Podcast Episodes

Michael and Us: The Futility Thesis

We return to a TV show that is one of the prime relics of mid-2000s libertarian culture. We watch episodes of PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! on topics as disparate from handicapped parking to reparations, …

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago

Long Reads: Japan's Socialist Tradition w/ Kenji Hasegawa

Japan may be a powerhouse of global capitalism. But it also developed a powerful socialist movement in the twentieth century. During the Cold War, the Socialist Party led the opposition to the ruling…

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago

Behind the News: How Austerity Spawns Fascism w/ Clara Mattei

Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order, explores the links among neoclassical economics, austerity, and fascism. Edwin Ackerman, author of a recent article for the New Left Review blog, looks at A…

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago

Dig: The Manifesto w/ China Miéville

Featuring China Miéville on The Communist Manifesto. Miéville is the author of A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto.

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Register for Dan's event with Miévi…

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago

Michael and Us: Deaths of Cinema

Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019) hit the zeitgeist by consciously going against the 2019-era cultural grain. Tarantino looks back on the winds of change that greeted the movie…

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago

Behind the News: The Confederate Diaspora

Anatol Lieven, Eurasia director of the Quincy Institute, discusses Prigozhin’s aborted uprising in Russia and Putin’s status. Samuel Bazzi, co-author of a paper on "The Confederate Diaspora," talks a…

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago

Long Reads: William Morris, Romantic Revolutionary w/ Matthew Beaumont

William Morris is renowned for his work as an artist and designer. But he was also one of Britain's greatest socialist thinkers. Morris combined his opposition to capitalism with a deep understanding…

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago

Michael and Us: In Soviet Russia, Game Plays You

Did Tetris bring down the USSR? That's the implication of TETRIS (2023), a highly fictionalized account of the beloved video game's journey from the Soviet Union to your phone. We examine what anti-C…

Published on 2 years, 6 months ago

Behind the News: Abolish the Family w/ M. E. O'Brien

Behind the News is slaying sacred cows this week. M. E. O’Brien, author of Family Abolition, discusses doing that and “communizing care." Then Jane Chung, author of a recent article in The Nation, la…

Published on 2 years, 6 months ago

Jacobin Radio: Tribute to Daniel Ellsberg

Jacobin Radio pays tribute to the late Daniel Ellsberg, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year and passed away on June 16 at age 92 . A committed, consequential activist with a mo…

Published on 2 years, 6 months ago