The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur

Another one in the Kung Fu Yoga series, with Carl Zha.  This time we’re comparing the situations in Kashmir and Xinjiang, reporting what we’ve studied about state violence, censorship, economy, freedom of religion, popular agendas and state agendas of India and China in Kashmir and in Xinjiang.

Why do Indian boys love Jordan Peterson? If war is hell, as Jocko Willink says, why do they keep doing it? And is it unfair to consider Joe Rogan conservative? To debate these questions, I’m joined by screenwriter and comedian Amish Patel, who analyzes fake gurus on the coffeezilla podcast. This episode is kind of … Continue reading "AEP 61: Men’s self-help and propaganda from Jordan Peterson to J...

With Manuel Rozental. On August 4 2020, the Supreme Court of Colombia ordered ex-president Alvaro Uribe Velez, now a senator, under house arrest pending an investigation that he suborned witnesses in a case about paramilitarism. Mayor of Medellin in 1982, governor of Antioquia from 1995-1998, and president of Colombia from 2002-2010, Alvaro Uribe Velez has … Continue reading "AEP 60: Colombian ex-...

Back with Carl Zha of Silk & Steel podcast, who we last saw in our episode on the India-China border conflict.  We’re thinking of calling this the Kung Fu Yoga series. In this one, Justin has just finished reading the terrifying book The American Trap by Frederic Pierucci (which Carl notes has 100,000 reviews for … Continue reading "AEP 59: The American Trap sprung on Tiktok and Huawei, with Carl...

Choosing our avatars carefully, we take you through the political ideologies of the 19th century. Conservatism (Burke, Metternich); Liberalism (Paine, Locke); Radicalism (Condorcet, Gregoire); Anarchism (Bakunin, Kropotkin); Communism (Marx & Engels); and we throw a few more in as well (nationalism, humanitarianism, romanticism). This episode will set you up nicely for the next round of … Continue...

We cover the Industrial Revolution in England, from a few angles. Justin inserts his usual colonial determinism notes, as well as some environmental history about fossil fuels and energy sources for imperialism; Dave takes us through the revolution and what it meant; we talk about the rise of the working class, reveal that the Luddites … Continue reading "Civilizations 13: The Industrial Revolutio...

Manuel is back on the show for this one. How does an Indigenous community that has recovered land and autonomy end up back under state authority? How does a territory go from winning a life and death struggle for food sovereignty to growing a hemp monoculture? And how do mafias and ultra-rightwing (fascist) political movements … Continue reading "AEP 58: Mafiosity, the current stage of Colombian c...

At the beginning we quickly tell the story of Mexico’s Wars of Independence – Hidalgo, Morelo, and Iturbide. Then we return to Simon Bolivar from the Angostura period to the liberation of Peru and an assessment of Bolivar’s politics and legacy. We conclude by quickly telling the story of Brazil’s Independence and discern some patterns … Continue reading "Civilizations 12b: Bolivar and Latin Americ...

I forced Dan to listen to naval (Naval Ravikant)’s twitter stream/podcast about How to Get Rich Without Luck or Inheritance. Naval’s twitterstorm inspired me to create one of my own, about the real strategies used by the super-wealthy (spoiler: they aren’t available to you). But we spend an hour talking about where these “how to … Continue reading "AEP 57: Super-Wealth through the right mindset? A...

The struggles for Independence against the Spanish Empire rocked the Western Hemisphere at the beginning of the 19th century and changed the world. We focus on Simon Bolivar to tell this story in two parts. In this part, the Precursor, Francisco de Miranda, and the first half of Simon Bolivar’s campaigns.

Dave and I go over a very long list of the statues that have been torn down or come down over the past month, the historical figures behind them, and the case for tearing down each statue. From Columbus to Colston, from Jefferson to Roosevelt and many in between, we answer the question – why … Continue reading "Civilizations BONUS EPISODE: The case against the statues"

The United States is rocked by protests against police violence as hundreds of thousands march from coast to coast. We are joined from New York by MARGARET KIMBERLEY and from Boston by BENJAMIN DIXON. Episode: 012 Uprising in AmericaDate: 11 June 2020 | Length: 53:45

Dessalines became Emperor of Haiti in 1804, marking the end of the Haitian Revolution. Napoleon’s crowning as Emperor was the end of the French one. We talk about Napoleon’s wars, compare Napoleon’s exile and imprisonment to Toussaint’s, and talk about the momentous consequences of these revolutions.

Brazil’s new far-right government plunges the country into fascism. We speak with Brazilian scholar and activist DIANA AGUIAR about the downfall of the Worker’s Party and the rise of Jair Bolsonaro. Episode: 011 Bolsonaro’s BrazilDate: 2 June 2020 | Length: 71:47

I talk to the incomparable Carl Zha of the Silk & Steel podcast about the border clashes between India and China in the Galwan Valley. We talked about the many changes in Indian politics with the rise of fascism over the past decade. In the second hour, we go into details of the McMahon line … Continue reading "AEP 56: The India China Border Clash of June 2020, with Carl Zha"

We’ve covered the legal treachery of the Meng Wanzhou case (part 1) and the history of Canadian racism (part 2).  Now in part 3, a deep dive into 5G technology, Huawei, its founder and Meng’s father Ren Zhengfei, the semiconductor industry, and US sabotage of its rivals, with writer and analyst George Koo.  This episode … Continue reading "AEP 55: The Meng Wanzhou case part 3 with George Koo"

It took Dessalines to complete the job of winning Haitian Independence, after Napoleon had Toussaint captured and imprisoned to die in France. Napoleon went on to make himself Emperor of France and start what seemed like an interminable series of wars. This takes us to the end of both revolutions.

This phase of the French and Haitian Revolutions was dominated by two very dominating figures: Toussaint L’Ouverture and Napoleon Bonaparte. We talk about their rise and how they surpassed their rivals and would end up facing one another.

The Haitian Revolution started with a well-planned conspiracy led by a slave named Boukman in 1791. The French Revolutionaries scrambled to figure out how to preserve the crown jewel of their colonies while accommodating their newfound principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. In France, the revolution went from monarchy to Republic to the best-known symbol … Continue reading "Civilizations...

Chinese diplomat Zhou Enlai may or may not have said 200 years later that it’s too early to tell what the consequences of the French Revolution are, but we are dedicating five full episodes to it and doing it right, which means treating the French and Haitian revolutions together. In part 1 we go from … Continue reading "Civilizations Series Episode 11a: French and Haitian Revolutions pt1"

Manuel Rozental talks about the mobilizations of November 2019 in Colombia, through to the pandemic, and the latest news of US troops arriving in Colombia ostensibly to fight “narcotrafficking”. 

Manuel Rozental nos de un analisis de la coyuntura en Colombia, desde las movilizaciones del noviembre 2019 hasta la pandemia y las noticias de la llegada de tropas de los Estados Unidos en el pais

Lord Elgin, who gave Canada Responsible Government, also burned the summer palace in China during the British Empire’s Opium War.  Sir John A. MacDonald sung the glories of the Aryan Race from the floor the House of Commons in 1885.  The poem “White Canada Forever” was aimed specifically at the supposed “Yellow Peril”.  And apparently … Continue reading "AEP 54 – On the roots of structural racism...

Saudi Arabia’s $14 billion weapons deal puts Canadian armoured vehicles on the frontlines of the war in Yemen. We are joined by ANTHONY FENTON to discuss the machinations of Canada’s junior-partner imperialism. Episode: 010 Canada’s Saudi arms dealDate: 16 May 2020 | Length: 66:00

An executive of one of China’s largest tech companies is detained in Canada accused of violating US sanctions against Iran. This story has many threads, and each one reveals something very important about our world. In Part 1, I talk to activist and writer KJ Noh about the BC Supreme Court’s decision to keep Meng … Continue reading "AEP 53: The Kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou and what it reveals about...