In this episode, Breht speaks with scholar Angie Bittar about the life, thought, and enduring relevance of Carl Jung. Together they explore Jung's understanding of the unconscious, archetypes, the shadow, individuation, dreams, symbols, myth, and the modern search for meaning. After introducing Jung on his own terms, Breht and Angie place Jung in conversation with Marxism, historical materialism, and revolutionary politics. They discuss alienation, spiritual hunger, reactionary projection, fasci...
May 15, 2026•2 hr 27 min
In this episode, Breht and Alyson sit down with Arlene Eisen to discuss her new memoir, In the Worldwide Family of Militant Women . Eisen reflects on her political formation across the upheavals of the 1960s through the early 1980s, her encounters with Black liberation and anti-imperialist struggle, and the forgotten history of militant women who built relationships of solidarity across borders. Together they explore internationalism, revolutionary commitment, movement fragmentation, and what yo...
May 13, 2026•1 hr 34 min
In this episode, Breht speaks with Mohanad Alsayed about his memoir Scars and Medals (Iskra Books), a powerful and deeply human account of growing up Palestinian under occupation, carrying exile across continents, and trying to make sense of memory, loss, family, and resistance. Through the story of his grandmother Jamila, his missing uncle Ghazi, and his own journey from Palestine to the United States, Alsayed offers an intimate portrait of how dispossession enters not only history and politics...
May 06, 2026•1 hr 58 min
In this episode, Breht sits down with Suzin Green, author of The Goddess Remedy , to explore the psychological, spiritual, and civilizational roots of modern disconnection. Moving beyond conventional political understandings of patriarchy, Green presents it as a deeper structure of domination that shapes not only institutions, but consciousness itself -- fueling alienation, compulsive striving, inner fragmentation, and a profound loss of connection to self, others and the living world. Together,...
May 03, 2026•2 hr 1 min
In this episode, Breht sits down with Ashwin Shantha to discuss the argument that China's green development is not only an environmental achievement, but also a profoundly political one. Drawing on Ashwin's essay " China's Green Development is Both Anti-Imperialist and Socialist ," the conversation explores how China became the global leader in solar, wind, and electric vehicles through long-term planning, industrial policy, state capacity, and the disciplining of capital to broader social goals...
Apr 22, 2026•1 hr 39 min
In this episode, Breht speaks with professor of history Dr. Afshin Matin-Asgari to discuss his book Axis of Empire: A History of Iran–US Relations , about the long arc of Iranian–American relations from the nineteenth century to the present. Matin-Asgari argues that U.S. policy toward Iran has been structured by enduring "imperial priorities," a framework that reframes familiar episodes such as the 1953 coup, the consolidation of the Shah (Pahlavi) client state, the revolutionary rupture of 1978...
Apr 17, 2026•1 hr 49 min
Alyson and Breht apply dialectical and historical materialist analysis to the current war of aggression in Iran. Together they break down the Marxist methodology into its three main parts - dialectics, materialism, and history - and showcase how they apply to the US and Israeli war on Iran, before bringing them back together into a coherent whole. Then they compare and contrast dialectical and historical materialism as a mode of analysis to other forms of analysis: from academic modes like liber...
Apr 09, 2026•2 hr 25 min
In this episode, public school history teacher Gianni joins Breht to trace the historical roots of our current political and economic crisis -- democratic breakdown, endless war, institutional distrust, rising authoritarianism, and deepening inequality -- back through the George W. Bush administration and the early 2000s. Together, they explore the contested election of 2000 and the Supreme Court's decisive intervention, the burial of that crisis in American political memory, the continuation an...
Apr 08, 2026•2 hr 1 min
Breht reads and reacts to "A Letter To The American People" written by Masoud Pezeschkian, the Iranian president, as a ground invasion of some sort seems imminent. Check out our new design in collaboration with Goods for the People HERE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get bonus episodes on Patreon Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow RLR on IG HERE Learn more about Rev Left HERE...
Apr 03, 2026•40 min
In this episode, we're joined by professor Joel Wainwright (co-author of Climate Leviathan ) to discuss his newest book, The End: Marx, Darwin, and the Natural History of the Climate Crisis . Together, Breht and Joel explore the intellectual impact Charles Darwin had on Karl Marx, and why it matters for the ecological crisis of our time. Wainwright argues that Marx's study of Darwin helped him develop a distinctly Marxian concept of natural history, reshaping how he understood history, nature, a...
Mar 25, 2026•2 hr 6 min
Matthew Vernon Whalan joins the show to discuss Bullock: Chronicles of Deprivation and Despair in an American Prison , an interview-driven, investigative journalistic, and collectively narrated portrait of life inside Bullock Correctional Facility in Alabama. Through the words of incarcerated people themselves, we explore the everyday realities that rarely make it into public view: mental health crisis and predation, sewage and infrastructure collapse, cruel and unusual punishment, sleep depriva...
Mar 20, 2026•1 hr 23 min
In this episode, Breht interviews Adnan Husain -- Professor of Medieval history and Chair of the Religious Studies department at Queens college -- about the deep historical roots of today's Middle East. The conversation traces the arc from ancient Persia to the Islamic era, explores how Iran became a center of Shi'a Islam, and examines the long rivalry between Persian and Ottoman power. Along the way, they unpack the Sunni-Shia split, the political role of Turkey in the region, the ways Western ...
Mar 17, 2026•2 hr 56 min
Torkil Lauesen joins us to discuss his book Unequal Exchange: Past, Present, and Future and the hidden mechanics of modern imperialism. Lauesen returns to the tradition of Arghiri Emmanuel to argue that while the world market tends to equalize prices, wages remain radically unequal across borders -- driving a structural transfer of value from low-wage production zones to high-wage consumer economies. We walk through Lauesen's reconstruction of unequal exchange through Marx's value theory, the le...
Mar 10, 2026•1 hr 30 min
(recorded on 3/1/26) - Breht went on Workers' Lit as a guest! "The American ruling class is at war. Physically, they are at war with Iran, pummeling the country with unrelenting airstrikes, slaughtering civilians, and doing their best to make yet another nation unlivable. But they are fighting another war: a psychological war against every one of us. They are building a world of declining literacy, misinformation, confusion, and fear. Combine those two wars and you get an apathetic American popu...
Mar 04, 2026•1 hr 35 min
On this YT livestream (3/1/26) Alyson and Breht discuss the illegal war of aggression launched by the US and Israel against Iran. Throughout the discussion they take live questions from the chat. Subscribe to your YouTube Channel HERE ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https...
Mar 02, 2026•1 hr 44 min
Alyson and Breht discuss a range of current events, including Cuba, the Epstein Files, Iran and much more. Make a donation to Socialist Night School via Venmo @OmahaNightSchool Outro Song: "to each their dot" by Haley Heynderickx & Max Garcia Conover ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about ...
Feb 17, 2026•1 hr 47 min
In this episode, we're joined by author and poet Too Black to unpack his essay "Nonviolence is violence, too: Somebody's gotta die," and to challenge the comforting myths that often surround "nonviolent" struggle. We dig into what he means by the claim that nonviolence is never actually bloodless, why he prefers the term "sacrificial violence," and how nonviolent movements frequently gain leverage precisely because an opponent supplies the repression that shocks the public, shifts legitimacy, an...
Feb 04, 2026•1 hr 48 min
Syria is entering a new and terrifying phase. In this episode Breht is joined by a panel of scholars and activists ( Angie Bittar , Adam , Joma , Nur and Jalyssa ) to take a clear-eyed look at what's unfolded over the last year and how it fits into the longer arc of the Syrian civil war, including the rapid collapse of the Assad-era order and the emergence of a new regime centered around HTS and Ahmad al-Sharaa (Jolani). Together, they break down the latest waves of mass violence and displacemen...
Jan 30, 2026•2 hr 47 min
Breht discusses recent events in Minneapolis... ------------------------------------ Outro Song: Song for Alicia by Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover
Jan 25, 2026•1 hr 23 min
In this episode, Breht is joined by Kristen R. Ghodsee to dig into her provocative essay on the political economy of love under capitalism. Using Marx's distinction between use value and exchange value, Ghodsee argues that love is not just a private feeling but a material necessity for human flourishing -- and that our economic system systematically depletes the time, energy, and security required to sustain it. Together, they explore how capitalism commodifies two core components of love, atten...
Jan 19, 2026•1 hr 27 min
In this episode, Breht is joined by philosopher, author, and cultural critic Gabriel Rockhill to discuss his new book Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? The Intellectual World War: Marxism vs. the Imperial Theory Industry . Rockhill argues that the Cold War was not only fought with bombs, coups, and sanctions -- but with ideas, institutions and intellectuals. Drawing on extensive archival research, Rockhill shows how U.S. imperial power built a vast apparatus of foundations, universities, m...
Jan 14, 2026•1 hr 29 min
In this episode, Breht is joined by revolutionary feminist and author Madeline Lane-McKinley to discuss her recent book " Solidarity with Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy ", in which she argues for a politics that centers young humans as essential comrades in the struggle for a better world! In the process they examine the concept of childhood as historically structured, which children are granted innocence and which are robbed of it, how to parent through a lens that respects children...
Jan 12, 2026•1 hr 28 min
Nov 5, 2025 In this episode, public school history teacher Gianni Paul joins Breht to trace the historical roots of our current crisis — stagnant wages, mass homelessness, collapsing infrastructure, rising fascism, Gilded Age inequality, and a beaten down working class — back to Reagan's counter-revolution against the New Deal and the forty-year neoliberal project that followed. Together, they explore how neoliberalism emerged out of the crises of the 1970s, Carter's role in laying the groundwor...
Jan 07, 2026•1 hr 56 min
Jun 18, 2025 In this powerful and wide-ranging conversation, Margaret Kimberley —senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and a leader in Black Alliance for Peace —joins Breht to dissect the spectacle of American decline and, as usual, Kimberley offers a razor-sharp analysis of late-stage capitalism's collapse into cruelty, chaos, and confusion. Together, they explore the Democratic Party's complicity in ushering in this moment, U.S. weapons transfers to Ukraine in support of their proxy war agai...
Jan 06, 2026•1 hr 18 min
recorded January 3rd 2026 Revolutionary Guerrilla Menace's 2025: A Year in History! A fantastic discussion with blistering analysis from the crew. We discussed US criminal assault on Venezuela and its consequences geopolitically and economically on US empire and its designs in Latin America and implications for West Asia and especially subversion or assault on Iran. We analyzed US/Western imperialism and how it is the primary contradiction in global capitalism. Other topics we touched on were fa...
Jan 06, 2026•1 hr 51 min
Feb 10, 2025 Willy Massay returns to the show to discuss his recent (second) trip to Gaza as a medical volunteer. He got back two weeks ago and stayed for over a month. He discusses his heart-wrenching experiences, the wintry conditions and terrible air quality in Gaza and how both are impacting the health of every single Palestinian on the ground. He also discusses the ceasefire, the spirit of the Palestinian people, the insane cruelty and horrific war crimes of Israel, and his personal relatio...
Jan 05, 2026•1 hr 17 min
Feb 17, 2025 Dr. Rory Dickson is a professor of Islamic Religion and Culture and author of several publications on Sufism, the mystical path within Islam. He joins Breht to have an incredibly deep conversation about the Sufi poet Rumi, his life and work, Rumi's relationship to his teacher Shams of Tabriz, the concepts of fana (annihilation of the self) and baqa (subsistence in God), the spiritual practices of Sufism, non-duality and perennialism, "dying before you die", Buddhist enlightenment, t...
Jan 04, 2026•2 hr 9 min
Jun 25, 2025 One of the most radical things you can do is live your life in direct opposition to the forces that control our society. Not just fighting for policies or organizing your community, although those are certainly important parts of it, but also living with values that oppose the values of our dominant society. And even more importantly, raising the next generation to embody those values—not in a coercive way, but through organic parenting and role modeling that make radicalism irresis...
Jan 03, 2026•2 hr 12 min
Sep 10, 2025 Alyson and Breht critically engage with the concept of "technofeudalism" from a Marxist (and thus historical materialist) perspective, analyzing its origin and recent popularity, critiquing its depoloyment and the implication that it represents a "new mode of production", explaining related concepts like rent-seeking, discussing the role of private equity in the modern American economy, the politics of Yanis Varoufakis, and much, much more. Private Equity Explainer HERE Support Rev ...
Jan 02, 2026•1 hr 16 min
Jun 16, 2025 In this episode, Alyson and Breht explore Friedrich Engels' Dialectics of Nature , a bold and underappreciated attempt to apply dialectical materialism to the natural sciences. Often dismissed or misunderstood, this unfinished work offers a sweeping view of reality - from physics and chemistry to evolution, human consciousness, and ecological breakdown - through the lens of Marxist philosophy. Together, they unpack Engels' central claim that nature itself unfolds dialectically: thro...
Jan 01, 2026•2 hr 35 min
