Diet Soap - a podcast

Chris Cutrone and Douglas Lain discuss the question "What is Socialism?" following up after Lain's participation in a Platypus panel discussion of the question in Portland, Oregon.

Platypus Panel 10/18/26
https://youtu.be/2PCH5LURgyw?si=7F0nfahYGvcEPqyi
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Benjamin Zachariah discusses his book "The Postcolonial Volk" with Douglas Lain in the latest Diet Soap podcast. How did the struggle against Eurocentrism become racist in its own right?

The Postcolonial Volk is available through Polity
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-postcolonial-volk--9781509562633
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Spencer Leonard discusses how the idea of equality has regressed during the Industrial revolution. Why is the left dysfunctional and conservative?

Chris Cutrone discusses Thomas Jefferson and his disappointment with the left.

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Ashley Frawley returns to discuss her major piece for Compact Magazine entitled: "We Must Become Gods."
Here's an excerpt from her essay:
"It was through Marxism that I encountered Prometheanism, and with it the exhilarating realization that both man and the world are unfinished projects. We could master nature and democratize abundance and freedom through technological innovation. And anyway, I thought, we were already doing it, even as the walls of our economic system pressed up against our ambitions."

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In this episode of the Cutrone Zone, Chris discusses the four activities he's taken up as a left public intellectual over the past 20 years, and how they contribute to the project of socialism.

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Matt McManus discusses his essay in Jabobin magazine entitled "Utopia Is a Promise Worth Fighting For." This was a review of the short book "Utopia for Our Century: A Manifesto of Hope" by David Albertson and Jason Blakely.

Utopia is a Promise?
https://jacobin.com/2026/08/books-utopia-more-meritocracy-communism
Utopia Manifesto
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300278088/utopia-for-our-century/
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Chris Cutrone re-evaluates his time as a Marxist pedagogue and wonders what went wrong. He's still reeling from the death of the Millennial left.

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Jörg Pohl is an actor in Germany and a director of politically progressive plays. In this interview for Avant Art, Pohl discusses Lukacs and his criticisms of expressionism.

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Chris Cutrone joins Douglas Lain to reexamine the meaning of "socialism" and how the term is misunderstood today. They explore the difference between anti-capitalism and socialism.

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Ralph Leonard joins Douglas Lain to discuss Ralph's recent essay for Compact entitled:
"When Britain Ended Birthright Citizenship"

Link to Compact:
"When Britain Ended Birthright Citizenship" by Ralph Leonard
https://www.compactmag.com/article/when-britain-ended-birthright-citizenship/
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Jörg Pohl is an actor and director living in Germany. He has been a member of the Thalia Theatre ensemble since 2009, and in this episode of Avant Art, he leads a discussion on the work of the Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold.

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In this episode of the Cutrone Zone, Chris takes on the pedagogical task of reassessing what class politics are, what they were, and what they might be. He recapitulates two essays by Theodor Adorno:

Imaginative Excesses:
https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/readings/adorno_imaginativeexcesses.pdf
Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1968/late-capitalism.htm

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Chris Cutrone and Douglas Lain discuss Cutrone's essay: "Was Lenin PMC?"
In this podcast, they discuss how James Burnham's work on the managerial revolution and his conservatism infected and directed left discourse.

Was Lenin PMC? by Chris Cutrone
https://www.sublationmag.com/post/was-lenin-pmc-how-elite-theory-doesn-t-fit-the-movement-for-socialism
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In this episode of the Spencer Leonard Hour, the professor of Marxism discusses why commies prefer the French Revolution to the American Revolution.

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Jim Igor, aka The Perfect Wagnerite, discusses the contradictions and revolutionary potential of Wagner's operas. He argues that Wagner represents both the ambition towards freedom and the self-defeat of the bourgeois revolution.

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In this CutroneZone, the Last Marxist evaluates the political significance of the rise of the DSA candidates in the Democratic Party. What does this mean for the left at it's future?

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Christopher Norris discusses his contribution to the 2007 collection "Adventures in Realism" entitled "Realism and Anti-Realism in Contemporary Philosophy: What's Truth Got to Do With It?"
Rather than rehearse the philosophical arguments in the paper, Doug discusses the political import of analytic philosophy and realism.

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In this episode of the CutroneZone, everyone's favorite contrarian discusses the meaning of the MOU, Israel's future decline, and the contemporary moment of post-neoliberalism.

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Werner Rügemer discusses his book "Fatal Friendship: First Phase: From World War I to II."

From the book jacket:
Rising US capitalism presented itself to the world with freedom, democracy, and prosperity. However, the practices of America First-genocide, labor exploitation, and warlike plunder of foreign property-were merely modernized.

The First World War became the first major global business venture, making allies dependent. After the war, US corporations invested in Western Europe. Mussolini was showered with loans. US corporations supplied Franco and equipped the German Wehrmacht for a war against Russia.

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