Jake and Phil talk about the political and social obligations of art. To set the stage they discuss W.E.B. Du Bois' "Criteria for Negro Art" originally delivered as a speech to the 1926 Conference of the NAACP in Chicago. The main event is a consideration of James Baldwin's famous 1949 essay "Everybody's Protest Novel." For the finale, the gents talk about James Thurber's 1931 short story, "The Greatest Man in the World." Other works referenced in this episode: Paul C. Taylor, Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Black+is+Beautiful%3A+A+Philosophy+of+Black+Aesthetics-p-9781405150620 Ta-Nehisi Coates, I'm Not Black, I'm Kanye https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/im-not-black-im-kanye/559763/ Francois Mauriac's Nobel Prize Speech https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1952/mauriac-speech.html Edward P. Jones, The Known World https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060557546/the-known-world

Discussing the impact of the Elliot Rodger manifesto and the incel subculture, media coverage on violent acts, obsession with materialism and misogyny, exploration of characters with dangerous ideologies, the nature of cruelty, societal challenges, violence triggers, and Elliot Rodger's disturbing views on intimacy. Also comparing dark themes in 'Taxi Driver' to the manifesto.