When a man is down on his luck, what is he to do? His fortune squandered, his estate mishandled, his love unfaithful, Barry Lyndon goes to war, and to prison, and to the gambling table, and to Prussia, and to Ireland. He schemes his way, hoping to get back into the good graces of the universe, trying to manifest that happy ending he's put on his vision board. Jessa and Joseph discuss whether Barry is just another manifestation girlie, how politically useful the British found the Irish famine, and other adventures in capitalism and colonialism.

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The dumbest culture war in history continues, as the Trump administration seeks to purify the national collection of knickknacks and souvenirs. And the liberals are falling for it, declaring that this is just like the time the Nazis burned books and called art degenerate. As the bitter war over wall text next to a Papier-mâché Statue of Liberty continues, Jessa and Nico discuss the "museums are not neutral" stance progressives had, why a rich kid with an MFA from Yale is not Otto Dix, and one of the architects of the contemporary culture war, Victoria Coates.

Shownotes and references:

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What is behind the drive for small communities of like-minded people? The MAHA millionaire farm, the white nationalists in Arkansas, the makeshift Texas beguinage? Are we re-entering an age of utopian experimentation or are we creating cults? Jessa and Nico discuss the history of utopian projects in the American Midwest, how people from the United States have been bothering South Americans for decades with their "intentional communities," and why Swifties only want to talk to other Swifties.

Shownotes and references:

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The fuss over Sydney Sweeney's jeans/genes ad, and there are those who accused her of "normalizing eugenics," misses an important point: we are already doing another round of eugenics. It's just that this round is about the Haves having access to surrogates, IVF, CRISPR, and other genetic assistance while the Have Nots have plummeting fertility rates and no longterm care options when they have children with health problems. Jessa and Nico talk about the history of eugenics, why it was a leftist cause for so long, and what a baby with a $5 million miracle cure says about the future of humanity.

Shownotes and references:

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As we were recording between two long work trips and through various mishaps, this week Nico and Jessa just go through headlines and updates on previous subjects. Covered: why the Trump administration is besotted with Confederate monuments, women separatist spaces, Uber's inability to protect their passengers from sexual assault, and more ICE chat. We were tired, okay?!

Shownotes and references:

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It's cancellation season again, although it's not really working the way it used to. Joey Swole, Sydney Sweeney, Anthony Fantano, a mother in New York who died in a mass shooting, have all been deemed by the collective as unacceptable. Is it the Trump effect that is preventing the cancellation from taking hold, or something else? Have we as a society progressed past the need for cancel culture? Ha hahaha ha haaaa hahaha.

Shownotes and references:

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Following our earlier discussion of the documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics, Jessa and Nico get into the spread of Evangelicals in power -- not only in the United States but also where missionaries have established bases overseas. Like every other truly terrible contribution the US has made, this is all about the Cold War.

Shownotes and references:

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Welcome to the creative economy, which is built to strip mine from your body and soul any glimmer of talent, skill, or genius you might possess and exploit it. Our unlucky men, Lucien and David, a poet and an inventor, are looking to make their riches in pre-1848 France, only to find the world is not built to tolerate, let alone celebrate, people like them. They try their luck. It doesn't go well. But at least Balzac spends a lot of time telling us about what kinds of velvet they were wearing along the way. Joseph and Jessa discuss why Marx loved Balzac, why a fool makes a frustrating character, and why one shouldn't read about a failed poet while on book tour.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com