This Wreckage

Latest Episodes:

Ep 53 - Vaxx don't care about your feelings w/ Anna Merlan May 29, 2019

Show notes

The Illuminati are back, baby! This week, the crew is joined by Anna Merlan (@annamerlan), author of "Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power," to discuss where all these conspiracy theories came from and how to defeat #fakenews once and for all.

Jamie and Anna recap how they met at an RNC-adjacent punk show. The crew's favorite conspiracy theories. The history of conspiracy theories in America. What is it about the U S of A that makes it such fertile ground for conspiratorial thinking? The kinds of conspiracy theories believed by the black community and the all-too-real government actions driving them. Conspiracy theories on the far right and in the White House. How conspiracy theories track with "populism." Why Anna is correct in thinking that "we will not be a less paranoid country until we are a fairer one."

Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lies-Conspiracy-Theorists-Surprising/dp/1250159059

More on the subject:

Ep 22- Secrets of the Illuminati w/ Tanz

How to Overthrow the Illuminati: https://overthrowingilluminati.wordpress.com/

Outro music - Bad Religion, "Do The Paranoid Style"

Support the show at patreon.com/theantifada to access bonus content and our awesome Discord community!

History is a Weapon #4 - Pivotal Decade (1970s) w/ Matt Christman Pt 1 PREVIEW May 27, 2019

Show notes

The boys are back! This History Is A Weapon is so massive (and inebriated) that we had to break it into two parts.

In this installment, Matt and Sean shoot a little shit about the radical geography of Europe before we plunge into the pool of disco and despair that was the 1970s: how global crisis upended the 'Golden Age' of American capitalism, how Richard Nixon rode a wave of aggrievement to become the voice of a 'silent majority' in backlash, and how the uneasy alliance between organized labor and the Democratic Party began to fracture as stagflation undermined the post-war compromise.

Part II, another goddamn hour-and-a-half of historical goodness, will drop later this week to complete the story of how this thing called neoliberalism came to dominance, how it, too, is now crumbling, and how we might dialectically overcome the limitations of working class self-organization evident in previous cycles of struggle.

To listen to this bonus content and more, become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada

Ep 52 - MELTdown May w/ Cuban, VZ, and PNW anarchists/communists May 22, 2019

Show notes

Andy is back from presenting on Posadas at Cuba's first Trotsky conference and Red May in Seattle with four interviews: Isbel Diaz Torres from the anarchist biblioteca ABRA in Cuba, Simon Rodriguez from Partido Socialismo y Libertad of Venezuela, part of the left-opposition to Maduro, a producer of the Resonance AudioZine distro, and Phillip Wohlstetter of Red May--who wraps everything up with his story of backpacking to Chile in 1973 during the coup.

After doing this interview, Isbel and some of his comrades were arrested for organizing a demonstration in Cuba against homophobia. Learn more and support them here:

https://itsgoingdown.org/cuban-state-arrests-two-anarchists-as-counter-revolutionaries/ https://jovencuba.com/2019/05/14/las-calles-son-nuestras/ https://guardabosquescuba.org/

More links from the guests: Why Did Chavismo Fail? http://www.socialistcore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Why-did-Chavismo-fail-1.pdf https://venezuelanvoices.org/

Anarchist podcasts: https://resonanceaudiodistro.org/ https://channelzeronetwork.com/ https://crimethinc.com/podcast

Red May Seattle site and schedule (still one weekend left!) https://www.redmayseattle.org/

Songs: Celia Cruz: Elegua Quiere Tambo Silvio Rodriguez - La Verguenza Victora Jara - A Cuba Xylitol - Grey Goo Nirvana - Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle

BONUS PREVIEW - The Worst Room w/ Samuel Stein May 17, 2019

Show notes

In which Sam returns to discuss with us our worst apartment experiences. Includes attempted murder, our landlord-in-chief, Great Americans and Lindsay Lohan's cocaine.

To access this and a tons more bonus content and our Discord, become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada

Ep 51: The Housing Monster w/ Samuel Stein May 15, 2019

Show notes

Samuel Stein, author of 'Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State' from Verso Books, comes on the pod to explain why neoliberalism will have us all living in pods if we don't do something about the global housing crisis.

We discuss the rise of the FIRE sector. We demystify the concept of gentrification. We isolate the fundamental contradictions of housing as a commodity. We unpack the ways in which even the most well-meaning progressive politicians and planners are utterly constrained by the system itself.

And, as is our want, we take a profound plunge into how workers have organized for the right to housing in the past and how we might ultimately fight to slay the housing monster.

Bonus on housing horror stories and other ephemera with Sam later this week! Become a at patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada

Follow Samuel Stein: @SamuelBStein

Read his great takedown of Hudson Yards: http://bit.ly/2JEGgAA

Buy the concise and fantastic 'Capital City' - part of the Jacobin Series from Verso: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2870-capital-city

BONUS PREVIEW - Handsy Joe w/ Katie Halper May 10, 2019

Show notes

In this bonus, we debut a new parody song by Katie Halper (@kthalps) with an assist from Jamie. We also discuss the garbage musical Rent (and how its composer stole queer radical valor), New York machine politics, why it's good to talk about Biden's boundary issues even though they're the least of his crimes, and the populist potential of #metoo. Everyone talks really fast and interrupts each other. Sean ends with a too-hot-to-handle take on Kurt Cobain.

Come see Jamie, Katie, Leslie Lee iii, Jack Allison, Jake Flores and Matt Taibbi TONIGHT (5/10) at Littlefield in Brooklyn!

UNLOCKED Antifada's Proletkult #1 w/ Stephanie Monohan May 10, 2019

Show notes

You got your History is Weapon with Sean KB... you got your upcoming new film series (!) with Jamie Peck... and now we are proud to present the first installment of AP Andy's new Proletkult! This irregularly published Antifada series will cover ufological happenings, the paranormal/parapolitical, left futurism and science fiction.

After some fresh Space News on the Israeli moonlanding fail, Andy is joined by Stephanie Monohan (@shdwbxng) to discuss her recent presentation at the Theorizing the Web conference, 'Lights in the Sky,' on paranormal investigation networks as precursors to social media, our collective obsession with UFOs (as memes or otherwise) and how ufology has been affected in this neoliberal 'post-truth' era. They round out the discussion with an update on the dialectical overcoming of the contradictions within the DSA Posadist Caucus through the formation of NYC's Emerge Caucus (@DSAEmerge) which both she and Jamie are involved in.

For background on the historical Proletkult: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletkult

AP Andy's writings/appearances on ufology and the paranormal:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/opinion/make-it-so-star-trek-and-its-debt-to-revolutionary-socialism.html?searchResultPosition=2 https://theoutline.com/post/5384/the-secret-history-of-marxist-alien-hunters? https://thenewinquiry.com/black-sun-rising/ utm_source=contributor_pages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iDytuanMBo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmGzoL0PnGU

Theme: Giorgio Moroder - Racer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0k99hCY5I

Ep 50 - The Dream of the 90s w/ Katie Halper May 08, 2019

Show notes

Doyenne of the podcast left, @kthalps, joins Jamie and Sean to discuss 1990s nostalgia. Mostly we come up with reasons why the decade actually kinda sucked and brought us to the mess we're in today. We also make some indecent proposals to famous people, discuss Juanita Broaddrick and fill a heaping mug with Laura Loomer tears.

With Andy in Cuba we recorded a lot of material so expect a big, fat bonus later this week. To become a patron, access paywalled content and our Discord server sign up at www.patreon.com/theantifada

Friday, May 10th Jamie guests at the Katie Halper/Struggle Session live show at Littlefield in Brooklyn along with Jake Flores and Matt Taibbi. Get your tix here: https://www.littlefieldnyc.com/e/the-katie-halper-show-and-struggle-session-60276247880/

Ep 49: Breadtube Allstars w/ The Serfs, Non-Compete & Means.tv May 03, 2019

Show notes

Every get the feeling that YouTube is a cesspool of corporate propaganda and right-wing nuttery? You're not wrong. Thankfully, the left is fighting back in myriad ways.

We are joined by content-craftspersons The Serfs, Non-Compete and Nick from Means Media to discuss how online got so fashy, what we can do to compete with Prager U (and a million other jerks) on the Tube and how left media can break from our capitalist overlords with new cooperative platforms.

The Serfs - http://bit.ly/2Y1YOP9 @serfspodcast

Non-Compete - http://bit.ly/2UXSMwM @emericanjohnson

Means.TV - https://www.youtube.com/user/saraj00n @means_tv

Go to https://means.media/ to help seize the means

BONUS preview: Tash2.0 Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

More of our interview with Natasha Lennard about the antifas, social democracy, smooth bernies, and our political horizons

Listen to the full episode by becoming a patron! https://www.patreon.com/theantifada

Check out 'Being Numerous,' available May 1st: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2949-being-numerous