Dustbowl Diatribes

Spencer and Laurie interview Chris Smaje, author of (most recently) Finding Lights in a Dark Age.

Spencer and Laurie discuss Isaiah Berlin's liberal nationalism and ask whether liberalism can be held in balance with nationalism, and even whether this uncomfortable mix is inevitable.

For April Fools this year, we cover a millennial touchstone television series about growing up, or at least about trying to.

Spencer and Laurie talk to Bert and Emma Fitzgerald of the Simon Weil Catholic Worker House in Portland, OR: https://simoneweilhouse.org

This is a talk by Dr. William T. Cavanaugh, author of The Uses of Idolatry. It was originally given for the Center for Catholic Social Thought, October 9, 2025. We thought it was so good we asked if we could share it with our audience, and we got it from both Dr. Cavanaugh and the Center for Catholic Social Thought.

Spencer and Laurie discuss what they learned from their recent trips. Laurie went to Milwaukee, WI, to do research on the Peter Maurin papers and to give two talks on Maurin and Day. Spencer and Emily traveled to Pennsylvania and other spots on the East Coast to help move a friend, and along the way visited two Catholic Worker houses, the Rodale Institute, Blue Hill Farm, Dorothy Day's gravesite and more.

Laurie and Spencer talk to Colin Miller and Tyler Hambley, who trace their path to the Church through the practices of Catholic Workers: praying daily, sharing meals, and opening their homes to the homeless. Now in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, they live family-to-family alongside formerly homeless men and teach through the Center for Catholic Social Thought. They argue for “thick” Christian community over thin, optional social ties.

Spencer and Laurie discuss an article by Paul V. Stock, "The Perennial Nature of the Catholic Worker Farms: A Reconsideration of Failure," in Rural Sociology, 2014. https://pmaurin.org/get-involved/

Spencer and Laurie kick off their new season with Catholic Worker James Murphy of St. Martin de Porres, Harrisburgh, PA. The Catholic Worker movement is a testing ground for solutions to poverty, successful relationships, and the possibility of bypassing politics. We get into some of those issues in this interview.

As Spencer and Laurie segue to a new season of Dustbowl Diatribes , they look back at the people they've interviewed in 2025 so far and point the way to their next topic.

Spencer Leonard talks to us about human potential, what constitutes freedom and progress, and why it seems particularly difficult to reach.

Spencer and Laurie talk with Prof. Jodi Dean about themes from her new book Capital's Grave: Neofeudalism and the New Class Struggle (Verso, 2025). The theme of neofeudalism is one we have returned to several times as it seems more and more clear that our economy has moved well past competition into monopolies and highly concentrated wealth.

Laurie interviews a very special guest, and Spencer misses out on the best interview in Dustbowl Diatribes three seasons.

John Rao visits Dustbowl Diatribes for an episode tracing periods of "sleep" and revival in Catholic history.

Spencer and Laurie talk to Dave McKerracher of Theory Underground about his book, Timenergy, and also his plans for farming.

Spencer and Laurie talk with Benjamin Studebaker about his new book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies. Studebaker will give a speech for the Maurin Academy March 3, 2025.

Spencer and Laurie interview Catholic Worker and Sociology professor Harry Murray, who is also doing the "Harry Murray Sessions" for the Maurin Academy. The next Harry Murray session, this one on Nikolai Berdyaev's personalism and Christian existentialism, will be on December 16, 2024. To find out more about this and other classes from the Maurin Academy, visit our website at: https://pmaurin.org/2024/11/13/fall-2024-speaker-series-announcements-from-the-maurin-academy/

Spencer and special guest Caleb Owens interview Laurie Johnson about her newly published book, The Gap in God's Country: A Longer View on Our Culture Wars. For more information about this book and where to buy it, as well as information about a series of talks she'll give on themes from the book, check out: https://pmaurin.org/2024/11/02/the-gap-in-gods-country-themes-discussion-with-laurie-johnson-coming-up/

Spencer and Laurie visit with Chris Cutrone, a leading founder of the Platypus Affiliated Society and the author of a new book published by Sublation Media. Here's a link to Cutrone's latest book, Marxism and Politics: Essays on Critical Theory and the Party, 2006-2024, Sublation Media, 2024. Maurin Academy Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/maurinacademy

Spencer and Laurie talk to Catholic Worker Renée Roden about her experiences in the Catholic Worker movement and what she is doing now as she transitions to a new community. She also discusses the upcoming Peter Maurin Conference in Chicago: Sept. https://www.stgregoryhall.org/maurin.html

Alfredo Poggi talks to Spencer and Laurie about his new book Magical Realism, Latin America, and the Appearance of Precritical Theory, published by Rowman & Littlefield. Poggi makes the bold argument for taking Marian visions at face value and seeing them as a powerful antidote to ideology. Poggi uses Latin American literary approach of magical realism to reveal a precritical perspective.

What happens when even basic business can't be effectively done? How did we get here? Spencer and Laurie digest more of John Rao's thoughts from various books and try to settle their argument from the last episode.

Spencer and Laurie have a second conversation with Dr. Rich Myrick about his dissertation, "Action Libérale Populaire and the Legacy of Catholic Republicans in the French Third Republic." His work covers the period in France that was formative for Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Spencer and Laurie talk to Rich Myrick about his dissertation, "Action Libérale Populaire and the Legacy of Catholic Republicans in the French Third Republic." His work covers the period in France that was formative for Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Spencer and Laurie recap their conversations with Chris Cutrone and Martin Chang and contemplate what it means to be potatoes in a sack or Pringles in a tube.

The Cutrone Zone is back for an interesting discussion on the usefulness of the term 'neofeudalism' for understanding capitalism, and a fairly deep dive into what Marxists should think of religion.

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In "Take 2" of their recap of the start of season 3, Laurie and Spencer take another look at their conversations with Alex Christoyannopoulos and Sean Domencic, circling around the issues of Christian action as lived out in the Catholic Worker movement.

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In part 1 of a two-part recap of Season 3 so far, we discuss our interview with Doug Lain of Sublation Media and the Diet Soap podcast. The original interview covered Lain's trajectory, his views on the theory of neo-feudalism, and the problem of increasing online censorship. As we unpack our conversation with Lain, we spend time on Lain's discomfort with the term "neofeudal" and his preference for "society of control" as a description of the current state of capitalism. We evaluate the tension between the approval of economic concentration/centralization for the advancement of future socialism and the disapproval of the use of corporate power via government pressures to inhibit some speech. We also talk about the tension between Lain's Marxism and our own views on industrial vs. regional/local agricultural production.

Spencer and Laurie interview Sean Domencic, co-founder of the Tradistae podcast (concluded in 2022) and blog, and frequent contributor to New Polity. Both outlets identify with the Catholic Worker movement and tend to be adjacent to traditionalism, but with a critical distance. This conversation helps us explore the Church-centric wing of the Catholic Worker movement.

Spencer and Laurie interview Alex Christoyannopoulis, Reader in International Relations, Politics and History at Loughborough University, London. His article "Leo Tolstoy's impact on Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement" is the launchpad for an interesting discussion of Tolstoy's pacifism and his influence on Day and the movement, as well as the promises and limits of complete pacifism.

Sublation Media's Douglas Lain, YouTuber and host of the Diet Soap podcast, talks to Spencer and Laurie about what he thinks of the theory of neufuedal capitalism, his views on the campaign against "disinformation" in light of free speech rights, and how the two may relate.

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Spencer and Laurie interview Brian Zahnd, pastor of Word of Life Church, St. Joseph, MO. We discuss why some people decide to break from destructive ideas of faith, like Christian nationalism, and why many don't. We also have a conversation about the church's mission and what its role should be on grave issues like environmental destruction and war. Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for our free newsletter, which lists future Maurin Academy seminars, short series and other events. https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/ Support us on Patreon! https://patreon.com/maurinacademy?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for our free newsletter, which lists future Maurin Academy seminars, short series and other events. https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/

Spencer, Emily and Laurie continue their conversation about the history and "failure" of the first attempt, instigated by Spencer, to start an urban farm collective, based on sharing resources and labor, in Kansas City. We discuss the various obstacles Spencer, and then Emily too, continued to face as they tried to cooperate with others who claim to share the same values and goals. What does it take to get people who agree they are of like minds to actually consistently cooperate? This is not an easy question to answer, but it gets to the heart of why most experiments like this are ultimately deemed "utopian." If we understand the main pitfalls, does that help us find a way to succeed, even a little