Give Them An Argument
Give Them An Argument is a YouTube show and podcast dedicated to building a smarter, funnier and more strategic Left. New episodes are live on YouTube on Monday nights with an exclusive postgame for GTAA patrons after the main show. (To become a patron, go to patreon.com/benburgis and sign up for the monthly cost of a milkshake at a 50s nostalgia diner in 1994.) Past guests have included Slavoj Žižek, Richard Wolff, David Pizarro, Gregory Sadler, Glenn Greenwald, Krystal Ball, Bhaskar Sunkara, Sam Seder, Ana Kasparian, Emma Vigeland, Matt Christman, and Amber Frost. The show has also featured debates between host Ben Burgis and opponents ranging from Walter Block to Charlie Kirk.Ben is a philosophy professor, Jacobin columnist, and frequent debater. He did a regular "Debunk" segment on the Michael Brooks Show until 2020. He's appeared on the Debate Night with Charlie Kirk, System Update with Glenn Greenwald, Rising, Krystal, Kyle & Friends, the Majority Report w/Sam Seder & the Joe Rogan Experience.benburgis.compatreon.com/benburgis
Episodes
285 episodes
Trump: We Lost Vietnam and Iraq Because of Woke
Donald Trump, who we keep hearing is a peacemaker, said his speech for the 250th anniversary of the founding of Navy that the U.S. only lost the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan because we got too "woke" about war tactics. Ben Burgis breaks it d...
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Season 8
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Episode 12
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1:00:13
The Labor Theory of Value and Marx's Theory of Exploitation
Both supporters and opponents of the Labor Theory of Value often assume that the LTV and Marx's theory of capitalist exploitation are a package deal. Others, like G.A. Cohen, have questioned that link. Ben Burgis takes a look at the debate, arg...
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Season 8
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Episode 11
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1:32:06
Krystal Ball vs. Saagar Enjeti: Is it “Neo-Confederate” to Refuse to Cooperate with ICE?
Last week, Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti had an interesting mini-debate on whether states and cities that don't cooperate with ICE are doing something wrong on the grounds that it involves a "neo-Confederate" rejection of federal supreamcy. Be...
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Season 8
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Episode 10
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52:14
Curtis Yarvin Says We Can't Handle the Truth
Ambiguously fascist JD Vance guru Curtis Yarvin has written an odd little essay called "You Can't Handle the Truth." Ben Burgis responds!Read the essay:https://graymirror.substack.com/p/you-cant-handle-the-truthRead Matt...
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Season 8
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Episode 9
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1:07:14
Robert Nozick's Wilt Chamberlain Argument Against Redistribution
Libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick made a classical argument against redistributing wealth and economic resources in his book "Anarchy, State & Utopia" based on a thought experiment about the basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. Marxist p...
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Season 8
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Episode 8
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39:50
Debunking Pro-Israel Talking Points on Gaza
Today is the 2-year anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. Ben Burgis breaks the absurdity and evil of the way many people have tried to defend it, and puts the issue in a larger context.Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis<...
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Season 8
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Episode 7
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1:07:25
Democrats are Screwing Up the Shutdown
Ben Burgis talks about his Jacobin article "Democrats are Screwing Up the Shutdown" and subsequent developments.Read the article:https://jacobin.com/2025/10/democrats-shutdown-health-care-bernie-aocFollow GTAA on Twitter...
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Season 8
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Episode 6
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37:07
Breaking Down Zohran on The View
It's Friday! Let's end the week with something fun and watch Zohran sparring with the ladies on The View about Palestine, electability, and more.Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a...
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Season 8
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Episode 5
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52:00
Is Analytic Philosophy a Dead End for the Left?
That's the claim made by Neil Vallelly in a shockingly poorly-informed article for Jacobin (reviewing Christopher Schuringa's book "A Social History of Analytical Philosophy"). Jacobin editor Nick French defended analytic philosophy in a counte...
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Season 8
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Episode 4
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1:20:47
Trump Classifies "Anti-Capitalism" as Political Violence Pre-Crime
Trump's new national security directive classifies all of the following as indicators of incipient political violence that need to be investigated and disrupted before they come to fruition:• anti-Americanism,• anti-capitalism,•...
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Season 8
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Episode 3
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56:00
Missing the Point About Charlie Kirk
Ben Burgis addresses the controversy about the article he and Meagan Day wrote about political violence and free speech after the Charlie Kirk assassination, all of the ways the most tedious and unhelpful people on the Left found to miss the po...
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Season 8
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Episode 2
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1:01:37
Richard Wolff and Ben Burgis Address a Socialist Conference in Mexico City
We're back! This last weekend, Ben Burgis was at an international conference of socialist, communist, and labor parties in Mexico City hosted by the Partido del Trabajo (the smallest but furthest left of the three parties in Claudia Sheinbaum's...
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Season 8
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Episode 1
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53:45
Season 7 Episode 25: Jake Departure/Season Finale/Fun Shit
After a four-year run on the show, Producer Jake is saying goodbye. (Although presumably he'll be saying "hello" again on some future episodes as a guest.) One of his predecessors, Producer Cale, joins us to see the lad off. Jay Zeroni, who's n...
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Season 7
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Episode 25
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1:54:47
Season 7 Episode 24: Meagan Day vs. the Tradwives
Jacobin writer and editor Meagan Day joins us to talk about what reactionary "tradwife" influencers are latching onto, and how social democracy can actually help families in a way that ugly anti-feminist culture war can't. Before that, Ben does...
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Season 7
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Episode 24
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1:23:27
Season 7 Episode 23: Norm Finkelstein & Matt McManus on John Stuart Mill
The crossover event the world has eagerly awaited is here (OK, well, some of us are excited)--Matt McManus and Stormin' Norman Finkelstein on the same podcast episode. As it turns out, they share an interest in John Stuart Mill, so we thought i...
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Season 7
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Episode 23
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2:24:28
Season 7 Episode 22: Exploitation and Analytical Marxism (ft. Nicholas Vrousalis)
Nicholas Vrousalis, author of "Exploitation as Domination: What Makes Capitalism Unjust" joins Ben Burgis to talk about his book, how to rigorously think about capitalist exploitation, what it was like to work with G.A. Cohen in grad school, an...
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Season 7
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Episode 22
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1:59:35
Season 7 Episode 21: How Capitalism Ends (Bastille Day Special w/Steve Paxton)
Steve Paxton studied with the great Marxist philosopher G.A. Cohen as a graduate student at Oxford. Since then, he's had blue-collar jobs, white collar jobs, and been unemployed, but he's never stopped writing and thinking about socialism and M...
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Season 7
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Episode 21
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1:49:48
Season 7 Episode 20: We Have Always Had a Union (ft. Shaun Richman)
Labor scholar Shaun Richman joins us to talk to Ben Burgis about his book "We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers’ Union, 1912-1953." Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument on the absurd attacks on Zohran that have been made every...
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Season 7
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Episode 20
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2:06:11
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Season 7 Episode 19: Flowers for Marx
Two authors from the new anthology "Flowers for Marx" (returning guests Matt McManus & Conrad Hamilton) join Ben Burgis to chat about the book. Before that, Ben and the crew debunk more smears of Zohran. In the postgame for patrons, Matt pu...
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Season 7
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Episode 19
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2:02:04
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Season 7 Episode 18: Michael O'Neill Burns & Matt McManus on Marx & Ideology
Philosophical and comedic YouTube person Michael O'Neill Burns comes on GTAA for the first time and political science professor Matt McManus comes on for the billionth time (rough approximation) so they can discuss Marx and ideology. Before tha...
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Season 7
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Episode 18
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1:50:41
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Season 7 Episode 17: Another World is Possible (ft. Natasha Zapata)
Natasha Hakimi Zapata joins us to chat w/Ben about her important new book "Another World is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe." From Britain's NHS to Singapore's publicly-leased housing system to New Zealand's egalitarian pens...
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Season 7
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Episode 17
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2:18:10
Season 7 Episode 16: Citizen Marx
Bruno Leipold joins Ben Burgis to talk about his excellent book "Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought." Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument responding to Jodi Dean on "neofeudalism." In...
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Season 7
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Episode 16
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2:05:30
Season 7 Episode 15: Nathan Robinson on His Book w/Noam Chomsky (+ Jordan Peterson's Jubilee)
Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson joins Ben Burgis to talk about his and Noam Chomsky's new book "The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World." In the postgame for patrons, Ben and the cre watch some of Jo...
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Season 7
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Episode 15
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2:17:33
Season 7 Episode 14: Karl Marx in America (ft. Andrew Hartman)
Andrew Hartman joins Ben Burgis to talk about his fascinating book "Karl Marx in America," where he traces interest in Marx's ideas by American commentators from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression to the Vietnam-era New Left to the present....
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Season 7
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Episode 14
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1:57:26
Season 7 Episode 13: Eric Blanc on the Way Forward for Labor
Eric Blanc joins Ben Burgis to talk about his new book "How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big." Then in the postgame for patrons, Ben and the crew will watch a bit of Ethan Klein vs. Hassan Piker for some reason....
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Season 7
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Episode 13
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1:06:31
