It Could Happen Here

A cozy lunar tale follows Persephone, an obsolete companionship robot fleeing recycling and searching for a place to belong. She discovers Seafoam, a vibrant robot community, meets a cyborg tarot reader, and confronts grief, memory, personhood, and the possibility of a new home. The discussion also explores objectification, alienation, and why fictional robots differ from generative AI.

Pamela Sweetland-Hallis, Andrew D. Ferguson, and Elizabeth Koppis-Duclo are IWW organizers focused on workplace democracy. Labor historian Kim Kelly explores strikes by gravediggers, morgue workers, and funeral crews. Writer Carlos Barrios Polanco traces the chupacabra’s Puerto Rican roots and anti-imperial symbolism. The compilation also examines Israeli elections, Lula’s victory, AI political ads, voter-fraud myths, and Albania’s protests.

Margaret Killjoy, an author, anarchist, and political podcaster, joins a wide-ranging discussion of Lula’s surprise victory and Brazil’s grassroots digital counteroffensive. They examine claims of non-citizen voting, James O’Keefe’s self-documented election stunt, and the explosive rise of AI-generated campaign ads and deepfakes. Killjoy also explores Albania’s protests against corruption, privatization, and police violence.

A Halloween tour through labor history’s darkest workplaces. Hear about cemetery workers’ strikes, a Philadelphia morgue crisis, Cook County’s overcrowding scandal, and embalmers fighting for better pay and hours. The story ends with 19th-century coffin makers wielding unusual leverage in the struggle for an eight-hour day.

Carlos Barrios Polanco, a Puerto Rican writer exploring colonialism, folklore, and political culture, traces the chupacabra from a movie-inspired sighting to an international legend. He explores sensational media, class, drought, military experiments, sterilization memories, Vieques, and Puerto Rico’s colonial crises. The creature’s journey from bloodsucker to anti-colonial symbol reveals a much more human monster.

Pam Suitland-Halas, a Washington, D.C. labor organizer; Andrew D. Ferguson, a Houston organizer focused on workplace democracy; and Elizabeth Copis-Dukelow, Portland branch associate treasurer, discuss the IWW’s 2026 elections. They explore the One Big Union model, local campaigns, member participation, power-sharing, free-expression disputes, and tensions between grassroots democracy and executive control.

A return to Lochiel traces the fallout from border-wall construction and the federal response to land defenders. It covers raids on the tree camp, arrests, chemical agents, agency cooperation, and the destruction of Grandmother Tree. The story also follows renewed tree-sit resistance, growing solidarity, mutual aid, and how encampments can nurture movements long after the camp is gone.

Dana El Kurd examines what Israel’s elections could mean for Palestinians across Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. The discussion covers competing electoral blocs, the exclusion of Palestinian citizens from political life, uncertain coalition scenarios, settler violence, demolitions, annexation, and the unresolved struggle over Gaza’s future.

A spooky found-documents tale follows a government experiment that creates a rapidly growing human simulacrum, then treats him as a weapon, reproductive resource, and disposable asset. Diaries, recordings, and classified files trace Stone’s struggle against enforced identity, medical violence, and institutional control. The discussion explores trans horror, state power, monstrosity, and the story’s links to Mary Shelley.

A sweeping look at anti-Palestinian racism in higher education, escalating attacks on voting access, and the fascist networks behind Europe’s “Save Europe Act.” The discussion also explores election intimidation, AI-driven infrastructure vulnerabilities, Alberta separatism, worldwide protests, Ukraine’s Starlink predicament, and the politicization of women’s health.