This is part two of a two-part episode. This part of the conversation deals more with the actions that led to Mann's political imprisoment and his experiences as a political prisoner. In this two-part episode, we are joined by special cohost PM, and we speak with veteran civil rights organizer Eric Mann about his journey from his upbringing in New York to his involvement in political struggles during the 1960s. Mann discusses his early influences, including his parents' activism. He reflects on ...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 45 min•Season 1Ep. 303
In this two-part episode, we are joined by special cohost PM, and we speak with veteran civil rights organizer Eric Mann about his journey from his upbringing in New York to his involvement in political struggles during the 1960s. Mann discusses his early influences, including his parents' activism. He reflects on his work with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), highlighting key campaigns such as the Trailways boycott and the 1968 Col...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 302
In this conversation we talk with Garrett Felber about their latest book A Continuous Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Martin Sostre . In discussing this new political biography, we cover Sostre’s ideological and political journey, history as a jailhouse lawyer, his forms of organizing practice, and the ways that people supported his campaign for freedom from political imprisonment. We talk about the influence of Great Depression era Harlem, Black and Puerto Rican Nationalism, Marxism-Leninis...
May 28, 2025•1 hr 46 min•Season 1Ep. 301
This is the conclusion of our two part conversation with Tariq Khan on his book The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression . In part one of the conversation we laid out many of the general dynamics between anti-indigenous settler colonial violence in the 19th Century and the development of the earliest iterations of anticommunism in the so-called United States, long before McCarthyism or even what’s recognized by historians as the first Red Scare. ...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 300
In this episode, we speak with Edward Ongweso Jr about "artificial intelligence" and its implications, particularly concerning corporate interests and historical parallels with labor control. Edward critiques the term “artificial intelligence” for obscuring the underlying digital technologies and algorithmic systems that serve corporate agendas, emphasizing the narrow view of intelligence that excludes human cognitive elements. The conversation delves into the historical roots of computation, dr...
May 16, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 299
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III about the increasingly repressive conditions on university campuses, particularly in the context of Columbia University's caving in to federal pressures under the thumb of Trump’s administration. We explore the broader implications of these concessions at the expense of liberalized notions of intellectual and academic freedom, student activism, and the role of universities as sites of political struggle. Dr. Davis highlights the historica...
Apr 30, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 298
In this episode we interview Tariq Khan on his book The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression. We’ll be releasing this conversation as a two part episode on this excellent book which studies how anticommunism within the US is deeply intertwined with settler colonialism, anti-indigenous thought, and genocidal violence. This helps us to reframe our often twentieth century centric view of anti-left repression in the US. Khan’s work on the 19th centur...
Apr 19, 2025•1 hr 49 min•Season 1Ep. 297
In this episode, we speak with Khadijah Haynes about her recent piece, "A Fetus on the Dirt Road” which offers a sharp critique of Western feminism's complicity in imperialism and its historical roots in racial violence. Haynes argues that Western feminism often obscures the struggles of both Black women and men, relying on colonial and anti-Black logics that fail to address the broader context of sexualized, gendered, and racialized abuses of all Black African people. We discuss other historica...
Apr 12, 2025•2 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 296
In this episode, recorded mid-2024, we speak with Ted Rutland about the evolution of policing from the mid-20th century's professional model to the counterinsurgency urbanism that emerged in the 1970s and 80s in Canada. Rutland discusses how community policing, initially intended to bring police closer to communities through multicultural training and social services, became a strategy to win over parts of the community while waging a larger war against the rest. We delve into some of the histor...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 295
This is the conclusion of our two part conversation with Maryam Kashani on her book Medina by the Bay: Scenes of Muslim Study and Survival Among other things, in this conversation we talk about the impact and meaning of 1492 to the Muslim world. We discuss Kashani’s concept of the Blues Adhan by way of Clyde Woods. We discuss the experiences of women muslims, and women scholars in Kashani’s book. We talk about the two jihads and other Muslim practices such as zakat and the contradictions between...
Mar 22, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 294
In this episode we interview D. Óg, an Irish Republican and Irish language activist who works with Iskra Books, and their Irish language imprint Bradán Feasa. In this discussion we talk about the Iskra Books publication The Dark: Selected Writings of Brendan Hughes . Hughes, was a former Irish Republican Army volunteer, political prisoner, and Hunger Striker. And while he is a very well known figure within Irish Republican circles and among those who have studied the provisional IRA, some folks ...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 293
This is the first part of a two part conversation with Maryam Kashani on her book Medina By The Bay: Scenes of Muslim Study and Survival It’s a cool book that weaves Maryam’s scholarly ethnographic work with her talents as a filmmaker and a DJ to examine and illuminate various strains of Islam in the San Francisco Bay Area from the Black Power Movement to the so-called war on terror and the rise of the surveillance state. She dubs her approach an “ethnocinematic.” We discuss legacies of anti-imp...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 292
In this episode recorded mid-2024, Josh spoke with Dylan Saba about some of his essays beginning with one titled "A Struggle to Destroy the World,” where he argued that the condition of Palestine is the condition of the modern world. We discuss the role of the Iron Dome as an offensive system, its historical context, and its implications for the colonial-imperialist power imbalance in the region. Saba also provides an overview of the strategic use of aid as a weapon to maintain control, division...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 47 min•Season 1Ep. 291
This is a light edit of a recent livestream video we hosted with Abdaljawad Omar on our YouTube channel. The conversation was so timely and incisive that we wanted to ensure there was also a version on our audio podcast feed. In this discussion we cover the Tufan of Return, talk about the ceasefire, the prisoner exchanges, the decimation of Gaza’s infrastructure, and the concept of Nakba within Palestine, getting into the issues that Abdaljawad has with the divergent meanings of the word, which ...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 290
In this episode, we speak with Darryl Li about some of his essays. We begin by discussing his work and experiences in Palestine. His transformation from an NGO worker in the early 2000s to a scholar and political activist. Li explores the interpolation of Jewishness into a racial category globally. He also explores the Law of Return, which allows any Jew in the world to not only settle in Israel but also to enjoy superior rights to the land than Palestinians. The conversation covers the evolutio...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 289
This is the conclusion of our two part interview with Andrew Krinks on his recently published book White Property, Black Trespass: Racial Capitalism and the Religious Function of Mass Criminalization . Today we explore the religious functions police play for Christian societies, in particular the US, and their relationship to theological concepts of redemption and salvation. We also talk about religious discipline, labor discipline and regimes of prison labor, which is obviously topical with ren...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 288
In this episode we speak with Andrew Krinks about his recent book White Property, Black Trespass: Racial Capitalism and the Religious Function of Mass Criminalization . The book is really interesting and I highly recommend it, this is part 1 of a 2 part discussion we recorded on it. You can pick it up from Massive Bookshop the bookstore that uses their revenue from book sales to bail people out of jail. In this discussion Krinks goes into the religious function that the mass criminalization of B...
Jan 03, 2025•2 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 287
In this episode we speak with Hala Sabbah about the work of the Sameer Project and their various initiatives providing tents, food, water, milk, medical aid, diapers, and cash aid to Palestinians surviving amid the US-backed, zionist enacted genocide in Gaza. We are going to close the year by making a $50 contribution to the Sameer Project, and we encourage our listeners to give if they can or boost their incredible work, which you can see examples of on their instagram or twitter feeds. In this...
Dec 20, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 286
In this episode we speak with Professor Randi Gill-Sadler about various published and unpublished works of writers and filmmakers Toni Cade Bambara and Gloria Naylor. Randi Gill-Sadler is a teacher, scholar, and writer. She received her PhdD in English and her graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Florida. Her research and teaching interests include 20th century African American and Afro-Caribbean women's literature, U.S. Cultures of Imperialism, a...
Dec 15, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 285
[editor's note: Due to the context of rapidly developing events in the region, it is important to note that this conversation was recorded back in early October, 2024] In this episode, we speak with Nihal El Aasar about her recently penned essay, " Left Wing Melancholia, the Arab Political Subject ." We speak about Palestine's importance to the Arab political subject and the need to analyze the current absence of the Arab masses in light of Israel’s genocidal onslaught. She highlights the influe...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 284
In this interview we talk to C. Crowle about the recently republished and expanded edition of Attack International’s text The Spirit of Freedom: Anticolonial War & Uneasy Peace in Ireland . The new edition includes the original unabridged 1989 text by Attack International and some great supplementary material compiled by Crowle. The book is a concise and powerful text on the national liberation struggle in Ireland from the perspective of radicals in the UK. It’s a text that challenges us to ...
Nov 25, 2024•2 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 283
In this episode we interview Mohammed Khatib and Thomas Hofland from the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. This is our third interview with members of Samidoun since October 7th 2023, and we will link the others in the show description. Mohammed Khatib is a Palestinian refugee from Ain el-Helweh camp in Lebanon. He lives in Belgium and is the European coordinator for Samidoun. Thomas Hofland is the coordinator of Samidoun Netherlands. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Netw...
Nov 17, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 282
This is an (almost) unedited version of our livestream with Kali Akuno from this morning (11/10/24) Here Kali Akuno offers thoughts on where we go from here after the re-election of Trump. Our previous video discussion with Kali Akuno provides more of the nuts and bolts of the type of organizing he's callling for, but this conversation underscores the urgency of this program now that we are in the reality (at least in terms of electoral politics and control of government) that he predicted would...
Nov 10, 2024•2 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 281
In this episode we interview 20 year old organizer Calla Walsh to talk about her experiences as a co-founder of Palestine Action US, as well as the political repression she and others have faced in the case of the Merrimack 4. She talks about why we should view their case as a win, and underlines the need for continued escalation for Palestine thirteen months into the genocidal response to Al-Aqsa Flood In this interview she offers in-depth discussion of the importance of risk-taking, and the pr...
Nov 09, 2024•1 hr 45 min•Season 1Ep. 280
This is part two of our conversation with Jason W. Moore, a historical geographer at Binghamton University. In this discussion we delve into the concept of "substance fetishism" within Marxian social theory, the dangers it poses, and its implications for understanding the web of life. Part 1: Against Climate Doomism and the Bourgeois Character of American Environmentalism Moore raises concerns about the misguided focus on substance fetishism, which prioritizes the management of substances over t...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 279
In this interview, we are joined by friend and special co-host Casey where we are in conversation with Jason Moore discussing the historical and ideological roots of contemporary environmentalism, tracing its origins to the post-Civil War era in the United States. He argues that environmentalism has historically been an elite-driven movement, often serving the interests of capitalism by promoting resource management and conservation in ways that benefit economic growth. Moore critiques the mains...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 278
In this episode we interview Austin McCoy to discuss his piece “ ' Disorganize the State': The Black Workers Congress’s Visions of Abolition-Democracy in the 1970’s ", which Austin wrote for the Labor and Employment Relations Association’s publication A Racial Reckoning in Industrial Relations: Storytelling as Revolution from Within . Austin McCoy is a historian of the 20th Century United States with specializations in African American History, labor, and cultural history. He is currently workin...
Nov 05, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 278
In July of 2023, we published a conversation on the Iskra Books translation of Domenico Losurdo’s Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend with Henry Hakamäki and Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro ( book / listen to part 1 here ). We found the book really fascinating and had lots of questions, so we were only able to cover about half of our questions in our first conversation. This conversation is essentially the part 2 of that conversation, in which Henry and Salvatore are joined by Iskra editors ...
Oct 17, 2024•1 hr 55 min•Season 1Ep. 277
In this interview, we are joined by Mary Turfah who discusses a couple of her recent articles including the broader context of medical neutrality and the targeting of healthcare workers in Gaza. She addresses the historical context of medical neutrality, which emerged in the mid-1800s as a means to ensure medical immunity on the battlefield. Turfah explains how this concept has racialized limitations, particularly in colonial contexts where colonizers often do not need the medical facilities of ...
Oct 07, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 276
In this episode Fathi Nimer and Abdaljawad Omar rejoin the podcast to talk about recent events including the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the Iranian retailatory strikes, which took place on October 1st. We conclude by talking a bit about the meaning of October 7th, 2023 one year later. Here is a video version of the episode if you prefer to watch the conversation. Despite the difficulty in fully drawing meaning from something we’re still in the m...
Oct 07, 2024•2 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 275
