How do you know your life is worthwhile? How do connect to the world around you? What sort of life is worth living?

In her new book, Transcendence for Beginners, the philosopher and biographer Clare Carlisle works through answers to these questions, answers inspired by the philosopher Spinoza and the novelist George Eliot. And those answers, rather than pointing to something beyond, point us to transcendence in the here and now. Plus we talk about tradwives.

Here's the link to the book at the publisher's website: https://www.nyrb.com/products/transcendence-for-beginners

Eric Blair, known as George Orwell, had all of his successes after he met and married Eileen O'Shaughnessy. The graphic novel Mrs. Orwell, written by Andrea Chalupa, is the story of how George Orwell became a couple, and helps re-introduce Eileen to history as the dynamic, radical activist and editor who has been left out of the Orwell story.

You can get a copy of the book here: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9781250877857

Joan Slonczewski joins me to discuss their novel A Door Into Ocean, a science fiction novel about an all-female society of "sharers" on an ocean planet, Shora. Joan's sharers are one of the best speculative depictions of what an anarchist society would look like, so Joan and I discuss the inspirations for the world, including Gene Sharp, Ursula Le Guin, and Gandhi, and what we can draw on from those figures in our current struggles.

You can find Joan at https://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/slonc.htm

Buy the book: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780312876524

Amit Chaudhuri joins me to discuss his new collection of essays, Incompleteness. In these essays and his novels, Amit is constantly searching for new language that will acknowledge the instability and flux of the world around us. It is intellectual anarchy of the highest order, as well as artistically breathtaking.

You can find all of Amit's books published by NYRB here: https://www.nyrb.com/collections/amit-chaudhuri

Kim Stanley Robinson comes back to discuss Aurora, his novel of a generational starship, in which generations of humans are born, live, and die onboard without ever seeing a planet. We discuss the generational starship as a science fiction genre, whether humans will ever be able to travel to the stars, and what it would mean for science fiction if we can't. We also take a detour into the question of "hard," scientific science fiction vs. "soft," humanist science fiction.

Here's a link to Stan's article for Boing Boing, arguing that we won't ever reach the stars:

https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html

Thanks to Nick Gaskill for suggesting an episode on Aurora!

Dan Chiasson joins me to discuss his combined Bernie and Burlington biography, Bernie for Burlington, and the connections between Bernie's socialism and Mamdani's socialism.

You can purchase Dan's book here: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780593317495

Here's Dan's article about Mamdani: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/11/06/have-you-met-z-zohran-mamdani/

And we discuss Corey Robin's piece on socialist excellence: https://coreyrobin.com/2025/11/15/excellence-over-mediocrity-from-mamdani-to-marx-to-food/

For almost 20 years, PM Press has been publishing brilliant anarchist books, including many covered on this podcast. Co-Founder Ramsey Kanaan joins me to discuss what PM Press does, how it works on anarchist lines, and why they need to own their own building to secure their future.

If you'd like to contribute to that future, here's the fundraising link for the merch page, which also has the GoFundMe link: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=255

Leonard Williams, who was my second guest on this podcast back in November of 2021, returns to talk about Trump's presidency over the past year, what it means, and what we can do to fight it.

To hear more from Leonard, here's his 2024 podcast on what to expect from the Trump regime: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-hbbe4-17349e4

And here's Leonard's Substack: https://crosspollination.substack.com/

Note: Leonard and I recorded this episode before the US kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and ICE executed Renee Good