SPS

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and the Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief, Lou S. chat about the recent NBA crack-up over vaccine skepticism and discuss the articles in the new issue of the Platypus Review. Andreas, our EU correspondent, reports from the frontlines of a protest camp in the North East of Vienna. And, in the last segment, Andreas sits with our German members, Tobias, Tom and Anna, to r...

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and Sophia discuss the Biden bungle of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the responses by the “Left,” including Tariq Ali for the New Left Review and Branko Marcetic for Jacobin. SPS European Correspondent Andreas interviews Eduardo Maura, from the Spanish party Podemos, and asks him to reflect on his political trajectory, from his work in the Indignados -- the Spanish...

On this three-part episode of SPS, Sophia and the Editor of the Platypus Review, Lou Sterrett, give a teaser of what’s inside the latest issue. In the second segment, our European Correspondent Andreas Wintersperger catches up with Ian Cassidy. Originally from Ireland, Cassidy is a Berlin-based activist, working for the campaign 'Deutsche Wohnen & co enteignen' which aims to pressure Berlin’s larg...

On this three-part episode of SPS, Sophia and Pamela catch up to discuss Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah (2021). They reflect upon the director’s interpretation of the Black Panther Party and how questions of black nationalism, the police and the authoritarian state bear on our present moment. In the second segment Sophia sits down with Novara Media’s Commissioning Editor, Rivka Brown to...

On this episode of SPS, Sophia, Pamela and Platypus member Erin report on the Kill the Bill & May 1st protests in London, Berlin and New York. In the second half members Ryan and Sam reflect upon seeding a Platypus chapter in Melbourne Australia. We discuss encounters with local Leftist groups, what Adam Smith has to teach us about bourgeois society, and their upcoming panel discussion: "What is C...

On this episode of SPS, Sophia, Pamela and Andreas are joined by Aarhus Platypus member, Victor Cova, to discuss the Adam Curtis documentary series, "Can't Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World" (2021). We cover the response to the series by the Socialist Workers Party (UK), Doug Lain (Zero Books) and Red Scare podcast. We debate Curtis' conservative approach to history,...

Sophia and Pamela talk about the allegations that Governor Cuomo covered up mishandlings of the COVID-19 crisis and the firing of actress Gina Carano from Disney’s the Mandalorian. In the last segment our German correspondent Andreas Wintersperger catches up with Platypus members from our Leipzig and Berlin chapters to discuss the panels on COVID-19 and the Left, and the legacy of the Communist Pa...

In this special episode of SPS, we discuss Joe Biden's inauguration and the relationship between Art and the capitalist state. Professional creative artists are facing unemployment at rates well above the national average. We take up the proposals for WPA-style intervention, a Ministry of Culture, and a White House Office for Culture. In the second half, we consider the artist Brad Troemel and his...

In the latest episode of the cancel culture saga, social media companies have taken into their own hands to censor content. Trump’s tweets, Zero Book’s videos, & Brad Troemel’s memes, have all been subject to the policing eye of so-called “fact checkers.” In the first part of this episode, Laurie joins Pamela to discuss the new wave of censorship under our Silicon Valley dystopia and the realignme...

***U.S. election special*** On this episode Pamela and Sophia catch up with Conrad Cartmell (Class Unity caucus, DSA), Mara Henao & Kaitlin Buck (Philly Socialists) and Benjamin Studebaker (British Academic Union) to reflect upon the Left under Trump - and what lies ahead under a Biden administration. This episode contributes to a larger body of work by the Platypus Affiliated Society, attempting...

Pamela and Sophia discuss the shaming of black celebrities who dare to question the black loyalty to the Democratic Party. In particular we address the Left’s reception to Ice Cube’s ‘Contract for Black America,’ proposed to both the Democratic and Republican parties. Pamela sits down with Chris Cutrone to discuss what another four years of Trump--or Biden--might mean for the Left. In the last seg...

In this episode of SPS, Sophia and Pamela discuss the moral panic surrounding Netflix's new film, Cuties (2020), and take up the responses by Spiked Online and Jacobin magazine. Platypus members Marco Torres and David Faes join us to reflect on Polanski's critically-acclaimed J'Accuse (2019)and how it speaks to the present. In the final segment, Sophia interviews Jack Conrad from the Communist Par...

Pamela, Sophia and Laurie discuss the call to cancel artist, Jon Rafman, and the revenge campaign led by the @surviving_the_artworld instagram account and break down the anti-sex and anti-art impulses of the culture industry. Pamela & Sophia sit down with Platypus members, Ethan Kaimana (U. Penn) and Will Lushbaugh (San Francisco State), two organizers behind the recent panel, "Police Brutality an...

On this episode, Pamela and Sophia discuss the destruction of statues depicting American Revolutionary figures. Our members James Vaughn and Spencer Leonard join us to discuss the legacy of the American Revolution and the repercussions of the 1619 project. And Sophia catches up with Rory Hannigan and Clint Montgomery in light of our Summer Reading group on Kautsky’s Marxism. We reflect on Karl Kau...

This episode of SPS is a new members edition, featuring new members of the Platypus Affiliated Society in the United States, Germany and Denmark. In the first segment, Sophia and Pamela ring up Carson Wright, a new member at the Oregon State University chapter. We chat about Planet of the Humans, a new documentary produced by Michael Moore, which takes a harsh look at green technology and the pitf...

On this episode, Pamela and Sophia discuss the anti-quarantine protestors as the newly christened "deplorables" in the lead up to the presidential election, Brad Troemel's fake ad and the Biden campaign. Pamela interviews August Nimtz, Professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. Prof. Nimtz wrote a two volume book on Lenin’s electoral strategy from Marx and Engels through the Re...

Sh!t Platypus Says, special quarantine edition, comes in three parts: (1) Pamela talks to Platypus members about the left’s response to the Corona Virus. She talks to Laurie Rojas, Chris Cutrone & Stefan Hain to figure out just what, David Harvey, Naomi Klein, the Socialist Workers Party, U.S., Spiked online, and Žižek are saying in these times of Corona. (2) A record 3.3 million people filed clai...

Pamela and Sophia discuss the recent episode of The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin magazine, featuring a roundtable discussion on the Bernie 2020 campaign and what a Sanders presidency would mean for the American left, including Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara and assistant editor Alex Press. We play some clips, discuss, and ask some critical questions about the Democratic Socialists of America’s pol...

Pamela and Sophia discuss the recent Warren-Sanders pseudo-controversy, Momentum's response to Labour's (UK) defeat, and the call for a Sanders' presidency by today's left. Members Mike Atkinson and David Mountain talk about building Platypus at the University of Manchester, their impressions of the city's left and their upcoming teach-in, "What the Bloody Hell is 'The Dialectic'?" Finally, we hav...

On this episode of SPS, we discuss HBO's Euphoria, what it says about the emerging "Zoomer" culture, and whether Gen Z's cynicism should be taken for granted. Sophia interviews Peter Tatchell, a human rights advocate and veteran activist of the LGBTQ movement. They discuss his experience on the left and his thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. On the second half of the episode, Pamela is join...

On this episode, we talk about Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the undigested legacy of the late sixties among millennials. We take up the recent corruption scandal plaguing the United Auto Workers (UAW) with Platypus member, Nick Kreitman, a personal injury, employment and labor attorney practicing in Chicago, Illinois. Nick gives us an update on the state of American unions...

On this episode, Sophia and Pamela C. are joined by Allison Hewitt-Ward, a New York Platypus member and art critic. They discuss the recent crack-up at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the relationship between art and political protest. In the second segment, Sophia and Pam interview Goldsmiths University’s graduating Masters art students, Alexander Pierce, Lydia Blakeley, Fred Bungay, Paul...

On this episode, we chat about the HBO miniseries Chernobyl and Cold War nostalgia. Pamela discusses the ascendance of the Brexit Party in the UK with James Heartfield, a veteran Marxist and Brexit Party candidate. And Sophia and Pam sit down with members at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia to talk about Platypus chapter building & the left in the region. To learn more about the Platyp...

On this episode, we tackle cancel culture and the legacy of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Sophia, a London-based member of Platypus, joins us to discuss the feud between beauty influencers, James Charles and Tati Westbrook, and what it might tells us about the exhaustion of cancel culture. In the second segment, Marco Torres, Chicago Platypus member, and Pamela's interview Alejandro Vela...

We run down some of the Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 and sit down with our London member Efraim Carlebach to discuss the recent crack up in British politics and the split from the Labour Party this month. We talk about the emerging new center in British politics and the response by the left to the split. From the Platypus Review archives: The unchanging core of Marxism: An interview...