Will R.

Fault Lines Politics Podcast: Political Theory Through The Ages

History EN ↓ 5 episodes

From Plato's Republic to Trotsky's revolution, Fault Lines cuts through the history of political thought to ask the questions that still matter. Each episode reconstructs a thinker, a movement, or a debate—examining the ideas that shaped power, the contradictions they left behind, and the fault lines that still run through politics today. Hosted by Will R. Read and subscribe at faultlinespolitics.substack.com faultlinespolitics.substack.com

Author

Will R.

Episodes

Confucius and the Legitimisation of State Power 26.06.2026 45:22

“If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue... they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.” Two and a half thousand years after Confucius spoke those words, the Chinese Communist Party has erected over 500 Confucius Institutes globally, plaster...

Noam Chomsky and the Nature of Political Critique 12.06.2026 1:01:44

Enjoying the podcast? Head over to faultlinespolitics.substack.com to subscribe to the free email list for monthly written essays and community updates. “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” For more than half a century, Noam Chomsky has argued that moral principles mean nothing unless they apply equally to allies and enemies. He has d...

The Meaning of Marxism 22.05.2026 58:55

Enjoying the podcast? Head over to https://faultlinespolitics.substack.com to subscribe to the free email list for monthly written essays, community updates, and more on Fault Lines Politics. “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.” When Marx and Engels wrote those words in 1848, they were announcing a movement they believed would transform human history. Nearly two centuries lat...

Was Trotsky's Revolution Betrayed? 07.05.2026 28:29

Trotsky helped lead the October Revolution, built the Red Army, and saw himself as Lenin’s political heir. Yet within a few years, he was exiled, erased from Soviet history, and eventually murdered in Mexico by a Stalinist agent. So what happened? Was Trotsky simply outmanoeuvred by a more effective political operator—or was the revolution itself transformed into something he no longer recognised?...

Lenin and Stalin: Succession or Betrayal? 24.04.2026 33:54

Was Stalinism the logical outcome of Lenin’s revolution, or its betrayal? This episode examines the ideological and structural tensions behind one of the most contested transitions in modern political history. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit faultlinespolitics.substack.com