Episode

8/23 Superhero Fatigue and State Department Nationalists w/ Ben Mankiewicz & Matt Binder

August 23, 2019

Happy Friday! On today’s show, Ben Mankiewicz from Turner Classic Movies and Matt Binder from Mashable join Michael Brooks to breakdown the news of the week! We’re live at noon EST. Brooks is joined by Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss new and upcoming films. The two begin their conversation with the existential question, “why are there so many goddamn superhero movies?” Mankiewicz gives a brief overview of the golden age of 1970s cinema and the economics of the blockbuster and studio consolidation in the 1980s. Shifting to politics, Brooks and Mankiewicz consider Trump’s latest moniker, “the King of the Jews,” the country’s incapacity to express shock, and the president’s bewildering charisma. Mankiewicz ends the interview with film recommendations, including Network, Three Days in the Condor, The Conversation, and Ace in the Hole.

Then, Matt 1.0, Matt Binder of the podcast Doomed, joins Brooks in-studio to discuss the growing Bernie Sanders movement and white nationalism embedded in State Department bureaucracy. Binder recounts his recent interview with Michael Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center who discovered Matthew Q. Gebert. Gebert was a State Department official who is involved in the white nationalist movement. Gebert was a rising star at the Bureau of Energy Resources even after his brother had reported him to the FBI, citing his brother’s involvement in white nationalist groups around Washington. Brooks and Binder discuss the problem with covering hate groups on YouTube and social media, which cannot differentiate between those who promote toxic ideologies and those who cover and report on them.

And in the Fun Half for Freebie Friday: Andrew Miller from Amazon Watch explains the Bolsonaro government’s involvement in the rainforest’s raging wildfires, a reminder that Dave Rubin doesn’t care about Brazilian deforestation, a flashback Friday: Wyatt Ingraham Koch, the coming Biden v. Trump Jello debate, plus your calls and IMs!

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