Everyday Anarchism

Avi Khalil joins me to discuss the concept of everyday anarchism with respect to Star Trek. Although Star Trek purports to be a perfect neoliberal bureaucracy, all of the heroes are constantly breaking the rules. You can read Avi's blog post that served as an inspiration for the episode here: https://avikhalil.com/2023/06/15/the-spock-rule/

Peter Wilkin joins me to discuss the concept of tory anarchism, how George Orwell articulated the idea, how it differs from other forms of conservative anarchism (like Tolkien's), and the role that tory anarchism plays in British culture. We also cover a number of other topics related to Orwell, including his attacks on top-down language policing and his awareness of his own intolerances.

Vishwam Heckert joins me to discuss his journey from anarchist queer theorist to practitioner of the ancient anarchy of yoga. We conclude with heart meditation, which anyone who isn't driving can do along with the podcast!

Announcing a mini-series of episodes: three conversations with Kim Stanley Robinson about his first trilogy, Three Californias. We will cover one book per episode, with the first coming out on July 26. There's just a bit of our conversation here; I recommend you read the books along with the series; you can order a copy of the entire trilogy in a single volume.See you on July 26 for The Wild Shore!

John P. Clark comes on the show to discuss his book The Impossible Community: Realizing Communitarian Anarchism. John and I discuss how Hegel was a hippie, how everything is what it isn't (but also what it is), and why the right-wing is so much better at organizing at the grassroots than the progressive movements.

With apologies to Peter Kropotkin.Original here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-an-appeal-to-the-young

Just like when the Debt series gets going in earnest, I'll have a monthly episode with my thoughts on Graeber and then a conversation later that month.This month I'm talking with Dirk Ehnts, an MMT economist who really helped me further understand the money creation process and where Graeber's ideas fit into it.You can find Dirk as a frequent guest on the MMT podcast, as well as checkout these opportunities to study with him:https://maastricht.dreamapply.com/courses/course/183-modern-monetary-theory-and-european-macroeconomics https://www.torrens.edu.au/courses/business/master-of-economics-of-sustainability

Shawn from the SRSLY Wrong podcast joins me in a crossover episode to discuss what everyday anarchism and library socialism have in common. (Hint: It's David Graeber).Along the way we discuss breadtube, Kropotkin, basic income vs. jobs guarantee, Cory Doctorow, political identification, utilitarianism, and more. Plus you get to hear me do comedy sketches, exactly like you never wanted.

Later this year (hopefully!), I'll start a year-long series analyzing and explaining David Graeber's first big book Debt. This episode is a prequel that introduces you to some of Graeber's conclusions about economics and money, and how they fit in with Modern Monetary TheoryIn 2019, less than a year before he died, Graeber wrote a piece for the New York Review of Books in which he explained, very concisely, what was wrong with the field of economics and how it’s ruined everything. Debt is the long story with all of the receipts. This is the more like the epilogue, or maybe the prologue.I'll have an episode discussing Graeber's article with the MMT economist Dirk Ehnts later this month

James Fallows returns to the show to discuss what left neoliberalism was and its place in the late New Deal era.Anyone who has ever enjoyed a craft beer has benefitted from left neoliberalism and its dreaded "deregulation." Anyone alive in the 21st century has suffered under the corporatist excesses of right neoliberalism. Did they have anything in common? And where do Jimmy Carter and Ralph Nader fit into the picture(besides the fact that James wrote for both of them)?Here's my very brief podcast explanation of the different uses of the word neoliberal: NeoliberalismJames also provided a few articles for context:The original manifesto for neoliberalism from the left by Charlie Peters: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1982/09/05/a-neo-liberals-manifesto/21cf41ca-e60e-404e-9a66-124592c9f70d/A recent look back at Peters' neoliberalism: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/07/17/we-need-to-stop-arguing-about-neoliberalism/A 1993 article by James Fallows criticizing right-wing neoliberalism (aka corporatism or laissez-faire capitalism or "Anglo-sphere economic orthodoxy"): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/12/how-the-world-works/305854/

This episode is a crossover with Good in Theory, a political theory podcast by Clif Mark. I highly recommend Clif's podcast; in addition to interviews and one-off episodes, Clif did a series in which he adapts and explains Plato's Republic - the entire thing! Almost every topic in political theory is addressed in The Republic - and Clif guides you through the foundations of all the arguments we are still having today. Although from an anarchist perspective Plato is wrong about everything.In this episode, Clif and I discuss ancient Athenian democracy and the extent to which does and doesn't resonate with democratic ideas today. From there I try out my idea (borrowed from David Graeber, as usual) that a truly democratic system would be compatible with anarchism, and Clif offers some constructive criticism to that idea.If you enjoyed this episode, you should check out Clif's 3-part series on ancient Greek government:The PolisSparta: Killer BeehiveAthens: Ahoi Polloi!

Last year I recorded this interview with Cyril Schäublin, the director of the new film Unrest. Unrest is a masterpiece. The film tells the story of unrest and labor organizing among the anarchist watchmakers of the Swiss Canton of Jura. Also, the tiny part at the center of a mechanical watch? It's also called an "unrest."Cyril and I talk about decentering Kropotkin in the film (sometimes literally), his family connection to Swiss watchmaking, the seductive power of paternalism, and the way corporations have taken over our sense of time.The film is premiering in the United States this week; it may already be available where you live. I truly recommend it.

In this episode, following up on my conversation about Byzantium with Anthony Kaldellis and leading to my conversation about democratic Athens with Clif Mark, I talk to James Corke-Webster and Lisa Eberle about their work on Roman governance. In contrast to images of Rome as a centralized and bureaucratic monolith, James and Lisa explain how Rome functioned as a network of cities, linked more by soft power than by military might - although the soldiers showed up if the wealth stopped flowing to the imperial city. You can also hear why so many Roman buildings became ruins before they were even finished, about the Roman tradition of mass protest, and how enlightenment thinkers influenced our view of the empire.

In this discussion episode of Anarchism 101, Leonard Williams and I discuss the American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre and her work "Anarchism and American Traditions." For more from Leonard, checkout our discussion of his book of anarchist crossword puzzles.

In this episode of Anarchism 101, I read Voltairine de Cleyre's 1909 essay "Anarchism and American Traditions." Later this month, I'll publish my conversation with Leonard Williams about this essay as well as de Cleyre's life, activism, and ideas.

In this episode I'm joined by my most frequent guest: Ruth Kinna. Ruth and I continue our conversation about William Morris by discussing his science fictional work News from Nowhere. Ruth and I discuss how this work differs from Edward Bellamy's more famous fantasy of state socialism, Looking Backward, and how Morris could produce this anarchist utopia without declaring himself an anarchism.Please note that we do discuss sensitive topics in this episode, such as child abuse, as we talk about how the people in Morris' society would handle them

In this episode I'm joined by Richard McCarthy, a longtime activist around food issues, most especially the creation of farmers markets. In addition to his work with the New Orleans Crescent City Farmers Market, we spend most of our time talking about Richard's new book Kuni. Co-authored with Tsuyoshi Sekihara, the book explores Sekihara's efforts to revitalize and reorganize a rural area in Japan without relying on either national government subsidies or municipal governments. It's a fascinating idea, one which has uniquely Japanese elements but also many lessons for anyone looking to revisit our relationship to food, farming, and the environment.

In this episode, Deaglán Ó Donghaile and I discuss Oscar Wilde's connection to revolutionary anarchism, and in particular his idiosyncratic manifesto, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." For more on Wilde's radicalism, you can check out Deaglán's book, Oscar Wilde and the Radical Politics of the Fin de Siècle.

Continuing my series, Batman vs. Anarchism, I'm joined on this episode by my esteemed colleague David Hill to discuss Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. David and I discuss David Graeber's theory that all of Nolan's Batman villains are anarchists - and what it means that Batman is a heroic terrorist.You can check out Graeber's original essay, Super Position, or hear my introduction to this series, Batman vs. Anarchism. And David Hill appeared earlier on this podcast to discuss Theodor Adorno's Minima Moralia.

Although we lost David Graeber several years ago, we are still getting the bittersweet joy of reading new books by him. This week, Cory Doctorow joins me to discuss Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia, a short book in which Graeber convincingly melds the oral histories he learned while doing doctoral research in Madagascar with 17th century European tales of a pirate kingdom on Madagascar into a swashbuckling tale of an anarchist pirate confederation.For more on pirates, check out my episode with Gabriel Kuhn on the anarchic nature of the golden age of piracy: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/cea23b51-6d3b-4f42-bf42-2f07fca51868

On this episode, Mark Bittman and Ricard Salvador discuss our broken food system and what we can do about it. Jumping off from Mark's fantastic book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk, we discuss the exploitative nature of the food system, why it's poisoning people and the planet, and how the corporate-captured USDA and FDA can't do anything about it.What comes next? We're not exactly sure - but it's going to have to be a better way of nourishing people if we want to survive.

Lawrence Rhu, my undergraduate mentor and friend of more than two decades, joins me today to discuss Stanley Cavell, one of his mentors and one of American philosophy's most idiosyncratic and humanist thinkers. Spurred by the publication of the recent posthumous publication of Cavell's Here and There: Sites of Philosophy, Larry and I talk about the affinities between Cavell, Emerson, and everyday anarchism.

Today I'm joined by the author Scott Branson to discuss their book Practical Anarchism. Scott and I discuss the similarities between our approaches, as well as some key differences related to terminology. For more from Scott, you can check out The Final Straw Radio, a podcast and radio show that they co-host.

Also known as Fully Automated Luxury Queer Space AnarchismThis week, 3 of my former students - Joy Frost, Mark Muchane, and Rook Schrader - join me to discuss Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism. These three students and I made a class about the concept - a class that was banned by our school! Lucky for you, the students made it happen anyway, and share what they learned in this episode.Here are some of the things we talked about in the episode:Four Futures by Peter Frase The Neutral Zone (Star Trek: The Next Generation) - Wikipedia Electric Production and Direction William KarpCharlie Chaplin - Factory Scene - Modern Times (1936) The making of Amazon Prime

Ruth Kinna joins me to discuss Anarchic Agreements: A Field Guide to Collective Organizing, from PM Press. In this very short book, Ruth and her collaborators (Alex Prichard, Thomas Swann, and Seeds for Change) lay out a series of questions and possibilities which face any attempt at anarchist organizing, dealing directly with the seeming contradiction of anarchist constitutionalizing. The book also includes anarchist statements of principles from more than a century ago to the present dayIn this conversation, Ruth and I discuss the meaning of the Occupy movement, the complicated relationship between anarchist and democratic forms of organization, and how to fight for real change.

This podcast finally turns its attention to the Kurdish Women's Movement in Rojava. My guest is Dilar Dirik, whose new book The Kurdish Women's Movement: History, Theory, Practice takes a sociological approach to examining and explaining the freedom struggle in Kurdistan over the past four decades. Dilar and I discuss the role of Abdullah Öcalan in the movement, connections between the movement and the work of Murray Bookchin, and the institutions and practices currently sustaining the struggle.

Mathematician Philip Ording joins me to discuss his book, 99 Variations on a Proof, in which he finds the solution to (or "proves" his solution to) the same cubic equation over and over and over again - each time in a different style. Philip and I discuss how this approach can be described as mathematical anarchism, how math can be understood as everything from inflexibly authoritarian to infinitely free, and whether or not mathematical anarchism could be used to reshape math education. Plus Wittgenstein.

My guest today is Brian Terrell, a member of the Catholic Worker, a goat farmer, a peace protester, and a personal friend of Dorothy Day. Brian discusses the life and philosophy of Dorothy Day, helping us make sense of a movement which is both Catholic and anarchist.You can learn more about Brian's work with the Nevada Desert Experience here: http://nevadadesertexperience.org/My previous episodes on anarchism and the life of Jesus are:https://player.captivate.fm/episode/37ea6a67-1a3e-49bd-b932-e40446491bdahttps://player.captivate.fm/episode/845374c5-6fda-489d-a206-57abf2412269

David Goldblatt joins me to discuss the ethics of the 2022 World Cup. This World Cup is a triumph of corporate capitalism and corruption over workers' rights, human rights, and the environment. On the other hand, it's not clear that what David calls "a World Cup for our times" is really worse than any of the world sporting events held in places like China and Russia over the past decades. In this episode, David systematically lays out the problems with this tournament but also the ways that it is more symptom than disease.Here's Amnesty's response to the cup, which David discussed on the show: World Cup of Shame

This week I'm joined by friend and colleague David Hill, composer of the Everyday Anarchism theme music! Our topic is Minima Moralia, a disconcerting book of aphorisms written by Theodor Adorno in the wake of the Holocaust. David and I discuss Adorno's legendary hatred of awesome things like jazz and anarchism, his role as an enemy of left-wing student activists in the 1960s, and the everyday nature of his critiques of capitalism.

I'm joined by game designer David Thompson to discuss his game Resist!, a solitaire card game about the Spanish Maquis's battle against Franco in the 1940s. David and I discuss the game design process, the little known history of the Spanish Maquis, and the way that the board game industry runs on mutual aidHere are links to David's description of designing the game and an account of the Spanish Maquis

Although I'm a little late, I finally get around to honoring the 150th anniversary of the 1871 Paris Commune. My guest is Carolyn Eichner, author of The Paris Commune: A Brief History. We do an even briefer history of the Commune on this episode, as well as a discussion of the Commune's legacy and the sites in Paris you can visit to honor the Communards.

I'm joined today by Anthony Kaldellis, author of The Byzantine Republic and host of the podcast Byzantium and Friends. Anthony and I discuss how Byzantium, popularly associated with with bureaucracy and authoritarianism, depended on mass protests for political legitimacy.

What if Batman's biggest enemy isn't crime? What if his deepest fear isn't bats? What if the secret villain Batman faces in every Batman story is anarchism?I keep trying to go on hiatus, but I keep making new episodes. I guess this is Season/Phase 2. Enjoy!

In this episode, I sit down with Revolutions podcaster Mike Duncan to discuss Kropotkin's influence on the Russian Revolution, protesting in Macron's France, mutual aid during the worst of the pandemic, and whether our current political system can avoid another revolution.Many thanks to the people of Flyleaf Books, a wonderful Chapel Hill bookstore, who provided the venue for our interview. You can pick up Mike's books The Storm before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic and Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution from them.

The authors behind the award-winning novel and TV series The Expanse join me to discuss the politics and sociology of the science fiction future they've created. The Expanse is not a dystopia or a utopia, just a regular ole topia, in which corporations and governments continue to compete and cooperate both with each other and with resistance movements and labor unions. But in space!Daniel, Ty, and I discuss the historical analogues for the governments and resistance movements in The Expanse, the humanity of their characters, and how the series differs from its peers The Wire and Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire.

This week's episode is an edition of my new podcast, AIdeas. Oscar Wilde imagined an anarchist utopia without drudgery and without slavery. How did he propose to accomplish this? Automation. Here's the article about American slavery that I mentioned by Nell Irvin Painter: How We Think About the Term "Enlsaved" MattersSubscribe to AIdeas for more!

This week's guest is J. Bradford DeLong, author of the new economic history of the 20th century, Slouching Towards Utopia. Brad and I discuss William Morris, pre-industrial civilization, jobs versus occupations, and how much blame anarchists deserve for ruining the world. Brad and I had a bit of trouble with our setup, so the audio on his end is a bit rough.

One year later, Everyday Anarchism continues!In this episode, Ruth Kinna and I discuss William Morris, the brilliant craftsman/poet/artist who set out to defeat capitalism when he realized that the forces of commerce wouldn't let craftspeople make a living unless they sold their wares to wealthy. Just don't call him an anarchist.You can also hear Ruth's previous appearances on Everyday Anarchism, covering Santa Claus and Kropotkin.Please help Everyday Anarchism continue until September 2023 by telling a friend about the show, giving financially at everydayanarchism.com, or leaving a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify!

My guest this week is Jon Raymond, novelist and screenwriter, whose most recent book, Denial, imagines a world in 2052 in which climate justice has been delivered via Nuremberg-style trials, climate catastrophe has been avoided, and climate change denial has nevertheless continued. Jon and I discuss Denial, as well as Night Moves, the film he wrote about a group of activists planning a bombing attack on a hydroelectic dam. We also talk about science fiction, organic farming, the successes and excesses of antifa, and the aftermath of the 2020 protests in the Pacific Northwest.

This week we will survey nihilism in Russian literature with Maya Slater and Nicolas Pasternak Slater, translators of a new edition of Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Children. Turgenev's novel introduced nihilism as an idea to an entire generation of Russian dissidents - including Kropotkin. Join me as the Slaters show how nihilism is portrayed in this epoch-making novel, as well as famous depictions of nihilism in Russian writers from Gogol to Dostoevsky.

This week's episode is an edition of my new podcast, AIdeas. How should we teach AI about human ethics? Simple: anarchism!Subscribe to AIdeas for more!

In this episode of Anarchism 101: An Anarchist Syllabus, I'm joined by Jacqueline Jones, author of Goddess of Anarchy, to discuss Lucy Parsons and her legacy.

In this episode I'm joined by Asao B. Inoue to discuss contract grading, a radical (even anarchistic?) form of grading which strengthens the student-teacher relationship, lessens the power of hierarchy in the classroom, and fights the oppressive structures which are distorting education. If you'd like to learn more about contract grading - including how to integrate it into your syllabus - check out Asao's website: https://asaobinoue.blogspot.com/p/labor-based-grading-contract-resources.html

Welcome back to my continuing coverage of the Graeber and Wengrow book The Dawn of Everything. This week, is the conclusion of my conversation with four members of the Black Trowel Collective, a network of anarchist archeologists: James Birmingham, Lewis Borck, James Flexner, and Aris Politopoulos. This conversation covers next steps: in the wake of The Dawn of Everything and work done by the Black Trowel Collective, what comes next in this ongoing re-evaluation of humanity's origins? To hear the first part of the conversation, click here: www.everydayanarchism.com/anarchistarchaeologistsTo support underrepresented archaeologists financially, check out Black Trowel's revolutionary grant program: Black Trowel Microgrants.

In this episode of Anarchism 101: An Anarchist Syllabus, I read Lucy Parsons' "The Principles of Anarchism" and "Speech on June 29 of the Founding Convention of the IWW" .This project is year-long; on the first of each month of 2022, I'll be posting my reading of an important anarchist text. Later that month, I'll post an episode in which I discuss each text and its author with a scholar of anarchism. Look forward to my discussion of this text with Jacqueline Jones on July 27

In this June 2022 discussion episode of Anarchism 101, I discuss Gandhi's "Passive Resistance" with KP Shankaran. Join us as we discuss Gandhi's place in the anarchist movement, why his ethics based anarchism is the purest form of anarchism, and how his critique of colonialism is more important now than ever before. This project is year-long; on the first of each month of 2022, I'll be posting my reading of an important anarchist text. Later that month, I'll post an episode in which I discuss each text and its author.

Welcome back to my continuing coverage of the Graeber and Wengrow book The Dawn of Everything. This week, I'm joined by four members of the Black Trowel Collective, a network of anarchist archeologists: James Birmingham, Lewis Borck, James Flexner, and Aris Politopoulos. This is part one of our roundtable discussion, covering first impressions of the book and its place in recent work on archaeology.To support underrepresented archaeologists financially, check out Black Trowel's revolutionary grant program: Black Trowel Microgrants.And for more from Aris Politopoulos, check out our episode on videogames.

Kim Stanley Robinson joins me to discuss his new book, The High Sierra: A Love Story. Stan and I discuss literary form, the need for Keynesianism in a crisis, utopian camping, his solution to leftist infighting, and how humanity can survive our current climate nightmare. You might also like Stan's most recent novel, a future history of how a worldwide crisis response to the climate emergency would work: The Ministry for the Future.

Iain McKay joins me to discuss the new edition of Kropotkin's Words of a Rebel from PM Press. In this book, Kropotkin's very first, he lays out the need for a revolution and how to prepare for that revolution. It's strikingly relevant, beautifully written, and packed with all sorts of context from Iain. I highly recommend the book!