Workers' Lit

It's that time again. It's a patron-chosen episode!!

This time the patrons chose a dark one: Octavia Butler's 1979 time travel novel/first-person slave narrative, "Kindred."

This book is a classic for a reason. It engages directly with American slavery and its long-term legacy, and doesn't shy away from the brutality. As such, this is a darker episode...though we still think you'll enjoy and get a lot from it!

Some podcast news: starting next week we'll be launching "Workers' Lit: The Epilogues," an additional half hour (or so) of conversation around the week's book and related topics we'd like to get to but didn't quite fit in the episode. These Epilogues will release the same day of every new episode, and be available only to Workers' Lit Patrons.

We'll also be launching a Patrons-only Discord and reading club very soon, so be on the look out for that (and support us on Patreon so you can be part of it!)

https://patreon.com/workerslit

THIS IS A PATREON EPISODE! If you want the full episode go support us on Patreon here:

https://www.patreon.com/WorkersLit/posts/ayshas-author-173875308

In today's bonus Patreon episode Aysha sits down with one of our favorite writers and guests: Lee Mandelo!

Lee is a brilliant horror author, having written such books as "Summer Sons" and "Woods All Black." In this conversation he and Aysha delve into discussion about his genre, creative examinations of gender and sex in literature, and watching shows with subtitles.

We hope you enjoy! Also, go check out "Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity", a sci-fi collection edited by Lee and featuring Aysha!

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/770919/amplitudes-by-lee-mandelo/

Have y'all heard about this whole "European colonialism" thing? It's bad news, REALLY bad news!

Isaac, an organizer with the South Dekalb Coordinating Committee joins us today for a conversation about a true political titan: Walter Rodney. A Guyanese historian, political philosopher, and organizer, Rodney published his masterwork, "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" in 1972.

This conversation takes you through Rodney's life, the outline of his arguments, and a high-level view of the historical processes by which European colonization and imperialism stunted the growth of the African continent, leaving us with the geopolitical situation we see today. It's upsetting stuff, but it's absolutely crucial to understand should we want to see change!

Go support the South Dekalb Coordinating Committee in its quest to organize, educate, and support the people of the Metro Atlanta area in their fight against capitalism and racism!

https://linktr.ee/SDCC_

Go check out Isaac's writing on Substack!

https://substack.com/@isaacboa

Go support Workers' Lit on Patreon!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Links to sources for this episode:

https://www.economist.com/special-report/2025/01/06/the-economic-gap-between-africa-and-the-rest-of-the-world-is-growing

https://www.policycenter.ma/publications/impact-chinese-investments-africa-neocolonialism-or-cooperation

https://www.worldbank.org/en/brief/2026/09/17/the-job-i-hope-for

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/m7o1qi/africa_according_to_the_conference_of_berlin/

This is a preview. To access the full episode please go support Workers' Lit on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/WorkersLit

It's time for yet another installment of Lenore and Rahab's monthly patron-only miniseries, "Article Brain!"

This time we wade into two very different, very stupid articles. First, Jacobin asks us why books aren't manly anymore. Then, Larry David (yes, that Larry David) shows that even a generational comedian can't make "socialism is when no iPhone" funny.

Links to the articles. Please do not read them, this is just to cite our sources or whatever:

https://jacobin.com/2026/10/lonesome-dove-reading-novels-men

https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-17/the-view-from-here

IMPORTANT NOTE: You might notice one of our hosts is going by a new name (Rahab/Ray). Have you slipped into an alternate reality? Perhaps, perhaps not. For some specifics, go check out the "Rise of Rahab" episode on the Patreon. Or just pretend it was always this way, that works too.

Let's Go Lesbians!

This is a really special episode. The incredible science fiction author Amal El-Mohtar joins us to discuss August Clarke's 2024 "Metal From Heaven," a queer, violent, exciting, sexy, brutal, blast of a novel that will have YOU ready to join the Highwaymen's Choir.

Discussion includes: building parallel systems in the face of oppression, the performance of gender and its intersection with sexuality, the need for more strap-ons in science fiction, and becoming communist God.

Go check out Amal's incredible work at her website: https://amalelmohtar.com/

Go support Workers' Lit on Patreon:

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Sources from the episode:

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html

https://www.semcoop.com/blog/post/end-hereafter-qa-august-clarke-author-metal-heaven

The age of humanity has passed. The age of the noodle is at hand!

This week, we are joined by the brilliant author Cecilia Tan to discuss "Automatic Noodle," a cozy sci-fi novella by Annalee Newitz. This book will finally answer the question we've all been waiting to solve: What happens when a bunch of abandoned, sentient robots try to claim their autonomy and open a restaurant?

This episode has a bit of friendly disagreement as we discuss questions like: Is the environment TOO warm and fuzzy? Where does sci-fi succeed/fail as it turns real-world issues into allegory? How did California separate from the United States? All this and more!

Cecilia Tan is an incredible author. Go buy her books and support her on Patreon! All relevant info can be found at Cecilia's website here:

https://www.ceciliatan.com

We also covered one of Cecilia's books, "The Mystery of the Bitten Peach," just a few months ago. Go listen to that here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6q5EVMX85CuyFPD1SeSUke

Go support Workers' Lit on Patreon!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Capitalism is not up to the task of 21st century healthcare. Facing wars, an ageing population, fossil fuel-driven disasters, debilitating diseases, and the everyday rigors of life, the capitalist healthcare system instead prioritizes profit above all else.

On this episode Jake Flores of "Pod Damn America" joins Jen and Lenore to discuss this crisis, then they get into a different healthcare model presented by, "Health Communism," a 2025 book written by Artie Vierkant and Beatrice Adler-Bolton of the "Death Panel" Podcast.

It's a great book. It's a great episode. Don't miss it!

Go support "Workers' Lit" on Patreon!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Go check out Jake Flores' podcast, "Pod Damn America"

https://www.patreon.com/poddamnamerica

Go check out "Health Communism"

https://www.versobooks.com/products/2801-health-communism

On September 28, 2021, Lee Mandelo released his debut novel: "Summer Sons," a southern gothic horror that wrestles with guilt, sexual repression, the long shadows of southern history, the evils of academia, and reinventing BDSM dynamics from first principles with your buddies.

On September 28, 2026, Workers' Lit released an episode with Lee himself, looking back on "Summer Sons" as a book.

We've had authors on to talk about their books, but never to break down their novels in a beat-by-beat way we typically review literature. We were thrilled to have Lee back on the show for this amazing topic.

Want more of Workers' Lit/Lee collaboration content? You'd be crazy not to. Links to his two previous appearances and our coverage of "Woods All Black" here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5j6AH8gxlpojTjZdEiuJH9?si=0qRwbRd3Q_G8w26qW-EGhw

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5M8AaWNVKHh0zuhWDVbt81?si=fl-JuDvlTiqgoojLR7ztGg

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3CRYIorpGHJVC0oYvtJhLu?si=_qTz2i4OR9eWku4PjLnIzQ

Want to support Workers' Lit on Patreon? Of course you do. Link here!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Want more of Lee? OBVIOUSLY! Link here!

https://leemandelo.com/

Now is the time of monsters!

Caleb from Kill The Computer and 60 Minute Drill returns to the pod to discuss the legendary Italian intellectual, Antonio Gramsci. Trace the life story of this short king with us as he travels from the poor countryside of his youth to meet baddies in a Moscow sanitarium all the way to revolutionary struggle and prison in fascist Italy…and bro didn’t stop there! As soon as he hit the jail cell he started, “The Prison Notebooks.”

Over 3000 pages of documents, “The Prison Notebooks” contains keys for understanding the failure of the working class to defend its own interests, the way the ruling class exerts control despite all odds, and answers the key question: is Macklemore an intellectual?

Go Support Workers’ Lit on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/WorkersLit

Go Check out Caleb’s podcasts!

https://www.killthecomputer.com/

https://linktr.ee/60MinuteDrill

This is a preview. To access the full episode please go support Workers' Lit on Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/WorkersLit

Once again it's time for an Article Brain, the monthly sub-series where we find the worst articles of our day and age to torment one another with.

First up, we read Ross Douthat's departure from the New York Times. In typical Ross fashion, he manages to "both sides" in a way specifically designed to drive us insane.

And then we get CNN's take on the AI Apocalypse. Sure, it's coming, but don't we prefer an American AI Apocalypse to a Chinese one??

Links (not recommending you read these please God don't):

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/08/opinion/obama-trump-biden-enemy.html

https://us.cnn.com/2026/09/15/tech/ai-kill-everyone-china

It’s another Patron-selection! Welcome to “All Systems Red,” a 2017 sci-fi adventure novella by Martha Wells.

We talk about Wells’ life and the story, but a good chunk of this episode is dedicated to discussing robots in fiction more generally. What makes the robot who wants love such an interesting stand-in for real world alienation? Where do those parallels fall short? How does the rise of Gen AI (particularly AI slop) impact our relationship to robot narratives? Would Muderbot engage in kink at Pride discourse? All this and more will be answered!

Support us on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/workerslit

In the year 2000 a snarky chef named Anthony Bourdain published a collection of essays, rants, and observations about the food industry. The dude went on to do cool stuff, so much that our patrons voted for us to discuss this book!

In this episode we discuss how restaurant culture has (and mostly hasn't) changed, how to have working class solidarity in weird situations, the beauty of loving your job and having dignity in it, and the new A24 Film, "Tony."

Read the original Bourdain essay here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/04/19/dont-eat-before-reading-this

Go support us on Patreon here!

https://www.patreon.com/workerslit

This is a preview. To access the full episode please go support Workers' Lit on Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/workerslit

The spookiness only grows!

Jonathan Sims returns to Workers' Lit to talk with Aysha about his work, his novel, "The Burn Line" (which you should buy!), horror, trains, and more!

This episode is exclusively for $5 patrons and up. Every patron we gets helps us keep the show going and growing, and we appreciate you all for it!

Check out more of Jonathan's work here: https://jonathan-sims.com/

Go buy Jonthan's newest book, "The Burn Line" https://www.sourcebooks.com/the-burn-line.html

It's about to get really spooky.

Join us as we explore Robert W. Chambers' iconic 1895 short story collection, "The King In Yellow." Learn about this iconic influence on Lovecraft and eldritch horror as a genre, consider what might lie within the pages of that cursed play that makes you crazy, and consider whether you might in fact be the King of the United States.

Joining us is Jonathan Sims, writer of the Magnus Archives/Magnus Protocol, voice actor in games such as Slay the Princess, and author of books such as, "Family Business." Together, we will answer such puzzles as why Rhode Island is so scary, what the deal is with American and British naming conventions, and why the second half of this collection really, really, REALLY drags.

Also, would an eldritch being find Jacob sexy? We discuss!

Check out Jonathan's work here:

https://jonathan-sims.com

Go support Workers' Lit on Patreon!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

It’s a classic “we read a conservative book and get mad” episode!

This time we take on pseduo-biographer and self-proclaimed public intellectual Eric Metaxes and his 2022 book, “Letter to the American Church.” Eric says he sees scary parallels to nazi Germany in today’s USA…and he thinks Donald Trump is going to stop it.

Joining us is 7-time returning guest and evangelical-freak-understander Josh Boerman. Together we will crash out about Eric and, somewhere in the rage, try to figure out the core of his ideology and how to fight it.

Check out Josh’s phenomenal podcasts, The Worst of All Possible Worlds and Ill Concieved, at his website!

https://joshboerman.com/

Go support Workers’ Lit on Patreon!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Links from the episode:

https://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2010-09/hijacking-bonhoeffer

https://currentpub.com/2024/10/20/bonhoeffer-family-to-eric-metaxas-we-are-horrified-to-see-how-the-legacy-of-dietrich-bonhoeffer-is-being-distorted-and-misused/

https://manhattandeclaration.org/

This is a preview. To access the full episode please go support Workers' Lit on Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/WorkersLit/posts/article-brain-167304042

It's August Article Brain! And we've got more brain worms than ever.

This month, Lenore brings us an article about a trans woman who is bemoaning that the CIA is becoming less accepting of trans people (no mention of becoming more accepting of election results in the Global South). Jacob brings us an article by a never-Trump Republican claiming that actually, Democrats shouldn't run on popular things.

This book is weird, and horny, and gnarly, and gross, and exciting, and an all around winner.

Welcome to our discussion of “The Works of Vermin,” Hiron Ennes’ 2025 speculative fantasty slam dunk of a novel. Seriously, go buy this one. Go read it. The episode will still be here when you’re done.

And we’re not alone! Maria Ingrade Mora, author of “A Wild Radiance” and many others joins us as we descend into this labyrinth of class, gender, angst, repression, and artistic agonies.

Questions we discuss: Can art be a revolution? What makes a good plot twist work? Where is the line between effective and overwrought prose? Is it possible to get head so good you join a new political movement?

Go check out Maria’s work and get a copy of “A Wild Radiance!”

https://www.mariamora.net/

Go support Workers’ Lit on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/workerslit

(Production Note: Lenore’s internet was a problem so she had to drop out of the episode midway through and we didn’t get any of her audio. As such there may be an occasional odd-sounding moment in the first half because we had to cut around Lenore. Apologies for any confusion this may create!)

It’s the big one. Our most requested text ever. The spectre haunting Europe is now haunting our podcast.

It’s 1848’s “The Communist Manifesto” from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels!

What are the origins of this earth shattering text? Where does it still hold up, and what needs adjusting for a modern context? Did Marx and Engels ever kiss? We discuss it all!

If you ever wanted to learn about the foundation of communism but bounced off the age of the work or lack of context, this is perfect. And if you’re a certified Marx expert there’s still stuff to love. It’s a good episode!!

Go support Workers’ Lit on Patreon!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Read or listen to the Communist Manifesto yourself here, it’s not long!

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf

https://www.marxists.org/audiobooks/archive/marx-engels/communist-manifesto/index.htm

We've returned to the dark abyss that is the mind of Just Dance Vance.

AJ Ditty of The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast joins us to take on Vice President JD Vance's newest book, "Communion: Finding my way back to faith."

Vance tells us all how he totally became an authentic Catholic, definitely believes in God, and certainly isn't merely trying to set up a 2028 presidential run.

Topics in this discussion include Vance's quirky millennial-ness, Vance as wife guy, the networks of money behind Vance, and some helpful tips to shut down anyone who tries to say this dude is worth your time.

Link to our original episode on JD Vance (Hillbilly Elegy):

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0MiUlc8fho79aP1twvVDDz

Check out The Worst of All Possible Worlds:

https://www.patreon.com/WorstOfAll

Get tickets to see AJ's play, "Heart of Duckness":

https://portlandstage.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0SPa00000dFOunMAG

Go support Workers' Lit on Patreon!

https://patreon.com/workerslit

Grab your three-ringed binders, highlighters, and spellbooks, this week we're talking about "The Incandescent," a 2025 academia fantasy novel by Emily Tesh.

We've got schools, and labor concerns, and demons, and bisexuality, and a fantastic guest: Brandon Crilly, author, organizer, and all around cool guy. You may know his novels, such as "Catalyst" and "Castoff," or perhaps his work on The Expanse RPG. Know him or not, you'll be a fan by the end of this episode!

You can check out everything Brandon's up to here:

https://linktr.ee/brandoncrilly

Go support us on Patreon, where we release exclusive content such as author interviews (including an upcoming one with Brandon himself!)

https://Patreon.com/workerslit