Podcasts about diet soap

Hamilton Craig is a Compact columnist and a doctoral student at CUNY researching farmers' movements in the United States. In this episode of Diet Soap, he discusses his recent essay for Compact entitled "The Democratic Promise of Manifest Destiny" with Douglas Lain and tries to consider just how seriously to take Trump's effort to revitalize and reinvent our Manifest Destiny and discuss Cutrone's essay "The Future Belongs to America. So Should Greenland."Support Sublation Media:https://patreon.com/dietsoap"The Democratic Promise of Manifest Destiny" - Hamilton Craighttps://www.compactmag.com/article/the-democratic-promise-of-manifest-destiny/

In this week's Diet Soap podcast, Arturo Desimone returns to set the record straight about the Monroe Doctrine and the character of American power while Doug fact checks him again in real time using Elon's newest wonder: Grok 3!Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Reid Kane and Douglas Lain discuss the Wertkritik or "value critics" of contemporary Marxism in this episode of the Diet Soap podcast.Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Daniel Tutt and Douglas Lain discuss Losurdo's Western Marxism and Postpone's critique of "Anti-Imperialism" in this special edition of Diet Soap. What is the substance of the new "anti-Imperialists"? What is cherry-picking? Was Losurdo charitable enough in his reading of the Frankfurt school?Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Mir Bal is a former socialist podcaster from Sweden, a former social worker, and a Jesuit. This episode of Diet Soap is from the unpublished archive, and in it, Doug and Mir discuss just why he's left secular life and, with it, the left. Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.con/dietsoap

Eric Russell is the editor and reader in charge of Sublation's new Historical Socialism audiobook line. In September, we released the first title: "Frederick Lessner-Sixty Years in the Social-Democratic Movement." In this special edition of Diet Soap, Eric and Doug discuss the contemporary left/socialist movement in juxtaposition to the socialist movement that Lessner helped to build.Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Dr. Eric Osgood is a hospitalist and liberal advocate for the contemporary medical establishment on twitter. Doug debates the Cochrane study on mask mandates and the CASS review with the doctor in this episode of the Diet Soap podcast. Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Douglas Lain receives a lesson on anarchism from Cyberdandy and Spencer Leonard in this special episode of Diet Soap. Listen to the Second Half on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/anarchist-105304314Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Ben Burgis and Djene Bajalan join Douglas Lain to discuss the War on Disinformation, and to resolve an argument that broke out on the Diet Soap 15 hour anniversary livestream. Should be hope that social media companies become the fully recognized property of the state, how concerned should we be about the war on disinformation, and how should socialists understand and relate to the Capitalist State? Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

KMO inspired Doug Lain to get into podcasting 15 years ago. To mark the anniversary, Doug conducted a 15-hour YouTube livestream. KMO was the first guest of the day.

Kyle Baasch is a doctoral candidate in comparative literature at the University of Minnesota and the author of the essay “Too Late for ‘Late Capitalism'” for Compact Magazine. In this episode of Diet Soap we discuss how the idea of "Late Capitalism" has changed and perhaps been emptied out of content over time. Too Late for Late Capitalism by Kyle Baaschhttps://www.compactmag.com/article/too-late-for-late-capitalism/Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Ron Kelch and Urszula Wislanka are members of the Marxist Humanist group News and Letters. In this episode of Diet Soap they discuss Franklin Dmitryev's essay Israel's war and Hamas attack stoke retrogression.Essay "Israel's war and Hamas attack stoke retrogression" by Franklin Dmitryevhttps://newsandletters.org/israels-war-and-hamas-attack-stoke-retrogression/Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Susanna Kleeman, author of the novel Twice and the upcoming Baudrillardian self-help book: Fatal Dating Tips discusses Baurdillard, Debord, terrorism and hostage taking on this week's Diet Soap podcast.Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Fakhry Al-Serdawi is a Palestinian writer contributing to the Palestinian publication "Arab48" and to the Lebanese publication "Al-Akhbar." In this episode of Diet Soap, Fakhry and Doug discuss how Orientalism informs today's woke politics.Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

In part 1 of a two-part recap of Season 3 so far, we discuss our interview with Doug Lain of Sublation Media and the Diet Soap podcast. The original interview covered Lain's trajectory, his views on the theory of neo-feudalism, and the problem of increasing online censorship. As we unpack our conversation with Lain, we spend time on Lain's discomfort with the term "neofeudal" and his preference for "society of control" as a description of the current state of capitalism. We evaluate the tension between the approval of economic concentration/centralization for the advancement of future socialism and the disapproval of the use of corporate power via government pressures to inhibit some speech. We also talk about the tension between Lain's Marxism and our own views on industrial vs. regional/local agricultural production.

In part 1 of a two-part recap of Season 3 so far, we discuss our interview with Doug Lain of Sublation Media and the Diet Soap podcast. The original interview covered Lain's trajectory, his views on the theory of neo-feudalism, and the problem of increasing online censorship. As we unpack our conversation with Lain, we spend time on Lain's discomfort with the term "neofeudal" and his preference for "society of control" as a description of the current state of capitalism. We evaluate the tension between the approval of economic concentration/centralization for the advancement of future socialism and the disapproval of the use of corporate power via government pressures to inhibit some speech. We also talk about the tension between Lain's Marxism and our own views on industrial vs. regional/local agricultural production.

Hello Fully Automated listeners! This is a rebroadcast of Episode 7 of Class Unity: Transmissions, as posted here. Transmissions is the official podcast of Class Unity, and I want to thank them for their permission to use this episode. You can find out more about Class Unity over at https://classunity.org/ For those curious, there will be more independent ‘Fully Automated' content coming soon. But I will continue to repost those ‘Transmissions' episodes in which I am involved, as I think they will be of interest to listeners of this show, too. Welcome to Episode 7 of Class Unity “Transmissions.” In this episode we are joined by Doug Lain, Commissioning Editor at Sublation Media. Lain is a real veteran of the left podcast scene. From his old philosophy podcast "Diet Soap,” which ran from 2009 through 2014, to his work as host of the Zero Books podcast, Zero Squared, Lain's impact as a formative voice on the contemporary socialist left cannot be understated. In this show we cover a wide range of topics, including Lain's recent ban from Elon Musk's newly “pro-free speech” Twitter (for a joke about RFK Jnr). However, the real purpose of the interview is to revisit an old Tweet of his, from April this year. On April 15, Lain posted three priorities that, he said, “an independent left” should be focused on right now: Ending the conflict in Ukraine by opposing the very dangerous continuing escalation; Protecting the working class from the consequences from the continuing financial and fiscal crisis that has been expressed through inflation and the banking crisis; Opposing the war on disinformation and the expansion of the security state into the “whole of society.” In recent months, Lain has been particularly strident on the first and the third of these priorities. However, his arguments have not been especially well received (his recent encounter with the Majority Report's Matt Binder offers a fairly representative example of the disdain many progressives have for Lain's views). Noting the vehemence of this response, we were curious. And so we decided to invite Lain for a chat. We start by asking Lain what he means by the phrase “an independent left”? We then move onto the first of his priorities, the war in Ukraine. The US left has been strangely quiet on this conflict. Where it has addressed the issue, it has usually been in handwaving fashion, arguing that it is a case of “imperialism on both sides.” We put it to Lain that this is kind of an inversion of Trump's infamous “very fine people on both sides” comment. Perhaps the imperialism on both sides argument had some empirical application in the lead up to World War I. But Russia has a GDP close to that of Italy. Equally, US foreign policy insiders like Former Ambassador to USSR Jack Matlock, George Kennan, William Burns have warned DC policymakers for decades about eastwards NATO expansion, saying in no uncertain terms that Ukraine would be the hardest of red lines for Russia. Moreover, now, as Lev Golonkin reports in The Nation in June, the US is openly funding and arming the Ukrainian military despite the presence in its ranks of openly fascist regiments. It seems clear therefore not only who started this war, and why, but that its moral costs and risks for future catastrophe are unacceptable. So why is the left so adamant in its avoidance of this topic? Lain's second priority is protecting the working class from the continuing financial and fiscal crisis. Lain argues “there was never any chance to transform the democratic party into a vehicle for socialism.” But where does that now leave us, on the question of socialist strategy? Does he think the Bernie wave is over, and the left is now basically done with parliamentary politics for another couple of generations? As he surveys the landscape of the contemporary left, what hope does he see for a revolutionary politics? The third topic for Lain essentially stems from his commitment t...

Welcome to Episode 7 of Class Unity “Transmissions.” In this episode we are joined by Doug Lain, Commissioning Editor at Sublation Media. Lain is a real veteran of the left podcast scene. From his old philosophy podcast “Diet Soap,” which ran from 2009 through 2014, to his work as host of the Zero Books podcast, […]

Ben Burgis discusses his essay for Jacobin "Cornel West Should Challenge Biden in the Democratic Primaries" with Douglas Lain in this episode of Diet Soap.

Sublation Media's Douglas Lain, YouTuber and host of the Diet Soap podcast, talks to Spencer and Laurie about what he thinks of the theory of neufuedal capitalism, his views on the campaign against "disinformation" in light of free speech rights, and how the two may relate.

Sublation Media's Douglas Lain, YouTuber and host of the Diet Soap podcast, talks to Spencer and Laurie about what he thinks of the theory of neufuedal capitalism, his views on the campaign against "disinformation" in light of free speech rights, and how the two may relate.

Johannes Regell is a Swedish socialist from Västervik, a former member of the Västervik municipality council, and an author for the Platypus Affiliated Society's journal. In this episode of Diet Soap he discusses his essay, "Results not achieved and prospects graveled: Evaluation of the activities of the Socialists in Västervik and Sweden 2006–22." Read Results Not Achieved https://platypus1917.org/category/pla...Support US on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Jodi Dean is the author of the esay "Neofeudalism-The end of capitalism?" in the LA Review of Books, the essay "Same As It Ever Was?" in the New Left Review,  and “Capitalism is turning itself into neofeudalism” in e-flux. She is also the author of the books, "Blog Theory," "The Communist Horizon," and "Aliens in America," amongst many others. In this episode of Diet Soap she discusses neofeudalism with Sublation's Ashley Frawley.Support Us on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Derick Varn and Douglas Lain discuss how Aristotlean reason is sublated in Hegel's ontologized logic. This is a response to Chris Cutrone's appearance on the Diet Soap episode entitled "The Last Marxist vs. 20th Century Philosophy." Patreon Supporters will get to hear Doug and Derick apply logical rigor to Cutron'es "Why not Trump?" and Cooney's "Left-Trumpists: The Reactionary Case of Chris Cutrone."Support Us on Patreon https://patreon.com/dietsoap

In this week's Diet Soap, Ashley Frawley talks to David Chandler, Professor of International Relations at the Univerity of Westminster. They talk about one of Ashley's favourite books of his, The Neoliberal Subject: Resilience, Adaptation and Vulnerability, co-authored with Julian Reid. Is it really progressive when international organisations talk about building resilience and emphasise, small-scale and bottom-up interventions? Or is this just a cover for keeping things as they are?Chandler and Reid's bookhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Neoliberal-Subject-Resilience-Adaptation-Vulnerability-ebook/dp/B086R8FPY5Support Us on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Robert Wright of the NonZero podcast helps us to announce the release of Norman Finkelstein's new book, "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It!" by appearing on the Diet Soap podcast with Norman to debate the limits of free speech and to discuss identity politics. Norman's Bookhttps://www.sublationmedia.com/books/i'll-burn-that-bridge-when-i-get-to-itRobert Wright's Podcasthttps://www.youtube.com/c/NonzeroSupport Us on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Conrad Hamilton responds to Chris Cutrone on this week's Diet Soap podcast. Just how should we understand fascism today? Is China fascist? Is the United States fascist? Support Us on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Derick Varn (formerly of Pop the Left) returns to the Diet Soap podcast in order to discuss what the left needs to remember and relearn. He is now the host of Varn Vlog and has his own YouTube channel.

Freddie deBoer and Douglas Lain discuss Freddie's recent essay "The Left's Vapid Anti-Musk Discourse" in this week's Diet Soap podcast. In his essay deBoer writes, "The amount of attention Musk has attracted can be chalked up to culture war: Exxon's CEO, whatever his business practices, isn't shitposting in a way that annoys progressives. Musk, by contrast, regularly tweets things that provoke liberals."

 Conrad Hamilton's recent essay for Sublation Magazine "On Marx's Labor Certificates" is the topic of this week's Diet Soap podcast, although the conversation begins with a discussion of culture...specifically Conrad discusses Doug's discovery of My Chemical Romance's 2006 hit "Teenagers" and his inexplicable obsession with the song. On Marx's Labor Certificates by Conrad Hamiltonhttps://www.sublationmag.com/post/on-marx-and-labor-certificatesSupport Us on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap 

Anarchist podcaster Cyber Dandy joins Douglas Lain for a special edition of the Diet Soap podcast. They discuss the British Wing of the Situationist International, why it was that situationists were beloved by anarchists in the UK, and how the relationship between Debord's small Marxist sect and the long struggle for socialism. 

 In this episode of Diet Soap, the author and youtube star Ben Burgis joins Douglas Lain to discuss the impasse that the left faces today. Has the left been absorbed by the democratic party for good? Can the left figure out how to intervene and stop an existential catastrophe in Ukraine? Is there any prospect for an independent and radical socialist movement after COVID? 

Todd McGowan, author of Enjoyment Right & Left and Emancipation After Hegel discusses the difference between Pinkard and Zizek and the question of Hegel's ontological claims in this week's Diet Soap podcast. McGowan also discusses the question of universality and the State in this week's patron's only podcast. 

Ashley Frawley takes over this week's Diet Soap podcast to discuss Henryk Grossman, crisis theory, and the book "The End of Capitalism" with Ted Reese and the Swoletariat.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," she is a regular contributor to the Black Agenda Report, and a returning guest. In this episode of Diet Soap she discusses the situation in the Ukraine in the context of US Imperialism. GCAS is our sponsorhttps://gcas.ie/Support Us on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap

Max Blumenthal is the editor of the Grayzone and a prominent figure on the anti-imperialist left. In this episode of Diet Soap, he discusses why the cold war never ended, the justifications for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and why the United States is the one true imperialist State on the world stage.  This is part one of a four-part series on anti-imperialism and the left.

Dan Melo is the author of Borderlines and is currently working on a book on violence for Sublation Press. He is also a contrinbutor to Cosmonaut Magazine and the author of a recent essay entitled "Why Bordiga Got Democracy Wrong." In this episode of Diet Soap he discusses just what Bordiga's critique amounted to and describes what it's like to be ratioed by radical twitter.

Conrad Hamilton is a member of Kapital Comrades, an author for Zer0 Books, and a member of the Aelita Collective. He joins Douglas Lain in this episode of the Diet Soap podcast to discuss post-pandemic politics and how the left should handle lockdowns, the State, and in order to collect an apology.Link to Manifestohttps://tripleampersand.org/state-covid-manifesto-pandemic-politics/

Doug Lain returns to the show! Here to tell his side of the story of what happened to Zero Books and the reviving of Diet Soap Media as a podcast/youtube channel/publishing house. Hear all the hot goss about what went down with the purchase of Zero Books, what's coming next, and what Doug _really_ thinks about Dune. - Diet Soap on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/douglain - Diet Soap Media: https://www.dietsoap.net/ Support the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dietsoap/ - Help us make the show! Supporters of our Patreon heard this episode in its entirety early! www.patreon.com/givingthemic - Find us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/givingthemic - Questions/comments/suggestions for great local Korean food: givingthemic@gmail.com - facebook.com/givingthemic/ - - Main theme by The Mysterious Breakfast'r Cereal on SoundCloud @chiptheme - - All items trademarked and copyright their respective owners. Please don't sue. Please don't sue. Please don't sue.

Nicholas "Nick" Currie (born 11 February 1960), more popularly known under the artist name Momus (after the Greek god of mockery), is a Scottish songwriter, author, blogger, and former journalist for Wired.

All institutions in America post COVID seem to draw nothing but disdain and distrust from the public. Has America come to a point where belief in these formerly trusted institutions are passe? In the wake of the pandemic and the recent Afghanistan debacle, has the American ruling class lost the capacity to secure the faith of the American people? What does this mean for the contemporary left.   About Doug Lain: Douglas Lain is the publisher of Zero Books. Based in Portland, Oregon he is also a writer whose books include the science fiction novel Bash Bash Revolution from Night Shade Books and the magical realist novel Billy Moon from Tor Books. He is currently writing a book for Zero Books on the need for a new understanding of Marx. Lain was the host of the philosophy podcast "Diet Soap" from 2009 through 2014 and is now the host of Zero Squared for Zero Books and the YouTuber behind the Zero Books Youtube channel.   You can follow Doug on his YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZeroBooksTheoryChannel/featured   You Can Hear Conan Neutron's Protonic Reversal Podcast Here: https://www.protonicreversal.com/   Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!   Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents?   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: www.youtube.com/thisisrevolutionpodcast Twitch: www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast www.twitch.tv/leftflankvets   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/   Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   The Dispatch on Zero Books (video essay series): https://youtu.be/nSTpCvIoRgw   Medium: https://jasonmyles.medium.com/kill-the-poor-f9d8c10bc33d   Pascal Robert's Black Agenda Report: https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/PascalRobert   Get THIS IS REVOLUTION Merch here: www.thisisrevolutionpodcast.com   Get the music from the show here: https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/.../coronavirus..https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions

Hello friends! Its been a while. Sorry about that. Its been a busy semester, teaching an overload class, and wrapping up some publishing projects (here and here). But we are back, and we have a ton of new shows coming your way this summer! Coming up in the next weeks, we have another episode with our Columbus OH friends, “Chairman Moe's Magic Contradiction” on Adam Curtis's new documentary, ”Can't Get You Out of My Head.” We also have panels coming up, on Clyde Barrow's new book on the Lumpenproletariat, Phil Cunliffe's The New Twenty Years' Crisis, and an interview with Christine Louis-Dit-Sully.  For this 31st episode of Fully Automated, and to help us break the dry spell, our guest is none other than legendary podcast figure “KMO”! KMO is the host and producer of the C-Realm Podcast, a cartoonist and author of the book ‘Conversations on Collapse.' On KMO's bio, there's a great quote from Doug Lain, creator of the Diet Soap podcast and now the Zero Books podcast (and previous guest of this show!): KMO was once a winner in the capitalist game. He had high tech dreams and plenty of ambition, but somewhere along the line KMO dropped out, spent what he had, and started over in a simpler way. No longer rich and no longer so enamored with the technocratic fantasies of the prevailing order, he squeaks by in this world while seeking another. More than anything KMO is a broadcaster and interviewer who has a gentle and amiable way of challenging and inspiring interesting conversations with authors, artists, psychedelic gurus, sociologists, NASA scientists, economists, and more on his weekly podcast called the C-Realm. Now, to be sure, KMO is not exactly what you might call a ‘typical guest' for this podcast. Yet, as you'll hear, he is a widely read reader on all things to do with the politics of technology, and science fiction. I first met KMO a few weeks ago, in the Politics and Science Fiction room, on Clubhouse that I started earlier this year, with Giuseppe Porcaro, Jamie Chipperfield, Sarah Shoker, and Nicholas Barrett. It became clear we had some overlapping interests on the topics under discussion, so we stayed in touch and found out that we have a lot of mutual friends in the leftwing podcast universe. KMO recently invited me on his show, the C-Realm, for a discussion of science fiction and the politics of technological change. And this episode of Fully Automated is kind of a Part 2 of that show, where KMO responds to my arguments. In this episode, you'll hear us discuss a wide range of topics: Clubhouse as a phenomena; recent remarks by the pop star Grimes on whether communists should be interested in Fully Automated Communism; the rise of PMC ideology, and why its so hard to discuss the topic of class on the left anymore; Thomas Frank's recent claims about Wuhan lab leak theory, and its significance for the already tarnished reputation of mainstream media; and, finally, we chat about politics and science fiction — you'll hear KMO talk about why and how science fiction is (and isn't!) for him political! For those interested, here are the links to the couple of items KMO mentioned in the show: His written response to my views on FALC, as I expressed them during my appearance on C-Realm (see my brief rejoinder below). The book he mentions is Future Scenarios: How Communities Can Adapt to Peak Oil and Climate Change, by David Holmgren (2009-04-14). Rejoinder: Reading KMO's published remarks on Patreon, he offers what I find to be a rather wild and somewhat bad faith interpretation of my views on Walmart and FALC: "You invoked WalMart as an example of a very complicated system of production and supply chain management and then suggested that it needn't be labor-intensive. You could just set it up and let it run for long periods and just check in on it from time to time. That's not how WalMart works.

I came across C. Derick Varn sometime ago on a Zero Books show "Pop the Left".  An intellectual dynamo, but also a person that truly understands his working class roots.  Take a listen to our conversation, and Varn's deep dive into David Harvey's book, "A Brief History of Neoliberalism".   From C. Derick Varn Bio: C. Derick has written political and philosophical work for the (Dis)Loyal Opposition to Modernity and The North Star as well as various lost ‘zines in the 1990s and early 2000s, although he feels distant from this prior work on left-renewal, and while still in a some kind of a Marxist framework, he is very skeptical of what most people call “the left.”  His other philosophical interests are virtue ethics, the philosophy of religion and secularity, and aesthetics.  He was written for Unlikely Stories 2.0, and blogged irregularly for The Partially Examined Life blog.   He co-hosted the Pop the Left podcast.  with Douglas Lain from late 2012 to 2014 and has recently reappeared on supplements on both Diet Soap and Zero Squared. He also co-produces and co-hosts two other podcasts, Symptomatic Redness (on political economy, philosophy, and history), and Former People Speak (on culture and the arts). His poetry has appeared at Unlikely Stories 2.0, Full of Crows, Writing Disorder,  Deuce Coupe, Rusty Truck, The Cartier Street Review,  JMWW,  Clutching at Straws, Union Station Magazine, Ann Arbor Review,  Yes, Poetry, Xenith, Piriene's Fountain, and elsewhere. C. Derick Varn has served as managing editor for the now defunct Milkwood Review, art editor for Unlikely Stories 2.o, managing editor for the The North Star, and was  an editorial staffer for Arts and Letters: A Journal for Contemporary Culture in 2005-2006 and the Flannery O'Connor Review in 2005.  He won the Frankeye Davis Mayes/Academy of American Poets Prize in 2003. He is the co-founder and currently the Poetry Editor and co-managing editor at Former People.   "I've always treated neoliberalism as a political project carried out by the corporate capitalist class as they felt intensely threatened both politically and economically towards the end of the 1960s into the 1970s. They desperately wanted to launch a political project that would curb the power of labor. In many respects the project was a counterrevolutionary project. It would nip in the bud what, at that time, were revolutionary movements in much of the developing world — Mozambique, Angola, China etc. — but also a rising tide of communist influences in countries like Italy and France and, to a lesser degree, the threat of a revival of that in Spain. Even in the United States, trade unions had produced a Democratic Congress that was quite radical in its intent. In the early 1970s they, along with other social movements, forced a slew of reforms and reformist initiatives which were anti-corporate: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, consumer protections, and a whole set of things around empowering labor even more than it had been empowered before. So in that situation there was, in effect, a global threat to the power of the corporate capitalist class and therefore the question was, “What to do?”. The ruling class wasn't omniscient but they recognized that there were a number of fronts on which they had to struggle: the ideological front, the political front, and above all they had to struggle to curb the power of labor by whatever means possible. Out of this there emerged a political project which I would call neoliberalism." -David Harvey from a 2016 Jacobin Interview   You can find C. Derick Varn on Pop the Left on Zero Books Here: https://youtu.be/b6JGv4snLgc   Mortal Science Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortal-science/id1292139730   Thank you guys once again for taking the time to check out the show.  If you have the means, and feel so inclined, and would like to help the show grow, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing and you get bonus content from many of the episodes.     Become a patron https://www.patreon.com/BitterLakePresents   Please like, share and subscribe to us on the following platforms as well. When you do, you can check out the weekly livestream.   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast   Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast   Twitter: @TIRShowOakland   Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland        

I found Zero Books and Douglas Lain a few years ago after falling down a Marxist rabbit hole on YouTube.  I was quickly hooked by the 80's Max Headroom on LSD  imagery combined with a heavy dose of Marxist theory.  Well, I had the pleasure of talking all things leftist politics with Mr. Lain the other day, and we had such a good time we've decided to make it a regular thang. A little about Douglas Lain: Douglas Lain is the publisher of Zero Books. Based in Portland, Oregon he is also a writer whose books include the science fiction novel Bash Bash Revolution from Night Shade Books and the magical realist novel Billy Moon from Tor Books. He is currently writing a book for Zero Books on the need for a new understanding of Marx. Lain was the host of the philosophy podcast "Diet Soap" from 2009 through 2014 and is now the host of Zero Squared for Zero Books and the YouTuber behind the Zero Books Youtube channel. Bash Bash Revolution: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bash-bash-r…in/1125676101 Follow Douglas on Twitter: twitter.com/douglain Thank you again for taking the time to check this out.  If you'd like to support independent media like this BECOME A PATRON! You'll get all the bonus content, extra patron only programs and FREE STUFF! So don't just sit there...BECOME A PATRON DAMMIT! Patreon www.patreon.com/BitterLakePresents   Also, please like, share, and subscribe and follow us on the following platforms   YouTube   Facbook   Instagram   Twitter   Medium

In this episode, I talk to Douglas Lain about his latest novel Bash Bash Revolution: a young adult novel that explores Marxism, revolution, artificial intelligence, and the gamification of human society. We discuss utopia, mental health, the consequences of digitization and gamification on the mind and spirituality, and much more. Douglas Lain is the publisher of Zero Books, a novelist, a podcaster, and most recently a youtuber.Lain’s previous novel After the Saucers Landed was nominated for the Philip K Dick Award. Douglas Lain is also the host of the Zero Books podcast. His first podcast, entitled Diet Soap, ran for over five years. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two boys.    You can find Douglas Lain's work at www.douglaslain.com

If you’ve spent any amount of time on the Internet lately, you’ve probably heard of Jordan Peterson: a charismatic professor of psychology turned guru dad to the discontented young men of the western world. His meteoric rise has been swift, prompted by his refusal to use non binary pronouns, and he is now a figurehead of the anti-pc, anti-social-justice-warrior movement. The New York Times has described him as the most influential public intellectual of the western world. Peterson is a complicated figure, and I’m not interested in reducing him to heroic, or villainous caricatures. His most recent book, 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos (which is also the most read book on Amazon right now) is, in places, genuinely helpful. 2 or 3 pieces of the advice he offers have been truly helpful to me, and I think his self authoring course has merits. Go an inch beneath his often obvious advice, though, and you run into some problems. I normally don’t have an entire show dedicated to the critique of a public figure, but I think Jordan Peterson and his wild success need to be understood. I’ve been searching for some cogent criticism of Peterson, and Douglas Lain has offered some of the best critiques I’ve found on the web. In this episode of Sacred Tension Douglas and I discuss his offer to debate Peterson, Peterson’s flaws as a public intellectual, why Douglas describes himself as a “wannabe Marxist,” and much more. Douglas Lain is the publisher of http://www.zero-books.net, a novelist, a podcaster, and most recently a youtuber.His most recent novel, entitled BASH BASH Revolution (https://www.amazon.com/Bash-Revolution-Douglas-Lain/dp/1597809160), received a starred review in Booklist, and his previous novel After the Saucers Landed  http://www.amazon.com/After-Saucers-Landed-Douglas-Lain/dp/1597808237) was nominated for the Philip K Dick Award.Douglas Lain is also the host of the Zero Books podcast. His first podcast, entitled Diet Soap, ran for over five years. If you want to learn more about Douglas Lain, listen to his podcast, or watch his youtube channel, go to www.douglaslain.net

Hello Comrades, This episode Red and I had the pleasure of speaking with Douglas Lain, author, the publisher of Zero Books, and host of the excellent Zero Squared (formerly Diet Soap) podcast. We discussed Zero Books, radical publishing, the dialectic, … Continue reading →

This week I am delighted to welcome back to the show Doug Lain, host of what was once called the Diet Soap podcast, but which is now the Zero Squared podcast. We talk about why Doug’s new job as publisher of Zero Books doesn't make him a capitalist, what econophysics has to do with Marx, capitalism as objective reality, base vs superstructure, radical politics and the current balance of forces, how Woody Allen has lost his way, the latest book Doug’s working on, and how cool and communist Star Trek is. You can find the shows new Stitcher presence here: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/from-alpha-to-omega You can find the Zero Squared podcast and all of Doug's other stuff here: DouglasLain.com Here is Zero Books: http://www.zero-books.net/ The music on this show was: ‘The Order of the Pharaonic Jesters’ by Sun Ra and his Arkestra ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ by Scott Joplin ‘Si tu vois ma mère’ by Sidney Bechet ‘For The Love Of Money’ by O’Jays ‘Ain't Misbehavin’ by Django Reinhardt

This month Douglas Lain, C Derick Varn and Nicholas Pell discuss the Marxist notion of historical materialism.  According to Wikipedia "historical materialism" is: Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx (1818–1883) as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans collectively produce the necessities of life. The question becomes this:  have we reached a point wherein we simply do not have a materialist basis for emancipation?  Or is the trouble ideological? Also, this week marks the beginning of Douglas Lain's "Think the Impossible" Kickstarter campaign to fund his upcoming podcast and book tour. The book is entitled "Billy Moon." It is due out from Tor Books in August, and tells the story of an adult Christopher Robin Milne, the man known best for his childhood relationship with a stuffed bear, and entirely fictional involvement in the French general strike of May, 1968. The podcast, entitled Diet Soap, is a weekly interview show focusing on philosophy, surrealism, and what I think of as the problem of Late Capitalism.  Guests on the program have included Penelope Rosemont of the Chicago Surrealist group, the radical author Michael Parenti, and Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, and many others. The title of the tour, the imperative to "Think the Impossible" relates to both the podcast and the novel.  In May 1968 one of the slogans spray painted on the streets of Paris was this: "Be realistic, demand the impossible."