Rev Left Radio

Breht discusses recent events in Minneapolis...

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Outro Song: Song for Alicia by Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover

In this episode, Breht is joined by Kristen R. Ghodsee to dig into her provocative essay on the political economy of love under capitalism. Using Marx's distinction between use value and exchange value, Ghodsee argues that love is not just a private feeling but a material necessity for human flourishing -- and that our economic system systematically depletes the time, energy, and security required to sustain it. Together, they explore how capitalism commodifies two core components of love, attention and affection, turning them into scarce resources bought and sold in everything from therapy and childcare to the attention economy and the market for professionalized intimacy.

But the heart of the conversation is the one thing capitalism can't truly monetize: reciprocal flow -- the non-transactional rhythm of giving and receiving that emerges in long relationships, cooperative play, music, community, and solidarity itself. Breht and Ghodsee discuss how inequality and insecurity train people into transactionalism, why loneliness is not an individual failure but a structural outcome, and what a genuine politics of love might look like beyond mere self-help or lifestyle fixes.

Learn more about Dr. Ghodsee and her work HERE

Check out AK-47, Kristen's podcast dedicated to Alexandra Kollontai here: https://kristenghodsee.com/podcast

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In this episode, Breht is joined by philosopher, author, and cultural critic Gabriel Rockhill to discuss his new book Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? The Intellectual World War: Marxism vs. the Imperial Theory Industry.

Rockhill argues that the Cold War was not only fought with bombs, coups, and sanctions -- but with ideas, institutions and intellectuals. Drawing on extensive archival research, Rockhill shows how U.S. imperial power built a vast apparatus of foundations, universities, media outlets and cultural organizations to shape what kinds of Marxism were allowed to exist in the West.

Rather than simply repressing Marxism, empire promoted a "compatible left"; a version of critical theory and Western Marxism that rejected actually existing socialist struggles and experiments, detached theory from mass struggle, and helped neutralize anti-imperialist politics. Together, they explore the role of the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse, Cold War cultural warfare, and the long shadow this history still casts over today's left.

This episode was recorded in the immediate wake of the U.S.'s invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife, which they discuss at the beginning of the conversation.

Check out Critical Theory Workshop HERE

Follow Rockhill's work on his Substack HERE

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In this episode, Breht is joined by revolutionary feminist and author Madeline Lane-McKinley to discuss her recent book "Solidarity with Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy", in which she argues for a politics that centers young humans as essential comrades in the struggle for a better world! In the process they examine the concept of childhood as historically structured, which children are granted innocence and which are robbed of it, how to parent through a lens that respects children as unique and autonomous human beings instead of the property of their parents, and much more! You can follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ (on twitter and IG)

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Nov 5, 2025

In this episode, public school history teacher Gianni Paul joins Breht to trace the historical roots of our current crisis — stagnant wages, mass homelessness, collapsing infrastructure, rising fascism, Gilded Age inequality, and a beaten down working class — back to Reagan's counter-revolution against the New Deal and the forty-year neoliberal project that followed. Together, they explore how neoliberalism emerged out of the crises of the 1970s, Carter's role in laying the groundwork before Reagan, the destruction of unions and working-class power, the ideological weaponization of anti-communism, the bipartisan consolidation of neoliberalism under Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden, the ways Reagan and Trump represent two phases of the same class project, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of capitalist triumphalism, the slow disintegration of America's middle class into debt and precarity, the explosion of homelessness and hopelessness, the erosion of U.S. imperial dominance alongside the emergence of a multipolar world, and why the U.S. repeatedly chooses reaction over social transformation — raising the question of whether genuine change can still emerge from within the imperial core or whether new possibilities are taking shape elsewhere. Understanding this history is key to understanding why everyday life in America feels increasingly unstable, and what futures remain possible beyond neoliberal decay.

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Jun 18, 2025

In this powerful and wide-ranging conversation, Margaret Kimberley—senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and a leader in Black Alliance for Peace—joins Breht to dissect the spectacle of American decline and, as usual, Kimberley offers a razor-sharp analysis of late-stage capitalism's collapse into cruelty, chaos, and confusion.

Together, they explore the Democratic Party's complicity in ushering in this moment, U.S. weapons transfers to Ukraine in support of their proxy war against Russia, and the genocidal assault on Gaza as a revealing - if disturbing - lens into the true nature of the American empire. Kimberley also shares firsthand insights from delegations to Nicaragua, Venezuela, and China, illuminating how the Global South is resisting U.S. domination and reshaping global power.

For those feeling the weight of worsening economic conditions, rising fascism, and political demobilization, Kimberley offers hard-won wisdom about organizing in the belly of the beast. We close with discussion about where real hope can still be found. Check out Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio

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Outro Beat Prod. by flip da hood

recorded January 3rd 2026

Revolutionary Guerrilla Menace's 2025: A Year in History! A fantastic discussion with blistering analysis from the crew. We discussed US criminal assault on Venezuela and its consequences geopolitically and economically on US empire and its designs in Latin America and implications for West Asia and especially subversion or assault on Iran. We analyzed US/Western imperialism and how it is the primary contradiction in global capitalism. Other topics we touched on were far right politics and "divisions" obfuscating the central class politics, the demonization of refugees, climate/ecology, big tech and AI in the infrastructure of empire, and much more! Lots of great audience comments, provocations and interaction as well.

Check out this annual year-end collaboration among Revolutionary Left Radio, Guerrilla History, and Red Menace podcasts with hosts Breht, Alyson, Henry, and Adnan.

Check more of Adnan's work HERE

Check out Guerrilla History HERE and HERE

Check out Red Menace HERE

Feb 10, 2025

Willy Massay returns to the show to discuss his recent (second) trip to Gaza as a medical volunteer. He got back two weeks ago and stayed for over a month. He discusses his heart-wrenching experiences, the wintry conditions and terrible air quality in Gaza and how both are impacting the health of every single Palestinian on the ground. He also discusses the ceasefire, the spirit of the Palestinian people, the insane cruelty and horrific war crimes of Israel, and his personal relationships and experiences with Palestinians. Outro Song: "Kettering" by The Antlers

Donate to 3 displaced families in Gaza HERE

Donate to Fidaa and her children in Gaza HERE

Learn more about Rahma Worldwide HERE

Learn more about Jewish Voices for Peace HERE

Learn more about Nebraskans for Palestine HERE

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Feb 17, 2025

Dr. Rory Dickson is a professor of Islamic Religion and Culture and author of several publications on Sufism, the mystical path within Islam. He joins Breht to have an incredibly deep conversation about the Sufi poet Rumi, his life and work, Rumi's relationship to his teacher Shams of Tabriz, the concepts of fana (annihilation of the self) and baqa(subsistence in God), the spiritual practices of Sufism, non-duality and perennialism, "dying before you die", Buddhist enlightenment, the Quran, Serving the People in politics and religion, the role of Divine Love in spiritual transformation, transcending the ego, Bodhicitta and the Heart of the Bodhisattva, the counter-cultural aspects of the historical dervishes, The Masnavi (aka the "Persian Quran"), Christian Mysticism, the evolution of human consciousness, the linguistics of translation, and much, much more!

Check out Rory's book "Dissolving into Being: The Wisdom of Sufi Philosophy"

Recommendations for Further Exploration:

• Rumi's World: The Life and Work of the Great Sufi Poet

• The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

Check out our related episodes with Dr. Adnan Husain:

• Sufism: Islamic Mysticism and the Annihilation of Self in God

• St. Francis of Assisi: Patron Saint of Ecology & Brother to All Creation

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Outro Music: Something's Out There by Neva Dinova

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Jun 25, 2025

One of the most radical things you can do is live your life in direct opposition to the forces that control our society. Not just fighting for policies or organizing your community, although those are certainly important parts of it, but also living with values that oppose the values of our dominant society. And even more importantly, raising the next generation to embody those values—not in a coercive way, but through organic parenting and role modeling that make radicalism irresistible. This is how we raise revolutionaries: instilling community, love, egalitarianism, and a need for justice into children. And this is just what our guest in today's episode has devoted himself to doing.

Breht O'Shea is an activist, organizer, political educator, and host of the podcast Revolutionary Left Radio and co-host of the podcasts Red Menace and Shoeless in South Dakota. He is a father of three based out of Omaha Nebraska.

In this conversation, Part 3 of our Post Capitalist Parenting series, Breht shares with us insights about parenting that he's learned over the years as a father of three and what Marxism teaches us about parenting. We discuss the classic text by Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, which is a dialectical materialist analysis of patriarchy and the family, tracing the emergence of the patriarchal family and it took through various iterations of class society but also exploring what families have looked like under actually-existing socialism and also what it might look like under communism. We also explore the anti-natalist position which attempts to argue that having children is immoral, why this perspective is deeply flawed, what Buddhism can teach us about parenting, and much, much more.

Support Breht and Rev Left Radio, and join their community HERE

Further Resources

• The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Freidrich Engels

• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, by Kristen Ghodsee

Related Episodes:

• Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 1: Parenting Under Capitalism w/ Toi Smith

• Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 2: Reimagining the Family w/ Kristen Ghodsee

• Revolutionary Leftism with Breht O'Shea

• Buddhism and Marxism with Breht O'Shea

• What is To Be Done? with Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

• Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

• Red Menace: "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and The State" by Friedrich Engels (Pt. 1)

• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism w/ Kristen Ghodsee

Intermission music: "Cool 4 U" by Club Cafe

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