In this episode, we discuss capitalism as a monster—specifically a vampire—that feeds off the surplus value of the working class’s labour. This is not a particularly new idea; Karl Marx, who remains to be one of the most influential thinkers of capitalism wrote in Capital Volume 1 that “Capital is dead labour, which vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.” Just as the vampire’s thirst for blood is insatiable, so is capital’s craving for more unpaid work.

We explore the ways this unfolds in Kenya, a country with a deep-seated capitalist ethos, where “hustler culture” reigns supreme. What is hustling, if not finding ways to exploit those beneath you? Is it really possible to pull yourself by the bootstraps? Interestingly, when this phrase first appeared in the 1800s, it was used to mean the act of doing something completely ludicrous and impossible. So then, how did we come to think of this as normal? Capital, like the vampire it is, both sucks life out of us and turns us into vampires ourselves. We get infected with its epistemologies and aspire to become good at the blood-sucking ourselves.

And like Dracula, who managed to fool those around him because they did not know he was a vampire, we are unable to fight capitalism because we don’t see it for what it is; a blood-draining, soul-crushing enterprise that leaves us unwell. Recognizing this vampire for what it is, what should we do? What is the antidote for capitalism in the way garlic is the antidote for vampires? Join us as we discuss this and more in this episode.