There’s something really interesting happening in Ukraine. The few and far between Russian victories seem to be making them weaker. Yes, you read that right. Russian victories are draining the life out of their soldiers, making it harder to win the battles that come next. On the other hand, Ukrainian victories have been swift, dramatic, and devasta…

Mitchell Orenstein is a professor of Central and East European Politics in the Slavic department at the University of Pennsylvania and an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian studies at Harvard. His research focuses on the political economy and international affairs of Central and Eastern Europe. This episode is the latest install…

Time in Kyiv: 9am, Tues, Sep 13th. Kharkiv Oblast is free. Zelenksy announced about 6 weeks ago that a major counter-offensive in the South would take place. After a month of attacking bridges, rail depots, ammunition depots, C&C, bases, etc etc etc, the offensive started in earnest. 2 weeks in, they haven’t gotten a ton of territory back. But, as …

Mark Schauss is the host of Russian Rulers History and Battle Ground History. Known for being heavily well-versed with the history of Russia, Mark Schauss joins us in today’s episode to talk about the Russian history in its most authentic form. Mark shares everything from Russia’s first invasion to how all these historic events reflect on how Russi…

Hot Updates Severodonetsk fell slowly as expected, but then Lysychansk fell quickly because Russian troops surrounded it, and Ukrainian troops had to retreat rather than be destroyed. It’s possible the Ukrainians were out-gamed by Russian mid-level commanders. So far, Russians have not been able to break out of Donetsk city -- that part of the orig…

Lots of ways we can split this. Much has been discussed about decoupling of wages from productivity. Also note we are absolutely not going to get into 2022. But it’s clear the price increases since the pandemic (due to supply shortages, super aggressive monetary policy, gasoline ,and other drivers of inflation) are really eating into real wages. Se…

OR, a tale of ups and downs Lots of things seem to be getting worse, at least if you read the internet ever This is not an episode to say, “nothing is getting worse,” but that what you hear about is probably not very correlated with what’s going on. I’m leaving abortion out of this because honestly I can’t even deal with this shit right now. Major …

Updates Situation in Severodonetsk HUGE numbers of troops from both sides Artillery war “Road of life” from Bakhmut to Severodonetsk has 1km clearance from Popansa salient and has been a huge fight -- if it goes down, UKR at risk of losing >10k troops in that pocket Ammo situation Ukraine out of Soviet ammo; now fully on NATO 100% dependent on West…

First, war update: Mariupol fell after 2.5 months of truly insane holding out. Gosh dang. 1900 surrendered and there is a POW complication that I”m not going to get into Ukraine has mostly booted Russia out of Kharkiv, though there is still some fighting and the Russians have not given it up entirely the way they did Kyiv/Sumy/etc, so there’s no ob…

What happens when you start really believing your own bullshit? What happens when you’ve created a yes-man bubble where everyone only tells you what you want to hear? First a war update: Russia’s focus on the east and Donbass, which started a month ago, has made a bit of progress in a few places, but is now pretty stalled They do seem to be regroup…

The Russians are hoping to encircle Ukraine's defensive lines in the Donbass. If they do, they might be able to declare victory. The Ukrainians are racing east, not only to defend their territory, but might just also be able to counter-attack. Let's break it down. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See …

So much has changed over the past month -- Ukraine is on the offensive. Kyiv is safe. The war moves east. Air superiority actually matters more than ever. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Erik interviews Lindsay Graham of American History Tellers and History Daily. They talk about the similarities and differences between today's political and economic climate and that of the Civil War and the Gilded Age. Support ReConsider on Patreon Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hosted on Acast. Se…

The war should have been short and decisive. And as it drags out, Russia looks ever-more inept. What's wrong with its military? What's wrong with its chain of command? Will its economy collapse? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

While this war is far from over... well, it's far from over! And nobody expected that. In this episode we talk about why Ukraine is winning, what it could mean for Russia and the world if they do win, and how warfare is changing as we watch it unfold. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri…

Erik explains why Russia is invading Ukraine, what their war aims are, what the West is doing, how geopolitics plays into all of this, and a little bit of what might happen next. Get a little sanity of clarity amidst the livestream chaos. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more…

"Another cause which kept the plebeians in as state of poverty was the unjust distribution of the public land (ager publicus) which had been acquired in war..." William C. Morey, Outline of Roman History The Optimates: Represented the Elites in the run-up to, and the middle of, the Roman Civil Wars Believe the mob wasn’t really fit to rule, wanted …

Antiwork had a really bad day Source Article “Laziness is a virtue in this society” - r/antiwork moderator https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220126-the-rise-of-the-anti-work-movement “Supporters of the anti-work movement believe people should self-organise and labour only as much as needed, rather than working longer hours to create excess cap…

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Today we talk about something I've reconsidered lately: Antiwork Leave Erik a Tip to Support the Show Join the ReConsider Patreon Erik’s initial take -labor organization and rights are a great thing -Not putting up with crappy work conditions, and forcing companies to compete, is a great thing (and this is my opinion as an employer) -saying “I want…

Two kinds of revolutions: Throwing off an external oppressor Often violent, sometimes not Forcing regime change in your own country through extra-political or violent means Largely violent Largely nonviolent The outcomes tend to be very different. (Focusing on outcomes where they win -- turns out most revolutions fail militarily) Those throwing off…

Become a Patreon and Support ReConsider! This is probably going to get me a lot of flak but I realized that I’d be shying away from a commitment to challenge how we think about stuff if I didn’t talk about this out of fear. Disclaimer: I actually have a very underdeveloped political position on transgenderism and generally just stay out of it, the …

I think a lot of the societal breakdown we are seeing is a matter of human psychology -- designed for pre-historical humans by evolution -- running up against technology that it can’t handle and goes kindof crazy trying to confront. -This is probably why social media is so harmful for teenagers -- social dynamics on steroids that you can’t ever rea…

In the 1930s, Fascism was surprisingly popular in the US. Then a World War made the word anathema, but wanting a strongman to make everything better for us is getting more popular. Believe in our liberal institutions is in decline. Are we getting more tolerant of totalitarianism? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hoste…

Social market dynamics are driving the ever-greater fracturing of public discourse. Can it be pulled back together? In this episode Erik finishes his series with the MIT Enterprise Forum on media technology and political polarization. Check out the show notes for the original slide deck at http://www.reconsidermedia.com Support this show http://sup…