A talk by Evan Sedgwick-Jell on the history of communist drug treatment services in Weimar Germany, given at the Political Pathologies conference in Glasgow. Evan Sedgwick-Jell is a researcher, particularly interested in the interrelation of the psy-disciplines and mental health, with political movements and healthcare systems. Their forthcoming work Capitalist Pathology: The Cultural Logic of Mental Health, examines depression as represented in contemporary non-fiction and its implications for the capitalist subject and a new radical politics of mental health. Their current research examines the convergence of social medicine and radical politics in Weimar Germany.

A recording of the very first in-person edition of the Anti-Self-Helpline, co-hosted with Prometheus Magazine's very own Harry Holmes. This edition of the helpline was recorded at the Festival of the Oppressed, held in June. Pre-order print copies of Prometheus Magazine issue 1 at this link: https://www.ebb-books.com/shop/p/prometheus-subscription

In this episode Beatrice Adler Bolton, Callum Cant, and myself talk about the general strike: not as something consigned to history but as a tactic we need today. Specifically, we talk about how the strike emerged as a tactic, what that means about struggle today, and how the struggle against ICE in Minneapolis (and elsewhere) offers us a way to answer some of these questions.

Abby Kluchin & Patrick Blanchfield from the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast join for the next installment of the Anti-Self-Helpline. The Anti-Self-Helpline is where listeners write in with their experiences of political struggle so we can talk through the psychic and emotional content of those experiences.

Callum Cant and Matthew Lee rejoin the podcast as we travel around the country speaking to people about work, struggle, and the 1926 general strike. We speak with mental health workers, trade union organisers, communists and local historians across Scotland, Manchester, and the Midlands, about histories of working class struggle and what they can teach us today.

Callum Cant and Matthew Lee talk us through the history of the 1926 general strike in Britain. To mark the centenary and publication of their book The Future In Our Past: The General Strike 1926/2026, we talked about how workers in Britain brought the country to a standstill and engaged in open conflict with the British state. We also talked about what this moment tells us about class struggle today. In addition to this discussion, we’re going to be traveling up and down the country taking part in events. At these events we’re going to be recording more conversations and we want to hear from YOU! We want to talk about work, struggle, organising and the strike. So grab a ticket to an event, come along and say hi: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/the-future-in-our-past-uk-book-tour?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the_future_in_our_past_26

James Schneider returns to the podcast to talk about Britain's relationship to the United States of America, how this relationship is shaping the terrain of struggle in in the face of escalating imperialist aggression and resulting economic turbulence. We also discuss his recent trip to Cuba as part of the Nuestra América Convoy.

Joana Masó joins the podcast to talk about the life and work of Francesc Tosquelles. Tosquelles was a radical psychiatrist, veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and a hugely influential figure in the lives of figures such as Frantz Fanon, Felix Guattari and Jean Oury. Joana explains how his life unfoleded and developed, from the co-operatives of Catalonia, to resisting nazi occupation in France, to his relatioship with other parts of the radical psychiatry movement.

Sasha Warren returns to the podcast to give a talk on the political economy of madness and psychiatry. In this talk he draws on his research and experience as a community mental health worker to unpack the political terrain that shapes psychiatry; arguing that it is only by acknowledging psychiatry (and mental health care more generally) as bound up in political processes that we can actually understand it and meet people's needs. Sasha Durakov Warren is a writer based in Minneapolis. He cofounded the group Hearing Voices Twin Cities and is the author of the fantastic book Storming Bedlam: Madness, Utopia, and Revolt which published last year with Common Notions. He runs the substack Of Unsound Mind.

Amber Husain returns to discuss the experience of being diagnosed with anorexia after struggling to find the will to eat. She discusses the experience of diagnosis, treatment, and her reengagement with questions of food, community, and hunger that came as a result. We talk about wartime starvation experiments, psychedelic assisted therapy, and why we need a politics of pleasure that isn't about capitalist consumption. Amber Husain is the author of Replace Me (2021) and Meat Love (2023). Her essays have been published in Granta, New Left Review, The White Review, The Believer, Bookforum LA Review of Books and New York Times Magazine. She has a PhD in art history from UCL and teaches critical and creative writing. Her newest book is titled Tell Me How You Eat.