Blood Work

bloodwork

A show about the Economy of Violence

  1. 23/12/2025

    Chestnuts Listening on a Blood Work Fire w/ Thomas O’Mahony

    For their first ever Christmas episode, Gregk and producer Thomas get together for a casual fireside chat, discussing some of the key questions animating Blood Work, reflecting on the project’s progress so far, where they’d like to take it next year, and offer some perspectives on how this thing that we call violence connects to that other thing that we call politics. And then, as a little Christmas Treat, Gregk tells Thomas about the history of one of the worst hangovers of ‘90s counter-consumer culture jamming, and how it’s connected to some of the worst people in US culture today. New Yorkers, you knew it was bad, but if only you knew how bad it really is. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel   THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – AUMF LAMF The US’ Authorisation for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) 2001 is an authorisation so broad and loosely defined that it renders the problem of the square peg and the round hole moot; the hole’s aperture can always be widened, and virtually any peg can be hammered through. This week, I’ve picked three articles which demonstrate how its passage inaugurated a permanent, global State of Exception for US warmaking, how recklessly this aperture has been exploited, and how dangerous that is for global governance. Available now, exclusive to Patreon supporters. Image: Cover artwork from the 1985 The Christmas issue of An Phoblacht/Republican News. Source: The Irish Republican Digital Archive

    1h 54m
  2. 16/12/2025

    "What Does The Forest Say?” w/ Dr. Florin Poenaru

    This week, Gregk speaks to Anthropologist Florin Poenaru about his essay for North South Notes, published on the one-year anniversary of Romania’s cancelled Presidential elections, in which ‘outsider’ candidate Călin Georgescu was alleged to have benefitted from a Russian-coordinated TikTok interference campaign. In their conversation, they discuss the layers of power within a globalised political order, the capacity of intelligence services to produce as well as gather knowledge, and the question of where power resides in a country where politics, media, business and academia are constantly imbricated by a large and unruly security apparatus.   Read Florin’s article, ‘The Forest’ in North South Notes. Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter   THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – FAFO-FI-FUM This week, I share three pieces on wars old, new and prospective which reflect the festering wounds of America’s most recent imperial project; the licking of wounds and casting around for a space in which to reassert itself; and the early nicks and scratches we’re already seeing as both the war machine and US consent manufacturing apparatus (brrrrrrr) leap a little too enthusiastically on the latest champion of peace, liberty and justice only to learn that she… well, just might not actually be very ‘bout it ‘bout it. Available now, exclusive to Patreon supporters. Image: A satellite shot of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service (Serviciul de Informații Externe/SIE), situated within the Băneasa Forest in northern Bucharest.

    1h 29m
  3. 09/12/2025

    Down Below the Borderline: The Monroe Doctrine

    In 1823, US President James Monroe declared an end to European colonial ambitions in the Americas. By the end of that century, his declaration had morphed into a license for the United States to pursue unilateral political, economic and military actions across the Western Hemisphere. This week, we examine the history of the Monroe Doctrine and the wider geospatial order of the Americas, and see how, even two centuries later, Latin America continues to tremble in the shadow of that fateful doctrine. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – The ‘Whatever’ Doctrine This week, I share an excellent 2022 essay by Nathan DuFord which builds on the closing themes of last week’s episode on the fascist imaginary; my thoughts on a rancid essay about Venezuela by ice-chewing ghoul Elliot Abrams; and some thoughts on the ongoing criminality of US murder strikes in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea courtesy of Demented Donny and Pete ‘Drinks His Coffee on the Rocks’ Hegseth. It’s all so lazy and stupid – but after twenty years of the GWoT, it’s not like we should expect anything better. Available now for Patreon supporters. Sources: Manuel de Campo (2019) ‘Splitting the world in two: the 525th anniversary of the Treaty of Tordesillas’, available at Languages across Borders: Language Collections at the University of Cambridge Citations Needed Podcast (2021), ‘Episode 139 — Of Meat and Men: How Beef Became Synonymous with Settler-Colonial Domination’, available at Citations Needed (Transcript available at Medium) John Gast (1872), ‘American Progress’ [Painting], available at The Library of Congress Greg Grandin (2006), Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic Greg Grandin (2019), The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America George C. Herring (2008), From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 CLR James (1938), The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution Stephen Kinzer (2013), The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and their Secret World War Lester D. Langley (2002), The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898–1934 Randall Lesaffer (2015), ‘The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)’, available at Oxford Public International Law James Martell (2017), The Misinterpellated Subject James Monroe (1823), ‘December 2, 1823: Seventh Annual Message (Monroe Doctrine)’, available at The Miller Center, University of Virginia ‘National Security of the United States of America’ (November 2025), available at The White House James Polk (1845), ‘December 2, 1845: First Annual Message’, available at The Miller Center, University of Virginia Theodore Roosevelt (1904), ‘Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1905)’, available at The US National Archives Treaty of Ghent (1814), available at The US National Archives Giles Tremlett (2020), ‘Operation Condor: the cold war conspiracy that terrorised South America’, available at The Guardian Sylvia Wynter (2003), ‘Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation--An Argument’, CR: The New Centennial Review (Vol. 3:3) Image: An official from the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) inspects bunches of bananas in preparation for export from Honduras. (AP Photo)

    1h 8m
  4. 02/12/2025

    They Kiss Horses, Don’t They? / Four Fascist Concepts

    What are ‘libidinal politics’? What the fuck is a ‘machinic assemblage’? Why are these men all terrified of women? This week, we explore four key ideas in the fascist imaginary and head down to the stables to look at some freaks. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – Hit & Run This week, I take a look at some articles about drone warfare in Ukraine, Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, and the transfer of those tactics to the US’ steady approach to War on Venezuela, and meditate on what these might portend about the new rules of engagement for warfare in the 2020s. Plus: Some further thoughts on a man and his horse, childhood romance, and the death of intimacy. Available now for Patreon supporters. Sources: Walter Benjamin (1999), ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ [1935], Illuminations Richard Evans (2003), The Coming of the Third Reich Richard Evans (2005), The Third Reich in Power Roger Griffin (1991), The Nature of Fascism Mark Neocleous (1997), Fascism Klaus Theweleit (1987 [1977]), Male Fantasies, Volume 1: Women, Floods, Bodies, History Image: German Freikorps soldiers standing by an armored car during the German Revolution, January 1919.

    1h 13m
  5. 25/11/2025

    To Live as People or Die Like Men: Attica

    In 1971, a group of people cast aside by the state rose up and attempted to reclaim their humanity and political subjectivity. This week, we look at the Attica Prison Uprising to see what that event might tell us about the relationship between politics, law and violence. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter – Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – Ground Zero The first in a weekly series of posts where I share recent articles that have caught my attention and some brief commentary, along with some broader musings on the nature of violence.  Available now for Patreon supporters. Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel Sources: ‘15 Practical Proposals of Attica Prisoners’ (1971), People’s Law Office The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands and Anti-Depression Platform (1971), Freedom Archives Traci Curry & Stanley Nelson (Dir., 2021), Attica Fred Ferretti (Sept. 13, 1971), ‘Attica Prisoners Win 28 Demands, but Still Resist’, New York Times Brad Lichtenstein (Dir., 2001), Ghosts of Attica Charlotte Rosen (May 26, 2025), ‘How Should We Remember Attica?’, The Nation Wendy Sawyer, ‘How much do incarcerated people earn in each state?’ (2017), Prison Policy Initiative Heather Ann Thompson (2021), Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy Image: Participants in the Attica Prison Uprising raise their fists during a negotiating session on Friday, September 10, 1971 (AP)

    1 hr
  6. 04/11/2025

    The Leper in the City (w/ Serene Richards)

    In the mid-1990s, the political philosopher Giorgio Agamben began a 20-year project exploring the origin of what Michel Foucault called biopolitics – the governance of populations through technocratic management of aspects of their biological lives and the conditions intended to make live, or let die. Performing an archaeology of politics tracing back to the Greeks, Agamben identified a number of governmental apparatuses through which our world is both split, and bound, in two, between the included and the excluded; the inside and the outside; the human and the not-quite-yet.   In this episode, we talk to Serene Richards, a Lecturer in Law at New York University London, and author of the book Biopolitics as a System of Thought. During our conversation, we discuss the origins of two of Agamben’s most famous political concepts: Homo Sacer, the sacred man or ‘bare life’; and the State of Exception, the mechanism by which Law establishes its own ‘inside’ through the creation of an ‘outside’ that lies beyond it, and yet which must be included. Later we discuss Serene’s book, her concept of Smart Being, and how our techno-capitalist moment has seen biopolitical logics extend beyond the political realm, penetrating even how we think, perceive and understand our own lives. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/biopolitics-as-a-system-of-thought-9781350412095/ You have been listening to Blood Work A Scam Goldin Production Follow us on Bluesky, @bloodwork.show On Instagram, @bloodworkshow and on Twitter @bloodworkshow Our theme song is Dream Weapon by Genghis Tron Artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel If you want to get in touch, email us at contact@bloodwork.show Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time

    1h 23m

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A show about the Economy of Violence

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