Left Anchor

Philosophy, politics, and the left.

Episodes

Oct 27, 2021

1hr 24 min

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.

Oct 22, 2021

5 min

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Also, don't miss Alex's newsletter.

Oct 14, 2021

1hr 10 min

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!

Oct 5, 2021

7 min

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Sep 29, 2021

42 min

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.

Sep 28, 2021

1hr 20 min

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!

Sep 18, 2021

4 min

In this excerpt we make the case against sanctioning Afghanistan. To hear the full episode subscribe here! 

Sep 12, 2021

1hr 6 min

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!

Sep 3, 2021

30 min

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! 

Aug 28, 2021

6 min

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Welcome aboard!

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.

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