Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day.

This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, which claims that the essay was written while Kollontai was in exile in Norway. She sent it to Vladimir Lenin (then in exile in Switzerland) who also edited it before publication. The final pamphlet was first published in 2016. It went into multiple editions and was distributed widely across Europe and Russia.

Ghodsee also discusses the 2024 presidential election in the United States.

Mentioned in this episode:

Elon Musk reveals cybercabs, robovans, and the Optimus robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-eK72ioDk

If you are an American citizen, especially in a swing state, please register to vote here: https://voterizer.org/

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Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

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Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.