Cosmopod

Cosmonaut Magazine
Cosmopod
Latest episode

337 episodes

  • Cosmopod

    Communism = Soviets + Electrification: The Electric Grid

    09/04/2026 | 1h 36 mins.
    Matt and Rudy join RK to discuss several facets of the electric grid. We talk about the USSR's and China's attempts at electrification, how a modern grid looks like, the current US grid and its governing authorities, and a discussion on possible futures for electricity.
    References:

    RK's thoughts con rural cooperatives: https://jnanayuddha.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/reflections-on-rural-electric-cooperatives-and-socialist-organizing/
    Matt T. Huber & Fred Stafford's articles: Socialist Politics and the Electricity Grid, The Utility of Utilities and Won't Somebody Please Think of the Grid?
    Further recommendations, National:

    The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke, 2016
    Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States by Leah Stokes, 2020
    California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas & Electric, and What It Means for America's Power Grid by Katherine Blunt, 2022
    The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet by Brett Christophers, 2024
    International:
    The Low-Carbon Contradiction: Energy Transition, Geopolitics, and the Infrastructural State in Cuba by Gustav Cederlof, 2023
    Recharging China in War and Revolution, 1882-1955 by Ying Jia Tan, 2021 
    Sinews of Power: The Politics of the State Grid Corporation of China by Yi-chong Xu, 2017
    Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development by Sunila S. Kale, 2014
    The Electrification of Russia, 1880-1926 by Jonathan Coopersmith, 1992
    Electrical Palestine: Capitalism and Technology From Empire to Nation by Fredrik Meiton, 2019
  • Cosmopod

    The Marxist in Residence: an interview with David Harvey

    27/03/2026 | 1h 22 mins.
    Ira and Rudy join renowned geographer David Harvey for a chat on his pedagogy and his theories of economics, neoliberalism and imperialism.
  • Cosmopod

    Interview: Oliver Larkin for Congress

    11/03/2026 | 1h 43 mins.
    Aliyah and Cliff sit down with Oliver Larkin, who's running for US Congress from Florida's District 23 with revolutionary ambitions such as unseating Jared Moskowitz, abolishing the Electoral College, and Finishing Reconstruction.
  • Cosmopod

    The Last Soviet States? Scandinavian Social Democracy

    12/02/2026 | 1h 46 mins.
    Brage, Mikael and Rudy sit down to talk about Scandinavian social democracy, with a focus on Norway and Sweden. We discuss the periodization of social democracy, starting from the 1905 independence of Norway, through the first World War period, the rise of social democracy in the interwar period, the golden years and the unraveling. We discuss why social democracy was able to take hold in Scandinavia through several historic compromises, what the economics of the countries were, the limits of the politics and how the parties tried to transcend these limits, before concluding with the unraveling of the politics in the 80s.
    Bibliography:
    G. Esping-Andersen - Politics Against Markets: The Social Democratic Road to Power
    W. Korpi - The Democratic Class Struggle
    K. Ostbjerg - Rise and Fall of Swedish Social Democracy
    J. Pontusson - The Limits of Social Democracy: Investment Politics in Sweden
    M. Rasmussen, C. H. Knutsen - Reforming to Survive: The Bolshevik Origins of Social Policies
    F. Sejersted, M. Adams - The Age of Social Democracy
  • Cosmopod

    An Arduous March: The Development of North Korea's Political Economy

    08/01/2026 | 1h 50 mins.
    Amelia, Rudy and Matt sit down to discuss the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's political economy, with a focus on the distinct periods. We discuss the "information problem" and how it frames the discussion, before detailing the history of the DPRK's formation after Japanese colonialism and the Korean War. We then discuss the detailed planning period, its unraveling in the mid 80s, and the Arduous March period after the collapse of the USSR, before finishing off with the present periods of market reform and market elimination.
    References:
    Charles K. Armstrong - The North Korean revolution, 1945-1950
    Ellen Brun, Jacques Hersch - Socialist Korea: a case study in the strategy of economic development
    Liu Jinlong - Crying Forests: Political Ecology in the DPRK
    Yang Mun-su - North Korea's Planned Economy and Marketization
    Daniel Schwekendiek - A Socioeconomic History of North Korea
    Phillip H. Park - History of Economic Management in North Korea
    Zhihua Shen, Yafeng Xia - A Misunderstood Friendship: Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung, and Sino-North Korean Relations, 1949-1976

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About Cosmopod

Cosmopod is the official podcast of Cosmonaut Magazine, a project dedicated to expanding the project of scientific socialism in the 21st Century. In our feed we have a combination of podcast episodes and audio articles from our website.
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