Zero Books: Advancing Conversations

On our Patreon feed, you can hear the full interview with the hosts of the A Regrettable Century Podcast. The Regrettable Century podcast subscribes to what's called "revolutionary pessimism." The hosts describe themselves as both humanist and pessimist and the invite similarly hard headed people to listen.

"A clean, honest, and unsentimental melancholy is required; we've cultivated one and would like to share it with you."

Liam Mitchell is the author of the book “Ludopolitics: Video Games against Control” which came out from Zero Books in December and he’s the guest this week as we discuss Heidegger, universal reason, and video games such as Skyrim, Zelda, and the Duck Game.

This week’s Zero Books podcast is free for everyone. Next week’s podcast, on Nihilism, will be available in its entirety through Patreon. Patreon subscribers get access to two podcasts every week: Symptomatic Redness and Zero Squared. If you’re listening for free you’ll be able to access one or the other podcast each week and this week you’re getting Zero Squared.

Symptomatic Redness is a podcast about political economy and historical analysis hosted by C. Derick Varn and Amogh Sahu and this week's podcast features the second half of a discussion of Asad Haider's book "Mistaken Identity."

Here's a blurb from Judith Butler for Haider's book:

“Asad Haider renews the critique of identity politics for the contemporary Left. Drawing on the work of British cultural studies, black feminism, and theories of the subject (and subjection), Haider writes in an open and persuasive prose to show how identity is always partial and ambivalent, deflecting from the larger racial ideologies while reproducing its terms. This is a fresh and timely book, thoughtful and provocative.” – Judith Butler, author of Gender Trouble and Frames of War

Ben Burgis Returns this week as we discuss Hegel’s logic and his critique of gradualism, the question of revolutionary transition, and whether or not Charlie Brown is bald.

If you’re a patron of the Zero Books podcast and you’re listening to the Patreon feed, you’re about to hear a two-hour conversation. If you’re listening to this podcast through the podomatic or blubrry feeds then what you’re about to hear is a twenty-minute teaser. If you want to hear the rest then subscribe to the podcast through Patreon. Patreon subscribers get access to two podcasts every week: Symptomatic Redness and Zero Squared. If you’re listening for free you’ll be able to access one or the other podcast each week.

Symptomatic Redness is a podcast about political economy and historical analysis hosted by C. Derick Varn and Amogh Sahu and this week's teaser features a discussion of Assad Haider's book "Mistaken Identity." The entire conversation is available through our Patreon feed.

Patreon supporters get access to an episode of the Zero Books podcast and Symptomatic Redness every week. If you enjoy our podcasts consider subscribing.

C Derick Varn is the guest this week as we finally got around to discussing our differences on the topic of liberal values and the future of the enlightenment project. Specifically, we discussed Immanuel Kant’s essay “What is Enlightenment?” along with Theodor Adorno’s Negative Dialectics.

It’s an interesting time. Some of you may know that I started podcasting back in 2009. I believe the first episode was an interview with my lovely wife Miriam about the sinking of the Titanic. At that moment I thought the topic was a good metaphor for our global economic situation. It’s a bit of a shock to realize that a decade has passed and to realize that the leftist politics that sprang from the 2008 crisis were inadequate. It seems to me that now is a good time to look back and see what we can learn about the overall trajectory of the left. A good time to look back and see where we’ve been.

My plan is to introduce a new video series called The History of Commies sometime in 2019, but in order to create the time to do it I’ll need to increase the hours our video production team puts in. When we reach 600 patrons we’ll start production on this new series.

Also, going forward, we’re introducing what I think of as the Chapo model for the podcast. Patreon supporters will get access to the Zero Books podcast and the Symptomatic Redness podcast every week while those listening for free will be able to listen to a full-length episode every other week. If you haven’t been wiped out by Christmas consider starting the new year by subscribing to Zero Books through Patreon.

This episode of the Zero Books podcast features a conversation with Harvey Kaye about the British Marxist Historians. It is also a holiday special and you can hear the Lain family reacting to the annual endurance of the Star Wars Holiday Special in this week's introductory remarks.

From the book jacket of Harvey Kaye's book The British Marxist Historians:

The British Marxist Historians remains the first and most complete study of the founders of one of the most influential contemporary academic traditions in history and social theory. In this classic text, Kaye looks at Maurice Dobb and the debate on the transition to capitalism; Rodney Hilton on feudalism and the English peasantry; Christopher Hill on the English Revolution; Eric Hobsbawm on workers, peasants and world history; and E.P. Thompson on the making of the English working class. Kaye compares their perspective on history with other approaches, such as that of the French Annales school, and concludes with a discussion of the contribution of the British Marxist historians to the formation of a democratic historical consciousness. The British Marxist Historians is an indispensable book for anyone interested in the intellectual history of the late twentieth century.

Margaret Kimberley is a columnist and editor for the Black Agenda report and a longtime friend of the podcast. This week she returns to discuss Yellow Vests, open borders, inequality and the need to develop an alternative to capitalism. The second half of this conversation will be available to our Patreon supporters.

Starting in the new year Patron supporters will get access to the Zero Books podcast and the Symptomatic Redness podcast every week while those listening for free will be able to listen to a full length episode every other week as we’re adopting the Chapo model with the hope of getting some more communist dollars and expanding our podcast and video production. When we reach 600 patrons we’ll introduce an additional Commie Ideology for Beginners series that will be, of course, free to everyone.

Ben Burgis is a philosophy professor at Rutgers, a science fiction writer whose work has appeared in publications such as Tor.com and in Prime Books, and he is most importantly the author of Give Them An Argument: Logic for the Left which is due out next year from Zero Books. In this episode Burgis shows off his nerd bona fides by poking holes in some right-wing arguments about Universal Healthcare, Venezuela, and the ideas of Ayn Rand. We also touch on the difference between Aristotelian and Hegelian logic.

If you like this week’s podcast you should support us on Patreon. Starting in the new year Patron supporters will get access to the Zero Books podcast and the Symptomatic Redness podcast every week while those listening for free will be able to listen to a full length episode every other week. Basically we’re adopting the Chapo model with the hope of getting some more communist dollars and expanding our podcast and video production. When we reach 600 patrons we’ll introduce an additional Commie Ideology for Beginners series that will be, of course, free to everyone.

C Derick Varn interviews Sean Guillory from the podcast "Sean's Russia Blog" about US Russiaphobia, the lingering trauma of Donald Trump, and the new xenophobia.

Sean's Russia provides a space for the academics and other thinkers to express their views and contribute to the larger public discussion on the region and gives the public access to a growing body of research that is becoming more and more important as tensions in the region flare. The aim is to "paint a picture of Eurasia in all its complexity."