Everyday Anarchism

Robin Schuldenfrei joins me to discuss her new book Objects in Exile , which is about the many afterlives of the Bauhaus school and its practitioners. Robin and I particularly focus on the relationship between Bauhaus and city planning, especially focusing on Chicago and the work of Ludwig Hilberseimer. Key questions include: How can societies ensure that everyone has at least enough space to live...

"What is joy when everything has been monetized and optimized?" For Carson Lund, the answer is rec league baseball, and his new film Eephus is about how a meaningless, anachronistic activity like a local baseball league can actually be the most meaningful and important thing you can do. The film is an ode to baseball, a comedy, and "an argument for democracy at a more human level, people just figu...

John McGowan joins the podcast again to discuss a recent republication of Hannah Arendt's essay "Civil Disobedience, which responds to Plato's Crito, Thoreau's "Resistance to Civil Government," and the leftwing mass movements of the 1960s. John and I discuss Arendt's importance as a theorist of revolution and totalitarianism, as well as the complex life of the idea of civil disobedience and its re...

Jaz Brisack joins me to discuss their new book, Get on the Job and Organize . Jaz and I discuss why billionaires take union organizing personally, how organizing is different in the 21st century, and how you can organize your workplace. Jaz might be coming to a town near you soon - here's the link to their book tour sites: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Jaz-Brisack/225399070 And a link t...

Brian Merchant, author of the newsletter Blood in the Machine , returns to the show to talk about the newsletter, ai, tech oligarchs, the neoliberal "abundance" agenda, jobs, and pretty much everything else you want to know about the terrible, horrible, no good collusion between Trump, Tech billionaires, and ai. Fight the tech billionaires. Support Blood in the Machine! https://www.bloodinthemachi...

In which I end my series on David Graeber's Debt, apologize for mistakes, and offer some hope for a new world in which we have more money and less monetarism. Thank you to all of the listeners to this series, and my wonderful lineup of guests: Dirk Ehnts, Eleanor Janega, Cory Doctorow, Bill Maurer, Henry Farrell, James K. Galbraith, Fuad Musallam, Clif Mark, Luke Kemp, John Weisweiler, Chris Isett...

When capitalists developed their neighborhood with a giant mall, eight artists developed an abandoned space in the mall into an apartment. It was art without permission, and now there's a documentary about what it was like to make a secret mall apartment as a form of art. Jeremy Workman, the director of Secret Mall Apartment , and Michael Townsend, the originator of the idea, join me to discuss th...

Max Cafard (which is a pen name) and Vulpes (which is also a pen name) join me to discuss their fantastic new graphic novel Anarchy in the Big Easy , which is just what it sounds like. Max and Vulpes and I discuss the cosmic anarchy, political anarchism, and everyday anarchy that's flowed through what is now called New Orleans for centuries and millennia. Plus we get frequently confused by the pen...

Yanis Varoufakis joins me to discuss his new book, Technofeudalism , how the world economy has changed since Graeber wrote Debt, and where things might be going next. Live long and prosper.

Constance Bantman joins me to discuss the history of anarchist political violence through the prism of Luigi Mangione - and vice versa. Some of the questions we cover include: Can the history of nineteenth-century anarchist terrorism help us understand the recent assassination of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Mangione, and its rapturous reception in some quarters of public opinion? What is the...

Luke Kemp returns to the show to discuss Two Cheers for Anarchism , James C. Scott's six essays or "fragments" applying an anarchist squint to the world. Luke and I discuss the joy of Scott's book, it's controversial place in anarchist theory, and why it's a good place for the anarcho-curious to start their journey into anarchism. Along the way I also highly recommend Agnes Varda's amazing film, D...

Christopher Isett joins me to discuss the rise of capitalism and "The Great Divergence," in which Christendom transformed itself from an obscure corner of the world into the dominant global power. Just how did that happen, what part did capitalism play in it, and why did capitalism develop in Europe? And what does China have to do with all of it? Chris gives his answers to all of these questions,...

Today Mitch Abidor joins me to discuss Victor Serge: acclaimed novelist, anarchist, Bolshevik, anticommunist, and all-around 20th century contradiction. Mitch and I discuss the legend of Serge, what's true about it, and the ways that Serge fails to live up to the legend. You can find Mitch's writing all over the place, but here's a good place to start: https://jewishcurrents.org/author/mitchell-ab...

What is capitalism? It's not efficient markets, factories, and free labor. It's the financialization of empire and slavery, using greed, shame, indignation, and debt. And that means the first great capitalists weren't British factory owners, but colonizing conquistadors.

Kim Stanley Robinson returns to discuss his novel Green Earth , a technothriller about a near future world in which scientists work to solve the global climate crisis. Stan and I discuss how the book went from a trilogy to a single volume, its similarity to The Ministry for the Future , and its place in the genre of naturalism. Plus Emerson and Thoreau! And yes, I get the title of The Ministry for...

Mark Bittman returns to Everyday Anarchism to discuss Community Kitchen , his new model for how we can do restaurant food better by running nonprofit restaurants rooted in their communities. But we also talk about RFK's crusade against seed oils, what's wrong with Pod Save America, why food is so cheap in the US, the recent US presidential election, and whatever else happened to come up. Find more...

Shawn Vulliez from SRSLY Wrong joins me to discuss the new collection of David Graeber essays, The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World . Shawn and I talk about the tyranny of economics and how Graeber gave us permission to reveal that the emperor of economics has no clothes. Warning: Contains discussion of the recent election. Stay away if you just can't handle it anymore. I understand.

A spectre is haunting the Everyday Anarchism series on the English revolution: the spectre of Christopher Hill's 1972 book The World Turned Upside Down . It turns out most of the ideas I've shared in this series came from Hill's book! Ann Hughes joins me to discuss the book, and we talk through the following questions: Did Hill invent the idea of the English revolution? How did the radicalism of t...

Eleanor Janega, the very first guest on the Graeber's Debt series, comes back on the show to discuss what the middle ages were, how they were a global phenomenon, and why they weren't as bad as you've heard

I'm joined by Karl Gerth, professor of modern Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego, to discuss the Chinese Communist Revolution and how Maoism attempted to avoid the mistakes of the USSR and yet largely repeated them.

In Graeber's middle ages, empires fell apart while temples and monasteries kept everything together with metaphysical debt. Oh, and Europe isn't very important. Eleanor Janega returns later this month to discuss the chapter in the next Debt discussion!

Following on my discussion with John Weisweiler, more detail on Graeber's account of the Axial Age

In this episode in my series on Graeber's Debt, I'm joined by John Weisweiler to discuss Chapter 9, "The Axial Age." John and I discuss Graeber's insights into the relationship between money, debt, and community, and the way that Graeber often got the ideas right even before the archaelogical record had gotten there.

Ruth Kinna comes back on the show to celebrate 3 years of Everyday Anarchism. We talk about the relationship between anarchism and protest, and where everyday anarchism fits with capital-A Anarchism. Plus Occupy!

Luke Kemp joins me to discuss Chapter 8 of Debt, asking the question: Is Graeber right when he says that history follows clear cycles? Sort of!