Emancipations Podcast

The Vicissitudes of Identity Politics On the Left (feat. Sudip Bhattacharya)

I'm joined by Sudip Bhattacharya for a discussion on how to navigate debates on identity politics and class on the left. What are the best ways for socialists to engage in these debates without risking they end up in unproductive division and hostility? This is a productive conversation full of helpful social and political analysis. Sudip Bhattacharya is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at Rutgers University. You can find his work at outlets like Protean magazine, Jacobin, Current Affairs, Black Agenda Report, among others.

Drugs in America: From Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge feat. Ben Fong

We are joined by scholar Benjamin Fong to discuss his excellent new book Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge. We discuss the history of drug policy, the role of the state in enforcing and distributing drugs, and we focus on the history of alcohol, opioids, psychedelics and marijuana. We conclude with a conversation on how psychoanalytic theory can help explain drug use. Benjamin Y. Fong is Honors Faculty Fellow at Barrett, the Honors College and Associate Director of the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University. He is the author of Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge (Verso 2023). He is also the co-editor (with Craig Calhoun) of The Green New Deal and the Future of Work (Columbia, 2022) and the author of Death and Mastery: Psychoanalytic Drive Theory and the Subject of Late Capitalism (Columbia, 2016).

Lacan on Religion and Theology feat. Mark Gerard Murphy

Jacques Lacan frequently discusses religious themes in his work, from rethinking the concept of belief, to the meaning of the return to religion in modern life. In this episode, we are joined by scholar Mark Gerard Murphy to discuss his work on Lacan and theology and to introduce some salient ideas that Lacan introduces in the field of theology and religion. Mark brings both a humility and a love for spirituality to his scholarship on Lacan and I think this conversation really brings that out. We also discuss Dr. Murphy's new book on Lacan and Spiritual Direction. Hope you enjoy it!

Is Liberal Socialism a Contradiction? (feat. Matt McManus)

Is liberal socialism a contradiction in terms? An oxymoron? Or are liberalism and socialism necessary for the realization of the political objectives that each share and profess? We are joined by Matt McManus, author of the forthcoming book, The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism to make the case for his vision of a renewed liberal socialism for our time.

Marxism and the Radical Enlightenment: A Debate feat. Max Tomba and Landon Frim

What is the legacy of the Enlightenment in political struggles today and how are socialists and Marxists to relate to the Enlightenment? Must we rely on first principles and an a priori theory of knowledge in our understanding of capitalism and exploitation? Or must we proceed on the basis of an appeal to empiricism and experience primarily in our understanding of social struggles? What is the role of philosophy in our political practice? How do we know that the political causes we champion are just or right? We welcome Marxist thinkers Landon Frim and Max Tomba for a debate on Marxism and the Radical Enlightenment to help us get at the heart of these questions, and much more! For background reading, please see Max Tomba's Introduction to his book Insurgent Universality (download here) and Landon Frim's "Reason is Red" essay (download here). Max Tomba is Chair and Professor of at the History of Consciousness in the Politics Department at UC Santa Cruz. His research examines time and temporalities, Marxism, critical theory (especially the first generation of the Frankfurt School), and modern and contemporary political thought. He is the author of several books, and most recently Insurgent Universality. An Alternative Legacy of Modernity, with Oxford University Press, published in 2019, which was the co-winner of the 2021 David and Elaine Spitz Prize for the best book in liberal and/or democratic theory published in 2019.  Landon Frim is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Florida Gulf Coast University and he is a specialist in Spinoza, enlightenment rationalism and he has written in popular outlets including Jacobin Magazine, The New Republic, Salvage Magazine, and Inside Higher Ed. With Harrison Fluss, Landon wrote Prometheus and Gaia: Technology, Ecology and Anti-Humanism which is an examination of the ideological positions of Futurism and Eco-Pessimism. You can catch a great interview I conducted with Landon and Harrison Fluss on the Zer0 Books YouTube channel and on the Emancipations podcast.

Sartre’s Marxist Turn? A Discussion on the Critique of Dialectical Reason feat. Terry Pinkard

We are joined by philosopher Terry Pinkard to discuss Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason, his second major philosophical work next to Being and Nothingness. Dr. Pinkard is one of the foremost Hegel scholars in the world and he has recently written a book on Sartre's Critique entitled Practice, Power, and Forms of Life: Sartre’s Appropriation of Hegel and Marx. In this discussion, we review the main concepts developed in the Critique and we ask what this work offers to contemporary politics on the left and how Sartre understands Marx and Hegel. As a special gift to supporters of our program, you can download an unauthorized translation provided by Prof. Pinkard of Sartre's lecture on "The Roots of Ethics" from 1964 at the Gramsci Institute by going here https://www.patreon.com/posts/sartres-marxist-93945414.  The thumbnail image incorporates Alexander Calder's famous painting of Sartre from 1947.

Palestine and the Actuality of Struggle: A Forum with BICAR

Palestine and the Actuality of Struggle: A Forum with the Beirut Institute for Critical Analysis & Research (BICAR) Featuring presentations from Nadia Bou Ali, Ray Brassier, Sami Khatib and Maya Andrea Gonzalez. Panel moderated by Daniel Tutt Read the BICAR statement on Palestine: https://bicarlebanon.org

The War On Gaza, Hamas and Political Islam feat. Mohammed Sulaiman

Our guest Mohammed Sulaiman was raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza strip. He has survived multiple Israeli bombings of Gaza over the last two decades, including a 2013 shelling of his home while he was conducting an interview with CNN. Currently, his entire family is in Gaza as Israel continues to unleash a brutal massacre and bombardment campaign on the people of Gaza, which has already resulted in the killing of over 10,000 Gazans, including 4,000 children. In this conversation, we discuss the rise of Hamas, how Hamas fits within the wider phenomenon of political Islam and we analyze the brutal genocidal bombardment of Israel on the Gaza strip in response to the Hamas attacks into Israel in October 7th. Mohammed earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of South Australia on political Islam. If you enjoyed this conversation, please support our work by becoming a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups. 

Marx and Critical Social Ontology: Learning from the Later Lukács feat. Michael J. Thompson

The purpose of Marxist theory is not only to diagnose the negative forces and effects of capitalist society; emphasis must also be placed on the need for social transformation that would enhance human progress at the social and individual level. But the trends of current critical and Marxist theory have turned away from a more positive vision of critique. In his later work with the Budapest School, Lukács argued that Marxism must develop a comprehensive social ontology to understand how power relations within the society also shape and organize the social totality itself. A social ontology seeks to comprehend the ways that social relations, structures, processes and purposes are shaped or possibly contested. We welcome Marxist scholar, thinker and writer Michael J. Thompson. Thompson teaches at William Patterson University and is the author of The Domestication of Critical Theory, Twilight of the Self: The Decline of the Individual in Late Capitalism and several other important works. In this interview we discuss the legacy of western Marxism, the neo-idealist turn in the Frankfurt School, how to think the return of class in out time, and the work of the later Lukács and the project on critical social being. Please join us on Patreon for as much as $1.50 per month to help us continue to bring you interviews and seminars: https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups 

Palestine: Understanding the War on Gaza feat. Anita Zsurzsán and Jamil Khader

We are joined by philosopher Anita Zsurzsán and Jamil Khader, the Dean of Research at Bethlehem University in Palestine for a roundtable on the war on Gaza, otherwise known as the "2023 Hamas-Israel war". We discuss the politics of the current war, the status of Islamist politics in Palestine and the region, the role of the media, Islamophobia and Antisemitism, Arab Marxism and the meaning of Palestine liberation today. Please read Jamil's latest article on Truthout "Media’s Selective Moral Outrage Manufactures Consent for Palestinian Genocide" https://truthout.org/articles/medias-selective-moral-outrage-manufactures-consent-for-palestinian-genocide/ 

What is the Warm-Stream of Marxism? feat. Tijana Okić

We welcome Tijana Okić back to the show for a discussion on the Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch's idea of the warm and cold stream in Marxism. How are we to understand this distinction and which Marxist thinkers fit into these two streams? Can the cold and the warm streams be synthesized?   Tijana Okić is a philosopher, feminist and translator. She completed her Ph.D. in philosophy at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. She is one of the editors of the volume The Lost Revolution: AFŽ between Myth and Forgetting (Sarajevo, 2016).

Understanding Class Politics: Bourdieu with Marx feat. Lisa Mckenzie

What are the best theoretical frameworks for understanding class politics? Marx offers an understanding of class as tied to relations of productive labor and property ownership in capitalist society. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu offers an understanding of class which goes beyond Marx in many ways, offering a richer and more varied idea of class as a cultural formation that generates a field of power. Can Marx and Bourdieu be reconciled? Can they be combined? We are joined by sociologist Lisa Mckenzie to discuss the best ways to theorize class, the working class, class politics and more.

Daniel Bensaïd and the Renewal of Marxism feat. Darren Roso

We are joined by socialist author Darren Roso to discuss his forthcoming book Daniel Bensaid: From the Actuality of Revolution to the Melancholic Wager which is the first major study of Bensaïd's thought. Daniel Bensaïd completed his Ph.D. on Lenin right as May 68 took off and his work has contributed to contemporary Marxist philosophy and practice in important ways. In this fascinating interview, Roso describes the key ideas and the thrust of Bensaïd's renewal of Marxism starting in the 1980s to his death in 2010.

In Defense of Žižek? A Discussion with Matthew Flisfeder

Slavoj Žižek is a provocative intellectual, constantly taking positions on social and political issues that upset convention and lead him to face derision from both the right and the left. Given the often erratic stances that he takes, from his support for the Ukraine war, to Donald Trump in 2016, some have wondered whether the Giant of Ljubljana has lost his way in recent times. We are joined by Žižek scholar Matthew Flisfeder for a discussion on how to understand the core of Žižek's thought, and how to remain true to his project and method even when he may waver from it. Matthew Flisfeder is an associate professor of rhetoric and communications at the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of Postmodern Theory and “Blade Runner” and The Symbolic, the Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of Film.

On the Meaning of Revolution feat. C. Derick Varn (Part II)

We continue our conversation on the meaning of revolution with C. Derick Varn, by turning to the theoretical basis of "post" Marxist thinkers from the Althusserian school, Laclau and Mouffe, Hardt and Negri and Alain Badiou. We discuss some of the pitfalls of these contemporary Marxist theorists and the basis by which they revise core tenets from Marx. We also discuss new class theories on today's left and how they relate to Marx's class theory and different theories of the intellectual in socialist thought. To download the reading list we have created for this series please go here.  To get early access and support our work please check out our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups).

On the Meaning of Revolution feat. C. Derick Varn (Part I)

Is revolution dead? The left is divided over how to make revolution, and many Marxist and post-Marxist theorists have developed radically new conceptions of revolution that are often highly divergent from how Marx, Engels and Second International Marxists dealt with revolution. Our age is notoriously known as post-revolutionary, and liberal realism has set in so deep that we have seemed to have lost touch with the truths of Marxist insights into revolution. We are experiencing a resurgence of political and cultural radicalism but in the context of the absence of working-class radicalism as expressed through socialist parties, mass parties and labour unions.  To help us understand the history and the meaning of revolution, both in its practical and theoretical valences, we are joined by scholar, poet and podcaster C. Derick Varn. C. Derick Varn is the host of the politics and culture podcast Varn Vlog where he probes socialist politics and offers invaluable insights for the left. Please subscribe to his show at @VarnVlog. To get access to the reading list that we have created around this two-part series, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups.

The Story of Agnes Smedley: From Peasant to Socialist Heroine feat. Stephen MacKinnon

Agnes Smedley is an American writer and socialist heroine born in 1892 in Missouri. Her family relocated all across the American west including near the Ludlow Massacre of coal mining workers. Smedley managed to escape the conditions of poverty she was born into and went on to become one of the most important personalities of revolutionary socialism in the first part of the 20th century. Smedley's notoriety has been larger in Russia and China than in the United States because her books were banned during the Red Scare in the 1950s - 1970. She was witness to the Chinese Revolution where she spent the longest period of time embedded with the Chinese Red Army, longer than any other western journalist. We are joined by Stephen MacKinnon, a historian of modern China and the author of Agnes Smedley: The Life and Times of an American Radical to discuss the remarkable life of Agnes Smedley. In this interview, host Daniel Tutt and Stephen MacKinnon discuss Smedley's life and legacy and speculate into a number of open questions about her death, her possible status as a Russian spy and more.

Tragedy, Parody and Psycho-Power feat. Ali Benziane

We welcome the brilliant poet and thinker Ali Benziane. Dr. Benziane is an autodidactic philosopher currently working closely with friend of the show, the famous French actor and philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem. We discuss some philosophical and metaphysical perspectives on the post-covid world, looking at Ali's notion of a new mechanism of global power that  he calls "psychopouvoir" (psycho-power) after the late french philosopher Bernard Stiegler.  We discuss his intellectual influences, Phillipe Lacoue-Labarthe, the meaning of tragedy, parody, Deleuze's work, fascism and philosophy, traditionalism, and Ali's love for the French metaphysician René Guénon.

New Currents in Marxism: From Degrowth Communism to Neo-Kautskyism feat. Richard Seymour

We welcome writer and Marxist thinker Richard Seymour back onto the show for a spirited discussion on new currents in Marxist thinking. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss the contradictions and tensions between the concept of "degrowth communism", coined by eco-socialist thinker Kohei Saito, to another trend in Marxist and socialist thinking which is encapsulated by the name of "neo-Kautskyism", or the general tendency for a more productivist and working-class organized direction of socialist politics. We also discuss the legacy of Althusserian Marxism, class politics, the PMC debate and quagmire as well as Richard's intellectual trajectory, idealism and materialism and faith and spirituality. If you enjoy this conversation please consider joining us as a Patron for as little at $3 a month https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups

Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis feat. Mary L. Edwards

We are joined by Mary L. Edwards to discuss her new book Sartre's Existential Psychoanalysis: Knowing Others. We discuss Sartre's concept of bad faith, the in-itself and the for-itself and the challenge that his philosophy poses to psychoanalysis. We also discuss Sartre's psychobiographies on Jean Genet and Gustave Flaubert and what these works have to offer to psychoanalytic practice and theory. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups Link to Mary's book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sartres... Mary Louise Edwards is a teacher in philosophy at Cardiff University, School of English, Communication and Philosophy. Mary researches and teaches existentialism, feminist philosophy, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and philosophy of imagination.

Lukács, Irrationalism and Marxist Reason

In this episode, I expound on Lukács's later work and the meaning of irrationalism. I analyze Marxist reason in contradistinction to neo-Kantian thought and touch on what is most distinctive about philosophy for Marx and Engels and how Marx breaks with both Kant and Hegel. From a Marxist point of view, the practical aim of philosophy is to bring about human freedom and human freedom in capitalist society requires the activation and the organization of the proletariat to realize and overcome class domination.  References: Lukács, Georg The Destruction of Reason Verso Books, 2021 Lukács, Georg History and Class Consciousness MIT Press, 1992 Lukács, Georg "Moses Hess and the Problem of Idealist Dialectics" from Tactics and Ethics Verso Books, 2014 Lukács, Georg "Intellectual Workers’ and the Problem of Intellectual Leadership” from Tactics and Ethics Verso Books, 2014 Lenin, Vladimir "What Is to Be Done" https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd Frederick C. Beiser The Genesis of Neo-Kantianism, 1796–1880 Oxford University Press, 2014 Rockmore, Tom Irrationalism: Lukacs and the Marxist View of Reason Temple University Press, 1991 Check out our symposium on Lukács' The Destruction of Reason (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE03jn2k3GYAWlu20REPquu3-R-_Snbef) Supplemental reading: Tutt, Daniel "The Question of Worldview and Class Struggle in Philosophy: On the Relevance of Lukács' The Destruction of Reason" Cosmonaut Magazine February, 2022 https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/02/the-question-of-worldview-and-class-struggle-in-philosophy-on-the-relevance-of-lukacss-worldview-marxism-and-the-destruction-of-reason To get early access to our interviews and talks please join us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups 

Stalinism and the Dialectics of Saturn feat. Doug Greene

We sit down with Doug Greene to discuss his latest work on Stalinism. In this interview, Greene describes who Stalin was, what his role in the Bolshevik movement was and how he came to power. Greene then provides a compelling analysis of different paradigms of how Stalinism has been conceptualized by intellectuals from Arthur Koestler, Jean-Paul Sartre, Antonio Gramsci, to heads of states such as Winston Churchill and writers such as George Orwell. Doug Greene is a Marxist historian based in the Boston area. Our last interview with Greene was about his book on Michael Harrington, A Failure of Vision, which is a biography of Harrington, the liberal-socialist founder of the DSA. We conclude our conversation with a discussion about Domenico Losurdo’s book on Stalin and its shortcomings. We also discuss the specter of Stalinism on today's left and whether there is a compelling sort of psychological account as to what draws people to Stalinism to this day. Order Stalinism and the Dialectics of Saturn.

The New Irrationalism - A Conversation with John Bellamy Foster

We are back! And we changed our podcast name to Emancipations Podcast! In this episode, we are pleased to welcome Marxist thinker John Bellamy Foster to discuss his recent article The New Irrationalism in the Monthly Review (https://monthlyreview.org/2023/02/01/...). This article started a conversation on the legacy of Lukács's Destruction of Reason and the role of philosophy in times of imperialism and war. You can listen to the video version of this interview where I elaborate on the theme of irrationalism by going here (https://youtu.be/E6H7RfzgyMA).  Sign up to support our efforts on Patreon at (https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups).

The Enigma of Christopher Lasch feat. Christian Lorentzen

We are joined by literary critic and actor Christian Lorentzen to discuss the legacy and thought of Christopher Lasch. In this wide-ranging conversation, Lorentzen and host Daniel Tutt discuss Lasch's socialist politics, why he's so often misunderstood by the contemporary left and how he read literature. We assess the reasons why Lasch remains so popular and we touch on the politics of American novelists, the new Dimes Square scene in Manhattan, for which Christian is a central figure and personality, and we touch on the generational politics that seem to return and return ever since Lasch diagnosed them in the 1970s. You can subscribe to Christian's Substack to read his prolific book review essays and other writings: https://christianlorentzen.substack.com

Adorno On Ideology feat. Jacob Bard-Rosenberg

In 1954 Adorno wrote, "if one were to condense what the ideology of mass culture comes down to into a single sentence, one would have to represent it with the parodic statement: “become what you are.” Adorno offered a series of important lectures on the concept of ideology with Max Horkheimer in the wake of the Second World War. They argued against the liberal sociologists such as Mannheim and Weber's conceptions of ideology, and they also called for a new Marxist understanding of ideology. In this episode, we discuss the history of the concept of ideology up to Adorno's important intervention. This conversation is based on a newly translated article "Contribution to the Theory of Ideology" by Adorno and translated by our guest Jacob Bard-Rosenberg. Dr. Rosenberg has recently completed a Ph.D. on Adorno and Benjamin on memory, forgetting and dreams. You can download his dissertation here. To read Rosenberg's review of Adorno's article on ideology, please go here.

Lacanian Marxism On Today’s Left with Jensen Suther

We sit down with philosopher Jensen Suther for a conversation on Lacanian Marxism on today's left.  Jensen Suther earned his PhD in Comparative Literature from Yale University and was recently elected as a Junior Fellow to the Harvard Society of Fellows. His forthcoming book, Spirit Disfigured: The Persistence of Freedom in the Modernist Novel, argues against the “lacanian turn” in Marxist theory and provides a new reading of Hegel’s encyclopedia as the philosophical foundation of emancipatory politics. The host, Daniel Tutt is the host of Study Groups on Psychoanalysis and Politics and has taught philosophy at George Washington University, Marymount University, the Global Center for Advanced Studies and the Washington DC jail.

Ressentiment: A Liberal Concept? feat. Sjoerd van Tuinen

Our final episode for the year! Thank you all for your support this year. In this episode, we sit down with the philosopher Sjoerd van Tuinen to discuss the concept of ressentiment and the politics of resentment. Dr. van Tuinen has many essays on ressentiment and a forthcoming book on the topic. Please pitch in to support us at https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups 

An Introduction to the Philosopher Kojin Karatani

Kojin Karatani is one of the most interesting and important Marxist philosophers working today. Listen to our conversation about his main ideas...featuring Daniel Tutt and Gabriel Tupinambá. The workshop we held on Karatani's The Structure of World History can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE03jn2k3GYDWu4I9kdRXvq-FXy1vPVkO Support us by joining our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/torsiongroups 

Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World feat. Raju Das

What is the Marxist theory of class? Did Marx have a mature class theory in Capital or is Marx's theory of class unfinished and ultimately unclear? Many scholars contend that Marx does not have a clear class theory. But too often Marxists do not offer any alternative to the theory of class, so Marxism ends up with very little to say about class. Our guest in this episode, Raju Das, disagrees with many contemporary Marxists who tend to sideline Marx's theory of class. In this conversation, we learn that Marx does have a theory of class and we break it all down and show how central it is to his thought.  We begin with a critique of Analytical Marxist and Post-structuralist Marxist theories of class and we learn about a more materialist and dialectical foundation for class theory. Das helps us to theorize class at both the transhistorical level and at the level of capitalism.  Raju Das is the author of Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World.

Freud and the Limits of Bourgeois Individualism with Bruno Bosteels

We are joined by writer and Marxist thinker Bruno Bosteels to discuss Léon Rozitchner’s Freud and the Limits of Bourgeois Individualism, which Bosteels has recently translated. In this conversation, we discuss Rozitchner's biography, his place within South American Marxism, the key concepts and approach of the text and we end with a consideration of Alain Badiou's thought. Bosteels is the translator of Freud and the Limits of Bourgeois Individualism, Alain Badiou's Theory of the Subject and he is the author of the forthcoming book Philosophies of Defeat: The Jargon of Finitude (Verso).