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What is "Muskism"? Apr 23, 2026

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Greetings from Read Max HQ! For this week’s edition of my intermittment podcast with John Ganz (author of When the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) we were pleased to host Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, authors of the new book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, an exploration of Elon Musk’s ideology (such as it is) and power through the system of production and accumulation he seems intent on inaugurating. I highly recommend the book, which you can purchase here; we also discussed, among other things:

* this excellent essay on Muskism and Fordism from Quinn and Ben at the Law and Political Economy blog;

* Musk’s relationship to apartheid South Africa;

* some interesting objections to the Muskism thesis;

* how Neon Genesis: Evangelion can help us explain and understand Elon Musk.

This one is free for all to listen--enjoy!--but if you find it enlightening or entertaining, please consider paying to subscribe. Only with the support of paying subscribers can I put in all the work it takes to be an independent critic and journalist--to read, research, write, edit, record, etc. etc. If you value that work, consider paying about the price of one beer a month ($5) to help it continue.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com

Talking the 'Dark Enlightenment' with John Ganz and Maya Vinokour Apr 07, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

Greetings from Read Max HQ! Every other week, John Ganz (author of When the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) and I try to host a live chat for subscribers about politics, tech, culture, and the pieces we’ve been working on.

Last week, we were thrilled to do our live chat at the Villa Albertine in New York City, on the occasion …

Talking Iran and taking questions with John Ganz Mar 19, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

Greetings from Read Max HQ! Every other Wednesday at 2 p.m., or, really, whenever it’s convenient, John Ganz (author of When the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) and I host a Substack Live chat about politics, tech, culture, and the pieces we’ve been working on.

Talking Anthropic, Iran, and the Department of Defense with John Ganz Mar 05, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

While the chat is free when live, and a short preview is available…

Is the left "behind" on A.I.? Feb 19, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

Greetings from Read Max HQ! Every other Wednesday at 2 p.m., and sometimes on Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m., or, really, whenever it’s convenient, John Ganz (author of When the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) and I host a Substack Live chat about politics, tech, culture, and the pieces we’ve been working on.

While the chat is free whe…

Talking fascism and the suicide right with John Ganz Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

Greetings from Read Max HQ! Every other Wednesday at 2 p.m., and sometimes on Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m., or, really, whenever it’s convenient. John Ganz (author of When the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) and I host a Substack Live chat about politics, tech, culture, and the pieces we’ve been working on.

While the chat is free whe…

Talking Minneapolis, Venezuela, Elon Musk, and speaking 'Trumpanese' Jan 15, 2026

Show notes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

Greetings from Read Max HQ! Every other Wednesday at 2 p.m. John Ganz (author of When the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) and I host a Substack Live chat about politics, tech, culture, and the pieces we’ve been working on.

This week, we were lucky enough to be joined by the great Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker staff writer, host of the “Critics…

Talking Trump's Reiner comments, Brown shooting misinformation, and white men in media with John Ganz and Jay Kang Dec 18, 2025

Show notes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

In this conversation--joined by Jay Caspian Kang of The New Yorker and Time To Say Goodbye, and about 7,000 confused viewers expecting discussion of Venezuela--we talked:

Trump’s comments on Rob Reiner (covered by Ganz here)

The fever-dream of rumor and conspiracy emerging on Twitter/X in the wake of the mass shooting at Brown University (and what’s changed from the panic that set in after the Boston Marathon bombing)

Jacob Savage’s Compact magazine piece about white men in Hollywood and the media

Charlotte Klein’s New York magazine piece about Bari Weiss.

We also fought with a number of commenters on the livestream who arrived via a misleading Substack app push notification. Enjoy!

Talking A.I. bubbles and Trump's racist rant with John Ganz Dec 12, 2025

Show notes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

Greetings from Read Max HQ! Every other Wednesday at 2 p.m., John Ganz (author of The Year the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) and I host a Substack Live chat about politics, tech, culture, and the pieces we’ve been working on.

While the chat is free when live, and a short preview is available above, only paying subscribers ca…

Talking 'American Canto' and Jeffrey Epstein with John Ganz Nov 20, 2025

Show notes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.com

This week, John and I talked about the journalist Olivia Nuzzi, an excerpt from whose new memoir American Canto ran this week in Vanity Fair; her ex Ryan Lizza’s follow-up; Ganz’s annoyed response; the publication of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails; why Epstein would have loved the A.I. age; and what this all has to do with Machiavelli.While the chat is free when live, and a short preview is available above, only paying subscribers can access the archive of these chats as video and podcast audio!

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