Manifesto!

Episode 88: Suprematism and the poetry of Ukraine

29 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Vladislav Davidzon to discuss Kazimir Malevich's The Manifesto of Suprematism and the poetry of Serhiy Zhadan. Malevi...

Episode 87: The Information State

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Jake's new book, THE DISINFORMATION STATE, where he argues that the technological infrastructure we've built to make soc...

Episode 86: Spacers, Fictosexuals and Freaks

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by internet culture reporter Katherine Dee to discuss The Fictosexual Manifesto and "Aye and Gomorrah..." by Samuel...

Episode 85: Zarathustra and Judge Holden

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Phil and Jake are joined by Aaron Gwyn, an author and associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss Nietzsc...

Episode 84: Philip Roth and Ecclesiastes

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Philip Roth's 1961 essay "Writing American Fiction" and the Qohelet, also known as the Book of Ecclesiastes The ...

Episode 83: Resist and Howl

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Amy Sohn, author of The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, to discuss the 1967 a...

Episode 82: The Dark Mountains of Madness

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Roy Scranton, author of Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress, to discuss the Dark Mountain Manifesto by Paul...

Episode 81: In the Moral Wilderness with MacIntyre and Camus

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s Notes from the Moral Wilderness and Camus’ short story The Guest The Manifesto: Alasdair MacIntyre, Not...

Episode 80: Thomas Mann and Abraham Lincoln in Wartime

28 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by Morten Hoi Jensen, literary critic and author of the forthcoming "The Master of Contradictions Thomas Mann and the Making of The Mag...

Episode 79: Kitsch, Pop, and Democratic Art

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Clement Greenberg's 1939 "Kitsch and the Avant-Garde" alongside Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" and Leonard Cohen's "Ch...

Episode 78: Reflections on the Atom Bomb

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Teilhard de Chardin's 1946 Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb and Charles Mingus' "Oh Lord Don't L...

Episode 77: Fascist Apologetics and the Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss David Jones 1939 essay on Hitler, courtesy of Thomas Dilworth's "David Jones and Fascism," alongside Gregor von Rezzori's "Troth...

Episode 76: Against Poets

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Phil and Jake discuss Witold Gombrowicz's "Against Poets" and Czeslaw Milosz's "Ars Poetica?" The Manifesto: Witold Gombrowicz, "Against Poets" https:...

Episode 75: American Honor and the Iliad

25 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Phil's New York Times essay "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military" and Homer's "Embassy to Achilles" The Manif...

Episode 74: Christmas Poetry and the Pogues

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Thomas Hardy’s The Oxen, TS Eliot’s Journey of the Magi, and The Pogues Fairytale of New York Thomas Hardy - The Oxen https:...

Episode 73: Is America Ready for a Religious Revival?

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist and author of the forthcoming Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, to discuss...

Episode 72: Revolutionary Art and Coat-Snatching Ghosts

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Leon Trotsky's "Communist Policy Toward Art" and Gogol's "The Overcoat" The Manifesto: Leon Trotsky - "Communist Policy Toward ...

Episode 71: Politics and Merciless Nature

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Phil and Jake discuss Joan Didion's "Politics in the New Normal America" and Robinson Jeffers "Fire on the Hills" The Manifesto: Joan Didion, Politics...

Episode 70: Punk and Metal

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Nate DiMeo, podcaster and author of the forthcoming The Memory Palace, to discuss the Riot Grrrl Manifesto, Steve Albini's...

Episode 69: Should We Bring Children Into Existence?

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Phil and Jake are joined by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman, the authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice, to discuss David Benat...

Episode 68: The Serious Artist

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by the poet and critic Alice Gribbin to discuss Ezra Pound's The Serious Artist and Eliot Weinberger's The Life of Tu Fu The ...

Episode 67: Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, to discuss Wallace Stegner's 1987 novel...

Episode 66: Hobbits, Goblins and the Very Adult World of Fairy-Stories

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and chronicler of post-secular religious movements, Tara Isabella Burton, to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's 1939 es...

Episode 65: Orwell and Ukraine

30 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Phil and Jake are joined by the Matt Gallagher, author of Daybreak, to discuss George Orwell's "Looking Back on the Spanish War", and Benjamin Busch's...

Episode 64: Power of the Powerless and the Velvet Underground

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and essayist Jared Marcel Pollen to discuss Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless” and The Velvet ...

Episode 63: How Money Culture Hurts the American Family and Girls

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss "How Money Culture Hurts the American Family," by Ian Marcus Corbin, and episode seven of the first season of Girls The Manifest...

Episode 62: Last Men and Women: George Scialabba and the Challenge of Modernity

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined live at Fairfield University by the great critic and essayist George Scialabba to discuss Last Men and Women At a time of war...

Episode 61: Red Music and Mal Waldron

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Josef Skvorecky's "Red Music," an account of playing jazz under Nazism and Communism, alongside Mal Waldron's "Mal Waldron Plays...

Episode 60: The Palestinian People and the Western Observer

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Phil talks with poet and translator Philip Metres about the current conflict, the position of a Western observer in regards to what is happening in Ga...

Episode 59: Israel and Hamas

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Phil asks Jake about the recent conflict in Israel, and they take listener questions.

Episode 58: The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, and Jennifer Shyue, a Spanish language literary t...

Episode 57: Some Lying and Some BS

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Walter Kirn to discuss Kirn's essay "The Bullshit" alongside Mark Twain's "My First Lie and How I Got Out of It" The Manif...

Episode 56: The Secular Saint

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Santiago Ramos, a contributing writer to Commonweal Magazine, to discuss Michael Novak's The Secular Saint and the epilogu...

Episode 55: The Great Mating Debate

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by Becca Rothfeld, BD McClay, and Jon Baskin to discuss Norman Rush's 1991 novel Mating, and whether it offers a roadmap for love in th...

Episode 54: Nirvana and The Trials of the Young

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by the great novelist, short story writer and essayist Mary Gaitskill to discuss Gaitskill's essay "The Trials of the Young" in the mos...

Episode 53: Poe's Law and Philip K. Dick's Faith of Our Fathers

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Gurwinder Bhogal to discuss Poe's Law and Philip K. Dick's Faith of Our Fathers The Manifesto: "Poe's Law" https://en.wiki...

Episode 52: True Believers and the Case of the Writer Turned Congressman

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by former Michigan Congressman Peter Meijer to discuss longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer’s 1951 book, The True Believer:...

Episode 51: A Public Address, A Colloquium, or Maybe Just a Q&A

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil answer questions from our listeners.

Episode 50: El Greco, Picasso, and The Pleasures of Ignorance

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Aldous Huxley's "Meditation on El Greco", and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The Manifesto: Aldous Huxley - "Meditation ...

Episode 49: Angry Popes and Architecture

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by John Davis, an environmental and architectural historian at the Knowlton School at Ohio State, to discuss Pascendi Dominic...

Episode 48: The Ultimate Revolution

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Becca Rothfeld (https://www.beccarothfeld.com/) to discuss Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex and Sheila Heti's Th...

Episode 47: The Democracy Engineering Complex

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by Sam Kimbriel, the founding director of Aspen's Philosophy & Society Initiative, to discuss Sam's essay "What the Democracy Engineeri...

Episode 46: Sunday Morning and God's Grandeur

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning" and Gerard Manley Hopkins' "God's Grandeur." The Manifesto: Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning...

Episode 45: Spielberg and Roxy Music

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by culture critic Armond White to discuss Make Spielberg Great Again and Roxy Music's 1979 album Manifesto The Manifesto: Ma...

Episode 44: We're All Stars Now In the Dope Show

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by James Poulos, author of Human Forever: The Digital Politics of Spiritual War, to discuss Jacques Ellul and Marilyn Manson....

Episode 43: Tradition and the Individual Talent

28 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent", and James Joyce's "A Mother" The Manifesto: T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the I...

Episode 42: The Transmogrifications of Gary Leib

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by Peter Catapano, of the New York Times, and graphic novelist Jess Ruliffson to discuss Peter's essay on the life and work of cartooni...

Episode 41: To Be Incarnational

05 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by the great poet Tom Sleigh to discuss his essay "To Be Incarnational," on the World War I poetry of David Jones, as well as...

Episode 40: Flannery O'Connor versus Andre Dubus II

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil (finally) discuss Flannery O'Connor's Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction, alongside Andre Dubus II's short story Killings...

Episode 39: What Jazz Is and Isn't

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by jazz pianist and composer Ethan Iverson to discuss Wynton Marsalis' "What Jazz Is—and Isn't", as well as Marsalis' 1985 ...

Episode 38: My Quarrel with Authentic Reactionaries

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Joseph Keegin to discuss Nicolás Gómez Dávila‘s “The Authentic Reactionary,” and Chaim Grade’s classic of Yiddi...

Episode 37: Humane War

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by Samuel Moyn to discuss his new book, Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War, alongside Kathe Kollwitz's Th...

Episode 36: The Simple Art of Murder

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Raymond Chandler's The Simple Art of Murder, alongside Ross MacDonald's novel Black Money. The Manifesto: http://jacksharman.co...

Episode 35: Did You Kill Anyone?

17 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Scott Beauchamp to discuss his new book, Did You Kill Anyone? Reunderstanding My Military Experience as a Critique of Mode...

Episode 34: Fratelli Tutti and Fairview

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A special live episode of Manifesto! A Podcast courtesy of Fairfield University's Inspired Writers Series. Jake and Phil are joined by Vinson Cunningh...

Episode 33: The Dream of Meritocracy Produces Monsters

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is joined by Eugene McCarraher, Professor of the Humanities and History at Villanova University, to discuss his article "A Providentialism Withou...

Episode 32: Repressive Tolerance and The Judgement

16 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Geoff Shullenberg of Outsider Theory (https://outsidertheory.com/) to discuss Herbert Marcuse's "Repressive Tolerance" and...

Episode 31: Everything is Broken

12 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Alana Newhouse to discuss her essay “Everything Is Broken” and the Ani DiFranco live album “Living in Clip.” The ...

Episode 30: King Lear or Endgame or Psalm

04 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Jan Kott's "King Lear or Endgame" and George Oppen's "Psalm." The Manifesto: Jan Kott, "King Lear or Endgame" https://t.co/L9FR...

Episode 29: What Were We Thinking

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Carlos Lozada to discuss his new book, What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era, and the chapt...

Episode 28: They Will Eat the CIA Men First

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week Jake and Phil are joined by special guest Jesse Walker of Reason Magazine to discuss William S. Burroughs The Revised Boy Scout Manual and C...

Episode 27: The Owl of Minerva Trots at Dusk

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Phil and Jake are joined by Ian Marcus Corbin to discuss Joseph Conrad's Preface and Saul Bellow's "Mosby's Memoirs" The Manifesto: Conrad, The Prefa...

Episode 26: On Pain and on Fallujah Revisited

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Elliot Ackerman to discuss Ernst Junger’s 1934 essay On Pain, alongside Elliot’s A Battle in Fallujah, Revisited, an e...

Episode 25: The Plague

06 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Paul Berman to discuss The Plague, by Albert Camus. The Manifesto: Albert Camus, The Plague (the second half of Part II) ...

Episode 24: Vietnam Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

20 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by novelist, essayist, and Penthouse Magazine national security columnist Matt Gallagher to discuss Gustav Hasford’s June 1...

Episode 23: Lord Jim and the Absurd

04 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Art: Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5658/5658-h/5658-h.htm Other works discussed: Thomas Nagel, The Absurd https://phil...

Episode 22: Reluctant Prophets

04 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by novelist Daniel Torday to discuss Robert Alter's “A Literary Approach to the Bible,” alongside The Book of Jonah. The...

Episode 21: Class War and Auden

17 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Phil is out today, so Jake talks with Michael Lind about his book, The New Class War, as well as Auden's The Fall of Rome Manifesto: Michael Lind, The...

Episode 20: The Conversation

27 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 19: Stuckists and Bebop

16 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Alex Brook Lynn to discuss the Stuckists’ Manifesto and Julio Cortázar’s The Pursuer Manifesto: The Stuckists Manife...

Episode 18: Omni-Americans and Unlearning Race

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Thomas Chatterton Williams to discuss Albert Murray’s The Omni-Americans and Thomas’ new memoir, Self-Portrait in Blac...

Episode 17: The Unabomber and OK Computer

05 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil talk with Jake Hanrahan of Popular Front (https://www.popularfront.co/) about Ted Kaczynski’s Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society ...

Episode 16: Walcott's New Adam and Gallant's Latehomecoming

01 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by essayist and fiction-writer Victoria Brown of Rollins College to discuss Derek Walcott’s The Muse of History alongside M...

Episode 15: Dadism and Public Enemy

03 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Hugo Ball's 1916 Dada Manifesto, as well as Public Enemy's 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The Manifes...

Episode 14: New Conservative Manifestos and My Father Left Me Ireland

04 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A new episode of Manifesto! A Podcast with special guest Michael Brendan Dougherty Jake, Phil and Michael discuss three new conservative manifestos an...

Episode 13: Personism and Ellen West

06 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss America's greatest poets named Frank, with Frank O’Hara’s "Personism Manifesto" and Frank Bidart’s “Ellen West” Frank ...

Episode 12: Accelerationism and Big Sex Object Mirrorfaces

28 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss several accelerationist manifestos along with the video American Reflexxx, by Alli Coates and Signe Pierce. Works referenced: N...

Episode 11: The Modern Essay and the Decline of Civilization

05 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Park MacDougald joins Phil and Jake to discuss Virginia Woolf’s “The Modern Essay” and VS Naipaul’s “Jacques Soustelle and the Decline of th...

Episode 10: Violence according to Hannah Arendt and Frank Miller

06 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Hannah Arendt's "Reflections on Violence" and Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns." Works referenced Hannah Arendt, “Refle...

Episode 9: The Oulipo and the Naked City

08 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil are joined by Olivia Garard (@teaandtactics) of The Strategy Bridge (https://thestrategybridge.org/editorial-team/2016/8/16/olivia-a-gar...

Episode 8: Resentments, Justice, and the Sins of the Father

10 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil overcome audio difficulties to discuss Jean Amery's "Resentments" and Andre Dubus II's short story "A Father's Story." Works cited: Jea...

Episode 7: Patriotism and the Unknown Soldier

10 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil discuss Alasdair MacIntyre's "Is Patriotism a Virtue?" and the story of the November 11, 1921 burial of the Unknown Soldier, as told by ...

Episode 6: Revolution, Entropy, and Abstract Art

07 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil side with the madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and skeptics on this episode, discussing Yevgeny Zamyatin's “On Literature, ...

Episode 5: Everybody's Protest Novel and the Responsibilities of Art

10 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jake and Phil talk about the political and social obligations of art. To set the stage they discuss W.E.B. Du Bois' "Criteria for Negro Art" originall...

Episode 4: My Twisted World and Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver

12 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Special Guest: Harry Seigel.

Episode 3: Schiller's Aesthetic Letters and and Ian McEwan's The Use of Poetry

29 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 2: SCUM, Intercourse, and Cat Person

14 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 1: Humanism and Bloody Myths

28 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas