KIRAC Podcast

The USA is parading its incontinence, pissing everywhere. In the rest of the world, outsiders study the puddles and taste the piss. An example is Iran. We will start this talk with a short segment on Iranian propaganda, but we will talk mainly about something coming from the Vatican. 
Franciscan friar Paolo Benanti, a Vatican advisor on AI, has written an article fantasising about burning Peter Thiel alive to protect democracy. You see, he is happy. Finally he feels his theology is useful.
From our cheerful and untouched bubble, we assess his attack, and agree that the Church is wasting its time, so long as it neglects what is within its reach: art spectacle and imagination. In other words, Rome should return to the business of Counter-Reformation.
65 minutes
Support KIRAC and watch the full archive of films and talks on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/keepingitrealartcritics

The Grace of George Soros
George Soros is usually discussed in the language of conspiracy or moral piety. But to understand someone it does actually make sense to listen to what they have to say. A beyond good and evil look at this impressive man. Join us for a mini voyage into the world of Soros.
KIRAC makes art films released as Episodes. In our Salons we test ideas that later become Episodes. Our discussion of Soros is part of a series on the future of art beyond the post-war order.
Support KIRAC and watch the full archive of films and talks on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/keepingitrealartcritics

Pietro Aretino's Whore Dialogues. Written in Renaissance Venice.
"The vices of women talked about freely."
A book about a functioning society because everybody's always needing something from someone else. The masters need the slaves to bring the food from the land. The woman needs the slaves to have sex with. The master needs the sixteen-year-old beautiful girl to prance with, to feel young. And so everything clasps in each other in this sort of deeply unholy orgy of people.
Support KIRAC and watch the full archive of films and talks on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/keepingitrealartcritics

“I would probably not have recognized Shakespeare,” says Tyler Cowen, who runs an experimental art fund on billionaire tech money. He calls this realisation humbling, then does nothing about it. A crucial problem in his practice. If he can’t recognise great art, what’s the point of running the fund? A fund that claims to be searching for new aesthetics and the new great art.
Together with Patrick Collison, the founder of Stripe, Tyler has recently announced a call and financial reward for artists and architects to propose a new aesthetics. In this talk we also propose to Patrick and Tyler an adequate way of converting money into great art.
You should watch. Patrick and Tyler should watch as well. If anyone has a direct line to them, please forward it to them.
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This conversation explores the relationship between tech billionaires and contemporary art, focusing on Patrick Collison (Stripe) and Tyler Cowen’s call for artists to help define the aesthetic of the 21st century. We discuss beauty, modernism, Scruton, Ortega y Gasset, philanthropy, and the role of elite patronage in shaping culture. This is part of the ongoing KIRAC series on art, truth, and power.
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Sepeli Saeculum!
“Well, you could say you want to make it the most masculine century, because that is what the females would like.”
This conversation starts in Los Angeles where Isa, surrounded by artists and technologists, get's a Nietzsche tramp stamp, to celebrate her dedication to art and philosophy. 
We meditate on a few things: - The 21st century is going to be a great century for women.- Techné returns. The ancient Greek unity of art and technology, broken apart by the Enlightenment, comes back.- Alex Karp (CEO of Palantir) sees himself as the bridge, applying the post Holocaust dialectics he studied under Jürgen Habermas to the machinery of the U.S. military. Karp views the creation of advanced software as an artistic endeavor that captures the zeitgeist decades before it is understood. His “Technological Republic” seeks to provide a preferable method of improving the world through capitalistic, self regulating principles rather than top down political solutions.
Other tags and topics: Michel Houellebecq, Peter Thiel, Nick Fuentes, JD Vance, Trump, Frankfurt School, liberalism, atomisation, dialectics, AI kill chains, Rumble platform, Nick Land, Bari Weiss, future of art, Stefan Ruitenbeek, Kate Sinha.
Special Credits:All our PatronsMichal Connor, host, friend, musicianBrant Teunis, music
28 minutes on Tuesday, December 23, 2025