Manifesto!

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

Author Matt Gallagher, known for Daybreak, joins Phil and Jake to discuss George Orwell's 'Looking Back on the Spanish War' and Benjamin Busch's photographs from Ukraine. They explore themes of self-determination, democracy, and resistance against totalitarianism, drawing parallels to current events in Ukraine and reflecting on Orwell's experiences in the Spanish Civil War. The conversation delves into historical and contemporary support for dictators, media influence on public opinion, humanizing the enemy in wartime, and the unique perspective of photographer Benjamin Busch capturing war propaganda in Ukraine.

Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and essayist Jared Marcel Pollen to discuss Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless” and The Velvet Underground’s second album, White Light/White Heat The Manifesto: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/1979/01/the-power-of-the-powerless.pdf The Art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJy0LP8iYPg&list=PLaVHibd49QFIsKywss9Jh0rati5skWEYD Jared's essay, The Metaphysician-in-Chief, in Liberties https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/the-metaphysician-in-chief/

Jake and Phil discuss "How Money Culture Hurts the American Family," by Ian Marcus Corbin, and episode seven of the first season of Girls The Manifesto: Ian Marcus Corbin, "How Money Culture Hurts the American Family" https://www.capita.org/money-culture Girls, Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident https://www.hbo.com/girls/season-1/7-welcome-to-bushwick-a-k-a-the-crackcident

Jake and Phil are joined live at Fairfield University by the great critic and essayist George Scialabba to discuss Last Men and Women At a time of war, impending ecological disaster, and partisan rage, our commitments to the modern, liberal order are being questioned like never before. Do we understand ourselves best as individuals or as members of a community? Must we renew our absolute commitment to political freedoms, or accept greater state control to deal with the dangers and allures of new technologies? Should the future be post-liberal, neo-liberal, or some other, perhaps more frightening and electrifying possibility? For the past forty-four years the critic George Scialabba has been engaging in arguments with both the critics and proponents of modernity, staking out a commitment to liberty and mass democracy even in light of powerful challenges. On December 4th at 4:30pm George Scialabba will join Phil Klay and Jacob Siegel for a live recording of Manifesto! A Podcast. The three will discuss the price we pay for modern liberalism, and George’s commitment to it nonetheless (the essay “Last Men and Women,” originally for Commonweal Magazine and included in his latest book, Only A Voice, published by Verso Books, outlines the basics of his argument) https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/last-men-and-women George Scialabba is the quintessential critic’s critic, an outrageously learned and subtle thinker whose stylish, witty and elegantly argued reviews have served as guides to the modern age for generations of writers and intellectuals. Christopher Hitchens, Norman Rush, James Wood, and Vivian Gornick have all declared themselves devotees—while Richard Rorty declared his essays “models of moral inquiry.” An award-winning essayist and critic, his writing has appeared in the Nation, Dissent, bookforum, Riritan, n+1, and the Boston Review among many others. He is a Contributing Editor at the Baffler and the author of six essay collections and a memoir, How to Be Depressed.

Jake and Phil discuss Josef Skvorecky's "Red Music," an account of playing jazz under Nazism and Communism, alongside Mal Waldron's "Mal Waldron Plays Erik Satie" The Manifesto: Josef Skvorecky, "Red Music" https://harpers.org/archive/1986/03/red-music/ The Art: Mal Waldron, "Mal Waldron Plays Erik Satie" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juNNxsUXvQw

Phil talks with poet and translator Philip Metres about the current conflict, the position of a Western observer in regards to what is happening in Gaza, his poem "Remorse for Temperate Speech," as well as his book "Returning to Jaffa." https://philipmetres.com