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You Can't Win

Author: Donald Hughes

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We're Tom and Donald. We are two trolls that are trying to make sense of the world through conversations about the traps and scams that surround us.
179 Episodes
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What the heck are Green Gras Target Emissions Reductions. Okay, I was tired. This ep' we talk about some recent newsy stuff (Canada, Epstein) and then get into books, including the awful new print-on-demand by big publishers. Mentioned: Ottawa Citizen article about mobilization: https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/defence-watch/canadian-military-public-servants Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Francis A. Yates The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World by  G. E. M. Ste. Croix Alone with the Alone by Henry Corbin Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins The Notebooks of Henry James Mannerism by Arnold Hauser The Social History of Art by Arnold Hauser Jimmy Breslin
We chat about baseball, our new kawaii (cute) mini-PCs, politricks and a bunch of books. Mentioned (mostly book hauls): The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich Listen, Little Man! by Wilhelm Reich Marcel Proust by William Carter The Poetry of Rilke, trans. Ed Snow Europe: A History by Norman Davies Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 by Tony Judt Religion and Nothingness by Keiji Nishitani The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han by Mark Edward Lewis A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau Interesting Times by Eric Hobsbawm Les grands textes indépendantistes, 1774 - 1992 by Andrée Ferretti and Gaston Miron Selling Free Enterprise by Elizabeth A. Fones-Wolf Riddle of Fire (movie)
We chat about baseball, health, One Battle After Another and some recent adventures in populism.
We chat about da yankees losing, (temporary) peace in Gaza, European gunners and AI, and a few books.   Mentioned:   Listen, Little Man! by Wilhelm Reich (thanks to Hermitix podcast) Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte
We wrap up our discussion of Aesthetics of Resistance Volume 2 by Peter Weiss. Most of the other, older episodes of this series are available through the Patreon.
Episode 167 - It is 1993

Episode 167 - It is 1993

2025-09-3001:15:53

We chat about baseball, Israel's final years, and Tom's take on Schattenfroh so far. Mentioned: Is Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap still banned from entering Canada? Were they ever? It's unclear by Raffy Boudjikanian (CBC): https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kneecap-ban-canada-questions-1.7645528 The Canadian Press Will Continue Not Using 'Palestine' In Most Cases by David Mastracci (The Maple): https://www.readthemaple.com/the-canadian-press-will-continue-not-using-palestine-in-most-cases/ Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz. One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson. Also: For the foreseeable future we're going to be releasing all new episodes on this free feed. You can join our Patreon for as low as $1/month to get access to the Discord and help us cover expenses but the episodes are free. Thank you for listening!
Tom and Don start our reading of Aesthetics of Resistance Volume 2 by Peter Weiss, a novel about art and communist resistance to fascism. In this episode we get oriented and work through the first 28 pages. Join the Patreon and the Discord to follow along with us.
Don chats with Freddy about the surprisingly good 2001 TV movie Conspiracy about the Wannsee Conference that planned the Holocaust.
Don chats with Freddy about the Canadian philosopher G.A. Cohen on the relationship between Marxism, religion, science, and moral and political philosophy. Mentioned: Cohen's Gifford lectures (in the book If You're Egalitarian, Why Are You So Rich?) Cohen - Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. Cohen - Why not socialism?
We chat with our friend Alex about Deleuze and politics in academia. You can follow Alex on Twitter at @SlurricaneH (At about 50 minutes in Alex's microphone disconnected and Tom and I wrapped up with two questions.)
We chat about the second half of Correction by Thomas Bernhard with Mike Reads the World and some of the ideas it sparked in us. Check out Mike Reads the World on YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld We also mention the House on the Rock in Wyoming, Wisconsin as an example of eccentric building.
We chat about the first half of Correction by Thomas Bernhard with Mike Reads the World. Check out Mike Reads the World on YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld
We are joined by Mike from the YouTube channel Mike Reads the World to chat about his reading project and our year in reading. Mike's channel is at https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld His "favorite books" video we mention is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6aH-YHa_y4 His "Magic Mountain" essay is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyA6Oc6_pIU Mike's books mentioned: Sei Shonagon - The Pillow Book The I-Ching Fariduddin Attar - Conference of the Birds Ovid- Metamorphoses Ngugi wa Thiong'o - The Wizard of the Crow Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain Anna Comnena - The Alexiad We also proposed a read-long for Correction by Thomas Bernhard.
Our friend Freddy joins us to talk about scams, politics and how they overlap.
Tom walks us through the book The Essence of Reality by 'Ayn al-Qudat, a 12th Century Sufi text about going beyond the intellect to embrace mystical experience.
We chat about our cookie headaches and X-Com and Lebanon and Hannah Arendt. Mentioned: Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt On Revolution by Hannah Arendt The X-Com 2 mod guy Tom mentions is christopherodd
Marlon Ettinger, a journalist living in France, joins Don to talk about French politics. Find Marlon on Twitter at @MarlonEttinger his new pod at @flep24pod and his book Zemmour & Gaullism.
Our friend Freddy joins from Vienna to talk about his Euro-Trip, Noam Chomsky, the war in Gaza, and the point of philosophy. The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans. Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson. Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky. Left anti-communism: The Unkindest Cut by Michael Parenti. My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard. This Is a Robbery (Netflix documentary about 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery).
Episode 154 - Soul Corn

Episode 154 - Soul Corn

2024-06-0301:08:04

We chat about the failing Dream Port, the peace plan, paying off our debts, soul corn, some books and elections. Mentioned: Harland's Half Acre by David Malouf. My Struggle Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard. Historical Capitalism by Immanuel Wallerstein. Language and Myth by Ernst Cassirer. Our Bloc by James Schneider.
Tom and Don chat about some books and shows, including Robert Musil, Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle, Karamustafa, J.M. Coetzee, Joan Robinson, Wolf Hall, Copenhagen Cowboy and The Last of Us.   Mentioned: The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk God's Unruly Friends by Ahmet T. Karamustafa The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee Economic Philosophy by Joan Robinson
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Comments (1)

bad

unfunny SA dorks uploading boring discord calls. internet boomers should be euthanized. don is good on Twitter tho

Oct 15th
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