Everyday Anarchism

In this episode of Anarchism 101: An Anarchist Syllabus, Abby Russ and I read Gandhi's "Passive Resistance" from his anarchist manifesto, Hind Swaraj.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 KP Shankaran on June 29

Labor journalist Kim Kelly joins me to discuss her new book, Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor. We talk unions, what they did historically, what they're doing right now, and most of all how they can make an impossible future possible.

The heart of modern capitalism is the exploitation of workers. But according to all of the great theorists of capitalism, capitalism will actually prevent the exploitation of labor. So maybe all those thinkers are just wrong. But maybe what we call "capitalism" is just an updated form of feudal serfdom in which CEOs and middle managers have replaced monarchs and aristocrats. But if we are living not in capitalism but what David Graeber called "managerial feudalism," just what would capitalism look like? I do my best to answer that question.

This week I'm joined by Bruce Glavovic, Iain White, and Tim Smith to discuss their recent article "The Tragedy of Climate Science." In the article, these three climate scientists point out the obvious: climate scientists keep making increasingly dire predictions, and politicians keep doing nothing. In a recent survey, a majority of climate scientists expect catastrophic global warming to occur despite all their work. So why keep doing it? Maybe it's time for the climate scientists to stop doing science as usual, and start doing scientific activism.

This week I'm joined by Corey Robin, author of The Reactionary Mind, to discuss American democracy in the wake of the January 6th attack and the supposed crisis of democracy it caused. Corey and I discuss democracy as a process, the work that needs to be done to support that process, and how Karl Rove was right about one thing: it's our job to imagine and realize a different world.

In this May 2022 discussion episode of Anarchism 101, I discuss an excerpt of Bakunin's God and the State with Mark Leier. Join me and Mark as we discuss Bakunin's place in revolutionary thinking, his status as a founding anarchist, his dispute with Marx, and his relevance to contemporary debates about science and democracy.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.If you have any questions, email me at [email protected] As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

On this episode I'm joined by Aris Politopoulos, an archeologist who works on video games, to discuss the way that video games can help us understand the past, help us educate people about the past, and possibly make the entire project of understanding history more anarchist.Aris does much of his work on video games as part of the VALUE Foundation; you can find them on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, or at their website. And to see the Roman Minecraft project, checkout https://romeincraft.n

For this episode I'm joined by Gabriel Kuhn, author of Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy, to discuss the anarchist nature of 18th century pirates. Join us to learn about all the ways that pirates lived more freely, more justly, and with less violence than their counterparts in European navies and merchant ships. Gabriel also discusses the connections between pirate radicalism and radical movements in the 21st century.To read the pirate codes from this period, here's a link from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_code

I'm joined by one of my dissertation directors, John McGowan, to discuss the philosophy of John Dewey in the context of anarchism. Dewey is today remembered as one of the premier advocates for democracy, and especially democratic education, in the entire history of the United States. And like his teacher William James and his collaborator Jane Addams, he seems more than a little anarchist to me. We'll see if John agrees.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

On this episode I'm Graeme Robertson, co-author of Putin vs. the People, joins me to discuss Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the formation of the new Ukrainian national identity, and the way that nationalism, imperialism, and neoliberalism have shaped the current situation. Graeme debunks right-wing talking points about the war, provides necessary context from recent Ukrainian and Russian history, and reminds us all what's at stake in this war. For more from Graeme, check out his article in the Washington Post.To support the struggle against this war, you can donate to an anarchist group supporting refugees and deserters here: https://nowar.solidarite.online/. To learn more about the conflict and the anarchist perspective, see my interview with Stan of the Ukrainian anarchist organization Assembly here: https://www.everydayanarchism.com/reportfromukrainiananarchists/

In this episode of Anarchism 101: An Anarchist Syllabus, I read Bakunin's famous discussion of science and authority from God and the StateThis 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.If you have any questions you would like answered about the text or Bakunin, email me at [email protected] As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com

In this March 2022 discussion episode of Anarchism 101, I discuss an excerpt of Proudhon's "What is Property" with Edward Castleton. Join me and Edward as we discuss Proudhon's theory of property, the revolutionary context of his works, and the sense in which he deserves to be considered one of the founders of anarchism.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. Look forward to Bakunin in April 2022!If you have any questions you would like answered about the text or Proudhon, email me at [email protected] As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

Cathy O'Neil - a veteran of both Wall Street and Occupy Wall Street - joins me to discuss her new book, The Shame Machine. We discuss her previous book, Weapons of Math Destruction, how it led her to The Shame Machine, and how shame has become an invisible currency sustaining capitalism's most exploitative practices. Cathy outlines how social media "cancellations" are just free advertisements for social media companies, while the oligarchs and meritocrats who truly deserve to be shamed not only don't get shamed but also manage to profit off the shame everyone else is feeling. I don't think you'll ever view the relationship between corporations and shame the same way after you hear Cathy's analysis.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

Just before his death, David Graeber completed a manuscript of a book called The Dawn of Everything - both a serious attempt to provide an entirely new story of the origin of "civilization" and playful takedown of other recent books that purport to explain civilization. Written with David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything raises many fabulous and provocative questions: what if it was indigenous Americans, not Europeans, who started the Enlightement? What if the modern state isn't "progress" but actually a form of society that's been tried and discarded hundreds of times? And, most of all, what if most humans lived much more free lives than almost anyone alive today?Join me as a I try to explain the answers Graeber and Wengrow give to these questions. And don't worry: I'll have some archeologists and anthropologists on the show soon to provide expert opinions on the book.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

In this emergency Ukrainian war episode, I'm joined by Stan, the coeditor of the website for Assembly, an anarchist group in Ukraine. Assembly's  main role, as he explains in our talk, is organization and mutual aid in neighborhoods of Kharkov. In our conversation, Stan and I talk about the situation in Kharkov, the role of anarchism at this time of crisis, and what you can do to help. Below you can find a variety of links shared by Stan about the situation and how you can help. Below that is a transcript of my conversation with Stan.For more information about the current situation in Ukraine and to get more detail on how you can help, check out these links: More from Assembly, Stan's organization:http://libcom.org/tags/assemblyorguahttps://assembly.org.ua/what-is-community-journalism/Stan's comrades Black Flag (including donation information):https://telegra.ph/VSE-DLYA-FRONTU-VSE-DLYA-PEREMOGI-03-07Profile of Yulia Koval, who was killed while transporting Kharkov residents to safety: https://assembly.org.ua/molodaya-harkovskaya-volonterka-pogibla-pri-obstrele-saltovki-pytayas-spasti-lyudey/To give to Solidarity Initiative, an effort helping refugees, deserters, and pacifists: https://nowar.solidarite.online/Updates on radical resistance to the invasion in Russia:http://libcom.org/news/two-weeks-russian-invasion-short-overview-radical-civil-resistance-09032022http://libcom.org/news/radical-resistance-russia-invasion-ukraine-part-2-14032022To read about the 1920 founding of the Anarchist Black Cross (which originated in Kharkov!): https://assembly.org.ua/dni-v-istorii-harkova-25-26-noyabrya-1920-g/For a transcript of this episode, and many more links, view this episode at my website here: https://www.everydayanarchism.com/reportfromukrainiananarchists/

Finally, on Everyday Anarchism, we turn to bread! I'm joined by Mark Bittman and Kerri Conan to discuss their new book, Bittman Bread, and how baking bread using their method can be considered anarchism. We also talk about whether governments can be used to fight corporations, how to create a bread-based utopia, and why I was naive to think that the federal government would ever create a healthy, inclusive food system.For more from Mark and Kerri, check out their newsletter, The Bittman Project.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

In this episode of Anarchism 101: An Anarchist Syllabus, I read Proudhon's famous declaration that property is theft in What is Property? 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.If you have any questions you would like answered about the text or Proudhon, email me at [email protected] Look forward to Bakunin in April 2022!As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com

In this episode, Meredith King of the University of New Orleans joins me to discuss Mardi Gras. We begin with the liberatory possibility of historical carnivals, as drawn from the works of David Graeber and Mikhail Bakhtin, then examine all of the many ways that Mardi Gras does and doesn't provide a space for freedom and grassroots organization.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

In this February 2022 discussion episode of Anarchism 101, I discuss Kropotkin's "Anarchism" with Ruth Kinna. Join me and Ruth as we discuss Kropotkin's life, his place in the history of anarchism, and his analysis of anarchism as both a modern movement and an ancient practice.For more from Ruth, check out her discussion of the anarchism of Santa Claus with me and the overview of the history of anarchism on In Our Time.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. Look forward to Proudhon in March 2022!If you have any questions you would like answered about the text or Kropotkin, email me at [email protected] As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

This episode features my conversation with James Fallows, a legendary journalist whose work Our Towns is one of the inspirations for Everyday Anarchism. James and his wife Deb flew all over the country in their small airplane, documenting the ways that American democracy works at the grassroots level. In this conversation, James and I discuss the dysfunction of the federal government, the historically reactionary nature of the federal government, and the way that our towns offer a grassroots alternative to that reactionary system. Plus I try to convince James that his efforts against leaf blowers will save the world.For more context on the federal dysfunction of right now, see James's interview on Plain English. For more from James and Deb, check out their foundation: https://www.ourtownsfoundation.org/ or watch the HBO Documentary about their work https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/our-towns

This week we go to Barcelona - today's Barcelona, where the memory of the heroic anarchist revolution of the 1930s mostly goes unmemorialized. My guests, Dave Zirin and Mike Stark, traveled to Barcelona and visited sites of revolutionary struggle. Join me, Dave, and Mike as we discuss their trip, the radical history of Barcelona, the local leftists they met in the city, and how we can work together to memorialize the sacred spaces of anarchist struggles. If you'd like to read Dave's original article about the trip, check it out here: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/barcelona-olympics/As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

This week's episode is another in my ongoing series about the takeover of higher education by bureaucracy and managerialism. I'm joined by Andreas Wittel of Nottingham Trent University to discuss his idea of education as a gift, not a commodity. We also discuss the ways that we can work together to hold things in common, alternatives to the current educational model, the coming environmental collapse of capitalism, and the need to provide basic necessities for all people. You can learn more about Andreas's work here: https://nottinghamtrent.academia.edu/AndreasWittel As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

In this episode of Anarchism 101: An Anarchist Syllabus, I read Kropotkin's historical overview of anarchism, published in the 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. If you would prefer to read the essay, you can find it here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/AnarchismThis 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.If you have any questions you would like answered about the text or Kropotkin, email me at [email protected] If you email soon enough, we can include your question in the discussion episode. Look forward to Proudhon in March 2022!As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com

In this first discussion episode of Anarchism 101, I'm joined by eminent Goldman scholars to discuss Emma Goldman's "Anarchism: What it Really Stands For." Join me, Kathy Ferguson, and Penny Weiss as we discuss the text and where it fits in Goldman's thinking and the history of anarchismThis 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. Look forward to Kropotkin in February 2022!If you have any questions you would like answered about the text or Goldman, email me at [email protected] If you email soon enough, we can include your question in the discussion episode. As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

This week's episode comes out a little early in honor of MLK!This episode places Martin Luther King Jr. right where I think he belongs: in the midst of the anarchist tradition. The focus is on Universal Basic Income, the idea which King adopted in the year before his assassination as a solution to poverty. King argues in Where Do We Go From Here? that the direct abolition of poverty is not only desperately needed for everyone, but also the key to continuing the fight against systemic racism. This episode also covers UBI as discussed by David Graeber, Cory Booker, and Andrew Yang, as well as questions on basic income vs. reparations raised by Ta-Nehisi Coates and K.A. Dilday.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

On Tuesday, January 18, German soccer giants Borussia Dortmund take the field against FC St. Pauli, a second division soccer team from Hamburg (in the US you can watch it on ESPN+). So who is FC St. Pauli? Why do they use the jolly roger as a logo, blast heavy metal and punk rock, and fly communist and anarchist flags?In anticipation of this big game, join me and Fabian Fritz, the director of education at the FC St. Pauli museum, to learn the history of the club, its takeover by the Nazis during Hitler's regime, its left-wing turn in the 1980s, and its connection to punk, anarchist, communist, anti-fascist, and squatter communities. To learn more about the history of the club, check out the the online exhibits of the museum: https://www.fcstpauli-museum.de/As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

In this week's episode I'm joined by Dr. Liz Morrish, a leading critic of the current state of universities. Liz and I discuss the craze for evaluating people based on numbers and the damage it does to the very real people trying to teach, research, and learn in academia. We also discuss academic free speech, the University of Austin Texas's half-baked solutions, the overselling of "STEM" majors as a career path, and Liz's personal journey from critic inside academia to critic outside of it.You can find more from Liz at her blog, Academic Irregularities, and as an editor at The Post-Pandemic University.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com.

In this inaugural episode of Anarchism 101: An Anarchist Syllabus, I read Goldman's famous essay. If you would prefer to read the essay, you can find it here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2162/2162-h/2162-h.htm#anarchismThis 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.If you have any questions you would like answered about the text or Goldman, email me at [email protected] If you email soon enough, we can include your question in the discussion episode. Look forward to Kropotkin in February 2022!As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com

Association football, also known as soccer, is one of the most beloved of all human pursuits. It's also one of the most democratic, most grassroots, most anarchist. Lately, though, billionaires, especially petro-billionaires and American sports billionaires, have been trying to take soccer away from the people. Now the petro-billionaires are squabbling with the American billionaires to see if soccer should become more like American football.In this episode I'll explain the corporate communism for billionaires of the NFL, the corporate anarchy for billionaires of English football, and the democracy of the German Bundesliga. For the second half of the episode, I'm joined by Julian Einfeldt of the FC St. Pauli Fanladen, a fan organization dedicated to keeping the 2. Bundesliga team FC St. Pauli grassroots, democratic, and inclusive.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com. I need your support for the show to continue through 2022!

For the second Christmas special from Everyday Anarchism in 2021, I'm doing a reading of "The Night of the Meek," season 2, episode 11 of The Twilight Zone. I begin with an explanation of a genre I'm calling "Christmas Romance," then show how that episode of The Twilight Zone puts the classic twilight zone twist on the Christmas romance. Along the way I touch on Shakespearean romances, the power of Christmas to transform society, Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie.As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com

For the first of two Christmas specials from Everyday Anarchism, I'm joined by Ruth Kinna to discuss the anarchism of Christmas and Santa Claus. You can read Ruth's article on the topic here: An Anarchist Guide to ChristmasNext week, another Christmas episode, this time on "The Night of the Meek," season 2, episode 11 of The Twilight Zone. As always, you can find me at www.everydayanarchism.com

This week's episode is the first of several episodes about how colleges and universities have abandoned their core mission - the collaborative search for truth - in favor of, well, something else. My guest for this episode is William Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep, The Death of the Artist, and the landmark essay ""Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League." Bill and I discuss the meritocracy and the damage it is doing to our students, our colleges, and our political institutions. We also discuss the way that the meritocratic language around "diversity" obscures the actual problems and solutions for social and political justice in higher education.Next week's episode is about anarchism and Christmas. I highly recommend that you read "An Anarchist Guide to Christmas" by Ruth Kinna, covering the similarities between Kropotkin and Santa Claus, in advance of my conversation with Ruth about Santa and anarchism.As always, you can find me at https://www.everydayanarchism.com/

We've got a supply chain crisis! But the supply chain is the crisis. The supply chain isn't some new, efficient, capitalist remnant of colonialism and slavery. In fact, colonialism and slavery were developed to feed the supply chain. The supply chain came first. So if we want to be free, we can't fix the supply chain. We've got to abolish the supply chain.In this episode, we explore the colonialist history of the supply chain, discuss its devastating impact on workers and the environment, and talk about anarchist ways to resist the supply chain.For more Everyday Anarchism, and to support the show financially, go to: https://www.everydayanarchism.com/

This week's episode is an interview with Professor Leonard Williams, a professor of political science, crossword puzzle constructor, and author of the new book, Black Blocks, White Squares: Crosswords with an Anarchist Edge. Join me and Professor Williams for a discussion of that book, plus the anarchist nature of 60s protests, the forces driving the rebirth of anarchism in the 21st century, and even the anarchist nature of constructing and solving crossword puzzles. You can get the book at your local bookstore, or directly from the publisher, AK Press: https://www.akpress.org/blackblockswhitesquares.htmlIf any of you are interested in constructing some of your own puzzles, here are some resources from Professor Williams:Free construction software: - Crosshare https://crosshare.org/ Construction tips and help - Cruciverb.com https://www.cruciverb.com/index.php And if you're interested in more resources, visit this episode on the Everyday Anarchism Website

Science is real! At least that's what my neighbor's sign says. But what does it mean to claim that science is real? Aren't lots of things real?In this episode, I argue that "science is real" is a claim that science isn't just real, it has access to a higher reality, one that nonscientists aren't allowed to argue with. This means science isn't just real, it's the boss. Which isn't very anarchist.Luckily for us, though, scientists and the scientific process don't actually work this way. How does science work? Anarchism.

In this Q&A episode, I respond to questions about voting, juries, and other elements of the political process. Tune in to hear how I think we can use parts of the political process, like voting and the justice system, to try to make the world a more anarchist place. I also answer two questions about David Graeber, in anticipation of his new book, The Dawn of Everything, coming out this week!View this post on the Everyday Anarchism Website here.

Now that Jesus Christ is out of the way, we can study Jesus of Nazareth, the anarcho-communist who hated property, encouraged his followers to share everything together, and sent the rich to hell without even thinking about it. Our guide to this Jesus is Walter Rauschenbusch, whose bold claim for Jesus as a socialist in the early 20th century reverberated around the world. This Jesus actually thought the last could be first. And he didn't have much time for lawyers, philosophers, priests, judges, emperors, and anyone else who held power.www.everydayanarchism.com

In this episode, I dive into the definition of anarchism. Are the street fighters of the black bloc "really" "anarchists"? Is cooperation really all it takes to be an "anarchist"? Why even bother with this dangerous term "anarchism" anyway? Was Tolstoy even an "anarchist"?If you want to skip to a specific question:01:50 - Do everyday anarchists and black bloc anarchists even believe the same thing?23:35 - Where does the word anarchism come from? Couldn't we just use "mutual aid" or even "cooperation"?28:20 - Why use the word anarchism when it's so associated with violence and chaos? Doesn't that just require lots of explanation?33:20 - Why call Tolstoy an anarchist? Wasn't he a spiritual revolutionary, not a political one?I make multiple references to Ruth Kinna's magisterial history and theory of anarchism, The Government of No One. Professor Kinna is scheduled to appear on the show in December; in the meantime, here's a link to the book: The Government of No One

Jesus of Nazareth was an anarchist. But he doesn't get talked about too much by Christians. Instead, Christians tend to focus on Jesus Christ, who was made up by the Romans more than 300 years after Jesus died. I'll talk about the anarchist Jesus of Nazareth next time; this week is all about how a visionary, anti-clerical, anti-imperial, anarcho-communist mystic became a vessel for clerical and imperial power.According to Nietzsche, our story starts with the Greek philosopher Plato and ends up in the Roman Catholic church. Plus I'll tell you how George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower fit into the picture!https://www.everydayanarchism.com/

In this Q&A episode, I devote most of the time to the question of vaccine mandates. Also included are:0:20 - New website, and updates about the podcast's growth and how to support it. Go to www.everydayanarchism.com!4:40 - Should anarchists support vaccine mandates?31:15 - What's the connection between anarchism and utopia (featuring quotes from Oscar Wilde)38:55 - Do states hate anarchism because they are afraid it will work (featuring quotes from Ian Forrest)

Marriage is a patriarchal, capitalistic tool of oppression. But John Milton, the man who made Satan a revolutionary hero, suggested that marriage could be rendered empowering, not oppressive. By divorce! Join me for the everyday anarchism of divorce - as well as a brief history of patriarcho-capitalistic marriage and Emma Goldman's scathing condemnation of it. Also briefly discussed are the castle doctrine and its relationship to marriage, Frederick Douglass's condemnation of chattel slavery, and Michael Warner's critique of gay marriage.

Tolkien expert and fellow podcaster Sam Brock joins me for a discussion of Tolkien's anarchism! In my attempts to convince Sam that anarchism is the true hero of The Lord of the Rings, we discuss Ents as eco-terrorists, the Shire as a conservative anarchist utopia, Aragorn as a monarch who never governs, and power as the true villain.Check out Sam's podcast, Quenya Questions in Quarantine, if you want to go deep into the backstory of The Lord of the Rings with Sam and his cohost Raleigh: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AOvC2rYiJjK9yUGpNYxA7

I answer a question about Tolkien's anarchism, then a series of questions about anarchism, everyday anarchism, and why they matter! Featuring Tolkien's environmentalism, a conventional definition of libertarianism and an anarchist definition of libertarianism, discussion of Robert Nozick and Abdullah Öcalan, Kurdistan, the Paris Commune, the Spanish Civil War, and more!

Tolkien was an anarchist. So was Gandalf. In fact, anarchism is the hero of The Lord of the Rings - or at least, I think so.

In this episode, I answer listener questions, like: Would anarchism actually work? Do we have rights under anarchism? If everything is anarchism, doesn't that mean nothing is anarchism? My examples come from the Iliad, Shakespeare, and Hannah Arendt. Keep the questions coming to [email protected]!

In this episode, I introduce the idea that anarchism is all around you and you're using it every day. In fact, there's nothing more everyday - more normal, decent, and regular - than anarchism. Cooperation, or mutual aid, is how we structure our lives. And when we find alternatives to cooperation (like competition, commercialism, or coercion), we see that those alternatives are actually versions of cooperation, not alternatives to it.Not convinced? Give it a listen. And share your thoughts with me at [email protected] !