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    Fruitless

    A series of conversations about art, philosophy, history, politics, faith, and the internet hosted by Josiah Sutton. Aiming for at least two interviews and one bookclub episode per month. Artwork by Kipp Paulsen. More content can be found on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    en45 Episodes

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    Episodes (45)

    [Preview] Mumbling Safdies (feat. Dylan Weaver)

    [Preview] Mumbling Safdies (feat. Dylan Weaver)

    THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

    EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mumbling-safdies-99383330

    Dylan Weaver (@DJWeaver29, WODFAMCHOCPOD) joins me in a final defense of Mumblecore (I promise I'll drop this subject next month) by discussing the Safdie brothers' first two films, The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008) and Daddy Longlegs (2009). Also just some broader discussions about Mumblecore.

    Follow today's guest on Letterboxd @djweaver29 or Twitter @djweaver29


    Music by SHADE08

    Fruitless
    enFebruary 29, 2024

    The Puffy Chair (feat. AJ Ditty)

    The Puffy Chair (feat. AJ Ditty)

    Josiah is joined by AJ Ditty (@thefuzzymask, The Worst of All Possible Worlds) to discuss The Puffy Chair (2005) and how Mumblecore can actually be pretty good sometimes.

    Follow today’s guest on Twitter.
    Check out The Worst of All Possible Worlds
    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube

    Find more of Josiah’s work here

    Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

    References


    Music & audio credits

    Society of the Snow (feat. Finch)

    Society of the Snow (feat. Finch)

    Josiah is joined by Finch (@santo_pinzon, Mammonburg) to talk about Society of the Snow (2023) and the discourse around the film in the Spanish-speaking world.

    Finch’s essay about the film and Catholic spirituality on Substack: https://jmkazmierczak.substack.com/p/a-voice-cries-out-in-the-wilderness
    Follow today's guest on Twitter @santo_pinzon
    Check out Finch's Substack here: https://jmkazmierczak.substack.com/
    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube
    Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

    Follow Josiah on Twitter & Bluesky @josiahwsutton

    References

    Music and audio credits

    [Unlocked] It's a Damn Documentary! (feat. James Eric)

    [Unlocked] It's a Damn Documentary! (feat. James Eric)

    This is an unlocked episode from the Fruitless Patreon, originally published 1/12/2024. Enjoy!

    James Eric (@cigarette_liker) joins Josiah to talk about Idiocracy (2006). Yes, it's a eugenicist movie. Yes, it is a product of the smug, upper class liberalism of the Bush years, and it was popular during the resurgence of that sentiment during the Trump years. But what does it mean now? And is it funny?


    Follow today's guest on Twitter @cigarette_liker and on Bluesky @cigaretteliker

    References

    Music by SHADE08 & Hansiii

    The End of the End of History (feat. Luke Savage)

    The End of the End of History (feat. Luke Savage)

    Josiah is joined by Luke Savage (@LukewSavage, Michael & Us, Jacobin) to reflect on the last fifteen years of U.S. electoral politics in light of the current election year: the failures of the Obama administration, the hyperpolitics of the Trump administration, and the attempted 'return to normalcy' of Biden's first term.

    Follow today's guest on Twitter @LukewSavage
    Check out Michael & Us here: https://soundcloud.com/michael-and-us
    Luke Savage in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/author/luke-savage
    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube
    Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

    Follow Josiah on Twitter & Bluesky @josiahwsutton

    References

    Music

    • Yesterday – bloom.
    • In My Dreams – bloom.

    [Preview] My Boner's Kinda Deep, Bro

    [Preview] My Boner's Kinda Deep, Bro

    THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

    EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/96745407

    Alien (aka Stewie Griffin DJ) returns to discuss two Aughts-era films about sex: Kissing on the Mouth (2005) and Shortbus (2006). They talk about Joe Swanberg's dick and ask the really hard question: Is Shortbus a Mumblecore movie?

    Music by SHADE08

    Fruitless
    enJanuary 29, 2024

    [Unlocked] How America Got Obsessed With Israel (feat. Keanu Heydari)

    [Unlocked] How America Got Obsessed With Israel (feat. Keanu Heydari)

    After some positive reception, I've decided to release this Patreon episode from 12/18/2023 to the free feed as a resource. Enjoy!

    Keanu Heydari returns to teach Josiah the strange history of Christian Zionism and the story of how the United States became obsessed with Israel.

    Follow today’s guest on Twitter, and remember to check out his podcast and his website.

    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube
    Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

    Follow Josiah on Twitter & Bluesky @josiahwsutton


    Resources

    • Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism by Stephen Spector
    • Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism by Victoria Clark
    • God's Country: Christian Zionism in America by Samuel Goldman
    • The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances Fitzgerald


    Music by SHADE08

    Morbid Symptoms (feat. Jesse D. Goodman)

    Morbid Symptoms (feat. Jesse D. Goodman)

    Josiah is joined by Jesse Goodman (@platofan402, Post-Cultural Amnesiac) to discuss 2023. Beginning with a focus on 2023 in personal media consumption, the conversation evolves into a broader discuss of the anecdotal "vibe shift," the sense of living in a hyperpolitical age, and the difficulty of talking about film or art while genocide and war unfolds in the background.

    Correction: I (Josiah) briefly discuss the strange Osama Bin Laden going viral on TikTok situation and suggest that we will eventually find out who is behind that. We already have. It was Yashar Ali who platformed it.

    Follow today's guest on Twitter @platofan402
    Check out Jesse's Substack, Post-Cultural Amnesiac, here: https://jessedgoodman.substack.com.
    Some of Jesse's poetry can be found in issues 17 and 24 of Wild Roof: https://wildroofjournal.com.
    An essay by Jesse in Litro US: https://www.litromagazine.com/usa/2023/06/baltimore-by-the-mid-morning-light.
    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube
    Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

    Follow Josiah on Twitter & Bluesky @josiahwsutton

    References

    Music

    • Yesterday – bloom.
    • In My Dreams – bloom.

    Children of Men, or The Fruitless Christmas Special

    Children of Men, or The Fruitless Christmas Special

    It's the Fruitless Christmas special. Chris Barker and Alien (aka Stewie Griffin DJ) join Josiah to discuss Children of Men (2006), the incredible craft behind the film, and the politics of hope and futurity.

    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube
    Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

    Follow Josiah on Twitter & Bluesky @josiahwsutton


    References

    Music & Audio credits

    • Children of Men (2006)
    • Interviews with James Lovelock, Slavoj Zizek, and Naomi Klein from The Possibility of Hope, an archival documentary about Children of Men on the Arrow Blu-Ray release.
    • O Come, O Come Emmanuel, played by Kaleb Brasee, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLnlhpXV5IM.
    • Yesterday – bloom.
    • In My Dreams – bloom.

    How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bookclub #3)

    How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bookclub #3)

    This is the third installment of the Fruitless Bookclub, a show-within-a-show, featuring Chris Barker and Jake the Lawyer, where we read all those nonfiction books we've been meaning to read. Today's episode is about How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

    Next month: Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll

    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube
    Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

    Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

    Other references

    • "Reconsidering a Classic: Walter Rodney's 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,'" Vanderbilt University on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCiuFRiOW28.
    • Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber
    • Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
    • Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Slavery in Brazil, edited by Robert Edgar Conrad, quote from Section 2.9. "There Are Plantations Where the Slaves Are Numb with Hunger": A Medical Thesis on Plantation Diseases and Their Causes (1847). We got the quote from a smarter person than us on an r/AskHistorians thread, which is here https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ztoexl/comment/j39waqr/.
    • "One Giant Leap: Emancipation and Aggregate Economic Gains," Richard Hornbeck and Trevon Logan, Becker Friedman Institute, https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/one-giant-leap-emancipation-and-aggregate-economic-gains. This is the UChicago article about how slavery is, in fact, unprofitable--the worst thing in the world to UChicago.
    • "Oh Dearism," directed by Adam Curtis. I (Josiah) kept referencing the "oh dear" sentiment from this six-minute Curtis documentary but forgot to actually bring it up, so it's right here for the citation perverts reading these notes: https://thoughtmaybe.com/oh-dearism.

    Music

    Yesterday – bloom.

    In My Dreams – bloom.

    The Home Town Curse (feat. Brian Alford)

    The Home Town Curse (feat. Brian Alford)

    Josiah is joined by Brian Alford (@SpocksBrian) from The Worst of All Possible Worlds to discuss HGTV's Home Town, the Napier family, and Laurel, Mississippi, alongside Showtime's new series, The Curse.

    Follow today’s guest on Twitter.
    Check out The Worst of All Possible Worlds
    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube

    Find more of Josiah’s work here

    Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

    References

    Episodes of Home Town watched

    • S1E1 Big Renovations in a Small Town
    • S2E1 Home Town Holiday Special
    • S3E10 Small Budget, Big Style
    • S4E3 The Church House
    • S5E10 Retreat Yourself
    • S6E5 Grand Millennial 
    • S7E2 The Family Tree (only Brian got around to this one)


    Music & audio credits

    Indian Country in Present Tense (feat. Amelia Schafer)

    Indian Country in Present Tense (feat. Amelia Schafer)

    Amelia Schafer (Indian Country Today, Rapid City Journal) joins Josiah to discuss her reporting on indigenous affairs in South Dakota, and the issues facing Indian Country, particularly the Pine Ridge Reservation.

    Follow today’s guest on Twitter, and remember to check out her work here.

    Find more of Josiah’s work here

    Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

    Donate


    References

    [Preview] Content With Alien

    [Preview] Content With Alien

    THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

    EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/93631193

    On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Josiah catches up with Alien aka Stevie Griffin DJ. Discussion topics include sports, Matt Johnson, Italian exploitation movies, Max Landis, Armond White, early silent film, Béla Tarr, Wang Bing, cop shows, movies being too long, animated kids movies, Harmony Korine, Dogma 95, Charlie Kaufman, and Next (2007).


    Music by SHADE08

    Fruitless
    enNovember 27, 2023

    Israel-Palestine (feat. Keanu Heydari)

    Israel-Palestine (feat. Keanu Heydari)

    Keanu Heydari joins Josiah to discuss the history of Palestine, Zionism, and the state of Israel in light of the war in Gaza. As always, he is incredibly insightful.

    Follow today’s guest on Twitter, and remember to check out his podcast and his website.

    Find more of Josiah’s work here

    Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton

    Resources

    • The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History by James L. Gelvin
    • Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick
    • The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi
    • The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé
    • The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories by Ilan Pappé
    • Shell Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel's Gaza Assault by Mohammed Omer

    Other texts mentioned

    • The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington
    • Orientalism by Edward W. Said
    • Israel and South Africa: The Many Faces of Apartheid by Ilan Pappé
    • Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria by Joshua Cole
    • Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, c. 1800-1900 by Julia A. Clancy-Smith
    • Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World by Ussama Makdisi


    Music

    Yesterday – bloom.

    In My Dreams – bloom.

    [Preview] Iowa Democrats vs. Palestinian Solidarity (feat. Justin Comer & Gavin Aronsen)

    [Preview] Iowa Democrats vs. Palestinian Solidarity (feat. Justin Comer & Gavin Aronsen)

    THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

    EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/iowa-democrats-92538451

    Justin Comer (Rock Hard Caucus) and Gavin Aronsen (Iowa Informer) join Josiah to discuss the Iowa Democratic Party's attack on University of Iowa Democrats after they issued a statement supporting Palestine. While this is a local Iowan story, it's also a case study in a broader trend of liberals attacking Palestinian solidarity, both on campuses and in their own ranks, especially surrounding the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." 

    Music by SHADE08

    [Preview] The Fruitless Halloween Special

    [Preview] The Fruitless Halloween Special

    THIS IS A PREVIEW. IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK OUT FRUITLESS ON PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141

    EPISODE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fruitless-91915168

    Josiah and Jackal open up the Discord voice channel to take calls from former Fruitless guests, Phil Cozzi and Jake the Lawyer. They talk about horror and try to get Josiah into anime. This episode is brought to you by Cloverfield.


    Music by SHADE08

    Fruitless
    enOctober 30, 2023

    Slit-Mouthed Worms from the Lost Decade

    Slit-Mouthed Worms from the Lost Decade

    CW: some discussion of suicide and abortion

    Jackal joins Josiah to discuss J-Horror. Specifically Noroi: The Curse (2005) and Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! File 01 - Operation Capture the Slit-Mouthed Woman (2012), as well as The Worst of All Possible World’s fantastic video essay on Pulse (2001). They discuss the impact of the Lost Decade on the development of J Horror and the similarities that era in Japan has with the present United States, as well as J Horror's long term impact on horror.

    For more Jackal, check out Mammonburg and The Good Apples.

    Become a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141
    Check out Fruitless on YouTube
    Find more of Josiah’s work here: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsutton

    Follow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsutton


    Films/videos
    Noroi: The Curse (2005) is on Shudder
    You can find Senritsu File 01 on YouTube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhVRLwexVtU
    The Worst of All Possible World's video on Pulse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv4kDWuUDTc

    Audio
    Bloomberg clip about the Lost Decade: https://youtu.be/3FwiIx99VQk

    Yesterday – bloom.

    In My Dreams – bloom.