User:Onetwothreeip/Michael J. Brooks

Michael Jamal Brooks (born 1983) is an American talk show host, YouTube content creator, podcaster and political analyst. In August 2017 he launched The Michael Brooks Show (TMBS) alongside his regular hosting of The Majority Report with Sam Seder.  Brooks identifies as a democratic socialist and provides regular commentary for worldwide media outlets on the politics in Middle East and the US and regular appearances on shows such as The Young Turks.

Early academic career
As an undergraduate, Brooks studied European and Turkish security studies at Middle East Technical University in Ankara Turkey and he holds a BA in Politics from Bates College.

He has provided research and insight for organisations including Virgin, UNHCR, and SACNAS.

The Michael Brooks Show
The Michael Brooks Show (TMBS) is a left-wing American politics and political satire podcast that first launched on 8th August 2017, hosted by Brooks from  Brooklyn, New York City, USA. The show is produced by Matt Lech

The Michael Brooks Show was first introduced on the YouTube channel of The Majority Report with Sam Seder on 11th July 2017. In the introduction video, the "Right-Wing Mandela radio show" was introduced, as a recurring character within The Michael Brooks Show, along with a "Nation of Islam Obama character", and others. Another regular feature includes the phrases such as 'Left is Best'.

To fund the project, TMBS Patreon was launched on 13th July 2017, with the first post being a sketch entitled "The Clintons: Murder, Running Drug Cartels, and Other Presidential Duties".

Michael is assisted during the show by his show crew David Slavick, Matt Lech, Brian Spinks, Wos Lambre, Anoa Changa, Hannah Gais, Bhaskar Sunkara, Corey Pein,  Aloyna Minkovski, and Djene Bajalan.

The program comprises of two main pieces of content each week: a live show on Youtube every Tuesday at 7pm EST, and a "weekly ideas primer" or "illicit history" segment released to Patreon patrons every Sunday.

The Tuesday live shows are in two sections, the first being a publicly broadcast show lasting around an hour usually featuring an in-depth interview with a guest known in a political or historical field of expertise. The second half (post-game) is then released to Patreon members only and contains further interviews and members' phone calls and instant messaging comments.

As part of the main show each week Michael declares someone to be deserving of being locked in "the Pyramid", with the first person inducted being Eric Weinstein of Thiel Capital, on 8th August 2017

Patreon members also receive access to a private Discord server where regular Q&A sessions occur and those who are at "Comrade level" or above on Patreon can receive monthly Skype conversations with Brooks.

Prior to the first live show, 450 individuals had pledged recurring financial support for the program through crowd-funding platform Patreon. .

As of January 2018, The Michael Brooks Show has amassed over 1000 recurring Patrons, whose financial support is rewarded with member only content and other exclusive perks, as well as access to the TMBS Discord server.

The Majority Report
Since 2012 Michael has been a host on the Majority Report with Sam Seder and he regularly solo hosts the show in Seder's absence. Michael makes contributions daily as host and producer and has helped them to become an award winning show and is credited as a contributor in their 2017 Webby Award. The Majority Report has won the Podcast Awards five times: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2017.

Other Media Work and Appearances
Alongside TMBS and The Majority Report, Brooks also co-hosts 2 Dope Boys and a Podcast which is a twice weekly trends and cultural insight podcast that examines what's happening and why in the worlds of culture, business, technology, fashion, and sports.

Michael is listed as a regular on The Young Turks, with his most recent appearance being in January 2018 where he talked about Neo-Liberalism and Climate Change, amongst other issues.

Michael Brooks has been a regular guest on a variety of other online podcasts and YouTube shows for a number of years, such as Point of Inquiry in 2015 and Benjamin Dixon, part of The Ring of Fire Network back in 2016. In January 2017 he appeared on Anoa Changa's show to reflect on the political year that was 2016. In January 2018 he appeared with bestselling author Christopher Ryan and  in February 2018, he made an appearance on the Zero-Books podcast to talk about Materialism.

He has also been a guest and political analyst on France 24, RT America, Blog Talk Radio,, Panopoly , ContraPoints, Mixed Mental Arts, Beige Phillip Show , Champagne Sharks, Huffpost Live, CCTV and Al Jazeera. .

Political Analysis and Writing
His political writing has appeared in outlets including Salon, Al Monitor, Al Jazeera, Jacobin, The Baffler, Open Democracy and he has blogged for leading trend watch site PSFK.

Brooks is also the co-author of the Buddha's Playbook, a how to guide for mindfulness meditation.

Sam Harris Controversy
Whilst hosting The Majority Report in June 2017, Michael Brooks commented on Sam Harris's views on controlling Muslim populations that Sam had made in his podcast conversation with Maajid Nawaz .

Malhar Mali the founder and editor of Areo magazine writes about this exchange in his July 2017 article 'The Sam Harris Outrage Industry ' criticising Michael's view on Sam Harris by saying:""Brooks does not stop, though. He finishes his assault by calling Harris a “trust fund baby” and “pseudoscientist.” This clip, including all the rest of the demagogic slights it offers against Harris’s education and background, is a mere example of what has developed into what we might call the “Sam Harris Outrage Industry,” "" Harris himself also hit back at Brooks via a tweet and a Facebook post as was commented in an article on Splice Today which stated: ""Harris reacted on Twitter with: “I just don’t understand this level of dishonesty. Everything in this video is a lie.” Nawaz, who Brooks had said “really just comes off looking pathetic and embarrassing,” jumped in with: “Brooks, it would’ve taken minutes to check, *before* humiliating yourself, that Sam was setting up a hypothetical for me to knock down.” He then demanded an apology, but the only response Brooks had was to invite Harris on the show."" Brooks then took the opportunity, again whilst hosting The Majority Report to follow up on his initial comments and play a longer clip of Harris's podcast to avoid being taken out of context.