This Wreckage

Sean and Varn continue to discuss the current energy crisis, broadening out from current events to talk about the context and ramifications: US blob's energy war against BRICS, European industrial collapse and bankruptcy of the Atlanticist center, bond market chaos and more.

This is an extended preview of a much longer episode. To access the full episode and tons of other bonus content become a patron at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage

Joshua Frank, an investigative journalist and editor at Counterpunch, talks to us about his new book Bad Energy: The AI Hucksters, Rogue Lithium Extractors, and Wind Industrialists Who Are Selling Off Our Future!

Support the show at http://patreon.com/thiswreckage for the FUN HALF! in which we give our takes on the climate satire that's driving X dead-enders insane: DIGGER!

More from Joshua Frank at Counterpunch

Jasper Bernes piece mentioned: https://communemag.com/between-the-devil-and-the-green-new-deal/

Thea Riofrancos piece mentioned: https://viewpointmag.com/2019/05/16/plan-mood-battlefield-reflections-on-the-green-new-deal/

Song: Juice WRLD - Bad Energy

Get the Zine at https://www.patreon.com/ParaPowerMapping

Follow CommuNoid on X and read more at https://parapowermapper.substack.com/ and https://parapowermapping.com/

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Song: Anamanaguchi - Territorial Pissings (Nirvana Cover)

Our French correspondent, Henry JK Wallis calls in to talk about the student riots throughout France.

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The "RED ENGINEER" Nick Chavez returns to the Wreckage to discuss his Heatwave Magazine contribution, The Black Box of Production.

The essay explains how technical expertise is divided within the capitalist production process, and how it must be redistributed and transformed during revolution for the construction of communism.

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Read the essay at Heatwavemag.info: https://heatwavemag.info/magazine/issue03/black-box-of-production/

Subscribe to Heatwave! https://www.patreon.com/HeatwaveMag

Check out FOREST AND FACTORY: https://www.endnotes.org.uk/palabre/forest-and-factory and our episode on it: https://www.patreon.com/thiswreckage/posts/e236-forest-and-96073396

Song: The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field

Sean and Varn discuss the ongoing crisis in the Persian Gulf, bond market chaos and much more.

This is an extended preview of a much longer episode. To access the full episode and tons of other bonus content become a patron at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage

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An epic and impressively realistic depiction of the 1381 British Peasant's Revolt, or an anachronistic origin story of Robin as anti-Trump cautionary tale? British history enthusiasts Ross and Susannah watch THE UPRISING with us to help us decide!

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Rodney Hilton - Bond Men Made Free https://archive.org/details/bondmenmadefreem0000hilt

Jacobin review: https://jacobin.com/2026/09/film-uprising-peasants-revolt-liberalism

Greengrass & Garfield interview: https://deadline.com/2026/09/the-uprising-paul-greengrass-andrew-garfield-interview-1237068407/

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NEWS EP! AI apocalypse and regulation scenarios. Global shipping disrupted big time. Xi winning. Flights are grounded; nature is healing. AFD surge in Germany. All hail the Great and Powerful Theil!

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Show notes:

Riley on AI vs market capitalism: https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/blind-guesses

China's AI Great leap forward: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/business/china-ai-economy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Global shipping in crisis: https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/5761d9f3-1150-4323-ab8e-41c9a56e3099

AI doomsday scenarios: https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/17/tech/how-will-ai-exterminate-humanity-cec

European Jet Fuel shortage: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europe-faces-q4-jet-fuel-supply-deficit-even-south-korea-becomes-latest-big-2026-09-21/

Karp audio: https://youtu.be/2YVCdwvG548?si=PJJLcaHdDeeb6SUs&t=447

Xi rolls Trump on trade: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/xi-rolls-into-trump-summit-with-chinas-trade-engine-roaring-2026-09-21/ Ukraine / Russia war analysis: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-battlefield/

German elections: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/world/europe/germany-merz-pressure-afd.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Song: Johnny Cash - Legend of John Henry

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In this bonus episode Andy and Sean are joined by roving media correspondent, Rax King, to get into some of the 80s/90s urtexts that created 21st century American culture: spoken word and standup comedy by Generation X luminaries Jello Biafra, Henry Rollins and Denis Leary. What do these cultural artifacts from a bygone era tell us about how all the highlights of organized American political life in this millennium - from Bush to Obama to Trump - came into being? Which aspects of what they critiqued are still discernable and which would be incomprehensible to a post-GFC, post-literate society?

This is the first episode of a new mini-series exploring the dark recesses of the Gen X mind.

To listen to the entire episode and all of our great bonus content, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage to support our work.

Sean and Andy are joined by historian Daniel Wortel-London to discuss his recent book The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development 1865-1981 out now from University of Chicago Press.

Without the taxes and jobs generated by wealthy firms and households, we are told, our communities cannot survive. But what if the costs of elite-driven growth outweighed its benefits? What if the wealthy were not the fiscal saviors of American cities, but their assassins? What if relying on the rich to “take care of everyone else” was neither politically nor financially sustainable? And what would all this mean for how our communities should develop economically?

His history is particularly timely as the Mamdani administration tries, within the bounds of political economy, to open up what Daniel calls the 'fiscal imaginary' of what is possible on a municipal level.

Song: Mobb Deep - Shook Ones Part II