Best Siege On Democracy Podcasts (2025)

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Notes on the New Regime w/ Aslı Bâli & Gabriel Winant 1:32:34

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3d ago1:32:34

1:32:34

Featuring Aslı Bâli and Gabriel Winant on the emerging conjuncture: the Trump regime’s fascist and authoritarian second coming; the giant vacuum created by the Democratic establishment’s inability to act like an opposition party; and the resurgent dynamism and energy now coming so powerfully from our political forces on the socialist left. Conducte…

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Canadians wanted to seize land and start a militia? Sounds exhausting (with Amarnath Amarasingam) 51:05

3d ago51:05

51:05

FOLLOW AMAR: Twitter: x.com/AmarAmarasingam Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/amaramarasingam.bsky.social Substack: https://substack.com/@amarnathamarasingam ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore YouTube: YouTube.com/@AtRachelGilmor…

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John Adams: The Most Influential Yet Overlooked Founding Father? 38:38

4d ago38:38

38:38

John Adams is arguably America’s most underrated Founding Father. He has no currency that bears his image. No national holidays celebrate his birth. He’s nearly never named as anyone’s favorite president. And he has no dedicated memorial in Washington, D.C. Despite this, he was perhaps the most influential early American, rivaling Washington, Jeffe…

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Why Thomas More -- Henry VIII’s Hatchet Man and Heretic Hunter -- Was Himself Executed For Heresy After the English Reformation 49:11

6d ago49:11

49:11

Thomas More was one of the most famous—and notorious—figures in English history. Born into the era of the Wars of the Roses, educated during the European Renaissance, rising to become Chancellor of England, and ultimately destroyed by Henry VIII, he hunted Protestants for heresy and had them burnt at the stake in the final years of Catholic England…

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How to get through Canada Day without being a total d*ck (with Pam Palmater) 59:18

10d ago59:18

59:18

FOLLOW PAM: Website: pampalmater.com Linktree: linktr.ee/pampalmater ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore YouTube: YouTube.com/@AtRachelGilmore Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5uP73DlOq5hVf5zlPadObD?si=3e49f0a371734d55 Apple…

1
Don’t Look to 1903s Germany to Understand American Populism. Look to 1830s New York Revivals Instead. 1:03:45

11d ago1:03:45

1:03:45

Something strange happened in Upstate New York during the 1830s. This area was called the "Burned-Over District" because so many fiery religious revivals swept through that it was metaphorically burned over. This region became a key source of the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant revival movement marked by emotional preaching and mass conversion…

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How Zohran Won w/ NYC DSA 1:54:40

13d ago1:54:40

1:54:40

Featuring NYC DSA co-chairs Gustavo Gordillo and Grace Mausser on how Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary. NYC DSA spent years building an electoral juggernaut that has now made history and offers a model for the left everywhere across the United States. A behind-the-scenes look at how NYC DSA and the Zohran campaign did it! Support T…

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Operation Barbarossa Saw Millions of POW Executions, Civilian Murders, and Starvation Deaths 52:35

13d ago52:35

52:35

Operation Barbarossa, launched by Nazi Germany on June 22, 1941, aimed to swiftly conquer the Soviet Union, targeting key cities like Moscow, Leningrad, and Kyiv. Hitler reportedly said a meeting with his generals before the campaign began "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down," With German forces …

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What's actually happening in Iran, Gaza, and in our mainstream newsrooms? (With Samira Mohyeddin) 45:20

17d ago45:20

45:20

FOLLOW SAMIRA: Patreon: www.patreon.com/OnTheLineMedia YouTube: www.youtube.com/@SamiraMohyeddin Instagram: www.instagram.com/smohyeddin Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/smohyeddin.bsky.social Twitter: x.com/SMohyeddin ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch:…

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Pistol Duels Existed Across the 19th-Century World, But Only the Chaos of the American West Produced Gunfighters 51:30

18d ago51:30

51:30

To understand American history and its deep-seated relationship with violence, we must look to the last three decades of the 1800s in the American West, which had the highest murder rate per capita in American history. And it all boils down to one place: Texas. Texas was born in violence, on two fronts, with Mexico to the south and the Comanche to …

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Rome Definitively Eclipsed Greece in 197 BC By Making the Alexandrian Phalanx/Cavalry Obsolete 46:35

20d ago46:35

46:35

The battle of Cynoscephalae represents a key moment in the history of the Greco-Roman world. In this one battle the Macedonian hold over mainland Greece was broken, with the Roman Republic rising in its place as the pre-eminent power in the Greek East. At Cynoscephalae, the proud Macedonian kingdom of Antigonid monarch Philip V was humbled, its arm…

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Israel’s Forever Wars w/ Mouin Rabbani 1:33:24

24d ago1:33:24

1:33:24

Featuring Mouin Rabbani on Israel’s war on Iran, possible direct US intervention, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Chicago: come see The Dig live! secure.actblue.com/donate/thediglive Listen to Thawra and our five-part Iran series: thedigradio.com/series Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Read Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi in Sidecar newleftrevie…

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Exposing one of Canada's biggest far-right extremist groups (with Evan Balgord) 50:22

24d ago50:22

50:22

FOLLOW THE CANADIAN ANTI-HATE NETWORK: Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/antihate.ca Newsletter: www.antihate.ca/join Website: www.antihate.ca Report: https://www.antihate.ca/diagolon_canada_homegrown_white_nationalist_network ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore …

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Exploring the Wreckage of the Britannic (the Titanic’s Sister Ship) and Discovering Why It Sunk in 50 Minutes 48:25

25d ago48:25

48:25

The RMS Titanic is history’s most famous shipwreck, but it wasn’t the only ship of its kind. The White Star Line built two other nearly identical vessels: The RMS Olympic and Britannic. The Olympic carried passengers until 1935 and can be visited today. The Brittanic sank only four years after her sister ship the Titanic off the Greek island of Kea…

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Student Debt w/ Ryann Liebenthal, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Mike Pierce 2:28:36

27d ago2:28:36

2:28:36

Featuring Ryann Liebenthal, Chenjerai Kumanyika, and Mike Pierce on Ryann’s book Burdened: Student Debt and the Making of an American Crisis. Interview by guest host Astra Taylor. We are working on an episode analyzing Israel’s war on Iran amid the ongoing Gaza genocide—it will be out soon. For now, check out our five-part series on the history of …

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Did Tariffs Make America a Manufacturing Powerhouse Or Trigger Economic Misery and Stifle Global Trade?ads) 44:55

27d ago44:55

44:55

At a time when debates over tariffs, regulation, and the scope of government are back at center stage. Is this time in American history unprecedented, or can we find parallels in the past? For example, has trade “hollowed out” U.S. manufacturing—or have fact tariffs like the Corn Laws in Britain hurt working-class families the most? Was the Great D…

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'Unprepared, Part Two: There is No Plan’ (from NPR’s Up First) 26:33

1M ago26:33

26:33

From The Sunday Story on NPR’s Up First, hosted by Ayesha Rascoe. As North Carolina struggles to build back after Hurricane Helene, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan travels to New York and New Jersey years after Superstorm Sandy to find how recovery efforts fell short. And we learn special interests are shaping how we put communities back together.…

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‘Unprepared, Part One: Hurricane Helene’s Deadly Warning’ (from NPR’s Up First) 24:10

1M ago24:10

24:10

From The Sunday Story on NPR’s Up First, hosted by Ayesha Rascoe. NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan examines how the nation is failing to rebuild after major storms in a way that will protect them from the next one. As climate-related storms become more frequent and severe, NPR and FRONTLINE investigate the forces keeping communities from building r…

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This doctor is joining thousands to break the siege on Gaza (with Yipeng Ge) 42:55

1M ago42:55

42:55

FOLLOW YIPENG: Twitter: https://x.com/yipengGe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yipeng.ge/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/yipengge.bsky.social ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore YouTube: YouTube.com/@AtRachelGilmor…

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Alan Pinkerton: The Private Detective Who Saved Lincoln’s Life and Built America’s Contract Security State 50:07

1M ago50:07

50:07

Alan Pinkerton is perhaps the most over-achieving barrel-maker who ever lived. After practicing his trade in rural Illinois for a few years in the 1850s, the Scottish immigrant busted up a counterfeiting ring, which got the attention of Chicago’s police department, offering him a job as a detective. From here he worked as an intelligence agent in t…

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MacArthur’s Plans to Drop 50 Nuclear Bombs During the Korean War 50:45

1M ago50:45

50:45

The Korean War came dangerously close to going nuclear, and if would have if Gen. Douglas MacArthur had gotten his way. He proposed using 30 to 50 nuclear primarily to targeting air bases, depots, and supply lines across the neck of Manchuria to create a radioactive barrier and halt Chinese and North Korean advances. This would have killed millions…

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From Rebellion to Reaction w/ Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Asha Ransby-Sporn 2:09:06

1M ago2:09:06

2:09:06

Featuring Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Asha Ransby-Sporn on 2020’s summer of mass protest and rebellion sparked by the police murder of George Floyd. As Keeanga puts it: “The pressing question is how we went from twenty-six million people on the streets to a fascist in the White House?” We must urgently build organizations and movements that meet th…

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After Hurricane Helene, Are We Ready for the Next Big Storm? 22:03

1M ago22:03

22:03

Last fall, Hurricane Helene tore through multiple states, leaving millions without power, billions of dollars in damage, and more than 200 people dead. In the days that followed, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan and a team from FRONTLINE began reporting on the ground in Western North Carolina, one of the hardest-hit areas — despite being inland and…

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What we learned from the first month of Mark Carney's Canada (with Paris Marx) 42:42

1M ago42:42

42:42

FOLLOW PARIS: Disconnect: https://www.disconnect.blog Tech Won’t Save Us: https://techwontsave.us System Crash: https://systemcrash.info/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/parismarx.com ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore …

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The Many Ways That Rome Never Fell and Lives On Today 37:16

1M ago37:16

37:16

Rome’s Western Empire may have fallen 1,600 years ago, but its cultural impact has a radioactive half-life that would make xenon jealous. Over a billion people speak Latin (or at least a Latin-derived language). Governments around the world self-consciously copy Roman buildings and create governments that copy the imperial senate. Every self-aggran…

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Hooves of History: How Horses Created Ancient Warfare, Built the Silk Road, and Became the Dividing Line Between Nobleman and Peasant 44:28

1M ago44:28

44:28

In order to become rich, powerful, and prestigious in the pre-modern world, nothing mattered more than horses. They were the fundamental unit of warfare, enabling cavalry charges, and logistical support. They facilitated the creation of the Silk Road (which could arguably be called the “Horse Road”) since China largely built it to enable the purcha…

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How to use political tools to fight Canada's inaction on Gaza (with NDP MP Heather McPherson) 43:17

2M ago43:17

43:17

FOLLOW HEATHER: YouTube: www.youtube.com/@heathermcpherson2548 Substack: https://heathermcphersonmp.substack.com ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore YouTube: YouTube.com/@AtRachelGilmore Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5uP7…

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Menswear and the World System w/ Derek Guy 2:42:33

2M ago2:42:33

2:42:33

Featuring Derek Guy on the politics, history, economics, and style of Western menswear. Guest hosted by Dennis M. Hogan. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig In These Times is offering 78% off print subscriptions for Dig listeners at Inthesetimes.com/dig Buy I Didn’t Come Here to Lie at Haymarketbooks.com…

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Moonshining Survived (and Thrived) At Least Two Decades After Prohibition Ended 45:47

2M ago45:47

45:47

The Prohibition era (1920–1933), enacted by the 18th Amendment, birthed an overnight economy of moonshiners who distilled and distributed homemade liquor to meet America’s insatiable demand for alcohol, transforming rural farmers and opportunists into underground entrepreneurs who supplied speakeasies. But this new economy didn’t disappear after Pr…

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How to Cross the Sahara as a Tenth-Century Cameleer 53:08

2M ago53:08

53:08

What comes to mind when we think about the Sahara? Rippling sand dunes, sun-blasted expanses, camel drivers and their caravans perhaps. Or famine, climate change, civil war, desperate migrants stuck in a hostile environment. The Sahara stretches across 3.2 million square miles, hosting several million inhabitants and a corresponding variety of lang…

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What did you do with your power? (with Kagiso Lesego Molope) 54:37

2M ago54:37

54:37

FOLLOW KAGISO: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kagisosan/ ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore YouTube: YouTube.com/@AtRachelGilmore Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5uP73DlOq5hVf5zlPadObD?si=3e49f0a371734d55 Apple Podca…

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How American Slaves Fled By Sea, Whether as Stowaways or Commandeering a Confederate Ship 46:06

2M ago46:06

46:06

As many as 100,000 enslaved people fled successfully from the horrors of bondage in the antebellum South, finding safe harbor along a network of passageways across North America via the Underground Railroad. Yet many escapes took place not by land but by sea. William Grimes escaped slavery in 1815 by stowing away in a cotton bale on a ship from Sav…

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Did WW2 Heads of State Want to Preserve Their Empires As Much as Defend Their Homelands? 47:51

2M ago47:51

47:51

2025 marks the eightieth anniversary of Germany’s surrender and the fall of the Third Reich. Likewise, World War II is the single most studied conflict in human history. But most Western accounts offer a one-dimensional interpretation: the war was a noble crusade against fascism, creating a convenient parable about good and evil. But this depiction…

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Hayek’s Bastards w/ Quinn Slobodian 2:34:25

2M ago2:34:25

2:34:25

Featuring Quinn Slobodian on his book Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. MAGA and its far-right populist siblings around the world aren’t just a backlash to neoliberalism. The far-right has also long been animated by extremist mutant neoliberal anarcho-capitalist and paleo-libertarian strains that in the 1980s an…

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How a British Governor of Virginia Raised an Ex-Slave Regiment in 1776 to Fight Patriots and Triggered the Revolutionary War 55:09

2M ago55:09

55:09

As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded in Virginia that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill in uniting the colonies against Britain. Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, and most populous province in British North America, was led by Lord Dun…

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How a Marine Embedded with Mao Zedong’s Guerrillas in the 30s Became WW2’s Most Celebrated Special Forces Leader 55:46

2M ago55:46

55:46

He was a gutsy old man.” “A corker,” said another. “You couldn’t find anyone better.” They talked about him in hushed tones. “This Major Carlson,” wrote one of the officers in a letter home, “is one of the finest men I have ever known.” These were the words of the young Marines training to be among the first U.S. troops to enter the Second World Wa…

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A Conversation w/ Jean-Luc Mélenchon 55:41

2M ago55:41

55:41

Featuring Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing French party La France Insoumise. How the radical left confronts and then defeats the far-right, in France and everywhere. Recorded before an audience at n+1’s Brooklyn office. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Register for “Our Collective Is the Prize” at comrades.education Buy Reconsiderin…

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Behind the scenes in a prime minister's office...including dealing with Trump (with Supriya Dwivedi) 45:20

2M ago45:20

45:20

FOLLOW SUPRIYA: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supsdwivedi/ Twitter: https://x.com/supriyadwivedi BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/supriya.bsky.social ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore YouTube: YouTube.com/@AtRach…

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Microbes Were Discovered in the 1600s. Why It Take 200 Years For Doctors To Start Washing Their Hands? 54:16

2M ago54:16

54:16

Scientists and enthusiastic amateurs first confirmed the existence of living things invisible to the human eye in the late sixteenth century. So why did it take two centuries to connect microbes to disease? As late as the Civil War in the 1860s, most soldiers who perished died not on the battlefield but of infected wounds, typhoid, and other diseas…

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From Einstein’s Chalkboard to Oppenheimer’s Nuclear Test: The 50-Year Path to the Atomic Bomb 48:14

2M ago48:14

48:14

The story of the atomic age began decades before Robert Oppenheimer watched a mushroom cloud form over the New Mexico desert at the Trinity nuclear test in mid 1945. It begins in 1895, with Henri Becquerel’s accidental discovery of radioactivity, setting in motion a series of remarkable and horrifying events. By the early 20th century, a brilliant …

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Trump’s Historic Unpopularity: Majority See Him as a Dangerous Dictator 44:21

2M ago44:21

44:21

In this eye-opening episode, Jim Wallis and Robert P. Jones dive deep into the latest poll data revealing President Trump’s unprecedented negative approval ratings within his first 100 days back in office. Discover how Trump ranks as the most unpopular president since World War II at this stage, with a majority of Americans-including 55% of indepen…

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Rogue State w/ Aziz Rana 2:15:34

2M ago2:15:34

2:15:34

Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the final in a four-part series, traces the great unraveling of the American empire from the 1970s to our present MAGA 2.0 moment. Would you like to know more? Aziz made a bibliography for you: thedigradio.com…

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Congrats, you survived the election! What happens now? (with Paris Marx) 44:10

2M ago44:10

44:10

FOLLOW PARIS: Disconnect: https://www.disconnect.blog Tech Won’t Save Us: https://techwontsave.us System Crash: https://systemcrash.info/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/parismarx.com ---------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE ✨ Substack: rachelgilmore.substack.com Patreon: patreon.com/rachelgilmore Twitch: twitch.tv/rachel_gilmore …

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Japan’s Desperate Air Battles Against the US in the Final Months of WW2 37:15

2M ago37:15

37:15

The B-29 Bomber led the Allied strategic bombing offensive against Japan, succeeding when US Bomber Command switched from high-level daytime precision bombing to low-level nighttime area bombing. The latter tactic required Superfortresses to attack their targets individually, without a formation or escorting fighters for protection. Despite this, J…

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D-Day From the East: The Soviet Operation Bagration Crippled the Wehrmacht in Late 1944 42:08

3M ago42:08

42:08

Throughout the war on the Eastern Front, there were two consistent trends. The Red Army battled to learn how to fight and win, while involved in a struggle for its very survival. But by 1944 it had a leadership that was able to wield it with lethal effect and with far more effective equipment than before. By contrast, the Wehrmacht had commenced a …

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Election day is here. Try not to freak out!! | Campaign Cops (with Paris Marx) 44:47

3M ago44:47

44:47

Note: Paris and I filmed this before the horrific and heartbreaking events of Saturday night in Vancouver. We want to send all our love and support to the Filipino community after this devastating event. We are with you. If you’re able, consider supporting the B.C. Filipino community with a donation here: https://filipinobc.com/donate -------------…

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Black Power, Cold War w/ Aziz Rana 1:36:45

3M ago1:36:45

1:36:45

Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the third in what is now a four-part series, looks at how black movements responded as the Vietnam War and the limits of formal civil rights victories combined to explode the Cold War’s contradictions. Support…

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Exposing far-right weirdness during the election campaign (with Luke Lebrun) 46:10

3M ago46:10

46:10

FOLLOW LUKE: BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/lukelebrun.ca READ SOME OF HIS STUFF: https://pressprogress.ca/conservatives-claim-do-you-believe-the-polls-group-is-a-false-flag-psyop-run-by-the-liberals-and-doug-ford/ https://pressprogress.ca/conservative-candidate-used-a-secret-signal-group-chat-with-freedom-convoy-leaders-right-wing-media-and-far-right-i…

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Pilgrimages Involved Penitent Marches, Visiting Holy Places, and Watching Drunken Emperors Go on Chariot Rides 44:53

3M ago44:53

44:53

Pilgrimages are a universal phenomenon, from China’s bustling Tai Shan to the ancient Jewish treks to Jerusalem. But why? What is it about a grueling penitent march to an isolated temple that has become a prerequisite for a civilization of any size, whether Chicen Itza in the Mayan Empire or the holy sites of Mecca? To explore this is today’s guest…

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Britain Learned How to Set Up Its Global Empire on a Tiny Bermudan Island 44:02

3M ago44:02

44:02

Years before Jamestown planters made New World farming profitable by growing tobacco, and years before their countrymen up north in Plymouth Colony managed to overcome their starvation conditions and acclimate to New England’s growing conditions, there was an English settlement in Bermuda that was wealthier, larger, and more prosperous. It was esta…