Ep. 20 - Secret Teaching

Explicit content warning

08/02/17 • 118 min

This week from our special plans department, Leo Strauss: a guide for the perplexed. Politics, both ancient and modern; the allure of elite cabals; a whiskey spill Rorschach test; polemics, hermeneutics, and sex in the stacks. Plus—Iraq, intelligence, independence, and other declarations of the great atheist priest: Text. WORKS CITED: Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire (Yale University Press, 2004), by Anne Norton; The Enduring Importance of Leo Strauss (University of Chicago Press, 2013), by Laurence Lampert; Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence (3rd ed., Potomac Books, 2002), by Abram N. Shulsky and Gary J. Schmitt; "Leo Strauss and the World of Intelligence (By Which We Do Not Mean Nous)," by Gary J. Schmitt and Abram N. Shulksy: http://bit.ly/2woEPwb ; "Sphinx Without a Secret," by M.F. Burnyeat, NY Review of Books (May 1985): http://bit.ly/2wp0DrH ; "What Is Liberal Education?" by Leo Strauss (June 1959): http://bit.ly/2u7v2xI ; Harvey Mansfield in conversation with Bill Kristol: https://youtu.be/t-gH7Waedtk ; "Leo Strauss: September 20, 1899-October 18, 1973," by Allan Bloom: http://bit.ly/2hqL5Rp ; "Leo Strauss: Friend of Liberal Democracy," by Jeet Heer (March '08): http://bit.ly/2u4kxaq ; Leo Strauss as Teacher, 2011 conference at U. of Chicago: https://youtu.be/vyaqZAwodeU ; "Seminar in Political Philosophy: Karl Marx," Leo Strauss (with Joseph Cropsey): http://bit.ly/2vsCjbd [excerpt is from 4/20/60; nice]. FURTHER READING: Profile of Abram Shulsky: "Selective Intelligence," by Seymour M. Hersh, New Yorker (May 2003): http://bit.ly/2o0t2mZ ; Jenny Strauss Clay, adoptive daughter of Leo, responds to his critics: "The Real Leo Strauss," NY Times (June 2003): http://nyti.ms/1i6Dj4I ; BBC documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis on Leo Strauss, from The Power of Nightmares (2004): https://youtu.be/FyKpjDup8Fw ; "Reading Leo Strauss," by Steven B. Smith, NY Times (June 2006): http://nyti.ms/2vsSHbr ; "The Pro-Trump Intellectuals Who Want to Overthrow America," by Jeet Heer, New Republic (Oct. 2016): http://bit.ly/2n6v6al.

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Ep. 19 - Get In

We're trying to get at the allure of permanent consequences, the moral underpinnings of hitchhiking, and the secret greenhouses of your text-based relationships. Whither goest thou, America? And can you get us there before bed, we have to be up early? LINKS/SOURCES: a relationship beset by far-left podcasts: https://twitter.com/yungneocon/status/877017208161009664 ; "The End of the Open Road: The Inside Story of How Hitchhiking Died," by Molly Osberg (May '15): http://bit.ly/1E2bL9f ; "The death of hitchhiking is a modern tragedy," by Anne Perkins (Sept. '16): http://bit.ly/2coPqSr ; "An Informal History of Hitchhiking" by John. T. Schlebecker, The Historian 20:3 (May 1958), pp. 305-327. ; CNN on the Michelle Carter trial: http://cnn.it/2umrpUe ; Court documents, from the state: http://bit.ly/2vpiCxA ; and from the defense: http://bit.ly/2ts2biL

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Ep. 21 - No World

Lose yourself in the wild-eyed fearsome shadow of totality. Come see what hippies the Moon made of our steely-eyed missile men. Plus—Elon Musk trips over his own simulated shoelaces, and the Moon Matrix is fully decoded. Join us, but only if you've got the right glasses. SOURCES: Quora queries: https://www.quora.com/topic/Elon-Musk Elon Musk speaks with Walter Isaacson at Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit: https://youtu.be/fPsHN1KyRQ8 ; "Elon Musk: The Chance We Are Not Living In a Computer Simulation is 'One in Billions'," by Andrew Griffin in The Independent (June 2016): http://ind.pn/1TXY3zF ; On Elon Musk's mission to Mars: "Exodus," by Ross Anderson in Aeon (Sept. 2014): http://bit.ly/1N7gT0N ; Lo and Behold (2016), dir. Werner Herzog. David Icke coming out as the son of God in 1991, https://youtu.be/NapHiWsoFXI & https://youtu.be/4q9ncm2jotI ; David Icke's "Lion Sleeps No More" seminar, queued up to the moon part: https://youtu.be/VJorKZEbQsA?t=51m21s ; "Total Eclipse," by Annie Dillard (first pub. 1982). Available here, till 8/22: http://theatln.tc/2upvpQt ; For All Mankind (1989), dir. Al Reinert: https://youtu.be/FJiHAoAru54