Radical Thoughts Podcast

Radical Thoughts Podcast

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Radical Thoughts Podcast episodes

  • Backlog: Anton Jäger on Mouffe and Left Populism

    As the Radical Thoughts Podcast is no longer active, I am making these old bonus episodes from Patreon publicly available so that listeners don't have to pay for an inactive podcast. - Patrick

    In this interview, Patrick sits down with the scholar Anton Jäger to talk more about Chantal Mouffe's political theory, the rise of left populism, and the contemporary shape of political struggle.

    Jäger's piece "Making Sense of Populism" can be read for free online.

    54 min
  • Backlog: David Broder on Post-War Italian Politics

    As the Radical Thoughts Podcast is no longer active, I am making these old bonus episodes from Patreon publicly available so that listeners don't have to pay for an inactive podcast. - Patrick


    In this bonus episode, Patrick sits down with David Broder, a historian of French and Italian political history and European Editor for Jacobin Magazine, to talk about the politics of post-war Italy.

    Hear us discuss the relationship between the Action Party and the Communist Party, interpretations of Antonio Gramsci, and the effect of the Historic Compromise.

    1 hr 24 min
  • Backlog: Complicating Adorno with C Derick Varn

    As the Radical Thoughts Podcast is no longer active, I am making these old bonus episodes from Patreon publicly available so that listeners don't have to pay for an inactive podcast. - Patrick


    In this bonus episode I talk with C Derick Varn - an educator, podcaster, and editor for Zero Books - about Adorno's conception of domination, and  the pitfalls and insights that accompany his critique of modern life.

    Listen to more of Varn's analysis of the Marxist research program on the Mortal Science podcast through Emancipation Network: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/mortal-science-WObZ5daMXxL/ 

    Listen to Varn discuss the history of Marxism in politics over on the Zero Books channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjH4yubnVHc 

    Our next episode will be on Norberto Bobbio's Liberalism and Democracy, check it out if you'll be reading along: https://www.versobooks.com/books/45-liberalism-and-democracy 

    1 hr 39 min
  • Backlog: The Legacy of Althusser with James Turley

    As the Radical Thoughts Podcast is no longer active, I am making these old bonus episodes from Patreon publicly available so that listeners don't have to pay for an inactive podcast. - Patrick


    In this bonus episode, Patrick sits down with James Turley to discuss Louis Althusser, his theories, and his political situation, in greater detail. Turley is a supporter of the Communist Party of Great Britain and has written for the CPGB newspaper The Weekly Worker.
    Gregory Elliott's Book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/286-althusser

    The Weekly Worker: https://weeklyworker.co.uk/

    1 hr 28 min
  • PREVIEW: Amogh Sahu on Lukacs

    This is a preview of our guest episode with Amogh Sahu.

    Amogh sat down to discuss the Marxist obsession with method and totality, interrogating what this implies about the unanswered questions of the communist project.

    You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon. 

    42 min
  • Aesthetics and Politics

    Andrew and Patrick review a series of debates between Bloch, Lukacs, Adorno, Benjamin, and Brecht on the relationship between aesthetics, politics, theory, and practice.

     Aesthetics and Politics: https://www.versobooks.com/books/127-aesthetics-and-politics

    Our next read is Late Marxism by Frederic Jameson: https://www.versobooks.com/books/127-aesthetics-and-politics

    1 hr 15 min
  • Emancipation(s)

    Andrew and Patrick sit down to discuss Ernesto Laclau's Emancipation(s). How relevant is his theory of democracy and hegemony? Does this prefigure other radical turns away from a unified theory of class as subject? Are we twirling towards freedom?

    PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/radicalthoughts

    NEXT BOOK: Aesthetics and Politics

    48 min
  • PREVIEW: Søren Mau on the Economic Power of Capital

    Patrick sits down with communist theorist Søren Mau to discuss his book Mute Compulsion, forthcoming in English through Verso Books, and his theory of the impersonal economic power of capital. We discuss Value Form Theory, Foucault, and some future prospects for Marxist research.

    Preorder the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/4107-mute-compulsion 

    12 min
  • The Indivisible Remainder

    Andrew and Patrick discuss the Elvis of Philosophy's book on one of the obscure greats: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling. We go a bit into Zizek's view of evil, the state, and riff a bit on 90s-to-early-2000s philosophical trends.

    SHOW NOTES:
    Peter Dews's Critique of Zizek's Schelling: The eclipse of coincidence: Lacan, Merleau‐Ponty and Schelling

    Our next read: Laclau's Emancipations

    49 min
  • PREVIEW: Seth Wheeler on Cycles of Struggle

    Patrick sits down with Seth Wheeler to discuss cycles of struggle after the Corbyn and Sanders moments, the UK Left, and the new edition of In and Against the State.

    In and Against the State through Pluto Press: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341811/in-and-against-the-state/

    Seth Wheeler on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sethnotes 

    16 min

About Radical Thoughts Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Radical Thoughts is an attempt to read through as many texts in the Verso Radical Thinkers series as possible in order to come to a better understanding of radical theory and its tendencies. Our goal…