PODCAST 225

Participants: John Steppling, Brecht Jonkers, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Trump in the rubble on 9/11, 2001? purge at the Smithsonian, the compatible left, the loss of cinema literacy, the problematic history of the IAEA, two histories of American empire—continental and global, report on the Commonwealth of World Chinatowns and the Penang Peace Dialogue, September 5-6, 2026, the myth of the thin blue line. Music track: “Chinatown” by The Mills Brothers (public domain). See Aesthetic Resistance on Substack for links to some sources mentioned in the discussion.