Give Them An Argument

This is just a quick note to say that, since we're not sure how many people are listening here and we suspect it's not very many, it's really not worth posting everything on both this feed and the main Buzzsprout one that goes out to Apple Podcasts, Google Posts, Spotify, iHeartRadio and many other places. (One of the many disadvantages of this feed over Buzzsprout is that it doesn't tell us how many people are downloading!) This seems like a good time to get anyone who is listening here to switch to one of those other places since I'm about to post the Charlie Kirk debate on the main feed and anyone listening here is probably eager to hear that! They should be anyway. It's really good.

Ben Burgis talks to Jacobin's Meagan Day about Erik Olin Wright's analysis in his book Class Counts of all the different (and sometimes contradictory) class positions different people can have under capitalism, and how that analysis helps us understand the current limits of oppositional groups like DSA, the class coalitions defining the PMC-dominated Democratic Party and the Trumpified Republican Party, and how all of this can help us to understand (to tweak the title of another of Wright's books) how to be an anti-capitalist in the 2020s. Also: Ben has a new book coming out! (You can preorder it here from worker-owned Red Emmas: https://redemmas.org/titles/36536-christopher-hitchens--what-he-got-right--how-he-went-wrong--and-why-he-still-matters ) Lin Wood has accused Marjorie Taylor Greene of being a communist. Ben and his wife Professor Jennifer Burgis break down Charlie Kirk's confusion about Rawls and the Veil of Ignorance. Lot going on in this episode even before we get to the postgame for patrons! 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, and much more. Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

Ben Burgis talks to "Left Reckoning" hosts Matt Lech & David Griscom about cryptocurrency. Ben and his wife Professor Jennifer Burgis unpack Charlie Kirk's confusion about social contract theory and Rawls. Ben and Producer Jake talk about Charlie's "sexual anarchy" rant and Gene Epstein's argument against minimum wage increases. 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

Ben Burgis is back from Arizona where he debated Charlie Kirk. Sadly the video won't be available for a few weeks but we'll be sharing some thoughts about it now. Ben and Producer Jake talk about that, as well as Sam Harris's conflict with Bret Weinstein. GTAA graphic designer J. Andrew World joins to talk about IATSE's strike vote. (Sign the petition! https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-amptp-to-make-a-deal-with-behind-the-scenes-workers) Also, Lillian Cicerchia from the Free University of Berlin is back on to talk about the materialist theory of history. Ben is teaching an "Analytic Marxism and the Materialist Theory of History" class on for Michael Albert's online "School for Social and Cultural Change" starting next Sunday (October 10th) so this seemed like a good time to bring one of our favorite past guests on to talk about that. Follow Lillian on Twitter: @LILCICERCH Follow What's Left of Philosophy (co-hosted by Lillian and three other excellent people) on Twitter: @leftofphil Register for Ben's class "Analytic Marxism and the Materialist Theory of History" at the School for Social and Cultural Change (meets on Sundays from 1-3 EST starting on the 10th): https://sscc.teachable.com/p/analytic... 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.comSHOW LESS

Ben and the crew watch Charlie Kirk and Jen Psaki say revolting things about Haitian migrants and talk about the Democrats rejecting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and claiming the Senate parliamentarian made them do it. Cataylst editor Vivek Chibber (honestly one of the best and most valuable Marxist thinkers alive today) makes his debut appearance on GTAA to talk about (a) why conservatives are morally bankrupt, (b) the philosophical basis of socialist politics, (d) what class-based left politics looks like, and (c) what parts of the Marxist theory of history still make sense. Professor Jennifer Burgis comes on for the second installment in the weekly philosophy segment at the end of the show. 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

Ben Burgis has Joshua Blanchard (https://twitter.com/philoshua) on the show, who is currently a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Oakland University in Michigan. Ben and Josh discuss a paper that Josh recently wrote that addresses epistemic peer disagreement, and more specifically, being in bad company when it comes to those who agree with you about something. THIS IS A SEGMENT OF A PATREON ONLY 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

[Note: This is actually from last Thursday--just getting to sticking it up on the podcast feed now. The plan going forward is that (a) the new Thursday Night Debate Breakdowns will go up on the podcast feed for everyone the morning after they're on YouTube, and (b) over the course of the next several months, the 29 Sunday Night Debate Breakdowns we did over the course of Seasons 1 & 2 will go up in podcast form for GTAA patrons.] Remember the Sunday Night Debate Breakdowns? They're on Thursdays now, so after many many SNDBs this gets to be "#1." For anyone who's new: Ben and various guests watch and break down old debates on YouTube. Some of them are classy stuff like Chomsky vs. Vidal or James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley, but some are, well, like this! Hasan Piker debated Charlie Kirk a few years ago at Politicon. Since Ben is getting his own crack at Charlie in Arizona at the beginning of October, everyone thought this would be a good one to do for a breakdown. 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

So much good stuff in this episode. One of our favorite people, David Griscom, returns as the main guest. The new weekly philosophy segment with Jennifer Burgis debuts at the end of the episode--she weighs in on Ayn Rand's angry rant about the influence of Immanuel Kant. But here's the bad news: We're spending almost the entire episode watching and discussing Prager University videos. Sorry--but this is happening.Follow David Griscom on Twitter: @DavidGriscomFollow Left Reckoning on Twitter: @leftreckoningLink to the SSCC class on Analytic Marxism and the Materialist Theory of History:https://sscc.teachable.com/p/analytic-marxism-and-the-materialist-theory-of-historyLink to the Gotham Atheists meetup event w/Ben this Friday night:https://www.meetup.com/GothamAtheists/events/xvrkfsyccmbwb/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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled 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.com

Charlie Kirk has said that democratic socialism is "the greatest scam in history." Ben Burgis has said that "Charlie Kirk is full of shit--like all Trumpists, he pretends to care about working-class people in the heartland but he doesn't want to raise their wages or give them healthcare." Ben thinks he and Charlie should have a discussion about this, and a lot of people seem to agree--enough money has been pledged in charitable donations by people who want to see this conversation happen to pay for more than 7200 meals for people in need. (See https://townsircle.com/events/89 ) The Town Sircle invite expires (along with the pledges) soon, so we thought we'd devote this episode to doing a deep dive on Mr. Kirk along with two of our all-time favorite guests--Nando Vila from Jacobin's Weekends show (and Woke Bros) and Jason Myles from This is Revolution. In a later part of the show, philosophy professors Mark Warren and Ryan Lake talk about how Charlie Kirk has stumbled into the Euthyphro Dilemma was his frequent insistence that "rights come from God, not human governments." Plus something about how atheists can't explain music? Pledge on the Town Sircle event page: https://townsircle.com/events/89 Follow Nando on Twitter: @nandorvila Follow Jason on Twitter: @TIRShowOakland 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday nioght, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

"American Prestige" co-hosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison join Ben for a deep dive on foreign policy.Follow Danny on Twitter: @dbessnerFollow Derek on Twitter: @dwdavisonFollow their podcast: @AmPrestigePodDonate to help people in need and also pressure Charlie Kirk to debate Ben:https://townsircle.com/events/89Independent 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame after the main episode every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and monthly "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled 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.com

Ben and the crew talk about Cori Bush's protest and what a socialist housing policy might look like, Ben and Cale discuss the new Contrapoints video and preview and discuss Ben's conversation with Matt McManus (dropping for patrons on Thursday), and Ben talks to Lillian Cicichera (prerecorded) about an interesting philosophy paper she wrote about class: https://www.academia.edu/49996564/Why_Does_Class_Matter_final_ Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame after the regular episode on Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

Matt Lech (Left Reckoning, Majority Report) comes back on GTAA to take patron questions.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 a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled 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.com

Larry Sharpe was the Libertarian Party's candidate for Governor of New York in 2018. He joins GTAA this week to argue with Ben about libertarianism and democratic socialism. (Also, Ben, Cale and Andy talk about Critical Race Theory and banning private beaches.)Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want!Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: www.patreon.com/benburgis Patrons get a Thursday bonus episode every week, postgames after regular Monday night shows, access to the Discord server, a Sopranos Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosney Lambre, and regularly scheduled "Discord Office Hours" group voice chats.Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis​​​​​​Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA​Visit benburgis.com

Current Affairs founder Nathan J. Robinson and historian Djene Bajalan join Ben to take apart the many terrible arguments made by Ben Shapiro--an individual The New York Times once chose to call "the cool kid's philosopher." Nathan's recent article on Shapiro can be found here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/0... 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage joins Ben to talk about the many inane things said in the most cursed possible context--an interview of James Carville by Chris Cuomo. Luke's original article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/james-carville-centrist-politics-television To access the whole episode, become a GTAA patron by going to patreon.com/benburgis. As well as the weekly Thursday bonus episodes, patrons get access to the Discord server, patron-exclusive postgames on Monday nights, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

Ben answers some Q&A questions and reads an unpublished fragment by Michael Brooks.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 a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled 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.com

Michael Brooks died a year ago on Tuesday. After an interview with Richard Wolff on his most recent book and how he thinks we can move beyond capitalism, the rest of the episode is devoted to a Michael tribute. Joshua Kahn Russell joined for the postgame for patrons 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 a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled group voice chats). Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA Visit benburgis.com

NYMag's Eric Levitz makes an argument about how the left talks about crime. It's good stuff.To access the whole thing, become a GTAA patron by going to patreon.com/benburgis. As well as the weekly Thursday bonus episodes, patrons get access to the Discord server, patron-exclusive postgames on Monday nights, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosny Lambre, a monthly Discord Movie Night, and "Discord Office Hours" (regularly scheduled 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.com

Jacobin Magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara (@sunrayray) and Age of Napoleon host E.M. Rummage (@Trillburne) join Ben for a special Bastille Day bonus episode on the French Revolution and its enduring significance for emancipatory politics.Subscribe to Jacobin today for a special Bastille Day discount: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe?code=BASTILLEDAY 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 a Thursday bonus episode every week, access to the Discord server, a Sopranos Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosney Lambre, and regularly scheduled "Discord Office Hours" group voice chats.Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis​​​​​​Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA...​Visit benburgis.com

Ben talks to the crew about Cuba. Pascal Robert talks about Haiti. Ben's Cuba article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/us-emb... Pascal Robert is the co-host of the This is Revolution podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9W... 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 a Thursday bonus episode every week, access to the Discord server, a Sopranos Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike Recine, Nando Vila, and Wosney Lambre, and regularly scheduled "Discord Office Hours" group voice chats. Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis​​​​​​ Like, subscribe, and get notifications on Ben’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA... ​Visit benburgis.com