In normal cinema, the goal of the director is to control the audience, to direct their gaze, to dictate their emotions.

What does it mean when directors make movies where the audience is allowed to decide what the film means to them?

Legendary filmmaker Paul Schrader (screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull; director of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and First Reformed) , joins me to discuss his book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer and the democratic nature of slow cinema.

Alyssa Battistoni joins me to discuss her new book Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature. Capitalist theory generally describes nature as a "free gift." If gifts are already free, why does capitalism have to claim that nature is a "free gift"? And why does capitalism keep declaring that nature is "worth" some billions or trillions of dollars? Alyssa and I discuss the tragic, yet comic, misunderstanding of nature by capitalism, and other ways to think about nature besides the economic.

Alex comes back on the podcast and we try to separate liberalism and anarchism, with some success! (I think the problem is that what Alex and I agree on is democratic socialism - so liberal socialism and anarchist socialism end up pretty close).

The business of basketball is our central example, so sorry if that part bores you to tears. Being bored by the business of basketball is more than reasonable.

I also reference this episode with Iain McKay frequently: https://www.everydayanarchism.com/episode-42-kropotkins-theory-of-revolution-with-iain-mckay/

Duke sucks.