Varn Vlog

Epizody

• The Stranger Side of Ancient Philosophy: Materialism & Metaphysics with Max Wade 15.06.2026 2h 12min

  What did "materialism" actually mean to the ancients, and how does it differ from our modern scientific understanding? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Max Wade (Ph.D., Boston College) to bridge the gap between ancient Greek ontology and modern philosophical debates. We dive deep into the "weirdness" of ancient thought, exploring why the Stoics believed in physical gods and why the Epicureans were the only true ancient materialists. Dr. Wade challenges the secularized modern reading of ...
• Revolutionary Strategy Today with the Angry Workers Collective 08.06.2026 1h 15min

  The working class is everywhere now. So why does it keep slipping out of view the moment we try to talk about power, strategy, and organization? We sit down with Marco from the Angry Workers Collective to dig into a question that quietly haunts modern labor politics: wage work has been universalized across the globe, yet movements get described with vague labels instead of clear class segments and material interests. We work through two tools that sharpen the picture: uneven and combin...
• Up vs. Down: Bypassing the Two-Party Sorting Mechanism with Travis Misurell 04.06.2026 52min

  Is American democracy broken, or is it just rigged? In this episode of VarmBlog, we sit down with Travis Misurell, founder of the Think: The Future is Now Coalition (Fink), to discuss a radical new framework for political engagement: moving beyond the traditional left-vs-right binary to an "Up vs. Down" perspective. We dive deep into the Digital Politics Hub (DP Hub), a materialist infrastructure project designed to bypass party gatekeepers and empower the common voter. Misurell explains how...
• Decoding the Tragedy of Noam Chomsky with Dr. Chris Knight 01.06.2026 1h 8min

  In this episode of Varn Vlog, we welcome back British anthropologist and activist Dr. Chris Knight, author of Decoding Chomsky, to discuss the startling revelations surrounding Noam Chomsky’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. We go beyond the headlines to examine the deep-seated contradictions in Chomsky’s career, his historical ties to the military-industrial complex, and what these scandals mean for the future of the American Left. Key Topics Covered: The Epstein Revelations: Analyz...
• The Prospects of DSA: Party Building, Power, and the Marxist Unity Group 25.05.2026 1h 24min

  Approximately two years into the second Trump administration, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is at a critical crossroads. In this semi-annual check-in, we sit down with members of the Marxist Unity Group (MUG)—Cliff Connolly, Gene Allen, and Amy Wilhelm—to discuss the evolving landscape of American socialist politics. In this deep dive, our panel explores the significant shift following the passing of Resolution Seven, which officially declared the DSA's intent to transition into ...
• Communist Unity in Oceania: The Future of Socialist Organizing in Australia 18.05.2026 2h 15min

  You can learn a lot about the health of the left by asking one simple question: what happens when people disagree? We sit down with three organizers from Communist Unity to talk about building a mass communist party in Australia with open factions, democratic debate, and real programmatic unity and why that approach is so rare in practice. We trace their organizational roots through Socialist Alliance-era regroupment attempts, youth reading groups, and the split-and-merge history that shapes...
• The Quest for Narrative From World Travels to Technology with Miles Spencer 14.05.2026 48min

  Is our digital legacy the final frontier of storytelling? In this episode, we sit down with Miles Spencer, a serial entrepreneur, world traveler, and the founder of Reflecta AI. Spencer, who co-created the long-running PBS series Money Hunt, has dedicated his career to the power of narrative. Now, he is using artificial intelligence to bridge the gap between physical archives—like shoe boxes of old photos and letters—and a dynamic, conversational digital legacy that allows families to preser...
• The Castaneda Con with Ru Marshall 11.05.2026 1h 16min

  Is it anthropology or a high-stakes hoax? In this episode of the Varn Vlog, we dive deep into the enigmatic life of Carlos Castaneda with author and visual artist Ru Marshall. Marshall’s expansive new biography, American Trickster (OR Books), unearths the startling reality behind the man who convinced the world he was apprenticed to a Yaqui sorcerer named Don Juan. We explore how Castaneda transitioned from a UCLA PhD candidate to a global counterculture icon, selling tens of millions of book...
• The Left-Wing Deadbeat with Nurse John 04.05.2026 1h 17min

  A lot of people can quote the right theory, wear the right shirt, and post the right meme. Then the moment arrives when you have to sit down with a coworker, ask what they need, and move them toward collective action and suddenly they vanish. We take on that tension by reading and reacting to the provocation “The Left-Wing Deadbeat,” using our own union organizing experience to separate what’s real from what’s just frustration dressed up as advice. We talk about why some organizing stories f...
• The K-Shaped Decade with Matt Borka 27.04.2026 1h 38min

  “Why does life feel poorer when the economy looks rich?” That question drives our talk with Hungarian-born creator and entrepreneur Matt Borka, who has lived and worked across the West, Eastern Europe, and Asia and who tracks real-world conditions through labor data, incentives, and what he sees inside marketing and online business. We start with the growing sense of Western decline and quickly land on a hard-to-ignore pattern: a K-shaped economy where the top captures upside while everyone e...
• From Dawn To Decadence, Part 6: Aufheben's Decay 20.04.2026 1h 33min

  In Part 6 of our series "From Dawn to Decadence," we examine the intellectual trajectory and eventual "decay" of the Aufheben collective. This episode explores the group's early contributions to Marxist theory, their critique of the state, and the internal contradictions that led to their decline. We dive deep into the specific criticisms leveled by the Aufhebung Collective against previous thinkers, including their critiques of Rosa Luxemburg's "objectivism" and the perceived "automaticity" ...
• German Romanticism and Idealism Beyond Nostalgia And Reaction 13.04.2026 1h 38min

  Romanticism gets treated like a synonym for nostalgia, and German Idealism gets shrunk to a few brand-name thinkers. We push back on both habits by talking with Christopher Satoor, a York University doctoral candidate and founder of the Young Idealist series, about what really happens when philosophy, poetry, art, and science collide in Jena. Schelling sits at the center of that collision. We dig into why his Naturphilosophie is neither “woo” nor a quaint premodern science lesson, but a seri...
• Diving Into the Wreckage: The French Left Remains Unbowed 10.04.2026 1h 18min

  Join hosts as they dive deep into the complexities of modern French politics with guest Henry Wallace. This episode explores the concept of the "new municipalism" and the strategic efforts of the La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) movement to reclaim local governance. From the legacy of the Yellow Vests protests to the innovative use of digital organizing tools, the discussion provides a comprehensive look at how grassroots activism is challenging neoliberal structures in France. Key Topics...
• Mapping The United Front Debate with Brandon Lightly 06.04.2026 1h 35min

  What happens when “march separately, strike together” meets real history? We dive into the tangled story of the United Front—where it came from, how it changed, and why its results ranged from lifeline to dead end. Starting with Marx and the First International and running through the Second International’s fights over ministerialism, we track Trotsky’s 1921 thesis, the KPD’s open letter strategy, and the Comintern’s hard pivot from Third Period sectarianism to Popular Front coalitions. ...
• Wall Street Went To Homeroom And Stole The Whiteboard with David I Backer 30.03.2026 1h 38min

  What if the real story of American education isn’t test scores or culture wars, but air you can breathe, roofs that don’t leak, and the invisible money pipes that decide who gets both? We sit down with David I. Backer, associate professor of education policy and author of As Public as Possible, to follow the cash from property taxes to Wall Street and back again—and to sketch a better way forward. We start with how school finance became hyperlocal. Once, statewide property taxes aimed at bro...
• From Catechism To Class Consciousness: How Marxism Was Taught with Edward Barring 23.03.2026 1h 22min

  What if the real engine of socialist history wasn’t just theory, but teaching? We sit down with historian Edward Baring to trace a vivid, often-misread story: Marxism as a mass educational project designed to turn scattered grievances into class consciousness. From best-selling primers that outsold Capital to study circles in factories and party schools, we unpack how organizers taught at scale—and why the word “vulgar” once critiqued bad teaching, not bad thinking. We map the fault line bet...
• How Philosophy Lost Its Nerve And How Marx Put It Back To Work with Christoph Schuringa 16.03.2026 2h 23min

  A century ago, philosophy split its seams. Cambridge’s revolt against British Hegelianism promised “clarity,” Vienna’s scientific modernism tried to rebuild from scratch, and postwar America professionalized it all while quietly erasing the politics that once burned at the core. We invited Christoph Schuringa, editor of Hegel Bulletin and author of A Social History of Analytic Philosophy and Karl Marx and the Actualization of Philosophy, to map the break—and to argue why Marx didn’t abandon p...
• Post-Liberalism’s Fade with Nicolas Villarreal 09.03.2026 1h 31min

  Politics keeps offering us drama in place of design. We sat down with Nicholas D. Vairo to chart how the post-liberal moment slid from grand promises into a Bonapartist reality: a leader-first spectacle with no plan to build or maintain the institutions that make a society work. The core insight isn’t just about ideology; it’s about capacity. Professional elites still run what functions, for better and worse, because no competing class has figured out how to reproduce competence at scale. We...
• Hellworld And The Broken Labor Map with Phil Neel 02.03.2026 2h 22min

  What if “reindustrialization” delivers fabs, data centers, and subsidies—but not the jobs? We sit down with Marxist geographer Phil Neel to unpack Hell World, a sweeping account of how deindustrialization, gigified services, and AI deskilling have rewired the global labor map. Drawing on years of on-the-ground research and a panoramic read of supply chains, Neel explains why factories employ far fewer people, why service work resists productivity gains, and how rents—especially real estate—sh...
• From Mills To World-Systems: Tracing Wallerstein’s Path with Sam Chian 23.02.2026 1h 42min

  What if the most consequential “Marxist” of a generation refused to call himself one—and was more consistent for it? We dive into Immanuel Wallerstein’s intellectual journey, from C. Wright Mills’s classrooms to African political movements and a close reading of Fanon, to the long durée horizons inspired by Fernand Braudel. Along the way, we unpack how world‑systems analysis took shape against modernization theory, challenged neat stages of growth, and rejected methodological nationalism with...