Rev Left Radio

In this episode, Breht interviews Adnan Husain -- Professor of Medieval history and Chair of the Religious Studies department at Queens college -- about the deep historical roots of today's Middle East. The conversation traces the arc from ancient Persia to the Islamic era, explores how Iran became a center of Shi'a Islam, and examines the long rivalry between Persian and Ottoman power. Along the...

Torkil Lauesen joins us to discuss his book Unequal Exchange: Past, Present, and Future and the hidden mechanics of modern imperialism. Lauesen returns to the tradition of Arghiri Emmanuel to argue that while the world market tends to equalize prices, wages remain radically unequal across borders -- driving a structural transfer of value from low-wage production zones to high-wage consumer economi...

(recorded on 3/1/26) - Breht went on Workers' Lit as a guest! "The American ruling class is at war. Physically, they are at war with Iran, pummeling the country with unrelenting airstrikes, slaughtering civilians, and doing their best to make yet another nation unlivable. But they are fighting another war: a psychological war against every one of us. They are building a world of declining literacy...

On this YT livestream (3/1/26) Alyson and Breht discuss the illegal war of aggression launched by the US and Israel against Iran. Throughout the discussion they take live questions from the chat.   Subscribe to your YouTube Channel HERE   ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes:  www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to...

Alyson and Breht discuss a range of current events, including Cuba, the Epstein Files, Iran and much more.  Make a donation to Socialist Night School via Venmo @OmahaNightSchool Outro Song: "to each their dot" by Haley Heynderickx & Max Garcia Conover ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes:  www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-tim...

In this episode, we're joined by author and poet Too Black to unpack his essay "Nonviolence is violence, too: Somebody's gotta die," and to challenge the comforting myths that often surround "nonviolent" struggle. We dig into what he means by the claim that nonviolence is never actually bloodless, why he prefers the term "sacrificial violence," and how nonviolent movements frequently gain leverage...

Syria is entering a new and terrifying phase. In this episode Breht is joined by a panel of scholars and activists ( Angie Bittar ,  Adam , Joma , Nur and Jalyssa ) to take a clear-eyed look at what's unfolded over the last year and how it fits into the longer arc of the Syrian civil war, including the rapid collapse of the Assad-era order and the emergence of a new regime centered around HTS and...

Breht discusses recent events in Minneapolis... ------------------------------------ Outro Song: Song for Alicia by Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover

In this episode, Breht is joined by Kristen R. Ghodsee to dig into her provocative essay on the political economy of love under capitalism. Using Marx's distinction between use value and exchange value, Ghodsee argues that love is not just a private feeling but a material necessity for human flourishing -- and that our economic system systematically depletes the time, energy, and security required...

In this episode, Breht is joined by philosopher, author, and cultural critic Gabriel Rockhill to discuss his new book Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? The Intellectual World War: Marxism vs. the Imperial Theory Industry . Rockhill argues that the Cold War was not only fought with bombs, coups, and sanctions -- but with ideas, institutions and intellectuals. Drawing on extensive archival res...

In this episode, Breht is joined by revolutionary feminist and author Madeline Lane-McKinley to discuss her recent book " Solidarity with Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy ", in which she argues for a politics that centers young humans as essential comrades in the struggle for a better world! In the process they examine the concept of childhood as historically structured, which children a...

Nov 5, 2025   In this episode, public school history teacher Gianni Paul joins Breht to trace the historical roots of our current crisis — stagnant wages, mass homelessness, collapsing infrastructure, rising fascism, Gilded Age inequality, and a beaten down working class — back to Reagan's counter-revolution against the New Deal and the forty-year neoliberal project that followed. Together, they e...

Jun 18, 2025   In this powerful and wide-ranging conversation, Margaret Kimberley —senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and a leader in Black Alliance for Peace —joins Breht to dissect the spectacle of American decline and, as usual, Kimberley offers a razor-sharp analysis of late-stage capitalism's collapse into cruelty, chaos, and confusion. Together, they explore the Democratic Party's compl...

recorded January 3rd 2026 Revolutionary Guerrilla Menace's 2025: A Year in History! A fantastic discussion with blistering analysis from the crew. We discussed US criminal assault on Venezuela and its consequences geopolitically and economically on US empire and its designs in Latin America and implications for West Asia and especially subversion or assault on Iran. We analyzed US/Western imperial...

Feb 10, 2025   Willy Massay returns to the show to discuss his recent (second) trip to Gaza as a medical volunteer. He got back two weeks ago and stayed for over a month. He discusses his heart-wrenching experiences, the wintry conditions and terrible air quality in Gaza and how both are impacting the health of every single Palestinian on the ground. He also discusses the ceasefire, the spirit of...

Feb 17, 2025   Dr. Rory Dickson  is a professor of Islamic Religion and Culture and author of several publications on Sufism, the mystical path within Islam. He joins Breht to have an incredibly deep conversation about the Sufi poet Rumi, his life and work, Rumi's relationship to his teacher Shams of Tabriz, the concepts of fana  (annihilation of the self) and baqa (subsistence in God), the spirit...

Jun 25, 2025   One of the most radical things you can do is live your life in direct opposition to the forces that control our society. Not just fighting for policies or organizing your community, although those are certainly important parts of it, but also living with values that oppose the values of our dominant society. And even more importantly, raising the next generation to embody those valu...

Sep 10, 2025   Alyson and Breht critically engage with the concept of "technofeudalism" from a Marxist (and thus historical materialist) perspective, analyzing its origin and recent popularity, critiquing its depoloyment and the implication that it represents a "new mode of production", explaining related concepts like rent-seeking, discussing the role of private equity in the modern American econ...

Jun 16, 2025   In this episode, Alyson and Breht explore Friedrich Engels' Dialectics of Nature , a bold and underappreciated attempt to apply dialectical materialism to the natural sciences. Often dismissed or misunderstood, this unfinished work offers a sweeping view of reality - from physics and chemistry to evolution, human consciousness, and ecological breakdown - through the lens of Marxist...

In this Christmas special, Alyson and Breht reinterpret Jesus through Jewish mysticism, Christian contemplative traditions, and Buddhist conceptions of Enlightenment, offering an understanding of his teachings and words as attempts to articulate the ineffable and non-dual, rather than metaphysical propositions to be believed. Drawing heavily on the Gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, the Christian conc...

What does it really mean to speak of "socialism with Chinese characteristics"? Is it simply a matter of policy and political economy, or does it require grappling with thousands of years of civilizational history, philosophy, and culture? In this episode, Breht is joined by Zhao, the mind behind Goods for the People and author of Chinese Characteristics of Socialism: Civilizational Factors in CPC...

Breht speaks with veteran organizer, revolutionary strategist, Elder of the movement, and author Eric Mann. Together they discuss Eric's life and work, including his book on George Jackson, the Hard Hat riot against Vietnam protesters, how to organize effectively in the work place, Eric's personal relationship with Howard Zinn, the importance of revolutionary  journalism, combatting chauvinism, an...

Breht speaks with veteran organizer, revolutionary strategist, and author Eric Mann. In this wide-ranging conversation, Mann reflects on his decades of struggle; from his early work with SNCC and SDS, through his involvement with the Weather Underground and his time as a political prisoner, to his rank-and-file organizing as a UAW autoworker. Along the way, Mann wrestles with the realities of repr...

This is a small snippet from a much larger patreon exclusive episode, which you can sign up for (and support the show in the process) here: www.patreon.com/revleftradio

Most people, even on the Left, only know fragments of Italy's "Years of Lead." This episode pulls the whole picture into focus: the mass worker upsurge after the boom years, the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, the rise of the Red Brigades, the kidnapping and execution of Aldo Moro, and the 1980 Bologna massacre. Alyson and Breht trace how far-right stragismo (mass bo...