PODCAST · arts
Public Intellectual
by Jessa Crispin
Complicated conversations with complicated people about complicated topics. Let's get into the real mess of gender, feminism, punishment, class, politics, and culture and leave easy rhetoric and jingoism behind. Hosted by Jessa Crispin.
Episodes
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Coming Soon: The Culture We Deserve
From the creators of Public Intellectual: a new weekly podcast exploring the state of our cultural institutions, norms, and failures. It's called The Culture We Deserve. Because it is. Hosted by Jessa Crispin, the author of My Three Dads, Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto, and The…
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No Modernism without Lesbians, with Dianna Souhami
Dianna Souhami has worked for decades as a chronicler of sexual subcultures in early 20th century Europe, and finally, she is allowed to deliver her thesis: without this network of lesbians, the parties they through and the lovers they supported, modernism would not have been possible. She speaks...
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America's Reckoning in Afghanistan, with Roy Scranton
This week's episode is hosted by Cameron Steele. The flag waving and feminist arguments for more war and scapegoating of service members prompted by America's withdrawal from Afghanistan proves we still have not learned the lessons from 9/11 or our policy of endless war. Roy Scranton (WAR PORN)...
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FBoy Island is Incel Culture, with Cameron Steele
Between Love Island, Love is Blind, FBoy Island, Sexy Beasts, Too Hot to Handle etc, we sure do love watching hot straight people be tortured for the possibility of love. Cameron and Jessa discuss why these properties are still considered "guilty pleasures" despite the harm they are doing and why...
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When Even the Moon is Gender Critical: Neo-Pagans, Goddess Culture, and terfs with Ana Valens
After a couple thousand years of Christianity, some populations who had been suffering under Yahweh decided to give some other gods and goddesses a try. But did they create systems that were just as equally oppressive to others? You know, on accident? The journalist Ana Valens returns to PI to…
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Who Gets to Tell Your Story, with Cameron Steele
Amanda Knox is back in the news, as a film "inspired by" the story of her being accused of murder is in the theaters. Knox has compared telling stories of other people's lives to "cultural appropriation," and Cameron and Jessa try to untangle that particular mess. Who gets to tell a story? What…
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It Never Came Home: The Euros and Copa America, with Nicolás R Melo
Both the Euros and Copa America saw the anticipated winners humiliated in their own homes. It was nice, a treat. Former soccer player and activist Nicolás R Melo revisits the highs and lows of the pandemic tournaments, the easy (and politically objectionable) narratives of sports), how England's...
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The Final Girlboss, with Cameron Steele
People keep holding funerals for the Girlboss, that figure of narcissism and disgrace, but aren't we all girlbosses now? Don't we all have to be to survive in late capitalism? Cameron Steele and Jessa discuss what distinguishes a girlboss, the adoration/cancellation cycle, the extremely revealing...
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All About Adichie, with Cameron Steele
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and JK Rowling have both been elected to a position where they are allowed and asked to speak for women. So what harm does it do when what they decide to say is anti-trans and harmful? Cameron and Jessa parse through these demands to be accommodated and in control of...
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We Don't Deserve St. Vincent, with Zach Toman
The recording industry is in a bind, with the big money going to intermediaries like Spotify, with little idea of what makes a star these days, and with a critical culture that no longer knows what it's talking about. Meanwhile, industrial knowledge about how to record music in a room, or even…
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Re-Sentimentalizing the Family, with Cameron Steele
From pearl clutching "think of the children" to terfdom to the reign of momfluencers, we've decided to get sentimental about the nuclear family again. This can be seen as heavily on the left ("social reproduction," my god) as on the right. Cameron Steele, writer and editor and mother, and Jessa,...
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Underground Railroad, or Your Trauma is My Entertainment, with Trevor Beaulieu
Between Underground Railroad, Handmaid's Tale, Promising Young Woman, Them, and many others, we are asked to consume stories of trauma and images of torture as our entertainment. Trevor Beaulieu from Champagne Sharks and Jessa discuss how we got here, whether we can blame Jonathan Safran Foer,...
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What Is Going On In Colombia, with Nicolas R. Melo
Colombia has once again called for a general strike and taken to the streets in protest. Government officials have resigned, proposed tax law reform withdrawn, and still people protest. Protestors have been murdered and disappeared by police, the president is giving speeches in English. Nicolas…
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Beyond Cancel Culture, with Cameron Steele
The cancel culture discourse has been noisy lately, but what is it about this moment that makes it uniquely terrible to be a public person? To be on social media or to write or create, to say things out loud at all? Writer Cameron Steele joins Jessa to talk about surveillance, why everyone except...
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The Politics of Meat, with Alicia Kennedy
There was a rumor circulating on social media that Joe Biden was only going to allow US citizens four pounds of beef per year. People lost their minds. Food writer Alicia Kennedy and I pick apart the anxieties of meat eaters, why 'vegan' has become 'plant-based', and how the shift in omnivore and...
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Are the Straights OK? with Phoebe Maltz Bovy
Phoebe Maltz Bovy, writer of the essay "Straightness Studies," introduces us to the Tragedy of Heterosexuality. Can queer theory save the straights or are we/they doomed to be trapped in power imbalances and sexual suffering and bad interior decorating decisions forever? Support this podcast:...
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In Praise of Difficult Books, with Mauro Javier Cárdenas
Every few days or so, a conversation restarts on Twitter: books that are difficult, books that are assigned in school, books that are designated classics, are bad. And publishers, critics, and audiences that support so called "difficult" literature are disappearing. Mauro Javier Cárdenas, author…
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Disrupt Housing, with Diana Lind
The luxury housing boom is -- hopefully -- over, so what comes next? According to Diana Lind, author of Brave New Home, it's rethinking the single family home. We explore other options, from multi-generational housing, co-living, housing coupled with services, and we ask why Americans are so…
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The Meaning of Nostalgia is a Disease, with Margaret Howie
Previously released as a bonus episode available only to patrons, following Britney Spears's statement that she felt "torn apart" by the NYT doc that is fueling her revival we thought it best to give it a wider release. Topics considered: a reassessment of the dark first decade of the century,...
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Baby Bust, with Dr. Shanna Swan
While many conservative commentators have been in a panic about the pandemic's baby bust effect, they rarely look past personal choice to see the real reasons people are not having children. Fertility is a deeply felt personal issue, but it exists within a larger context and that context is…
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The United States of Amazon, with Alec MacGillis
Amazon's PR has been having a temper tantrum this past week on Twitter, going after politicians and random people online for daring to criticize the working conditions at their facilities. Alec MacGillis, author of Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One Click America, shows that while the working...
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The Notorious Ms. Highsmith, with Lucie Elven
With a new scandalous biography of Patricia Highsmith and a new Ripley adaptation on the way for Showtime, we can't get enough of loving and hating our mistress of sociopaths and Americans (same thing). Novelist and journalist Lucie Elven (The Weak Spot) joins Jessa to discuss our "Sapphic Dennis...
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Define Diversity, with Russell Jacoby
Diversity is seen as an unalloyed good. We have committees, books, departments, specialists all devoted to increasing diversity, but what does anyone mean by that word. And why are we obsessed with it, in a time of globalization and homogenization? Russell Jacoby is the author of On Diversity…
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When Did the Internet Get Terrible, with Ana Valens
If we can pinpoint a moment when the internet got truly bad, I think it is when Tumblr removed all of the porn. It was clear that diversity, freedom, and creativity did not matter as much as money to anyone running the platforms. Ana Valens, author of Tumblr Porn, joins Jessa to discuss nostalgia...
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Moral Insanity and Our Economic Crisis, with Pavlos Roufos
With people losing homes and jobs and the government taking a hands off approach, it is a chance to rethink our response to the last economic crisis of 2008. Pavlos Roufos, the author of A Happy Future is a Thing of the Past, joins Jessa to discuss the austerity measures taken in Greece and the...
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The Good Girls, with Sonia Faleiro
With the true crime boom, we have been awash in stories of dead women and girls. And while those stories have been used to romanticize the police and advocate for "safety" measures that just end in more surveillance and oppression, occasionally these stories show us just how broken our…
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Our Age of Nostalgia, with Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
"The opposite of nostalgia is truth." So writes Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore in her new book The Freezer Door. We discuss how nostalgia fuels gentrification, why our streaming services are full of shows set in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, and how Patti Smith's "Just Kids" inspired suburbanites...
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Did the Pandemic Erase the Progress of Feminism, with Angela McRobbie
There is a widening gap between the aims of feminism and the lived experience of women. Angela McRobbie, as a historian of women's magazines, is in a better position than most to see the lie of gender meritocracy and aggressive "have it all" narratives. She joins Jessa to discuss whether the...
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Promising Young Women Filmmakers, with Vincent Chabany-Douarre
With such a rich history of film tackling sexual violence in horror, exploitation, and other genre films -- and doing it well -- why when we try to take it seriously does it come out all wrong. Vincent Chabany-Douarre returns to PI to discuss the disappointing Promising Young Woman, why our queen...
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The Economics of Anger, with Mark Blyth
Americans have very good reasons to be angry. Hundreds of thousands of us are dead from the pandemic, stimulus checks are nowhere to be seen, our government serves the very rich and few else. So why are we upset about fictions like child slavery and blood drinking Satanists? Mark Blyth is one of...
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What Is Art Even For, with Rita Felski
Many of the odd social media arguments over the last couple years -- from Scorsese v Marvel to teach Harry Potter instead of Nathaniel Hawthorne -- can be understood as being actually about uncertainty about what art is for. Which is a new development of the age old "what makes art meaningful"...
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Bonus Episode: What Do We Do with a Don Giovanni During #MeToo with Amber Fasquelle
We'll be returning to our regular weekly schedule starting January 11th. Until then, please enjoy this first entry in our series of bonus episodes about the opera with singer Amber Fasquelle. We discuss Don Giovanni, an opera about a murder and rapist, and using art to talk about trauma and...
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The Downward Spiral is a Solstice Album, with Adam Steiner
On the darkest day of the year, and with Trent Reznor everywhere with two new scores, it seems an appropriate time to discuss the Nine Inch Nails masterpiece The Downward Spiral. How did someone with actually so few real hits become such an influential artist? Why do people love to take their...
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America is Losing Its Mind. Again. with Chelsey Weber Smith
Chelsey Weber Smith runs the American Hysteria podcast, so who better to come on to discuss America's various conspiracy theories, cults, and moral panics? Chelsey and Jessa discuss the links between the Satanic Panic and Q, how abuse of authority leads to con men and frauds, how the greatest...
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Art Under Trump, with Allison Hewitt Ward
We were promised great art under the Trump administration. Everyone said it: our suffering would lead to a Renaissance of art, literature, and music. It obviously did not happen. (Well, we got a baby Trump balloon, that was cool.) So what happened? Art critic and editor at Caesura Allison Hewitt...
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What Happens to the Left Under a Centrist, with Natalie Wynn of Contrapoints
Over the last four years under Trump, we've seen the emergence of a far right with militias, the alt-right, and other weirdo fascists, but we've also seen a push to the revolutionary left. What happens with our polarized kin now that we've got another centrist? Natalie Wynn of Contrapoints joins...
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A Gun for Every Girl, with Zach Toman
Talk about guns is now shorthand for a certain kind of American: white uneducated racists. But conversations and action around gun control often hurt those most vulnerable, including those who can't count on the police for their own protection because of their race, class, or past interactions.…
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Monetizing the Dead, with Claire Cronin
It's election week in America, so of course we're going to talk about horror, ghosts, and watching violent death as a way of relieving anxiety. Claire Cronin, author of Blue Light of the Screen, joins Jessa to discuss the body horror of Catholicism and why all these haunting shows are just...
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The British Museum is Haunted, with Dan Hicks
Who owns a cultural object? Who benefits from artistic production? Where is the line between looting and preservation? While museums have been thought of as this cultural good, these bright shining sacred institutions of learning and edification, they are also the sight of plunder, erasure, and...
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A Lady's Guide to Fascism, with Victoria de Grazia
Ladies love a fascist. In Victoria de Grazia's new book The Perfect Fascist, she tells the story of Lilliana Weinman -- a beautiful Jewish heiress, attracting love and devotion in opera houses around Europe -- and Attilio Teruzzi, head of the blackshirts in Mussolini's Italy. Their love story…
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Re-Release: Beyond Pro-Choice and Pro-Life with Alissa Quart
With the death of RBG and the Supreme Court once again in a position to overturn Roe v Wade, journalist Alissa Quart and Jessa attempt to complicate the abortion debate. We discuss how the pro-choice movement often fails to take care of women, how legality does not mean accessibility, and why...
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Pope Says Property is Theft, with Eugene McCarraher
Just a few days before the Pope release a barnfire of an encyclical about the evils of neoliberalism and capitalism, Eugene McCarraher (The Enchantments of Mammon) and Jessa discussed the tangled relationship between Christians and the Left, the soulfulness of anarchism, and how capitalism became...
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Living in Strange Times, with Darran Anderson
In his new memoir Inventory, Darran Anderson recounts growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 80s, amid all of the humiliation and intimidation by police and an occupying army, the polarized politics, and the roughness of working class life. He talks with Jessa about the inheritance of…
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Our Anxious Relationship to Stuff, with Jen Howard
We continue our series on the stress the pandemic is putting on domestic spaces. Jen Howard, the author of the new book Clutter, talks to Jessa about pandemic hoarding, why Marie Kondo drives some (mostly white upper class people) absolutely insane, how we imbue the material world with meaning it...
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California Fires and California Dreams, with Mark Arax
Mark Arax (The Dreamt Land) is one of our finest chroniclers of the American West, and he joins Jessa to discuss the wildfires, the mismanagement of resources like water, soil, and timber, and why California is our land of extremes. Support this podcast: http://patreon.com/publicintellectual...
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The Musician as Content Creator with Marianna Ritchey
Now that Samuel Beckett's "Fail Better" is a motivational poster in some Silicon Valley bro's office, what is the value of art in the neoliberal age? And is it possible to still create art -- rather than just Content -- with the pressures of branding, the anxiety of audience, and the crippling of...
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On Sourdough Starters and How Domesticity Became a Luxury, with Jaimee Edwards
What is hiding behind your Instagram photos of perfectly baked sourdough bread? First of all, all of the labor and time and knowledge it took to create it. Second, the strained and in some places broken food supply chain during the pandemic. And third, all of the money and countertop space that...
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Extra: A Talk with a Covid Long Hauler, with Natalie Alford
Natalie Alford, a singer songwriter out of Chicago, started to feel sick in the spring. Now four months later, she's still sick. As a part of our conversation about the how health care in this country is going to have to change post-pandemic, I thought a one-on-one with someone hit with...
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Preparing for the Post-Pandemic, with Cassie Thornton
Often when we discuss health care reform, we're talking about issues of accessibility and affordability. It is assumed American medicine is great, top notch. The only problem is how expensive it is and how broken the insurance networks are. But patients with pain, headaches, chronic illness are…
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I Regret to Inform You We Are Discussing the Harper's Letter, with Elvis Bego
Do we and should we have free speech or not? Why can't anyone agree on that? Bosnian-born writer Elvis Bego joins Jessa to discuss how free speech went from being a leftist issue to a conservative talking point, the dangerous sentimentality of America, and why a media saturated with one…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Complicated conversations with complicated people about complicated topics. Let's get into the real mess of gender, feminism, punishment, class, politics, and culture and leave easy rhetoric and jingoism behind. Hosted by Jessa Crispin.
HOSTED BY
Jessa Crispin
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Public Intellectual have?
Public Intellectual currently has 100 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Public Intellectual about?
Complicated conversations with complicated people about complicated topics. Let's get into the real mess of gender, feminism, punishment, class, politics, and culture and leave easy rhetoric and jingoism behind. Hosted by Jessa Crispin.
How often does Public Intellectual release new episodes?
Public Intellectual has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Public Intellectual?
You can listen to Public Intellectual on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Public Intellectual?
Public Intellectual is created and hosted by Jessa Crispin.
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