Best Anna Leonard Podcasts (2024)

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221 - David Albert: The Measurement Problem of Quantum Mechanics 2:03:13

1h ago2:03:13

2:03:13

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is David’s eighth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeare…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 19: THE HOLCROFT COVENANT (1985) and THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018) 1:11:20

33m ago1:11:20

1:11:20

Our final Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode is an odd one, with Dave arguing for the value of John Frankenheimer's The Holcroft Covenant (1985), a Nazi conspiracy thriller from a novel by Robert Ludlum, and Elise arguing for the value of The Other Side of the Wind (2018), Orson Welles' startling comeback film-that-never-was. Then we give o…

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220 - Michael Hudson: Debt, Economic Collapse, and the End of Civilization 1:34:56

7d ago1:34:56

1:34:56

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among …

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – 20th Century Fox – 1947: BOOMERANG & KISS OF DEATH 1:11:44

4d ago1:11:44

1:11:44

This Fox 1947 Studios Year by Year episode looks at two examples of the docu-noir: Boomerang! (directed by Elia Kazan), starring Dana Andrews as a prosecuting attorney who has to decide between morality and political expedience; and Kiss of Death (directed by Henry Hathaway), in which Victor Mature's sympathetic gangster is menaced by Richard Widma…

1
Ask Me Anything | August 2024 1:30:03

5d ago1:30:03

1:30:03

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 This is the August 2024 AMA for Robinson’s Podcast. It is supported by the members of the Patreon. In this installment, Robinson answers questions about metaethics, art history, discipline, fashion, fitness, fantasy world-building, consciousness, fine-tuning, quantum mechanics, and more. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01…

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219 - Joscha Bach: Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and the Threat of AI Apocalypse 2:15:52

8d ago2:15:52

2:15:52

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Joscha Bach is a computer scientist and artificial intelligence researcher currently working with Liquid AI. He has previously done research at Harvard, MIT, Intel, and the AI Foundation. In this episode, Joscha and Robinson discuss the nature of consciousness—both in humans and synthetic—various theories of consciou…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 18: LOTTE IN WEIMAR (1975) and THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978) 1:17:13

11d ago1:17:13

1:17:13

Our penultimate Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode brings us Lilli as a protagonist again at last, in Lotte in Weimar (1975), based on the Thomas Mann novel, and Lilli Lite in The Boys from Brazil (1978), an outrageous anti-Nazi sci fi story in which Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck wage an epic battle (and also get into a very brutal girl…

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218 - Norman Finkelstein: Genocide in Israel and Palestine 2:08:52

13d ago2:08:52

2:08:52

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine. In this episode of Robinson’s Podcast, Norman addresses some of the most common arguments made in defense of Israel, such as those purporting to show Israel is not committ…

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers – 1947: POSSESSED & DARK PASSAGE 1:22:59

18d ago1:22:59

1:22:59

This Warner Bros. 1947 Studios Year by Year episode features two gems that put their own particular slant on noir's familiar theme of murderous conflict between women and men: Curtis Bernhardt's Possessed, starring a more-than-usually deranged Joan Crawford, with Van Heflin as the rakish object of her obsession, and Delmer Daves' Dark Passage, star…

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217 - Leonard Susskind: String Theory, Fine-Tuning, and the Physics of the Multiverse 1:11:08

25d ago1:11:08

1:11:08

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Leonard Susskind is Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University. Among other accomplishments, he is among the fathers of such revolutionary concepts in physics as string theory, black hole complementarity, the holographic principle, and the string-theoretic landscape. It is this last concept that Robinson…

1
Special Subject – Anna Magnani Sampler, Part 2 - THE ROSE TATTOO (1955), WILD IS THE WIND (1957), THE FUGITIVE KIND (1960) and MAMA ROMA (1962) 1:09:02

25d ago1:09:02

1:09:02

Our second Anna Magnani Sampler includes three Hollywood films, two with parts written for her by her friend Tennessee Williams, as well as the second film directed by Pasolini: The Rose Tattoo (1955), Wild is the Wind (1957), The Fugitive Kind (1960), and Mamma Roma (1962). Paired with a wacky Burt Lancaster, a bullying Anthony Quinn, a quietly in…

1
216 - Raphael Bousso: The Black Hole Paradox, Quantum Gravity, and the Holographic Principle 1:45:30

1M ago1:45:30

1:45:30

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Raphael Bousso is the Chancellor’s Chair in Physics at the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, where he leads the Bousso Group in research on quantum gravity and quantum information. He is a renowned string theorist famous also for his development of the string theoretic landscape and the Bousso bound in hologra…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 17: DE SADE (1969) and THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (1969) 49:10

1M ago49:10

49:10

In this episode of our Lilli Palmer Acteur-ist Oeuvre-view series, we watched a couple of 1969 movies somewhere on the horror spectrum: De Sade, a movie of ideas that doesn't live up to them, written by famed horror/sci fi author Richard Matheson; and The House That Screamed, an Italian slasher with a twist or two to recommend it. Good parts for Li…

1
215 - Anna Lembke: On Philosophy and Psychiatry 1:37:41

1M ago1:37:41

1:37:41

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Dr. Anna Lembke received her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and her medical degree from Stanford University. She is currently Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fel…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – MGM – 1947: CYNTHIA (dir Robert Z. Leonard) and HIGH WALL (dir. Curtis Bernhardt) 1:12:55

1M ago1:12:55

1:12:55

For this MGM 1947 Studios Year by Year episode, we discuss Cynthia, a gentle family melodrama starring a luminous 15-year-old Elizabeth Taylor as an over-protected teenager, and High Wall, a psychiatric film noir with great roles for Robert Taylor and Herbert Marshall as sweaty noir protagonists at cross purposes. Our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto…

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Ask Me Anything | July 2024 1:29:36

1M ago1:29:36

1:29:36

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 This is the inaugural AMA for Robinson’s Podcast. It is supported by the members of the podcast’s Patreon. In this installment, Robinson answers questions about the reality of mathematics, podcasting, moral facts, ice cream, the nature of time, literary books for neophytes, and more. Denying Infinity: https://doi.org…

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214 - Joyce Carol Oates: On Philosophy and Literature 1:00:59

2M ago1:00:59

1:00:59

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Joyce Carol Oates is the Rogers S. Berlind ’52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Princeton University with the Program in Creative Writing. She is among the most widely-recognized and respected writers of our time, and has written in a wide variety of media and genres, from poetry and fiction in the former categ…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 16: NOBODY RUNS FOREVER (1968) & HARD CONTRACT (1969) 51:13

2M ago51:13

51:13

After some rocky episodes, our Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view uncovers a couple of gems: Nobody Runs Forever aka The High Commissioner (1968, directed by Ralph Thomas), a spy thriller bursting at the seams with the charms of Rod Taylor and Christopher Plummer, and Hard Contract (1969, the only feature film made by writer-director S. Lee Pogosti…

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213 - Slavoj Žižek: God, Marxism, Philosophy, and Quantum Mechanics 1:16:28

2M ago1:16:28

1:16:28

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. This is Slavoj’s fourth appearance on the show. On episode 109, he and Robinson…

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1947: CALIFORNIA and CALCUTTA 48:58

2M ago48:58

48:58

For this Paramount 1947 Studios Year by Year episode we watch a couple of films by producer/director team of Seton I. Miller and John Farrow: California, starring the belligerent sexual tension of Barbara Stawyck and Ray Milland in a left-leaning fable about the establishment of law and order in the West Coast, and Calcutta, a terrific Alan Ladd/Ga…

1
212 - Deborah Gordon: Ants, Myrmecology, and Collective Behavior 1:01:45

2M ago1:01:45

1:01:45

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Deborah Gordon is Professor of Biology at Stanford University. She is a myrmecologist—an entomologist who studies ants—focusing on how complex behavior emerges from ant colonies, which have no central control. In this episode, Deborah and Robinson discuss some of the distinctive features of ants, how pheromones help …

1
Special Subject – The Wartime Mizoguchi – THE STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUM (1939) & THE 47 RONIN (1941) 1:08:50

2M ago1:08:50

1:08:50

For our June Special Subject we revisit the work of Kenji Mizoguchi, looking at two films from earlier than his best-known (in the West) period: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), about cross-class lovers and what it takes to become a great artist, and The 47 Ronin (1941), based on a true story that became emblematic of samurai values. To…

1
211 - Jay Chandrasekhar: Comedy, Creative Integrity, Super Troopers, & Jackass 1:14:56

2M ago1:14:56

1:14:56

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Jay Chandrasekhar is a director, writer, stand-up comic, and actor. Some of his works include directing Super Troopers, Beerfest, and Dukes of Hazzard. He has also directed episodes of Arrested Development, Community, and New Girl. Jay also wrote Mustache Shenanigans (2017) and co-hosts the podcast Mustache Tales. In…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 15: SEBASTIAN (1968) & OEDIPUS THE KING (1968) 1:00:20

2M ago1:00:20

1:00:20

This week's Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view sees Lilli in two small but crucial roles: Sebastian (1968), starring Dirk Bogarde as a Cold War cryptanalyst of divided political loyalties, and Oedipus Rex (1968), starring Christopher Plummer as Freud's favourite plaything of the gods. We discuss Cold War politics, the Swinging Sixties New Woman, fr…

1
210 - David Albert & Tim Maudlin: A Discussion of Niels Bohr, Measurement, & Quantum Mechanics 2:03:39

3M ago2:03:39

2:03:39

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director o…

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Universal – 1946: THE CAT CREEPS & SHE-WOLF OF LONDON 42:21

2M ago42:21

42:21

For this Universal 1946 episode, we chose a B-movie double bill, The Cat Creeps (directed by Erle C. Kenton, best known for Island of Lost Souls) and She-Wolf of London (directed by Jean Yarbrough, Abbott and Costello specialist), hoping for hidden gems. But did we find any? And in the Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, our Powell and Pressbur…

1
209 - Peter Singer: Controversial Ideas, Utilitarianism, and Animal Liberation 1:28:11

3M ago1:28:11

1:28:11

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor Emeritus of Bioethics in the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is among the most influential living philosophers, and among the most influential moral philosophers of the last century. Peter is best known for his work in applied ethics on animal welfare and g…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 14: MIRACLE OF THE WHITE STALLIONS (1963) and OPERATION CROSSBOW (1965) 46:38

3M ago46:38

46:38

In this week's Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we encounter more Nazis in a couple of movies very loosely based on real WWII incidents: Disney's Miracle of the White Stallions (1963), based on Operation Cowboy (but with the equine eugenics shoved into the subtext), and Operation Crossbow (1965), about the attempt by British Intelligence…

1
208 - Victor Davis Hanson: Annihilation, Genocide, and World War III 1:04:53

3M ago1:04:53

1:04:53

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal i…

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Special Subject – Produced By Sam Goldwyn, The 1940s: THE LITTLE FOXES (1941), THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (1942), THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), and MY FOOLISH HEART (1949) 1:30:39

3M ago1:30:39

1:30:39

This week we have a whopping big episode for you: Part 2 of our look at Samuel Goldwyn Productions, dealing with the 1940s; and, in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, brief discussions of three Powell and Pressburgers, kicking off TIFF's May retrospective. For this episode we watched The Little Foxes (directed by William Wyler), The Pride …

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207 - Sean Carroll: Quanta, Fields, and the Philosophy of Quantum Physics 1:44:36

3M ago1:44:36

1:44:36

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also the host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a podcast about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. This is Sean’s fourth appearance on the show. He appeared with Da…

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – RKO – 1946: STEP BY STEP & CRACK-UP 48:57

3M ago48:57

48:57

In this RKO 1946 episode we discuss Crack-Up (directed by Irving Reis), an eerie noir with a couple of great Expressionist set pieces. Pat O'Brien oozes vulnerability as a WWII vet and populist art critic who has to find out who's trying to make him look, or go, insane; Claire Trevor plays the love interest who's trying to help him (or is she?). Oh…

1
206 - Slavoj Žižek & Lee Smolin: Marxism Meets Quantum Physics 59:44

4M ago59:44

59:44

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He was also the guest for episodes 109—on psychoanalysis, wokeness, racism, and a hundred other topics—and 118, where he app…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 13: THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY (1961) & THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR (1962) 59:54

3M ago59:54

59:54

This week's Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode is a George Seaton double feature that once again gives us Lilli the sophisticate and Lilli the saint: in The Pleasure of His Company (1961), she plays the ex-wife of Fred Astaire, an absentee father whose plan to recapture his youth by seducing their daughter into becoming his travelling compa…

1
205 - Nick Bostrom: Superintelligence, Posthumanity, and AI Utopia 1:06:01

4M ago1:06:01

1:06:01

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher who was most recently Professor at Oxford University, where he served as the founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute. He is best known for his book Superintelligence (Oxford, 2014), which covers the dangers of artificial intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and N…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – 20th Century-Fox – 1946: THE DARK CORNER & THE RAZOR’S EDGE 1:22:27

4M ago1:22:27

1:22:27

This week's Fox 1946 Studios Year by Year episode features the strange bedfellows of Henry Hathaway's The Dark Corner, a curiously feminist film noir in which the tormented protagonist is saved by the persistence of a good woman (played by Lucille Ball), and Edmund Goulding's The Razor's Edge, based on a Somerset Maugham novel about spiritual enlig…

1
204 - Philip Goff: Panpsychism and the Mystery of Consciousness 1:21:18

4M ago1:21:18

1:21:18

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Philip Goff is a professor of philosophy at Durham University in the United Kingdom, where he researches consciousness and the philosophy of mind. He is the best known proponent of a view about consciousness known as panpsychism, which takes mentality to be fundamental in the world rather than something that either e…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 12: BUT NOT FOR ME (1959) and CONSPIRACY OF HEARTS (1960) 51:27

4M ago51:27

51:27

Our examination of the film career of Lilli Palmer continues with a couple of excellent films that show us Palmer's range when playing "loveable": But Not for Me, in which she gives a comedic performance as the ex-wife of a Broadway producer played by Clark Gable, benevolently interfering in his budding relationship with young actress Carroll Baker…

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203 - Vijay Prashad: Colonialism, Israel-Palestine, Marxism, and European Anti-Semitism 1:05:15

4M ago1:05:15

1:05:15

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Vijay Prashad is a historian and journalist. He obtained his PhD in history at the University of Chicago and was most recently the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Vijay is a Marxist, and much of his work and writing has been devoted to critiques of c…

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers – 1946: DEVOTION & NIGHT AND DAY 1:20:00

4M ago1:20:00

1:20:00

For this Warner Bros. 1946 episode we watched two fantastical biopics, Devotion (directed by Curtis Bernhardt), starring Ida Lupino and Olivia de Havilland as Emily and Charlotte Brontë, and Night and Day (directed by Michael Curtiz), starring Cary Grant as Cole Porter and Monty Woolley as himself. We found them to be like night and day in terms of…

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202 - Jeffrey Sachs: JFK, Conspiracy Theories, Israel-Palestine, and Ending the War in Gaza 49:40

4M ago49:40

49:40

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Jeffrey Sachs is University Professor at Columbia University, where he serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development. Before that, he taught at Harvard University for twenty years. Jeff is the author of numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers. His latest is The Ages of Globalizat…

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Special Subject – Produced By Sam Goldwyn, The 1930s - THE DARK ANGEL (1935), DODSWORTH (1936), THESE THREE (1936) and WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939) 1:34:20

4M ago1:34:20

1:34:20

In our April Special Subject, Part 1 of our look at the films of Samuel Goldwyn, we discuss Dark Angel (1935), These Three (1936), Dodsworth (1936), and Wuthering Heights (1939), a selection heavy on Dave favourites Merle Oberon, William Wyler, and Gregg Toland. We ask in what sense these are "quality" films, and in what ways they escape our expect…

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201 - Benny Morris: Israel-Palestine, Genocide, Apartheid, Hamas, Muscular Judaism, and the Nakba 1:05:57

5M ago1:05:57

1:05:57

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Benny Morris is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Middle East Studies at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. He is among the most respected and influential historians on Israel and Palestine. Benny is perhaps best known for his work on the 1947-1948 civil war in Palestine and the 1948 Arab-Israeli…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 11: LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE (1958) and MADCHEN IN UNIFORM (1958) 1:05:05

5M ago1:05:05

1:05:05

For this week's Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we watched Jacques Becker's The Lovers of Montparnasse (1958), in which Palmer, playing Modigliani's rejected lover Beatrice Hastings, perfects her persona of brittle dissociation; and Mädchen in Uniform, the 1958 remake of the famous Weimar-era film about a teenager at an all-girls' board…

1
200 - Sean Carroll, Daniel Dennett, & Steven Pinker: AI, Parapsychology, Panpsychism, & Physics Violations 2:00:11

5M ago2:00:11

2:00:11

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a terrific show (that influenced the birth of Robinson’s Podcast) about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. Daniel Dennet…

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – MGM – 1946: TWO SMART PEOPLE and A LETTER FOR EVIE 1:01:33

5M ago1:01:33

1:01:33

This MGM 1946 Studios Year by Year episode is a Jules Dassin double feature that shows the range of the famed blacklistee even during his most constrained studio period: the noirish romantic drama Two Smart People, about two con artists (Lucille Ball and John Hodiak) and a cop who are all out to con each other; and the remarkable A Letter for Evie …

1
199 - Lawrence Krauss: God, String Theory, and the State of Physics 1:24:02

5M ago1:24:02

1:24:02

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist who has taught at Yale, Arizona State University, and Case Western, and is the founder of ASU’s Origins Project. He is a prominent public intellectual and best-selling author, and has written about the origins of the universe, atheism, and many other topics. He is also the h…

1
Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 10: TEUFEL IN SEIDE (1956) and LA VIE À DEUX (1958) 1:17:05

5M ago1:17:05

1:17:05

For this Lilli Palmer episode of our Acteurist Oeuvre-view series, we watched another West German movie, Devil in Silk (directed by Rolf Hansen), and Life Together (directed by Clément Duhour), a tribute to famed French playwright, screenwriter, and film director Sacha Guitry with an all-star cast. We analyze the surprisingly sophisticated structur…

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198 - Michael Hudson: Marxism, Economic Parasites, and Debt Cancellation 1:30:21

5M ago1:30:21

1:30:21

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among …

1
Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1946: MISS SUSIE SLAGLE’S and THE BLUE DAHLIA 1:04:25

5M ago1:04:25

1:04:25

In this Paramount 1946 episode we look at two movies featuring Veronica Lake which otherwise could not be more dissimilar: Miss Susie Slagle's (directed by John Berry), about the trials of pre-WWI Johns Hopkins medical students living in a boarding house presided over by Lillian Gish; and famous Lake/Ladd noir outing, The Blue Dahlia (directed by G…

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