One of our beloved Patreons, going by the awe-inspiring alias of ABCD1234 (sorry, I can’t let a name like that stand without at least some sniping ;)) asked me a question about the financing of the Iron Bank and Marxist thought as an inspiration for narrative analysis. Neither of these is my field of expertise, so I happily obliged. Just kidding! Of course I got reinforcements. I asked known expert on the topic Steven Attewell to help me out in answering the questions, and then some. We discuss socialism and communism, in theory as well as in practicality, and how they help us understand Westeros and Essos. Or, more likely, fail to do so.  But the real meat of the episode is with the question of what constitutes the economic and political might of Braavos, and why they are financing wars like Stannis’. What do they gain? And what has Stannis in common with Obama? So many questions, so many answers! Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. Previous episodes. Podcast RSS feed. Steven’s blog.  Stefan’s blog.