200. Ann Leckie

For thousands of years, humans have been reshaping the biosphere. Now we've taken charge of it: every living species on earth exists under the care of humans or under threat from humans. In this episode, I talk to Kyle Harper about his new book The Last Animal, which tells the story of how we became the most dominant species in history, and what could go wrong now that we're trying to control the entire globe.

The Whiskey Rebellion is mostly just an AP US history question these days. At the time, it was almost another American revolution, or even the first American Civil War, between east and west instead of north and south.History Brady Crytzer walks me through the Whiskey Rebellion, why it happened, and why it was about the questions of federal power, taxation, and sovereignty that are still dividing Americans.You can find more from Brady at his website: https://www.bradycrytzer.com/ Part of the Radicalism in the American Revolution series (maybe the end!)

Tomas Rothaus joins me to discuss his book Argentina, A Tale of Two Utopias: Anarchism, Soccer, Neoliberalism. We talk about the way that true soccer clubs are anarchic: they represent a community coming together and organizing around something. By contrast, billionaire-owned sports franchises are just corporate business. Tomas tells his story of being part of both anarchist and soccer organizing in Argentina, the amazing victories won against neoliberalism 25 years ago, and the rise of the new "anarcho-capitalist" regime in Argentina.Here's a link to the book: https://pmpress.org/product/argentina-a-tale-of-two-utopias-anarchism-soccer-neoliberalism

Nathan Gelgud comes back on the show to discuss No Concessions, the next volume of his cartoon strip about a radical cell of Marxist cinephiles trying to create a revolutionary society by screening films the right way. Nathan and I talk about everything from "selling out" to the meaning of progressive politics to the films of Abbas Kiarostami.You can find Nathan on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gelgud/ Buy the book here: https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/no-concessions/And check out Abbas Kiarostami's early films! https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/8309-eclipse-series-47-abbas-kiarostami-early-shorts-and-features

If money is just made up, can't we solve the problem of poverty by just giving people money? This radical idea feels new, but Thomas Paine proposed it as a revolutionary solution during both the US and French revolutions. Alberto Tena-Camporesi joins me to discuss Paine's radical idea, its relationship to current ideas about UBI, and why this idea just keeps coming up in radical (and right-wing) circles.You can find Alberto's work here: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=FMpnSa8AAAAJ&hl=enHere's a direct link to the article we discussed (might be behind a paywall): https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-10213639 And here's Alberto's book on the topic (in Spanish): https://postmetropolis.com/producto/los-origenes-revolucionarios-de-la-renta-basica/

The audio recording of a talk I gave at Oriel College, Oxford University. Thank you to Nick Gaskill and Oriel for inviting me!

No one seems to really understand what money is and what it does. In this new book, Josh Mason and Arjun Jayadev give the best explanation I've ever seen for what money does, how it works, and the damage it's doing to the world.

Ruth Kinna joins me for the Fifth Anniversary Episodes! First, an announcement: I wrote a book to be published by PM Press introducing everyday anarchism. No publication date yet, so more later on that front!Ruth and I discuss just what anarchy and anarchism is, and why anarchy is actually always all around us. This means that everything from Donald Trump to the Roman Empire are, in some key way, running on anarchy, and it means that attempts to eliminate anarchy from politics, from those of Hobbes and Plato to the US Constitution, will always fail.Thank you for listening!

For my 200th episode, I invited science fiction writer Ann Leckie to the show! Ann's novels are one of the original inspirations for the podcast. Ann has imagined worlds which are completely human, and yet totally different from the one we live in. Her works help me to remember that everything can be different, that another world is possible, and the future is unwritten.Here's Ann's website: https://annleckie.com/

Rhiannon Firth joins me to discuss Journey Through Utopia, Mary Louise Berneri's anarchist survey of utopian thinking. Rhiannon and I discuss why so many utopias seem so totalitarian, and how we can imagine a better world without falling into that trap.Here's a link to the Berneri book: https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1008And Rhiannon's book Disaster Anarchy: https://www.plutobooks.com/product/disaster-anarchy/