2026 is an election year, and we have no intention of ignoring it!

We are joined by candidate for Governor of Georgia, Representative Ruwa Romman.

Ruwa represents GA’s 97th House of Representatives district in Gwinnett County and is the first Muslim and Palestinian woman to ever be elected to the GA House of Representatives. She is a long time organizer, served as a delegate of the Uncommitted movement in 2024, and has a plan to build an affordable, better Georgia for ALL, not just the 1%.

In this conversation we hit on hot-button issues such as internal Democratic Party conflict, police and ICE brutality, overcoming identity-based gaps in building a winning coalition, and the importance of building a mass movement that will not only bring good candidates into office, but govern alongside them and hold them accountable.

Not from Georgia? No worries, this conversation has something for everyone!

Want to read more about, donate to, and/or volunteer to the Ruwa Romman Campaign? Check out her website here!

https://www.ruwaforgeorgia.com/

Episode art comes from AP photo of Representative Ruwa Romman.

We promise we're super mature with Philip K. Dick's last name. Mostly.

This week we're taking on Philip K. Dick's 1956 sci-fi novelette, "The Minority Report." What if you could solve crime before it happens? What if said process led to a lot of violence and exploitation? What if you dealt with all that that while worrying that your wife was cheating on you with your hotter assistant? That's more or less the vibe here.

We go further and discuss science fiction's broader contribution (positive and negative) to our culture's political imagination, and think about the future of the genre.

We couldn't have done this without our remarkable guests: Dalton and Dylan of The Pod Universe. If you like cool sci-fi, great podcast, and boundless creativity, you'll love their work. After all, they're making a whole cinematic universe...in podcast form!!

Check out The Pod Universe here.

Can you kill a country with hardly anyone noticing? The Trump Administration intends to try with Cuba.

In this episode we examine the criminal blockade on Cuba, and the way knowledge of it is essentially non-existent among Americans. Plus, we touch on different levels of information warfare based on class strata, Marco Rubio's plots, and...Elmo's feud with Taylor Swift??

Support the Let Cuba Live Campaign here:

https://www.letcubalive.info/

Articles quoted in this episode:

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/cuba-united-states-oil-blockade-trump-mexico-claudia-sheinbaum

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/marco-rubio-is-deliberately-blocking

Elmo v. Rocco:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgyAWij3SLk

Episode art features a political cartoon by Carlos Latuff

Gay. Gothic. Romantic. I know you’re already cheering, and you should be, because we’re covering Vincent Verga’s 1980 novel “Gaywyck.”

Why must breathy bodice rippers feature only the heteros? There’s plenty of good gay drama to be had, and gay drama Gaywyck delivers.

We discuss the genre of the gothic romance, the groundbreaking nature of Verga’s willingness to not pull punches, and the place weird queer fiction like this is situated in the narrative.

Cover art comes from the original publication of Gaywyck.

This is a really, really, REALLY cool guest.

Today we are joined by Talia Bhatt, writer and radical trans-feminist whose work covers epistemic injustice, Third World feminism, and ranked competitive breast growth (yes, she has RANGE!)

Want to know more? Just listen! She’ll explain it better than we can.

You can find info on all of Talia’s work (including her new book, “Brown/Trans/Les”) at her website below:

https://taliabhatt.com/

What's more literary than talking about one piece of literature? Talking about the very nexus from which literature flows!

Today we sat down with Dave Ring of Neon Hemlock, an independent press for speculative fiction, rad zines, and queer chapbooks.

Discussion topics range from the mission of Neon Hemlock to the state of publishing in the Age of Slop to the importance of queer art.

Links to check out the things we mention in this episode:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davering/what-elegant-stars

https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/bitten-peach

https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/cyberscion

https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/shatter-the-sun

https://www.bafflingmag.com/issue-twenty-two/crowdfund-your-new-citizen-body-a-performance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing

Welcome to Workers' Lit, your favorite show about the battle for narrative.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Today we talk about our focus as a show before discussing the ongoing narrative war in our culture...on several fronts. First, we made Jen watch Hamilton, so we chat about that, which turns into a bit of a side conversation about right-wing films.

Then we get back into ICE and mass deportations. Is Trump on the back foot? Will the Democrats step up? Is the so-called "Joe Rogan Coalition" getting squeamish on MAGA? All that and more.

Finally, we acknowledge Holocaust Remembrance Day and read Bend the Arc's statement.

Read Bend the Arc's Statement Here.

Read Prem Thakker's piece in Zeteo we quote here

9/11, Hamlet, the Statue of Liberty, Segismundo, Zoroastrianism, Puerto Rican Independence, Bananas: If you hear all those terms and think, “wow, this sure does sound like the building blocks of a great book,” then congrats, you’re award-winning author Giannina Braschi.

We are joined by brilliant writer and host of Podside Picnic, Karlo Yeager Rodríguez, to discuss Braschi’s 2011 postmodern novel, “The United States of Banana.”

This book gets real weird with it, so follow along as we spring Segismundo from his prison beneath the Statue of Liberty’s skirt, fight an American occupation with coconuts and witticisms, and set sail to liberate Puerto Rico!

Go read Karlo’s newest short story, “Blanquitos,” here!

Go listen to Podside Picnic here!