For this first episode in the Radicalism in the American Revolution series, historian Annette Gordon-Reed joins me to discuss her new book Jefferson on Race, a collection of writings by Jefferson on the topic of race from throughout his entire career. Anette and I grapple with a pair of irresolvable facts about Jefferson: he was a race radical and an enslaver.

You can find the link to Annette's book here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691122069/jefferson-on-race

Here's the letter to Jefferson from "A Slave" that strikes an apocalyptic tone on slavery and uses Jefferson's own words: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-9200

Here's an introduction to a new series on Radicalism in the American Revolution, in honor of/in frustration with 250 years of America.

Soon to come: Jefferson on Race, the American constitutional tradition, Thomas Paine's basic income, and more!

How do you know your life is worthwhile? How do connect to the world around you? What sort of life is worth living?

In her new book, Transcendence for Beginners, the philosopher and biographer Clare Carlisle works through answers to these questions, answers inspired by the philosopher Spinoza and the novelist George Eliot. And those answers, rather than pointing to something beyond, point us to transcendence in the here and now. Plus we talk about tradwives.

Here's the link to the book at the publisher's website: https://www.nyrb.com/products/transcendence-for-beginners

Eric Blair, known as George Orwell, had all of his successes after he met and married Eileen O'Shaughnessy. The graphic novel Mrs. Orwell, written by Andrea Chalupa, is the story of how George Orwell became a couple, and helps re-introduce Eileen to history as the dynamic, radical activist and editor who has been left out of the Orwell story.

You can get a copy of the book here: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9781250877857

Joan Slonczewski joins me to discuss their novel A Door Into Ocean, a science fiction novel about an all-female society of "sharers" on an ocean planet, Shora. Joan's sharers are one of the best speculative depictions of what an anarchist society would look like, so Joan and I discuss the inspirations for the world, including Gene Sharp, Ursula Le Guin, and Gandhi, and what we can draw on from those figures in our current struggles.

You can find Joan at https://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/slonc.htm

Buy the book: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780312876524

Amit Chaudhuri joins me to discuss his new collection of essays, Incompleteness. In these essays and his novels, Amit is constantly searching for new language that will acknowledge the instability and flux of the world around us. It is intellectual anarchy of the highest order, as well as artistically breathtaking.

You can find all of Amit's books published by NYRB here: https://www.nyrb.com/collections/amit-chaudhuri

Kim Stanley Robinson comes back to discuss Aurora, his novel of a generational starship, in which generations of humans are born, live, and die onboard without ever seeing a planet. We discuss the generational starship as a science fiction genre, whether humans will ever be able to travel to the stars, and what it would mean for science fiction if we can't. We also take a detour into the question of "hard," scientific science fiction vs. "soft," humanist science fiction.

Here's a link to Stan's article for Boing Boing, arguing that we won't ever reach the stars:

https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html

Thanks to Nick Gaskill for suggesting an episode on Aurora!

Dan Chiasson joins me to discuss his combined Bernie and Burlington biography, Bernie for Burlington, and the connections between Bernie's socialism and Mamdani's socialism.

You can purchase Dan's book here: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780593317495

Here's Dan's article about Mamdani: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/11/06/have-you-met-z-zohran-mamdani/

And we discuss Corey Robin's piece on socialist excellence: https://coreyrobin.com/2025/11/15/excellence-over-mediocrity-from-mamdani-to-marx-to-food/