Unf*cking The Republic

UNFTR Media
  • 4.8 (758)
  • Politics
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Unf*cking The Republic® (UNFTR) is dedicated to progressive politics, leftist economic theories, and social justice in the United States. Join us for deep dives into socialism, labor rights, climate justice, and the fight against inequality. Whether you're curious about Marxist ideas, modern social movements, or progressive policies, UNFTR delivers thoroughly sourced critiques, analyses, and interviews with the historical context mainstream media won't provide. Subscribe for informative and unabashedly progressive coverage of the leftist political and economic landscape.

  1. 1h ago

    On The Record (10-27-26).

    This week we celebrated 99 years of stubborn optimism with Max’s father-in-law, and took seriously his assessment that it’s 1932, with all the chaos and heartache that implies before something better emerges on the other side. Then we dug into the Anthropic prospectus, which confirms what we’ve been saying: it’s not the railroad or the internet, it’s an accelerant to monopolization, greasing the wheels for the companies that are already winning while the rest of the economy starves. The greatest misallocation of capital in history, right on schedule. Chapters Intro: 00:00:45 Quick Takes: 00:01:26 Phone A Friend: 00:07:52 Memberships: 00:11:03 Max Notes: 00:12:41 Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:26:13 Outro: 00:27:54 Resources The Kiffness: Donald Trump BURP REMIX! Matthew McConaughey On Instagram CNN: What a photojournalist learned after being beaten by Jewish settlers American Redact: Ethan Klein’s Cheating Scandal is Worse Than You Think NBC News: Ramaswamy ad puts Acton’s estranged mother in spotlight as records reveal family’s troubled past Reuters: France’s Le Pen launches presidential bid as protests rattle the nation Mother Jones: Lula’s Surprise Win Blocks Trump’s Push for a Far-Right Brazil Anand Giridharadas: Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City Bloomberg: Anthropic Mum on Investment Grade as It Warns of More Debt The Noble Update: This is going to be the biggest misallocation of capital in history Bell System Memorial: A Capsule History of the Bell System Enclyopedia.com: Surviving the Great Depression Butler Eagle: How did there get to be a ‘Big 3’? More Perfect Union: We Went To Rural Florida: The Healthcare Crisis Will Shock You UNFTR Resources Video: On The Record 10-27-26 (What My 99 Year Old Father in Law Taught Me About Technological Revolutions.) Essay: Anthropic’s IPO Is Very Silly. Video: Phone A Friend: Anand Giridharadas -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Hold Fast. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  2. 3d ago

    Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton.

    Jared Yates Sexton joins Max to analyze the current state of progressive activism and how to effectively challenge the status quo. After years of audience requests, this conversation brings together two critical voices to discuss the mechanics of movement building. We examine how shaping political narratives remains the most vital tool for the Left, particularly when navigating the complexities of the current administration. The conversation moves beyond the typical punditry to address the practical realities of leftist organizing. We break down the necessity of coordinating ground-level efforts to ensure that progressive goals remain front and center in U.S. politics, rather than being sidelined by mainstream distractions. Resources Jared Yates Sexton Website Jared on Bluesky Dispatches From A Collapsing State Substack The Muckrake Podcast Jared Yates Sexton: The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making Jared Yates Sexton: American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People Jared Yates Sexton: The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis Jared for The New York Times Jared for The New Republic Jared for Salon Dispatches From A Collapsing State: The Case of Hasan Piker: How to Avoid Having a Debate You Can’t Win Dispatches From A Collapsing State: Descent Into Madness: The Ritualization of Death and Fascism UNFTR Resources Video: Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton: Left Activism in the Age of Trump Transcript: Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton. 5 Non-Negotiables. Max on Straight White American Jesus. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Tom McGovern. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  3. 4d ago

    Omnibus (10-24-26).

    Max and 99 are back for another round of Omnibus. They hit headlines on the French banlieues erupting and what the protests reveal about the global assault on social spending, and Elon Musk promising every American kid a SpaceX share while barely denting his holdings. Then they tackle listener emails on how lifelong Democratic voters find their footing in a movement that’s outpaced the party, Trump’s “we’re all going to die anyway” worldview, and whether the only options are capitalism or the DSA. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:18 Headlines: 00:12:14 Emails: 00:26:50 Beyond the B******t: 00:58:37 Memberships: 01:05:02 Outro: 01:05:29 Resources Anand Giridharadas: Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City Fortune: Billionaire Elon Musk says he’ll give every kid in America shares of SpaceX next year—it’ll add up to over $10 billion in stock The American Prospect: Is Paris Burning? World Socialist Web Site: The bond markets, rearmament and the global assault on social spending UNFTR Resources Video: Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton: Left Activism in the Age of Trump -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Hold Fast. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  4. 4d ago

    (Mis)Anthropic: The Math Ain’t Mathing So Good.

    Reuters “leaked” information from the forthcoming Anthropic prospectus and the numbers were pretty brutal. But that isn’t stopping all of Wall Street from lining up to invest in yet another AI company (SpaceX) with no discernible path to profitability. In this episode, Max digs through what we learned from the Reuters release and pairs it with other publicly available information on Anthropic to paint a bleak picture of a five-year old company that loses a ton of money but is somehow asking to be valued at around $2 trillion. Max then leads a philosophical discussion about the future of AI and punching babies. (That last part will make more sense in context.) Resources Reuters: Anthropic’s IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs Perplexity Finance: AMZN Perplexity Finance: XOM Perplexity Finance: C Reuters: Anthropic IPO valuation hinges on $190-200 billion 2028 revenue forecast, sources say Yahoo! Finance: Anthropic IPO Filing Reveals a Major Vulnerability: Nearly 50% of Sales Flow Through Amazon and Google as Revenue Concentration Raises Risks: Report AI: Reset to Zero: Anthropic Paces the Frontier, and Floors the IPO Financial Times: Anthropic tells investors it will be profitable for second straight quarter The New York Times: The Fallout From OpenAI’s Revenue Surprise Bloomberg: Anthropic’s Annualized Revenue to Top $100 Billion in 2026, NYT Says TechTarget: Report: Anthropic locks in $518B AI infrastructure commitments Measured AI: Anthropic’s 15+ GW Data Center Build: Claude’s Compute, Campuses, and Chips Fortune: The hidden menace behind Big Tech’s AI arms race: Meta, Amazon, and others are spending billions on hardware that’s worthless in as little as 3 years, says Research Affiliates partner Investing.com: Earnings call transcript: Alphabet beats Q2 2026 estimates, shares fall on capex surge Flowtivity: US vs China AI Models Compared: GPT-6 Astra, Fable 5.1, GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen 3.8 BBC News: Amazon finally flows into profit AEI: Who Should Antitrust Protect? The Case of Diapers.com CNBC: SpaceX raises $25 billion in debt sale less than two weeks after IPO Tech Times: Anthropic $15B Credit Line: Banks Commit $1B-Plus Each to Lock In IPO Roles Yahoo! Finance: Wall Street tests lender appetite with $60 billion Broadcom-Anthropic deal Dario Amodei: We Must Pace the Frontier CSI Magazine: FCC says broadband competition is driving faster speeds and wider coverage UNFTR Resources Video: Anthropic, AI, and Why We Need to Talk About Punching Babies. Essay: Mis(Anthropic). Episode: The SpaceX IPO Fraud. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  5. 5d ago

    On The Record (10-20-26).

    This week we went deep on the structural argument that should underpin everything else—disaster privilege, capitalism as the constant, and why the real battle isn’t between the two parties but between the status quo and something that hasn’t been named loudly enough yet. DSA isn’t the radical fringe; it’s the only thing moving the conversation in the right direction, and the in-between days matter as much as Election Day. Chapters Intro: 00:00:45 Housekeeping: 00:01:00 Max Notes: 00:03:13 Resources F.D Signifier: Fallen Idols: How Black Leaders Fail Us Cato Unbound: The Education of a Libertarian Prison Policy Initiative: United States profile Airmail: The View from Here Al Jazeera English: Progressives, AIPAC & the future of the Democratic Party: Neera Tanden & Mehdi Hasan The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder: James Carville Prays Dems Lose Midterms To GOP Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Share of Net Worth Held by the Bottom 50% (1st to 50th Wealth Percentiles) Brad Onishi: American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy UNFTR Resources Video: On The Record 10/20/26 (Stupid Democrats, Evil Republicans and the Future King of America.) Video: Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton: Left Activism in the Age of Trump. Episode: Russell Vought’s 7 Point Plan To Steal the Election. Episode: The Economics of Racism. Episode: Don’t Stop Agitating: A Treatise on Leftism. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Hold Fast. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  6. Oct 19

    Omnibus (10-18-26).

    Max and 99 are back for another round of Omnibus. They cover headlines on the SSI asset trap keeping 7.5 million Americans in poverty and the 2028 Democratic slate. Then they tackle listener emails on what AI utopia actually looks like for the rest of us, using credit rating agencies to stop data center buildouts, and Russ Vought’s post-midterm constitutional endgame. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:32 Headlines: 00:12:49 Emails: 00:25:20 Memberships: 00:59:09 Outro: 01:00:28 Resources Ken Klippenstein: Exclusive: How the Military Will Hack the Election New Republic: This Is the U.S. Government’s Most Maddening Poverty Trap Newsweek: Kamala Harris Leads Newsom in 2028 Democrat Front-Runners Poll UNFTR Resources Video: Francesca Fiorentini: Dems vs The Future -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Hold Fast. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  7. Oct 17

    Why We’re Still Living in Milton Friedman’s Neoliberal World.

    More than 20 years after his death, we’re still living in the neoliberal world Milton Friedman made. The arc of neoliberalism begins in 1947, gathers steam in the 1970s, and reaches its zenith in the 1990s before breaking into a million pieces and forever out of the control of its progenitors. The story of Milton Friedman rises and falls along with it, and it’s a complicated one of ego, ambition and academic notoriety; a confluence of factors and foibles that came to define the modern economic age. This is the story of Milton Friedman, one of the principal architects of the modern world. Resources Subscribe to Current Affairs Magazine Current Affairs: We’re Living In the World That Milton Friedman Made Mises Institute: Friedrich A. Hayek The New York Times: The Great Liberator Ancestry: Jeno Saul Friedman Johan Van Overtveldt: The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business Britannica Money: Classical Economics International Adam Smith Society: About Adam Smith Britannica Money: David Ricardo Wikipedia: Jeremy Bentham Wikipedia: Cesare Beccaria Wikipedia: Laissez-faire Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Karl Marx Competition and Appropriation: Retrospectives: The Origins of Neoclassical Microeconomics Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: William Stanley Jevons Econlib: Leon Walras Econlib: Alfred Marshall Harvard University: Raising Keynes: A Twenty-First-Century General Theory Jacobin: Right-Wing Populism Did Not Kill Neoliberalism C.J. Polychroniou: Economics and the Left: Interviews with Progressive Economists Quinn Slobodian: Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, Iq, and the Capitalism of the Far Right The Mont Pelerin Society: About The Atlantic: The Heritage Foundation Current Affairs: Why Libertarians Oppose Civil Rights ProMarket: Aaron Director’s Legacy: The Beginning of Doubt is the Beginning of Wisdom Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Karl Popper Econlib: Ludwig von Mises Chicago Booth: George J. Stigler Free to Choose Network: The Power of Choice - Mont Pelerin Society Investopedia: Permanent Income Hypothesis: Definition, Function, and Effects Wikipedia: Natural rate of unemployment Investopedia: Monetarism Explained: Theory, Formula, and Keynesian Comparison Harris School of Public Policy: Permanent Income Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: The Fed and the Dual Mandate Bureau of Labor Statistics: The Employment Situation – September 2026 Milton Friedman, Anna Jacobson Schwartz: A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 Binyamin Appelbaum: The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society Freien Universität Berlin: The Methodology of Positive Economics Social Science Encyclopedia: Milton Friedman On Economic Methodology Economic Reform Australia: The F-twist – realism, economic policy analysis and climate change CATO Institute: Who Said TANSTAAFL First? Milton Friedman: The Free Lunch Myth Milton Friedman: Taxation, Inflation, and the Role of Government Investopedia: Market Definition: Economics, Types, and Key Features Bernard Harcourt: The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order Current Affairs: Ralph Nader History: Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress The New York Times: A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits Scholarly Commons: Powell Memorandum: Attack On American Free Enterprise System The Heritage Foundation The Cato Institute The Manhattan Institute The American Legislative Exchange Council Brookings: What we learned from Reagan’s tax cuts PBS News: Column: How Reaganomics, deregulation and bailouts led to the rise of Trump Wikipedia: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 Free To Choose: The Original 1980 TV Series EdChoice: Milton Friedman on the Phil Donahue Show in 1979 Investopedia: Stagflation Explained: What We Learned From the 1970s Crisis Investopedia: Understanding the Phillips Curve: Inflation and Unemployment Dynamics Investopedia: Demand-Pull Inflation: Understanding Causes and Differences from Cost-Push npr: Conservative Advocate U.S. News: Repeal of Glass-Steagall Caused the Financial Crisis C-SPAN: User Clip: Clinton: ‘Big Government Is Over’ ProMarket: The Complicated Legacy of the “Chicago Boys” in Chile Center for the History of Political Economy: Slaves or Mercenaries: Milton Friedman and the Institution of the All-Volunteer Military C-SPAN’S American History TV: Milton Friedman debates government intervention Amnesty International: Chile: 50 years since the coup d’état, exercising historical memory is vital for the country’s future The Guardian: Guess what? Self-interest is bad for the economy The New York Times: What Would Keynes Have Done? The New Yorker: Covert Operations The Progressive: The Politics of Racial Resentment Current Affairs: A Trillion Dollars Isn’t Worth It If You Have to Be Elon Musk UNFTR Resources Video: Why We’re Still Living in Milton Friedman’s Neoliberal World. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  8. Oct 14

    Phone A Friend: Francesca Fiorentini of The Bitchuation Room.

    The Bitchuation Room’s Francesca Fiorentini returns to UNFTR’s Phone A Friend to break down the midterms, what Democrats need to be focusing on next and how the current leadership isn’t up to the challenges ahead. Progressive politics often finds itself at a crossroads during election cycles. In this conversation, we look at how the establishment handles internal pressure and why the narrative surrounding the midterms remains so contentious. Francesca offers her perspective on the shifting dynamics of the left and what it means for the party base moving forward. Resources The Bitchuation Room (with Francesca Fiorentini) UNFTR Resources Video: Francesca Fiorentini: Dems vs The Future. Transcript: Phone A Friend: Francesca Fiorentini. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Unf*cking The Republic® (UNFTR) is dedicated to progressive politics, leftist economic theories, and social justice in the United States. Join us for deep dives into socialism, labor rights, climate justice, and the fight against inequality. Whether you're curious about Marxist ideas, modern social movements, or progressive policies, UNFTR delivers thoroughly sourced critiques, analyses, and interviews with the historical context mainstream media won't provide. Subscribe for informative and unabashedly progressive coverage of the leftist political and economic landscape.

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