Varn Vlog
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Varn Vlog
Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Varn Vlog is the pod of C. Derick Varn. We combine the conversation on philosophy, political economy, art, history, culture, anthropology, and geopolitics from a left-wing and culturally informed perspective. We approach the world from a historical lens with a...
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410 episoder
Cold War Cinema — History, Propaganda, and Left-Wing Film Analysis with Jason Christian & Tony Ballas
How did decades of geopolitical paranoia, nuclear anxiety, and state-sponsored propaganda completely reshape the landscape of global filmmaking? In th...
Gerontocracy in America: Samuel Moyn on Aging Wealth and Shifting Power
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...
Why Jordan Peterson is Wrong About Jung with Rob Faure Walker
Why are so many political activists crashing into severe burnout and depression? Can the deep psychology of Carl Jung provide a radical toolkit for mo...
Brandon Lightly on the Mass Line and New Democracy, Part 1
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...
Screened Realities and the Complicit Lens: Robin Andersen on Media Complicity in Gaza and Beyond
While the atrocities in Palestine and Gaza have been live-streamed by courageous on-the-ground journalists, American legacy media have operated in an...
Real Internationalism: Inside the RAIZ International Project
In this special episode, we are doing something a little different by introducing an urgent, concrete internationalist political project. We are joi...
Grade Scandals, Bureaucracy, and the Truth About the Teacher Shortage with Chris Papst
Why are public school budgets skyrocketing while student proficiency scores tank? How do districts artificially inflate graduation rates while leaving...
Solidarity or Silence?: How Leftist Politics Often Overlooks the Disabled with Anthony David Vernon
This podcast and YouTube episode features an in-depth conversation with Anthony David Vernon, a philosopher and educator, exploring the intersection o...
Karl Marx’s Ethics of Human Flourishing with Sam Badger
In this episode of Varn Vlog, we sit down with Sam Badger to explore the moral philosophy hidden within Marxian theory. While Karl Marx is famously de...
The Stranger Side of Ancient Philosophy: Materialism & Metaphysics with Max Wade
What did "materialism" actually mean to the ancients, and how does it differ from our modern scientific understanding? In this episode, we sit down wi...
Revolutionary Strategy Today with the Angry Workers Collective
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 si...
Up vs. Down: Bypassing the Two-Party Sorting Mechanism with Travis Misurell
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...
Decoding the Tragedy of Noam Chomsky with Dr. Chris Knight
In this episode of Varn Vlog, we welcome back British anthropologist and activist Dr. Chris Knight, author of Decoding Chomsky, to discuss the startl...
The Prospects of DSA: Party Building, Power, and the Marxist Unity Group
Approximately two years into the second Trump administration, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is at a critical crossroads. In this semi-ann...
Communist Unity in Oceania: The Future of Socialist Organizing in Australia
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 f...
The Quest for Narrative From World Travels to Technology with Miles Spencer
Is our digital legacy the final frontier of storytelling?
In this episode, we sit down with Miles Spencer, a serial entrepreneur, world t...
The Castaneda Con with Ru Marshall
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...
The Left-Wing Deadbeat with Nurse John
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 co...
The K-Shaped Decade with Matt Borka
“Why does life feel poorer when the economy looks rich?” That question drives our talk with Hungarian-born creator and entrepreneur Matt Borka, who ha...
From Dawn To Decadence, Part 6: Aufheben's Decay
In Part 6 of our series "From Dawn to Decadence," we examine the intellectual trajectory and eventual "decay" of the Aufheben collective. This episode...
German Romanticism and Idealism Beyond Nostalgia And Reaction
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 ta...
Diving Into the Wreckage: The French Left Remains Unbowed
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 m...
Mapping The United Front Debate with Brandon Lightly
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 i...
Wall Street Went To Homeroom And Stole The Whiteboard with David I Backer
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 mone...
From Catechism To Class Consciousness: How Marxism Was Taught with Edward Barring
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-misrea...
How Philosophy Lost Its Nerve And How Marx Put It Back To Work with Christoph Schuringa
A century ago, philosophy split its seams. Cambridge’s revolt against British Hegelianism promised “clarity,” Vienna’s scientific modernism tried to r...
Post-Liberalism’s Fade with Nicolas Villarreal
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...
Hellworld And The Broken Labor Map with Phil Neel
What if “reindustrialization” delivers fabs, data centers, and subsidies—but not the jobs? We sit down with Marxist geographer Phil Neel to unpack Hel...
From Mills To World-Systems: Tracing Wallerstein’s Path with Sam Chian
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...
Popular Or United Fronts Explained with Brandon Lightly
Coalitions promise power, but what if they mostly deliver blame? We dig into the sharp difference between a United Front and a Popular Front, trace th...
Crisis As Decision In German Thought with Timothy Schatz
Crisis didn’t always mean endless catastrophe. In German thought, it once meant a turning point—a judgment that forces choice. We dig into why that wo...
From Dawn to Decadence, Part 5
Start with the symptom: everything still moves, yet less gets done. We unpack decadence as a live condition—where empires posture with airstrikes inst...
Punditry Without Memory with Sudip Bhattacharya
Start with a word we all hear too much: fascism. Now ask why, with the term everywhere, our understanding keeps getting worse. That’s the puzzle we di...
Can Dignity And Science Share A Banner Without Becoming A New Elite with Daniel Tutt
Daniel Tutt returns to continue our series on intellectuals. The hardest truths are the ones that feel personal. We take Robert Michels’ “iron law of...
Renaissance Without the Myth with Ada Palmer
What if the Renaissance wasn’t a rebirth at all, but a survival strategy dressed in marble and Latin? We sit down with historian and novelist Ada Palm...
Inside Iran’s Impasse And Syria’s Shadow Wars with Djene Bajalan
Start with the headlines and everything looks simple: a “crown prince” trending on social feeds, viral clips of pre-revolution Tehran, and bold claims...
Socialism, Anti-Politics, And Power Today with Joseph Sciortino
A lot of people call it populism, but the engine driving today’s politics is anti-politics: the organized channeling of frustration without a stable p...
Rewriting The Chumash War with Joe Payne
A “small revolt” doesn’t topple an institution—people do. We dive into the 1824 Chumash uprising and show why it belongs with the era’s great revoluti...
Pierre Bourdieu, Academic Power, And Class Reproduction with Daniel Tutt
In Part 2 of our series on intellectualls, Daniel Tutt returns to talk Bourdieu. Start with the feeling that “merit” is natural and fair—and then wat...
Language, Brains, And The AI Mirage with Eli Sennesh
What if today’s most powerful AI systems are closer to a free-floating hippocampus than to a thinking mind? We dive into the messy borderlands between...