Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Full conversation: nonzero.org/p/how-americas-system-shuts-down-dissent

0:00 Barry’s new novel, ‘The System’
2:09 CIA lessons & seeing like a Martian
6:53 Fiction, empathy, and geopolitics
9:31 No cartoon villains
10:58 How power really works in DC
15:01 Feinstein vs. Brennan: the 'sit down'
18:08 Why we excuse ourselves
19:41 Jobs, jets & hidden threats
21:04 The problem with the House
25:51 Valeria’s dilemma: bend or break
29:46 How power corrupts
37:11 Humiliation and geopolitics

Discussed in Overtime:
Language games & media myths.
Understanding the biases of establishment media.
The power of secrecy.
What fiction reveals about politics.

Recorded June 27, 2025.

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