Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Addendum to the Anarchism Vlogs: Part 1
(An addendum to the previous post)
There was a minor incident on twitter the other day when Elon Musk mentioned how he'd been enjoying a podcast about the end of Bakunin's life,...




...and then a bunch of people got angry that Elon Musk would in any way try to associate his brand with Bakunin, which is how it came across my twitter feed.
"Huh," I thought.  "I was just vlogging about Bakunin, and how underappreciated he was during the end of his life.  What are the odds?"
Elon Musk, it turns out, was listening to Revolutions Podcast.  And it turns out that, by sheer coincidence, Revolutions Podcast and I were talking about a lot of the same things last week. Revolutions Podcast was also talking about the fight between Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx, how the Paris Commune figured into the ideological split between anarchists and communists, and the split of the first International--all topics I tried to cover in the vlog.

But I'd be flattering myself if I implied that there was any equality between my rambling vlog and Revolutions Podcast.  Revolutions Podcast is the real deal--carefully researched, and professional presented.  This, really, is what you should be listening to if you want to learn about the subject, not me.
For the episode on Mikhail Bakunin's biography, see HERE.
For the episode on Bakunin's philosophy, see HERE.  
For the episode on Bakunin's and Marx's view of the Paris Commune, see HERE.
and for the episode on Bakunin's fight with Marx, and the split of the 1st International, see HERE.

(If you're even halfway interested in these topics, it's time well-spent.  Trust me.  These are entertaining and engaging podcasts.)

Revolutions Podcast is by a guy named Mike Duncan (W). He's most famous for his History of Rome Podcast (W), which I only found out about a couple years ago. It came up in a conversation in the school staffroom. 
(We have a lot of good history discussions in the staffroom.  You'd be surprised at how many former history majors and classics majors are teaching English in Asia... actually you probably wouldn't be.  It's probably exactly what you'd expect people would do with a history or classics degree.)
This podcast started in 2007, so it wasn't around when I was in college.  (In fact I'm fairly sure Mike Duncan is a few years younger than I am.)  But my younger colleagues have given me to understand that for ancient history or classics undergraduates nowadays, Mike Duncan's History of Rome Podcast is standard listening for bulking up on all the historical details outside of class.

Then after finishing The History of Rome, Mike Duncan started another podcast of history's revolutions.  It turns out Mike Duncan has the exact same interests as me.  My main historical interests are also ancient Rome, and revolutions.  
It appears Mike Duncan is just an ordinary guy (bachelor's in history) who just deciding to start podcasting about history.  Since he's been working on my historical interests, it occurs to me that Mike Duncan is doing exactly the kind of work that I myself would love to do if only I were better organized and more hard-working.  (And if I had more concentration, and was a better writer, and more intelligent, and had been more aware of what podcasting was and how to do it back in 2007.... etc.)
So I had known about his revolutions podcast, but I hadn't been actively following to it.  (I am planning on listening to the whole thing one day, but I'm working my way through other podcasts first.)  So I didn't realize he was covering the same ground as me last week. 

1 comment:

Joel Swagman said...

Correction: Mike's bachelor's was a degree in political science with a minor in philosophy