Western Marxism vs. Stalinism: Domenico Losurdo’s Controversial Legacy with Ross Wolfe
What if the very idea of Western Marxism has less to do with geography than with defeat? In this episode of Acid Horizon, we dive into Domenico Losurdo’s controversial use of the term and ask what’s at stake in his defense of actually existing socialism against its critics. With our guest Ross Wolfe, we explore the tangled afterlives of Western Marxism—from the Frankfurt School to structuralism, from Stalinism to contemporary China. Along the way we confront the uncomfortable question: do tod...
19 Sep 57min
Wilhelm Reich, Fascism & Work Democracy: Philip Bennett & David Silver at Orgonon
Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sbwVioWlhS0 What happens when we revisit Wilhelm Reich’s journey from Freud’s student to radical theorist of desire, politics, and repression? In this episode, we sit down with Professor Philip Bennett and David Silver, executive director of the Wilhelm Reich Museum, to explore Reich’s groundbreaking ideas on therapy, character armor, and the enduring relevance of The Mass Psychology of Fascism. Together we trace his path from psychoanalysis to Marxism to w...
9 Sep 53min
From Blake to Bataille: Romanticism, Communism, and the Commons with Joseph Albernaz
What does Romanticism have to do with communism, enclosure, and the commons today? In this episode we speak with Joseph Albernaz, author of Common Measures: Romanticism and the Groundlessness of Community, about the radical lineage running from Blake and Hölderlin to Marx and Bataille. We explore how Romantic literature conceived “groundless community”—a poetic and ecological alternative to enclosure and collective identity—and how those ideas reverberate through scene-shaping thinkers like B...
31 Aug 1h 1min
LEPHT HAND - Myth, Nostalgia, and Liberation: Federico Campagna’s 'Otherworlds: Mediterranean Lessons On Escaping History'
Can myth itself serve as a material force in struggles for liberation? Federico Campagna joins me to discuss how myth—too often dismissed as escapism or co-opted by reaction—can instead become a practice of imagination, solidarity, and survival. We look at myth’s place in anti-capitalist politics, its tension with materialism, and its role in resisting despair. What emerges is a vision of myth as a politics of possibility against history’s catastrophes. Acid Horizon Research Commons is now li...
23 Aug 1h 8min
Identity on Credit: Ajax, Achilles, and the Modern Self with Fredrik Westerlund
What happens when the self we imagine drifts further from the one we actually live? In this episode, philosopher Fredrik Westerlund joins Craig and Nicholas de Warren to explore his concept of “identity on credit,” where our sense of self is built on promises yet to be realized. From Sophocles’ Ajax to Nietzsche, Deleuze, and Scheler, we trace how recognition, resentment, and failure shape the modern psyche. Together we ask whether it is possible to live beyond the creditor–debtor logic of id...
17 Aug 1h 16min
From Chaos to Creation: Deleuze, Francis Bacon, 'On Painting', and 'The Logic of Sensation' with Charles J. Stivale
What happens when the painter’s hand breaks free from the eye, and chaos reorganizes the entire field of vision? In this episode of Acid Horizon, we join Charles Stivale, translator of On Painting and The Logic of Sense, to explore Gilles Deleuze’s rare 1981 seminar on painting. Together we trace how concepts like catastrophe, diagram, and modulation emerge from Deleuze’s live philosophical “laboratory” and feed into his landmark work Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. Along the way, we u...
14 Aug 1h 14min
How Did Analytic Philosophy Become the Ruling Class of Thought? Christoph Schuringa Explains
What if analytic philosophy isn't as politically neutral as it claims to be? In this episode, we explore the hidden ideological scaffolding of analytic philosophy—its deference to science, retreat to common sense, and therapeutic impulse. Christoph Schuringa, author of A Social History of Analytic Philosophy (Verso), reveals how analytic thought emerged from institutional, class-based, and geopolitical forces. We also discuss its uneasy relation to continental philosophy, AI ethics, and the e...
28 Juli 1h 15min
Becoming Worthy of the Event: Deleuze, Nietzsche, and Revolutionary Ethics with Justin
What does it mean to become worthy of the event? In this episode, we’re joined by Justin, longtime collaborator and host of our current reading group on Pierre Klossowski’s Living Currency. Together, we explore Deleuze’s stoic metaphysics, Nietzsche’s ethics of affirmation, and the revolutionary stakes of releasing ourselves from resentment. Along the way, we consider how play, pedagogy, and the dissolution of the self open us to the transformative force of the event. Support the show Support...
17 Juli 58min
