The Radicalist

In this episode, I explain my personal connection to Israel, discuss how recent events prove the argument I made that got me fired from The Seattle Times, reflect on my feelings of betrayal by those on the left who have celebrated atrocity in recent weeks, and by those in journalism who helped bring us to this moment. This is an improvised episode with no notes, and my unprepared thoughts wander a bit, but that’s because I wanted to offer something informal and authentic. Thanks for listening.

Chloé Valdary is a writer and founder of the company Theory of Enchantment, which provides an innovative form of diversity and inclusion training to companies and government agencies without the toxic ideology that has given mainstream DEI a bad name. Rather than treat people's racial or gender identities as political abstractions, she focuses on the individual and uses and combination of classical philosophy and pop music to work on character development and interpersonal growth.

Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic magazine and she has lectured in universities across America including Harvard and Georgetown. Chloé is a former Bartley fellow at The Wall Street Journal and has a degree in international studies. She is also an outspoken Zionist and, as a university student, she founded the pro-Israel group Allies of Israel.

In our conversation, we discussed her approach to diversity training, the problems in mainstream DEI training, how she uses pop culture references in her work, the Israel-Palestine conflict and the future of diversity training.

David Volodzko talks to Kevin Ray about the philosophy of teaching, how Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” has changed education in America, the harms of woke pedagogy, the tragic death of Richard Bilkszto after enduring genocidal rhetoric at the hands of a DEI trainer, and more.

Kevin Ray is a theater director and teaching artist with over 20 years of arts education experience in New York City. He has produced and directed Unearthly Visitants, based on ghost stories by Edith Wharton, The Machine Stops, based on the short story by EM Forster, and is now developing a play based on the science-fiction novel We by Russian dissident Yevgeny Zamyatin, premiering October 2024 in Brooklyn. You can find more on his website or find him on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

David Volodzko speaks with historian Bradley Hart about major Nazi American movements, the religious right, the reaction of the U.S. government and American media, and historical lessons that can help us navigate political challenges in our time.

Bradley Hart is the author of Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States. He and his work have been featured and quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Times of Israel and he has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, American Experience, and America’s Hidden Stories.

This begins my letter exchange with Margaret Anna Alice on fascism, censorship and humor. Margaret Anna writes about propaganda, psychology and health with a focus on COVID at Margaret Anna Alice Through the Looking Glass. Enjoy.

David Volodzko speaks with Freddie deBoer about the origins of cancel culture, the failure of the Black Lives Matter movement, the impact of education on politics, and more.

Freddie deBoer is the author of The Cult of Smart, a book on meritocracy and education, and regularly writes his own Substack. His new book, How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement, explores the failure of the Black Lives Matter movement and how a black managerial class squandered a profound opportunity for racial justice.

Please forgive the sudden start and later gaps, there were some connection issues.

The morning after Russia invaded Ukraine, news reports emerged of African and Indian refugees being turned back by Ukrainian border guards for no reason other than sheer racism. I was at the border as those reports were coming out, and as is often the case with such claims, I found there was more to the story.

Folks tend to resist oppression, which is why totalitarianism requires the indoctrination of children. Think of the Hitler Youth. Or the Great Japan Youth Party. Think of the Communist Youth League of China. Or the Komsomol, the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League.

Part of this indoctrination process includes doing away with classic children’s stories but then you need to replace those stories with new ones that will impart new values. Proper communist and fascist values. So today, let’s have a quick look at some Soviet children’s literature.

Is Vladimir Putin a fascist? Is China fascist? Is my neighbor who supports mandatory Covid vaccinations a fascist? What is fascism?

Florida's new school curriculum on slavery is making headlines and part of the discussion has included the claim that the practice of slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, the conclusion of the Civil War, or the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Today on The Radicalist, David reads “We Had Only Our Ignorance,” the personal story of an anonymous former Georgia slave, originally published in Independent magazine on February 25, 1904. The essay details the practice of slavery as it continued to be practiced long after the war was over.