Culture and Barbarism

Media critic and novelist Dennis Broe describes the lure and the trap of porn and gambling especially on young working-class women and men. These two multibillion dollar industries are examined as knowing how, much like series TV, to activate the addictive process. The standard narrative in porn is then characterised as one about male pleasure in the domination of a powerful woman with its ruling-class ethos located in the Epstein Scandal. Gambling is examined as a now ubiquitous enterprise that has corrupted first sports and now politics with its elite manifestation being Trump insider trading and manipulation of the stock market. We conclude with a reading from Dennis' novel Pornocopia which locates the origin of both phenomena in the mob-controlled Vegas of the 1950s. 

Support the show

Dennis Broe and Toby Miller are joined by special guest Jules Boykoff who writes about sports with Dave Zirin for The Nation. Jules has written several books on the World Cup and The Olympics including his latest Red Card . He leads off by discussing Trump's overthrowing of the red card which he says was accepted graciously by the player who received it. We talk about the 2024 Paris and the upcoming 2028 Olympics, both of which Jules is covering and which includes militarizing the playing fields, removing homeless and reshaping minority neighborhoods. Finally, we discuss sports betting, how it is a plague on workers, how it is being rigged and how Kalshi stole into the World Cup. 
Support the show

In Culture & Barbarism 12,  Media Scholar Toby Miller from Mexico and Media Critic Dennis Broe from Paris look at the AI phenomenon, from a potentially bursting bubble to "To big to Fail." Market valuation is skyrocketing even as the service continues a massive drive toward job loss—with Amazon's "Fulfillment Centers now being converted into Unemployment Centers—a more total integration into the U.S. war machine and a gigantic and destructive use of resources. Meanwhile, AI in China is being developed in a different way, as the service is integrated into the industrial sector, a rotting core in the West, and used to better people's lives rather than as a new source of profit for the few. 
Support the show

On Culture and Barbarism 11, Media Analyst Dennis Broe is joined by Hollywood Reporter Chief TV Critic Daniel Feinberg to discuss changes in the TV Series industry involving Mergers, Ai and YouTube. We cover not only the threat each poses to creativity in the industry but also how each of these are influencing the form and content of television series. The threats include: mass layoffs; writers increasingly being paid less on the long march from broadcast and cable TV to Netflix to YouTube, where for the most part they are not paid at all; "creeping AI"; and YouTube and Netflix amalgamating content and erasing distinctions as well as AI and YouTube absorbing advertising dollars that used to go to broadcast TV and the streamers. All of this in not only an industry but also a political climate where regulations are going out the window. 
Support the show

In this special edition of Culture & Barbarism, titled "Shakespeare's Language As Social Barometer," culture critic Dennis Broe talks about Shakespeare's contribution to the language, his critique of power and incorporation of ordinary language, the imperial use of his work as colonial soft power and its contestation and, finally, how one phrase "Unsex Me Here" by Lady Macbeth echoes across not just generations but centuries. 
This talk was a keynote given in India on the occasion of Shakespeare's birthday for a conference titled "Shakespeare as Architect of the English Language."
He is joined here by Shakespeare aficionado and musical comedy lyricist Ed Levy. 
Support the show