Emma's anti-civ class: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-courses/p/anti-civilization-recovering-from-industry-and-progress

Watch this panel discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/epvd2MT04OM

Should we all live in communes? AHRC Panel Host Emma Stamm is joined by sociocultural anthropologist Fern Thompsett and environmental humanities scholar Henry Kramer to dig into the commune form, anti-civilization thinking, the reclamation of imagination, and what radical world-building actually looks like on the ground.

The panel pushes back on the romanticized image of communes by arguing that the real work happens in the unglamorous everyday, weeding gardens, sorting recycling, arguing about seedlings, and that these experiments are far more common and historically ingrained than the '60s hippie stereotype suggests. The panelists also take seriously the critiques around race and privilege, reframing communal organization as something that marginalized communities have always practiced under different names and often out of genuine necessity.

This panel was produced as part of Acid Horizon Research Commons' free series of public philosophy panels and lectures. Each season we endeavor to bring rigorous, accessible conversation on ideas from across the humanities and humanities-adjacent disciplines that speak to the current historical conjuncture.

Links to Fern Thompsett's work:

https://humanities.tufts.edu/people/fern-thompsett

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VX69F8Cxk&pp=ygUMZWNvdG9waWEgbm93

Link to Henry's work:

https://henryrkramer.com/

Support the show

Support the podcast:

AHRC

Current classes at Acid Horizon Research Commons (AHRC): acidhorizonresearchcommons.com

AHRC Course Archive: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-course-archives

Submit your course proposal: acidhorizonresearchcommons@gmail.com

More Links

Website: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon

Acid Horizon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast

Boycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/

Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438

Merch: http://www.crit-drip.com

Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform: https://pod.link/1512615438

LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHAND

Happy Hour at Hippel's (Adam’s blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com

​Split Infinities (Craig’s Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/

​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/