Reality Check!

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

#Benjamen Walker & Radiotopia #Conversations #Society #Tell Us #Benjamen Walkers

22:08

Host Francesca Amiker sits down with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, producer Angela Russo-Otstot, stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and more to uncover how family was the key to building the emotional core of The Electric State . From the Russos’ own experiences growing up in a large Italian family to the film’s central relationship between Michelle and her robot brother Kid Cosmo, family relationships both on and off of the set were the key to bringing The Electric State to life. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts . State Secrets: Inside the Making of The Electric State is produced by Netflix and Treefort Media.…

about a year ago 22:45

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Earlier this year I read a book called The End of Reality by the writer Jonathan Taplin. The book is a meditation on the outsize power and influence of four billionaires: Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, and Elon Musk. After the election I rang Jonathan up for a special post election conversation about his book and our new Oligarchy. Also, Radiotopia is running its annual fundraiser right now, we only do this once a year. If you can donate please do! Support this show and indy podcasts.

224 episodes

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

Reality Check!

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

7,335 subscribers

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

224 episodes

#Benjamen Walker & Radiotopia #Conversations #Society #Tell Us #Benjamen Walkers

All episodes

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

1
Feed Drop - Alternate Realities 30:36

9 days ago30:36

30:36

Dropping the first episode in a new series from NRP's Embedded podcast: Reporter Zach Mack thinks his dad has gone all in on conspiracy theories, while his father thinks that Zach is the one being brainwashed. In 2024, after the latest round of circular arguments, they decided to try something new, an attempt to pull each other out of the spell each of them thinks the other is under. Can one family live in two realities? To hear the who series, head to NPR's Embedded podcast.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

1
Influencers (second time as Tragedy) 27:40

15 weeks ago27:40

27:40

During the first Trump presidency I produced a radio drama with Jonathan Mitchell at The Truth Podcast about camp MAGA. In 2017 the idea of Trump locking up Americans in camps was a bit silly… that could never happen here? But in 2024, as private prison stocks soar to new heights, things like a little different. Perhaps Marx got it wrong. Perhaps the repetitions of History are both farcical and tragic.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

1
Reality Check! 22:45

19 weeks ago22:45

22:45

Earlier this year I read a book called The End of Reality by the writer Jonathan Taplin. The book is a meditation on the outsize power and influence of four billionaires: Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, and Elon Musk. After the election I rang Jonathan up for a special post election conversation about his book and our new Oligarchy. Also, Radiotopia is running its annual fundraiser right now, we only do this once a year. If you can donate please do! Support this show and indy podcasts.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

1
Cultural Marxism Industry (2024 Hard Core version) 29:09

23 weeks ago29:09

29:09

A few years ago I put together a story about the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory with the writer and historian Martin Jay, today in 2024 the Cultural Marxism Industry is stronger than ever. An update for 2024.

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

1
Flights, Finks and Secret History with Joel Whitney 33:28

28 weeks ago33:28

33:28

Joel Whitney’s book Finks is a seminal book about American intellectuals and American security agencies, mainly because it illuminates the real story behind the CIA’s involvement with the founding of a little magazine called The Paris Review which hit the scene in the early 1950s at the height of the Cold War. In Joel Whitney’s new book Flights , he continues his historical excavations - more stories about writers intellectuals and activists who found themselves in the cross hairs of American security agencies like the CIA and the FBI. Your host discusses both books with Joel Whitney and the discipline of secret history itself.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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1984 (the year not the book) 40th Anniversary edition 1:05:59

32 weeks ago1:05:59

1:05:59

Forty years ago in 1984 your host was twelve years old and like George Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith, he kept a diary, for the citizens of the future. For this special installment of Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything we travel back in time and give this diary a soundtrack. TV commercials, radio spots, movie clips – all sound from 1984 (the year, not the book). Find out what totalitarianism really sounds like. *********more details on this installment**********…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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America & The Punisher 25:05

36 weeks ago25:05

25:05

We now have many ways to tell the story of America's tilt towards authoritarianism, but for your host one image sums up the whole sordid business: a mashup of Donald Trump and the Marvel comic book character The Punisher. In this episode we talk with Kent Worcester, author of a new cultural history of the Punisher . It's a conversation about America's fascination with, and attraction to, a black and white vision of justice and vengeance.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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The Imperial History of the CIA with Hugh Wilford 33:33

41 weeks ago33:33

33:33

Intelligence scholar Hugh Wilford's excellent new book grapples with the paradox at the heart of America’s covert intelligence agency. Many of the CIA’s founding fathers were staunch anti-imperialists, but during the Cold War, the US took up the mantle of Europe’s colonial projects. Hugh Wilford's book The CIA: an Imperial History is out now . Hugh Wilford has written numerous books about the CIA and Cold War intelligence history, he made two appearances in our recent Not All Propaganda is Art mini-series. Also the mini-series got a really nice write up in the New Yorker last month!…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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Not All Propaganda is Art 9: Freedom or Death 1:17:58

50 weeks ago1:17:58

1:17:58

ToE's Cultural Cold War miniseries concludes with three stories about containment and death. Richard Wright delivers his final lecture on Black Spies in Paris , Dwight Macdonald’s Mass Cult & Mid Cult finally debuts & flops, and Kenneth Tynan discovers the limits of social and cultural protest. Show notes: Matthew Tynan reads Kenneth Tynan’s 1960 speech , Michael Billington wrote a 1960 Parody of Kenneth Tynan, Jefferson Pooley recaps Personal Influence and Daphne Park explains how she got Lumumba killed. Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ , or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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Not All Propaganda is Art 8: Signature Acoustique 1:12:57

52 weeks ago1:12:57

1:12:57

]Richard Wright died from a mysterious illness on November 28th, 1960. Or was he murdered? Tune in for a new listen to the final chapter of Richard Wright’s life: forged letters, fake terrorist groups, fraudulent doctors and French Radio . Shownotes: Françoise Vergès writes about decolonialism , and French history and thought, Kathleen Gyssels is writing about the Moulin d’Andé . Thomas Riegler writes about the Red Hand , Madeleine S’s father was assassinated by the Red Hand , Lauren du Graf wrote about Richard Wright and Jean Paul Sartre , Richard Wright’s daughter Julia Wright published The Man who Lived Underground in 2021. Richard Gibson is a BIG BIG LIAR . Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ , or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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Not All Propaganda is Art 7: Manufacturing Dissent 58:54

1 year ago58:54

58:54

In 1959, Anti-Americanism surged in the UK. England seethed over America’s treatment of its Prime Minister who was smacked down for daring to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over divided Germany. In 1959 England also fretted over a new American export: the Beatnik. The British foreign office forcefully responded with a report advocating for “ an increased effort in the field of press, radio and television in the U.K. to say the right kind of things about the Americans .” This is the very moment Kenneth Tynan was commissioned to make a documentary for British Television about American Non-conformism and Dissent. We take a close look at one of the Cold War's most bizarre and inspired artifacts of Anti Anti-American propaganda. Shownotes: Laura Bradley writes on Brecht and German theater. Kenneth Tynan’s documentary aired on January 27th, 1960 and then was supposedly erased (it wasn’t). Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ , or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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Not All Propaganda is Art 6: The Kitsch Debate 1:04:08

1 year ago1:04:08

1:04:08

In the summer of 1959, Nixon and Khrushchev argued over a washing machine in a backstage kitchen in Moscow, while American Cold War intellectuals gathered in the Poconos to defend Kitsch. Dwight Macdonald, whose theory of mass culture translated too easily into Anti-Americanism, was barred from participating because this was no ordinary mass culture conference; it was an Anti Anti-Americanism operation . Meanwhile, in London, Dwight Macdonald delivered a mass culture lecture of his own called " America, America ,” based on the most famous article Encounter magazine never published. Shownotes: Jefferson Pooley wrote about Edward Shils and The Remobilization of the Propaganda and Morale Network . Sophie Scott-Brown wrote about Raphael Samuel and the New Left. Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ , or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page. Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ , or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

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Not All Propaganda is Art 5: The Play's the Thing 1:11:07

1 year ago1:11:07

1:11:07

In the fall of 1958, Kenneth Tynan moved from London to New York and upon arrival, clashed with Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn over socially engaged art and the politics of apolitical culture on live TV. At the same moment New Yorker writer Dwight Macdonald went West to report on “New” Hollywood's ambitions to create commercially and artistically successful films. We also meet two of Professor Macdonald’s former students from a Mass Culture course he taught at Bard College in 1958. Meanwhile in France, Richard Wright suffers a number of disturbing attacks, prompting him to channel his frustrations into a revealing radio play. Shownotes: Tamara Walker is the author of Beyond the Shores , Hugh Wilford wrote The Mighty Wurlitzer , Tom Benjamin and Frances Hodes were both students of Dwight Macdonald at Bard College in 1958 and Dan Sinclair is the author of Courteous Enemy . Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ , or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

1
Not All Propaganda is Art 4: Propagande Noire 1:01:25

1 year ago1:01:25

1:01:25

In 1956, Richard Wright spoke of islands of free men at the first Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris. James Baldwin critiqued the event for Encounter, the CIA’s propaganda magazine. We take a close listen to the original recordings. Shownotes: Merve Fejzula and Cedric Tolliver both wrote about the 1956 Congrès des écrivains et artistes noirs . Darryl Pinckney wrote on Norman Mailer and Denis Leroux wrote on Antoine Bonnemaison . Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ , or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.…

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

1
Not All Propaganda is Art 3: The Man Who Was Thursday's Children 1:03:17

1 year ago1:03:17