Everyday Anarchism

Luke Kemp returns to the show to discuss Two Cheers for Anarchism, James C. Scott's six essays or "fragments" applying an anarchist squint to the world. Luke and I discuss the joy of Scott's book, it's controversial place in anarchist theory, and why it's a good place for the anarcho-curious to start their journey into anarchism.

Along the way I also highly recommend Agnes Varda's amazing film, Daguerréotypes https://www.criterionchannel.com/daguerreotypes

Luke should appear on the podcast later this year to discuss his new book about societal collapse, Goliath's Curse! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691357/goliaths-curse-by-luke-kemp/

Christopher Isett joins me to discuss the rise of capitalism and "The Great Divergence," in which Christendom transformed itself from an obscure corner of the world into the dominant global power. Just how did that happen, what part did capitalism play in it, and why did capitalism develop in Europe? And what does China have to do with all of it?

Chris gives his answers to all of these questions, especially drawing on the work of Robert Brenner. Here's Brenner's page on the Verso website, if you want the full story: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/authors/brenner-robert

Today Mitch Abidor joins me to discuss Victor Serge: acclaimed novelist, anarchist, Bolshevik, anticommunist, and all-around 20th century contradiction. Mitch and I discuss the legend of Serge, what's true about it, and the ways that Serge fails to live up to the legend.

You can find Mitch's writing all over the place, but here's a good place to start: https://jewishcurrents.org/author/mitchell-abidor

And here's the NYRB page for Serge's work: https://www.nyrb.com/collections/victor-serge

What is capitalism?

It's not efficient markets, factories, and free labor.

It's the financialization of empire and slavery, using greed, shame, indignation, and debt.

And that means the first great capitalists weren't British factory owners, but colonizing conquistadors.

Kim Stanley Robinson returns to discuss his novel Green Earth, a technothriller about a near future world in which scientists work to solve the global climate crisis. Stan and I discuss how the book went from a trilogy to a single volume, its similarity to The Ministry for the Future, and its place in the genre of naturalism. Plus Emerson and Thoreau!

And yes, I get the title of The Ministry for the Future wrong every time I say it in this episode. Oops.

Mark Bittman returns to Everyday Anarchism to discuss Community Kitchen, his new model for how we can do restaurant food better by running nonprofit restaurants rooted in their communities.

But we also talk about RFK's crusade against seed oils, what's wrong with Pod Save America, why food is so cheap in the US, the recent US presidential election, and whatever else happened to come up.

Find more from Mark at https://bittmanproject.com/

Shawn Vulliez from SRSLY Wrong joins me to discuss the new collection of David Graeber essays, The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World. Shawn and I talk about the tyranny of economics and how Graeber gave us permission to reveal that the emperor of economics has no clothes.

Warning: Contains discussion of the recent election. Stay away if you just can't handle it anymore. I understand.

A spectre is haunting the Everyday Anarchism series on the English revolution: the spectre of Christopher Hill's 1972 book The World Turned Upside Down. It turns out most of the ideas I've shared in this series came from Hill's book!

Ann Hughes joins me to discuss the book, and we talk through the following questions:

• Did Hill invent the idea of the English revolution?
• How did the radicalism of the 1960s affect Hill's approach?
• Was Winstanley an anarchist?
• Was the English Revolution the beginning of modernity?

Thanks so much to Ann and all the other guests in this year-long series, now (probably) concluded!

Eleanor Janega, the very first guest on the Graeber's Debt series, comes back on the show to discuss what the middle ages were, how they were a global phenomenon, and why they weren't as bad as you've heard

I'm joined by Karl Gerth, professor of modern Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego, to discuss the Chinese Communist Revolution and how Maoism attempted to avoid the mistakes of the USSR and yet largely repeated them.