So, my partner of 15 years has always considered himself a "centrist". He grew up in New England, and his father is one of those rich New England Conservative (tm) types. So, anything more liberal than his father was extreme as far as he was concerned. I eventually got him to realize that his ideals were much closer to mine than to "centrism", but he is still on the fence.
I managed to get him off his NPR spree by getting him hooked on Citations Needed. I need other things to give him. He likes their "brutal honesty" and "brutality" in general, but he is also on the autistic spectrum so things with bizarre humor (like Seriously Wrong) would not fit for him. Also, not sure about anything that is specifically "Marxist" or "Anarchist" quite yet. I was thinking about Blowback and ALAB to start. Anyone have any other ideas for me?
He drives for a currently fucked delivery company right now, so he has plenty of time to listen to things. However, things that require you to listen to the back catalog to understand them (like Working Class History) might be annoying to get him attached to until I can get him to switch to a better podcasting app. I think he is still using Spotify :cringe:
Citations needed was a great start, Blowback is definitely a good one since the seasons are very self contained and follow a specific timeline that isn't predicated on any back catalogue. If you were to go the specifically Marxist route the Marx Madness podcast is really great. They make great effort to contextualize those older writings and describe what influenced them in their time and how they relate to present material conditions with some brutal dunking on liberals and chuds sprinkled in.
how does revolutions treat the russian revolution? is it super lib or fair? i'm just finish up the french revolution and so far it's been pretty informative and he seems at least cool with marxism although not one himself
Pretty sure by the recent Haiti episode he's become pretty radicalized.
Oddly enough, I would recommend "The West Wing Thing". It is two writers/comedians who started out wanting to watch "The West Wing" series and talk about how it influenced media and politics from the perspective of two leftist entertainment types. It quickly becomes two guys ranting about how "The West Wing" and Andy Sorkin may have heavily influenced the horror of what our current USA politics as become.
They've got some kickin beats, often have guests who know their shit, and almost every episode weaves what they talk about regarding an episode of "The West Wing" with what would have been going on in US politics, sometimes the world. It is however a bit doomery, especially noticeable when listening to lots of episodes back to back. There may be references to previous episodes but they usually explain and under no circumstance will you need to watch any episode of "The West Wing."
"Some More News" was decent when I listened to it a while ago. Haven't kept up with them since the election.
"Reply Guys" is a decent mix of lefty/libby vibes that is mostly ... hopeful?... if not more positive in tone. Typically giving their takes on things going on, "in the present" with a gust for the last half of the show to talk about something that should be interesting to lefties. They're pretty pro DSA, at least the chapters that are local to them, and regularly have members on to discuss things they are organizing for.
Both of these are a bit more conversational than something like "Citations Needed."
Democracy Now for daily news, it's a decent enough leftward stepping stone from NPR
5-4 is about shitty SCOTUS rulings and explicitly traces their effects to the modern day. They're definitely Bernie-tier or further but I don't remember them being loud commies or anything.
If the humor lands, The Dollop is basically crypto-leftist American History class
Knowledge Fight is two dudes debunking and dunking on Alex Jones. This one I'm least certain of because the humor leans so heavily on the inherent absurdity of far-right propaganda, but there's also thorough dismantling of rightwing talking points, showing how chuds and fash take stats or phrasing in bad faith and launder their ideas into the mainstream. Dan can be a huge lib sometimes but he really does his research on these dipshits.
If you want some short video content Second Thought and The Gravel Institute have some nice straightforward vids explaining socialist ideas
Moderate Rebels is decent when they actually put out a recording (last one was 18 days ago). Very straight to the point, talking about current events. They interview people from LatAm countries and elsewhere sometimes. Very infrequent though, since they do other stuff. Stuff from Yasha Levine can also be pretty interesting. Also pretty infrequent. Neither of these are necessarily good intro podcasts however.
Thanks so much everyone. He claims he isn't gonna run out of Citations Needed any time soon, but it's always good to have some stuff lined up. :07:
