On episode 261, we welcome Ilan Stavans to discuss the historical incarnations of god, god as a symbol of both oppression and liberty, Moses's rebellion against god and how it symbolizes modern faith, god as an ineffable experience, why we continue to create god, militant atheism as a response to deep-seated hope for the existence of god, Jesus dying for the sins of Yahweh, morality without religion, and god in the age of AI.

Ilan Stavans is the publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic's Journey. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile's Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans's work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. Ilan is also the host of the NPR-affiliated podcast "In Contrast." His new book, available on June 30, 2026, is called A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands.

| Ilan Stavans |

► Website | https://restlessbooks.org/our-team

► Podcast | https://www.nepm.org/in-contrast-a-podcast-on-culture-in-the-making

► A Nation Wrestles With God Book | https://bit.ly/ANationWrestlesWithGod

Where you can find us:

| Seize The Moment Podcast |

► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/SeizeTheMomentPodcast

► Twitter | https://twitter.com/seize_podcast

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/seizethemomentpodcast

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On episode 260, we welcome David Ost to discuss the philosophy of the red pill movement, the similarities and differences between red pill and fascism, why people are drawn to authoritarian figures, the rise of Trump, populism as an ideological framework for fascism, Soviet communism as the extreme end of the left's failures to improve lives, sports and worker's rights, and the New York Knicks as a symbol of class struggle.

David Ost is an emeritus professor of politics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who has written widely on eastern Europe, left and right politics, and labor and democracy. He is the author of Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics, The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe, as well as editor/author of Class After Communism, and co-editor/author of Workers After Workers' States. He has written for a wide variety of scholarly and popular publications. His new book, available now, is called Red Pill Politics: Demystifying the Far Right from Fascism to Right-Wing Populism.

| David Ost |

► Website | https://annlarsonwrites.com, https://economichardship.org/author/annlarson

► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/david.ost.10

► Red Pill Politics Book | https://amzn.to/3S5ZWm9

Where you can find us:

| Seize The Moment Podcast |

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On episode 259, we welcome Ann Larson to discuss her experience working as a grocery cashier during the COVID-19 pandemic, the complex emotional and structural factors involved in professional success and failure, meritocracy as a simplification of economic outcomes, the multiple forms of labor involved in supermarket work, the difference between one's status and skillset, food waste at the expense of wages, and the importance of community in surviving low wage work.

Ann Larson's writing on education, debt, and low-wage work has appeared in The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fast Company, and The Nation, among other publications. She is coauthor of Can't Pay Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition and is a fellow with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Her new book, available June 9, 2026, is called Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register.

| Ann Larson |

► Website | https://annlarsonwrites.com, https://economichardship.org/author/annlarson

► Twitter | https://x.com/AnnLLarson

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/annlarsonslc

► Cleanup on Aisle Five Book | https://bit.ly/CleanuponAisleFive

Where you can find us:

| Seize The Moment Podcast |

► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/SeizeTheMomentPodcast

► Twitter | https://twitter.com/seize_podcast

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/seizethemomentpodcast

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