Diet Soap - a podcast
Douglas Lain
The Diet Soap podcast began in 2009 in response to the economic crisis of 2008. Since then it has gone through many transformations, including becoming the podcast for a critical theory imprint out of the UK. Today the Diet Soap podcast is running under its original name for Sublation Media.Sublation Media includes a book publishing effort for critical theory and left politics, a magazine that covers current events and theoretical issues, youtube videos on theory and politics, and finally the Diet Soap podcast. The podcast is where we continue to interrogate the left and each other while having a good time.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 30, 2025 • 1h 4min
Episode 644: History, Matter, Marx
Spencer Leonard discusses the meaning of the term "Historical Materialism," and how it emerged through the historical struggle for socialism. Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 27, 2025 • 60min
Episode 643: When Critical Theory is Confirmed
Benjamin Studebaker and Douglas Lain discuss Adorno's essay "Commitment" and the failure of leftist politics over the last decade. What level of regression can we expect?Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 23, 2025 • 1h 17min
Episode 642: Chris Cutrone is Always Right, and Always Depressed
In this episode of the CutroneZone, we dive deep into Chris Cutrone’s essay "On Philosophy and Marxism: Response to Suther and Velissaris"—a characteristically sharp and mournful defense of the dialectic against the return to philosophy. As always, Cutrone’s critique is uncompromising, clear, provocative, and melancholic.Support Sublation Media on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 22, 2025 • 1h 3min
Episode 641: Trump Wins Again and Again?
Philip Cunliffe discusses his recent essay at COMPACT entitled "How Trump Won the Canadian Election." He explains what constitutes sovereignty, why sovereignty is necessary for democracy, and why Trump turned Canada away from cosmopolitan internationalism and towards patriotic nationalism.Philip Cunliffe at Compacthttps://www.compactmag.com/article/how-trump-won-the-canadian-election/Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 16, 2025 • 49min
Episode 640: Neither the US nor China
Fabio Vighi returns to throw cold water on the notion that capitalism can be saved. The crisis is terminal. The financialization will continue. In this era of Emergency Capitalism, the crisis will only deepen in the US, in Europe, and in China.Support Sublaton Mediahttps:/patreon.com/dietsoap
May 15, 2025 • 58min
Episode 639: How Society Got a Sex Change
Ashley Frawley is senior editor of Compact. She is the author of two books, Semiotics of Happiness: Rhetorical Beginnings of a Public Problem and Significant Emotions: Rhetoric and Social Problems in a Vulnerable Age. Her writing has appeared in UnHerd, and the New Statesman. She is also the former co-host of Sublation Magazine and in this episode she returns to discuss her latest essay in Compact.How Society Got a Sex Change by Ashley Frawleyhttps://www.compactmag.com/contributor/ashley-frawley/Support Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 12, 2025 • 1h
Episode 638: Studebaker Says Democracies Can Cry
Benjamin Studebaker and Douglas Lain discuss Benjamin Studebaker's latest essay for Sublation Magazine in this week's Sublation Magazine podcast. Are the Republicans and especially Trump, acting in an anti-democratic manner? What threatens democracy today?Support Sublation Media and Join the Conversation:https://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 9, 2025 • 1h 19min
Episode 637: Tariffs and Thought Taboos
In this episode of the Cutronezone, the Last Marxist discusses his latest essay for Sublation Magazine and speculates on why COMPACT magazine rejected it for publication. How is it that established opinion is incapable of taking up and thinking through the significance of Trump's Tariffs? Read Cutrone's Essay "Fear" in Sublation Magazine:https://www.sublationmag.com/post/fear-itselfSupport Sublation Media https://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 8, 2025 • 39min
Episode 636: The Prophecy of Walter Kirn
Novelist and journalist Walter Kirn discusses his 2006 novel "The Unbinding" and answers questions like:Was Holden Caulfield a revolutionary?What is the role of the outsider?Can we escape the Spectacle? Support Us on Patreon for the Second Halfhttps://patreon.com/dietsoap
May 2, 2025 • 55min
Episode 635: Can We Critique Rather than Complain?
Wyatt Verlen's essay in Sublation Magazine instructs the left to quit complaining and start critiquing. History gave Trump a right. As of the moment of writing, this right continues to be denied to him. That right is the right to be critiqued."Read the new Sublation Essay by Wyatt Verlen:https://www.sublationmag.com/post/the-right-to-a-critiqueSupport Sublation Mediahttps://patreon.com/dietsoap
