Blood Work

This week, Gregk speaks to Anthropologist Florin Poenaru about his essay for North South Notes, published on the one-year anniversary of Romania’s cancelled Presidential elections, in which ‘outsider’ candidate Călin Georgescu was alleged to have benefitted from a Russian-coordinated TikTok interference campaign. In their conversation, they discuss the layers of power within a globalised political order, the capacity of intelligence services to produce as well as gather knowledge, and the question of where power resides in a country where politics, media, business and academia are constantly imbricated by a large and unruly security apparatus.   Read Florin’s article, ‘The Forest’ in North South Notes. Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter   THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – FAFO-FI-FUM This week, I share three pieces on wars old, new and prospective which reflect the festering wounds of America’s most recent imperial project; the licking of wounds and casting around for a space in which to reassert itself; and the early nicks and scratches we’re already seeing as both the war machine and US consent manufacturing apparatus (brrrrrrr) leap a little too enthusiastically on the latest champion of peace, liberty and justice only to learn that she… well, just might not actually be very ‘bout it ‘bout it. Available now, exclusive to Patreon supporters. Image: A satellite shot of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service (Serviciul de Informații Externe/SIE), situated within the Băneasa Forest in northern Bucharest.

In 1823, US President James Monroe declared an end to European colonial ambitions in the Americas. By the end of that century, his declaration had morphed into a license for the United States to pursue unilateral political, economic and military actions across the Western Hemisphere. This week, we examine the history of the Monroe Doctrine and the wider geospatial order of the Americas, and see how, even two centuries later, Latin America continues to tremble in the shadow of that fateful doctrine. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – The ‘Whatever’ Doctrine This week, I share an excellent 2022 essay by Nathan DuFord which builds on the closing themes of last week’s episode on the fascist imaginary; my thoughts on a rancid essay about Venezuela by ice-chewing ghoul Elliot Abrams; and some thoughts on the ongoing criminality of US murder strikes in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea courtesy of Demented Donny and Pete ‘Drinks His Coffee on the Rocks’ Hegseth. It’s all so lazy and stupid – but after twenty years of the GWoT, it’s not like we should expect anything better. Available now for Patreon supporters. Sources: Manuel de Campo (2019) ‘Splitting the world in two: the 525th anniversary of the Treaty of Tordesillas’, available at Languages across Borders: Language Collections at the University of Cambridge Citations Needed Podcast (2021), ‘Episode 139 — Of Meat and Men: How Beef Became Synonymous with Settler-Colonial Domination’, available at Citations Needed (Transcript available at Medium) John Gast (1872), ‘American Progress’ [Painting], available at The Library of Congress Greg Grandin (2006), Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic Greg Grandin (2019), The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America George C. Herring (2008), From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 CLR James (1938), The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution Stephen Kinzer (2013), The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and their Secret World War Lester D. Langley (2002), The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898–1934 Randall Lesaffer (2015), ‘The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)’, available at Oxford Public International Law James Martell (2017), The Misinterpellated Subject James Monroe (1823), ‘December 2, 1823: Seventh Annual Message (Monroe Doctrine)’, available at The Miller Center, University of Virginia ‘National Security of the United States of America’ (November 2025), available at The White House James Polk (1845), ‘December 2, 1845: First Annual Message’, available at The Miller Center, University of Virginia Theodore Roosevelt (1904), ‘Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1905)’, available at The US National Archives Treaty of Ghent (1814), available at The US National Archives Giles Tremlett (2020), ‘Operation Condor: the cold war conspiracy that terrorised South America’, available at The Guardian Sylvia Wynter (2003), ‘Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation--An Argument’, CR: The New Centennial Review (Vol. 3:3) Image: An official from the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) inspects bunches of bananas in preparation for export from Honduras. (AP Photo)

What are ‘libidinal politics’? What the fuck is a ‘machinic assemblage’? Why are these men all terrified of women? This week, we explore four key ideas in the fascist imaginary and head down to the stables to look at some freaks. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – Hit & Run This week, I take a look at some articles about drone warfare in Ukraine, Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, and the transfer of those tactics to the US’ steady approach to War on Venezuela, and meditate on what these might portend about the new rules of engagement for warfare in the 2020s. Plus: Some further thoughts on a man and his horse, childhood romance, and the death of intimacy. Available now for Patreon supporters. Sources: Walter Benjamin (1999), ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ [1935], Illuminations Richard Evans (2003), The Coming of the Third Reich Richard Evans (2005), The Third Reich in Power Roger Griffin (1991), The Nature of Fascism Mark Neocleous (1997), Fascism Klaus Theweleit (1987 [1977]), Male Fantasies, Volume 1: Women, Floods, Bodies, History Image: German Freikorps soldiers standing by an armored car during the German Revolution, January 1919.

In 1971, a group of people cast aside by the state rose up and attempted to reclaim their humanity and political subjectivity. This week, we look at the Attica Prison Uprising to see what that event might tell us about the relationship between politics, law and violence. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter – Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – Ground Zero The first in a weekly series of posts where I share recent articles that have caught my attention and some brief commentary, along with some broader musings on the nature of violence.  Available now for Patreon supporters. Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel Sources: ‘15 Practical Proposals of Attica Prisoners’ (1971), People’s Law Office The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands and Anti-Depression Platform (1971), Freedom Archives Traci Curry & Stanley Nelson (Dir., 2021), Attica Fred Ferretti (Sept. 13, 1971), ‘Attica Prisoners Win 28 Demands, but Still Resist’, New York Times Brad Lichtenstein (Dir., 2001), Ghosts of Attica Charlotte Rosen (May 26, 2025), ‘How Should We Remember Attica?’, The Nation Wendy Sawyer, ‘How much do incarcerated people earn in each state?’ (2017), Prison Policy Initiative Heather Ann Thompson (2021), Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy Image: Participants in the Attica Prison Uprising raise their fists during a negotiating session on Friday, September 10, 1971 (AP)

Come join us, won’t you, for a deep dive into one of the twentieth century’s biggest assholes. Say hello to Carl Schmitt: Jurist, legal scholar, political philosopher… Nazi? Look: We’re only showing you him so you know how to get away from him. Support the show on Patreon You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel Sources: Gopal Balakrishan – The Enemy: An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt Angus Brown – ‘The Left Should Have Nothing to Do with Carl Schmitt’, Jacobin Stuart Elden – ‘Reading Schmitt Geopolitically: Nomos, territory and Großraum’, Radical Philosophy Carl Schmitt – Dictatorship Carl Schmitt – The Concept of the Political Carl Schmitt – The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of Jus Publicum Europaeum Carl Schmitt – Political Theology   (Image: Carl Schmitt’s grave in Plettenberg, Germany. The Greek inscription reads, “KAI NOMON EGNŌ” / “And I Know the Law”) If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time  

We take a break from scheduled programming to commemorate the passing of one of the greatest monsters of the early 21st century, looking back at some of his greatest hits of being a rancid asshole and how they show our exceptional times might not be all that exceptional. This episode is a little thing we've been calling internally, "The Gregk Directive", for when the news simply is too good to resist. Support the show on Patreon You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

In the mid-1990s, the political philosopher Giorgio Agamben began a 20-year project exploring the origin of what Michel Foucault called biopolitics – the governance of populations through technocratic management of aspects of their biological lives and the conditions intended to make live, or let die. Performing an archaeology of politics tracing back to the Greeks, Agamben identified a number of governmental apparatuses through which our world is both split, and bound, in two, between the included and the excluded; the inside and the outside; the human and the not-quite-yet.   In this episode, we talk to Serene Richards, a Lecturer in Law at New York University London, and author of the book Biopolitics as a System of Thought. During our conversation, we discuss the origins of two of Agamben’s most famous political concepts: Homo Sacer, the sacred man or ‘bare life’; and the State of Exception, the mechanism by which Law establishes its own ‘inside’ through the creation of an ‘outside’ that lies beyond it, and yet which must be included. Later we discuss Serene’s book, her concept of Smart Being, and how our techno-capitalist moment has seen biopolitical logics extend beyond the political realm, penetrating even how we think, perceive and understand our own lives. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/biopolitics-as-a-system-of-thought-9781350412095/ You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

With the quotidian workhorse of urban terror now well on its way, we round out our story by looking at how the car bomb became conscious of the city as its object, target and victim, its proliferation during the Iraq War years, and its seeming culmination as both a herald and producer of escalatory political nihilism. You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

What has 4 wheels, a steering wheel, and massive destructive potential? You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

We dive deep into German Walter Benjamin's seminal essay 'Towards A Critique of Violence' to try and understand violence not only as a phenomen, but also as a powerful force in society, politics, and everything around us. You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of Kyle Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

How did the American police get access to a nation's war chest?  You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of Kyle Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

What is Blood Work, and who profits from violence? You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of Kyle Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

A show examining the Economies of Violence.    Episodes 1&2 coming 07/10/25 You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of Kyle Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time