Podcast
The Regrettable Century
Hosted by Chris, Jason, Kevin, Ben · EN
The old forms of the Left are moribund and the new forms are stupid. We're making a podcast that discusses the need to organize a Dialectical Pessimism and develop a salvage project capable of sparking a new workers' movement for socialism.
A clean, honest, and unsentimental melancholy is required; we are cultivating one and would like to share it with you.
Check us out on Patreon for regular Patron Book Clubs, Regrettable Geopolitics updates, Real Nerd Hours, and more...
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38episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Again, Let America be America Again... For Once (AGAIN)
2w ago01:47:57Tap to summarizeThis week we continue our series on republicanism by returning to an episode we did on the complicated legacy of the American Revolution. This older episode now has a 40 minute preface where we discuss the episode and how much things have changed since the original, enjoy! Like the bourgeois project as a whole, the historical consequences of the American Revolution have had mixed results. Simultaneously spurring on the cause of human freedom and stifling it, the American Revolution was pregnant with a creative and destructive spirit. As the American Empire appears to be in decline, we ask whether or not things could have gone, or could still go, in another direction. Check out Matthew and Jason's Podcast About the History of the Soviet Union: https://regrettablecentury.podbean.com/e/introducing-the-unbreakable-union-podcast-the-contemporary-importance-of-soviet-history/ War and Revolution: Rethinking the 20th Century https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/domenico-losurdo-war-and-revolution-rethinking-the-twentieth-century.pdf Historical Revisionism and Delegitimation of the Revolutionary and Anticolonial Tradition—A Review of War and Revolution https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21598282.2016.1172752 Liberals and Reactionaries http://www.leninology.co.uk/2011/10/liberals-and-reactionaries.html From Karl Marx to the Fourth of July https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/07/inde-j03.html THE MYTH OF THE “CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION” https://socialistworker.org/2011/12/14/myth-of-the-conservative-revolution Communist and Neo-Babouvist readings of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution https://www.academia.edu/38110441/_Communist_and_Neo_Babouvist_readings_of_the_Enlightenment_and_the_French_Revolution_in_E_Vallance_ed_Remembering_Early_Modern_Revolutions_London_Routledge_2018
Transcribe →Patreon Preview: Regrettable Geopolitics 07/24/2026
2w ago00:20:10Tap to summarizeJD Vance Admits Epstein Was Mossad and Israel Derailed Negotiations, Pentagon Budget Crisis, US Weapons Shortage, Failure and Firings in Ukraine... Join the Regrettable Century Patreon Visit the NEW IMPROVED Regrettable Century merch store
Transcribe →PATREON PREVIEW -- "If you can keep it": The Death of the Republic?
2w ago00:17:50Tap to summarizeThis week the boys all got together to do a bonus episode about the current state of the republic. We are clearly ailing as a society and we are clearly in trouble as a country. Will the decline of the empire lead to the fall of the republic? Join the Regrettable Century Patreon Visit the NEW IMPROVED Regrettable Century merch store
Transcribe →Abolition Democracy or Reconstruction Democracy? A Discussion With Comrade Brad
4w ago01:47:47Tap to summarizeThis week we sat down with our comrade Brad, a union organizer and CPUSA member, to discuss an article he wrote about two conflicting visions of radical change at the heart of the unfinished American Revolution and its implications for the contemporary workers' movement. Abolition Democracy or Reconstruction Democracy? Working-Class Leadership and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution https://newjubileenotes.substack.com/p/abolition-democracy-or-reconstruction
Transcribe →Patreon Preview: Regrettable Geopolitics 07/10/2026
Jul 1100:18:53Tap to summarizeIsrael Tried to Assassinate Iran's Negotiators, The Abysmal State of US Oil Reserves, The War is Back the Strait is Closed, Ukraine on the Brink, Russian Advance Slowed but Ukrainian Losses Surge... Join the Regrettable Century Patreon Visit the NEW IMPROVED Regrettable Century merch store
Transcribe →PATREON PREVIEW -- American and Communist: The Heroic Period of the CPUSA
Jul 800:16:59Tap to summarizeWe continue our month long series on American Communism by doing a close read and discussion of two articles about the Communist Party of the United States of America's role as the cutting edge of liberatory politics in the mid 20th century. Join the Regrettable Century Patreon Visit the NEW IMPROVED Regrettable Century's merch store
Transcribe →Life, Liberty, and... Slavery? The Mixed Legacy of 1776
Jul 101:32:47Tap to summarize*The first version of this episode was only an hour long for some reason. We've re-uploaded the full episode which is a half hour longer.* For America's 250th birthday, the boys got together to discuss the legacy of the American Revolution. There are two major poles of thought on the American left, with wildly differing interpretations of the American Revolution. They both make some good points, we discuss those here. The Social and Intellectual Legacy of the American Revolution https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/social-and-intellectual-legacy-american-revolution Ken Burns Makes the Case for the Greatness of 1776 https://jacobin.com/2026/05/ken-burns-american-revolution-history Class Struggle Was a Crucial Part of the American Revolution https://jacobin.com/2026/05/american-revolution-britain-class-struggle Radical historian challenges traditional Marxist view of ‘so-called’ American Revolution https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/radical-historian-challenges-traditional-marxist-view-of-so-called-american-revolution/ The Conquest of Power, Chapter 2: The American Revolution https://www.marxists.org/archive/weisbord/conquest2.htm
Transcribe →PATREON PREVIEW -- The Azov International: Ukraine's Premier Neo-Nazi Movement and the Worldwide Web of White Supremacist Terror Groups
Jun 2600:19:02Tap to summarizeLast week's British race riots were largely organized by a rising movement of affiliated neo-Nazi organizations called Active Clubs. It should surprise no one that they have direct links to Ukraine. This week we do a close read of an article from the Azov Lobby Blog and discuss the outsized impact of Ukraine's Azov movement on global neo-Nazism. Join the Regrettable Century Patreon Visit the NEW IMPROVED Regrettable Century's merch store
Transcribe →The People are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism (With Daniel Tutt & C. Derick Varn)
Jun 1702:06:20Tap to summarizeThis week we invited Daniel Tutt and C. Derick Varn to talk about their new book, The People are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism. From the publisher: In The People Are Not One, Daniel Tutt and C. Derick Varn dismantle the central illusion of contemporary left politics: that “the people” can serve as a coherent subject of emancipation. Against both right and left populisms, they argue that this fantasy of unity obscures real class antagonisms and traps socialism in a dead-end politics of moral appeal and electoral maneuver. Through a sustained critique of left-populism, post-Marxist theory, and Democratic Party–oriented socialism, Tutt and Varn show how the collapse of mass politics, alongside debates over the professional-managerial class and the atomization of working-class life, has produced a strategic impasse on the left. What follows is not a lament but a provocation: a call to abandon populist shortcuts and rebuild socialist strategy on the terrain of class struggle as it actually exists—uneven, divided, and politically unformed. The People Are Not One is a manifesto for a post-populist left willing to confront fragmentation head-on and begin the long work of reconstructing class power. https://www.revolpress.com/people-not-one https://danieltutt.com/ https://www.patreon.com/cw/varnvlog
Transcribe →Patreon Preview: Regrettable Geopolitics 06/12/2026
Jun 1200:29:09Tap to summarizeTrump Threatens Iran and Backs Down Again, US Intel Upgrades Israel's Espionage Threat Level, Israel's Plans For Radical Militarization and Autarky, Sy Hersh Says Trump Wanted to Use Nukes on Iran, Ukraine's Long Range Strikes Aren't Going to Win the War... Join the Regrettable Century Patreon Visit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop
Transcribe →