Emancipations Podcast

I'm joined by Tony Chamas, aka "Tony of ‪@1Dimee‬" for a discussion on the philosopher Jean-Claude Michéa's theory of liberalism. Liberalism requires a unity between its economic and its cultural imperatives in order to remain intact as a ruling political ideology. What role does the left play in keeping this unity intact? We will argue that when the left becomes the stewards of cultural liberalism they participate in the pacification of class struggle politics and this prevents the left from remaining true to a socialist vision of politics. We discuss and debate how to best address this fundamental double bind, how it might be overcome and what the prospects are for socialist politics once this hostage situation is undone.

Tony Chamas is a political theorist and author of the forthcoming book "Freedom to Change Nothing: The Spectrum of Managed Democracy and What Makes the US Different." Chamas is also a video essayist known for his YouTube channel, 1Dime and his podcast, 1Dime Radio. His most notable videos include "The Deficit Myth" and "China's Cultural Revolution: The Full Story" (Documentary).

I am joined by Lacanian philosophers Nadia Bou Ali and Surti Singh to discuss the concept of "Extimacy" in the work of Jacques Lacan. In 1960, Lacan coined the neologism extimité (extimacy) to denote a structure of subjectivity in which the most intimate, internal core is already external, thus complicating the traditional philosophical dualisms and binaries that have informed traditional notions of subjectivity. We discuss what this idea helps us to think in terms of philosophy, culture and politics. This conversation is based on a new collection of essays co-edited by Nadia and Surti entitled Extimacy, a book that is the first sustained interrogation of the concept. 

Nadia Bou Ali is an associate professor and director of the Critical Humanities Program for the Liberal Arts at the American University of Beirut. She is the coeditor of Lacan contra Foucault: Subjectivity, Sex, and Politics and the author of Hall of Mirrors: Psychoanalysis and the Love of Arabic. Bou Ali is a candidate analyst at the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis in the Bay Area.

Surti Singh is an associate professor of philosophy at Villanova University.

I've have hosted a number of interviews, symposiums, lectures and study groups this year. This is a Q & A session where I answer questions from patrons, listeners and supporters. If you benefit from my work please consider a donation to help defray the costs of organizing all of these events: paypal.me/danieltutt1 You can also become a Patron to gain early access to all of my interviews and videos: https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations 

In our latest episode of The Archimedean Point, we turn to Edward Said's theory of Orientalism and address its shortcomings from a Marxist perspective. We focus on Disney's Aladdin from the early 1990s as an example of pop-Orientalism, and we argue that Aladdin offers an allegory for the remaking of Middle Eastern society by capitalism.

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If you benefit from my work please consider a donation: paypal.me/danieltutt1

You can also become a Patron to gain early access to all of my interviews and videos: www.patreon.com/emancipations

We are joined by philosopher Cadell Last, the host of ‪Philosophy Portal‬ to discuss his new article "No Marxism Without Žižek", (https://bit.ly/46c4gnj) a review of Flowers for Marx.

I am joined by philosopher Alex Taek-Gwang Lee for a critical analysis and discussion on the legacy of Gilles Deleuze's thought, its influence on the existing left and the ways that the concepts Deleuze developed have interacted with the wider Marxist tradition. This conversation will consider Dr. Lee's recent book Communism After Deleuze, published with Bloomsbury https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/communism-after-deleuze-9781350474048. 

Please support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations 

My guest is Ross Wolfe, a socialist historian and writer. In a recently published three-part essay entitled, "Against Losurdo" (https://newintermag.com/against-losurdo) Wolfe argues that Losurdo's work represents the re-introduction of Stalinism in contemporary Marxism. We discuss and debate Losurdo's work, with a focus on his book Western Marxism and his works on Hegel and Nietzsche.

To watch the study sessions we hosted on Losurdo's Western Marxism, please go here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE03jn2k3GYCRd7dnBOAKBN-H-F-wGzYa&si=zkRb8GeYoi_Nc2Gv 

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I am joined by political theorist Benjamin Studebaker to discuss the retreat of the political and the concomitant rise in despair. How do we theorize this despair, and how does it differ from spiritual despair?

Please read Studebaker's article which is the focus of this discussion: "Political Despair and Moral Injunctions" https://bit.ly/469EqkQ

My guest is Michael C. Behrent, a historian of French intellectual history and a leading scholar of Michel Foucault. Behrent has been at the forefront of an important debate about the legacy of Foucault's thought, and specifically his political influence on the contemporary left and the rise of neoliberalism. Behrent is also working on the thought of Michel Clouscard, the most important French Marxist from the 20th century you have likely never heard about. The second half of this conversation is a discussion on Clouscard's work, his critique of the wider ecosystem of French philosophy from the 60s and 70s and specifically his analysis of the ideology of "liberal libertarianism." 

Michael C. Behrent is a professor of History at Appalachian State University. His scholarship has sought to historicize the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault. This work evaluates the political significance of Foucault's reflections on free-market economics by situating his work in the shifting ideological landscape of France in the 1970s. And his current project seeks to show how Foucault’s thought was (to a significant degree) rooted in his upbringing in Poitiers, France from the 1920s to the 1940s. Behrent is also developing a project that seeks to reconstruct the thought of the “young Foucault” (spanning 1949 through to the mid-1960s). Behrent also writes about American politics and culture for several French publications, notably Esprit as well as Dissent, Foreign Policy, and Oxford University Press blog.

Read his article on Michel Clouscard here, "Michel Clouscard vs. the Hipster Left" https://bit.ly/3Kn6jO0

I am joined by philosopher and scholar Zahi Zalloua to discuss the politics of resentment, and how to theorize the problematic concept of "ressentiment" and whether this concept can be applied to emancipatory ends. Is ressentiment a political affect that can be harnessed for revolutionary action? We discuss Zalloua's recent works: Fanon, Žižek, and Violence of Resistance and The Politics of the Wretched: Race, Reason, and Ressentiment.

Zahi Zalloua is Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature and a professor of Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies at Whitman College and Editor of The Comparatist. His most recent work includes Fanon, Žižek, and Violence of Resistance (2025), The Politics of the Wretched: Race, Reason, and Ressentiment (2024), Solidarity and the Palestinian Cause: Indigeneity, Blackness, and the Promise of Universality (2023), Being Posthuman: Ontologies of the Future (2021), Žižek on Race: Toward an Anti-Racist Future (2020), Theory’s Autoimmunity: Skepticism, Literature, and Philosophy (2018), and Continental Philosophy and the Palestinian Question: Beyond the Jew and the Greek (2017).