Varn Vlog

Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. Varn Vlog is the pod of C. Derick Varn. We combine the conversation on philosophy, political economy, art, history, culture, anthropology, and geopolitics from a left-wing and culturally informed perspective. We approach the world from a historical lens with an eye for hard truths and structural analysis.

Podcasting since 2021 • 418 episodes

Varn Vlog

Latest Episodes

Education, Literacy, and the Limits of Reform with Freddie deBoer

Five years after their initial discussion, we are back with Freddie DeBoer—author of The Cult of Smart and the upcoming book All in Your Head—to revisit the state of American education.In this episode, we move beyond the usual pundits' ...

September 03, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 96 • 1:43:09

Policing American Slavery: How the Slave Power Weaponized Society and the State with Gautham Rao

How did the legal machinery of early America enforce human bondage? Dr. Gautham Rao joins the channel to discuss his book Policing American Slavery and the state's role in hunting fugitives. In this episode, we challenge the popula...

August 31, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 95 • 1:37:25

Rewriting Columbus From The Taino View with Andrew Rowen

Why does mainstream history completely erase the stories of the Indigenous leaders who actively fought back against European conquest? How did the fluid, complex politics of the Caribbean reshape global history long before the fall of the Aztec...

August 24, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 94 • 1:20:52

Geopolitics of the Data Economy: Tech Monopoly, Neoliberalism, Resource Wars with ProleKult

Why are tech monopolies quietly building massive, "war-eating" data centers in global deserts? How does the infrastructure of artificial intelligence directly intersect with resource imperialism, greenwashing, and active combat zones? In this e...

August 17, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 93 • 2:10:30

Brandon Lightly on the Mass LIne and New Democracy, Part 2

In part two of our deep dive into China (and part four of our socialist organization series), we break down how Mao attempted to dialectically sublate a national front and a united front. We explore the structural inclusion of the "patriotic na...

August 13, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 92 • 1:27:42

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Fan Mail

If you wish to understand Bataille in the Post Structuralist context, refer to Rosalind Krauss’ definitive analysis of Bataille, Documents and Surrealist photography, The Optical Unconscious (MIT Press).

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