#349 – Bhaskar Sunkara: The Case for Socialism
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2022
⏱️ 232 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bhaskar Sunkara is a democratic socialist, political writer, founding editor of Jacobin, president of The Nation, and author of The Socialist Manifesto. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Bhaskar’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sunraysunray
Jacobin: https://jacobin.com
Jacobin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacobin
The Nation: https://thenation.com
The Socialist Manifesto (book): https://amzn.to/3hKpt2p
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(13:24) – Socialism
(31:54) – Communism
(58:31) – Class struggle
(1:09:33) – Quality of life
(1:17:29) – Unions
(1:29:57) – Corruption
(1:43:15) – Freedom of speech
(1:51:38) – War
(1:59:24) – Karl Marx
(2:13:03) – Socialist vision
(2:18:28) – AI and socialism
(2:23:26) – Socialist policies
(2:48:45) – Billionaires
(2:54:43) – Bernie Sanders
(3:05:10) – AOC
(3:17:11) – 2024 presidential election
(3:22:05) – China
(3:31:06) – Jacobin
(3:38:35) – The Socialist Manifesto
(3:45:55) – Advice for young people
(3:49:28) – Meaning of life
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Bosch Graszenkarra. |
| 0:02.8 | He's a democratic socialist, a political writer, |
| 0:05.6 | founding editor of Jacobin, President of the Nation, |
| 0:09.3 | former vice chair of the Democratic Socialist of America, |
| 0:12.4 | and the author of the Socialist Manifesto, |
| 0:15.6 | the case for radical politics, and an era of extreme inequality. |
| 0:20.8 | As a side note, let me say that this conversation with Bosch Graszenkarra, |
| 0:24.8 | who's a brilliant socialist writer and philosopher, |
| 0:27.4 | represents what I hope to do with this podcast. |
| 0:30.0 | I hope to talk to the left and the right, |
| 0:33.2 | to the far left and the far right, |
| 0:35.4 | always with the goal of presenting and understanding |
| 0:38.0 | both the strongest interpretation of their ideas |
| 0:40.8 | and valuable thought-provoking arguments against those ideas. |
| 0:45.5 | Also, I hope to understand the human being behind the ideas. |
| 0:50.0 | I trust in your intelligence as the listener to use the ideas you hear, |
| 0:53.9 | to help you learn, to think, to empathize, and to make up your mind. |
| 0:58.8 | I will often fall short in pushing back too hard, |
| 1:03.2 | or not pushing back enough, of not bringing up topics I should have, |
| 1:07.9 | of talking too much, of interrupting too much, |
| 1:10.6 | or maybe sometimes in the rare cases not enough, |
| 1:14.0 | of being too silly on a serious topic, |
... |
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