

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff
Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts
As long as there’s been oppression, there’ve been people fighting it. This weekly podcast dives into history to drag up the wildest rebels, the most beautiful revolts, and all the people who long to be—and fight to be—free. It explores complex stories of resistance that offer lessons and inspiration for us today, focusing on the ensemble casts that make up each act of history. That is to say, this podcast focuses on Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 15, 2025 • 28min
CZM Book Club: After the Dance by Leo Tolstoy
Margaret reads you a story about what it takes to break from society in disgust. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 11, 2025 • 31min
Part Four: The Alter-Globalization Movement: From the Zapatistas to the Battle of Seattle
Margaret continues telling you about the rise of neoliberalism and the rise of its opposition and about better ideas about how to globalize society. Sources: Direct Action: an Ethnography, David GraeberThe Zapatista Experience, Jerome Baschethttps://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/did-washington-consensus-failhttps://www.spiegel.de/international/interview-with-ex-neocon-francis-fukuyama-a-model-democracy-is-not-emerging-in-iraq-a-407315.htmlhttps://www.opendemocracy.net/en/zapatista-womens-revolutionary-law-as-it-is-lived-today/https://www.proceso.com.mx/reportajes/2019/1/3/pedro-el-subcomandante-del-ezln-que-murio-el-dia-del-levantamiento-217985.htmlhttps://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/how-much-of-britain-is-below-the-poverty-line/https://www.tni.org/en/article/a-short-history-of-neoliberalismhttps://bigthink.com/thinking/classical-liberalism-explained/https://schoolsforchiapas.org/ezln-the-path-of-the-zapatista-movement-40-years-after-its-foundation/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306422018819354https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25550654https://web.archive.org/web/20090813155006/http://greenanarchy.info/etc/ezln_response.htmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/world/americas/mexico-zapatista-subcommander-marcos.htmlhttps://www.teenvogue.com/story/zapatistas-have-been-revolutionary-forcehttps://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/the-woman-who-wont-let-mexico-forget-a-massacre.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Abejashttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Interview-with-Subcomandante-Marcos.pdfhttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ejercito-zapatista-de-liberacion-nacional-a-zapatista-response-to-the-ezln-is-not-anarchisthttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/mexicos-zapatista-indigenous-rebel-movement-says-it-is-dissolving-its-autonomous-municipalitieshttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jerome-baschet-the-reorganization-of-zapatista-autonomyhttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ra%C3%BAl-Zibechi-Zapatista-Autonomy-PDF.pdfhttps://illwill.com/zapatista-autonomyhttps://chiapas-support.org/2014/10/04/anatomy-of-a-paramilitary-attack-on-the-zapatistas/https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/05/assassination-world-stands-solidarity-zapatistas/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 9, 2025 • 28min
Part Three: The Alter-Globalization Movement: From the Zapatistas to the Battle of Seattle
Margaret continues telling you about the rise of neoliberalism and the rise of its opposition and about better ideas about how to globalize society. Sources: Direct Action: an Ethnography, David GraeberThe Zapatista Experience, Jerome Baschethttps://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/did-washington-consensus-failhttps://www.spiegel.de/international/interview-with-ex-neocon-francis-fukuyama-a-model-democracy-is-not-emerging-in-iraq-a-407315.htmlhttps://www.opendemocracy.net/en/zapatista-womens-revolutionary-law-as-it-is-lived-today/https://www.proceso.com.mx/reportajes/2019/1/3/pedro-el-subcomandante-del-ezln-que-murio-el-dia-del-levantamiento-217985.htmlhttps://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/how-much-of-britain-is-below-the-poverty-line/https://www.tni.org/en/article/a-short-history-of-neoliberalismhttps://bigthink.com/thinking/classical-liberalism-explained/https://schoolsforchiapas.org/ezln-the-path-of-the-zapatista-movement-40-years-after-its-foundation/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306422018819354https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25550654https://web.archive.org/web/20090813155006/http://greenanarchy.info/etc/ezln_response.htmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/world/americas/mexico-zapatista-subcommander-marcos.htmlhttps://www.teenvogue.com/story/zapatistas-have-been-revolutionary-forcehttps://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/the-woman-who-wont-let-mexico-forget-a-massacre.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Abejashttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Interview-with-Subcomandante-Marcos.pdfhttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ejercito-zapatista-de-liberacion-nacional-a-zapatista-response-to-the-ezln-is-not-anarchisthttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/mexicos-zapatista-indigenous-rebel-movement-says-it-is-dissolving-its-autonomous-municipalitieshttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jerome-baschet-the-reorganization-of-zapatista-autonomyhttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ra%C3%BAl-Zibechi-Zapatista-Autonomy-PDF.pdfhttps://illwill.com/zapatista-autonomyhttps://chiapas-support.org/2014/10/04/anatomy-of-a-paramilitary-attack-on-the-zapatistas/https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/05/assassination-world-stands-solidarity-zapatistas/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 8, 2025 • 34min
CZM Book Club : The Revolutionary Fables of Ricardo Flores Magón, Part Two
Margaret reads you more short stories written by the one of the ideological leaders of the Mexican Revolution.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 4, 2025 • 1h 1min
CZM Rewind: Part Two: Before the Mexican Revolution: Ricardo Flores Magón and the peasants who ended a dictatorship
Margaret continues talking with Kat Abu about the Mexican liberals who became anarchists and sparked a revolution. Original Air Date: 7.26.23 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 2, 2025 • 1h 16min
CZM Rewind: Part One: Before the Mexican Revolution: Ricardo Flores Magón and the peasants who ended a dictatorship
Margaret talks with Kat Abu about the Mexican liberals who became anarchists and sparked a revolution. Original Air Date: 7.24.23See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 1, 2025 • 27min
CZM Book Club: The Revolutionary Fables of Ricardo Flores Magón
Margaret reads you several short stories written by the one of the ideological leaders of the Mexican Revolution.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 28, 2025 • 34min
Part Two: The Alter-Globalization Movement: From the Zapatistas to the Battle of Seattle
Margaret tells you about the rise of neoliberalism and the rise of its opposition and about better ideas about how to globalize society. Sources: Direct Action: an Ethnography, David GraeberThe Zapatista Experience, Jerome Baschethttps://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/did-washington-consensus-failhttps://www.spiegel.de/international/interview-with-ex-neocon-francis-fukuyama-a-model-democracy-is-not-emerging-in-iraq-a-407315.htmlhttps://www.opendemocracy.net/en/zapatista-womens-revolutionary-law-as-it-is-lived-today/https://www.proceso.com.mx/reportajes/2019/1/3/pedro-el-subcomandante-del-ezln-que-murio-el-dia-del-levantamiento-217985.htmlhttps://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/how-much-of-britain-is-below-the-poverty-line/https://www.tni.org/en/article/a-short-history-of-neoliberalismhttps://bigthink.com/thinking/classical-liberalism-explained/https://schoolsforchiapas.org/ezln-the-path-of-the-zapatista-movement-40-years-after-its-foundation/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306422018819354https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25550654https://web.archive.org/web/20090813155006/http://greenanarchy.info/etc/ezln_response.htmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/world/americas/mexico-zapatista-subcommander-marcos.htmlhttps://www.teenvogue.com/story/zapatistas-have-been-revolutionary-forcehttps://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/the-woman-who-wont-let-mexico-forget-a-massacre.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Abejashttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Interview-with-Subcomandante-Marcos.pdfhttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ejercito-zapatista-de-liberacion-nacional-a-zapatista-response-to-the-ezln-is-not-anarchisthttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/mexicos-zapatista-indigenous-rebel-movement-says-it-is-dissolving-its-autonomous-municipalitieshttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jerome-baschet-the-reorganization-of-zapatista-autonomyhttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ra%C3%BAl-Zibechi-Zapatista-Autonomy-PDF.pdfhttps://illwill.com/zapatista-autonomyhttps://chiapas-support.org/2014/10/04/anatomy-of-a-paramilitary-attack-on-the-zapatistas/https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/05/assassination-world-stands-solidarity-zapatistas/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

7 snips
May 26, 2025 • 40min
Part One: The Alter-Globalization Movement: From the Zapatistas to the Battle of Seattle
Margaret tells you about the rise of neoliberalism and the rise of its opposition and about better ideas about how to globalize society. Sources: Direct Action: an Ethnography, David GraeberThe Zapatista Experience, Jerome Baschethttps://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/did-washington-consensus-failhttps://www.spiegel.de/international/interview-with-ex-neocon-francis-fukuyama-a-model-democracy-is-not-emerging-in-iraq-a-407315.htmlhttps://www.opendemocracy.net/en/zapatista-womens-revolutionary-law-as-it-is-lived-today/https://www.proceso.com.mx/reportajes/2019/1/3/pedro-el-subcomandante-del-ezln-que-murio-el-dia-del-levantamiento-217985.htmlhttps://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/how-much-of-britain-is-below-the-poverty-line/https://www.tni.org/en/article/a-short-history-of-neoliberalismhttps://bigthink.com/thinking/classical-liberalism-explained/https://schoolsforchiapas.org/ezln-the-path-of-the-zapatista-movement-40-years-after-its-foundation/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306422018819354https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25550654https://web.archive.org/web/20090813155006/http://greenanarchy.info/etc/ezln_response.htmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/world/americas/mexico-zapatista-subcommander-marcos.htmlhttps://www.teenvogue.com/story/zapatistas-have-been-revolutionary-forcehttps://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/the-woman-who-wont-let-mexico-forget-a-massacre.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Abejashttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Interview-with-Subcomandante-Marcos.pdfhttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ejercito-zapatista-de-liberacion-nacional-a-zapatista-response-to-the-ezln-is-not-anarchisthttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/mexicos-zapatista-indigenous-rebel-movement-says-it-is-dissolving-its-autonomous-municipalitieshttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jerome-baschet-the-reorganization-of-zapatista-autonomyhttps://schoolsforchiapas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ra%C3%BAl-Zibechi-Zapatista-Autonomy-PDF.pdfhttps://illwill.com/zapatista-autonomyhttps://chiapas-support.org/2014/10/04/anatomy-of-a-paramilitary-attack-on-the-zapatistas/https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/05/assassination-world-stands-solidarity-zapatistas/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 25, 2025 • 21min
CZM Book Club: The Abbot of Druimenach
Margaret reads you an Irish fairy tale about gender transformation that she really likes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.