Manifesto!
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Your regular visit to the archives of vanity, where men and women who stopped making myths turned to issuing commandments. Your guides for this journey are the writers Phil Klay and Jacob Siegel, along with their trusty engineer, Jacqui Rigazio May you continue to be a person. Manifesto! Is now sponsored by Fairfield University, a Jesuit University in Fairfield Connecticut. Fairfield’s mission is to develop the creative intellectual potential of students and to foster in them ethical and religious values and a sense of social responsibility. Phil also teaches at Fairfield, in both their undergraduate English department and in their Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. We’re very pleased to be associated with Fairfield, and thank them for their sponsorship.
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Episode 90: Belonging in the Modern World
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16 Jun 2026
Phil and Jake are joined by the philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin, whose new book To Arrive Where We Started: Belonging in the Modern World, is out today. We discuss Nancy Fraser and bell hooks. The
Episode 89: Madame Murdoch
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28 May 2026
Jake and Phil are joined by Jenn Frey, a philosopher at the University of Virginia, to discuss Iris Murdoch and Madame Bovary The Manifesto: Iris Murdoch - The Sovereignty of Good
Episode 88: Suprematism and the poetry of Ukraine
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29 Apr 2026
Jake and Phil are joined by Vladislav Davidzon to discuss Kazimir Malevich's The Manifesto of Suprematism and the poetry of Serhiy Zhadan. The Manifesto: Malevich, The Manifesto of Suprematism
Episode 87: The Information State
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25 Mar 2026
Jake and Phil discuss Jake's new book, THE DISINFORMATION STATE, where he argues that the technological infrastructure we've built to make society safer and more rational has steadily replaced
Episode 86: Spacers, Fictosexuals and Freaks
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4 Mar 2026
Jake and Phil are joined by internet culture reporter Katherine Dee to discuss The Fictosexual Manifesto and "Aye and Gomorrah..." by Samuel Delany The Manifesto: The Fictosexual Manifesto
Episode 85: Zarathustra and Judge Holden
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21 Nov 2025
Phil and Jake are joined by Aaron Gwyn, an author and associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Cormac McCarthy's
Episode 84: Philip Roth and Ecclesiastes
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27 Oct 2025
Jake and Phil discuss Philip Roth's 1961 essay "Writing American Fiction" and the Qohelet, also known as the Book of Ecclesiastes The Manifesto: Philip Roth, "Writing American Fiction"
Episode 83: Resist and Howl
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29 Sep 2025
Jake and Phil are joined by Amy Sohn, author of The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, to discuss the 1967 anti-war manifesto A Call to Resist Illegitimate
Episode 82: The Dark Mountains of Madness
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28 Aug 2025
Jake and Phil are joined by Roy Scranton, author of Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress, to discuss the Dark Mountain Manifesto by Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine and The Call of
Episode 81: In the Moral Wilderness with MacIntyre and Camus
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29 Jul 2025
Jake and Phil discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s Notes from the Moral Wilderness and Camus’ short story The Guest The Manifesto: Alasdair MacIntyre, Notes from the Moral Wilderness
Episode 80: Thomas Mann and Abraham Lincoln in Wartime
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28 Jun 2025
Phil is joined by Morten Hoi Jensen, literary critic and author of the forthcoming "The Master of Contradictions Thomas Mann and the Making of The Magic Mountain," to discuss Thomas Mann's 1914
Episode 79: Kitsch, Pop, and Democratic Art
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27 May 2025
Jake and Phil discuss Clement Greenberg's 1939 "Kitsch and the Avant-Garde" alongside Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" and Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" The Manifesto: Clement
Episode 78: Reflections on the Atom Bomb
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1 May 2025
Jake and Phil discuss Teilhard de Chardin's 1946 Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb and Charles Mingus' "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me," off of his
Episode 77: Fascist Apologetics and the Memoirs of an Anti-Semite
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27 Mar 2025
Jake and Phil discuss David Jones 1939 essay on Hitler, courtesy of Thomas Dilworth's "David Jones and Fascism," alongside Gregor von Rezzori's "Troth," from his Memoirs of an Anti-Semite The
Episode 76: Against Poets
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27 Feb 2025
Phil and Jake discuss Witold Gombrowicz's "Against Poets" and Czeslaw Milosz's "Ars Poetica?" The Manifesto: Witold Gombrowicz, "Against Poets"
Episode 75: American Honor and the Iliad
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25 Jan 2025
Jake and Phil discuss Phil's New York Times essay "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military" and Homer's "Embassy to Achilles" The Manifesto: Phil Klay, "Trump, Hegseth, and the
Episode 74: Christmas Poetry and the Pogues
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21 Dec 2024
Jake and Phil discuss Thomas Hardy’s The Oxen, TS Eliot’s Journey of the Magi, and The Pogues Fairytale of New York Thomas Hardy - The Oxen
Episode 73: Is America Ready for a Religious Revival?
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26 Nov 2024
Jake and Phil are joined by Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist and author of the forthcoming Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, to discuss Ross' essay "Is the World Ready for a Religious
Episode 72: Revolutionary Art and Coat-Snatching Ghosts
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28 Oct 2024
Jake and Phil discuss Leon Trotsky's "Communist Policy Toward Art" and Gogol's "The Overcoat" The Manifesto: Leon Trotsky - "Communist Policy Toward Art"
Episode 71: Politics and Merciless Nature
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27 Sep 2024
Phil and Jake discuss Joan Didion's "Politics in the New Normal America" and Robinson Jeffers "Fire on the Hills" The Manifesto: Joan Didion, Politics in the New Normal America
Episode 70: Punk and Metal
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30 Aug 2024
Jake and Phil are joined by Nate DiMeo, podcaster and author of the forthcoming The Memory Palace, to discuss the Riot Grrrl Manifesto, Steve Albini's The Problem with Music, and The Decline of
Episode 69: Should We Bring Children Into Existence?
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25 Jul 2024
Phil and Jake are joined by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman, the authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice, to discuss David Benatar's 1997 paper "Why It Is Better Never to Come
Episode 68: The Serious Artist
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28 Jun 2024
Jake and Phil are joined by the poet and critic Alice Gribbin to discuss Ezra Pound's The Serious Artist and Eliot Weinberger's The Life of Tu Fu The Manifesto: Ezra Pound, The Serious Artist
Episode 67: Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety
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30 May 2024
Jake and Phil are joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, to discuss Wallace Stegner's 1987 novel Crossing to Safety.
Episode 66: Hobbits, Goblins and the Very Adult World of Fairy-Stories
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29 Apr 2024
Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and chronicler of post-secular religious movements, Tara Isabella Burton, to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's 1939 essay “On Fairy-Stories” and Christina
Episode 65: Orwell and Ukraine
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30 Mar 2024
Phil and Jake are joined by the Matt Gallagher, author of Daybreak, to discuss George Orwell's "Looking Back on the Spanish War", and Benjamin Busch's photographs from Ukraine, "Nine Dialogues:
Episode 64: Power of the Powerless and the Velvet Underground
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28 Feb 2024
Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and essayist Jared Marcel Pollen to discuss Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless” and The Velvet Underground’s second album, White Light/White
Episode 63: How Money Culture Hurts the American Family and Girls
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26 Jan 2024
Jake and Phil discuss "How Money Culture Hurts the American Family," by Ian Marcus Corbin, and episode seven of the first season of Girls The Manifesto: Ian Marcus Corbin, "How Money Culture Hurts
Episode 62: Last Men and Women: George Scialabba and the Challenge of Modernity
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7 Dec 2023
Jake and Phil are joined live at Fairfield University by the great critic and essayist George Scialabba to discuss Last Men and Women At a time of war, impending ecological disaster, and partisan
Episode 61: Red Music and Mal Waldron
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27 Nov 2023
Jake and Phil discuss Josef Skvorecky's "Red Music," an account of playing jazz under Nazism and Communism, alongside Mal Waldron's "Mal Waldron Plays Erik Satie" The Manifesto: Josef Skvorecky,
Episode 60: The Palestinian People and the Western Observer
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30 Oct 2023
Phil talks with poet and translator Philip Metres about the current conflict, the position of a Western observer in regards to what is happening in Gaza, his poem "Remorse for Temperate Speech," as
Episode 59: Israel and Hamas
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28 Oct 2023
Phil asks Jake about the recent conflict in Israel, and they take listener questions.
Episode 58: The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu
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27 Sep 2023
Phil is joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, and Jennifer Shyue, a Spanish language literary translator, to discuss her recently published
Episode 57: Some Lying and Some BS
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10 Sep 2023
Jake and Phil are joined by Walter Kirn to discuss Kirn's essay "The Bullshit" alongside Mark Twain's "My First Lie and How I Got Out of It" The Manifesto: Walter Kirn, "The Bullshit"
Episode 56: The Secular Saint
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9 Aug 2023
Jake and Phil are joined by Santiago Ramos, a contributing writer to Commonweal Magazine, to discuss Michael Novak's The Secular Saint and the epilogue to Michel Houellebecq's 1998 novel The
Episode 55: The Great Mating Debate
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12 Jul 2023
Phil is joined by Becca Rothfeld, BD McClay, and Jon Baskin to discuss Norman Rush's 1991 novel Mating, and whether it offers a roadmap for love in the 21st century. Becca Rothfeld is the
Episode 54: Nirvana and The Trials of the Young
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13 Jun 2023
Phil is joined by the great novelist, short story writer and essayist Mary Gaitskill to discuss Gaitskill's essay "The Trials of the Young" in the most recent Liberties Journal, alongside the Nirvana
Episode 53: Poe's Law and Philip K. Dick's Faith of Our Fathers
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16 May 2023
Jake and Phil are joined by Gurwinder Bhogal to discuss Poe's Law and Philip K. Dick's Faith of Our Fathers The Manifesto: "Poe's Law" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
Episode 52: True Believers and the Case of the Writer Turned Congressman
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13 Apr 2023
Jake and Phil are joined by former Michigan Congressman Peter Meijer to discuss longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer’s 1951 book, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, and
Episode 51: A Public Address, A Colloquium, or Maybe Just a Q&A
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21 Mar 2023
Jake and Phil answer questions from our listeners.
Episode 50: El Greco, Picasso, and The Pleasures of Ignorance
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22 Feb 2023
Jake and Phil discuss Aldous Huxley's "Meditation on El Greco", and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The Manifesto: Aldous Huxley - "Meditation on El Greco"
Episode 49: Angry Popes and Architecture
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26 Jan 2023
Jake and Phil are joined by John Davis, an environmental and architectural historian at the Knowlton School at Ohio State, to discuss Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Pope Pius X's encyclical against the
Episode 48: The Ultimate Revolution
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22 Nov 2022
Jake and Phil are joined by Becca Rothfeld (https://www.beccarothfeld.com/ (https://www.beccarothfeld.com/)) to discuss Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex and Sheila Heti's That Longing for a
Episode 47: The Democracy Engineering Complex
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18 Oct 2022
Phil is joined by Sam Kimbriel, the founding director of Aspen's Philosophy & Society Initiative, to discuss Sam's essay "What the Democracy Engineering Complex Misses" The Manifesto: Sam
Episode 46: Sunday Morning and God's Grandeur
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19 Sep 2022
Jake and Phil discuss Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning" and Gerard Manley Hopkins' "God's Grandeur." The Manifesto: Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning"
Episode 45: Spielberg and Roxy Music
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21 Jul 2022
Jake and Phil are joined by culture critic Armond White to discuss Make Spielberg Great Again and Roxy Music's 1979 album Manifesto The Manifesto: Make Spielberg Great Again (specifically focusing
Episode 44: We're All Stars Now In the Dope Show
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17 Jun 2022
Jake and Phil are joined by James Poulos, author of Human Forever: The Digital Politics of Spiritual War, to discuss Jacques Ellul and Marilyn Manson. The Manifesto: Jacques Ellul, Propaganda -
Episode 43: Tradition and the Individual Talent
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28 May 2022
Jake and Phil discuss T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent", and James Joyce's "A Mother" The Manifesto: T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"