In this Conversation on Anarres , we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's classic novel, The Dispossessed . We talk with Dr. Alexis Shotwell who is working to spell out Le Guin's anarchist philosophy. Shotwell speculates as to the features of "Odoian anarchism"--what values it expresses and how it is related to other classical anarchist thinkers such as Emma Goldman and Peter Kropotkin-- and she envisions what lessons it might have for our political organizing...
Dec 12, 2024•1 hr 9 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak with author Javier Sethness Castro about his new review of Dune II (2024). Sethness Castro argues that the Frank Herbert's vision of humanity, as laid out in the novels, is one of a multicultural, multiracial, and religiously pluralistic human race spread out among the stars. The persistence of Islam, and of Muslim culture and traditions, is key to this vision. However, Sethness Castro believes that Dune II downplays and erases this key eleme...
Oct 30, 2024•53 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Jason Eberl who is the editor of the book Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy. Dr. Eberl is a featured speaker at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica in Chicago. This series begins by asking an existential question: "Does humanity deserve to exist?" Over four seasons, BSG tries to portray stories that examine human life in attempt to answer this question, tackling issues of artificial intelli...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 6 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we interview artist Will Burrows. In the past few years, Burrows has become popular for his art that blends Star Trek with political themes and LGBTQIA pride. We wanted to talk to him about some of his best selling work in celebration of the Bell Riots--an event in Star Trek lore that sets the United States toward a recognition of its serious social and economic inequality in the 21st century. You can view and purchase his work at: https://willburrows...
Aug 30, 2024•46 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Katherine Ann Power about her new memoir, " Surrender: My Journey from Guerilla to Grandmother" . For over twenty years, Power was on the FBI Most Wanted List for her involvement in a revolutionary armed cell that sought the overthrown of the US government. After a bank robbery in which a police officer was killed, Power went into hiding and lived a secretive life. Eventually, she decided she needed to redefine her radical politics and sh...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 18 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak with New York Times Best Selling author, Dr. Una McCormack. She has written over twenty science fiction novels, many of which are franchise novels that tie into the Star Trek, Firefly, and Dr. Who universes. We talk about how she prepares for writing her work and why she appreciates science fiction. Dr. McCormack, however, has a deep appreciation for the Star Trek Universe. We discuss what makes this franchise so important in terms of the val...
Feb 14, 2024•1 hr 20 min
In this Conversation on Anarres, we speak with Dr. David Seitz about his new book A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine. We talk about how Star Trek came to be part of his academic research project and why Deep Space Nine captured his imagination as a way to talk about radical politics in the world today. Our conversation touches on how DS9 is important for the way it is infused by themes from the US Black Freedom Struggle (partly as a result of the influence of Avery Brooks) ...
Jan 31, 2024•57 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Matilda Bickers, the co-editor of a new anthology, "Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex" (PM Press, 2023), which is a collection of reflections by sex workers on the nature of their labor. She explains how she got into this form of advocacy and what similarities sex work has to other forms of labor under capitalism. Given those overlaps, we then discuss what it means for sex workers to struggle for their rights and how others can d...
Jan 10, 2024•57 min
In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, we consider the sci-fi, fantasy, and other speculative fiction that helped us to imagine futures free of domination, exploitation, war, and empire. Our discussion panel included: Joseph Orosco, co-director of the Anarres Project; Randall Millstein, Robyn Morris, and Kaja Gjelde. Each of them mentioned their favorite choices from 2023, their runner ups, and what they look forward to in 2024. Some themes that emerged: a lot of stories focused on collective struggle...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr 10 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Jesse Cohn about his essay "Demodernizing Anarchism". This essay appears in Issue 33 of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory and you can read it here . For more information on the Institute for Anarchist Studies, check out their website here .
Oct 24, 2023•52 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk to Avery Jade, one of the organizers of the Really, Really Free Market in Corvallis, Oregon. The Really, Really Free Market movement is a global movement that creates space for mutual aid--making clothes, toiletries, literature, and other necessities available for free. We discuss the inspiration for the Market, how it has expanded, what role anarchism plays in the working of the group, and what obstacles the Market has faced in few years of o...
Jul 20, 2023•34 min
In this episode, Joseph Orosco talks with Maria Castro and Javier Castro, about their recent essay "Bibliophilia and Anarchism in Star Trek: Picard" , published in October 2022 in Perspectives in Anarchist Theory. Maria and Javier argue that throughout Season One of Star Trek: Picard several books are mentioned that echo the radical themes and anti-authoritarian perspectives of the main characters in the series. While the Federation and Star Fleet may not be anarchist utopias, Star Trek: Picard ...
Feb 13, 2023•55 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Staughton Lynd, who passed away in 2022. They talk about the important ways in which Staughton Lynd, along with his wife Alice, devoted themselves to providing historical resources to spark our imagination about forms of activism and organizing that we might use today, and how they modeled, in their relationship and their own lives, a kind of non-hierarchal leadership t...
Feb 08, 2023•26 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Dave Forman, who passed away in 2022. They talk about the importance of Forman's work in creating the radical environmental group, Earth First!, and the limitations of this approach to movement building. Music Credit: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — KV [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/8JIojtPfpzo Free Do...
Feb 01, 2023•11 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Barbara Ehrenreich, who passed away in 2022. They talk about the importance of Ehrenreich's works including Nickel and Dimed , Bait and Switch , and Witches, Midwives, and Nurses . Music Credit: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — KV [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/8JIojtPfpzo Free Download / Stream: https:...
Jan 23, 2023•19 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of historian Mike Davis, who passed away in 2022. They talk about the importance of Davis' books including City of Quart z, Ecology of Fear , and Magical Urbanism . Music Credit: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — KV [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/8JIojtPfpzo Free Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/bubble...
Jan 17, 2023•15 min
Christian Matheis presents the keynote presentation for The Word for World is Forest Symposium, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula Le Guin's anti-war novella. This talk was given in October 2022. It is entitled "Devious as Nerves: Teaching the Fine Balance of Reason and Dream." Image: Eileen Dunn
Jan 09, 2023•22 min
In this presentation from the October 2022 symposium honoring the 50th anniversary of Ursula K. Le Guin's novella, Sean MacCracken examines the way Le Guin depicts the colonialism of her intergalactic federation in the Hainish series and what lessons we might take for our political organizing today. He describes his talk: In the six-part documentary , Capitalism, David Graeber reflects on the historical question of the colonial world-empire, and why Western Europe was the first to “achieve” it, ...
Jan 05, 2023•15 min
Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest . In this episode, Ben Nadler discusses the possibility of dreaming as a radical and collective act of liberation. He says: "I am interested in exploring the ways in which dreaming can be understood as a collective act, rather than an individual one. In these explorations, I will draw on Robin D.G. Kelley’s concept of “freedom dream...
Dec 15, 2022•20 min
Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest . In this episode, Christopher Loughlin discusses Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, in conjunction with Jacques Ranciere's aesthetic and political philosophy, to discuss the meaning of solidarity and visibility. How might art be thought of as a tool of class struggle?
Nov 28, 2022•20 min
The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Sheryl Medlicott Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest . In this episode, Sheryl Medlicott helps us to understand the book as an ecofeminist and utopian text with lessons about how to think about language in the struggle for a better future.
Nov 11, 2022•18 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Sergio Gallegos , who teaches philosophy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the City University of New York, about the anarchist ethics of Ricardo Flores Magon. A key figure in the development of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Flores Magon was deeply inspired by anarchist thought and worked to organize workers on both sides of the Mexican/U.S. border. He fled from Mexico into the United States during the revolution and i...
Oct 27, 2022•50 min
The popularity of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons has skyrocketed recently. Partly because of the COVID 19 pandemic and also because of the its prominent portrayal in the hit show "Stranger Things", more and more people have started to play this classic fantasy game where players imagine themselves as characters in far away mystical realms. In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we continue our discussion with two philosophers who are fans of Dungeons and Dragons. Both of them g...
Sep 13, 2022•50 min
The popularity of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons has skyrocketed recently . Partly because of the COVID 19 pandemic and also because of the its prominent portrayal in the hit show "Stranger Things", more and more people have started to play this classic fantasy game where players imagine themselves as characters in far away mystical realms. In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with two philosophers who are fans of Dungeons and Dragons. Both of them grew up playing the...
Aug 17, 2022•51 min
In this episode, we celebrate five years of TrekWars@OSU by considering the issue of refugees and displaced persons. In 2021, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimated that there were 82 million people displaced because of war, conflict, and human rights violations around the world. Some 30% of those are children. Starting in 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine produced another 7 million refugees , with almost half of them fleeing to neighboring Poland. The TrekWars@OSU collecti...
Jun 07, 2022•1 hr 14 min
In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, Joseph Orosco, co director of the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures, and Dr. Jason Scully (Urban and Regional Planning, Eastern Washington University) discuss the ways in which race and mental health are represented in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. They talk about how the show depicts Black and Latinx characters through the story arcs of Raffi and Rios and in particular, the way mental health crises are represented in the story of Picard's mother. Would th...
May 25, 2022•1 hr 8 min
In this episode of FutureStates Focus, two philosophy professors, Joseph Orosco and Robyn Morris, review the sci-fi short film "Children of the Northern Lights" (2013). This short film is written and directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, who is now an Assistant Professor of Arts at New York University. His previous film "On the Ice" (2011) explores Inuit culture in Alaska and is a film festival award winner. In "Children of the Northern Lights", two astronauts on an energy searching expedition cra...
May 08, 2022•49 min
On this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Irish historian, Dr. Christopher J.V. Loughlin, who has been examining ancient Irish tales of sea voyages, the immrama,-- which literally means tales of "rowing about". He finds within them the seeds of a unique brand of speculative thinking he calls Celtic Futurism. Many of these immrama stories date back to the 7th and 8th centuries CE and detail journeys to far away spiritual lands with mystical elements and fantastic creatures. Dr. Lo...
Apr 22, 2022•1 hr 9 min
In coordination with the Concerned Philosophers for Peace, the Anarres Project presents a discussion with the author (and co-director of the Anarres Project) Jose-Antonio Orosco about his new book "Star Trek and the Philosophy of Peace and Justice: A Global, Anti-Racist Approach" . (London: Bloomsbury, 2022) The dialogue is moderated by Dr. Greg Moses (Texas State University), editor of The Acorn Journal: Philosophical Studies in Pacifism and Nonviolence and Communications Director for the Conce...
Apr 13, 2022•1 hr 17 min
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak to writer Susan DeFreitas. She recently edited a collection of speculative fiction stories written in honor of Ursula K. Le Guin entitled: "Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin". While she worked on the project, she also read all of Le Guin's novels. We sat down with her to ask her what insights she gained from this deep dive, particularly for thinking about social transformation and building imaginative bridges towa...
Apr 09, 2022•1 hr 3 min
