Shows
The Hanania ShowDoes God Want You to Listen to This Conversation?I am honored to have New York Times columnist Ross Douthat on the podcast to talk about his new book Believe: Why Everyone Should be Religious. I’ve always seen atheism as my first intellectual position. Upon learning that many Christian doctrines declare that non-believers go to hell and are tortured for all eternity, I decided I needed to look into whether their claims were true and came to the conclusion that they most certainly weren’t. Yet I don’t completely dismiss the idea that something beyond the natural world might be out there. Bentha...2025-02-201h 31
The H&H PodcastThe Rape Free Civil WarThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comRob joins me to talk about the film Civil War. We both have already posted (spoiler-filled) reviews. I really didn’t like it, while he gives the movie a kind of lukewarm endorsement. The greatest weakness is clearly its lack of explanation of how the US got to the point where Americans were killing each other. The movie doesn’t simply ignore the question. It goes out of its way to be unrealistic by putting California and Texas on the same side...2024-04-2310 min
The H&H PodcastThe Conscientious Objector to Therapy CultureChris Nicholson joins me to talk about Breaking Bad, Seasons 1 and 2, which we both recently rewatched for the first time in over a decade.The entire experience helped demonstrate to us the fallibility of memory. It’s not like this was a forgettable series. Breaking Bad was among the most memorable shows that either of us had ever seen. Yet after a decade, while we remembered major developments like certain death scenes and the ultimate fates of the main characters, many strings that tie together various aspects of the plot had been lost to both of us....2023-10-031h 46
The H&H PodcastThe Triumph of the Girlboss?Rob joins me to talk about Succession, through the penultimate episode of the series.There are spoilers below, and throughout our conversation.We discuss Ross Douthat’s recent piece on the series, and where I agree and disagree with him. We almost have inverse views on the lessons of the show, where Douthat says public opinion has been written out of it, while I think that the trend has been for mass sentiment and larger forces to intrude more on the personal struggles of the Roy family. Perhaps the point is that elites are in co...2023-05-231h 12
The H&H PodcastNietzschean or Christian? Marc Andreessen on Breaking Bad and SaulI talk to Marc Andreessen about the Breaking Bad universe. Marc explains why he thinks Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have Nietzschean themes – or they at least give us the Nietzschean story we’re allowed to have – while I tend more towards the idea that these are Christian morality tales.Other topics discussed include what makes individuals likable or not, why we would watch a Gus Fring origin story, and the relative absence of sex as a motivating force among the men in the show. For previous conversations on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul...2022-07-241h 15