The Final Straw Radio

This week, an interview with James Stout on his upcoming AK Press book:  Against The State: Anarchists and Comrades at War in Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava , due out early January. You may recognize James as a contributor to the Cool Zone podcast It Could Happen Here (including the recent four parter, "Darién Gap: One Year Later" December 1-4th episodes, 2025), distributed by IheartMedia. For this ep...

This week, an interview we just conducted with Madeleine Wattenbarger and Axel Hernández of the Cooperativa de Periodismo in Mexico and Ambar Ruiz of Radio Zapote about the case of autonomous resistance and repression in the Mazateca community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón in Oaxaca, Mexico, so named for being the birthplace of the Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón, revolutionary Mexican anarchist w...

In this episode, we have two segments. Ben Passmore First up, Ian talks with Philadelphia-based cartoonist Ben Passmore about his new book, Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance . They discuss the research and making of the book, Passmores anarchism, the themes of inter-generational struggle, contextualizing history through lived experience, and the pitfalls of mythmaking. In ad...

This week, we're sharing a recent chat with Leila Al-Shami , co-author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War and host of Syria: The Inconvenient Revolution Podcast , to give us an assessment and update on situations in Syria since our last episodes on the subject, as well as an introduction to The Peoples Want , an initiative towards a new anti-authoritarian internationalism in which L...

Michael DeForge This week we're sharing Ian's talk with cartoonist Michael DeForge about the intersection of organizing and art. The conversation touches on Michael's recent organizing efforts in solidarity with Mskwaasin Agnew, who was among those detained by Israel as part of the Flotilla to bring aid to Gaza. They also discuss the good and bad of instructive political stories and Michael shares...

This week, an interview we did with a couple of smart friends about the question: what would those of us who rely on Signal encrypted messaging do if that service were disabled in the US. First up, all participants in this discussion agree that Signal is amazing and always getting better, so this is not a take down of that app or it's developers. But the buds do think that the weakest point for Si...

This week, we're joined by Francesca , a member of Prisoners For Palestine who is a former prisoner herself who speaks about Palestine Action, a group proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organization at the behest of the Israeli state and Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems for their successful direct actions against Elbits war profiteering and the UK's role in assisting the genocide in Gaza....

This week, we're featuring three segments. Transcript Peter Gelderloos Gah Te Iracema Mask Off-Maersk PDF (Unimposed) Voices from Brazil Mask Off-Maersk Zine (Imposed PDF) Voices from Brazil Mask Off-Maersk Peter Gelderloos of Weaving Paths to Ecological Revolution First up, you'll hear from anarchist and author Peter Gelderloos speaking about his ongoing trip to Brazil as a member of Weaving Path...

Updates on the Prairieland Case (with NLG and DFW Support Committee) This week, we're featuring two interviews. First up, you'll hear form Xavier de Janon, NLG Director of Mass Defense who's worked on the Stop Cop City case and is currently also working on the DFW case where Federal and Texas prosecutors have been seeing prosecution of 18 people (so far) related to the noise demo of July 4 th , 20...

This week, we're sharing two segments: a chat with Palestinian writer and assistant professor Abdaljawad Omar and a segment of the October 2025 B(A)D News with network participants discussing thinking through resisting the rise of fascism. Assessing The Israeli Ceasefire First up, an interview with Abdaljawad Omar , a writer, analyst and an Assistant Professor at Birzeit University in Bethlehem in...

Ed, co-founder of SASSI (Southerners Against Surveillance Systems & Infrastructure), speaks to The Final Straw Radio about the proliferation of surveillance infrastructure in the South (and more broadly in United States). We speak about topics such as the increasing cooperation between the state and corporate surveillance companies, the desire of these companies to extract ever-increasing amounts...

East End Co-Op Union + BDS This week, Ian spoke with member of UE local 667, organized workers at the East End Co-Op in Pittsburgh about the origins and goals of their organization and their divestment campaign to remove products from occupied Palestine from the shelves of their co-op. Transcript PDF (Unimposed) Zine (Imposed PDF) Links: MIT living wage calculator UE 667 FB UE 667 IG UE 667 X BDS...

This week, the show has two segments. Pittsburgh Anarchist Book Fair First up, you'll hear a brief interview with M, an organizer of the first Pittsburgh anarchist book fair, happening October 24-26 across a few venues in the Steel City A list of events (still being updated): https://pizz.ation.ist/ Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1327126225660995 As is anarchist book fair traditio...

A conversation with Tariq D. Khan, author of  The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression , out from University of Illinois Press in 2023. In this conversation we talk about the connections between the anti-Indigenous motivations of the genocidal frontier wars in the US and the inward turn to heretical movements pushing for freedom for the laboring cl...

This week, an interview with members of Signals Rising , who provide education and support around radio technologies including meshtastic networks as alternative communications or in disaster relief scenarios. Check out their website for resources and ways to get in touch Transcript PDF (Unimposed) Zine (Imposed PDF) A couple of fun Software Defined Radio (SDR) toys: https://flipperzero.one/ https...

This week, we're featuring two segments. First up, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, an lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild, speaks about the recent declarations of war by the Trump administration on anteefah, what has changed legally, what they might be telegraphing and smart ways to move forward in this tense atmosphere. Check out our recent chat with Mo about Knowing your Rights and Risks with the police...

This week, Ian talk s with Cartoonist Aaron Losty about his new graphic novel, The Hanging , out now from Strangers Publishing. Among other topics, they discuss formative works, collaboration, and making genre comics for a small press audience. In the back half, they talk about Aaron's experience as a co-founder of Cartoonist Cooperative, the state of the organization three years after its incepti...

This week, we spoke with Nolan Huber of the Atlanta Community Press Collective about recent developments in the case of 61 people facing RICO indictments and other charges in relation to the movement to Stop Cop City, an urban police training center built in south Atlanta's Weelaunee forest. For the hour we talk about the case, last week's dismissal of racketeering and arson indictments and other...

This week, we're featuring an interview with Shannon, one half of the mutual aid project operating in Washington DC known as Remora House. For the hour we talk about Remora House, the impact on houseless and non-citizen communities has been impacted by the Trump Administration's crack down and sending in of troops to DC and some ideas on strengthening the resistance as the feds and national guard...

This week we're sharing an interview with Tomas Rothaus, author of the recently publish memoir, Another W ar Is Possible: Militant Anarchist Experiences in the Antiglobalization Era , out this year from PM Press. We speak about the anti-globalization movement and how it's remembered, debates around mass mobilizations and Black Bloc street conflicts, mentorship and inter-generationality in anarchis...

As we enter into the 2025  Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners , we're sharing a discussion with three anarchists doing prisoner support in different national contexts, prompted by topics brought by the guests. You'll hear first from Moshe of ABC Belarus, then Nicole of the Solidarity Apothecary and finally from Anya of Solidarity Zone speak on topics such as service work in solidarity, ge...

This week, we're sharing a recent interview with anarchist prisoner Malik Muhammad . Malik is 3 years into a 10 year concurrent federal and Oregon sentence for alleged use of molotov cocktails during the 2020 uprising and is currently incarcerated at the Snake River Detention Facility, in the hole. Transcript PDF (Unimposed) Zine (Imposed PDF) We speak about Malik's politicization, their case, rea...

This week, we're sharing three segments. First up, you'll hear Yara speaking about Solidarity International, a new initiative to support prisoner support and anti-repression work beyond borders initiated by various anarchist and anti-authoritarian groups networked together, including the International Anarchist Defence Fund and various anarchist black cross groups across the world. SolInt Transcri...

This week, Ian talks with cartoonist Mattie Lubchansky about her new book, Simplicity , out July 29 from Pantheon Graphic Library. The conversation touches on Mattie's work as Associate Editor for The Nib, her history with comics, and her ambitions beyond the printed page, but mostly focuses on the role of art in organizing and living our politics amid all the compromises required of life in the R...

This week, we're sharing this a chat with my friend, Dani Burlson on her recent book, Red Flag Warning: Mutual Aid and Survival in California's Fire Country ! We speak about fire ecology, housing pressures and mutual aid in the wake of natural (and human caused) disaster. Check the show notes for links to a few projects mentioned. You can find more of Dani's writings at D aniBurlison.com/ , books...