Lefty podcast thread

[Dog Botherer]

reckon there's discussion of Chapo/TrueAnon etc spread across at least a couple of unrelated threads, so why not a dedicated thread?

new chapo ep is all timer bad. discuss.

[Dr Rock]

Thought Slime is pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxDVhNuFAq4&t=1046s

Also The Double Take

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4GJoauIJbw&t=617s

[Sebastian Cobb]

Only listened to a couple of old ones but Chapo Trap House does actually seem alright. Or at least the bit where they tore apart Shapiro's book with the little kid in a Simpson's t-shirt getting shot.

[Dog Botherer]

i am longtime chapo listener, i've probably listened to 95% of their pods. they work best when they have the original lineup of Will, Matt, and Felix on, Virgil is a bonus these days tbh. Amber has always been a weak link and she's only gotten worse. at her best she's tolerable. at her worst she's offensively contrarian.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I used to like the Bugle but it went downhill when they first had rotating guests, although it found its feet again when the rotation was mainly Alice Fraser and Nish Kumar. I've sort-of stopped bothering though.

[chveik]

the last thrillbilly ep was ace, I thoroughly recommend it

[kngen]

i am longtime chapo listener, i've probably listened to 95% of their pods. they work best when they have the original lineup of Will, Matt, and Felix on, Virgil is a bonus these days tbh. Amber has always been a weak link and she's only gotten worse. at her best she's tolerable. at her worst she's offensively contrarian.

Yeah, I try to avoid any Amber ones these days. Not only is she contrarian, if anyone makes some kind of admission to having a revelatory thought or insight they'd not previously considered, you can count on her to chime in that she always knew that, and wasn't it obvious? Telltale behaviour of the arsehole, that.

I'm glad you say that she's gotten worse, as I did find her reasonably entertaining at first, and was wondering if I'd allowed myself to be duped this whole time.

I feel like I've outgrown Chapo a bit. But it really was a lifesaver when I first heard it - I'd not long moved to the US, was attempting to process Trump's victory (and Clinton's part in it), and nothing in mainstream culture was even remotely close to mirroring my anger, confusion and frustration at the time. It really was a comfort blanket for a couple of years

Elsewhere, I quite like Behind the Bastards with Robert Evans. When he has a good guest on, and they click, it's a good (and edifying) listen - but pretty ropey when they don't. The Behind the Police specials were particularly good, although I've still got a couple to listen to, as there is only so much depressing and infuriating shit I can deal with in any one sitting.

[Dog Botherer]

I feel like I've outgrown Chapo a bit. But it really was a lifesaver when I first heard it - I'd not long moved to the US, was attempting to process Trump's victory (and Clinton's part in it), and nothing in mainstream culture was even remotely close to mirroring my anger, confusion and frustration at the time. It really was a comfort blanket for a couple of years

this is unnervingly close to my own experience with them heh. these days i feel much more kinship with more grassroots media like Street Fight and the Trillbillys but i still keep Chapo in rotation. Matt's hourlong Twitch sermons are great value too.

one pod i don't hear much about on here but is great is Citation Needed, which is impeccably produced and researched. it's the kind of thing you could show your NPR listening parents and some of it getting through rather than a 10 minute Cushbomb rant with Felix making cum jokes in the background.

[Dog Botherer]

the last thrillbilly ep was ace, I thoroughly recommend it

probably the most consistently entertaining pod on the left these days. my patreon allowance is currently locked on with Street Fight (soooo much bonus content), but i'm increasingly considering getting on the Trillbillys too.

[kitsofan34]

reckon there's discussion of Chapo/TrueAnon etc spread across at least a couple of unrelated threads, so why not a dedicated thread?

new chapo ep is all timer bad. discuss.

Which ep are you referring to, brother?

[Dog Botherer]

Which ep are you referring to, brother?

new premium ep with Matt Taibbi, it's basically Amber and Matt exchanging insanely bad takes for an hour while Will listens.

[evilcommiedictator]

Eat the Rich is relatively new and is a bit more off the cuff but talks about all the rich pricks which is good fun.
Trashfuture used to do that but with tech, but with tech now eating itself they're doing more politics and Spiked/1984 jokes, which is fine.
Le Show by Harry Shearer is a staple, but the American references can be a bit dense

[Dog Botherer]

watching this it seems uh, pretty clear why Matt wasn't on that last Chapo ep

https://youtu.be/hRw63TyfPlE

Trashfuture is a good one. don't listen to every episode but they're about as close to British Chapo as possible.

[Non Stop Dancer]

I don't listen to any lefty podcasts but I'm a big fan of Sam Seder/Majority Report on the YouTube. Anyone else?

[Dog Botherer]

I don't listen to any lefty podcasts but I'm a big fan of Sam Seder/Majority Report on the YouTube. Anyone else?

watched him a lot during the primary, he's pretty good for the horse race stuff. lately i've found him a little lost in the political moment, he's much more of a lib than most on his circuit. plus his clips all have clickbait titles these days. just gets on my nerves.

i do listen to his little morning news roundups though. pretty solid.

[peanutbutter]

Feel like Trash Future has been a lot better the last while tbh, for a good length it felt like they were way too indebted to Chapo and Cum Town.


Citations Needed is _very_ serious compared to most things I listen to but usually really good at dismantling whatever topic they've focused on in a given week.

[Famous Mortimer]

Citations Needed is _very_ serious compared to most things I listen to but usually really good at dismantling whatever topic they've focused on in a given week.

I love Citations Needed but you only really need to listen to the first 15 minutes or so of each episode (in my opinion, anyway, I rarely listen to the interview bit).

Someone mentioned this on here but in another thread - "Mandatory Redistribution Party" is a good lefty pod too.

[Dog Botherer]

anyone got any decent Irish ones? i started on Left Inside lately, i'd been listening to the Tortoise Shack stuff before that which was more miss than hit.

[hummingofevil]

The very definition of a lefty podcast is comedians Sean Morley and Jack Evans' mandatory redistribution party. It is unashamedly political but they are both very engaging and gentle souls so their vision of radical change is presented as part of broader debate around the pros and cons of various policy ideas; I think someone who disagrees with their politics would still enjoy it.

The first episode is basically an explanation of the terminology of Marx and it just gets better and better. They have a real skill in explaining complex ideas.  Highlights for me are the episode 11 where they interview stripper Stacey Clare about sex workers ' rights, episode 18 where Grace Blakeley explains the term financialism and episode 25 about nuclear weapons is very, very funny.

Warning: this is counterbalanced by the Paul Mason interview and the election stuff which is fascinating but very depressing in quite how far off the mark in not spotting the Brexit/Tory landslide. To their credit, their post-election shows are great though in suggesting ways in which people can counter the consequences.

Enjoy.

[hummingofevil]

I love Citations Needed but you only really need to listen to the first 15 minutes or so of each episode (in my opinion, anyway, I rarely listen to the interview bit).

Someone mentioned this on here but in another thread - "Mandatory Redistribution Party" is a good lefty pod too.

Sorry. Just realised I missed this recommendation. Cheers.

[marquis_de_sad]

watching this it seems uh, pretty clear why Matt wasn't on that last Chapo ep

https://youtu.be/hRw63TyfPlE

Why's that? I'm not up to date on chapo.

[Dog Botherer]

Why's that? I'm not up to date on chapo.

their last premium episode was a shitshow, Amber and Matt Taibi given free reign to talk cancel culture. the youtube link is Matt Christman giving his thoughts on the subject.

[Famous Mortimer]

Sorry. Just realised I missed this recommendation. Cheers.

Yours was better than mine, no worries.

[KennyMonster]

I used to like the Bugle but it went downhill when they first had rotating guests, although it found its feet again when the rotation was mainly Alice Fraser and Nish Kumar. I've sort-of stopped bothering though.

I lost patience with them ages ago.

Previously John and Andy had made fun of Hugo Chavez and the very over the top verbose way hemade his speeches which was fair enough.

Later after John had left there was Andy and Alice, not sure if Nish was involved, and they just had
"In other news Venezuela's inflation is sky-rocketing."........................
"Whoa that's an amazing inflation rate that Maduro's got there his economy if fucked!".................

erm

and that's all they had to say,
no reasons given just ,'rocketing inflation bad, haha, Maduro has rocketing inflation, haha, Maduro is crazy person. haha'

NOT Left wing!

not insightful

not funny

Just fucking shit.

[Dr Rock]

I don't listen to any lefty podcasts but I'm a big fan of Sam Seder/Majority Report on the YouTube. Anyone else?

Pretty good, but prefer Creationist Cat when it comes to mocking Tim Pool or Dave Rubin.

Would like more recommendations like that, you know, with jokes and that.

[Dog Botherer]

Pretty good, but prefer Creationist Cat when it comes to mocking Tim Pool or Dave Rubin.

Would like more recommendations like that, you know, with jokes and that.

Kyle Kulinski is one off the top of my head. Michael Brooks who sometimes hosts the Majority Report has his own show too.

i find a lot of that brand of Youtuber very samey, though dunking on Pool et al is important in its own right.

[Funcrusher]

One less left podcast to listen to, Michael Brooks of The Majority Report and The Michael Brooks Show has died - a pulmonary embolism apparently.

https://twitter.com/tmbsfm/status/1285341579578753024/photo/1

Really shocked by this, he was one of the best.

[pcsjwgm]

^ The latest Chapo appeared in Podbean and I saw "R.I.P. Michael Brooks." in the description. I thought it was a jokey RIP, so I googled his name to see what that was about and was utterly shocked. Horribly sad news, especially since he was so young. I'll miss the insightful and funny discussions he hosted and participated in, as well as his ability to push back against right-wing, neoliberal, and "Intellectual Dark Web" bullshit.

I haven't read it, but he very recently wrote a book about the IDW: "Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right"
https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/against-web

RIP.

[Non Stop Dancer]

Horrible news. He and Sam really helped me see the light when I was interested in libertarianism.

[Dog Botherer]

only 37. fuck.