What about the Peasants?

In this episode I read Engel’s Socialism: Utopian and Scientific and allow it to prove for itself why it needs little additional discussion. Download: .mp3

In this episode we talk about mass shootings in the US – the causes and why it only seems to happen here. Download – .mp3

In this episode I talk with Alka Mysore about Rosa Luxemburg’s answer to Eduard Bernstein on the question of reform or revolution. Red Rosa Graphic Novel by Kate Evans

In this episode we go through Jordan Peterson’s critique of Marxism in the recent debate he had with Slavoj Zizek. Download – .mp3

In this episode we talk about the links between the mental health crisis and capitalism. Download: .mp3

In this episode I talk about the man of the hour: Bernie Sanders. Download: .mp3

In this episode I dive into my critiques of Sam Harris. While there is a lot of bad-faith criticism of Sam, I wanted to try to do so in good faith. Download: .mp3

In this episode I talk with Delonte Wilkins, an activist and organizer in the Washington D.C. Area with Link Up. We discuss his experience in the (formerly) Chocolate City and the links between gentrification and mass incarceration. Download: .mp3

In this episode we talk about developments in Venezuela. On January 23, 2019, the anniversary of a 1958 uprising that overthrew military dictatorship, Venezuela’s National Assembly President Juan Guaido gave a speech to a crowd during a mass opposition rally against recently re-elected president Nicolas Maduro in which he declared himself the country’s “acting president” […]

In this episode I present to you a conversation I had with Stephan Molyneux a few years back. Some if it helpful to see the difference, some is a lesson in how not to argue. Either way. Enjoy. Download: .mp3

In this episode we talk about Libertarian Socialism with serious help from Noam Chomsky over the years. DSA Libertarian Socialist Caucus The Libertarian Socialist Thought of Noam Chomsky Download: .mp3

In this episode we discuss Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal and discuss the positives and negatives of her approach and the proposal itself. Text of Proposal for Select Committee for a Green New Deal. Download: .mp3

In this episode I discuss Mondragon, the worlds largest cooperative corporation, with US Delegate Michael Peck. Since 2000, Michael has served as the North American delegate for Mondragon, the world’s largest industrial worker cooperative with USA 2013 sales at the $250 million level.  On March 26th, 2012, the United Steelworkers Union (USW – North America’s largest […]

In this episode we talk about Brazil with Douglas McRae. With the election of Bolsonaro I thought it important to talk about the history of Brazil. Douglas is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at Georgetown University with a focus on the history of modern Latin America, with an emphasis on Brazil, particularly […]

In this special episode of the Sensible Socialist, Kevin talks to someone very dear, his wife Alka Mysore. Alka is originally from India and moved to the US about ten years ago where she studied Management information systems at Iowa State University. She is an organizer and member of Socialist Alternative in Washington DC where […]

In this episode I talk with Mike Pappas. Mike a graduate of Georgetown Medical School and currently a Resident Physician in New York City. He is also a revolutionary Marxist, and brings a unique, and much needed perspective to medicine. In this interview, we talk about American healthcare, what Mike calls “sick-care”, and about socialized […]

In this episode I discuss a brief history of the Democratic Party and relate that to the current state of the party and see if there is any hope in the DSA and Bernie strategy of staying inside it. Ending Song: Why I vote Democratic – Shamoozey Download: .mp3  

In this episode I speak with Rhys Baker of The Barricades about left-wing journalism, journalism in general, and the news of the day. Chomsky – Manufacturing Consent Download: .mp3  

In this episode I briefly review the idea of democratic centralism. Download: .mp3

With suicide, depression, mental health, and the opioid epidemic, its clear that something is wrong with our society. But what is it? While most often you will hear that this shows the need for more, or better, drugs or for more access to therapy and other kinds of cognitive behavioral help. However, what is not […]

With me this week is my friend and comrade, Sarko. Sarko and I are both in the DC Branch of Socialist Alternative. We have had many wide-ranging discussions, but I’ve had the feeling, and I think she would agree, that we haven’t really seen totally eye to eye on some pretty important issues – namely […]

In this episode I have the big debate with some great fellows I found at the CapitalismVSocailism sub-reddit. This long conversation covers several of the large controversies in the way the two sides view economic and philosophic arguments. Specifically, this conversation gets a bit bogged down in the question of value and of profit. The […]

In this episode I speak with Ginger Jentzen an activist and organizer with Socialist Alternative. Ginger was a candidate for Minneapolis city council in 2017, the executive director of 15 Now, along with previous working including Occupy homes in the Minneapolis area. The strategy of electoral politics has long been debated within the Socialist community. […]

In this episode I talk with my Law school colleague, Nima Ghafari. Nima is working on a software project currently, but was able to take some time to discuss with me some of his issues with socialism. Now Nima is no standard capitalist, but rather considers himself a Democratic Socialist (like Bernie or Ocasio-Cortez) but […]

*Spoilter Alert* I do ruin the ending if you haven’t seen this movie. You have been warned. This week, before we get to some good interviews, I wanted to briefly talk about what I thought about Boots Riley’s Sorry to Both You. Download: .mp3

In this episode I reply to David Pakman’s video – Why I am not a Socialist. I give my responses to his critiques and shed some light on where I come from as a (hopefully sensible) socialist. Download: .mp3 Ending Song – Andover – Revonda

Russiagate – the tangeld web of lies, deceit, hacking, and – of course – Russia. In this episode I speak with Socialist Alternative DC member Michael Melinchok about taking some perspective in a time of hysterics. We cover Russiagate, the Helsinki press conference, American Foreign Policy, and much more. Ending Song: Stop Drop – Cheap […]

In this episode I speak with Dr. Richard Wolff, of Democracy @ Work, about worker cooperatives and socailism. Dr. Wolff was named by New York Times Magazine as the Worlds Foremost Marxist economist. I am a proud member of D@W-DC, a working group for Democracy at Work in the nation’s capital. We discuss what a […]

This week I speak with Daniel who hails from the Marxist-Leninist tradition of the radical left. In this episode we discuss what Marxist-Leninism is, how Marxist-Leninists view the Soviet Union and China, among many other topics. Check it out!

Donate – Donate to IWOC In this short episode I talk about the news articles below and a subject we’ve touched on in a few episodes- the need for a new united workers party. I talk about why I think a congress of the radical left for the purpose of founding a new radical left party […]

This week I speak with Eljeer Hawkins about Socialist organizing and identity politics. Eljeer  is a community, labor and antiwar activist, and has been a member of Socialist Alternative/Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) for 23 years and writes regularly on race, the criminal legal system, Black Lives Matter and the historic Black freedom movement […]

In this shorter episode we talk about a vision for a communist future. What do we mean when we say a communist society? Isn’t it just Utopian? Is there an example we can look to? I think so, the final frontier. Ending Song – Hard Times- The Starlight

In this weeks episode I talk to Josh Morris, a historian at Wayne State, about the Many World of American Communism. We cover a lot of topics and it goes for a while. Buckle up and check it out!

Socialism doesn’t work, just look at Russia, or China or Cuba. Communism killed millions of people! Communism inevitably leads to dictatorship and violence. How should socialist think about these criticisms. In a nutshell, this is my version of the “not real communism” argument. Closing Song – Two Tone Runts – You’re Not Alone

The Communist Manifesto is usually the first stop for many who want to know about what socialism and communism is all about. It is important, though, to put it in historical context and explain a little bit about what was going on when it is written. Closing Music: Operation Death Squad – Iconoclast Episode 3a […]

In this episode we discuss some important definitions of words that are often misused and will be used (hopefully correctly) in future episodes. I tried to be succinct and clear, If you disagree with these definitions, let me know. Frederick Engles – Socialism, Scientific And Utopian     

Episode 1: Introductions Welcome to the Sensible Socialist podcast! This is our first episode of the podcast so it seemed appropriate to begin by way of introduction to give you a sense of who I am, what the podcast is about, why do the podcast and what do I hope to achieve with it. So […]