From the guest list, the show looked like it was created to have a space where left commentators of various sorts would come on and hash out ideological differences as the US left is in the wilderness post-Bernie. It would be interesting, I thought, to have a show where an ultra like Sean KB from The Antifada could explain Marxist theory on a panel with social democrats and have some kind of discussion.
It turns out that its basically just a radlib version of The Five from Fox News, where they just take turns kicking the tires on the days news.
Does anyone actually want a show like this? It seems like its trying to fill a market that doesn't exist - or maybe existed a few years ago and doesn't today. When I look around, I don't think to myself, "You know who has some understanding of the political struggle we face in this moment? This DSA-backed state legislator from NYC."
Listening to it was deeply unsettling. I don't recommend it.
It's not even entertaining though. That's the problem. It seems to take itself seriously but doesn't actually having clear goals.
So far, it's basically Virgil's jokes about the content piggies coming for their slop, but actually.
It was to me, but the way I consume most podcasts is usually as a passive form of entertainment while I do something else.
We need to give them time, the banter without the panel at the beginning of both episodes was good. The panelists were bad because they didn't come in to talk about what they are specialized in.