Varn Vlog

Episoade

• 
  Egypt After The Revolution with Hossam el-Hamalawy 17.09.2026 1h 50min

  Welcome back to the Vlog. Today, we are joined by acclaimed Egyptian journalist, activist, and labor historian Hossam el-Hamalawy to discuss his vital text out from Verso Books, Counter-Revolution in Egypt: State and Barracks. A common mistake among Western commentators is to view the regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as a simple replication of the old Mubarak-Sadat dictatorship. El-Hamalawy lays bare why this historical framing is fundamentally wrong: counter-revolutions do not restore old orde...
• 
  What Happens To Class Politics In A Service Economy with Annie McClanahan 14.09.2026 1h 20min

  Welcome back to the Vlog. Today, we are joined by Dr. Annie McClanahan (Associate Professor of English at UC Irvine) to discuss her groundbreaking book, Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work. While some spaces on the internet are still stuck rehashing old 19th-century debates about whether service workers even count as part of the working class, our current economic reality shows that services account for 60% to 80% of the entire workforce. The standard, hourly g...
• 
  Green Politics After The AI Boom with James of Prole Kult 10.09.2026 1h 58min

  Welcome back to VarnVlog. Today, we are joined by James of Prole Kult for an extensive, two-hour interrogation of eco-socialist strategy, environmental geopolitics, and the escalating ecological costs of the modern tech economy. Our theoretical baseline is his essential text out from Iskra Books, For the Land: Capital as Extinction. We confront a terrifying contemporary reality: under the spectacular weight of the large language model (LLM) and generative AI revolution, large swaths of the g...
• 
  Maoism Without The Myths with Black Red Guard 07.09.2026 1h 32min

  Welcome back to the blog. Today, we are staging an uncommon but necessary conversation to slice through the amateurishness of internet leftist subcultures. We are joined by Chris—better known online as Black Red Guard (BRG)—a prominent Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (MLM) political educator and active cadre inside the St. Louis chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). To the average onlooker, the word "Maoism" conjures images of uncritical support for Deng Xiaoping's reforms, Xi Jinpi...
• 
  Trade Wars As Social Wars with Benjamin Studebaker 07.09.2026 2h 31min

  Welcome back to the vlog. Today, we are staging an exhaustive, macro-analytical conversation with political theorist and author Benjamin Studebaker to unpack his recent landmark intervention in Isonomia Quarterly: "Trade Wars or Social Wars?" While modern political commentators treat the rising economic friction between the United States and its Western allies as a series of isolated commercial disputes, Studebaker argues that these tensions are deeply structural. Ever since successive U.S. ...
• 
  Education, Literacy, and the Limits of Reform with Freddie deBoer 03.09.2026 1h 43min

  Five years after their initial discussion, we are back with Freddie DeBoer—author of The Cult of Smart and the upcoming book All in Your Head—to revisit the state of American education. In this episode, we move beyond the usual pundits' talking points to address the material and institutional realities facing schools today. From the uniform decline in literacy scores globally to the complex economics of "cost disease" in special education, we explore why most modern reform efforts are failin...
• 
  Policing American Slavery: How the Slave Power Weaponized Society and the State with Gautham Rao 31.08.2026 1h 37min

  How did the legal machinery of early America enforce human bondage? Dr. Gautham Rao joins the channel to discuss his book Policing American Slavery and the state's role in hunting fugitives. In this episode, we challenge the popular narrative that early American governance was weak, decentralized, or defined by "minimal state" intervention. Sitting down with legal historian and Law and History Review editor-in-chief Dr. Gautham Rao, we trace how the necessity of protecting property in ...
• 
  Rewriting Columbus From The Taino View with Andrew Rowen 24.08.2026 1h 20min

  Why does mainstream history completely erase the stories of the Indigenous leaders who actively fought back against European conquest? How did the fluid, complex politics of the Caribbean reshape global history long before the fall of the Aztecs and Incas ? In this episode of Varn Vlog, we sit down with historical researcher and novelist Andrew Rowen to explore the unsparing, bicultural reality of ground zero in the Americas. Andrew Rowen has spent over a decade parsing through dense ...
• 
  Geopolitics of the Data Economy: Tech Monopoly, Neoliberalism, Resource Wars with ProleKult 17.08.2026 2h 10min

  Why are tech monopolies quietly building massive, "war-eating" data centers in global deserts? How does the infrastructure of artificial intelligence directly intersect with resource imperialism, greenwashing, and active combat zones? In this episode of Varn Vlog, James of Prole Kult fame joins us to unpack the terrifying realities of the modern geopolitical and tech economy. We kick off the conversation with a critical look at the stark environmental and spatial trade-offs of the digi...
• 
  Brandon Lightly on the Mass LIne and New Democracy, Part 2 13.08.2026 1h 27min

  In part two of our deep dive into China (and part four of our socialist organization series), we break down how Mao attempted to dialectically sublate a national front and a united front. We explore the structural inclusion of the "patriotic national bourgeoisie" into the block of four classes (symbolized by the stars on the Chinese flag) and contrast it with classical Soviet developmental theory and orthodox Marxism. We also dive into: - The historical debate between Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, ...
• 
  Writing and Revolution: Cultural Production vs. Neoliberal Aesthetics with Sudip Bhattacharya 10.08.2026 2h 25min

  How does ruling-class hegemony quietly dictate the boundaries of our creative imagination? Can art still serve as a weapon for genuine political transformation, or has it been entirely neutralized by capitalist realism? In this episode of Varn Vlog, regular guest Sudip Bhattacharya returns to dissect the profound relationship between literature, cultural production, and power. We begin the conversation by addressing contemporary cultural blockages before zooming out to analyze the structural...
• 
  The Cultural Marxism Myth with A.J.A. Woods 06.08.2026 3h 39min

  Where did the "Cultural Marxism" talking point actually originate? How did obscure 20th-century sectarian group battles evolve into the foundation of today's right-wing culture wars? In this episode of Varn Vlog, we sit down with Dr. A.J.A. Woods to dissect the bizarre, interconnected history of political paranoia, conspiracy culture, and the weaponization of critical theory. Dr. Woods—a PhD graduate from the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism—joins the show to trace the gene...
• 
  A People’s History of the Mets: Urban Planning, Labor, and Radical Politics with A.M. Gittlitz 03.08.2026 1h 22min

  Why are the New York Mets the ultimate team of the working-class underworld? Author A.M. Gittlitz joins the channel to discuss his new book, Metropolitans, and pitch why leftists should actually care about sports. In this episode, we dive deep into the Mobius strip dynamic of sports, mass culture, and radical politics. Far from just a corporate monopoly, baseball has a long history as a battleground for popular power and control over our collective leisure time. We trace the lineage of the M...
• 
  Cold War Cinema — History, Propaganda, and Left-Wing Film Analysis with Jason Christian & Tony Ballas 27.07.2026 2h 32min

  How did decades of geopolitical paranoia, nuclear anxiety, and state-sponsored propaganda completely reshape the landscape of global filmmaking? In this episode of Varn Vlog, we dive deep into the intersection of history and film with Jason Christian and Tony Ballas, the hosts of the Cold War Cinema podcast. From Hollywood blockbusters and hidden indie gems to the stark cinematic outputs of the Soviet bloc and divided Germany, our guests break down how the global standoff between capitalism ...
• 
  Gerontocracy in America: Samuel Moyn on Aging Wealth and Shifting Power 23.07.2026 1h 19min

  Welcome back to the Vlog. Today, we are joined by acclaimed legal scholar and historian Dr. Samuel Moyn (Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University) to discuss his critical book, Gerontocracy in America. While the public focus on modern gerontocracy often centers on the visible, late-stage cognitive decline of celebrity politicians like Joe Biden or Donald Trump, Dr. Moyn argues that these figures are merely the tip of a much deeper, structural iceberg. The real-world da...
• 
  Why Jordan Peterson is Wrong About Jung with Rob Faure Walker 20.07.2026 2h 31min

  Why are so many political activists crashing into severe burnout and depression? Can the deep psychology of Carl Jung provide a radical toolkit for modern survival without retreating from the fight? In this episode of Varnblog, we sit down with ecotherapist and author Rob Faure Walker to deconstruct his groundbreaking book, Radical Jung . We dive into a mind-bending exploration bridging the Marxist radical imagination with Jungian analytical psychology. Rob shares his personal journey throug...
• 
  Brandon Lightly on the Mass Line and New Democracy, Part 1 16.07.2026 1h 51min

  In this episode of VarnVlog, we are joined by Brandon Lightly to discuss the complex and often misunderstood history of Maoism. We dive deep into the theoretical underpinnings of the "mass line" and "new democracy," exploring how these concepts served as an internal critique of Marxism and a departure from Soviet-style bureaucracy. Key Topics Covered: Defining the Mass Line: Is it just populism, or a sophisticated leadership feedback loop? The Historical Origins: From the Hunan Report to t...
• 
  Screened Realities and the Complicit Lens: Robin Andersen on Media Complicity in Gaza and Beyond 13.07.2026 1h 11min

  While the atrocities in Palestine and Gaza have been live-streamed by courageous on-the-ground journalists, American legacy media have operated in an entirely different reality. Dr. Andersen details how establishment journalism has actively abandoned baseline standards of accuracy and fairness to echo fabricated atrocity propaganda and shield the state of Israel from accountability. In this interview, we break down the explicit mechanics of this media complicity: The New York Times Bureau B...
• 
  Real Internationalism: Inside the RAIZ International Project 09.07.2026 1h 8min

  In this special episode, we are doing something a little different by introducing an urgent, concrete internationalist political project. We are joined by two representatives affiliated with RAIZ International. To protect the sensitive nature of their organizing on the ground, we have tailored this conversation to focus on their overarching strategic goals and material outlook without endangering any ongoing local initiatives. RAIZ International rejects the dominant trend of contempo...
• 
  Grade Scandals, Bureaucracy, and the Truth About the Teacher Shortage with Chris Papst 06.07.2026 46min

  Why are public school budgets skyrocketing while student proficiency scores tank? How do districts artificially inflate graduation rates while leaving children entirely illiterate? In this episode of Varnblog, we sit down with Emmy award-winning investigative journalist Chris Papst to uncover the disturbing reality exposed in his new book, Failure Factory. For nearly a decade, Chris Papst and his team at Project Baltimore have investigated the deep-seated corruption, administration failures,...