Episodes

Wednesday Oct 27, 2021
Wednesday Oct 27, 2021
Today we have Ashley Lucas on to talk about her essay "The End of Rage" about a man named Russell "Maroon" Shoatz. He was a Black Panther and political radical in the 1970s who ended up in prison for killing a police officer, despite a lack of any direct evidence he was the culprit, and later served over 22 years in solitary confinement after attempting to escape. He is now old and has terminal cancer, and after recording the episode he was (remarkably enough, by American standards at least) released into hospice care.
Check out Maroon's book of essays here, and a piece on the horrid conditions in Riker's Island here.

Friday Oct 22, 2021
Friday Oct 22, 2021
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Thursday Oct 14, 2021
Thursday Oct 14, 2021
This time we've got philosopher David Livingstone Smith (last seen here on episode 165) to discuss his book Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization. We talk about the sources of dehumanizing ideology, what purpose it can serve politically, why even Heinrich Himmler couldn't take witnessing a massacre of Jews during the Holocaust, and more. Enjoy!

Tuesday Oct 05, 2021

Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
After unlocking our episode about the January 6 putsch, Ryan is doing a quick follow-up on our episode with John Ganz from February. This time we're talking about Robert Paxton's book The Anatomy of Fascism in the context of Trump lawyer John Eastman's coup memo, and various aspects of current right-wing culture. Enjoy!
Also check out the Adolph Reed essay mentioned here.

Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
We're unfortunately delayed thanks to personal events so we're unlocking this one as a retrospective of our initial thoughts on the January 6 putsch. Tomorrow Ryan will have another episode on the fascism question, so stay tuned!

Saturday Sep 18, 2021
Saturday Sep 18, 2021
In this excerpt we make the case against sanctioning Afghanistan. To hear the full episode subscribe here!

Sunday Sep 12, 2021
Sunday Sep 12, 2021
Today we are talking with Alex from the Providence Leftist Radio Podcast (also see their Patreon here) about Chapter 5 in Nikolai Bukharin's book Historical Materialism, "The Equilibrium between Society and Nature," as well as Friedrich Engels' essay "On Authority." Enjoy!

Friday Sep 03, 2021
Friday Sep 03, 2021
In this first half of this episode, we talk about the situation in Afghanistan with Lyta Gold, particularly the media freakout about America's imperial humiliation. To hear our following discussion of The Green Knight, subscribe here!

Saturday Aug 28, 2021

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This podcast is by journalist Ryan Cooper and academic Alexi the Greek. We talk politics, philosophy, history, current events, and whatever else catches our fancy.