By Hannah Hopkins
This is a list of my favorite podcasts I have been listening to lately. In this list you’ll find interviews, music, reportbacks, and narratives relating to social movements, resistance, anarchism, and the history of working peoples. Podcasts are great because you can enjoy a vast selection of news, opinion, music, and comedy on your own schedule. You can generally find these podcasts on your phone’s podcast app or you can stream directly from the podcasts’ websites linked below.
Working Class History Podcast
workingclasshistory.com/category/podcast
Some of you might be familiar with libcom.org’s Working Class History project which can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. WCH contributors write, record, and share working class peoples’ histories in order to make visible those peoples marginalized by capitalism, colonialism, and mainstream historical narratives. In February, WCH started an interview-based bimonthly podcast that features episodes about “those who have fought for a better world.” I’m really excited about this project so far they have done episodes about the West Virginia mine wars, the Angry Brigade, and the Grunwick strike in London. Be sure to check out the recent interview with Peter Cole, co-editor of Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW (WCH E6: Industrial Workers of the World in the US, 1905-1918).
The Dollop
thedollop.libsyn.com
I’m a longtime fan of The Dollop podcast. It’s a biweekly US history podcast hosted by comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. The concept of this podcast is to share a story from US history. Dave tells the story and Gareth listens. A simple concept, but the story is filled with improvisational humor, hilarious tangents, and unbelievable stories about historical events and people. With 332 episodes in their back catalog, this podcast may be tough to break into. I suggest starting out with one of these episodes: 320 The Wobblies Go to Everett; 241 The Two Indigenous Actors; and 39 LAPD The Beginning.
IGDCAST
itsgoingdown.org/category/podcast
A weekly podcast produced by It’s Going Down featuring interviews with participants in social movements and labor organizing. It’s Going Down is an online platform that shares information about anarchist, antifascist, anticapitalist, and anticolonial movements primarily in the US. The IGDCAST is released super frequently and the episodes are generally less than 30 minutes. I really enjoyed a recent episode (posted May 8, 2018) about the March feminist general strike in Spain where the host talked with a member of the CNT (National Confederation of Labor). Also be sure to check out “This Is America #9: IWW Pickets, Berkeley Cops Help Alt-Right,” which featured a fellow worker discussing the IWW 650 at GCI pickets in response to the lockout.
The Rebel Beat
rebelbeatradio.com
The Rebel Beat is a podcast I’ve recently started listening to. It’s produced by Firebrand Records a project that releases and distributes radical music globally. This monthly podcast features radical political music from all over the world and from many different musical genres and in many different languages. Interspersed with the music are interviews and news reports. Episode 84: May Day Special is a good one to start with, it features music from Mbongeni Ngema, M.I.A., Ana Tijoux, Lillian Allen, and others.
Channel Zero Network
channelzeronetwork.com
OK this one isn’t technically a podcast but maybe you’re looking for a different type of podcast than the ones I recommended. Channel Zero Network is a coalition of anarchist podcasters that record episodes of news, interviews, and discussions about organizing, radical action, anarchism, antifascism, and other topics. It’s a good idea to sample some of the Channel Zero podcasts to see if there are any that you like and want to subscribe to. I found a few of the podcasts on this list through the network.
[This article was originally published in the June-July 2018 Seattle Worker. You can read the full issue here.]
Seattle Industrial Workers of the World 