You Can't Win

Jan 12 2025 100 ep. 78 mins 3.4k

You Can't Win Podcast artwork

We're Tom and Donald. We are two trolls that are trying to make sense of the world through conversations about the traps and scams that surround us.

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Episode 162 - Correction Part Two with Mike Reads the World

Jan 12 2025 105 mins

We chat about the second half of Correction by Thomas Bernhard with Mike Reads the World and some of the ideas it sparked in us. Check out Mike Reads the World on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld We also mention the House on the Rock in Wyoming, Wisconsin as an example of eccentric building.

Episode 161 - Correction Part One with Mike Reads the World

Jan 04 2025 75 mins

We chat about the first half of Correction by Thomas Bernhard with Mike Reads the World. Check out Mike Reads the World on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld

Episode 160 - A Year in Reading with Mike Reads the World

Dec 21 2024 72 mins

We are joined by Mike from the YouTube channel Mike Reads the World to chat about his reading project and our year in reading. Mike's channel is at https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld His "favorite books" video we mention is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6aH-YHa_y4 His "Magic Mountain" essay is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyA6Oc6_pIU Mike's books mentioned

Episode 159 - Chickenbrained with Freddy

Dec 10 2024 101 mins

Our friend Freddy joins us to talk about scams, politics and how they overlap.

Episode 158 - The Essence of Reality

Nov 03 2024 78 mins

Tom walks us through the book The Essence of Reality by 'Ayn al-Qudat, a 12th Century Sufi text about going beyond the intellect to embrace mystical experience.

Episode 157 - Tom Loves Mods

Sep 24 2024 76 mins

We chat about our cookie headaches and X-Com and Lebanon and Hannah Arendt. Mentioned: Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt On Revolution by Hannah Arendt The X-Com 2 mod guy Tom mentions is christopherodd

Episode 156 - Elections in France ft Marlon Ettinger

Jul 19 2024 61 mins

Marlon Ettinger, a journalist living in France, joins Don to talk about French politics. Find Marlon on Twitter at @MarlonEttinger his new pod at @flep24pod and his book Zemmour & Gaullism.

Episode 155 - Battle Cry of Freddy ft Freddy

Jun 30 2024 89 mins

Our friend Freddy joins from Vienna to talk about his Euro-Trip, Noam Chomsky, the war in Gaza, and the point of philosophy. The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans. Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson. Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky. Left anti-communism: The Unkindest Cut by Michael Parenti. My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard. This Is a Robbery (Netflix documentary

Episode 154 - Soul Corn

Jun 02 2024 68 mins

We chat about the failing Dream Port, the peace plan, paying off our debts, soul corn, some books and elections. Mentioned: Harland's Half Acre by David Malouf. My Struggle Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard. Historical Capitalism by Immanuel Wallerstein. Language and Myth by Ernst Cassirer. Our Bloc by James Schneider.

Episode 153 - Tom and Don Go to White Castle

Feb 04 2023 69 mins

Tom and Don chat about some books and shows, including Robert Musil, Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle, Karamustafa, J.M. Coetzee, Joan Robinson, Wolf Hall, Copenhagen Cowboy and The Last of Us. Mentioned: The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk God's Unruly Friends by Ahmet T. Karamustafa The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee Economic Phi