What's the deal with the online left?

From our episode with @lupelenape94.bsky.social on social media and the battle for the narrative. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!

Podcast cover art showing Julia Serano holding her book “sexed up.” Caption: “queer people aren’t going anywhere! A conversation with Julia Serano.”

New episode!

We are joined by the legendary @juliaserano.bsky.social to discuss her work, the way the movement for trans rights has evolved since she wrote “Whipping Girl,” and the fact that queer people in the U.S. are like toothpaste: We’re out of the tube now, and no one can make us go away!

“You are an abolitionist, ain’t you?” “As to that, I cannot so readily answer. If by abolitionist you mean a zealot, I am none; but if you mean a man, who, being a man, feels for all men, slaves included, and by any lawful act, opposed to nobody’s interest, and therefore, rousing nobody’s enmity, would willingly abolish suffering (supposing it, in its degree, to exist) from among mankind, irrespective of color, then am I what you say.” “Picked and prudent sentiments. You are the moderate man, the invaluable understrapper of the wicked man. You, the moderate man, may be used for wrong, but are useless for right.”

Herman Melville on moderates, all the way back in 1857:

Picture of a man holding milk and a honey bun from the cover of the single "Hillbilly Hymn." Caption: The Battle for country music, God, and the south ft. Nathan Evans Fox

We normally talk books on Monday, but lyrics are a type of literature and sure are part of the narrative battle!

Country music artist @nathanevansfox.bsky.social joins us for a wide ranging discussion about Southern culture, evangelical Christianity and the joy of writing a hillbilly hymn

My pops was a snake hunter in northern AL & we used to sell rattlers to snake handling churches down that way (I didn’t know any better; I was a kid).

When I found out they defang the snakes or get them cold to do their show (they won’t bite), I started to catch on to the game

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

War, apathy, elite disregard.

Clip from our newest episode with RevLeft Radio on the Iran War and the attack on the American psyche.

As always: No war on Iran!!

Podcast cover depicting an American base in Bahrain burning. Caption: War on the Iranian People and the American Mind, ft. RevLeft Radio. Workers's Lit, March 2 2026

The American ruling class is at war.

They're bombing Iran, doing their best to make yet another nation unlivable.

But they are fighting another war: a psychological war against all of us.

Breht O’Shea of RevLeft joins Aysha, Jen, and Jacob to discuss these dual wars and how we can fight back.

The misinformation economy: A CIA op? (Yes)

This clip comes from our episode with Rae of @prolespod.bsky.social on "Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?" You can listen to the full episode now wherever you get your pods!

Thank you!

This perfectly describes my manuscript but with anti patriarchal themes!

But I’m a straight, white hillbilly with no education & a felony (growing mushrooms). Should I even bother querying? I don’t wanna waste your time or step on any toes.

A fellow anticapitalist southerner looking for a manuscript in my genre?! Today must be my lucky day.

"Sure a thing happened, but what if a different thing I just made up happened instead? You ever think about THAT?!"

-the entire basis of most right wing propaganda. They just take that, add racism or transphobia or whatever vile shit they're feeling that day and press send. Then they kill people.

These techbros can keep their punkass AI. Ain’t no robot writing sentences like these here.

Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Ft. Rae of ProlesPod. A discussion about CIA propaganda, controlled left intellectual opposition, and academic control. Workers' Lit, February 25, 2026

We're joined by Rae of ProlesPod to discuss Gabriel Rockhill's, "Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?"

How did the CIA and other U.S. government forces infiltrate the media and academia throughout the Cold War? How can we fight back in the battle of ideas?

This one's a banger! Listen now!

Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, and surging Imperialism. A short essay to set the record and our priorities straight

Marco Rubio’s speech to the Munich Security Council last week gave Europe “a sigh of relief” and was met with a standing ovation. Much of the media is calling it balanced, wise, a breath of professional fresh air. It was one of the most nakedly imperialist, far-right speeches I’ve ever seen. He should get no praise just because he got through it without weird, senile diatribes or bad jokes like his bosses the President and Vice-President.

In the course of the speech, Rubio managed to: -Repeatedly call colonialism good and demand a return to it. -Condemn anti-colonial revolutions, imply they were “Godless” –Call for a reconquest of the Global South, explicitly for its resources. -Refer to migration as the biggest threat facing, “The West.” -Say the USA would always be a European nation. -Call Palestinians “barbarians” -Call Columbus a great man who brought Christianity to America -Encourage Europe not to be ashamed of any of its "purported sins" (A reminder, they were IN Germany) -Describe green energy initiatives as "the climate cult"

This speech comes at a dark time. Europe–especially Germany–is re-arming in a big way. Donald Trump has just convened his so-called “Board of Peace” (“Bored of Peace” would be more accurate) to enact his plans for direct governance of Gaza, with hints that the board may serve as an even more nakedly pro-U.S. version of the United Nations. A massive fleet builds up in the Middle East, seemingly ready to start a hellish war against Iran. Latin America is reeling from the midnight raid and blockade of Venezuela, with a similar blockade now forming around Cuba in the Caribbean. War rages on in Ukraine. Weapons continue to pour in Taiwan, India, Korea, and Australia in the ever-building preparation for war against China. Drone strikes and special operations continue across the globe. Crushing and illegal sanctions strangle entire nations. And still, the U.S. Empire demands more.

Some thoughts on Rubio's Munich speech, Trump's "board of peace," and our accelerating imperial moment

Sci-fi politics, dead stormtroopers, and gay Babu Frik

Listen to the full episode wherever you get your pods!

ft. @thepoduniverse.com

Workers' Lit Workers’ Lit is a podcast about books, culture, and politics brought to you by Lenore, Aysha, Jen, and Jacob.Read good books, tell bad jokes, and fight for a better future!

Is buying us a coffee a thing you're inclined to do? Sure would be cool!

If you enjoy the show, throwing a few bucks our way to say, "thanks" would mean a lot. And if not, no sweat, we appreciate you anyway!

Anyway nothing in The Files is surprising. Education and oral history is so important because, I repeat, nothing in The Files is surprising.

Just believe Black and Indigenous people and your understanding of the world will deeply change.

Maypop in bloom

For the folks who follow my foraging content on X & are curious: yes my novel does contain nuggets of useful info on edible/medicinal wild plants. It may be sci-fi horror but y’all know I had to take the opportunity to spread some #dirtmagic love.

Not really. And it was very disappointing when the one woman that seemed cool had only a few lines before being brutalized so that the hero could come along & save her. Same ol tired bs.

So fucking tired of Silicon Valley trying to claim spec/sci-fi.

The future of science and speculative fiction must be as loudly and aggressively anti-billionaire and anti-capitalist as possible. Kim Stanley Robinson is the floor of how anti-capitalist we must be.

Twitter really is just a fascist fellatio fest these days. God I hope this site turns out better.

Here’s the first page of my manuscript. Getting some great feedback so far. One editor said it reads like if Cormac McCarthy was a leftist who cared about genre norms & wasn’t a chomo creep. I’ll take that as a win.

Finally finished my manuscript. Spent most of my life digging ditches & landscaping in the south & writing these 70k some-odd words has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Now to find somebody to help me do something with it.

Springtime Dirt Magic 30 easy-to-find springtime plants for amateur foragers.

30 edible & medicinal spring plants anybody can find & use. #dirtmagic open.substack.com/pub/dmason/p...

I’m pretty sure this is a spotted bolete but the fact that it’s so perfect & bug free is throwing me off. They’re good edibles & the varmints love em. Ye hardly ever find em this pristine. What a beauty.

Green Quilted Russula. A tasty edible but it doesn’t grow in flushes so ye have to do some lookin to find enough for a hearty meal. The bugs love em too so ye wanna get em early & inspect em thoroughly.