Episode 333 of RevolutionZ addresses the question is there anything worth seeking beyond existing economics and in particular modes of allocation? It goes into some depth revealing the horrible intrinsic ills of markets and central planning. For example, it discusses how markets and central planning both yield top-down decision-making and a corporate division of labor and a coordinator class above workers. It shows how central planning is and induces further authoritarianism and how markets rewa...
Apr 20, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 333
Episode 332 of RevolutionZ has Hunter Dunn of Southern Cal 50501 as guest to share insight from his experiences with organizing the massive Southern Cal Unites protest in downtown LA, as part of the nationwide April 5th demonstrations against the Trump Administration. Hunter is a Senior at Pepperdine University and our conversation went beyond reporting April 5th tactics, scale, and mechanics to discuss the many factors shaping youth political engagement. Dunn explained how Gen Z members are pul...
Apr 13, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 332
Episode 331 of RevolutionZ has as guest long-time labor organizer Stephen Lerner to provide strategic clarity and emotive urgency about our current situation. Lerner describes a coordinated assault by "billionaires, the fossil fuel industry, and Silicon Valley" to "dominate every aspect of the country." Make public institutions "broke on purpose, "deliberately underfund vital services, and finally privatize them. Lerner argues that in addition to protesting governme...
Apr 07, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 331
Episode 330 of RevolutionZ confronts the growing threat of fascism by examining what constitutes genuine resistance versus complicity or apathy. The episode says we face three choices: bow and scrape to fascism, ignore what's happening, or stand and fight. University presidents and private law firms that collaborate with authoritarian demands represent profiles in cowardice. They bow and scrape. Anyone looking around and saying oh no, but who then does nothing more, ignores reality. But stu...
Mar 30, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 330
Episode 329 of RevolutionZ tackles the issue of reform versus revolution in context of the growing resistance to Trumpism and fascism in America. The episode recounts hopeful signs of resistance building across campuses, unions, and communities. But with this surge may come a familiar challenge: will those seeking immediate reforms and those advocating for revolutionary change work together or in opposition? The episode distinguishes between reforms (specific policy changes) and revolution (tran...
Mar 23, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 329
Episode 328 of RevolutionZ has as guest Yves Engler, a Canadian writer and political activist who shares his experience of being recently jailed for criticizing a pro-genocide influencer online and facing subsequent charges for "harassing the police" when he publicized his case. We discuss the growing criminalization of pro-Palestinian speech and the importance of solidarity in fighting back against repression. Engler describes growing Canadian support for Palestine activism including ...
Mar 16, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 328
Episode 327 of RevolutionZ takes up the question, can nine different post-capitalist economic visions find common ground in a single unifying framework? Rather than viewing Mainstream Marxist Economy, Councilist Marxist Economy, Anarchist Economy, Solidarity Economy, Green Economy, Degrowth Economy, Feminist Economy, Intercommunalist Economy, and Anti-authoritarian Economy as competing frameworks, what if we highlight their essential virtues to identify areas of compatibility? At the heart of th...
Mar 09, 2025•31 min•Season 1Ep. 327
Ep 326 of RevolutionZ discusses Trump's unique role in contemporary politics, the problems of a purely defensive strategy, and enlarging resistance activism including reaching Trump voters. It proposes seeking a wealth tax, living wage, labor reforms, free quality education, day care, and health care, positive immigration reform, and various electoral, social, and environmental reforms as positive program to augment defending against Trumpian reactionary attacks. It highlights the role of m...
Mar 02, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 326
Episode 325 of RevolutionZ has as its guest the novelist and activist Rivera Sun. We discuss nonviolent resistance as a strategy to combat rising authoritarianism in the U.S. and around the world. The episode reviews the historical effectiveness of nonviolent movements worldwide, the essentials of winning campaigns, the importance of active civil disobedience and of positively engaging allies, the importance of narratives to movement communication and much more regarding organizing and activism,...
Feb 23, 2025•58 min•Season 1Ep. 325
Episode 324 of RevolutionZ gets personal, a bit strange, I hope a bit humorous, perhaps even a bit helpful. After over six years of episodes, I subject myself as interviewee to myself as a very aggressive interviewer, much more aggressive and even abrasive, than I have been with anyone else. I pounce on me as guest. I challenge me about my motivations. I ask how I navigate the interplay of confidence and ignorance to discuss a wide range of topics that often go beyond what I have studied. Is it ...
Feb 16, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 324
Episode 323 of RevolutionZ has as guest Steve Early who discusses the vital role of the labor movement in the days of Trump. What is going on at work and in unions now? What are union organizers emphasizing? What might we expect from and contribute to worker activism in coming months? To address these matters, Early discusses coalitions between unions and veteran organizations, strategies against privatization, reaching out to attract and involve new union members, independent political action a...
Feb 09, 2025•54 min•Season 1Ep. 323
Ep 322 of RevolutionZ addresses our necessary battle against harmful policies and the structural changes that are meant to empower them under the Trump administration. How do we recognize the role of societal structures in policy implementation to effectively resist both? How do we develop a proactive stance to fight against fascistic behavior that aims to install dictatorial rule. How do we address the aggressive policy agenda that threatens immigrants and civil rights? How do we thwart the str...
Feb 02, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 322
Ep 321 of RevolutionZ considers the I believe false choice of class or identity. We want to understand the world to change it. Why must we choose one focus above some other focus to best pursue effective change? How do class, race, gender, and power priorities and concepts intersect? What if marxism, anarchism, feminism, and nationalism are each correct and yet also each wrong? Is there a way to think about social change able to combine the virtues of paying priority attention to gender, sexuali...
Jan 26, 2025•43 min•Season 1Ep. 321
Episode 320 of RevolutionZ addresses the next few months of Trumpian challenge. What can we do? Howmight we do it? Who is we? How does it all work? This episode addresses reaching way beyond current support with what we call non reformist reform struggles. How do we assess our own choices? What constitutes success? What brings more success? Episode 320 takes up these and related questions to provoke, inspire, and aid coming activism even against feelings of fear and weakness that many now suffer...
Jan 19, 2025•23 min•Season 1Ep. 320
Episode 319 of RevolutionZ, inspired by the release of "A Complete Unknown," seeks to assist in one wish for the film -- to introduce new audience to Dylan's work. It isn't mandatory to study history in order to enjoy today's tunes, but to do so with Dylan opens us to much edification and enrichment. I let the movie select many of the songs to present, but not all. From hundreds Dylan has done, I of course had to settle for less than the whole. So here is a sliver of Dyl...
Jan 12, 2025•55 min•Season 1Ep. 319
Episode 318 of RevolutionZ has Jeremy Brecher as guest to discuss his recent exemplary pamphlet which explores strategies for winning against MAGA. The episode discusses Trumpian aims and both electoral and non-electoral forms of our own activism, emphasizing the power of strikes, public pressure, and unified resistance. Brecher describes successful initiatives like North Carolina's Forward Together and the Poor People's Campaign to show how grassroots movements can bring about signifi...
Jan 05, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 318
Episode 317 of RevolutionZ has as its guest Richard Solomon a grad student activist and organizer. We discuss the mindset, circumstances, and challenges faced by campus activism particularly about Palestine but more broadly as well including differences now as compared to years earlier. We consider the exemplary activist-generated "MIT Science for Genocide" report, the extensive carefully planned administrative repression against student dissent, insights on building coalitions for act...
Dec 29, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 317
Episode 316 of RevoluitonZ begins with a short letter to a friend and the friend's response. The episode considers views about becoming active, online activity, today's situation's pluses and minuses and our options, and Trump's voters. Should I and you be despondent, step aside, and wait. Slow and steady patience will win the race. Or should I and you be militant, dive right in, and battle full bore? The early days will set the stage for later days. And what about Trump vote...
Dec 22, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 316
Episode 314 of RevolutionZ convey's an interview done before a large audience at MIT addressing the 1960s and now. What follows is a somewhat edited version of what an AI offered as a summary. From an unsuspecting student to a committed activist here are stories of how personal experiences and institutional dynamics paved the way for a lifetime of advocacy. From a fraternity with secrets as unsettling as bugging rooms and tapping phone calls to manipulate incoming Freshmen, to harboring fug...
Dec 22, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 314
Episode 315 of RevolutionZ presents a detailed, wide-ranging assessment of recent changes and coming prospects in Syria as well as beyond, including Russia, Turkey, the United States, and Israel. Joseph Dahar critically challenges the anti-imperialist perspective that too often oversimplifies regional dynamics. Can a coalition of Syrians break free from Assad, fundamentalism, and external domination to create a democratic society? Finally, I draw some unexpected lessons for the United States. Su...
Dec 15, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 315
Episode 313 of RevolutionZ continues to focus on resisting Trump and going beyond him to build better. It briefly shares feelings and fears that dog me and likely you too. It lays out three paths toward removing Trump. It offers a hypothesis about the potential impact of the first months of Trump's second administration. And it moves from the facts and the hypothesis it offers to a proposal about what we might do now. Along the way it also offers a way of thinking about Trump's voters ...
Dec 01, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 313
Episode 312 of RevolutionZ: I wanted to change topic but couldn't. Like it or not, Trump and Trumpism matter. They are our present and they must be stopped lest they become our future. We take up five compelling reasons to stand firm against Trump from preventing harm to fostering hope and community. To not give up. To not back down. To not stick to old ways. To find new ways. We address the logic and the dangers posed by Trump's appointees. We highlight the need to raise social costs ...
Nov 24, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 312
Episode 311 of RevolutionZ is not an election post-mortem. It is not about what went wrong. It is about what Trump is likely to do and what we can do to prevent his success. The episode takes up border policies, deportations, gender and reproductive rights, homelessness, healthcare, labor, ecology, repression, schools, media, military, and international relations--and a lot more. In each case, the episode considers what Trump is likely to pursue and what kinds of resistance can block his efforts...
Nov 17, 2024•28 min•Season 1Ep. 311
Episode 310 of RevolutionZ asks what drove millions of Americans to rally behind a figure as vile as Donald Trump? What attracted and held them despite so much that ought to have repulsed them? What can now stop Trump from implementing full-on fascist outcomes? Wtih Immigration policy as an example, how might activism subvert Trump's plans? And is there a way to simultaneously effectively communicate with the over half the voting electorate that supported Trump without compromising values a...
Nov 10, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 310
Ep 309 of RevolutionZ offers insights from an essay by over a hundred Palestinian, Arab American, Muslim, and progressive leaders in Arizona, takes a historical detour into the emergence of Nazism in Germany and its then U.S. echoes, considers the meaning of the label shill for the Democratic Party, considers Trump's voters, and post election communications. This is my last pre-election episode. Hopefully my next one, recorded once the tallies are tallied, will offer some comments on what h...
Nov 03, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 309
Episode 308 of RevolutionZ has as guest Norman Solomon to talk about election 2024. Does who is in the White House matter in general, and in this election? Is there contradiction or synergy between personal conscience and the broader ethical responsibilities of electoral decisions? Is voting for Harris in swing states not only how to beat Trump but also how to advance progressive post-election prospects in coming months and years and thus compatible with conscience for organizers--or is the bett...
Oct 27, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 308
Episode 307 of RevolutionZ has Bill Fletcher Jr. applying lessons from his extensive labor and general activist organizing to discuss the real origins of Trumpism, conflicting approaches to the coming election, diverse broader strategies for change, how to address critics and who to not address at all, and much more. The exchange is passionate and also pointed at times. It emphasizes what is at stake in our current world and what people might most usefully do to make serious progress in these di...
Oct 20, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 307
Episode 306 of RevolutionZ has as its guest Peter Bohmer to discuss Israeli and U.S. motives in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and more widely as well. It addresses past history and the present prospects, and particularly the global outrage genocidal policies have provoked and calls for meaningful actions to effect real change via an arms embargo. The discussion carries into questions about the coming election, both party's strategies, and diverse voter sentiments. The episode is a call to r...
Oct 13, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 306
Episode 305 continues, reacts to, and adds to episode 304 to again address the MIdeast and Israeli and U.S. motivations, the U.S. election and Democratic and Republican Party motivations, plus popular reactions to all that, and also rampant escalating ubiquitous dishonesty plus AI's dangers and finally a personal AI experience in podcast creation's larger implications. Why again with confusions? Partly because these matters are incredibly important. Partly because I suspect I am not al...
Oct 06, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 305
Episode 304 of RevolutionZ is a bit unusual. Most of it poses more questions than answers. It moans "I don't get that," more than it proclaims "here is what is right about that." And what "thats' does it take up. Israeli and U.S. war making. Ecological suicide. Empathetic caring individuals supporting or turning a blind eye to genocide. The pervasive nature of deceit in our society from the normalization of "clickbait" culture in digital media to coll...
Sep 29, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 304
