Why We Need Utopias (w/ Kristen Ghodsee)
Current Affairs20 Mar 2024

Why We Need Utopias (w/ Kristen Ghodsee)

Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs !

Kristen Ghodsee is Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of books like Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism and, most recently, Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life. Today she joins to explain why she believes utopian thinking, and studying the utopian experiments that people have engaged in across history, can help us figure out what life ought to be like and how to change the world for the better. From Charles Fourier to Star Trek, Ghodsee takes us on a fascinating tour of attempts to dream up and build mini-paradises. We discuss where utopias go right and where they go wrong.

The Liza Featherstone review of Ghodsee's book in Jacobin is here. The angry Wall Street Journal review is here.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge,” said Albert Einstein in 1931. “For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” We stand on the cusp of a new age, with many of us striving toward a more positive vision of the future like the one Roddenberry once provided, where human beings find a way to build a better world for subsequent generations of humanity. Our old ideas about patrilineality and patrilocality are no longer fit for that purpose. We need new ideas, new dreams, and the courage to imagine alternative futures. Now is the moment to “think different.” If we can imagine them first in a galaxy far, far away, it’s only a matter of time before we boldly go and begin figuring out how to translate these inspired visions into our own everyday utopias. — Kristen Ghodsee

Episoder(600)

UNLOCKED: The Lyta, The Witch & The Wardrobe

UNLOCKED: The Lyta, The Witch & The Wardrobe

UNLOCKED FROM THE PATREON BIRD FEED: Current Affairs amusements editor Lyta Gold, senior editor Brianna Rennix, contributing editor Aisling McCrea and friend of the pod Dan Walden continue our "proble...

2 Jun 20191h 1min

#26: Standardized Litmus Tests

#26: Standardized Litmus Tests

The Current Affairs panel discusses the recent addition of the "adversity score" to the SAT, determines the appropriate abortion litmus test for the left, and goes around sharing things that made them...

29 Mai 20191h 24min

UNLOCKED: Tiffany Cabán on running for district attorney as a public defender

UNLOCKED: Tiffany Cabán on running for district attorney as a public defender

UNLOCKED from the bird feed to the main feed just in time for AOC's endorsement: Current Affairs legal wonks Oren Nimni and Vanessa A. Bee sit down with Tiffany Cabán, a career public defender who is ...

23 Mai 201942min

#25: Voicemailbag V

#25: Voicemailbag V

The Current Affairs panel opens up the phone lines for the fifth time, answering voicemails about: the new 2020 candidates, Medicare for All, irony, government services, and changing people's minds. T...

11 Mai 201947min

#24: The Department of Glass Castles

#24: The Department of Glass Castles

The Current Affairs panel asks “what’s the problem with technocrats?”, debates whether it’s bad that Bernie Sanders is now a millionaire, and proposes our favorite imaginary cabinet positions. The Pa...

28 Apr 201959min

UNLOCKED: Jane McAlevey on organizing vs. mobilizing

UNLOCKED: Jane McAlevey on organizing vs. mobilizing

UNLOCKED FROM THE BIRD FEED: Current Affairs host Pete Davis sits down with labor organizer and scholar Jane McAlevey to talk about organizing for power in the New Gilded Age. Jane is a contributing w...

25 Apr 201941min

UNLOCKED: Virgil Texas on the Chapo Trap House phenomenon

UNLOCKED: Virgil Texas on the Chapo Trap House phenomenon

UNLOCKED FROM THE PATREON BIRD FEED: Current Affairs host Pete Davis talks with Virgil Texas about his hit podcast, Chapo Trap House: its origins, its philosophy, its style, its future. Read Virgil's ...

15 Apr 201950min

#23: You Can Call Me (Weird) Al

#23: You Can Call Me (Weird) Al

The Current Affairs panel discuss why they fight in the first place and then share what cultural products are their favorite lefty gateway drugs. The Panel Sparky Abraham, finance editor Lyta Gold, a...

12 Apr 201951min

Populært innen Humor

rss-spartsklubben
papaya
enkel-servering
harm-og-hegseth
tore-og-haralds-podkast
storefri-med-mikkel-og-herman
tusvik-tnne
topp-3-med-wold-og-fladseth
ma-pa-behandling-med-morten-ramm
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
misjonen-med-antonsen-og-golden
folk-flest-med-linn-og-nils
wolfgang-wee-uncut
hanna-de-heldige
jan-thomas-og-einar-blir-venner
verdens-verste
rss-det-alle-snakker-om-med-siri-og-kim
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
gutta-backer
rss-snorre-med-gaute