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
258 episodes
Season 7 Episode 10: Matt Bruenig & Luke Savage on "Abundance"
Matt Bruenig and Luke Savage join Ben Burgis to talk about their reviews of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's book, "Abundance," and what it all signifies about the drift of contemporary liberalism. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument about...
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Season 7
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Episode 10
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2:14:42
Season 7 Episode 9: Songs to Revolt To
Jake and Andy are joined by Teen Driver’s Mark Gurarie to talk about protest music. Ben shows up for a bit at the beginning but then disappears because he has bad priorities and chose to spend his birthday with his "literal" family instead of h...
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Season 7
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Episode 9
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2:19:14
Season 7 Episode 8: Debating Socialism w/the Libertarian Institute's Keith Knight
Ben Burgis faces off with the Libertarian Institute's managing editor Keith Knight in a wide-ranging debate about capitalism, socialism, coercion, authoritarianim, exploitation, and more.Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow G...
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Season 7
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Episode 8
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1:31:22
Season 7 Episode 7: Debating Palestine w/Philosopher Spencer Case
Ben Burgis and philosophy professor and "Micro-Digressions" host Spencer Case hash out their disagreement on Zionism. Before that, Ben and the crew watch a fascinatingly strange AI video and Ben gives an Opening Argument on the Trump administra...
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Season 7
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Episode 7
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2:05:15
Season 7 Episode 6: Watching Dugin & Glenn Greenwald w/Deep State Kuba
Far-right Russian thinker Aleksandr Dugin just sat down with Glenn Greenwald for an extensive interview, and we can't look away. Deep State Kuba joins Ben Burgis to watch some of it and discuss. Before that, Ben does an Opening Argument on the ...
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Season 7
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Episode 6
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2:09:41
Season 7 Episode 5: Conversations with Platypi (Ben & Jason at UC-Irvine)
A couple weeks ago, Ben Burgis and Jason Myles went to UC-Irvine to speak at a panel on neoliberalism at the West coast conference of the Platypus Affiliated Society. It was a pretty interesting conversation, and we're excited to finally be abl...
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Season 7
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Episode 5
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4:36:52
Season 7 Episode 4: Walter Block Calls for Legalizing Sexual Harassment & Privatizing Roads
Last week, Ben Burgis debated libertarian economist Walter Block. Tonight, we're playing you the recording. (The debate was hosted by the magazine Merion West, which will be simultaneously releasing it on their podcast.) This was a continuation...
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Season 7
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Episode 4
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2:30:58
Season 7 Episode 3: Vivek Chibber is Done with Your Nonsense
Vivek Chibber is an sociology professor at NYU, the editor the socialist journal Catalyst, and the host of Jacobin's new podcast "Confronting Capitalism." He's written a few books, including "The Class Matrix." Recently, a lot of the most unhin...
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Season 7
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Episode 3
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1:55:10
Season 7 Episode 2: Debating Abortion Rights w/Spencer Case
Philosophy professor and "Micro-Digressions" host Spencer Case joins Ben Burgis for a friendly debate on abortion rights. Before that, Ben talks about RFK's insane critique of Medicare for All. No postgame, sorry, but we'll make it up to our lo...
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Season 7
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Episode 2
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2:12:30
Season 7 Episode 1: The Gulf of Liberal Socialism (ft. Matt McManus)
A lot has happened since the last episode of GTAA. Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America (thus ending our long national nightmare of having to accept an "of Mexico" body of water touching our sacred American soil), and Matt McMan...
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Season 7
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Episode 1
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2:08:46
Season 6 FINALE: Jordan Peterson Wrestles with God/Ben at MSNBC (ft. Matt McManus & Robert Myles)
In our last episode before this year's season break, Matt McManus & Robert Myles join Ben Burgis to break down Jordan Peterson's new book "We Who Wrestle with God." (He doesn't seem to have read any more Marx since 2019.) Before that, Ben a...
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Season 6
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Episode 44
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2:24:52
Season 6 Episode 43: The World is on Fire But Mean Djene & Deep State Kuba Can Talk Us Through It
[Many apologies about the delay! Lots going on lately. The other delayed ep will be posted by the end of the week.]Jihadists are taking over Aleppo, US missiles are striking deep into Russia, and the atrocities in Gaza have reached the ...
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Season 6
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Episode 43
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2:15:58
Season 6 Episode 42: Matt McManus Talks Liberal Socialism
Ben Burgis welcomes back major friend of the pod Matt to talk his new book: "The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism," in which he "presents a comprehensive guide to the liberal socialist tradition, stretching from Mary Wollstonecraft and...
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Season 6
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Episode 42
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2:04:06
Season 6 Episode 41: Vanessa Wills on Marx's Ethical Vision/Juan David Rojas on Kamala vs. Claudia
Juan David Rojas joins Ben Burgis at the top of the show to discuss the reasons Claudia Sheinbaum romped to victory as an economic populist in Mexico's presidential election a few months before Kamala Harris crashed and burned. (Some liberals w...
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Season 6
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Episode 41
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2:16:08
Season 6 Episode 40: One of Us is the Killer (+ Preview of "Four Essays on Palestine" Launch Film)
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Season 6
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Episode 40
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56:05
Season 6 Episode 39: From Plato to Marx w/David Lay Williams
David Lay Williams comes on to talk about his excellent new book, "The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx."Order the book:https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780...
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Season 6
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Episode 39
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1:58:50
Season 6 Episode 38: Talking Palestine w/Deep State Kuba
Deep State Kuba joins Ben Burgis for a deep dive into the ongoing atrocities in Palestine--both debunking Zionist apologetics and pushing back against the dumb and counterproductive things leftists sometimes say in the name of Palestine solidar...
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Season 6
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Episode 38
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2:35:06
Season 6 Episode 37: The Catholic Left (and Also Some Protestants)
First-time guest Tony Annett and Matt "I Brought My Own Mic" McManus return for an in-depth look at thinkers like Alasdair McIntyre and Paul Tillich, the relationship between left-wing economic ideas and Catholic social teaching, and more. (Tur...
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Season 6
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Episode 37
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1:49:57
Season 6 Episode 36: Debunking the Many Bad Arguments Made By Israel’s Apologists in the West
On the one-year anniversary of Hamas's atrocities on October 7th, which have been used as a pretext for unfathomably worse atrocities for the last year, Ben Burgis does an on-air version of his lecture "Debunking the Many Bad Arguments Made By ...
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Season 6
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Episode 36
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1:46:12
Season 6 Episode 35: Ukraine War Update w/Danny & Derek from American Prestige
We talk some Marxism, and then Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison of the American Prestige podcast join us to talk about their article "America Must Grapple With the Limits of Ukraine's Kursk Offensive":https://nationalinterest.org/blog/b...
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Season 6
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Episode 35
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1:39:58
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Season 6 Episode 34: Inequality Debate w/Will Cooper/Anti-Haitian Racism from Yarvin to Trump
Will Cooper, op-ed columnist and author of "How America Works ... And Why It Doesn't," joins Ben Burgis for a friendly debate on how much economic inequality is too much. In an article for Newsweek, Cooper argued that America is much too unequa...
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Season 6
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Episode 34
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1:55:15
Season 6 Episode 33: Norm Finkelstein on Robin DiAngelo/Matt McManus on Charlie Kirk
Stormin' Norman Finkelstein joins us in the first half of the show to talk to Ben Burgis about the rise and fall of Robin DiAngelo. Then for the second half we switch to examining the other side of the aisle with a conversation with Matt McManu...
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Season 6
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Episode 33
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2:03:50
Season 6 Episode 32: Debating Palestine w/Walter Block
Do Palestinians have the same rights as everyone else, or have they collectively forfeited these rights by being "criminals"? In an article for Merion West, libertarian economist Walter Block argued the latter:https://merionwest.com/202...
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Season 6
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Episode 32
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2:19:21
Season 6 Episode 31: Mastering the Universe w/Rob Larson
The people's econ prof, Rob Larson, joins us to talk about his new book, "Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do With Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More." Before that, Ben and the crew talk...
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Season 6
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Episode 31
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2:24:01
Season 6 Episode 30: Is Kamala a Kammunist? Is Vance a Populist? (ft. Nathan J. Robinson)
Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson joins us once again to talk about Peter Thiel's favorite "populist," J.D. Vance, the (sadly inaccurate) hysteria from Trump, Musk and the New York Post about Kamala Harris being to the left of Bernie an...
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Season 6
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Episode 30
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1:56:37
