For this long awaited episode on Vietnam - Jen ( @HowTheRedWasWon ) joins to talk about her recent unique experience of visiting the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, a country that her grandparents fled from in the 1960s! Jen guides us through her journey there, what she learned, and some important reflections about revolution in the USA she had as a result. Listed below are links to Jen's social media pages which are home to her educational projects on socialist theoretical texts and organizing. ...
Jan 15, 2025•57 min•Season 42Ep. 1
Since March of this year I have been the co-host of another podcast called Prolespod (my tenure starts on Episode 49 ). On that show we have been working extensively on producing a special event series known as The Stalin Eras. The key focus of this series is to illuminate the early history of the Soviet Union and the life of its longest lasting leader, Joseph Stalin, using some of the latest scholarship. It features both narrative history and discussion. This upload is the full introductory epi...
Dec 23, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 41
In this fascinating episode Andre Schmid joins to discuss his book “ North Korea's Mundane Revolution ”. As always on this show, we’re covering something new by talking about the early years of the North Korean revolution in the aftermath of the Korean War which "ended" in 1953. Andre Schmid's research and teaching focus on 19th and 20th century Korea and East Asia, as seen in the broader context of global, comparative history. He is interested in historiography and the uses of public memory, th...
Dec 10, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 40
In this fascinating episode Alexander Herbert joins to discuss his book “ What About Tomorrow?: An Oral History of Russian Punk from the Soviet Era to Pussy Riot ”. As always on this show, we’re covering something new by talking about both counterculture music and the late Soviet Era. I myself have virtually no understanding of the punk genre, so don’t think you need to be a Punk Rock enthusiast to enjoy this episode as the topics we broach include: soviet regulation of media, how all of this ti...
Oct 15, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 39
In this episode, Samantha Lomb returns as a guest to talk about a recent book she edited entitled: Win or Else: Soviet Football in Moscow and Beyond, 1921-1985. In Win or Else , the late soviet historian Larry E. Holmes shows us how Soviet football culture regularly disregarded official ideological and political imperatives and skirted the boundaries between socialism and capitalism. Drawing on rich archival materials as well as newspapers and interviews with former players, Win or Else reveals ...
Aug 12, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Gabriel Rockhill joins to talk about a controversial concept for Western socialists: “siege socialism”. A term coined by the great Michael Parenti. Unlike most episodes of this show we won’t be focusing on a specific country but examining the variety of past and present socialist countries through the lens of historical materialism and dialectics, two concepts Gabriel explains for us. Gabriel Rockhill is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop, Professor of Philosophy at Villanova ...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Sardana returns to finish our discussion on her recent study published through Ziibiing Lab " Indigenous Diamonds : Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia. " In our discussion we delve into the impacts extractivism has had on the people of the Sakha Republic before, during, and after the Soviet Union (USSR). Sardana, who is Sakha, also gives her own personal and community experiences of growing up both Indigenous and Soviet. Sardana Nikolaeva is a Postdoctoral Fel...
Jul 01, 2024•42 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Sardana Nikolaeava joins this episode to discuss her recent study published through Ziibiing Lab " Indigenous Diamonds : Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia. " In our discussion we delve into the impacts extractivism has had on the people of the Sakha Republic before, during, and after the Soviet Union (USSR). Sardana, who is Sakha, also gives her own personal and community experiences of growing up both Indigenous and Soviet. Sardana Nikolaeva is a Postdoctora...
Jun 17, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 35
In this episode we’ll be discussing Sopo's article on Jacobin entitled " How Free-Market Ideologues Dismantled Health Care in Post-Soviet Georgia ". In doing so we will be talking about not only her memories of Soviet Georgia, but the memories of her family members and Georgian workers, doctors and nurses. We delve into the origins of the soviet socialist healthcare system, its operations, its historic outcomes, as well as its catastrophic dismantling in the 1990s. Sopiko Japaridze is cofounder ...
May 21, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 34
In this episode, Charles Xu of the Qiao Collective (a diaspora Chinese media collective challenging U.S. aggression) joins to walk us through the long history of solidarity between China and Palestine. We do this through discussing " The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity’s Future " which is Charles' recent article published on the Qiao Collective website. We’re going to be talking about the origins and basis of this revolutionary solidarity between the peop...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 33
This episode features Dominique Petit-Wagner discussing her masters thesis entitled: "Briefing the Ambassador: Joseph Davies and the U.S. Press Corps in Moscow, 1936-1938." Our discussion focuses on American Ambassador Joseph E. Davies and a few American journalists who bought into the socialist realist presentation of the Soviet Union during the tumoulotus 1930s. We talk about what socialist realism was, why and how these eminent Americans supported the Soviet Union, and what this tells us abou...
Apr 16, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 32
This episode features sociologist Dr. Agata Zysiak talking about her recent work "Limiting Privilege: Upward Mobility Within Higher Education in Socialist Poland" (2023), which examines first-generation students' struggles with reluctant academia in a developing socialist world that was looking for equality. We talk about the successes and failures of this ambitious socialist program, its similarities and differences to race based affirmative action in North America, and what this tells us about...
Apr 02, 2024•55 min
This episode features Zoe Stephens (@Zoediscoversnk), an experienced tour guide to North Korea (DPRK). Using her own experience, knowledge, footage and education - Zoe’s goal is to present a image of North Korea that aims to humanize the people of the DPRK in ways that are rarely seen in the West. She tells us what is required to visit on a guided tour, what to expect, what are some common misconceptions, and even the fascinating opportunity to stay for a few days with a North Korean family outs...
Mar 12, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Iskolat, a Latvian communist, returns to teach us more about the shrouded history of Latvia, which was a part of the Soviet Union, officially known as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic continuously from 1944 to 1990. In this second and final part we’ll be discussing the post-World War II era of building socialism in Latvia and the Baltics at large. We cover the successes of socialist construction, its weaknesses, and ultimately the downfall of soviet system in Latvia in the early 1990s and h...
Feb 28, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Iskolat, a Latvian communist, joins to show to teach us about the shrouded history of Latvia, which was a part of the Soviet Union (officially known as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic) continuously from 1944 to 1990. In this first part we’ll be discussing the pre-history of the socialist republic by delving into the conditions of what would become Latvia in the early 20th century to the eventual socialist revolution of the early 1940s. When I say the history covered here from the Communist...
Jan 30, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Carlos Martinez ( @agent_of_change ) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century". In this final part of a three part discussion we’ll be discussing the propaganda war against China and the socialist developments all leftists should be following. Carlos Martinez is an author and political activist from London, Britain. His first book, The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse, was published in 2019 by LeftWord Books...
Jan 16, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Carlos Martinez ( @agent_of_change ) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century". In this second part of a three part discussion we’ll be delving into how China operates as a socialist democracy. We'll be answering what that means, talk about some accomplishments as well how it differs from Western liberal democracies. Carlos Martinez is an author and political activist from London, Britain. His first book, The End of the Beginni...
Dec 19, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century". In this first part of this three part discussion on China we’ll be delving into why socialist China remains but the USSR doesnt. We'll be tackling this question through the lens of how these two communist juggernauts approached the necessity of controversial political and economic reforms in the 1970s in China under Deng Xiaoping and in the USSR under...
Dec 12, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Monica Macias joins the show to discuss her book " Black Girl From Pyongyang: In Search of My Identity " which covers the harrowing tale of her life journey from post-colonial Equatorial Guinea ,where she was born, to finding herself under the guardianship of Kim Il Sung - the revolutionary founding father of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) also known as North Korea. This is a preview of a patreon-only exclusive. Listen to the full episode by supporting the show at www.patreon.co...
Dec 08, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 24
In this episode we’ll be discussing the subject of Julia Mead's ( @JuliaKMead ) PHD research on an often forgotten socialist nation: the nation formerly known as the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Julia covers for us the pre-history, emergence of the communist state, political struggles as well as socialist successes and failures. She also gives us some insight as to why this socialist nation often falls to the wayside in popular Western imagination. Julia Mead is an environmental historian of...
Nov 30, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 23
Henry Hakamäki ( @huck1995 ), host of Guerrilla History podcast ( @guerrilla_pod ) and Professor Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro join the show to talk about their recent english translation of historian Domenico Losurdo's " Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend ". This episode is the second and final part of a longer discussion. In this part we move into the specifics of the often airbrushed history of anti-racist and anti-colonial policies under Stalin’s Soviet Union and even ponder whether S...
Nov 23, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Henry Hakamäki ( @huck1995 ), host of Guerrilla History podcast ( @guerrilla_pod ) and Professor Salvatore Engel Di-Mauro join the show to talk about their recent english translation of historian Domenico Losurdo's " Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend ". This episode is the first part of a longer discussion. In this part we talk about what a black legend even is, the general thesis behind Domenico Losurdo’s controversial book, what academic consensus has to say about the realities an...
Nov 13, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Ben Weston (@BenWestonDPRK), host of the popular "DPRK Explained" youtube channel, joins the show to discuss his insightful experiences visiting North Korea (also known as the DPRK) multiple times as a tour guide. We cover his channel, do some myth-busting about the Democratic Republic of Korea, get a short intro to socialist Mongolia and more! https://www.youtube.com/c/DPRKExplained
Nov 07, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In this episode we discuss Alice Malone's essay entitled “Concessions” which contains a well sourced and foundational explanation regarding 20th century history that every socialist should be aware of! Alice illustrates how the gains and progressive feats won by workers of the Soviet Union challenged capitalist elites in the West to concede social reforms in their own countries. Reforms such as desegregation, home ownership, investment in education, public health care and more! We cover some of ...
Aug 16, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Robert Thurston, historian of Soviet history, joins the show to talk about his extensive archival research focused on the infamous “Great Terror” or mass arrests of 1937-1938. In doing so Robert rebuts the perrenial anti-communist argument - the claim that the Soviet Union under Stalin was totalitarian! We also discuss the impact his research had on his career, the role CIA, MI5 and other capitalist intelligence services played in the manufacturing of soviet history for western audiences and muc...
Jul 18, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Calla Walsh and Aeron join the show to talk about the absurd imperialist rationales and devestating impacts of Cuba's placement on the US State Departments State Sponsor of Terror list. Calla is a co-chair of the National Network on Cuba ( https://twitter.com/NNOCuba ). Aeron is a member of the Michigan General Defense Committee ( https://www.instagram.com/michigangdc/ ). Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/aesthepodc...
Jun 20, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Calla Walsh and Aeron join the show to talk about ways we can all stand in solidarity with Cuba and why engaging in internationalism is a necessary path to socialism both at home and abroad. Calla is a co-chair of the National Network on Cuba ( https://twitter.com/NNOCuba ). Aeron is a member of the Michigan General Defense Committee ( https://www.instagram.com/michigangdc/ ). Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/aesth...
Jun 12, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Michael Jabara Carley joins the show to talk about his extensive and decades long archival research into Soviet international relations. He focuses particularly on the attempts by Joseph Stalin (in the 6 years leading up to World War II) to build a grand alliance with Britain, France and other European nations against Nazi Germany. This was a call to maintain peace which ultimately was left unheeded leading to the devastating outbreak of World War II. In Western memory this attempted alliance ha...
Mar 24, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Nana Osei-Opare joins the show to discuss his extensive academic work on Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s socialist period, and Ghana's relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In this episode’s discussion we examine why anti-colonial figures in Africa favored an alliance with the Soviet Union over the capitalist West. We assess Ghana’s socialist period and Kwame Nkrumah's socialist program which began in 1957 right after independence and ran until1966 when it was ended by a military coup. ...
Mar 08, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Gerald Horne, a prolific communist historian, joins the show to discuss his 2019 book " White Supremacy Confronted ". This work focuses on the socialist bloc's vital collaboration with the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party to end apartheid in southern Africa. In this episode we start with the origins of European settler colonialism in Southern Africa and how that led to the emergence of the white supremacist system of apartheid in the 20th century. Horne’s expansi...
Feb 21, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 13
