Libsyn Directory

Socializing Sports: Reclaiming The Beautiful Game from Capital & Empire

Release Date: 09/16/2025

Rev Left Radio

In this Christmas special, Alyson and Breht reinterpret Jesus through Jewish mysticism, Christian contemplative traditions, and Buddhist conceptions of Enlightenment, offering an understanding of his teachings and words as attempts to articulate the ineffable and non-dual, rather than metaphysical propositions to be believed. Drawing heavily on the Gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, the Christian concept of Agape, and early Christian scholarship, they explore the possibility of a Christianity beyond fear, hell, and conceptual belief -- one rooted in a radical transformation of consciousness, a...

Chinese Characteristics of Socialism: Civilizational Factors in CPC Governance

Rev Left Radio

What does it really mean to speak of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”? Is it simply a matter of policy and political economy, or does it require grappling with thousands of years of civilizational history, philosophy, and culture? In this episode, Breht is joined by Zhao, the mind behind and author of to explore a bold and provocative argument: that while class struggle and material conditions must remain primary, China’s socialist path cannot be understood without its deep Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist inheritance. From Yu the Great’s flood control and the origins of...

Eric Mann on Revolutionary Struggle Part 2: Labor Organizing, The Working Class, and Proletarian Internationalism

Rev Left Radio

Breht speaks with veteran organizer, revolutionary strategist, Elder of the movement, and author Eric Mann. Together they discuss Eric's life and work, including his book on George Jackson, the Hard Hat riot against Vietnam protesters, how to organize effectively in the work place, Eric's personal relationship with Howard Zinn, the importance of revolutionary journalism, combatting chauvinism, and SO much more. Check out Part One of Breht's discussion with Eric Opening clip from More Biography of Eric Mann: Eric Mann (born December 4, 1942) is a civil rights, anti-war, labor, and...

Eric Mann on Revolutionary Struggle: The Weather Underground, the Long 1960s, and the Fight for Liberation Today (Part 1)

Rev Left Radio

Breht speaks with veteran organizer, revolutionary strategist, and author Eric Mann. In this wide-ranging conversation, Mann reflects on his decades of struggle; from his early work with SNCC and SDS, through his involvement with the Weather Underground and his time as a political prisoner, to his rank-and-file organizing as a UAW autoworker. Along the way, Mann wrestles with the realities of repression and counterinsurgency, the need for disciplined cadre and a Black-led united front against imperialism, and the history of the Marxist Left in the 60's and 70's in the USA as told...

[TEASER] The Anti-Human Nihilism of the Techno-Oligarchs

Rev Left Radio

This is a small snippet from a much larger patreon exclusive episode, which you can sign up for (and support the show in the process) here:

The Years of Lead in Italy: Strategy of Tension, Operation Gladio, & the Long 1970s

Rev Left Radio

Most people, even on the Left, only know fragments of Italy’s “Years of Lead.” This episode pulls the whole picture into focus: the mass worker upsurge after the boom years, the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, the rise of the Red Brigades, the kidnapping and execution of Aldo Moro, and the 1980 Bologna massacre. Alyson and Breht trace how far-right stragismo (mass bombings) intersected with far-left clandestinism, and how segments of the deep state, intelligence services, and the Cold War Gladio architecture shaped a strategy of tension that isolated social...

They Called Her Rebel: Speculative Fiction, Revolutionary Art, and the Politics of Imagination

Rev Left Radio

In this episode, Breht speaks with Jacob Dallas-Main, co-host of and author of ; a dazzling fusion of fantasy, class struggle, and storytelling set in a world of debtors’ camps, collapsing empires, and revolutionary possibility. The two discuss how speculative fiction can illuminate political struggle, not merely as metaphor but as a call to break the boundary between audience and participant. They explore what makes a work of art revolutionary rather than consumable, the dangers of reactionary storytelling in popular culture, declining literacy in the U.S., the threats posed by AI, the...

UNLOCKED: Mamdani, Marijuana Dependency, and Unconditional Life Acceptance

Rev Left Radio

This is an unlocked patreon episode. To support the show and get access to monthly bonus episodes like this one, join our patreon: In this unlocked Patreon episode, Breht reads and responds to an article in the Tehran Times on the NYC mayoral race and left strategy around Palestine, then he plays and analyzes a in your 20s and 30s, and finally Breht discusses his ongoing grieving process surrounding his Dad's death and the life lessons he's learned in the wake of it. In the process, he articulates what we need in left leaders, cultivating psychological resilience, the importance of sobriety...

Heidegger in Ruins: Philosophy, Fascism, and the Politics of Being

Rev Left Radio

In this episode, Breht speaks with , author of , about the dark entanglement between Martin Heidegger’s philosophy and his lifelong commitment to National Socialism. Heidegger is often hailed as the most important philosopher of the 20th century, yet his work was deeply shaped by the reactionary politics of his time. Wolin explains how Heidegger’s central ideas -- Being, Dasein, authenticity, rootedness, and the “decline of the West” -- became intertwined with fascist notions of destiny, hierarchy, and belonging. They discuss the long history of attempts to sanitize Heidegger’s...

From Reagan to Trump: Neoliberalism, Class War, and American Decadence

Rev Left Radio

In this episode, public school history teacher Gianni Paul joins Breht to trace the historical roots of our current crisis — stagnant wages, mass homelessness, collapsing infrastructure, rising fascism, Gilded Age inequality, and a beaten down working class — back to Reagan’s counter-revolution against the New Deal and the forty-year neoliberal project that followed. Together, they explore how neoliberalism emerged out of the crises of the 1970s, Carter’s role in laying the groundwork before Reagan, the destruction of unions and working-class power, the ideological weaponization of...

More Episodes

In this episode, Breht speaks with Robert E. Wilson, author of The Football Manifesto and The Supporters Trust League Manifesto. Together they explore what it means to socialize sports; to reclaim the Beautiful Game from billionaire owners, corrupt institutions, and imperial powers, and return it to the people as a democratic, community-owned, and liberatory project.

Together, they examine the ways professional sports in the imperial core normalize colonialism, militarism, racism, and capitalism, while grassroots football worldwide has long been a site of resistance, solidarity, and struggle.

From the NFL’s “plantation economics” to the vision of supporter-owned clubs, equal pay for women’s teams, and football as a hub of political education and mutual aid, this conversation makes clear that sports are never “just games.” They are battlefields for ideology and community -- as well as an expression of our nature as social beings -- and if reclaimed, they can become engines of solidarity,healthy communities, and socialist culture. Whether you are a sports fan or not, you will get a LOT out of this fascinating and surprisingly wide-ranging conversation!

Gaia Labs HERE

Behind the Shield documentary on the NFL by Dave Zirin HERE

Black Alliance for Peace petition to ban Israel and US HERE

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Outro Beat Prod. by flip da hood

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