Upon its release, Steven Soderbergh's TRAFFIC (2000) offered something novel: a cinematic tapestry that criticized America's War on Drugs. More than 20 years later, we consider its strengths, as well as the impact that time has diminished. PLUS: Let's read a little from Prince Harry autobiography, shall we?

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Michael and Us

#394 - The View from Nowhere

George Orwell's popularity is at a new high in the post-Trump era, and he's been claimed by both the left and right. We discuss NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984, Michael Radford's feature-film adaptation of Orwell's most famous novel, and try to rescue a self-described socialist from the Dave Rubins of the world.

Listen to us discuss Orwell's writing in episode #190 - https://www.patreon.com/posts/190-lion-and-44728064

#408 - My Orwell Left or Right

Charles and Alex worry that A.I. listicles may threaten the integrity of Eric Alper's prompts. Plus there is news of an 8-year-old rap god emerging in Pakistan. Fortune Kit on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fortunekit

154 - Eric Alper Cheat Sheet

With Trump's indictment in the news, we thought it might be a good time to watch the movie that has been more influential on QAnon than any other: Ridley Scott's little-loved seafaring adventure WHITE SQUALL (1996). We parse this half-forgotten film to figure out why, exactly, the QAnon people love it so much. "Where we go one, we go all!"

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

#416 - One Insular Tahiti

As a little thank you for your hard work during the crucial month of Plapril, we thought we'd chuck you a little freebie. Enjoy your taste of what life is like behind the paywall.
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Lucy, Andrew, and Ben bring you: A mysterious sea beast in a New Orleans park, hot dog chaos in Philadelphia, an ice disk of hitherto unseen proportion, and the monarch of a short-haul flight.
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Get the rest of our bonus episodes by signing up at patreon.com/BoontaVista

UNLOCKED BONUS EPISODE: Rage Virus Outbreak At Dollar Dog Night

Bonus Episodes

Hello Damned Fam, we're behind an ep because of Jake's landlord trying to kill him with a giant rat he made in a lab etc, so we've decided to release an ep or two from behind our paywall. Here's a great interview we did that should probably have been released publicly anyways. ENJOY

Author and activist Jarrod Shanahan comes on the show to discuss his books Captives and States of Incarceration. Be sure to send your feedback to Jake Flores@twitter.com

UNLOCKED: Go Directly To Jail w/ Jarrod Shanahan

Theo, Andrew, and Ben bring you: The death of the Maine Lobster Festival Sea Goddess, an expanding hole in Iowa, a check-in on the Live fandom, and Dutch bike helmet controversy.
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Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista
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Email the show at mailbag@boontavista.com! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show!
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Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista
Website: boontavista.com
Merchandise: shop.boontavista.com/
Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista

EPISODE 293: I Got Fingered Near The Hole

A Christian boy goes up against his sinister atheist philosophy teacher (played by Kevin Sorbo!) in GOD'S NOT DEAD (2014), one of the biggest Evangelical blockbusters of all time. Luke and guest host Alex Shephard discuss the film's tone-deaf depiction of academia and its particular streak of right-wing sadism. PLUS: What's next for Tucker Carlson? And is there any life at all in the ol' Ron DeSantis?

Watch the whole damn movie for free on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ek2LEoSut0&ab_channel=Se%C3%B1iorFroggy

"Tucker Carlson Has Already Lost His War With Fox News" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/172274/tucker-carlson-twitter-video-lost-war-fox-news

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

#424 - Know Thyself (w/ Alex Shephard)

"Thank God for the hard hats!" declared Richard Nixon during his first term. "Why the construction workers holler, ‘U. S. A., all the way!,’" read a 1970 New York Times headline. "The Day the White Working Class Turned Republican," read another New York Times headline, 50 years later in 2020.

We're now more than five decades since this narrative first arose: The hardhats love America, and the hippies hate it. Whether Nixon or Trump is in the White House, news media, film, and TV tell us that the working class—good, honest blue-collar folk—are people of God, family, and country, unlike those spoiled, rich, out-of-touch lefty elites.

This binary framework is presented as organic, the result of working people and unions feeling left out by the lofty exclusivism of the Left. But, as history shows, this didn’t happen entirely naturally or spontaneously; the "hardhats vs. hippies" narrative was, in part, manufactured by right-wing political and union operatives, more concerned with a McCarthyist imperative to destroy any and all social movements in the global south than with any notion of worker justice and liberation.

On this episode, we explore this history, looking at the ways in which rightwing factions of organized labor bolstered dangerous US foreign policy throughout the Cold War, deliberately crafting the false yet persistent notion that union members, and the working class more broadly, are and should be patriotic hawks at odds with the anti-war Left.

Our guest is labor historian Jeff Schuhrke.

Ep. 182: Hardhats vs Hippies and the Cold War Curation of the Conservative Union Guy Trope

On this Live Show Beg-a-Thon, recorded on May 17, we discuss the pop culture phenomenon and appeal of pseudoarchaeology in its many forms, from fraudulent alternative history books like Erich von Däniken's 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past, to television series like "Ancient Aliens" and "Ancient Apocalypse."

Alongside guest Dr. David S. Anderson, we discuss how phony "what if?" theories often go beyond the goofy, guilty pleasure premises of extraterrestrial visitors and lost civilizations to promote Eurocentric, racist pap and a mindless distrust of "the scientific establishment" in the stupidest and least productive way possible.

Live Show Beg-A-Thon: The Very Real Social Brain Rot of Ancient Aliens and Ancient Apocalypse

In this Live Interview with Nell McShane Wulfhart, we discuss the hidden labor and humiliation of the Airline Industry's "Swingin' 60's" image and how the "pretty faces" behind the tawdry ads fought back.

News Brief: "Go Fly Yourself": Marketing 'Sex' and the Great Stewardess Rebellion of the 1970s

A podcast about culture, politics, and our crumbling world. Hosted by Luke Savage and Will Sloan.

Exclusive subscriber-only episodes: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/overview

#408 - My Orwell Left or Right

Michael and Us

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