Total Liberation: Recent Episodes
Marine & Mexie
Thank you all for the support along the way! Mexie will be back soon with a new project – stay tuned. Sources and Links Support If you’d like to continue supporting Mexie, please visit Patreon.com/Mexie.
Rundown Mexie speaks with returning guest, Dr. Kristen R. Ghodsee, about her new book, Everyday Utopia. Everyday Utopia explores two millennia of human experiments in living differently to inspire radical hope in building a post-capitalist, post-patriarchal world. Kristen is the critically acclaimed author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, and Red Valkyries: Feminist […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie and Ash from the Horror Vanguard podcast analyze the vegan consumer boycott as a tactic towards total human and animal liberation. As two long-time vegans who have had a rocky journey, Mexie and Ash grapple with how to build a liberated world while honouring differences in ability and tradition. It’s […]
Rundown Mexie speaks with conservation writer, Jared Kukura, about the history and political economy of trophy hunting, the wildlife trade, and the concept of sustainable use. We discuss the colonial-capitalist history of ‘fortress’ and neoliberal conservation around the world, and how trophy hunting furthers neo-colonialism. We talk about the philanthrocapitalists involved in promoting these industries, […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with Susie Fishleder, who has a Masters in Women, Gender, and Social Justice with a focus on Motherhood Studies. Susie works with birthing people postpartum who are dealing with identity loss, anger and rage, and birth trauma. We discuss how capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy shape the institution of […]
Rundown This episode shares a stream that Mexie, Nic (of Pynk Spots) and Kathrin (of the Kathrin YouTube channel) did on A Little to the Left all about birth control. It’s basically everything we wish we knew before we each opted to take the pill at a very young age. We’ll talk about the necessity […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with Tory Stephens, founder of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors. Imagine 2200 is a climate fiction initiative at Grist magazine which showcases stories from authors from around the globe that are all in the visionary fiction genre (Afrofuturism, Indigenous futurism, solarpunk, etc.), providing inspiration on how we […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with Dr. Kristen Ghodsee about the commodification of relationships under capitalism and how we can work towards a liberated future. Dr. Ghodsee is the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism and Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women. We dive into the history of the […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie shares her third discussion with Marxian economist and founder of Democracy at Work, Prof. Richard Wolff. We discuss the context around current inflation rates, the implications for worker resistance including how the labour movement can collaborate with the worker co-op movement, and the importance of anti-imperialism in workers’ struggle. Sources […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with Xiangyu and Carl Zha about the complex history of U.S. imperialism in Taiwan and Chinese politics on both sides of the Taiwan strait. We dig into how U.S. intervention has greatly shaped the geopolitical landscape in East Asia today, and analyze the Biden administration’s recent provocations towards China […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with the SRSLY Wrong Boys (Shawn and Aaron) about their Papa & Boy series, which is now streaming on MeansTV. We talk about the show itself, and then dive into a whole host of topics that the show critiques. We get into patriarchal trauma and its relationship to maintaining […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Marxist, vegan academic and activist, Dr. Troy Vettese, about his new co-authored book (with Drew Pendergrass), Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan To Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change, and Pandemics. We start by discussing the importance of utopian socialism and reinvigorating our radical creativity to be daring enough […]
Rundown This is part 2 of our discussion about the Depp v Heard trial, the misogyny and disinformation surrounding it, and its social and political implications. We talk about the ways in which defamation as a weapon is already being wielded by abusers and white nationalists, some of the key issues with the trial and […]
Rundown Mexie is joined by Esperanza Fonseca and Khara Jabola-Carolus of the transnational feminist and anti-imperialist organization, AF3IRM, to discuss the history and present of the global sex trade and the insufficiency of the liberal feminist discourses surrounding it. We’ll discuss the history of the industry, its relation to colonialism, imperialism and militarization (as well […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with Nic (host of the Pynk Spots podcast and YouTube channel) and Kathrin (host of the Kathrin YouTube channel) about the absolute trash fire that is the Johnny Depp defamation trial. We discuss the circus that’s been made of what should be a very somber trial, the rampant misogyny […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with Monica Engebretson of Cruelty Free International about two pieces of legislation the organization is putting forward in the U.S. to reduce cruel and unnecessary animal testing. We discuss what life is like for animals subject to various tests and the multitude of alternatives that are far more effective, […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Jessey Njau, a community-centred urban farmer in Toronto who founded Zawadi Farm. Jessey talks about his journey from his soul-sucking job in tech to his life-giving urban farm project, the importance of community-driven food systems founded on reciprocity and mutual aid, and the possibilities for transforming cityscapes into […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Abby Martin and Mike Prysner of the Empire Files about their upcoming documentary film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, which will document and expose the imperialist U.S. war machine as the world’s biggest polluter. We discuss the links between capitalism, imperialism and climate change and talk about what Abby and […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with fellow Total Liberation activists Nic and Kathrin about the exciting inner life plants and what taking plant sentience seriously would mean for our politics and how we show up in the world. We focus much of the first part of the discussion on Peter Wolleben’s “The Hidden Life […]
Rundown This episode is the podcast version of a conversation Mexie had with YouTubers Nic (YT: Pynk Spots) and Kathrin (YT: Kathrin) on their joint sex stream channel called A Little to the Left. In this episode we dissect the male gaze in media, explain what it is, how it operates, and discuss its various […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with David of Robin Foods, an organization that works to address issues of food waste and food insecurity in Vienna. Robin Foods has joined activists and organizations from across Vienna in their occupation of construction sites of a disputed highway project. Their occupation has been successful in cancelling the […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie hears from Native Hawaiian comrade, streamer and indie game developer, SilverSpook, about the disaster at Red Hill, a Navy facility on Oahu that has been leaking jet fuel into the drinking water since 1949. The most recent leak, about 14,000 gallons this year, has jeopardized the lives of Navy families […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with Connie Spence (aka Vegan Batgirl), founder of the Agriculture Fairness Alliance and Liberation 360, organizations that work to lobby policymakers to change the laws that govern industrial agriculture and educate the public around how Big Ag operates. As Connie aptly points out, laws aren’t changed in the grocery […]
Rundown We’ve changed our name! Mexie explains the reason for the shift and where the podcast is headed. Our new website is totalliberationpodcast.com, and our links on Patreon and Facebook have changed as well (see below). Sources and Links Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/totalliberationpodcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/totalliberation Support the Show
Rundown Mexie is joined by her partner Jacob and Ash and Jon from the Horror Vanguard to discuss cult classic Pass Thru by the man, the legend: Neil Breen. Breen is so close to a revolutionary politic -so close, Neil!- but, alas, the plot takes some unseemly turns… Sources and Links Horror Vanguard: https://soundcloud.com/user-317910500 Horror […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Native Hawaiian comrade, streamer, and indie game developer, Silver Spook, about a range of topics. We discuss Hawaiian civilization, past, present, and future, Land Back there and everywhere, Indigenous futurism, and Silver Spook’s cyberpunk adventure game, Neofeud, which contains a number of interesting anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and decolonial themes. […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Laura Schleifer and Anas Arafat, founders of Plant the Land Team Gaza. Plant the Land Team Gaza is a vegan food justice and community projects volunteer team based in Gaza, and they recently teamed up with Million Dollar Vegan to provide 3500 vegan meals to people in occupied […]
Rundown We’re all together! Apologies for the audio quality as we kept moving and the mic picked up everything, but Mexie, Marine, and Nix from Pynk Spots got together in Portland to record this episode! We discuss the importance of being clear about what we mean when we say we’re fighting speciesism, as this has […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie catches up with Jon Reynolds and Meagan Sullivan, two former No Evil Foods employees who were pivotal in the union drive effort at the company. Jon and Meagan joined Mexie on an episode last summer to discuss No Evil Foods’ union-busting tactics (that episode is listed below). Mexie also speaks […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with former Lush Cosmetics employee, Hannah, about the company’s gross union-busting tactics and why she and others formed the Global Lush Union. As the mainstream vegan movement continues to focus itself on consumption under capitalism, it’s no wonder that vegan brands are replicating the same kind of colonizing and […]
Rundown Marine is back, baby! She and Mexie have a wonderful discussion about her journey into facilitation work with high school students. We discuss how facilitation differs as an educational tool from conventional lecturing or teaching, how she began her own anti-oppression facilitation program, and everything she’s learned along the way. We cover a lot […]
Rundown Mexie sits down with the Wrong Boys and Brett from RevLeftRadio for the most wholesome conversation ever had. We centre the convo around how fantastic it feels to help others and the importance of looking for the helpers in our society. We branch out into discussing the science of empathy and mutual aid, and […]
Rundown Mexie’s fiancé, Jacob, who is a Jewish anti-Zionist activist in Toronto, is taking over VV for this episode! He interviews Sheryl Nestel, an academic and activist who is on the executive committee of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, about the latest round of Israeli violence sparked by the incidents in Sheikh Jarrah. They discuss the […]
Rundown Mexie sits down with community activist and YouTuber, Sadlord777, for a captivating conversation about our spiritual journeys, the import of spirituality in political and community organizing, navigating tradition as a white settler on Turtle Island, and ancestral accountability. Sources and Links Sadlord777’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JohannDrivesMyBus Sadlord777’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sadlord777 Sadlord777 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadlord777 Robin Wall Kimmerer, […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with author and professor, Tyler Shipley, about Canada’s dismaying place in the world. Tyler is the author of Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination, where he details how Canada’s genocidal relationship with Indigenous peoples has carried into imperialist aggression. Spoiler alert: we aren’t the good […]
Rundown Mexie talks with Marxian economist, Dr. Richard Wolff, about COVID-19, the current economic recession, and the prospects for a post-capitalist future. Prof. Wolff argues that democratizing our workplaces from the ground up is critical to building that future. Sources and Links Democracy at Work: https://www.democracyatwork.info/ Democracy at Work on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/democracyatwrk/ Prof. Richard Wolff […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with journalist, activist, and documentary film-maker, Abby Martin, about U.S. empire under Biden. We discuss his scary cabinet picks, his administration’s positioning with respect to various countries that have long been in the imperial crosshairs, and the importance of building a powerful anti-war and anti-imperialist movement. Sources and Links […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Dalit anti-caste and anti-speciesist activist, Prateek Kumar, about life as a Dalit in India. We discuss how the caste system operates, how casteism and speciesism are interlinked and how this affects both lower caste people and animals, and how things have changed and worsened under Modi’s Hindu nationalist […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie sits down with Rachel Bromberg and Asante Haughton of the Reach Out Response Network in Toronto to talk about their work, which is revolutionizing crisis response in the city. Rachel and Asante are working to actualize a paradigm shift away from coercive, forceful, police-led intervention towards an anti-oppressive, trauma-informed model […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with anti-oppressive, anti-speciesist activist and lecturer, Christopher Sebastian, about the intersections between race, class, and species. We discuss the links between speciesism and white supremacy, the ongoing bigotry and racism in vegan activism, and the connections between the Black Lives Matter uprisings and anti-speciesist activism. We end by touching […]
Rundown Mexie sits down with anti-capitalist and decolonial scholar and activist, Dr. Nick Estes, to talk about the US election and what the Empire looks like under various administrations, about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court with respect to Indigenous law and sovereignty, and about how decolonial and anti-capitalist struggles are intimately linked. It was […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie is joined by Nichole from Pynk Spots (formerly from Bitchy Shitshow and Vegan Warrior Princesses Attack!) to chat about the 2020 election results: our reactions to Biden winning, why the Supreme Court and the Electoral College need to go, what moves Trump is making to attempt a soft coup (possible […]
Rundown Happy Halloween (slash HBD, Mexie)! Mexie and Ash, from the podcast The Horror Vanguard, review the 1981 horror film, Wolfen. Comrade wolfen are eating rich imperialist real estate moguls, what fun! Sources and Links Follow the Horror Vanguard on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-317910500 Horror Vanguard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HorrorVanguard Horror Vanguard on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/horrorvanguard Ash on Twitter: […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with community organizer Noodle about information and operational security for political dissidents, protestors, and organizers. We talk about what protestors and organizers can do to keep themselves and their comrades secure, both in the streets as well as at home and on digital networks. Please check out the links […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie sits down with former employees of No Evil Foods, Jon, Meagan, and Cortne, to talk about how the company effectively quashed the workers’ union drive. No Evil has, until now, marketed themselves as a revolutionary brand, using socialist iconography and even appropriating the Zapatista movement to sell their products. We […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with John Perkins, former Chief Economist for MAIN, about his time as an economic hitman, furthering U.S. empire through economic imperialism. We talk about the links between the World Bank, IMF, private firms like Haliburton and Bechtel, and intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA. John also discusses some […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with plural justice activists Meneka Repka and Ehsan Otoufi about the challenges of political organizing within mainstream, ‘apolitical’ vegan spaces. We talk about why anti-speciesist activism needs to be anti-capitalist and pro-intersectional, take a look at some of the mainstream organizations that purport to be ‘apolitical’, and discuss Meneka […]
Rundown This episode begins with a short rundown of what’s going on with the BLM rebellions right now, and includes two PSAs from the Channel Zero Network about safety and security during street actions and how to provide jail support to your comrades. In the episode itself, Mexie and Marine talk about the problematic war […]
Rundown In this bonus episode, Mexie appears on RevLeftRadio to discuss psychedelics, ego, consciousness, spirituality and leftism with Brett. This discussion dovetails well with our recent discussion on Mind and Nature, exploring themes of meditation and communing with nature in relation to leftist thought and activism. By popular request, we’ve gone in deeper on the […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Green, a comrade from the Indigenous Anarchist Federation, Ash from the Horror Vanguard podcast, and her partner, Jacob, about all things FF7 and how relevant the game’s narrative is for our current historical moment. We discuss the way the game handles themes of anti-capitalism, colonialism, environmentalism, racism, patriarchy, […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Nichole and Callie from the Bitchy Shitshow podcast about the potential and the dangers that COVID-19 poses for leftists. Part 1 of our discussion is up on the Bitchy Shitshow podcast, where we discuss this mask off moment for our toxic work culture and push back on calls […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Pierce Delahunt, a Social Emotional Learning educator and activist. We discuss the potential of SEL and Non-Violent Communication for socialist and vegan activism and outreach. Pierce shares great insight into how to connect with other peoples’ needs in ways that can build solidarity and trust and help us […]
Rundown In this bonus episode, Mexie joins Brett on Rev Left Radio to discuss our outdoor experiences, and experiences with meditation and psychedelics, and how these things intersect and influence our political consciousness. It’s hard to pin down one main topic because our conversation was so rich and complex, but we’re both really excited to […]
Rundown In this spooky, emo Valentine’s Day special, Mexie, Mad Blender, and Ash and Jon from the Horror Vanguard dig into the timeless masterpiece that is the Twilight saga. Part I is here on the Vegan Vanguard, and Part II is up on the Horror Vanguard! Be sure to catch both episodes to get the […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie sits down with the Wrong Boys of the SRSLY Wrong podcast to discuss all things utopic! We cover a lot of ground, from social ecology, to library socialism, to Revolution (both material and internal). The Wrong Boys are delightful as always and we hope you enjoy this one! Sources and […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews Green, a Métis activist from the Indigenous Anarchist Federation, on the importance of decolonizing our leftist organizing strategies. We talk about the concept of decolonization and what it would mean in practice, discuss important differences between settler and Indigenous worldviews, and outline the importance of having an analysis of […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie speaks with fellow anti-capitalist vegan YouTuber Kathrin about her experiences of sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse and the systems of capitalism and patriarchy that fail victims and perpetuate harm. We place our own experiences of sexual violence into broader context and demonstrate how patriarchal gender norms, media representations, language, […]
Rundown Mexie joins Pearson on the Coffee with Comrades podcast to talk ecology, anthropocentrism, and revolution. We talk about the importance of unsettling linear visions of progress that see humans as above or outside of the ecosystems we form part and of centring reciprocity in our praxis. We discuss how the human/nature dualism is baked […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie talks with Leslie of Mad Blender about the women of the alt-right. We discuss the obvious links between toxic masculinity and the alt-right, and then dig into the possible reasons why this overtly patriarchal movement might appeal to so many women. Sadly, women have been at the forefront of white […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie and Marine talk with Ash, co-host of the Horror Vanguard podcast, about death positivity (or the lack thereof) and how this relates to the doomsday preppers movement. We start by outlining death positivity and why it is so important in our present-day society, particularly with respect to the climate crisis. […]
Rundown In this episode, Marine speaks with Zavi Kang Engles about eco-anxiety / climate despair and the impacts it has in their own lives, as well as on the wider society. They discuss how male gender norms play a key role in feeding climate denialism, as well as the dominant ideologies that must be challenged […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie and Marine argue that any revolutionary movement that replicates patriarchal ideology and values will not lead us to emancipation. We define patriarchy on a systemic level as well as in terms of a value system that we have internalized – one that codes powerfully important attributes such as humility, empathy, […]
Rundown In this spooktacular crossover episode, Mexie and Marine are joined by Ash and Jon from the Horror Vanguard podcast to review Jordan Peele’s second think-piece, “Us”. We discuss a number of pertinent themes including class consciousness and revolution, the anxieties of the middle-class, the intersections race and class, duality, religion, colonialism, imperialism, and much, […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews Greg from In The Roots Podcast about the role of our global financial institutions in the making (and re-making) of the Global South and in exacerbating the refugee crisis. Greg provides the history of the IMF and World Bank and the historical and present day consequences of the structural […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews radical activist and educator Alexis Fawn about the importance of arming students with critical thinking skills and class consciousness before they enter university. Inspired by Paulo Freire and his seminal text Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Alexis has developed a radical pedagogy for high school students along with various teaching […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie and Leslie from Mad Blender respond to a question from one of the listeners about whether taxing meat for the climate is a productive idea. We start by exploring the costs (financial, health-related, and environmental) of the animal agriculture industry and the reasons why meat taxes are being proposed by […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews Maria the Witch, a critical leftist YouTuber based in Brazil, about Bolsonaro’s election and his time so far in office. Maria explains what led up to the election, the campaign talking points that garnered the most support, and what he has been able to do thus far in office. […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews Dr. Warren Bernauer about the relationship between what John Bellamy Foster terms ‘ecological imperialism’ and the criminalization of Indigenous resistance to extractive capital. We discuss Warren’s co-authored article called “From Wallmapu to Nunatsiavut: The Criminalization of Indigenous Resistance” (listed below) which highlights the cases of two Indigenous women jailed […]
Rundown Well, we gave it a shot! Following the advice of our beloved adrienne maree brown and Emergent Strategy, in this episode we put our energy towards dreaming the future we want to see. We each came up with headlines for the future, some in the near future (the next 10-20 years) when the transition […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews renowned journalist and activist Abby Martin on the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and on the recent and ongoing Great March of Return. Abby explains the history and brutality of Israeli occupation and exposes the horrors of life on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank. We […]
Rundown This week Marine interviews Julia Feliz-Brueck about her consistently anti-oppression vegan activism. Julia is a decade-long vegan, a mother of two, a scientist, and a published author and illustrator. She is also the founder of Sanctuary Publishers (sanctuarypublishers.com), a vegan book publisher that gives back to marginalized communities with every book sold. Published under […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie explores what geoengineering can (and can’t) provide in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation. She outlines various options in the two main geoengineering categories: Carbon Dioxide Removal (removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) and Solar Radiation Management (reducing the amount of solar radiation that hits the earth’s surface). The […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews Becky Ellis, a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario and the host of the Permaculture fo the People podcast, about how and why permaculture is important for envisioning a sustainable post-capitalist future. Becky explains the fundamentals of permaculture and why the ethics of permaculture are inherently radical. […]
Rundown In this episode, Marine interviews Rama Ganesan on the problematic associations that many vegans make when they hold up India and Hinduism (or even Buddhism and Jainism) as inherently vegetarian/ vegan. Rama also explains why it is counter to vegan values to celebrate India’s beef ban, to use the word “Ahimsa” as a synonym […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie and Marine discuss the ways in which sexual dimorphism, which has been exaggerated by millennia of social oppression, is at the root of patriarchy and rape culture, and informs our other oppressive systems like capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy. Drawing on anthropological theory and literary works, we argue that […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews the (in)famous Spenser Rapone, a veteran who was deployed in Afghanistan and became radicalized by his experiences there, becoming a virulent anti-war, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist activist. We discuss the reasons for the war in the first place, Spenser’s time there and what he learned from inside the US war […]
Rundown In this episode Marine and Mexie reunite once again to discuss creative and revolutionary ideas for movement building. Our discussion was inspired by reading adrienne marie brown’s Emergent Strategy. Drawing on quotes and concepts from her book, we consider how curiosity about natural ecosystems and biomimicry as well as a reclamation of creativity and imagination […]
Rundown In this episode Mexie talks with Robbie Martin, documentary filmmaker and co-host of Media Roots Radio, about the recent co-ordinated banning of Alex Jones and Infowars off of most of the prominent social media outlets. Robbie places the bannings within the broader context of Silicon Valley execs partnering with state and defence contractor-funded think […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie is joined by Leslie (Mad Blender on YouTube) to discuss the political economy of mental health and addiction. We draw from Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism to put the present-day rise in mental illness into social, political and economic context. We demonstrate that although chemical imbalances play a role in mental distress, […]
Rundown Flipping it on ya today! In more than one way. First off, Mexie is solo on this podcast as Marine is focusing on an exciting new IRL endeavour (go Marine!). And secondly, we’re flipping our very first episode, Why Leftists Should Be Vegan, to detail some of the near endless reasons why veganism without anti-capitalism […]
Rundown In this episode we dig into the way that capitalist society teaches us all from a very young age to prioritize the form over the substance, and what implications that has for our collective well-being as well as for collective resistance to capitalist oppression. We talk about how we are groomed in school to view many experiences as […]
Rundown This is really a NO HOLDS BACK episode. Who’s ready for TMI?? But no, seriously, we lay a lot on the line in this one. We start by discussing some rather shocking statistics about the imbalance of pleasure in cis-hetero sexual encounters. We apologize from the outset that this discussion is fairly binary and […]
Rundown In this episode, Mexie interviews Becky Ellis, a bee expert and PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario. Becky explains what’s been causing the alarming decline of our pollinators and what implications this will have. She digs into the political economy of honeybee production and the “pollinator services” industry and how this is […]
Rundown This week Mexie interviews Josh Walker, a comrade who fought with the YPG in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. Josh lays out the history and political ideology of the revolution, the extent to which feminist ideals are incorporated into their revolutionary praxis, and he addresses some of the common criticisms of the movement […]
Rundown This week Marine interviews Yazan Al-Saadi, a Syrian-Canadian journalist and researcher, about the war in Syria. Yazan’s work has been featured in Al-Akbar English, Muftah, Raseef 22, Democracy Now, Russia Today and Lebanon support. We solicited listener questions for Yazan, ranging from questions around anti-imperialism, the refugee “crisis”, and chemical weapons, to questions around […]
Rundown In this episode we analyze the links between the antinatalist, vegan, and anticapitalist movements. We start by discussing what antinatalism is and distinguish it from merely a personal preference not to have children. We then take a look at how it’s been expressed in the vegan movement, with what implications and problematic assumptions (particularly […]
Rundown In this episode we talk about our experiences in the minefield that is online (leftist, vegan) activism. We talk about vulnerabilities, gendered responses to our work, speech habits, view counts, the efficacy of debates, and much more. We also discuss how to navigate the real world as an online activist, and finish with some […]
Rundown In light of the recent Vegan Vibes tour organized in Israel, Marine interviews Laura Schleifer– a Jewish pro-intersectional vegan and free Palestine solidarity activist who spent time in the Palestinian West Bank on a theatre tour. Israel wants to grow its reputation as “The Vegan Capital of the World” and is using diverse tactics […]
Rundown In this episode we explore the intersections of speciesism, capitalism, racism, and climate change by taking a sobering look at the threats to public health and safety for communities living near factory farms. From respiratory diseases to brain damage to anti-bacterial resistance, the impacts of concentrating animals into large-scale killing operations (for profit) go […]
Rundown In this episode we break down the term “carceral feminism,” which refers to movements that seek to redress violence against women through increased prosecution and harsher punishment for abusers. We discuss the history of this approach, including monumental crime bills that have shaped how we (still) respond to gender-based violence. We then take a […]
Rundown In this episode we tackle Universal Basic Income from a critical leftist perspective. We start by discussing why we’ve reached a point where so many people, on both the Left and Right sides of the political spectrum, are now advocating for basic income, including a critical look at how the internal mechanisms of capitalism […]
Rundown This episode was inspired by a great series of questions from one of our listeners, Julian. Julian asked: Would you want the domesticated races to simply die out (like, after we have achieved full communism and everybody has gone vegan)? Even horses? How do you feel about humans engaging in a kind of idealized […]
Rundown You asked for it, and we delivered! A laminated blueprint on exactly how to end capitalism, and what to build in its place! Joking aside, in this episode we explain capitalism, socialism, communism, and anarchism as distinct modes of production. We tackle some of the common arguments for capitalism and against alternatives such as […]
Rundown In this episode we work through issues relating to body image, eating disorders and gendered experiences with food, drawing a lot from our own experiences. The impetus for this episode came from a series of comments that Mexie received on her channel that focused on her appearance. We begin by discussing these, and then […]
Rundown This episode explores (and critiques) the infiltration of white nationalist, racist rhetoric into the vegan movement, as well as the growing trend for the alt-right to consider veganism as foundational to their ideology. We start by outlining some of the ways in which white nationalism has been seeping into the online vegan community. We […]
Rundown In this episode we break down the Law of Attraction and “positivity culture,” and critique how they’ve been employed in the support of capital and other oppressive structures. In the second half of the episode, we temper this with a discussion around how we personally (or Mexie more specifically) reconcile our spirituality with anti-capitalist […]
Rundown In this episode we break down the loaded and pernicious trope of “competition”. We start by discussing our own experiences growing up and being encouraged at an early age to compete, compete, compete! We then discuss how competition relates to other discourses like “liberty,” “freedom,” and equality of opportunity under neoliberalism. We move on […]
Rundown In this episode we discuss why leftists should be vegan! We start by defining veganism as a political stance and not a grocery list, so that it’s clear that vegan praxis will look differently for everyone based on their background and privilege. We then consider the theoretical reasons why animal liberation should be a […]