this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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The Deprogram Podcast

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"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985

International Anti-Capitalist podcast run by an American, a Slav and an Arab.

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Podcast recommendations? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by znsh@lemmygrad.ml to c/thedeprogram@lemmygrad.ml
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Current podcasts are Deprogram and Revolutionary Left Radio. I would love some more to listen to on my commute/walks.

EDIT: Thank you all for the suggestions!

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[–] haui@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My current list:

  • the deprogram of course
  • rev left radio
  • proles pod
  • the sickle and the hammer
  • pick me up i'm scared (testing)
  • red menace (testing)
  • socialism the podcast (testing)
  • actually existing socialism
  • movies vs capitalism
  • school of communism (testing)
  • socialism for all (testing)
  • socialist lawyer (testing)
  • specter of communism (testing)

The ones marked testing i added from the description. I'm thoroughly anti western marxism so I will throw out stuff that is revisionist or imperialist in any way. Those i'm testing have not been veryfied by me yet.

[–] deathtoreddit@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Isn't Socialism for All - well - it's anti-Deng to say the least... so keep that in mind a bit

[–] blobii@lemmygrad.ml -1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

mao >>> deng

I don’t really like dengian socialism because of the whole company thing. Like there is still classes in China because of deng. Sure ‘western investment’ helped but like… now it’s only half-socialism.

This is probably the wrong place to rant about Deng tho.

[–] Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 days ago

There were classes under Mao, and later the Gang of Four. Class cannot be eradicated without building up the productive forces to a level where public ownership and planning works most effectively, you cannot simply decree rural cooperative farming into full-scale industrialized and collectivized production and distribution. The same applies across the entire economy.

If the Gang of Four and those who uphold them were still in power, China would still have classes, and would not have had nearly the same development. Abolition of class happens by abolishing the material basis of class, not simply by legalistic decree. Even the Soviet Union had black markets with private property, and they existed because there was an economic, material basis for them, not just because the soviets didn't root them out well enough.

Both Mao and Deng played invaluable roles in China's history. We must uphold both of them, because they both generally applied Marxism-Leninism correctly for the conditions of China at the time of their administration. The PRC is not "half-socialism," it's a socialist country that is steadily and rapidly developing thanks to the success of Reform and Opening Up, as well as Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign that rooted out opportunism that began to take hold in the late 90s and 2000s.

Cheng Enfu's model here is a decent way to picture China's strategy for continuing socialist development.

[–] haui@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As stated, I clicked on them by description alone and am currently testing. Thanks for the heads up. As also stated, if they're revisionist, imperialist or anything, they get the boot.

[–] mistermodal@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's just very funny to see S4A next to Actually Existing Socialism which IIRC has hosted Gabriel Rockhill 😂 if you take recommendations from randoms online, please save yourself the grief and go directly to Critical Theory Workshop. (Chemical Mind's edits are actually very manipulative, as bad as Midwestern Marx, they're trying to use Rockhill's words to undermine his ideas... but I didn't even check if you know who that is, just a disclaimer that I have seen nobody good edit down the hours of material.) If you like AES pod, take advantage of the CTW guys posting full course lectures online for free.

[–] haui@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the suggestions.

The most ideologically clean ones so far have been prolespod, the deprogram, hammer and the sickle, pick me up i'm scared.

[–] mistermodal@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I don't really want to open this can of worms while this community is figuring out what to do over the reddit ban, but realistically I cannot resist and am already trying to remember to make two controversial posts on Lemmy, like explaining why everyone is dumb for thinking Luigi iced healthcare man (WHO HAD A FAMILY 😡), so I'll just throw this out and you can make of it what you will.

The Deprogram hosted Konstantin Syomin, who is a seriously shady figure with dicey connections, and RevLeft hosted a Ukrainian socialist from an obscure party Zelensky didn't purge, who flat out condemned the republics' resistance against ethnic cleansing and torture (not that he mentioned it of course), without even mentioning the purges of his fellow Ukrainian communists, who I suppose must have been saboteurs. I know a lot of western socialists think that hard opposition to Ukraine's front against the republics and now Russia at large was reverse-engineering from nostalgia, and perhaps Freudian obsession with strong foreign leaders (Iraq War demsuccery all over again, or so I've heard). However the actual basis for antiimperialist support for the SMO is in writers like Istavan Meszaros and Samir Amin that advocate breaking dependency on the imperial core. Solidnet parties like the CPUSA and the KKE barely whisper about these positions and you cannot find them at your local library, unlike MMT freakazoids like Michael Hudson (EDIT: or Yanis Varoufakis (can't forget mr "fictitious capital is a new mode of production just like tech bozos claim")).

Did you get any of that or are you nervous that I'm already trying to take away your Good Podcasts? Don't get me wrong I still listen to many of those as well, Radio War Nerd, etcerera, because there are slim pickings, it's just that I listen much more critically after they have repeatedly thrown NAFO tier guests at me and lied about Xinjiang etc. Man I hate speaking English. Everything is so annoying to listen to.

[–] haui@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You know, I would have had an easy time just hearing you say "check out these ones" because since you're here i assume you mean well. Thanks for the suggestion.

[–] mistermodal@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Np i just wish people were more critical of all these alt media outlets and random shows. I've never met a single person who listens to them who actually wants to hear any criticism. Because, for me, not questioning what I'm listening to makes it way less interesting and active.

[–] haui@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well, not everyone is the same. Imo, westerners only get to criticize any socialist (especially ML) media or socialist countries if they have spent considerable time studying them and countries only if they've been there.

[–] mistermodal@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

If only they shared that opinion gosh

[–] TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Citations Needed is a good media criticism podcast. They breakdown a lot of the talking points mainstream media uses for various topics and show how they’re wrong and why they are twisting narratives. They do have citations in the show notes too which is nice.

Blowback is another good one. They have a bit of a different setup in that each season they focus on a conflict the US was involved in and cover what actually happened. Their seasons on the Cuban revolution and Korean War were especially good.

Proles Pod I just started to listen to recently as I had heard their mini series on Stalin was good. I’m still early into that mini series so can’t say too much more.

[–] lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 week ago

Citations needed mandatory listening

[–] Comrade_Cat@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 week ago

The only ones I regularly listen to anymore are The Deprogram, True Anon, Blowback, and Ghost Stories for the End of the World.

Sometimes I’ll catch an episode of Rev Left, Proles Pod, Citations Needed, Marx Madness, American Exception, Chapo Trap House, Actually Existing Socialism, or others, but I don’t keep up with them.

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago

Trillbilly Workers Party, Guys with Bryan Quinby, Radio War Nerd, Victory Light, Quorators, Tech Won't Save Us, Stavvy's World, The Adam Friedland Show, the Antifada, This Machine Kills, Common Censored, Working People, Guerilla History, Deep Into History, The East is a Podcast, What a Time to Be Alive

[–] Idliketothinkimsmart@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The socialist program with Brian Becker

[–] lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Listening as I type this.

[–] trashxeos@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 week ago

Marx Madness if you want some theory reading. I don't have a lot of time to sit and read so I listen to that. It was very useful for expanding my knowledge of theory. They also now have a new spin off for current events called Blatant Propaganda which has been pretty good so far.

[–] imaginaryfriend@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago

Chapo Trap House, Drop Site News, Economic Update with Richard Wolff, Means Morning News, True Anon

[–] Commiejones@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago

https://podur.org/civilizations-resources/

I've really enjoyed this history podcast. It starts in 1492 and they just finished talking about the treaty of Versailles. Justin Podur is 100% a comrade and his co host while a lib is not insufferable.

[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago

For some less theory and political economy heavy podcasts that I find interesting and enjoyable to listen to:

  • Tech Won't Save Us (Paris Marx must be some flavour of leftist, focuses on the intersection of tech and political economy)
  • Darknet Diaries (liberal/"non-political" but some intriguing stories of what can happen on the internet)
  • It's not Just in Your Head (discontinued but great back catalogue of lefty mental health discussions)
  • Neurodiverdings (German language, conversations about the life experience of neurodivergent people, anti-capitalist)

Honorable mentions (ie. I haven't listened to enough to form a strong opinon)

  • This Machine Kills (similar concept to Tech Won't Save Us)
  • The East is a Podcast
[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

The history of philosophy without any gaps.

It's a very comprehensive podcast on European philosophy and philosophy in the Islamic world, including Jewish philosophy. It starts with the pre-socratics and is now up to Descartes. There are also three spin-off podcasts on African, Indian and Chinese philosophy.

[–] sharkfucker420@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

Fall of Civilizations by Paul Cooper is fucking amazing. I'll never get my first listens back. Sitting on my balcony watching the stars while I listened is a memory I will treasure for a long time.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 week ago

Empire by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand has been good so far (I'm 12 episodes in). I can't speak for subsequent episodes and don't know anything about the two hosts beyond this podcast, but they're painting a very stark picture of how fucking evil the British were in India (and I think they move on to other colonized regions later).

[–] PolarisHeart@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

A lesser known podcast that I've been enjoying is the Triploi podcast! It's mainly geared towards people who are newer to subjects on colonial history, imperialism, anti-capitalist and anti-colonial thought, etc... He also started putting reading recommendations in the shownotes which is really nice. I'd love for more people to check him out <3