Episodes

  • 178. Fighting for the Future of PM Press -- Ramsey Kanaan
    Jan 21 2026

    For almost 20 years, PM Press has been publishing brilliant anarchist books, including many covered on this podcast. Co-Founder Ramsey Kanaan joins me to discuss what PM Press does, how it works on anarchist lines, and why they need to own their own building to secure their future.

    If you'd like to contribute to that future, here's the fundraising link: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=255

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    41 mins
  • 177. Year One of the Second Trump Regime -- Leonard Williams
    Jan 14 2026

    Leonard Williams, who was my second guest on this podcast back in November of 2021, returns to talk about Trump's presidency over the past year, what it means, and what we can do to fight it.

    To hear more from Leonard, here's his 2024 podcast on what to expect from the Trump regime: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-hbbe4-17349e4

    And here's Leonard's Substack: https://crosspollination.substack.com/

    Note: Leonard and I recorded this episode before the US kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and ICE executed Renee Good

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    50 mins
  • 176. Building a World without Parkinson's -- Ray Dorsey
    Jan 7 2026

    Ray Dorsey joins me to discuss The Parkinson's Plan, his new book about fighting and hopefully ending the disease. Ray and his co-author Michael S. Okun show that Parkinson's is primarily caused by human-made chemicals, chemicals we can stop using. As with climate change or ultraprocessed foods, we've made an environment that's sickening us. Now it's time to make a new, healthier world.

    You can learn more about the book at https://pdplan.org/

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    42 mins
  • 175. The Battle of Seattle -- D.W. Gibson
    Dec 31 2025

    The modern anarchist movement began in 1999, when the World Trade Organization met in Seattle in order to create a set of rules which would require every country to accept the worst excesses of capitalism.

    Waiting for them in Seattle was a loose coalition of anarchists, farmers, organized labor, punks, Zapatistas, and giant puppets.

    Team Puppet won.

    D.W. Gibson's new book One Week to Change the World is an oral history of the Battle of Seattle. Gibson interviewed everyone from the black bloc to the riot police. The book is a history but also a guide for future protests. I highly recommend it!

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    50 mins
  • 174. Rules, Games, and Anarchy -- Jay Dragon
    Dec 24 2025

    Ever since C. Thi Nguyen appeared on the podcast, I've been trying to use games to understand more about the relationship between rules and life. Jay Dragon, whose game Wanderhome is almost ruleless, joins me to discuss games, rules, and anarchy, and we especially talk about how we can analyze oppressive real-world systems as if they're games.

    Here are some links for more from Jay:

    https://possumcreek.medium.com/

    https://possumcreekgames.com/

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    52 mins
  • 173. From William Morris to Bauhaus to Midcentury Modern -- Robin Schuldenfrei
    Dec 10 2025

    Robin Schuldenfrei rejoins me to talk more Bauhaus! In this episode, we discuss her book Luxury and Modernism, covering the complexities of the Bauhaus, which had a leftwing ethos but produced luxury objects, and made them by hand to appear machine made. Robin talks us through how the contradiction between luxury and egalitarianism ran from Morris's arts and crafts movement to the Bauhaus, and modernism only became a truly "everyday" part of life during the colossal expansion of middle-class wealth in the midcentury, as celebrated by Life magazine and recreated in the show Mad Men

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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • 172. Liberty as Independence -- John McGowan
    Nov 19 2025

    John McGowan joins me to discuss Liberty as Independence, Quentin Skinner's new book about the way that our ideals of liberty were formed in in 17th and 18th century debates. The book covers legendary figures, such as Hobbes, Milton, Locke, Swift, Paine, and Jefferson, as well as many lesser-known figures that they engaged with.

    For more from John McGowan, here's the link to his blog: https://jzmcgowan.com/public-intelligence-blog/

    Finally, I'd like to apologize to Badger from The Wind in the Willows. In this episode, I repeatedly refer to him as "Mr. Badger." He is simply, as befits his status, Badger or The Badger. I regret the error.

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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • 171. Reel Politik -- Nathan Gelgud
    Nov 5 2025

    Nathan Gelgud joins me to discuss Reel Politik, a comics collection about a group of Brechtian revolutionaries who take over the movie theatre they work in.

    Nathan and I discuss our shared love for movies, the radical nature of paying attention to a movie screen, and The Chelsea Theater, a local movie theatre in Chapel Hill that Nathan and I both love (I even worked there!). Many thanks to Bruce Stone, who ran The Chelsea for decades!

    You can find the book here: https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/reel-politik/

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    1 hr and 1 min