Episode Details

From fleeing Nazi Germany to becoming the unlikely intellectual idol of the 1960s student radicals, this week we explore the life and legacy of Herbert Marcuse,. We trace his journey from the Frankfurt School to his surprising work with the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) during World War II, and finally to his tenure at universities like Brandeis and UCSD where he influenced activists such as Angela Davis,,.

In this episode, we break down Marcuse’s most famous concepts, including:

• The One-Dimensional Man: How advanced industrial society assimilates the working class, leading people to "find their soul" in their commodities like automobiles and hi-fi sets.
• Repressive Desublimation: The idea that the flood of sexual provocations in mass culture actually serves to reinforce political repression.
• Repressive Tolerance: His controversial argument that "liberating tolerance" requires intolerance toward right-wing movements to ensure marginalized voices are heard,.

Join us as we discuss why Marcuse shifted his hope for revolution from the proletariat to "outsiders" and the socially marginalized, and why he jokingly corrected the media to call him the "grandfather," rather than the father, of the New Left,.