I Don't Speak German

Originally published 11th April 2024.

Our series on 'movies about presidents' continues with a fun discussion of this 1997 'thriller', written by legendary Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman based on the debut novel of David Baldacci, starring/produced/directed by noted chair-interviewer Clint Eastwood, and boasting a splendid cast - including recently-deceased screen legend Gene Hackman - none of whom are given anything very i...

After a brief review of Grok becoming 'MechaHitler', we chat about the hysterical meltdown that ensued upon Zohran Mamdani's victory in the Democratic primaries to become candidate for Mayor of New York.  Jack brings his researches into the New York Times smear story and the fascist eugenicist blogger Jordan Lasker (AKA Cremieux) who gave the Times the leaked info.  Daniel brings clips of Megyn Kelly's unhinged Islamophobic respons...

...oh my.

Daniel and Jack talk about the latest lunacy with Musk and Grok, The Big Beautiful Bill, social murder, the expansion of ICE, recent SCOTUS rulings and the assaults on trans rights and birthright citizenship, Alligator Alcatraz, the horrifying flash floods in Texas and the cuts to the National Weather Service, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Big content warnings for this one.  Lots of dead children in here.  Because tha...

We're delighted to welcome back Craig Johnson - of Fifteen Minutes of Fascism - to chat about the politics and value of native English speakers learning other languages, especially Spanish.

Episode Notes:

Spanish language papers:

Pagina12: left Peronist, Argentina: www.pagina12.com.ar
Proceso, Mexico: www.proceso.com.mx
elDiario.es and Público, Spain: www.eldiario.es, www.publico.es 

Again, not an endorsement of these as the best a...

A News Roundup episode, and an episode of two halves.  We start with a discussion of the recent public Oval Office meeting between Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, in which Trump harangued the South African president with accusations of 'white genocide' based on 'evidence' which tracks straight back to people in our usual wheelhouse.  Then we move on to a chat about the recent decision by language learning app Duolingo to replace loads o...

Daniel and Jack are joined by special guest, South African anti-disinformation advocate, Bianca van Wyk, to discuss the issue of 'South African farm murders', the reality vs the right-wing narrative, some of the bad actors pushing the fake version of the story, and the links to the 'white genocide' conspiracy theory.  Bianca helps us get the whole thing into proper context, especially re South Africa's history and current politics....

In this immediately out-of-date episode, Daniel and Jack discuss the 2024 movie Conclave in light of the (at the time of recording) underway 2025 Conclave in the Vatican to choose a new Pope.  Both your hosts talk a little about their own religious backgrounds, review the film, and then get onto the politics of the Catholic Church, particularly the integration of right-wing US bishops with American reactionaries.

Episode Notes:

ht...

Trump released all the remaining secret JFK files!  Except not really.  And they're full of revelations!  Except not really.  (They're mainly full of people's social security numbers which, it transpires, is pretty much all the remaining redactions were hiding.)  Anna Paulina Luna (R, FL) is leading a new congressional investigation!  Er... no, she's inviting conspiracy theorists into Congress to confirm her ill-informed beliefs.  ...

Our 'movies about presidents' series continues (probably for four more years) with a much better movie this time. 1993's Wolfgang Peterson joint In the Line of Fire, featuring Clint Eastwood again (are we... doing a Clint Eastwood season now?) as jaded old Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, veteran of a particular epic fail in Dallas 1963, up against the 90s serial killer shtick of rogue CIA super-assassin John Malkovich and, eve...

Our series on 'movies about presidents' continues with a fun discussion of this 1997 'thriller', written by legendary Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman based on the debut novel of David Baldacci, starring/produced/directed by noted chair-interviewer Clint Eastwood, and boasting a splendid cast - including recently-deceased screen legend Gene Hackman - none of whom are given anything very interesting to do. Clint plays a suave ...

Jack and Daniel welcome to the show Craig A. Johnson - academic, researcher, antifascist, and host of the (excellent) podcast 15 Minutes of Fascism - to chat about his (excellent) new book How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism, a primer on today's fascist and far-right, in all their styles and iterations, aimed at people worried that a young person in their lives (most especially a young man, obviously) is being sucked into the dar...

Daniel and Jack chat about the eventful millennia that have passed since they last convened... 

Features Cantwell News!

Show Notes:

Please consider donating to help us make the show and stay ad-free and independent.  Patrons get exclusive access to at least one full extra episode a month plus all backer-only back-episodes.

Daniel's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/danielharper/posts

Jack's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=41...

With apologies for our latest recent hiatus, here's an old bonus episode - formerly just for patrons - in which Daniel and Jack chat about 1992's A Few Good Men, a military courtroom drama written by Aaron 'West Wing' / 'Social Network' Sorkin, and starring Kevin Pollack and some other people probably.

We're still alive and the show will be back.  We appreciate your patience.

Please consider donating to help us make the show and st...

Jack is joined by friend (and friend-of-the-show), the writer George Daniel Lea, to talk about the online phenomenon known as 'Estranged Parents' or the 'Estranged Parents Movement'.  George did a deep dive and is here to tell us about what he found.  It turns out to be a lot more relevant to IDSG than it might seem at first glance!

George's site http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/

George on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:...

We begin our seventh year (!) with a conversation with special guest Teddy Wilson, the journalist behind Radical Reports, on the state of the January 6th convictions, prosecutions, and investigations in the looming shadow of a second Trump presidency.

Episode Notes:

https://bsky.app/profile/reportbywilson.bsky.social

https://bsky.app/profile/radicalreports.bsky.social

https://www.radicalreports.org/

Teddy's previous IDSG appearance...

In a companion piece to the last public bonus, Daniel and Jack discuss Adam McKay's Vice from 2018, a dense metafictional dramedy biopic of Dick Cheney, unofficial president during the George W. Bush years and architect of the 'War on Terror'.  An interesting movie, possibly as flawed as it is brilliant.  

Please consider donating to help us make the show and stay ad-free and independent.  Patrons get exclusive access to at least o...

Another in our series of election year chats about movies about presidents.  Originally published 18th October, exclusive for Patreon subscribers of Daniel or Jack, now released for all. 

By patron request, we watched and discussed 1999's delightful neo-screwball teensploitation 70s-nostalgiafest Dick, in which two teenage girls - Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams - accidentally find themselves befriending Richard Nixon (Dan Heda...

Normal service to be resumed soon.  In the meantime, Daniel and Jack continue their series on movies about the presidency by considering Oliver Stone's baffling 2008 movie W., an aggressively irrelevant and annoyingly whimsical dramady biopic of blood-soaked war criminal George W. Bush.  The movie stars Josh Brolin as the charming mass murderer, and a host of respected American actors doing impressions of neocon profiteer warmonger...

Daniel and Jack sit down across from each other in brown leather armchairs and ruthlessly interrogate each other about their many crimes.  We also continue our election year series on movies about (or at least mentioning) US Presidents by talking over the deeply mid 2008 Ron Howard movie Frost/Nixon, an almost entirely fictional account of some TV interviews in which a chat show host helped a mass murderin...