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The Modernist Society - Coronavirus Potluck

Coronavirus Potluck – The Modernist Society Ep. 7

The Modernist · April 2, 2020April 3, 2020

It’s an all-star cast in this special episode in which we ring up past Modernist Society guests and other folks around the world to talk about how the coronavirus pandemic is shaking out where they live and what lies ahead. Also… they help us pick songs for a COVID-19 playlist. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll …

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Shane Bugbee on The Joys of Satanism- The Modernist Society Ep. 6

The Modernist · March 4, 2020March 5, 2020

Our guest this time is Shane Bugbee: artist, writer, publisher, provocateur, and all-around hustler. Shane is one of the most prolific makers of things we know and he drops by Eric’s place to talk about The Joys of Satanism, Bill Ayers’ quinoa collection, getting “jumped in” to underground culture in Chicago, publishing Mike Diana, watching …

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Anna Fifield – The Modernist Society Episode 3

The Modernist · November 3, 2019November 21, 2019

Joining us this time is Anna Fifield, she’s currently the Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, but before that she was the Post’s Tokyo bureau chief, which also meant covering the Koreas. She is the author of what we think is the best book on North Korea out there– The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny …

A shirtless Thomas Morton recording an episode of The Modernist Society

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Thomas Morton – The Modernist Society episode 2

The Modernist · September 18, 2019November 21, 2019

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to get detained in Nigeria with legendary VICE correspondent Thomas Morton, have we got a show for you. To be clear, he does not talk about being detained in Nigeria (which did happen back when he and and The Modernist Society co-host Jason Mojica were doing a story about West African Truckers), but this very episode is, in effect, a good analog of that situation: we’re locked down to a fixed geographic location, passing the time by talking about whatever esoteric shit comes to mind until at some seemingly random moment… it’s over.

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The Modernist Society Returns!

The Modernist · August 15, 2019November 21, 2019

After a ten year hiatus, The Modernist Society returns in podcast form. The Modernist Society began in 2003 as a DJ night in Chicago, became a debaucherous salon in DC, and comes to you now as a podcast wherever you happen to be. Each month, hosts Jason Mojica and Eric Ottens bring you intimate conversations with practitioners of …

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Meet Kim Jong Un’s Unauthorized Biographer

Jason Mojica · June 11, 2019August 16, 2019

Anna Fifield has written a deeply-sourced, rigorously researched portrait of one of the most elusive–and ruthless–leaders on the world stage. Few books about North Korea could rightfully be called “page-turners,” but Anna Fifield’s The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, is one of them. In it, Fifield has painstakingly reconstructed …

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The best journalism book of 2019 came out in 2018

Jason Mojica · May 31, 2019August 16, 2019

Charlie LeDuff’s Sh*tshow! is as much a critique of the news media as it is a portrait of the United States during a period of significant change. The dog ate my homework. I should have published something about Charlie LeDuff’s book, Sh*tshow!: The Country’s Collapsing and the Ratings Are Great, a year ago when it first came …