Podcast Central

[MartyFunkhouser]

The Athletic Hockey show is consistently solid. The prospect episodes are the best ones. Called Up is good, but they have got to get their audio balanced out.

[Jeff Lebowski]

After listening to the podcast I'd be shocked if it were truly anti-capitalist. Maybe everyone should wait until the movie comes out before freaking out.

I would not be shocked.

Variety:

Here, the humans are unilaterally “greedy and cruel” carnivores who represent the evils of capitalism. Mr. Whymper (Steve Buscemi) works for the bank, first seen ready to foreclose on Jones’ farm and later more than willing to take the animals’ “magic paper” (i.e., money). Wealthy Freida Pilkington (Glenn Close) drives a Tesla-style Cybertruck and covets the farm as “the last piece of land I don’t own,” bribing Napoleon with credit cards and sports cars, when what she really wants is to build a dam and drown the farm.

Daily Mail:

A new film version of Animal Farm has sparked a backlash for criticising capitalism rather than communism and introducing a happy ending.

The original novel by George Orwell follows a group of farm animals who rebel against their human masters, serving as an allegory for the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent rise of Stalin.

But rather than serving as a critique of totalitarian Soviet Russia, the new family friendly movie version shifts its focus towards the dangers of capitalism and corporate corruption.

Wall Street Journal:

Orwell’s original book was an allegory of the Bolshevik Revolution, communism and its inevitable descent into totalitarianism. I read it in high school. You probably did too. The allegory was pretty transparent: Napoleon was Stalin, Snowball was Trotsky, Farmer Jones was Czar Nicholas II, and Old Major was a combination of Lenin and Marx.

Forget all that. While only a trailer is available, the film was reviewed after appearing at a festival last June. Remarkably, instead of Stalin, the antagonist is a tech billionairess who drives a Cybertruck knockoff. Really! She bribes Napoleon with fast cars and credit cards and, as one reviewer put it, her “methods mimic the hostile-takeover techniques of big banks and monopolistic companies.” Hilarity ensues. Yes, capitalism is the villain. Hollywood strikes again.

[BigPiney]

That movie looks terrible. no thanks

[YOhio]

Speaking of Angel Studios, I see that they are about to release Animal Farm and people are losing their minds because it has flipped from anti-communism to anti-capitalism. Angel Studios social media is desperately trying to convince people that it is still anti-communist, but the facts seem to say otherwise.

https://www.ksl.com/article/51482116...os-is-involved

The back-pedaling:

After listening to the podcast I'd be shocked if it were truly anti-capitalist. Maybe everyone should wait until the movie comes out before freaking out.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I just finished this Tetragrammaton podcast with Rick Rubin and Jeff Harmon. Jeff is one of the founders of Harmon Brothers, VidAngel, DryBar Comedy, and Angel Studios. He's a pretty impressive entrepreneur and their business model is going to be interesting to watch. I'd just watched Solo Mio the day before listening and I really enjoyed the movie, so I came in a bit biased. It was a really fun listen.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5RE...QHCdrBqiZw2FWg

Speaking of Angel Studios, I see that they are about to release Animal Farm and people are losing their minds because it has flipped from anti-communism to anti-capitalism. Angel Studios social media is desperately trying to convince people that it is still anti-communist, but the facts seem to say otherwise.

https://www.ksl.com/article/51482116...os-is-involved

Some of Orwell's material remains intact in the animated version, but Serkis shifts the story to warn against the dangers of capitalism and corporate greed, giving human characters a larger role to embody these ideas.

In Serkis' adaptation, after the animal revolution, Napoleon seizes power and begins scheming with rival farmer and billionaire Frieda Pilkington — a character created for the adaptation — who lures him with human luxuries to execute her ultimate plan: taking over the farm, the last piece of land she doesn't own, and building a profitable dam.

The back-pedaling:

"As social and mainstream media respond to incomplete or erroneous information, it's important to get the facts straight. There are four," Angel said in a statement. "Angel is the distributor of this film, not its producer, nor with creative control. Angel Guild members viewed the film and voted heavily to support it."

"While the title is the same as the classic book, updates were made to make it relevant to a broad-based, values-centric, family-friendly audience," the statement continued.

"This is an anti-communism film, and the Angel Guild will ensure that it stands by the principles of our members."

[YOhio]

I just finished this Tetragrammaton podcast with Rick Rubin and Jeff Harmon. Jeff is one of the founders of Harmon Brothers, VidAngel, DryBar Comedy, and Angel Studios. He's a pretty impressive entrepreneur and their business model is going to be interesting to watch. I'd just watched Solo Mio the day before listening and I really enjoyed the movie, so I came in a bit biased. It was a really fun listen.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5RE...QHCdrBqiZw2FWg

[Green Monstah]

The new The Rest is History series on the Ku Klux Klan is excellent. i had a fairly good understanding of the KKK but am learning a lot of new information and, as always, the presenters are very engaging.

It has also re-aroused my very strong negative feelings about LDS Church policy from 1847 to 1978, but that's something for another discussion.

I’ll definitely listen to that this week. Usually, I love their episodes, but the prior series just couldn’t hold my attention.

[PaloAltoCougar]

The new The Rest is History series on the Ku Klux Klan is excellent. i had a fairly good understanding of the KKK but am learning a lot of new information and, as always, the presenters are very engaging.

It has also re-aroused my very strong negative feelings about LDS Church policy from 1847 to 1978, but that's something for another discussion.

[Northwestcoug]

For the uninformed, such as myself, can you elaborate on what the root cause of abuse/addiction is?

Ha serves me right for trying to sound authoritative.

But I think it stands to reason that unless you decrease the demand there will always be a supply. Multiple countries have tried to cut off supply for decades, and the drug epidemic is as worse as it's ever been.

I'm as ignorant of sound drug policy as the next person here. But I do trust some that say addressing root causes of drug abuse involves a lot of money and effort to tackle societal ills. A multimodality approach that includes harm reduction programs, decriminalization efforts, and other socialist-curious community investments will likely do more to decrease the morbidity/mortality of drug abuse on the ground (where it counts the most) than any unconstitutional attacks on other countries.

[BigFatMeanie]

I seem to remember that's been tried before, both by internal and external players. And not just half-assedly like Trump's performative extrajudicial killing of drug runners in boats (are they really drug runners? Who's to say, just trust us!).

The most effective way to make a significant dent in drug use is to address the root cause of abuse/addiction. Doing the typical drug war thing is easy. It's also why it's been a failure.

For the uninformed, such as myself, can you elaborate on what the root cause of abuse/addiction is?

[Northwestcoug]

The bad part of the war on drugs is that we haven't fought it at its source. Trying to take down local networks and minor drug dealers hasn't done a thing. We should be going after the cartels and any country that supports them directly.

Good Trump!

I seem to remember that's been tried before, both by internal and external players. And not just half-assedly like Trump's performative extrajudicial killing of drug runners in boats (are they really drug runners? Who's to say, just trust us!).

The most effective way to make a significant dent in drug use is to address the root cause of abuse/addiction. Doing the typical drug war thing is easy. It's also why it's been a failure.

[Shaka]

The bad part of the war on drugs is that we haven't fought it at its source. Trying to take down local networks and minor drug dealers hasn't done a thing. We should be going after the cartels and any country that supports them directly.

Good Trump!

[falafel]

I'm excited for the "Collateral Damage" podcast, hosted by Radley Balko. He's highlighting all the bad that has come with the war on drugs. I'm halfway through the first episode which chronicles how the death of a 92 year-old woman brought down the entire narcotics division at the Atlanta police department. I've already heard about police cover-ups, lies, and evidence planting that came about because of the federal money flowing to police departments encouraging more drug arrests. You know, like what inevitably happens when we place too much trust in governments skirting laws when blowing up boats, etc.

https://theintercept.com/podcasts/collateral-damage/

Links from The Intercept remind me of our dear friend Walter Sobchack/SpaceGhost.

Also, sounds like a good podcast. Subscribed.

[Green Monstah]

The Rest is History is excellent. Two English chaps do a fairly good job of churning out engaging, high quality historical content. It’s become my go-to lately, and there is so much archived content, that I may not be without a podcast for a couple of years.

[Northwestcoug]

I'm excited for the "Collateral Damage" podcast, hosted by Radley Balko. He's highlighting all the bad that has come with the war on drugs. I'm halfway through the first episode which chronicles how the death of a 92 year-old woman brought down the entire narcotics division at the Atlanta police department. I've already heard about police cover-ups, lies, and evidence planting that came about because of the federal money flowing to police departments encouraging more drug arrests. You know, like what inevitably happens when we place too much trust in governments skirting laws when blowing up boats, etc.

https://theintercept.com/podcasts/collateral-damage/