In Response...

Free Black Thought - #9 Erec Smith

Today, Joey speaks with Professor Erec Smith. Smith is a Fellow at the Cato Institute, a Professor of Rhetoric at York College, and the President of Free Black Thought.
Joey and Erec discuss his past role as a DEI officer, Free Black Thought, the ideological stranglehold of “wokeness” on academia, gender and transgenderism, political tolerance, rhetoric, the impact of “wokeness” and “anti-wokeness” on epistemology, political correctness, ghetto culture, the welfare state, Robin DeAngelo, Robert Putnam, the crises of masculinity and loneliness, superordinate goals, political polarization, and other topics.

Speech & Controversy - #8 Amy Wax

A note from Joey concerning the controversial nature of today’s guest:
I have the right to have anyone I want on my podcast.
-Joey
Today, Joey speaks with Professor Amy Wax. Wax is an American lawyer, legal scholar, and neurologist. She graduated from Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. She is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her work deals with social welfare law and policy, and the relationship of the family, the workplace, and labor markets. Wax is the paragon of a conservative professor being persecuted by her university, which recommends she receive major sanctions for “traumatizing” her students.
Joey and Amy discuss her struggle against UPenn’s fascist bureaucrats who seek to silence her with Orwellian punishments. We agree about the broken border but disagree about mass immigration. We disagree about “race realism” but agree about the need for granular local reform in impoverished minority communities. We also discuss cancellation attempts, the DEI fraud, Hillbilly Elegy and the tragedy of the ghetto, the state of fine arts education, public schools, sex-ed and LGBT, the state of the family, Andrew Tate, the state of misogyny, and other topics.

An Enchanting Conversation - #7 Chloe Valdary

Today, Joey speaks with Chloe Valdary. Valdary is an American writer, entrepreneur, and diversity & inclusion educator. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Orleans in 2015 with a BA in International Studies. She runs the DEI program Theory of Enchantment and her new app, Dojo. She has also contributed to The New York Times and The Atlantic. Joey and Chloe discuss Theory of Enchantment, Dojo, Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Carl Jung, race, what is wrong with Critical Theory, Chloe’s criticism of Western thought as being mind-body separated, the difference between abstract and participatory knowledge, Joey’s experience with the New York Young Republican Club, the books Debt: The First 5,000 Years & The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber, Andrew Tate, the Red-Pill, Joey’s work with The Borgen Project, metta (or loving-kindness) meditation, and other topics. Valdary can be found on X @cvaldary, Instagram @cvaldary, Substack at Chloé Valdary, and her website.

Images & Ideas - #6 Stephen Hicks

Today, Joey speaks with Dr. Stephen Hicks. Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher and professor of Philosophy at Rockford University in Illinois. Hicks is also the Director of his university’s Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Hicks has written several books, including Nietzsche and the Nazis and Explaining Postmodernism. Joey and Stephen discuss the purpose of art, the state of fine arts education and the art world, the relationship between art and philosophy, 20th-century art, the triad of Marx, Freud, and Darwin, the relationship between Postmodernism and Marxism and their impact on art & culture, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, political tolerance, and other topics. Hicks can be found on X @SRCHicks and his website.

In Response to Fine Arts Education IV - #5 Peter Zokosky

Today, Joey speaks with Peter Zokosky. Peter is an American figurative artist working in drawing and painting, a Professor of Drawing & Painting, and Department Chair of Graduate Fine Arts at Laguna College of Art & Design (LCAD) in Laguna Beach, CA. Joey and Peter discuss why LCAD differs from other art schools, the difference between undergraduate and graduate fine arts education, the need for free speech in the fine arts classroom, the theoretical humanities, philosophy, and other topics. Peter and his work can be found on Instagram @zokosky and his website.

In Response to Fine Arts Education III - #4 Hope Railey

Today, Joey speaks with Hope Railey. Hope is an American figurative artist working in drawing and painting, a Professor of Drawing & Painting, and Department Chair of Undergraduate Fine Arts at Laguna College of Art & Design (LCAD) in Laguna Beach, CA. Joey and Hope discuss why LCAD is different than other art schools, the difference between LCAD and an atelier, the need for free speech in the fine arts classroom, fragility, self-censorship, reactionary conservatism in the arts, developing one’s work after college, and other topics. Hope and her work can be found on Instagram @hoperailey and her website.

Art, Music, & Civil Discourse - #3 Brent Morden

Joey’s guest today is Brent Morden. Brent is a music director, composer, arranger, educator, and arts program director. He directs the band at Columbia University, teaches jazz at Hofstra University, is the Red Co-Chair of Braver Angels’ NYC Alliance, Director of FAIR in the Arts, and Chairman of the New York Young Republican Club Arts Caucus. Brent and Joey discuss the state of discourse on college campuses, identity politics, the difference between race and culture, diversity, the value of tradition in the fine and musical arts, and other topics. Brent can be found on his Instagram @extramordenary and his website.

In Response to Fine Arts Education - #1 Julia Gould & Matthew Napoli

Joey is joined by Julia Gould and Professor Matthew Napoli. They discuss the state of fine arts education at the university level in the United States, the broken state of critique, the absence of a core curriculum in the fine arts, and solutions to these problems.
Matthew Napoli is a Providence-based artist working in representational painting and drawing. Napoli is a graduate teaching fellow at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2021 and completed a residency at the New York Academy of Art that same year. He was also the finalist for the 2022 AXA Art Prize, and in 2023, he was awarded a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Napoli can be found on Instagram @matthewjnapoli or on his website.
Julia Gould is an Artist living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. Gould holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she majored in Painting and minored in Printmaking. Her work has been exhibited and awarded by organizations such as the YoungArts Foundation in Miami, the Baltimore Museum of Art, ABR Contemporary in Tribeca, T & Y Projects in Tokyo, and the National Society for Arts and Letters in Washington, DC. In addition, she has lectured in the Baltimore area and exhibited in solo and invitational juried exhibitions. Gould can be found on Instagram @julia_gould.art or her website.

In Response to Fine Arts Education II - #2 Laurie Fendrich

Today, Joey speaks with Laurie Fendrich. Laurie is an abstract painter, art critic, and professor emerita of fine arts and art history at Hofstra University. They discuss her essay How Critical Thinking Sabotages Painting, the broken state of critique, the impact of identity politics on fine arts education, and other topics.
Fendrich is originally from Paterson, NJ, and studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Aside from Hofstra she has taught at the University of Houston, the University of Southern California, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured in distinguished solo and group exhibitions at the Armory Show, the Painting Center in NYC, the National Academy of Design, and with American Abstract Artists (AAA). She has received multiple fellowships, including with the Brown Foundation, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Fendrich has also written art criticism, as well as commentary on art history and fine arts education, for various academic publications and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Laurie and her work can be found on Instagram @lauriefendrich and her website.
Correction: During the discussion Joey incorrectly refers to the African-American artist Simone Leigh, who showed at the American Pavillion during the 2022 Venice Biennale, as Simone Biles.