Rev Left Radio

Reflecting on Engels' "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, & The State"

Alyson and Breht finish their 3-part series on Friedrich Engels' text "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and The State", and reflect on the text as a whole. Together, they wrestle with questions, like: What is family abolition? How do rich people buy extended, communal family? What happens to the family and romantic relationships under communism? Should people ever be treated like commodities? How does the title of the text reflect h...

American History and Fred Hampton

Breht and Arjun from Deep into History join forces to have a wide-ranging discussion on 20th century American history, with a focus on the underlying racial and class dynamics of early to mid-century America that led to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and then the Black Panther Party - specifically their preemminent organizer and leading revolutionary from...

Save the History of Africa & the African Diaspora MRes! w/ Hakim Adi

In this pressing episode, we bring on the esteemed Professor Hakim Adi to discuss the MRes History of Africa & the African Diaspora program, and the University of Chichester's efforts to shut down the program and make Professor Adi redundant.  This is an incredibly important issue that we take up, so listeners, take action.  Sign 2023-08-04 15:13:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Buddhism and Marxism with Breht O'Shea (In Conversation)

When you think about the philosophies and practices of Buddhism and Marxism, you might not immediately think that they have much in common. However, you might be surprised at how much overlap and complementary resonance there actually is between these two rich and beautiful traditions.

In this conversation, we’ve brought on Breht O’Shea, a Buddhist practitioner ...

W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Reconstruction in America

Dr. Gerald Horne joins Breht and guest-co-host PM Irvin to launch our new series on the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois, the famous American sociologist, Marxist socialist, esteemed historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist, starting with his major work Black Reconstruction in America.

Check out our other interviews ...

An Amerikan Family: Assata, Tupac, and the Black Liberation Struggle

EARLY RELEASE: Santi Elijah Holley joins Breht to discuss his book "An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created". For over fifty years, the Shakurs have inspired generations of activists, scholars, and music fans. M...

Minoritarian Rule: SCOTUS' Assault on the American People

Alyson and Breht discuss the recent rulings by the Supreme Court, a wildly anti-democratic, thoroughly corrupt, and staunchly reactionary institution that the American right has spent years and billions of dollars capturing in order to impose its minoritarian rule on an American majority that firmly rejects what they stand for. And they do it all without having to worry for even a second about pesky things getting in their way: like democracy,...

All Too Human: Katie's Struggle w/ Alcohol and Gambling

In this first edition of our new All Too Human interview series, Breht and Dave welcome "Katie", Breht's sister, into the studio to have an honest conversation about her struggles with alcohol and gambling.

With these All Too Human interviews, we aim to highlight and destigmatize the mental health and addiction struggles of normal working people in hopes that we can provide insight into this type of human suffering, h...

Outline Preview: An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created

Episode coming Monday, July 3rd:

- This book is ostensibly about the Shakur family, but on another level you are using the trials and tribulations of this specific family as a lens through which to understand the broader struggle for black liberation in this country. Why did you want to focus on the Shakur family in particular, and why are they such a useful lens through which to wrestle with the broader black struggle in the US?

-...

Confronting Anti-Communism

In this patreon episode, Breht listens and responds to the (unfortunately) popular right wing Youtuber WhatifAltHist's latest video on Communism titled "Why Communism is a Failed Religion".

It's bad, folks.

Breht throws a friendly arm around your shoulder and walks ya through it.

Karmic Law and Mutual Aid: Insights from Buddhism and Anarchism

David from Anarchospirituality joins Breht to discuss Buddhism, Anarchism, Marxism, and more! After an introduction section, David gives a talk on Buddhism and Anarchism, and then he and Breht discuss the talk before launching into a wide-ranging discussion on anarchism v. marxism, Kropotkin, the Buddhist conception of Karma, individual and collective improvement and...

The Life of Jesus: Historical Materialism, Class Conflict, and the Jesus Movement

Professors James Crossley and Robert J. Myles join Breht to discuss their fascinating work "Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict" put out by Zero Book.  Together, they discuss their application of historical materalism to the life of Jesus, the difficulty of studying and sourcing the ancient past, the gospels and what they ...

ICYMI: A History of the World in 7 Cheap Things

In this terrific episode, we talk with Professors Jason W. Moore and  Raj Patel about their fabulous work A History of the World in 7 Cheap Things, which analyzes the history of the world’s planetary emergency through Cheap nature, money, work, care, food, energy, & lives.  A super important conversati...

Everyday Utopia: Egalitarianism, Human Nature, & The Good Life

Professor and author Kristen R. Ghodsee returns to Rev Left to discuss her newest book "Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life". Together, her and Breht discuss intentional communities, social experiments, what utopia even means in this context, scientific v. utopian soci...

Anti-Trans Hysteria, Electoral Doom Loops, & Is America REALLY a White Supremacist Country?!

In this patreon exclusive, Breht discusses the full-spectrum assault on Trans people, their basic existence, and their human rights, then he discusses the US electoral spectacle and how most americans hate both parties and their candidates, then he responds to a bad review of the podcast which scoffed at the idea that the US is a white supremacist society...

Contrapoints response to the Witch Trials of JK Rowling here: 2023-04-26 14:58:29 +0000 UTC View Post

On The Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People

Matthew Furlong from our Dialectics Deep Dive series returns to the show to discuss Chairman Mao's text "On The Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People".

Further Resources:

Outro music: "Inner Conflict" by Pep LoveMao Zedong - Five Essays on Philosophy (1957): 2023-04-25 14:06:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Proletarian Feminism and its Discontents

Tai Lee joins Breht to discuss the recent split from AF3IRM, radical feminism, critique as a form of solidarity, the necessity of struggle within organizations, sexual harrassment and abuse in the labor movement, liberal opportunism, the targeting and intimidation of women who speak up, how to prevent abuse and harrassment within orgs, and more!

Here is the letter that...

Outline for Upcoming Ep: Jesus - A Life in Class Conflict

(Lmk what you think about this as a patreon offering in the comments please. Is seeing the outline of an upcoming episode interesting / worthwhile to you?)

Context and Methodology:

- This is a work of Marxist historical materialism, as you say in the introduction of the text. Our audience will certainly be familiar with historical and dialectical materialism, but for those who are still learning: Can you remind us what...

Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion and Repression (1955 - 1972)

Aaron J. Leonard returns to the show to discuss his newest book, "Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion and Repression". Throughout the interview, we play many of the artists and songs mentioned in the book and conversation (time st...

Crossing the Threshold: The Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead

Professor of philosophy Matthew D. Segall returns to Rev Left to discuss his newest book, which is based on his disseratation, titled "Crossing the Threshold: Etheric Imaginati...