Rev Left Radio

Uprising in LA: ICE, Mass Deportations, and American Fascism

Alyson and Breht record an emergency podcast on the current riots in LA, and resistance across the country, to mass deportations. Together they highlight recent events, discuss the function of mass deporations in a decaying capitalist system, analyze the spontaneous and militant community response, how terrorizing undocumented workers is a form of labor discipline, the fascist tactic of scapegoating the powerless for the crimes and chaos of the powerful, the role of AI in both displacing labo...

Still Laundering Black Rage: DEI as Counterinsurgency

In this incisive conversation, Breht welcomes poet, scholar, and organizer, filmmaker, and host of the Black Myths Podcast Too Black back to the podcast to critically examine the recent attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Anchored by the penetrating analysis in Too Black and Rasul Mowatt’s article, 2025-06-03 17:01:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Fascism w/ American Characteristics (The Pokepreet Podcast Ft. Breht O'Shea)

"In this episode we are joined by Breht O'Shea to talk about fascism and it's peculiarities in the 21st Century."

I went on The Pokepreet Podcast for a second time recently and had a really in-depth and nuanced conversation about fascism, presently and historically; together we discuss how American fascism arising out of the ruins of neoliberalism is qualitatively different than previous fascisms, the r...

Dialectics of Nature: Engels on Dialectical Materialism as a Worldview

In this episode, Alyson and Breht explore Friedrich Engels’ Dialectics of Nature, a bold and underappreciated attempt to apply dialectical materialism to the natural sciences. Often dismissed or misunderstood, this unfinished work offers a sweeping view of reality - from physics and chemistry to evolution, human consciousness, and ecological breakdown - through the lens of Marxist philosophy. Together, they unpack Engels’ central claim that nature itself unfolds dialectically: th...

Teaser: The Role of Labor in Human Evolution

This is small snippet from a much larger episode coming soon wherein Alyson and Breht cover Friedrich Engel’s famous text “Dialectics of Nature”, in which Engels argues for dialectical materialism as a scientifically grounded, philosophically rigorous, and holistic worldview—one that understands nature, society, and thought as deeply interconnected and constantly evolving.

Find the clip used at the end of this teaser here: 2025-05-26 12:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Fascism with American Characteristics - Ft. Rev Left Radio

"In this episode we are joined by Breht O'Shea to talk about fascism and it's peculiarities in the 21st Century."

I went on the Pokepreet Podcast for a second time recently and had a really in-depth and nuanced conversation about fascism, presently and historically; together we discuss how American fascism arising out of the ruins of neoliberalism is qualitatively different than previous fascisms, the role of insecure masculinity in all fascist movements, the implications of a lack of a...

OTU Under Attack by Landlord Lobby

In this episode, Breht welcomes on Seth from Omaha Tenants United for an in-studio discussion about OTU's slate of recent successes organizing several tenant unions, and a subsequent new legal assault on the organization by the local landlord lobby. The legal implications of this attack are truly monumental for virtually all forms of organizing. They also discuss how landlordism is a feudal hangover with modern ...

Breht's Homework Answers

I am currently enrolled in a Human Geography class and thought you might enjoy reading some of the answers I routinely give to basic assignment questions XD.

1. What did you find most interesting about the major theories of development?
What I found most interesting was how dependency theory and world-systems theory reveal the fundamentally exploitative nature of the global capitalist system. From a Marxist perspective, world-systems theory shows that "development"...

Unseeing Ideology: A Marxist Analysis of The City & The City

Breht was invited on to The Socialist Shelf podcast to talk about The City & The City by China Miéville -- a genre-bending noir that doubles as a brilliant Marxist allegory. We unpack how ideology shapes perception, how power constructs physical space, the shift we undergo from ideological subject to critical agent, Edward Said and Gramsci's concepts of the organic intellectual, and all the things in our soc...

Farce, Finance & Fascism: Margaret Kimberley on Empire in Decay

In this powerful and wide-ranging conversation, Margaret Kimberley—senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and a leader in Black Alliance for Peace—joins Breht to dissect the spectacle of American decline and, as usual, Kimberley offers a razor-sharp analysis of late-stage capitalism’s collapse into cruelty, chaos,...

Accelerating the Decline Under the Banner of Renewal

Breht begins by preparing to read his Night School lecture on Socialist Revolutions, but then gets monumentally sidetracked into an hour long extemporaneous analysis of the Trump Tariffs, Industrial Policy, Manufacturing, neoliberal globalization, the self-immolation of the U.S.'s international reputation, and the possible domestic trajectories over the next half decade: from the hypothetical rise of a new FDR to do a Trump-style takeover of the Democratic Party to techno-fascism in an isolat...

Spotify Is Deleting Our Episodes...

Best Of Series (creating a clean back-catalogue) starts tomorrow.

Join the Patreon - even for free - to get new public episodes in the meantime.

We will also be putting new episodes out on the Red Menace feed (subscribe on your preferred podcast app)

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The Encampments: Uprising Against the Death Machine

Directors Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker join Breht to discuss The Encampments, their award-winning new documentary chronicling the 2024 student-led pro-Palestinian uprisings at Columbia, UCLA, and beyond. We talk about the ethical challenges of ...

Palestine Action: Direct Action Against the Death Machine

In this powerful episode, we sit down with a frontline activist from Palestine Action, the UK-based direct action network targeting Elbit Systems—the Israeli weapons manufacturer responsible for arming and enabling genocide in Palestine and beyond. We dig into the strategy of physically dismantling the military-industrial complex, the stakes of this fight, and the growing number of political prisoners facing terror charges...

Marxism 101: Intro to Historical Materialism (and the Necessity of Socialism)

In this lecture, Breht provides an accessible but rigorous introduction to the Marxist theory of history: historical materialism. Breht explains how historical materialism is dialectical materialism applied to the evolution of human societies over time, the role that the base-superstructure model has in understanding culture and ideology, the long march from hunter-gatherer communal societies to slave empires to feudal monarchies to capitalist republics and beyond - to socialist democracy and...

Trotsky on Fascism (and Lessons for us Today)

In this episode, Alyson and Breht welcome Brendan back on the show for the first time in a few years. Together, we dive deep into Leon Trotsky’s Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It, a sharp and urgent intervention written in the shadow of the Nazi rise to power. We unpack Trotsky’s class analysis of fascism, the role of the petite bourgeoisie, his searing critiques of both sectarian isolationism and liberal class collaboration, and his insistence on the United Front as the on...

The Current Political Moment, U.S. Imperial Decline, and Organizing a Revolutionary Vanguard Party

In this episode Breht sits down with Brian Becker, a longtime socialist organizer and leading member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), to break down the current political and economic crisis in the United States and the urgent need for revolutionary organization. As Trump-aligned forces consolidate power, billionaires tighten their grip over the state, and the feckless Democratic Party continues its self-imposed paralysis, Brian and Breht examine what this moment signals about ...

An Analysis of American Capitalism in Decay (Pokepreet X Rev Left)

Breht goes on the Pokepreet Podcast as a guest to have a fun and fiery conversation about his ideological development, why the United States is so hostile to socialism even relative to other hyper-capitalist countries, the current grotesque state of global capitalism-imperialism, and much more!

"In this thought-provoking conversation, we sit down with Breht O'Shea to dive deep into the current state of world imperialism, the decline of the American empire, and the evolving global power...

Pure Excess: Capitalism, Commodity Fetishism, and the Promise of More

Todd McGowan joins the show once again, this time to discuss his newest book "Pure Excess: Capitalism and the Commodity". Together, he and Breht discuss commodity fetishism, the tensions between Marxism and psychoanalysis, what a critique of the subjective aspects of capitalism offers anti-capitalist politics, the "superstructural malaise" of late capitalism, Desire and Lack, capitalism's deat...

Spiritual Materialism? Marxism and Mysticism w/ Breht O’Shea

Go like and leave a positive comment on this video on YT to show Adnan some love from the Rev Left Audience please!!!

The Adnan Husain Show: What does spirituality on the left look like? In a Ramadan special, Adnan discusses Buddhism and Sufi Islam, the distinctions between mysticism and mystification, spiritual practices and ethics as well as the liberation of the soul w/Revolutionary Left Radio and former co-host of Guerrilla History, Breht O’Shea.

In a wide rangin...

Philosophy Series: Stoicism for Revolutionaries

Breht listens to, reflects on, and critically engages with a public lecture by the late philosopher Michael Sugrue titled Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: The Stoic Ideal. He discusses the philosophy of Stoicism, its insights as well as its limitations, its commodification and bastardization under late capitalism, the dialectical inversion of the philosophy of a Roman Emperor for prol...

Abolish the Death Penalty: Organizing Toward Abolition

Dawson Hicks from Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty joins Breht to discuss the organization, its founding by prisoners, its strategies and vision, the Alabama carceral system, the use of nitrogen hypoxia as the newest method of murdering inmates, the benefits of rehabilitation over punishment and slaughter, the utter moral depravity and intellectual mediocrity of U.S. politicians deciding who lives and who dies, the r...

The Sufi Path of Rumi: Islamic Mysticism and The Journey to Divine Love

Dr. Rory Dickson is a professor of Islamic Religion and Culture and author of several publications on Sufism, the mystical path within Islam. He joins Breht to have an incredibly deep conversation about the Sufi poet Rumi, his life and work, Rumi's relationship to his teacher Shams of Tabriz, the concepts of fana (annihilation of the self) and baqa (...

On The Ground in Gaza: Serving the People in Palestine

Willy Massay returns to the show to discuss his second trip to Gaza as a medical volunteer. He got back two weeks ago and stayed for over a month. He discusses his experiences, the wintry conditions and terrible air quality in Gaza and how both are impacting the health of every single Palestinian on the ground. He also discusses the ceasefire, the spirit of the Palestinian people, and his personal relationships and experiences with Palestinians.

Outro Song: "Kettering" by The Antlers<...

Red Hot Take: Dialectics at the Dawn of Techno-Feudalism

"When you love people, it hurts..."

The Nature of All Things: Spinoza’s Philosophical Odyssey

Professor of philosophy Colin Bodayle joins Breht to dive into the profound, unique, and almost mystical philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Together, they discuss the value of philosophy for all of us, Spinoza as a "philosopher's philosopher", his life and death in 17th century western Europe, his complex geometrical structure of writing, God as Nature as Substance, his forward thinking politics, Atheism and Pantheism, what Spinoza thinks a good life is, Stoicism and Buddhism, Marx and Engels conn...

Philosophy Series: Nietzsche and the Death of God

Breht listens to, reflects on, and critically engages with a public lecture by the late philosopher Michael Sugrue entitled "Nietzsche and the Death of God". He discusses the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the politics of modern day Nietzscheans, the death of god and consumer capitalism as a form a nihilism, the ongoing nature of human civilizational and spiritual evolution, the biography of Nietzsche...

"Mirror" by Andrei Tarkovsky: Time, Memory, and Aesthetic Contemplation

Breht is a guest on Left of the Projector (along with Amanda Joy Moon). Together, with the host Evan, the three discuss Soviet Filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Mirror" from 1975.

This is our fourth episode focusing on the films of Tarkovsky. You can find all our other episodes on Tarkovsky's films HERE

Left of the Projector:

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City of Ashes: The Los Angeles Wildfires

Alyson - a lifelong and current resident of Los Angeles - and Breht discuss the wildfires ravaging L.A.

Together they discuss the acute and structural causes of the fires, the role played by Climate Change, the reactionary propaganda surrounding the fires, the class dynamics at play, the self-serving careerist motivations of bourgeois politicans, the organized grassroots community response on the ground, and what it all means for the future of California, the US, and the world.  2025-01-11 23:52:47 +0000 UTC View Post

On the Situation in Syria and its Implications for the Region

Thuraya, Angie, Mohammad, and Edward join Breht to discuss recent events in Syria. Together they discuss what happened, Syria under the Assad government, the hope and concerns of the the Syrian people,  the role Syria plays in the axis of resistance, Syria's connections to Palestine, current conditions in Gaza, Israel's ongoing genocide and its actions in Syria, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and their governing promises...