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Culture and Barbarism

Culture and Barbarism

Written by: Toby Miller/Dennis Broe
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Novelist and critic Dennis Broe and Cultural Studies and Global Media Raconteur Toby Miller explore The Politics of Culture and The Culture of Politics. Rosa Luxemburg said the choice was between Socialism and Barbarism but perhaps today what we have is Culture And Barbarism.

© 2026 Culture and Barbarism
Art Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • TV and the TV Industry: Mergers, AI and Youtube/Little to Like, Lots to Loathe
    May 18 2026

    On Culture and Barbarism 11, Media Analyst Dennis Broe is joined by Hollywood Reporter Chief TV Critic Daniel Feinberg to discuss changes in the TV Series industry involving Mergers, Ai and YouTube. We cover not only the threat each poses to creativity in the industry but also how each of these are influencing the form and content of television series. The threats include: mass layoffs; writers increasingly being paid less on the long march from broadcast and cable TV to Netflix to YouTube, where for the most part they are not paid at all; "creeping AI"; and YouTube and Netflix amalgamating content and erasing distinctions as well as AI and YouTube absorbing advertising dollars that used to go to broadcast TV and the streamers. All of this in not only an industry but also a political climate where regulations are going out the window.

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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Shakespeare's Language As Social Barometer
    Apr 29 2026

    In this special edition of Culture & Barbarism, titled "Shakespeare's Language As Social Barometer," culture critic Dennis Broe talks about Shakespeare's contribution to the language, his critique of power and incorporation of ordinary language, the imperial use of his work as colonial soft power and its contestation and, finally, how one phrase "Unsex Me Here" by Lady Macbeth echoes across not just generations but centuries.

    This talk was a keynote given in India on the occasion of Shakespeare's birthday for a conference titled "Shakespeare as Architect of the English Language."

    He is joined here by Shakespeare aficionado and musical comedy lyricist Ed Levy.

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    51 mins
  • Iran, Cuba, Vegas and the latest Harry Palmer: Pornocopia
    Apr 2 2026

    In this interview with Pacifica Radio and WBAI's Jack Shalom, Dennis Broe takes us into the world of Pornocopia in the latest Harry Palmer LA Mystery Thriller. We talk about how that world intersects with Iran in a blowback onto Harry's case, the way the porn and gambling industries have now seeped into every aspect of American life and about the false intimacy porn promises and the false profits gambling serves up as everywhere ordinary people in the country grow more desperate.

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    33 mins
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