Impolitic Podcast

Impolitic

Paul Matzko & Sean Trainor
A weekly podcast on which a libertarian and a socialist talk politics, culture, and history.
The End … For Now
After a year-plus of radio silence (ha!), Paul and Sean return for one last, typically-verbose hurrah. In their swan song episode, the Impolitic boys talk about the prospects for both libertarianism and socialism in 2017 versus today; they discuss whether they’re still optimistic about the 2020s; and they talk about what they’ve learned from the … Continue reading The End … For Now
Jun 7, 2022
2 hr 8 min
Live from the 24 Hours of Le Mans!
Do you like cars? Do you not like cars? If so, then you’ll love this episode of Impolitic in which car-and-racing-lover Sean schools car-and-racing-apathetic Paul on the joys of motorsport. This tour down Gasoline Alley was prompted by our recent review of 2019’s Ford v. Ferrari, the greatest dad movie ever made and the latest … Continue reading Live from the 24 Hours of Le Mans!
Jun 2, 2021
42 min
Geriatric Millennials and the “Good Ole” Days
Sean asks whether the true epochal dividing line has nothing to do with politics but the end of high and mass culture in the 00s. (They sound just as cheugy as you’d expect of two geriatric millennials talking about the past.) Paul chips in with a little complaining about the CDC’s magic eightball approach to … Continue reading Geriatric Millennials and the “Good Ole” Days
May 19, 2021
1 hr 41 min
Matt Gaetz is a Vile Putz but not a Sex Trafficker
Sean and Paul talk about the current and historic sex trafficking moral panics, whether or not Foucault is overrated or underrated, and why the conviction of Derek Chauvin falls short of the kind of systemic change needed in American policing.
Apr 28, 2021
1 hr 53 min
The Bessemer Blues
As you can imagine, Paul and Sean have rather different responses to the outcome of the labor unionization vote in Bessemer, Alabama, though maybe not quite as different in the end as one might think… Also, is everyone a libertarian in a pandemic?
Apr 14, 2021
1 hr 44 min
Empire Comes Home
Paul and Sean locate the Atlanta murders in the United States’ century-plus history of imperialist violence in Asia. Paul introduces the world’s most powerful college administrator: Bob Jones University’s ‘Dean of Men.’ Sean asks for a reality check regarding some legal labor arcana. And they round out the show with a few thoughts on Netflix’s … Continue reading Empire Comes Home
Mar 30, 2021
1 hr 49 min
Think Bigger, Biden
Better late than never, but Sean and Paul discuss the $1.9 trillion dollar stimulus package and why, despite its size, it’s the product of thinking too small.
Mar 23, 2021
1 hr 25 min
Jewish Space Lasers
Look, when a member of Congress gets paranoid about Jewish-controlled, forest fire-starting space lasers, the Impolitic crew is going to talk about it. Sean and Paul situate Marjorie Taylor Green’s lunacy in a long history of American conspiracy theories, discuss the odds of QAnon dissipating, and what role social media played in its rise.
Feb 8, 2021
1 hr 49 min
Enter the Age of Malarkey
Greetings from a new epoch! In this, Impolitic’s first dispatch from the Joseph R. Biden’s Age of Malarkey, Paul and Sean do a deep read of Trump’s farewell address. They lament the tedium of liberal cultural hegemony, courtesy of America United, the star-studded inauguration night spectacular. And they think about the pros and cons of … Continue reading Enter the Age of Malarkey
Jan 26, 2021
1 hr 37 min
Coup d’etat c’est moi
Trumpists stormed the US capitol this week in the worst national insurrection since 1877. That’s it. That’s the episode.
Jan 11, 2021
1 hr 46 min