80 Comments
founding
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

I was sort of sad when Matt had to leave the show to write a book, but Aaron came in and he has been killing it. Aaron 2024 for sure! I really love the Monday Mourning show. Thanks to you all for sitting through that MSM crap. I like to at least keep up to date with what MSM is saying, but I absolutely can't stand the propaganda. So thanks for distilling it for us.

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

I don't think you guys have fully exhausted the topic of necrophilia and the moral and ethical complexities thereof.

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

BTW - congrats on your first Independence Day anniversary!

Expand full comment

100% agree. Biden's corpse isn't gonna fuck itself...

Expand full comment

I'm excited to death to hear more of that...

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

What do I like? That UI brings a jovial tone to otherwise distressing matters while being informative and unabashedly heterodox.

See more of? Cornel West, Abby Martin, Adolph Reed, and Chris Hedges.

See less of? Chuck Todd. Every Monday that flop sweat of a corporate shill ruins what would otherwise be a perfectly pleasant time between Katie, Matt and Aaron recapping the dregs that Sunday offers.

Topics? Come on, UI has its finger on the pulse of the nation.

Favorite interviews? Including the above, I was really surprised by how great the interview with Erin Brockovich went.

Who else? I would love to see Slavoj Žižek on the show. He and Katie could have a long, convoluted discussion on the morality of necrophilia.

Joe Sacco would be a great guest.

I don't know, Joy Williams, Don Delillo, James W. Loewen?

Wilson 2024

Expand full comment

No to Abby Martin. Her brother trashes Aaron and Matt all the time.

Expand full comment

Has she ever went at them personally in a disingenuous manner though?

Expand full comment

She is more sly in how she talks and hasn’t mentioned them by name that I know of. Robbie definitely has and it’s clear Abby agrees with him.

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

Love the show and I think that Aaron is doing a wonderful job, but I’m a big-time Katie Halper fan as I appreciate her twisted mix of humor and political savvy. My favorite interviews were Cornell West, Marianne Williamson, Thomas Frank. I’d love to see Slavoj Zizec, Ralph Nader, Eddie Glaud, …..I’d really love to see the two of you bounce Tucker Carlson around the room like a basketball…..any chance of that happening?….( also if you could go back in time and bring back the OG Bernie Sanders cuz the one walking around now is a pod-person…..

Expand full comment
founding
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

Love the jokes and tone of the show. Like to see more host banter. I would love an interview with Yanis Varoufakis. Aaron for president 100%.

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

It's always nice to hear Matt Wilson chime in during episodes. The fact it happens pretty rarely makes it seem like a fun treat when he interjects, but i'm of the greedy view that we can't have too much.

As for interviews, the one which stands out to me was Mansoor Adayfi. Informative and very moving, and UI at its best - giving an overlooked story the time and depth required to truly get a human understanding of it.

I'd love to see an interview with Andrew Feinstein. He's one of the world's foremost anti-arms trade campaigners; he resigned his position as an ANC MP in South Africa in protest at the government's corruption; and he repeatedly vouched for Jeremy Corbyn and decried the bullshit antisemitism smear campaign directed against Corbyn, making an unfavourable comparison of the british media against south african journalism. He's knowledgable on a broad array of subjects and is a very engaging speaker, and also has an interesting family background.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Feinstein

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

I love the addition of Aaron Mate and the whole Monday Mourning segment because watching that shit is terrible. Look forward to Matt coming back when he is finished with his book. I love any segment with Thomas Frank because of his insight and sense of humor. I love the Horne, Hedges, Bennis segments…I dont know if you have had on Lawrence Wilkerson but he would be a good addition. I know Aaron was a producer on Democracy Now and may have had a falling out but Juan Gonzales would be a great guest, I dont feel he gets enough exposure on DN. You guys should do a segment called How Far The (Mighty) Have Fallen…as a 55 year old man I became reacquainted with electoral politics after a 25 year career/sabbatical and Bernie brought me back in. So many outlets I considered part of my daily education like TYT and Majority Report have become a labor to endure…that being said, I still enjoy Sam Seder’s interviews and Jamie Peck on Twitter, so much died with the incredible Michael Brooks. Maybe hosting Sara Nelson, Harvey Kaye, more union content and some interesting candidates like Fetterman! Jen Briney is a must and would like to see a alternative media collective featuring all the credible talents out there…we love you work and are supporters! Thanks!

Expand full comment

I like your site, but I wish you would write more. Almost all of these substack sites are increasingly publishing podcasts, and increasingly I (and probably others) cannot find the time to listen to hours and hours of podcasts. Write, write, please write more.

Expand full comment

Funny I am feeling overwhelmed by both lol. So many newsletters and podcasts, only so many hours in the day.

Expand full comment

or is this the only way you wish to communicate.?

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

Favourite interviews are Thomas Frank and Adolph Reed. Would love to see more of them. Turned me on to so many great books through these two. Also read two Taibbi books and am just starting his newest. I love how the show talks a lot about the influence of the media on society in Monday Mourning and just in general. Matt's analysis is brilliant but then Katie and Aaron have amazing insights into this as well. I have always been interested in the impact of the media and it's shifting priorities and I would love to be exposed to others discussing this. Long time listener here from Canada and so glad I found this podcast back you were still affliiated with Rolling Stone. Happy anniversary everybody.

Expand full comment

Only suggestion is more Wilson convo during the show, he's the power behind the throne.

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

I think the irreverence for anything is the best part. Also, the exposure of the truth at all costs is probably the biggest reason I pay for/support UI content. I'm about as far removed as possible from your political philosophy, but you speak the truth as you discover it and seek to hold corporations and crony politicians on any side accountable.

I think you guys could focus more on bringing in dissenting opinions and possibly trying to challenge them or yourselves. I think it's important to talk with people who don't share your views, lest you become just another Fox or MSNBC. Just not in the Bill Maher and Rush Limbaugh type fashion where the guest is belittled and teamed up on.

I'd like to see Tim Pool or Wokal Distance on. Maybe Kash Patel, Luke Rudkowski, or Peter Schweizer . One person who never seems to get interviewed but is utterly fascinating and intellectually brilliant is Bethany McLean. Her investigative journalism is second to none.

My favorite interviews this past year or so were Chris Hedges, Oliver Stone, Jordan Chariton, and Katie Herzog.

Keep up the great work!

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

Personally I've been pretty upset and angry with the show since the Ukraine invasion. I've paused my subscription and am getting close to dropping the show from my normal listening. Although you're not shy about prefacing things with 'obviously the invasion is bad' the focus of the show is still a constant critique of the US government and mainstream media. You've spent lots of time on rehashing events in 2014 or on poor RT journalists now looking for work.

With Matt Taibbi I felt like there was a strong value of objectivity and truth seeking. Since Aaron joined it just feels like 'whattabout' spin spin spin.

I would ask you to back burner the 'censorship' and 'its all the US's fault' beats for now and instead focus on talking to real people and journalists in Ukraine, and maybe Russian, too. If you think sending weapons to Ukraine is a bad idea, then get someone there to discuss that with you, for example.

Expand full comment

There is history to the conflict being ignored by legacy media. Needs to be discussed. There is dimension to the conflict being ignored by most media (censorship, hypocrisy, etc.). UI provides context otherwise largely left out. Context is important. UI is doing a good job. Hope they keep it up.

Expand full comment

I like Matt Taibbi's writing as much as Aaron's, but I think Matt brought too much neutrality to his video interviews and the show as opposed to Aaron's objectivity.

Objectively seen (as much as any human can be objective), the invasion is bad because Putin succumbed to 30 years of western baiting and threw the first big punch. From Russia's point of view, however, the West threw the first big punch. His points, 8 years of civil war in the Donbas where 80% of the casualities are ethnic Russians being killed through shelling by the Ukraine government (a breaking of the Minsk II agreement THEY signed), $3 billion in weapons from the US, CIA training Ukrainians to fight Russians, the integration of Nazis heading key government cabinet positions (including securty) who have the stated goal of killing all Russians. Oh, and that little point that a week before the invasion the US still wouldn't rule out NATO membership and Zelenskyy went to Germany and talked about the possibility of getting nukes into the Ukraine AND joining NATO.

That objective context matters. No, it doesn't excuse an invasion to my mind. But objectively seen, Russia can claim (as they have) that they are ending a war, not starting one, and that position has merit whether I - or you - personally agree with it or not.

The fact that what I just wrote would get me banned from social media if I was an "influencer" speaks to how weak democracy is in the US. That is a HUGE problem now and for the future.

This war will not end until both sides are talking to each other, or one side is completely destroyed. If the side that gets destroyed is Russia, most likely the human race will go with them. The US has known for years that the Ukraine can't win militarily against Russia alone, so we have been and are pumping more weapons into the country. The end result will be the same. Either we all die, or Ukraine gets MORE destroyed than now.

The only way to stop the above is by talking and understanding each other. The only way to understand each other is by not censoring the other side's opinions. So censoring is an extremely important topic.

Expand full comment
Mar 16, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

I just started listening/watching recently, first to the Monday Mourning show. In the absence of any active anti-war movement (unlike in my youth during Vietnam war times when we had the draft and actual combat facing us), we need to at least find fact-based voices of sanity to hear and read. So no real criticisms at this time. Keep up the great work! And don't you think we could make a Haiku poem out of Chuck Todd's incoherent mumbling about the different shades of evil, like someone did with Rumsfeld's musings on known and unknown? (I know Chuck's not as mystical as Rummy was)

Expand full comment

Some outstanding work - guests, production, content quality - all top drawer! Long may it last!

The 4 food groups gets old from time to time (but I recognize the need for structure) - so it is what it is :)

Expand full comment
Mar 17, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

Guys!! I've been telling you for ages. Get Jennifer Briney on UI. Her Congressional Dish podcast will be looked upon as a national treasure in the future (if we get to have a future). Trust me on this, she's a sleeper with all of the right information on "our" branch of government and what those mongrels are doing in our name, and with our tax dollars. Get her on with David Sirota or BJG if need be and watch the magic!

Halper 2024-----> "I'm with her"

Love to Mourn with you Guys.

So glad to support your collective work, Useful Forever!!!

(Free Julian Assange, free Palestine and end all sanctions!!!)

Expand full comment
Mar 17, 2022Liked by Matt Wilson

In addition to the interviews with the political commentators like Reed, Hedges, et al., I really enjoyed UI peppering in interviews with people I had never heard of prior, like Walter Kirn and that guy who made his own vaccine.

Expand full comment
author

Josiah Zayner was one of my favorites too

Expand full comment