Episodes
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sheena Mason about race and culture. They talk about the increased focus on race, racelessness and the wayfinder, defining race/ism and history of the categories of race. They talk about culture, history, and ethnicity, mixed race and ethnicity, anti-racism, practical ways to end racism, and many more topics.
Sheena Michele Mason is an assistant professor of English at SUNY Oneonta. She holds a PhD with distinction in English from Howard...
Published 10/27/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Emily Herring about the life and philosophy of Henri Bergson. They discuss who he was and why he is forgotten, changes in his childhood, and how he choose philosophy. They talk about his concepts of Durée, freedom, and memory. They talk about his relationship with Proust, his global popularity, evolution, later life, his legacy, and many more topics.
Emily Herring is a writer based in Paris. She has her PhD in the history and philosophy of...
Published 10/21/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones about the history of the various Cleopatra queens. They discuss the 7 major Cleopatras, gender roles and norms in Egypt, and the context of the Antigonids, Ptolemies, and Seleucids. They talk about Cleopatra I, incestuous marriages, Potbelly and Cleopatra II and III. They discuss the ethnicity of Cleopatra VII, her various romantic relationships, her suicide, legacy of the Cleopatras, and many more topics.
Lloyd...
Published 10/17/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nathan J. Robinson about US foreign policy. They discuss his collaboration with Noam Chomsky, myth of American idealism, and positive elements of US foreign policy. They discuss US foreign policy in Latin America, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, and China. They talk about current threats of climate change and nuclear weapons and the future of US foreign policy.
Nathan J. Robinson is editor of Current Affairs and a...
Published 10/13/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Melissa Eddy about the life and chancellorship of Angela Merkel. They discuss Merkel’s general themes and profile, gender and fashion, and her East German origins. They talk about her major achievements, criticisms, interactions with world leaders, her legacy, and many more topics.
Melissa Eddy is a journalist based in Berlin who covers German business, economics, and politics for The New York Times. She has covered Chancellor Angela Merkel...
Published 10/10/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Musa al-Gharbi about the new elite, “wokeness,” and symbolic capitalism. They discuss why we should still care about “wokeness” and cancel culture, history of the four great “awokenings,” and sincerity of those that have “woke” beliefs. They define and discuss symbolic capitalism, people denying their new elite status, defining “woke” and the history of the word. They talk about “wokeness” as a new religion, the anti-woke, DEI, and many more...
Published 10/07/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Chaffetz about the history of the horse and impact with empires. They discuss the origins of the horse and living alongside humans, herding and horse milk, domesticating the horse and riding horses. They talk about the Steppe environment, rise of chariots, the Scythians and mounted combat, horses used within empires, and China’s relationship with horses. They talk about the Kushans, Turks, Chinggis Khan, Timur, WWI, and many more...
Published 10/04/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Mark Updegrove about the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. They discuss the elusive figure of LBJ, his intuition for politics, and ascending to the Presidency. They talk about the “Johnson treatment,” Civil Rights, Lady Bird, and his war on poverty. They discuss his foreign policy, not running for re-election in 1968, legacy, and many more topics.
Mark Updegrove is the president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation and serves as Presidential Historian...
Published 10/02/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Bruce Gordon about a history of the Bible. They discuss the origins of how the Bible formed in the 2nd Century, original audience of the Bible, Codex and canonization and how we got 66 books. They talk about original languages, the Bible as an icon and symbol, different ways of reading and interpreting the Bible, and the impact of the Gutenberg Press. They talk about the King James Bible (KJV), missions, global legacy, and many other topics....
Published 09/26/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Renée DiResta about misinformation and digital delusions. They define misinformation and disinformation, rise of influencers, and incentive structures. They discuss audience capture, online ethical responsibilities, the Twitter files, election interference, and many other topics.
Renée DiResta is the former technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching, and policy...
Published 09/23/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alice Driver about immigrants working at meatpacking factories. They discuss moral beauty in immigrants work, immigrants who work in meatpacking factories, and how the factories operate. They talk about onsite medical clinics, the Clintons relationship with Tyson Foods, and challenges during the pandemic. They discuss the class action lawsuit against Tyson Foods, future of the industry, and many more topics.
Alice Driver is a writer and...
Published 09/19/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul North and Paul Reitter about their new English translation of Karl Marx’s Capital I. They discuss their process editing and translation Capital I, the 2nd German edition and various English and French translations, and the motivations for Marx. They discuss Marx’s thought and Marx’s impact, his main thesis in Capital I, and some of the interactions with Hegel’s thought. They also talk about Marx’s labor theory of value, the enduring...
Published 09/16/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Marlene Laruelle about the rise of Illiberalism. They talk about liberalism, illiberalism, impact of immigration and socioeconomic issues, and the current and future state of the EU. They discuss Le Pen and far-right in France, Orban in Hungary, the AFD in Germany, and state of Central Eurasian countries. They talk about the Russian-Ukrainian war, motivations of Putin, propaganda, peace in Ukraine, illiberalism in the United States, and many...
Published 09/12/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Josephine Quinn about a 4,000 year history of the world. They discuss why “the West” is not an accurate or helpful framing, civilizational thinking, importance of sailing, and different people groups in one region. They also talked about the importance of ancient/isolated languages (i.e., Sumerian, Ugaritic), the Iberian regions absorbing elements of the Levant in the 2nd Millennium, invention of Greece, Rome and Byzantium, Crusades, the...
Published 09/09/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lindsay Chervinsky about the presidency of John Adams. They provide an overview of Adams’s presidency, maintaining the cabinet, the XYZ affair, Alien and Sedition Acts, Fries Rebellion, replacing Pickering and McHenry, Election of 1800, legacy of Adams, and many more topics.
Lindsay M. Chervinsky a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. She is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library....
Published 09/02/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Steven Mithen about the evolutionary history of language. They discuss the language puzzle, provide an overview of human evolution, importance of bipedalism, and fossil record gaps. They discuss different human species, how language works, origins and spread of different languages, and the physiology of speech. They also talk about the neurology of language, language evolving over time, language connected with thinking and emotions, future...
Published 08/29/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Benjamin Nathans about the Soviet dissident movement. They discuss how he complied all of the narratives together, why the Soviet dissident movement matters and how the Soviet legal system was used. They discuss civil disobedience vs. civil obedience, Alexander Volpin, Sinyavsky-Daniel affair, and what rights looked like in the Soviet Union. They talked about the makeup of the dissident movement, the Red Square demonstration, Initiative...
Published 08/26/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Brett Loyd on political polling. They discuss what polls can and cannot tell us, sample size, random sampling, flex quotas, weighting variables, and sample characteristics. They talk about question order and wording on polling surveys, phone and online polling, internal vs. external polling and national vs. state polls. They talk about how pollsters got the 2016 election wrong, characteristics of a Trump voter, and education level. They talk...
Published 08/19/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Isaac Nakhimovsky about the holy alliance. They discuss understanding current events through historical events, what is the holy alliance, “friend of mankind,” debates around the holy alliance, La Harpe and Czartoryski, Krug, Kant, and history of religion, league of nations, and the holy alliance today.
Isaac Nakhimovsky is Associate Professor of History and Humanities at Yale University. Previously, he was research fellow at Emmanuel...
Published 08/15/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Elizabeth Saunders on elites dictating foreign policy. They discuss negative public opinion, the elites comprised of military, administration, and legislators, and the differences with hawks and doves. They talk about McNamara and LBJ in Vietnam, Truman, Korea, and Taiwan, and Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq. They also discuss Obama on Syria, future insider’s games, and many more topics.
Elizabeth Saunders is Professor of Political Science at...
Published 08/12/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Arik Kershenbaum about why and how animals communicate with each other. They discuss the differences between language and communication in animals, respectfully communicating with animals, and the six animals he studied for communication. They talk about howling in wolves, clicks in dolphins, comprehension in parrots, singing in the hyrax and gibbons, chimps, humans, and many more topics.
Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist and College Lecturer...
Published 08/05/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nick Romeo on different and alternative economies. They talked about reimagining capitalism, improving economic pedagogy in academia, True Price, a living wage, and Job Guarantee program. They discuss the gig economy, purpose economy, scaling alternative economies, and many more topics.
Nick Romeo is a Journalist and Author who has focused his writing on economics, policy, and culture. Currently, he is a writer for The New Yorker and has...
Published 07/31/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with B. Rosemary Grant on her life and work on genetics and evolutionary change. They discuss an overview of her life and research, her childhood and being raised in England in WWII, her interest in genetics, and moving to Canada and meeting her husband. They discuss how she balanced raising a family and her career, her work over 40 years in the Galapagos Islands, retirement and continued research, her legacy, and many other topics.
B. Rosemary...
Published 07/29/24
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Anthony Sattin about the history of Nomads on our planet. They discuss humans as naturally nomadic, Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük and early settlements, Uruk and the epic of Gilgamesh, and domestication of horses. They talk about the Persian empire, Scythian empire, and nomadic identity. They discuss the impact of Islam, Chinggis Khan and the Mongol empire, Ottoman empire, Native Americans, future of nomads, and many more topics.
Anthony Sattin...
Published 07/22/24