Give Them An Argument

Andrew Hartman joins Ben Burgis to talk about his fascinating book "Karl Marx in America," where he traces interest in Marx's ideas by American commentators from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression to the Vietnam-era New Left to the present. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument responding to Ro Khanna on socialism. In the postgame for patrons, Ben and the crew watch a slightly less serious discussion about Marx by Tim Pool and Sargon of Akkad and some other person who's name none of us can be bothered to remember (+ Donald Trump telling a story about how his fat billionaire friend in London).Sign up for the Capital Vol. 2 class:patreon.com/benburgisBuy Andrew's book:https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/K/bo245100866.htmlFollow Andrew on Twitter: @HartmanAndrewFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Eric Blanc joins Ben Burgis to talk about his new book "How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big." Then in the postgame for patrons, Ben and the crew will watch a bit of Ethan Klein vs. Hassan Piker for some reason.Buy Eric's book:https://www.ucpress.edu/books/we-are-the-union/paperRead Eric's Substack:https://www.laborpolitics.com/Follow Eric on Twitter: @_ericblancFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) comes on to talk about the swirling chaos of Trump 2.0 and where Dems are falling short in response. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument about why the Left should trumpet the fact that social democratic policies are objectively pro-natalist. Pressuring people to have kids is obviously illiberal and bad, but we should take the W on the fact that the economic policies we want would make things a lot easier for people who want to make that choice (and the fact that this would be good for our society). Musician and commentator José Ayerve joins us in the postgame for patrons..Follow Ro Khanna on Twitter: @RepRoKhannaFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

First-time GTAA guest Borna Radnik and frequent GTAA guest Matt McManus join Ben Burgis to chat about Borna's book "Freedom, in Context:Time, History, and Necessity in Hegel." Before that, in lieu of an Opening Argument and for the first time on YouTube, we'll play a talk Ben gave a while back called "Karl Marx Deserves Better Critics."...and, last but not least, Jason Myles hangs out in the postgame for patrons!Check out Borna's book:https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Context-History-Necessity-Hegel/dp/1350430048Follow Borna on Twitter: @BornaRadnikFollow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProfFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Matt Bruenig and Luke Savage join Ben Burgis to talk about their reviews of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's book, "Abundance," and what it all signifies about the drift of contemporary liberalism. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument about why we should reject the false dichotomy of having to either support Donald Trump's "liberation day" insanity or neoliberal free-trade absolutism. Last but definitely not least, Victor Bruzzone and Ethan from Confronting Capital join for the postgame for patrons.Ticket link for the San Francisco live show on April 17th:https://www.universe.com/events/is-trump-the-end-of-history-tickets-J30WT9Read Luke's review of "Abundance":https://www.lukewsavage.com/p/the-paucity-of-abundance...and Matt's:https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/03/24/the-abundance-agenda/Follow Luke on Twitter: @lukewsavageFollow Matt on Twitter: @MattBruenigFollow Victor on Twitter: @victorbruzzoneFollow Ethan on Twitter: @Mouthy_InfidelFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Jake and Andy are joined by Teen Driver’s Mark Gurarie to talk about protest music. Ben shows up for a bit at the beginning but then disappears because he has bad priorities and chose to spend his birthday with his "literal" family instead of his podcasting family. We're not sure what's wrong with him.Ticket link for the San Francisco live show on April 17th:https://www.universe.com/events/is-trump-the-end-of-history-tickets-J30WT9Check out Teen Driver:https://teendriver.bandcamp.comFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Ben Burgis faces off with the Libertarian Institute's managing editor Keith Knight in a wide-ranging debate about capitalism, socialism, coercion, authoritarianim, exploitation, and more.Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Ben Burgis and philosophy professor and "Micro-Digressions" host Spencer Case hash out their disagreement on Zionism. Before that, Ben and the crew watch a fascinatingly strange AI video and Ben gives an Opening Argument on the Trump administration's authoritarianism, whether it's fascism, and why that even matters. Mean Djene Bajalan joins us for the postgame for GTAA patrons to break down GroupChatGate.Tickets to the live show in San Francisco on April 17th:https://www.universe.com/events/is-trump-the-end-of-history-tickets-J30WT9Check out Micro-Digressions:https://www.youtube.com/@Micro-DigressionsFollow Spencer on Twitter: @ADigressionsSpencer’s book recommendations on the Israel-Palestine Conflict:Israel/Palestine by Alan DowtyRise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of The Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace by Einat Wilf and Adi SchwartzRighteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict 1881-2001 by Benny MorrisFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Far-right Russian thinker Aleksandr Dugin just sat down with Glenn Greenwald for an extensive interview, and we can't look away. Deep State Kuba joins Ben Burgis to watch some of it and discuss. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument on the issues raised by the outrageous assault on free speech at Columbia. At the end of the main show, we play some of Daniel Tutt's guest appearance on Ben Burgis's Sunday afternoon Zoom Capital class to talk about the lumpenproletariat and tease Richard Wolff's guest lecture next Sunday. (Anyone who wants can join the class at patreon.com/benburgis and get instant access to all 25 class recordings so far, and of course join live for the approximately one trillion Sundays we've got left in the class (eight more chapters left in Vol. I, plus the entirety of Vols. II + III). Last but very far from least, in the postgame for patrons Ben and the crew chat with Yuri Rashkin, who actually did a Russian-language debate with Dugin a couple of years ago. Ben is accused of spreading "Kremlin propaganda" but somehow everyone parts as friends.Buy tickets for Ben's live show with Jason Myles on April 17th in San Francisco:https://www.universe.com/events/is-trump-the-end-of-history-tickets-J30WT9Follow Kuba on Twitter: @DrKuba2Follow Daniel on Twitter: @DanielTuttFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

A couple weeks ago, Ben Burgis and Jason Myles went to UC-Irvine to speak at a panel on neoliberalism at the West coast conference of the Platypus Affiliated Society. It was a pretty interesting conversation, and we're excited to finally be able to share it.Before that, Ben gives us an Opening Argument about Jeff Bezos's diktat the Washington Post will no longer publish anything critical of "free markets" and look back at a moment from Ben's debate with Curtis Yarvin where Yarvin claimed that the Washington Post was so autonomous that Bezos was more like its "sponsor" than its owner. Last but definitely not least, Jason joins us for a debrief at the end of the episode.Read the Jacobin article on Bezos's diktat:https://jacobin.com/2025/03/bezos-washington-post-free-marketFollow Jason on Twitter: @J_Myles_TiRFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com