Radicals in Conversation

Did Ancient Pirates Invent Democracy?: Exploring Radical Antiquity

With Christopher Zeichmann.  

In his new book, Radical Antiquity: Free Love Zoroastrians, Farming Pirates, and Ancient Uprisings, Christopher Zeichmann takes us on a unique journey in search of anarchy, statelessness, and social experimentation in the Graeco-Roman world. We meet communities of escaped slaves, pirates, and religious sects—all of whom sought a more egalitarian way of life that avoided the coercion, hierarchy, and exploitation of the state.

Chris joins us on the podcast to talk about all the ways in which people in the ancient world rejected the systems of domination that prevailed and sought to create something different. We discuss Spartacus and the Slave Revolt at Thurii; how ancient pirates practiced mutual aid and solidarity at sea; the radicalism of Jesus; how different Jewish and Zoroastrian groups contended with patriarchy; and why the collapse of the Roman Empire was no bad thing for ordinary people in Britannia.

Radical Antiquity is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Why Liberal Abundance is Bullsh*t

With Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell. 

Capitalism has created a world of bullsh*t abundance and artificial scarcity, where we have too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do. The system’s pursuit of profits has put us on a collision course with social and ecological limits that can no longer be ignored.

It’s clear we need an alternative, and liberal visions of green capitalism just won't cut it. We need 'radical abundance'—a world of human and non-human flourishing made possible by democratically planned production.

Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell join us on the show to talk about the big ideas in their new book Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future.

We discuss why the left needs to laser-focused on the question of ecosocialist transition, and why the patient work of institution building is a necessary response to a world on fire. We look at the Public-Common Partnership model, and explore the housing, pharmaceutical and food sectors as three areas in which new institutions and forms of social property might be developed.

Find out more about Abundance: https://www.in-abundance.org/

Radical Friendship: Reimagining the World and Fighting the Far Right

With Laura C. Forster and Joel White.

What draws people into political movements? And what sustains us, in the face of defeat, infiltration and state repression?

For the authors of Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities, friendship is an undertheorised, but vital piece of the puzzle, and full of revolutionary potential. 

In this episode we are joined by Laura C. Forster and Joel White for a conversation about the generative and prefigurative possibilities of friendship. We discuss family abolition and comradeship, the Kurdish idea of Hevalti, friendship as a form of social reproduction, and how the state simultaneously dismisses friendship and reads it as a threat. We talk about friendship in relation to solidarity, and whether far right movements are sustained by friendship too.

Friends in Common is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Empire, Slavery, and Reparations

With Paul Lashmar and Luke Daniels.

In this episode we talk about the new book Drax of Drax Hall: How One British Family Got Rich (and Stayed Rich) from Sugar and Slavery, and the growing international movement for reparations.

Paul Lashmar and Luke Daniels discuss the journalistic investigation into the Drax family’s extensive landholdings and wealth, in Britain and Barbados; the economic, political and cultural legacies of colonialism and slavery; and why the call for reparatory justice resonates more loudly now than ever before.

Podcast listeners can get 40% off Drax of Drax Hall through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

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Paul Lashmar is an investigative journalist and Reader in Journalism at City St George's, University of London. He is the author of Drax of Drax Hall.

Luke Daniels is the President of Caribbean Labour Solidarity.

Fascist Yoga!

With Stewart Home. 

Legend of counterculture, Stewart Home, joins us on the podcast to talk about his new book, Fascist Yoga: Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists, and the New Order In Wellness. Stewart is in conversation with Pluto's Patrick Hughes. Patrick is a veteran of the book trade who helped establish AK Press in the United States in the early 1990s. He has published and engaged with Stewart’s work for more than 30 years. 

In this episode, they talk about Rock Against Racism, the National Front and the punk scene of the 1970s and ‘80s; as well as the theoretical explorations of anarchism and fascism present in some of Stewart’s early novels. They also discuss the origins and psychology of fascism, and the way fascist thinking and white supremacism infiltrates yoga and wellness spaces.

Podcast listeners can get 40% off Fascist Yoga through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy

With Alana Lentin.

In this episode we discuss the ways in which racial capitalism reproduces itself. Beyond the distracting framings of culture wars and moral panics, Alana Lentin shows how, from Australia to the USA, the attacks on Black, Indigenous and anticolonial thought and praxis reveal the processes through which racial colonial rule is ideologically resecured. 

We discuss the 'whitelash' against the teaching of histories of slavery and colonialism; the counterinsurgent capture and institutionalisation of antiracism, Indigeneity and decoloniality in the service of Zionism and settler colonialism; and how the 'war on antisemitism' re-forms white supremacism at an acute time of genocide.

The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy is out now from Pluto Press. Use the coupon 'PODCAST' for 40% off the book on plutobooks.com.

Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking up Migrants

With Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon.

The USA locks up more migrants in its immigration detention facilities than any other country in the world. Already operating over capacity, the Trump administration has ramped up its campaign of immigration raids, allegedly instructing ICE to hit quotas of 3,000 arrests a day. The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ will, if approved by the Senate, appropriate tens of billions of extra dollars for ICE, and immigration and border law enforcement more broadly. 

Without the facilities to house these detainees, thousands now face the imminent possibility of being removed to Guantanamo, or else held in new ‘soft-sided facilities’ where the already inadequate guidelines for detainee welfare will be watered down further, in order to expedite their creation.

We are joined on the show by Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon, authors of Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking up Migrants. We discuss the ways immigration detention generates huge profits for some, while those detained are starved, sickened, and exploited as a matter of routine. We also talk about how immigration detention has expanded in 2025 under Trump, and the ways in which it can be resisted and dismantled.

Democratic Living in Times of Fascism

With H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez.

This is the final installment of our three-part mini series, 'Beyond the Ballot Box', which explores some of the major political currents in US politics today.

Chris Browne and James Kelly are joined by H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez for a conversation about life in times of fascism. We explore concepts such as state addiction, anti-democracy, ungovernability and democratic living. We also touch on the work of Cedric Robinson, and what we can learn from Black abolition feminist praxis.

Become Ungovernable: An Abolition Feminist Ethic for Democratic Living is out now. Podcast listeners can get 40% off the book on plutobooks.com using the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

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H. L. T. Quan is a political theorist and an award-winning filmmaker. She is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Quan is the author of Growth Against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World and editor of Cedric J. Robinson: On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance.

Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator based at the University of California-Riverside, where he works in the Department of Black Study as well as the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He is the author of a number of books including White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide, which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.

Tenant Unions Fighting the Housing Crisis

With Jacob Stringer.

We are joined on the show by Jacob Stringer, a housing and social movements researcher and organiser, and the author of Renters Unite: How Tenant Unions Are Fighting the Housing Crisis.

We discuss the many local and international dimensions to housing crisis in countries across the Global North. We talk about why simply building more houses isn’t enough, and explore some of the injustices experienced by renters and those in temporary accommodation. We also talk about the new wave of tenant unions, and the ways in which their tactical and strategic orientations overlap and diverge, as a result of the context in which they’re organising.

Listeners of Radicals in Conversation can get 40% off the book on plutobooks.com. Enter the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Billionaires and Guillotines: The Board Game

With Max Haiven.

In this special episode of Radicals in Conversation, we take a first look at the new board game, Billionaires & Guillotines, in which players take on the role of 2-5 rival plutocrats vying to grab the wealth of the world before their actions trigger a revolution where they all lose … a lot more than their assets.

Chris Browne is joined on the show by Max Haiven, the game's designer, for a conversation about its origins, development and gameplay. We also discuss the ways in which board games can play an important role in political education, and provide a much-needed space for connection and conviviality.

Back the project on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plutopress/billionaires-and-guillotines