Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything artwork

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

208 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★ - 1.4K ratings

Personally connecting the dots. All of them. Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.

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Episodes

Not All Propaganda is Art 7: Manufacturing Dissent

March 19, 2024 07:55 - 58 minutes - 64.6 MB

In 1959, Anti-Americanism surged in the UK. England seethed over America’s treatment of its Prime Minister who was smacked down for daring to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over divided Germany.  In 1959 England also fretted over a new American export: the Beatnik. The British foreign office forcefully responded with a report advocating for “ an increased effort in the field of press, radio and television in the U.K. to say the right kind of things about the Americans.” This is...

Not All Propaganda is Art 6: The Kitsch Debate

March 05, 2024 14:28 - 1 hour - 70.5 MB

In the summer of 1959, Nixon and Khrushchev argued over a washing machine in a backstage kitchen in Moscow, while American Cold War intellectuals gathered in the Poconos to defend Kitsch. Dwight Macdonald, whose theory of mass culture translated too easily into Anti-Americanism, was barred from participating because this was no ordinary mass culture conference; it was an Anti Anti-Americanism operation. Meanwhile, in London, Dwight Macdonald delivered a mass culture lecture of his o...

Not All Propaganda is Art 5: The Play's the Thing

February 20, 2024 10:15 - 1 hour - 78.5 MB

In the fall of 1958, Kenneth Tynan moved from London to New York and upon arrival, clashed with Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn over socially engaged art and the politics of apolitical culture on live TV. At the same moment New Yorker writer Dwight Macdonald went West to report on “New” Hollywood's ambitions to create commercially and artistically successful films. We also meet two of Professor Macdonald’s former students from a Mass Culture course he taught at Bard College in 1958. ...

Not All Propaganda is Art 4: Propagande Noire

February 13, 2024 10:38 - 1 hour - 67.4 MB

In 1956, Richard Wright spoke of islands of free men at the first Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris. James Baldwin critiqued the event for Encounter, the CIA’s propaganda magazine. We take a close listen to the original recordings. Shownotes: Merve Fejzula and Cedric Tolliver both wrote about the 1956 Congrès des écrivains et artistes noirs. Darryl Pinckney wrote on Norman Mailer and Denis Leroux wrote on Antoine Bonnemaison. Support ToE and get access to the incredib...

Not All Propaganda is Art 3: The Man Who Was Thursday's Children

February 06, 2024 11:17 - 1 hour - 69.6 MB

In 1956 London Theater critic Kenneth Tynan helped launch a youth movement committed to exposing social and political issues on stage, on screen and in literature. We take a close look at the operators and opportunists behind England’s Angry Young Men. Shownotes: Michael Billington wrote for the Guardian, Celia Brayfield wrote Rebel Writers, Clare Bucknell wrote The Treasuries Laura Bradley writes on Brecht. Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion se...

Not All Propaganda is Art 2: Outsider Influence

January 30, 2024 11:53 - 1 hour - 69.9 MB

In 1956, New Yorker writer Dwight Macdonald joined Encounter, a magazine secretly backed by American and British security agencies. He arrived in London just as British Influencers turned a young Existentialist named Colin Wilson into England's answer to Jean-Paul Sartre. Meanwhile, the CIA incited a youth rebellion in communist Hungary. We investigate the covert propaganda behind Operation Free Youth Action and Operation Anti-Sartre and the Outsider’s influence on Macdonald’s famou...

Not All Propaganda is Art 1: Operation Younger Brother

January 23, 2024 11:46 - 1 hour - 80.8 MB

In the 1950s the CIA weaponized culture to capture hearts and minds in Europe and Africa. We meet three writers (Richard Wright, Kenneth Tynan, and Dwight Macdonald) who got caught up in this battle both as collaborators and targets between the years of 1956 - 1960. We also meet a propagandist responsible for the CIA’s cinematic version of 1984 (Operation Big Brother) and “books that don’t smack of propaganda” aimed at European Intellectuals - including James Baldwin’s Notes of a Na...

Not All Propaganda is Art BONUS CONTENT TRAILER: Propaganda Notes and Sources

January 23, 2024 11:40 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MB

The new ToE series Propaganda is Art has a companion podcast called Propaganda Notes & Sources, think audio footnotes! Each episode in Not All Propaganda is Art gets its own corresponding episode of Propaganda Notes & Sources. Your host goes through the script for each episode and cites all the corresponding original sources he consulted, and the archives he visited while reporting this series. Like all great footnotes, these go deep and contain many digressions and new stories. ...

Wrong Way with Joanne McNeil

December 13, 2023 17:09 - 22 minutes - 45.8 MB

One of my favorite technology critics has just published a novel about Self Driving Cars (or fake Self Driving Cars). We talk about her new book, and the hidden human worker nestled in our technological revolution. I can’t recommend Wrong Way enough!

The Hank Show (when computers are right)

November 07, 2023 14:15 - 23 minutes - 24.4 MB

Today we live inside data systems that contain, surveil, and judge us. In his new book, the Hank Show, author and journalist McKenzie Funk provides us with a totally unique origin story of our world: A guy named Hank Asher. We talk with McKenzie Funk about the  former Florida conto painter, drug-running pilot, alleged CIA asset, and  pioneering computer programmer known as the father of data fusion. McKenzie Funk has written many stories about the dangers of computer systems that c...

Too good to be true remix

August 15, 2023 12:01 - 22 minutes - 46.8 MB

Two very different tales about making stuff up about the CIA. Your host shares the story of Sylvia Press, who in the 1950s, wrote a revenge novel after she was fired during the McCarthy purges. And author Jefferson Morley tells us about the time CIA director Richard Helms tried to create an American James Bond with the help of future Watergate burglar E Howard Hunt. Get Jefferson Morley’s amazing new book: Scorpion's Dance. Sylvia Press’s novel The Care of Devils is harder to find....

Second time as forced (500daysplus)

July 11, 2023 18:29 - 22 minutes - 46.6 MB

Citizens armed only with Molotov cocktails battle with Russian tanks on the streets of… Budapest.  In November of 1956 Russian troops invaded Hungary. The revolution was crushed and thousands of Hungarians fled. Will history repeat itself? We talk with Réka Pigniczky about her memory project, a film series dedicated to the Hungarian revolution. Also: Branko Marcetic compares America’s response to the events of 1956 with our current posturing over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ps...

Outsider Studies: Connie Converse

June 20, 2023 16:17 - 23 minutes - 48.9 MB

The life of musician Connie Converse easily reduces down to one of those Hemingway length sad stories: Before Dylan there was Connie Converse and then she disappeared. In his new book “To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse” Howard Fishman gives us the complete tale. We meet up with Howard and learn why this incredible musician just couldn’t catch a break in 1950s New York City, and why he is devoted to her life and art. You can get a copy of Ho...

How to look at America

May 31, 2023 18:34 - 25 minutes - 53.7 MB

We hear from two photographers who are masters at showing us what is hard to see, and always has been hard to see, in America.

Venice (Ukraine redux)

May 16, 2023 12:54 - 26 minutes - 54.7 MB

The war/invasion/fighting is still going. We revisit our program on NFTs, art and war. Your host visits the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice, the world’s most important art fair and the first since the global pandemic. Plus Digital Ukranians, Sound Art, and NFTs.

Reality is that which, when you stop laughing at it, doesn't go away (false alarm Elon Musk 4202023 remix)

April 21, 2023 18:54 - 30 minutes - 64.5 MB

One of the episodes in my False Alarm! Series from 2018 imagined a future where Elon Musk stepped up to help with the News. That Algorithmic Oligarchic joke is no longer funny. On 4.20.2023 Elon Musk followed through on his threat and brought Twitter to heel. From 2018: A handful of tech barons now own the news but only one can rule the fake news. A chat with the comedy team behind the CBC’sThis is That satirical news show turns into breaking news about Elon Musk.

False Alarm! (Stormy Daniels 2023 Appreciation remix)

April 04, 2023 17:18 - 19 minutes - 19.3 MB

Back in 2018 your host met Stormy Daniels as part of his 15 part investigation into America’s disinformation complex. You can find that series here. On this historic day, as we learn that no American floats above the law, we turn back to this historic TOE moment, a remix of False Alarm, featuring a profile of the artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, a conversation with writer Susan Jacoby and Benjamen Walker’s meeting with Stormy Daniels!

How to tell the truth about lies (complete)

March 14, 2023 19:21 - 44 minutes - 96.1 MB

A remixed complete version of our two part Watergate series from last year:  Journalists may write the first draft of history but Hollywood prints the legends and the myths. The 1976 film All the President’s Men remains our most authoritative account of Watergate. The film is also responsible for the myth of Deep Throat. Your host follows the myth… from 1976 to the present.  Plus a reporter from the Washington Post newsroom who never made it into All the President’s Men yet did more...

Lives of the Wives

February 07, 2023 18:01 - 19 minutes - 39.8 MB

Some books have titles that jump out right out at you, Carmela Ciuraru’s new group biography Lives of the Wives is definitely one of those books. She tells us about her five wives and the hazards of literary relationships.

Too good to be true

January 11, 2023 15:41 - 22 minutes - 46.8 MB

Two very different tales about making stuff up about the CIA. Your host shares the story of Sylvia Press, who in the 1950s, wrote a revenge novel after she was fired during the McCarthy purges. And author Jefferson Morley tells us about the time CIA director Richard Helms tried to create an American James Bond with the help of future Watergate burglar E Howard Hunt. Get Jefferson Morley’s amazing new book: Scorpion's Dance. Sylvia Press’s novel The Care of Devils is harder to find....

Listening to Noise

December 20, 2022 19:14 - 24 minutes - 50.3 MB

As decibel levels continue to rise, threatening human existence we turn to two listening experts for help. George Prochnik and George Foy both investigate listening, silence and noise. 

American Histories

November 29, 2022 14:25 - 26 minutes - 54.2 MB

One of our heroes Barbara Ehrenreich passed away earlier this year. She was one of America’s best undercover journalists. We once spoke with her about her book Bright Sided, her journey into the heart of American darkness:  the  positive thinking industry. Also we hear from an ex clan member who reveals the secret of the twinkling cross. Plus your host wonders “what would the founders do” @radiotopia is THE home for independent podcasts–we own our shows, and make them how we want, ...

Not going back to normal (a conversation with Jeremiah Moss author of Feral City)

November 15, 2022 13:51 - 29 minutes - 61.2 MB

Jeremiah Moss’s Feral City is much much more than a Covid memoir. In many ways it is a continuation of his desire to understand how and why New York city has changed,  and if there is still a place for outsiders or if it now belongs to what he calls “the new people.” We walked around our Neighborhood together to talk about what the city was like during Covid time and what the phrase “go back to normal” really means. Please contribute to the 2022 Radiotopia fundraiser. https://on....

Transformers remix

October 18, 2022 14:48 - 36 minutes - 78.2 MB

Yvette Gonzales tells us a first person story about what its like to be transgender in Prison. Gender theorist B. Preciado tells us about what happens when a person takes testosterone without the intention of transitioning from one gender to another. Plus, Jim Elledge tells us about his  biography of Outsider Artist Henry Darger, and why he drew little girls with penises.

Risky Business: Hollywood and Israel

September 28, 2022 18:59 - 27 minutes - 57.4 MB

In their new book  Hollywood and Israel, film scholars Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman take us behind and beyond the screen to show how the world’s entertainment capital is an important player in international affairs and how profit always trumps propaganda.

Performance Peace (reprise)

September 12, 2022 15:17 - 34 minutes - 72.8 MB

911 final reprise. George Bush celebrates the anniversary of 911 with some new ‘dark’ paintings. Your host marks the occasion with some high stakes performance art. Plus un-learned art lessons from the $150,000 banana.

Trouble and Travel with James Campbell

August 30, 2022 12:39 - 37 minutes - 80.7 MB

Growing up in Glasgow in the 1960s James Campbell got into loads of trouble. At the age of 15 he left school and started work at a printing factory. But then he discovered the magic of the road and the wonderful world of “away” We talk with the author about his new memoir, “Just go down to the road”

Second time as forced

August 09, 2022 08:40 - 22 minutes - 46.6 MB

Citizens armed only with Molotov cocktails battle with Russian tanks on the streets of… Budapest.  In November of 1956 Russian troops invaded Hungary. The revolution was crushed and thousands of Hungarians fled. Will history repeat itself? We talk with Réka Pigniczky about her memory project, a film series dedicated to the Hungarian revolution. Also: Branko Marcetic compares America’s response to the events of 1956 with our current posturing over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ...

The longest Shortest Flight of Rudolf Hess (remix)

July 20, 2022 06:40 - 58 minutes - 129 MB

On May 10th 1941 Rudolf Hess flew from Germany to Scotland. He hoped to bring the Nazis and the British together. He failed. But the details behind his flight remain one of the greatest mysteries of World War II. Historians and Amateur scholars have spent decades trying to unravel this mystery. On this episode we look into one of the strangest theories of them all.

revisiting Dark Karma

June 14, 2022 18:51 - 33 minutes - 42.8 MB

“G.S.” was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Bozeman, Montana many years ago. The story he told me about how bad karma brought him from Devon, England to the C.U.T. bomb shelters in Gardiner, Montana still haunts me.

Covid after Covid

May 25, 2022 13:44 - 22 minutes - 46.4 MB

One million plus dead Americans into the pandemic and the ‘long covid’ odds are now 1 in 5. What happened? How did we end up here? And more importantly, how does one win the covid lottery? Our two favorite stories from our ‘NYC after covid’ mini series from last year.

Venice

May 12, 2022 15:53 - 26 minutes - 54.7 MB

Does art have anything to offer us in these trying times? Your host visits the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice, the world’s most important art fair and the first since the global pandemic. Plus Digital Ukranians, Sound Art, and NFTs.

Where does real art come from? (three fakes)

April 12, 2022 15:04 - 26 minutes - 56 MB

Hitler and Goebbels read Walter Benjamin in the bunker, Orson Wells discovers the magic of the fake crowd. Plus, a profile of artist Lynn Hershman Leeson.

Even More Broken Windows

March 29, 2022 19:26 - 23 minutes - 49 MB

New York’s new mayor recently announced a new strategy to fight crime. As the New York Daily News proclaims: BROKEN WINDOWS is back!  In this ToE we examine the roots of this policing theory and the individuals who first planted it. We revisit CRIME FILES a Police Foundation TV show from the 80s to better understand where this theory came from and how we might rid ourselves of this insidious idea once and for all.

How to tell the truth about lies (part ii of ii)

March 10, 2022 20:14 - 24 minutes - 49.9 MB

We conclude our investigation into Hollywood’s retelling of the secret crimes, conspiracies and lies that rocked America in the first half of the 1970s. Plus a reporter from the Washington Post newsroom who never made it into All the President’s Men yet did more to safeguard the free press and American democracy than Woodstein ever did.

Making Trouble, Asking Questions

February 22, 2022 15:51 - 24 minutes - 51.1 MB

When he was 16 your host mistook the Hollywood movie The Manchurian Candidate for real life. This confusion led to decades of trouble. This episode is both an extra for our How to tell the truth about lies miniseries and the official TOE contribution to the 2022 Radiotopia fundraiser.  This year to celebrate our annual fundraiser shows across the network are releasing episodes on the theme “Making Trouble.” You can listen,  learn more and donate to support our work at radiotopia.fm...

How to tell the truth about lies (part i of ii)

February 15, 2022 15:25 - 23 minutes - 47.6 MB

Journalists may write the first draft of history but Hollywood prints the legends and the myths. The 1976 film All the President’s Men remains our most authoritative account of Watergate. The film is also responsible for the myth of Deep Throat. Your host follows the myth… from 1976 to the present. This is the first half of a new ToE miniseries about America’s complicated relationship with truth and lies.

Nightvision

January 31, 2022 14:01 - 23 minutes - 47.7 MB

After testing positive in Lisbon, your host assesses Portugal's expat and exile scenes.  Plus! lunch with the writer Joseph Roth at a hotel on the waterfront.

Art vs Commerce (Iron and Lies remix)

January 18, 2022 15:48 - 27 minutes - 23 MB

*** New ToE series debuting next week about truth, lies, American democracy and the 50 year legacy of deepthroat and trouble-making investigative journalists*** But first a look back to a road trip I took to the American heartland in Wisconsin a few yerars back. We visit the house on the Rock and the forevertron. Even though Alex Jordan’s tourist attraction is one of the most visionary unique places in the world you still won’t find it on any of the official Wisconsin art environm...

Herdest Immunity (New York after Rona part v of v)

December 15, 2021 17:10 - 22 minutes - 45.7 MB

Our New York after Rona miniseries comes to an end just in time for the latest Variant. The WHO turns to podcasts for a new endless stream of naming possibilities. Plus a ToE favorite playwright returns with a new musical production of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery.

Émigration Intérieure (remix)

November 30, 2021 15:18 - 27 minutes - 56.5 MB

As the Nazi nightmare came to an end Thomas Mann thought long and hard about collective guilt. Can Mann’s idea help America in 2021, or do we need a new theory of collective shame. NYRB has put out a recent collection of Mann’s political writings.

Afterschool Special (New York After Rona (part iv)

November 16, 2021 15:36 - 25 minutes - 51.6 MB

New York Schools were closed for most of the pandemic. Education reporter Anya Kamenetz explains why she calls it a stolen year. Plus we meet up with  Lenore Skenazy to hear what parents can learn from her classic (and recently updated) Free Range Kids.

Below and Beyond (New York After Rona (part iii)

October 27, 2021 14:47 - 21 minutes - 44 MB

We visit an empty storefront in Greenwich Village to talk with journalist and curator Alex Brook Lynn about her latest immersive multimedia exhibition: “Eulogy for New York City.” Plus a visit to New York City’s first post covid ComicCon to find out how Batman is doing.

Faraway, So Close (New York after Rona part ii)

October 07, 2021 13:49 - 29 minutes - 62.3 MB

March 2020, writer Craig Taylor believed he was finally done with his 11 year oral history project featuring the voices of people who live and work in New York City. He wasn’t. His incredible new book New Yorkers provides us with a number of first person accounts of the Covid19 crisis and primes us to think about what’s next for the city. Plus: photographer Renate Aller on the social distancing pictures she took on the street outside her Soho loft during the worst of the crisis. ...

That was Real (New York After Rona part i)

September 28, 2021 19:26 - 31 minutes - 66.3 MB

We kick off our new ToE miniseries with a radical rethink on surveillance and the post pandemic city with theorist and writer Benjamin Bratton. His new book Revenge of the Real, both chronicles what went wrong during the crisis and offers a roadmap for how we can survive the next one. Also, your host visits the only New York city neighborhood that has gotten worse after covid, Hudson Yards, with journalist Charlie Warzel. Plus: we look back at one of the first viral videos shot in ...

Performance Peace

September 08, 2021 12:27 - 34 minutes - 72.8 MB

George Bush celebrates the 20th anniversary of 911 with some new ‘dark’ paintings. Your host marks the occasion with some high stakes performance art. Plus art lessons from the $150,000 banana.

Charlie Brown's America

July 23, 2021 14:21 - 31 minutes - 66.5 MB

Cartoonist Charles Schulz  wrote and drew Peanuts every day for half a century. In his new book Charlie Brown's America, Historian Blake Scott Ball uses the strip (and the fan mail archive at the Schulz museum) to illuminate the Wishy-Washy politics of Cold War America.

International Coffee (remix)

June 23, 2021 10:36 - 33 minutes - 72 MB

Now that international travel is becoming more and more a realistic possibility, I find myself dreaming and scheming about new journeys for the podcast. This episode is an audio travelogue of the last journey I was able to do before Covid: A trip through Paris, Copenhagen and Kenya. An international ode to Good Coffee. Radiotopia is a network of creators who are able to follow their curiosity and tell the stories they care about the most. Show your support for my fellow Radiotopia ...

Louis Menand and the Cold War

June 10, 2021 14:30 - 26 minutes - 54.7 MB

Your host talks with Louis Menand about his new book “The Free World, Art and Thought in the Cold War” Radiotopia is a network of creators who are able to follow their curiosity and tell the stories they care about the most. Show your support for my fellow Radiotopia shows during our Spring Fundraiser. Donate today at https://on.prx.org/3wl9pWn

The Return

May 26, 2021 13:03 - 22 minutes - 45.2 MB

Your host escapes the island, and returns to New York. Plus writer Tim Kreider on Vaccine side effects. Radiotopia is a network of creators who are able to follow their curiosity and tell the stories they care about the most. Show your support for my fellow Radiotopia shows during our Spring Fundraiser. Donate today at https://on.prx.org/3wl9pWn

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