Episode 5: A Long Journey From Marxists to Marx, Part 1

Brendan Cooney reflects on his political-theoretical evolution in this two-part interview, conducted by his RFH co-host, Andrew Kliman. They discuss the founding of his educational blog, Kapitalism101; Brendan’s initial attraction to thinkers such as David Harvey; his eventual disillusionment; and his journey to Marxist-Humanism. Part 1 of the interview focuses especially on what Brendan has called “That 70’s Show”––the intellectual climate in which the work of Harvey and others is rooted, in which “[a] false-dichotomy between ‘open-minded reinterpretations’ and ‘deterministic orthodoxy’ is too-often erected as a substitute for a real argument.” In Part 2 (which will be the main segment of Episode 6 of RFH) the interview turns mainly to Brendan’s critique of Harvey’s theory of capitalist economic crisis.

In the current-events segment, Brendan and Andrew discuss whether Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s bombshell testimony before the House Intelligence Committee has made Trump’s removal from office more likely.

The pamphlet mentioned in this podcast, “Capitalism’s Crises: A Debate”, is available here.


Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

We welcome and encourage listeners’ comments, posted on this episode’s page.

Please visit MHI’s online print publication, With Sober Senses, for further news, commentary, and analysis.

Click here for more episodes.

November 22, 2019

1 Comment

  1. Excellent episode! Brendan, for what it’s worth, to this day I still suggest your youtube channel OVER Harvey’s to students interested in Marxism. Even your WORST videos (of which none come to mind), are better than Harvey’s BEST (of which none also come to mind).

    Andrew, somewhere in the comments section of that now defunct economic blog where you and Harvey had your debate, I remember leaving several arguments that showed how riddled in fallacies his arguments were, especially when juxtaposed to yours. I suspect those comments are lost forever though :/

    Oh well.

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