podcasts

Recent episodes I've heard have been fine, ones mostly about Palestine with relevant guests, like the Electronic Intifada guy, have been better but obviously a bit depressing. Matt can't be replaced, so until he's back I don't expect much.

I do miss Matt quite a bit. He always tried to relate current events to their historical context through a rough materialist framework. That was always the most engaging thing about the show for a history nerd like me: looking at current events through a grand narrative framework to make sense of it all. Neither Will nor Felix have a knack for thinking that way, though they have their own roles on the show that engage me to an extent.

Feels like they’re just kind of treading water until Matt gets back. A few recent episodes I’ve stopped listening to after just a little bit in because they aren’t really saying many interesting things. Looks like he put out another episode on the Spanish Civil War so maybe he’ll be on soon?

there's a podcast?

I kinda feel like a odd duck in that I actually like Chapo. I've stuck with Chapo pretty consistently, even through the post-Bernie doldrums. I've listened to a fair number of their episodes multiple times, even the much reviled Girl God episode. For me, Chapo is my default background noise when at work or taking a long drive or playing video games where I don't need to listen to dialogue.

For their recent stuff, it's not bad, although nothing amazing. They do have consistently good takes on Palestine, if not a lot of unique insights. On other topics they feel a bit late to the party, and there haven't been any particular stand-out reading series in the past few months.

There's a Matt shaped hole in my heart

Matt has a newborn so look at this as normalizing maternity leave.

Matthias Christmas needs to come back

I haven't watched since around the time Biden won