Coffee with Comrades

Holy shit, y'all, we fucking did it! 150 episodes of this silly, radical, wholesome podcast. 150 conversations, discussions, dialogues, interviews, chit-chats, back-and-forths. Wow wow wow wow wow wow. To celebrate, we do a bit of house-keeping and have a Q&A to mark the occasion. If you'd like, you can read the transcript for this episode. We also have a poll going for t-shirt designs . Let us kn...

"The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make and could just as easily make differently." David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules Dedicated to the memory of David Graeber. Rest in power.  Recently, I sat down with Nate and Tom, two of the co-hosts of Works in Theory podcast, to commemorate the passing of David Graeber. Together, we read through my favorite Graeber essay,...

I recently sat down with the folks behind the forthcoming documentary East of Town to talk about immigration, justice, and borders in the Deep South town of Lumpkin, GA. Our sprawling conversation touched on a whole lot--from the depressing constancy of immigration policy in the so-called U.S. to fortress Europe and the global regime of border violence enforced across the planet. Support East of T...

This week, Justine and Hal join us to discuss the brand new Solarpunk magazine! In this wide-ranging conversation, the three of us define "solarpunk" as both a literary/aesthetic genre, but also as a way-of-life. We pick apart the anti-authoritarian impulse implicit in the name "solarpunk," but also problematize the limitations of aesthetic revolt. Our dialogue touches on the tensions between (pos...

On today's edition of Coffee with Comrades , we spoke with Lee—better known as Your Friendly Butch Anarchist—about community accountability. YFBA's thread on community accountability .  Follow YFBA on Twitter and Instagram . Support YFBA on Patreon or send her funds on CashApp at $ButchAnarchy ! Support  Coffee with Comrades on  Patreon , follow us on  Twitter and  Instagram , and visit our  websi...

Ep. 145 of Coffee with Comrades features a conversation with Geo Maher, author of the new book A World Without Police: How Communities Make Cops Obsolete . Geo and I discuss abolition as presence, connect the history of reconstruction to the present, examine the obstacles presented by the Fraternal Order of Police in order to explore strategies to "break the spinal column of police power," chat ab...

I recently sat down with Jay Dragon, lead designer behind Possum Creek Games and developer of the new tabletop roleplaying game, Wanderhome . The two of us proceeded to have quite a lovely conversation that I'm so excited to share with you today. Jay is wonderful and the insight, passion, and heart Jay brought to this dialogue was beautiful to behold. Jay and I talk a lot about the mechanics behin...

I recently sat down with Robert Ovetz to chat about his book Workers Inquiry and Global Class Struggle ! The conversation jumped around a bunch. We chatted about the strike as a tactic, the  unique types of struggle that are occurring in places like China and Argentina, and the necessity of international solidarity as we fight to abolish capitalism. Follow Robert on Twitter ! You can check out his...

I recently caught up with my comrade Cory, who hosts the show The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist . The two of us chatted over a coffee about why SWERFs suck, how awful Joe Biden is, and some other fun stuff. The discussion was engrossing and we had a blast. I hope you'll enjoy the chat, too. Follow Cory on Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube You can also support them on Patreon ! Sup...

On this week's edition of Coffee with Comrades , we're doing something a little special. In the first part of Ep. 141, I sat down with Scott Branson to talk about the new English language version of a book they translated for AK Press, The Abolition of Prison , by French revolutionary and prison abolitionist Jacques de la Haye. Scott and I talked about their work translating the new edition, the c...

On today's episode, historian, professor, and author Michael Reagan joins me to discuss his new book, Intersectional Class Struggle , available now through AK Press! Michael and I chat at length about the necessity of intersectionality, the modern dynamics of class struggle, the fetishization and veneration of the "working class" as it exists in the minds of many on the left today, the history and...

On today's episode, I sat down with Jonathan Bailey, a labor organizer who recently ran for a seat on NYC's City Council, to discuss working at Amazon, labor and unionization efforts at Amazon, and why anticolonialism is such a crucial facet of his analysis.   Check out Amazonians United and follow Jonathan Bailey on Twitter . Support  Coffee with Comrades  on  Patreon , follow us on  Twitter  and...

I recently caught up with the anarchist street artist, printmaker, and graphic designer NO Bonzo, a Portland-based illustrator who's been working on PM Press's forthcoming Mutual Aid: An Illuminated Factor of Evolution , Pyotr Kropotkin's seminal work on evolution, politics, and economics. The book is absolutely brilliant, you've never seen an edition of Kropotkin's magnum opus like this before. A...

On today's edition of the program, I sat down with my pal John Duffy to discuss the new podcast he's producing, After the Uprising: The Death of Danye Dion Jones . John is a journalist, writer, film-maker, and podcaster, as well as a dear friend and we had a lovely chat over coffee the other morning talking about After the Uprising , a podcast which investigates the tragic death of a young man in...

Today, we bring you a special collaboration with our Channel Zero Network friends and colleagues, 12 Rules For What!? In this edition of the program, Sam, Alex, and I discuss the current iterations of reactionary politics, unpack the fascist imaginary, discuss ways to cope with the horrors of staring into the abyssal ugliness of far-right politics, and take some time to chat about Alex and Sam's n...

This week, I am joined by my lovely friend Kathrin, who hosts a YouTube channel that discusses political science and anthropology through a feminist lens. Kathrin and I spent the hour discussing prisons, police, and abolition. We chatted about the cancer of carceral feminism, the need to address patriarchal and masculinist fantasies of power on the left, the urgency of abolition as an anti-statist...

We are back, once again, with your weekly dosage of Coffee with Comrades . Joining me this week, once again, for the second half of our special two-part collaboration are Jesse and Matt, co-hosts of the excellent podcast, The Future is a Mixtape . Today, we examine the praxis of anti-anti-utopia, digging into the theory's implications for literature, media, and culture, but also (and, arguably, mu...

This week, I am pleased to share with you a subject that is very close to my heart (and often on my mind, for that matter.) I recently sat down with Jesse and Matt, co-hosts of the Future is a Mixtape , to discuss the theory and praxis of anti-anti-utopia. Anti-anti-utopia happens to be the subject of my doctoral research and, as such, is something that I have been writing about ad nauseum for the...

We are back in action, once again, with another episode of Coffee with Comrades . I recently sat down with my friend and comrade, Cindy Milstein, to talk about her new edited anthology, There is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists . Cindy is one of the most gentle, compassionate, and lovely people we've ever had the pleasure of hosting on this show. Cindy and...

We are back with your weekly helping of Coffee with Comrades and, boy, do we have a show for you! I sat down with my friend and comrade, author and activist Shane Burley, who's new book, Why We Fight , is available now through AK Press! Shane and I discussed a whole host of topics: fascism and the far-right, anti-fascism and militant resistance, and the ongoing apocalyptic times we're all living t...

This week, author and activist Eric Laursen joins me to discuss his new book,  The Operating System: An Anarchist Critique of the Modern State  available May 4th, 2021 through AK Press. Eric and I discuss the origins of the modern state, its relative brevity in world history, the ways the State insinuates itself into our lives and perpetuates itself through replicative cycles of colonization, comm...

This week, we're bringing your  Coffee with Comrades  fix a little early. Apparently, some bourgeoisie Hollywood socialites are throwing themselves a party this evening so, in light of the festivities, we're sharing our recent collaboration with  Kino Lefter  on the Oscar-bait flick Trial of the Chicago 7  and the Cannes award-winning film, Another Round .  Follow  Kino Lefter  on  Twitter  and su...

Episode 128 of  Coffee with Comrades  features a conversation with independent journalist Abby Lee Hood. We discuss the storied history of the term "redneck," critiquing liberal elitism and self-righteousness, exploring the labor history of rednecks, and analyzing how these consequential struggles for working class people were coopted by the ruling class and sold back to us in the form of pop coun...

This week, Michael Pons joins me for a discussion of the hit indie video game, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut . Pons and I explore the game's politics of insincerity, the philosophical existentialism of the game and its universe, the masculinist power fantasies in RPGs, and why endings are so critical to get right in video games. As you might imagine, this discussion is filled with spoilers for the...

This week, I hung out with my pal Frank from the Left Page podcast and talked about Ursula K. Le Guin's novel, The Left Hand of Darkness . In the ensuing dialogue, Frank and I discussed the book's ambisexuality, queer critiques of the text and Le Guin's response, the nature of being and the impermanence of knowledge, how different knowledge bases are gendered and how we dismantle and reinterrogate...