In this episode we discuss Kathi Weeks’ 2011 book The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries. The text brings together social reproduction feminism and autonomist Marxism to develop a critique of work as the organizing principle of life and dominant ethos in capitalist society. Weeks argues that the valorization of work is taken for granted even in certain strains of socialist criticism. We agree that work sucks, but we admit we have a hard time developing the postwork imaginary Weeks wants. We may just be the kind of modernists she’s calling out, but we’re very sympathetic and would love to see more idleness all around!

This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:

patreon.com/leftofphilosophy

References:

Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011)

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

This episode engages with Glen Coulthard’s 2014 book Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. Coulthard weaves a rich and varied tradition of radical Indigenous thought and practice with Marxism and the anti-colonial thought of Frantz Fanon into a distinctive vision of emancipation. Together, we interrogate his claims that dispossession rather than exploitation, or the expropriation of land rather than the expropriation of labour, constitutes the paradigmatic mode of domination for colonized peoples. More than anything, we contend with the notion that state ‘recognition’ is not only insufficient, but inimical to the kind of emancipatory Indigenous politics Coulthard envisions.  

leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social 

References:

Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode, we discuss Terry Eagleton’s defense of religion. We focus on his diagnoses of the Enlightenment, modernism, and post-modernism as different kinds of post-religious movements. Post-modernism is the only “truly atheist” one, which is one reason it got along with capitalism so well. We also talk a lot about social and spiritual meaning and their importance to Left wing political projects.

This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:

patreon.com/leftofphilosophy

References:

Terry Eagleton, Culture and the Death of God (Yale University Press, 2014).

Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (Yale University Press, 2009). 

Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great (Atlantic Books, 2007).

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Bantam Press, 2006).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode, we discuss Brandon Terry’s 2025 book Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement. There is little doubt that in US the Civil Rights Movement stands out as one of the clearest examples of Black politics in the social imagination. How we narrate the Civil Rights Movement tends to shape our expectations of politics and the future. But what happens when the resources of this tradition fall into crisis? What is the future of Black politics in a present increasingly disconnected from the past of the Civil Rights Movement? We work through the exhaustion of a certain form of Black politics in the present, the importance of judgment and historical examples for political action, and whether a tragic disposition can help us avoid naive optimism or paralyzing pessimism when faced with the ruins of our present.

leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social 

References:

Brandon Terry, Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2025).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode we talk about Max Horkheimer’s essay “Traditional and Critical Theory”, which serves as a kind of manifesto for the Frankfurt School of Marxist thought. We talk about how he defines these categories, reflect on whether the distinction holds up, and ask ourselves whether we can call ourselves critical theorists in the present. It turns out grasping oneself as part of a historically unfolding social totality is difficult, if you can believe it. 

Special thanks to our friends at the Critical Theory Working Group, who you should check out:

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/

https://jamescrane.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web

leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social 

References:

Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory: Selected Essays, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell and others (New York: Continuum, 2002).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode we discuss Georges Sorel’s 1908 Reflections on Violence. We focus on his central claim that all of socialism is concentrated in the idea or ‘picture’ of the general strike, scrutinizing his claim that the ‘myth’ of the general strike is even more important than its precise concretion. His emphasis on political myth gives rise to questions about his potential irrationalism and the consequent (mis)appropriation of his ideas by fascists. Finally, we address his distinction between the ‘proletarian general strike’ – which is violent and revolutionary – and the ‘political general strike’ which aims to win minor concessions instead of a transformed society.

This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:

patreon.com/leftofphilosophy

References:

Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence, ed. Jeremy Jennings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode, we introduce our new series on “Marxism and Religion.” At political, social, and spiritual levels, the series explores this complicated relationship for a transitioning age. We start with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is a political and spiritual beacon for many of us and a democratic socialist by another name. Our discussion explores how MLK Jr. continues to shine light on the righteous path to liberation. 

leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social

References:

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Pilgrimage to Non-Violence”: 

https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-articles/pilgrimage-to-nonviolence.php

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”: 

https://nul.org/news/letter-birmingham-jail

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Loving Your Enemies”:

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church

Martin Luther King, Jr., “All Labor Has Dignity”:

https://truthout.org/articles/martin-luther-king-jr-all-labor-has-dignity/

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Where Do We Go From Here?”:

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode, we discuss the work of historian Hayden White. His provocative claim is that the practice is inescapably the practice of narrative forms to give sense and significance to events of the past. It is this form that often supplements, or even outright makes, historical arguments. Is history a tragedy, a comedy, a satire, or a romance? Why did Marx describe history as tragedy and then farce? What could entitle him to that? The historian always prefigures their history with these choices. We get into whether history has a meaning on its own, what it contributes to politics, and whether there are literary styles more commensurate to Marxist history than others.  

leftofphilosophy.com

References:

Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973).

Hayden White, The Content of Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation (London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode, we talk about Marx’s critique of the Gotha Program, but you knew that from the title. We discuss Marxian critiques of redistributive left politics, why dogmatic Marxists are wrong about this, and much more. We connect it to the present and disagree. It’s very good. Listen.

References:

Karl Marx, “Critique of the Gotha Programme” https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

In this episode, we talk about Elias Canetti’s 1960 book Crowds and Power. Equal parts political theory, poetic sociology, and speculative anthropology, this staggering work explores human social life through an increasingly elaborate series of reflections on the nature of crowds. The result is a fascinating typology of different kinds of crowds in which human beings cast off their individuality for the sake of equality and directed collective action: there are baiting crowds, feast crowds, prohibition crowds… Does a lynch mob follow a logic analogous to that of the viewing public in a world of mass media, a gathering of dancers attuned to the rhythms of the others, or those brought before the host of the invisible dead? What does it mean for the general strike that we fear the touch of others, until it’s the thing we desire most? It’s pretty wild stuff, and we find plenty of insights to pull out and play with.

This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:

patreon.com/leftofphilosophy

References:

Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power, trans. Carol Stewart (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN