Culture and Barbarism

In this special edition of Culture & Barbarism, titled "Shakespeare's Language As Social Barometer," culture critic Dennis Broe talks about Shakespeare's contribution to the language, his critique of power and incorporation of ordinary language, the imperial use of his work as colonial soft power and its contestation and, finally, how one phrase "Unsex Me Here" by Lady Macbeth echoes across not just generations but centuries. This talk was a keynote given in India on the occasion of Shakespeare's birthday for a conference titled "Shakespeare as Architect of the English Language."He is joined here by Shakespeare aficionado and musical comedy lyricist Ed Levy. Support the show

In this interview with Pacifica Radio and WBAI's Jack Shalom, Dennis Broe takes us into the world of Pornocopia in the latest Harry Palmer LA Mystery Thriller. We talk about how that world intersects with Iran in a blowback onto Harry's case, the way the porn and gambling industries have now seeped into every aspect of American life and about the false intimacy porn promises and the false profits gambling serves up as everywhere ordinary people in the country grow more desperate. Support the show

In Culture and Barbarism 10 Dennis Broe and Toby Miller discuss Broe's new Harry Palmer novel Pornocopia while Toby recounts the atmosphere in Mexico in the wake of the American-gun-fueled narco attacks. We recount the many similarities between the above ground Hollywood industry and the now more popular porn industry and we look at the beginnings of Vegas, fueled by mob drug money, the Hoover Dam and Air Conditioning. Finally, we look at why Ian Fleming and Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to abandon their characters and why flawed characters are more fun to write. Support the show

Has AI come to save the world, to destroy it or to destroy it in the guise of saving it?  Is AII, which supposedly enriches all our lives, a gigantic boon to humanity and/or a monstrous con where creators’ own work is fed back to them, a market bubble ready to burst as the last desperate gasp of Western capitalism and a devourer of water, electricity, oil and rare earth metals that threatens local communities and is part of a global grab of the world’s resources? On Culture & Barbarism 9 Dennis and Toby consider the range of these possibilities with special guest Joan-Pedro Caranana. We’ll look at this decidedly American phenomenon from our perspectives in Paris, Monterey and Madrid.  Support the show

Trump who had once proclaimed the U.S. was in Syria for the oil, now claims to have returned Venezuela's oil to its rightful owners, the American oil companiesLike George Bush before him in Iraq, Donald Trump proclaimed that with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro in chains, the U.S. has secured Venezuela’s oil. In this special episode of Culture & Barbarism Dennis Broe and Jack Shalom talk about why the European (and Chinese) response to Trump’s actions is rejoicing on the one hand and staying in the shadows on the other; what AI has to do with this new grab for oil; Trump’s attempt to ‘kill hope’ after the inaugural of Mamdani; and how a show trial can become a political trial exposing the blatant viciousness and hypocrisy of the empire.Support the show

In this episode with Dennis Broe and Special Guest Lee Camp, we discuss the new concentration and consolidation of right-wing media as it moves to capture mainstream (or center-right) media with the new dominance of Larry Ellison's proxy ownership of Paramount +, Tik Tok and attempted takeover of Warners. Lee Camp, who hosted his own weekly comedy news show for 8 years Redacted Tonight (and now on Unredacted Tonight) shares his insights and experience on censorship, censorship by omission, being de-platformed as well as on the continuing Neo-Con strategy of both Republicans and Democrats (we now have Hilary Clinton as Gaza-Genocide Denier) to wage perpetual war in Venezuela, the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere. More barbarism than culture, but that is what we are left with at the moment in a deteriorating West. You can support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/CAB2025?vanity=useror on Substack https://dennisbroe.substack.com/p/culture-and-barbarism-8-capturingSupport the show

Of Alternative Radio, Trumpian "Affordability" and a new Robin Hood who taxes the poor and gives tax breaks to the rich. This episode, also a plea for listener-sponsored radio, features Dennis Broe and WBAI’s Jack Shalom discussing the takeover of mainstream media by right-wing and Zionist owners, AI’s restarting of Three Mile Island, and why the alien extermination of the earth is looking better each week of both the Trump presidency and the European sycophants who genuflect to it.You can now donate to C&B at our Patreon account athttps://www.patreon.com/c/CAB2025?van...Support the show

Dennis on Steven Knights' House of Guinness and its challenge to the genre of "wealth porn." Toby on some surprising trends in Higher Education that indicate that though under fire in the Trump era the field is still prosperous. Plus, fashion and Peaky Blinders, Liverpool as Dublin and Gambling and College Sports. Support the show

In this episode Toby and Dennis discuss the cuts in public television and radio; how they are dis-servicing local Indigenous Media and how Alternative Media is countering Public Media’s Washington Consensus.Also on the agenda is a conversation about past cultural funding and in particular the Ford Foundation and the continual way the Pentagon finances and dictates film scripts and practices.We then branch out and discuss media tax breaks and whether they deliver what they promise, Netflix in Spain, what streaming services mean by the global and the local, and Mission Impossible in Australia.Support the show

In this episode, Dennis Broe and Toby Miller look at the significance of the LA Protests against Trump’s “invasion” of California, the class and racial meaning of the burning of the Waymo cars, the U.S. Treasury assault on Mexican banks and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ “Mexican problem.” With independent journalist Jalyssa Dugrot and an up-close view of the demonstrations as both coasts, with the New York victory of Zohran Mamdani, erupt against the Republican coup.Support the show

In this episode Toby Miller and Dennis Broe discuss Trump's tariffs and their effect on the European and American audiovisual industry as well as the ways the American streamers continue to colonize European public television while seemingly, as Trump might say, "making nice," or appearing to cooperate.  Our guest is France 24 presenter Marjorie Paillon, a French analyst whose area is the interaction between American and European visual media and who raises the question of whether one of the goals of the Trump tariffs is to undercut European digital regulation. Support the show

Of Miriam Adelson, The Book of Trump, Mahmoud Kalil and Roger Angell and...Why is Luca Doncic A Laker?In the second episode of Culture & Barbarism Toby Miller and Dennis Broe explore the expansion of sports and sports reporting, the wrecking of the Dallas Mavericks, Trump’s tariffs on Mexico thwarted by BRICS and we welcome our first guest Layan Fuleihan, educator, scholar and activist who talks about Palestinian women’s imbrication in the fabric of that society and updates us on the case of Mahmoud Kalil.Support the show

Toby Miller is a Cultural Studies and Global Media Raconteur. Dennis Broe is a journalist, novelist and broadcaster. In our pilot episode we recount Steven Knight's mapping of the cruelty of 19th and 20th century British capitalism, Trump's unfair characterization of Mexico's people's government as a narco state as well as where the guns are coming from that fuel the violence in that country and finally LA as a neoliberal government whose cruelty was exposed in the fires as well as its past and future dislocation dynamics around the Dodgers and Chavez Ravine and the 2028 Olympics. Support the show