Jake and Phil discuss Phil's New York Times essay "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military" and Homer's "Embassy to Achilles" The Manifesto: Phil Klay, "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/opinion/trump-hegseth-military-morality.html The Art: Homer, "Embassy to Achilles" https://www.penguinbookshop.com/book/9780140275360

Jake and Phil discuss Thomas Hardy’s The Oxen, TS Eliot’s Journey of the Magi, and The Pogues Fairytale of New York Thomas Hardy - The Oxen https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53215/the-oxen-56d232503c32d TS Eliot - Journey of the Magi https://poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi/ The Pogues - Fairytale of New York https://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8?si=AWYk4ya5bFPUyFtd

Jake and Phil are joined by Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist and author of the forthcoming Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, to discuss Ross' essay "Is the World Ready for a Religious Comeback" and Christian Wiman's 2008 essay in the American Scholar, "My Bright Abyss" The Manifesto: Ross Douthat, "Is the World Ready for a Religious Comeback" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/opinion/religion-atheism-books.html The Art: Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss https://theamericanscholar.org/my-bright-abyss/ Pre-order Ross' book https://www.zondervan.com/9780310367604/believe/

Jake and Phil discuss Leon Trotsky's "Communist Policy Toward Art" and Gogol's "The Overcoat" The Manifesto: Leon Trotsky - "Communist Policy Toward Art" https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1924/lit_revo/ch07.htm The Art Gogol - "The Overcoat" https://www.fountainheadpress.com/expandingthearc/assets/gogolovercoat.pdf

Phil and Jake discuss Joan Didion's "Politics in the New Normal America" and Robinson Jeffers "Fire on the Hills" The Manifesto: Joan Didion, Politics in the New Normal America https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2004/10/21/politics-in-the-new-normal-america/ The Art: Robinson Jeffers, Fire on the Hills https://ronnowpoetry.com/contents/jeffers/FireontheHills.html For more on Jeffers in Czechoslovakia, see The Warm Reception of Robinson Jeffers’s Poetry in Cold War Czechoslovakia, by Petr Kopecky https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/169/edited_volume/chapter/1524695/pdf

Nate DiMeo, a notable podcaster and author of The Memory Palace, dives into the world of punk and metal. He discusses the influential Riot Grrrl Manifesto and Steve Albini's critical views on the music industry. The conversation explores the cultural significance of manifestos in shaping identity and community within capitalist society. They also tackle the harsh realities musicians face with major labels and delve into the emotional complexities of first love, all intertwined with the raw power of punk and metal music.

Phil and Jake are joined by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman, the authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice, to discuss David Benatar's 1997 paper "Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence," alongside Paul Schrader's 2017 film First Reformed. The Manifesto: David Benatar - "Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence" https://www.jstor.org/stable/20009904 The Art: Paul Schrader - First Reformed https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438/ Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman - What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250276131/whatarechildrenfor For more of Anastasia's work https://www.anastasiaberg.com/ Rachel's work at The Point https://thepointmag.com/author/rwiseman/

Jake and Phil are joined by the poet and critic Alice Gribbin to discuss Ezra Pound's The Serious Artist and Eliot Weinberger's The Life of Tu Fu The Manifesto: Ezra Pound, The Serious Artist https://archive.org/details/literaryessaysof00poun/page/n5/mode/2up The Art: Eliot Weinberger, The Life of Tu Fu https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-life-of-tu-fu/ For more of Alice's writing: https://www.alicegribbin.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile

Jake and Phil are joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, to discuss Wallace Stegner's 1987 novel Crossing to Safety.

Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and chronicler of post-secular religious movements, Tara Isabella Burton, to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's 1939 essay “On Fairy-Stories” and Christina Rossetti's 1862 poem, "Goblin Market." The manifesto: https://ieas-szeged.hu/downtherabbithole/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tolkien-On-Fairy-Stories.pdf The Art: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market Tara's new novel, Here In Avalon: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Here-in-Avalon/Tara-Isabella-Burton/9781982170097