Workers' Lit

We are officially one year into Donald Trump’s second term. How’s everybody feeling?This week we discuss the nightmare 365 days that have passed, the battles to come, and the framework that’ll beat Trump for real.Also, we congratulate Usha Vance and her pool boy on their soon-to-be-born child.(We had some technical issues on sound today, so sorry about that!)Articles quoted from in today’s episode:https://zeteo.com/p/our-year-from-hell-trump-first-drafthttps://zeteo.com/p/trump-robbery-285-days-to-stop

It’s time to get real old-sportyThis week we narrowly avoided death-by-pool to deliver you a discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 gilded age masterpiece, “The Great Gatsby.” Joining us is Joshua Ilon, voice actor on The Penumbra Podcast (Juno Steel, Mr. Serling, Jacob, Sir Tristan the Cold) to discuss just how ridiculously relevant Gatsby has become in 2026, our own fraught gilded age.Listen to the Penumbra Podcast here!Listen to Kevin and Harley of Penumbra’s episode of Workers’ Lit about “The Secret History”

It's time to break the ICE.Jen and Jacob discuss the dramatic week that's passed since the murder of Renée Nicole Good, the latest stats on ICE, Trump, and Congress' popularity, and the campaigns in motion to hold these fascists to account.Read Renée's poem here:https://poets.org/2020-on-learning-to-dissect-fetal-pigsSources cited in the episode:https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2026/1/dfp_ice_shooting_minneapolis.pdfhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/04/ice-2025-deaths-timelinehttps://zeteo.com/p/keith-ellison-minnesota-ice-trump-vancehttps://www.cnn.com/polling/approval/trump-cnn-poll-of-pollshttps://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspxhttps://substack.com/home/post/p-184378952

April is the cruelest month, but it’s January so we should be good.Today we’re discussing T.S. Eliot’s 1922 modernist poetic masterpiece, “The Wasteland.” We also discuss Eliot himself…who’s a lot less cool than his poem.Joining us as we wander the wasteland is Chris Richards, AKA The Eclectic Radical. You can check out his work here!

Author and Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad, returns to the show to discuss the United States' kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, Trump's claim that the United States now owns Venezuela's oil industry, and American foreign policy in the age he calls "hyperimperialism." We also get into Venezuela's unique and tumultuous history as it struggles to build socialism despite US aggression.Is all the discussion of Venezuela, Maduro, sanctions, international law, and all that jazz a little confusing? Vijay breaks it down perfectly.Also, stick around to hear Vijay's thoughts on the American education system in one of our best tangents ever.Check out the Tricontinental Institute here!The episode art is Vijay with Nicolas Maduro himself.

It's crime time.We're ringing in 2026 with James Ellroy's 1990 work of nasty neo noir, "LA Confidential." And we're mad about it! Why are there so many bizarre little policemen running around in this book???Joining us is Brian Wishart of "Moviepod: A Reclaimed Cinema Podcast" to unpack the weird freak that is James Ellroy, get exasperated over this absurd book, and occasionally acknowledge parts that are good.Check out Brian's podcat here!Learn about LA Police Gangs (in real life) here.Episode art is from the novel's second edition cover.

We took a weeklong break from talking about the news, but it's time to get back into the doings of the United States government...namely, starting new wars.Today we discuss Trump's Christmas strikes on Nigeria, the bombing of a Venezuelan port, and preparations being made inside Venezuela itself for siege and war. Also, we mention our favorite holiday movies.Articles referenced in this episode:https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/nigerian-residents-of-jabo-are-rattled-after-close-u-s-airstrikes-made-their-homes-shake-and-the-sky-glow-redhttps://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/29/nigeria_strikeshttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/30/trump-bombs-venezuelan-land-for-first-time-is-war-imminenthttps://substack.com/home/post/p-182894927?source=queue

IT'S TIME FOR SOME THEATER!!!We're delighted to have Andy Boyd back on the show to discuss her play, "Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist." Are you looking for a show about the betrayal of the young radicals of the early 20th century in the face of their own success and a conservative culture? No? Well, you should be, and it's this play!Go buy the written version of "Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist" here!Go check out Andy Boyd and her other work here!The image in the episode art comes from the play's staging at The Tank in NYC. The actors shown are Jeff Gonzalez and Charlie Hurtt.

Classic alert!It's Christmas...so it's time to talk about Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."What is a Grinch? Are the residents of Whoville bourgeois? Was the Grink there? All these questions and more, answered!We hope y'all like the new theme music from the talented SoloMonk!Feeling generous? Feel free to send some of that generosity our way: https://buymeacoffee.com/workerslitCredit to the classic, "Was the Grink there?" tweet from @murrman5 for the joke we make like thirty times.

There’s a war on LGBTQ+ Rights in the US. The sooner we treat it as such the better.The Workers are joined today by Pigeon of “2 Whits, 1 Cup,” an exvangelical, queer podcast about the evangelical radio drama, “Adventures in Odyssey” to discuss the Trump Administration—and every other powerful institution’s—increased aggression towards the queer community. Topics include the Department of Justice’s new prison rules, S 1071, the betrayal of the Democratic Party, TPUSA and other anti-trans vigilante orgs, digital mass surveillance, the Arlington retreat, and how when we fight, we win!Check out Jacob’s episode with 2 Whits, 1 Cup here!Articles cited in this episode:https://www.npr.org/2025/12/04/nx-s1-5630490/prison-doj-safety-memo-changes-trans-lgbtq-inmateshttps://fdt.beehiiv.com/p/a-bill-to-disinter-a-serial-killer-from-a-military-cemetery-psyche-it-s-now-an-omnibus-appropriationhttps://zeteo.com/p/social-media-children-ban-australia-ushttps://www.techpolicy.press/age-verification-is-locking-trans-people-out-of-the-internet/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/dec/11/meta-shuts-down-global-accounts-linked-to-abortion-advice-and-queer-contenthttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/12/trans-inmates-win-right-to-gender-affirming-care-as-judge-calls-it-a-serious-medical-need/

Them doors are about to get real bright.It's time to hop into Vajra Chandrasekera's crazy 2023 fantasy novel, "The Saint of Bright Doors."We've got revolution, we've got being bisexual, we've got family trauma, we've got cults, we've got it ALL with this book!!

So…bad news. Pretty much all American institutions are imploding into their most idiotic possible forms. However, since that includes journalism, you’ll probably hear elsewhere that this is good news. Go figure.This week, the workers are joined by Nelson from the “What’s Left of The South” podcast to talk about the attempts of different mega-corporations to take over Warner Bros, the ascendence of the Unitary Executive Theory of Government, the Texas senate race, and Indigenous people fighting back against colonialism and climate change.What’s Left of the South is a great podcast about southern working class history. Check it out here!Articles quoted in today’s episode:https://zeteo.com/p/the-maga-moguls-media-takeoverhttps://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/08/supreme-court-slaughter-trump-firings-00681078https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/900-acres-bordering-yosemite-returned-to-tribe-that-was-expelled-175-years-ago/And of course, check out the Costco Guys’ new hit Christmas song

Nuclear war kinda sucks.We are joined by returning guest and apocalypse-understander Brian Alford of The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast to discuss Nevil Shute's 1957 end-of-the-world novel, "On The Beach."What if the world was ending, but we were in Australia and being real polite about it? Have you been wondering what that'd be like? We know you have, so listen on!Listen to Brian's fantastic podcast, ⁠The Worst of All Possible Worlds⁠

It's a bonus author interview!We're joined by author, public theologian, and all-around cool guy Brian Recker to talk about his new book, "Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love"If you were raised evangelical, this one will hit hard, but even if you weren't, this is a great discussion (and book!) about the politics of hell, liberatory (and anti-liberatory) forms of Christianity, and the way a fear of divine punishment hangs over our society...and how we all deserve to escape that fear.Buy a copy of Hell Bent here!

The US is up to some bad stuff, folks.We start by discussing the evangelical cabal (and Jacob's ties to it), move into the DC shooting (and the Pentagon's responsibility for it), and then talk about US meddling in Latin America, Pete Hegseth, and Jen's suspicious absence.Finally, Starbucks takes a big L (and we're very pleased).Articles referenced in this episode:https://www.propublica.org/article/roommates-steve-berger-mike-johnson-andy-ogles-right-wing-influence-townhousehttps://www.dropsitenews.com/p/national-guard-shooter-rahmanullah-lakanwal-afghanistan-zero-units-cia-imprisonmenthttps://www.dropsitenews.com/p/honduras-vote-election-libre-trump

This week Aysha and Jacob face down the twin horrors of Dionysian madness and class anxiety with Donna Tartt’s brilliant 1992 work of literary fiction/inverted mystery, “The Secret History.”We are joined by Kevin Vibert and Harley Takagi Kaner of “The Penumbra Podcast.” In the opinion of the Workers’ Lit team these two are among the greatest audio dramatists literally of all time…so yeah, they’re quite qualified to talk about some bomb-ass fiction.Themes: Closeted bisexual angst, middle class angst, academic angst, and hiding-a-murder angst.Go listen to the Penumbra Podcast!

The world remains quite weird.This week we’re joined by Jason Robinson of “48 Minutes of Dogs Barking” and “Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals” to talk about Marjorie Taylor Greene and the so called “MAGA Civil War,” some standout Epstein emails and the wackiest online reactions to them, the so-called “Seditious Six” scandal, and some truly horrid news out of Texas.Also, Jacob shares some college lore.Listen to “48 Minutes of Dogs Barking,” a podcast about the weird corners of the internet Listen to “Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals,” an audio drama about famous horror authors telling stories around a campfireWe’re experimenting with format for this side of the show, so please comment or email us (workerslit@gmail.com) with your thoughts!

It’s Alive!!!It’s time to make up a guy to get mad at with Mary Shelley’s 1818 genre-creating classic, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.”We join Victor as he falls in love with his sister, gets real depressed, and is sooooo mean to the poor little monster.Class critique, religious skepticism, a Guillermo Del Toro adaptation, this book’s got it all!

Epstein scandals! A tumbling economy! Nicki Minaj standing up for Christendom! AI in massive trouble! What a week to talk about the darn news.We are joined by Johnny Amizich, writer for Hard Drive and host of the podcast "Culture Dumpster," to talk about the happenings of the last week, with special attention put on the AI bubble. Johnny explains it well here, and for further reading, check out Ed Zitron's blog (which we refer to several times throughout the episode). Go listen to Culture Dumpster!Support the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund here.Learn how to support the Starbucks strike here.

What if you could really, really, REALLY go on the computer?William Gibson asks this vital question in his 1984 sci-fi classic, "Neuromancer," and today we're joined by Trevor Strunk of "No Cartridge" to consider just that!How did AI get so lame? Why are tech oligarchs the worst? How do we feel about hot women with claws? All will be revealed...Go listen to "No Cartridge," one of the best podcasts out there about video games!