rieff: Well, it's a redemptive idea, a restorative idea. It's an idea that in that sense, there's a notion that it's time for the victims, for the first to be last and the last to be first. I mean, on some level, it is as simple as that. On another level, as I say, I do think it has a lot to do with metaphorization of experience, that people say silence is violence and words are violence and at that point what's violence? I mean there is a kind of level to me where people have gotten trapped in the kind of web of their own metaphors and now are living by them or living shackled to them or whatever image you're hoping for. But I don't know what it means to get beyond ideology. What, all men will be brothers, as in the Beethoven-Schiller symphony? I mean, it doesn't seem like that's the way things are going.Andrew Keen: Is the problem then, and I'm thinking out loud here, is the problem politics or not enough politics?David Rieff: Oh, I think the problem is that now we don't know, we've decided that everything is part, the personal is the political, as the feminists said, 50, 60 years ago. So the personal's political, so the political is the personal. So you have to live the exemplary moral life, or at least the life that doesn't offend anybody or that conforms to whatever the dominant views of what good opinions are, right opinions are. I think what we're in right now is much more the realm of kind of a new set of moral codes, much more than ideology in the kind of discrete sense of politics.Andrew Keen: Now let's come back to this idea of being thin-skinned. Why are people so thin-skinned?David Rieff: Because, I mean, there are lots of things to say about that. One thing, of course, that might be worth saying, is that the young generations, people who are between, let's say, 15 and 30, they're in real material trouble. It's gonna be very hard for them to own a house. It's hard for them to be independent and unless the baby boomers like myself will just transfer every penny to them, which doesn't seem very likely frankly, they're going to live considerably worse than generations before. So if you can't make your way in the world then maybe you make your way yourself or you work on yourself in that sort of therapeutic sense. You worry about your own identity because the only place you have in the world in some way is yourself, is that work, that obsession. I do think some of these material questions are important. There's a guy you may know who's not at all woke, a guy who teaches at the University of Washington called Danny Bessner. And I just did a show with him this morning. He's a smart guy and we have a kind of ironic correspondence over email and DM. And I once said to him, why are you so bitter about everything? And he said, you want to know why? Because I have two children and the likelihood is I'll never get a teaching job that won't require a three hour commute in order for me to live anywhere that I can afford to live. And I thought, and he couldn't be further from woke, he's a kind of Jacobin guy, Jacobin Magazine guy, and if he's left at all, it's kind of old left, but I think a lot of people feel that, that they feel their practical future, it looks pretty grim.Andrew Keen: But David, coming back to the idea of art, they're all suited to the world of art. They don't have to buy a big house and live in the suburbs. They can become poets. They can become filmmakers. They can put their stuff up on YouTube. They can record their music online. There are so many possibilities.David Rieff: It's hard to monetize that. Maybe now you're beginning to sound like the people you don't like. Now you're getting to sound like a capitalist.Andrew Keen: So what? Well, I don't care if I sound like a capitalist. You're not going to starve to death.David Rieff: Well, you might not like, I mean, it's fine to be a barista at 24. It's not so fine at 44. And are these people going to ever get out of this thing? I don't know. I wonder. Look, when I was starting as a writer, as long as you were incredibly diligent, and worked really hard, you could cobble together at least a basic living by accepting every assignment and people paid you bits and bobs of money, but put together, you could make a living. Now, the only way to make money, unless you're lucky enough to be on staff of a few remaining media outlets that remain, is you have to become an impresario, you have become an entrepreneur of your own stuff. And again, sure, do lots of people manage that? Yeah, but not as many as could have worked in that other system, and look at the fate of most newspapers, all folding. Look at the universities. We can talk about woke and how woke destroyed, in my view anyway, a lot of the humanities. But there's also a level in which people didn't want to study these things. So we're looking at the last generation in a lot places of a lot of these humanities departments and not just the ones that are associated with, I don't know, white supremacy or the white male past or whatever, but just the humanities full stop. So I know if that sounds like, maybe it sounds like a capitalist, but maybe it also sounds like you know there was a time when the poets - you know very well, poets never made a living, poets taught in universities. That's the way American poets made their money, including pretty famous poets like Eric Wolcott or Joseph Brodsky or writers, Toni Morrison taught at Princeton all those years, Joyce Carol Oates still alive, she still does. Most of these people couldn't make a living of their work and so the university provided that living.Andrew Keen: You mentioned Barry Weiss earlier. She's making a fortune as an anti-woke journalist. And Free Press seems to be thriving. Yascha Mounk's Persuasion is doing pretty well. Andrew Sullivan, another good example, making a fortune off of Substack. It seems as if the people willing to take risks, Barry Weiss leaving the New York Times, Andrew Sullivan leaving everything he's ever joined - that's...David Rieff: Look, are there going to be people who thrive in this new environment? Sure. And Barry Weiss turns out to be this kind of genius entrepreneur. She deserves full credit for that. Although even Barry Weiss, the paradox for me of Barry Weiss is, a lot of her early activism was saying that she felt unsafe with these anti-Israeli teachers at Columbia. So in a sense, she was using some of the same language as the woke use, psychic safety, because she didn't mean Joseph Massad was gonna come out from the blackboard and shoot her in the eye. She meant that she was offended and used the language of safety to describe that. And so in that sense, again, as I was saying to you earlier, I think there are more similarities here. And Trump, I think this is a genuine counterrevolution that Trump is trying to mount. I'm not very interested in the fascism, non-fascism debate. I'm rather skeptical of it.Andrew Keen: As Danny Bessner is. Yeah, I thought Danny's piece about that was brilliant.David Rieff: We just did a show about it today, that piece about why that's all rubbish. I was tempted, I wrote to a friend that guy you may know David Bell teaches French history -Andrew Keen: He's coming on the show next week. Well, you see, it's just a little community of like-minded people.David Rieff: There you go. Well, I wrote to David.Andrew Keen: And you mentioned his father in the book, Daniel.David Rieff: Yeah, well, his father is sort of one of the tutelary idols of the book. I had his father and I read his father and I learned an enormous amount. I think that book about the cultural contradictions of capitalism is one of the great prescient books about our times. But I wrote to David, I said, I actually sent him the Bessner piece which he was quite ambivalent about. But I said well, I'm not really convinced by the fascism of Trump, maybe just because Hitler read books, unlike Donald Trump. But it's a genuine counterrevolution. And what element will change the landscape in terms of DI and woke and identitarianism is not clear. These people are incredibly ambitious. They really mean to change this country, transform it.Andrew Keen: But from the book, David, Trump's attempts to cleanse, if that's the right word, the university, I would have thought you'd have rather admired that, all these-David Rieff: I agree with some of it.Andrew Keen: All these idiots writing the same article for 30 years about something that no one has any interest in.David Rieff: I look, my problem with Trump is that I do support a lot of that. I think some of the stuff that Christopher Rufo, one of the leading ideologues of this administration has uncovered about university programs and all of this crap, I think it's great that they're not paying for it anymore. The trouble is - you asked me before, is it that important? Is culture important compared to destroying the NATO alliance, blowing up the global trade regime? No. I don't think. So yeah, I like a lot of what they're doing about the university, I don't like, and I am very fiercely opposed to this crackdown on speech. That seems to be grotesque and revolting, but are they canceling supporting transgender theater in Galway? Yeah, I think it's great that they're canceling all that stuff. And so I'm not, that's my problem with Trump, is that some of that stuff I'm quite unashamedly happy about, but it's not nearly worth all the damage he's doing to this country and the world.Andrew Keen: Being very generous with your time, David. Finally, in the book you describe woke as, and I thought this was a very sharp way of describing it, describe it as being apocalyptic but not pessimistic. What did you mean by that? And then what is the opposite of woke? Would it be not apocalyptic, but cheerful?David Rieff: Well, I think genuine pessimists are cheerful, I would put myself among those. The model is Samuel Beckett, who just thinks things are so horrible that why not be cheerful about them, and even express one's pessimism in a relatively cheerful way. You remember the famous story that Thomas McCarthy used to tell about walking in the Luxembourg Gardens with Beckett and McCarthy says to him, great day, it's such a beautiful day, Sam. Beckett says, yeah, beautiful day. McCarthy says, makes you glad to be alive. And Beckett said, oh, I wouldn't go that far. And so, the genuine pessimist is quite cheerful. But coming back to woke, it's apocalyptic in the sense that everything is always at stake. But somehow it's also got this reformist idea that cultural revolution will cleanse away the sins of the supremacist patriarchal past and we'll head for the sunny uplands. I think I'm much too much of a pessimist to think that's possible in any regime, let alone this rather primitive cultural revolution called woke.Andrew Keen: But what would the opposite be?David Rieff: The opposite would be probably some sense that the best we're going to do is make our peace with the trash nature of existence, that life is finite in contrast with the wellness people who probably have a tendency towards the apocalyptic because death is an insult to them. So everything is staving off the bad news and that's where you get this idea that you can, like a lot of revolutions, you can change the nature of people. Look, the communist, Che Guevara talked about the new man. Well, I wonder if he thought it was so new when he was in Bolivia. I think these are - people need utopias, this is one of them, MAGA is another utopia by the way, and people don't seem to be able to do without them and that's - I wish it were otherwise but it isn't.Andrew Keen: I'm guessing the woke people would be offended by the idea of death, are they?David Rieff: Well, I think the woke people, in this synchronicity, people and a lot of people, they're insulted - how can this happen to me, wonderful me? And this is those jokes in the old days when the British could still be savage before they had to have, you know, Henry the Fifth be played by a black actor - why me? Well, why not you? That's just so alien to and it's probably alien to the American idea. You're supposed to - it's supposed to work out and the truth is it doesn't work out. But La Rochefoucauld says somewhere no one can stare for too long at death or the sun and maybe I'm asking too much.Andrew Keen: Maybe only Americans can find death unacceptable to use one of your words.David Rieff: Yes, perhaps.Andrew Keen: Well, David Rieff, congratulations on the new book. Fascinating, troubling, controversial as always. Desire and Fate. I know you're writing a book about Oppenheimer, very different kind of subject. We'll get you back on the show to talk Oppenheimer, where I guess there's not going to be a lot of Lumpen-Rousseauism.David Rieff: Very little, very little love and Rousseau in the quantum mechanics world, but thanks for having me.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Liberals won't like it, but according to the Seattle based historian and podcaster Daniel Bessner, Trump's wannabe imperial presidency is a “natural outgrowth” of the centralized power of the FDR presidency. In a provocative Jacobin piece, Bessner contends that executive power has been expanding since FDR, with the U.S. President increasingly becoming an "elected monarch." The leftist Bessner criticizes American liberals for both obsessing over the fictional specter of fascism and for failing to address the economic inequality that enabled the rise of Trump. And he expresses pessimism about meaningful reform, arguing that 21st century capitalism has become too entrenched for significant changes without some dramatic external shock. 5 Takeaways from the Bessner Interview* Trump's presidency represents a continuation of American traditions rather than fascism, with his immigration policies echoing historical patterns like the Palmer Raids and McCarthyism.* The significant shift under Trump is his aggressive tariff policy against China, which represents a departure from decades of neoliberal economic approaches.* Presidential power has been expanding dramatically since FDR (who issued over 3,700 executive orders), creating what Bessner calls an "elected monarch" with increasingly unchecked authority.* The failure of liberal leadership, particularly Obama's inadequate response to the 2008 financial crisis and insufficient economic redistribution, created the conditions for Trump's rise.* Bessner expresses deep pessimism about the possibility of meaningful reform, suggesting that capitalism has become too entrenched globally for significant democratic changes without some external shock like climate disaster or war.Daniel Bessner is an historian and journalist. He is currently the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He previously held the Joff Hanauer Honors Professorship in Western Civilization and is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an Associate of the Alameda Institute, and a Contributing Editor at Jacobin. In 2019-2020, he served as a foreign policy advisor to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign; in 2024, for unclear reasons, the Russian government sanctioned him. Daniel is an intellectual historian, and his work has focused on three areas of inquiry: the history and contemporary practice of U.S. foreign relations; the history and theory of liberalism; and, most recently, the history and practice of the entertainment industry. He is the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell, 2018), which you may order here. He is also the co-editor, with Nicolas Guilhot, of The Decisionist Imagination: Sovereignty, Social Science, and Democracy in the Twentieth Century (Berghahn, 2019), which you may order here; and the co-editor, with Michael Brenes, of Rethinking U.S. World Power: Domestic Histories of U.S. Foreign Relations (Palgrave, 2024), which you may order here. In addition to his scholarship, he has published pieces in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New Republic, The Nation, n+1, and other venues. In July 2022, he published a cover story in Harper's Magazine titled “Empire Burlesque: What Comes After the American Century?”; in May 2024, he published a cover story, also in Harper's, titled “The Life and Death of Hollywood: Film and Television Writers Face an Existential Threat,” which was also republished as the cover of the Italian magazine Internazionale.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

'Auschwitz: Not So Long Ago. Not So Far Away' opened Jan. 10 in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum, marking the only Canadian stop for the eight-year-old travelling show. The exhibit originally launched in Spain in 2017, and the Toronto version is a smaller edition due to space restrictions: showcasing some 500 artifacts and photos from the actual site of Auschwitz, the modern world's most notorious genocide factory. But while the Canadian debut may seem belated, the timing is perfect: it arrives just a couple of weeks ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27. It's also a significant time for the Canadian Jewish community, which is facing an unprecedented spike in antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and distortion, wherein Israelis are being called modern Nazis for their military response in Gaza after Oct. 7. Were these issues on the minds of the curators? How has the exhibit adapted to update post-Oct. 7? The CJN Daily‘s host, Ellin Bessner, went to see for herself. On a private media tour on the day before the exhibit opened to the public, Bessner walked through the museum wondering about the relevance of showcasing the eerie similarities between this past year and the months leading up to the Holocaust. As she discovered, the organizers aren't moralizing or preaching, but rather letting their rigorously researched historical evidence and facts speak for themselves. On the episode, you'll hear from Toronto Holocaust historian professor Robert Jan van Pelt, whose mother survived Auschwitz; and from British curator Paul Salmons, plus Luis Ferreiro, director of the private Spanish company MUSEALIA, which owns the touring exhibit. Joshua Basseches, the CEO of the ROM, also joins. What we talked about: Learn more about the ROM exhibit Auschwitz: Not So Long Ago. Not So Far Away and how to buy tickets. School groups get free admission. Learn more about the exhibit's chief Auschwitz historian, Toronto professor Robert Jan van Pelt, in The CJN archives Read about the ROM's exhibit 2017 called “The Evidence Room” which professor van Pelt also curated, in The CJN archives. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

What is the point of Hollywood? There are two obvious answers, right? To make good stuff that entertains people. And to make money for the big studios and the people who work for them.Those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. But writer Daniel Bessner believes increasingly they have been.Bessner spent a year working on a deep dive into how Hollywood has evolved for Harper's Magazine, called “The Life and Death of Hollywood”. Bessner is also a historian and host of the podcast “American Prestige”. He spoke to host Jayme Poisson last April.

After the election, there was a hurricane of postmortems attempting to explain why Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump. Eschewing small-bore analysis, historian Daniel Bessner posted on X, "I feel like people are missing the fundamental lesson of the election: it is not the Democratic Party that is in crisis; liberalism itself is in crisis." Liberalism—the dominant political philosophy of the American Century—appears to be a spent force amid a wave of illiberal populism and anti-establishment politics. In this episode, Bessner, who co-hosts American Prestige podcast, delves into the origins of liberalism's rise and apparent decline in this post-post-Cold War period. Further reading: Empire Burlesque: What Comes After the American Century? by Daniel Bessner (Harper's)

Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN Daily _podcast, was admittedly nervous ahead of Sunday's 55th annual Walk with Israel, held by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. For weeks, pro-Palestinian protest groups in the city had been threatening to disrupt the important Jewish solidarity march—the first one since the deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7. It was stunning watching the record turnout of an estimated 50,000 people—and also seeing the massive police presence that kept a lid on trouble. But by the time Bessner and her family completed the nearly five-kilometre walk on June 9, her anxiety over the Middle Eastern war and rampant domestic antisemitism fell to the wayside and joy took over, even if only for a short time. On today's special feature episode of _The CJN Daily, Ellin invites listeners to join her on the walk and meet some of the people she met along the way: Israeli visitors Rami and Vered Gold, who survived the Hamas massacre at Kibbutz Be'eri; Michael Gilmore of Kehillat Shaarei Torah, the Toronto synagogue targeted by two recent hate crime attacks; Dave Fingrut, a public school teacher in Millbrook, Ontario; Noah Shack, UJA's head of combating antisemitism, and others. Plus, you'll hear directly from some of the pro-Palestinian protestors when Ellin asks them why they came. What we talked about: Learn more about Kibbutz Be'eri survivors Rami and Vered Gold, who are touring Canada to raise awareness and funds to rebuild their community Read news editor Lila Sark's account of the Walk for Israel in The CJN Learn more about the Brodutch family who attended the walk: four were held hostage in Gaza for 51 days, on The CJN Daily Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine.  We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Is fascism what's ailing the American body politic today? Are Donald Trump and the Republican Party fascists or has fascism been around much longer, going back to the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow? In this episode, historian Daniel Bessner, the co-host of American Prestige, discusses what has been a preoccupation among public intellectuals and commentators since Trump entered presidential politics in 2015. Bessner co-authored an essay published in a new anthology edited by the historian Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, "Did It Happen Here? Perspectives on Fascism and America."

Matt & David talk about the severe crackdown on free speech and students as they protest against the slaughter in Gaza. Then we are joined by our good friend Danny Bessner (@dbessner) host of American Prestige and author of the cover story in the May edition of Harper's "The Life & Death Of Hollywood" The Life and Death of Hollywood, by Daniel Bessner https://harpers.org/archive/2024/05/the-life-and-death-of-hollywood-daniel-bessner/ Austin Musicians Union Membership drive!! https://afm433.com/?page=newsdetails&id=544 ------------------- 00:00 Show Start 3:58 Intro 7:57 The protests 16:00 "Free Speech" in Texas 39:15 The Death of Hollywood 1:11:12 Post-game preview

Explore the influence and impact of hyperpolitics, mass movements, and the power elite on modern democracy in the latest episode of This Is Revolution podcast. This intriguing discussion features our special guest and renowned political analyst, Daniel Bessner, and is incisively hosted by Pascal Roberts. Focusing on the rise of Black power, civil rights movements, and major political swings, our host and guest delve into the past and present landscapes of socio-politics in the United States. Listen as Bessner, a respected professor at Washington University, illuminates the role of political elites in decisively shaping the U.S. policies and decisions. With academic expertise and political engagement under his belt, Bessner dissects the evolution of American political ideologies, touching on potential driving forces behind these shifts, such as ideological development, changing demographics, and the growing influence of the liberal white power elite. The discussion beautifully unravels the mysteries surrounding hyperpolitics and its implications, digging deeper into societal power interactions and exploring the theory of 'Power Elite.' We also question the future of mass politics in America, relate power dynamics to current socio-political unrest, and provoke thoughtful views on global protests and consciousness shifts worldwide. Engage in an eye-opening conversation that ponders on philosophical intricacies of current political theories, examines the effectiveness of mass politics, and scrutinizes power dynamics. In this enlightening episode, Bessner further explores the predictable shift in regional hegemonic power, the complexity of bureaucracy, and the impact of surveillance on an increasingly financialized society. Don't miss this riveting dialogue as we dive deep into the political world, dissecting arguments, interpreting theories, and challenging the status quo. Enlighten yourself with insights from an expert's perspective and immerse yourself in this engaging and thought-provoking conversation with Daniel Bessner on the This Is Revolution podcast.   Get Jason's pamphlet, "I Was A Teenage Anarchist" here: https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/.../i-was-a.../   Get Tickets for the TIR Live Show in DC June 8th (You can also purchase Tickets for the livestream if you can't make it to DC)   Get Tickets here:https://www.eventbrite.com/.../clr-james-and-the-struggle...   Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!   Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents?   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Twitch: www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast www.twitch.tv/leftflankvets​ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles   Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/   Pascal Robert's Black Agenda Report: https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/Pascal%20Robert

Harper's has a great cover story this month entitled “The Life and Death of Hollywood” by the intellectual historian, podcast and general muckraker Daniel Bessner. Film & tv writers face an existential threat, Bessner told me, from a Hollywood now controlled by four financialized mega-companies operated by MBA touting execs. But is this really new, I asked him, or is today's dismal story just another rerun of the standard anti-capitalist narrative of creatives getting screwed by the money men? Yes, it is new, Bessner insists, because today's existential crisis of Hollywood's film & tv writers is the canary in the coal mine for an entire professional elite of lawyers, journalists and academics about to be hit by the AI powered tsunami of 21st century techno-capitalism. Daniel Bessner is currently the Annett H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy at the University of Washington. He is a member of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and previously held the Joff Hanauer Honors Professorship in Western Civilization.  He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an Associate of the Alameda Institute, and a Contributing Editor at Jacobin. In 2019-2020, he served as a foreign policy advisor to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign; in 2024, for unclear reasons, the Russian government sanctioned him. Daniel is an intellectual historian, and his work has focused on three areas of inquiry: the history and contemporary practice of U.S. foreign relations; the history and theory of liberalism; and, most recently, the history and practice of the entertainment industry. He is the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell, 2018), which you may order here. He is also the co-editor, with Nicolas Guilhot, of The Decisionist Imagination: Sovereignty, Social Science, and Democracy in the Twentieth Century (Berghahn, 2019), which you may order here; and the co-editor, with Michael Brenes, of Rethinking U.S. World Power: Domestic Histories of U.S. Foreign Relations (Palgrave, 2024), which you may order here.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

This week's episode is a special collaboration with The Disagreement, a new platform that aims to “celebrate and normalize healthy disagreement.” (Check them out!) Wisdom of Crowds is 100% behind that mission statement, and so it was natural for us to agree to record an episode together. Fans of Wisdom of Crowds will know that Shadi has recently completed a book about American power, tentatively titled, “On Power.” Fans will also know that he debated the socialist writer Dan Bessner of the podcast last summer, in our episode titled “Is a Better World Possible Without American Power?” A lot has happened since that episode air, especially in the Middle East. So it's a good time for Shadi and Dan to consider that question again. Enjoy Hamid v. Bessner, Round 2.Required Reading and Listening:Hamid v. Bessner, Round 1: “Is a Better World Possible without American Power?” (Wisdom of Crowds)Shadi's recent post about completing his manuscript: “The Art of Losing Well” (Wisdom of Crowds).The Disagreement homepage. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

What is the point of Hollywood? There are two obvious answers, right? To make good stuff that entertains people. And to make money for the big studios and the people who work for them.Those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. But Daniel Bessner believes increasingly they have been.Bessner spent a year working on a deep dive into how Hollywood has evolved for Harper's Magazine. Bessner is also a historian, writer, and host of the podcast "American Prestige".For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Hello!Today, we have a packed show with our guest Danny Bessner of the American Prestige podcast. Danny argued the other side of the fascism debate and expressed why he and others believe the word is not appropriate to describe what's happened to the American right. And Danny stuck around while we discussed Tyler's debunking of the book “White Rural Rage” and why the type of liberal elite discourse we have right now might eventually be politically catastrophic (while also just being gross.) As always, if you would like to support the show, please help us out with a $5 a month substack subscription. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Nearly 500 episodes. Nearly 10,000 hours of programming. It's "what Jewish Canada sounds like." For more than two and a half years, Ellin Bessner and The CJN Daily podcast have been bringing the voices and sounds of Canadian Jewish newsmakers to listeners from coast to coast—and around the world. And since Oct. 7, it's never been more important to provide you with authoritative, trustworthy, accurate and balanced reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, including updates on the hostage situation, the massacre of 1,200 Israeli residents and a new wave of antisemitism within Canada and beyond. It's coverage you won't find anywhere else. That's why, on #GivingTuesday, Ellin wants to get personal. In this episode, you'll hear why she and the rest of The CJN team need your financial support to keep producing award-winning journalism that's unique in Canada. What we talked about Support The CJN by donating to the future of what Jewish Canada sounds like Where we've been and where we're going, with CEO Yoni Goldstein on The CJN Daily How niche publications like ours are being hurt by Canada's fight with Meta and Google—and what you can do—on The CJN Daily Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

This week, we tap in with one of the white whales of this podcast, Danny Bessner of American Prestige, a “heterodox foreign policy podcast”, which he cohosts with fellow comrade Derek Davison. We talk about Danny's path from being a listener of Marc Maron to becoming a legendary podcaster in his own right and listening to more niche pods such as The LexG Movie Podcast. Over the course of our talk we get into Danny's experience becoming radicalized by 9/11 and then grad school, getting into podcasting through Chapo Trap House and Jacobin, podding with “the Babe Ruth of Podcasting” (Matt Christman) on Hinge Points, challenging guests, the Left crumbling on Israel/Palestine, Jan. 6 and the hinge point that is Donald Trump.  If you'd like to skip straight to the interview, tune into 23:09 for Nick's dry intro or 23:53 to hear Danny's beautiful voice.

Happy Monday! Sam and Emma host Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison, co-hosts of the American Prestige podcast, to discuss last week's NATO summit in Lithuania. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on labor action across the US, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, AIPAC Dems' attacks on Jayapal, and Ron DeSantis, before watching AOC help pump up a crowd of UPS Teamsters in the lead-up to a potential strike. Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison then run through a brief history of NATO since the fall of the USSR, exploring how the US dealt with the disappearance of its only hegemonic challenger – choosing to push a mass expansion of the anti-Soviet (and pro-US) NATO alliance, and ramping up their levels of military action across the globe as the project for a New American Century began. Bessner and Davison then look to the 2004 NATO expansion alongside NATO action in Afghanistan as a continuation of US tactics of hegemonic expansion during the Cold War, particularly the country's shift towards a capitalist-focused foreign policy that maintains the dominance of the US Dollar. After looking at the US and NATO's stance towards Ukraine, and how the decision to tempt them with acceptance completely bit the organization in the ass, they wrap up by assessing the US' slow pivot to the Pacific, and looking at what role the US can (and should) play in promoting peace in Ukraine. And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma watch Ron Pearlman's killer response to Bob Iger's comments about using the strike to force actors into homelessness, before tackling the incredibly spineless and corrupt response by Democrats to Rep. Jayapal's statements on Israel's apartheid state. Jim Jordan defends the little man (Elon Musk) against constant attacks (emails) from the oppressor (Lina Khan), Jody from MA dives into the problems with assisted living, and Miles from Minneapolis dives into his experiences with the Teamsters' Sean O'Brien. Sam and Emma also address RFK's odd anti-Semitic and sinophobic COVID claims, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out American Prestige here: https://www.americanprestigepod.com/ Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today's sponsors: LiquidIV: Real People. Real Flavor. Real Hydrating. Now Sugar-Free. Grab your Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier Sugar-Free in bulk nationwide at Costco or get 20% off when you go to https://LIQUIDIV.COM and use code MAJORITYREP at checkout. That's 20% off ANYTHING you order when you use promo code MAJORITYREP at https://LIQUIDIV.COM. Sunset Lake CBD: sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. Starting today, you can save 35% on all Sunset Lake CBD's tinctures— even tinctures for your pets! Now is a great time to stock up folks. Visit https://SunsetLakeCBD.com and use code TINCTURE at checkout. This deal ends Monday, July 17th. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

What makes neoconservatives different from Cold War liberals? Why did Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" lament the end of the Cold War? What's classical liberalism? And how do liberals like Fukuyama size up our current historical moment? Dr. Daniel Bessner joins the pod for all that and more. Bessner on Fukuyama: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/francis-fukuyama-liberalism-discontents/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Subscribe to the American Prestige podcast: https://www.americanprestigepod.com

Today I talked to Ellin Bessner about her book Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II (New Jewish Press, 2018). "He died so Jewry should suffer no more." These words on a Canadian Jewish soldier's tombstone in Normandy inspired the author to explore the role of Canadian Jews in the war effort. As PM Mackenzie King wrote in 1947, Jewish servicemen faced a "double threat" - they were not only fighting against Fascism but for Jewish survival. At the same time, they encountered widespread antisemitism and the danger of being identified as Jews if captured. Bessner conducted hundreds of interviews and extensive archival research to paint a complex picture of the 17,000 Canadian Jews - about 10 per cent of the Jewish population in wartime Canada - who chose to enlist, including future Cabinet minister Barney Danson, future game-show host Monty Hall, and comedians Wayne and Shuster. Added to this fascinating account are Jews who were among the so-called "Zombies" - Canadians who were drafted, but chose to serve at home - the various perspectives of the Jewish community, and the participation of Canadian Jewish women. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Today I talked to Ellin Bessner about her book Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II (New Jewish Press, 2018). "He died so Jewry should suffer no more." These words on a Canadian Jewish soldier's tombstone in Normandy inspired the author to explore the role of Canadian Jews in the war effort. As PM Mackenzie King wrote in 1947, Jewish servicemen faced a "double threat" - they were not only fighting against Fascism but for Jewish survival. At the same time, they encountered widespread antisemitism and the danger of being identified as Jews if captured. Bessner conducted hundreds of interviews and extensive archival research to paint a complex picture of the 17,000 Canadian Jews - about 10 per cent of the Jewish population in wartime Canada - who chose to enlist, including future Cabinet minister Barney Danson, future game-show host Monty Hall, and comedians Wayne and Shuster. Added to this fascinating account are Jews who were among the so-called "Zombies" - Canadians who were drafted, but chose to serve at home - the various perspectives of the Jewish community, and the participation of Canadian Jewish women. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Today I talked to Ellin Bessner about her book Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II (New Jewish Press, 2018). "He died so Jewry should suffer no more." These words on a Canadian Jewish soldier's tombstone in Normandy inspired the author to explore the role of Canadian Jews in the war effort. As PM Mackenzie King wrote in 1947, Jewish servicemen faced a "double threat" - they were not only fighting against Fascism but for Jewish survival. At the same time, they encountered widespread antisemitism and the danger of being identified as Jews if captured. Bessner conducted hundreds of interviews and extensive archival research to paint a complex picture of the 17,000 Canadian Jews - about 10 per cent of the Jewish population in wartime Canada - who chose to enlist, including future Cabinet minister Barney Danson, future game-show host Monty Hall, and comedians Wayne and Shuster. Added to this fascinating account are Jews who were among the so-called "Zombies" - Canadians who were drafted, but chose to serve at home - the various perspectives of the Jewish community, and the participation of Canadian Jewish women. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

Today I talked to Ellin Bessner about her book Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II (New Jewish Press, 2018). "He died so Jewry should suffer no more." These words on a Canadian Jewish soldier's tombstone in Normandy inspired the author to explore the role of Canadian Jews in the war effort. As PM Mackenzie King wrote in 1947, Jewish servicemen faced a "double threat" - they were not only fighting against Fascism but for Jewish survival. At the same time, they encountered widespread antisemitism and the danger of being identified as Jews if captured. Bessner conducted hundreds of interviews and extensive archival research to paint a complex picture of the 17,000 Canadian Jews - about 10 per cent of the Jewish population in wartime Canada - who chose to enlist, including future Cabinet minister Barney Danson, future game-show host Monty Hall, and comedians Wayne and Shuster. Added to this fascinating account are Jews who were among the so-called "Zombies" - Canadians who were drafted, but chose to serve at home - the various perspectives of the Jewish community, and the participation of Canadian Jewish women. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

Wos is joined this week by special guest Daniel Bessner, a historian, professor, author and editor at Jacobin Magazine. Wos and Bessner take a big picture historical look at the United States international politics, how the US secretly desires hegemony and America's relations in the Middle East, South America and Asia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wos is joined this week by special guest Daniel Bessner, a historian, professor, author and editor at Jacobin Magazine. Wos and Bessner take a big picture historical look at the United States international politics, how the US secretly desires hegemony and America's relations in the Middle East, South America and Asia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bessner, author and professor of American foreign policy at the University of Washington, sits down with web editor Violet Lucca to discuss his Harper's Magazine cover story about the future of the United States and its place in the world during an era of shrinking economic and material might. Bessner suggests a path forward that aims to be practical at the cost of optimism, at a moment when the individual seems to lack any semblance of political agency. Adopting the language of Marx, he posits that “we might be in the era of mutual ruin,” and that a shift toward military and political restraint—rather than misguided liberal interventionism—must begin with a brutally honest diagnosis of the state of the world before any solutions can take shape. Read Bessner's essay: https://harpers.org/archive/2022/07/what-comes-after-the-american-century/ This episode was produced by Violet Lucca, Maddie Crum, and Ian Mantgani.

In his recent Harper's cover piece, “Empire Burlesque,” Daniel Bessner traced the evolution of the foreign policy vision that defined the so-called American century and how it has been reshaped by failures and a changing world order, including a new multipolarity and the rise of China. He draws a distinction between the liberal internationalists and the “restrainers,” the two dominant foreign policy camps in Washington, and he calls for planning a future beyond the American century. But can America act like a normal country? Bessner, an Associate Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington and co-host of the podcast American Prestige, joined Dispatches with Rania Khalek to discuss this and more. Daniel's article: https://harpers.org/archive/2022/07/what-comes-after-the-american-century/

Resending because of a tech glitch. Thanks for your patience.Hello from Cleveland! This week, we speak with friend of the pod Danny Bessner, an historian of U.S. foreign relations and co-host of the podcast American Prestige. Danny discusses his new Harper’s essay, which argues for a departure from American exceptionalism, once and for all. He lays out the two main camps in U.S. foreign policy: liberal internationalists, who advocate for the maintenance of U.S. global hegemony, and restrainers, who argue that the country’s influence should be reduced. We also explore how war and politics have changed since the 1950s, the decimation of academic history and other disciplines in the humanities, how the U.S. regulatory apparatus insulates elite decision-makers from public opinion, and what’s needed to fight back. Thanks for listening, and stay in touch via Substack, timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com, https://twitter.com/ttsgpod, and/or https://www.patreon.com/ttsgpod! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

*Derek is on vacation, so no news recap this week!*With Derek out of town, Producer Jake takes the opportunity to chat with Danny a bit about his new article in Harper’s, “Empire Burlesque”. They discuss some of the concepts presented in the piece, including the American century, liberal internationalists and restrainers, the latter two ideologies’ approaches towards US-China relations, where the American public stands on US armed primacy, and more. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

In episode 1270, Jack and Miles are joined by hosts of American Prestige, Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison to discuss… Is There Any Hope For A Leftist Movement In The US?, Coupchella Night 3 and more! Coupchella Night 3 LISTEN: Les jolies choses by Polo & Pan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shadi has been curious about whether he has diverged from the left since Bernie Sanders' campaign, so he invited the socialist thinker Daniel Bessner onto the podcast this week for a spirited discussion of first principles. Bessner is one of the most influential and important leftist intellectuals writing on foreign policy today. He is the Joff Hanauer Honors Professor in Western Civilization at the University of Washington and the author of Democracy in Exile.   What followed was perhaps the most contentious episode in Wisdom of Crowds history. Of course, here at the podcast, we see deep difference as a feature and not a bug, so we hope you'll see this as an example of what spirited but civil disagreement might look like in practice. The fundamental question we wanted to ask was whether American hegemony has, on balance, been "good" or "bad" for the world.   This is a question about a world that seems to have been lost. The unipolar moment is quickly coming to an end—that is, if it isn't already gone. Daniel argues that the decline in American power is both an inescapable reality and a net positive for the world. Shadi and Damir both disagree, but for quite different reasons.   In Part 2 of our conversation, available here for subscribers, the guys dive even deeper into their disagreements over America's role in the world. If the status quo is anything but ideal, what exactly are the alternatives—and are those alternatives plausible?   Damir, looking to press Daniel, suggests that the socialist vision for how the world will improve with an inward-facing Socialist America leaves too many questions unanswered. Shadi bristled at the suggestion of decreasing America's military footprint at the exact time when Russia and China are becoming increasingly aggressive. All the while, Daniel rejects the premise that it's in our interest to militarily aid Ukraine and would prefer that the U.S. take care of its own people and address its own moral disasters instead of pushing its pretend values on the world.   Subscribe here for access to Part 2.   Required Reading   Daniel Bessner's podcast, "American Prestige"   Daniel's recent appearance on Glenn Loury's podcast   Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual, by Daniel Bessner (Amazon)   "The American Empire and Existential Enemies" by Daniel Bessner (Foreign Exchanges)   "There Are Many Things Worse Than American Power" by Shadi Hamid (Atlantic)   "Are We The Good Guys? A Debate with Glenn Greenwald" (Wisdom of Crowds)   The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (Amazon)

In this episode, Aaron is joined by Daniel Bessner to discuss propaganda in the USA. Bessner is co-host of the American Prestige podcast and a professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a Contributing Editor at Jacobin. In 2019-2020, he served as a foreign policy advisor to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. Daniel is an intellectual historian of U.S. foreign relations and  the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual. After the interview, this episode also features a discussion on materialism, ideology, and propaganda with Our Man in Boston, Ben Howard! Special thanks to Casey Moore for the episode art and Dana Chavarria for the sound engineering!   Music: "This Nation" by Mock Orange

Big Wos and Nando Vila are joined by professor and host of the American Prestige podcast Daniel Bessner. They touch on the US sanctions in Afghanistan but open the show digging into the atrocities of the Drone War. The fellas talk about a recent New York Times story about a drone attack killing 10 innocent kids and other attacks that have been simply forgotten about. Bessner sheds some light on the timeline of the Drone War and how/why it came to be. Daniel Bessner: https://twitter.com/dbessner WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: Youtube.com/countthedings1 Produced by Sean Little - https://twitter.com/ChicagoFlow Sign up for The Athletic: TheAthletic.com/dings Support us on www.patreon.com/countthedings Find us: www.countthedings.com Social: @countthedings @bommnetwork Facebook: www.facebook.com/countthedings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big Wos and Nando Vila are joined by professor and host of the American Prestige podcast Daniel Bessner. They touch on the US sanctions in Afghanistan but open the show digging into the atrocities of the Drone War. The fellas talk about a recent New York Times story about a drone attack killing 10 innocent kids and other attacks that have been simply forgotten about. Bessner sheds some light on the timeline of the Drone War and how/why it came to be. Daniel Bessner: https://twitter.com/dbessner WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: Youtube.com/countthedings1 Produced by Sean Little - https://twitter.com/ChicagoFlow Sign up for The Athletic: TheAthletic.com/dings Support us on www.patreon.com/countthedings Find us: www.countthedings.com Social: @countthedings @bommnetwork Facebook: www.facebook.com/countthedings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapo Trap House's Amber A'Lee Frost and Jacobin contributor Danny Bessner investigate whether the Democrats are losing on purpose. Ross Barkan discusses New York mayor Eric Adams's unlikely coalition of black working-class voters and wealthy developers, and Jen Pan debunks blue-state racecraft. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from January 12, 2021 with Jen Pan hosting.Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYTMusic provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Time was, a Will-less episode meant a cavalcade of kids-running-the-candy-store bullshit. But, we think we've cracked the code to a reasonably focused Will-less eps with the Chris/Danny sub-in combo. Which of course means you hogs will find something else to complain about here. We've got Omicron updates, the BBB implosion, Chile's new president, tensions in Ukraine, and of course, medieval cum hell. Tickets for our Southern tour are on sale over at chapotraphouse.com/live

Like a lot of legacy publications, The Canadian Jewish News has had its ups and downs in the new digital reality, even facing closure at one point. But the pandemic has spurred a digital-first rebirth of the publication that includes a revamped podcast network focused on telling uniquely Jewish Canadian stories.On this episode of Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast, we welcome Michael Fraiman, Executive Director of the CJN Podcast Network, and journalist and author Ellin Bessner, the host of The CJN Daily, to talk about the relaunch, its challenges, and the advantages of being niche media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With Big Wos on vacation, Nando Vila is joined by the host of the American Prestige podcast, Daniel Bessner, to break down what exactly happened in Afghanistan. How was the government dissolved and taken over by The Taliban so quickly? Did the US always know this is how it would end? Bessner gives some detailed insight on the entire situation. Daniel Bessner twitter: https://twitter.com/dbessner WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: Youtube.com/countthedings1 Produced by Sean Little - https://twitter.com/NoKetchupPod Sign up for The Athletic: TheAthletic.com/dings Support us on www.patreon.com/countthedings Find us: www.countthedings.com Social: @countthedings @bommpodcast Facebook: www.facebook.com/countthedings

With Big Wos on vacation, Nando Vila is joined by the host of the American Prestige podcast, Daniel Bessner, to break down what exactly happened in Afghanistan. How was the government dissolved and taken over by The Taliban so quickly? Did the US always know this is how it would end? Bessner gives some detailed insight on the entire situation. Daniel Bessner twitter: https://twitter.com/dbessner WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: Youtube.com/countthedings1 Produced by Sean Little - https://twitter.com/NoKetchupPod Sign up for The Athletic: TheAthletic.com/dings Support us on www.patreon.com/countthedings Find us: www.countthedings.com Social: @countthedings @bommpodcast Facebook: www.facebook.com/countthedings

Sam and Emma are joined Derek Davison & Dan Bessner, co-hosts of the American Prestige Podcast. Derek and Dan start off by summarizing the first (almost) 200 days of the Biden Administration's foreign policy in comparison with their original goals, looking into the continued establishment of liberal internationalism in his cabinet alongside his (slightly delayed) execution of Trump's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. They look into this tactic for hegemonic stabilization, with the U.S. drawing back from smaller conflicts on the world stage as we turn towards great power conflicts and competition with China, before Sam works backward with them, recalling the Project for a New American Century and the strategy of managing the small fires that break out on the international stage in order to ensure no challenge to U.S. hegemony. Sam, Dan, and Derek then discuss the continued drive for American universalism, particularly in contrast with the current Chinese presence on the world stage, that seems to be closer to embracing a multipolar world that coexists rather than the U.S. “city on a hill” tactic. They wrap up the interview by discussing the foreign policy legacy of the Trump Administration, touching on the Iran Nuclear Deal, the industrialization of drone warfare following Obama, as well as the complete restructuring of American discourse into stratified world views bringing out an epistemological crisis in the absence of consensus. Sam and Emma also talk about the Conservative anchor talking point on not giving medical recommendations, just giving recommendations not to listen to medical recommendations. And in the Fun Half: Aamon Hawk joins the MR crew to discuss his incredible Sam/Crowder horror short, his cinematic inspirations, and how he got into animation, as Sam basks in his stardom. Then, Emma and Sam analyze the conservative claim that migrants are the cause of rising infection rates in Florida, somehow jumping over the border states Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, and Tucker Carlson somehow (yet completely unsurprisingly) forgets the contents of the infrastructure bill in a rant, only correctly stating that it lacked features to “move the bums out” and “clean them”… whatever that means. They also touch on Kyrsten Sinema's continued implementation of the five D's (dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge) in discussing the possibility of taking a vote on actual policy, and Emma once against displays her killer "Pirate Amy Goodman" impression, plus, your calls and IMs! Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ (Merch issues and concerns can be addressed here: majorityreportstore@mirrorimage.com) You can now watch the livestream on Twitch Check out today's sponsors: Grove: Companies around the world produce two billion pounds of new plastic every day. Yet no matter how much we put in our recycling bin, just nine percent of plastic actually gets recycled. At Grove Collaborative, they believe it's time to stop making single-use plastic. Grove is the online marketplace that delivers healthy home, beauty, and personal care products directly to you! It takes the guesswork out of going green — Every product is guaranteed to be good for you, your family, your home, and the planet. For a limited time when our listeners go to Grove.com/MAJORITY you will get to choose a FREE starter set with your first order. Go to Grove.com/MAJORITY to get your exclusive offer! sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here's a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/ Support the St. Vincent Nurses today as they continue to strike for a fair contract! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/ Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Subscribe to AM Quickie writer Corey Pein's podcast News from Nowhere, at https://www.patreon.com/newsfromnowhere Check out The Letterhack's upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel! Check out The Nomiki Show live at 3 pm ET on YouTube at patreon.com/thenomikishow Check out Matt's podcast, Literary Hangover, at Patreon.com/LiteraryHangover, or on iTunes. Check out Jamie's podcast, The Antifada, at patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!) Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop  

   July 12, 2021 - Imagine you're Jewish during the Second World War, but safely in bed an ocean away from Nazi Germany, secure in the vastness of Canada. Would you march into the heart of the Third Reich, risking your life to stare down Hitler's war machine, for a country that didn't consider you a fully loyal and equal citizen? In this episode, we meet the heroes that Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King said faced a "double threat" from Axis evil: Not just Fascism, but their survival as a people. Our guide on this journey is Ellin Bessner, a professor of journalism at Centennial College in Toronto and the author of Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II. Although Canada had turned away European Jews desperate to escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism -- and while those already in Canada found doors to many jobs and universities slammed in their faces -- when war came, an huge numbers answered the call to fight, defying bigotry and earning valor that has been shamefully forgotten. Ellin also hosts the CJN Daily, a podcast from The Canadian Jewish News. Visit her at EllinBessner.com or on social media at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

This week we talk about the political and social economy of “first person shooter” video games with Danny Bessner, whose recent piece in The Drift investigates the deep cultural contradictions at play in the enormously popular Call of Duty franchise. With armies of alienated young men casting themselves as protagonists in deeply distorted narratives of 20th century history, we explore the lines between harmless entertainment, violent brainwashing, and military propaganda. For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Daniel Bessner did many a favor by reading the recent Obama biography so we wouldn't have too. He published a review of the article in Jacobin Magazine entitled: The Barack Obama Memoir: Don't Trust this process. Today we will discuss with Bessner the particular utility of Obama to the ruling class and why the Obama project is so important to protect for the liberal power elite in America. About Daniel Bessner: Daniel Bessner currently holds the Joff Hanauer Honors Professorship in Western Civilization at the University of Washington. He is a member of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and was previously the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a Contributing Editor at Jacobin. Daniel is an intellectual historian of U.S. foreign relations. He is the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual You can order Daniel's Book here: https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Exil...​   Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH! Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLa...​ Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!) THANKS Y'ALL YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9W...​ Twitch: www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast www.twitch.tv/leftflankvets​ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolu...​ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland Medium: https://jasonmyles.medium.com​ Pascal Robert in Black Agenda Report: https://www.blackagendareport.com/bla...   Pascal and Jason on Ben Burgis' GIVE THEM AN ARGUMENT: https://youtu.be/5Ob2AaeQxZQ

Wos is joined this week by special guest Daniel Bessner, a historian, professor, author and editor at Jacobin Magazine. Wos and Bessner take a big picture historical look at the United States international politics, how the US secretly desires hegemony and America’s relations in the Middle East, South America and Asia. Produced by: Rob Lopez Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com/countthedings1 Subscribe to TMBS www.patreon.com/TMBS Support us: www.patreon.com/countthedingsFind us: www.countthedings.comSocial: @countthedings @bommpodcast@bigwos @nandorvilaFacebook.com/countthedings

Ben and Forrest break down Biden's inaugural address and his first week in office. Katie Halper, Daniel Bessner, and Rania Khalek come on for an all-star panel on Biden's foreign policy. Forrest plays a teaser of the patron-exclusive episode dropping Thursday with Ben's conversation with Bessner and Amber A'lee Frost about their excellent Jacobin piece exploring the insanity of QAnon. David Griscom talks about The Highwaymen on Outlaws & Revolutionaries. Guys, this is a fantastic episode.Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis. Patrons get early access to every episode as well as a weekly bonus episode and regularly scheduled "Discord Office Hours" group voice chats.Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgisLike, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAAVisit benburgis.comSHOW LESS

Heute schlägt es 13 und zwar hart denn Ted Hetfield, Gründer der Metalband Wicked Disciple, ist unser Gast und erzählt uns seine Geschichten aus Bottrop und warum er nicht so gerne zur Post geht. Informativ wie immer erfahrt Ihr bei uns ab welchem Alter man am Besten Leute betrügen kann und was in Zukunft wieder auf der Horster Straße los. Piet und Alex werden bei "Wieviel Bottrop bist du?" aufs Glatteis geführt und wir entschuldigen uns direkt hier beim Bessner, dass wir ihm nicht besser zugehört haben. Und am Ende gibbet noch die Stauschau.

Jon and Matt were joined by Dr. Daniel Bessner to discuss the need to challenge the bipartisan consensus on US foreign policy. Dr. Bessner currently holds the Joff Hanauer Honors Professorship in Western Civilization at the University of Washington. He is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He also the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual More of Dr. Bessner's writing can be found in Jacobin, the New York Times, and his blog, Foreign Exchanges Discussed in this Episode: - The bipartisan imperial consensus and its destructive consequences. - Daniel's article for the New York Times, What Does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Think About the South China Sea? - The need for progressive politicians to include anti imperialist foreign policy as part of their platform - The total lack of accountability for foreign policy failures/war criminality - Defense intellectual: How the allegedly most intelligent officials from the best schools have created disastrous foreign policy - Daniel's article Build back Better at Foreign Exchanges, predictions and hopes for the Biden administration - The need to join the International Criminal Court, dissolve NATO, and pardon whistleblowers Our Work: Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content! Social Media: Twitter- @Mattylongruns.

The 1990 Martin Scorsese-directed gangster saga Goodfellas remains one of the most rewatchable films of the 20th century, a kaleidoscopic ride through the ups and downs of mafia life that’s as exhausting as it is entertaining. For David and Danny, Goodfellas occupies a space of both personal and cultural connection–a nostalgia trap that functions on multiple levels. In this conversation, we explore the film’s unique power in the context of 20th century history, from the development of working class white ethnic gang culture to its long decline in the shadow of suburbanization and gentrification, from spaghetti and marinara to egg noodles and ketchup. What story is Goodfellas really telling us? Go to patreon.com/nostalgiatrap to hear the full episode.

Jon Wiener is an American historian and the author of a number of books on the 1960s and 1970s, including Conspiracy in the Streets: The Extraordinary Trial of the Chicago Seven. Jon returns to the Trap to talk with David and Danny about the Netflix film Trial of the Chicago 7, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. From questionable casting choices to an outrageously ahistorical happy ending, how does Sorkin’s notoriously rosy, liberal take on American history color his depiction of 1960s radicalism?

Vorhang auf zur dritten Runde BOTTcast. Was haben Pik-Damen mit der Villa Dickmann gemeinsam? Eigentlich nichts außer das beide Ihren Platz hier bei uns im BOTTcast gefunden haben. Freut Euch wieder auf ganz viel Bottrop mit Piet und Alex. #bottcast #bierchenbitte #bierchen_bitte_der_bottcast

The Amazon series The Boys, based on the comic book series of the same name, is a hyper-violent and deeply cynical take on superhero culture and, ultimately, neoliberal capitalism. Danny Bessner joins us for a discussion of the show’s truly unhinged characters and plotlines, as we examine both the striking elements of The Boys’ dark vision of 21st century America (spoiler: it’s Nazis all the way down) and the limits of slickly-produced critiques of capitalism’s evils made by the very capitalist institutions responsible for them. Subscribe to listen to the whole episode: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Writer Rax King’s deservedly celebrated recent piece, “Love, Peace, and Taco Grease: How I Left My Abusive Husband and Found Guy Fieri,” is both an incredible feat of writing and a compelling take on the unlikely charm and cultural power of the yellow-haired star of the Food Network’s flagship program, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (or, the “Triple D”). She joins David and Danny for a discussion of millennial food culture, the aesthetic evolution of food TV, the connections between cheeseburgers and climate change, the ethics of eating at restaurants during COVID, and of course, the complicated cultural legacy of Guy Fieri’s undeniably addictive tour of American foodlust. Visit patreon.com/nostalgiatrap for full episode.

Trevor Beaulieu of the Champagne Sharks podcast joins us on our journey through 90s Los Angeles, as we explore John Carpenter’s batshit 1996 action film Escape from L.A. Dismissed by critics and ignored by audiences, the film now seems like a strange kind of masterpiece, and a vibrant window on the confused cultural politics of 1990s Hollywood. Subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap to listen to full episode.

On our first live podcast episode, Danny Bessner, Courtney Rawlings, and Bill Black join us for a detailed look at the 1985 pop culture nostalgia monster Back to the Future (dir. Robert Zemeckis). We take on the film’s weird political economy, sexual psychology, and engagement with 20th century American history, discovering a disturbing, often racist, conservative vision at the heart of Zemeckis’ insanely popular filmography. And of course, we find out if Back to the Future really did predict 9/11.

When trying to isolate state policy and priorities, it's impossible to disentangle the relationship between official institutions like the U.S.' Department of State or Defense from think tanks such as the RAND Institute, Brookings, or Carnegie Endowment. If a politician wants to justify starting a war or identify a danger to the national interest, he or she will often rely on think tank reports and their employed staff to bolster this assessment. I'm speaking today with Daniel Bessner, who is the Joff Hanauer Honors Associate Professor in Western Civilization at the University of Washington. An historian on the defense intellectual complex and its relationship to power and democracy, Bessner is also the author of the book Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual. In our conversation, we'll go over the relatively recent history of think tanks and the function they serve. Much of the talk will revolve around a little-known figure in this world named Hans Speier, who helped usher in the age of defense intellectuals and whose legacy, though obscure, contains valuable insights into the mind of the modern policy expert.

Ben is joined by Daniel Bessner and Djene Bajalan to break down the Azerbaijan/Armenia conflict. Djene's article in Jacobin:https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/azerbaijan-armenia-conflict-nationalism-colonialism

As we continue our series on 90s L.A. movies, we arrive at the 1995 high school classic Clueless (dir. Amy Heckerling), one of a number of Jane Austen adaptations that dominated 1990s pop culture. Danny Bessner and Courtney Rawlings join us for an exploration of this sunny, satirical vision of affluent teen culture, and we discover that Clueless is a more complicated take on feminism, consumerism, class, and politics than any of us had noticed on first watch. From the mansions of Beverly Hills to the lowland horror that is THE VALLEY, we explore how Clueless offers a vision of Los Angeles and youth culture that continues to resonate in the 21st century. For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap. 

Our journey through 90s Los Angeles with Danny Bessner continues with an exploration of the Jon Favreau/Vince Vaughn indie bromance Swingers (1996). We talk about the film’s depiction of pre-gentrification Hollywood, when non-rich people could still afford a social life (or at least a beer and a burger), and analyze the wider historical forces that produced the somewhat bizarre mid-decade pop culture swing revival of which Swingers was a major part. We discuss David’s personal experiences with swing culture in Southern California, the blank culture of straight suburban whiteness, and the uneasy gender politics at play in Swingers and Gen X culture more widely. And we learn of Danny’s heretofore unacknowledged appreciation of Guy Fieri. For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap. 

Why are noir detective stories such fitting containers for exploring the greed, corruption, and violence of Los Angeles? As we continue our series with Danny Bessner on 90s L.A. cinema, Will Menaker of Chapo Trap House joins us for a conversation about Curtis Hanson’s 1997 neo-noir Hollywood masterpiece L.A. Confidential. Since Will and Danny are confessed James Ellroy fanatics, they explain how the famously enigmatic author’s dark, often reactionary vision of Los Angeles translates to the screen. Along the way we reflect on how L.A. Confidential plays with both the image and reality of L.A. history, simultaneously critiquing and participating in the city’s toxic, intoxicating mythology of Hollywood glamour and lurid subterranean nightmares.

The 1993 film Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas and directed by Joel Schumacher, divided audiences and critics with a story of a man’s descent into vigilante violence on a hot Los Angeles day. Viewed from 2020, the film shows us something deep and dark about American social reality in the years immediately following the end of the Cold War. Danny Bessner joins us for a detailed analysis of an important piece of 90s pop culture, connecting the history of Los Angeles as the rising center of American empire to the emotional disintegration of Douglas’ character. 

Ellin Bessner is a Canadian journalist based in Toronto. She is the author of a new book about Canada’s Jewish servicemen and women who fought in the Second World War. The book is called “Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War ll”. Ellin was born in Montreal and graduated with a degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University. Her career as a journalist took her around Canada and around the world, working for CTV News and CBC News, and also stringing for the Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and other organizations. As a foreign correspondent based in Rome, Italy, during the 1990s, aside from reporting on the Vatican, the Mafia, Italian food, fashion, and opera, and of course, on Italian soccer, Ellin also covered several brutal civil wars in Africa. She’s interviewed Prince Phillip and the Dalai Lama. She was a business anchor for many years at Report on Business Television, now BNN. Ellin has also taught hundreds of budding young journalists, in her capacity as a professor at Centennial College Journalism School in Toronto, and before that, at Seneca College and Ryerson University.   In her spare time, she plays Mahjongg, gardens, and loves the “Outlander” series. She lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario with her husband and two sons. Today we talk about how she discovered her ADHD & Journalism, how her ADHD has helped her in the field, influenced her life, her career, her writing, marriage and her children. Enjoy!   In this episode Peter & Ellin discuss: 0:52-  Intro & welcome Ellin Bessner! 1:39-  What was school like for you? 4:00-  On making the decision to get tested for ADHD 6:00-  On deciding to do the work and use self care 7:05-  On feeling shame about your ADHD 7:51-  On how Ellin discovered Journalism and how she uses her ADHD in the field 9:30-  On how she manages her ADHD 11:30-  Did you use your hyperfocus when writing & researching your book?  “Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War ll” 13:56-  What are your top 3 pieces of advice for people with ADHD? 16:00-  How can people find you?  www.EllinBessner.com  via ebessner@gmail.com  and on Twitter: @ebessner 16:30-  Thank you Ellin for joining us! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you’ve reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. 16:44-  Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we’d love to hear!

In Episode 5 of the Financial Advice for All Podcast, best-selling author and commercial litigator Ellen Bessner of Babin Bessner Spry LLP talks about how to close the communication gap between yourself and your financial advisor. She examines why it is important for you to open up about your personal experiences, spending habits and goals to get the best financial advice. Ellen Bessner is a litigator and regulatory defence lawyer. She is the author of two books, the best-selling Advisor at Risk and its sequel, Communication Risk, available at BabinBessnerSpry.com.

Do you ever wonder how you can protect yourself and your business from litigation and reputation risk? In this special program for financial advisors, Ellen Bessner, a leading expert on the topic of the risks facing advisors, provides a wealth of practical suggestions for how you can do just that. Ellen Bessner is a litigation and regulatory defence lawyer, partner at Babin Bessner Spry, LLP and author of two books: the best-selling Advisor at Risk and its sequel, Communication Risk, available at BabinBessnerSpry.com.

After a month long sabbatical, the Ross Connects duo of Josh & Andrew catch up with classmate Nick Bessner. We talk about his career with Nestle, creating bucket lists with every move, and plan a Ross Connects field trip to Arlington! Join us for this on much more on episode 9 of your favorite podcast with your favorite co-hosts...well at least we hope we are your favorite, right? Forever Go Blue!

Historian Daniel Bessner joins Andrew and Ray for a discussion of American foreign policy. What would a leftist foreign policy look like? Bessner suggests the ways we might introduce a form of humanitarian intervention without imperial ambitions. See his book Democracy in Exile, and the following essays for more about leftist foreign policy: "Roundtable on Democracy and Exile," "How the Left Should Respond to Ethnic Cleansing in China," "What Does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Think About the South China Sea," "The Globalist," and a book review titled "Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First Century." Articles linked at our website: http://wildorchids.libsyn.com. 

Daniel Bessner is a historian with a particular focus on American foreign policy. His book Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual mixes biography with a striking analysis of Cold War policy-making. In this conversation, Bessner expands on the ideas he presented in a recent New York Times op-ed, in which he argues that the left needs a more focused and practical pathway to dismantling the American imperial project and drawing down the endless wars that have decimated globe for decades.   

Daniel Bessner's Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell University Press, 2018) provides a fascinating account of Hans Speier, an oft forgotten yet highly influential figure within the mid-century national security state. Speier, a Weimar emigre intellectual, conducted propaganda for the United States in both the Second World War and the Cold War, and helped build the institutional infrastructure of the so-called military-intellectual complex. This book is more than a biography of a single person, however. It also traces the rise of a new kind of person: the defense intellectual. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Speier and other defense intellectuals, including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Walt Rostow, elevated the influence of experts and even transformed the way U.S. foreign policy was made. With Speier at its center, Democracy in Exile makes critical interventions into many debates, such as the role of crises in democracy, the Cold War's origins and, perhaps most importantly for us today, the proper place of experts in society and government. (In regard to that last debate, see also Bessner and Stephen Wertheim's Foreign Affairs article “Democratizing U.S. Foreign Policy.”) Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dexter Fergie is a first-year PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bessner’s Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell University Press, 2018) provides a fascinating account of Hans Speier, an oft forgotten yet highly influential figure within the mid-century national security state. Speier, a Weimar emigre intellectual, conducted propaganda for the United States in both the Second World War and the Cold War, and helped build the institutional infrastructure of the so-called military-intellectual complex. This book is more than a biography of a single person, however. It also traces the rise of a new kind of person: the defense intellectual. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Speier and other defense intellectuals, including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Walt Rostow, elevated the influence of experts and even transformed the way U.S. foreign policy was made. With Speier at its center, Democracy in Exile makes critical interventions into many debates, such as the role of crises in democracy, the Cold War’s origins and, perhaps most importantly for us today, the proper place of experts in society and government. (In regard to that last debate, see also Bessner and Stephen Wertheim’s Foreign Affairs article “Democratizing U.S. Foreign Policy.”) Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dexter Fergie is a first-year PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bessner’s Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell University Press, 2018) provides a fascinating account of Hans Speier, an oft forgotten yet highly influential figure within the mid-century national security state. Speier, a Weimar emigre intellectual, conducted propaganda for the United States in both the Second World War and the Cold War, and helped build the institutional infrastructure of the so-called military-intellectual complex. This book is more than a biography of a single person, however. It also traces the rise of a new kind of person: the defense intellectual. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Speier and other defense intellectuals, including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Walt Rostow, elevated the influence of experts and even transformed the way U.S. foreign policy was made. With Speier at its center, Democracy in Exile makes critical interventions into many debates, such as the role of crises in democracy, the Cold War’s origins and, perhaps most importantly for us today, the proper place of experts in society and government. (In regard to that last debate, see also Bessner and Stephen Wertheim’s Foreign Affairs article “Democratizing U.S. Foreign Policy.”) Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dexter Fergie is a first-year PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bessner’s Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell University Press, 2018) provides a fascinating account of Hans Speier, an oft forgotten yet highly influential figure within the mid-century national security state. Speier, a Weimar emigre intellectual, conducted propaganda for the United States in both the Second World War and the Cold War, and helped build the institutional infrastructure of the so-called military-intellectual complex. This book is more than a biography of a single person, however. It also traces the rise of a new kind of person: the defense intellectual. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Speier and other defense intellectuals, including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Walt Rostow, elevated the influence of experts and even transformed the way U.S. foreign policy was made. With Speier at its center, Democracy in Exile makes critical interventions into many debates, such as the role of crises in democracy, the Cold War’s origins and, perhaps most importantly for us today, the proper place of experts in society and government. (In regard to that last debate, see also Bessner and Stephen Wertheim’s Foreign Affairs article “Democratizing U.S. Foreign Policy.”) Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dexter Fergie is a first-year PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bessner’s Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell University Press, 2018) provides a fascinating account of Hans Speier, an oft forgotten yet highly influential figure within the mid-century national security state. Speier, a Weimar emigre intellectual, conducted propaganda for the United States in both the Second World War and the Cold War, and helped build the institutional infrastructure of the so-called military-intellectual complex. This book is more than a biography of a single person, however. It also traces the rise of a new kind of person: the defense intellectual. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Speier and other defense intellectuals, including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Walt Rostow, elevated the influence of experts and even transformed the way U.S. foreign policy was made. With Speier at its center, Democracy in Exile makes critical interventions into many debates, such as the role of crises in democracy, the Cold War’s origins and, perhaps most importantly for us today, the proper place of experts in society and government. (In regard to that last debate, see also Bessner and Stephen Wertheim’s Foreign Affairs article “Democratizing U.S. Foreign Policy.”) Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dexter Fergie is a first-year PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bessner’s Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell University Press, 2018) provides a fascinating account of Hans Speier, an oft forgotten yet highly influential figure within the mid-century national security state. Speier, a Weimar emigre intellectual, conducted propaganda for the United States in both the Second World War and the Cold War, and helped build the institutional infrastructure of the so-called military-intellectual complex. This book is more than a biography of a single person, however. It also traces the rise of a new kind of person: the defense intellectual. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Speier and other defense intellectuals, including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Walt Rostow, elevated the influence of experts and even transformed the way U.S. foreign policy was made. With Speier at its center, Democracy in Exile makes critical interventions into many debates, such as the role of crises in democracy, the Cold War’s origins and, perhaps most importantly for us today, the proper place of experts in society and government. (In regard to that last debate, see also Bessner and Stephen Wertheim’s Foreign Affairs article “Democratizing U.S. Foreign Policy.”) Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dexter Fergie is a first-year PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bessner’s Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (Cornell University Press, 2018) provides a fascinating account of Hans Speier, an oft forgotten yet highly influential figure within the mid-century national security state. Speier, a Weimar emigre intellectual, conducted propaganda for the United States in both the Second World War and the Cold War, and helped build the institutional infrastructure of the so-called military-intellectual complex. This book is more than a biography of a single person, however. It also traces the rise of a new kind of person: the defense intellectual. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Speier and other defense intellectuals, including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Walt Rostow, elevated the influence of experts and even transformed the way U.S. foreign policy was made. With Speier at its center, Democracy in Exile makes critical interventions into many debates, such as the role of crises in democracy, the Cold War’s origins and, perhaps most importantly for us today, the proper place of experts in society and government. (In regard to that last debate, see also Bessner and Stephen Wertheim’s Foreign Affairs article “Democratizing U.S. Foreign Policy.”) Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dexter Fergie is a first-year PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support the show and get double the episodes by subscribing to bonus episodes for $5/month at patreon.com/champagnesharks.  If you can’t subscribe right now for whatever reason, do the next best thing and tell as many people as you know about the show. Also, remember to review and rate the podcast in Itunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/champ…d1242690393?mt=2. Also, check out the Champagne Sharks reddit at http://reddit.com/r/champagnesharks. Today we have on Daniel Bessner (https://twitter.com/dbessner) to discuss his new book, Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual http://amzn.to/2Gx9q0j, which will be available in April 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.  Daniel Bessner (Ph.D., Duke University) is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Daniel works on intellectual and cultural history, U.S. foreign relations, the history of democratic thought, and the history of the social sciences. The book is descrbed by the publisher as follows: "Anyone interested in the history of U.S. foreign relations, Cold War history, and twentieth century intellectual history will find this impressive biography of Hans Speier, one of the most influential figures in American defense circles of the twentieth century, a must-read. In Democracy in Exile, Daniel Bessner shows how the experience of the Weimar Republic’s collapse and the rise of Nazism informed Hans Speier’s work as an American policymaker and institution builder. Bessner delves into Speier’s intellectual development, illuminating the ideological origins of the expert-centered approach to foreign policymaking and revealing the European roots of Cold War liberalism. Democracy in Exile places Speier at the center of the influential and fascinating transatlantic network of policymakers, many of them German émigrés, who struggled with the tension between elite expertise and democratic politics. Speier was one of the most prominent intellectuals among this cohort, and Bessner traces his career, in which he advanced from university intellectual to state expert, holding a key position at the RAND Corporation and serving as a powerful consultant to the State Department and Ford Foundation, across the mid-twentieth century. Bessner depicts the critical role Speier played in the shift in American intellectual history in which hundreds of social scientists left their universities and contributed to the creation of an expert-based approach to U.S. foreign relations, in the process establishing close connections between governmental and nongovernmental organizations. As Bessner writes: to understand the rise of the defense intellectual, we must understand Hans Speier." Discussed in this episode: "On the Brink" by Daniel Bessner, a book review of Daniel Ellsberg's biography https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/on-the-brink/