Can't Get You Out of My Head w/ Adam Curtis

Could also hear someone’s laptop fan reaching warp speed

Dm

Really good

Jared

Yes. This reminds me of Iain McGhilchrist's Master and His Emissary Left Hemisphere Colonization thesis.

He is a lovely person, but I agree with other commenters that he is out of touch, especially when he discusses BLM. His work is wonderful, but I don't interpret it the way he intends. When I see radicals preaching equality, like the dude in part 2 who coined black power, I think of what Nietzche said about the intellectual egalitarians spouting off about justice. I also think about what Orwell said in Road to Wigan Pier - that these progressives don't love the poor, they just hate the rich.

Ducky

Great conversation and questions. Nice to hear more about the process. Not sure I agree with Curtis read of Russian culture as being free of Western influence -I tend to go more with Boris Groys analysis, that Russia is the adopter of western extremist ideals (such as marxism) since it could not otherwise keep pace with the West. I think this is expressed in his book 'The Art of Stalinism' but may be mistaken, or paraphrasing this badly. I have seen plenty of fear and paranoia in Russia and Russians, and the inferiority complex inherent to its proximity and competition with the west is a deep part of the culture. it is a distinct culture though and worth examining by thinkers in the west such as him. Thanks again and keep up the great work!

Listening with headphones was terrifying. Objects pinging around, papers rustling, metallic and wooden scraping noises, echoey crashes in the background... all the while Adam Curtis is panting and gurgling.

Patrick M Lynn

Curtis's docs are cool and fun to watch but tbh I think Anna and Dasha have more interesting things to say. As many have said here, he seems a bit out of touch. Also his tone feels kinda preachy and bombastic. Big MEH.

Süs

I missed his point about being watched. We are being watched right? ... cctv, social, and then he says that he “watch’s people in bars,”

just watched the entire series, and heard the recommendation on tim dillon's. thanks. very inspiring work. binge watching him all week.

Kamili Feelings

Second that RFK Jr.

one of my favorite episodes.

stop

That's when great work becomes great art though!

SE

this guy is great

It's always strange when someone's works far exceeds the reasonings that lead to the creation of the works.

Literally mkultra

Can anyone else hear an oven timer going off in the background the whole time ?

https://youtu.be/76StMC0l7kU

Ghost Runner

Exactly my thoughts after finishing the episode. Garden variety philosophy - complicate things, add in some fluff, and completely ignore what’s happening in reality. The glaring example for me was the focus on individualism as if it’s some sort of catalyst for making us more self conscious. And that he seemed surprised that there’s an overall feeling that we’re being watched. Wait, what? Did he forget we have these things called smart phones? That at any moment you can be recorded without knowing it? That were all a bunch of voyeurs openly spying on each other? Or that there’s this trend of canceling people? If anything I think social media/group think is making us more self conscious. Conclusion: underwhelmed with this dude, I don’t get the Curtis obsession

Phoenix

Now HRH Collection next

Curtis falls flat for me here. Realpolitik conceptually haunts this conversation, to use his theme. Wish he would more closely examine Trump/May’s actual policy measures rather than dismiss them as nonexistent. It creates this false binary in his logic that bases voter choices on hysteria. Weakens his thesis for me as he fails to grapple with any concrete measures taken in US /UK post-Trump election/Brexit. He is so focused on the feelings/anger angle and fails to wonder about the relationship between subconscious feelings and statements about objectivism and rationalism which play far more into current conservative conversations rather than the strong talk of rage and emotion that the liberal US left pushed alongside Biden’s campaign/COVID/BLM. If the Left is serious it’s worth figuring out the logic of the other side’s choices rather than continuing to strawman as hard as possible. Curtis is a perfect example of garden variety talking heads that string words together in ways that sound nice yet fail to show any real grasp of economics, foreign policy, history... and fail to understand that that is a crucial part of why so many people are turning away from them. Not any number of “isms” that they like to hurl as insults across the aisle. Also fails to grapple with what could possibly replace current visible world power figures like Bezos with some alternative, non-banal power that is simultaneously not boring/tells an interesting story but also does not make anyone feel bad ( no military/physical power, no discrimination or acknowledgement of differences or talent)... while we figure it out, don’t forget to scroll Instagram .... Also, does Curtis really imagine that the Internet was some free Utopia back in the late 80s/early 90s? Did he miss all the military/gov research projects bits & all of the venture capitalists working in the 90s to form the basis of the internet landscape we stare blandly at today ... Finally, it was not breaking news that Robinhood & other free trading platforms were able to provide their services to us average knuckleheads by selling micro transaction data. Just because the puzzle pieces are news to you does not make them news or manipulation or conspiratorial. Just means our journalists, cultural commentators & filmmakers are somehow reading and thinking slower than consumers.

All told though excellent interview. Thanks.

They should have asked Curtis: 'how do you diagnose Red Scare?' That would have been really interesting to hear him do.

D and A admirably generous with their star guests. Though sometimes wish they would impose themselves a little bit more.

Damn Adam Curtis is really well spoken and interesting. Rare to not hear the same old boring shit when it comes to politics and culture. Love this man and his movies and I force my girlfriend to rewatch them with me all the time. They hit different every time its a weird thing about his films. He is one of those film makers who communicates things I feel are rooted in my subconscious but I could never actually explain to someone because I am too stupid. Great interview

More Human than Human

Truly excellent episode!!

Love that he’s just ripping his pipe constantly, with every minuscule action required aimed directly at the mic. Favorite parts of this have to be the deafening silence when he praises Biden (insert a few other comparable instances) and Anna/Dasha are absolutely terrified to ruin their brand by uttering anything at all. Being earnest here, a great discussion and upper tier red scare ep. Request to keep more of these kinds of interviews coming if possible

Ryan Kindermann

I disagree. Trump being against use of international law (even to implement US will), against nation building, and against war is what it means to be against imperialism. What else does imperialism mean? There is a big difference between America being powerful and America being a global hegemon. Trump advocated for the former and against the later.

I love that he watches I May Destroy You

I like Limonov book “le vieux” (the old man). I don’t know if it’s been published in English though.

Please have RFK Jr. on.

Julian

He carries so much information and knowledge I'm gonna have to listen to this pod and watch his documentaries more than a few times!!

Mateo Sánchez Fitzgerald

Adam Curtis vapes?

The “again” part of “make America great again” certainly suggests a return. In any event, Trump was against nation building and international law, not American imperialism.

@J.T. I agree, though maybe Trump's rhetoric did not even mean that. However, it is evident that many of his supporters would agree with that notion. Being Anti-War and in general supporting other countries 'right to populism' is evidence of this non-exceptionalism thinking.

Interesting but I think its you

GC

Watching the doc. He seems to believe that Trump’s “make America great again” theme functions to “return” America to its exceptionalist “past.” I don’t believe this is correct—Trump’s rhetoric about making America great again goes *against* exceptionalism. We are just like any other country—not an international hegemon—and need to compete with other countries accordingly. It is precisely the imperialist behavior sapping domestic resources that Trump’s success rests upon. Aside from this pretty obvious misread, the doc is a pretty interesting film.

I honestly think he isn’t that helpful and not as insightful as he thinks he is. Props getting him on the show though.

Jared

"grooming" in unison

JLDY

Is he well? he gets winded from talking.

Buy Monero/XMR

Jared

This is under-discussed. They also have much more power over content than even Google/FB. They can not process your payments unless you conform to their mandates. The CC's and PayPal stopped processing donations to Wikileaks all at once.

Jared

He lost me at the BLM endorsement.

Based interview

best ep in recent memory

Love him

Matthew Perry

like what

Peter T.

10/10. p.s. they really could consider just losing the sign off. We're going to keep listening even if you don't say it :)

Peter T.

This guy is really wrong about a lot of things. Which makes sense bc he has a “journalistic mind.”

BB

🔥🔥🔥 now get heji on here

This ep is incredible- I think it’s really important to talk about the pernicious effects social media in these terms; like the more we engage with the more its colonizing potential is realized, changing the way we think to reflect itself ie more binary and robotic thinking and ways of looking at the world.

Cara

I’m actually not familiar with Adam Curtis (shocker I know) but I could only listen to about half. The thing is we did have individualism AND pride for this country in the not so recent past. The reason so many of us over 40 (and prob younger too) pine for the past was that it was a much happier time in many ways. 911 changed that to a certain degree, the iraq war and 2008 did too. But even with all that I think when a lot of us voted for Obama we had really high hopes for this country and felt like we had reached a pinnacle point where we were moving forward in a good direction. Then everything seemed to go to shit this last decade. It became upside down world. Common sense went out the window, there’s a hyper focus on race when most of us were taught to judge people by their character, and we’re teaching young people the real world should cater to them instead preparing them for the realities of life. Idk, he seemed kind of out fo touch to me, but I’ll try to listen to the rest.

Phoenix

he's boofing

Quinn Molina

y'all are so fkn cool

Quinn Molina

Is he vaping?

Stuart Carroll

“Dogs in a Box” - yep.

MYK’L ROCKS

Adam is an incredible social critic but I think he does his audience disservice in all his docs by not pointing out where all of this is leading to. Obviously nobody knows for sure the future is always uncertain, but it’s easy to see some trends bubbling under the surface. The Bitcoin / blockchain crowd will likely play a big role shaping the future since they’re actually pushing back on big finance / big tech / govt over reach. If that’s the case the future is likely to not have these overarching narratives any longer that Adam was talking about, but rather power will be distributed down to people for a change.

Jonathan

Oh and BBC. The Biden Broadcasting Corporation aka BLM Broadcasting Corporation.

Volcan

I believe that Adam is a sincere commentator but he seems to be rather uncritical of progressivism and BLM. China will be next in line for regime change.

Volcan

This takes the cake

Henry Prince

Damn dude, I thought the Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald episodes were good

admiral stiffplank

This is how all British people breath

stevensegalsaunafranchisee008

Friendly reminder that the credit card companies know much, much more about you than Google/FB do and sell your information, but it's more fun to bash "tech" for political theatre

Changey

great interview!!

Keith Grennan

mouth breather

HLE

I wish I had an Adam Curtis tulpa interrupting my regular train of thought 24 hours a day so I could feel hope again. "And what does the Voynich Manuscript have to do with that job interview? Nothing! I just thought it was a great fact!" Amazing episode.

SE

Great episode

Is that Adam breathing like that Jesus

see you in hell. ok.

x

My favorite part was when he said everything hysterical only happened in our minds.. at least these are the friends we made along the way lol

Brittni

Him talking about everyone logging off and going outside. Reminded me of how they talk about Bergermeister Meisterberger’s laws. Basically we gotta get Santa back involved.

Seal Team Dix

Brilliant

I CAME

magnets

This is oxygen tbh

Lives up to the hype. Really great episode.

0_o

Waiting til the morning to listen to give me a genuine reason to get up. Thanks for always providing us with the best content xoxo

Melly

Wow, totally inspiring. Thanks for this!

"They KNOW that it's probably untrue... but they think it's so magnificently wonderful and strange!" Wait til he finds out about teenaged boys who encounter the stab-in-the-back myth on /pol/

SE

Papa

lil slugger

Is that his breathing oh god

Hope Adam catches his breath

Thanks momma K and Auntie Dasha!

Brian

huge! big fan, this was worth five bucks for sure!

Bichael Bichards

a list guest!

Brandon Cook

When Zizek was on she was like Surveillance Capitalism….

Hamzat Raheem

my favorite is when Dasha just says a tech term

Hamzat Raheem

Wow.. legendary guest

JS

My boy adam vaping fat clouds

Ayle

We’vereached the promised land

A

Wow!!

Em

God damn

Kenna

NEOLIBERALISM GALAXY BRAIN INITIATE!!!!!!!!!

plcmnt

Omg!!!

Mateo Sánchez Fitzgerald

No way😩

Oh fuck

Perry Cowdery

Omg

Miles

You got Daddy to come on.

Feel Good

Jesus Christ.

Lauren

Holy shiiiiiiitttt, you got him??!!

S

Holy shit

God is great

SE