Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s eighth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In his last appearance, episode #243, he and Robinson discussed 2025 and the first weeks of Trump’s presidency, as well as what’s to come. More particularly, they discuss the irrelevance of Donald Trump, his domestic and global policies, China, narratives on the right and left, and the future of the United States. In this episode, they continue the discussion by diving deeper into recent events, Doge, Elon Musk, the relationship between Trump and Hitler, and important historical Marxists. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:27 What Do Trump and Hitler Have in Common?

00:09:42 Is This the Democratic Party’s Worst Crisis?

00:14:58 Is Trump’s Economic Policy a Hail Mary?

00:26:29 The Mexican Deportation Crisis

00:30:19 Global Retaliation Against American Tariffs

00:33:29 America’s Big Mistake with Russian Sanctions

00:40:50 Trump’s Big TikTok Mistake

00:47:05 How Adolf Hitler Came to Power in Germany

01:08:40 Does Elon Musk Symbolize the End of America?

01:16:07 How Bosses Lie When They Fire You

01:23:08 On Elon Musk’s Chainsaw Public Relations Disaster

01:28:52 On the Drowning American Empire

01:34:36 On Elon Musk and the Self-Destruction of Tesla

01:39:27 Feudalism, Communism, and the Death of Capitalism

01:46:22 Does China Represent a New Breed of Capitalism?

01:55:16 What Can the United States Do to Beat China?

02:03:46 What Makes Mao an Important Marxist?

02:17:56 Richard Wolff’s Mediocre Ivy League Education

02:23:59 How Mao Made the China of Today

02:40:39 The Myth of European Global Dominance

02:52:08 On Antonio Gramsci and Mussolini

02:57:03 Why Is Gramsci One of the Great Marxists?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Dr. Nolan is the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has published over 350 research articles and is the holder of 50 US patents, and has been honored as one of the top 25 inventors at Stanford University. He specializes in groundbreaking cancer and immunotherapy research. Yet Garry is also a world-renowned UAP investigator and Executive Director of the Board at the Sol Foundation, one of whose unofficial mottos is: Science, Policy, and Public Education for a Post-UAP World. In this episode, Robinson and Garry discuss the evidence that aliens exist and have already visited Earth. More particularly, they discuss various hypotheses about what aliens are—interdimensional travelers, visitors from other planets, Boltzmann Brains, and others—the Atacama Mummy, Garry’s own UFO encounter, the relationship between aliens and national security, the Pentagon Videos, the Fermi Paradox, and more. Keep up with Garry through X and the Sol Foundation.

Garry’s X Account: https://x.com/GarryPNolan

The Sol Foundation: https://thesolfoundation.org

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:23 Garry’s Interest in Aliens

00:05:03 How Garry’s Medical Research Turned into Alien Investigations

00:14:44 The Alien Controversy Around the Atacama Mummy

00:24:08 What Is the Definitive Proof for Aliens?

00:29:34 What Are UAPs

00:32:46 What Are Interdimensional Aliens??

00:36:03 What Are Ultraterrestrial Aliens?

00:40:01 The Time-Traveling Alien Hypothesis

00:41:13 The Angry-Monkey Alien Hypothesis

00:43:35 The Panspermia Alien Hypothesis

00:48:20 Could Intelligent Aliens Have Come to Earth?

00:54:50 Garry’s Background in Genetics

00:57:13 Does Extraterrestrial Life Need Air and Water to Live?

01:07:16 What Is the Fermi Paradox?

01:15:56 UFOs and Government

01:22:23 Garry’s UAP Experience

01:35:27 On Telepathy and Paranormal Abilities

01:39:31 On the Credibility of Alien Witnesses

01:41:34 Does the Government Suppress UFO Reports?

01:49:11 Why Are Aerospace Companies Hiding UFO Data?

01:51:53 Does the Government Possess Alien Metals?

01:58:29 Is Knowledge of Aliens a National Security Threat?

02:02:15 On Alien Abductions and Animal Mutilations

02:06:28 The Violent Changes to Brains Exposed to UFOs

02:17:56 Garry’s Top Secret Clearance

02:19:15 The Truth About the Tic-Tac UFO Incident

02:37:25 What Is the Skywatcher UAP Contact Program?

02:46:01 The Sol Foundation

02:58:24 Why Alien Research Can Prevent Nuclear War

03:02:03 What Are Transmedium Alien UAPs?

03:04:50 Are UAPs Biological Threats?

03:06:31 On Avi Loeb’s Pioneering UAP Research

03:12:49 Is Jacques Vallee One of the Most Important Alien Researchers?

03:18:17 What Should You Tell Someone Who Doesn’t Believe in Aliens?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s seventh appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 237 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of another of Einstein’s major impacts on physics: his theory of general relativity. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, time, paradoxes of distance, Penrose diagrams, figures like Leonard Susskind and Richard Feynman, the curvature of space, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

00:00:42 An Extended Prelude

00:05:08 Naming Names

00:10:02 The Difference Between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity

00:13:46 Einstein on General Relativity and Metric

00:27:21 More on Coordinates

00:40:26 A Novel Coordinate System

00:46:25 What Is Special Relativity?

00:50:30 The Conflict Between Quantum Theory and Relativity

01:02:00 Doing Physics with Geometry

01:12:38 Geometry and Special Relativity

01:30:20 More on Geometry and Relativity

01:36:19 Lorentz Frames

01:46:56 Simultaneity

02:02:03 John Bell and Special Relativity

02:11:00 Paradoxes of Distance

02:22:12 A Penrose Diagram

02:27:47 Introducing General Relativity

02:32:23 The Most Important Experiment About Gravity

02:45:52 Changing the Geometry of Spacetime

02:55:28 Curvature of Space

03:02:03 Be Careful with Diagrams in Science

03:05:45 The Basic Idea of General Relativity

03:10:23 The Equivalence Principle

03:19:40 Clocks and Gravity

03:28:09 Richard Feynman on General Relativity

03:37:00 The Cosmological Constant

03:41:56 What Are Black Holes?

03:50:45 What Steven Weinberg Got Wrong About General Relativity

04:01:01 Black Holes and the Centrifugal Force Paradox

04:06:32 Curved Black Holes and Gödel Spacetime

04:19:34 The John Bell Institute

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.