Why Lone-Wolf Prepping Fails and Building Community Wins!

With Eric Shonkwiler.  Amidst intensifying climate change, the re-emergence of fascism, and the approach of economic and environmental collapse, 'prepping' has truly emerged from the margins into the mainstream. For the political right, prepping often begins and ends at home – with buckets of freeze-dried food and a wall of guns. But what about for those of us on the left? As Eric Shonkwiler argues in his new book, Red Prepper: Building Collective Resilience in an Age of Collapse, it's not the end of the world we're prepping for. It's the beginning of a better one. Eric joins us on the podcast this month to discuss how prepping is the foundation stone on which we can build networks of mutual aid, and movements to challenge the forces of capital and the state. Our conversation takes us from 'Prepping 101' to building counterpower. Along the way, we talk about community gardens, the necessity of air conditioning and armed community defense, and why everything starts with saying hello to your neighbors. Podcast viewers can get 40% off Red Prepper on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Russell Warfield.  The election of Zack Polanski to the leadership of the Green Party of England and Wales in 2025 caused a political earthquake. Polanski's first year of leadership transcended the wildest expectations of his supporters: quadrupling the party membership, doubling its polling, winning its first ever parliamentary by-election to return a fifth MP, and delivering the Greens' strongest ever set of local election results.  In the context of one of the most right-wing Labour governments of all time there were acres of political space to its left to occupy. But what are the threats and opportunities now that Keir Starmer has given way to Andy Burnham? Joining us on the show to make sense of this turbulent political moment is Russell Warfield, author of The Green Socialist: Zack Polanski and the Battle for Britain's Future. Russell puts the Green party's recent successes into context and considers its prospects for the future. We talk about the unlikely similarities between Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage, why electoral reform is more urgently needed than ever, and consider the possibility of a Polanski victory in October's Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Podcast listeners can get 40% off The Green Socialist on plutobooks.com. You just have to use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout. 

Over the last three years Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza's healthcare, education and agricultural infrastructure. It has deliberately targeted medical workers, journalists, academics and children, in its effort to erase the past, and destroy the future of the Palestinian people. Israel's genocide in Gaza could have been prevented, but our political leaders chose to participate instead. The Gaza Tribunal brings together testimony from survivors, witnesses and whistleblowers to uncover the devastating scope of Israel's crimes against humanity and the truth of Britain's involvement. In this episode of the podcast we are joined by the Tribunal's conveners and co-authors: Jeremy Corbyn, Neve Gordon and Shahd Hammouri. We talk about how the status quo of the post-Second World War international order is predicated on colonial erasure; what third party states' obligations are under international humanitarian law when there is deemed to be a plausible risk of genocide; and how these obligations have been utterly disregarded.  We also discuss Britain's military cooperation, intelligence sharing, and continued arms sales to Israel, the diplomatic cover it has provided, and the government's criminalisation of the pro-Palestine movement at home. The Gaza Tribunal: Britain’s Complicity in Genocide is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Lara Sheehi.  This month, we are joined on the podcast by Lara Sheehi, author of From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures. As Sophie Lewis writes, “this book embodies a despecialized psychoanalytic praxis of revolutionary anticolonialism that is genuinely worthy of the name ‘Fanon.’ ... Lara Sheehi lays her finger directly on the myriad ‘intrusions’ designed to thwart, confuse, pacify, and derail internationalist resistance to imperial barbarism at the level of our very interiority.” In our conversation today, we talk about some of the key ideas underpinning Lara's book. We discuss 'psychic intrusions' and 'psychic militancy'; the complicity of the psychoanalytic profession in upholding systems of domination; and how we might seize psychoanalysis for revolutionary ends. We also talk about Frantz Fanon, Ghassan Kanafani and Malcolm X, how we should embrace extremism, and why Palestine is a harbinger of psychoanalytical meltdown. From the Clinic to the Streets is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Julio Linares.  To change the world, we need a money revolution. Yet the debate over money has been dominated by two perspectives: those free-market capitalists who want money to rule everything, and those who want to use the state to harness money's power.  In his new book, Decolonizing Money: The Promise of Abolishing the US Dollar, Julio Linares presents a bold, democratic theory of money which sets out strategies for collective liberation beyond state and capital.  Drawing on economic anthropology, as well as anarchist, abolitionist and anti-colonial traditions, he argues for the cancellation of debt and establishing a worldwide basic income as necessary first steps on the road to reparatory justice.  Julio joins us on the podcast for a conversation about how money is created and destroyed, what we can learn from pre-colonial social currencies like Cacao, and why there is nothing democratic about crypto.  We discuss Modern Monetary Theory, the petro-dollar system, and why David Graeber once referred to Donald Trump as an "anti-imperialist". Decolonizing Money is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Rayelle Davis.  If the United States is in a state of decline, then at the thin end of the wedge sits Appalachia, one of the country’s most deprived regions, mythologized by outsiders and misunderstood the world over. Embedded as a therapist within this community, Rayelle Davis frames the addiction, suicide, and “diseases of despair” that plague the region as a consequence of cultural trauma, exploitation, and systemic neglect.  In this month’s episode, we talk with Rayelle about her new book, Money in the Mountains: The Cultural Trauma of Appalachia. We discuss how Appalachia functions as an internal colony, where everything of value is extracted by a distant elite. We also look at the opioid crisis, the relationship between whiteness and the ‘hillbilly’, the psychological abuse of the American Dream, and how deeply ingrained cultural values of hard work and self-reliance perpetuate harm and prevent healing. Money in the Mountains is 40% off for podcast listeners through plutobooks.com. Just use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Adam Johnson.   As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of mass death and destruction gripped the world, and openly genocidal statements from Israeli leaders foretold the magnitude of horrors to come. But mainstream media was quick to downplay, obscure, and repackage an emerging campaign of extermination into a slick “war on terror” framework. We're joined on show this month by Adam Johnson, author of How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza. We discuss the US media’s role in enabling one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Adam unpacks how major outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitized Israel’s war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanized the Palestinian people. We also discuss the ways in which liberal media continues to provide cover in the context of the US-Israeli war against Iran. How to Sell a Genocide is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout. 

Economic inequality is rampant, the climate crisis is at its tipping point. Fascists are poised to take power, or already hold it. It feels like the amount of work needed to overcome these injustices is too much to handle. But what if there is a way to lower the threshold to action? We are joined on the show by Nani Jansen Reventlow, author of Radical Justice: Building the World We Need, who argues that we all have our own spheres of influence and expertise, and each of us can be the revolutionaries we need; after all, no one else is coming to save us. In this episode, Nani and Chris have a wide-ranging conversation exploring some of the major interconnected issues of our day, and the tapestry of activism required to bring about systemic change: from strategic litigation, digital rights and technology, to the ways in which climate and racial justice dovetail in the movement for reparations. Radical Justice is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Growing up, journalist Shahed Ezaydi was often asked how she could call herself a feminist and still practise her faith. It’s a question that reveals a deeper issue that Muslim women often face: being ignored in feminist spaces entirely, or cast as passive victims in need of being saved. Shahed joins us on the show for a conversation about her new book The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women.  We discuss the white saviourism and white supremacy that are at the core of white feminism, and how feminist arguments have been used to justify Western colonialism and military intervention. We talk about the politics of the veil, and the ways in Muslim women’s oppression, wherever in the world, is usually deemed to be as a result of their religion, and the unique misogyny of Muslim men. The Othered Woman is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Just use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Dr Sohail Jannesari. In this episode we look at the intersecting worlds of sanctuary-seeking and mental health. We consider how refugees, asylum seekers and other people on the move don’t just survive displacement, but rather build strength, community, and new ways of coping that challenge everything we know about mental health.  We talk about the global apartheid of borders, how histories of colonialism have shaped mental health services today, and what a more pluralistic ‘marginal psychology’ can offer us instead. We discuss the concept of sumud, trauma as interrupted movement, and why joy, play and the erotic can all help to inform a new, decolonial approach to mental health. The Migrant Art of Coping is 40% off for podcast listeners through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.