Show Notes
Kim Stanley Robinson comes back to discuss Aurora, his novel of a generational starship, in which generations of humans are born, live, and die onboard without ever seeing a planet. We discuss the generational starship as a science fiction genre, whether humans will ever be able to travel to the stars, and what it would mean for science fiction if we can't. We also take a detour into the question of "hard," scientific science fiction vs. "soft," humanist science fiction. Here's a link to Stan's article for Boing Boing, arguing that we won't ever reach the stars: https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html Thanks to Nick Gaskill for suggesting an episode on Aurora!
More from Everyday Anarchism
Tomas Rothaus joins me to discuss his book Argentina, A Tale of Two Utopias: Anarchism, Soccer, Neoliberalism. We talk about the way that true soccer clubs are anarchic: they represent a community coming together and organizing around something. By contrast, billionaire-owned sports franchises are just corporate business. Tomas tells his story of being part of both anarchist and soccer organizing in Argentina, the amazing victories won against neoliberalism 25 years ago, and the rise of the new "anarcho-capitalist" regime in Argentina. Here's a link to the book: https://pmpress.org/product/argentina-a-tale-of-two-utopias-anarchism-soccer-neoliberalism
Nathan Gelgud comes back on the show to discuss No Concessions, the next volume of his cartoon strip about a radical cell of Marxist cinephiles trying to create a revolutionary society by screening films the right way. Nathan and I talk about everything from "selling out" to the meaning of progressive politics to the films of Abbas Kiarostami. You can find Nathan on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gelgud/ Buy the book here: https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/no-concessions/ And check out Abbas Kiarostami's early films! https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/8309-eclipse-series-47-abbas-kiarostami-early-shorts-and-features
If money is just made up, can't we solve the problem of poverty by just giving people money? This radical idea feels new, but Thomas Paine proposed it as a revolutionary solution during both the US and French revolutions. Alberto Tena-Camporesi joins me to discuss Paine's radical idea, its relationship to current ideas about UBI, and why this idea just keeps coming up in radical (and right-wing) circles. You can find Alberto's work here: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=FMpnSa8AAAAJ&hl=en Here's a direct link to the article we discussed (might be behind a paywall): https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-10213639 And here's Alberto's book on the topic (in Spanish): https://postmetropolis.com/producto/los-origenes-revolucionarios-de-la-renta-basica/
The audio recording of a talk I gave at Oriel College, Oxford University. Thank you to Nick Gaskill and Oriel for inviting me!
No one seems to really understand what money is and what it does. In this new book, Josh Mason and Arjun Jayadev give the best explanation I've ever seen for what money does, how it works, and the damage it's doing to the world.