Zero Squared

This week’s podcasts features a conversation with Benjamin Reynolds, whose book The Coming Revolution was published last June by Zero Books. We discuss Fully Automated Luxury Gay Communism, value theory, labor vouchers, and socialism as a political project. If you’re a fan of this podcast you should consider becoming a patron of the cast through our Patreon page as you’ll gain access to a second podcast every week and, starting in the new year, you’ll get access to a monthly member’s only video tutorial on socialism, philosophy or both. We have several big projects in mind for 2019 including our Realizing Philosophy series, a series of podcasts outlining the history of the socialist left, and the production of longer documentary-style videos. Supporting us on patreon will both make these efforts possible and give you the opportunity to both listen to and watch what we come up with. We currently have just about 500 patrons. Our next goal is to get to six hundred. I should also point out that Benjamin Reynolds books is the current Zero Books Book Club title, so if you enjoy this podcast you should consider signing up for the book club through patreon.

Harvey J Kaye is currently the Director of the Center for History and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He is the author of The Fight for the Four Freedoms, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America, "Why do Ruling Classes Fear History" and Other Questions and many other books, including one that we are currently negotiating to publish through Zero Books. That book is tentatively entitled Take Hold of Our History: Make America Radical Again. Harvey Kaye, thanks for coming on the Zero Books podcast. This episode features an introduction recorded from the Lain family Thanksgiving Day dining room table. If you like this week’s podcast you should support us on Patreon. Patreon supporters receive access to a second podcast every week. Our patrons are helping us continue and expand our online production including doing more podcasts like Symptomatic Redness and expand the content on our youtube channel.

Walter Benn Michaels is a well known literary theorist and the author of political books such as The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and essays like The Beauty of a Social Problem. He is a controversial guest and one I was glad to talk to especially in the context of the reaction to my video critiquing intersectionality. If you like this week’s podcast you should support us on Patreon. Patreon supporters receive access to a second podcast every week. Our patrons are helping us continue and expand our online production including doing more podcasts like Symptomatic Redness and expand the content on our youtube channel. We currently have 493 patrons and we’re hoping to reach 500 patrons by this time next week.

Zero Books author Rob Larson returns to discuss his most recent writing project on the digital landscape and capitalism. We discuss Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, MySpace, and Usenet and the utopian promise of this series of tubes known as the internet. How much of the US GDP comes from digital content? Does Mark Zuckerberg own our identities? Are we all unpaid laborers producing content for Google?

Michael Brooks is the host of the Michael Brooks Show, the co-host of the Majority Report, and now an author for Zero Books. In this episode, we discuss the election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and the rising right-wing populism around the world. If you like this week’s podcast you should support us on Patreon. Patreon supporters receive access to a second podcast every week. If you’re curious about it then watch this space this coming weekend as we’ll be releasing a special edition of Inside Zero Books with Rob Larson that will be available for everyone in order to entice you to support us. Our patrons are helping us continue and expand our online production including doing more podcasts like Symptomatic Redness and expand the content on our youtube channel. We currently have 493 patrons and we’re hoping to reach 500 patrons by this time next week.

Mateus Grazina is a 27 year old brazilian artist living in São Paulo working on a television show for the Cartoon Network about a school aged penguin named Oswaldo. He is part of what might be called the algorithmic left and in this episode of the podcast we discuss the 2018 presidential election in Brazil, the campaign and victory of the far right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, the recent struggles and the judicial coup that struck the Brazilian Worker’s Party, and the consequences of both the Brazilian recession and the carwash scandal. If you like this podcast consider supporting us on patreon. Our patreon supporters are helping us continue to produce this podcast and our youtube videos.

Terry Newman is currently an MA student in the Media Studies Department at Concordia University in Montreal. She is a Teaching Assistant in Concordia’s Engineering Department and the author of Through the Looking Glass at Concordia University. It’s Wednesday, October 25th, 2018 and I’m Douglas Lain the publisher of Zero Books and the host of this podcast. We’ve started a Zero Books reading group for our patrons. It runs $15 a month on Patreon and this month’s book is Stuart Walton’s Neglected or Misunderstood: Introducing Theodor Adorno. All of our supporters get access to the Symptomatic Redness and Alternatives podcasts, and patrons who donate five dollars a month or higher get access to Inside Zero Books podcast as well, which means they get access to a second podcast every week. Patreon supporters are helping us continue to produce our youtube channel and other online projects like our online Capital reading group which will be revived this month as well.

Professor Heidi Matthews is Assistant Professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School, where she Co-Directs the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security. In this week’s podcast she stops by to discuss her essay in the conversation “Why the Kavanaugh hearings were a show trial gone bad” We’ve started a Zero Books reading group for our patrons. It runs $15 a month on Patreon and this month’s book is Stuart Walton’s Neglected or Misunderstood: Introducing Theodor Adorno. All of our supporters get access to the Symptomatic Redness and Alternatives podcasts, and patrons who donate five dollars a month or higher get access to Inside Zero Books podcast as well, which means they get access to a second podcast every week. And if you like this week’s podcast you might drop by our Patreon to hear Heidi Matthews discuss Kavanaugh and the law. Patreon supporters are helping us continue to produce our youtube channel and other online projects like our online Capital reading group which will be revived this month as well.

Mir Bal is the host of the A Lost Cause podcast out of Sweden, he is also a former social worker turned barista, an immigrant, and a socialist. He joins the Zero Books podcast in order to discuss immigration to the Swedish Utopia and why the Scandinavian Model really is a worker’s paradise...or maybe that’s not the conclusion we reached. If you haven’t already supported us on Patreon you’re missing out on a second podcast every week and if you haven’t joined the Zero Books reading group then you’re missing out on a chance to discuss Adorno. We’re edging up towards 500 patrons so now is a good time to join in.

Amir of Cold Dark Stars joins C Derick Varn to discuss the over-complexity of capitalism, planning, and understanding dynamic systems. Amir is a Ph.D. student in theoretical astrophysics trying to resist the tyranny of over-specialization. Cold Dark Stars is his notebook for exploring issues concerning society, philosophy of science, and capitalism, from a Left perspective using his scientific training as a lens. The name of the blog is a reference to a neutron star – the cold, dead shell left behind after a massive star consumes all its fuel and blows up as a supernova. Symptomatic Redness is a show on political economy and historical analysis hosted by C. Derick Varn and Amogh Sahu. They interview various people on the subject of economics and politics from a historical materialist perspective and look at alternate modes of economic and political organization as well as offering commentary.

The following podcast was recorded at the request of a former Zero Books author named Nicolas Hausdorf after I mentioned on my blog that, in light of the positions he'd taken in essays written for a reactionary online journal, that we would no longer be publishing his work. In 2015 we published Nicolas Hausdorf’s book Superstructural Berlin, a “frivolous” work that plays around with critical theory in order to provide the reader with an impressionistic picture of Berlin’s nightlife, drug culture, and tourism industry. Since the publication of his book with Zero, Nicolas has moved to the right. Given his transformation politically Zero Books won’t be publishing his work again. Because he was offended to discover our intent not to publish him and because he took to twitter to object, I invited him onto the podcast in order to explain the decision to him. I want to remind listeners that Zero Books produces two podcasts every week, one for free and one for people who support us on Patreon. We also run a youtube channel featuring video essays from myself and the Zero Books team, and we have just started a Zero Books reading group. The next book on our reading list will be Stuart Walton’s Neglected or Misunderstood: Introducing Theodor Adorno, and Patrons who support us at $15 a month receive access to the book and an invitation to an online discussion group.

Peter Hudis is a professor of the Humanities at Oakton Community College, he is the author of several books including Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Frantz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades, and Marx and the Third World: New perspectives on writings from his last decade, and a member of the International Marxist Humanist Organization. He is also the guest on this week’s podcast. I want to remind listeners that Zero Books produces two podcasts every week, one for free and one for people who support us on Patreon. We also run a youtube channel featuring video essays from myself and the Zero Books team, and we have just started a Zero Books reading group. The next book on our reading list will be Stuart Walton’s Neglected or Misunderstood: Introducing Theodor Adorno, and Patrons who support us at $15 a month receive access to a ebook of this book later today.

Aimee Terese is a socialist, a law student, the co-host of the Dead Pundits Society, and a #Metoo heretic. She is also the guest on this week’s episode of Zero Squared. I want to remind listeners that Zero Books produces two podcasts every week, one for free and one for people who support us on Patreon. We also run a youtube channel featuring video essays from myself and the Zero Books team, and we have just started a Zero Books reading group. Patrons who support us at $15 a month receive a new Zero Books title every month along with an invitation to an online discussion group. The first discussion group will be livestreamed on Sunday at 11am Pacific and I’ll leave a link in the show notes.

This week's Symptomatic Redness features Michael Brooks and C Derick Varn as they debate and discuss the American radical left under Trump. Should the left turn to the democrats again? If not, what realistic opportunities or strategies might we take up? If so, is the DSA the best chance for reshaping or shifting the course of the democrats? Michael Brooks is the host of The Michael Brooks show, the co-host of the Majority Report with Sam Seder, and an author currently working on a book for Zero Books.

Virgil Texas and Matt Christman are two of the five co-hosts from the hugely popular leftist podcast Chapo Trap House and they stopped by the Zero Books podcast this week to discuss their new book The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts and Reason. Like Chapo, Zero Books has a Patreon. Unlike Chapo we don’t have tens of thousands of patreon supporters. We do have over four hundred supporters, however, and we are producing a second podcast for this select group every week. We’ve also started a Zero Books book club and supporters on Patreon can participate in an online discussion group about a select Zero Books title every month. If you enjoy the podcast or just want to support the imprint you might consider becoming a patron on our Patreon.