Diet Soap - a podcast
411 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 122 ratingsThe Diet Soap podcast began in 2009 in response to the economic crisis of 2008. Since then it has gone through many transformations, including becoming the podcast for a critical theory imprint out of the UK.
Today the Diet Soap podcast is running under its original name for Sublation Media.
Sublation Media includes a book publishing effort for critical theory and left politics, a magazine that covers current events and theoretical issues, youtube videos on theory and politics, and finally the Diet Soap podcast. The podcast is where we continue to interrogate the left and each other while having a good time.
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Episodes
Episode 415: Social Democracy and Compact Magazine (ft. Spencer Leonard)
May 12, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBIn this episode, Spencer and Doug talk about the neo-social democracy of Jacobin and Compact, the crisis of neoliberalism, and the Left's need for political independence.
Episode 414: Remembering the LA Riots of '92 (ft. Jason Myles)
May 12, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBJason Myles from TIR has written an article about the LA Riots of '92 that will appear in Sublation Magazine this week. In this episode we discuss his article, the limits of liberal anti-racism, and the reality of living in poverty.
Episode 413: Can We Overcome Our Alienation? (ft. Chris Cutrone)
May 11, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBThis week's Pop the Left was set up as a conversation about Guy Debord and the errors of the Situationist Internationale but ended up being a conversation about the sexual revolution, Roe vs. Wade, and the question of the party. As always, Chris Cutrone pushes against the current limits of "left" politics on this week's Pop the Left.
Episode 412: Is Lacan an Enemy of the Workers? (ft. Andreas W. and Stefan H.)
May 04, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 51.7 MBHow did Lacan naturalize the failure of Marxism? What is critical about the Frankfurt School? Doug speaks with Andreas and Stefan about the Frankfurt School and about how the Left takes up psychoanalysis in its understanding of freedom and socialism. GCAS Belfast Seminar “The Lack of Desire and the Desire of Lack: The Body, Conversion, and Art” https://gcascollege.ie/belfast Support Us on Patreon https://patreon.com/dietsoap
Episode 411: Sublation Magazine Launch Stream
May 03, 2022 00:00 - 6 hours - 280 MBThe launch of Sublation Media's new Online Magazine, Sublation Magazine began with a six-hour stream. Guests included Conrad Hamilton, Katerina Kolozova, Dwayne Munroe, Teo Velissaris, Rebeka Parler, Ben Burgis, James Smith, Chris Cutrone, and others. This is a six and a half hour stream. https://www.sublationmag.com Follow us on Twitter @SublationMag Support US on Patreon https://patreon.com/dietsoap
Episode 410: Can the Working Class End PMC Environmentalism? (ft. Matt Huber)
April 27, 2022 00:00 - 50 minutes - 40.8 MBMatt Huber is a professor of geography at Syracuse University. His new book, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, will be out from Verso Books in May, 2022. His book discusses the failures of an environmental movement built dominated by the Professional Managerial Class. Check out this GCAS Seminar with Chris Hedges and Boris Franklin https://gcascollege.ie/voice-seminar
Episode 409: Can the Left Create a Materialist Politics? (ft. Daniel Burnfin)
April 21, 2022 00:00 - 51 minutes - 37.4 MBDaniel Burnfin is a member of Class Unity and has participated in a few Platypus Affiliated Society panels, most recently at the international convention in Chicago. Douglas Lain first reached out to Burnfin after Burnfin's contribution to the “Class and the Left” panel, but in this video they discuss the panel "What is Leadership for the Left?"
Episode 408: Do We Need Knowledge or Wellness?
April 15, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 45.5 MBSublation editor Ashley Frawley discusses a chapter out of her upcoming monograph on how the politics of mental health have subverted the politics of freedom. In this conversation, Doug and Ashley specifically discuss how UK Universities took up a new project. No longer so interested in knowledge and reason, today's universities aim to make their students sane...or do they? GCAS Seminar with Chris Hedges and Boris Franklin https://gcascollege.ie/voice-seminar
Episode 407: Is Sex A Short Circuit? (ft Alenka Zupančič)
April 05, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBZupančič argues that sexuality is at the point of a “short circuit” between ontology and epistemology. Sexuality and knowledge are structured around a fundamental negativity, which unites them at the point of the unconscious. The unconscious (as linked to sexuality) is the concept of an inherent link between being and knowledge in their very negativity.
Episode 406: Neo-Imperialism and the Depoliticization of the Left (ft Spencer Leonard)
March 30, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 54.6 MBThis conversation with Spencer Leonard on the depoliticization of the left was originally released as a patron-only "parrot room" podcast. I'm releasing it to the public today because I believe the conversation deserves a wider audience, especially in the context of today's Imperialist conflict in Ukraine. Patrons get content like this every week.
Episode 405: Can the PMC Control Capitalism? (ft Catherine Liu)
March 23, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBThis episode features a conversation with Catherine Liu about the rise of the PMC and the death of traditional liberalism. Is the PMC a class that has overcome capitalist relations in order to shift social outcomes in its favor, or is the Professional Managerial Class merely the servants of capital working to create ideological justifications for continuing under the reign of capitalist relations.
Episode 404: Ukraine and Imperialism (ft. Max Blumenthal)
March 18, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 74 MBMax Blumenthal is the editor of the Grayzone and a prominent figure on the anti-imperialist left. In this episode of Diet Soap, he discusses why the cold war never ended, the justifications for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and why the United States is the one true imperialist State on the world stage. This is part one of a four-part series on anti-imperialism and the left.
Episode 403: Was Generation X Radical? (ft. Freddie DeBoer)
March 14, 2022 00:00 - 47 minutes - 33.8 MBHere, Freddie and Doug talk about what the Millennials learned from Gen-X, the Left's relation to the Democratic Party, and cancel culture. This video follows up on DeBoer's essay "Gen X Was the Political Generation." Gen X Was the Political Generation Essay https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/gen-x-was-the-political-generation
Episode 402: The Joe Rogan Debrief (ft. Ben Burgis)
March 10, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 53.3 MBAuthor and podcaster Ben Burgis recently appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast and on the Wright Show with Bob Wright. In this episode of Diet Soap Doug follows up on both appearances. Is Christopher Hitchens overrated as Bob Wright claims? Is Joe Rogan a fascist as many on the left fear? Find out!
Episode 401: Will Socialism EVER Be Politically Relevant Again? (ft. Chris Cutrone)
March 02, 2022 00:00 - 58 minutes - 40.6 MBCan the socialist left become political? Chris Cutrone and Douglas Lain talk pseudo-politics, war as politics by other means, and why the task of socialism remains the same as they discuss his 2015 lecture "How is Platypus a Pre-Political Project?" Chris's 2015 Lecture https://youtu.be/iDiv7MioqJ8
Episode 400: Putting the Invasion of Ukraine in Context
February 26, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBDeep State Kuba describes the history of the conflict between Russia and the West, the role of NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the reasons behind the invasion of Ukraine.
Episode 399: Have We Been Sold Digital Delusions? (ft. Dwayne Monroe)
February 23, 2022 00:00 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBDwayne Roberto Monroe is a cloud architect, strategist and social critic. He describes himself as "fashionably Hegelian" where he is developing a materialist approach to the tech industry and writing about Supercomputers, AIs, the Metaverse, and technoskepticism. In this interview he explains what the cloud is and tells Doug not to believe the hype.
Episode 398: Should the Left Support the Trucker Convoy? (ft. Gord Magill)
February 21, 2022 00:00 - 55 minutes - 40.3 MBIn this special Pop the Left interview, Sublation Media editor and podcaster Ashley Frawley interviews Gord Magill about the Freedom Convoy. Gord has been writing about the movement for Newsweek in essays such as "Elites Are Smearing Truckers Because We're Doing Their Job Representing the People" and "Why Are Canada's Unions Siding With the Government Against Workers?" In this episode of Pop the Left he explains just what is driving the Trucker's Convoy and explains why he thinks t...
Episode 397: Matt Christman's Justified Pessimism (ft. Derick Varn)
February 15, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 53.9 MBDerick Varn responds to our Matt Christman interview. We get into the roots of the Left's present impasse in the post-War consensus, why both the administrative state of monopoly capital and the concept of the PMC miss their mark, bureaucratic drift on the American Left, and why progressives are so unpopular.
Episode 396: Podcasting after Bernie? (ft. Matt Christman)
February 09, 2022 00:00 - 40 minutes - 29.4 MBMatt Christman of Chapo Trap House comes on to talk about Occupy anarchism, replaying the 1960s, class politics, and what Leftist media can do after Bernie.
Episode 395: Tucker Carlson's Insane Attack on the Homeless
February 02, 2022 00:00 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBLavit Maas is a social worker in North Hollywood, CA. She works on Skid Row, helping people who are most at risk receive care in the Los Angeles medical system. In this episode she responds to Tucker Carlson's rant against the homeless that aired on January 18th, 2022. In a segment entitled "We’re watching civilization collapse in real time" Tucker claimed that homelessness was intentionally caused by liberal elites who wanted nothing more than to incentivize drug use and laziness. ...
Episode 394: How to Be a Well Adjusted Egotist (ft. Eliot Rosenstock)
January 27, 2022 00:00 - 52 minutes - 39.6 MBEliot Rosenstock is a psychotherapist working for an app from the UK, the author of The Ego and Its Hyperspace, and the author of Zizek in the Clinic. In this interview, he explains how Freud and Stirner might be combined in clinical practice during the first half and discusses how he's been treated by the new publishing managers at Zer0 Books in the second half for patrons only.
Episode 393: Richard Wolff on Vaccines and the Working Class
January 19, 2022 00:00 - 37 minutes - 26.4 MBRichard Wolff is a prominent Marxist economist and activist and in this conversation with Douglas Lain, he discusses vaccine mandates and the growing opposition to them amongst the working class. Richard Wolff is the author of "Capitalism Hits the Fan" and a board member of Democracy at Work.
Episode 392: Why Bordiga Got Democracy Wrong (w/Dan Melo)
January 13, 2022 00:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBDan Melo is the author of Borderlines and is currently working on a book on violence for Sublation Press. He is also a contrinbutor to Cosmonaut Magazine and the author of a recent essay entitled "Why Bordiga Got Democracy Wrong." In this episode of Diet Soap he discusses just what Bordiga's critique amounted to and describes what it's like to be ratioed by radical twitter.
Episode 391: Rad-Libs, Reactionaries, and the Super-Ego (w/ Todd McGowan)
January 07, 2022 00:00 - 51 minutes - 45.5 MBTodd McGowan teaches theory and film at the University of Vermont. He is the author of Enjoying it Right and Left, which will be the first book from Sublation Press, which is the name of Diet Soap Media's book publishing wing. He is also the author of Emancipation After Hegel, Capitalism and Desire, and Only a Joke Can Save Us. He is also the co-host of the Why Theory Podcast. In this episode of the Diet Soap Interview series Todd discusses how the Superego functions politically. ...
Episode 390: How to Judge the 20th Century and the Contemporary Left (Chris Cutrone vs. Conrad Hamilton)
January 04, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 49.7 MBThis episode of Pop the Left features a debate between Conrad Hamilton and Chris Cutrone as they both attempt to judge the 20th century left and the contemporary left. Has there been any progress for the socialist struggle in the last 100 years? How are we to judge the contradictory "progress" brought on by industrialization and modernity? Special feature: Doug turns into Stalin as he tries to get a word in edgewise. Support Diet Soap Media on Patreon https://patreon.com/dietsoa...
Episode 389: What is Marxist Humanism?
December 30, 2021 00:00 - 54 minutes - 44.6 MBRon and Urszula are members of News and Letters, a Marxist Humanist organization originally founded by Raya Dunayevskaya after a split with CLR James within The Correspondance Publishing Committee. In this interview Ron and Urszula explain what Marxist Humanism offers to workers in their struggle for socialism.
Episode 388: Do Today's Marxists Need a Return to Anarchism?
December 22, 2021 00:00 - 54 minutes - 47.8 MBChris Cutrone, a founding member of the Platypus Affiliated Society, returns in order to respond to a recent conversation with Conrad Hamilton about post-pandemic politics. Cutrone objects to Conrad's statism and to what he sees as the Millennial left's ultimate slide into a combination of Stalinism and Social Democracy.
Episode 387: Stuck in Anti-Politics? (w/Derick Varn)
December 16, 2021 00:00 - 53 minutes - 38.4 MBC Derick Varn returns/arrives on the Diet Soap Media channel to discuss anti-politics and the current malaise on the left. Formerly a co-host with Doug for Pop the Left when the podcast was on the Zero Books channel, Derick is now running his own show at the VarnVlog:
Episode 386: Manifesto for a Post Pandemic Politics
December 09, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 47.3 MBConrad Hamilton is a member of Kapital Comrades, an author for Zer0 Books, and a member of the Aelita Collective. He joins Douglas Lain in this episode of the Diet Soap podcast to discuss post-pandemic politics and how the left should handle lockdowns, the State, and in order to collect an apology. Link to Manifesto https://tripleampersand.org/state-covid-manifesto-pandemic-politics/
Episode 385: Can We Live Without Bosses?
December 03, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 52.8 MBMichael Albert is the author of the book "No Bosses," which is forthcoming from the British imprint Zer0 Books. He is also the former editor of South End Press, the co-founder of Z-Magazine, and a friend of Noam Chomsky. This interview covers some of the ideas in his upcoming book.
Episode 384: What's Wrong with Left Populism?
November 18, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 52 MBBulent Somay did his doctorate in science fiction at Montreal McGill University in 1982 and 1983, but returned to Istanbul without getting his doctorate. He earned a PhD in Psychosocial Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2013. In this first interview on the new channel, Somay discusses his skepticism about left-wing populism.
Episode 383: Slavoj Zizek on Precarity and Pandemics
November 05, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 40.2 MBIn this conversation with Slavoj Zizek, Douglas Lain discusses how working in the gig economy as a floating freelancer without a contract is symptomatic of overall trends in capitalist culture. While Zizek reflects on his two volumes: Pandemic and Pandemic 2.
Episode 382: Diet Soap Interview on The Music of Momus
October 30, 2021 00:00 - 45 minutes - 33.9 MBNicholas "Nick" Currie (born 11 February 1960), more popularly known under the artist name Momus (after the Greek god of mockery), is a Scottish songwriter, author, blogger, and former journalist for Wired.
Episode 381: Debating Marx's Theory of History (ft Sean Sayers and Steve Paxton)
October 21, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 44.8 MBSean Sayers is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kent. He has written extensively on Hegelian and Marxist philosophy from a Hegelian Marxist perspective. In April of 2020, he appeared on the Zero Books channel in order to discuss his criticism of GA Cohen, an analytic philosopher, and Marxist. Since then Steve Paxton, who is the author of Unlearning Marx (a book that came out in January of 2021 from Zero Books), has made it known through Twitter that he belie...
Episode 380: Dave Chappelle, Comedy, and Canceling.
October 14, 2021 00:00 - 50 minutes - 40.2 MBJake Flores from Pod Damn America joins Doug Lain to set him straight after he was ratioed on Twitter. They discuss what up and coming comedians REALLY think about "cancel culture," Dave Chappelle's controversial comedy special "The Closer" and how the Generation X cohort is becoming synonymous with Boomers.
Episode 379: Capitalism NEEDS the Homeless
October 08, 2021 00:00 - 36 minutes - 27.4 MBLavit Maas is a social worker working as a mental health responder on Skid Row in Los Angeles. In this video interview she explains the difficulties she faces as she works to get the most destitute and vulnerable people care and explores how homelessness and servicing homelessness are mutually supporting under capitalism.
Episode 378: Memeing Mark Fisher?
September 30, 2021 00:00 - 52 minutes - 37.5 MBMike Watson joins Douglas Lain to discuss his critique of capitalism, memes, mental illness and the counterculture. He urges the online left to use digital culture to build a real cultural and political movement.
Episode 377: Can We Live with No Bosses? (A conversation with Michael Albert)
September 27, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.7 MBIn this episode, Douglas Lain talks to Michael Albert about his book No Bosses. The book advocates for the conception and then organization of a new economy. The vision offered is called participatory economics. It elevates self-management, equity, solidarity, diversity, and sustainability. It eliminates elitist, arrogant, dismissive, authoritarian, exploitation, competition, and homogenization.
Episode 376: Wisecrack, Jared Bauer, and Cancel Culture
September 17, 2021 00:00 - 47 minutes - 38.3 MBJared Bauer is the director and writer behind the youtube channel Wisecrack. He was known on youtube for producing and hosting Wisecrack's Philosophy videos. Jared is no longer with Wisecrack but has moved to Finland. In this episode he talks to Doug about Hollywood, Youtube, and cancel culture. If you enjoy this conversation check out Jared's new channel and his new interview about Cancel Culture with Ben Burgis. Jared Bauer Interviews Ben Burgis https://youtu.be/lDRDi0mcmno Ja...
Episode 375: What Should the Left Do About America?
September 10, 2021 00:00 - 46 minutes - 39.5 MBDaniel Bessner is a historian, non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a contributing editor at Jacobin, co-host of the podcast American Prestige, and the author of the upcoming book for Zero Books “Imperial Realism.”
Episode 374: Afghanistan: The Last Marxist Weighs In
September 03, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 47.5 MBChris Cutrone of the Platypus Affiliated Society discusses his essay Afghanistan: After 20 and 40 years with Douglas Lain. Put differently, the last Marxist weighs in on the invasion, occupation, and withdrawal from Afghanistan. Excerpt from essay: "AFGHANISTAN WAS INTENDED BY THE U.S. in the 1980s to be the Soviet Union’s Vietnam War. But it is the United States today that is experiencing a second Fall of Saigon in Kabul. If the Great Recession was the historic crisis of neolibera...
Episode 373: Socialism, Immigration, and Tinder
August 26, 2021 00:00 - 53 minutes - 39.2 MBDaniel Melo is an attorney and social critic who grew up in diverse cultural and political settings. His new book Borderlines explores how power and profit are perpetuated by the divisions between migrant and citizen and the resulting dehumanization of both.
Episode 372: Noam Chomsky Discusses a Plan for Anarchy
August 21, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 89.4 MBNoam Chomsky joins Michael Albert to discuss his book No Bosses. Albert advocates for the conception and then organization of a new economy. The vision offered is called participatory economics. It elevates self-management, equity, solidarity, diversity, and sustainability. It eliminates elitist, arrogant, dismissive, authoritarian, exploitation, competition, and homogenization.
Episode 371: The Death of Fiction and the Imagination
August 13, 2021 00:00 - 42 minutes - 30.6 MBSusanna Kleeman is the woman behind the novel Twice which came out from Zero Books in June of 2021. In this video, she discusses how Capitalism is murdering the imagination even as she discusses her novel. Music Crippled Inside Cover by Isto https://youtu.be/8llnf1SVOIA Relevant Book Twice by Susanna Kleeman https://www.susannakleeman.com/twice
Episode 370: Pop the Left: What Happened in Poland?
August 05, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 43.9 MBIn this week's Pop the Left, Kuba Wrzesniewski talks to Varn about the history of Poland and Communism, how the left was liquidated in Poland, and how Poland was pushed into the NATO orbit. We talk about misconceptions about the progress and if the Soviets could have handled things differently.
Episode 369: Has the Left Been Canceled?
July 29, 2021 00:00 - 47 minutes - 34.2 MBBen Burgis stops by to discuss his book "Cancelling Comedians While the World Burns," the Dirtbag Left, and how the radical left should get its mojo back.
Episode 368: Pop the Left The First International
July 23, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 50.9 MBVarn and P.H. Higgins discuss the First International and its controversies, particularly focusing on the Italian sections of the international and how Anarchist Internationals became more and more Marxist over time despite themselves.
Episode 367: Can Hegel Help Us Today? (w/ Todd McGowan)
July 15, 2021 00:00 - 56 minutes - 41 MBTodd McGowan is committed to the idea that theoretical exploration of questions about existence, the psyche, and society can contribute to radical politics. He is the author of "Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution" and a cultural critic. In this podcast, he talks to Douglas Lain about Hegel and claims the old philosopher is perhaps more radical than Karl Marx.
Episode 366: Conspiracies and the Deep State
July 08, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 40.4 MBDerick Varn talks to Dr. Djene Balajan about the history of the term of "deep state"--it's emergence from Turkish politics. Its abuse in left- and right-wing circles. WE also discuss how to parse the deep state in terms of left-wing conspiracy thinking and how this may be a problem for leftist analysis.