On this episode, we tackle cancel culture and the legacy of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Rose Freeman, London member of Platypus, joins us to discuss the feud between beauty influencers, James Charles and Tati Westbrook, and what it might tells us about the exhaustion of cancel culture. In the second segment, Marco Torres, Chicago Platypus member, and Pamela Nogales interview Alejandro Velasco, the author of Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela, and contributor to the New York Times, In These Times and Jacobin Radio, on the passing of Chavismo and the future of Venezuela. Finally, Pam Nogales sits down with the journalist and sociologist Marc Saint-Upéry, to make sense of the left's response to Venezuela and the Maduro regime.

- Rose Freeman, "The Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, and the question of revolutionary politics today: An interview with Kathleen Cleaver" (PR 113, February 2019)
platypus1917.org/2019/02/03/the-b…athleen-cleaver/

- Marco Torres, "The dead Left: Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution" (PR 25, July 2010)
platypus1917.org/2010/07/09/the-d…rian-revolution/

- Alejandro Velasco, "A Call for Clear Heads on Venezuela: How To Criticize Maduro While Opposing U.S. Regime Change" (In These Times, March 2019)
inthesetimes.com/article/21789/ve…-chavismo-guaido

- Marc Saint-Upéry, "La izquierda y los espejismos de la crisis venezolana" (2019)
periodicoellibertario.blogspot.com/2019/03…la.html

- James Charles response to Tati Westbrook
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFvtCUzfyL4&t=1896s

Hosted by Pamela Nogales & Rose

We run down some of the Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 and sit down with our London member Efraim Carlebach to discuss the recent crack up in British politics and the split from the Labour Party this month. We talk about the emerging new center in British politics and the response by the left to the split.

From the Platypus Review archives:
The unchanging core of Marxism: An interview with Ian Birchall
by Efraim Carlebach
platypus1917.org/2017/12/02/uncha…ew-ian-birchall/

Feel free to send us questions, comments & suggestions at shitplatypussauys@gmail.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shitPlatypussays

On this episode of Sh*t Platypus Says, we have a report on the yellow vest protests with our members Ciat and Teo, both currently in Paris. They share their reflections on the mass demonstrations, the on-going crisis of neoliberalism and the confused responses by the left. After, your hosts, Laurie, Suzy and Pam talk about the memory of the 2008 financial crisis in popular culture and discuss some of the changes they foresee for labor & capital relations in the coming years. Finally, if you still don't know what happened in 2008, let our resident financial genius, Wentai, break it down for you at the end of our episode.

Questions, suggestions and smart-ass commentary always welcome! E-mail us at shitplatypussays@gmail.com

We recommend, from the Platypus Review archives:
"A cry of protest before accommodation? The dialectic of emancipation and domination" by Chris Cutrone, from Platypus Review 42 (December 2011 – January 2012) platypus1917.org/2011/12/01/cry-o…e-accommodation/

Hosted by Pamela Nogales, Laurie Rojas & Suzy V.

We say goodbye to 2018 by discussing The Young Karl Marx (Le Jeune Marx), Raoul Peck’s film commemorating 200 years of Karl Marx’s birth. We unpack the lame (so-called) film critiques by those on the left. In the main segment, we take up the question “What is Socialism?”, featuring responses by members of Platypus, listeners of the podcast, fellow travelers and some dude... including, Chris Cutrone, Erin Hagood, Ben Waite, Raul Cajias, & Sammy Medina. Throughout, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin & Karl Marx, help us with the heavy lifting.

Send us your questions, comments and requests for SPS in the new year! E-mail us at: shitplatypussays@gmail.com

Platypus Review article referenced:
- The birth of a revolution? An interview with Mary Gabriel on Love and Capital, by Spencer Leonard
platypus1917.org/2012/06/07/the-b…of-a-revolution/
On February 28, 2012, the radio program Radical Minds on WHPK-FM Chicago broadcast an interview with Mary Gabriel, the author of Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011). The interview was conducted by Spencer A. Leonard of the Platypus Affiliated Society. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. Original recording from Radical Minds interview can be found here: tinyurl.com/y8phrnwt

Hosted by Pamela Nogales, Laurie Rojas​ and Suzy V​.