Varn Vlog
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Varn Vlog
Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Varn Vlog is the pod of C. Derick Varn. We combine the conversation on philosophy, political economy, art, history, culture, anthropology, and geopolitics from a left-wing and culturally informed perspective. We approach the world from a historical lens with a...
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Trade Wars As Social Wars with Benjamin Studebaker
Welcome back to the vlog. Today, we are staging an exhaustive, macro-analytical conversation with political theorist and author Benjamin Studebaker to...
Maoism Without The Myths with Black Red Guard
Welcome back to the blog. Today, we are staging an uncommon but necessary conversation to slice through the amateurishness of internet leftist subcult...
Education, Literacy, and the Limits of Reform with Freddie deBoer
Five years after their initial discussion, we are back with Freddie DeBoer—author of The Cult of Smart and the upcoming book All in Your Head—to revis...
Policing American Slavery: How the Slave Power Weaponized Society and the State with Gautham Rao
How did the legal machinery of early America enforce human bondage? Dr. Gautham Rao joins the channel to discuss his book Policing American Slavery an...
Rewriting Columbus From The Taino View with Andrew Rowen
Why does mainstream history completely erase the stories of the Indigenous leaders who actively fought back against European conquest? How did the flu...
Geopolitics of the Data Economy: Tech Monopoly, Neoliberalism, Resource Wars with ProleKult
Why are tech monopolies quietly building massive, "war-eating" data centers in global deserts? How does the infrastructure of artificial intelligence...
Brandon Lightly on the Mass LIne and New Democracy, Part 2
In part two of our deep dive into China (and part four of our socialist organization series), we break down how Mao attempted to dialectically sublate...
Writing and Revolution: Cultural Production vs. Neoliberal Aesthetics with Sudip Bhattacharya
How does ruling-class hegemony quietly dictate the boundaries of our creative imagination? Can art still serve as a weapon for genuine political trans...
The Cultural Marxism Myth with A.J.A. Woods
Where did the "Cultural Marxism" talking point actually originate? How did obscure 20th-century sectarian group battles evolve into the foundation of...
A People’s History of the Mets: Urban Planning, Labor, and Radical Politics with A.M. Gittlitz
Why are the New York Mets the ultimate team of the working-class underworld? Author A.M. Gittlitz joins the channel to discuss his new book, Metropoli...
Cold War Cinema — History, Propaganda, and Left-Wing Film Analysis with Jason Christian & Tony Ballas
How did decades of geopolitical paranoia, nuclear anxiety, and state-sponsored propaganda completely reshape the landscape of global filmmaking? In th...
Gerontocracy in America: Samuel Moyn on Aging Wealth and Shifting Power
Welcome back to the Vlog. Today, we are joined by acclaimed legal scholar and historian Dr. Samuel Moyn (Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History...
Why Jordan Peterson is Wrong About Jung with Rob Faure Walker
Why are so many political activists crashing into severe burnout and depression? Can the deep psychology of Carl Jung provide a radical toolkit for mo...
Brandon Lightly on the Mass Line and New Democracy, Part 1
In this episode of VarnVlog, we are joined by Brandon Lightly to discuss the complex and often misunderstood history of Maoism. We dive deep into the...
Screened Realities and the Complicit Lens: Robin Andersen on Media Complicity in Gaza and Beyond
While the atrocities in Palestine and Gaza have been live-streamed by courageous on-the-ground journalists, American legacy media have operated in an...
Real Internationalism: Inside the RAIZ International Project
In this special episode, we are doing something a little different by introducing an urgent, concrete internationalist political project. We are joi...
Grade Scandals, Bureaucracy, and the Truth About the Teacher Shortage with Chris Papst
Why are public school budgets skyrocketing while student proficiency scores tank? How do districts artificially inflate graduation rates while leaving...
Solidarity or Silence?: How Leftist Politics Often Overlooks the Disabled with Anthony David Vernon
This podcast and YouTube episode features an in-depth conversation with Anthony David Vernon, a philosopher and educator, exploring the intersection o...
Karl Marx’s Ethics of Human Flourishing with Sam Badger
In this episode of Varn Vlog, we sit down with Sam Badger to explore the moral philosophy hidden within Marxian theory. While Karl Marx is famously de...
The Stranger Side of Ancient Philosophy: Materialism & Metaphysics with Max Wade
What did "materialism" actually mean to the ancients, and how does it differ from our modern scientific understanding? In this episode, we sit down wi...
Revolutionary Strategy Today with the Angry Workers Collective
The working class is everywhere now. So why does it keep slipping out of view the moment we try to talk about power, strategy, and organization? We si...
Up vs. Down: Bypassing the Two-Party Sorting Mechanism with Travis Misurell
Is American democracy broken, or is it just rigged? In this episode of VarmBlog, we sit down with Travis Misurell, founder of the Think: The Future is...
Decoding the Tragedy of Noam Chomsky with Dr. Chris Knight
In this episode of Varn Vlog, we welcome back British anthropologist and activist Dr. Chris Knight, author of Decoding Chomsky, to discuss the startl...
The Prospects of DSA: Party Building, Power, and the Marxist Unity Group
Approximately two years into the second Trump administration, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is at a critical crossroads. In this semi-ann...
Communist Unity in Oceania: The Future of Socialist Organizing in Australia
You can learn a lot about the health of the left by asking one simple question: what happens when people disagree? We sit down with three organizers f...
The Quest for Narrative From World Travels to Technology with Miles Spencer
Is our digital legacy the final frontier of storytelling?
In this episode, we sit down with Miles Spencer, a serial entrepreneur, world t...
The Castaneda Con with Ru Marshall
Is it anthropology or a high-stakes hoax?
In this episode of the Varn Vlog, we dive deep into the enigmatic life of Carlos Castaneda with author...
The Left-Wing Deadbeat with Nurse John
A lot of people can quote the right theory, wear the right shirt, and post the right meme. Then the moment arrives when you have to sit down with a co...
The K-Shaped Decade with Matt Borka
“Why does life feel poorer when the economy looks rich?” That question drives our talk with Hungarian-born creator and entrepreneur Matt Borka, who ha...
From Dawn To Decadence, Part 6: Aufheben's Decay
In Part 6 of our series "From Dawn to Decadence," we examine the intellectual trajectory and eventual "decay" of the Aufheben collective. This episode...
German Romanticism and Idealism Beyond Nostalgia And Reaction
Romanticism gets treated like a synonym for nostalgia, and German Idealism gets shrunk to a few brand-name thinkers. We push back on both habits by ta...
Diving Into the Wreckage: The French Left Remains Unbowed
Join hosts as they dive deep into the complexities of modern French politics with guest Henry Wallace. This episode explores the concept of the "new m...
Mapping The United Front Debate with Brandon Lightly
What happens when “march separately, strike together” meets real history? We dive into the tangled story of the United Front—where it came from, how i...
Wall Street Went To Homeroom And Stole The Whiteboard with David I Backer
What if the real story of American education isn’t test scores or culture wars, but air you can breathe, roofs that don’t leak, and the invisible mone...
From Catechism To Class Consciousness: How Marxism Was Taught with Edward Barring
What if the real engine of socialist history wasn’t just theory, but teaching? We sit down with historian Edward Baring to trace a vivid, often-misrea...
How Philosophy Lost Its Nerve And How Marx Put It Back To Work with Christoph Schuringa
A century ago, philosophy split its seams. Cambridge’s revolt against British Hegelianism promised “clarity,” Vienna’s scientific modernism tried to r...
Post-Liberalism’s Fade with Nicolas Villarreal
Politics keeps offering us drama in place of design. We sat down with Nicholas D. Vairo to chart how the post-liberal moment slid from grand promises...
Hellworld And The Broken Labor Map with Phil Neel
What if “reindustrialization” delivers fabs, data centers, and subsidies—but not the jobs? We sit down with Marxist geographer Phil Neel to unpack Hel...
From Mills To World-Systems: Tracing Wallerstein’s Path with Sam Chian
What if the most consequential “Marxist” of a generation refused to call himself one—and was more consistent for it? We dive into Immanuel Wallerstein...
Popular Or United Fronts Explained with Brandon Lightly
Coalitions promise power, but what if they mostly deliver blame? We dig into the sharp difference between a United Front and a Popular Front, trace th...