Diet Soap Podcast #121: Three Marxists (pt. 2)

This is a podcast that sees and wants to seize the Late Capitalist moment. On Diet Soap we consider what it would mean to #occupyingeverything and we attempt to realize philosophy. The guest this week is Brendan Cooney and we’ll be finishing off the second part of our conversation about Crisis theory and three Marxists thinkers. We discuss David Harvey, Rick Wolff, and Andrew Kliman. There is also an interesting conversation about the role of theory and the need for political movements, a conversation that seems dated to me now that #occupywallstreet has found its legs.

The show has moved to Mondays because I’ve found part time work for the Oregon Symphony and will have to put the shows together on the weekends. Also, that move back to the Symphony might mean that the podcast features even more Classical music. We’ll see.

Diet Soap has been on hiatus for the past few weeks, but I want to thank Andrew M, Pieter L, Michael T, David B, and Bruce P for donating in the last few weeks. It’s great to get so much support even though the podcast was shut down due to technical difficulties. My old iMac died just before Steve Jobs shed his mortal coil, but now I’ve got a little Mac Mini. What I’d really like is a Linux machine made out of recycled wood and spit that will upgrade itself using nanotechnology. Anybody know where I can find one of those for the price of an iPad? Anyhow, copies of Pick Your Battle are still available through the end of this month, and Bruce P and Pieter L will be receiving copies of the book soon (the other donors had already received copies).

In other news, a few things have happened since the last podcast. I mentioned #occupywallstreet at the start, and I have to say that while I was skeptical about the movement as it was described by Adbusters over the summer, I have to say that the movement has already transformed itself and is getting stronger. At the end of this episode Cooney comments that there is no movement of radicals who could use and transform radical theory. That might have been true when he said that a month or so ago, but it may not be true anymore. We’ll see.

I’d promised to include excerpts from my upcoming novella Wave of Mutilation on the podcast until I’d finished reading the whole story, and I’ll return to that. But in an effort to get this podcast out I’m skipping that segment this week. The music you’re listening to now is El Cholu by Tosca Tango which is the theme from the Linklater film, waking life, but in just a moment you’ll be listening to Brendan Cooney and I discuss how to #occupywallstreet

The music and sounds this week include music from Tosca Tango and Waking Life, the human microphone at #occupywallstreet chanting the words of my hero Slavoj Zizek, Brendan Cooney’s youtube video What is Capitalism, Arturo Toscanini conducting the Internationale in 1944, and an advertisement for #occupywallstreet.

Diet Soap Podcast #121: Three Marxists (pt. 2)