

Varn Vlog
C. Derick Varn
Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Varn Vlog is the pod of C. Derick Varn. We combine the conversation on philosophy, political economy, art, history, culture, anthropology, and geopolitics from a left-wing and culturally informed perspective. We approach the world from a historical lens with an eye for hard truths and structural analysis.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 17, 2023 • 2h 14min
Jason Myles on Politics as Branding
Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Jason Myles is a musician, writer, and host of the This is Revolution Podcast. We discuss a lot of things, but the theme of branding as politics runs throughout. We also look at Myles's recent articles for Sublation Magazine:https://www.sublationmag.com/post/is-the-contemporary-left-a-lifestyle-brandhttps://www.sublationmag.com/post/trump-is-having-his-chinese-democracy-momentCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Apr 13, 2023 • 1h 33min
Adnan Husain on the life and times of Ibn Khaldun, Part 2
Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.This is part 2 of 2.Adnan Husain is both a Medieval European and Middle Eastern historian. His early work focused on religious phenomena and social imagination in Medieval Catholicism and Islam, particularly on Franciscan spiritual and Sufi mystical traditions. He now principally studies and teaches on the cross-cultural and inter-religious encounters among the Muslims, Christians and Jews of Latin Christendom and the Islamic world in the Mediterranean zone from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. He is also a host Guerrilla History and The Majlis podcasts. We talk about Ibn Khaldun. Ibn Khaldun was an Arab proto-sociologist, philosopher, and historian generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages. He made major contributions in the areas of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography.Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Apr 10, 2023 • 1h 31min
Adnan Husain on the life and times of Ibn Khaldun, Part 1
Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.This is part 1 of 2. Adnan Husain is both a Medieval European and Middle Eastern historian. His early work focused on religious phenomena and social imagination in Medieval Catholicism and Islam, particularly on Franciscan spiritual and Sufi mystical traditions. He now principally studies and teaches on the cross-cultural and inter-religious encounters among the Muslims, Christians and Jews of Latin Christendom and the Islamic world in the Mediterranean zone from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. He is also a host Guerrilla History and The Majlis podcasts. We talk about Ibn Khaldun. Ibn Khaldun was an Arab proto-sociologist, philosopher, and historian generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages. He made major contributions in the areas of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography.Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Apr 3, 2023 • 2h 29min
Jeremy Gross on the Use and Abuse of Cybernetic Theory
Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Jeremy Gross is a cybernetic tikkun olamunist living north of Boston, Massachusetts. He is interested in collaborative workspaces that incorporate peer-to-peer and empathetic practices to subsume alienated labor. We chat about his paper on Stafford Beer. But we also talk about bad incentive structures in tech, misunderstanding machine learning, and limits of AI. We go into Jewish and Yiddish culture as well as communists of that ilk. Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Mar 30, 2023 • 1h 7min
Anton Jägar Robert Putnam in the Era of Posting
Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Anton Jäger is a postdoctoral researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He has written for publications like Jacobin, LA Review of Books, and Non-site. We discuss his recent article on the work of Robert Putnam.Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog)Support the showSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Mar 27, 2023 • 1h 39min
P. H. Higgin's on John Levi Martin's The Explanation of Social Action
P.H. Higgins is a long-time friend of the show, the co-host of the Radical Thoughts Podcast, and a scholar on social theory. We discuss the work of John Levi Martin and, in particular his book, "The Explanation of Social Action."Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Mar 20, 2023 • 1h 54min
Susanna Kleeman on Love, Desire, and Other Fatal Strategies
Please support our Patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Susanna Kleeman (@susannakleeman) is a writer from London who works in digital tech. Her first book, MY REJECTIONS (2020) is a short memoir of hubris, humiliation, and triumph against the odds. She published the novel Twice in 2021 (Zero Books, 2021). She is the host of Fatal Dates and more information on her work can be found here.Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Branding Design: Djene Bajalan and C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Videos Design: Jason Myles, Dejene BalajanSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Mar 19, 2023 • 2h 23min
No Royal Road - Neo-Feudalism, Or The Fuzzy Edges of Capitalism, part 2
While the introduction music is that of Varn Vlog on this podcaster, this series will be simultaneously released on both the Varn Vlog podcast feed and the Regrettable Century podcast feed. This is a long-running series we are doing on understanding social technologies, relationships of production, and how we get here: i.e. what is the social and class history of the past. In this episode, we discuss Evgeny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." We specifically focus on the sections on the Political Marxism vs. World Systems Theory debates of the 1970s/1980s. We also mention Dylan Riley and Robert Brenner's Seven Theses as well as a bunch of other events. Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Mar 16, 2023 • 2h 35min
Special Episode with Nicolas D. Villarreal on Stocks, Start-Ups, and the FED
Please support our Patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Nicolas D. Villarreal is a writer and analyst on political economy and theory. He has contributed work to Palladium Magazine and Cosmonaut Magazine. He is the founder of Casper Forum. We talk about what may be going on with the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. NOTE: BOTH OF US THINK THIS MAY BE BIGGER THAN THE NUMBERS INDICATED ON SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2023. That said, we think in the main most of this analysis stands. Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Branding Design: Djene Bajalan and C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Videos Design: Jason Myles, Dejene BalajanSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic

Mar 13, 2023 • 1h 28min
Andrew Hartman on Marx in America
Please support our Patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Andrew Hartman is Professor of History at Illinois State University, where he teaches courses in U.S. intellectual, cultural, and political history, as well as courses in the philosophy of history, historiography, and pedagogy. Hartman co-hosted a podcast dedicated to politics, ideas, and history, titled "Trotsky and the Wild Orchids." He is the author of "A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars" (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and "Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School" (Palgrave Macmillian, 2008) as well as the forthcoming "Marx in America."Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Branding Design: Djene Bajalan and C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Videos Design: Jason Myles, Dejene BalajanSend us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic