Episodes
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Shawn Vulliez from SRSLY Wrong joins me to discuss the new collection of David Graeber essays, The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World. Shawn and I talk about the tyranny of economics and how Graeber gave us permission to reveal that the emperor of economics has no clothes.
Warning: Contains discussion of the recent election. Stay away if you just can't handle it anymore. I understand.
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A spectre is haunting the Everyday Anarchism series on the English revolution: the spectre of Christopher Hill's 1972 book The World Turned Upside Down. It turns out most of the ideas I've shared in this series came from Hill's book!
Ann Hughes joins me to discuss the book, and we talk through the following questions:
Did Hill invent the idea of the English revolution?How did the radicalism of the 1960s affect Hill's approach?Was Winstanley an anarchist?Was the English Revolution the beginning of modernity?Thanks so much to Ann and all the other guests in this year-long series, now (probably) concluded!
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Episodes manquant?
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Eleanor Janega, the very first guest on the Graeber's Debt series, comes back on the show to discuss what the middle ages were, how they were a global phenomenon, and why they weren't as bad as you've heard
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I'm joined by Karl Gerth, professor of modern Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego, to discuss the Chinese Communist Revolution and how Maoism attempted to avoid the mistakes of the USSR and yet largely repeated them.
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In Graeber's middle ages, empires fell apart while temples and monasteries kept everything together with metaphysical debt. Oh, and Europe isn't very important.
Eleanor Janega returns later this month to discuss the chapter in the next Debt discussion!
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Following on my discussion with John Weisweiler, more detail on Graeber's account of the Axial Age
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In this episode in my series on Graeber's Debt, I'm joined by John Weisweiler to discuss Chapter 9, "The Axial Age." John and I discuss Graeber's insights into the relationship between money, debt, and community, and the way that Graeber often got the ideas right even before the archaelogical record had gotten there.
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Ruth Kinna comes back on the show to celebrate 3 years of Everyday Anarchism. We talk about the relationship between anarchism and protest, and where everyday anarchism fits with capital-A Anarchism. Plus Occupy!
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Luke Kemp joins me to discuss Chapter 8 of Debt, asking the question: Is Graeber right when he says that history follows clear cycles?
Sort of!
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I'm joined by Alfie Kohn to discuss No Contest: The Case Against Competition, his 1986 book about how competition hurts rather than helps people do their best. We cover the problem with grades, the reason why excellence and competition are opposed, and whats wrong with rewards and what makes awards even worse.
For more from Alfie, check out his website:
https://www.alfiekohn.org/
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The Debt series returns, hopefully to finish by early 2025.
This my reading of Chapter 8 (and a little of Chapter 7), soon to be followed by a discussion with Luke Kemp.
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This episode publishes on the hundredth anniversary of Colin Ward! Colin was one of the popularizers of many of the ideas featured in this podcast, and I've stayed away from covering him for fear of copying him. But my guest today, Roman Krznaric, convinced me to do an episode on Colin's thought, and we had a thrilling conversation about anarchy, city planning, protest, and Kim Stanley Robinson.
I highly recommend Colin's book Anarchy in Action from PM Press: https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=814
Here's Roman's website for more from him: https://www.romankrznaric.com/
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Here's a crossover episode from my other podcast, Plumbing Game Studies.
Things have been crazy lately, and I have emails from back in April I haven't responded to. My apologies if you've emailed me and not heard back. I hope to get caught up soon, or at least in 2024!
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Who create the modern theory of political sovereignty?
Thomas Hobbes.
What was Hobbes afraid of?
Anarchy.
What made Hobbes so afraid of anarchy?
The English Revolution.
Today's guest is Alison McQueen, who can be found at https://www.alisonmcqueen.info/
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Clif Mark, host of the Good in Theory podcast, joins me to discuss honor and degradation in Graeber's Debt. Also I make Clif talk about representation in Star Wars, for some reason.
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One of the most famous author's in the English language, John Milton, was a 17th century English radical who not only supported but also worked for the English revolutionary government. I'm joined by Nigel Smith, a returning guest, and Nick McDowell, author of Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton, to discuss Milton's radicalism and its relationship to the English Revolution.
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A little belatedly, here's my episode about Graeber's Debt, Chapter 7. A discussion on honor and dignity will be coming later this month with Clif Mark of the Good in Theory podcast!
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Kate Peters, author of Print Culture and the Early Quakers, joins me to discuss the Quakers, the last of the radical groups we're covering the English Revolution series. You can hear about how the Quakers can be seen as the end of political radicalism in the revolution, or alternately as a different form of radical organizing, as evidenced by William Penn's political declarations in the 1701 charter for Pennsylvania:
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1701-pennsylvania-charter-of-liberties
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In this debt discussion, Fuad and I discuss Chapter 6 of Debt, "Games with Sex and Death," and especially the way that Graeber is writing in the grand theory tradition of anthropology. Fuad also taught with David at the London School of Economics, and is able to explain how Graeber approached these same concepts in anthropology as a teacher and colleague.
You can find Fuad's anthropological work on activism here: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/dasa/musallam-fuad
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In the next episode of Radicalism in the English Revolution, I'm joined by Bernard Capp to discuss The Fifth Monarchists - a radical protestant sect that was trying to bring about the end of the world, and wanted Cromwell to help them!
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