WEBVTT

1
00:00:10.119 --> 00:00:12.839
<v Speaker 1>In the latest chapter of the Nome Chomsky story, the

2
00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:15.480
<v Speaker 1>man long cast as the conscience of the American left

3
00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:19.559
<v Speaker 1>is this week being publicly reappraised as much for his

4
00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:25.280
<v Speaker 1>private associations as for his public ideas. Wbur in Boston

5
00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.280
<v Speaker 1>reports that newly released emails from the US House Oversight

6
00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:32.560
<v Speaker 1>Committee show Chomsky maintained a close years long relationship with

7
00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:38.000
<v Speaker 1>convicted sexer finger Jeffrey Epstein, including warm exchanges about vacations,

8
00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.600
<v Speaker 1>use of Epstein's New York compartment, and what appears to

9
00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:45.280
<v Speaker 1>be a letter praising Epstein's talents written after Chumsky took

10
00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:50.960
<v Speaker 1>his Arizona post in twenty seventeen. Wbur notes that Chomsky's

11
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.159
<v Speaker 1>wife and spokesperson, Valeria, also corresponded cordially with Epstein and

12
00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:00.000
<v Speaker 1>did not respond to their request for comment. These documents,

13
00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.200
<v Speaker 1>years after Epstein's death, are now being mined as biographical

14
00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:08.920
<v Speaker 1>evidence suggesting a serious blind spot in Chomsky's judgment about

15
00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:12.680
<v Speaker 1>power and money in his personal life. In sharp contrast

16
00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:19.680
<v Speaker 1>to his lifelong public critique of both, Indian outlet scrawldot

17
00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:22.519
<v Speaker 1>In has seized on the same trove to ask what

18
00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:28.439
<v Speaker 1>Chomsky's Epstein friendship reveals about progressive politics, more broadly, arguing

19
00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:31.239
<v Speaker 1>that his willingness to treat Epstein as a normal elite

20
00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:35.920
<v Speaker 1>contact complicates the moral clarity with which his admirers have

21
00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.280
<v Speaker 1>long framed his career. On YouTube, a lengthy new video

22
00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.959
<v Speaker 1>essay titled Requiem for Chomsky by the channel bad Impanada

23
00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:50.400
<v Speaker 1>attempts an end run around both hagiography and cancelation, revisiting

24
00:01:50.439 --> 00:01:55.400
<v Speaker 1>his record on Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda and contending that

25
00:01:55.519 --> 00:02:00.120
<v Speaker 1>accusations of genocide denial misrepresent his position, even as the

26
00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:04.439
<v Speaker 1>Epstein revelations cast a dark of shadow over his legacy. Meanwhile,

27
00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:07.799
<v Speaker 1>a very different kind of summing up the peers. In CounterPunch,

28
00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:12.599
<v Speaker 1>where Michael K. Smith's piece Shame was the spur, the

29
00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:16.719
<v Speaker 1>public Life of Nom Chomsky sketches his trajectory from Mit

30
00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:20.879
<v Speaker 1>Linguistic's prodigy to Vietnam War resister willing to risk prison,

31
00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.639
<v Speaker 1>to the aging critic who, after a massive stroke in

32
00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:29.439
<v Speaker 1>June twenty twenty three, is reportedly partially paralyzed and largely

33
00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:33.039
<v Speaker 1>unable to speak, yet still reacts with visible anguish to

34
00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:37.360
<v Speaker 1>images from Palestine. According to his wife, that essay carries

35
00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:41.960
<v Speaker 1>an unmistakable tone of finality, treating Chomsky's final public years

36
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.879
<v Speaker 1>as effectively over and framing his remaining time as a

37
00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:49.319
<v Speaker 1>kind of silent witness to the crises he spent decades

38
00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:53.919
<v Speaker 1>warning about. In the media world, his intellectual shadow remains long.

39
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:57.039
<v Speaker 1>The Nation recently ran an assessment of the worlds of

40
00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:59.719
<v Speaker 1>nom Champs to portraying him as the pre eminent critic

41
00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:03.199
<v Speaker 1>of us US Empire, while questioning whether his famous propaganda

42
00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:08.759
<v Speaker 1>model fully fits taste fragmented social media landscape. Vegout magazine,

43
00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:12.280
<v Speaker 1>of all places, has used his ideas on manufactured consent

44
00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:16.759
<v Speaker 1>to explain my boomer parents still trust establishment news, and

45
00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:20.719
<v Speaker 1>in academia, institutions like the College de France and Imperial

46
00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:27.000
<v Speaker 1>College are organizing events that explicitly position contemporary debates on democracy, rationality,

47
00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:31.800
<v Speaker 1>and the humanities as rejoinders to or extensions of Chomsky's work,

48
00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:35.240
<v Speaker 1>underscoring that his thought is now a canonical reference point

49
00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:38.039
<v Speaker 1>to argue with as much as to honor. There are

50
00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:42.520
<v Speaker 1>at this moment no credible reports of new public appearances, interviews,

51
00:03:42.919 --> 00:03:47.280
<v Speaker 1>or direct statements from Chomsky himself. Given his documented health condition,

52
00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:51.319
<v Speaker 1>it is widely assumed he is retired from active public life,

53
00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:56.120
<v Speaker 1>but that remains inference rather than confirmed medical detail. What

54
00:03:56.280 --> 00:03:59.400
<v Speaker 1>is firmly established is that the battle over his legacy

55
00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.840
<v Speaker 1>has entered a new phase, with journalists, scholars, and online

56
00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:08.439
<v Speaker 1>commentators all racing to define how future biographies will balance

57
00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:12.599
<v Speaker 1>the towering critic of power with the frail, silent man

58
00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:16.000
<v Speaker 1>whose private email trail leads straight into the home of

59
00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:21.079
<v Speaker 1>Jeffrey Epstein. You have been listening to Nom Chomsky Audio Biography.

60
00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:24.439
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for tuning in and be sure to subscribe

61
00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:28.519
<v Speaker 1>so you never miss an update on Noam Chomsky. And

62
00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:31.519
<v Speaker 1>if you enjoy fast, focused life stories like this one,

63
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:36.199
<v Speaker 1>search the term biography flash for more great biographies. And

64
00:04:36.279 --> 00:04:38.720
<v Speaker 1>that is it for today. Make sure you hit the

65
00:04:38.759 --> 00:04:42.480
<v Speaker 1>subscribe button and never miss an update on Nom Chomsky.

66
00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:46.600
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening. This has been a quiet please production
