Interviews with Scholars of Critical Theory about their New Books Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory
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The Pill Pod is hosted by a group of PhDs offering their irreverent (and unsolicited) takes on critical theory, philosophy, culture, and politics.
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A series of podcasts on the Caribbean critical theory tradition, from Suzanne Césaire through the creolist movement.
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Podcasted conversation on critical and literary theory, drawing on a range of theorists from Europe, the United States, Caribbean, and Latin America. Our title is drawn from Audre Lorde's essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury," where she writes that poetry fashions a language where words do not yet exist. How does theory make words and world new, attuned, and embedded within inventive and inventing lived-experience, tradition, and cultural production?
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What are the crucial conflicts of our time? What hopes and wishes for a better future are expressed within these conflicts? The podcast Critical Theory in Context combines analysis of the present with perspectives on societal transformation. We host conversations with theorists and activists about social crises and the possibilities of their emancipatory overcoming.
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Tune in to the Always Already Podcast for indulgent conversations about critical theory (in the broadest read of the term!). Our podcast consists of two episode streams. The first is a discussion of texts spanning critical theory, political theory, social theory, and philosophy. We work through and analyze main ideas, underlying assumptions, connections with other texts and theories, and occasionally delve into the great abyss of free association, ad hoc theory jokes, and makeshift puns. The ...
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Instead of seeing criticism as an indication of not liking something, Professor Julian Wamble invites listeners of Critical Magic Theory to explore the things about the characters, plot points, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter broadly that have always given them pause or made them smile without knowing why. It is in this navigation of the positive and the negative aspects of a world that we find true magic.
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I'll talk about everything from politics to entertainment and philosophy. I'm also a part-time entertainment writer and working-class from the UP of Michigan, so that might come up occasionally. Oh, and I make weird experimental music and sometimes host a college radio show.
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Writers, anime fans, communists, and childhood friends Mo Black and Rag talk about anime, weeb culture, and leftism!
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Natalie Cline, member of the Utah State School Board explains how she became a target of the BLM when she denounced Critical Race Theory implementation in the Utah School System. She goes on to explain the evil designs of these tenets and how it is positioned to indoctrinate our children into hating the foundational principles of this country and making them vindictive activists for the cause of the left.
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Anthony C. Infanti, "The Human Toll: Taxation and Slavery in Colonial America" (NYU Press, 2025)
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1:06:47The Human Toll: Taxation and Slavery in Colonial America (NYU Press, 2025) by Anthony C. Infanti documents how the American colonies used tax law to dehumanize enslaved persons, taxing them alongside valuable commodities upon their forced arrival and then as wealth-generating assets in the hands of slaveholders. Dr. Infanti examines how taxation al…
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CWT451: 'THEY' (2002) Movie Review: Childhood Trauma in the Shadows
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9:57Today, we’re talking about They, a 2002 supernatural horror film directed by Robert Harmon. You might remember the marketing leaning hard on "From Wes Craven..." but heads up—Craven’s name was mostly promotional. He wasn’t creatively involved...
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Pill Pod 210 - New York Times LIES about "Fascism Experts" fleeing Trump
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1:12:17The New York Times has claimed that three "fascism experts" are fleeing Trump and "going abroad". In truth, these are not (all) fascism experts, and they did not flee, in fact they have been in Canada for almost a year because they got jobs at the University of Toronto. We looked into their research, which is the same tired, lib, horseshoe theory b…
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Fame Is a Fickle Fraud: Here Lies Gilderoy Lockhart
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1:04:09What would you do to be remembered? This week on Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble dives deep into the shimmering shallows of Gilderoy Lockhart—a man so desperate for legacy, he obliterated others’ lives just to make space for his own myth. From vanity and fraudulence to memory charms and moral delusion, we interrogate what happens whe…
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CWT450: Creepy Creatures and Myths: Äbädä and the Hidebehind (The Forest Watches!🌲👀😨)
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10:26Today, we’re stepping off the beaten path and into the woods—deep into two mythologies separated by an ocean, but united by shadow.
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Dimwits, Dipsh*ts, Dufuses, and Dullards (Ep. 22); Mike Johnson and How Hunger Is a Policy Choice
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32:59Neo-fascist Ned Flanders and some of his creepy worldviews.
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Katie Beswick, "Slags on Stage: Class, Sex, Art and Desire in British Culture" (Routledge, 2025)
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43:20How are working class women represented in contemporary culture? In Slags on Stage: Class, Sex, Art and Desire in British Culture (Routledge, 2025), Katie Beswick, a Senior Lecturer in Arts Management at Goldsmiths, University of London, examines this question by analysing the figure of the ‘slag’ across a range of cultural forms, including theatre…
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CWT449: Iconic Album Flashback: 'London Calling' by The Clash
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2:45Album: London Calling Artist: The Clash Release Year: 1979
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Nneka D. Dennie, "Mary Ann Shadd Cary: Essential Writings of a Nineteenth Century Black Radical Feminist" (Oxford UP, 2023)
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1:02:32In 1849, the Mary Ann Shadd Cary had not yet become one of the first Black woman newspaper editors in North America. She was decades away from being admitted to Howard University’s Law School and becoming the first Black woman to so enroll in the United States. She had not yet begun to lobby for women’s right to vote, and she had not yet emigrated …
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Peter Allen, "How to Think about Politics: A Guide in Five Parts" (Oxford UP, 2025)
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38:53What part should politics play in our everyday lives? In How to Think About Politics: A Guide in Five Parts (Oxford University Press, 2025) Peter Allen, a professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath, explores this question across a range of practical and philosophical examples. The book direc…
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Fetid Fever Dream Flashback of the Week: Nancy Pelosi Stock Trades
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9:59One of the biggest controversies involving Nancy Pelosi—though whether it qualifies as a “scandal” depends on political perspective—centers on allegations of insider trading or conflicts of interest related to stock trading by her and her husband, Paul Pelosi. Let’s break it down, then look at it through an anarchist lens.…
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Dimwits, Dipsh*ts, Dufuses, and Dullards (Ep. 21); Karoline Leavitt's Lies and Trump's Nazism
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33:45The House has narrowly passed President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill," and leave it to Karoline Leavitt to lie about it. I also discuss Trump's longstanding history of Nazism, his prominent anti-Jewish supporters, and why he only cares about student protesters allegedly being "antisemitic."
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CWT448🎙️📖: My Reading Wish List; A Literary Mosaic
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12:45My list of books and stories I plan to read. It's a literary wish list!
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CWT447🎙️: The Brutalist: AI, Authenticity, and the Future of Filmmaking
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13:08Today we’re diving into a controversy involvin one of the most talked-about films — The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet. This 2024 epic, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and nabbed Corbet the Silver Lion for Best Direction, has sparked a heated debate. Not over its cinematography. Not over its acting. But over AI.…
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Jaleh Mansoor, "Universal Prostitution and Modernist Abstraction: A Counterhistory" (Duke UP, 2025)
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1:23:13Join me for conversation with Dr. Jaleh Mansoor (Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory, University of British Columbia) about her book Universal Prostitution and Modernist Abstraction: A Counterhistory (Duke University Press, 2025). Our discussion brought us to topics like the artists’ muse, the…
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CWT446🎙️: The Shaggs: The Worst Band...or Raw Creative Brilliance?
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10:34This is the tale of The Shaggs, a group often called the worst band of all time. But hold that thought — because their story is a whole lot more interesting than a punchline.
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CWT445🎬: 'The Return of Godzill'a (1984) – Cold War☢️, Kaiju🦖, and the Rebirth of a Legend
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10:48Today, we’re going deep on "The Return of Godzilla" — released in 1984 and known in Japan simply as Gojira. This isn’t just another sequel. This is a reboot — a resurrection — and a sharp tonal shift that kicks off the Heisei era of Godzilla films.
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Prof Responds- Mom or Mess, Petty or Possessed: McGonagall & Quirrell
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50:37What do maternal tropes, mediocre men, and magical possession all have in common? In this "Prof Responses" episode, Professor Julian Wamble returns to unpack the post-episode chats on two very different figures: Minerva McGonagall and Quirinus Quirrell. Was McGonagall really written as a maternal figure—or have we reimagined her to reflect a world …
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CWT444: Obedience & Orthodoxy: Faith, Nation, and the Machinery of Control (AKA: Who Gets to Tell You What’s Good?)
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7:50There’s a line we hear often in political speeches. “The Bible says...” or “One nation under God.” Those phrases are meant to stir something in us — pride, unity, a sense of higher purpose. But really, they’re just fusions of religion and nationalism designed to secure one thing: obedience.
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Tamara Lea Spira, "Queering Families: Reproductive Justice in Precarious Times" (U California Press, 2025)
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1:06:09Envisioning queer futures where we lovingly wager everything for the world's children, the planet, and all living beings against all odds, and in increasingly precarious times. Tamara Lea Spira's Queering Families: Reproductive Justice in Precarious Times (U California Press, 2025) traces the shifting dominant meanings of queer family from the late…
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CWT443: 😱🔪The Horror-Heavy Music of Ice Nine Kills
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12:11Today we’re talking about a band that’s carved their name into the flesh of the modern metal scene — a band that doesn’t just play music, they build horror movies in sound. This is the blood-spattered world of Ice Nine Kills. Photo credit: Lyndsey Byrnes.
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Rasheedah Phillips, "Dismantling the Master's Clock: On Race, Space, and Time" (AK Press, 2025)
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58:11Why do some processes—like aging, birth, and car crashes—occur in only one direction in time, when by the fundamental symmetry of the universe, we should experience time both forward and backward? Our dominant perception of time owes more to Western history and social order than to a fact of nature, argues writer Rasheedah Phillips, delving into Bl…
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Lucia Soriano, "Embodying Normalcy: Women's Work in Neoliberal Times" (Lexington Books, 2024)
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55:21Embodying Normalcy: Women’s Work in Neoliberal Times (Lexington Books, 2024) calls attention to how women in the United States do a type of unpaid work to embody the latest trends for the purpose of achieving success in neoliberal culture. Using TLC reality shows, lifestyle and beauty influencers, Brazilian butt lift TikToks, and celebrities like K…
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CWT442: 🎙️ In This Year of Plenty...
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10:13A hard truth: how can we live in a time of abundance while millions suffer from hunger, homelessness, and war?
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Pill Pod 208 - Prime Minister Mark Carney: Vibes Banker
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1:09:58We catch you up on Canadian politics by introducing you to our new Prime Minister via his book VALUE(S): Building A Better World For All (https://amzn.to/4dj1oYJ). Bono called it ‘A radical book that speaks out accessibly' (lol)Av Plasticpills
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CWT441: 🎙️ Patti Smith – The Punk Poet Laureate
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7:03She didn’t just enter the punk scene. She wrote its poetry. Today, we’re talking about Patti Smith — artist, icon, disruptor. She’s been called the "Godmother of Punk" and the "punk poet laureate" — and not without reason. Her work helped define an entire cultural movement, fusing raw sound with literary fire.…
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CWT440: 🎙️Some People Hate Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'!??!
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8:17Today’s topic? Some people have claimed Bohemian Rhapsody is… the worst rock song of all time.
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Eric Heinze, "Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left" (MIT Press, 2025)
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1:14:54What has gone wrong with the left—and what leftists must do if they want to change politics, ethics, and minds. Leftists have long taught that people in the West must take responsibility for centuries of classism, racism, colonialism, patriarchy, and other gross injustices. Of course, right-wingers constantly ridicule this claim for its “wokeness.”…
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Dimwits, Dipsh*ts, Dufuses, and Dullards (Ep. 20); RFK Jr says ‘people shouldn’t take medical advice from me’
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23:10When asked by Representative Mark Pocan whether he would vaccinate his children against measles, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. responded hesitantly, stating he "probably" would but emphasized that people should not seek medical advice from him. He similarly avoided direct answers regarding vaccinations for chickenpox and polio.…
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Myka Tucker-Abramson, "Cartographies of Empire: The Road Novel and American Hegemony" (Stanford UP, 2025)
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59:54The road novel is often dismissed as a mundane, nostalgic genre: Jack, Sal, and other tedious white men on the road trying to recapture an authentic youth and American past that never existed. Yet, new road novels appear every year, tackling unexpected questions and spanning new geographies, from Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria, Palestine, Ukraine, and fo…
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