Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

👉 Pitch in on Patreon and fuel the future of free-thinking conversations. https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews Also visit our returning sponsor Mike Swanson's Wall Street Window for the best financial and trading newsletter around:https://wallstreetwindow.com/ On this edition of Parallax Views, J.G. Michael is joined by freelance film journalist Corey Atad, who has written for such publications as The Baffler and Defector, to break down the growing likelihood of Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery and what a Netflix–Warner Bros. merger would mean for Hollywood, media competition, and the future of cinema. The discussion examines how Netflix’s ambitions could end up reshaping the entertainment industry—often at the expense of workers, audiences, and cultural life. Atad also analyzes David Ellison’s attempted hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, a move widely seen as an effort to block a Netflix takeover. Despite positioning himself as an alternative to Netflix, Ellison—who is aligned with MAGA political networks and Silicon Valley power structures—raises serious concerns due to his erratic leadership style and behind-the-scenes dealings, including reported personal outreach to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav while actively attempting to seize control of the company. The episode further explores fears that a Paramount–Skydance merger could transform CNN into a MAGA-aligned media outlet, with Atad arguing that the deeper issue may be the accelerating collapse of cable news itself rather than partisan capture alone. A central theme of the conversation is how Netflix and streaming consolidation threaten movie theaters, which Atad frames as vital communal spaces in a time of increasing social atomization. Michael and Atad discuss how the Netflix business model, rooted in a Silicon Valley “disruptive” mindset, prioritizes scale and dominance over shared cultural experiences—placing theatrical exhibition and mid-budget filmmaking at risk. The episode concludes by arguing that neither Netflix absorbing Warner Bros. nor a Skydance takeover represents a good outcome, and that a functioning democratic state would prevent this level of media consolidation in the first place. Special attention is given to how a Netflix–Warner Bros. deal could harm Canada’s media industry, where Atad is based. In other words, this episode discusses regulation, monopoly, culture, the potential death of theaters, and what it all in the bigger picture for America and the world through a conversation about Netflix's acquiring Warner Bros. It's a doozy at around 2 hours but should interest movie and non-movie fans alike!

👉 Pitch in on Patreon and fuel the future of free-thinking conversations. https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews Also visit our returning sponsor Mike Swanson's Wall Street Window for the best financial and trading newsletter around:https://wallstreetwindow.com/ On this edition of Parallax Views, J.G. Michael is joined by Mickey Huff, director of Project Censored, to discuss Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2026, a landmark edition marking the 50th anniversary of the long-running media watchdog organization. The annual report offers all the news relevant to the public that the mainstream media ignored. Huff reflects on the origins of Project Censored under Sonoma State University professor Carl Jensen during the Watergate era and explores how its mission to highlight underreported stories and challenge entrenched power structures in the media remains as vital as ever. The conversation also delves into the escalating crisis of corporate news media consolidation, with special attention to concerns surrounding CNN’s potential acquisition by Paramount-Skydance and what such shifts mean for journalistic independence, public trust, and the future of a free press. In the final portion of the episode, Huff discusses his work at the Park Media Center and the Izzy Awards (named in honor of legendary independent journalist I.F. Stone) spotlighting the importance of recognizing investigative journalism that holds power accountable.

👉 Pitch in on Patreon and fuel the future of free-thinking conversations. https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews Also visit our returning sponsor Mike Swanson's Wall Street Window for the best financial and trading newsletter around:https://wallstreetwindow.com/ On this episode of Parallax Views, J.G. Michael speaks with acclaimed journalist and author Jacob Ward, former NBC News technology correspondent and author of The Loop: How AI Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back. Ward lays out his thesis that commercial AI is quietly reshaping human decision-making—much like GPS rewired our sense of direction—by exploiting the shortcuts and biases built into our brains. We explore Ward’s early research into algorithmic influence, how his work anticipated today’s conversations around “AI psychosis,” and why the public’s psychological relationship with these systems is becoming increasingly unstable. The conversation also dives into the emerging “AI hivemind” problem: the risk that large-scale, widely adopted AI systems may compress human culture and thought into homogenized patterns, narrowing the diversity of choices, perspectives, and creative possibilities. Ward offers concrete insights on what institutions can do to safeguard human autonomy, what individuals can do to resist passive decision-outsourcing, and what the next five years of AI development might bring—both the dangers and the opportunities. A deep, challenging look at the intersection of technology, psychology, and human agency—exactly the kind of perspective you expect from Parallax Views.

👉 Pitch in on Patreon and fuel the future of free-thinking conversations. https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews Also visit our returning sponsor Mike Swanson's Wall Street Window for the best financial and trading newsletter around:https://wallstreetwindow.com/ On this episode of Parallax Views, J. G. Michael speaks with sociologist and public intellectual Charles Derber about his urgent new book BONFIRE, a sweeping analysis of whether the United States is now committing sociocide, which Derber defines as a self-inflicted destruction of the social bonds that make collective life and democracy possible. Derber argues that the U.S. has crossed a historic tipping point. According to him, America has shifted from a merely sociopathic society marked by hyper-individualism and neoliberal competition into a sociocidal society where the foundational social bones of community, solidarity, and shared democratic norms are being burned away. From the breakdown of workplace and family ties to the isolating architecture of Big Tech, climate crisis, political violence, and the rise of Trumpist authoritarianism, Derber contends that America is waging a kind of war on itself. This descent threatens to culminate in what he calls policide, or the death of democratic politics altogether. Is America burning down its own social foundations? And if sociocide is societal suicide, what would it mean for the United States to choose life? This conversation confronts both the peril and the possibilities at one of the most dangerous junctures in American history.

👉 Pitch in on Patreon and fuel the future of free-thinking conversations. https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews Also visit our returning sponsor Mike Swanson's Wall Street Window for the best financial and trading newsletter around:https://wallstreetwindow.com/ On this edition of Parallax Views, J.G. Michael speaks with Jim Lobe, one of the foremost critical chroniclers of neoconservatism as an intellectual movement and a key analyst of the role neoconservatives played in shaping the post-9/11 era and the Iraq War. In light of the recent passing of former Vice President Dick Cheney, we explore Cheney’s legacy as a Machtpolitik figure who, while not himself a neocon, became the indispensable enabler and amplifier of neoconservative power inside the George W. Bush administration. Lobe walks us through the deeper history: the Cold War roots of the neoconservative worldview; the pivotal “Team B” exercise and its culture of threat inflation; and how those networks and habits of mind brought Cheney and the neocons into alignment. We trace neoconservatism’s evolution from its beginnings among largely Jewish intellectuals, including the early influence of Norman Podhoretz's Commentary magazine and Jewish liberal who became disullisioned with liberals and the Left, and key non-Jewish intellectuals like Jean Kilpatrick figures as well its eventual transformation into a major force inside the Republican foreign-policy establishment. The conversation examines how this ideological project culminated in the Iraq War and how the Cheney and neocon worldviews, from his embrace of the Unitary Executive theory to his anti-elite, anti-intellectual posture, helped pave the path toward today’s right-wing populism and, ultimately, Donald Trump. We discuss continuities and divergences between Trump and the neocons, including their shared skepticism of climate science, hostility to “political correctness” and "wokeness" and belief in a strong executive, as well as the question of whether Trump’s approach on Israel truly represents a break with neocon orthodoxy or if it is more posturing than anything concrete. Jim will also go into details on the key neocon figures in the Bush administration, the formation of the Project for a New American Century, the Paul Wolfowitz Doctrine, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and the politicization of intelligence leading up the Iraq invasion, the infamous "Securing the Realm"/"Clean Break" document and its significance to understanding neoconservatism, and much, much more. All that and much more in a wide-ranging conversation that places Cheney’s legacy, the neocons, and the currents shaping today’s right in a deeper historical and political context.