Everyday Anarchism

Eric Blair, known as George Orwell, had all of his successes after he met and married Eileen O'Shaughnessy. The graphic novel Mrs. Orwell, written by Andrea Chalupa, is the story of how George Orwell became a couple, and helps re-introduce Eileen to history as the dynamic, radical activist and editor who has been left out of the Orwell story.You can get a copy of the book here: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9781250877857

Joan Slonczewski joins me to discuss their novel A Door Into Ocean, a science fiction novel about an all-female society of "sharers" on an ocean planet, Shora. Joan's sharers are one of the best speculative depictions of what an anarchist society would look like, so Joan and I discuss the inspirations for the world, including Gene Sharp, Ursula Le Guin, and Gandhi, and what we can draw on from those figures in our current struggles.You can find Joan at https://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/slonc.htmBuy the book: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780312876524

Amit Chaudhuri joins me to discuss his new collection of essays, Incompleteness. In these essays and his novels, Amit is constantly searching for new language that will acknowledge the instability and flux of the world around us. It is intellectual anarchy of the highest order, as well as artistically breathtaking.You can find all of Amit's books published by NYRB here: https://www.nyrb.com/collections/amit-chaudhuri

Kim Stanley Robinson comes back to discuss Aurora, his novel of a generational starship, in which generations of humans are born, live, and die onboard without ever seeing a planet. We discuss the generational starship as a science fiction genre, whether humans will ever be able to travel to the stars, and what it would mean for science fiction if we can't. We also take a detour into the question of "hard," scientific science fiction vs. "soft," humanist science fiction.Here's a link to Stan's article for Boing Boing, arguing that we won't ever reach the stars:https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.htmlThanks to Nick Gaskill for suggesting an episode on Aurora!

Dan Chiasson joins me to discuss his combined Bernie and Burlington biography, Bernie for Burlington, and the connections between Bernie's socialism and Mamdani's socialism.You can purchase Dan's book here: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780593317495Here's Dan's article about Mamdani: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/11/06/have-you-met-z-zohran-mamdani/And we discuss Corey Robin's piece on socialist excellence: https://coreyrobin.com/2025/11/15/excellence-over-mediocrity-from-mamdani-to-marx-to-food/

For almost 20 years, PM Press has been publishing brilliant anarchist books, including many covered on this podcast. Co-Founder Ramsey Kanaan joins me to discuss what PM Press does, how it works on anarchist lines, and why they need to own their own building to secure their future.If you'd like to contribute to that future, here's the fundraising link for the merch page, which also has the GoFundMe link: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=255

Leonard Williams, who was my second guest on this podcast back in November of 2021, returns to talk about Trump's presidency over the past year, what it means, and what we can do to fight it.To hear more from Leonard, here's his 2024 podcast on what to expect from the Trump regime: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-hbbe4-17349e4And here's Leonard's Substack: https://crosspollination.substack.com/Note: Leonard and I recorded this episode before the US kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and ICE executed Renee Good

Ray Dorsey joins me to discuss The Parkinson's Plan, his new book about fighting and hopefully ending the disease. Ray and his co-author Michael S. Okun show that Parkinson's is primarily caused by human-made chemicals, chemicals we can stop using. As with climate change or ultraprocessed foods, we've made an environment that's sickening us. Now it's time to make a new, healthier world.You can learn more about the book at https://pdplan.org/

The modern anarchist movement began in 1999, when the World Trade Organization met in Seattle in order to create a set of rules which would require every country to accept the worst excesses of capitalism.Waiting for them in Seattle was a loose coalition of anarchists, farmers, organized labor, punks, Zapatistas, and giant puppets. Team Puppet won.D.W. Gibson's new book One Week to Change the World is an oral history of the Battle of Seattle. Gibson interviewed everyone from the black bloc to the riot police. The book is a history but also a guide for future protests. I highly recommend it!

Ever since C. Thi Nguyen appeared on the podcast, I've been trying to use games to understand more about the relationship between rules and life. Jay Dragon, whose game Wanderhome is almost ruleless, joins me to discuss games, rules, and anarchy, and we especially talk about how we can analyze oppressive real-world systems as if they're games.Here are some links for more from Jay:https://possumcreek.medium.com/https://possumcreekgames.com/

Robin Schuldenfrei rejoins me to talk more Bauhaus! In this episode, we discuss her book Luxury and Modernism, covering the complexities of the Bauhaus, which had a leftwing ethos but produced luxury objects, and made them by hand to appear machine made. Robin talks us through how the contradiction between luxury and egalitarianism ran from Morris's arts and crafts movement to the Bauhaus, and modernism only became a truly "everyday" part of life during the colossal expansion of middle-class wealth in the midcentury, as celebrated by Life magazine and recreated in the show Mad Men

John McGowan joins me to discuss Liberty as Independence, Quentin Skinner's new book about the way that our ideals of liberty were formed in in 17th and 18th century debates. The book covers legendary figures, such as Hobbes, Milton, Locke, Swift, Paine, and Jefferson, as well as many lesser-known figures that they engaged with.For more from John McGowan, here's the link to his blog: https://jzmcgowan.com/public-intelligence-blog/ Finally, I'd like to apologize to Badger from The Wind in the Willows. In this episode, I repeatedly refer to him as "Mr. Badger." He is simply, as befits his status, Badger or The Badger. I regret the error.

Nathan Gelgud joins me to discuss Reel Politik, a comics collection about a group of Brechtian revolutionaries who take over the movie theatre they work in.Nathan and I discuss our shared love for movies, the radical nature of paying attention to a movie screen, and The Chelsea Theater, a local movie theatre in Chapel Hill that Nathan and I both love (I even worked there!). Many thanks to Bruce Stone, who ran The Chelsea for decades!You can find the book here: https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/reel-politik/

Pastor Micah joins me to share a radical reading of the Book of Genesis in which wealth isn't a blessing on God's people, but a curse!I recently appeared on Micah's podcast, The Word in Black and Red, to discuss the 10 Commandments with Micah. That link is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s-2-20-exodus-19-20-arrival-at-mt-sanai-the-ten-commandments/id1682991552?i=1000730399185I also recently appeared on The Skeptical Leftist podcast! That link is here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/skepticalleftist/episodes/The-Anti-Influencers-Case-For-Anarchism-with-Graham-Culbertson-e3a0a4jAnd the YouTube video of that conversation is here (I didn't watch): https://youtu.be/YXYH1ngF30A?si=4DMONaFxIUGRuCNc

Alfie Kohn returns to the show to discuss his new podcast, the role of teachers in social progress, and why someone's view on chatbots in the classroom tells you eveything you need to know about their view of education.You can listen to Kohn's Zone wherever you get your podcasts, or get it straight from his website: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/