socialism

Podcasts

Negotiating Sexuality in Socialist Poland: In Conversation with Anna Dobrowolska

Anna Dobrowolska’s new book Polish Sexual Revolutions. Negotiating Sexuality and Modernity behind the Iron Curtain, published at the Oxford University Press this year, reveals fresh perspectives in the scholarship about the socialist states. In our podcast, she explains how Poland and Eastern Europe developed their own distinct approaches to sexual modernity under state socialism. While Western observers assumed sexual liberation was incompatible with communist rule, Poland was quietly developing its own sophisticated approach to sexual modernity. In her book, Anna Dobrowolska aimed to map these differences and nuances. Throughout the conversation, we learn that the conventional narrative of state oppression versus societal resistance proves to be inadequate when examining Poland’s sexual revolution. Dobrowolska’s archival research reveals a complex ecosystem of actors: sexologists, journalists, cultural institutions, who negotiated sexual discourse largely independent of [...]

20.10.2025

Podcasts

Exporting Medical Expertise During the Cold War: Medical Humanitarianism, Ideological Expansion or Pragmatism? A Conversation With Bogdan Iacob

The medical aid programs established by socialist states nuance the Cold War dichotomy regarding the transfer of knowledge. The latest RevDem Democracy and Culture podcast with Bogdan Cristian Iacob explores the legacy of socialist regimes in the transnational circulation of expert knowledge during the Cold War, with a particular focus on medical aid.

10.02.2025

How Socialism Went Global – and Why It Withdrew. An Alternative Global History

RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó interviews three authors of the new collective monograph "Socialism Goes Global. The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonization", Péter Apor, James Mark and Steffi Marung.

12.09.2022

From leisure time to oligarchs: A conversation with Iván Szelényi about his six decades of researching social inequality

In this conversation with RevDem guest contributor Máté Rigó, Iván Szelényi discusses his career as a sociologist in Hungary, Australia, and the United States through the theme of social inequality.

21.04.2022