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★★★★★

4.9

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122 reviews

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Your regular visit to the archives of vanity, where men and women who stopped making myths turned to issuing commandments. Your guides for this journey are the writers Phil Klay and Jacob Siegel, along with their trusty engineer, Jacqui Rigazio May you continue to be a person. Manifesto! Is now sponsored by Fairfield University, a Jesuit University in Fairfield Connecticut. Fairfield’s mission is to develop the creative intellectual potential of students and to foster in them ethical and religious values and a sense of social responsibility. Phil also teaches at Fairfield, in both their undergraduate English department and in their Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. We’re very pleased to be associated with Fairfield, and thank them for their sponsorship.

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Check latest episodes from Manifesto! podcast

Episode 92: The Church and the Fiction Writer on the Ladder of Divine Ascent

2026/09/24

Phil Klay is joined by Kathleen Kilcup, author of Between the Light and Me: A Memoir of Beauty and Violence, to discuss Flannery O'Connor's The Church and the Fiction Writer and the 12th century icon The Ladder of Divine Ascent The Manifesto: https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/1957/03/30/flannery-oconnor-church-fiction-writer-148496/ The Art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_of_Divine_Ascent_(icon)#/media/File:The_Ladder_of_Divine_Ascent_Monastery_of_St_Catherine_Sinai_12th_century.jpg Katie's memoir: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/between-the-light-and-me-kathleen-kilcup/1149674487?ean=9780802885272

Episode 91: The Left Case for Great Books

2026/08/27

Phil is joined by Dan Walden, formerly a professor in the honors college at the University of Tulsa, to discuss Dan's essay "The Left Case for Great Books," alongside Plato's Symposium. The Manifesto: Dan Walden "The Left Case for Great Books" https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/the-left-case-for-great-books/ The Art: Plato's Symposium https://hackettpublishing.com/symposium

Episode 90: Belonging in the Modern World

2026/06/16

Phil and Jake are joined by the philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin, whose new book To Arrive Where We Started: Belonging in the Modern World, is out today. We discuss Nancy Fraser and bell hooks. The Manifesto: Nancy Fraser, "From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump--and Beyond" https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/progressive-neoliberalism-trump-beyond/ The Art: bell hooks, "Habits of the Heart" https://www.amazon.com/Belonging-Culture-Place-bell-hooks/dp/041596816X Ian's new book: To Arrive Where We Started: Belonging in the Modern World https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300263626/to-arrive-where-we-started/

Episode 89: Madame Murdoch

2026/05/28

Jake and Phil are joined by Jenn Frey, a philosopher at the University of Virginia, to discuss Iris Murdoch and Madame Bovary The Manifesto: Iris Murdoch - The Sovereignty of Good https://eganphilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Murdoch-The-Sovereignty-of-Good-Over-Other-Concepts.pdf The Art: Flaubert - Madame Bovary Manifesto! A Podcast is sponsored by Fairfield University

Episode 88: Suprematism and the poetry of Ukraine

2026/04/29

Jake and Phil are joined by Vladislav Davidzon to discuss Kazimir Malevich's The Manifesto of Suprematism and the poetry of Serhiy Zhadan. The Manifesto: Malevich, The Manifesto of Suprematism https://designmanifestos.org/kazimir-malevich-the-manifesto-of-suprematism/ The Art: Serhiy Zhadan https://poetrysociety.org/poems/three-poems-by-serhiy-zhadan https://www.wordsforwar.com/take-only-what-is-most-important

Episode 87: The Information State

2026/03/25

Jake and Phil discuss Jake's new book, THE DISINFORMATION STATE, where he argues that the technological infrastructure we've built to make society safer and more rational has steadily replaced democratic freedoms with systems of digital control. To buy the book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250363121/theinformationstate/

Episode 86: Spacers, Fictosexuals and Freaks

2026/03/04

Jake and Phil are joined by internet culture reporter Katherine Dee to discuss The Fictosexual Manifesto and "Aye and Gomorrah..." by Samuel Delany The Manifesto: The Fictosexual Manifesto https://vocal.media/humans/fictosexual-manifesto The Art: Samuel Delany, "Aye and Gomorrah..." https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/aye-and-gomorrah/

Episode 85: Zarathustra and Judge Holden

2025/11/21

Phil and Jake are joined by Aaron Gwyn, an author and associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. The Manifesto: Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1998/1998-h/1998-h.htm The Art: McCarthy, Blood Meridian https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/110472/blood-meridian-by-cormac-mccarthy/ Other Links: Aaron Gwyn's The Cannibal Owl https://bellepointpress.com/products/the-cannibal-owl

Episode 84: Philip Roth and Ecclesiastes

2025/10/27

Jake and Phil discuss Philip Roth's 1961 essay "Writing American Fiction" and the Qohelet, also known as the Book of Ecclesiastes The Manifesto: Philip Roth, "Writing American Fiction" https://www.commentary.org/articles/philip-roth/writing-american-fiction/ The Qohelet https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%201&version=KJV

Episode 83: Resist and Howl

2025/09/29

Jake and Phil are joined by Amy Sohn, author of The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, to discuss the 1967 anti-war manifesto A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority and Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem Howl. The Manifesto: A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority https://vietnamwar.lib.umb.edu/warHome/docs/1967CallToResistIllegit.html The Art: Allen Ginsberg, Howl https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

Episode 82: The Dark Mountains of Madness

2025/08/28

Jake and Phil are joined by Roy Scranton, author of Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress, to discuss the Dark Mountain Manifesto by Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine and The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft. The Manifesto: The Dark Mountain Manifesto https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/ The Art: HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx Roy Scranton, Impasse https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/impasse

Episode 81: In the Moral Wilderness with MacIntyre and Camus

2025/07/29

Jake and Phil discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s Notes from the Moral Wilderness and Camus’ short story The Guest The Manifesto: Alasdair MacIntyre, Notes from the Moral Wilderness https://www.scribd.com/document/123091458/Notes-from-the-Moral-Wilderness-Alasdair-MacIntyre The Art: Camus, The Guest https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1957/12/the-guest/642533/

Episode 80: Thomas Mann and Abraham Lincoln in Wartime

2025/06/28

Phil is joined by Morten Hoi Jensen, literary critic and author of the forthcoming "The Master of Contradictions Thomas Mann and the Making of The Magic Mountain," to discuss Thomas Mann's 1914 "Thoughts in Wartime" and Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address The Manifesto: Thomas Mann, "Thoughts in Wartime" https://www.nyrb.com/products/reflections-of-a-nonpolitical-man The Art: Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address https://www.nps.gov/linc/learn/historyculture/lincoln-second-inaugural.htm To pre-order Morten's book: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300233742/the-master-of-contradictions/

Episode 79: Kitsch, Pop, and Democratic Art

2025/05/27

Jake and Phil discuss Clement Greenberg's 1939 "Kitsch and the Avant-Garde" alongside Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" and Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" The Manifesto: Clement Greenberg, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1606923282/slcschoolsorg/wumlyaskvhhzawsvbbzc/Avant-GardeandKitsch.pdf The Art: Taylor Swift, "I Knew You Were Trouble" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoKguSdy4Y Leonard Cohen, "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWZo7UmCbBc

Episode 78: Reflections on the Atom Bomb

2025/05/01

Jake and Phil discuss Teilhard de Chardin's 1946 Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb and Charles Mingus' "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me," off of his 1962 album Oh Yeah. The Manifesto: Teilhard de Chardin - "Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb" https://www.religion-online.org/book-chapter/chapter-8-some-reflections-on-the-spiritual-repercussions-of-the-atom-bomb/ The Art: Charles Mingus - "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaeVLd4G1Zg

Podcast reviews

Read Manifesto! podcast reviews

4.9 out of 5

122 reviews

★★★★★

C Graybs 2023/10/29

Essential

Thank you Jake and Phil for taking the time to record this latest episode.

★★★★★

Evilone94 2023/04/26

Probably the best podcast

Not a lot of media out there as curious, challenging, and mind expanding as this, in any form.

★★★★★

FOCKING ADSSS 2022/03/01

Very good

A lot of intellectual and informative media these days is overly nihilistic, depressing, and politically extremist. This is none of those.

★★★★★

Floating Pizza 2022/02/05

A Banquet for the Mind

May I be forgiven for considering Jake and Phil two of my best friends, even though we’ve never met? I’ve been working my way steadily through the epi...

★★★★★

LDR_arlington 2022/01/09

Jazz, Murray, Crouch, etc.

The discussion of jazz and American democratic life is outstanding. Thank you, Jake and Phil.

★★★★★

rakish6 2021/11/28

Non-ideological engagements with literature and big ideas

First encountered Siegel and Klay as Iraq war short fiction writers in ‘Fire and Forget”. Later I read Klay’s book ‘Deployment’ and gave it to my son ...

★★★★★

Edawg711 2021/11/17

Wonderful, Engaging, and Addictive Conversation

Listening to Jake and Phil talk feels exactly like talking over coffee and cigarettes to the two of the most interesting guys in your college class af...

★★★★★

UncleRawb 2021/01/23

Dopamine

My brain has sex to this podcast!

★★★★★

Ahrima5 2020/05/07

Discussing ideas I can’t stop thinking about

Interesting perspectives met with qualified, well thought out opinions and topics worth talking about. I have been completely won over by these conver...

★★★★★

Cubical Ruins 2020/03/04

Great hosts and subjects

Great listen. Some of the writing/art featured is short and freely accessible, so I try to read/look up their subjects whenever the new episodes come ...

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