Unregistered 142: Stephen Kershnar

Stephen Kershnar is a professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Fredonia and the most renegade academic I have found. We talked about his many books in which he argues with scholarly rigor and precision that veterans don't deserve our gratitude, that if it were logically consistent the pro-life movement would be killing lots of people, that there is no basis for morality or responsibility, and that many adult-child sexual relationships should be defended. This might have been the most fun I've ever had talking to a professor.

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Unregistered 141: Dave Smith

My favorite comedian and political commentator joined me again for a discussion about fatherhood, indoctrination in families, the benefit of reading neo-Nazis, the libertarian conundrum on immigration, the "rich people's politics" of most Americans, and how we both resent being associated with a president we both consider to be a mass murderer.

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Mantifly's website: https://www.mantifly.com/
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Unregistered 140: Matt Welch

Matt Welch joined me to talk about his remarkable and—from my point of view—enviable career in journalism. After founding a counter-cultural newspaper in post-Communist Prague he went on to write columns for the Los Angeles Times, serve as Editor-in-Chief of Reason magazine, and co-host a short-lived but stunningly intelligent cable news show (The Independents). He is now Editor at Large for Reason and co-host of The Fifth Column—which I consider to be the best news analysis podcast on the internet.

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Unregistered 139: Justin Weiss

Justin Weiss became addicted to heroin and methamphetamine as a young teenager. Over the next decade he was made a ward of the state and incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities, adult prisons, and a series of brutal "rehabilitation" centers. He lived on the street and in trap houses. Now, as a recovering addict and a father, he wants to change everything about the system that treats people who need love like criminals.

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Unregistered 138: Coolee Bravo

I sat down with Chicago rapper and Vice Lords member Coolee Bravo to discuss life on the streets, in a gang, in prisons, in the Army, and under Joe Biden's crime bill of 1994. Coolee also explains why a majority of black people "are not liberals."

Coolee Bravo's albums "45" and "20 Minutes in Chicago": https://album.link/6K4Sb08T39Ddk

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Unregistered 137: Stephen Wertheim

Stephen Wertheim, a fellow U.S. history PhD from Columbia and a director of the anti-war Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, engaged me in a wonderful debate over the history of American imperialism and the pivotal era of World War II, when American policymakers secretly laid the plans for the United States to emerge from the war as the global hegemonic superpower.

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Unregistered 136: JJ Boogie

I spoke with Jason "JJ Boogie" Reichert about his life of transgressing racial boundaries while trafficking in joy. The recipient of a 2019 Black Music Honors Award, Jay is the guitarist as well as a producer and writer for the historic hip-hop group Arrested Development, one of my favorite musical acts of all time. He has also performed with Taj Mahal and produced for Eminem.

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Unregistered 135: Jesse Walker

Jesse Walker has studied conspiracy theories, fringe political movements, moral panics, and mass hysterias for most of his life. He is the books editor at Reason magazine and the author of The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory. Now was the time to talk to him.

The United States of Paranoia: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BATIIZY/

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Unregistered 134: David Harsanyi

I sat down with a nice Jewish boy from New York City who grew up to become a champion of gun rights and an opponent of democracy: David Harsanyi, senior writer at National Review, former founding editor of The Federalist, and the author of First Freedom: A Ride Through America's Enduring History with the Gun and The People Have Chosen (and They Are Wrong): The Case Against Democracy.

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Unregistered 133: Tom Woods

I finally sat down with Tom Woods, author of numerous bestselling books, host of the long-running and enormously successful Tom Woods Show podcast, arguably the most important living libertarian other than Ron Paul, and the best economics teacher I've ever had. We discuss Tom's history of alienation from his school peers, our very different experiences as history PhD students at Columbia, why he converted to traditionalist Catholicism, his love for his five daughters, the different schools of libertarian thought, and of course the COVID lockdowns and "the most inane election" either of us can remember.

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Unregistered 132: Barbara Fields and Adam Rothman

I was joined by two old friends and colleagues, the eminent historians Barbara Fields of Columbia University and Adam Rothman of Georgetown University, who in my mind are two of the most brilliant analysts of the history and politics of race and racism in the United States. We begin with a discussion of their recent Dissent magazine article that laments the inattention given to white victims of police violence, recounts the history of the cross-racial coalition in the 1850s that ended slavery, and calls for building a non-racial coalition now to end police killings. The second half of the conversation focuses on Barbara's classic work on the history, uses and mis-uses of the concepts of race and racism. This episode makes my life feel whole.

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Unregistered 131: Ask Me Anything

In this AMA episode hosted by Landry Harmon, we discuss my history of hating teachers, why libertarians are hostile to postmodernism, the dishonesty of Black Lives Matter, my ever-growing dislike of democracy, the Christian basis of left-wing politics, how liberalism became morally "good" among American elites, why no one cares about Trump's genocidal war in Yemen, how China eliminated poverty in the U.S., the loneliness of political dissent, why the right wing despises my politics, the fight between the identity left and the Marxist left, why I don't date people like me, the uniqueness of American white guilt, my favorite Unregistered episodes, the heroism of Michael Bell Sr., why recovering addicts are the best interviewees, the anxiety of free-market capitalism, the therapeutic effects of Zen mindfulness, why a person born into wealth can never be an American hero, and how Barack Obama is a child of the CIA.

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Unregistered 130: Michael Bell Sr.

In November 2004 Michael Bell Jr., a blond-haired and blue-eyed 21-year-old son of an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was murdered execution-style by police officers in Kenosha, WI. I talked with Michael Bell Sr. about his phenomenally successful 16-year campaign to reform police departments across the country.

Michael Bell's "Plea for Change" website: https://michaelbell.info/

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Unregistered 129: Lily Forester

A few weeks before her first appearance on Unregistered, Lily Forester's husband John Galt was shot to death at their home in Acapulco, Mexico. They had been on the run from felony cannabis charges in Ohio and had fled across the border into Mexico, where they established a life among a small expat anarchist community around the Anarchapulco conference. In the 18 months since then, both Lily and her life have changed radically. She sat down with me from her new home in the mountains of central Mexico to tell the story of her journey and transformation.

Lily's website: https://highlyfunctionalgrowth.com/

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Unregistered 128: Jack the Perfume Nationalist

I spoke with Jack, the co-host of the uniquely provocative podcast The Perfume Nationalist, about aesthetics and politics, Camille Paglia, my mother’s perfume, the myth of misogyny, the decline of McDonald’s, and “the 2010s, the worst decade in American history.”

The Perfume Nationalist podcast: https://theperfumenationalist.libsyn.com/

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Unregistered 127: Maj. Danny Sjursen

The ongoing US wars are as far from the news as ever, which is why I brought combat veteran and antiwar journalist Danny Sjursen onto the show. We discussed his road from a working-class Staten Island family of right-wing cops and firefighters to West Point and then leading scout platoons with Armored Cavalry regiments in neighborhoods across Baghdad and in the especially volatile Kandahar Valley in Afghanistan.

Danny's site: https://skepticalvet.com/

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Unregistered 126: Michael Malice

The preeminent political trickster Michael Malice joined me for his fourth appearance on the show. We discussed his admiration for Ayn Rand and RuPaul, how gays liberate straights, and of course my many physical and intellectual shortcomings.

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Unregistered 125: Conner Habib

The former gay porn star turned podcaster, public intellectual and academic spoke with me from his new home in Dublin to discuss the puritanical effects of the lockdown and social distancing, mental illness and "anarchy of the mind," the lesson we both draw from the life of our late friend Michael Brooks, and the meaning of Conner's passion for the occult.

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Unregistered 124: Freddie deBoer

The author of the brilliant new book The Cult of Smart spoke with me about our society's fetishization of "intelligence" as well as his own struggles with mental health. Freddie deBoer is the rare public intellectual who is as candid, astute and knowledgeable about himself as he is about politics.

The Cult of Smart: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J4RMN5Y/

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Unregistered 123: Bridget Phetasy

The personal and the political are always intertwined. No one understands that better than my guest Bridget Phetasy, who joined me to discuss her rise from drunk bartender to Twitter and podcast star, the problems with left-right politics, the life-saving power of art, and our mutual troubles with pleasure.

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