Everyday Anarchism

For my second anniversary episode, frequent guest Ruth Kinna joins to talk about academic/intellectual anarchism. What's the point of this work? How do we know if we're making a difference? Who are we helping? We particularly highlight the role of Noam Chomsky in intellectual anarchism, as well as the rise of the social justice/ alter globalization movement

At long last, my thoughts on Graeber's Debt, chapter 1. Get ready for a discussion of this chapter, and the garden party, with Eleanor Janega later this month!

Kim Stanley Robinson and I discuss The Gold Coast , the second volume of his Three Californias triptych. We discuss how the Reagan era served as the inspiration for the book, the connection between the character Dennis McPherson and Stan's own father, and why this is Stan's favorite of the trilogy. Join us next month for a discussion of the final volume of the triptych, The Pacific Edge 

Kristen Ghodsee joins me to discuss her new book, Everyday Utopia. Kristen and I discuss the history of utopian communities, the promise and perils of state socialism, and how anarchism serves as a reminder that everyday communities can change the world.

Frequent guest James Fallows returns to the podcast as the first ever guest host! James interviews regular host Graham Culbertson about the legacy of progressivism and what ideas from that era we could use today in the struggle to make a better world, especially those related to William James and his famous talk "The Moral Equivalent of War." You can also read or watch Jimmy Carter's famous "Moral...

Finally, it's happening! My series on David Graeber's book Debt is finally starting for real on September 6. This trailer tells you what to expect, announces a few exciting guests, and reminds me to read the book. Later in September Eleanor Janega will join me to discuss Chapter 1. And if you can't wait, check out the prequel episodes based on Graeber's essay "Against Economics." Graeber's Debt Pr...

Kim Stanley Robinson and I discuss The Wild Shore , the first volume of his Three Californias triptych. We discuss how his career started, the inspiration for both this novel and the entire triptych, and most of all the novel itself - a post-apocalyptic narrative in which most of America has been destroyed, and what's left is a frontier lifestyle just waiting to be described in the manner of Mark...

Avi Khalil joins me to discuss the concept of everyday anarchism with respect to Star Trek. Although Star Trek purports to be a perfect neoliberal bureaucracy, all of the heroes are constantly breaking the rules. You can read Avi's blog post that served as an inspiration for the episode here: https://avikhalil.com/2023/06/15/the-spock-rule/

Peter Wilkin joins me to discuss the concept of tory anarchism , how George Orwell articulated the idea, how it differs from other forms of conservative anarchism (like Tolkien's), and the role that tory anarchism plays in British culture. We also cover a number of other topics related to Orwell, including his attacks on top-down language policing and his awareness of his own intolerances.

Vishwam Heckert joins me to discuss his journey from anarchist queer theorist to practitioner of the ancient anarchy of yoga. We conclude with heart meditation , which anyone who isn't driving can do along with the podcast!

Announcing a mini-series of episodes: three conversations with Kim Stanley Robinson about his first trilogy, Three Californias. We will cover one book per episode, with the first coming out on July 26. There's just a bit of our conversation here; I recommend you read the books along with the series; you can order a copy of the entire trilogy in a single volume. See you on July 26 for The Wild Shor...

John P. Clark comes on the show to discuss his book The Impossible Community : Realizing Communitarian Anarchism . John and I discuss how Hegel was a hippie, how everything is what it isn't (but also what it is), and why the right-wing is so much better at organizing at the grassroots than the progressive movements.

With apologies to Peter Kropotkin. Original here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-an-appeal-to-the-young

Just like when the Debt series gets going in earnest, I'll have a monthly episode with my thoughts on Graeber and then a conversation later that month. This month I'm talking with Dirk Ehnts , an MMT economist who really helped me further understand the money creation process and where Graeber's ideas fit into it. You can find Dirk as a frequent guest on the MMT podcast , as well as checkout these...

Shawn from the SRSLY Wrong podcast joins me in a crossover episode to discuss what everyday anarchism and library socialism have in common. (Hint: It's David Graeber). Along the way we discuss breadtube, Kropotkin, basic income vs. jobs guarantee, Cory Doctorow, political identification, utilitarianism, and more. Plus you get to hear me do comedy sketches, exactly like you never wanted.

Later this year (hopefully!), I'll start a year-long series analyzing and explaining David Graeber's first big book Debt . This episode is a prequel that introduces you to some of Graeber's conclusions about economics and money, and how they fit in with Modern Monetary Theory In 2019, less than a year before he died, Graeber wrote a piece for the New York Review of Books in which he explained, ver...

James Fallows returns to the show to discuss what left neoliberalism was and its place in the late New Deal era. Anyone who has ever enjoyed a craft beer has benefitted from left neoliberalism and its dreaded "deregulation." Anyone alive in the 21st century has suffered under the corporatist excesses of right neoliberalism. Did they have anything in common? And where do Jimmy Carter and Ralph Nade...

This episode is a crossover with Good in Theory , a political theory podcast by Clif Mark . I highly recommend Clif's podcast; in addition to interviews and one-off episodes, Clif did a series in which he adapts and explains Plato's Republic - the entire thing! Almost every topic in political theory is addressed in The Republic - and Clif guides you through the foundations of all the arguments we...

Last year I recorded this interview with Cyril Schäublin , the director of the new film Unrest . Unrest is a masterpiece. The film tells the story of unrest and labor organizing among the anarchist watchmakers of the Swiss Canton of Jura. Also, the tiny part at the center of a mechanical watch? It's also called an "unrest." Cyril and I talk about decentering Kropotkin in the film (sometimes litera...

In this episode, following up on my conversation about Byzantium with Anthony Kaldellis and leading to my conversation about democratic Athens with Clif Mark , I talk to James Corke-Webster and Lisa Eberle about their work on Roman governance. In contrast to images of Rome as a centralized and bureaucratic monolith, James and Lisa explain how Rome functioned as a network of cities, linked more by...

In this discussion episode of Anarchism 101 , Leonard Williams and I discuss the American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre and her work " Anarchism and American Traditions ." For more from Leonard, checkout our discussion of his book of anarchist crossword puzzles .

In this episode of Anarchism 101 , I read Voltairine de Cleyre's 1909 essay "Anarchism and American Traditions." Later this month, I'll publish my conversation with Leonard Williams about this essay as well as de Cleyre's life, activism, and ideas.

In this episode I'm joined by my most frequent guest: Ruth Kinna. Ruth and I continue our conversation about William Morris by discussing his science fictional work News from Nowhere . Ruth and I discuss how this work differs from Edward Bellamy's more famous fantasy of state socialism, Looking Backward, and how Morris could produce this anarchist utopia without declaring himself an anarchism. Ple...

In this episode I'm joined by Richard McCarthy , a longtime activist around food issues, most especially the creation of farmers markets. In addition to his work with the New Orleans Crescent City Farmers Market, we spend most of our time talking about Richard's new book Kuni . Co-authored with Tsuyoshi Sekihara, the book explores Sekihara's efforts to revitalize and reorganize a rural area in Jap...

In this episode, Deaglán Ó Donghaile and I discuss Oscar Wilde's connection to revolutionary anarchism, and in particular his idiosyncratic manifesto, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." For more on Wilde's radicalism, you can check out Deaglán's book, Oscar Wilde and the Radical Politics of the Fin de Siècle .