Public Intellectual

Coming Soon: The Culture We Deserve

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the creators of Public Intellectual: a new weekly podcast exploring the state of our cultural institutions, norms, and failures. It's called The ...

No Modernism without Lesbians, with Dianna Souhami

27 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dianna Souhami has worked for decades as a chronicler of sexual subcultures in early 20th century Europe, and finally, she is allowed to deliver her t...

America's Reckoning in Afghanistan, with Roy Scranton

13 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week's episode is hosted by Cameron Steele. The flag waving and feminist arguments for more war and scapegoating of service members prompted by A...

FBoy Island is Incel Culture, with Cameron Steele

23 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Between Love Island, Love is Blind, FBoy Island, Sexy Beasts, Too Hot to Handle etc, we sure do love watching hot straight people be tortured for the ...

When Even the Moon is Gender Critical: Neo-Pagans, Goddess Culture, and terfs with Ana Valens

16 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a couple thousand years of Christianity, some populations who had been suffering under Yahweh decided to give some other gods and goddesses a tr...

Who Gets to Tell Your Story, with Cameron Steele

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amanda Knox is back in the news, as a film "inspired by" the story of her being accused of murder is in the theaters. Knox has compared telling storie...

It Never Came Home: The Euros and Copa America, with Nicolás R Melo

26 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Both the Euros and Copa America saw the anticipated winners humiliated in their own homes. It was nice, a treat. Former soccer player and activist Nic...

The Final Girlboss, with Cameron Steele

19 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

People keep holding funerals for the Girlboss, that figure of narcissism and disgrace, but aren't we all girlbosses now? Don't we all have to be to su...

All About Adichie, with Cameron Steele

05 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and JK Rowling have both been elected to a position where they are allowed and asked to speak for women. So what harm does it...

We Don't Deserve St. Vincent, with Zach Toman

21 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The recording industry is in a bind, with the big money going to intermediaries like Spotify, with little idea of what makes a star these days, and wi...

Re-Sentimentalizing the Family, with Cameron Steele

14 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From pearl clutching "think of the children" to terfdom to the reign of momfluencers, we've decided to get sentimental about the nuclear family again....

Underground Railroad, or Your Trauma is My Entertainment, with Trevor Beaulieu

07 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Between Underground Railroad, Handmaid's Tale, Promising Young Woman, Them, and many others, we are asked to consume stories of trauma and images of t...

What Is Going On In Colombia, with Nicolas R. Melo

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Colombia has once again called for a general strike and taken to the streets in protest. Government officials have resigned, proposed tax law reform w...

Beyond Cancel Culture, with Cameron Steele

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The cancel culture discourse has been noisy lately, but what is it about this moment that makes it uniquely terrible to be a public person? To be on s...

The Politics of Meat, with Alicia Kennedy

10 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There was a rumor circulating on social media that Joe Biden was only going to allow US citizens four pounds of beef per year. People lost their minds...

Are the Straights OK? with Phoebe Maltz Bovy

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Phoebe Maltz Bovy, writer of the essay "Straightness Studies," introduces us to the Tragedy of Heterosexuality. Can queer theory save the straights or...

In Praise of Difficult Books, with Mauro Javier Cárdenas

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Every few days or so, a conversation restarts on Twitter: books that are difficult, books that are assigned in school, books that are designated class...

Disrupt Housing, with Diana Lind

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The luxury housing boom is -- hopefully -- over, so what comes next? According to Diana Lind, author of Brave New Home, it's rethinking the single fam...

The Meaning of Nostalgia is a Disease, with Margaret Howie

12 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Previously released as a bonus episode available only to patrons, following Britney Spears's statement that she felt "torn apart" by the NYT doc that ...

Baby Bust, with Dr. Shanna Swan

05 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While many conservative commentators have been in a panic about the pandemic's baby bust effect, they rarely look past personal choice to see the real...

The United States of Amazon, with Alec MacGillis

29 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon's PR has been having a temper tantrum this past week on Twitter, going after politicians and random people online for daring to criticize the w...

The Notorious Ms. Highsmith, with Lucie Elven

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With a new scandalous biography of Patricia Highsmith and a new Ripley adaptation on the way for Showtime, we can't get enough of loving and hating ou...

Define Diversity, with Russell Jacoby

08 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Diversity is seen as an unalloyed good. We have committees, books, departments, specialists all devoted to increasing diversity, but what does anyone ...

When Did the Internet Get Terrible, with Ana Valens

01 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If we can pinpoint a moment when the internet got truly bad, I think it is when Tumblr removed all of the porn. It was clear that diversity, freedom, ...

Moral Insanity and Our Economic Crisis, with Pavlos Roufos

22 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With people losing homes and jobs and the government taking a hands off approach, it is a chance to rethink our response to the last economic crisis o...

The Good Girls, with Sonia Faleiro

15 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the true crime boom, we have been awash in stories of dead women and girls. And while those stories have been used to romanticize the police and ...

Our Age of Nostalgia, with Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

08 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"The opposite of nostalgia is truth." So writes Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore in her new book The Freezer Door. We discuss how nostalgia fuels gentrific...

Did the Pandemic Erase the Progress of Feminism, with Angela McRobbie

01 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There is a widening gap between the aims of feminism and the lived experience of women. Angela McRobbie, as a historian of women's magazines, is in a ...

Promising Young Women Filmmakers, with Vincent Chabany-Douarre

25 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With such a rich history of film tackling sexual violence in horror, exploitation, and other genre films -- and doing it well -- why when we try to ta...

The Economics of Anger, with Mark Blyth

18 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Americans have very good reasons to be angry. Hundreds of thousands of us are dead from the pandemic, stimulus checks are nowhere to be seen, our gove...

What Is Art Even For, with Rita Felski

11 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Many of the odd social media arguments over the last couple years -- from Scorsese v Marvel to teach Harry Potter instead of Nathaniel Hawthorne -- ca...

Bonus Episode: What Do We Do with a Don Giovanni During #MeToo with Amber Fasquelle

04 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We'll be returning to our regular weekly schedule starting January 11th. Until then, please enjoy this first entry in our series of bonus episodes abo...

The Downward Spiral is a Solstice Album, with Adam Steiner

21 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On the darkest day of the year, and with Trent Reznor everywhere with two new scores, it seems an appropriate time to discuss the Nine Inch Nails mast...

America is Losing Its Mind. Again. with Chelsey Weber Smith

07 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Chelsey Weber Smith runs the American Hysteria podcast, so who better to come on to discuss America's various conspiracy theories, cults, and moral pa...

Art Under Trump, with Allison Hewitt Ward

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We were promised great art under the Trump administration. Everyone said it: our suffering would lead to a Renaissance of art, literature, and music. ...

What Happens to the Left Under a Centrist, with Natalie Wynn of Contrapoints

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last four years under Trump, we've seen the emergence of a far right with militias, the alt-right, and other weirdo fascists, but we've also ...

A Gun for Every Girl, with Zach Toman

09 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Talk about guns is now shorthand for a certain kind of American: white uneducated racists. But conversations and action around gun control often hurt ...

Monetizing the Dead, with Claire Cronin

02 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It's election week in America, so of course we're going to talk about horror, ghosts, and watching violent death as a way of relieving anxiety. Claire...

The British Museum is Haunted, with Dan Hicks

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Who owns a cultural object? Who benefits from artistic production? Where is the line between looting and preservation? While museums have been thought...

A Lady's Guide to Fascism, with Victoria de Grazia

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ladies love a fascist. In Victoria de Grazia's new book The Perfect Fascist, she tells the story of Lilliana Weinman -- a beautiful Jewish heiress, at...

Re-Release: Beyond Pro-Choice and Pro-Life with Alissa Quart

12 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With the death of RBG and the Supreme Court once again in a position to overturn Roe v Wade, journalist Alissa Quart and Jessa attempt to complicate t...

Pope Says Property is Theft, with Eugene McCarraher

05 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Just a few days before the Pope release a barnfire of an encyclical about the evils of neoliberalism and capitalism, Eugene McCarraher (The Enchantmen...

Living in Strange Times, with Darran Anderson

28 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his new memoir Inventory, Darran Anderson recounts growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 80s, amid all of the humiliation and intimidation ...

Our Anxious Relationship to Stuff, with Jen Howard

21 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We continue our series on the stress the pandemic is putting on domestic spaces. Jen Howard, the author of the new book Clutter, talks to Jessa about ...

California Fires and California Dreams, with Mark Arax

14 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Arax (The Dreamt Land) is one of our finest chroniclers of the American West, and he joins Jessa to discuss the wildfires, the mismanagement of r...

The Musician as Content Creator with Marianna Ritchey

31 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Now that Samuel Beckett's "Fail Better" is a motivational poster in some Silicon Valley bro's office, what is the value of art in the neoliberal age? ...

On Sourdough Starters and How Domesticity Became a Luxury, with Jaimee Edwards

17 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is hiding behind your Instagram photos of perfectly baked sourdough bread? First of all, all of the labor and time and knowledge it took to creat...

Extra: A Talk with a Covid Long Hauler, with Natalie Alford

12 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Natalie Alford, a singer songwriter out of Chicago, started to feel sick in the spring. Now four months later, she's still sick. As a part of our conv...

Preparing for the Post-Pandemic, with Cassie Thornton

10 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Often when we discuss health care reform, we're talking about issues of accessibility and affordability. It is assumed American medicine is great, top...

I Regret to Inform You We Are Discussing the Harper's Letter, with Elvis Bego

03 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Do we and should we have free speech or not? Why can't anyone agree on that? Bosnian-born writer Elvis Bego joins Jessa to discuss how free speech wen...

The Rich Getting Richer, with Ashley Mears

20 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

BU Professor Ashley Mears details the leisure of the wealthy in her new book, Very Important People, but also the men and "girls" who live in their pe...

The Journalist as Moral Arbiter, with JoAnn Wypijewski

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With all the media struggles lately, a conversation has emerged: should the journalist strive to be an objective observer, or should they be the moral...

The Bechdel Test Returns, with Vincent Chabany-Douarre

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Somehow, the conversation around historical racism and bigotry and police brutality turned into a series of... resignations by white voice actors in c...

Housing is a Public Health Issue, with Tara Raghuveer

29 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While many cities and states offered protection from evictions during the beginning months of the pandemic, many of those protections have expired and...

Re-Release: A Conversation with Brandon Scott, the Presumed Next Mayor of Baltimore

22 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I know, we're all against voting and progress through elections right now, but the triumph of Brandon Scott over Sheila Dixon and assorted other neoli...

The Feminist City (with Leslie Kern)

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What does a fully inclusive city look like? With issues like policing, housing, child care, surveillance, and education in the news, due to the uprisi...

The Relationship Between Disease and War, with Frank A Von Hippel

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Frank A von Hippel takes us through the surprising relationship of disease and war, from how the treatment of malaria facilitated colonialism, how wea...

Your Doctor is Going to Kill You, with Caren Beilin

26 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Excuse the click-baity title. Caren Beilin had a copper IUD implanted, and was overwhelmed with health issues almost immediately. Six days later, the ...

New Atheists, Flat Earth, and the History of Doubt (with Alec Ryrie)

18 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alec Ryrie, the author of Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt, joins Jessa to discuss how faith and doubt operate together, skepticism as a con...

Reading The Topeka School (with Christopher Piatt)

11 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Lerner's The Topeka School was recently shortlisted for the Pulitzer, and critics have been raving about its insight into Trump Country. But... ho...

No NYTimes There Won't Be a Rona Baby Boom (with Maxine Eichner)

04 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For all of the think pieces about why Millennials aren't having as many children as previous generations -- maybe they are too selfish blah blah blah ...

Tiger King, A Morality Play (with Eileen G'Sell)

27 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tiger King was a sensation, so a million words had to be spilled in response. Most of those words accused the Netflix docuseries itself of being immor...

Red State Culture (with Jason Pine)

20 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Pine (The Alchemy of Meth) joins Jessa to discuss the invisibility of America's drug crisis. Pine spent a year in Missouri to research his book ...

The Feminist Response (with Breanne Fahs)

06 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The shelter in place and work from home orders are straining domestic spaces, and it feels like the most professional and public feminist speakers are...

Deaths of Despair, with Anne Case

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Anne Case and Angus Deaton released Deaths of Despair this year, the culmination of their study into how your education level determines how much pain...

How is Your Self-Isolation Going (with Jim Behrle)

23 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jim Behrle reports from the tumbleweeds of Time Square to discuss eco-fascism, why the bees should just take over, how to get through this sheltering-...

Pete Buttigieg is from the Suburbs (with Joe Kennedy)

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Joe Kennedy, author of Authentocrats: Culture, Politics and the New Seriousness, swings by to talk about the parallels between the UK and US elections...

Bonus Episode: Sinead O'Connor is the Kassandra of Our Time, with Margaret Howie

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We're releasing this bonus episode from the Patreon vaults. Come subscribe to our Patreon and get content like this all the time! (Or, you know, on a ...

Twilight Moms and the Indignity of Female Desire (with Jennifer Hodgson)

09 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why are celebrity crushes so embarrassing? Critic and editor Jennifer Hodgson joins Jessa to overintellectualize their shared crush on Bill Hader, to ...

Weinstein the Monster (with JoAnn Wypijewski)

02 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

JoAnn Wypijewski joins Jessa to discuss the Weinstein trial and conviction, after writing about it for the Nation. We discuss how trials for sexual vi...

On Creepy Men (with Heidi Matthews)

24 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Professor of Law at York University Heidi Matthews has been writing about "creepiness," particularly as it relates to gender relations. What causes a ...

Writing from the Margins (with Susan Ellen Finlay)

17 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa talks to writer Susan Ellen Finlay (Objektophilia) about the difficult position of small, independent publishers in today's cultural climate.  ...

The American Story is a Story of Grievance (with John Biguenet)

10 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With all of the publishing scandals going on, I thought it made sense to re-up this conversation with novelist John Biguenet. Why is the standard narr...

Social Capital, with Richard Davies

05 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Davies is the author of "Extreme Economies: And What They Can Teach Us." He visits places like Santiago, Chile to examine income inequality, A...

You Can Talk to a Conservative Like a Normal Human Being (with Gerald Russello)

27 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Gerald Russello, the editor of University Bookman and conservative intellectual, joins Jessa Crispin to talk about the growing political divide in Am...

The Most Important, Dangerous, Thrilling Year in Film (with Eileen Jones)

19 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If the year in film went the way film critics said it was, Joker would have caused an incel uprising and Little Women would have solved misogyny. This...

Against Relentless Cheer (with Jim Behrle)

16 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Poet and well known curmudgeon Jim Behrle talks to Jessa about this season of cheer, hope, and friendliness and how terrible all of that is. You don't...

Deprogramming Trump Voters, with Robert Jay Lifton

09 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The legendary cult expert and psychologist Robert Jay Lifton joins Public Intellectual to explain what the totalitarian experience shares with the rel...

Facebook is Death (with Jacob Silverman)

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter is full of Nazis, Facebook is facilitating genocide, YouTube is, well, also full of Nazis but also child pornography. How did social media get...

Listening to Politics, with Brandon Scott

11 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa talks to Brandon Scott, currently the City Council President and hopefully the next mayor of Baltimore, to talk about how the language of politi...

"Capitalizing on MeToo (with Laura La Rosa)"

04 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

With the revelations about the abuses of Harvey Weinstein and others like him came a scramble to uncover the misdeeds of other powerful men. Some peop...

What is a Feminist Artist (with Jen May)

28 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a feminist artist feminist? Is it just by being a woman and political? Is it something to do with the art itself, must it carry a specific ...

Impossible Fathers (with Nara Milanich)

21 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Before DNA testing, the father was, ultimately, a question mark. Because paternity was always in question, there were legal, familial, societal, and n...

The New Culture Wars (with Nathalie Olah)

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa speaks with Nathalie Olah about her new book, Steal As Much As You Can and the bland cultural landscape, created by upper classes and dominated ...

Why I Quit Writing (with Yasmin Nair)

07 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa speaks with cultural critic, academic, and leftist thinker Yasmin Nair about the exploitative, dumbed down, and click-baity hot take culture in ...

The Disappearance of the Working Class Journalist (with Justin Ward)

30 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa speaks with Justin Ward about the disappearance of the working class journalist. With local, small, and alternative newspapers folding, there ar...

Teaching Consent (with Laura Kipnis)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On the inaugural episode of "Public Intellectual," Jessa Crispin invites writer & cultural critic Laura Kipnis to discuss her book, "Unwanted Advances...

The Feminist Bogeyman (with Breanna Fahs)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites Breanne Fahs, Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University and author of Out for Blood: Essays on Menstruation and ...

The New Tarot (with Michelle Tea)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites Michelle Tea, author of "Modern Tarot: Connecting with Your Higher Self through the Wisdom of the Cards" and "Black Wave," onto the show...

Heterosexuality is a F**king Nightmare (with Indiana Seresin)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa made a joke on twitter saying that she wanted to write a book called "Heterosexuality is a Fucking Nightmare." She received an e-mail from anoth...

Straight White Men (with Zak Mucha)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites Zak Mucha, author of Emotional Abuse: A Manual For Self-Defense, onto Public Intellectual to discuss straight white men and the crisis o...

Missing Dames (with Bruce Benderson)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites author Bruce Benderson onto the show to discuss the disappearance of the spinster/grandma in film and how women's roles have changed wit...

Queering the Military (with Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites author Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (The End Of San Francisco) onto Public Intellectual to discuss the transgender military ban & the rol...

Writing for Our Strange Times (with Mia Gallagher)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites Irish author Mia Gallagher (Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland) onto Public Intellectual for a thoughtful discussion on what it mea...

The Woman Genius Problem (with Pamela Bannos)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites Pamela Bannos, author of the upcoming book "Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife" to discuss Vivian Maier's life, the explo...

Welcome to the #Resistance (with Neal Pollack)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites writer Neal Pollack onto the show to discuss the opportunism and profiteering of #Resistance writers in the age of Trump. They talk abou...

Canonize Tori Amos (with Common Gore)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As we approach the 20th anniversary of Tori Amos's "Boys for Pele," Jessa invites her friend, Common Gore, onto the show to discuss Tori Amos, the imp...

The Forgotten Occult History of Art (with Padraic E Moore)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, Jessa attended a fascinating exhibition of mysticism and art at the IMMA in Dublin called "As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & M...

Witchcraft Capitalism (with Katelan Foisy)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There is a strong market for witchcraft these days. As practices such as astrology, tarot, crystals, and herbal medicine enter the mainstream, the use...

Abolish Marriage (with Jessica Stites)

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jessa invites Jessica Stites, executive editor of In These Times, onto the show for a conversation about the institution of marriage and why it should...