Leni Riefenstahl remains the most famous of all Nazi propagandists, but to what extent can films like Triumph of the Will be rescued from their fascist origins. The revelatory new documentary RIEFENSTAHL (2024) argues persuasively: not at all.

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

"Fascinating Fascism" by Susan Sontag - https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1975/02/06/fascinating-fascism/

#654 - Fascinating Fascism

It’s Chapo—in person! Will, Felix, and Brendan James of Blowback (formerly Chapo Trap House) gather at Will’s apartment to talk about Eric Adams dropping out of the NYC mayoral race. They then read a profile of Adam Jentleson and his new PAC, Searchlight, and its novel plan to win elections by pulling Democrats to the right. Also this episode: Pete Hegseth’s mysterious all-hands meeting, Trump finally releasing the files, and Peter Thiel’s obsession with the antichrist.

And be sure to vote for American Prestige at the Signal Awards: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signal4_finalists_finalistnotification_092325&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2025/shows/genre/news-politics

And check out the new Blowback season! https://blowback.show/

973 - Cross on the Moon feat. Brendan James (9/29/25)

It's News Day Tuesday on the Majority Report On toady's show: Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries held a post-meeting press conference with Trump, where they declined to warn the public about the dangers of the spending bill and instead focused on procedure and decorum. Hours later, Trump posted a racist AI-generated video depicting Jeffries in a sombrero. The next day, Jeffries responded with a hollow display of self-serving bravado. Argentine historian and chair of the History Department at the New School, Frederico Finchelstein joins the program to discuss the Trump's administrations bail out of Milei's Argentina. In The Fun Half: Illinois governor JB Pritzker urges people to film, document and narrate ICE activities as the only way to hold these abusers to account is to have it on film. Pete Hegseth holds military top brass hostage as he performs his one-man show on the Warriors Ethos. Trump closes out the Hegseth rally with a sleepy, confused ramble about stairs and fascism. Ezra Klein doubles down on his claim that Democrats should run pro-life candidates in red states in a conversation with Ta-Nahisi Coates. Become a member at&nbsp;JoinTheMajorityReport.com:&nbsp; Follow us on TikTok here:&nbsp; Check us out on Twitch here:&nbsp; Find our Rumble stream here:&nbsp; Check out our alt YouTube channel here:&nbsp; Gift a Majority Report subscription here:&nbsp; Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here:&nbsp; Join the Majority Report Discord!&nbsp; Get all your MR merch at our store:&nbsp; Get the free Majority Report App!:&nbsp; Go to&nbsp;&nbsp;and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: NAKED WINES:&nbsp;To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to  and use code MAJORITY for both the code AND PASSWORD. CURRENT AFFAIRS: Go to  and enter the code MAJORITYREPORT at checkout. The offer expires October 31st FAST GROWING TREES:&nbsp;Get 15% off your first purchase.&nbsp;  SUNSET LAKE: &nbsp;Head to m and&nbsp;use the code FlowerPower25 to save 40% on all their sun grown flower, pre rolls, and even vapor cartridges. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon!&nbsp; Check out Matt Binder’s&nbsp;YouTube&nbsp;channel:&nbsp; Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon!&nbsp; Check out Ava Raiza’s music here!&nbsp;

3592 - Trump's Government Shut Down and Argentine Bailout w/ Frederico Finchelstein

Zue Jernstedt joins us live from the Global Sumud Flotilla to talk to us about delivering aid to those in Gaza and weathering attacks from Israel.

UNLOCKED: The Sumud Flotilla Interview (feat. Zue Jernstedt)

In this episode we detail the rise of detached "who's winning and who's losing" political analyses that reduces high stakes life and death issues to fodder for ESPN-style navel-gazing. With guest Jack Mirkinson.

Episode 229: Sociopathic 'You Got To Hand it To 'Em' Punditry and the Rise of Politics as Sport

Like many things, there used to be a bipartisan consensus that in a disaster, you help as many people get through it as quickly and safely as possible. In the past 20+ years, though, we’ve seen a shift in how the right responds to climate catastrophes — including building out a robust selection of conspiracy theories from chemtrails to Flat Earth. Will Menaker from Chapo Trap House joins us to discuss right-wing conspiracy theories about the weather, the climate, and whether we’re living on a discworld.

Our guest is Will Menaker, host of Chapo Trap House. Their Movie Mindset series returns in October for spooky season, and you can also buy their new Year Zero comic book here: https://badegg.co/products/year-zero-1. 

Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to our Discord? There’s still a week left to get your first month for just $0.50 by signing up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Enter “PANICYEAR” at checkout for 90% the first month.

And if you want to see this conversation on video, ⁠Panic World is now posting episodes to YouTube!

PANIC WORLD: The Big Dumb Weather Conspiracy with Chapo Trap House

In light of recent revelations about legendary Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, we delved back into the Walking Tall cinematic universe with the final entry in the franchise to date, the Kevin Sorbo vehicle WALKING TALL: LONE JUSTICE (2007). In this entry, the stick-wielding sheriff moves from the rural south to big-city Dallas. PLUS: We investigate the National Review's list of the best conservative movies.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/659-into-pusser-140245478

PREVIEW - #659 - Into the Pusser-verse

Three films in this year’s NYFF lineup explore the intersections of quotidian life and the arts, following artists whose efforts to make time and space for their creative passions are thwarted or frustrated by the grind of the everyday. In Kent Jones’s Late Fame, adapted from an Arthur Schnitzler novella, a once-upon-a-time New York poet (and now a postal worker) is intoxicated by the sudden attentions of a coterie of twentysomething wannabe poets. In Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, set in the 1970s, an aimless art-school dropout executes a comically sloppy heist at a local museum, as if seeking escape from his banal, bourgeois family life. And in Lucio Castro’s Drunken Noodles, an art student spends a summer in New York, having a series of serendipitous and erotic encounters around painting, poetry, and writing. Each film dwells in how both the making and consuming of art can force life into a pace incompatible with that of the modern world.

Last Sunday at NYFF, Jones, Reichardt, and Castro joined Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute for a conversation exploring the temporality of cinema versus the other arts, the challenge of being a working artist, and the exquisite craft behind their new films.

Stealing Time, with Kelly Reichardt, Kent Jones, and Lucio Castro

Sitting in New York, not much happening. Sitting in Cleveland, not much happening. How about we go to Florida? We discuss Jim Jarmusch's breakout film STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984), a film that heroically swan against the current of Reagan-era culture and politics.

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

OTTAWA - See Luke take part in a live podcast recording at Press Forward's Future of Independent Media Summit on Friday, October 3 - https://press-forward.ca/introducing-the-2025-future-of-independent-media-summit-in-ottawa/

NEW YORK - See Will present Plan 9 from Outer Space and sign copies of his book Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA at Metrograph on Thursday, October 9 - https://metrograph.com/film/?vista_film_id=9999004527

" 'Protect Empathy at All Costs. And Live Groovy Lives.' An Interview with Jim Jarmusch" by Bilge Ebiri - https://www.vulture.com/article/jim-jarmusch-father-mother-sister-brother-interview.html

#660 - Missed Connections

Roger Waters joins the show to talk about Gaza, the UN, free speech & what he wants the president of Colombia to do. Plus, he reacts to the latest crackdowns on speech, the war in Ukraine, & why some musicians are such cowards when it comes to Israel. 

For the full discussion, please join us on Patreon at - https://www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-full-140151702

But first, we're joined by Vaniya Agrawal & Hossam Nasr, two former Microsoft workers who helped pressure the company to bar the Israeli military from using Microsoft services to spy on millions of Palestinian civilian phone calls made each day in Gaza & the occupied West Bank & stored in Microsoft’s vast Azure cloud computing platform. But there's more work to be done, as Microsoft continues to collaborate w/Israel in other ways. 

Of course, we can't leave you hanging on Trump's deal so we will ALSO be joined by Mouin Rabbani & Craig Mokhiber who will break down what's really happening in Gaza.

Roger Waters is a singer, songwriter & musician, best known for being a member of the legendary rock band, Pink Floyd. He's also an outspoken activist for peace, a free Palestine & several other causes that get him in trouble. 

Vaniya is an organizer w/No Azure for Apartheid & ex-Microsoft worker who was terminated for protesting at Microsoft's 50th anniversary keynote event, where she disrupted a panel of current & former Microsoft CEOs including Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, & Steve Ballmer. Since then, she has continued organizing w/NoAA to apply pressure on Microsoft executives to meet workers' demands. Most recently Vaniya was arrested twice last month for participating in encampments on Microsoft campus, & occupying the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith at Microsoft's global headquarters. 

Hossam Nasr is the co-founder of No Azure for Apartheid & a former Microsoft worker. He worked at the company for 3 years before being fired in October last year for organizing a vigil on Microsoft campus for the Palestinians killed in Gaza. Since then, he has organized w/NOAA to pressure Microsoft to end its relationship w/the Israeli military & confronted executives at company events. Most recently Hossam was arrested twice last month after participating in the Liberated Zone encampment on Microsoft's campus & the sit-in at Brad Smith's office.

Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst & commentator specializing in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict & the contemporary Middle East. He has among other positions previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer w/the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East w/the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, Senior Middle East Analyst & Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine w/the Int'l Crisis Group. Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya & a Contributing Editor of Middle East Report.

Craig Mokhiber is an American former United Nations (UN) human rights official & a specialist in international human rights law, policy, & methodology. On October 28, 2023, Mokhiber stepped down as the director of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). In his final letter to High Commissioner, he harshly criticized the organization's response to the war in Gaza, calling Israel's military intervention a "textbook genocide" & accusing the UN of failing to act.

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Roger Waters on Gaza, the UN & Israel’s Final Battle + Trump's Gaza Plan & Microsoft Victory

Greetings Horror Sickos,

Listener, please light a circle of candles and begin to scrawl out the ancient sigils in salt, and begin the accursed chant … “Let’s All Go to the Lobby, Let’s All Go to the Lobby, and Grab Ourselves a Snack”

That’s right! Spooky season is upon us and to inaugurate another edition of Ghoulvie Screamset Horrortober, Will Massacre and Hexa Deni are back with a selection of abominable and morally ruinous films.

First up, in Return of the Living Dead (O’Bannon, 1985) an assortment of punks, working stiffs and slobs accidentally expose themselves to zombie gas and help bring out the nuclear bombing of Louisville, Kentucky in this documentary about a real thing that actually happened. This hilarious and goofball horror film asks two existentially terrifying questions: What if you could feel every second of being dead? And, do you want to PARTY????

Then in The Blob (Russell, 1988), a sci fi classic gets a grisly and unforgettable remake that features Kevin Dillon playing an motorcycle riding bad boy who smokes cigs, wears a leather jacket and has to save the small town that rejects him for being too cool from a giant blob that digests and dissolves everything in its path.

This episode is free, but the rest of Ghoulvie Screamset Season 3 will be paywalled!

MM43 - Punks & Bad Boys

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

#654 - Fascinating Fascism

Michael and Us

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