How Do We Live Now with Vicky Osterweil at the New York Anarchist Bookfair
About this episode
The episode features a discussion with Vicky Osterweil about the intersection of culture and politics within anarchism.
Today's episode features a recording of the talk that Vicky Osterweil and I gave at the 2025 New York Anarchist Bookfair, called "How Do We Live Now?", where we discussed our CAW project and the way that anarchists can participate in the culture war. As Vicky reminds us in the talk, politics are downstream from culture. The seriousness of the left often leaves out the importance of culture—of making beautiful things that inspire and touch us, or that make life worth living—in favor of militating for a revolution. Like everything else, we need to wait until after the rev to attend to these things—or perhaps there will be no artistic pursuits at all. But the history of anarchism shows that culture is often a starting point for anarchists, and it provides a source of feeling that can create a whole world of pleasure and connection around us right now. If it wasn't important, the right wing and fascists would not have mounted decades of attack against these things we produce and that shape us—the so-called culture war that aims to destroy a source of radicalization. As we can often learn, there is usually truth in their attack against us, and rather than deny its importance, we can…
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