Episodes

  • From financialized capitalism to gamified fascism

    From financialized capitalism to gamified fascism
    May 2 2025
    On 28 April 2025, Max Haiven presented an outline of his forthcoming book "The Player and the Played: Gamification, Financialization and (anti-)Fascism" at Brussels' Au JUS space. If fascism names a form of tyranny that incubates within capitalism and bears its' traces, what kind of 21st century fascism emerges from financialized capitalism? 1. Why do we feel trapped in an unwinnable game? 2. How can we think about fasicsm? 3. What is financialization? 4. What is gamification? 5. What is "derivative" and what is new about today's fascism? 6. How can we make sense of gamified fascist violence? 7. Why do fascist cheats succeed (and why is cheating so central to their rhetoric?) 8. What is fascist worldbuilding (and worldrazing)? 9. What is the antifascist game?
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    41 mins
  • Property Pieties - Luce deLire on digital tyrants, trans panics, and revolutionary hospitalities

    Property Pieties - Luce deLire on digital tyrants, trans panics, and revolutionary hospitalities
    Apr 7 2025
    In this episode we talked with Luce about her latest work on digitalised tyranny. About how private property structures the terms of the contract and gives rise to ever more terms; how the far right are both breaking the rules and playing by the rules to break the game; and about the overall structure of desire across society and what it’d mean to exit the transsexual contract of libidinal intelligibility, towards a horizon of hospitality and indeterminacy, driven by joy. Luce deLire is a ship with eight sails and she lies down by the quay. As a philosopher, she publishes on the metaphysics of infinity and early modern philosophy but also on art, queer theory, anti-racism, postcolonialism, and political theory. In her performances, she embodies figures of the collective imaginary. She is currently an assistant professor at the department of philosophy at Humboldt University, Berlin. For more (including booking), see getaphilosopher.com and IG :@Luce_deLire Against the Fascist Game is the second season of The Exploits of Play, a podcast about games and capitalism. Join host Max Haiven and producer Faye Harvey as they interview game designers, critical theorists and grassroots activists struggling with games to understand, confront and abolish the rising threat of fascism in our times. We ask questions including: how is the far-right around the world using games as platforms for ideology, recruiting and violence, both close to home and around the world? How have vicious reactionary politics emerged from a form of capitalism where most people feel trapped in an unwinnable game? What do fascism and antifascism mean today? And what role, if any do play and games have in confronting the fascist threat and creating a new world? The Exploits of Play is a production of Weird Economies, a platform for exploring the intricacies and excesses of our economic imaginaries, in cooperation with RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab.
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • Billionaires and Guillotines ~ Fascist Dreams ~ Don't Talk about Politics (Spring Update)

    Billionaires and Guillotines ~ Fascist Dreams ~ Don't Talk about Politics (Spring Update)
    Apr 4 2025
    In this short bonus episode... 👹 We at Sense & Solidarity invite you to apply for our study workshop “Fascist Dreams, Antifascist Awakenings” in Palermo, May 25-29 (applications due April 7!). 📘 Sarah tells you about her forthcoming book Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st Century Minds and events this Spring and Summer. 🎲 And Max tells you about the crowdfunding campaign on now for his board game Billionaires & Guillotines. 🖼️ Plus, we critique public art and muse about the end of the world.
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    14 mins
  • Fascists, Rats, and Dick Pics: Holiday Special (What Do We Want S1E7)

    Fascists, Rats, and Dick Pics: Holiday Special (What Do We Want S1E7)
    Feb 17 2025
    The world is giving fascism in 2025, so we’ve been away writing, reading and getting ready to serve up more on that topic. Meanwhile, here’s a chattier, less-structured version of our usual schtick - recorded over the holidays, live in front of a studio (well, living room) audience. Tune in to hear: * Sarah talk about why we shouldn’t argue with our relatives and why fascists are much like guys who send dick pics. * Max explain how games influenced fascists like Steve Bannon and why he’s obsessed with a rat. We also get asked questions from the living-room-and-online-studio audience. For more information, visit: https://senseandsolidarity.org/
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Pleasure (What Do We Want? S1E6)

    Pleasure (What Do We Want? S1E6)
    Dec 8 2024
    Live, in front of a seductive studio audience, Sarah and Max bring to a climax the first intoxicating season of What Do We Want? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) with an episode on PLEASURE. They are joined by dazzling special guests Sita Balani and Zrinka Balo, to explore salacious questions including: Should we prioritize activism being pleasurable? In a world of work and worry, is taking pleasure itself an important form of activism? And in our quest for collective liberation, what kinds of sacrifices can and should we expect of ourselves and others? It’s podcasting that goes beyond the pleasure principle and puts its finger right on the most sensitive questions. For more information, visit https://senseandsolidarity.org/
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    56 mins
  • Fantasy (What Do We Want S1E4)

    Fantasy (What Do We Want S1E4)
    Nov 25 2024
    Why do so many people insist on believing in systems that hurt them? Why do so many of us dwell in fantasy, rather than facing reality? (Wait, is dwelling in fantasy an option? Why weren’t we told?) In this episode of WHAT DO WE WANT? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) Max and Sarah dive deep into the murky waters of FANTASY, desire and illusion to ask questions like: How do we break through destructive ideologies? How can we win arguments (and when should we)? And should we just abandon activism? Then we’re joined by veteran Toronto-based activist, movement trainer and editor Sharmeen Khan, who tells us about the state repression that broke her fantasies and what she dreams of now. It's podcasting that accompanies you right to the precipice of Mount Doom and helps you throw away your Precious. ACTION ALERT! Our guest, Sharmeen, is facing outrageous, repressive charges for standing up for Palestinian human rights. Read Naomi Klein’s summary of the case (https://breachmedia.ca/naomi-klein-calls-on-heather-reisman-drop-charges-indigo-11/), and please consider donating to the legal defence fund (https://www.tcjf.ca) or signing the letter demanding the charges be dropped (https://www.cjpme.org/drop_the_charges). To learn more about the many things we do and support us financially or otherwise, visit us at Sense and Solidarity .org
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Despair (What Do We Want? S1E3)

    Despair (What Do We Want? S1E3)
    Nov 11 2024
    Do you sometimes feel like a little cartoon dog, surrounded by flames? Is the dog also our movements for justice? Are the flames systems of domination? Is nothing, in fact, at all “fine”? Then break out the marshmallows and join us for an episode of What Do We Want? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) about despair! This time Sarah and Max go deep and dark with questions like... Should we just give up hope? Should we embrace nostalgia? And should we stop being sad and… just do something? But wait! Who is that on the bleak horizon? It’s climate-corruption journalist Rachel Donald of the Planet Critical podcast, joining us to deliver the tough love and a shot of common courage! It’s podcasting that will make you feel cruelly optimistic or your money back (it’s also free). Fore more information, visit https://senseandsolidarity.org/podcast/#despair
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    50 mins
  • Shame (What Do We Want S01E05)

    Shame (What Do We Want S01E05)
    Nov 11 2024
    We, an unnamed collective, must sanctimoniously inform would-be listeners that the SHAME episode of WHAT DO WE WANT? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) has been summarily cancelled. The hosts, Sarah and Max, have been found preemptively guilty of causing grievous harms to the left by asking questions including: Is pride enough? Should we wield shame? And should we cancel ourselves? (Also, did you hear that they invited a response from the scandalous radical writer Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family and Enemy Feminisms? OMG!). ...And by the way, “comrade,”… what made you want to listen to this f*cked up podcast anyway? Don’t you think that kind of behaviour is a little… problematic? To learn more about the many things we do and support us financially or otherwise, visit us at senseandsolidarity.org
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    1 hr and 2 mins