I told you guys I had a surprise coming up. It’s not the one some of you might have been hoping, but it’s just as good and the other surprise is almost ready! I’ve started a second podcast with an author and friend, John David Ebert. This will be a looser, biweekly (and maybe more frequent in the future) podcast that will give me an opportunity to connect with you on a more regular basis to discuss current events and contemporary trends with an eye toward the broader issues and historical dynamics you’re used to hearing in MartyrMade. (MartyrMade remains my priority, of course, and will not be affected. The point of this podcast is that I can do it over a few drinks without the kind of research and preparation I put into MartyrMade… it’s an opportunity to chat!) It’s called The Decline of the West, a title taken from one of the great non-fiction works of the interwar period by German author Oswald Spengler. In his magnum opus, The Decline of the West, interwar German author and philosopher of history Oswald Spengler sketched out a cultural physiognomy which traced humanity’s major civilizations along an arc resembling the life cycle of a biological organism. From a violent birth out of a dark, atavistic past, through stages of growth and mastery, on to a final period of decadent sclerosis, echoes of this general form can be found in the great civilizations as reliably as the stages of birth, growth, maturity, and decay follow one another in an individual life. Earlier civilizations, lacking access to comprehensive histories of those who had traveled the path before them, could only understand their momentary circumstances in the general terms of myth and ritual. But we do not have to settle for slotting our era into general Ages of Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Iron. Uniquely in history, the contemporary West can understand its predicament in terms of historical analogy, looking to what we know of the past to find clues to our present and future. What does Donald Trump have to do with Julius Caesar? Are there constants in the way civilizations respond to a refugee crisis? What can contemporary film tell us about the unconscious anxieties of our age? What is mythological meaning of al Qaeda and the Islamic State, and can the West generate compelling myths to compete with violent millenarianism? Does resurgent nationalism portend an approaching crackup of the nation state system? Nothing is off-limits, so buckle up, we’re going in! My co-host, John David Ebert, is the author of several books on topics ranging from science & religion, contemporary art & philosophy, film, new media, and more. Follow him at his two sister blogs, Cinema Discourse and Cultural Discourse. Cinema Discourse takes a look at film as the archetypal art form of the West in the 20th century, and explores its implications from an art historical standpoint. Cultural Discourse hosts essays exploring current events and contemporary social trends through lenses varying from ancient mythology to postmodern philosophy. Listen on iTunes! Other listening options coming soon!