Podcasts by The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur

The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur

A podcast about how today

Further podcasts by Justin Podur

Podcast on the topic Politik

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 134: Tankie Therapy 7–in honor of Refaat Alareer from 2023-12-10T23:36:46

Our usual group gets together to talk about the Gaza War, this time we all share some words about literature prof, teacher, poet and hero Refaat Alareer, assassinated by Israel a couple of days ago...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 28: The Eastern Front 1914 from 2023-12-09T17:54:19

Russia invades Germany and loses badly at Tannenberg. Austria-Hungary fights Serbia. The Russian losses in 1914 force a reevaluation of the whole strategy pursued by the Russia-France-England allia...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 133: Tankie Group Therapy #5 Gaza War resumes after pause from 2023-12-04T04:44:33

Nora, Matteo, Rania, and Alex are gathered to talk about what we’re seeing and trying to make sense of on Israel’s War on Gaza after 8 weeks, a couple of days after the end of the “humanitarian pau...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 27: Western front 1914 from Belgium to the Marne from 2023-12-02T17:47:11

Germany brings the big guns to Belgium, sacks Louvain and follows the doctrine of terrorizing civilians. The British Expeditionary Force whose commander’s name is French, joins France for some batt...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 15: Refugees, Wars, and Rebellious Scientists from 2023-11-28T20:55:31

Stan Cox is back to talk about climate refugees, rebellious scientists, and of course Gaza. Our monthly chat finds us both a bit discombobulated by the war, but we try to survey the climate situati...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 132: The Gaza War as settler-Indigenous warfare&as people’s warfare–CAUKUSZIANS reunite from 2023-11-21T19:26:26

The CAUKUSZIANS unite once again, this time to look at the Gaza war through a couple of different lenses: Arama through the lens of settler-Indigenous warfare in the wars fought by the Maori to def...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 131: Tankie Group Therapy #4: Gaza War Week 6 from 2023-11-20T15:08:20

The alliance between the East is a Podcast, the Brief, and the Anti-Empire Project continues as we discuss the Gaza War six weeks in (since October 7 2023). Structured as group therapy (the fourth ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Anti Empire Radio 130: Palestine Action and the focus on Elbit Systems from 2023-11-18T04:56:33

A discussion with Calla and Fergie from Palestine Action US about the theory of direct action and how activists have tried stop the flow of Western weapons that are being deployed against Palestini...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
WWCiv 26: How World War One Started from 2023-11-02T02:34:38

A horrible event shocks the world. The affected power, enraged, threatens war and gives an ultimatum. Looking around for allies, it’s given a “blank cheque” by its powerful patron – one of the grea...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 129: War on Gaza on day 22 from 2023-10-30T23:53:27

Joined by Jon Elmer and Nora Barrows-Friedman from The Brief / Electronic Intifada to talk about the War on Gaza, including the preparation for ground invasion, the siege, and the attack of October 7.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 25: Tragic Week in Spain 1909 from 2023-10-28T01:58:47

The near-revolution in Spain in 1909 turns out to be more of a cause of World War 2 than a cause of World War 1 but it includes anarchism, conspiracy, revolution, and ends in a show trial. Our fina...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 24: Why socialists failed to stop the war from 2023-10-22T03:17:57

Leading up to 1914 socialist movements all over Europe, notably in France and Germany, had become so strong that they were in the very halls of power. But when faced with the onset of the Great War...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 23: The Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard, 1873-1914 from 2023-09-16T16:37:45

Was the collapse of the international gold standard – established in 1873 – in 1914, a sure sign that war was coming? Was gold a “peaceful metal”, as Michael Hudson has argued? Does the history of ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time 14: The Hubris of Plutocrats from 2023-09-13T03:47:53

In the August 2023 edition of In Real Time with Stan Cox (yes I know it’s September) we talk about his dispatch, “The Hubris of Plutocrats”, and the escape fantasies (and condos) of the super-rich....

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 22: Irish Home Rule and Britain’s near-civil war before 1914 from 2023-08-31T02:53:47

How close did Britain come to a civil war over the issue of Irish Home Rule? We talk about the long parliamentary road led by Parnell, the settler trick culminating in the seditious maneuvers in Ul...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 21: Balkan Wars 1912-1913 from 2023-08-10T03:40:03

In the First Balkan War, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro attacked the moribund Turkey to take its remaining territories and get Turkey out of Europe. In the Second Balkan War, they fought ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time 13: Do we need states to solve climate change? from 2023-07-29T17:32:37

Stan Cox and I talk about Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR)’s 2020 book, The Ministry for the Future, which is a hugely important book because it pictures how we could get from our current situation to a ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 20: Italy invades Libya, 1911-12 from 2023-07-18T21:34:13

After losing to Ethiopia, Italy tries to restore its reputation as a colonizer by invading Libya, following directly from France’s invasion of Morocco andleading directly to the Balkan War. The dom...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 19: Morocco 1911 Agadir Crisis from 2023-07-09T16:58:56

The short Hafiziyya period in Morocco leads to the Treaty of Fez and annexation; Morocco’s lost its sovereignty but it’s Germany that feels aggrieved. More scrambling for Africa and another inter-i...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 128: CAUKUZians speak out! from 2023-07-08T14:28:11

Arama Rata, independent Maori researcher, and Carl Zha of Silk&Steel podcast are both back! Carl reports on his lived experience as a survivor of the Prigozhin coup in Moscow; Arama outlines the an...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 18: Japan annexes Korea 1910 from 2023-07-01T15:38:25

Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910 is scramble-like colonial behavior; it is the beginning of a long and bold resistance by Korean patriots whose names will return; it is the occasion for studying...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 17b: Yuan Shikai makes his move from 2023-06-26T19:55:22

The 1911 Chinese Revolution ends with Yuan Shikai in charge. He is ready to take the throne and become emperor except that he can’t sweep the foreigners away and ends up deepening the crisis. China...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 12: India dilemmas and how tech won’t save us from 2023-06-22T17:49:49

Stan Cox is back to talk about two essays. One, co-written with Priti Gulati Cox, “Between a Yoga Mat and a Hard Place”, about where India is headed. And another, “The Old Future is Gone and Techno...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 17a: The 1911 Chinese Revolution pt1 from 2023-06-17T15:57

The Qing dynasty desperately tries a reform to stay in power while secret societies plot against them; intellectuals debate how to modernize China while Western imperialists keep pressuring China a...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 127: Has Imran Khan lost the battle with Pakistan’s Army? from 2023-06-13T19:28:20

On May 9 2023 ousted president Imran Khan was detained by the Pakistan army, who were forced immediately to release him. But in the month since, the crackdown on protesters (and their families) has...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
WWCiv 16: Persia and Portugal get constitutions, 1909 and 1910 from 2023-06-05T18:36:21

Timeline of the constitutional revolutions that took place in Persia from 1905-1909 and Portugal in 1910. They weren’t social revolutions but shared important patterns for later events including a ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 15: Sufragettes and Pacifists from 2023-05-24T17:27:38

“Deeds Not Words!” was the slogan of the militant sufragettes who fought for the vote. We get into some of their dramatic acts and some of the reasonings of their leaders – which are not always dis...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 126: Multipolarity? Schmultipolarity! A debate with Sam Gindin from 2023-05-12T18:59:37

Sam Gindin and Justin Podur, moderated with fairness and balance by Nora Barrows-Friedman, debate the proposition that the world is becoming multipolar as US hegemony declines. We clash over capita...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Mexican Revolution pt4: Schemes of the Great Powers from 2023-05-11T20:49:37

While the Mexican Revolutionaries fought for the land, the Great Powers tried to pick the winner. Germany and Britain, Japan and of course the US, all schemed and intrigued. We talk about the Kaise...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 125: Maori Sovereignty or Death! from 2023-05-09T18:26:31

The New Zealand Parliament Protest inspired by Canada’s Trucker Convoy and with similarly hard-to-read politics; the continuing urgency of Maori sovereignty; An in-depth discussion of Donna Awatere...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 11: Atlanta’s Cop City and Anti-Climate Legislation from 2023-05-08T01:20:41

Stan and I talk about two of his articles from April: the first on Atlanta’s “Cop City”, which one activist has already been killed by police over, and why it’s an environmental disaster as well as...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Mexican Revolution pt3: The Downfall from 2023-05-05T15:16:23

Obregon defeats Zapata and Villa in battle. Carranza betrays the workers’ unions. The Morelos commune lives on, though its leaders fall one by one until Zapata himself. Villa too. And Obregon. And ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Mexican Revolution pt2: Villa and Zapata take Mexico City from 2023-04-28T18:06:54

Porfirio is out, Madero is in, but he has the same problem: how to stop the invincible peasant revolution now in motion? And the answer is, he can’t! Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata take the capit...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Mexican Revolution pt1: The end of the Porfiriato from 2023-04-23T18:49:48

The Mexican Revolution was an extraordinary event in 20th century history. In part 1 of our miniseries on the revolution we give the background from the Mexican-American war to the end of the quart...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 14b: Anglo-German Naval Race pt2–The Dreadnoughts from 2023-04-17T20:19:47

We talk about the fearsome dreadnought, the race to build it, the Le Queax novels that were the Red Dawn of the 19th century, the Heartland theory of history, and conclude our discussion of the nav...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 124: China’s use of telepathy and WeChat to control Canadian elections, with Carl Zha from 2023-04-07T02:54:57

Carl Zha is back and I try to explain to him the hysteria of the accusations by the CSIS leaker in Canada of Chinese electoral interference. He can’t find a word of it in Chinese media which leads ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 14a: Anglo-German Naval Race pt1–Theorists and Practitioners of World Domination from 2023-04-06T02:33:45

Part 1 of 2 on the Anglo-German Naval Race. We start with a modern theorist, Paul Kennedy, and his thesis that industrial power translates to military power. Then some earlier imperialist theorists...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time 10: A 5-year and a 50-year farm bill from 2023-04-04T17:04:04

Back with Stan Cox on the environmental file. Stan’s written a dispatch on the Farm Bill. How the 5-year Farm Bills used to have consensus but how even that might be breaking, and then we talk abou...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 123: The fruit of 5 years of demonizing China in Canada from 2023-03-26T16:37:47

I’m joined by Dock Currie with another episode on the gift that keeps on giving, the CSIS-leaking China panic in Canadian politics. We talk about the recent walk-back from the most ridiculous alleg...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 122: Attempts to arrest Imran Khan and the Lahore High Court rallies from 2023-03-17T19:02:41

Waqas is back to keep us up to date on the Imran Khan file. The entire Pakistan establishment is united in trying to keep Imran Khan from returning to power in an election through court cases, viol...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 121: Multiculturalism is over in Canada from 2023-03-16T16:21:44

Sina’s back to talk to me about my latest Substack article, “Multiculturalism is over in Canada. It’s back to Sinophobia.” It’s about the scandal unfolding in the Canadian media since Fife&Chase br...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 13: The Bosnian Crisis 1908 from 2023-03-07T02:46:52

First we announce Civ Books, where you can buy some of the best Civilizations Podcast transcripts in hard copy. Then, we reveal two of the most long-standing geopolitical disagreements that Dave an...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 120: Russia Ukraine Year 1: Who is winning? Who is lying? With Scott Ritter from 2023-03-03T20:41:19

Scott Ritter is back after a year as we build a chronology of events of the Russia-Ukraine war so far. What were Russia’s goals? Did they succeed or fail? What were NATO’s goals? Why did Russia’s i...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 119: That time when Britain killed 10 million Indian people, with Amaresh Mishra from 2023-02-28T22:41:30

Talking to Amaresh Mishra, author of the giant book India 1857: War of Civilisations about the immense scale of the Indian revolution against British imperialism that year: the scale of Hindu-Musli...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief Episode 32: West Bank Escalation from 2023-02-27T22:45:33

I joined Nora and Jon from The Brief to talk about the new Resistance in the West Bank and Israel’s ongoing spiral out of control.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 12: The 1908 Revolution in Turkey from 2023-02-19T17:39:57

The Young Ottomans and then the Young Turks make a constitutional revolution in Turkey in 1908. We talk about them, the ideas (science, constitutionalism) that motivated them as well as the ideas t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time 9: Attacks on the US electrical grid, defenses of US gas stoves from 2023-02-17T19:40:38

We are back on the environment file with Stan Cox, to discuss his latest two dispatches. January’s on who is attacking the US electrical grid? February’s on the curious defense of gas stoves from t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 11: The Morocco Crisis of 1905 from 2023-02-06T20:08:44

France’s incremental takeover of Morocco based on their colonization of Algeria; Germany declares that it will protect Morocco’s sovereignty, which it doesn’t actually do. See how Morocco’s coloniz...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 10: The Last Years of Austria-Hungary from 2023-01-28T16:58:08

The Austro-Hungarian Empire lasted hundreds of years but could not survive WWI. We look at its makeup, its economy, its socialist movement, at Franz Josef and the glamorous empress Sissi, and wonde...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 118: Emergency broadcast on the Attempted Coup in Brazil! from 2023-01-16T16:04:47

It’s just me on this emergency broadcast in the spirit of “do a coup, get a pod”. Angry opponents of the Lula’s newly elected government in Brazil (with some security forces help) stormed governmen...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
WWCiv 9: Imperial Resentment, Industrial Power, Inevitable Socialism: Germany before WW1 from 2023-01-07T20:37:51

Of all the mysteries of the World Wars, Germany’s is perhaps the most mysterious. We discuss this country with the fastest growing industrial power, the largest and most powerful socialist movement...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 8: The 1905 Russian Revolution from 2022-12-27T20:04:57

The 1905 Russian Revolution was, though no one knew it at the time, the rehearsal for the 1917 Russian Revolution. Dave takes us from Bloody Sunday to the calculations and miscalculations of the Ts...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 7: The Russo-Japanese War 1905 from 2022-12-16T16:12

The earth-shaking event where an Asian power defeated a European power in a war, leading to a revolution in Russia and a major shakeup in world affairs. We talk about the role education played in J...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 117: Peru’s President Pedro Castillo overthrown in a coup from 2022-12-10T20:27:37

Peru’s president Pedro Castillo has been overthrown in a coup and is in Peruvian jail while the former Vice President Dina Boluarte has taken over, vowing NOT to hold an election any time soon. Peo...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 6: Russia in 1900 from 2022-12-03T19:14:20

First one of a mini-series about the 1905 Russian Revolution, we talk about the economic, political, and social conditions of Russia on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War. Foreign investment, infras...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 8: No Red Wave, Plenty of Red Flags from 2022-11-27T01:19:51

Stan Cox is back with his November dispatch about the US midterm elections, in which the feared Red Wave didn’t materialize — but Stan wastes no time in warning us that 2024 is also going to be sca...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 5: The Dreyfus Affair from 2022-11-17T04:14:21

There is no better entree into pre-WWI France than the sordid Dreyfus Affair. The whole story in all its gory detail including its implications for the France-Russia alliance and the echoes of 1871...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Anti-Empire Radio episode 116: The Assassination Attempt on Imran Khan from 2022-11-11T20:15:13

Waqas is back to talk about the Nov 3 attempt on Imran Khan’s life; the assassination in Kenya of journalist Arshad Sharif; Similarities and differences between the assassination of Benazir Bhutto ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 115: Lula’s back! Will there be another coup? from 2022-11-03T15:12:50

On October 30, Lula was elected to the presidency after surviving a political persecution that threw him behind bars and kept him from running in 2018, paving the way for Bolsonaro’s disastrous ter...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
WWC 4–Causes of WWI–Britain’s slow and gentle decline from 2022-10-29T21:59:24

Reading Corelli Barnett, David Cannadine, and others, our stop today on the pre-WWI Europe tour is Britain, which has reached the very heights of world domination only to discover that they are bei...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
WWC 3–Causes of WW1 pt 3–Life&Ideas from 2022-10-22T18:02:10

In this long episode we ask the question: what in the intellectualism of the early 20th century may have contributed to the climate that led to WW1? After reading Losurdo’s long book about Nietzsch...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 7: A Thousand Rebellious Communities from 2022-10-19T15:33:23

Stan Cox is back for In Real Time episode 7, where we track the climate crisis and do other environmental talk. Stan reports back from some interviews he did with activists who are working locally ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
WWC 2–Causes of World War 1 pt2–The Alliance System from 2022-09-26T20:49:36

How do you turn a local conflict into a world war? Create an intricate set of alliances that guarantees it! Dave takes us on a tour of the construction of the alliance system from the Emperors’ Lea...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 6: Challenging CO2 Pipelines from 2022-09-21T20:44:58

CO2 pipelines are proof of the principle that “the greatest source of problems is solutions”. Stan Cox is back to shoot down the notion that CO2 pipelines are going to save us. Justin, meanwhile, h...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
World War Civ 1: The Intro from 2022-09-09T14:49:01

The Scramble for Africa is over. Greedy European powers can now only expand at one another’s expense. Du Bois and Lenin both thought this made a big European war inevitable. But others at the time ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 114: Why Democracy (TM) Fails the Global South from 2022-09-05T17:49:08

Democracy means “the people rule”. But do the people rule in the “democratic” systems that form governments all over the world? Are these democratic governments less repressive or authoritarian tha...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 113: Pakistan government threatens to arrest Imran Khan from 2022-08-26T02:03:20

An update on the unfolding post-coup in Pakistan. Talking to Waqas Ahmad again about the threat to arrest Imran Khan, the remarkable result of the election in Punjab where PTI won 15/20 seats, the ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Oceania 3: Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia from 2022-08-16T19:53:06

At the peak of global colonialism no island however small was exempted from European greed. We conclude our Scramble for Oceania series with the scrambles for the many islands in the Pacific. Many ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 5: On the Inflation Reduction Bill and on Optimism from 2022-08-15T00:44:53

Our August 2022 dispatch with Stan Cox. Stan presents us this month with a discussion of the “Inflation Reduction Bill” – is climate change solved? Can Stan finally relax? We also get into a discus...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Oceania 2: The Land Wars of New Zealand from 2022-08-06T21:23:36

We take advantage of some new scholarship of New Zealand history (Keenan, Wars Without End; Belch, New Zealand Wars; Simons, Soldiers, Scouts and Spies) to give you a hopefully fresh look at the 19...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 4: A discussion of violence and policy murder from 2022-07-21T17:48:46

The fourth discussion with Stan Cox about his latest dispatch, “They’ll Show Up Armed – Countering Policy Murder and the Rising Violence of the Right”. We talk about a nonviolent march Stan partici...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Oceania 1: The theft of Australia from 2022-07-17T15:58:16

At the same time that the European empires were scrambling for Africa, they held a scramble in the Pacific. For the British Empire the base was Australia, and we begin with the scramble for Austral...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 21: mini-scramblers Portugal, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark… from 2022-07-06T18:24

The biggest player in the Scramble for Africa was England. Second place to France, third to Germany. But there were many other European powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884 and the plunder of Af...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 112: BDS Boston makes a map and chaos ensues from 2022-07-02T14:36:20

In June 2022 a small activist group in Boston created mapliberation.org, a project mapping primarily policing institutions in Massechussetts and their connections to corporations, organizations, an...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 20: Germany (pt3) genocides the Nama, 1908 from 2022-06-24T18:26:53

In September 1904 several Nama scouts slipped away from the Germans after the battle of Waterberg and the genocide of the Herero, to warn their leader, Hendrik Witbooi, of what the Germans were cap...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Gustavo Petro wins Colombia’s presidency–what next? from 2022-06-20T20:13:01

Colombia, in a run-off vote, elected Leftist ex-rebel Gustavo Petro to the presidency in a narrow, historic election. We are joined by Colombian doctor and political activist, MANUEL ROZENTAL. Just...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 3: The People vs Petrocracy from 2022-06-14T20:14:06

Stan Cox joins us for June’s dispatch of In Real Time. As he prepares to travel to Washington DC for a protest (the report on that will follow next dispatch) Stan actually talks to us about local s...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 19: Germany (pt2) genocides the Herero, 1904 from 2022-06-07T14:53:12

The devastating story of the Herero genocide, complete with von Trotha’s extermination order, Samuel Maharero’s resistance, the battle at the Waterberg, and the concentration camps at Swakopmund an...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 111: Imran Khan’s Long March in Pakistan from 2022-06-01T18:59:58

An update on the dynamic situation in Pakistan. Fan favorite Waqas Ahmad (@worqas on twitter) is back to talk about the massive march and nationwide protest of May 25 in Pakistan, which ousted Prim...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 2: Can the oily authoritarians be stopped? from 2022-05-11T00:55:42

Instalment 2 of our monthly discussion on environmental topics with Stan Cox – this week Justin talks about some problems with what he calls “western environmentalism”; then we go over Stan’s lates...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 18: Germany in the Scramble pt1–from Karl Peters to the war on Mkwawa and the Wahehe from 2022-05-10T03:19:51

We begin the story of Germany in the Scramble for Africa with the question: was Germany really as bad as their enemies say they were? (spoiler: worse) We talk about Bismarck’s reluctance to own col...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Anti Empire Radio 110: Karachi University Bombing–Balochistan and China from 2022-05-01T02:38:34

In the latest episode of Kung Fu Yoga with Carl Zha, we talk about the bombing at Karachi University where a suicide bomber killed herself, three Chinese teachers, and a driver. The Baloch Liberati...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble 17: Brazza, Fashoda, and Cesaire’s Discours–France in the Scramble concluded from 2022-04-29T18:17:50

We start with a quick history of France’s theft of Congo-Brazzaville, centering on Brazza himself and ending with the Toque-Gaud Trial. Then on to the nearly early start of WWI – the Fashoda Crisis...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 109: Imran Khan’s ouster in Pakistan–coup or reconfiguration of power? from 2022-04-25T20:05:37

The ouster of Imran Khan continues to play out. We’re asking: 1. Was it a coup? 2. How can we understand Imran Khan’s foreshortened time in government and his ruling coalition? 3. How important are...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 16: Female Caligula DESTROYS Madagascar! from 2022-04-23T17:21:23

Clickbait title aside, this episode continues to follow the French as they Scramble for Africa. In this case, how France managed to steal the enormous island of Madagascar from its powerful African...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
In Real Time with Stan Cox 1: The US environmental and political crisis from 2022-04-15T17:31:28

We have hatched a new plan for a series on the Anti-Empire Project, a monthly discussion of (mainly) environmental issues with Stan Cox. Stan is the author of quite a few environmental books and is...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Anti-Empire Radio 108: Pakistan–I think it was a coup! from 2022-04-13T01:01:50

Was Imran Khan ousted in a US-backed regime change, or is Imran Khan crying conspiracy over a routine non-confidence vote? Was the memo real or exaggerated? Are the mass protests a sign of a cult-l...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 107: Interviewed by the Cadre Journal about the DR Congo and Rwanda from 2022-04-11T02:19:45

A new youtube channel, the Cadre Journal, has been publishing hour-long in-depth interviews with Communist party activists and others on and largely from the Global South. I was happy to be invited...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 15: France Seizes West Africa from 2022-04-06T18:31:20

In this episode France seizes the territories of the Tukolors (overthrowing Sultan Ahmadu), battles Samori Toure, and fights a long war with King Benanzin of Dahomey. Some observations about the di...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Anti-Empire Radio 106: How the US started the war on Syria in 2011, with William van Wagenen from 2022-04-05T03:03:13

More than a decade later it is well past time to look at how the Syrian Civil War really started – with a US-orchestrated regime change campaign with continuities going back to European colonialism...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 14: France saves Sadok Bey of Tunis from a nonexistent threat and steals the country 1881 from 2022-03-26T19:39:17

After a bit of comparing and contrasting French colonialism with the British type, Dave tells us about the French Foreign Legion; Then we’re on to a key piece in France’s Scramble for Africa, the t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 105: Are your favorite academic theorists really CIA spooks? With Gabriel Rockhill from 2022-03-19T18:31:54

Talking to Gabriel Rockhill, professor and director of the Critical Theory Workshop. Ever wonder why the CIA thought it was worthwhile to sponsor European left-wing academic theories? We talk about...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 13: France in the Scramble–the Algeria Precedent and Abdelkader’s Resistance from 2022-03-16T18:57:52

We talked about France’s colonization of Algeria back in Civilizations Episode 15 (in August 2020). We revisit it now, as France’s entry point into the Scramble for Africa. Algeria was France’s tem...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 12b: The British Sack Benin in 1897 from 2022-03-11T18:50:25

Using Dan Hicks’s 2020 book The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, Justin tells the story of how the British destroyed Benin, stole their stuff, and put...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 104: Will Ukraine be Putin’s Afghanistan? With Scott Ritter from 2022-03-05T06:00:53

I interviewed Scott Ritter, former Marine, weapons inspector, and current author and writer about the war in Ukraine. We start with his experiences as a young member of the US military studying the...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 103: Vaccine Mandates and Dispersed Convoys from 2022-03-03T20:52:28

I’m joined by AER’s favorite doctor Tarek Loubani and by another doctor (this time a doctor of history), Dorotea Gucciardo, a lecturer in the history of medicine. I ask Tarek why he believes vaccin...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 12: The British Scramble for West Africa from 2022-02-27T03:18:47

We start this episode with a few minutes of reading reviews – from fans and not-fans! Perhaps this will inspire you to review us too. Then we’re on to the British Scrambling for West Africa. Some o...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 102: Are we in a multipolar world? And the trucker convoy, with Ben Norton from 2022-02-19T03:01:08

Ben Norton of the new site multipolarista.com joins me to talk about a wide range of anti-imperialist topics, from Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to Ortega and Maduro. We end up trying to figure out...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 11: Theodore Herzl, the Uganda Plan, and the Zionist Scramble for East Africa from 2022-02-04T04:29:10

At the first Zionist Congress in 1897, delegates agreed to pursue the colonization of Palestine. But at the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903, Theodor Herzl presented a proposal for a colony in East A...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 10: Saving souls and stealing cattle–the British take Uganda and Kenya from 2022-01-25T16:54:36

From the Imperial British East Africa Company to the British East Africa Protectorate, we trace the missionary mischief that led to the British taking Uganda and the many wars (called “expeditions”...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 9e: South Africa pt5–The Boer War 1899-1902 from 2022-01-15T22:17:37

Our fifth and concluding episode on the Scramble in South Africa is on the (Second) Boer War from 1899-1902. We talk about how it started and why, the military details, the concentration camps, the...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AER 101: China and Imperialist Media Strategies with Vijay Prashad from 2022-01-13T18:59

Sooner or later every anti-imperialist is smeared as a “tankie” and this week was Vijay’s turn. First his views were falsified, then he used the word “modernization” in a tweet! So, in this intervi...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 9d: South Africa pt4–The Hubris of Cecil Rhodes from 2021-12-28T17:57:31

The Scramble for Africa cannot be encapsulated in the career of any single imperialist, but if it could, that imperialist would be Cecil Rhodes. From the Rhodes Scholarship to the falling statues, ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 9c: South Africa pt3–The Boers before the War from 2021-12-16T04:59:52

Continuing the history of the Scramble for South Africa, we talk about the Boers, the Dutch settlers and their attacks on the Africans and then on the British conflicts with them, up to the discove...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 9b: South Africa pt2–The Zulus from Shaka to Cetshwayo from 2021-12-02T20:23:45

Part 2 of our series on the Scramble in South Africa takes us back to the Zulu modernizer, Shaka, in the early 19th century, all the way to the end of the Anglo-Zulu War between the British imperia...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 100: Debriefing the Indian Farmers’Victory with Navyug Gill from 2021-11-29T17:43:48

I’m joined by Navyug Gill from William Paterson University to talk about the historic victory of the Indian Farmers who, after demonstrating for a whole year at the cost of 750 lives, succeeded in ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 9a: South Africa pt1–Frontier Wars and Settler-Colonialism from 2021-11-25T17:57:14

The wealthiest and most powerful state in Africa is South Africa, and its fate has been pivotal to the whole continent. This was no less true during the Scramble for Africa, which is why this serie...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Lin3r Notes 1: On the racist who wrote“Lest We Forget” from 2021-11-09T00:36:59

Episode 1 of Dan Freeman Maloy’s series Lin3r Notes. Frequent guest and collaborator Dan Freeman-Maloy (@lin3rnotes on twitter) has a new substack, “Check the Liner Notes” (https://freemanmaloy.sub...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 8: Belgium Steals Congo from 2021-11-07T21:06:35

This one is about the precolonial African powers in the Congo – Zanzibar’s representative Tippu Tip, Msiri of Katanga, and a few others (but mainly these two). We talk about their rise in the conte...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 7: The Continent Carved Up at the Berlin Conference 1884 from 2021-10-30T21:04:01

After six episodes of preparation we are ready to talk about the famous Berlin Conference of 1884 where Africa was actually carved up. Along the way you meet some of the most legendary villains – S...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 6: Sudan–the fall of Gordon and the rise and fall of the Mahdi from 2021-10-23T22:17:27

The British imperialists take Sudan. First, they send Gordon, acting in the name of the Khedive of Egypt. That doesn’t go so well. The next expedition culminates in the brutal battle of Omdurman in...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 5: How Menelik Kept Ethiopia Independent at the Battle of Adwa, 1896 from 2021-10-18T04:54:33

Fifth instalment in our Scramble for Africa series is the story of Abyssinia (aka Ethiopia), which managed to maintain its independence during the Scramble for Africa despite all the efforts of the...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 4: Britain Takes Egypt with Finance (and War), 1882 from 2021-10-11T01:13:44

In 1882 at the battle of Tel el Kabir, Garnet Wolesley (who had suppressed the Riel Resistance in 1870) defeated the Egyptian nationalists led by al-Arabi. This was the final blow in a long imperia...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 99: The Meng Wanzhou Victory Lap from 2021-09-29T13:52:24

I am back with journalist and activist KJ Noh, retired SF Judge Julie Tang, and activist/writer Dan Freeman-Maloy. Meng Wanzhou is free and back in China! We painted a pretty pessimistic picture fo...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 3: Theories of Imperialism from 2021-09-28T01:01:26

Our third instalment before we really dig into the actual scramble for Africa is to give you a flavor for how we’re interpreting what we read. Lenin wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitali...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 98: On the Canada Files, with Aidan Jonah from 2021-09-22T20:25:33

I’m joined by Aidan Jonah, editor of the new media outlet The Canada Files, which has an anti-imperialist point of view and an investigative journalism methodology. We talk about some of the Canada...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 97: Special Siegebreakers Spoiler from 2021-09-15T01:50:13

In this special short episode, the whole plot summary of Siegebreakers, a pro-Palestine thriller novel that imagines how the Palestinians will eventually break the siege on Gaza, is SPOILED. If you...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 2: Africa resists the slave trade from 2021-09-11T14:33:07

Take a tour with us of a few of the African kingdoms that tried to resist the slave trade – before, in some cases, giving in. King Affonse of Kongo, Queen Nzinga of Matamba, Agaja of Dahomey (and o...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 96: Universities are Plundering Cities, with Davarian Baldwin from 2021-09-03T18:27:31

I’m joined by Davarian Baldwin, who is Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College, to talk about his new book In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Scramble for Africa 1: Pre-Scramble Africa–the Slave Trade and the Gold Coast from 2021-08-27T19:15:25

A new Civilizations series on the Scramble for Africa. We begin our series on this decisive event in world history with a multi-episode survey of pre-colonial Africa. In this episode we talk about ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 95: Waiting for Heather Holmes’s judgment in the Meng Wanzhou case from 2021-08-25T16:54:57

Journalist KJ Noh and retired SF Superior Court judge Julie Tang join me to talk about the Meng Wanzhou case, in which Canada has kidnapped a Chinese executive at US request in 2018. As we await ju...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 94: Taliban Takes Over from 2021-08-22T20:54:40

Joe Emersberger and I discuss some questions about Afghanistan after the Taliban take over the country and the US leaves. Was this really a defeat or a controlled handover for the US?  What is Paki...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 93: Take Back the Fight with Nora Loreto from 2021-08-13T01:27:25

I talk to Nora Loreto – podcaster, journalist, and author of Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age and Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Epide...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 38: What is history? And have we been doing Critical Race Theory all along? from 2021-08-09T01:44:05

A year and a half ago I approached my high school history teacher with the idea of launching a podcast with a massively expanded version of the content of the “Modern Western Civilization” course h...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 92: Q/A on Extraordinary Threat, our new book on Venezuela from 2021-07-22T18:00:31

Joe and I answer some questions listeners sent in about our new book about Venezuela, Extraordinary Threat, from Monthly Review. Questions include: Was Venezuela “once-prosperous” before Chavez? Ha...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 91: Kung Fu Yoga–US withdraws from Afghanistan and panics about China, with Carl Zha from 2021-07-20T18:19:54

Another episode of Kung Fu Yoga with Carl Zha, where we talk about the Indian and Chinese angles on world events. With the US withdrawing from Afghanistan like thieves in the night, the greatest ag...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 37f–Yankee Imperialism pt6–“The more you burn and kill the more it will please me”: The US assault on the Philippines from 2021-07-19T17:45:23

General Jacob Smith was reprimanded for his order to commit atrocities in the war against the Philippine Republic, but he was not alone in giving such orders. The US war in the Philippines set the ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 90: Cuba demonstrations and Cuba blockade, with ReedLindsay from 2021-07-15T13:58:10

Joe Emersberger and I talk to Reed Lindsay, journalist and filmmaker with Belly of the Beast, a media organization focusing on Cuba and Cuba-US relations. Among their films is a 3-part series calle...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 89: Haiti Assassination Aftermath–Cherizier: Hero or Villain? With Kim Ives from 2021-07-11T02:15:51

Kim Ives from Haiti Liberte joins me and Joe Emersberger to analyze Haiti two days after the assassination of President Jovenal Moise by Colombian and Haitian-American mercenaries. We talk about th...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 88: My comments at the Teaching Palestine / Say Palestine event June 30, 2021 from 2021-07-09T17:28:57

On June 30, 2021, I was honored to be among the speakers on a panel for educators called “Say Palestine”. The entire panel, which was moderated by the wonderful Javier Davila (who I address directl...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 87: Haiti’s president Jovenal Moise assassinated, with Chris Bernadel from 2021-07-08T01:01:38

An emergency joint broadcast with The East is a Podcast about the assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenal Moise on July 7, 2021.  Chris Bernadel is on the Haiti Committee of the Black Alliance f...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 37e: Yankee Imperialism pt5–the theft of Panama out of Colombia from 2021-07-03T02:19:34

A complex multinational megaproject with layers of government corruption and massive government funds. A separatist movement created and sponsored by the US. A chunk of territory carved out of an e...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 37d: Yankee Imperialism pt4–Puerto Rico’s thwarted autonomy from 2021-07-03T02:01:44

Through their own efforts, Puerto Rican revolutionaries won a charter of autonomy from Spain and were on their way to winning independence. Then Spain handed its colony over to the US, and the US h...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 37c–Yankee Imperialism pt3–Cuban Independence vs the US Empire from 2021-07-03T01:42:15

We tell the story of Cuba’s movement for independence from Spain following the remarkable career of Jose Marti from his teenage years to his unlucky demise. We pick up the story of the Spanish Amer...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Special Broadcast: Canada in the World with Tyler Shipley and The Brief from 2021-06-29T17:13:55

A Canada Day reckoning as Indian Residential School properties become crime scenes with the (re)-discovery of mass graves of Indigenous children. We are joined by author of Canada in the World, TYL...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 86: A People’s Green New Deal with Max Ajl, and Stan Cox from 2021-06-28T19:32:50

Max Ajl has a new book, A People’s Green New Deal; Stan Cox, author of The Green New Deal and Beyond and the upcoming book The Path, joins me as a co-host as we talk about Green New Deals and imagi...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 37b–Yankee Imperialism pt2–Regime Change 1893: The US overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani in Hawaii from 2021-06-25T15:27:31

Starting in earnest in the early 1880s the US embarked on a prototypical regime change operation: propaganda demonizing the targeted regime, financial control of the targeted state, suborning of ke...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 37a: Yankee Imperialism pt1–the Robber Barons from 2021-06-12T02:59:58

At the end of the 19th century the US acquired a substantial overseas empire – Hawaii, Samoa, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Cuba, as well as imperialist relations all around the world. In thi...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 36b: Islam&Imperialism 3b–the rest of the Anglo-Afghan Wars from 2021-06-05T02:34:48

A strategically bankrupt expedition by a vindictive, racist, imperialist power to conduct a series of genocidal atrocities on a Muslim population solely because they dared to fight back. And no, we...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 85: The Rise of the Right in India and Elsewhere, with Prof. Apoorvanand from 2021-05-28T20:41:41

In early May 2021, I had the honor of being on a panel on the Rise of the Right with Prof. Apoorvanand of Delhi University (and some other great speakers as well). I asked Apoorvanand to have a fol...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Special Broadcast: Ceasefire in Gaza from 2021-05-27T01:23:12

We reconvene the roundtable to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza. Nora Barrows-Friedman is an editor at the Electronic Intifada, Jon Elmer is a journalist who lived for years in Gaza, Justin Podur is t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 84: Kung Fu Yoga–China, India, and Israel/Palestine with Carl Zha from 2021-05-25T02:53:08

In the wake of Israel’s 2021 massacres in Gaza and violence elsewhere in Palestine, and a few days into the ceasefire, Carl Zha and I talk about the histories of India and China with Israel and Pal...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Monsters in our Midst 4: Would Gandhi Support Palestinian Armed Resistance? from 2021-05-22T00:52:40

Concluding the miniseries by Dan Freeman-Maloy. Gandhi’s slogan was “Do or Die”, following Byron’s poem about the (pointless) Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. He emphasized that ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Monsters in our Midst 3: What is the Gaza Strip? Why Support the Resistance? from 2021-05-21T01:50:49

The focus on Hamas is a product of the rolling amnesia of empire, as if the history of Israeli attacks on Palestinians can be narrowed to the last few decades, then distorted further. Against this ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Monsters in our Midst 2: Anti-Black and Anti-Palestinian Racism are Connected from 2021-05-20T01:30:22

Episode 2 of a mini-series on Israel/Palestine by Dan Freeman-Maloy. Sometimes the connections are obvious. The American-Israeli Meir Kahane, for example, worked as a white-backlash activist in the...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Monsters in our Midst: Israel’s Descent into Fascism 1 from 2021-05-19T00:48:46

Episode 1 of a new mini-series by Dan Freeman-Maloy. Since the Israeli elections of March 2021, a political philosophy, Kahanism, that was once banned even by Israeli law is openly proclaimed in th...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Special Broadcast: War in Palestine 2021 from 2021-05-18T03:51:51

Recorded on Day 7 of the war in Palestine, this roundtable brings together decades of experience working in Palestine. Nora Barrows-Friedman is an editor at the Electronic Intifada, Jon Elmer is a ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 36a: Islam&Imperialism pt3–The First Anglo Afghan War aka the Invasion of Afghanistan from 2021-05-15T04:03:03

The British imperialists made much of the bad experiences they had invading and pillaging Afghanistan beginning in 1839, coining terms like the “Graveyard of Empires” and inspiring racist poets lik...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 83: Update on #ColombiaResiste with Manuel Rozental from 2021-05-08T02:55:36

An urgent update on the massive protests in Colombia andAn urgent update on the massive protests in Colombia and the criminal response by the regime, which has massacred dozens of protesters and di...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 82: A briefing on India’s COVID crisis from 2021-05-06T02:30:27

A briefing about India’s COVID-19 crisis – its immediate causes in the premature declaration of victory, and its longer-term causes in the privatized and underfunded health system and the global sy...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 35: Islam and Imperialism pt2–Persia’s wars with Russia from 2021-05-01T01:20:49

Part 2 of our series on Islam and Imperialism in the 19th century: the Persian Empire’s struggles with the imperialists. In this period Persia was dominated by the Qajjars. We talk about their rise...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 81: The Loss of Hindustan–with Manan Ahmed and Sina Rahmani from 2021-04-29T02:10:07

A podcast event! I teamed up with a co-host, Sina Rahmani of The East is a Podcast, to interview Manan Ahmed, author of The Loss of Hindustan – The Invention of India. The interview is about histor...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 34: Islam&Imperialism pt1–The Ottoman Empire and“decline” from 2021-04-24T16:35:58

For however long the construct of “Modern Western Civilization” has existed, its Eastern foil has been the Ottoman Empire. And for as long as we’ve been taught the glories of the West, we’ve been t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 33c: How Racists rewrote History and Literature from 2021-04-17T02:43:30

Justin reads the Afrocentrists and makes a pitch; David hangs on to the universalist perspective, as we talk about all the racist rewriting of history, the famous racist literature of imperialism, ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Episode 46 of In the Context of Empire from 2021-04-12T15:04:35

I was a guest on the fantastic podcast, In the Context of Empire, where I spoke with co-host Matt McKenna about lots of things, but mainly about how imperialist propaganda works. 

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 33b: Scientific Racism from 2021-04-10T04:37:35

The old saying goes that Science ain’t an exact science, and nowhere is that more true than with the Scientific Racism of the 19th century. From its predecessors in the 18th century, we get into th...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 33a: Darwin and 19th century scientific advances from 2021-04-06T20:44:38

Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species was read by Lord Elgin before he burned down the palace in Beijing and by Marx, who was so excited he asked Darwin if he could dedicate a volume of Ca...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 32: Still a bit Victorian, aren’t we? from 2021-03-27T02:04:17

Racism, imperialism, repression of sexuality, hypocrisy, pugilism, world fairs, parades, animals on display, worship of a royal family… we look at the Victorian era and the Queen herself. Good thin...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 80: My comments on The Arrest of Meng Wanzhou and the New Cold War on China from 2021-03-24T01:06:46

On March 1, I was on a panel hosted by the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, the Canadian Peace Congress, World Beyond War, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, and Just Peace Associates. The t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 31: The first anti-imperialist uprising of the 20th century: Yi Ho Tuan, or Boxer Rebellion of 1900 from 2021-03-20T02:32:52

By pure coincidence, we are publishing this episode on the day the world contrasted the the Alaska Summit – a US-China meeting in March 2021, in which China told the US to stop posturing, to the hu...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 30: Korea’s Dilemmas from Donghak Uprising to Sino-Japanese War 1894 from 2021-03-13T03:53:56

By the 1860s it was Korea’s turn to face the dilemma of how to deal with the imperialists. Qing China and Meiji Japan had a lot to say about what they thought Korea should do. We talk about the att...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 79: Sorry for using the word“Corbyn”(in Canada) from 2021-03-09T03:00:44

I’m joined by Nora Barrows-Friedman and Asa Winstanley, both of the Electronic Intifada podcast. We’re piecing together the story of how lifelong anti-racist Jeremy Corbyn of the UK Labour Party wa...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 29: Japan joins the imperialists, 1853 from 2021-03-06T03:08:30

India had Plassey in 1757, China had Opium War 1 in 1839, and Japan had Commodore Perry’s visit in 1853. After centuries of keeping the imperialists at bay, Japan found them knocking down the gates...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 78: A look at Canada, as it declares genocide in Xinjiang from 2021-02-28T02:52:31

I bring Carl Zha on for another Kung Fu Yoga episode, this time about Canada. We discuss the unanimous declaration by the Canadian parliament (followed by the Netherlands parliament days later) in ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 28c: Taiping Rebellion pt3–the fall of the rebels from 2021-02-27T01:47:08

Having burned the palace of the ruling Qing dynasty, the imperialists decided to take their side and help them defeat the Taiping. As Zeng Guofan’s encirclement strategy takes hold, the imperialist...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 77: Talking Epidemic Empire, with Anjuli Raza Kolb from 2021-02-25T02:07:16

Anjuli Raza Kolb is the author of Epidemic Empire: Colonialism, Contagion, and Terror 1817-2020, new from University of Chicago Press. It’s a huge book with many threads, so in this discussion we p...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 28b: Opium War 2, 1856-1860 from 2021-02-20T04:36:06

In the midst of the most destructive war in China’s history, the imperialists decided it was time to sack and burn China a second time. In this episode, on the Second Opium War, we talk about the d...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 28a: The worst civil war in history–Taiping Rebellion pt1 1850-1856 from 2021-02-13T04:15:26

The end of the first Opium War was just the beginning of the horrors China faced under imperialism. Beginning in 1850, China was rocked by a 10-year long civil war that took an estimated 20-30 mill...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 27: Opium War 1, 1839-40 from 2021-02-06T04:14:22

We reach back in time a little bit to start the Civilizations Series on 19th century China – now known as the century of humiliation. The Opium War was one of the moments that turbo-charged imperia...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 26c: Canada pt3–Canadian colonialism: reserves, pass system, residential schools from 2021-01-21T21:17:33

By 1885, the Indian Act was in place, most Indigenous people were forced onto reserves, and the nadir of Canadian colonialism (so far) was set. Part 3 of 3 our series on Canada takes us through the...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 26b–Canada pt2: disease, extinctions, and colonialism up to the Riel Resistance from 2021-01-16T04:15:33

Along with colonialism, smallpox and the driving to extinction of the beaver and then the buffalo played an immense role in the creation of what is now Canada. We tell the story of these factors in...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 26a: Canada pt1–Devolution, Confederation, and Immigration stories from 2021-01-13T20:45:44

Part 1 of at least 3 on Canada, this one sets up the story of Canadian colonialism with some required historical touchpoints about Canada’s devolution into independence from Britain, the story of C...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 25: The 1870 Paris Commune, as told by Karl Marx from 2021-01-04T03:50:09

The Paris Commune was so much more than a short bloody two-month interlude in European politics. In this episode, the story of the Paris Commune as related by Karl Marx in his address to the Intern...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 24: Jamaica 1865–Morant Bay Uprising shakes the British Empire from 2020-12-27T04:50:59

In 1865, Paul Bogle led an uprising in Jamaica that was repressed with extreme violence by the British, led by Jamaica’s Governor Eyre. The reaction was disproportionate and the story was big news ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 23d: American Civil War pt4–the Rise and Fall of Reconstruction from 2020-12-12T03:07:34

We conclude our 4 part series on the American Civil War following WEB Du Bois’s book Black Reconstruction in America, talking about the brief, glorious moment of potential for genuine racial equali...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 76: Punjab Farmer’s Movement Confronts the Modi Juggernaut from 2020-12-09T18:40:30

Opposing a series of Farm bills that will render them destitute and further enrich India’s billionaires, a farmer’s movement has converged on Delhi demanding that the legislation (passed in Septemb...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 75: The Dec 6 Venezuelan Legislative Elections from 2020-12-08T03:35:42

Maria Victor and I talk about the December 6 legislative elections in Venezuela. Turnout was low at 31%, but that’s normal for legislative elections* in a pandemic (Romania had around the same turn...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 23c: The American Civil War pt3–the War from 2020-11-29T03:48:51

The American Civil War from Lincoln’s election in 1860 to the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomatox Court House. The major events, the commanders, and the decisive role of what Du Bois called the...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 74: The Fighting Intellectual, with Sayf Carman from 2020-11-20T04:28:48

Sayf Carman runs the Ummah Fight Camp martial arts youtube channel and has recently started Mindscrub, an intellectual channel. Carman teaches martial arts in New Jersey. He has been in the Nation ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 23b:“This question is still to be settled”: John Brown and the Civil War pt2 from 2020-11-17T04:54:52

John Brown routed 75 men with 14, defended Lawrence from raiders, wrote a manual for the Underground Railroad, and began the war that ended slavery. Frederick Douglass, talking about Brown’s action...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 73: Pakistan’s Hybrid Civil-Military Regime, with Saadia Toor from 2020-11-14T05:01:14

I’m joined by the Anti-Empire Project’s special correspondent for Pakistan, Saadia Toor, professor at CSI CUNY and author of the State of Islam: Culture and Cold War Politics in Pakistan. Saadia gi...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 23a–American Civil War Part 1: Abolition and distant causes from 2020-11-10T02:21:43

Civilizations begins our study (at least four parts) of the American Civil War. We start with the abolitionist movement in the decades before the war, and the conflict between the British Empire an...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 72: Artificial Whiteness with Yarden Katz from 2020-11-04T21:13:45

Step off of the Artificial Intelligence hype train with me and my guest Yarden Katz. Yarden is the author of Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence. AI is a squishy ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 22: German Unification and Otto von Bismarck from 2020-11-01T00:30:03

The name most associated with the unification of Germany is that of Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck was the great puppet master of Europe in the 1860s, but he may just have set things up for future con...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 71: The Colonial Determinist World View, with Sameer Dossani from 2020-10-27T03:53:52

I’m joined by scholar and campaigner Sameer Dossani. A PhD student at the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) in South Africa and an activist at PeaceVigil.net, Sameer wrote the pa...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 21: Italian Unification from 2020-10-24T02:17:17

Two very different characters – Cavour and Garibaldi – were instrumental in orchestrating the unification of Italy in the 1860s. We talk unification and consequences, and give a mention to Garibald...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 20b: India 1857 pt 2–the Revolution Defeated from 2020-10-13T02:29:34

The Delhi Liberated Zone under Bahadur Shah Zafar falls; Tatia Tope and others fight on for another two years; the British kill perhaps 10 million Indian people (7% of the population); the 1857 has...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 20a: 1857–India’s War of Independence, pt1 from 2020-10-10T02:52:06

Are we really doing this? One podcaster with Indian roots and another with British roots, trying to do the history of 1857 India? This is the Civilizations podcast, so yes we are! I’m arguing that ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 70: Reading Chomsky’s statement to the Assange Trial from 2020-10-06T02:23:52

On the last day of defense evidence in the Assange Trial (September 30/20), a statement from Chomsky was read into the record. This is a solo episode where I go over Chomsky’s succinct, remarkable ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 69: The Methods of Empire, with Isa Blumi from 2020-10-02T18:53:10

Isa Blumi is a professor at Stockholm University in Sweden and a scholar of the Empire. We talk about a range of imperial methods, including the creation of a ‘traditional-modern’ or ‘backward-forw...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 19: The Crimean War from 2020-09-30T02:18:46

How did a military debacle lead to the abolition of serfdom in Russia? How did a disagreement over the nature of breakfast lead to a military loss? How bad was the Charge of the Light Brigade, real...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 18: The Mexican-American War 1846-8 from 2020-09-24T03:58:04

This episode is about how the US became the territorial empire that it is. We cover the Mexican-American War 1846-8, as well as the repeat performance when France invaded under Louis Napoleon. We e...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 68: The Donziger Case and the Assange Trial from 2020-09-18T01:59:10

Joe Emersberger and I talk about the Steve Donziger case, in which an environmental lawyer who won a landmark settlement against one of the world’s most powerful oil corporations (Chevron) is now d...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 17: The 1848 Revolutions in Europe from 2020-09-12T02:12:40

There were many revolutions in Europe in 1848, with complex and contradictory results and lessons learned by all parties for future revolutionary rounds. We spend most of the time in France, a bit ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 67: Haiti Arms Trade and The US State Department from 2020-09-10T01:57:18

I’m joined by Kira Paulemon of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR.net), co-author with Jake Johnston of a recent report about a State Department contract to a politically-connected f...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 16: Chartism, Reformism, Police Origins, Irish Famine from 2020-09-05T03:23:08

We investigate Britain around 1848. Why was there no revolution? We look at the Chartist and Reform movements in Britain and in Canada, Robert Peel and the origins of modern policing, Australia and...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 66: Lopez Obrador takes on the Zapatistas from 2020-09-01T01:58:44

In Chiapas, Mexico, the Indigenous Zapatista rebels have raised the alarm about an intensification of paramilitary attacks on their communities. Manuel Rozental and I are joined by author John Gibl...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 15: 1830-2 French Revolution, Algeria Colonization, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, and Slave Revolts in the Americas from 2020-08-28T01:42:42

Your Western Civilization course covers the French Revolution of 1830. But the Civilizations Series gives you that and Muhammad Ali of Egypt, France’s colonizing Algeria, and the slave rebellions o...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 65: Thinking about teaching, through martial arts, with Shawn Zirger from 2020-08-26T04:48:34

A different angle this episode: my guest is my martial arts instructor, Shawn Zirger, who teaches Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do and other martial arts at the Zirger Academy. We talk about Bruce Lee’s ap...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 64: Rwanda threatens Congolese doctor from 2020-08-20T01:56:53

A sixteen minute solo episode about James Kabarebe, special presidential advisor in Rwanda, and his recent threatening comments towards Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege. Read my profile of Mukwege fr...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 63: Coffee, Tourism, and Lithium imperialism in Latin America with Yanis Iqbal from 2020-08-15T15:47:44

Independent journalist Yanis Iqbal, based in India, has written a series of articles about commodities and imperialism in Latin America. He presents some of his findings on coffee in Colombia, tour...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 62: Kashmir and Xinjiang, with Carl Zha from 2020-08-11T02:39:05

Another one in the Kung Fu Yoga series, with Carl Zha.  This time we’re comparing the situations in Kashmir and Xinjiang, reporting what we’ve studied about state violence, censorship, economy, fre...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 61: Men’s self-help and propaganda from Jordan Peterson to Jocko Willink–with Amish Patel from 2020-08-08T01:52:06

Why do Indian boys love Jordan Peterson? If war is hell, as Jocko Willink says, why do they keep doing it? And is it unfair to consider Joe Rogan conservative? To debate these questions, I’m joined...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 60: Colombian ex-president Alvaro Uribe Velez under house arrest from 2020-08-06T04:12:23

With Manuel Rozental. On August 4 2020, the Supreme Court of Colombia ordered ex-president Alvaro Uribe Velez, now a senator, under house arrest pending an investigation that he suborned witnesses ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 59: The American Trap sprung on Tiktok and Huawei, with Carl Zha from 2020-08-03T15:21:28

Back with Carl Zha of Silk&Steel podcast, who we last saw in our episode on the India-China border conflict.  We’re thinking of calling this the Kung Fu Yoga series. In this one, Justin has just fi...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 14: Early 19th Century Political Ideologies from 2020-08-02T02:43:17

Choosing our avatars carefully, we take you through the political ideologies of the 19th century. Conservatism (Burke, Metternich); Liberalism (Paine, Locke); Radicalism (Condorcet, Gregoire); Anar...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 13: The Industrial Revolution from 2020-07-24T16:06:15

We cover the Industrial Revolution in England, from a few angles. Justin inserts his usual colonial determinism notes, as well as some environmental history about fossil fuels and energy sources fo...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 58: Mafiosity, the current stage of Colombian capitalism from 2020-07-21T03:16:10

Manuel is back on the show for this one. How does an Indigenous community that has recovered land and autonomy end up back under state authority? How does a territory go from winning a life and dea...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 12b: Bolivar and Latin American Independence pt2 from 2020-07-17T18:18:18

At the beginning we quickly tell the story of Mexico’s Wars of Independence – Hidalgo, Morelo, and Iturbide. Then we return to Simon Bolivar from the Angostura period to the liberation of Peru and ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 57: Super-Wealth through the right mindset? A breakdown of Silicon Valley Ideology from 2020-07-12T01:38:56

I forced Dan to listen to naval (Naval Ravikant)’s twitter stream/podcast about How to Get Rich Without Luck or Inheritance. Naval’s twitterstorm inspired me to create one of my own, about the real...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 12a: South American Independence pt1–Miranda and Bolivar from 2020-07-09T16:20:35

The struggles for Independence against the Spanish Empire rocked the Western Hemisphere at the beginning of the 19th century and changed the world. We focus on Simon Bolivar to tell this story in t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations BONUS EPISODE: The case against the statues from 2020-06-27T21:26:20

Dave and I go over a very long list of the statues that have been torn down or come down over the past month, the historical figures behind them, and the case for tearing down each statue. From Col...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief 012: Uprising in America from 2020-06-27T01:19:37

The United States is rocked by protests against police violence as hundreds of thousands march from coast to coast. We are joined from New York by MARGARET KIMBERLEY and from Boston by BENJAMIN DIX...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations 11e: The Haitian and French Revolutions pt5: aftermath from 2020-06-23T15:15:33

Dessalines became Emperor of Haiti in 1804, marking the end of the Haitian Revolution. Napoleon’s crowning as Emperor was the end of the French one. We talk about Napoleon’s wars, compare Napoleon’...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief 011: Bolsonaro’s Brazil from 2020-06-23T01:10:41

Brazil’s new far-right government plunges the country into fascism. We speak with Brazilian scholar and activist DIANA AGUIAR about the downfall of the Worker’s Party and the rise of Jair Bolsonaro...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 56: The India China Border Clash of June 2020, with Carl Zha from 2020-06-21T05:38:30

I talk to the incomparable Carl Zha of the Silk&Steel podcast about the border clashes between India and China in the Galwan Valley. We talked about the many changes in Indian politics with the ris...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 55: The Meng Wanzhou case part 3 with George Koo from 2020-06-18T02:43:05

We’ve covered the legal treachery of the Meng Wanzhou case (part 1) and the history of Canadian racism (part 2).  Now in part 3, a deep dive into 5G technology, Huawei, its founder and Meng’s fathe...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 11d: Haiti wins Independence, Napoleon becomes Emperor. French and Haitian Revolutions pt4. from 2020-06-16T18:50:41

It took Dessalines to complete the job of winning Haitian Independence, after Napoleon had Toussaint captured and imprisoned to die in France. Napoleon went on to make himself Emperor of France and...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 11c: Haitian and French Revolutions pt3 from 2020-06-15T15:52:58

This phase of the French and Haitian Revolutions was dominated by two very dominating figures: Toussaint L’Ouverture and Napoleon Bonaparte. We talk about their rise and how they surpassed their ri...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 11b: Haitian and French Revolutions pt2 from 2020-06-13T04:54:10

The Haitian Revolution started with a well-planned conspiracy led by a slave named Boukman in 1791. The French Revolutionaries scrambled to figure out how to preserve the crown jewel of their colon...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 11a: French and Haitian Revolutions pt1 from 2020-06-12T01:27:34

Chinese diplomat Zhou Enlai may or may not have said 200 years later that it’s too early to tell what the consequences of the French Revolution are, but we are dedicating five full episodes to it a...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
BONUS: Colombia from the November 2019 mobilizations to the pandemic, with Manuel Rozental from 2020-06-05T14:35:35

Manuel Rozental talks about the mobilizations of November 2019 in Colombia, through to the pandemic, and the latest news of US troops arriving in Colombia ostensibly to fight “narcotrafficking”. 

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Bonus: Colombia desde movilizacion hasta pandemia, con Manuel Rozental from 2020-06-05T14:34:02

Manuel Rozental nos de un analisis de la coyuntura en Colombia, desde las movilizaciones del noviembre 2019 hasta la pandemia y las noticias de la llegada de tropas de los Estados Unidos en el pais

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 54–On the roots of structural racism in Canada: On the Meng Wanzhou case, part 2 from 2020-06-04T16:37:58

Lord Elgin, who gave Canada Responsible Government, also burned the summer palace in China during the British Empire’s Opium War.  Sir John A. MacDonald sung the glories of the Aryan Race from the ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief Episode 10: Canada’s Saudi Arms Deal from 2020-06-04T01:17:56

Saudi Arabia’s $14 billion weapons deal puts Canadian armoured vehicles on the frontlines of the war in Yemen. We are joined by ANTHONY FENTON to discuss the machinations of Canada’s junior-partner...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
AEP 53: The Kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou and what it reveals about how the world works. Part 1, with KJ Noh from 2020-06-01T04:26:16

An executive of one of China’s largest tech companies is detained in Canada accused of violating US sanctions against Iran. This story has many threads, and each one reveals something very importan...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 10: The American (Counter) Revolution from 2020-05-31T04:53:03

In world history, the American Revolution created a republic that continued slavery and expanded a continuous war against Indigenous nations in North America. We look at the British imperial geopol...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 9: Three Centuries of Power Politics (16th-18th) from 2020-05-29T13:56:11

From the Habsburg marriage alliances to the War of Spanish Succession, to the War of Jenkins’ Ear and the Seven Years War; to the Anarchy in India after Aurangzeb’s death and the founding of Afghan...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 52: Reading Fanon with Stefan Kipfer from 2020-05-28T04:45:25

Stefan Kipfer and I talk about the lessons we learned from reading the revolutionary Frantz Fanon, author of The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 51: What is Ecological Economics? With Peter Victor. from 2020-05-26T02:11:26

I talk to Ecological Economist Peter Victor, author of Managing Without Growth, about the idea of the economy taking place within a biological envelope, what is required for market prices to reflec...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 50: Iranian Tanker Arrives in Venezuela–quick reaction from 2020-05-24T16:46:49

A quick 12 minute reaction as the first Iranian tanker (Fortune) arrives in Venezuela with gasoline to alleviate shortages there. Some notes on the cruelty of the US sanctions regime, on why an oil...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 49: Beyond the Green New Deal, with Stan Cox from 2020-05-15T01:30:13

I talk to Stan Cox about his new book, The Green New Deal and Beyond: Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can. We talk about the good aspects of the Green New Deal (especially the New Deal ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 8: Ideas–Scientific Revolution–Enlightenment from 2020-05-13T15:39:35

We talk about the scientific revolution – Galileo, Brahe, Kepler, Newton, Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu and others; and take a tour of the Enlightenment as well, and the importance of Enlightenme...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 7: Religion–Tolerance–Intolerance, Mostly in England from 2020-05-10T17:08:21

Dave Power and I talk about the rise of Protestantism, focusing on the characters of Martin Luther (including his advice to Philip Landgrave of Hesse), and Henry VIII.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Anti-Empire Project Episode 48: The Goudreau-Silvercorp Coup in Venezuela, Foiled from 2020-05-07T14:39:03

I talk to Maria Victor after the foiling of the May 3, 2020 terrorist plot against Venezuela, which involved the infiltration of American mercenaries by boat from Colombia. One of the mercenaries, ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief 009: Hindutva Crackdown from 2020-05-07T01:02:34

India jails students, writers, and rights activists as the media works in effective coordination with the government inflaming sectarian divides, suppressing dissent and lionizing Modi. We speak to...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Episode 6: The 18th Century Global Economy, aka slavery, genocide, and colonialism from 2020-05-06T02:49:12

The global economy was forged in the 18th century under European empires that committed genocides in the Americas and Africa, instituted mass slavery, and colonialism. This is the story. 

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Episode 5: The Bureaucracies of East Asia from 2020-05-02T03:03:20

Following Alexander Woodside’s book Lost Modernities, we talk about the Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese Mandarinates, the peculiarities and pitfalls of a system based on competitive examinations, t...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 4: The Enlightened Despots of Europe and Asia from 2020-04-25T20:53:06

Dave Power and I talk about enlightened despots and the “greats”: Peter, Catherine, Frederick, Akbar, Abbas, Shivaji, Sejeong, as well as the Sikh Empire and the Ayuttaya Kingdom.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 3: Constitutional Monarchies and England’s Glorious Revolution from 2020-04-22T01:55:57

With David Power. If the quintessential absolute monarchy was Louis XIV, the quintessential constitutional monarchy is England after the Glorious Revolution. We talk about King Charles losing his h...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 46: Biden and Imperial Propaganda from 2020-04-20T00:11:49

Starting with the hectoring of the Bernie movement by liberals to vote Biden – including their sudden discovery of Chomsky,  who has always endorsed voting “the lesser evil”. From there, it’s on to...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 2: The Absolute Monarchies of Europe from 2020-04-15T02:34:20

The transition of European kingdoms from feudalism to absolute monarchy, with Russia, Prussia, and of course France under Louis XIV as examples. We open with some discussion of state formation, men...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 45: How will the working class respond after COVID-19? With Sam Gindin from 2020-04-13T02:56:57

I talk to Sam Gindin about capitalism and the COVID-19 crisis. We started with economics, but it is really about consciousness, politics, expectations, and the struggles ahead.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Civilizations Series Episode 1: The World in 1492 from 2020-04-10T18:23:38

In the first episode of our Modern Civilizations Course, a quick tour of the world around 1492 – Aztec, Inka, Ming China, Ottoman Turk, Mughal India, Kongo Kingdom, Haudenosonee Confederacy, and a ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Introduction to the Civilizations Series from 2020-04-10T18:01:29

Introducing the Civilizations Series. We’re going to go through the canon of a “Modern Western Civilizations” history course, but we’re going to fix it – we’re going to put the people’s, the east, ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 44: Bernie quits; and don’t be progressive from 2020-04-09T03:39:55

Justin and Dan start by grieving because Bernie ended his presidential bid today. Then on to a history the imperialism and racism of the Progressive Era and why “progressive” and “leftist” are word...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 43: Two Chomskyites Trapped in 2020 from 2020-04-07T04:10:47

Justin and Dan (that’s Dan Freeman-Maloy, for new listeners) talk about Chomsky – and not just manufacturing consent, but Chomsky’s influence on their political thinking, where they might have tiny...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 42: US Troops at the Venezuelan border from 2020-04-05T04:09:29

We recorded quickly to react to the attack on a naval patrol boat (the Naiguata) off the coast of Venezuela and the positioning of US troops at the Venezuela-Colombia border. With Maria Victor and ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 41: The magic bullet for COVID-19 with Drs. Thomson and Loubani from 2020-04-02T03:20:28

I talk to nephrologist Ben Thomson and ER doc Tarek Loubani about the magic bullet for COVID-19 (there isn’t one). The key messages: medical people – switch to reusable masks. Everyone: social dist...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 40: The pandemic and the marginalized, with Dr. Ritika Goel from 2020-03-26T19:26:39

I talk to Toronto doctor and activist Ritika Goel about the first few weeks of the pandemic here in Toronto, some of the emergency measures anti-poverty activists have called for, and the ways the ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 39: Might, the novel, by Brian Dominick from 2020-03-16T22:42:13

Brian Dominick is the author of Present as Prologue: A GenZero Novella, which describes the first phase of a youth-led, high-tech revolution in America. We talk about youth liberation, education, c...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 38: The East is a Podcast from 2020-03-13T15:20:14

I talk to Sina Rahmani, host of The East is A Podcast, about everything from genre conventions to Orientalism and Edward Said to podcasting culture and trying to reach an audience as a podcaster. 

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief Episode 3: Blockade standoff from 2020-02-29T16:09:22

Police move in on the Mohawks at Tyendinaga, setting off a further wave of blockades, disruptions and direct action from coast to coast. Anna Zalik joins us to discuss the oil and gas industry, and...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Anti-Empire Project Episode 37: Postcoloniality and the Racist Legacy of the British Empire from 2020-02-22T00:00:58

A wide-ranging and admittedly bookish discussion with William Patterson historian Navyug Gill and frequent guest and sometimes host of the show, Dan Freeman-Maloy. We talk about postcolonial studie...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief Episode 2: Blockades expand from 2020-02-15T15:57:31

After the RCMP raided and dismantled the Wet’suwet’en roadblocks, rail, port and transportation blockades have spread across Canada in solidarity. And they are growing.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Brief on Wet’suwet’en from 2020-02-07T16:58:13

Our new podcast. This episode: on the Wet’suwet’en evicting Coastal GasLink in Canada, and the RCMP raid on behalf of the pipeline company. Includes an interview with Jeffrey Monaghan, co-author of...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
Anti-Empire Project Episode 36: Siegebreakers at York University from 2020-01-29T14:20:31

On November 19, 2019, York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies hosted a panel called “The Art and Politics in Imagining a Free Gaza: A Discussion of Justin Podur’s new novel, Siegebreaker...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 35: The Turkish Invasion of Northern Syria with Sardar Saadi from 2019-11-24T00:56:45

I talk to friend and Kurdish Edition podcaster Sardar Saadi about the Turkish invasion of Syrian Kurdistan in October 2019, the brutality of Erdogan’s assault on the Kurds, the impossible dilemmas ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 34: Colombia’s Peace Process Fails, with Manuel Rozental from 2019-09-24T18:36:01

I talk to friend and frequent guest Manuel Rozental about the breakdown of the (probably inaccurately named) peace process in Colombia, as FARC dissidents announce that the accords have failed and ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle, Episode 33: Grounded Authority–The Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State, with Shiri Pasternak from 2019-08-30T17:57:24

I talk to Shiri Pasternak, Research Director at the Yellowhead Institute and author of Grounded Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State. We cover Indigenous authority, jurisdic...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 32: The Wrong Story–Palestine, Israel, and the Media with Greg Shupak from 2019-06-04T18:52:22

I talk to Greg Shupak, author of The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel, and the Media. We use the Israel/Palestine story as a launching point for a technical discussion about tropes, frames, narrative...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 31: The Management of Savagery with Max Blumenthal from 2019-05-03T22:15:17

I talk to Max Blumenthal, author of The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State fueled the rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump. We begin with the latest coup attempt in V...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 30: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front with Judi Rever from 2018-04-21T18:28:42

I talk to Judi Rever, author of the important new book In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. We start with the inception of the military force that would become the RPF in ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 29: Media and Empire with…Justin Podur from 2018-02-16T18:39

In this episode Justin Podur is the guest and guest interviewer Dan Freeman-Maloy asks the questions. We talk about media, Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model, activism in a time of social media ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 28: Turkey’s Invasion of Syria with Sardar Saadi from 2018-01-28T15:36:49

In this episode I talk to Sardar Saadi about Turkey’s invasion of Afrin in Syrian Kurdistan. We recap the past few years of Syrian Kurdistan and the many players in the Syrian Civil War, and lament...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 27: Science and Academic Publishing with Bjoern Brembs from 2017-11-18T15:40:23

I talk to scientist Bjoern Brembs about the problems with proprietary journal companies control over scientific publishing. We imagine a better world of open science that is technologically feasibl...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 26: Free Milagro Sala! With Jorge Garcia-Orgales from 2017-08-16T15:58:46

I talk to Argentinian-Canadian union activist Jorge Garcia-Orgales about Milagro Sala, an Indigenous politician and activist who is currently a political prisoner of Argentina’s right-wing government.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 25: The Venezuela Crisis with Greg Wilpert from 2017-08-09T16:01:31

I talk to Greg Wilpert, founder of venezuelanalysis and author of Changing Venezuela by Taking Power, about the Venezuela Crisis, the Constitutional Assembly, and possible ways out of the crisis. W...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 24: How the World Breaks with Stan Cox and Paul Cox from 2017-08-04T16:07:36

I talk to Stan Cox and Paul Cox, authors of How the World Breaks: Life in Castastrophe’s Path from the Caribbean to Siberia. We discuss how we think and talk about disasters, the aid industry, and ...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
El Circulo Ossington Episode 23: El Caso de Parex y la Extraction en Colombia desde Canada from 2017-06-26T16:07:52

El primer episodio del Circulo Ossington en castellano. Hable con Manuel Rozental, Oscar Sampayo, y Anna Zalik sobre la compania Parex y sus actividades de fracking en Colombia.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 21: Venezuela’s Crisis with Maria Paez Victor from 2017-06-17T16:59:17

I talk to Maria Paez Victor of the Canadian, Latin American, and Caribbean Policy Centre and the Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle about Venezuela’s revolution, Chavismo, Maduro, the Venezuelan oppositi...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 22: Honduras and Empire with Shipley and Coleman from 2017-06-14T16:15:18

I talk to Tyler Shipley, author of Ottawa and Empire: Canada and the Military Coup in Honduras, and Kevin Coleman, author of A Camera in the Garden of Eden: The Self-Forging of a Banana Republic. B...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 20: The Great Haiti Humanitarian Aid Swindle with Timothy T Schwartz from 2017-06-01T17:02:16

I talk to anthropologist Timothy T Schwartz, author of The Great Haiti Humanitarian Aid Swindle (and the equally shocking Travesty in Haiti). Schwartz details the workings of the propaganda and mal...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 19: The New Cold War with Roger Annis from 2017-05-27T17:05:42

I speak with Roger Annis, editor of Newcoldwar.org, about Russia, imperialism, the new cold war, and the analytical challenges for leftists in the West.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 18: Western Wars, Arab Revolutions with Vijay Prashad from 2017-05-20T17:07:41

I talk with Vijay Prashad about his book, Death of a Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution, with a particular focus on the Syria war and the peace process in Astana.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 17: The Kingdom of the Unjust, with Laila from 2017-05-06T17:14:11

I talk to “Laila”, an activist who has studied the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for many years. For preparation, I read Medea Benjamin’s new book, Kingdom of the Unjust.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 16: The Destruction of Syria and Solidarity with Max Ajl from 2017-04-29T17:25:12

In this episode of The Ossington Circle, academic, activist, and editor at Jadaliyya Max Ajl discusses the destruction of Syria and the vitriol directed at leftists and Palestine activists who have...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 15: Ukraine, Russophobia, and Canada with Halyna Mokrushyna from 2017-04-20T17:27:04

In this episode of the Ossington Circle, Ukrainian-Canadian academic Halyna Mokrushyna discusses the conflict in Ukraine, Russia and Russophobia, and the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 14: Clouds of War Gathering with Manuel Rozental from 2017-03-26T17:30:31

In this episode of The Ossington Circle, Colombian physician and activist Manuel Rozental returns from a trip to Turkey, during which he spent time with Syrian refugees, to talk about the advancing...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 13: The view of Trump’s America from the ground with Cynthia Peters from 2017-03-12T17:33:04

I talk to Cynthia Peters, a City Life/Vida Urbana organizer in Boston, about changes, continuities, and strategy in a USA now under Trump’s administration.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 12: Social Self Defense Against Trump with Jeremy Brecher from 2017-02-28T17:35:59

I talk to labor historian and activist Jeremy Brecher about a possible strategy against Trump called Social Self Defense.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 11: Trumpism and Capitalism with William I. Robinson from 2017-02-18T17:38:59

I interview sociologist William I. Robinson about the relationship between Trumpism, capitalism, and fascism and what leftists could do in this environment.

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 10: Surviving Trump with Luke Elliott-Negri from 2017-01-28T17:41:01

I interview New York-based labor activist and graduate student Luke Elliott-Negri. We discuss the role and importance of organizing, of third parties, of local electoral work, and of labor unions i...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Case of Hassan Diab: a 3-part podcast series from 2016-12-03T17:15:29

This is a 3-part podcast series on the case of Hassan Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian sociology professor extradited from Canada and currently in a French jail, accused of a bombing that happened in Pari...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 6: Listening to Ayotzinapa with John Gibler and Manuel Rozental from 2016-06-21T17:44:18

I interview John Gibler, author of An Oral History of Infamy: The Attacks on the Students of Ayotzinapa, and Manuel Rozental of Pueblos en Camino. We discuss the disappearance of the 43 students in...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Episode 5: Indigenous Resurgence with Glen Coulthard from 2016-05-25T17:46:40

I interview Glen Coulthard, author of Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. We discuss the revolutionary theories of Frantz Fanon, the relevance of one revolutionar...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Podcast Episode 4–Students for Justice in Palestine with Nora Barrows-Friedman from 2016-04-10T17:48:32

I interview Nora Barrows-Friedman, author of In Our Power: U.S. students organize for justice in Palestine. We discuss the U.S. campus movement for justice in Palestine, the challenges it faces, an...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Podcast Episode 3–Against the Sharing Economy with Tom Slee from 2016-03-22T17:50:21

I interview Tom Slee, author of What’s Yours Is Mine: Against the Sharing Economy, about the downside of sharing economy companies like Uber and AirBnB, and what is actually happening as they resha...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Podcast Episode 2–Syria, Environment, War, and Refugees from 2016-03-09T17:52:35

This episode of the podcast is a lecture given on a panel at York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies on January 28, 2016. The panel was on Environment, War, and Refugees, and the lecture was on Wes...

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The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur
The Ossington Circle Podcast Episode 1–Debating Syria from 2016-03-03T17:56:27

The Ossington Circle, once a YouTube show, has been re-launched as a podcast. In the first episode, I’m debating the Syrian Civil War with author, activist, and professor Stephen Shalom.

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