In this episode, I sit down with my friend Eric, a blue-collar poet and Indigenous worker living just across the border in North Dakota. He opens up about what it means to struggle under a system that fails working people—from being denied healthcare to watching lawmakers vote against free school lunches.

Eric reads his poem Tax Me More for Freedom and shares a heartfelt vision of a better world built on community, care, and solidarity.

Support Eric and his family:

GoFundMe – Help KJ with his battle against a brain tumor Instagram – @standing348

YouTube – @ericstanding9898

Facebook – facebook.com/eric.road

My links and support options: https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

What if Sam Harris is completely wrong about free will? In this episode, I talk with Damien Marie AtHope about why the hard determinist view doesn’t hold up, and why believing in change is not only possible but necessary. Damien shares his own story of transformation, breaks down the difference between biological pressures and actual control, and gives a crash course in emotional intelligence, axiology, and why therapy works. We’re not robots — we’re just bad at using the will we do have.

Links:

damienmarieathope.com

linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

ICE raids in LA are starting to look more like kidnappings, agents in masks, no ID, no accountability. We break down what’s really going on and how it fits into a system in decline.

Also: Mamdani wins in NYC, Bezos’s wedding antics, and the WEF’s dystopian wishlist.

Co-host: @ancomscicomm.bsky.social

Support the show: linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

Sources

https://thenarwhal.ca/trouble-in-the-headwaters-documentary/?mc_cid=e57e3cde1c&mc_eid=4476f4fb86

https://zeteo.com/p/breaking-zohran-mamdani-wins-nyc?r=17zg6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_New_York_City_Democratic_mayoral_primary

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-06-24%2Fmasked-immigration-agents-local-law-enforcement-tension

https://apnews.com/article/protesters-immigration-raids-masks-ice-trump-c601c5dc55ce4aecb36998ee15b47772

https://www.weforum.org/press/2025/06/from-asteroid-mining-to-democratizing-quantum-world-economic-forum-announces-2025-technology-pioneers-leading-new-wave-of-global-innovation/

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/06/26/the-march-to-war/

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/israel-stocks-currency-shekel-iran-war-conflict-military-economy-outlook-2025-6

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/trumps-war-thinking-israel-controls-u-s-imperialism-would-be-a-mistake/

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/michael-hudson-why-america-is-at-war-with-iran.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/robocup-building-team-robots-will-beat-world-cup-champions-180951713/

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/why-did-canada-just-cave-to-trump-by-scrapping-the-digital-services-tax/

https://therealnews.com/why-venetians-want-jeff-bezos-to-choke-on-his-wedding-cake

Watershed Security Fund (British Columbia)https://watershedsecurityfund.ca/Supports Indigenous-led flood resilience and watershed restoration across B.C.

KTown for All (Los Angeles)https://www.ktownforall.org/donate Legal aid, groceries, and protest support for unhoused and immigrant residents.

Aquí Para la Comunidad / InnerCity Strugglehttps://www.innercitystruggle.org/donate Mutual aid and organizing in Boyle Heights—supporting undocumented families.

Mutual Aid LA Network (MALAN)🔗 https://linktr.ee/mutualaidlanetwork 

Decentralized hub coordinating food, housing, and protest solidarity efforts

Graphic artist and leftist content creator Lucretia McEvil joins me for a deep and honest conversation about escaping the corporate grind, building a media practice rooted in storytelling, and rediscovering revolutionary optimism in a system designed to crush it. We talk about what it means to sell your labor but not your soul, how office life shapes our thinking, and why mutual aid and media are powerful tools for reclaiming collective power. Plus: Zohran Mamdani, class betrayal, and why “they don’t want you to feel free” might be more literal than it sounds.

Follow Lucretia:YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@lucretia_macevil Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lucretia.mcevil/ SoundCloud – https://soundcloud.com/mamacakes Patreon – http://patreon.com/lucretiamcevil 

Support the show:https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

City buses are hitting 40 °C, gig apps still want their cut, and cops keep buying shiny new toys. I connect the dots between a boiling planet, precarious work, and the prison-industrial cash machine—and ask what it’ll take to snap the circuit.

Want the 35-minute after-show? Patrons get it: https://patreon.com/SkepticalLeftist 

Links • socials: https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist • Owen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@owenmacdonald7428  | Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/owenmacdonald.bsky.social 

Atlantis wasn’t real—but that hasn’t stopped pseudoarchaeologists from using it to sell myths about lost civilizations and master races. In this episode, Damien Marie AtHope and Marquis join me to explore the true origins of the Atlantis story, the rise of hyperdiffusionism, and why so much of this fantasy is rooted in racism and bad history.

Links: – Damien’s site: https://damienmarieathope.com/ – Damien’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DamienAthope – Support the show:http://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist 

Governments are spending billions on militaries while cutting housing, healthcare, and climate programs. In this episode, we cover five major stories from June 2025—from mass protests and ICE raids to Canada's ballooning defense budget and the unraveling of the global aid system.

🛡 Canada’s military spending bonanzahttps://apnews.com/article/canada-nato-military-spending-carney-5f4f02c5dbf5323b395314d4c383cc15 https://www.instagram.com/p/DKuvPLuyY5U/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link 

🚨 LA protests erupt after ICE raidshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2025_Los_Angeles_protests 

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-14/this-is-why-they-protest

https://www.removepaywall.com/ 

👑 No Kings and the liberal co-option of protest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Kings_protests

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/innocent-bystander-shot-dead-peacekeepers-no-kings-protest-salt-lake-c-rcna213158

https://x.com/AnarkYouTube/status/1934653422579359816

https://bsky.app/profile/chadloder.bsky.social/post/3lrqmrzrlmk26

https://youtu.be/sk6SYnKtcrc?si=NFxbSPH_6rwEFuCG

🧳 Spanish hotel workers strike against overtourismhttps://euroweeklynews.com/2025/06/11/tenerife-hotel-strikes-2025-what-tourists-need-to-know-before-friday-check-ins/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/travel/europe-tourism-protests.html

https://www.removepaywall.com/

🌍 Iran and Israel escalate conflicthttps://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-iran-strike-each-other-new-wave-attacks-2025-06-14/ 

https://time.com/7293886/iranian-generals-scientists-targets-killed-by-israeli-strikes/

⚡ Lightning Round 1: French prison attackshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_French_prison_attacks 

🎬 Lightning Round 2: New climate resistance documentaryhttps://extinctionrebellion.uk/2025/06/13/new-film-celebrates-climate-resistance/ 

💥 Collapse Watch: The global humanitarian system unravelshttps://www.reuters.com/world/un-cuts-aid-appeal-after-donors-slash-budgets-2025-06-16/ 

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/16/send-armed-un-troops-to-protect-aid-convoys-gaza-sudan-or-risk-dystopia-un-rapporteur 

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/hunger-crisis-deepens-global-hotspots-famine-risk-rises-un-warns-2025-06-16/ 

https://www.ft.com/content/6969644f-ca2f-4ca5-a230-cc230d6d8acf 

https://www.ft.com/content/8230ac2b-9d3d-4d35-9c78-db9665b74236 

Mutual Aid:

• Ktown for All – Grassroots mutual aid and housing justice for unhoused and immigrant communities in Los Angeles. 🔗 https://linktr.ee/ktownforall
  

• Jail Support LA – Providing bail funds, legal referrals, and direct support for protesters and detained community members. 🔗 https://linktr.ee/jslosangeles
  

• Immigrant Defenders Law Center – Free legal defense and advocacy for immigrants facing detention and deportation. 🔗 https://www.immdef.org/
  

• Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) – Faith-based organizing for immigrant rights, labor justice, and sanctuary protections. 🔗 https://linktr.ee/cluejustice
  

• Detention Watch Network – National coalition fighting to abolish immigration detention and support community-based alternatives. 🔗 https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/

Support the show: lintr.ee/skepticalleftist 

In this episode, I talk with Owen MacDonald, leftist YouTuber and political commentator, about the myth of market freedom, why capitalism depends on state violence, and how right-wing media avoids ever engaging with real ideas. We get into the culture war’s empty spectacle, the climate crisis, and how libertarian fantasies fall apart the moment you ask “freedom for who?” It’s a wide-ranging but grounded conversation about power, propaganda, and the lies we’re sold every day.

👉 Support the show: https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

👉 Follow Owen on YouTube: youtube.com/@owenmacdonald7428 

 Ian Bushfield of the BC Humanist Association joins me to talk about secularism, religious privilege, and the legal fights to keep church and state separate in Canada. We get into prayers at municipal meetings, public funding for religious schools, Christian nationalism, and what it really means to have freedom from religion. We also touch on the rise of religious influence in Western separatist movements and how the law is (or isn’t) protecting marginalized communities.

Check out the BC Humanist Association and follow Ian 

• BC Humanist Association
  

• BC Humanists Linktree
  

• Ian on BlueSky
  

Support the show:

• https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist
  

• patreon.com/skepticalleftist
  

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Wildfires rage, Gaza bleeds, and Walmart posts record profits. In this episode, we dig into the twisted logic of a system that thrives on collapse, from state violence in Palestine and brutal immigration policy to the unchecked greed driving up grocery prices while the world literally burns. We also talk about Indigenous mutual aid during Canada’s wildfire crisis, the deportation of a terminally ill child under Trump’s second term, and why the rhetoric of revolution so often hides authoritarian rot.

Gaza

https://rachelgilmore.substack.com/p/israel-is-using-aid-as-a-military https://itsgoingdown.org/international-solidarity-movement-volunteers-speak-on-building-solidarity-in-the-west-bank/

Rodney Hinton Jr.

https://open.substack.com/pub/tdugout/p/when-black-rage-is-criminalized-rinaldo?r=iu0tj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Trump deporting 4 year old girl

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/28/deportation-mexico-four-year-old-girl

Canada’s Strong Border Bill

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-legislation-border-fentanyl-1.7550684

Wildfires

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Canadian_wildfires

Rental protections

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/why-canada-apply-labour-protections-122825442.html

Authoritarians in Africa

https://www.anarchistfederation.net/burkina-faso-revolution-authoritarianism-the-crisis-of-african-emancipation-politics/

Anarchist Sabotage in Cannes

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/cannes-power-outage-anarchists

Walmart Prices

https://people.com/walmart-announces-trump-s-tariffs-will-result-in-higher-prices-in-stores-this-month-11735832

Mutual aid shoutouts

• Indigenous Climate Action – supporting frontline resistance and sovereignty in the face of wildfire displacement. https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/

• Health Workers Alliance for Palestine – providing direct support to medics and aid workers in Gaza. https://healthworkersforpalestine.org/

• South Texas Human Rights Center – aiding migrants affected by border militarization and brutal policy changes. https://southtexashumanrights.org/

• Hamilton Encampment Support Network – supporting unhoused people and resisting evictions in Ontario. https://www.hesn.ca/

• Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project – supporting incarcerated and criminalized people through mutual aid and abolitionist organizing.https://www.patreon.com/torontoprisonersrights/about

Check out AnComSciComm on FOFANews and follow him on Bluesky

https://youtu.be/2-oKULEugDs?si=WLAvxp0Cv9dyMHTZ 

https://bsky.app/profile/ancomscicomm.bsky.social 

Support the show at patreon.com/skepticalleftist 

And follow me in all the places https://linktr.ee/Skepticalleftist