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Everyday Anarchism
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© Copyright 2025 Graham Culbertson
Description
The core idea of this podcast comes from David Graeber, who wrote that our everyday life is mostly run on anarchism, and at the same time people believe that anarchism doesn’t work. One of these is wrong.
I hope to illuminate how our communities already depend on Mutual Aid, in big and small ways. I'll do that by excavating the historical events and cultural trends you already know about, but have never thought about in terms of anarchism.
Find me at https://www.everydayanarchism.com
I hope to illuminate how our communities already depend on Mutual Aid, in big and small ways. I'll do that by excavating the historical events and cultural trends you already know about, but have never thought about in terms of anarchism.
Find me at https://www.everydayanarchism.com
152 Episodes
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Today Mitch Abidor joins me to discuss Victor Serge: acclaimed novelist, anarchist, Bolshevik, anticommunist, and all-around 20th century contradiction. Mitch and I discuss the legend of Serge, what's true about it, and the ways that Serge fails to live up to the legend.You can find Mitch's writing all over the place, but here's a good place to start: https://jewishcurrents.org/author/mitchell-abidor And here's the NYRB page for Serge's work: https://www.nyrb.com/collections/victor-serge
What is capitalism?It's not efficient markets, factories, and free labor.It's the financialization of empire and slavery, using greed, shame, indignation, and debt.And that means the first great capitalists weren't British factory owners, but colonizing conquistadors.
Kim Stanley Robinson returns to discuss his novel Green Earth, a technothriller about a near future world in which scientists work to solve the global climate crisis. Stan and I discuss how the book went from a trilogy to a single volume, its similarity to The Ministry for the Future, and its place in the genre of naturalism. Plus Emerson and Thoreau!And yes, I get the title of The Ministry for the Future wrong every time I say it in this episode. Oops.
Mark Bittman returns to Everyday Anarchism to discuss Community Kitchen, his new model for how we can do restaurant food better by running nonprofit restaurants rooted in their communities.But we also talk about RFK's crusade against seed oils, what's wrong with Pod Save America, why food is so cheap in the US, the recent US presidential election, and whatever else happened to come up.Find more from Mark at https://bittmanproject.com/
Shawn Vulliez from SRSLY Wrong joins me to discuss the new collection of David Graeber essays, The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World. Shawn and I talk about the tyranny of economics and how Graeber gave us permission to reveal that the emperor of economics has no clothes.Warning: Contains discussion of the recent election. Stay away if you just can't handle it anymore. I understand.
A spectre is haunting the Everyday Anarchism series on the English revolution: the spectre of Christopher Hill's 1972 book The World Turned Upside Down. It turns out most of the ideas I've shared in this series came from Hill's book!Ann Hughes joins me to discuss the book, and we talk through the following questions:Did Hill invent the idea of the English revolution?How did the radicalism of the 1960s affect Hill's approach?Was Winstanley an anarchist?Was the English Revolution the beginning of modernity?Thanks so much to Ann and all the other guests in this year-long series, now (probably) concluded!
1Eleanor Janega, the very first guest on the Graeber's Debt series, comes back on the show to discuss what the middle ages were, how they were a global phenomenon, and why they weren't as bad as you've heard
I'm joined by Karl Gerth, professor of modern Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego, to discuss the Chinese Communist Revolution and how Maoism attempted to avoid the mistakes of the USSR and yet largely repeated them.
In Graeber's middle ages, empires fell apart while temples and monasteries kept everything together with metaphysical debt. Oh, and Europe isn't very important.Eleanor Janega returns later this month to discuss the chapter in the next Debt discussion!
Following on my discussion with John Weisweiler, more detail on Graeber's account of the Axial Age
In this episode in my series on Graeber's Debt, I'm joined by John Weisweiler to discuss Chapter 9, "The Axial Age." John and I discuss Graeber's insights into the relationship between money, debt, and community, and the way that Graeber often got the ideas right even before the archaelogical record had gotten there.
Ruth Kinna comes back on the show to celebrate 3 years of Everyday Anarchism. We talk about the relationship between anarchism and protest, and where everyday anarchism fits with capital-A Anarchism. Plus Occupy!
Luke Kemp joins me to discuss Chapter 8 of Debt, asking the question: Is Graeber right when he says that history follows clear cycles?Sort of!
I'm joined by Alfie Kohn to discuss No Contest: The Case Against Competition, his 1986 book about how competition hurts rather than helps people do their best. We cover the problem with grades, the reason why excellence and competition are opposed, and whats wrong with rewards and what makes awards even worse.For more from Alfie, check out his website:https://www.alfiekohn.org/
The Debt series returns, hopefully to finish by early 2025.This my reading of Chapter 8 (and a little of Chapter 7), soon to be followed by a discussion with Luke Kemp.
This episode publishes on the hundredth anniversary of Colin Ward! Colin was one of the popularizers of many of the ideas featured in this podcast, and I've stayed away from covering him for fear of copying him. But my guest today, Roman Krznaric, convinced me to do an episode on Colin's thought, and we had a thrilling conversation about anarchy, city planning, protest, and Kim Stanley Robinson.I highly recommend Colin's book Anarchy in Action from PM Press: https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=814Here's Roman's website for more from him: https://www.romankrznaric.com/
Here's a crossover episode from my other podcast, Plumbing Game Studies.Things have been crazy lately, and I have emails from back in April I haven't responded to. My apologies if you've emailed me and not heard back. I hope to get caught up soon, or at least in 2024!
Who create the modern theory of political sovereignty?Thomas Hobbes.What was Hobbes afraid of?Anarchy.What made Hobbes so afraid of anarchy?The English Revolution.Today's guest is Alison McQueen, who can be found at https://www.alisonmcqueen.info/
Clif Mark, host of the Good in Theory podcast, joins me to discuss honor and degradation in Graeber's Debt. Also I make Clif talk about representation in Star Wars, for some reason.
One of the most famous author's in the English language, John Milton, was a 17th century English radical who not only supported but also worked for the English revolutionary government. I'm joined by Nigel Smith, a returning guest, and Nick McDowell, author of Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton, to discuss Milton's radicalism and its relationship to the English Revolution.
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