Econoboi is a political YouTuber who focuses on economic content from a social democratic and progressive perspective. He also debates and discusses with figures on both the left and right. In our conversation we get into various critiques of capitalism from a leftist perspective, and of social democracy in particular. We spent the first half digging into the nuances of language and identity between leftists and capitalists, like how we define differences between socialists and social democrats, then got into various critiques of socialism, as well as critiques and defenses of social democracy. Enjoy! Follow Econoboi's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Econoboi Follow Econoboi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Econoboi Contribute to Econoboi's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Econoboi
Oliver Traldi is a graduate student working toward his PhD in philosophy at Notre Dame, a writing fellow at Heterodox Academy, and a columnist at Arc Digital. He’s written about cancel culture, social justice, the intellectual dark web, the new left, and he emphasizes the philosophy of language in his work. Our conversation revolved around navigating relationships, language, rhetoric, and optics in the culture war discourse online. Enjoy! Follow Oliver on twitter: https://twitter.com/olivertraldi Read his past work: https://olivertraldi.weebly.com/
Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason magazine and co-founder of Feminists for Liberty. She regularly covers the sex worker industry and trafficking misinformation. Throughout our conversation we covered the convoluted history of anti-trafficking in America, the differences between decriminalizing and legalizing sex work, common myths on the subject, and ways to frame conversations around trafficking to be more accurate and helpful. Follow Elizabeth on Twitter: twitter.com/ENBrown Follow her work at Reason: https://reason.com/people/elizabeth-nolan-brown/ Read my piece on sex trafficking misinformation for primary sources on their origins: https://medium.com/discourse/the-moral-panic-and-myths-of-human-trafficking-31f1864470f7
Daryl Davis is a blues musician and race relations expert most knowing for convincing over 200 KKK members to give up their robes. He’s been featured on Joe Rogan’s podcast, in The Guardian, The Atlantic, and beyond. He has his own podcast called "Changing Minds with Daryl Davis" which you can find on all platforms. In this conversation we discussed the state of white supremacy in America, how to navigate different strategies of deradicalization, the nuances of identity, and more. Enjoy! Follow Daryl’s work: https://www.daryldavis.com/ Listen to Darly’s story: https://www.ted.com/talks/daryl_davis_why_i_as_a_black_man_attend_kkk_rallies?language=en Find Daryl on Minds: https://www.minds.com/
Meet the icon being Washington Post's TikTok! Follow Dave on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davejorgenson Follow Washington Post on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@washingtonpost
Matt is a sports commentator and streamer. Follow him on Twitch: twitch.tv/pacopaco Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllaireMatt
Ben Burgis is a science fiction writer, philosophy professor, and author of the book "Give Them An Argument: Logic For The Left," available through Zero Books. He also does a segment called "The Debunk" every week on The Michael Brooks Show. In this conversation we talked about how he got into philosophy and leftism, some common arguments against leftism, how heritage, culture, and identity play into these arguments, current cultural and political movements, how to productively converse across the aisle, and more. Enjoy! Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Search his name on YouTube to find his appearances with Michael Brooks and Zero Books
Kevin Cox is a math teacher at the Frankford Friends School, songwriter, and longtime friend. In this conversation we talked about our local Philly music scene, growing older as songwriters and having to make adult decisions, Kevin losing his best friend Brad who was killed by a drunk driver, death, hope, life as a teacher, and more. Enjoy! Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KevinZCox Follow him on Instagram: @KevinZCox Listen to his music on Bandcamp: kevinzcox.bandcamp.com/album/friendship Listen to his music on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/5aOnRacdV…0tRcihP_dFxmI10A
Noerdy is the Managing Director of Meme Insider and a moderator of several high profile subreddit communities, including Wholesome Memes, Meme Economy, Political Humor, Westworld, and South Park. We talked about how he got into Reddit, moderating, the landscape of meme culture, how Meme Insider got started, and more. Enjoy! Follow him on Twitter: @TheNoerdy Follow him on Reddit: www.reddit.com/user/noerdy Donate to Meme Insider on Patreon: www.patreon.com/memeinsider Follow Meme Insider on YouTube: www.youtube.com/memeinsider Follow Meme Insider on Instagram: www.instagram.com/memeinsider/ Check out MemeInsider.Co
Anjali is the social media editor at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a nonpartisan think tank based out of DC, and she’s also a photographer and designer. In this conversation we talked about being a public facing person while also being someone representing a brand, how tweets affect politics, growing up on the internet, how she got into marketing and working in the political sphere, how to balance nuanced takes online, privilege, free will, identity politics, and a lot of the tension and disconnects between demographic groups, and more. Enjoy! Follow her on Twitter: @anjalibhatt Follow her on Instagram: @anjali.jpg Check out her work: www.anjalibhatt.com/ Follow the Peterson Institute on Twitter: @PIIE
Dale Beran is a writer, artist, and author of the new book “It Came From Something Awful: How A Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump Into Office.” In our conversation we talked about the early internet days and how various subcultures have evolved into the culture wars, the history of 4chan, Gamergate, the emergence of new leftism, incels, provocateurs, fascism, and more. Enjoy! Follow him on Twitter: @DaleBeran Follow his comics and essays on Tumblr: daleberan.tumblr.com/
Preston Williams is an actor, joke writer, and creator of the viral twitter account, Whale Fact. We talked about how he started the account, his creative process of coming up with jokes, inserting political humor into the feed, the loose community of Joke Twitter, a twitter conspiracy, riding the tension of being online, and more. Enjoy! Follow Whale Fact on Twitter: @awhalefact Follow Preston on Twitter: @PrestoVision Follow Whale Fact on Instagram: www.instagram.com/awhalefact/
Fredrik Knudsen is an internet culture researcher, streamer, producer, and YouTuber most known for his "Down The Rabbit Hole" series where he takes deep dives into obscure online and offline corners of culture with subjects like Furries, Anime, Sonichu, Plague Doctors, TempleOS, Neopoets, and much more. In our conversation we talked about how he started his channel, his creative process, what it's like being a popular content creator, personal identity conflicts, responsible platforming, introspection, and more. Enjoy! Subscribe to him on YouTube: youtube.com/fredrikknudsen Join his Patreon community: www.patreon.com/fredrikknudsen Follow him on Twitter: @FredInTheKnud
Chris Stokel-Walker is a journalist, writer, and author of the book "YouTubers: how YouTube shook up TV and created a new generation of stars." His work has also been published in the New York Times, BBC, Wired, and The Economist. In this conversation we talked about how the culture of YouTube has evolved over the years, how it's become more corporatized, politicized, at odds with its creators, and more. Enjoy! Follow Chris on Twitter: @stokel
Amanda Brennan is a meme librarian (internet culture researcher), tumblr fandom and social expert, and blogger. In our conversation we talked about growing up on the internet in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, local music scenes, how she got into meme research and working at Know Your Meme, the ins and outs of Tumblr, fandoms, work-life balance, and more. Enjoy! Follow her on Twitter: @continuants Check out her blog: memelibrarian.com/ Follow her Tumblr work: fandom.tumblr.com
@s8n is a viral parody account on twitter that writes jokes about hell and all sorts of fun, wholesome, bizarre mischief. In our conversation we talked about how the account came into being, how @s8n was shadow banned on twitter for no reason, how he got trolled by pizza gate conspiracy theorists, and just living life as Satan online. Enjoy! Follow Satan on Twitter and Instagram: @s8n Buy his merch here: teespring.com/stores/s8n-store
Ralph Leonard is a writer, Secular Humanist, and “Conservative Marxist” who regularly commentates on politics, economics, and the culture wars online. In this conversation we talked about the differences in how leftists (marxists, socialists, etc.) view class struggle and identity politics versus progressive neoliberals (free market capitalists). We also covered how topics of class, race, gender, and nationality have to be addressed in more all-encompassing ways than solely class or identity, how reactionary grifters hijack these complex subjects to further social capital in the name of free speech, and more. Enjoy! Follow Ralph on Twitter here: twitter.com/buffsoldier_96 Follow Ralph's writing here: medium.com/@buffsoldier_96 Hear him on the Michael Brooks Show here (patrons only): www.patreon.com/posts/71-p-clr-james-24438324
Jason Ager is a songwriter and college professor with a a PhD in German Literature. In this conversation we talked about the state of the education system in contrast to how people learn from the Internet, political identity, the future of technology, songwriting for a living, being a dad, and a bunch more. Enjoy! Follow his music here: www.jasonager.com/ Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/artist/5C7xdzlsSZYGGeghzxg0Cj Follow Jason on Twitter: twitter.com/JasonAgerCOPO Watch his MaTones Music video session here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONpVUT5TY_U
William H. Travis is a songwriter and teacher. We talked about him growing up in a small town and being raised culturally Catholic then how he’s eventually come back around to faith through meditation and seeing through a more modern framework, we spent some time critiquing the end of game of thrones, talked about how depressing politics can be, and got into a bunch of banter on songwriting. Listen to his new song "Aloha:" williamhtravis.bandcamp.com/track/aloha Watch his MaTones Shop Sessions: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9GH1Vs0lng Follow him on Instagram: www.instagram.com/williamhtravis/
Toby Forstater
I really appreciate this episode