Bhaskar Sunkara: Socialism and Communism | Lex Fridman Podcast #349

Lex can you try to get Thomas Sowell? He's now a 92 year old black economist who was Marxist turned capitalist, with a brilliant mind. It would really be a great opportunity that may not available in the future.

I loved this podcast. I consider myself a libertarian but never heard socialist ideas explained so thoroughly. This made me realize how critical I've been without making an effort to understand what I was criticizing and I'm encouraged to dig deeper. Thanks to both of you.

Thank you for that intro. I really needed that today. ❤

Your opening preface was heart felt. I have always believed in walking with kindness, compassion, and optimistic passion in the moment. Sometimes it does feel scary that true evil walks with us in this moment as well. Integrity my friend will keep us striving for a better now. Keep on bringing us great discussions.

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast. 0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions: - House of Macadamias: https://houseofmacadamias.com/lex and use code LEX to get 20% of your first order - Linode: https://linode.com/lex to get $100 free credit - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod to get 3 months free 3:41 - Socialism 22:11 - Communism 48:48 - Class struggle 59:50 - Quality of life 1:07:46 - Unions 1:20:14 - Corruption 1:33:32 - Freedom of speech 1:41:55 - War 1:49:41 - Karl Marx 2:03:20 - Socialist vision 2:08:45 - AI and socialism 2:13:43 - Socialist policies 2:39:02 - Billionaires 2:45:01 - Bernie Sanders 2:55:27 - AOC 3:07:28 - 2024 presidential election 3:12:22 - China 3:21:23 - Jacobin 3:28:53 - The Socialist Manifesto 3:36:12 - Advice for young people 3:39:45 - Meaning of life

The intro from Lex is fantastic. What a level of strength Lex has. He's a special guy. Doing the best he can. We are lucky we live in this time of free speech and opportunity. It's hard to show up and produce this level of content.

Lex you keep me from letting my pessimism and cynicism consume me. I love you buddy thanks for being a part of my life

"if universal healthcare is so popular, why don't we have it yet?" because the money in healthcare is huge, and the companies involved make massive political donations, and fundamentally because our political system doesn't represent the will of the people, it represents the will of the capital.

Lex, you should have on Yanis Varoufakis. Not only is he a brilliant conversationalist, but he has very sophisticated ideas about how we reached the present moment and how to technically implement a modern socialist economy. He was an economist for Valve if that interests you and briefly the Greek finance minister.

I’m from Sweden it’s been Social-démocrate. But the idea is the government make sure that the Swedish population i well educated. With high standard of education makes good business.