This week’s episode of the Zero Books podcast features a conversation with Professor Pete Bohmer from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Evergreen has been in the news lately as students have protested professor Brett Weinstein over an email he sent to a private faculty list. In the email Weinstein objected to the students reversing what is traditionally called a Day of Absence wherein people of color leave campus voluntarily to demonstrate their importance to campus life. This year a call went out asking white people to leave. Brett Weinstein felt that this call abandoned a core principle of racial equality, namely that people should not be barred from participation in campus life based on the color of their skin. During the interview Peter Bohmer tries to reframe this, suggesting that only a small group of white students were asked to leave campus in order to participate in seminars, about 200 students,however it is my understanding as of this recording that all white students and faculty were asked to voluntarily leave and that some 200 students had the additional opportunity to participate in consciousness raising seminars off campus.

In any case, Weinstein has been called out as a racist for his email and campus protests around his email and other, sometimes more substantial, issues and demands have been made even as the students have damaged their reputation and the reputation of the college nationally. Videos of the protests have gone viral online and the college has become not only an embarrassment for the left but a target for the alt-right.

I want to thank Peter Bohmer for being a guest. At the end we discuss the possibility of an open debate on racism and free speech being held at Evergreen. I surely hope this happens and would recommend people who would like to see this email President George Sumner Bridges of Evergreen, to urge him to organize such an event.

It’s Wednesday, June 21st, 2017 and I’m Douglas Lain the publisher of Zero Books and the host of this podcast. I want to thank Zero Books Club members and encourage people who enjoy this podcast to sign up to the Zero Books Club in order to receive a second podcast every week. Right now you’re listening to Saint Pepsi’s Enjoy Yourself, but in just a moment you’ll be listening to Peter Bohmer and I discuss the Evergreen Struggle Session.

and we encourage you to join. Zero Books Club members gain access to a second podcast each week. The Inside Zero Books podcast sometimes features a second hour from this podcast, and sometimes features conversations about the left and left publishing with members of the Zero Books editorial team.

Zero Books Posadist Special

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June 07, 2017 09:53 PM PDT

This week’s Zero Books podcast features a conversation with Comrade Communicator from the Intergalactic Worker’s League.

Posadism is an ideology or movement born out of the Fourth International and headed by a certain J. Posadas, who, (per wikipedia) tried to create a synthesis of Trotskyism and Ufology. Posadas’ most prominent thesis from this perspective was Flying saucers, the process of matter and energy, science, the revolutionary and working-class struggle and the socialist future of mankind (1968). Posadists believed that extra-terrestrials visiting earth in flying saucers must come from a socially and scientifically advanced civilisation to master inter-planetary travel and that the working-class should welcome the alien invaders as their liberators.

The interview took place at the Left Forum where we also launched Angela Nagle’s book "Kill All Normies."

Special thanks goes out to members of the Zero Books club for their patience. Zero Books club members will be invited to listen to the second half of last week’s conversation with Chris Cutrone this coming weekend, and everyone should look forward to an upcoming podcast featuring panel discussion on Kill All Normies.

Zero Squared #112: Reframing Trump

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May 31, 2017 03:28 PM PDT

Chris Cutrone is founder and President of the Platypus Affiliated Society. He is also the author of the rather infamous essay “Why Not Trump?” and he recently led a panel discussion entitled “The Crisis of Neoliberalism” as part of the Platypus Affiliated Society’s third European Conference and will be leading a panel discussion at the Left Forum entitled Marx in the Age of Trump. And today he is the guest on this week’s Zero Books podcast.

If you’re in NYC you should turn up for the Left Forum. Zero Books will be hosting two panels. The first will be for the upcoming book by Michael Roberts entitled “World in Crisis" and the panel is titled Capitalism Gets Knocked Down (but then gets up again). This panel will present information about the long economic crisis and ask what political lessons can be drawn from the evidence that capitalism is inherently prone to crisis? The panel is scheduled for Saturday, June 3rd, from 12:00pm-1:50pm.

The second Panel is entitled Kill All Normies and will feature a discussion on the rise of the racist and proto-fascist right led by Angela Nagle. This panel is scheduled for Sunday, June 4th, from 3:40pm - 5:40pm.

The Left Forum will be held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at 524 W 59th St in New York City but if you miss it don't worry, our panels will be featured as audio podcasts in upcoming episodes.

If you’re a Zero Books club member, however, you should know that the Inside Zero Books podcast will be delayed, possibly for a full week.

Zero Squared #111: Michael Tracey on Russia Collusion and Obstruction

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May 24, 2017 03:21 PM PDT

Michael Tracey is a reporter for TYT politics and a freelance journalist who has written for Vice, The Nation, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, The Intercept, and The New Republic, along with many other publications. He has also been a skeptic of what he calls Trump hysteria and the Russia conspiracy and on this week’s episode of the Zero Books podcast we discuss the possibility of a Trump impeachment, whether Trump should be considered a fascist, and how the dangers of the Russia collusion narrative.

Nick Dunn is a professor of Urban Design at Lancaster University. He is formerly of the Manchester School of Architecture where he was Principal Lecturer.

His book Dark Matters: A Manifesto of the Nocturnal City, published by Zero Books last November, explores the city at night as a place and time within which escape from the confines of the daytime is possible.

Nicolas Diaz of NetGalley described the book this way: A must read for anyone who's starting with hauntology, dérive or urbanism in general. It's short, urgent and written with poetic sensibility.

I want to remind you that Angela Nagle’s book Kill All Normies and Brian Willem’s novel Henry Henry is available for pre-order through Amazon. Henry Henry is an experimental novel comprising two alternating stories: one a factually inaccurate pseudo-biography of 17th-century composer Henry Purcell and the other the story of Purcell’s mid-20th-century biographers.

If you enjoy this podcast consider joining the Zero Books Club. Zero Books Club members receive access to a Saturday podcast entitled Inside Zero Books which sometimes features the second half of conversations with Zero Squared guests and sometimes features conversations with Zero Books readers about the state of the left. Zero Books Club members are also invited to participate in youtube workshops with Zero Books authors and others.

David Auerbach is a freelance columnist and gadfly who has written for publications such as the LA Review of Books, Slate, the American Reader, and many other publications. He is a former software engineer based in New York, and a fellow at the think tank New America and we discuss his recent blog posts entitled Trump Diaries as well as the concepts of an underculture and an overculture on this week’s podcast.

I want to remind you that Angela Nagle’s book Kill All Normies is available for pre-order through Amazon and to let you know that there will be a link to both the US and UK editions in the show notes at the Zero Books blog.

If you enjoy this podcast consider joining the Zero Books Club. Zero Books Club members receive access to a Saturday podcast entitled Inside Zero Books which sometimes features the second half of conversations with Zero Squared guests, sometimes features conversations with Zero Books readers about the state of the left, and sometimes features public lectures from Zero Books authors or staff. Zero Books Club members are also invited to participate in youtube workshops with Zero Books authors and others.

Moishe Postone is a Western Marxist and a Professor of History at the University of Chicago and he is the author of the book Time, Labor and Social Domination a book that won the American Sociological Association’s prize in the theory. In this episode of Zero Squared, Postone discusses whether the working class is the true subject of capitalism and history, the particular particularity of today’s left, and the new Black Lives Matter visa card.

Angela Nagle’s book Kill All Normies is now available for pre-order through Amazon and to let you know that there will be a link to both the UK and US editions in the show notes.

I also want to remind you that, if you enjoy this podcast you should consider joining the Zero Books Club. The Zero Books Club members receive access to a Saturday podcast entitled Inside Zero Books which sometimes features the second half of conversations with Zero Squared guests, sometimes features conversations with Zero Books readers about the state of the left, and sometimes features public lectures from Zero Books authors or staff. Zero Books Club members are also invited to participate in youtube workshops with Zero Books authors and others.

Stephen Lee Naish's writing explores film, politics, and popular culture and the places where they converge. His essays have appeared in numerous journals and periodicals, including The Quietus, Empty Mirror, and 3:AM and his book Deconstructing Dirty Dancing is out now from Zero Books.

Liza Palmer, Managing Editor of The Moving Image, reviewed the book this way:

Dirty Dancing has quietly evolved from a film to enjoy, to one you can admire -- helped along by Stephen Lee Naish's Deconstructing Dirty Dancing. A model of detailed textual analysis, Deconstructing Dirty Dancing reveals what Dirty Dancing’s devoted fanbase has known for years: that the film tackled sophisticated, progressive themes with dignity, courage, and a catchy soundtrack. Rest assured, the political can indeed be pleasurable

If you enjoy this podcast consider joining the Zero Books Club. Zero Books Club members receive access to a Saturday podcast entitled Inside Zero Books which sometimes features the second half of conversations from the Zero Squared podcast, sometimes features conversations with Zero Books readers about the state of the left, and sometimes features public lectures from Zero Books authors or staff. Zero Books Club members are also invited to participate in youtube workshops with Zero Books authors and others.

Right now you’re listening to is Trot the Fox performed by the Cologne Ballroom Orchestra, but in just a moment Stephen Lee Naish and I will discuss and deconstruct Dirty Dancing.

Nick is also the guest on this week’s podcast.

This is part one of a two part conversation. If you’d like to hear the second half think about joining the Zero Books Club. Zero Books Club members receive access to a Saturday podcast entitled Inside Zero Books which sometimes features the second half of conversations from the Zero Squared podcast, sometimes features conversations with Zero Books readers about the state of the left, and sometimes features public lectures from Zero Books authors or staff. Zero Books members are also invited to participate in youtube workshops with Zero Books authors and others.

You might also stop by the Zero Books website and purchase a book on critical theory. Recommended titles include Uncertain Futures, Alfie Bown’s interview with Srecko Horvat, and the late Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism.

In this episode you’ll hear The Struts covering David Bowie’s hit Rebel Rebel, some controversial statements on transgender politics from Slavoj Zizek, and a sped up clip of Justin Bieber’s Love Me. Right now you’re listening to an instrumental cover of the Kinks hit Lola, but in just a moment you’ll be listening to Nick and I discuss Contrary points on identity.

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