Show Notes
My friend John Ganz and I reformed our intermittent podcast this week to talk about New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s interview with PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Among the topics covered: * Why Thiel is obsessed with Greta Thunberg, who he seems to think is the Antichrist; * What “steelmanning” is, and why it’s damaged Thiel’s ability to answer questions from even friendly interviews; * The Zohran Mamdani campaign as anti-Thiel politics. You can listen to the podcast here, or on whatever platforms you get your podcasts from. A reminder! Read Max, whether in text or audio form, is the product of an extensive amount of work--research, reporting, deliberation, writing, editing, recording, staring at the wall, etc. Nearly all of my compensation for that work comes from paying subscribers, whose generosity represents about 90 percent of my total income. If you find Read Max rewarding to you at all: If it makes you laugh, smile, think, sigh, whatever: Please consider upgrading your subscription. Not only will you help ensure its continued existence, you’ll also get access to a second, paywalled newsletter every week featuring recommendations for books, movies, and music that you might not otherwise know about.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com
More from Read Max
Greetings from Read Max HQ! For this week’s edition of my intermittment podcast with John Ganz (author of When the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) we were pleased to host Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, authors of the new book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, an exploration of Elon Musk’s ideology (such as it is) and power through the system of production and accumulation he seems intent on inaugurating. I highly recommend the book, which you can purchase here; we also discussed, among other things: * this excellent essay on Muskism and Fordism from Quinn and Ben at the Law and Political Economy blog; * Musk’s relationship to apartheid South Africa; * some interesting objections to the Muskism thesis; * how Neon Genesis: Evangelion can help us explain and understand Elon Musk. This one is free for all to listen--enjoy!--but if you find it enlightening or entertaining, please consider paying to subscribe. Only with the support of paying subscribers can I put in all the work it takes to be an independent critic and journalist--to read, research, write, edit, record, etc. etc. If you value that work, consider paying about the price of one beer a month ($5) to help it continue.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com