Emancipations Podcast

I've have hosted a number of interviews, symposiums, lectures and study groups this year. This is a Q & A session where I answer questions from patrons, listeners and supporters. If you benefit from my work please consider a donation to help defray the costs of organizing all of these events: paypal.me/danieltutt1 You can also become a Patron to gain early access to all of my interviews and videos: https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations 

In our latest episode of The Archimedean Point, we turn to Edward Said's theory of Orientalism and address its shortcomings from a Marxist perspective. We focus on Disney's Aladdin from the early 1990s as an example of pop-Orientalism, and we argue that Aladdin offers an allegory for the remaking of Middle Eastern society by capitalism. -- If you benefit from my work please consider a donation: paypal.me/danieltutt1 You can also become a Patron to gain early access to all of my interviews and videos: www.patreon.com/emancipations

We are joined by philosopher Cadell Last, the host of ‪Philosophy Portal‬ to discuss his new article "No Marxism Without Žižek", (https://bit.ly/46c4gnj) a review of Flowers for Marx.

I am joined by philosopher Alex Taek-Gwang Lee for a critical analysis and discussion on the legacy of Gilles Deleuze's thought, its influence on the existing left and the ways that the concepts Deleuze developed have interacted with the wider Marxist tradition. This conversation will consider Dr. Lee's recent book Communism After Deleuze, published with Bloomsbury https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/communism-after-deleuze-9781350474048.  Please support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations 

My guest is Ross Wolfe, a socialist historian and writer. In a recently published three-part essay entitled, "Against Losurdo" (https://newintermag.com/against-losurdo) Wolfe argues that Losurdo's work represents the re-introduction of Stalinism in contemporary Marxism. We discuss and debate Losurdo's work, with a focus on his book Western Marxism and his works on Hegel and Nietzsche. To watch the study sessions we hosted on Losurdo's Western Marxism, please go here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE03jn2k3GYCRd7dnBOAKBN-H-F-wGzYa&si=zkRb8GeYoi_Nc2Gv  Support my work on Patreon by becoming a paid member: https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations 

Political theorist Benjamin Studebaker joins to tackle the nuances of political despair, departing from traditional perspectives. He differentiates between political and spiritual despair, emphasizing the importance of recognizing intractable disagreements within politics. Studebaker critiques the moralization of politics and explains its depoliticizing effects. He offers insights into the role of institutions, the necessity for legitimate decision-making, and the emotional pathways leading to despair. The conversation challenges listeners to engage with despair as a catalyst for meaningful political action.

My guest is Michael C. Behrent, a historian of French intellectual history and a leading scholar of Michel Foucault. Behrent has been at the forefront of an important debate about the legacy of Foucault's thought, and specifically his political influence on the contemporary left and the rise of neoliberalism. Behrent is also working on the thought of Michel Clouscard, the most important French Marxist from the 20th century you have likely never heard about. The second half of this conversation is a discussion on Clouscard's work, his critique of the wider ecosystem of French philosophy from the 60s and 70s and specifically his analysis of the ideology of "liberal libertarianism."  Michael C. Behrent is a professor of History at Appalachian State University. His scholarship has sought to historicize the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault. This work evaluates the political significance of Foucault's reflections on free-market economics by situating his work in the shifting ideological landscape of France in the 1970s. And his current project seeks to show how Foucault’s thought was (to a significant degree) rooted in his upbringing in Poitiers, France from the 1920s to the 1940s. Behrent is also developing a project that seeks to reconstruct the thought of the “young Foucault” (spanning 1949 through to the mid-1960s). Behrent also writes about American politics and culture for several French publications, notably Esprit as well as Dissent, Foreign Policy, and Oxford University Press blog. Read his article on Michel Clouscard here, "Michel Clouscard vs. the Hipster Left" https://bit.ly/3Kn6jO0

I am joined by philosopher and scholar Zahi Zalloua to discuss the politics of resentment, and how to theorize the problematic concept of "ressentiment" and whether this concept can be applied to emancipatory ends. Is ressentiment a political affect that can be harnessed for revolutionary action? We discuss Zalloua's recent works: Fanon, Žižek, and Violence of Resistance and The Politics of the Wretched: Race, Reason, and Ressentiment. Zahi Zalloua is Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature and a professor of Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies at Whitman College and Editor of The Comparatist. His most recent work includes Fanon, Žižek, and Violence of Resistance (2025), The Politics of the Wretched: Race, Reason, and Ressentiment (2024), Solidarity and the Palestinian Cause: Indigeneity, Blackness, and the Promise of Universality (2023), Being Posthuman: Ontologies of the Future (2021), Žižek on Race: Toward an Anti-Racist Future (2020), Theory’s Autoimmunity: Skepticism, Literature, and Philosophy (2018), and Continental Philosophy and the Palestinian Question: Beyond the Jew and the Greek (2017).

My guest is the political economist Adam Hanieh, a foremost expert on the political economy of the Middle East, fossil capitalism and imperialism. We discuss the war on Gaza, the prospects of Palestinian statehood, the dominance of Gulf oil and how it shapes the ruling classes in the region and the status of labor struggles across the wider Middle East. Professor Adam Hanieh is the author of six books including the most recent Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine with co-authors Robert Knox and Rafeef Ziadah as well as Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market and Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and thePolitical Economy of the Contemporary Middle East which was awarded the 2019 British International Studies Association International Political Economy Group Book Prize. Please support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations

I am joined by Alan M. Wald to discuss his extensive work on the literary left and the history of intellectuals and the communist movement in America. We discuss Wald's new book of essays called "Bohemian Bolsheviks: Dispatches from the Culture and History of the Left" which features a number of Wald's more recent essays and interventions on the history of US communism, including essays that touch on Richard Wright, James T. Farrell, Mike Gold, Agnes Smedley, John Steinbeck, Lorraine Hansberry and many other writers who incorporated a commitment to the class struggle in their writing, and who were influential propagating socialist and communist ideals. In this interview, we discuss the meaning of "realism" and why it is important to socialist writers, the founding of the communist party of America, the role of Trotskyism on US left intellectuals, the role of Browderism on the cultural development of the communist party in America, the legacy of The Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick, Wald's methodology as a researcher and writer, African American literature, the New Left and various individual authors. Alan Maynard Wald is an American professor emeritus of English Literature and American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and writer of 20th-century American literature who focuses on Communist writers; he is an expert on the American 20th-Century "Literary Left." Wald's subjects have included: 20th Century United States Literature; Realism, Naturalism, Modernism in Mid-20th Century U.S. Literature; Literary Radicalism in the United States; Marxism and U.S. Cultural Studies; African American Writers on the Left; Modernist Poetry and the Left; the 1930s (Literature); New York Jewish Writers and Intellectuals; 20th-Century History of Socialist, Communist, Trotskyist and New Left Movements in the U.S.; the 1960s Politics and Culture; Cold War Culture and Resistance; Old Left/New Left in U.S. Politics and Culture; and Film Noir and the Left. Please join our Patreon to get early access to all interviews and to participate in our study groups https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations