The coronavirus pandemic, the deepening economic crash, dangerously divisive political responses, and exploding social tensions have thrown an already declining American capitalist system into a tailspin. In this video the economist Richard D. Wolff discusses how capitalism works and doesn't work as he describes his new book from Democracy at Work "The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself" and Douglas Lain tries to set up a conversation on State Capitalism and Workers Co-Ops for the parrot room.

Democracy at Work
https://www.democracyatwork.info/

Relevant Books
The Sickness is the System by Richard Wolff
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/richard-d-wolff/the-sickness-is-the-system

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Zero Books Manifesto:

The modern world is at an impasse. Disasters scroll across our smartphone screens and we’re invited to like, follow or upvote, but critical thinking is harder and harder to find. Rather than connecting us in common struggle and debate, the internet has sped up and deepened a long-standing process of alienation and atomization.

Zer0 Books wants to work against this trend.

Neal Trotter is a philosophy hobbyist and enthusiast interested in critically thinking with others. He reads philosophy books (primarily classics) and discusses them on Youtube. In this video Neal discusses Kierkegaard, despair, and the power of philosophy.

This conversation with Slavoj Zizek was inspired by a previous interview with Michael Albert. After discussing Albert's ideas about participatory economics, Douglas Lain mentioned that unlike Chomsky and Albert, he believed that critical theory was important to the struggle for socialism and mentioned that Slavoj Zizek's Hegelian leftism was particularly interesting. Albert disagreed. In an effort to clear the air, Lain invited Zizek and Albert to appear on the channel and discuss the matter. Only Zizek agreed to appear.

Are there reactionaries in our midst, people with a right-wing agenda pretending to be leftist? Is "The Bellows," the podcast "What's Left?," Malcolm Kyeyune, part of some secret red/brown alliance? What about Red Scare, Chapo, or even Zero Books? In this Pop the Left conversation Derick Varn and Douglas Lain evaluate two essays from the publication "The Bellows" before discussing just how to handle the possibility of right-wing infiltration of the left.

Derick Varn and Shalon van Tine discuss the writings of Lasch. Derick Varn is the co-host of Pop the Left, a poet, a reader/editor at Zero Books, and an editor at Former People.
Shalon van Tine is the co-author of a forthcoming book on Christopher Lasch with C. Derick Varn. She is currently studying for her Ph.D. in American cultural and intellectual history from Ohio University where she is a research fellow with the Contemporary History Institute. She is an associate media editor at Former People.

The hosts of the This Is Revolution Podcast join Douglas Lain to discuss the socialism of Adolph Reed and Walter Benn Michaels. This is Revolution is a new addition to the Zero Books lineup, coming out on the channel every Wednesday with great conversations about socialism and the left.

Derick Varn and Douglas Lain discuss last week's riot at the Capitol Building and the AOC vs. Jimmy Dore debate. Along the way the topics of standpoint epistemology, class consciousness, and the difference between a coup and a revolution will be explored.

This interview explores how "Marxist" ideas, when disconnected from Marx's own theory especially in Capital, can lead radicals in a multitude of directions, including to the right. The subject of the interview is Mickey Kaus.
Mickey Kaus is a journalist and political blogger who started the website Kausfiles in 1999. He has written for the New Republic, Newsweek, Slate and the Daily Caller and he is the author of the book “The End of Equality.” He the co-founder of bloggingheads.tv along with Robert Wright and he appears weekly with Robert in their parrot room.

Michael Albert is an organizer, publisher, teacher, and author of over twenty books and hundreds of articles. He cofounded South End Press, Z Magazine, the Z Media Institute, ZNet, and various other projects, and works full time for Z Communications. He is the author, with Robin Hahnel, of the economic vision named participatory economics. He helped create the International Organization for a Participatory Society in 2012. He is also the podcaster behind Revolution Z and an instructor at the School for Social and Cultural Change.

Derick Varn and Douglas Lain are the hosts of Pop the Left, a video podcast presented on this channel every other Thursday. This week we say goodbye to 2020 and consider the year of COVID in the context of both capitalist crises and the rise and fall of socialist movements.

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