VERY EXCELLENT, very funny, esp regarding the German (police) state
The gang sits down and chats with Matt and Caoimhe from Irish Bloc Berlin about their experiences at Occupy Against Occupation at the Bundestag and the chaotic policing tactics attempted to snuff out any forms of solidarity with Palestine.
Dave (mostly) and Justin EXCELLENT as usual, this time on air/war (unfortunately almost-entirely on {WW1 Western Front, France/UK vs Germany):
* lighter-than-air aircraft and war c1870-1918 * heavier-than-air craft (i.e., airplanes) 1903-1918, esp ***** overcoming early massive craft/crew-safety and training problems ***** technological developments, both in planes/flight and weaponry ***** shift from {reconnaissance, very-light bombing} to {reconnaissance, air-to-air-combat fighters, heavy bombing, close-air support esp strafing} * how rapid technological development led to cycles in air superiority
From crashing test flights to close air support and strategic bombing – on the breakneck innovation in aerial warfare over the course of WW1. An issue with some implications today, you’ll agree?
Danny and Derek once again speak with Bryan Pitts, assistant director of the Latin American Institute at UCLA, about the history of Brazil. This episode picks up in the 17th century at the start of the sugar boom and all that comes along with it. They discuss sugar cultivation’s connection with the slave trade, the mechanics of trafficking people from A…
Welcome to Movie Mindset season 2! Will & Hesse look at two films somewhat bookending the career of the great James Cagney: Lloyd Bacon’s Footlight Parade (1933) & Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three (1961). The first is a pre-code musical spectacular, allowing Cagney to show off his song and dance skills as a promoter of live “prologues” for movie houses, the later a cold war screwball comedy, together they show the insane range of Cagney across a career also notable for roles as gangsters and tough guys. But here, we get to see his work making the most racist and offensive musical numbers imaginable to a depression-era crowd, and joke-a-minute comedy chops as a beverage exec trying to keep his boss’s daughter from eloping with a Communist while opening up east Germany to the wonders of Coca-Cola.
Tickets to Will & Hesse’s Movie Mindset screening & talkback of Death Wish 3 in NYC on May 4: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chapo-trap-houses-movie-mindset-screening-of-death-wish-3-w-will-hesse-tickets-877569192077
VERY EXCELLENT, very funny, great analysis and jokes/bant
Will, Felix & Hesse review Alex Garland’s Civil War. War may be hell, but at least we’ve got those damn good bastards the War Correspondents around to get the one perfect shot that will let everyone know, HEY…don’t do a Civil War.
exhibit A in the case against the Zionist rot in US mass-oriented deepstate media: > An official with the George Polk Awards confirmed to The Intercept that “Screams Without Words” was part of the Times package that won in the category for best foreign reporting.
Since Israel began its war on the Gaza Strip after the October 7 attacks, internal strife has wracked the New York Times. The intensity of the debate reached its zenith in late December and January, amid a sustained fight over the paper’s claim that Hamas had systematically weaponized sexual violence on October 7.
Published on December 28, the story, headlined “Screams Without Words,” instantly served as a powerful reference in a mounting campaign waged by Israel and its supporters to convince the world that Hamas had implemented a systematic rape campaign against Jewish women on October 7. The article by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz, and Adam Sella also was met with skepticism by independent journalists and other analysts who combed through each line of the story highlighting inconsistencies and credibility issues with people presented as witnesses and experts.
Since the story’s publication, the internal dispute led to the shelving of an episode of “The Daily,” the paper’s flagship podcast, that was to be based on “Screams Without Words.” The fight over the podcast episode spilled into the pages of The Intercept, prompting a far-reaching leak investigation that the New York Times’s union alleged was carried out in a manner that singled out and discriminated against reporters of Middle Eastern and North African extraction. A Times spokesperson denied that it engaged in racial targeting.
On Monday, executive editor Joe Kahn told staff the leak probe was ending. “We did not reach a definitive conclusion about how this significant breach occurred. We did identify gaps in the way proprietary journalistic material is handled, and we have taken steps to address these issues,” Kahn wrote on a Times Slack channel message seen by The Intercept. “The breach that occurred should upset anyone who wants to have transparency in our editorial processes and to encourage candid exchanges. We work together with trust and collegiality everyday on everything we produce, and I have every expectation that this incident will prove to be a singular exception to an important rule.”
In weeks leading up to the announcement that the probe was over, however, top officials in the Times newsroom justified the investigation and its conduct, according to newsroom sources and remarks at an April 4 meeting reviewed by The Intercept.
Internal concerns about the “Screams Without Words” article have been borne out by subsequent reporting from several media outlets, including The Intercept and the New York Times itself. The Times has not appended any major corrections to the December 28 story. Instead, the paper took the unusual step of inserting a bracketed “update” within the body of the story, with a link to a recent Times news article that undermines the original reporting.
Defending Leak Probe
Roughly 20 Times staffers were interviewed in the probe, which was led by Charlotte Behrendt, the chief of the paper’s internal investigations unit. Initially, Times leadership said, “The inquiry is focused narrowly on how internal materials were shared with outsiders.” In a March 5 statement, however, the New York Times Guild said this was not true and filed a grievance with the newspaper for discrimination against employees of Middle Eastern or North African background.
“Members faced extensive questions about their involvement in MENA ERG” — employee resource group — “events and discussions, and about their views of the Times’s Middle East coverage,” the union said. “Group leaders were asked to turn over the group’s membership list, as well as the names of all New York Times colleagues who had ‘raised concerns’ — in private discussions — about a published New York Times article.”
Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said, “The claim that anyone was singled out based on ethnicity or associations is completely untrue.” (The New York Times Guild did not respond to a request for comment about whether the grievance process was ongoing.)
In the weeks leading up to the closing of the probe, the intensity of the internal debate over Gaza coverage in the newsroom calmed, several Times staffers have told The Intercept, and interviews that were supposed to take place as part of the leak investigation never did. This led some employees to speculate that the investigation was winding down.
In an April 4 meeting, however, staffers were left with the impression the leak probe was continuing, according to three newsroom sources. During the all-staff meeting, Kahn, the executive editor, was asked for an update on the investigation and whether any staffers had been disciplined.
“There is nothing really concrete that we can say about it right now beyond the fact just to re-emphasize that this inquiry was very narrowly focused just on one issue which was making sure that we can protect the confidentiality of the journalistic process,” Kahn said. “It’s just very important that we be able to have that process unfold with the full confidence that that will remain internal to our staff and not be revealed or leaked externally. So that’s really the focus of it.”
Times managing editor Carolyn Ryan told staffers at the meeting that the internal probe was more than a simple leak investigation.
“It doesn’t really capture the gravity of what occurred here and the kind of extraordinary nature of it,” she said. “You’re talking about sharing pre-publication, pre-broadcast materials that were clearly internal, confidential, and sensitive.”
Times editorial leaders alluded to new internal policy initiatives aimed at stanching leaks and external criticism of the paper by staffers. They also emphasized that criticism and attacks on colleagues or the journalism of the Times was prohibited “outside of the proper channels.”
The day Kahn announced the probe was over, The Intercept published a story on a leaked Times style memo that instructed its journalists covering Israel’s war on Gaza to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to “avoid” using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian land.
New York Times executive editor Joseph Kahn speaks during a panel hosted by the Wall Street Journal in New York City on May 3, 2023.
Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP
Cutting Ties
At the same April 4 meeting, Times international editor Philip Pan told the staff that the paper had cut ties with Schwartz, an Israeli filmmaker who freelanced with the paper. Hired by the Times to work with Gettleman, one of its marquee reporters, Schwartz did much of the on-the-ground reporting and interviews for “Screams Without Words,” which purported to show a systematic pattern of rape and other sexual violence by Hamas on October 7.
“Anat was a freelancer that we worked with in Israel,” Pan said. “She made valuable contributions to our report. We didn’t see anything amiss with her work for us, but we learned about social media activity that predated her time working with us that was unacceptable and she’s not working with us right now.” (Neither Pan nor Schwartz responded to requests for comment.)
Schwartz’s social media history intensified the controversy around the “Screams” story. Following October 7, Schwartz liked a post on the platform X, saying that Israel needed to “turn the Strip into a slaughterhouse.” Another post on X liked by Schwartz repeated a since-debunked viral claim about beheaded babies in the October 7 attack and she also liked a post called for creating a narrative that would support Israel’s war aims.
After the posts were brought to light, the Times announced it was reviewing Schwartz’s social media activity. “Those ‘likes’ are unacceptable violations of our company policy,” said a Times spokesperson in February.
The Times had previously stood by Schwartz’s reporting publicly. “Ms. Schwartz was part of a rigorous reporting and editing process,” Pan said in a statement provided to The Intercept for a late-February story about the controversy. “She made valuable contributions and we saw no evidence of bias in her work. We remain confident in the accuracy of our reporting and stand by the team’s investigation. But as we have said, her ‘likes’ of offensive and opinionated social media posts, predating her work with us, are unacceptable.”
On March 5, according to chat records reviewed by The Intercept, Times Jerusalem bureau chief Patrick Kingsley removed Schwartz from the WhatsApp group used by the paper’s journalists for communicating about Gaza coverage. (Kingsley directed questions to the Times communications team.)
The day before Schwartz was removed from the group, The Intercept published a story challenging one of the central allegations of sexual assault featured in “Screams Without Words.” In its article, the Times had cited an anonymous Israeli special forces paramedic who claimed that two teenage girls were sexually assaulted in Kibbutz Be’eri, offering a graphic description of the scene.
A spokesperson for the kibbutz, however, told The Intercept that, based on the information they had been provided, the story was flatly false. Family members of the two girls also disputed they were sexually assaulted. A spokesperson for the Times told The Intercept the paper continued to stand by its reporting.
Schwartz would only author one more story for the paper after “Screams”: a co-byline with the “Screams” team on a January 29 story about the arrival of a United Nations team in Israel to draft a report about sexual violence on October 7.
“Screams” Falls Apart
When the U.N. report finally arrived on March 4, the Times story about it wasn’t written by any of the “Screams” reporters. What the U.N. had found seemed to undermine the December story: Two high-profile cases sexual assault alleged to have happened at Kibbutz Be’eri were “unfounded.”
Yet the Times stuck by its reporting. The paper’s story on the U.N. report said the special forces paramedic’s account in “Screams” was not in question: “First responders told The New York Times they had found bodies of women with signs of sexual assault at those two kibbutzim, but The Times, in its investigation, did not refer to the specific allegations that the U.N. said were unfounded.”
The newspaper never explained the basis for its assertion that the U.N. had not actually debunked the paper’s reporting on the incident, but evidence soon came to light indicating that the reporting was false: There was video. On March 25, the Times itself reported that it had reviewed video taken by an Israeli soldier of the scene’s aftermath, showing three fully clothed bodies with no signs of sexual violence — making clear the paramedic’s description offered in “Screams Without Words” was false.
The Times’s new article on the video did not feature Gettleman’s byline. “New video has surfaced that undercuts the account of an Israeli military paramedic who said two teenagers killed in the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7 were sexually assaulted,” the paper reported. “The unnamed paramedic, from an Israeli commando unit, was among dozens of people interviewed for a Dec. 28 article by The New York Times that examined sexual violence on Oct. 7.”
The Times, after submitting its article for a prestigious George Polk Award — and winning — suddenly began looking to share credit for its erroneous reporting. “The Associated Press, CNN, and the Washington Post reported similar accounts from a military paramedic who spoke on condition of anonymity,” reported the Times. (Eylon Levy, who at the time was an Israeli government spokesperson, had publicly offered to connect the paramedic with Western media outlets.)
The Times also walked back its claim that the previous U.N. report had not referred to its reporting. The Times article on the video said: “The report said the U.N. team was unable to establish whether sexual violence occurred in Be’eri and that at least two Be’eri cases reported in the news media were determined to be ‘unfounded,’ but it did not explicitly specify a military paramedic’s account.” It was a departure from its previous claim of certainty that the U.N. wasn’t referencing the account reported in the paper.
Instead of issuing a correction, the Times simply updated its “Screams Without Words” with the bracketed revelation that an entire section of its article was incorrect.
An official with the George Polk Awards confirmed to The Intercept that “Screams Without Words” was part of the Times package that won in the category for best foreign reporting. Gettleman, however, did not attend the Times’s private reception celebrating the award last week, nor did he appear at the awards luncheon on Friday.
“A number of our team members, including Jeffrey, were invited to attend but could not due to other commitments,” said a Times spokesperson. “The Times stands behind the reporting he and our entire team have done and is supportive of their earned accolades.”
The Polk committee said it stands by its citation and the award.
amusing, starts slow with meh 1st Punt-Dennis monolog, then gets better
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. Starring Geoff Norcott on cynical advertising strategies, Rachel Fairburn on our nation's obsession with conspiracy theories and an original song from Rachel Parris. With voices from Jon Culshaw and Laura Shavin.
The show was written by the cast with additional material from Cameron Loxdale, Tasha Dhanraj, Pravanya Pillay & Christina Riggs.
Davison and Bessner deliver another excellent Global Week in Review
Danny and Derek bring you another dose of Reality™️. This week: Congress passes Biden’s war funding package (0:59); Israel prepares to invade Rafah (7:31); the US begins construction of a Gaza pier (10:33); Antony Blinken may blacklist an IDF unit (12:58); mass graves are discovered in Gaza hospitals (16:57); US forces come under attack in Iraq and Syria (19:01); the IDF makes a small retaliation against Iran (21:42); Azerbaijan and Armenia make progress toward a peace agreement (24:06); Myanmar rebels withdraw from Myawaddy (27:18); the US finally agrees to withdraw forces from Niger (29:36); Russia makes gains in Ukraine (32:32); the US is sending long range weapons to and negotiating a military agreement with Kyiv (35:16); Ariel Henry resigns and a new Haitian council takes office (37:53); and a New Cold War update featuring Blinken visiting China (40:31) while Biden suggests that his uncle was eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea (43:02).
Runtime=8:25, so this AP freefeed release /just/ hits the line between long-teaser and severely-truncated episode. Guest Toossi begins with an overview of Israel-US vs Iran geopolitics, then begins to answer Davison question about (the failure of) US corporate-funded media's claims that the Iranian consulate in Damascus was not /really/ a diplomatic facility, and about the corrosive effects of USCFM's and deepstate's increasing attacks on international law, when the audio "fades to black."
Derek sits down with resident AP Iran expert Sina Toossi, senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, to discuss the recent escalations between Israel and Iran. They recap the events of the last several weeks, how domestic politics of Iran, Israel, and the US play into things, the thinking behind the scope of the strikes, how this…
Runtime=9:19, so this AP freefeed release straddles the line between long-teaser and severely-truncated. Starts by wasting time on meh banter, then Ames starts on a highlevel assessment of the NATO proxy war on Russia. Ames correctly assesses NATO/Ukraine is losing (though he's IMHO wrong on a few details), then begins to answer Bessner's obvious followup (/why/ is Russia winning) just as the audio fades out.
Danny and Derek once again speak with Mark Ames, co-host of Radio War Nerd, about the state of affairs in Russia and Ukraine. Topics include: the latest round of American aid, what happened with the Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russia re-purposing Soviet military infrastructure, and more.
Danny and Derek once more speak with Daniel Hummel, director of the Lumen Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Upper House, to finish our series on Christian Zionism in the United States since 1948. This episode picks up at the beginning of the Obama Administration, touching on Netanyahu’s deepening ties with American Christian Zionists, the …
It could be argued that World War I was decided at sea. The British blockade; the Germans try unrestricted submarine warfare, and massive consequences follow. We talk about Jutland, Skaggerak, the Luistania, and civilian hardships, in the war at sea.
if you love fast-paced, gag-driven comedy ... you'll be mildly disappointed by /this/ somewhat subpar Milton Jones outing. MJ is a genius king of the one-liner, and this is /not/ one of his better outings, ... but it's still amusing enough and worthy of 28 min of your time.
Star of Mock The Week, Milton Jones ends up in prison for committing a True Crime podcast and asks the question “Sound effects and soundproofing - which came first, the chicken or the eggbox?”
Complete with his unmissable jokes and a fully-working cast.
“The best one-line merchant in British comedy...” - Chortle
"King of the surreal one-liners" - The Times
“Milton Jones is one of Britain’s best gagsmiths with a flair for creating daft yet perfect one-liners” – The Guardian
Written by Milton Jones, James Cary and Dan Evans
Starring Milton Jones, Tom Goodman-Hill, Josie Lawrence, Dan Tetsell and James Akka
Annibale (somebody gotta find his true identity) is VERY EXCELLENT as usual. This episode (part 1 of 3!) on the Jul-Aug 1943 Battle of Kursk covers (among other topics)
* myths vs realities about Kursk campaign specifically and WW2 Eastern Front in general * comparison/contrast WW2 vs Russia-Ukraine war (hint--Russia=USSR and Ukraine= ... the other guys :-) * Nazi-USSR war from Jun 1941 Barbarossa invasion to 12 Jul 1943 Battle of Prokhorovka (which gets setup/teased in this episode)
Now Show slides towards sunset (after 60+ years? 30-ish with Punt and Dennis?) with another quality-but-not-awesome episode, including
* 2 amusing monologs (2nd better than 1st) and 1 audience quiz (subpar as usual--always the weakest part of the show) from hosts and cast * Lucy Porter subpar (for this episode and for her, generally) but listenable * EXCELLENT Alasdair_Beckett-King (18:23-24:03) on Wim Hof, nicknames, penguins, Aberdeen, UK kids today vs early-20c Brits, web advertising, and the danger among us--chairs * closing with an amusing but below-par-for-him Mitch Benn song
... and gotta say: what I'll miss most about 'Now Show' is yet another L for the comic-song genre, of which I am /exceedingly/ fond ...
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. Featuring Lucy Porter on Laura Kenny’s retirement, Alasdair Beckett-King on the state of our nation’s health and an original song from Mitch Benn. With voices from Ed Jones and Katie Norris.
The show was written by the cast with additional material from Cody Dahler, Zoe Tomalin, Katie Sayer and Peter Tellouche.
Producer: Sasha Bobak
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinator: Caroline Barlow
Producer’s note: This was recorded on Thursday, April 18, before Israel’s strike on Iran, hence us releasing this earlier than usual.
It’s the world news roundup with the ever loyal Danny and Derek. This week: Israel plans a retaliation for Iran’s strike last week, Iran floats the possibility of developing nuclear weapons in response (0:31), and plans for an IDF Rafah operation in Gaza are underway (8:09); the US is still pursuing Saudi normalization with Israel (10:40) and vetoes a Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN (13:38); the US is trying to create an “independent” sanctions monitor for the DPRK/North Korea (15:11); in climate news, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering the “worst” bleaching event ever (17:19); in Sudan, the fighting expands into North Darfur (19:46); the UN’s Libya envoy quits in frustration (21:18); a whistleblower says that the US is ignoring the order to withdraw from Niger (23:44); the US pushes back over oil refinery attacks in Ukraine (26:41) while the House of Representatives will take up military aid bills (30:01); and the US will reinstate sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector (32:12).
Felix+Will+Josh Ettinger aka Ettingermentum form the "Sunshine of Smiles" faction within the Gray Wolves, bringing topical joys including
* Israel warcrimes and US DoS report suppression * history of I politics esp religious-secular conflict * Mizrahim ultraracism * parties history survey ***** Likud party from Begin to Netanyahu ***** Shas party and Sephardim ***** Noam sexism and illiberals vs New Hope ***** Jewish Power party from Kahane to Ben Gvir ***** National Unity Party esp Benny Gantz ***** orthodox/Heredim in Israel class structure and (not) military ***** Israel generals in politics esp Sharon: from massive military fails to political success via massive propaganda ***** Blinken pressures Abbas to reject Palestine statehood ***** stupid Israeli party names ***** Yesh Atid party esp Yair Lapid ***** Yisrael Beitenu esp Avigdor Liberman ***** ideological variation: economics but not genocide ***** Ra'am aka United Arab List: Islamist but conservative/accomodationist ***** Hadash: anti-Zionist left-Communist coalition ***** Labor massive collapse from natural governing party 1948-1977 to sub-threshold for next election ***** Meretz: another negligible liberal Zionist party * future of Israel aka "world's greatest democracy"
Josh a.k.a. Ettingermentum joins us for a survey of the political parties of the greatest Democracy of the Middle East, and perhaps, the World: Israel. From Likud to Shas, the New Hope to There Is A Future, we give you a full look of the current political state of Israel and their burning political questions of the day: Should women be taught to read? Are gay people animals? Just how thoroughly should Palestinians be eliminated? Discover the not-so-wide range of opinions of Israel’s dozens of political organizations within.
Subscribe to the Ettingermentum newsletter here: https://www.ettingermentum.news/
IOT excellent as usual, esp on Classical Period Mediterranean
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the last pagan ruler of the Roman Empire. Fifty years after Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and introduced a policy of tolerating the faith across the empire, Julian (c.331 - 363 AD) aimed to promote paganism instead, branding Constantine the worst of all his predecessors. Julian was a philosopher-emperor in the mould of Marcus Aurelius and was noted in his lifetime for his letters and his satires, and it was his surprising success as a general in his youth in Gaul that had propelled him to power barely twenty years after a rival had slaughtered his family. Julian's pagan mission and his life were brought to a sudden end while on campaign against the Sasanian Empire in the east, but he left so much written evidence of his ideas that he remains one of the most intriguing of all the Roman emperors and a hero to the humanists of the Enlightenment.
With
James Corke-Webster
Reader in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at King’s College, London
Lea Niccolai
Assistant Professor in Classics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics, Trinity College
And
Shaun Tougher
Professor of Late Roman and Byzantine History at Cardiff University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Polymnia Athanassiadi, Julian: An Intellectual Biography (first published 1981; Routledge, 2014)
Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher (eds.), Emperor and Author: The Writings of Julian the Apostate (Classical Press of Wales, 2012)
Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher (eds.), The Sons of Constantine, AD 337-361: In the Shadows of Constantine and Julian, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
G.W. Bowersock, Julian the Apostate (first published 1978; Harvard University Press, 1997)
Susanna Elm, Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome (University of California Press, 2012)
Ari Finkelstein, The Specter of the Jews: Emperor Julian and the Rhetoric of Ethnicity in Syrian Antioch (University of California Press, 2018)
David Neal Greenwood, Julian and Christianity: Revisiting the Constantinian Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2021)
Lea Niccolai, Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power: Constantine, Julian, and the Bishops on Exegesis and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
Stefan Rebenich and Hans-Ulrich Wiemer (eds), A Companion to Julian the Apostate (Brill, 2020)
Rowland Smith, Julian’s Gods: Religion and Philosophy in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate (Routledge, 1995)
H.C. Teitler, The Last Pagan Emperor: Julian the Apostate and the War against Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Shaun Tougher, Julian the Apostate (Edinburgh University Press, 2007)
W. C. Wright, The Works of Emperor Julian of Rome (Loeb, 1913-23)
By the third entry of the God's Not Dead franchise, its creative team had clearly started listening to their critics. The result was a kinder, gentler right-wing Evangelical Christian drama that sought to heal divides... and failed at the box office. We welcome back New Republic writer and our resident God's Not Dead correspondent Alex Shephard to discuss GOD'S NOT DEAD: A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS (2018).
JOIN US ON PATREON FOR AN EXTRA EPISODE EVERY WEEK - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus
amusing (esp math jokes) deprecations of - telephone hold-messages bad probability reasoning - The Sea (as in, as a totality) - exams - sexism
Paul Merton interviews a variety of guests from the world of comedy and entertainment to find out what they would send to Room 101, as well as the one item they cannot live without.
In this episode, Hannah Fry tries to convince Paul to send complicated toilet flushes and exams to Room 101, and discusses her particular devotion to a daily ritual that she cannot live without.
Additional Material: John Irwin and Suki Webster
Produced by Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4
SINGULAR, at least for the M&U free feed (I gotta subscribe): this is a 30-min audio documentary equal in quality to what I'd expect from, e.g., BBC Radio 4. In addition to a (unfortunately quite thin) biography of Eddie Anderson 1905-1977 and his place in US {"race relations," {radio, movie, TV} comedy}, it also discusses
* his employer and friend(ish?) Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky 1894-1974) * the evolution of Anderson's career, esp his role as Benny's valet "Rochester" * ethnicity and comedy in radio, movies, and TV * ... and much more
YOU MUST take 30 min of your time to listen to Will Sloan's exploration of this American relationship.
When he emerged on radio, he was celebrated as a pioneering black star in a white entertainment landscape. By the time of the Civil Rights Movement, he was regarded by many a symbol of black subservience. In this solo documentary episode Cohost Will considers the career and thorny legacy of Eddie Anderson, the actor and comedian who played "Rochester" on The Jack Benny Show.
"Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy" by Katherine H. Fuller-Seeley - https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520295056/jack-benny-and-the-golden-age-of-american-radio-comedy
This episode first appeared on the Michael & Us Patreon. For an extra episode every week, join us at https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus
Danny and Derek bring you stories from around the globe. This week: Iran warns of an imminent response to Israel bombing the IR’s embassy in Syria (0:31); Gaza ceasefire talks remain tenuous (6:15) while the IDF’s “withdrawal” has not yet enabled sufficient aid to enter the Strip (10:47); in Myanmar, rebels seize a key border town (15:27); battlefield dynamic shifts in Sudan with a supply of Iranian drones (19:00); in Ukraine, Russia strikes destroy a major power plant (21:17) and the Ukrainian parliament passes a new conscription law (23:17); international fallout ensues after the Ecuadorian goernment raids the Mexican embassy in Quito (25:36); a New Cold War update featuring Biden hosting Japanese PM Kishida and Philippine president Marcos Jr. (29:28); and in climate news, March continues a 10-month streak of the hottest respective month ever recorded (32:43).
Danny and Derek give an update on what we know about Iran’s attack against Israel in response to Israel’s April 1 strike on an Iranian embassy in Syria.
Danny and Derek are back with updates on the situation after last night’s bombardment on Israel, including international reactions, the potential Israeli response, and more.
EXCELLENT Felix+Will+Nichols bant well-seasoned with politics, including
* rightwing Brazil MMA * Conor McGregor beyond the octagon * Israel cancels Billy Joel (well, not really) * Coachella antics, esp ***** Grimes ***** Blur-Gorillaz ***** anime/cartoon performers ***** Tyler the Creator ***** Will Smith * Horse Whisperer gets Valerie Bertinelli * Iran-Israel * Fetterman antics * Jackson Hinkle * Epstein and Assad playlists * Trump does Gettysburg and NYC trial
Alex is back on with us today to catch up on MMA libertarians, bad DJs, and a rudely interrupted Billy Joel. We then discuss Iran’s weekend missile attack on Israel, and get Donald Trump’s somber and thoughtful remarks on the hallowed battle ground of Gettysburg. All this and some Valerie Bertinelli news on today’s show.
NYC, MAY 4th: Join Will & Hesse for a Movie Mindset Season 2 kickoff screening & talkback of DEATH WISH 3 at Littlefield, tickets now available:
The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) is remembered as a dress rehearsal for World War 2, a class struggle, a religious struggle, a battle between left and right, between fascism and communism. While the conflict left deep scars on Spanish society, the impact of the war went far beyond its borders. To document and discuss the conflict and the international response, a new Virtual Museum of the Spanish Civil war is being created by historians from some 30 countries.
Judith Keene: Association Professor, History department, University of Sydney.
