Margaret talks with Mountain Goats singer John Darnielle about the wild-eyed radicals of the English Civil War.

Margaret talks with Mountain Goats singer John Darnielle about the wild-eyed radicals of the English Civil War.

As long as there’s been oppression, there’ve been people fighting it. This weekly podcast dives into history to drag up the wildest rebels, the most beautiful revolts, and all the people who long to be—and fight to be—free. It explores complex stories of resistance that offer lessons and inspiration for us today, focusing on the ensemble casts that make up each act of history. That is to say, this podcast focuses on Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff.

As long as there’s been oppression, there’ve been people fighting it. This weekly podcast dives into history to drag up the wildest rebels, the most beautiful revolts, and all the people who long to be—and fight to be—free. It explores complex stories of resistance that offer lessons and inspiration for us today, focusing on the ensemble casts that make up each act of history. That is to say, this podcast focuses on Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff.

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff

As long as there&rsquo;s been oppression, there&rsquo;ve been people fighting it. This weekly podcast dives into history to drag up the wildest rebels, the most beautiful revolts, and all the people who long to be&mdash;and fight to be&mdash;free. It explores complex stories of resistance that offer lessons and inspiration for us today, focusing on the ensemble casts that make up each act of history. That is to say, this podcast focuses on Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff.

Part One: The Diggers, the Levelers, the Ranters, and John Darnielle

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/6bc7863c-6b3a-4a7e-9369-aef40159061a/transcript

Margaret talks to Courtney Kocak about the potentially million-strong alliance of Black farmers who built up a cooperative economics in the post-war American South

Sources

https://greekcitytimes.com/2025/02/07/the-helots-a-labour-force/
https://www.lucyparsonsproject.com/writings/negro.html
https://www.rd.usda.gov/files/RR194.pdf
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=TE009
https://worldblackhistory.blogspot.com/2022/11/blog-post_11.html
https://lawyersgunsmon.wpengine.com/2012/12/this-day-in-labor-history-december-11-1886
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/09/day-labor-history-september-25-1891
https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/the-black-worker-during-the-era-of-the-knights-of-labor-volume-iii/section/cf118f82-0d04-4251-9934-c474e4daef2e
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030730?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://wp.nyu.edu/compliance_enforcement/2025/08/07/doj-secures-first-criminal-conviction-in-wage-fixing-case/
https://ncbaclusa.coop/content/uploads/2023/02/Fall-2022_Winter-2023-Cooperative-Business-Journal_FINAL-v2.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030730
https://www.givinggrove.org/blog-reference/black-farmers-in-america
https://snccdigital.org/events/fannie-lou-hamer-founds-freedom-farm-cooperative/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/November-15/the-march-to-the-sea-begins
https://explorethearchive.com/shermans-march-to-the-sea
https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/teachers/lessonplans/Document6(SpecialOrder).pdf
https://www.grunge.com/601373/what-you-should-know-about-the-granger-movement-of-the-1860s/
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/shermans-field-order-no-15/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030586?read-now=1&seq=7#page_scan_tab_contents

Margaret talks to Courtney Kocak about the potentially million-strong alliance of Black farmers who built up a cooperative economics in the post-war American South
Sources
https://greekcitytimes.com/2025/02/07/the-helots-a-labour-force/ https://www.lucyparsonsproject.com/writings/negro.html https://www.rd.usda.gov/files/RR194.pdf https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=TE009 https://worldblackhistory.blogspot.com/2022/11/blog-post_11.html https://lawyersgunsmon.wpengine.com/2012/12/this-day-in-labor-history-december-11-1886 https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/09/day-labor-history-september-25-1891 https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/the-black-worker-during-the-era-of-the-knights-of-labor-volume-iii/section/cf118f82-0d04-4251-9934-c474e4daef2e https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030730?read-now=1&amp;seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents https://wp.nyu.edu/compliance_enforcement/2025/08/07/doj-secures-first-criminal-conviction-in-wage-fixing-case/ https://ncbaclusa.coop/content/uploads/2023/02/Fall-2022_Winter-2023-Cooperative-Business-Journal_FINAL-v2.pdf https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030730 https://www.givinggrove.org/blog-reference/black-farmers-in-america https://snccdigital.org/events/fannie-lou-hamer-founds-freedom-farm-cooperative/ https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/November-15/the-march-to-the-sea-begins https://explorethearchive.com/shermans-march-to-the-sea https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/teachers/lessonplans/Document6(SpecialOrder).pdf https://www.grunge.com/601373/what-you-should-know-about-the-granger-movement-of-the-1860s/ https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/shermans-field-order-no-15/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030586?read-now=1&amp;seq=7#page_scan_tab_contents

Part One: The Colored Farmers Alliance and Early Black Cooperativism in the US

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/424256bc-e74e-4907-8f2a-b3fa0039a83e/transcript

Margaret reads you an essay about how to live a beautiful life

Margaret reads you an essay about how to live a beautiful life

The Punk Rock Good Life: A Guide to an Aesthetic Life

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/4ef624c9-3d78-486c-8b02-b3f5001abcb3/transcript

Margaret continues her conversation with Molly Conger about a complicated man who spent his early life promoting antisemitic conspiracies before sheltering thousands of Jews and dying in Auschwitz.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/12/05/mass-is-set-for-the-saint-of-auschwitz/18a930db-756e-4f7c-a484-399305713a29/

The Life of St. Maximilian Kolbe, William LaMay

https://pisma-niepokalanow-pl.translate.goog/967-czy-prawda-sie-zmienia?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/19/world/saint-charged-with-bigotry-clerics-say-no.html

https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/was-st-maximilian-kolbe-an-antisemite-1068

https://web.archive.org/web/20140102091901/http://www.consecration.com/default.aspx?id=41

https://www.reddit.com/r/freemasonry/comments/rva0iu/the_giordano_brunisti/

https://studiaelblaskie.pl/assets/Numery/SE-tom212020.pdf#page=199

https://www.scross.co.za/2023/08/st-maximilian-kolbe-the-remarkable-martyr-to-nazis/

https://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/saint-maximillian-kolbe

Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism, Slavoj Zizek

https://eastwestreport.org/?view=article&id=343:persecution-of-christians-in-tsarist-russia-and-the-soviet-and-post-soviet-union&catid=43:e-20-2

Margaret continues her conversation with Molly Conger about a complicated man who spent his early life promoting antisemitic conspiracies before sheltering thousands of Jews and dying in Auschwitz.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/12/05/mass-is-set-for-the-saint-of-auschwitz/18a930db-756e-4f7c-a484-399305713a29/
The Life of St. Maximilian Kolbe, William LaMay
https://pisma-niepokalanow-pl.translate.goog/967-czy-prawda-sie-zmienia?_x_tr_sl=auto&amp;_x_tr_tl=en&amp;_x_tr_hl=en&amp;_x_tr_pto=wapp
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/19/world/saint-charged-with-bigotry-clerics-say-no.html
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/was-st-maximilian-kolbe-an-antisemite-1068
https://web.archive.org/web/20140102091901/http://www.consecration.com/default.aspx?id=41
https://www.reddit.com/r/freemasonry/comments/rva0iu/the_giordano_brunisti/
https://studiaelblaskie.pl/assets/Numery/SE-tom212020.pdf#page=199
https://www.scross.co.za/2023/08/st-maximilian-kolbe-the-remarkable-martyr-to-nazis/
https://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/saint-maximillian-kolbe
Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism, Slavoj Zizek
https://eastwestreport.org/?view=article&amp;id=343:persecution-of-christians-in-tsarist-russia-and-the-soviet-and-post-soviet-union&amp;catid=43:e-20-2

Part Two: Saint Maximillian Kolbe: A Conservative Who Died Protecting People From Fascists

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/816d1c65-10c5-47bf-9a14-b3ed0165593e/transcript

Part One: The Diggers, the Levelers, the Ranters, and John Darnielle

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