City buses are hitting 40 °C, gig apps still want their cut, and cops keep buying shiny new toys. I connect the dots between a boiling planet, precarious work, and the prison-industrial cash machine—and ask what it’ll take to snap the circuit.

Want the 35-minute after-show? Patrons get it: https://patreon.com/SkepticalLeftist

Links • socials: https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist • Owen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@owenmacdonald7428 | Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/owenmacdonald.bsky.social

Atlantis wasn’t real—but that hasn’t stopped pseudoarchaeologists from using it to sell myths about lost civilizations and master races. In this episode, Damien Marie AtHope and Marquis join me to explore the true origins of the Atlantis story, the rise of hyperdiffusionism, and why so much of this fantasy is rooted in racism and bad history.

Links: – Damien’s site: https://damienmarieathope.com/ – Damien’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DamienAthope – Support the show:http://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

In this episode, I talk with Owen MacDonald, leftist YouTuber and political commentator, about the myth of market freedom, why capitalism depends on state violence, and how right-wing media avoids ever engaging with real ideas. We get into the culture war’s empty spectacle, the climate crisis, and how libertarian fantasies fall apart the moment you ask “freedom for who?” It’s a wide-ranging but grounded conversation about power, propaganda, and the lies we’re sold every day.

👉 Support the show: https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

👉 Follow Owen on YouTube: youtube.com/@owenmacdonald7428

Ian Bushfield of the BC Humanist Association joins me to talk about secularism, religious privilege, and the legal fights to keep church and state separate in Canada. We get into prayers at municipal meetings, public funding for religious schools, Christian nationalism, and what it really means to have freedom from religion. We also touch on the rise of religious influence in Western separatist movements and how the law is (or isn’t) protecting marginalized communities.

Check out the BC Humanist Association and follow Ian

• BC Humanist Association
  

• BC Humanists Linktree
  

• Ian on BlueSky
  

Support the show:

• https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist
  

• patreon.com/skepticalleftist
  

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Wildfires rage, Gaza bleeds, and Walmart posts record profits. In this episode, we dig into the twisted logic of a system that thrives on collapse, from state violence in Palestine and brutal immigration policy to the unchecked greed driving up grocery prices while the world literally burns. We also talk about Indigenous mutual aid during Canada’s wildfire crisis, the deportation of a terminally ill child under Trump’s second term, and why the rhetoric of revolution so often hides authoritarian rot.

Gaza

https://rachelgilmore.substack.com/p/israel-is-using-aid-as-a-military https://itsgoingdown.org/international-solidarity-movement-volunteers-speak-on-building-solidarity-in-the-west-bank/

Rodney Hinton Jr.

https://open.substack.com/pub/tdugout/p/when-black-rage-is-criminalized-rinaldo?r=iu0tj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Trump deporting 4 year old girl

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/28/deportation-mexico-four-year-old-girl

Canada’s Strong Border Bill

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-legislation-border-fentanyl-1.7550684

Wildfires

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Canadian_wildfires

Rental protections

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/why-canada-apply-labour-protections-122825442.html

Authoritarians in Africa

https://www.anarchistfederation.net/burkina-faso-revolution-authoritarianism-the-crisis-of-african-emancipation-politics/

Anarchist Sabotage in Cannes

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/cannes-power-outage-anarchists

Walmart Prices

https://people.com/walmart-announces-trump-s-tariffs-will-result-in-higher-prices-in-stores-this-month-11735832

Mutual aid shoutouts

• Indigenous Climate Action – supporting frontline resistance and sovereignty in the face of wildfire displacement. https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/

• Health Workers Alliance for Palestine – providing direct support to medics and aid workers in Gaza. https://healthworkersforpalestine.org/

• South Texas Human Rights Center – aiding migrants affected by border militarization and brutal policy changes. https://southtexashumanrights.org/

• Hamilton Encampment Support Network – supporting unhoused people and resisting evictions in Ontario. https://www.hesn.ca/

• Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project – supporting incarcerated and criminalized people through mutual aid and abolitionist organizing.https://www.patreon.com/torontoprisonersrights/about

Check out AnComSciComm on FOFANews and follow him on Bluesky

https://youtu.be/2-oKULEugDs?si=WLAvxp0Cv9dyMHTZ

https://bsky.app/profile/ancomscicomm.bsky.social

Support the show at patreon.com/skepticalleftist

And follow me in all the places https://linktr.ee/Skepticalleftist

I talked with author Nick Girard about religion, power, and writing as resistance. We got into how faith can be used to justify domination, how capitalism traps us in despair, and why he wrote a book where God is the villain. It’s a personal and political conversation about doubt, masculinity, and imagining something better.

📕 Nick’s book: https://a.co/d/e5S9emd

🌐 Website: https://iamforworldpeace.com

📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/nickdgerard

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist

In this episode, I’m joined by Eron from Re-Education to talk about anarcho-nihilism—what it is, what it isn't, and whether it’s all just edge-posting or if there's something worth digging into. We talk about individualist anarchism, Stirner, egoism, and what it means to resist when you don’t believe a better world is coming. Is this a real political tendency or just vibes and chaos? And what do you do when you agree with the critiques but still want to build something? It's a messy, open-ended conversation—but maybe that’s the point.

📌 Follow Eron:

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@DeadHeadAnimation Instagram – ttps://www.instagram.com/re_education.shorts/ TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@reeducation_shorts?lang=en

Linktree - https://linktr.ee/Re.education

🎙 Full podcast and all links: https://linktr.ee/skepticalleftist ❤️ Support the show on Patreon, Substack, or Ko-fi