Revolutionary Left Radio

Born in Beijing and based in Berlin, Leo Zhao (AKA Dj Zhao) is a writer, revolutionary, rhythm ambassador, and musicologist, bringing a poly-cultural understanding of sound to his deeply percussive cross-genre sets. Leo joins Brett to discuss music theory and history from a radical leftist and materialist perspective. Topics include: His families history living under Mao, Laws against social dancing throughout history, music and dance stratification in class societies, the roots of American music, Slavery, Africa's influence on music, the evolutionary and sociological underpinnings of social dance and beat-driven music, Hip Hop, New Orleans culture and history, Trap music, cultural appropriation vs. cultural exchange, the connections between oppression and music, the body and sexuality, and much more! Dj Zhao's soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/djzhao Dj Zhao's Website: https://ngomasound.com/ Follow DJ Zhao on FB: https://www.facebook.com/zhao.ngoma/ The DJ mix of lefist music we discussed in the episod

Kristen Ghodsee is an American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; known primarily for her ethnographic work on post-communist Bulgaria as well as being a contributor to the field of postsocialist gender studies. She is the author of many books, including her latest "Red Hangover:Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism. Kristen joins Brett to discuss the collapse of Soviet Communism and the human costs of the brutal transition to free market capitalism.  Topics Include: Women under communism, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the human costs of capitalism in Eastern Europe, current wealth inequality in the former Soviet Bloc, false equivalencies between the Nazis and the Soviets and the ideological role it serves, the rise of fascism in the wake of communisms collapse, socialist feminism, fallacies inherent in capitalist arguments, the ravages of neoliberalism, the future of socialism, and much, much more! You can buy Kristen's latest book here: htt

Gabriel Palcic is an organizer, student, boxer, and Trotskyist. He helped co-found the Colorado Springs Socialists organization. Gabe sits down with Brett to discuss Leon Trotsky's history and philosophy.  Topics Include: the Bolshevik Revolution, Permanent Revolution, Fascism, the Deformed Worker's State, Stalin and "Stalinism", Kronstadt, the Russian Civil War,  and much more.   Find Gabe on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/gabe.palcic Find Colorado Springs Socialists here: https://www.facebook.com/springsocialists/   Our Outro music by Sole. You can listen to, and support, his music here: https://sole.bandcamp.com/album/sole-dj-pain-1-nihilismo Intro Music by The String-Bo String Duo. You can listen and support their music here: https://tsbsd.bandcamp.com/track/red-black This podcast is officially affiliated with The Nebraska Left Coalition and Omaha GDC 

Silvia Federici is one of the most important political theorists alive today. Her landmark book Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation demonstrated the inextricable link between anti-capitalism and radical feminist politics by digging deep into the actual history of capital’s centuries-long attack on women and the body. She is an Italian-American scholar, teacher, and activist from the radical autonomist feminist Marxist tradition. She is a professor emerita and Teaching Fellow at Hofstra University, where she was a social science professor. She worked as a teacher in Nigeria for many years and is also the co-founder of the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa.  Silvia joins Brett to discuss the main ideas of her very important and well known book, Caliban and the Witch. Topics include: Marxism, Primitive Accumulation, Feminism, Witch Hunts, Patriarchy of the Wage, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, Wiccans, contemporary witch culture, and much more! Intro and Outro

THIS IS THE LAST TIME AN EPISODE OF THE GUILLOTINE WILL BE AIRED ON REVOLUTIONARY LEFT RADIO. You can find The Guillotine podcast here: http://theguillotinepodcast.libsyn.com Subscribe to us on iTunes and Stitcher.  Follow us on twitter: @GuillotinePod Support The Guillotine here: https://www.patreon.com/TheGuillotine Follow us on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/TheGuillotinePodcast/   On episode two of The Guillotine, Dr. Bones from the Conjure House and Brett from Revolutionary Left Radio discuss the new GOP tax bill, the FCC decision to dismantle Net Neutrality, the murder of Daniel Shaver and the acquittal of Phillip Brailsford, and the Santiago Maldonado Cell of the Informal Anarchist Federation. We also take live calls from listeners.  Our intro music is "Our Words" off the album "Nihilismo" by Sole and DJ Pain 1, you can find their music here: https://sole.bandcamp.com/album/sole-dj-pain-1-nihilismo Out outro music is "The Guillotine" by The String-Bo String Duo, you can find their music here: h

TheLitCritGuy is a precariously employed, struggling academic and the internet’s foremost literary critic, bringing literary theory and criticism to the widest possible audience. He writes for a variety of online platforms about things as diverse as theory, philosophy, gothic and horror literature and film, the internet, politics and pop-culture. In his academic research he writes about gothic literature, theology, continental philosophy of religion and monsters and will be submitting his PhD in Sept 2017. He lives somewhere in the north of England, with his beautiful wife and their many books. Jon sits down with Brett to discuss Gothic Marxism. Topics Include: Gothic literature, Karl Marx, Neoliberalism as a mode and style of vacuous politics, Nihilism, Nostalgia, Postmodernism, Centrism, Films as Cultural Dreams, Zombies, Vampires, and much, much more! Here is Jon's website: https://thelitcritguy.com Find him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLitCritGuy Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheLitC

Amado Guzman and Matthew Carson join Brett to discuss the theory and praxis of Marxism-Leninism. Topics Include: Lenin's contributions to Marxism, Dialectical Materialism, what makes Marxism a science, The Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie, Maoism, the Bolsheviks, the concept of a Vanguard Party, Trotsky and Stalin, the Leninist view of the State, comradeship, the Philippines, and much more! Outro Music is "Comrades" by Bambu. Listen to, and support, Bambu and his music here:  https://bambubeatrock.bandcamp.com/ Intro Music by The String-Bo String Duo. Listen to, and support, them here: https://tsbsd.bandcamp.com/track/red-black Support Revolutionary Left Radio by donating to our Patreon. Patrons get access to episodes earlier than the general public. You can support us here: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio   This podcast is officially affiliated with The Nebraska Left Coalition and the Omaha GDC.

Carne Ross is a former British diplomat, and Middle East and WMD expert, who resigned in 2004 after giving then-secret evidence to a British inquiry into the Iraq war.  After he quit, he founded the world’s first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat, which advises democratic countries and political movements around the world. In 2007, his critique of contemporary diplomacy was published: “Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite”.   Carne is now an outspoken anarchist, and in this episode he sits down with Brett to discuss The State and Anarchism. Topics Include: Thomas Hobbes, the Social Contract theorists, moral culpability as agents of the State, the Iraq War, spontaneous mutual aid, the Rojavan Revolution, Participatory Budgeting, Emma Goldman, and much, much more. You can find Carne Ross's work here: http://www.carneross.com You can see more about Independent Diplomat here: www.independentdiplomat.org Follow Carne on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/carneros

Zoe Samudzi is a black feminist writer whose work has appeared in a number of spaces including The New Inquiry, Warscapes, Truthout, ROAR Magazine, Teen Vogue,BGD, Bitch Media, and Verso, among others. She is also a member of the 2017/18 Public Imagination cohort of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) Fellows Program, and she is a member of the Black Aesthetic, an Oakland-based group and film series exploring the multitudes and diversities of black imagination and creativity. She is presently a Sociology PhD student at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences where academic interests include biomedicalization theory, productions of race and gender, and transgender health. She is a recipient of the 2016-17 Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship. Her dissertation "'I don’t believe I should be treated like a second citizen by anybody': Narratives of agency and exclusion amongst male and transgender female sex workers in Cape Town, South Africa" engages hegem

We are introducing the first episode of a brand new spin-off podcast called The Guillotine. Brett from Revolutionary Left Radio and Dr. Bones from The Conjure House host this brand new that show that covers current news from around the world from a revolutionary communist and anarchist perspective and that has live call-ins from listeners. This first episode is our debut, and therefore we had some kinks to work out and could not live stream it. However, in the future, all episodes will be live streamed as well as published through our podcast hosting site, so you can listen to the new show live and call in, and you can also listen to the polished version a few days later on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. Follow us on Twitter @GuillotinePod Follow us on Facebook by searching "The Guillotine" Our intro music is "Our Words" off the album "Nihilismo" by Sole and DJ Pain 1, you can find their music here: https://sole.bandcamp.com/album/sole-dj-pain-1-nihilismo Our transition music between segments was

Dr. Thoreau Redcrow is an American academic with a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis with a concentration in Global Conflict. Thoreau is a researcher who specializes in studying armed guerrilla movements, and who has over a decade of experience studying the life and legacy of Che Guevara. His prior investigations into Che's biography have taken him to Cuba to speak to those who knew and fought alongside Che, as well as to other arenas around the world which have been influenced by Che Guevara's armed struggle. Brett sits down with Dr. Redcrow to discuss the Argentine Marxist revolutionary; including an entire segment of the podcast dedicated to debunking many of the right-wing and anti-communist lies about him. Topics Include: Che's childhood, the political context out of which Che emerged, the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, debunking lies and slander about Che, The Bay of Pigs, Anti-Imperialism, "Guevarism", Marx, Lenin, and much, MUCH more! You can email Dr. Redcrow at: tredcrow@gmail.com You can follow him on

Mitchell Abidor is a leftist writer and translator. He is the principal French translator for the Marxist Internet Archive; Abidor has translated hundreds of texts, in multiple different languages, and published numerous collections from a myriad of radical political writers, from 17th Century France to Revolutionary Russia. His books include anthologies of the anarchist writings of Victor Serge, on the propagandists of the deed, the Paris Commune, the left of the French Revolution, and French anarchist individualists. He is also the author of, among other works, "Voices of the Paris Commune".  Find his profile on the Marxist Internet Archive here: https://www.marxists.org/admin/volunteers/biographies/mabidor.htm Topics Include: The Paris Commune, French Napoleonic Imperialism, Marx and Engels, Anarchism, The Communards, Factions within the Commune, the role of Women in the Commune, The French Revolution, and much more!  Our Intro Music is by The String-Bo String Duo, which you can find here: https://tsbs

Halloween Special: The Revolutionary Left Radio's Film Vanguard applies Marxist film analysis to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio  and follow us on Twitter @RevLeftRadio  Follow us on FB at "Revolutionary Left Radio"

Brendan Leahy is a local organizer and revolutionary thinker. He was featured on our Ideology Episode a few months back.    He sits down with Brett to discuss Marxism and Neo-Marxism.   Topics include: Key neo-Marxist figures, Eco-Socialism, misunderstandings of Marxism, Friedrich Engels, Dual Power, Jenny Marx, Marx’s gothic influences, Primitive Accumulation, Marxist Feminism, Post-Modernism, and much more! ---- Outro music Insurrection! by B Complex Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio  and follow us on Twitter @RevLeftRadio  Follow us on FB at "Revolutionary Left Radio" Theme song by The String-Bo String Duo which you can find here: https://tsbsd.bandcamp.com/album/smash-the-state-distribute-bread  

 Gregory Afinogenov received his PhD in History from Harvard University, and is now an assistant professor in Imperial Russian History at Georgetown University.  Greg sits down with Brett to discuss the October Revolution and the Soviet Union. Topics Include: Joseph Stalin, The Bolsheviks, The failures and fallacies of western liberal propaganda, the Cold War, the Space Race, George Orwell, Trotsky v. Stalin, Holodomor, The successes of the Soviet Union, what leftists of all stripes can learn from the Russian Rev, and much more!  Follow Greg on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/athenogenes Outro music: The Harvest by No Thanks off the album "The Trial". No Thanks is a local Omaha band and good friends of the show! David, the sound guy for Rev Left Radio, actually recorded the album in the same studio out of which we do the show! Check them out here: https://no-thanks.bandcamp.com Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio  and follow us on Twitter @RevLeftRadio  Follow us on FB at

Zoe Samudzi is a black feminist writer whose work has appeared in a number of spaces including The New Inquiry, Warscapes, Truthout, ROAR Magazine, Teen Vogue, BGD, Bitch Media, and Verso, among others. She is also a member of the 2017/18 Public Imagination cohort of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) Fellows Program, and she is a member of the Black Aesthetic, an Oakland-based group and film series exploring the multitudes and diversities of black imagination and creativity. She is presently a Sociology PhD student at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences where academic interests include biomedicalization theory, productions of race and gender, and transgender health. She is a recipient of the 2016-17 Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship. Her dissertation "'I don’t believe I should be treated like a second citizen by anybody': Narratives of agency and exclusion amongst male and transgender female sex workers in Cape Town, South Africa" engages hege

Brett travels to Denver to meet Sole from the Solecast IRL and have a discussion in Sole's home together.   Topics include: their Podcasts and why they started, being a leftist parent, hip hop, the responsibilities of white rappers, the differences between organizing in Omaha vs. Denver, gentrification, what different tendencies can learn from one another, and much more.    Check out Sole's podcast and music here:  http://www.soleone.org/ And here: https://sole.bandcamp.com/music   Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio  and follow us on Twitter @RevLeftRadio  Follow us on FB at "Revolutionary Left Radio" Theme song by The String-Bo String Duo which you can find here: https://tsbsd.bandcamp.com/album/smash-the-state-distribute-bread      

Tanesha Hudson is an activist in Charlottesville, Virginia. She joins Brett to talk about Charlottesville, Confederate statues, her personal experiences with racism, the symbolism of Thomas Jefferson, being a parent of black children, and much more. Tanesha on FB: https://www.facebook.com/tanesha.hudson.9 Outro music from Mic Crenshaw with his song Toyi Toyi Ft. Mama C. https://soundcloud.com/miccrenshawofficial   Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio  and follow us on Twitter @RevLeftRadio  Follow us on FB at "Revolutionary Left Radio"

Dan Arel is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of The Secular Activist; and Parenting Without God. He has also written for The Hill, The New Arab, CounterPunch, CommonDreams, AlterNet, Time Magazine, Salon, and many others. He hosts the Danthropology Podcast, a weekly show that covers politics, religion, and current events. Dan can be found around the country speaking on issues such as social justice, political activism, and secular issues. Topics Include: Atheism, Differences between the far left and far right, doxing, The October Revolution, different leftist tendencies, talking to regular working class people, leftist podcasters, hip hop, and more! Find Dan at: http://www.danarel.com/danthropology-podcast/ @DanArel Our Outro Music is "Banks Are Made of Marble" by Sole which you can find here: http://www.soleone.org Check out Sole's podcast "Solecast", which we discuss in this episode, as well as Channel Zero, a dope collection of anarchist podcasts which you can find here: https://channel

Content Warning: Descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Please be advised. NSA Disclaimer: Revolutionary Left Radio does not advocate the use of political terrorism, the initiation of violence, or the breaking of any laws. This is a scholarly, journalistic approach to the theory and history of the FAI, not advocacy of them or their methodology. Dr. Bones is an Egoist-Communist, Conjurer, Occultist, and Gonzo Journalist who writes for The Conjure House and Gods and Radicals.  Brett sits down with Dr. Bones to discuss the FAI (the Informal Anarchist Federation).  Topics Include: Political terrorism, Propaganda of the Deed, Antifa, the history of insurrectionary anarchism, Red Brigades, Nihilism, Cell Structure, and much more.   Our Outro Music is "Red and Black" by The String-Bo String Duo which you can find here: https://tsbsd.bandcamp.com/album/smash-the-state-distribute-bread   Their FB: https://www.facebook.com/thestringbostringduo/  Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRa