News, politics, history, culture, and more from Jacobin. Featuring The Dig, Long Reads, Behind the News, Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman, and occasional specials.
The podcast Jacobin Radio is created by Jacobin. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
Featuring Danielle Carr on the history and present state of American unwellness and how that’s been shaped by psychiatry, prescription drugs, neuroscience, popular culture, smartphones and social media. We trace the rise of psychiatry as a Gilded Age human science, the disastrous contradictions of asylum deinstitutionalization, the invention of neuroscience and deep brain stimulation, Elon Musk’s Neuralink fraudulence, how Adderall made the Internet run, the liberal gospel of traumatic literalism recounted in The Body Keeps the Score, and the scientific Bonapartism of RFK Jr.’s medical freedom movement.
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Our theme for today’s program is resistance in the time of monsters: resistance to the Trump/Musk wrecking ball that threatens the well-being of millions of people here and across the globe. Their actions are illegal, have provoked a constitutional crisis, and constitute a technical coup. At the same time, the Trump/Musk rampage has galvanized resistance in the courts and on the streets. Suzi talks to Geologist and IFPTE local president Colin Smalley, who is part of the Federal Unionists Network, or FUN. They have called for a national day of action, an SOS — Save our Services — for February 19. We then turn to Canada, where Trump’s across-the-board tariffs — though temporarily paused – threaten economic havoc with our largest trading partner, an unprecedented trade war. The promised tariffs have sparked a spontaneous national resistance across the country and across the political spectrum, uniting Canadians as never before. Canadians are fighting back against Trump's suggestion that Canada join the US as the 51st state. Suzi talks to NDP MP Charlie Angus about the power of a grassroots Canadian boycott and the ways Canadians are coming together to stop the Trump-Musk goon squad reign that threatens Canadian sovereignty.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò picks apart the contradictory strands of the DEI obsession. Sophia Rosenfeld, author of the book The Age of Choice, explores the history of that concept over the last few centuries.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Within weeks of assuming the presidency, Donald Trump has instituted tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. Trump has touted protectionism as a way of supporting American workers.
In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber and Jacobin contributor Melissa Naschek discuss how nineteenth and twentieth-century protectionist trade policies helped build domestic manufacturing bases around the world, but why Trump's twenty-first century tariffs are very different. While decades of global free trade have contributed to deindustrialization, workers are not likely to benefit from Trump’s tariffs.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
Kristin Du Mez, author of the book Jesus and John Wayne, looks at the world of Christian nationalism. Jennifer Middlestadt, who wrote a recent opinion piece in the New York Times, speaks about the “sovereigntism” guiding the foreign policy of Trump et al.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Chris Newman on Trump's far-right anti-migrant agenda and Democrats' cruel and stupid complicity.
Read All-American Nativism versobooks.com/products/704-all-american-nativism
Read Dan's essay on Gaza and migration politics in n+1 nplusonemag.com/issue-48/politics/do-border
Trump's immigration executive orders propublica.org/article/donald-trump-immigration-executive-orders
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Last year, Martin Empson joined Long Reads to speak about the German Peasants’ War, Europe’s biggest social revolt before the French Revolution. Martin returns to talk about what happened next.
After the revolt was crushed, radical religious tendencies became a vehicle for social discontent. The most famous of those tendencies was known as Anabaptism. A group of religious radicals inspired by Anabaptist ideas even took power in the German town of Münster. After the bloody repression of the Munster rebels, the very idea of Anabaptism became a sinister bogeyman for Europe’s ruling classes.
Martin’s book The Time of the Harvest Has Come: Revolution, Reformation and the German Peasants’ War will be published later this year.
Read Martin’s Jacobin article, “Anabaptism Was the Revolutionary Face of Reformation Europe,” here: https://jacobin.com/2024/07/anabaptism-reformation-europe-peasants-revolution
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.
Just two weeks in power, the new Trump administration has already led a horrifying whirlwind of attacks on immigrants, transgender people, tribal nations, people of color, and women. Government institutions are being dismantled. Make no mistake, these shock-and-awe actions are designed to keep people in fear and paralyzed as a fascistic presidency stages what is being called an administrative coup.
Our guests today, David Cobb and Kali Akuno, are among the few who saw this moment coming years ago, and have never stopped organizing against the fascist threat. In their work, including the creation of the People’s Network for Land and Liberation, they take a programmatic approach to overcoming fear through clear analysis and direct action. They aim not only to resist, but to build real infrastructure to keep people safe, meet basic needs, and cultivate the idea and practice of political and economic democracy on a mass scale.
As the Italian antifascist and theorist Antonio Gramsci said, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” For David and Kali, as well as for our guest host Meleiza Figueroa, the way through is not only fighting the monsters, but bringing that new world into being. We’ll spend the hour with our guests discussing the nature of this current historical conjuncture, and what they have been doing to prepare the people for this very moment.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Eoin Higgins, author of Owned, talks about tech moguls and the journalists, like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, who work for them. Ronnie Grinberg, author of Write Like a Man, on the mostly male, mostly Jewish New York intellectuals of the postwar scene.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Hannah Srajer on building tenant unions by applying labor organizing models. The Connecticut Tenants Union is partnered with SEIU 1199NE to organize fighting super majority tenant unions that win collectively bargained leases and wield working class political power. It's a model that's spreading nationwide.
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President Trump is back in power and immediately moved to carry out his xenophobic policies with a slew of unconstitutional executive orders and plans for mass detention and deportation of the nation’s immigrants.
Suzi talks to three extraordinary activists whose organizations and coalitions are building effective solidarity and defense for those about to be detained and deported: Victor Narro, UCLA’s long time expert on immigrant rights and low-wage workers, works in the sanctuary movement, Nana Gyamfi of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), and Aquilina Soriano-Versoza of the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California explain what their Black, Latino, and Filipino led and focused coalitions are doing to counter the Trump offensive against immigrants. This is practical solidarity that builds power — and it is moving and uplifting.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
There is no cultural phenomenon more hated today than what is called wokeness. While it is wrongly associated with the Left, the Right is very successfully taking advantage of it.
In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber traces the political and economic origins of it, and argues that the Left should be at the forefront of criticizing it.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
Featuring Leonardo Vilchis and Tracy Rosenthal on their book Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis. Tenant unions fighting to transform Los Angeles, the country, and the world.
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The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.
Mouin Rabbani surveys the Gaza ceasefire and Trump’s plans for the Middle East. Angela Jones and Bernadette Barton discuss the new book they co-edited, Sex Work Today.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Akbar Shahid Ahmed returns to Long Reads to discuss the recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas — and what’s likely to happen next. Akbar is the senior diplomatic correspondent for the Huffington Post and the author of a forthcoming book about the Biden administration and the Israeli attack on Gaza. He has been a guest on the show several times last year. This conversation was recorded January 23rd.
Read more about the role of Gaza in the 2024 election:
https://www.imeupolicyproject.org/postelection-polling
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/kamala-harris-gaza-israel-biden-election-poll
And find our previous interviews with Akbar here: https://jacobin.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmed
Subscribe to Jacobin Radio to hear a special Long Reads series starting next month. Red Star Over Palestine will look at histories of the Palestinian left, from the Communist movement to groups like the PFLP.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Laura Jedeed, author of an article for the New Republic, talks about San Francisco and tech moguls’ plans to “fix” it. Yasha Levine, co-director of a new documentary, Pistachio Wars, talks about billionaire couple and self-styled philanthropists the Resnicks and their involvement in the California water crisis.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Michael Denning on Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order, collectively authored by Stuart Hall and his colleagues at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. Hall’s method of Marxist conjunctural analysis applied to the generalized crisis that paved the way for neoliberalism's rise; a model for how we should ask questions about our world that will provide us with knowledge we need to change it.
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The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.
Jacobin Radio has featured many presentations from the recent conference held in honor of Boris Kagarlitsky, author of The Long Retreat, a sobering analysis of the international Left that was discussed in our previous episode, and currently a prisoner in Russia for speaking out against Putin’s war in Ukraine.
We continue with Trevor Ngwane, a South African scholar-activist at the University of Johannesburg, and Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research, who bring to the table some difficult truths and critical questions for the global Left.
After brief introductory comments from Patrick Bond, Trevor Ngwane outlines the brutal history of South Africa’s turn to neoliberalism and its consequences — widespread suffering and deepening despair among ordinary people as well as a political crisis in the African National Congress. He asks what it will take to revitalize the vibrant, militant, working-class movements that once overthrew apartheid.
Nancy Fraser then reflects on Kagarlitsky’s analysis of the chaotic political reality we face today, and raises three central strategic questions for the Left and mass politics: How can we engage with actually existing social forces towards positive social change? How do we navigate the geopolitics of war and migration in mass movement organizing? And what could a transformative working-class movement even look like in the 21st century?
Guest host Meleiza Figueroa and Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, follow with a discussion of the critical insights and questions brought up by Trevor Ngwane and Nancy Fraser, and consider what this means for American politics at this particular moment in history, as we face a new year filled with uncertainty, political confusion, and deepening crisis.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything, talks about culture at the turn of the millennium. Tim Shorrock discusses the political crisis in South Korea.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Foregrounding workers’ material interests used to be commonplace among socialists. But as the Left faced decades of defeat, a materialist approach to politics fell out of favor. In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber defends materialism from its critics and discusses how a materialist perspective understands rationality, the challenges around collective organizing, and cultural differences.
Read the article mentioned in this episode: https://catalyst-journal.com/2024/12/the-flight-from-materialism
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
Featuring Michael Denning on Stuart Hall’s Marxism—a Marxism without guarantees. This is a comprehensive introduction to Marxism as a method to analyze historically specific, complex and contradictory capitalist social formations, and what that means for making, rather than assuming the existence of, a working-class socialist politics. Next week Dan interviews Denning on Policing the Crisis, a 1978 book collectively authored by Hall and his colleagues; it’s a remarkable project that anticipates today’s politics around anti-immigrant xenophobia, mass incarceration, and Trumpism.
Listen to Hall’s full 1983 Inaugural Karl Marx Memorial Lecture in Sheffield youtube.com/watch?v=IP_OWahR-Gc
Our two-part series on Gramsci with Denning: thedigradio.com/podcast/gramsci-hegemony-w-michael-denning/ thedigradio.com/podcast/gramsci-organization-crisis-w-michael-denning/
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The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.
This week is a best of 2024, with Rashid Khalidi, Pankaj Mishra, Annelle Sheline, Aziz Rana, Anna Kornbluh, Brooke Harrington, and, in memoriam, Jane McAlevey.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Branko Marcetic, staff writer at Jacobin and author of Yesterday's Man, says farewell to Joe Biden (and takes some shots at Joe Scarborough too). Santiago Pérez, co-author of a recent paper, discusses his research on how little the class composition of elite college student bodies has changed.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
In the wake of Kamala Harris's defeat, the Left's association with identity politics has been a major focus of public debate. But what identity politics is or who primarily benefits from it remains contested.
In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber discusses the Democrats’ long-standing attachment to identity politics, why this form of politics can't fight oppression, and the real history behind struggles for justice.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
Suzi recently participated in a conference in honor of the dissident sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, who is languishing in Putin's prison for speaking out against the war in Ukraine. On this episode of Jacobin Radio, we bring you a panel from the conference discussing Boris's latest book, The Long Retreat, published while he was in prison.
Three activist-scholars, Bill Fletcher Jr., Alex Callinicos, and Jayati Ghosh, present their appreciation and their critiques of Kagarlitsky's analysis of the rise of the Right and the decline of the Left over the last forty plus years. Our speakers address Kagarlitsky's internationalist account of left organizations across the globe that, he argues, remain stuck in the past, unable to come to terms with new realities. The speakers also address Kagarlitsky's critique of identitarian politics of difference, which makes forming broad mass political projects difficult.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Bassam Haddad on the historical and geopolitical origins of Assad’s rise and fall — and what might happen next. We think through the contradictions: honoring the joy felt by Syrians at Assad’s ouster while simultaneously taking stock of a truly bad geopolitical outcome.
Want to learn more? Listen to “Thawra,” our series on the 20th-century political history of the Arab East thedigradio.com/Thawra
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The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.
Trita Parsi and Joshua Landis analyze what’s been going on in Syria. Tina Gerhardt reviews the annual UN climate conference, COP29, where little happened.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
As with many other periods, the history of the Roman Empire has often been told from the vantage point of a minoritarian social elite. Sarah Bond, a professor of classics at the University of Iowa, set out in her research to uncover something different: a "history from below" detailing the class struggle in ancient Rome. She joins Long Reads to discuss this project. Sarah's book Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire will be published in February of next year.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Patrick Blanchfield on assassination and political violence: from the routine to the extraordinary; authored by the state, capital, the left, the right, the unwell and alienated; as an anxiety, in our fantasies, as a morbid symptom and repetition compulsion; and as expressing distinctively American logics of domination and human disposability.
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Read Patrick’s essay on the death drive late-light.com/issues/issue-1/death-drive-nation
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The Dig, hosted by Daniel Denvir, is a weekly interview podcast going deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political-economy to imperialism and immigration.
Bernie Sanders resurrected socialist politics in the United States after many decades of defeat. But what socialism will entail or how we get there remains unclear. In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber discusses the difference between social democracy and socialism, how progressives won policies in the past, and where the Left should go after the Bernie moment.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
The Democratic Party has long clung to the notion of “demographic destiny,” the view that minorities will vote blue no matter who. But now it is clear that workers of all races are abandoning the Democratic Party, either by moving to the right or dropping out of politics altogether.
In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek discuss how Donald Trump’s recent victory is different from eight years ago, why the Democrats gave up their working class base, and how the Left can respond to dealignment.
Read the article mentioned in this episode:
https://jacobin.com/2024/11/obama-democrats-2024-election-race
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
Larry Bartels discusses his Foreign Affairs article about the right-wing “populist wave." Sopo Japaridze, co-author of a recent Jacobin article, examines the crisis of democracy in Georgia (the country, not the US state).
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Suzi talked to Gilbert Achcar just before the spectacular collapse of the Assad regime that has ruled Syria for more than fifty years.
Achcar, author of many books on the region, explains Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)’s origins, what is behind the lightning offensive that toppled Assad's government, and how that overthrow was prepared by Israel’s war on Lebanon and Gaza. We will also get Gilbert’s take on the collapse of the political center and rise of the far right worldwide, including in France and the US. What new dangers does Gilbert see for the Middle East with Trump’s election? The conversation was recorded December 5.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
In the inaugural episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber is joined by Jacobin's editorial director Bhaskar Sunkara to discuss why Trump won the election, how socialists should think about strategic alliances with liberals, and what it means to be an anti-capitalist.
Read the articles mentioned in this episode:
https://jacobin.com/2024/09/liberalism-marxism-cohen-rawls-workers
https://jacobin.com/2024/11/obama-democrats-2024-election-race
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst, a journal for theory and strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
Brooke Harrington, author of Offshore, uncovers how and where the mega-rich stash their cash. Mahendran Thiruvarangan talks about a new leftish government in Sri Lanka.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Quinn Slobodian and Wendy Brown on Trump’s triumphant return to power and the freakish, obscene, billionaire-dominated, capitalist reactionary, Christian nationalist, contradiction-ridden MAGA movement that surrounds him. A comprehensive early assessment of what is going on, where it’s coming from, and where it all might be heading.
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Last week, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant. It was a rare moment of hope for Palestinians, but the US government responded with outrage.
Earlier this year, a report by the Guardian and +972 Magazine showed that Israel had been spying on the ICC for a number of years. The aim of the espionage was to keep track of which particular allegations of war crimes were being investigated by the ICC. Israel would then start its own investigation retroactively into the same allegations. This was designed to undercut the ICC and make it possible for people like US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller to speak about the virtues of the Israeli court system.
Our guest today for a conversation about the ICC arrest warrants is John Reynolds. John is a professor of law at Maynooth University and the author of Empire, Emergency and International Law. He’s joined us twice before on Long Reads to speak about the challenges Israel is facing on the international legal front.
Find his last interview for the podcast, "Backing Israeli Apartheid Isn’t Just Immoral — It’s Illegal," here: https://jacobin.com/2024/08/israeli-apartheid-gaza-icj-icc
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Veteran journalist Marc Cooper joins Suzi to talk about the landslide that wasn’t, Trump’s transition swamp, and the state of the Fourth Estate. Trump’s victory is confined to the undemocratic electoral college. His winning margin in the popular vote is 1.6 percentage points, the smallest in more than 20 years. Trump may claim an historic, unprecedented mandate, but he just squeaked by. He is still dangerous but vulnerable. We talk about the danger and the chaos to come, including the threat to formal democracy.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Michael Meeropol, son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, talks about how the government executed his mother despite knowing her innocence. Ruth Whippman, author of BOYMOM: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity, discusses the challenges of raising boys.
See recent documents shedding light on "Why Ethel's execution was wrongful": https://www.rfc.org/node/4836
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Hilary Goodfriend and Jorge Cuéllar in the final installment of a three-part series on Central America. This episode picks up with Nayib Bukele’s authoritarian crypto enthusiasm in El Salvador; Daniel Ortega’s perversion of Sandinismo’s revolutionary legacy in Nicaragua; anti-mining movements in Panama; Honduras and Guatemala, where popular social movements have elected left presidents to confront entrenched power structures. We conclude by discussing mass migration from the region that’s taken on a mystified form in US politics as the MAGA far right’s principal scapegoat.
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Check out nacla.org for in-depth coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean
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Anatol Lieven tries to divine a Trump foreign policy out of unreliable rhetoric and early appointments. Alex Vitale tries similar on Trump and criminal justice.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Hilary Goodfriend and Jorge Cuéllar in the second of a three (not two!) part series on the history and present of Central America. This interview picks up our discussion of revolutionary armed struggles against brutal US-backed military-oligarchic regimes in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Then, the peace accords and postwar transitions accompanied by the imposition of neoliberal economic restructuring. Finally, the rise of mass migration, new transnational gangs, and the regime of El Salvador’s authoritarian Bitcoin enthusiast Nayib Bukele. And more.
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Suzi talks to UC Berkeley sociologist Dylan Riley, who has written a great deal about fascism and far right politics. The US has just elected to the Presidency a man who represents a dire threat to democracy and constitutional rule as we know it. We get Dylan’s understanding of the specificity of Trump’s politics, the basis of his support, and the fascistic measures favored by people in and around his party, including the frightening Project 2025. Central to MAGA is a reactionary view of gender, which sees women’s advances happening at the expense of men and their traditional family role. Dylan sees Trump as more of a patrimonial misfit, a charismatic leader who rules more incoherently than a consistent fascist. We also ask how Trump fits in with analogous movements of the far right around the world.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Earlier this week, Joe Biden welcomed the Israeli president Isaac Herzog to the White House. Last October, Herzog announced that there were no innocent civilians in Gaza. The International Court of Justice cited his comments as evidence that the Palestinian people needed protection from the threat of genocide.
Akbar Shahid Ahmed of the Huffington Post has been following the Biden administration’s support for the Israeli attack on Gaza from the start. He’s currently working on a book that will give a detailed account of the inside story. Akbar has joined the podcast twice before to discuss the latest developments. Dan spoke to him again after the US presidential election about the events of the past few months and what is likely to happen next.
Find our last Long Reads interview with Akbar here: https://jacobin.com/2024/06/biden-administration-israel-cease-fire-policy
And read his ongoing coverage for Huffington Post here: https://www.huffpost.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmed
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
We look at the election results that took many of us by surprise — giving Donald Trump and Republicans an across the board victory. For a look at the bigger picture, Suzi speaks to Robert Brenner, professor of history at UCLA, for analysis and some post-election blues. This podcast was recorded on November 8, before all the votes were counted along the West Coast. The final tallies will likely shrink Trump’s margin of victory, but not the overall results. The striking character of the Trump victory is attributable virtually entirely by the drop off in the vote for the Democrats. We try to understand what happened, and how to analyze this shift to the right.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Doug comments on the Trump victory and the role of inflation. Dahlia Scheindlin talks about Israeli public opinion. James Foley and Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, authors of a recent paper, discuss Ukrainian nationalism in the Western political imagination.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Oh lord almighty, when will we be rid of this man? Apparently not for another four years at least. We ring in the latest chapter of this never-ending "Trump Era" with the new biopic/origin story THE APPRENTICE (2024).
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Trump’s decisive victory, Harris’s catastrophic loss, multi-racial working-class dealignment, and where the left might go from here.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
We now have a special feed dedicated entirely to our Thawra series. Listen and spread the word: thedigradio.com/Thawra
Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin
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Laura Jedeed, author of a recent feature article for Lux, discusses the right’s war on North Idaho College. Mouin Rabbani talks about what’s driving Israel’s multiple wars, and the Axis of Resistance.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Hilary Goodfriend and Jorge Cuéllar on the history of Central America. This is the first episode in a two-part series covering the late-19th and early-20th century rise of export-crop oligarchies and constant US intervention, the US-backed separation of Panama from Colombia to take control of the Canal, the CIA's 1954 Guatemala coup, the rise of armed revolutionary movements in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and the US-backed dirty wars that were prosecuted in response—that and so much more.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Want to learn more? Greg Grandin on The Dig: thedigradio.com/podcast/empires-workshop-with-greg-grandin
We now have a special feed dedicated entirely to our Thawra series. Listen and spread the word: thedigradio.com/Thawra
Buy Mastering the Universe at Haymarketbooks.com
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Alan Minsky sits in for host Suzi Weissman on a special pre-election edition of Jacobin Radio. In the first half, Alan speaks with economist Mark Paul, Professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University, about a California ballot measure, Prop 33, that addresses one of the top concerns of voters across the country: the cost of housing. Prop 33 would eliminate statewide restrictions on rent control measures. Predictably, a PAC supported by large real estate corporations is spending over $100 million to try to defeat it. Paul explains why the arguments made by opponents of Prop 33 are misguided, and that the measure, if passed, will provide much needed relief for over-burdened poor, working- and middle-class Californians.
Then, in the second half of the show, John Nichols, the National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation, talks with Alan about the homestretch of the presidential election. Just like 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump is in a virtual tie with the Democratic nominee. John reflects on the race in his home state of Wisconsin, which is once again one of the few swing states that will decide the election — and explains why the Harris campaign would be well-served by campaigning on a progressive economic and pro-labor platform.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Is Andrei Tarkovsky's STALKER (1979) about the Soviet Russia in which it was made? And if not, then where exactly is "The Zone"? We wade into one of the most forbidding cinematic objects of all time, but realize that the answer is only ever found within. PLUS: Justin Trudeau is historically unpopular - so why hasn't he stepped down?
"US Politics Has Reached a Dead End" by Luke Savage - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/19/trump-campaign-leaked-data-voters-elon-musk
"Revealed: Trump ground game in key states flagged as potentially fake" by Hugo Lowell - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/19/trump-campaign-leaked-data-voters-elon-musk
Our episode on Ivan's Childhood - https://www.patreon.com/posts/263-sculpting-in-55465791
Our episode on Solaris - https://www.patreon.com/posts/317-hunters-in-64139407
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix on their book Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Guest hosted by Micah Uetricht.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Get 40% off The Years of Theory with code "DIG" at Versobooks.com
Buy Our History is the Future at Haymarketbooks.com
William Hartung, co-author of a recent paper for Brown University's Watson Institute, outlines how much aid the US has given to Israel over the last year (plus, he shares some wacky stuff on AI weapons). The sociologist Scott Schieman talks about his surprising research showing that people actually like their jobs.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
The German Peasants’ War was the biggest social revolt in a European country during the period before the French Revolution. In the wake of the Reformation, a movement among the popular classes rose up against feudalism and aristocratic power. The revolt was brutally crushed and the challenge to the feudal order was defeated. Marxist writers like Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky later made it into a key reference point for their theories of class struggle.
Long Reads is joined by the writer and historian Martin Empson to discuss the rebellion. His book on the topic, The Time of the Harvest Has Come, will soon be published.
Read his article for Jacobin about the German Peasants' War here: https://jacobin.com/2023/12/german-peasants-war-feudalism-class-conflict-reformation
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Five years after Joker because an era-defining cultural phenomenon, its sequel, JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX (2024), is the biggest flop of the year. We sifted through the wreckage to find a purposely abrasive object, and are split on its effectiveness.
Toronto listeners, see Luke speak at Progressive Publics: A Symposium Connecting Scholarship & Independent Media, November 8 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/progressive-publics-a-symposium-connecting-scholarship-independent-media-tickets-1051089455857
Plus, on November 5, a screening of Fantasy Mission Force with an introduction from Will - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/important-cinema-club-masterpiece-classics-fantasy-mission-force/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Anatol Lieven dissects the ambitiously aggressive grand design of the Biden-Harris foreign policy. Lily Lynch, author of a recent article for The Baffler, talks about the emptying out of the Balkans.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Naomi Klein on how the pandemic turbocharged a far-right conspiracist politics that’s sweeping into power. This strange new world, however, is a product of an old contradiction: the need to disavow and deny a long history and awful present; the inability to make sense of the extreme violence and oppression that makes everyday Western capitalist society possible.
We discuss Klein’s book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World and her Guardian essay "How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war": theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/05/israel-gaza-october-7-memorials
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Paul North and Paul Reitter discuss their new translation of Marx’s Capital. Nimrod Flaschenberg and Alma Itzhaky, authors of a recent article for Jacobin, talk about the vicious political culture of Israel after October 7.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
On October 8, the Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign held an online conference on “Boris Kagarlitsky and the Challenges of the Left.” Although Kagarlitsky is serving a five-year sentence in a Russian penal colony, he has just published a book called The Long Retreat: Strategies to Reverse the Decline of the Left. The conference addressed Kagarlitsky’s wide-ranging analysis of the left’s dilemmas in the face of multiple global crises, including the rise of right-wing authoritarianism. We will bring the whole conference to Jacobin Radio with a stellar lineup of international scholars and activists.
Today we hear the panel “Imperialism(s) Today,” looking at the nature of imperialism historically and in the present. Robert Brenner begins with the theory of imperialism from before WWI through the post-war period and up to the present, essentially arguing that in the present period of American hegemony, imperialism is the weapon of weaker powers. Ilya Matveev follows by examining three theorists of imperialism—Lenin, Schumpeter, and Mearsheimer—and looks at the Russian case through the lens of their different theories. Hanna Perekhoda, originally from Donetsk in the contested Donbas region, examines Putin's view of Ukraine as a creation by Russia's enemies. According to Putin, Lenin's support of the self-determination of Ukraine divided Russia, preventing it from becoming a leading power in the world. For proponents of this view, Russian sovereignty is under threat so long as Ukraine exists.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the third and final part of the epilogue to Thawra (Revolution), our epic series on the history of revolutionary Arab politics. This episode takes us from Hamas’s victory in the 2006 legislative elections, through the siege on Gaza, to October 7, the Gaza genocide, the Axis of Resistance, and Israel’s attempt to draw Iran into a massive regional war with the US.
Share Thawra with a friend thedigradio.com/Thawra
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy The Wannabe Fascists at UCPress.edu
Buy Visualizing Palestine at haymarketbooks.org
Last October, Long Reads spoke to Rashid Khalidi, one of the leading historians of modern Palestine, about the Israeli attack on Gaza. Few people would have guessed at the time that the mass killing of Palestinian civilians would still be happening twelve months later, and now expanding into Lebanon. The interview was conducted Wednesday, October 9th, when we were still waiting to see whether and in what way Israel would launch its promised attack on Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu had just threatened to inflict the same devastation on Lebanon that his military machine had already inflicted on Gaza.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
The new Netflix documentary WHAT'S NEXT: THE FUTURE WITH BILL GATES (2024) positions the Microsoft founder as "one of the good billionaires." But what are the limits to his brand of philanthropy? And how neutral and objective are these documentaries on the big streaming platforms? Luke welcomes Tim Schwab (author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire) to discuss why he declined to participate in the documentary, and what he uncovered about its making.
"Why I refused to participate in the Netflix docu-series on Bill Gates" by Tim Schwab - https://timschwab.substack.com/p/why-i-refused-to-participate-in-the
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
The rise of the labor movement in the US constitutes one of the brightest spots on the political horizon. Auto workers were joined by academic workers, actors, writers, hotel workers, UPS teamsters won without striking, and union drives have hit Amazon, Starbucks, universities and other sectors. Are these union drives and strikes opening a new period, igniting a newly energized working class?
Live from the Progressive Central conference held in Chicago before the Democratic National Convention, Jacobin Radio features an all-women panel of labor leaders and champions celebrating "Organized Labor on the Rise: the 2020s and Beyond." This panel, introduced by Alan Minsky and Hartsell Gray of Progressive Democrats of America, opens with Nina Turner on overcoming racism in the labor movement, followed by Saru Jayaraman from One Fair Wage and UC Berkeley’s Food Labor Research Center, Sara Nelson, President of CWA’s flight attendants union, and Stacey Davis Gates, President of the Chicago Teachers Union.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years War on Palestine, talks about Israeli settler-colonialism and its imperial patrons. Aurélie Daher looks at Hezbollah and the challenges it faces after the assassination of its leader.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Jake Werner on how the US and China entered into a New Cold War and why the whole world urgently needs an alternative international order that fosters great power cooperation.
Read Jake’s report A Program for Progressive China Policyquincyinst.org/research/a-program-for-progressive-china-policy/#executive-summary
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Use code "DIG" for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com
Forrest Hylton, author of a recent piece for the London Review of Books blog, talks about wildfires in Brazil and the political impotence of Lula’s administration. Edwin Ackerman discusses politics in Mexico as AMLO hands over power to Claudia Sheinbaum, having engineered a controversial overhaul of the judiciary.
Read Edwin's article, "AMLO’s War on Neoliberal Corruption," originally published in Catalyst, here: https://jacobin.com/2024/09/amlo-morena-neoliberalism-corruption-mexico
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Yoav Peled, Professor Emeritus of Tel Aviv University, is able to speak to us again for the first time since 2023. He helps chart the evolution of Israeli politics since the October 7 attack by Hamas, which was quickly followed by Israel's devastating war on Gaza, showing total disregard for the lives of Palestinians. That war is now extending to the North as Israel unleashes terror in Lebanon. And in Israel, the reverberations of October 7 continue to affect domestic politics. It also has created divisions within the Jewish community in the US. We get Yoav's analysis of the mood in Israel, what the massive demonstrations against Netanyahu signal, and the relationship between the expanding war and Israeli party politics. We'll also get Yoav to discuss his research on the rise of ethno- and religio-national populism, especially among the Mizrahim, who form the base of the Likud and the far right.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Over the last week, Israel has launched a full-scale attack on Lebanon as an extension of its campaign against Gaza. So far the air strikes have killed well over five hundred people. The attack on Lebanon has made the subject of this week’s podcast all the more relevant to the current situation.
Mahdi Amel was a member of the Lebanese communist movement and one of the most important political thinkers of the Arab left. Before his assassination in 1987, Amel produced a series of books and essays, some of which have now been translated into English for the collection Arab Marxism and National Liberation.
Long Reads is joined by the editor of that collection, Hicham Safieddine. Hicham is a professor of history at the University of British Columbia. The conversation was recorded Friday, September 19th. Please excuse sound quality issues, due to a bad connection, in the last part of the interview.
Read Hicham's piece about Amel in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2024/05/anti-colonialism-marxism-mahdi-amel
See also Hicham's recent coverage of the Israeli attack on Lebanon: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-new-front-war-cannot-end
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana on the history of left-wing internationalism from the Third Worldist currents that powered decolonization and struggles against neocolonialism through today’s renewed politics in solidarity with the Palestinian national liberation movement. Recorded in New York at Jewish Currents Live.
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Niobe Way, author of Rebels with a Cause, talks about the emotional and social lives of boys and what they’re telling us about society. Branko Milanovic, author of Visions of Inequality, reviews what economists have said about the topic over the centuries.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Bernie Sanders delivered the keynote speech at Progressive Central 2024, a conference held at the Chicago Teachers Union building just ahead of the Democratic National Convention. The two-day event posed progressive solutions to the crises undermining contemporary society and politics — many things missing from the convention itself.
The session, introduced by Alan Minsky of Progressive Democrats of America (and producer of this podcast), opens with remarks from Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, followed by Senator Bernie Sanders in dialogue with The Nation's John Nichols. Lastly, we hear from Representative Maxwell Frost. Progressive Central 2024 was hosted by PDA in coordination with The Nation, The Arab American Institute, and Operation Rainbow/PUSH.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the second of what has become a three-part epilogue to Thawra (Revolution), The Dig's series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. This episode takes us from the disastrous Oslo Accords through the 2000 Camp David Summit and the eruption of the Second Palestinian Intifada. Then the 9/11 attacks, the War on Terror, the US destruction of Iraq, the Arab Spring, the Syrian Civil War, and the rise of Islamic State. A century of Western imperialism had undermined Arab revolutionary movements and governments; the new millennium brought two decades of US-led war that destroyed the Arab state system. Atop its wreckage was the explosion of sectarian violence and murderous authoritarianism across the Arab East. Hope still resides in the power of popular renewal.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Visualizing Palestine at haymarketbooks.org
Buy Exit Wounds at UCPress.edu
Is it ethical for a journalist to also act as a spy for a foreign government? Luke Lebrun of PressProgress joins us to consider the far-fetched claims of one of Canada's worst journalists, Adam Zivo. PLUS: In this very special episode, we catch up on some news items of Canadian interest, including the declining polling for Justin Trudeau's liberals, and the rising number of far-right Canadian influencers.
"This National Post Columnist Says He Spied for a Foreign Intelligence Agency. Experts Call His Behaviour ‘Unethical’ and ‘Absurd’" by Luke Lebrun - https://pressprogress.ca/this-national-post-columnist-says-he-spied-for-a-foreign-intelligence-agency-experts-call-his-behaviour-unethical-and-absurd/
"I cover the far right for a living. This is why I wasn’t surprised to find Canadians embedded in an alleged Russian propaganda scheme" by Luke Lebrun - https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/i-cover-the-far-right-for-a-living-this-is-why-i-wasnt-surprised-to/article_56042920-6c7c-11ef-aa82-9302cac8f9d3.html
"It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election" by Luke Savage - https://jacobin.com/2023/01/hillary-clinton-russian-bots-2016-presidential-election-trump
"In Toronto's Weirdest Cinema, a Portrait of the Artist I'd Never Become" by Adam Zivo - https://quillette.com/2022/01/18/in-torontos-weirdest-cinema-a-portrait-of-the-artist-id-never-become/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Neil Sehgal, co-author of a study about the relationship between slaveholder ancestry and net worth among members of Congress, discusses his research. Emily Jashinsky gives a conservative’s view of the election. And Melissa Lyon, co-author of a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper, talks about the effects of US teachers' strikes.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
At the beginning of June this year, Emmanuel Macron called a snap election for the French National Assembly. The move came after the far-right party of Marine Le Pen, the National Rally, topped the poll in France’s European election. The party was widely expected to repeat that performance in the national election and form a government for the first time. But a left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, thwarted the ambitions of Le Pen and her ally Jordan Bardella.
The New Popular Front was the largest single bloc in the National Assembly and should have been given the opportunity to nominate a prime minister. However, Macron was determined to stop that from happening. After stalling throughout the summer, Macron finally appointed a new prime minister last week. He chose Michel Barnier, a conservative politician whose party came fourth in the election.
Macron appointed Barnier with the approval of Marine Le Pen. As Jacobin’s Europe editor David Broder put it, Barnier may be in office, but Le Pen will hold power. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise, the largest group in the New Popular Front, denounced the appointment of Barnier as a subversion of democracy and the popular will.
Bruno Amable, a professor of political economy at the University of Geneva, joins Long Reads for a conversation about Macron’s role in the wider crisis of French politics. Bruno is the author, with Stefano Palombarini, of an important book that analyzed the aggressive and authoritarian class politics underpinning Macron’s project. It was translated into English as The Last Neoliberal: Macron and the Origins of France's Political Crisis.
Dan spoke with Bruno before the appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister, when it was already clear that Macron was determined to exclude the left from power.
Find an earlier interview Jacobin conducted with Bruno, about Macron forming a right-wing bloc, here: https://jacobin.com/2022/04/emmanuel-macron-election-neoliberalism-france-right-left
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Amna Akbar, Gabe Winant, and Thea Riofrancos on the American political conjuncture: the centrality of Palestine, the contradictions of left electoralism, renewed liberal militarism, the return of Obama-ism, the state of the labor and climate movements—and more. Recorded live at Socialism 2024 in Chicago.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
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Subscribe to Jacobin in print for $15/yr at bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst in print for $20/yr at bit.ly/digcatalyst
Robert Pausch of Die Zeit talks about the far right’s strong showing in German regional elections. Rob Larson, author of Mastering the Universe, looks at the obscene wealth of the superrich.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
What if a movie about a corporate merger became the most popular movie of the year? Friends, you don't have to imagine it. We discuss DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (2024) and ponder the question that Vulture asked: "Is Shawn Levy the Future of Populist Filmmaking?"
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the first of a two-part epilogue to Thawra (Revolution), our series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment covers the Iranian Islamic Revolution’s huge impact across the Arab East alongside Saudi and Egyptian efforts to foster religious conservative movements in an effort to supplant and suppress the secular nationalist left. Plus the Iran-Iraq War, the mujahideen in Afghanistan, the First Intifada, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the first US-led invasion of Iraq, and the PLO’s march toward the Oslo Accords–and how Hamas and Islamic Jihad stepped into the resulting vacuum, picking up a Palestinian armed struggle the PLO had renounced.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Nuclear Is Not The Solution at versobooks.com
Buy The Wannabe Fascists at UCPress.edu
Naomi Hossain explains the uprising in Bangladesh that deposed PM Shekih Hasina. Then Sandipto Dasgupta, author of Legalizing the Revolution, examines the transformation of India from colony to nation through the drafting of its constitution.
Journalist Marc Cooper and historian Robert Brenner, two long-time socialists, join Suzi to talk about the state of the election after a convention that lifted Democrats' spirits and Kamala Harris's chances to defeat Trump. The convention was historic in several ways: it was pro-union and the speakers were younger and more openly progressive on issues that matter. It also appeared to unite the old neoliberal wing of the party with the more radical base, emphasizing unity in the fight to protect the freedoms under attack. Judging by the polls, candidates Harris-Walz successfully walked the delicate tightrope that is internal Democratic politics but this meant downplaying both Palestinian issues and climate catastrophe.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
A Democratic National Convention takes place against a backdrop of protests against American imperial atrocities overseas... that's right, we're travelling back in time to 1968 with Haskell Wexler's MEDIUM COOL (1969). PLUS: So, have you heard about the DNC?
Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - www.patreon.com/michaelandus
"This National Post Columnist Says He Spied for a Foreign Intelligence Agency" by Luke LeBrun - https://pressprogress.ca/this-national-post-columnist-says-he-spied-for-a-foreign-intelligence-agency-experts-call-his-behaviour-unethical-and-absurd/
"Medium Cool: Preserving Disorder" by Thomas Beard - https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2773-medium-cool-preserving-disorder
"The New Yorker Political Scene Scene" podcast with special guest Will - https://rss.com/podcasts/newyorkerpoliticalscenescene/1619477/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Jake Werner of the Quincy Institute makes his case for what a progressive China policy could look like. Then Gabriel Hetland reviews the record of Colombian president Gustavo Petro, a leftist trying to govern a deeply conservative country.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Sunaura Taylor on her book Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation. What does it mean to rethink socialism and Marxism through the frameworks of disability liberation and animal liberation? How do we relate to human difference and also to non-human animals? Where does the struggle against industrial agriculture fit into the fight against capitalism? Sunaura is interviewed by her sister, Dig guest host Astra Taylor.
Read about Daniel Denvir and The Dig in The Guardian theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/aug/13/dig-podcast-daniel-denvir
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Take 25% off a subscription to n+1 at nplusonemag.com/thedig
Buy Unite and Win at haymarketbooks.org/books/2434-unite-and-win
During the 2012 election cycle, Pauly Shore went to Washington to take the temperature on American and Her Problems. His resulting comedy special, PAULY SHORE'S PAULY-TICS (2012), accidentally foreshadows some of the bad vibes of the years to come. PLUS: We chart one Oscar blogger's evolution from #StillWithHer to MAGA.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Russian dissident activists and scholars Ilya Budraitskis and Grusha Gilayeva last spoke to us after the Marxist critic Boris Kagarlitsky lost his appeal and was sent to a penal colony on a trumped-up charge of “justifying terrorism.” A few days later, Alexei Navalny died. Suzi talks to Ilya and Grusha to get their views about the complex multi-prisoner swap that happened at the start of this month and what it represents.
Kremlin spies, sleepers, and killers imprisoned in the west were exchanged for prisoners held in Russia’s penal colonies, including Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, British-Russian Vladimir Kara Murza, and Russians Ilya Yashin, Oleg Orlov and others. Sixteen have been exchanged. More than a thousand are still in prison. Millions remain in Russia. Of the Russian prisoners, Ilya Yashin was forcibly removed from Russia and exchanged against his will. Vladimir Kara Murza has vowed to return to Russia. We’ll hear more about the politically courageous Russians who were held (and now exchanged) for speaking out against Putin’s savage war in Ukraine like Yashin, Orlov, and Kara Murza. We’ll also ask what it means for Putin: will he continue to hold hostage human “assets” to be exchanged? Does the timing of the exchange signal Putin favors a Harris presidency over another Trump term?
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Arielle Klagsbrun of the All Eyes on Yass Campaign sheds light on the insufficiently known right-wing funder Jeff Yass. Then Sohrab Ahmari and Hamilton Nolan debate the existence, real or imagined, of pro-worker Republicans.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Ten years ago, Indonesia elected a new president named Jokowi who was supposed to represent a clear break with the legacy of Suharto’s dictatorship. He defeated the most notorious representative of the old guard, a former general called Prabowo. Prabowo was involved in some of the worst atrocities of the Suharto regime during the occupation of East Timor. This year, Prabowo won the presidential election on his third attempt — this time with the tacit support of his former opponent, Jokowi.
To discuss how Prabowo finally achieved his goal and what it means for Indonesian politics, Long Reads is joined by Mike Vann, professor of history at Sacramento State University. Mike joined us on Long Reads back in 2021 for a two-partconversation about Suharto’s regime and its legacy.
Read his article, "Indonesia’s New President Is Dangerously Authoritarian," here: https://jacobin.com/2024/02/prabowo-indonesia-president-authoritarian-fascist
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Tony Buba chronicled the decline of his hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania in a series of acclaimed documentaries that elevated him to national notoriety. But in the extraordinary documentary/fiction hybrid LIGHTNING OVER BRADDOCK: A RUST BOWL FANTASY (1988), he asks what it means when his success is tied to so many people's poverty.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Heidi Matthews analyzes the World Court’s declaration of Israel’s occupations illegal. Molly White looks at how crypto is spending its money in politics. And lastly, Nausicaa Renner, author of a recent article for Parapraxis, psychoanalyzes Joe Biden.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Jeremy Corbyn and Laleh Khalili on internationalism and left-wing politics. A special Dig co-hosted with the Verso Podcast in front of a live London audience.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
The Socialism Conference will be held in Chicago from Aug 30 - Sept 2. Learn more and register at socialismconference.org
Buy Twilight Prisoners at Haymarketbooks.com
In Barry Levinson and David Mamet's WAG THE DOG (1997), a political spin-doctor teams with a movie producer to fake a war and save an incumbent president. You've heard of manufacturing consent, but to what extent can Hollywood and Washington manufacture reality? We're joined by Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison of the American Prestige podcast to discuss.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Dan just did a live Dig in London with Jeremy Corbyn and Laleh Khalili. It was part of a podcast doubleheader that included this live episode of the economics podcast Macrodose featuring Asad Rehman, James Meadway, and Thea Riofrancos. The live Dig with Corbyn and Khalili on internationalist and anti-imperialist politics will be posted in a few days.
Subscribe to Macrodose at linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast or wherever you get podcasts
Support Macrodose at patreon.com/Macrodose
The Socialism Conference will be held in Chicago from Aug 30 - Sept 2. Learn more and register at socialismconference.org
Cole Stangler talks about the monumentally inconclusive French elections. David Palumbo-Liu explores the Silicon Valley world that launched J. D. Vance as a politician. Plus: a brief bit from the late Jane McAlevey on power.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the SIXTEENTH and final episode of Thawra (Revolution), our series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment traces a massive defeat for the Palestinian Revolution: Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and brutal siege of Beirut. Under severe pressure and isolated in the wake of Egypt’s normalization with Israel, the PLO evacuated its headquarters. What followed was a giant massacre of Palestinian civilians and the end of the decades-long era of Arab revolutionary politics to which this series has been dedicated. A substantial epilogue is coming soon.
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Suzi talks to writer Micah Sifry, who covers US & Middle East politics on his Substack newsletter The Connector, about whether he thinks a Harris presidency could change the dynamic of the Israel-US relationship, what it will mean for the war on Gaza, as well as Netanyahu’s political survival. The withdrawal of Biden from the presidential race has upended what looked like a death march to a Trump/Vance victory. Netanyahu’s dreadful speech to the joint session of Congress on July 24, boycotted by half the Democratic caucus in both houses, including VP Kamala Harris, highlights the opportunity she has to win back the votes of those who threatened to stay home unless the US stop funding Israel’s wars — an opening that is particularly important in the swing state of Michigan. Micah Sifry untangles all these threads, which constitute what he sees as the black hole of foreign policy.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
It's a politics-only episode, because we've got a big subject: It's time to say goodbye to your favorite American president, Joe Biden. We welcome back Branko Marcetic to tally #46's successes and failures—and do a vibe check on the Democratic Party following the ouster of its standard-bearer. PLUS: Branko reports on the Republican National Convention.
"Joe Biden Wanted This" by Branko Marcetic - https://jacobin.com/2024/07/biden-2024-dropout-gaza-legacy
"How Joe Biden Became a Steadfast Israel Defender" by Branko Marcetic - https://jacobin.com/2024/07/joe-biden-israel-support-history
"Never Forget How Many Times the Liberal Establishment Saved Biden’s Arse" by Luke Savage - https://novaramedia.com/2024/07/23/never-forget-how-many-times-the-liberal-establishment-saved-bidens-ass/
"Why Biden finally quit" - https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/21/why-biden-dropped-out-00170106
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Last week, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling on the status of Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Israel is currently facing several challenges through the international legal system. The ICJ has also been hearing a South African case that accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza. And the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Yoav Gallant.
John Reynolds, a professor of law at Maynooth University and the author of Empire, Emergency, and International Law, joins Long Reads to discuss these developments. John previously spoke to us back in January after the ICJ gave its first response to the South African genocide case.
Find John's articles for Jacobin here: https://jacobin.com/author/john-reynolds
Also see recent investigations into Israel's covert war on the ICC at +972and The Guardian.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Brandon Mancilla of the UAW looks behind the GOP’s pro-worker facade. Adam Hilton, author of True Blues, talks about the bizarre nature of the US political party system.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
In 2005, the Clinton family's own foundation created a DVD compilation of times when Bill and Hillary brought the funny. We discuss A TIME TO LAUGH: THE CLINTONS' HUMOR (2005), and glean a little bit of insight into how the former First Family view themselves. PLUS: From an assassination attempt of the former U.S. president to a coup attempt on the current one, we've got a lot of news to catch up on.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
The second round of elections in France and in Iran both yielded surprise results that we could characterize as historic, especially in France, and to be seen in Iran. Sebastian Budgen returns to discuss the French results, which upset Le Pen's far right RA and Macron's Center, putting the left New Popular Front in the strongest position in Parliament. How were the various organizations of the left able to come together so quickly in their new alliance? How did they achieve agreement with the center to get candidates in constituencies with 3 or 4 candidates to withdraw so that only the strongest candidate could face down the RA rightist candidate? What comes next? With the left now the majority force in France’s parliament, we get Sebastian’s take on the challenges it faces in implementing the popular proposals in their platform — and whether they can continue the alliance with the center to thwart the right.
Suzi also talks to Yassamine Mather to get her views on the surprise result in Iran’s second round. At a moment when the hardliners seemed fully in control, the Iranian people elected Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate reformer, as President. He won with 3 million votes over the regime insider and hardliner Ali Jalili, who mouthed all the regime’s hardline positions on internal security and foreign policy. It is a dramatic turn of events signaling the population’s desire for change. Pezeshkian focused on social reforms, economic improvement and renewed nuclear negotiations — and won, but his success depends on the Supreme Leader’s approval. We get Yassamine’s understanding of this result and ask if it sets the stage for potential change in Iran where the nation is grappling with deep-seated discontent, geopolitical turmoil, a crippled economy, rampant corruption, and a repressive regime.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the FIFTEENTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment addresses the Palestinian Revolution’s project in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan—leading up to the 1970 conflict with the Jordanian state and the violent expulsion of PLO guerrillas during Black September. Then, Egypt and Syria checked Israel’s power in the October War of 1973—only for Anwar Sadat to lead Egypt into Kissinger’s plan to pacify Arab revolution.
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The Palestinian Revolution website is live! learnpalestine.qeh.ox.ac.uk/teach
Buy tickets for live Dig with Corbyn in London https://unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili
The Socialism Conference will be held in Chicago from Aug 30 - Sept 2. Learn more and register at socialismconference.org
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Richard Seymour, author of a recent rundown for New Left Review's Sidecar blog, discusses the British election. Trita Parsi talks about the Iranian election. Finally, we remember Jane McAlevey with a 2017 Behind the News interview. See a catalog of further interviews here: https://lbo-news.com/2024/07/11/jane-mcalevey-the-behind-the-news-interviews/
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
On July 4, voters in Britain went to the polls to elect a new government. Labour ended up with 411 seats in the House of Commons, while the Conservative Party had just 121.
At first glance, the result seems like a massive popular mandate for Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. But we have to reckon with the British electoral system, which can give parties a large majority of seats without even a small majority of votes. Labour will form a government with less than 34 percent of the overall vote. That’s barely 2 percent more than the party achieved with Jeremy Corbyn as leader in 2019, on a much lower turnout.
The real story of the election was a Tory collapse. The Conservative vote share dropped by 20 percent. The right-wing Reform Party of Nigel Farage divided the right-wing bloc with its anti-immigrant platform. Reform received 14 percent of the vote, but only ended up with 5 seats.
For a conversation about the election and the future of British politics, Long Reads is joined by Phil Burton-Cartledge. Phil is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Derby, and he’s the author of a book about the Conservative Party called The Party’s Over.
Support for this podcast comes from Haymarket Books, offering free shipping on orders over $25 (or £20). One title you might enjoy is Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba.
Support also comes from A Sense of Rebellion, a new podcast from tech critic Evgeny Morozov that explores counterculture at the dawn of the digital revolution.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
It's Studio 60 vs the unions in Episode 17 ("The Disaster Show") of Aaron Sorkin's STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. We're pleased to welcome Will Menaker (of Chapo Trap House and Movie Mindset fame) to help us make sense of Sorkin's perspective on organized labor. PLUS: So have you heard about Joe Biden?
This is an unlocked episode from our ongoing Patreon series about Studio 60.
Robert Pape, author of a recent piece in Foreign Affairs, talks about how, despite Israel’s murderous onslaught on Gaza, Hamas is winning. Wanda Bertram discusses how US incarceration rates stack up against the rest of the world (massively) and other news on crime and punishment. See the Prison Policy Initiative's 2024 report: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2024.html
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the FOURTEENTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment covers the rise of the Palestinian Revolution and then its explosion after the Arab defeat in the June War of 1967 with Israel. Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation and Palestine, and other factions launched an armed guerrilla struggle against Israel, engaging the Palestinian people in a full-scale mobilization for their liberation. Also: Ba'athists Aḥmad Ḥasan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein seized power in Iraq, as did Muammar Gaddafi’s Free Officers in Libya.
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Journalist Marc Cooper and historian Robert Brenner join Suzi in conversation following the painful first presidential debate held on June 27. Most of the immediate post mortems are panicked responses and calls for Biden to step out of the race. We go beneath the surface to parse the issues discussed or omitted, and ask what they think is now possible in the remaining months before the election. We also look at the way CNN handled, or mishandled, the debate itself, with no attempt to fact check or challenge falsehoods. Finally we look at the danger of a possible second Trump term for the US and the world.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
You can go looking for the zeitgeist, but only the zeitgeist can find you. That's what the makers of countless pieces of failed Oscar bait have learned. In this special episode, we run through some of the most legendary failed Oscar bait of the last 25 years and speculate why they didn't catch anything. PLUS: presidential libraries, the Obama Foundation, and an autobiographical novel from an unlikely Hollywood star.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Sebastian Budgen, Editorial Director of Verso Books, splits his time between London and Paris. He joins us to discuss the surprising elections called in each country.
In the UK, Rishi Sunak called a general election for July 4 at what seems like the worst time for Tory rule. And across the pond, Emmanuel Macron called a snap election in France for June 30 and July 7 after Marine Le Pen’s far right Rassemblement National swept the European elections on June 9. He didn’t have to do it, any more than Sunak did, though Macron’s government isn’t teetering like Sunak’s.
Why now? Conventional wisdom holds that Macron called the election after the right trounced the center in the European elections because he was certain the divisions in the left would make him the rational choice, apparently betting that the center can hold. But the left responded to this new reality, getting its act together and forming a New Popular Front consisting of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise, the Parti Socialiste, the Greens, and the Communist Party. According to the NYT on June 21, the new coalition is increasingly well-positioned to form a new government that could weaken Macron’s grip on power.
In the UK, PM Rishi Sunak called a general election for July 4 at a terrible time for his government. Whereas Macron is unpopular, Sunak’s Tories are falling apart after fourteen years in power. What’s behind both these elections? What are the possible outcomes? To get a deeper analysis and perspective, we turn to Sebastian Budgen in Paris.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Steven Simon discusses Israel and the Arab states’ relations with it. Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of The Education Wars, talks about the right wing’s latest educational ploys.
See Marcus Brown’s website, mentioned in the show intro: https://arslaverytrails.com/
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
When our politicians fail us, can journalism save us? We revisit George Clooney's GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK (2005), about Edward R. Murrow's battle with Joseph McCarthy, and get a lesson in how the liberal imagination remembers the Red Scare. PLUS: the rise of A.I. in the arts and the state of the center-left in Europe.
"Liberals, I Do Despise" by Adolph Reed Jr. - https://www.commondreams.org/views/2009/12/09/liberals-i-do-despise
"On Smarm" by Tom Scocca - https://www.gawkerarchives.com/on-smarm-1476594977
"Europe Is Warning Us" by Grace Blakeley - https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/06/europe-is-warning-us
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Elections for the European Union happened two weeks ago. Although turnout was just over 50 percent, the elections have already resulted in some dramatic consequences for European politics. The largest single group in the new parliament will be the European People’s Party, the main bloc of the center right. Ursula von der Leyen, the German president of the European Commission, is a prominent figure in the EPP. She and the EPP leader Manfred Weber have both indicated that they would be open to forming an alliance with sections of the far right.
In France and Italy, far-right parties have already supplanted the traditional conservatives as the dominant right-wing force. The French party of Marine Le Pen came first in the election, prompting Emmanuel Macron to call a snap election for early next month.
Jacobin’s European editor David Broder joins Long Reads for a conversation about European politics after the election. David has written two books about the rise of right-wing nationalism in Italy, First They Took Rome and Mussolini’s Grandchildren. He’s also written many articles about European politics for publications like the New Statesman and the New York Times, as well as Jacobin, of course.
Find David's coverage on the Jacobin site, including his latest, "Europe’s Center Is Holding — by Integrating the Far Right": https://jacobin.com/2024/06/eu-parliament-elections-far-right-center
Also see the William Bouchardon article mentioned by David, "Marine Le Pen Is Seducing France’s Business Elite": https://jacobin.com/2024/06/marine-le-pen-france-business-elite
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the THIRTEENTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment covers the armed left-wing revolutionary movements that challenged British imperial power across Southern Arabia, with the National Liberation Front taking over South Yemen and Dhufari rebels in Oman waging a liberation war against the Sultan. Today’s alliance of reactionary Gulf monarchies was not inevitable; they were made by colonial power, and Arab revolutionaries in the 1960s and 70s mounted a major effort to overthrow them.
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Edwin Ackerman, who wrote a recent piece for NLR Sidecar, reviews the Mexican elections and the reasons for AMLO’s immense popularity. Joel Whitney, author of the book Flights, talks about radical and revolutionaries’ battles with the CIA.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
In this episode of Jacobin Radio, guest host Barry Eidlin assesses the most recent Labor Notes conference held near Chicago from April 19-21. The Labor Notes conference is the premier gathering of rank-and-file labor activists and organizers from across the U.S. and around the world. This year’s conference was the biggest yet, with over 4,700 people gathered to hear the latest on organizing strategy and contract victories. In a bit of serendipity, Labor Notes conference goers got to watch live the vote tallies coming in from a union election at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The United Auto Workers won an historic 3-to-1 victory, organizing the first foreign-owned auto transplant in the South.
What does this year’s Labor Notes conference tell us about the state of the U.S. labor movement, and what lies ahead? Barry discusses these questions and more with two long-time Labor Notes conference organizers, Alexandra Bradbury and Jane Slaughter.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
During the Trump presidency, #TheResistance had a powerful figurehead, and his name was (the late) Mr. Rogers. We discuss the Tom Hanks-led #nicecore landmark A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (2019), the strengths and limitations of Fred Rogers as a Trump-era political symbol, and what this movie fails to understand about him. PLUS: What's eating David Frum about the recent Mexican election?
"Can You Say... 'Hero'?" by Tom Junod - https://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/publications/press/esquire/index.html
"How Liberalism Betrayed the Enlightenment and Lost Its Soul" by Michael Brenes - https://jacobin.com/2024/05/cold-war-liberalism-moyn-review
Mr. Rogers at the Emmys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upm9LnuCBUM&ab_channel=TheEmmyAwards
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
On June 5, Boris Kagarlitsky’s appeal against a five-year prison sentence was rejected by the Russian Supreme Court's Military Chamber. Kagarlitsky must now serve his sentence in a penal colony in Torzhok some 155 miles northwest of Moscow. The decision was unjust, but not unexpected.
Kagarlitsky spent nearly five months in pre-trial detention, charged with "justifying terrorism" for ironic remarks he made on his social media channel after the explosion on the Crimean Bridge in 2022. He was freed after a military court handed him a fine in December. But in February 2024, there was an unexpected appeal trial at a military court of appeals where the prosecutors overturned the December verdict that freed him, citing excessive leniency.
During the June 5 appeal hearing, Kagarlitsky explained that the title of the offending YouTube video, “Explosive Congratulations for Mostik the Cat” — a reference to a real cat that lived on the Crimea bridge — was “an extremely unfortunate joke.” He argued that his jail term was disproportionate to the offense. Kagarlitsky’s attorney plans to appeal the verdict with Russia’s Constitutional Court on the grounds that his client received “excessive” punishment.
The case against Boris Kagarlitsky is indicative: He received five years not for the content of the video, but for the words of its title. The judges’ cruel decision reflects the determination of the Putin regime to crush domestic opposition to its war on Ukraine. This is a state bent on suppressing all forms of criticism, jokes included. In this context, the basic democratic and legal rights of anti-war activists like Boris Kagarlitsky and thousands of others count for very little.
Boris Kagarlitsky is in prison for courageously speaking out against the war in Ukraine. He is the victim of a gross but entirely deliberate miscarriage of justice and has become a symbol of the struggle for the right to freedom of expression. He is a political prisoner and prisoner of conscience.
Ilya Budraitskis, another Putin critic, was dismissed from his job at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and forced to flee Russia to avoid arrest for his active critique of the war in Ukraine and consistent opposition to Putin’s regime. He joins us with his take on the fate of opposition in Russia and the case of Boris Kagarlitsky in general.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Siddhartha Deb, author of Twilight Prisoners, dives into the Hindu right and its poor showing in India’s elections. Sean Jacobs, professor at the New School and publisher of Africa Is a Country, explains the ANC’s poor showing in South Africa’s elections.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the TWELFTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment tells the story of Saudi Arabia, a country whose reactionary, US-aligned trajectory was throughout the 1950s and 60s challenged by labor strikes, dissident currents, rebellious princes, and an anticolonial oil minister. But Saudi royal conservatism asserted itself and a friendship with Nasser’s Egypt turned into conflict. Ultimately both countries got drawn into North Yemen’s civil war, which sapped Egypt’s military strength ahead of the 1967 war with Israel. Plus: radical politics against British colonial power in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Trucial States.
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Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
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unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili
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This is another special episode of Long Reads about the Israeli war on Gaza.
On Thursday, June 6th, we spoke with Akbar Shahid Ahmed of the Huffington Post. Akbar previously spoke with us in early January about the role of the Biden administration. Five months later, with the Israeli government now on trial for genocide while the attack on Rafah has begun, it’s time for another look at Biden’s tenacious support for Israel.
Find Akbar's coverage here: https://www.huffpost.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmed
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Suzi talks to Isabel Kain at UC Santa Cruz, Marie Salem at UCLA, and Anna Weiss at USC — all UAW academic workers — about the unprecedented labor action on their campuses and the violent response from police called in by their administrations.
We recorded the interview with Isabel at UCSC as the police in riot gear moved into the campus. Santa Cruz was the first to go on strike and unlike the other UC campuses, the administration was passive and did not call in the police. Until 1am on May 31. At the heart of the action is the war in Gaza, which has inflicted unspeakable suffering and carnage, provoking widespread actions in solidarity with Palestine on campuses. New movements organized in encampments have demanded an immediate ceasefire and university divestment from companies tied to Israel’s war and occupation. The response from the administration at UCLA in particular was brutal. They called in police who assaulted the encampment and stood back when a mob of white nationalists and neo-Nazis joined forces with Zionists to attack the camp, whose residents included a large number of Jewish students.
Outraged grad students at UC, organized in UAW Local 4811, have launched a strike, turning the right to protest and freedom of speech into a labor issue. The local represents some 48,000 postdocs, teaching assistants, academic and student researchers across the UC system. At USC, academic workers filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) after five grad student members were arrested on campus during the crackdown on the protests. We get the story.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them, analyzes how our founding document constrains democracy but we worship it anyway.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Dylan Saba and Waleed Shahid on how Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the mass solidarity movement opposing it are transforming US politics. This anti-imperialist internationalist moment marks a profound turning point for the American left.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
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unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili
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The Russian Marxist Boris Kagarlitsky last spoke to us shortly after his release from nearly five months in prison. He was arrested on far-fetched charges of "justifying terrorism" for ironic remarks he made on his social media channel after the explosion on the Crimean Bridge in 2022. Boris was freed after a military court handed him a fine in December 2023, and spoke to Suzi two weeks later in the interview you are about to hear.
Barely two months after Boris’s release there was an unexpected appeal trial at a military court in February 2024, and the prosecutors overturned the December verdict that freed him, citing "excessive leniency." He was sentenced to five years in a general regime penal colony and whisked from the courtroom to prison. Now three months later, after several moves, Boris has arrived at his final place of detention, Penal Colony No. 4 in Torzhok, 155 miles northwest of Moscow.
Once again, Boris requires our solidarity. His final appeal will be heard on June 5 by Russia’s Supreme Court. An international petition has garnered more than 16,000 signatures calling for his release and all anti-war political prisoners. President Putin’s government is using anti-terror laws to step up its already draconian repression of dissent at home and in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. More than 20,000 Russians have been detained and more than 1,000 have been put on trial.
In an open letter from prison, Boris wrote, "Under today’s conditions, when political action and self-organization in our country have become extremely difficult, helping our co-thinkers who have been imprisoned is not just humanitarian activity, but also an important political gesture, an act of practical solidarity." He has brought his incisive analysis to these airwaves for more than three decades.
The petition demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Boris Kagarlitsky and all other anti-war prisoners can be found at freeboris.info. This interview was originally broadcast in January.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Mouin Rabbani discusses Israel's war on Gaza and the broader context of the conflict. Stefanie Stantcheva discusses her recent economicpapers about why people hate inflation.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
When Immanuel Wallerstein died in 2019, he was one of the most influential thinkers about the crisis-ridden development of global capitalism. People who might never have read one of his books will still find themselves referring to the core and the periphery of the capitalist world-system.
Gregory Williams joins Long Reads to take a deeper look today at Wallerstein’s life and work as a radical intellectual. Gregory is a professor of political science and international relations at Simmons University in Boston. He’s also the author of Contesting the Global Order: The Radical Political Economy of Perry Anderson and Immanuel Wallerstein.
Read Gregory's piece for Jacobin, "Immanuel Wallerstein’s Work Can Help Us Understand the Deepening Crises of Capitalism" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/12/immanuel-wallerstein-world-systems-theory-development-cycles-capitalism-crisis-history
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the ELEVENTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment tells the story of the destruction of the two giant revolutionary projects of 1958: the union of Egypt and Syria under Nasser’s United Arab Republic and Iraq’s July Revolution that brought Qasim alongside communist allies to power. The rival radical projects of pan-Arabism and communism suffered huge blows. So did Nasser and Qasim, the era’s most significant Arab anti-imperialist leaders. Meanwhile, the Ba’ath, once ideological and idealistic, became increasingly dominated by military men who made the party into an instrument for raw domination.
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Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee scored a smashing victory on April 19, when they voted by a 3-1 margin to join the UAW. That makes Tennessee Volkswagen the first auto plant in the South to unionize by election since the 1940s. While the recent victory was overwhelming, it came only after two bitter organizing defeats for the VW Chattanooga workers, first in 2014 and then in 2019. The organizing victory at VW is one of the single most important wins for U.S. labor in decades, and potentially the start of a much bigger turnaround.
Guest host Barry Eidlin talks to auto workers Yolanda Peoples, Renee Berry, and Victor Vaughn — all deeply involved in the organizing campaign at the Volkswagen Chattanooga plant — about how they organized, how they won, and what comes next.
Barry talked to the Chattanooga workers before the union vote count at the Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama on May 17. While the Volkswagen organizing drive was an amazing success, the workers lost at the Mercedes plant in nearby Alabama, where 56% of workers voted against unionizing after a sophisticated anti-union drive by management with an assist from anti-union local and state officials.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Annelle Sheline talks about her resignation from the State Department as a protest against the war on Gaza. See her statement on Yahoo! News. Plus: Daniel Bessner, author of a recent Harper's cover story, discusses the debasement of screenwriting in Hollywood.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
After inhabiting the White House but before examining the Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin created a show that sought nothing less than to fix the most important American institution of them all: Saturday Night Live. We launch what will eventually become a multi-episode discussion of STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (2006-7). Catch parts two and three on Patreon.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the TENTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment tells the story of Iraq’s 1958 July Revolution: a Free Officers’ coup overthrew the imperialist-aligned Hashemite monarchy and brought nationalist Abdul-Karim Qasim to power alongside a surging Communist Party. Revolutionary currents soon turned against one another, however, as did Qasim and Nasser. Conflict stemmed from serious political and strategic differences, but also petty rivalries and bitter feuds. And in Iraq, class conflict often appeared dressed up in the sectarian and ethnic modalities through which class was lived.
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Quinn Slobodian, who recently wrote a paper about Peter Brimelow, discusses the white supremacist wing of neoliberalism. Derek Seidman looks into the Alabama corporate elite and its terror at the incursion of the UAW. See his recentarticles for Truthout.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online. https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Adam Federman, author of a recent feature for In These Times, talks about the criminalization of protest. Kay Gabriel, who wrote a piece about anti-trans panic for n+1, explains how the right is using that panic to make war on public schools and teachers’ unions.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
In the election year of 2004, an ultraviolent subtitled right-wing Christian movie became a genuine cultural phenomenon and political lightning-rod. We finally discuss THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004) and theology according to Mel Gibson. PLUS: the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Columbia encampment, and the one optimistic takeaway of a discouraging week.
"This Is How Power Protects Itself" by Jack Mirkinson - https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/columbia-ccny-cuny-protest-nypd-police-brutality/
"Mel Gibson's Martyrdom Complex" by Frank Rich - https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/movies/mel-gibson-s-martyrdom-complex.html
"The Gospel According to Mel" by Christopher Hitchens - https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/03/hitchens-201102
The Mel Gibson/Diane Sawyer interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ecnfe530IE
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the NINTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment covers the creation of a Palestinian national liberation movement throughout the 1950s by a people dispersed by the Nakba: organizations, alliances, and theories of change assembled in the universities, cities, and refugee camps surrounding Palestine. We end with the 1959 foundation of Fatah, the first organization for Palestinians led by Palestinians focused first and foremost on Palestinian liberation. This is the story of the beginning of the Palestinian national liberation movement as we have come to know it today.
Buy How to Abolish Prisons: Lessons from the Movement against Imprisonment at haymarketbooks.org
Buy States of the Earth: An Ecological and Racial History of Secularization at Versobooks.com
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During the 1990s, the government of Slobodan Milošević led Serbia into another Balkan war. His allies in Bosnia were responsible for a litany of war crimes, including the massacre at Srebrenica. The war left Serbia itself isolated and impoverished. A protest movement drove Milošević from power in 2000.
Two decades later, Serbia has a president who served under Milošević and supported the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Where is Serbia going under the rule of Aleksandar Vučić?
Lily Lynch, an American journalist who’s been reporting from Belgrade over the last decade, joins to discuss. She’s the editor of Balkanist magazine and she’s written for publications such as New Left Review and the New Statesman.
This week only, Jacobin is offering a special May Day rate on subscriptions. Get a year of the print magazine for just $10! Use code MAYDAY2024: https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2024
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Jacobin is celebrating International Workers’ Day once again with solidarity subscriptions! Since our founding in 2010, we’ve aimed to reach millions with democratic socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture. Our work online — be it podcasts, video, or daily articles — is sustained first and foremost through magazine subscriptions. On May 1st, and a few days after, you can use the code MAYDAY2024 at checkout to get a yearlong digital subscription for just $1, or $10 for the print magazine. This offer also applies to gift subscriptions.
Subscribe here: https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2024
NYC listeners: May 1st (this evening) at 7pm, we're hosting a roundtable talk at The People's Forum about the future of the US labor movement, featuring Alex Press, Paul Prescod, Anthony Rosario, and Nick Livick. The event is free, but please RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jacobin-may-day-event-whats-next-for-us-labor-tickets-884360575287
Jodi Dean talks about being suspended from teaching at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for writing an article the administration didn’t like. Keri Leigh Merritt, who recently wrote an essay for Aeon, discusses the lingering effects of antebellum Southern society. Finally, we hear excerpts from an interview first broadcast in June 2023 with Samuel Bazzi, co-author of a paper about the postbellum South, on the effects of white migration out of the region.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the EIGHTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. A compact introduction to the Movement of Arab Nationalists, which in the 1950s built a presence that stretched across the region, from Beirut and Jordan to Cairo and the Gulf—becoming a truly powerful force in Kuwait. Led in significant part by Palestinians, its early history offers a ground-level look at the organizational and theoretical currents shaping radical Arab politics. It is also the backstory for key Marxist groups that later grew out of the Movement: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, South Yemen’s National Liberation Front, and the Dhofar Liberation Front.
Buy Future of Denial at versobooks.com
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At the end of last year, the French politician Jacques Delors died at the age of 98. Delors is best remembered for his time as president of the European Commission from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. During that time, the European Community became the European Union. The Delors Commission also laid the groundwork for the single currency through the Maastricht Treaty. One of the main ideas associated with Delors was the concept of a “social Europe.”
Our guest today is Aurelie Dianara. She’s a research fellow at the University of Évry in Paris. Her book Social Europe, the Road not Taken: The Left and European Integration in the Long 1970s was published in 2022.
As Aurelie explains, the idea of “social Europe” originated in the crisis of global capitalism during the 1970s. When it was taken up by Delors and his Commission, it lost its radical connotations and eventually became an alibi for the neoliberal framework of the Eurozone.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Yanis Varoufakis talks about being banned in Germany for supporting the Palestinian cause, and then about the transformation he analyzes in his new book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Noura Erakat, Avi Shlaim, Ussama Makdisi, Ilan Pappé, Ghada Ageel Hamdan, and Abdel Razzaq Takriti on the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Recorded at the World Academic Forum for Palestine in Houston. We’ll be back next week with episode eight of Thawra, our rolling series on 20th century Arab radicalisms.
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By the third entry of the God's Not Dead franchise, its creative team had clearly started listening to their critics. The result was a kinder, gentler right-wing Evangelical Christian drama that sought to heal divides... and failed at the box office. We welcome back New Republic writer and our resident God's Not Dead correspondent Alex Shephard to discuss GOD'S NOT DEAD: A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS (2018).
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Heidi Matthews surveys cases against Israel pending at the the World Court. Elijah Wald, author of Jelly Roll Blues, talks about Jelly Roll Morton and the hidden history of early blues music.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the SEVENTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment lays out the the US’s Eisenhower Doctrine, which in 1957 inaugurated a new era of imperialism in the Middle East; the Ba’ath Party driving Syria and Egypt into the United Arab Republic, a superstate under Nasser’s rule, in 1958; and, later that year, Eisenhower landing US Marines in Lebanon, the first American combat operation in the region.
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Buy Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat at versobooks.com
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For seven weeks in 1936 and 1937, workers at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan held a risky sit-down strike. A true David vs. Goliath story, their strike won recognition for the United Auto Workers and changed labor in the United States forever. With a newer UAW strike fresh in the memory, we discuss the BBC documentary THE GREAT SIT-DOWN (1976).
Watch The Great Sit-Down - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Py_vNt4fc
See Will introduce Gamera: Super Monster at the Fox Theatre in Toronto on April 16 - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/important-cinema-club-gamera-super-monster/
"Joe Lieberman? Really?" by Branko Marcetic - https://jacobin.com/2018/07/joe-lieberman-democratic-party-conservative-left
"Sam Bankman-Fried will grow old in jail. But don’t forget those who basked in his orbit" by Aditya Chakrabortty - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/28/sam-bankman-fried-jail-ftx-money
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Trita Parsi explains why Israel is trying to expand its war to Iran and Hezbollah. Natasha Lennard analyzes the Zionist appropriation of leftish “safe space” discourse. And Stefan Yong explores the structure of the global shipping industry in light of the Baltimore bridge disaster.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
J. B. S. Haldane was one of the great scientific minds of the twentieth century. He played an important role in the development of genetics and the theory of evolution. Haldane was also a tireless political campaigner who gravitated towards the communist movement in the 1930s and 40s. His public career makes for a fascinating case study on the relationship between politics and science.
Samanth Subramanian joins Long Reads to discuss the life of Haldane. Samanth, a journalist from India who’s now based in London, is the author of several books, including the 2019 biography A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.
Pankaj Mishra, author of a recent article for the London Review of Books, "The Shoah after Gaza," talks about the propaganda-induced debasement of the Holocaust. Nancy Folbre, co-author of a recent report on household economic well-being, discusses assigning a monetary value to care work.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the SIXTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment lays out the intensification of the Cold War across the Middle East. Western imperialist powers attempted to recruit Arab countries to the Baghdad Pact, a Middle Eastern NATO. Nasser rallied the Arab masses in opposition, becoming an anti-imperialist icon. In 1956, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. In response, the British, French, and Israelis attacked Egypt. But Nasser and Arab anti-imperialism won the day.
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Suzi talks to Ilya Matveev about the recent election in Russia giving Putin a fifth term in power—an election he argues was stage-managed from above. Matveev discusses how the Putin government, with increasing nationalist propaganda, has stepped up repression and persecution of critical voices against the war in Ukraine. He talks about Kremlin policy of silencing independent media, stopping public displays of opposition, and detaining critics with large prison sentences. While the economy hasn’t tanked—the war has provided a source for military Keynesianism—Matveev insists that Putin's ability to order an exact electoral result is a sign of weakness, not stability. The horrific terror attack of March 22 underscores that Putin is not managing everything well, even though he has cynically used the attack to blame Ukraine.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
For decades, a cottage industry flourished in the subterranean depths of the American music industry: send a company your poem, and, for a fee, they'll turn it into a song. Maybe the song will even be your entryway into the industry and the Billboard charts! But most assuredly it will not be. Was this industry exploitative? Did it produce art? What even is "art" anyway? We tackle all these questions and more as we discuss the documentary OFF THE CHARTS: THE SONG-POEM STORY (2003).
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
David Moore outlines how AIPAC is using GOP contributors’ money to go after progressive Democrats. Meron Rapoport discusses how Schumer and the ICJ are being received in Israel. Jamieson Webster speaks about the social aspects of mental disorder among the young.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the FIFTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment lays out the early years of a struggle for Syria that would decisively shape the Arab world: the fight for independence from France, the first (CIA-backed) coup of 1949, and the rise of the Ba’ath and Communist movements.
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Buy The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Wont Save the Planet at versobooks.com
Buy Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism at haymarketbooks.org
Robert Fatton explains Haiti’s further descent into poverty and chaos. Steve Fraser, author of a recent article for Jacobin, analyzes and mourns the death of any sense of a better future.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
In 1991, over 100 of the the most famous singers, movie stars, an athletes in America got together to record a song for the troops in the first Gulf War. We take a visit to the consent-manufacturing factory and discuss the "apolitical" James Woods-hosted TV special VOICES THAT CARE: STAND TALL, STAND PROUD (1991).
Watch the special here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ1S_UNaWps
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Vijay Prashad explains how the North American and European bourgeoisies have become a spent force with nothing to offer the world. Volodymyr Ishchenko, author of Toward the Abyss, talks about Ukraine during and after the USSR.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Against the backdrop of the incredibly boring 2000 election, the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman went on a cross-country journey to see if George W. Bush or Al Gore represented America. The result was THE PARTY'S OVER (2001), aka THE LAST PARTY 2000 — that's right, it's an official sequel to the Robert Downey Jr-hosted documentary. We found many resonances between this fossil from the turn of the millennium and our current moment. PLUS: The Democratic Party primary, the fascist Italian Prime Minister in Canada, and a fond farewell to David Bordwell.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to Warren Montag, professor at Occidental College, who was recently targeted for his talk at a college forum about Israel’s war on Gaza and issues it has raised in the US. The specific topic was one Warren had spoken on numerous times since the first Intifada: Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. In retaliation, the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) campaigned to get him fired.
We hear Warren's personal testimony, his view on the history of Jewish opposition to Zionism, and his understanding of how the very discussion of anti-Semitism has become weaponized to discredit and silence critics of Israeli policy. What does this campaign of intimidation and retaliation mean for freedom of expression and inquiry, especially in an atmosphere of book-banning, harassment of librarians, teachers, professors and critics?
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
This final episode of Organize the Unorganized offers key lessons from the CIO moment. We asked all of our guests about this basic question, and these are their answers. The negative lessons—points where guests were keen to note the differences between the '30s and the present moment—focused on the changed economic situation and the issue of labor law. The more positive lessons dealt with union democracy, overcoming divisions in the working class, mass organizing, raising expectations, and seizing the moment.
This is the series finale. Find episode one, and all the other episodes, on the web or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-9-lessons
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the FOURTH episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment lays out the politics surrounding the Zionist settler colonial destruction of Palestine, the Nakba of 1948, and the ground-shifting event that followed in its wake: the Nasser-led 1952 Egyptian Free Officers Movement coup that would set the tone for two decades of revolutionary nationalism across the region. Also: the Soviet camp’s support for the colonial partition of Palestine and its calamitous impact on powerful Arab communist parties.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin
Buy Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, Vol. 1 at haymarketbooks.org/books/2096-abolition
From the HIV/AIDS crisis, to the opioid epidemic, to the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmaceutical corporations have been accused of profiteering at the expense of countless lives. Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now and the author of a new book called Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Public Health, joins Long Reads to discuss an industry that exploits public research and denies crucial medicine to poor countries.
Read another interview with Nick on the Jacobin website, "Big Pharma Reaps Massive Profits by Ripping Off Public Research and Weaponizing Patents": https://jacobin.com/2024/01/big-pharma-profit-public-research-patents-intellectual-property
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Historian Donna Murch, author of Living for the City, takes on some myths about the Black Panther Party. Saadia Toor and Rabia Mehmood discuss Pakistan.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
The eighth, penultimate episode of Organize the Unorganized concludes the main story of the CIO. We cover the organization’s communist purge in the late 1940s and Operation Dixie, the failed campaign to organize workers in the south. We end with the merger with the AFL in 1955 and the afterlife of the CIO in the Industrial Union Department, which made important contributions to the civil rights movement.
Listen to the final, ninth episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-09-lessons
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-8-is-there-an-ending-to-the-cio
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the THIRD episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment is a comprehensive overview of the Middle Eastern Arab state system that crystalizes with the end of British and French colonial rule.
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Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Buy Environmentalism from Below: How Global People’s Movements are Leading the Fight for our Planet at haymarketbooks.org/books/2101-environmentalism-from-below
Chilean writer and activist Pablo Abufom spoke at UCLA on February 23, 2024 about how the October 2019 social revolt in Chile propelled Gabriel Boric to power, created a Constituent Assembly to write a new Constitution, but was then defeated, with reactionary neo-fascist forces now ascendant. Pablo Abufom was deeply involved in the social protest movement of October 2019, and has been on this podcast many times to discuss and analyze the revolt, the failure of the constitutional process, and the demobilizing effects of the pandemic.
In this talk, Pablo attempts to explain larger political and social phenomena on a global scale from the Latin American experience. Why did the wave of revolts between 2018 and 2020 fail to go further, and what accounts for the rise of neo-fascism everywhere, most recently in Argentina?
Pablo asks what can we learn from the Latin American revolts of the last five years and admits it is a tragic question; we ask it after being defeated or at least after the revolts were paralyzed by the power of ruling elites amid Covid-19. Cesar Bowey Castillo adds to the discussion with his analysis of the 2021 Colombian uprising, looking at how the various fragments of the working class and urban poor mobilized there. Suzi comments on Pablo's understanding of how the struggle for a dignified life moved people into the streets spontaneously, what did or did not emerge in terms of organizational forms, and how he sees that perennial, historical question of leadership and political mediation.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the second episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment lays out early 20th-century anti-colonialism: from the Iraqi, Syrian, and Palestinian Great Revolts, to the birth of Arab nationalism, Islamic resistance, Ba'athism, and communism.
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The early period of the CIO arguably ended with the Little Steel strike in 1937. The strike's brutal repression and failure dramatically illustrated the limits of the New Deal order. But the CIO continued to grow through the 1940s during the war escalation. Episode seven of Organize the Unorganized is devoted to the CIO's role in and relation to the war effort, and what it meant for this labor upsurge.
Listen to the eighth episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-08-is-there-an-end-to-the-cio
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-7-war
Jeet Heer, author of a recent article for The Nation, discusses Indian Americans in politics and society. Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno, authors of The Fall and Rise of American Finance, takes on the new finance capital.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html.
In 1987, America was ready to look back on the Vietnam War... with laughter. We discuss GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (1987) and why it is one of the quintessential "boomer liberal" texts. PLUS: We check in on the state of Canadian politics (it's not good, folks).
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Over the last four months, the Israeli war on Gaza has spilled over into the rest of the Middle East, from Lebanon to Iraq. But the most dramatic example has been the link between events in Palestine and Yemen. Ansar Allah, the movement known as the Houthis, imposed a blockade on ships going to Israel until there was a ceasefire. In response, the US and the UK have carried out air strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen. The Houthis say they won’t be deterred by military action.
Helen Lackner, one of the leading experts on modern Yemen and the author of several books about the country, returns to Long Reads to discuss the recent actions of the Houthis. The interview was recorded on Tuesday, February 20th.
Hear our previous episode with Helen, on the history of Yemen, from 2021: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/619be5d09c63710019611394
Read her recent articles for Jacobin here: https://jacobin.com/author/helen-lackner
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
There are many markers showing February 2024 to be a landmark month of cruelty — not least in Gaza, but also in Russia, where we turn our focus today. The slow murder of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the Arctic Circle penal colony Kharp on Friday, February 16, signals a turning point for Putin’s Russia and underscores both the Kremlin’s power and weakness.
We cover the turmoil in Russia in the lead-up to the March 2024 rubber-stamp presidential election. We were scheduled to speak to Boris Kagarlitsky, but, on February 13, Kagarlitsky’s appeal trial took place. He had been arrested in July 2024 for his criticism of Kremlin policy and opposition to the war in Ukraine. Kagarlitsky spent four and a half months in pretrial detention in the far northern Republic of Komi and was freed in December 2024. On February 13, the December verdict was overturned. Kagarlitsky was whisked from the courtroom into custody to begin serving five years in a penal colony. Three days later, on February 16, Alexei Navalny died.
Suzi speaks to Russian dissident activists and scholars Ilya Budraitskis and Grusha G. to get their understanding of these events. Budraitskis says Navalny is a man the regime truly feared, and they subjected him to a slow, cowardly murder, drawn out over many months. The Marxist critic Boris Kagarlitsky is now in their hands — and international solidarity is required. This is happening in the context of an election and the upcoming 2nd anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, when the Kremlin looks to portray Russians as united behind Putin.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the first episode of Thawra (Revolution), our rolling mini-series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment sets the stage: European imperialism in the Arab Mashriq from the late 18th century through the early 20th.
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Gerald Epstein, author of Busting the Bankers’ Club, discusses the finance racket and how to transform it. Anna Kornbluh, author of Immediacy, examines our sped-up, unmediated cultural eternal present.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html.
On episode six of Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO, we go deeper into some of the key CIO unions: the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the Textile Workers Organizing Committee (TWOC), and the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee (PWOC). There were many other unions that formed the CIO — in oil, printing, transport, and other areas — but these four were some of the biggest and most influential.
Listen to the seventh episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-07-war
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-6-from-the-docks-to-the-killing-floors
We discuss THE MENU (2022) and its place in the context of the current wave of "eat the rich" cinema. PLUS: we discuss Walter Isaacson's new hagiography of Elon Musk, and Joe Biden's wildly successful "I'm fit for office" press conference.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Ajay Singh Chaudhary talks about his new book, The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World. Matt Notowidigdo, co-author of a recent NBER paper, examines how recessions increase life expectancy.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html.
If you think about the French revolutionary tradition, you’re most likely to picture the storming of the Bastille and the overthrow of the monarchy. But that wasn’t the first time there was a major uprising against the established order in France. In the second half of the fourteenth century, there was a popular revolt known as the Jacquerie, which terrified the French ruling class. They drowned the revolt in blood and set about demonizing the peasants who took part in it. It was only in the wake of a successful revolution four centuries later that historians began taking a fresh look at the Jacquerie.
Long Reads is joined by Justine Firnhaber-Baker to discuss this uprising. She's a professor of history at the University of St Andrews and the author of The Jacquerie of 1358: A French Peasants’ Revolt. Published in 2021, the book was the first major study of the Jacquerie since the nineteenth century.
Read her article for Jacobin, "The Jacquerie Was a Great Popular Rebellion Against the Rich Nobles of France" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/09/jacquerie-peasant-revolt-france-middle-ages-class-conflict-nobility
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Luke Messac on Your Money or Your Life: Debt Collection in American Medicine. An estimated 100 million people in the US are in debt because they sought medical treatment. Medical debt exacerbates poor and working-class people's physical and psychological suffering while undermining their financial well-being and freedom.
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Are commercial considerations always doomed to taint art? And are commercial considerations really a taint? We discuss Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's meta-movie ADAPTATION (2002) and the artist/hack dichotomy. PLUS: We mark the passing of the world's most famous minimalist sculptor and murder suspect.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Episode five of Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO examines the Little Steel strike in the summer of 1937. It was a tragic failure for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee and the CIO, one that illustrates the limits of the New Deal order. The Little Steel strike was in many ways a turning point, a key hinge in our story. To fully understand it, we also delve into the general history of steel organizing in the US, a fantastically brutal affair that reveals the soul of American capitalism.
Listen to the sixth episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-06-docks-to-the-killing-floors
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-5-little-steel
Ed Broadbent died January 11, 2024. Suzi speaks with the co-authors of Ed's recent book, Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality. We also hear clips from Ed during his long political career.
Ed was the very popular leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Canada, first elected to the House of Commons in 1968 from Oshawa, Ontario, and always at the forefront of the parliamentary struggle for democratic socialism. Ed was also Vice President of the Socialist International. In 2011, he founded the Broadbent Institute, a think tank. Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality isn’t a memoir per se: Ed thought most political memoirs ended up being self-serving and self-justifying. He wanted to discuss the ideas he tried to exemplify and win while he was leader of the NDP in Parliament and afterwards with the Broadbent Institute. To do this, he engaged in dialogue with three collaborators, Carleton University Professor Frances Abele, policy analyst Jonathan Sas, and Jacobin writer Luke Savage, each from different generations. They dive deep into the theory and practice of social democracy.
In the postscript to the book, Ed leaves us with an enduring vision and his hopes for what is to be done to build the good society for today and the future. He writes: "To be humane, societies must be democratic—and to be democratic, every person must be afforded the economic and social rights necessary for their individual flourishing... Social democracy alone offers the foundation upon which the lives of people everywhere can be made dignified, just, and exciting."
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Sean Jacobs explores why South Africa brought the genocide case against Israel. Eric Blanc, who wrote a recent piece about sprawl and the suburbs, talks about organizing in a scattered and atomized society. Hassan El-Tayyab discusses the widening war in the Middle East.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online at https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html.
Featuring Emily Dische-Becker on how Germany became attached to a wildly narcissistic anti-antisemitism and Israeli proxy nationalism that have made it one of the most anti-Palestinian governments on earth.
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Buy Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine before the Nakba at haymarketbooks.org/books/2325-against-erasure
How was it that the CIO was finally able to make good on the decades-old dream of industrial unionism? In the fourth episode of Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO, we outline two more factors, alongside political opportunities and organizational militancy, that were key to the CIO’s success. First, we look at the great energy and commitment of the left toward the stable end of collective bargaining. Then we discuss what podcast guest Lizabeth Cohen has called the “culture of unity” bred by the CIO.
Listen to the fifth episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-05-little-steel
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode at https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-4-taking-stock.
The world can't stop discoursing about it. Hillary Clinton herself has championed it. And our superdelegate patrons specifically requested it. It's time for us to turn our attention to the most discussed movie of the past year, BARBIE (2023). PLUS: We bid a fond farewell to Ron DeSanctimonious.
Seeking Social Democracy, the book Luke coauthored with Ed Broadbent, is available here: https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbent
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
At least 26,000 people are now estimated to have been killed by Israel’s war on Gaza, although the real figure is believed to be even higher. The main legal challenge to Israel’s war has come from South Africa at the International Court of Justice. The court published its first response to the South African case on Friday, January 26th.
John Reynolds, professor of law at Maynooth University and author of Empire, Emergency, and International Law, joined Long Reads the day of the court response to discuss the case.
Read John's Jacobin essay, coauthored with Noura Erakat, about South Africa’s submission to the ICJ: https://jacobin.com/2024/01/south-africa-icj-isarel-gaza
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Shireen Al-Adeimi of Michigan State and the Quincy Institute discusses the Houthis. Political scientist Aurélie Daher gives another view of Hezbollah.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online at https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html.
Featuring Helen Lackner on the Houthis, the politics of their attacks on Red Sea shipping, and the long history of Yemen from British colonial Aden through the current civil war.
Read Helen's articles for Jacobin jacobin.com/author/helen-lackner
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On the third episode of Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO, we examine the first major victories of the CIO in rubber, auto, and steel. The story begins at the Goodyear complex in Akron, Ohio, where a victorious strike put the CIO on the map. We turn to the General Motors strike in the winter of 1937, a transformational victory and perhaps the most iconic confrontation of the period. Finally, we hear about an important steel organizing campaign, whose success was drawn in part from the threatening militancy of the CIO.
Listen to the fourth episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-taking-stock
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-3-sit-down
Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative discusses ankle bracelets and electronic monitoring. Joseph Daher, author of Hezbollah: The Political Economy of the Party of God, delves into that demonized organization.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive at https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html.
On the second episode of Organized the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO, we discuss the institutional formation of the CIO and meet some of the organization’s key personalities. We learn about figures such as John L. Lewis, whose bold leadership came at a decisive moment in history, and Sidney Hillman, the only other real center of power besides Lewis in the early CIO. Finally, we hear about some of the CIO’s key organizers, most of whom hailed from the United Mine Workers of America.
Listen to the third episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-03-sit-down
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode at https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/episode-2-powerful-personalities.
Political scientist Jacqueline Behrend examines Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei. Then Benjamin Fong, author of Quick Fixes, talks about Americans’ love-hate relationship with drugs.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive at leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html.
Featuring Ashley Mears on her book Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit. Mears, a sociologist and former fashion model, explores the super-elite "models and bottles" party scene where beautiful young women and conspicuous consumption heighten the status of rich men.
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Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15. A special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin
Your coworkers are spying on you. Your boss won't let you keep the expired food. The coffeeshop is charging you an arm and a leg to rent a laptop. In Aki Kaurismäki's funny and wonderful FALLEN LEAVES (2023), can a budding romance survive the everyday indignities of life under capitalism? PLUS: What would a British West Wing look like?
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
On episode one of Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO, we explore the conditions that led to the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. We first dive into the history of the organization from which the CIO broke off, the American Federation of Labor. Then, we discuss three key developments that raised workers’ expectations in the lead-up to the CIO’s inauguration: the broken promises of welfare capitalism, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the mass strikes of 1934.
Hear the next episode here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/organize-the-unorganized-02-powerful-personalities
Find all the episodes on the web, or by searching for "Organize the Unorganized" on your podcast app.
Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO is a limited-run history podcast telling the story of the CIO through the voices of labor historians. Hosted by Benjamin Y. Fong and produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University with Jacobin. Find the full show notes for this episode at https://soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized/under-the-blue-eagle.
Suzi talks to Boris Kagarlitsky, Russian left intellectual writer-activist, just two weeks after he won his release from over four months in pre-trial custody. Kagarlitsky was arrested in Moscow on July 25 by the FSB, the Russian secret police, and taken more than 800 miles north to the city of Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic, where the local FSB opened a criminal case against him. He was accused of justifying terrorism, ostensibly for comments that he posted months earlier on social media regarding the attack on the Crimean Bridge. Even pro-Kremlin commentators were surprised at how far-fetched the accusations were. The state has imposed increasingly draconian charges and sentences for even minor anti-war activities, arresting thousands.
Kagarlitsky's arrest was part of a coordinated attack on the online journal and popular YouTube channel that Kagarlitsky edits, Рабкор.ру (Workers Correspondent). The Russian Socialist Movement saw Kagarlitsky’s arrest as an attack on the whole left movement in Russia, and a huge movement to free Boris emerged all over Russia and the world in response.
Kagarlitsky’s trial opened on December 11 in Syktyvkar and lasted two days. The prosecution and the FSB demanded five and a half years in prison. Kagarlitsky’s lawyer argued that “the charges against Boris were absurd, Kagarlitsky never supported or justified terrorism. The purpose of all his speeches is an attempt to show the real problems that the Russian state faces.” In a total surprise, the Russian authorities conceded to public opinion and the demands of thousands of scientists, researchers, artists, politicians, trade union members, and political activists from around the world. Kagarlitsky was found guilty, fined 600 thousand rubles (about $6600), banned from editing any media outlet or webpage for two years, and set free. The next day Rabkor held a crowdfunding event and 700,000 rubles was raised within an hour.
We are fortunate to have Boris Kagarlitsky with us to tell the story.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Ussama Makdisi on how Western colonialism and Zionism exploited, exacerbated, and imposed sectarianism across the Arab Middle East. This is the SECOND of a two-part interview.
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Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible
Samuel Moyn, law professor and historian, discusses the political and legal dubiousness of excluding Trump from the presidential ballot. Labor journalist Alex Press talks about the year in labor. See her Jacobin article, "In 2023, the US Working Class Fought Back" here.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
This is another special episode of Long Reads looking at Israel’s war on Gaza. Our focus today is on the politics of the Biden administration and its backing for Israel. Joe Biden and his team are still giving their firm support to Benjamin Netanyahu as he talks about a war lasting for “many months." With a presidential election due in the fall, there appear to be strong echoes of Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam in 1968.
Akbar Shahid Ahmed is the senior diplomatic correspondent for the Huffington Post. He’s been following Biden’s policy and the dissent among US government officials. We spoke on Tuesday, January 2nd, shortly after an Israeli bomb attack that killed a Hamas leader in Beirut, sparking fears of a wider escalation.
Find his coverage of Gaza here: https://www.huffpost.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmed
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
We kick off 2024 by raiding the fridge for some holiday leftovers. It's become an annual tradition on this podcast to try to extract ideology from Tim Allen's "Santa Clause" franchise. With THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE (2006), we hit the motherlode.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
There have been many moments of labor upsurge in America: the influx of members into the Knights of Labor in 1886, the dramatic growth of unions during and after World War I, and the great wave of public sector unionism in the 1960s and ‘70s. But none matches the period of the 1930s and ‘40s, when millions of workers unionized under the aegis of the great labor federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO. If we’re looking to get millions of private-sector workers into the labor movement today, there’s no better example than the ascendant period of the CIO.
In Organize the Unorganized, a podcast produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University and Jacobin, author Benjamin Y. Fong tells the story of the CIO with the help of prominent labor historians, including Nelson Lichtenstein, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Steve Fraser, Erik Loomis, Jeremy Brecher, Robert Cherny, Lizabeth Cohen, David Brody, Melvyn Dubofsky, and others. The multi-part series begins with a short history of the organization from which the CIO broke off, the American Federation of Labor, and explores central causes for the CIO’s founding: the broken promises of welfare capitalism, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the mass strikes of 1934.
Organize the Unorganized will be available weekly here on Jacobin Radio starting January 9. Subscribe and join us as we explore the rise, importance, and legacy of this crucial labor federation.
Gabriel Hetland has just published his study of populist experiments in Venezuela and Bolivia, Democracy on the Ground, showing the complexity of implementing participatory democracy at the grassroots level. Suzi talks to him about his findings. He examines the possibilities, limits, and concrete cases of participatory democracy, including participatory budgeting at the local level during the highpoint of Latin America’s Left Turn in the 2010s. Hetland's study immediately begs the question: what kind of democracy? It’s a pertinent question here in the US, where democracy is under threat.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Ussama Makdisi on the late Ottoman Empire's Arab culture of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish coexistence—an ecumenical frame that was interrupted by European colonialism and Zionism, which exacerbated and exploited sectarianism. This is the first of a two-part interview.
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If society outlawed emotions, could we stop all war and conflict? This is the very, very stupid question at the heart of EQUILIBRIUM (2002), the dystopian extravaganza that introduced the world to the art of "gun kata."
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Environmental journalist Tina Gerhardt analyzes the recently concluded COP28 environmental summit, where limited good intentions were uttered and oil contracts were signed. Historian Forrest Hylton talks about Javier Milei, the new libertarian, authoritarian president of Argentina.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
If anyone thinks about medieval Flanders today, it’s most likely because they have an interest in the art of painters like Bruegel and Rubens. But Flanders also pioneered the art of class warfare. There was nowhere else in Europe during the Middle Ages where the popular classes posed such an effective challenge to aristocratic power. At its high point during the early fourteenth century, this wave of popular mobilization defeated some of Europe’s most powerful armies.
Jan Dumolyn, professor of history at Ghent University, joins Long Reads to talk about the social conditions behind this wave of uprisings.
You can read Jan's piece for Jacobin, "Flanders Was the Epicenter of Class Conflict in Medieval Europe," here: https://jacobin.com/2023/07/flanders-class-conflict-medieval-europe-feudalism
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Joel Schalit, editor of The Battleground, discusses what it is in Israeli politics and society that’s behind the carnage in Gaza. Amy Schiller, author of The Price of Humanity, looks at what’s wrong with philanthropy and how to fix it.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
The French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte have inspired a lot of takes... so, of course, you can depend on Ridley Scott to find the least imaginative one. We discuss his lugubrious NAPOLEON (2023). PLUS: An update on Canadian politics, and some thoughts on the man who may be Prime Minsiter, Pierre Poilievre.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Shaul Magid on post-1948 Jewish Zionism and Jewish anti-Zionism—including today's new generation of young, militant, left-wing, anti-Zionist American Jews and the Jewish establishment's quixotic efforts to deny and disavow them. PART TWO of a two-part interview.
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Join Jewish Voice for Peace jewishvoiceforpeace.org/join-us
Buy The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation at Versobooks.com
Buy Let Them Eat Crypto at plutobooks.com
In the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq War, HBO made a movie about the lead-up to the first Gulf War, from the perspective of its most important factor: CNN. In LIVE FROM BAGHDAD (2002), Michael Keaton and his team of CNN reporters are Davids against the Goliaths that are establishment media... and the Iraqi security state. We discuss a mind-bogglingly awful piece of American propaganda from the Bush era.
Richard Seymour on CNN and Iraq - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrGcK6XInE&ab_channel=TeleSUREnglish
Luke's interview with Tantoo Cardinal - https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/youve-got-to-crash-a-door-and-fail-and-get-back-up-canadas-most-recognizable/article_729f94ea-8ec2-11ee-843c-733c6d38c787.html
Luke's review of Werner Herzog's memoir - https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/werner-herzogs-new-memoir-is-as-complicated-and-fascinating-as-the-filmmaker-himself/article_92daad66-8ed7-11ee-9628-9345052d7cc2.html
Will's new zine, "The Journal of Stoogeological Studies" - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPM5JBPB
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Trita Parsi discusses the global context of the Gaza war. James Bamford, author of a recent article for The Nation, investigates how Israel spies on US campuses. And Alberto Toscano, author of Late Fascism, talks about the latest iteration of the rough beast.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Alan Minsky, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, spoke with Israeli historian and Genocide Studies scholar Omer Bartov at a public forum this week about the Israel/Gaza crisis. Bartov published two widely read pieces in November: "What I Believe as a Historian of Genocide,"New York Times, November 10, and "A political stalemate led to the bloodshed in the Middle East. Only a political settlement can truly end it," published in the Guardian November 29. Their conversation focuses on the necessity of relaunching serious negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to achieve a just, long-term, political solution to the 75-year conflict in Israel/Palestine, a demand they insist activists and the left in general should foreground immediately. Professor Bartov puts forward his proposal for a political solution that Alan Minsky describes as a “Confederated State Solution, neither a one-state nor a two-state solution, but something in-between.”
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Shaul Magid on the long history of Jewish Zionism and its antagonist, Jewish anti-Zionism. Defenders of Israel defame anti-Zionists as antisemites. In fact, today's growing ranks of anti-Zionist Jews draw on a powerful and diverse tradition.
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The estimated number of Palestinians killed or missing in the occupied territories since this war began is now 24,000 people — twenty times as many Israelis as were killed on October 7th. US government officials claim to have privately told Israel that it “must do more to limit civilian casualties” as the focus of the operation moves south. However, there is no evidence of any change in Israel's approach as the focus shifts from northern to southern Gaza and the relentless bombardment of civilian targets continues.
Palestinian academic Bashir Abu-Manneh joins for another special episode of Long Reads to discuss the latest developments in Israel's war on Gaza. Bashir is a reader in Postcolonial Literature at the University of Kent and the author of The Palestinian Novel: From 1948 to the Present. He’s also a contributing editor at Jacobin who’s written many articles for us about Palestinian politics, including, most recently, "Israel Can’t Win Peace Militarily. Palestinian Democracy Is the Solution." https://jacobin.com/2023/11/israel-us-gaza-postwar-plan-nakba-palestinian-democracy
Other articles and videos mentioned in the podcast:
Josh Paul on CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5106v4b05I
Washington Post, "White House grapples with internal divisions on Israel-Gaza" by Yasmeen Abutaleb and John Hudson: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/26/biden-white-house-divisions-israel-gaza/
+972, "‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza" by Yuval Abraham: https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/
Al-Shabaka, "An Inevitable Rupture: Al-Aqsa Flood and the End of Partition" by Tareq Baconi: https://al-shabaka.org/commentaries/an-inevitable-rupture-al-aqsa-flood-and-the-end-of-partition/
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Ed Harris is a senator with presidential ambitions. Diane Keaton is the love of his life, but uncomfortable in politics. And with the White House in his grasp, his campaign is about to be rattled by a very, very stupid revelation from her past. We discuss Michael Lindsay-Hogg's RUNNING MATES (1992), a movie that emerged straight from the primordial ooze of the 1992 election cycle.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Leigh Claire La Berge, author of Marx for Cats, talks about political economy and the human–feline relationship. Then an interview with Michael Zweig, author of Class, Race, and Gender, on understanding capitalism in order to transform it.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
The old saying goes that "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." But it helps if the men are very, very stupid. We discuss Martin Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, in which the architect of a Native American genocide finds an easy pawn in one of the lowest-IQ protagonists in movie history.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Mohammed el-Kurd on Palestine. A short but expansive interview.
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Featuring Richard Seymour on the global politics of the Palestinian struggle and Israel’s war on Gaza. The *second* of a two-part interview.
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Christopher Ketcham, author of this Harper's article, gives us a look inside the mind of an “ecoterrorist”. Neve Gordon discusses what dynamics in Israeli society have led to the acceptance of bombing hospitals.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here.
For centuries, the English Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 only appeared in the historical record through bitterly hostile sources. Medieval chroniclers like Froissart presented it as a terrifying eruption of savagery from the lower classes. But the rise of modern social movements organizing workers and farmers encouraged historians to take a fresh look at this early challenge to aristocratic power.
Dominic Alexander, historian and the author of Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages, joins Long Reads to discuss this revolt and a much earlier one, in the twelfth century, led by a man called William Longbeard. While Longbeard was defeated, he has a strong claim to be recognized as England’s first social revolutionary.
Find Dominic's articles, "William Longbeard Was England’s First Revolutionary Leader" and "The English Peasants’ Revolt Gave Birth to a Revolutionary Tradition," on the Jacobin website.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Richard Seymour on the global politics of the Palestinian struggle and Israel's war on Gaza. The first of a two-part interview.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution at haymarketbooks.org/books/2111-ireland-colonialism-and-the-unfinished-revolution
Buy Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism at haymarketbooks.org/books/2098-care
Anatol Lieven discusses the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and the global standing of United States power. Ilyana Kuziemko and Suresh Naidu, co-authors of a recent paper on "economic policy and partisan realignment" in the US, talk about class differences in economic policy preferences ("predistributionist" vs. redistributionist).
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein returns to Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman to talk about the Tentative Agreements (TAs) the United Auto Workers (UAW) reached—still to be ratified—with the Big Three auto companies after six weeks on strike. It was the first time the UAW hit the Detroit Three at once. As Nelson wrote in his recent Jacobin piece, the UAW strike victory is historic and transformative, ending a forty-three-year era of concession bargaining and labor movement defeat. “With its successful strike, the UAW has broken with decades of concessions, won on pay and workplace democracy, and launched a new national labor leader. There’s much more organizing to be done, but this is an unmitigated victory for the entire working class.” We talk to Nelson about the transformative nature of this victory—the best news in the world today—and get his broader perspective on what it means for American politics and the working class writ large.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
What if Britain's notorious right-wing GB News channel gave fading comedy hero and current "anti-woke" nuisance John Cleese a weekly show to do whatever he wants? Folks... the results may surprise you. We discuss the first few episodes THE DINOSAUR HOUR, the Monty Python legend's baffling new show. PLUS: Checking in on the Doug Burgum and Chris Christie campaign juggernauts.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Beverly Gage on her masterful biography G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. Guest hosted by Micah Uetricht.
The Dig is an essential political education project. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig.
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Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible
Amjad Iraqi talks about what it’s like to be a Palestinian citizen of Israel—and what the Israeli state has in mind for Gaza. Georgi Derluguian, author of a recent guest essay in the Times, analyzes how the expulsion of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh exemplifies a new world disorder.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
For the week of Halloween, we offer a fond nod of the hat to our old, old friend Count Dracula by discussing NOSFERATU, PHANTOM DER NACHT (1979). And because we've both just read Werner Herzog's new autobiography, we discuss how its depiction of science versus the unknown fits squarely into the larger Herzog project. PLUS: More reflections on the crisis in Gaza. This podcast was originally broadcast October 31st.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
This is another special episode of Long Reads about Israel’s war on Gaza. Dan spoke to Rashid Khalidi, one of the leading historians of modern Palestine, on Monday, October 30th.
Last week, Joe Biden used a press conference at the White House to cast doubt on the casualty figures from Gaza. Neither Biden nor the White House offered any evidence to justify their alleged skepticism. An article in the Huffington Post showed that the State Department had been perfectly willing to rely on casualty figures from the Gaza health ministry in the last few weeks. The UN and other international bodies have also found those figures to be reliable. In response to Biden, Gaza's health ministry published a list of almost 7,000 people whose bodies had been identified up to that point. Reporters from the Interceptshowed that the list was a credible source of information. They looked in particular at a single Palestinian family that had lost more than forty people since the Israeli offensive began.
In the context of what Israel has been doing over the past few weeks, the comments from Joe Biden were a green light for more violence against Palestinian civilians. The Israeli military received the message loud and clear: Yesterday it carried out a major attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing dozens of people. Israel bombed the refugee camp again today.
Find a lightly edited transcript of this interview here: https://jacobin.com/2023/10/rashid-khalidi-biden-netanyahu-palestine-israeli-occupation-hamas-war
And for more on the historical background, see Rashid's book The Hundred Years' War on Palestine.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Rami Khouri, a Palestinian American journalist and scholar, analyzes the war in Gaza. Evelyn McDonnell, author of The World According to Joan Didion, talks about the life and work of a groundbreaking writer.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Tareq Baconi on the history of Hamas. This is the context we need. And it is precisely what mainstream discourse mystifies, denies, and disavows.
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Contribute to Palestinian relief:
Buy Light in Gaza at haymarketbooks.org/books/1885-light-in-gaza
Buy Palestine: A Socialist Introduction at haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-socialist-introduction
Stephanie Ross outlines the UAW’s innovative strike strategy against the Big Three automakers. Christopher Morten and Amy Kapczynski discuss how corporate America profits off publicly funded research and how to stop them from doing that.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
This episode is The Dig's Palestine Teach-In. The most informative clips from our archives on Palestine and Israel.
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Check out our excellent newsletters—sent to you by email if you support us on Patreon thedigradio.com/newsletter
Donate now to support Gaza relief pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief
Buy Ten Myths About Israel at https://www.versobooks.com/products/370-ten-myths-about-israel
Buy An Enemy Such As This at www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2106-an-enemy-such-as-this
With the crisis in Gaza on our minds, we spend a little time with one of the most acclaimed Palestinian filmmakers, Elia Suleiman, and his lovely film IT MUST BE HEAVEN (2019).
"We Cannot Cross Until We Carry Each Other" by Arielle Angel - https://jewishcurrents.org/we-cannot-cross-until-we-carry-each-other
Order Luke's new book Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality coauthored with Ed Broadbent - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbent
TORONTO: See Luke and Ed Broadbent in conversation at the Toronto Reference Library on October 22 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/seeking-social-democracy-a-conversation-with-ed-broadbent-tickets-713793665067
VANCOUVER: See Luke and Ed at the Central Library on November 1 - https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/events/650b36ea2d0219cf8b5cf95f
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Noura Erakat and Arielle Angel on the apartheid system and the violence it drives in Palestine.
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Check out our excellent newsletters—sent to you by email if you support us on Patreon thedigradio.com/newsletter
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Buy On Edward Said haymarketbooks.org/books/1556-on-edward-said
Buy Palestine: A Socialist Introduction haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-socialist-introduction
This is a special episode of Long Reads that we’ve recorded because of the war in Gaza. Dan speaks with Palestinian academic Bashir Abu-Manneh about the situation that’s developed over the last week and what’s likely to happen next. Bashir is a Reader in Postcolonial Literature at the University of Kent and the author of The Palestinian Novel: From 1948 to the Present.
Bashir is also a contributing editor at Jacobin who’s written many articles about Palestinian politics, including, most recently, "Israel’s Assault on Gaza Is Part of Its Permanent War on Palestinians": https://jacobin.com/2023/10/israel-palestine-gaza-strip-permanent-war-international-law-air-strikes
By October 16th, when this interview was recorded, Israeli air strikes had killed at least 2,800 people in Gaza, including more than seven hundred children. The following day, we saw the greatest single loss of life to date, with hundreds killed by an explosion at a hospital in Gaza. Western leaders are still refusing to call for a ceasefire.
A lightly edited transcript of this interview can be found here: https://jacobin.com/2023/10/gaza-war-israel-apartheid-international-solidarity-movement
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Vincent Bevins on If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. The second of a two-part interview on this important new book.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our excellent newsletters—sent to you by email if you support us on Patreon thedigradio.com/newsletter
Check out The Dig's vast archives on Palestine thedigradio.com/category/palestine
Donate now to support Gaza relief pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief
Subscribe to Jacobin bit.ly/digjacobin
Learn more about Haymarket’s Book Clubs at haymarketbooks.org
Vincent Bevins, author of If We Burn, discusses a decade of protest movements that began with high hopes and ended up with things little changed or worse. Haggai Matar, executive director of +972 Magazine, debriefs the latest horror in Israel–Palestine. This episode originally aired October 12.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Two views of Haiti in light of the UN’s approval of the deployment of a Kenyan-led mission to control gang violence there: Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and Robert Fatton of the University of Virginia. These interviews were recorded before a Kenyan court temporarily blocked the move to send police.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Vincent Bevins on If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. The first of a two-part interview on this important new book.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and ask Vincent a follow-up question.
Buy Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism: Debates in the Second International, 1900-1910 haymarketbooks.org/books/2109-reform-revolution-and-opportunism
Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible
In DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987), Charles Bronson wages a one-man war against the Los Angeles drug trade, despite being as old-looking as anyone has ever looked. We discuss how the ridiculous fourth entry in the iconic action franchise takes its reactionary politics a step beyond "law and order." PLUS: We discuss two milestones in cinematic surrealism (1989's THINGS and 1994's TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME) and bid farewell to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Preorder Luke's new book Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality coauthored with Ed Broadbent - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbent
OTTAWA: See Luke and Ed at the Ottawa Writers Festival on October 10 - https://writersfestival.org/events/fall-2023-in-person-events/seeking-social-democracy
TORONTO: See Luke and Ed Broadbent in conversation at the Toronto Reference Library on October 22 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/seeking-social-democracy-a-conversation-with-ed-broadbent-tickets-713793665067
VANCOUVER: See Luke and Ed at the Central Library on November 1 - https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/events/650b36ea2d0219cf8b5cf95f
See Will moderate a Q&A following the Toronto premiere of Nate Wilson's THE ALL GOLDEN at the Revue Cinema on November 2 - https://revuecinema.ca/films/the-all-golden-toronto-theatrical-premiere/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
For most of the twentieth century, Trinidad and Tobago had a population of fewer than a million people. But this Caribbean nation made an outsized contribution to radical theory and political activism. C. L. R. James and Eric Williams published two of the most important works about slavery and its role in the development of capitalism. Williams went on to become the country’s first leader after independence.
Their fellow Trinidadian George Padmore took on a pivotal role in the struggle against racism and colonial rule. Padmore helped nurture a generation of activists who successfully challenged the idea that Europe was destined to rule the world.
Our guest today is Theo Williams. He’s a lecturer in history at Durham University, and the author of Making the Revolution Global: Black Radicalism and the British Socialist Movement before Decolonisation.
Read Theo's piece for Jacobin, "George Padmore Played a Vital Role in the Struggle Against Colonial Oppression" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/06/george-padmore-anti-colonialism-marxism-color-line-communism
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Late in his career, Akira Kurosawa plumbed his subconscious and came up with DREAMS (1990), one of his most underrated films. We discuss the ways that this film captures the mood and style of a dream, and its unifying theme of humankind's relationship with nature. PLUS: We attempt to define the ambient politics (and anti-politics) of the post-Trump years.
"Martin Scorsese: 'I Have To Find Out Who The Hell I Am'" by Zach Baron - https://www.gq.com/story/martin-scorsese-profile
Preorder Luke's new book Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, coauthored with Ed Broadbent - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbent
TORONTO: See Luke and Ed Broadbent in conversation at the Toronto Reference Library on October 22 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/seeking-social-democracy-a-conversation-with-ed-broadbent-tickets-713793665067
VANCOUVER: See Luke and Ed at the Central Library on November 1 - https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/events/650b36ea2d0219cf8b5cf95f
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Barry Eidlin guest hosts today, talking to WGA leader-activists Alex O’Keefe, organizer and award-winning writer for The Bear, and Howard Rodman, writer and former president of the WGA. On September 24, after 146 days on strike, the WGA and the AMPTP announced a tentative agreement for the contract covering 11,500 film and TV screenwriters across the country. The WGA Negotiating Committee West and East voted unanimously to recommend the agreement, and on September 27, the strike was suspended. The strike is not over — WGA members still have to discuss the tentative agreement and vote on whether or not to ratify it by October 9. What do writers think of this deal after five months on strike? And what are the broader implications of the deal for writers and other workers in Hollywood and beyond? Based on what’s in the tentative agreement, the writers have won big. But beyond the contract language, writers have won something greater: a new sense of solidarity and the power they have as workers. That could be crucial as the class struggle continues in Hollywood and beyond: film and TV actors are still on strike, video game actors recently authorized a strike, and Teamsters and IATSE workers will be negotiating their contracts next year. Writers and other Hollywood workers have been joining the rallies and picket lines of other workers like UPS Teamsters, Big 3 auto workers, hotel workers, and more. It looks like the Hot Labor Summer may be transitioning into a Fiery Labor Fall.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Samar Al-Bulushi examines the coup in Niger, political unrest in France’s former colonies in Africa, and the US-led “war on terror” on that continent. Joanna Wuest, author of Born This Way, talks about the biology of sexuality.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Jo Guldi on the global history of the long land war—a war over everything from agrarian reform to tenant rights, from India and China to England and Ireland, from the late 19th century through the present—and into the future.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Blood Red Lines at haymarketbooks.org/books/1519-blood-red-lines
Buy Abolition for the People at haymarketbooks.org/books/2095-abolition-for-the-people
Aaron Benanav, sociologist and frequent contributor to New Left Review, and Seth Ackerman, an editor at Jacobin, discuss the long-term health of capitalism: Is stagnation really the problem?
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
In 2019, Clint Eastwood's RICHARD JEWELL took aim at two institutions — the FBI and the media — that were supposed to save America from Trumpism. We discuss one of the veteran auteur's most beautiful films, which is also one of his most loaded and ambiguous political hot potatoes. PLUS: David Brooks' expensive meal, Doug Ford's about-face, and Jean-Luc Godard's film criticism.
"David Brooks and the $78 airport meal the internet is talking about" by Timothy Bella - https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2023/09/22/david-brooks-newark-airport-meal/
See Will introduce THINGS (1989) at the Fox Theatre on October 3 - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/the-important-cinema-club-masterpiece-classics-things/
Preorder Luke's new book Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, coauthored with Ed Broadbent - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbent
TORONTO: See Luke and Ed Broadbent in conversation at the Toronto Reference Library on October 22 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/seeking-social-democracy-a-conversation-with-ed-broadbent-tickets-713793665067
VANCOUVER: See Luke and Ed at the Central Library on November 1 - https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/events/650b36ea2d0219cf8b5cf95f
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Alex Han, Astra Taylor, and Rachel Gilmer on how we build powerful organizations that win both short-term fights and the long-term struggle for socialism. A live Dig recorded at the Socialism 2023 conference in Chicago.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and ask Dig guests follow-up questions!
Buy Our History Has Always Been Contraband at haymarketbooks.org
Buy To Build a Black Future princeton.press/blackfuture
Suzi talks to historian and labor expert Nelson Lichtenstein about the historic, first-ever simultaneous strike against the Big Three automakers. Thirteen thousand workers, about 10% of UAW members at the Big Three, walked out of assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri on September 14. Instead of striking at all plants at once, the UAW is using a novel tactic they’re calling the “Stand-Up” strike with workers at select locals standing up and walking out on strike. Shawn Fain, the new militant leader of the UAW, says this tactic keeps companies guessing which other locals will be next. Nelson Lichtenstein looks at this strike in the context of the history of the UAW, the leading role the UAW played in the 1937 sit-down strikes that exemplified the power of the labor movement, and how auto workers have in many ways been canaries in the coal mine for the US working class writ large. There is broad support for striking workers, and auto workers are joining writers, actors, hotel workers, and others in this season of strikes. Are these strikes opening a new period, igniting a newly energized working class, with the UAW again in a leading role?
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
For its boosters, crypto finance is a modern-day version of the California gold rush, with fortunes to be made. And it seems to have attracted as many crooks and fraudsters as the original Wild West.
Ramaa Vasudevan, professor of economics at Colorado State University and the author of Things Fall Apart: From the Crash of 2008 to the Great Slump, discusses the world of crypto from its beginnings as a "libertarian pipe dream" to the volatile situation today.
Read her piece for Catalyst, "Silicon Valley Bank and Financial Turmoil," here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2023/06/silicon-valley-bank-and-financial-turmoil
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies. Music by Knxwledge.
Jodi Dean, author of a recent article for the Los Angeles Review of Books, takes on the postliberalism of Ahmari, Vermeule, Deneen, et al. Then Sarang Shidore of the Quincy Institute discusses the G20, the BRICS, and the erosion of US imperial power.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Suzi talks to journalist Marc Cooper, Salvador Allende's former translator, for part two of our commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile. Marc returned to Chile for a month this year to probe what has and has not changed in 50 years, and to understand why the new leftist millennial government of Gabriel Boric is having such a hard time. His multipart series for Truthdig, "Chile's Utopia Has Been Postponed," features articles, photo essays, interviews and discussions looking at the ways Pinochet's legacy continues to haunt Chile. Chilean society is once again deeply polarized, with up to 40% of the population saying the coup was a good thing. Was Allende’s Popular Unity government from 1970-1973 a stab at utopia that has been postponed, or was the trauma inflicted by the Pinochet years so deep as to cancel future attempts at a more just and profoundly democratic social order? You can read Marc's personal testimony, evoking the atmosphere and strategic debates within the left before the coup d'état in Jacobin America Latina, also part of our discussion.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
If you look, you'll see. Most people don't look.
Produced by Stephen Cassidy Jones and Liza Yeager.
Edited by Mitchell Johnson, with editorial oversight from Daniel Denvir.
Featuring Mark Pilkington, Valerie Kuletz, and Trevor Paglen.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Blood Red Lines at haymarketbooks.org
Subscribe to Jacobin at bit.ly/digjacobin
Sam Gindin, writer and activist on labor issues, outlines the shortcomings of the UPS-Teamster deal (read his article, and a follow-up, on The Bullet website). Then Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself, discusses how the Cold War crushed the tendency’s emancipatory side.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Alex Press and Eric Blanc on surging labor militancy and why US unions must seize this historic moment.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and ask our guests follow-up questions!
Learn more about Haymarket’s Book Clubs at haymarketbooks.org.
Subscribe to Jacobin bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst bit.ly/digcatalyst
Widely described as "Hollywood's response to the Lewinsky scandal," THE CONTENDER (2000) imagines a Vice Presidential confirmation process derailed by sexism and moral prudishness. We excavate some Oscar bait from the very tail end of the Clinton Era and find... yes, another Politics Movie™.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to Oscar Mendoza about the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende that came to an abrupt and bloody end 50 years ago on September 11, 1973. Pinochet's coup inaugurated a wave of violence, death and repression that shocked the world—and sparked an enormous international solidarity movement as many thousands of Chileans were forced to leave their country, their families, and their dreams of a democratic, egalitarian future. Oscar Mendoza's life was upended on that day nearly 50 years ago, when, in his words, his carefree days of youth came to an abrupt halt, followed by detention, torture and imprisonment. Two years later, in May 1975, Oscar was expelled from Chile and exiled to Scotland as a political refugee, where I greeted him along with other members of the Chile Solidarity movement in Glasgow. We get Oscar’s overview of the Chilean revolutionary process from 1970-1973, one that posited a peaceful transition to socialism with vino tinto (red wine) and empanadas, using the ballot box and constitutional means to achieve the profound economic, social, and political transformations working people demanded. Oscar asks himself two questions, and we take them up too: What are we commemorating 50 years later, and does Allende’s dream of a fairer and better Chile live on today?
We’ll continue this two-part series next week with Marc Cooper, looking at the legacy of Pinochet’s dictatorship and the impediments it poses for the leftist government of Gabriel Boric today.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Latin American left and the long history of US intervention in the region.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible
Buy Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge versobooks.com/products/2981-quick-fixes
More than a century after her death in 1919, Rosa Luxemburg is unquestionably one of the most celebrated Marxist thinkers. But until very recently, most of her work had never appeared in English translation. Verso Books and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation have set out to fill the gap by publishing her collected works. Peter Hudis, a professor of philosophy and humanities at Oakton Community College and the author of several books, including Frantz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades, is one of the editors who’s been working on that project.
Peter joins Long Reads to discuss Luxemburg's collected works. Read his essays, "Rosa Luxemburg Anticipated the Destructive Impact of Capitalist Globalization" and "Rosa Luxemburg Was the Great Theorist of Democratic Revolution," on the Jacobin website.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies. Music by Knxwledge.
Lisa Corrigan, author of a recent Nation article, explains what the savage cuts at West Virginia University mean for higher ed. Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online, discusses the social history of the internet.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Amna Akbar, Gabriel Winant, and Thea Riofrancos on the emerging terrain of struggle. Is American liberalism exhausted or revitalized? What are the successes and limits of the new US left electoral strategy? Is there a new anti-electoral mood amongst socialists? Why don't we have a powerful climate movement? What forces are making and remaking the American working class today? The second and final part of a very wide-ranging interview.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Buy Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism: Debates in the Second International, 1900-1910 haymarketbooks.org/books/2109-reform-revolution-and-opportunism
We've been talking about a lot of soulless, big-budget IP movies that represent a rot in our culture... so how about a how about a hand-crafted, achingly personal movie that exists as a wart on the back of that rot? We discuss Kevin Smith's CLERKS III (2022), a harrowing vision of Gen X culture trapped in amber.
"Awkward Americans see themselves in Ron DeSantis" by Ben Terris - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/08/17/ron-desantis-awkward/
"Talk is Cheap" by Nick Pinkerton - https://nickpinkerton.substack.com/p/talk-is-cheap
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Sohrab Ahmari, author of Tyranny, Inc., talks about the dictatorship of capital. Erin Reed, aka Erin in the Morning, discusses the state of trans politics.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
After years of hearing from censors that violent media images cause harm, David Cronenberg made a movie... in which violent media images cause harm. We discuss VIDEODROME (1983) - its media satire, its sexual/gender politics, and its vision of how technology influences reality. PLUS: the Prime Minister enters the Barbieheimer discourse, and further thoughts on Sound of Freedom.
Toronto listeners: see Will introduce Glen or Glenda at the Fox Theatre tonight (August 15) - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/the-important-cinema-club-masterpiece-classics-glen-or-glenda/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Francisco Pérez of the University of Utah talks about the CFA franc. Caitlin Chandler, author of a 2022 Harper's article about "the next frontier in the war on terror," discusses US interests in Niger.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Amna Akbar, Gabriel Winant, and Thea Riofrancos on the American conjuncture. Did an era that began with Occupy and Ferguson—marked by teachers strikes, two Bernie campaigns, the explosive growth of DSA, Standing Rock, and summer 2020 rebellions—just end? What social, political, and economic terrain is emerging in the wake of the pandemic, and how should the left navigate it? The first of a two-part and wide-ranging interview.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
All Haymarket books are 40% off! Shop at haymarketbooks.org
Buy After Work by Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek versobooks.com/products/496-after-work
When Simone de Beauvoir died in 1986, French TV news described her as a “symbol of women’s liberation,” but they couldn’t resist bracketing her name with that of Jean-Paul Sartre, her lifelong partner. Almost four decades later, Beauvoir’s reputation as a pioneering feminist thinker is well established. The main challenge she faces today is misunderstanding rather than neglect.
Emma McNicol joins Long Reads to discuss Beauvoir’s work and legacy. Emma is a research fellow at the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre.
Read her piece for Jacobin, "Simone de Beauvoir Understood the Link Between Gender and Class Oppression," here: https://jacobin.com/2023/06/simone-de-beauvoir-second-sex-socialism-class
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Unfortunately, there was no avoiding it. We finally went to see the right-wing human-trafficking blockbuster SOUND OF FREEDOM (2023) and had one of our more unpleasant viewing experiences. We discuss the film's astroturfed box office, as well as the reasons for its very real cultural resonance.
"Tim Ballard Has ‘Stepped Away’ From Operation Underground Railroad, Org Says" by Anna Merlan - https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7z74x/tim-ballard-sound-of-freedom-operation-underground-railroad-stepped-away
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Sara Goldrick-Rab talks about rampant food and housing insecurity among undergrad and grad students. David Broder, author of Mussolini's Grandchildren and a recent article in the New York Times, discusses the whitewashing of far-right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Barry Eidlin returns to guest host, talking to San Diego Teamster Justin Alo, Detroit Teamster Emily Butt, and San Francisco Teamster John Elward about the tentative agreement reached on July 25 between the Teamsters Union and the shipping giant UPS, one week before the contract covering 340,000 workers across the US was set to expire on July 31. Talks broke down on July 5, and practice pickets were building towards what would have been one of the largest strikes in U.S. history.
Teamsters leadership has hailed the UPS tentative agreement as “historic” and “game changing,” noting that it immediately eliminates a hated second-tier driver category, creates more full-time jobs, raises wages, limits surveillance, and ends forced overtime among other gains. But some Teamster members are concerned that the proposed agreement doesn't go far enough to address key demands, particularly around part-time pay. Many are also wondering what they left on the table by not going on strike.
Rank and file UPS Teamsters Justin Alo, Emily Butt, and John Elward, all deeply involved in the contract fight, join Barry Eidlin to discuss the tentative agreement with UPS, and what comes next.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Reporter Dharna Noor learns about the Tennessee Valley Authority: the good, the bad, the past, and the future.
This is the 5th episode of The Dig Presents.
Produced by Dharna Noor. Edited by Liza Yeager and Mitchell Johnson.
Support The Dig at patreon.com/thedig
All Haymarket books are 40% off! Shop at haymarketbooks.org
Tim Shorrock marks the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean war as tensions mount across the region. Christopher Morten discusses how the drug industry uses patents and secrecy to fatten its profits at the expense of patients and the broader public.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
For almost fifty years, Portugal was ruled by a right-wing dictatorship. There was a military coup against Portuguese democracy in 1926. Antonio Salazar became the leader of the so-called Estado Novo in the same year Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House. His successor Marcelo Caetano was still in power when Richard Nixon was re-elected four decades later.
Then, in April 1974, a group of junior army officers made a plan to overthrow the dictatorship. The Carnation Revolution brought down the Estado Novo and kick started a period of intense political upheaval. Its legacy can still be felt in Europe half a century later.
Raquel Varela, professor of history at the New University in Lisbon and author of several books, including A People’s History of the Portuguese Revolution, joins Long Reads for a discussion about the upheaval and its legacy.
Read Raquel's 2019 interview with Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2019/04/portugal-carnation-revolution-national-liberation-april
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
So, why do they call it "the little death"? Will is joined by film critic Adam Nayman to discuss Claire Denis's transgressive masterpiece TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001) and how it scandalized film culture circa 2001. PLUS: What is it like to teach the history of satire at a university?
Follow Adam Nayman on Twitter and find his books here.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Gabriel Hetland, author of Democracy on the Ground, talks about contrasts in popular participation between Bolivia and Venezuela. Then Doug speaks with Leigh Cowart, author of Hurts So Good, on seeking out pain for pleasure.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Daniela Gabor, Ted Fertik, and Tim Sahay on Bidenomics. We define and debate the new American industrial policy, the energy transition, the New Cold War with China—and more.
Support this podcast with a contribution at Patreon.com/TheDig
Subscribe to The Polycrisis newsletter phenomenalworld.org/series/the-polycrisis
Buy Travellers of the World Revolution versobooks.com/products/2938-travellers-of-the-world-revolution
Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible
Reports of God's death remain greatly exaggerated in GOD'S NOT DEAD 2 (2016), in which Evangelical Christianity is put literally on trial. We welcome back Alex Shephard (staff writer for The New Republic and expert in the blockbuster Christian film franchise), and discuss how this installment's relentless focus on Facts and Logic situates it in a recent but very different era of the culture war. PLUS: Ron DeSantis continues to have no juice.
"Ron DeSantis Has a Ron DeSantis Problem" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/174327/ron-desantis-ron-desantis-problem
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Barry Eidlin sits in for Suzi Weissman, talking to longtime UPS Teamsters Carlos Silva, Carthy Boston and Greg Kerwood, who are mobilizing around the UPS-Teamster contract fight. Talks broke down on July 5, and the UPS contract expires July 31. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has vowed that UPS Teamsters will walk out on August 1st if there is no deal. This is one of the most important labor negotiations in U.S. history that could culminate in one of the largest strikes in U.S. history, with 340,000 UPS workers, members of the Teamsters Union. We'll get the background context of this historic contract fight, and the key role that rank-and-file Teamster reformers have played.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Harrison Stetler discusses recent riots in France. Peter Turchin, complexity theorist and author of End Times, explains why the US is heading for a smashup.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
We return to a TV show that is one of the prime relics of mid-2000s libertarian culture. We watch episodes of PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! on topics as disparate from handicapped parking to reparations, but find that for the libertarian funnymen, it all comes back to property rights. PLUS: thoughts on the QAnon human-trafficking thriller that's rocking the box office, and a shocking allegation that Napoleon Bonaparte was a bad guy.
Our first episode on PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! - https://www.patreon.com/posts/68-penn-teller-21372520
Our episode on TIM'S VERMEER - https://www.patreon.com/posts/367-penn-and-72436837
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Japan may be a powerhouse of global capitalism. But it also developed a powerful socialist movement in the twentieth century. During the Cold War, the Socialist Party led the opposition to the ruling Liberal Democrats. Japan today still has a Communist Party with a mass membership and a serious electoral base.
Kenji Hasegawa joins Long Reads for a conversation about the Japanese left. He’s a professor of modern Japanese history at Yokohama National University and the author of Student Radicalism and the Formation of Modern Japan.
Read Kenji's article for Jacobin, "Japanese Socialism Was a Powerful Force Until It Lost Its Political Bearings," here: https://jacobin.com/2022/12/japan-socialist-party-social-democrats-ldp
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
An announcement for listeners in the New York area: Join us Friday the 14th (tomorrow) at 7pm at the Mayday Space in Brooklyn for our Bastille Day Party! There will be drinks and a live conversation with Tom O'Neill, author of CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties. Admission is free, but $10 solidarity tickets will get you a yearlong print subscription or a Jacobin tote bag, and $20 supporter tickets will get a subscription plus a Jacobin tote. More info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bastille-day-party-with-jacobin-tickets-665721048577
Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order, explores the links among neoclassical economics, austerity, and fascism. Edwin Ackerman, author of a recent article for the New Left Review blog, looks at AMLO’s presidency in Mexico.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring China Miéville on The Communist Manifesto. Miéville is the author of A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Register for Dan's event with Miéville eventbrite.com/e/digressions-china-mieville-on-the-communist-manifesto-tickets-674432434567
Subscribe to Jacobin bit.ly/digjacobin
Buy A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine by David K. Seitz nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496227997
Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019) hit the zeitgeist by consciously going against the 2019-era cultural grain. Tarantino looks back on the winds of change that greeted the movie business in the late 1960s and lands firmly - but not uncomplicatedly - on the side of the old guard. PLUS: Bluesky vs Twitter, wrapping up the Toronto mayoral election, and checking in on a man by the name of Lights Camera Jackson.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Anatol Lieven, Eurasia director of the Quincy Institute, discusses Prigozhin’s aborted uprising in Russia and Putin’s status. Samuel Bazzi, co-author of a paper on "The Confederate Diaspora," talks about the effects of white migration out of the South after the Civil War.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online. https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
William Morris is renowned for his work as an artist and designer. But he was also one of Britain's greatest socialist thinkers. Morris combined his opposition to capitalism with a deep understanding of environmental questions that was rare in his own time.
Matthew Beaumont, professor of English at University College London and author of books including The Spectre of Utopia and Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London, joins Long Reads to discuss the life and thought of William Morris.
Read Matthew's essay, "The Socialist Imagination of William Morris" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/04/william-morris-socialism-communism-arts-crafts
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Did Tetris bring down the USSR? That's the implication of TETRIS (2023), a highly fictionalized account of the beloved video game's journey from the Soviet Union to your phone. We examine what anti-Communist kitsch looks like in the year 2023. PLUS: Russian coups, disappearing subs, and further thoughts on the movie on everyone's lips, The Flash.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Behind the News is slaying sacred cows this week. M. E. O’Brien, author of Family Abolition, discusses doing that and “communizing care." Then Jane Chung, author of a recent article in The Nation, lays out what’s wrong with the American cult of homeownership.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Jacobin Radio pays tribute to the late Daniel Ellsberg, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year and passed away on June 16 at age 92 . A committed, consequential activist with a moral compass that never left him, Ellsberg was always generous with his time. Shortly after he publicly announced his terminal illness, he took part in a Progressive Democrats of America Town Hall on April 9th, 2023, joined by Jacobin Radio producer Alan Minsky and Vietnam War historian Christian Appy. Ellsberg gives his thoughts on the current geopolitical situation, the continuing dire threat to humanity posed by heightened militarism and nuclear confrontation, and the need to keep fighting for progressive foreign policy. Looking back on his life, Ellsberg said, “When I copied the Pentagon Papers in 1969, I had every reason to think I would be spending the rest of my life behind bars. It was a fate I would gladly have accepted if it meant hastening the end of the Vietnam War.” Ellsberg spent decades working to alert the world to the perils of nuclear war and wrongful interventions. “As I look back on the last 60 years of my life,” he wrote recently, “I think there is no greater cause to which I could have dedicated my efforts.”
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Meredith Whittaker, Edward Ongweso Jr., and Sarah Myers West on the mundane dystopia concealed beneath the AI hype machine.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Subscribe to New Left Review newleftreview.org
Register for the Socialism 2023 Conference socialismconference.org
Our sacred quest to tackle every political comedy inevitably reaches the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis vehicle THE CAMPAIGN (2012). We discuss what a middle-of-the-road comedy from the middle of the Obama era captures of its time and ambience. PLUS: Checking in on some of the wackier characters in the Toronto mayoral race.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
While other shows are getting applause for interviewing Corey Robin about his excellent book on Clarence Thomas (who is very much in the headlines these days), Behind the News was there first, as it so often is. This is a rebroadcast of a show that first ran in 2019: Corey Robin on The Enigma of Clarence Thomas.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Giuliano Garavini on his book The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the Twentieth Century. The second in a two-part series on the 20th-century history of petrostates, petrocapitalists, and the world system.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Subscribe to n+1. Go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkout
Learn more about Haymarket's Book Clubs at haymarketbooks.org
Italy’s current prime minister Giorgia Meloni can trace her political roots all the way back to Mussolini. But what exactly does the Italian far right of today have in common with its fascist forebears?
In part two of our interview, David Broder, Europe editor for Jacobin and the author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren, discusses the rise and record of Meloni. You can find the first part of the conversation on Jacobin Radio.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Hell is real, and it's really bad, and it's really important that you repent. That's the thesis of THE BURNING HELL (1974), a crackpot Evangelical oddity from the deep south, brought to you by the dynamic duo of director Ron Ormond and preacher/star Estus W. Pirkle. We discuss what this bizarre handmade movie tells us about American religious conservatism. PLUS: enter Mike Pence and Chris Christie; exit Vanderpump Rules Season 10.
From deep in the Michael and Us archives, an episode on an earlier Ormond/Pirkle film, IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? - https://soundcloud.com/michael-and-us/61-if-footmen-tire-you-what-will-horses-do
Christopher Layne discusses his Harper’s magazine article, “Why are we in Ukraine?” Plus: Marcus Brown talks about his augmented reality exhibit that evokes the eighteenth-century Wall Street slave market.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.
Featuring Giuliano Garavini on his book The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the Twentieth Century. The first of a two-part series on the 20th-century history of petrostates, petrocapitalists, and the world system.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Subscribe to n+1. Go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkout
A ragtag gang of Beltway misfits discover how to start a proxy war in CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (2007), a lighthearted look at American intervention from the combined forces of Tom Hanks, Mike Nichols, and Aaron Sorkin. We discuss how this celebration of the Reagan Doctrine from the very heart of "liberal Hollywood" offers a, shall we say, sanitized version of the end of the Cold War. PLUS: We discuss matters Pablo-matic and not.
Preorder "Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality," the new Ed Broadbent memoir coauthored by our own Luke Savage - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbent
"Fake News" by our own Luke Savage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crSeqJafFt8&ab_channel=JusticeDemocrats
"With Hannah Gadsby’s ‘It’s Pablo-matic,’ the Joke’s on the Brooklyn Museum" by Jason Farago - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/arts/design/hannah-gadsby-brooklyn-museum-picasso.html
"The True Mystery in James Comey’s Crime Novel" by Jacob Bacharach - https://newrepublic.com/article/172553/true-mystery-james-comeys-crime-novel-central-park-west-review
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative talks about some under-appreciated aspects of the carceral state: probation, parole, and civil commitment. Francisco Pérez of the Center for Economic Democracy on why mainstream economics is so terrible and an online course that can help civilians break through the discipline’s mystifications.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here.
Featuring Brenna Bhandar on Colonial Lives of Property: Law, Land and Racial Regimes of Ownership. The centuries-long history of how dominant conceptions of private property were (and are) made alongside race and racial hierarchies in colonial encounters stretching from Ireland and British Columbia to Australia and Palestine.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Register for the Socialism Conference at socialismconference.org
Buy Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes haymarketbooks.org/books/1922-let-this-radicalize-you
For over two decades, a pair of New England-based independent filmmakers have created a cinematic universe out with their friends, family, and as little money as possible. Cohost Will finally brings his well-documented obsession with Matt Farley and Charlie Roxburgh to the Michael & Us podcast with a discussion of their recent MAGIC SPOT (2022), and what it says about the democratic potential of cinema. PLUS: What is it with British celebrities and politics? We discuss three well-known U.K. citizens.
Watch MAGIC SPOT - vimeo.com/ondemand/magicspot
Watch LOCAL LEGENDS - vimeo.com/ondemand/locallegends
"Motern on Motern: Conversations with Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh" by Will Sloan and Justin Decloux - https://www.amazon.com/Motern-Conversations-Farley-Charles-Roxburgh/dp/B08KHRR4WR/
"The liberal complacency of Martin Amis" by Terry Eagleton -https://unherd.com/2023/05/the-liberal-complacency-of-martin-amis/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Tina Gerhardt, author of Sea Change, talks about the effects rising oceans are having on small island nations. Quinn Slobodian, author of Crack-Up Capitalism, compares libertarian enclaves insulated from democracy.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here.
Marc Cooper and Pablo Abufom join Suzi in a conversation about Marc's Dig “Chile's Utopia Has Been Postponed," The Truthdig original series compares dramatic political events in Chile over recent years to the Popular Unity period between 1970 and 1973. Marc and Pablo integrate the legacy of the military coup 50 years ago with a discussion of the present challenges for the leftist government of Gabriel Boric. Just a year in power, the Boric presidency suffered a huge defeat in the May 7 election, when right-wing parties won a majority to draft a new constitution. This marks the death knell for a progressive constitution in Chile and the emergence of a powerful far right. We ask Pablo what happened to the energy from October 2019, and we get Marc and Pablo’s account of how a political agenda that began with a focus on environmental, economic, and social justice got ensnared in debates about crime, immigration, and inflation.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
As Canadians, we simply couldn't pass up a movie about our greatest national export. Matt Johnson's BLACKBERRY (2023) puts a darkly comic spin on the rise and fall of "the phone you had before your iPhone." We discuss the ways that this very funny film is both similar to and crucially different from such recent boardroom dramas as AIR. PLUS: the return of Pete Buttigieg, and a weekend with the world's most prolific songwriter.
If you watch only one movie on Will's recommendation in your life, make it LOCAL LEGENDS - https://vimeo.com/ondemand/locallegends
"BlackBerryIs a Movie That Portrays Tech Dreams Honestly—Finally" by John Semley - https://www.wired.com/story/blackberry-movie-review/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
A sonic memorial to the Black women of the Peoples Temple.
Produced and reported by Babette Thomas. Edited by Liza Yeager and Mitchell Johnson, with editorial oversight from Daniel Denvir and Alex Lewis.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Subscribe to The Dig Presents to find all of our documentary stories on one feed.
Italy’s liberation during the Second World War was meant to have consigned fascism to history. But eight decades later, the country has a prime minister from the far-right tradition; Giorgia Meloni’s party is directly descended from the diehard supporters of Benito Mussolini who reorganized after the war.
David Broder, Europe editor for Jacobin and the author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren, discusses Italy’s far right from the fall of Mussolini until the point when Giorgia Meloni entered the political stage. This is the first part of a two-part interview. You can hear the second part of David’s interview about Meloni’s rise to power in our next episode.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Jeff Sharlet talks about his new book, The Undertow, essays on the increasingly violent and authoritarian politics on the right unleashed by Trump. Claire Dunning, author of Nonprofit Neighborhoods, discusses urban governance by philanthropists.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here.
Featuring Quinn Slobodian on Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy. Radical libertarians, including anarcho-capitalists like Murray Rothbard, envision a world of micro-polities governed by private property and contract. In fact, we already live in their world, a world of zones—places where special rules tailor-made for capitalists prevail over the ordinary laws of the nation-state.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Listen to Quinn's interview on Globalists thedigradio.com/podcast/a-history-of-neoliberalism-with-quinn-slobodian
Buy Angela Davis: An Autobiography haymarketbooks.org/books/2001-angela-davis
Buy Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes haymarketbooks.org/books/1922-let-this-radicalize-you
We begin with a rundown of recent events, from the Coronation to the CNN Trump town hall to the Liberal Party of Canada's recent convention, before discussing the beloved comedy GALAXY QUEST (1999). We situate the film's satire in the context of 1999-era fan culture, and hash over our own respective histories with the Star Trek franchise. PLUS: a dive into a young Tucker Carlson's journalism.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Michaela Chen of Foxglove discusses efforts to unionize the exploited workers who moderate content on social media. Micah Herskind, author of an article for Scalawag, "This Is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City," talks about the history and political economy behind the massive planned police training center.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here.
Featuring Jules Gill-Peterson on Histories of the Transgender Child. Amid this right-wing reaction, a discussion of the history of trans medicine and trans children—and also trans politics more generally.
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Register for Socialism 2023 at socialismconference.org. Register before July 7 for the early bird discount rate!
Subscribe to n+1 at nplusonemag.com/thedig. Enter THEDIG at checkout.
"A soy-banter Nicolas Cage Dracula movie" was too enticing a pitch to pass up, so we hit up our local multiplex to see RENFIELD (2023). PLUS: Do conservatives need "a populist Dracula"? At least one right-wing outlet thinks so!
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Howard Rodman, former president of the Writers Guild of America West (WGA), joins Alan Minsky to discuss the Writers Guild strike, which began a minute after midnight on May 2, after a near unanimous strike vote on May 1. This strike action, the first in fifteen years, impacts TV, movies, and streaming platforms across the country and the world. The last strike, in 2007-08, lasted 100 days and focused on "new media" when streaming was in its infancy and Netflix was still a DVD-by-mail company. This time, the key points are: residuals, preserving the writers room (ending the practice of so-called mini-rooms), viewership transparency (writers want ratings data and not algorithms), and protections regarding AI. As Rodman says, the strike is about a whole constellation of issues which, taken together, create an existential threat to the ability of writers to earn a decent living. There is a lot of public support for the writers, but the distance between the writers and the studios is very far apart. The writers are saying don’t use these new technologies to pay us less for more work. We get Rodman’s take on what is at stake.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Featuring Stacy Davis Gates, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, and Alex Han on how Chicago's labor left took over City Hall. Brandon Johnson's mayoral victory, the product of a decade-plus of social movement union struggle, is a model for the left everywhere in the United States. Guest hosted by Micah Uetricht.
Subscribe to n+1. Go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkout
Buy Occupation: Organizer by Clément Petitjean haymarketbooks.org/books/2054-occupation-organizer
For International Workers' Day, Jacobin welcomed Richard Wolff, founder of Democracy at Work and visiting professor of international affairs at the New School, for a live conversation about economics and the labor movement. This is the audio version of that interview, conducted by Paul Prescod.
Get a yearlong Jacobin subscription for as low as $1: https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2023
Featuring Nikil Saval and Helen Gym on how the history of Philadelphia social movements brought Nikil into the state senate and has made Helen, a long-time public education organizer, a frontrunner in the mayoral race.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Subscribe to Dissent dissentmagazine.org/subscribe
Buy Angela Davis: An Autobiography haymarketbooks.org/books/2001-angela-davis
In May 1980, Josip Tito died after ruling Yugoslavia for more than three decades. In his absence, the Yugoslav League of Communists put in place a collective, power-sharing model. A politician from each of the country’s national units would take their turn as the head of state. But by the early 90s, Yugoslavia was on the brink of collapse. The rise of two nationalist leaders, Slobodan Milošević of Serbia and Croatia’s Franjo Tuđman, was followed by the outbreak of civil war.
Catherine Samary, historian of the Balkans and author of several books including Yugoslavia Dismembered, joins Long Reads to discuss this history. This is the second part of a two-part interview. You can find the first part here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/long-reads-life-death-yugoslavia-samary-part-1
Read her piece for New Left Review, "A Utopian in the Balkans," here: https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii114/articles/catherine-samary-a-utopian-in-the-balkans
Get a yearlong Jacobin subscription for as low as $1: https://jacobin.com/subscribe?code=MAYDAY2023
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
A Christian boy goes up against his sinister atheist philosophy teacher (played by Kevin Sorbo!) in GOD'S NOT DEAD (2014), one of the biggest evangelical blockbusters of all time. Luke and guest host Alex Shephard discuss the film's tone-deaf depiction of academia and its particular streak of right-wing sadism. PLUS: What's next for Tucker Carlson? And is there any life at all in the ol' Ron DeSantis?
"Tucker Carlson Has Already Lost His War With Fox News" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/172274/tucker-carlson-twitter-video-lost-war-fox-news
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Jacobin editor Micah Uetricht explains how Chicago elected a progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson. Lily Lynch, editor of Balkanist and contributor to New Left Review‘s Sidecar blog, on how the Ukraine war destroyed Scandinavian neutrality.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
We have as many roads in the United States as we have streams and rivers.
Produced by Caroline Kanner and Jackson Roach, with original music by Jackson Roach. Edited by Liza Yeager and Mitchell Johnson.
Subscribe to The Dig Presents and support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig.
Bibliography (in order of appearance):
A Field Guide to Roadside Wildflowers at Full Speed (PDF) - Chris Helzer
Car Country: An Environmental History - Christopher W. Wells
On Trails: An Exploration - Robert Moor
Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet - Ben Goldfarb
A Short History of the Blockade: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Who Belongs to the Land: An Essay on Camps, Blockades, and Indigenous Models of Remaking the World - Lou Cornum
Further reading available here.
Suzi talks to long-time political activist and theorist Ilya Budraitskis about the transformation of Russia into a dictatorship and the nature of Putinism more than a year after Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Independent media has been replaced with censorship and propaganda. Expression of dissent is met with repression and long stints in prison. In fact, Ilya's vocal opposition to Putin's rule and this war forced him to flee the country. In an article for the journal Spectre, Ilya argues that the war has cemented a decades-long transformation of the Russian regime into a qualitative new form.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
A young man caught between his socialist father and Thatcherite uncle falls in love with a young National Front street punk while building a laundromat. We watched MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (1985) and discuss the context that birthed it. PLUS: Fiery hot takes on Bruceploitation and Ron DeSanctimonious.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Economist Josh Mason of John Jay College (and author of a recent Jacobin article, written in response to a Dylan Riley article for New Left Review's website) on how we can save the climate before we get to overthrowing capitalism. Then Jen Duggan of the Environmental Integrity Initiative discusses a lawsuit to get the EPA to enforce the Clean Water Act.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider on the politics of public education. The authors of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Education and the Future of School and co-hosts of the education policy podcast Have You Heard discuss everything from charters and vouchers to teacher social movement unionism and right-wing cultural wars against "woke" educators.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
The breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s resulted in a brutal civil war. The conflict ended an experiment in multinational coexistence across the Western Balkans. But the tragic end of Yugoslavia shouldn't define the way we think about its history. The Yugoslav nationalities played an outsized role in the struggle against Nazi Germany. During the Cold War, Yugoslavia's government helped organize the Non-Aligned Movement and developed their own form of socialism.
Catherine Samary, historian of the Balkans and author of several books including Yugoslavia Dismembered, joins Long Reads to discuss this history. This is the first part of a two-part interview. You can find part two here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/long-reads-life-death-yugoslavia-samary-part-2
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
How did Warren Beatty convince a Hollywood studio to make a movie about American communists in 1981? We discuss REDS (1981), his epic biopic of writers John Reed and Louise Bryant, as well as Reed's landmark book about the Russian Revolution, Ten Days That Shook the World. PLUS: Fiery hot takes on billionaire Hitler collector Harlan Crowe.
"The Paid Pundits Defending Clarence Thomas And His Billionaire Benefactor" by Andrew Perez - https://www.levernews.com/the-paid-pundits-defending-clarence-thomas-and-his-billionaire-benefactor/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Philosopher Kate Soper talks about her book, Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism, just out in paperback: living on less but without the hair-shirtism.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Jane McAlevey on how to organize mass numbers of new workers into unions that wage mass strikes to fight employers and revive the labor movement.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan's 2019 interview with McAlevey thedigradio.com/podcast/strike-with-jane-mcalevey
Buy Set Fear on Fire by LASTESIS versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2853-set-fear-on-fire
Buy The New Cold War by Gilbert Achcar haymarketbooks.org/books/2007-the-new-cold-war
Ben Affleck's AIR (2023) chronicles the wheeling and dealing that led to Michael Jordan signing with Nike, and this unabashed celebration of the world's most famous shoe brand positions the Air Jordan as a victory for trickle-down economics. We discuss the movie that asks the question: "What if you made The Social Network about people who were frickin' epic??"
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
James Bamford, author of Spyfail and a recent article in The Nation, discusses Israeli collusion with Donald Trump in 2016. Then Donna Murch, associate professor of history at Rutgers and president of the New Brunswick campus’s faculty union, talks about why the teaching staff is on the verge of a strike and why it matters well beyond that institution.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Edo Konrad and Joshua Leifer on how Zionism's long-running contradictions led to the current political crisis in Israel.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out +972 Magazine at 972mag.com
Subscribe to Jewish Currents' Israel/Palestine newsletter at jewishcurrents.org/newsletter
Buy The New Cold War: The United States, Russia, and China from Kosovo to Ukraine by Gilbert Achcar haymarketbooks.org/books/2007-the-new-cold-war
In the past few years, Peru has experienced several waves of political turbulence. The latest cycle of unrest began when Pedro Castillo was ousted as president last December. State security forces have killed dozens of people protesting against Castillo’s removal from office.
The political questions being posed in Peru and other Latin American countries today have a long history behind them. A century ago, the Peruvian intellectual José Carlos Mariátegui tackled many of those questions in his work, from the legacy of European colonial rule to the struggle of indigenous communities for rights and recognition. Mariátegui died at the age of just thirty-five, but his political writings became a touchstone for Latin American radicals.
Historian Mike Gonzalez joins Long Reads to discuss Mariátegui. Mike is the author of several books, including In The Red Corner: The Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui.
Read Mike's piece, "José Carlos Mariátegui Was the Great Pioneer of Latin American Marxism" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/02/jose-carlos-mariategui-latin-america-marxism-indigenous-inca-united-front
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Suzi talks to Sebastian Budgen and Yoav Peled about two existential crises rocking the social order. First in France, where President Macron used constitutional powers to bypass parliament and impose deeply unpopular pension reform. This move has provoked one of the largest waves of continuous popular mobilization since May 1968. The second crisis is in Israel, where half the population has taken to the streets and shut down their workplaces in a spontaneous protest over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s moves to destroy judicial independence and the sacking of his defense minister. A large chunk of the military stopped their training in protest. Public outrage on the streets has compelled Netanyahu to put his anti-democratic moves on hold, whereas in France, Macron is intransigent in the face of a united trade union front and ever more people hitting the streets. In response, he has unleashed unprecedented security measures, meaning more police violence against peaceful demonstrators. We get the big picture with analyses from Sebastian Budgen in France and Yoav Peled in Israel.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
With Trump's indictment in the news, we thought it might be a good time to watch the movie that has been more influential on QAnon than any other: Ridley Scott's little-loved seafaring adventure WHITE SQUALL (1996). We parse this half-forgotten film to figure out why, exactly, the QAnon people love it so much. "Where we go one, we go all!"
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Writer and political adviser Nimrod Flaschenberg discusses the popular uprising in Israel against Bibi’s reactionary government. Software engineer Dwayne Monroe revisits the (useful) hype around ChatGPT.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
It started with a few cones and a cryptic sign.
Produced by Omar Etman. Edited by Liza Yeager, Mitchell Johnson, and Daniel Denvir.
Special thanks to Alan Dean, Alex Lewis, and Nihal El Aasar.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
We mark the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War by revisiting some of the classic clips from our cowed and deferential news media circa 2003. PLUS: What is artificial intelligence and what does it mean for the future? Pulitzer-winning columnist Thomas Friedman doesn't know, but that didn't stop him from writing about it.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Maxine Doogan and Tara Burns, contributors to a report, "How the War on Sex Work Is Stripping Your Privacy Rights," on how cops are snooping on sex workers and using what they learn to spy on the rest of us. David Broder, author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren, discusses the fascist heritage behind Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and her party.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Max Fox and Chris Nealon on the late Christopher Chitty's book Sexual Hegemony: Statecraft, Sodomy, and Capital in the Rise of the World System.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletters and vast archive at thedigradio.com
Further reading:
libcom.org/article/after-fall-communiques-occupied-california
viewpointmag.com/2012/09/12/towards-a-socialist-art-of-government-michel-foucaults-the-mesh-of-power
thenewinquiry.com/blog/in-love-and-memory
Buy Abolition Geography versobooks.com/books/3785-abolition-geography
For nearly 20 years, one libertarian businessman with a wildly dangerous theme park held the state of New Jersey under his thumb. We discuss the documentary CLASS ACTION PARK (2020) and its uneasy mix of nostalgia and condemnation for Action Park.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Fifty years ago, a group of Native Oglala Lakota and their supporters occupied a small village called Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Wounded Knee was the site of a notorious massacre in 1890, when US cavalry killed nearly 300 Lakota people. Local spiritual leaders and civil rights activists called in the American Indian Movement, or AIM, to support the occupation. It resulted in a siege that pitted AIM against US Marshals, the FBI, and a private militia known as the GOON squad. But the takeover also inspired a wave of international support and solidarity.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, activist and author of books including An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States and Blood on the Border, spoke with Long Reads producer Conor Gillies about the legacy of the Wounded Knee uprising.
Find Roxanne's piece, "'Indian' Wars," excerpted from An Indigenous Peoples' History, here: https://jacobin.com/2014/09/indian-wars/
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Coming Soon: The Dig Presents is a new monthly series that features original documentary reporting, personal narrative, and other sonic experiments from a wide range of contributors.
After some introductory comments on the bank failures, Doug speaks with Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative about the state of the carceral state. Then, Annelle Sheline discusses the Chinese-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Helena Hansen, Jules Netherland, and David Herzberg on how American capitalism and its illusions of whiteness both created the opioid crisis and shaped the response to it. We are discussing their book Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletters and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Subscribe to Jacobin bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst bit.ly/digcatalyst
A man spends a night in an isolated woman's desert shack, and loses his identity in the process, in WOMAN IN THE DUNES (1964), Hiroshi Teshigahara and Kōbō Abe's resonant parable about... what, exactly? Your hosts are not entirely sure, but forge ahead anyway with this seminal work of postwar Japanese cinema.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to veteran journalist Marc Cooper, who was a translator to President Salvador Allende in the Popular Unity government from 1970-1973. Marc has memorialized his experience in Chile in Pinochet and Me: A Chilean Anti Memoir (2001). Marc just returned from a month in Chile looking at Chilean politics 50 years after the coup and one year since the new leftwing government of Gabriel Boric was elected in a landslide. The first installment of Marc’s writing on Chile went online March 8 on Truthdig with more to come: the series of articles is called “Chile’s Utopia Has Been Postponed.” We get Marc's analysis of Chile today.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
A Florida follow-up: historian and union president Paul Ortiz on the DeSantis agenda and resistance to it. Then human rights lawyer Noa Levy discusses the far right agenda in Israel and resistance to it (see the Ayelet Shaked "Fascism" ad here).
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Nelson Lichtenstein on his life and scholarship, from membership in the International Socialists and studies of the early United Auto Workers and CIO to his later turn to studying Walmart and international supply chains. Guest host Micah Uetricht interviews one of the greatest living labor historians.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletters and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Buy Keywords for Capitalism by John Patrick Leary haymarketbooks.org/books/1886-keywords-for-capitalism
Suzi talks to Vladyslav Starodubtsev and Jeremy Bigwood about the war in Ukraine, now entering its second year. Russia’s war on Ukraine has been a disaster causing human suffering and economic devastation not just in Ukraine but also on the lives of ordinary Russians, treated like cannon fodder. The war has also had an impact on global hunger and energy supplies and the world environmental crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that this war has changed the trajectory of the twenty-first century. We get two perspectives.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
In the thirteenth century, the Catholic Church declared a holy war against a group of Christian heretics in the South of France. The Albigensian Crusade became notorious for its brutality and gave rise to a new regime of feudal oppression and religious conformity in Languedoc. It was a defining moment in the history of medieval Europe.
Elaine Graham-Leigh, historian and the author of The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade, joins Long Reads to discuss this crusade and its relevance to modern forms of racial and religious oppression.
Read Elaine's article for Jacobin, "The Medieval Crusade Against the Cathars Supplied a Template for Modern Oppression" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/01/albigensian-crusade-marxist-history-feudal-power-catholic-church-capitalism-oppression
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
George Orwell's popularity is at a new high in the post-Trump era, and he's been claimed by both the left and right. We discuss NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984), Michael Radford's feature-film adaptation of Orwell's most famous novel, and try to rescue a self-described socialist from the Dave Rubins of the world.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews Judith Levine about the trans kids panic and moves to defund the Kinsey Institute. Phil Wegner of the University of Florida discusses Ron DeSantis’s moves to quash academic freedom in that state.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Nadia Abu El-Haj on Combat Trauma: Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America. How the civil-military divide makes troops into super citizens and what it means that agents of state violence are turning to the grammar of identity politics—and more. The second in a two-part interview.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Subscribe to New Left Review newleftreview.org/subscriptions/new
Buy My Country is the World: Staughton Lynd’s Writings, Speeches, and Statements Against the Vietnam War haymarketbooks.org/books/1956-my-country-is-the-world
Abbas Kiarostami's masterpiece CLOSE-UP (1990) used the true story of a poor man who impersonated a famous filmmaker to meditate on class, identity, and the cinematic apparatus. PLUS: the slow erosion of universal healthcare, and checking in on Fox News post-Trump.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug speaks with Jamie Webster of BCG about western Europe’s energy situation. Then Kari Lydersen, author of a recent In These Times article, and Ron Kaminkow, locomotive engineer and organizer with Railroad Workers United, talk about the miseries of the industry and why it should be nationalized.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Nadia Abu El-Haj on Combat Trauma: Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America. A truly remarkable book about the unseen ideological foundations of American militarism: American civilians are enjoined to venerate troops, deferring to their traumatized positionality. The first in a two-part interview.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Buy: Fighting in a World on Fire by Andreas Malm versobooks.com/books/4138-fighting-in-a-world-on-fire
TheSinking Middle Class: A Political History of Debt, Misery, and the Drift to the Right by David Roediger haymarketbooks.org/books/1879-the-sinking-middle-class
Since the late 1990s, Pakistan has experienced several rounds of intense political turbulence. But the crisis unfolding today may be the most dramatic episode to date. The ousted prime minister Imran Khan has refused to go quietly, and his supporters are challenging the powerful military establishment. Khan himself survived an assassination attempt last November.
Ayyaz Mallick, lecturer in human geography at the University of Liverpool, joins Long Reads for a conversation about Pakistani politics.
Read his piece for Jacobin, "After Imran Khan's Ouster, Pakistan Is Going Through an Unprecedented Political Crisis" here: https://jacobin.com/2022/11/imran-khan-pakistan-military-generals-political-crisis-assassination
Check out Pluto audiobooks at: tiny.one/jacobin
And join the Left Book Club by using code WINFREE at leftbookclub.com
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Some topics are too vast, too vital for us to cover on our own. Today, we address one such topic. We invited Jacobin's Meagan Day and Branko Marcetic for a roundtable discussion on EMPIRE RECORDS (1995). We proffer some theories about why this attempt to hit the Gen X zeitgeist resonated more strongly with millennials, and how its depiction of alt-culture proved life-changing for at least one of the panelists.
Our previous symposium on You've Got Mail (1998) - https://soundcloud.com/michael-and-us/176-youve-got-mail-a-michael-us-symposium-w-meagan-day-and-branko-marcetic
Meagan at the Oxford Union - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEnqmgVaOjc
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Anatol Lieven discusses the slim prospects for peace in Ukraine and growing bellicosity towards China. Jairus Banaji, author of an article for Phenomenal World, talks about the politicized structure of Indian capitalism, and the scandal surrounding Gautam Adani.
Hindenburg report on the Adani Group: https://hindenburgresearch.com/adani/
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Donna Murch and Todd Wolfson on Rutgers University workers' industrial unionism strategy. The second in a two-part series on the crisis in American higher education.
Check out Dan's interview in The Nation: thenation.com/article/world/qa-daniel-denvir/
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out The Dig's newsletters and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Buy Haunted by Slavery: haymarketbooks.org/books/1557-haunted-by-slavery
Buy David Harvey’s Companion to Marx’s Grundrisse: versobooks.com/books/4145-a-companion-to-marx-s-grundrisse
The amateur documentary MY YANG GANG DIARY (2021) gives us opportunity to look back on the presidential candidacy of Andrew Yang. We discuss how the "not left, not right, but forward" candidate offered a vision of radical centrism.
"What Happened to Andrew Yang?" by Akela Lacy - https://theintercept.com/2021/08/15/andrew-yang-new-york-mayor/
Suzi talks to Robert Brenner and Dylan Riley about their “Seven Theses on American Politics” in New Left Review, an analysis of the 2022 midterm election results. The expected "red wave" was, in their words, more like a ripple. The responses to President Biden’s State of the Union address on February 7 further show the partisan fault lines that are superficially characterized in cultural terms. Our guests insist on rigorous class analysis to explain recent trends.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Software engineer Dwayne Monroe exposes the reality behind the hype around ChatGPT (and the sinister implications of AI). Then Doug interviews political economist Alfredo Saad-Filho on Brazil’s political landscape as Lula returns to the presidency.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Dennis Hogan on the crisis in higher education. The first in a two-part series. Next up: Donna Murch and Todd Wolfson on how university workers can fight back through industrial unionism.
Read Dan's interview in The Nation thenation.com/article/world/qa-daniel-denvir
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletters and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Buy On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century by Andrew Bacevich haymarketbooks.org/books/1949-on-shedding-an-obsolete-past
Terrence Malick perfected his now-signature style with his rapturously beautiful second film, DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978). We discuss the film's depiction of hardscrabble American life in the early 20th century, and Malick's holistic view of humanity and nature. PLUS: an alarming update on the state of Canadian media, and the U.S. Congress condemnation of socialism.
"On Earth as It Is in Heaven" by Adrian Martin - https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/555-days-of-heaven-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Critics of Karl Marx claim that he was incapable of recognizing forms of oppression that aren't linked to a narrow understanding of class. Kevin Anderson challenged that view in his book, Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies. Based on a careful reading of Marx's full body of work, it shows how Marx was far more attuned to questions of race and ethnicity than his critics would have you believe. Kevin joins Long Reads to discuss this often-overlooked side of Marxism.
Read his essay, "No, Karl Marx Was Not Eurocentric" here: https://jacobin.com/2022/07/karl-marx-eurocentrism-western-capitalism-colonialism
Check out Pluto audiobooks at: tiny.one/jacobin
And join the Left Book Club by using code WINFREE at leftbookclub.com
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Ann Neumann, author of a recent Harper's article, discusses the bloody war in Ethiopia. Then Doug gets two views on a proposed South American currency arrangement launched by Brazilian president Lula, one from Andrés Arauz, the other from Brian Mier.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Shanti Singh, Tracy Rosenthal, René Moya, and Cea Weaver on the politics and practice of organizing tenants.
Please donate generously to support Pioneer Tenants United zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/0ae18bb1-5cb9-475a-af13-aedbbd890497
Peruse our vast archives and weekly newsletters at thedigradio.com
A key moment in the evolution of the modern blockbuster, JURASSIC WORLD (2015) is a cynical reboot about cynical reboots. We discuss what this enormously popular movie says about the world that spawned it, as well as its very peculiar sexist streak you may have noticed. PLUS: Why is Canada's conservative movement so Americanized?
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug is joined by Josh White, author of Goodbye United Kingdom, to discuss that country’s trajectory of decline. Then Felicia Kornbluh, author of A Woman’s Life Is a Human Life, talks about the fight for abortion rights in the late 60s and early 70s, and how it must be part of a larger struggle for reproductive justice.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Robin D.G. Kelley on Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email
Peruse our newsletters and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Check out
America as Overlord haymarketbooks.org/books/1958-america-as-overlord
The Men With the Pink Triangle haymarketbooks.org/books/1935-the-men-with-the-pink-triangle
During the 1980s, Japan seemed like it might overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy. But since a property bubble burst in the early 90s, Japan has become a by-word for economic stagnation. That hasn’t prevented the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from maintaining its status as the most successful political party in the rich capitalist world.
Kristin Surak joins Long Reads to discuss modern Japan. Kristin teaches sociology at the London School of Economics and is the author of Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Practice.
Find her work for Jacobin, including the essay "Japan’s Shinzō Abe Was an Uninspiring Leader Who Prospered by Default," here: https://jacobin.com/author/kristin-surak
Check out Pluto audiobooks at: tiny.one/jacobin
And join the Left Book Club by using code WINFREE at leftbookclub.com
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Doug speaks with Matthieu Aikins, author and investigative reporter, about the situation in Afghanistan with the US gone and the Taliban in control. Later, Christina Dunbar-Hester, author of Oil Beach, discusses the ecology of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
A misanthropic catalog of shocking images from around the world, the bizarre, unpleasant, baldly racist, and extremely influential MONDO CANE (1962) was a pioneering "shockumentary." We revisit this strange and ugly artifact to discuss why it was taken so seriously in its day.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Michael Denning on Antonio Gramsci. The second of a two-part interview.
Read the passages of Selections from the Prison Notebooks that Dan read to prepare: thedigradio.com/gramscinotebooks
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email
Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Check out Socialism...Seriously: A Brief Guide to Surviving the 21st Century by Danny Katch haymarketbooks.org/books/1943-socialism-seriously
Check out Black Women Writers at Work haymarketbooks.org/books/1926-black-women-writers-at-work
Upon its release, Steven Soderbergh's TRAFFIC (2000) offered something novel: a cinematic tapestry that criticized America's War on Drugs. More than 20 years later, we consider its strengths, as well as the impact that time has diminished. PLUS: Let's read a little from Prince Harry autobiography, shall we?
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Emily Jashinsky of The Federalist discusses the GOP: the meaning of the speaker fight, and what is the base of the Freedom Caucus anyway? Sohrab Ahmari, co-founder of Compact Magazine, offers a left-right hybrid.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Michael Denning on Antonio Gramsci. Part one of an expansive two-part interview.
Read the passages of Selections from the Prison Notebooks that Dan read to prepare: thedigradio.com/gramscinotebooks
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email
Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
The Dutch Revolt of the sixteenth century defeated the Spanish monarchy, the great European superpower of its day. It may not be as well remembered as the English Civil War or the French Revolution. But it was a watershed moment in the development of modern Europe. Pepijn Brandon joins Long Reads to discuss this revolt. He’s an historian at VU University in Amsterdam and the author of War, Capital, and the Dutch State. This is the second part of a two-part interview.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Join the Left Book Club at a discount by using the code WINFREE at leftbookclub.com
Get an audiobook from Pluto Press at this link: tiny.one/jacobin
Today Meleiza Figueroa hosts the podcast. She talks to three guests about the historic series of winter storms that have been lashing the entire state of California since New Year’s Eve, causing widespread flooding, landslides, wind damage, and levee failures. With rain forecasted to continue all the way until Martin Luther King Day, the worst may be yet to come. While California is far better known for droughts, earthquakes, and wildfires, atmospheric rivers from the Pacific also bring regular flooding, sometimes on a biblical scale; an inherent feature of California’s extreme weather regime that is expected to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. Meleiza’s guests bring various perspectives to the flood that touch on its historical, scientific, and socio-political significance.
Indigenous traditional ecological practitioner Ali Meders-Knight looks at the deep history of California’s 200-year flood cycle, bringing the long view to us relative newcomers in a place that has only been called “California” for 180 years.
Climate scientist Daniel Swain discusses the complex dynamics of atmospheric river events, and how climate change and wildfires contribute to intensifying the extremes of California’s drought-and-flood cycles.
Myla Ablog, a wetland ecologist and former regulatory official, discusses the state of California’s infrastructure, the impact of these floods on workers and houseless people in the Central Valley and elsewhere, and what we can and must do to prepare our communities for the “Other Big One.”
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Filmed in the aftermath of the 1970 "October Crisis" that brought martial law to Canada, Gilles Groulx's radical documentary 24 HOURS OR MORE (1973) takes a disapproving look at life in Quebec under capitalism during a moment when the postwar economic boom was receding. It's the kind of movie that isn't made anymore: a movie that questions the very premises on which society is built.
Watch the movie for free: https://www.nfb.ca/film/24_hours_or_more/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Today Suzi brings part two of our tribute to Mike Davis, who died on October 25. Mike was a prolific writer, historian, political activist, urban theorist, and author of dozens of books, many featured here on this podcast.
We begin with an interview from July 1986 just after Mike completed his first book, Prisoners of the American Dream, published on the centenary of May Day 1886. Mike discusses the political economy of Reaganism, or Reaganomics, which began with a frontal attack on organized labor. He also explains what makes the American working class different. The second interview, from February 1988, coincided with the Justice for Janitors campaign. David Diaz joins Mike in the discussion on Los Angeles politics, looking at what redevelopment in the city had wrought. LA, like the rest of the country, was switching from a manufacturing to a service economy, though manufacturing continued using very low-wage immigrant labor. Non-union workers could not afford the cost of housing, and the lack of affordable rents fed the growing homeless crisis. We get a preview of Mike’s lifelong concerns about LA and workers fighting for a life with dignity and livable wages. We follow with a newer interview with Mike Davis and co-author Jon Wiener discussing their compelling 2020 history of LA in the 1960s, a hotbed of political, social and cultural upheaval and rebellion, Set the Night on Fire.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
As we enter 2023, it's time for our annual look back on the movies that defined our podcast over the past 12 months. In our third Year-in-Review Extravaganza, we're handing out awards for Best Movie, Worst Movie, Best End-of-History Movie, Thing We Liked Growing Up That Holds Up Relatively Well, Best Tubi Movie, and more. Will Alexandra Pelosi win an award? Will Dinesh D'Souza go home empty-handed? What about Trump vs. the Illuminati? Tune in to find out!
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring historian Tim Barker on monetary politics, inflation, and the general capitalist conjuncture. The second of a two-part interview.
Check out my July 2021 interview with Barker if you want a more expansive primer on inflation thedigradio.com/podcast/inflation-politics-with-tim-barker
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our brilliant newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
Get After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America haymarketbooks.org/books/1927-after-life
We pay tribute to Mike Davis, who died on October 25. Mike was a prolific writer, historian, political activist, urban theorist, and author of dozens of books. There has been an avalanche of tributes and obituaries, a testament to Mike’s powerful and distinctive influence, his generosity, his tireless life as a fighter against everything that diminishes human dignity and ravages the planet. He was also a dear friend and a friend of this podcast: I counted at least 30 interviews with him over the years.
We'll hear from those conversations: first, a 2005 interview just a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast; and then, two interviews, a decade apart, on the intensifying California wildfires and his famous argument for “letting Malibu burn.” Finally, we round out this podcast episode with an interview with Mike from March 22, 2020, just at the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Fifteen years earlier, his book The Monster at Our Door warned of a coming global threat of viral catastrophe. In this interview, Mike considered the coronavirus pandemic as the familiar monster now at our door, a biological crisis that poses huge challenges for neoliberal global capitalism. Mike called it a "medical Katrina," one that exposes the woeful unpreparedness of our disinvested public health system as well as the stark class divide of health care in the US.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Kathryn Joyce discusses the far right and its internal battles. Doug then interviews Edward Ongweso Jr about tech, AI, and Luddism.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring historian Tim Barker on the state of monetary politics amid the current fight over inflation.
Check out my July 2021 interview with Barker if you want a more expansive primer on inflation thedigradio.com/podcast/inflation-politics-with-tim-barker
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our brilliant newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com
The Dutch Revolt of the sixteenth century defeated the Spanish monarchy, the great European superpower of its day. It may not be as well remembered as the English Civil War or the French Revolution. But it was a watershed moment in the development of modern Europe.
Pepijn Brandon joins Long Reads to discuss the Dutch Revolt. He’s an historian at VU University in Amsterdam and the author of War, Capital, and the Dutch State. This is the first part of a two-part interview.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Get an audiobook from Pluto Press before the end of December and you'll be entered to win a set of their entire collection: tiny.one/jacobin
And join the Left Book Club at a discount by using the code WINFREE at leftbookclub.com
The 20-year filmmaking career of Alexandra Pelosi has been building up to this moment: a hagiographic documentary portrait of her mother, the outgoing U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We watched PELOSI IN THE HOUSE (2022).
"Nancy Pelosi’s Daughter Makes Awful Documentaries Fawning Over the Establishment" by Will Sloan - https://jacobin.com/2022/12/nancy-alexandra-pelosi-documentary-filmmaking-establishment
"Nancy Pelosi Delivered Little for the Left, but We Might Miss Her Anyway" by Branko Marcetic - https://jacobin.com/2022/11/nancy-pelosi-house-speaker-democratic-party-center
"The Obamanauts" by Corey Robin - https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-obamanauts
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews Intercept reporter Ryan Grim, author of a recent article on railroad unions, about the fight between workers and bosses in the rail industry. Then we hear from economist Sanjay Reddy, who discusses the fight between adjuncts and bosses in the neoliberal university.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Edward Goetz on his book New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy. Goetz tells the story of American public housing and then its destruction and dismantling, which took off in the 1980s and accelerated during the 90s under the Clinton Administration’s Hope VI program.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email plus swag.
Check out Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Firehaymarketbooks.org/books/1861-light-in-gaza
Suzi talks to UAW 2865 strikers Sarah Mason and Jack Davies of UC Santa Cruz and Johnathan Guy at UC Berkeley about the UC strike, the largest strike ever in American higher education. It is crunch time for the UC system as term ends and grades are due. The academic workers are demanding significant pay increases, childcare reimbursements, and support for international scholars. They recognize that this action has the potential to change the existing model of university education. We get their analysis, experience and hopes for the strike.
Suzi then talks to labor historian Michael Goldfield about the showdown in Rail: President Biden pushed through a bill forcing a contract on 115,000 overworked and exhausted railworkers who have been fighting for paid sick leave. The demand for paid sick days is a placeholder for all the quality of life issues that railroad workers are facing after years of austerity while the rail companies enjoyed record profits. Biden invoked the 100-year-old Railway Labor Act to avert the strike, asking Congress to impose a settlement and compel the workers to accept a contract. Goldfield explains why this arcane Act to prevent transportation workers from striking came into being and why it is still in effect.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
In 1991, actor/martial artist/philosopher/current Russian special envoy to the U.S. Steven Seagal hosted Saturday Night Live for the first and only time. The result has gone down in history as one of the worst episodes of all time. We look back on this infamous show and find a nearly indecipherable time-capsule of the comedy and culture of the early 1990s. PLUS: Luke explores the relationship between celebrities and the NFT industry.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi joins Alan Minsky and Meleiza Figueroa of The People’s Game podcast for a deeper look at the history and politics behind the nationalist enmities on display during this World Cup, beyond the football. Racist chants and fascist slogans erupted from the Serbian side toward ethnic Albanians on the Swiss team, creating high stakes tension as Serbian players nearly came to blows with Switzerland’s star players who happen to be Albanian Kosovars. Where was FIFA? Was there discriminatory handling of the fans by the police who seemed uninterested in the offensive gestures, chants, and banners? The scenes at the stadium during the match take us right back to the Balkan wars of the 1990s following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the fall of Yugoslavia. Suzi joins Meleiza and Alan for some political, economic, and historical background while Meleiza and Alan put this in broader perspective in the long history of football as politics – and history.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Natalia Petrzela, author of Fit Nation, discusses the history of physical culture in the US. Then Doug interviews Paolo Gerbaudo on the weakness of the Italian bourgeoisie.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Gail Radford on her classic book Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era. Radford tells the story of Catherine Bauer, the Labor Housing Conference, and the struggle to make the American housing system a radically social one. In place of the two-tier system that won out, Bauer and her allies proposed a massive federally-backed system of noncommercial housing that would appeal to and house the majority of Americans.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire (1882-1917) by Eric Blanc haymarketbooks.org/books/1907-revolutionary-social-democracy
Eritrea’s long struggle for independence finally ended in victory three decades ago. It seemed like a fresh beginning for one of Africa’s smallest countries. But the Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki soon established a highly repressive political system that caused many young people to flee. Since 2020, Afwerki’s army has been a key protagonist in one of the world’s most destructive wars.
Michela Wrong, journalist and the author of several books about African politics including I Didn’t Do It For You, joins the podcast to discuss a history of modern Eritrea.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
The quintessential American folk troubadour and a beloved national icon, Woody Guthrie was also a committed lefty for whom art and politics were intertwined. We discuss his life and legacy via Hal Ashby's biopic BOUND FOR GLORY (1976), which takes a broad look at Guthrie and during the Great Depression. PLUS: How Joe Biden crushed a railroad workers' strike.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Jennifer Berkshire discusses the latest version of right-wing school politics (since the last versions haven’t been working for them). Then Doug interviews Jodi Dean, co-editor (along with Charisse Burden-Stelly) of Organize, Fight, Win, a collection of Black Communist women’s writings from the late 1920s into the early 1950s.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Suzi talks to Alan Minsky and Meleiza Figueroa, creators and hosts of The People’s Game podcast, to get their unique perspectives on the 2022 Qatari World Cup. This is much more than soccer, but there is that too. They combine on-the-field analysis with discussions of the political, economic, and cultural subtexts of the World Cup—its intersection with climate, sport, society, rebellion, and everything else. This World Cup is all superlatives: the biggest sports spectacle in the world, with more people watching than ever. It is also the most expensive ever, by a long shot. The Qatari government has spent a staggering $250 billion building and remodeling the city for the event, a giant investment using sports for political influence.
Alan and Meleiza then talk to David Goldblatt, author of The Age of Football: Soccer and the 21st Century about his recent article in the London Review of Books that explores the political messaging and many controversies of this World Cup. We see the brave protests and athletes sporting armbands expressing solidarity with women and the LGBTQ community. Less visible is Qatar’s migrant labor force working in searing heat to build literally everything on temporary work visas, without rights, adequate pay, or decent housing.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Astra Taylor interviews William Hogeland on his book Founding Finance: How Debt, Speculation, Foreclosures, Protests, and Crackdowns Made Us a Nation. Hogeland recovers a fascinating crop of mostly-forgotten rebels, the movements they led, and their radical demands that put the landlords and lenders of their day on edge. He also recounts the complex and sometimes deadly machinations that went into suppressing them in order to create a nation that was safe for the owning and investing classes.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Released shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Howard Hawks' SERGEANT YORK (1941) was an attempt to rouse popular support for America entering the Second World War. We excavate one of the biggest box office hits of its day and find a movie in which God and Country are pitted together, and Country wins. PLUS: we hash over some of the drastic and unhappy changes that have happened to our local government in Toronto, Canada.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Tina Gerhardt discusses the COP27 climate conference. Lyle Jeremy Rubin, author of Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body, speaks about connections between masculinity, the Marines, and imperial violence.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Suzi talks to Jeremy Bigwood, investigative journalist, researcher, and photojournalist, about his observations and perceptions of Russia, where he has been living off and on since 2017. Jeremy’s insights are especially valuable as he spent the last five years talking to ordinary Russians—not the intelligentsia, in his words—and this helps our understanding of those who support Putin and the so-called special military operation, those who avoid taking a stance, and those who oppose Putin and the war. Jeremy left Moscow a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, going first to Odessa, then to the front lines near Mikolayiv, and from there to the front near Kherson. Jeremy returned to Washington DC a few months ago, bewildered by the divisions in the American left over the nature of the war, especially those who do not support, in his view, Ukraine’s defensive war for national survival. We get his perspective.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Featuring Daniel Denvir on the Citations Needed podcast (as guest, not host) debunking the argument that "woke mobs" (liberal or left identity politics) drove white working-class men into MAGA's arms.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our vast archives and newsletters at thedigradio.com
The World Cup is beginning this week in Qatar. The biggest sporting event on the planet is taking place this year under a hail of controversy. The process that awarded Qatar its role as host prompted allegations of corruption. There has also been media reporting about the atrocious working conditions on stadium construction sites.
Jonathan Wilson, football columnist for the Observer and the author of several books, joins Long Reads to discuss the economic and political structures underpinning the world’s most popular sport.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Jodi Dean analyzes the political landscape in the wake of last week’s election. Tobias Hübinette, author of a recent Boston Review article, discusses the role of immigration in the backlash against Swedish social democracy.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Golnar Nikpour on the history of modern Iran. This is the fifth and final episode in what is now a FIVE-part series. We begin this episode in 1997, with reformist cleric Mohammad Khatami’s surprise landslide election to the presidency. Then we cover the reformists running into hardliner repression and George W. Bush's War on Terror, the 2005 election of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his 2009 reelection and Green Movement protests, Hassan Rouhani and the nuclear accord that Trump then tore up, the 2019 mass working-class protests, and the election (but really more coronation) of right-winger Ebrahim Raisi. We end with the death of Zhina Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police and the current mass protest movement that erupted in response.
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Check out our vast archives and the rest of this series at thedigradio.com
Buy Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win by Helen Shiller haymarketbooks.org/books/1952-daring-to-struggle-daring-to-win
Featuring Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Golnar Nikpour on the history of modern Iran. This is the fourth episode in what is now a FIVE-part series. We pick up in the wake of the Islamic Revolution as Khomeini consolidates power, represses his rivals, and confronts an invasion from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. We continue through the Iran-Iraq War, the mass execution of thousands of leftist prisoners, and Khamenei and Rafsanjani's rise to power after Khomeini's death.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our vast archives and newsletter at thedigradio.com
Joel Schalit on the return of Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, now in coalition with the religious right. Mohammad Salemy on the tripartite structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Megan Kinch on a labor upsurge in Ontario.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
We finally felt lucky enough to discuss the granddaddy of right-wing law-and-order movies, DIRTY HARRY (1971). One thing is for certain: this is one cop who takes no guff from no one. PLUS: fiery hot takes on the U.S. midterms, the labour strike that is rocking Canada, and the future of entertainment. This episode was recorded before election day in the US.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Political economist Alfredo Saad-Filho discusses the Brazilian elections. Then, Mina Khani and Mohammad Salemy look at the ongoing, women-led uprising in Iran.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Golnar Nikpour on the history of modern Iran. This is the third episode in our four-part series. We pick up in the wake of the US-British 1953 coup against Mossadegh, assess the Shah's repression and attempts to manufacture consent through passive revolution, and then close by laying out the 1979 Islamic Revolution in all of its wild complexity.
If you love The Dig, support the podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our newsletter and archives at thedigradio.com
Science fiction has traditionally depicted a robot takeover as a conscious bid for global domination by our mechanical offspring. From The Terminator to The Matrix, we’ve been invited to picture a war to the death between man and machine. More recently however, figures like Elon Musk have spoken about the rise of the robots as a more insidious threat to humanity; the machines may bear us no ill will, but they’ll cast us on the scrap heap of technological unemployment anyway.
Aaron Benanav, author of Automation and the Future of Work, joins Long Reads to discuss what this conventional wisdom around technology and jobs gets wrong—and what a realistic path to a post-scarcity world might look like.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Adam McKay's VICE (2018) sought to give Dick Cheney the full reckoning for his crimes through art that he will never receive in life. Is the film necessary cinematic intervention in the ongoing Cheney reclamation project, or a condescending failure? Your hosts disagree sharply on this cinematic polemic. PLUS: fiery hot takes on Elon Musk's Twitter takeover.
"'Damn right,' I said" by Eliot Weinberger - https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n01/eliot-weinberger/damn-right-i-said
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Golnar Nikpour on the history of modern Iran. This is the second episode in our four-part series. We begin in 1941 with the British-Soviet occupation of Iran, the ouster of Reza Shah and his replacement by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah. We continue with the rise of the Tudeh communist party, the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Mohammad Mosaddegh's National Party coming to power, and the 1953 US-British coup that overthrew Mosaddegh and reinstalled Mohammad Reza Shah as dictator. His brutal reign continued until the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which is where we will pick up in episode three.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out The Sinking Middle Class by David Roediger haymarketbooks.org/books/1879-the-sinking-middle-class
Jamieson Webster, author of a recent opinion piece in the Times, examines what severe psychological distress among adolescents is telling us about American society. Then Raina Lipsitz, author of The Rise of a New Left, looks at the history, personnel, and status of today’s radicalism.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Suzi talks to Michael Cox, Cold War and International Relations expert, about his forthcoming article in Critique, “In the shadow of the Russian revolution: Putin, Xi, and the long war in Ukraine.” Mick looks at the state of the war and the shock to the world system it has provoked, wreaking havoc with energy prices and the financial system. He examines the relationship between Russia and China within a reconfigured world order. Russia’s war on Ukraine has created strange bedfellows, left and right, north and south. We don’t know how it will turn out, but Mick argues that this war has changed the trajectory of the 21st century. We get his analysis.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
In a distant future, a privileged ruling class lives in a city fueled by an invisible army of workers who toil in barbaric conditions. Yes, this is the far-fetched scenario of one of the most iconic science-fiction films of all time, Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (1927). We finally discuss the most famous of all Weimar-era movies, and debate whether or not the mediator between the head and the hand really is the heart.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
This episode is the first in a four-part series on the history of modern Iran, from 1906 through the present. This episode covers the period from 1906 until 1941, from the Constitutional Revolution that imposed constitutional limits on the Qajar dynasty through the 1921 coup that brought to power Reza Khan—who then in 1925 deposed the Qajars and became Reza Shah, the first shah of the Pahlavi dynasty. We end just before the 1941 occupation of Iran by longtime imperial powers, Britain and the Soviet Union, which forced Reza Shah out and replaced him with his son, Muhammad Reza Shah—which is where we will pick up in episode two.
RIP Mike Davis. Listen to his Dig interviews here: thedigradio.com/tag/mike-davis
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Read our newsletters and explore our vast archives at thedigradio.com
Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute explains why Saudi Arabia cut its oil production dramatically. James Meadway, former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party and now director of the Progressive Economy Forum, analyzes why Britain is in economic and political crisis.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
This is sadly our final episode of the Jacobin Show. We're joined by labor organizer and author Jane McAlevey to discuss the state of the labor movement and where it needs to go to address our mounting crises. Ariella Thornhill and Paul Prescod also join Jen Pan to discuss what a healthy left needs to consist of and why the claims to a "new working class" are dead wrong.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from October 19, 2022.
Suzi talks to Iranian scholar and activist Yassamine Mather about the growing protest movement in Iran, sparked by the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini in police custody for wearing a loose hijab. The demonstrations have spread across the country and world with women chopping off their hair in solidarity and protest. The Islamic regime has violently cracked down on protestors but has failed to quell the movement. This is the biggest challenge the government has faced in more than four decades of theocratic rule – and as Yassamine asserts, the protests are not just about the hijab, but a woman’s right to choose what she does in every aspect of her life.
Suzi also talks to political economist Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos in Brazil to get his analysis of the October 2nd Presidential election results. Lula won with 48.4% to President Bolsonaro's 43.2% of the votes, but failed to eliminate Bolsonaro outright in the first round. The results reveal the level of polarization in Brazil, despite Bolsonaro's disastrous rule. We get Pedro Paulo's analysis of Brazil's geographical, social, political, religious and racial divisions, and his assessment of the second round to come on October 30th.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
We discuss death, bureaucracy, and postwar Japan in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece IKIRU (1952). PLUS: Everything you always wanted to know about Toronto's political culture (and upcoming municipal election) but were afraid to ask!
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
The question of how to define antisemitism has become a major political controversy. Many leading political figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu, now insist that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are two sides of the same coin. How did we reach a point where this kind of discourse has become entirely routine? Antony Lerman joins Long Reads to discuss the history of this debate, covered in a new book, Whatever Happened To Antisemitism? Redefinition and the Myth of the 'Collective Jew'. The work draws on his long experience of academic research into the different forms of anti-Jewish bigotry.
You can read a review of Lerman's book in Jacobin here: https://jacobin.com/2022/09/antisemitism-zionism-israel-palestine-corbyn
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Laura Mason on her book The Last Revolutionaries: The Conspiracy Trial of Gracchus Babeuf and the Equals. Mason discusses Babeuf's call to abolish property, his radically egalitarian conspiracy against the Directory government, and the end of the French Revolution. How a centrist government turned its back on popular democracy, presided over growing inequality and working-class poverty, and abetted the rise of the reactionary right that would ultimately overthrow it.
Check out the newsletter and our vast archives at thedigradio.com
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Doug speaks with Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass, authors of Half-Earth Socialism, about their scheme to save the world.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
On the occasion of Jacobin's "Inflation" issue release party, Samir Sonti interviewed historian Adam Tooze at the Mayday Space in Brooklyn. This is audio from that recent live conversation. Samir and Adam discuss the causes, threats, and nuances of inflation, as well as ways to combat the cost-of-living crisis in such a way that puts the needs of people before capital.
Get the new "Inflation" issue, and a year-long subscription, for just $20: https://bit.ly/JACOBINRADIO
Grace speaks to historian David Broder about Italian fascism following the recent elections in which the Italian far-right party led by Giorgia Meloni, the Brothers of Italy, came to power.They discuss the longer-term background of the rise of fascism, which David will be covering in his forthcoming book, Mussolini’s Grandchildren.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Sabrina Fernades, Alex Hochuli, and Ben Fogel join us for a major overview and analysis of the state of the Brazilian election. Will Lula pull off his comeback? What would that mean for working class politics in Brazil? We're also joined by longtime Democratic strategist and commentariat Ruy Teixeira to discuss why the Democrats are married to losing cultural politics. Finally, Jen Pan and Cale Brooks discusses some more recent studies on the deprivation of the white working class and why the left should focus on their issues.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from October 12, 2022.
In 2015, three American armed forces vets foiled an attack on a train to Paris. Three years later, Clint Eastwood enlisted the boys to re-enact their experience in a major motion picture. The result, THE 15:17 TO PARIS (2018), is a genuinely strange docu-fiction experiment that, yes, has a lot to say about America.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Anton Jäger and Dominik Leusder on Europe and the European Union from the crises of social democratic welfare states in the 1970s and 80s, the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, through the eurozone crisis, to the present moment of war in Ukraine, renewed NATO expansion, and a resurgent far right.
Listen to Anton and Dominik's Eurotrash podcast patreon.com/eurotrash
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig to get our weekly newsletter by email
Check out those newsletters and our vast archives at thedigradio.com
We're joined by Donald Cohen, executive director of the policy organization In The Public Interest, to discuss his new book The Privatization of Everything, which looks at how the privatization of public goods has undermined democracy. We're also joined by Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage to discuss his new book The Dead Center—and whether the left can (or should) save liberalism from liberals. Jen Pan covers the latest dumb workplace trend, the so-called "flexetariat," and explains why there's really no there there. Finally, Jen is joined by producer Cale to share some initial reactions to Lula's first round presidential victory and what that portends for class de-alignment and left populism.
Donald Cohen's book: https://thenewpress.com/books/privatization-of-everything
Luke Savage's book: https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from October 5, 2022.
Suzi talks to Ilya Matveev about Russia's destructive war on Ukraine, now at a critical juncture. Putin has annexed four regions of Ukraine after holding farcical referenda, a clear and dangerous escalation in areas that are not completely under Russian control. Putin has also warned that any attacks on these areas are attacks on Russia—and that he would "protect" these territories by all means necessary, including tactical nuclear weapons. This follows the draft announced on September 21 of some 300,000 men, which has proven unpopular: about the same number called up are fleeing the country. The move belies Putin’s six-month propaganda effort to call Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a "special military operation," not a war. These latest events have reignited the anti-war movement, despite draconian penalties for anti-war activities, and further isolated Russia. We get Ilya Matveev’s perspective.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Doug interviews Anatol Lieven on the horror in Ukraine and diminishing chances for peace. Anne Rumberger, author of a recent article for Salvage about the evangelical anti-abortion movement, discusses the history of the Christian right’s attitudes toward abortion (they weren’t always against it).
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
The new documentary series UNPRECEDENTED (2022) seeks to offer an unfiltered look at the Trump family in the weeks before the 2020 election and the January 6 riot. We discuss how its thickets of editorial commentary obscure a potentially compelling look into America's former first family, and then we have a laugh reading from Trump Jr.'s debut book, Triggered.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Daisy Pitkin on her book On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union, a memoir that powerfully captures the drama of an organizing drive—and so much more.
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Subscribe to n+1 at nplusonemag.com/thedig. Enter THEDIG at checkout for a discount.
Alex Gourevitch joins us to discuss his recent Catalyst essay that assesses the possibilities and limits of a post-work socialist society. We're also joined by Jonas Pontusson to unpack the strong electoral showing of the Swedish far right. And finally our own European editor David Broder explains what Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy's victory means for Italy.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from September 28, 2022.
This week, Grace speaks to Ben Tarnoff, author of Internet for the People. They talk about the origins of the web, how it was enclosed and privatized, and ways we might work together to build a different model for the internet.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
A memorial to Barbara Ehrenreich, who died at 81 on September 1, featuring three Behind the News interviews with her from 2004, 2005, and 2009.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Libertarian magicians Penn & Teller turn their gaze to the art world in TIM'S VERMEER (2013), a documentary that attempts to prove that, with just the right set of tools and a lot of money, one wealthy entrepreneur can paint a Vermeer. We discuss the bleak, empty void that is Penn & Teller's view of art.
See Luke at the Toronto International Festival of Authors on September 27 - https://festivalofauthors.ca/event/critical-conversation-new-working-class/
Check out Luke's book The Dead Center - https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Featuring Laura Weinrib on The Taming of Free Speech: America’s Civil Liberties Compromise. Did you know that the ACLU was founded as a radical labor organization allied with the IWW? Weinrib traces the rise of the modern civil liberties movement, and modern constitutional liberalism more broadly, from World War I through the New Deal. She explains how the ACLU went from defending free speech as a means to revolutionary ends to a liberal position exalting free speech as an end unto itself—including the anti-union speech of bosses and the political speech of corporations.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out
Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America by Joshua Frank haymarketbooks.org/books/1940-atomic-days
Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages by Ray Acheson haymarketbooks.org/books/1883-abolishing-state-violence
Elizabeth Schmidt joins Long Reads for a discussion about Somalia's modern history of politics, crisis, and foreign intervention. Elizabeth is professor emeritus of history at Loyola University Maryland and the author of six books about Africa, including Foreign Intervention in Africa After the Cold War: Sovereignty, Responsibility, and the War on Terror.
Read her piece, "US Interference in Somalia Has Been a Disaster for Somalis," here: https://jacobin.com/2022/08/somalia-siad-barre-islamists-us-military
Get a year-long subscription to Jacobin, including our new issue, "Inflation," for $20: https://bit.ly/jacobinradio
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Samir Sonti joins us to talk about why the Federal Reserve has so much power over the economy and why its typical response to inflation is bad for workers. But does it need to be? We're also joined by Matt Bruenig to explain the real state of childhood poverty and what we should do to erase it. Our own Paul Prescod breaks down the state of the rail worker contract negations and whether a strike is still on the horizon. Finally, Jen Pan and Cale Brooks decipher some new polling numbers that say popular opinions of both capitalism and socialism have declined.
0:00 opening segment
13:45 Paul interview
40:00 Matt interview
49:30 Samir interview
Get the new Jacobin issue, "Inflation," by subscribing here for $20: https://bit.ly/JACOBINRADIO
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from September 21, 2022. Join us in New York for the "Inflation" issue release party on October 5th, featuring a live interview with Adam Tooze.
Grace speaks to Ruth Wilson Gilmore, prison abolitionist, scholar, and professor of geography at the City University of New York. She is the author of several books, including Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California and, most recently, Abolition Geography: Essays Toward Liberation. They discuss who is profiting from the criminal justice system, how existing institutions within the system serve to support and reinforce capitalist social relations, and what a socialist conception of justice looks like.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Suzi talks to UCSB labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein to get his analysis of the impending rail strike and the tentative deal reached to prevent it by labor leaders, the government, and the freight rail companies. The workers are demanding paid sick days and more predictable and humane schedules, but they weren’t at the table forging the tentative agreement. They are, however, the ones who will decide whether or not to ratify or reject the deal. Nelson says rail workers are shaking up labor once again: his title for the op-ed that appeared in the LA Times on September 15 was “We need a railroad strike!”
Suzi then talks to Ukrainian writer and documentary filmmaker Anatoli Ulyanov about his LeftEast article, “The Superfluous People of Eastern Ukraine.” Anatoli addresses a crucial question about what happens once the war ends, however that may turn out, when the question of reintegrating the Donbas—not just territory but people—becomes primary. He extends his analysis to include all those who will be strangers in their own country.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
We mark Queen Elizabeth's passing by looking at towering work of royalist kitsch, THE KING'S SPEECH (2010). We discuss how this Oscar-winner humanizes the monarchy in order to uphold it.
See Luke speak at the Toronto International Festival of Authors on September 27 - https://festivalofauthors.ca/event/critical-conversation-new-working-class/
Hear Will on Canadaland - https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/815-our-royals-our-elves/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug discusses child poverty: How much was it down, really? Then Mario Pino offers another view of the Chilean constitutional referendum. Finally, Arielle Angel, editor of Jewish Currents and author of a new article, "Beyond Grievance," explores the problems with organizing politics around pain and the issues of "foregrounding grievance in the name of justice."
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Thulani Davis on The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom, a monumental history of freedpeople organizing amid the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto by China Miéville haymarketbooks.org/books/1990-a-spectre-haunting
Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom and Oscar Mendoza to get their analysis of the monumental defeat in Chile on Sunday, September 4, when Chileans went to the polls to approve or reject a new progressive Constitution, born in response to the massive social protest movement and revolt in October 2019. The demand that grew out of that movement was for a new Constitution to replace the reactionary Pinochet constitution imposed in a fraudulent plebiscite in 1980. A Constituent Assembly was elected, representing the most diverse sectors of the population, specifically excluding the traditional political class. Sadly it was rejected, in fact trounced. Pablo Abufom and Oscar Mendoza each analyze the scope and meaning of the ‘rechazo’ or rejection, and look at what happens next.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
We're joined by the left's preeminent cultural critics, Catherine Liu and Eileen Jones, to assess why cultural production is so awful right now and what its root causes are. We also have professor René Rojas to help us understand why the progressive constitution in Chile failed horribly after years of mounting social pressure. Jen Pan examines some new independent union alternatives and why they don't stack up to traditional labor power. Finally, we pay tribute to Barbara Ehrenreich, one of our finest socialists of the modern era, who sadly passed earlier in the month.
1:00 tribute to Barbara Ehrenreich
8:20 interview with Rene Rojas
36:30 Jen’s segment on "pseudo-unions"
42:50 interview with Catherine Liu and Eileen Jones
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from September 13, 2022.
Chilean political activist Antonia Atria explains why that country’s voters rejected a proposed new constitution. Juliana Fredman, a public interest lawyer in the Bay Area, analyzes Biden’s student debt relief plan.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore on racial capitalism, intergenerational organizing, internationalism, and a whole lot more. Dan's live Dig interview from the Socialism 2022 conference in Chicago.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out our archives and weekly newsletter at thedigradio.com
Check out Breaking the Impasse by Kim Moody haymarketbooks.org/books/1873-breaking-the-impasse
Deepa Kumar returns to Long Reads for a discussion about imperial militarism and its relationship to Islamophobic bigotry. Deepa is a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and the author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. This is part two of a two-part interview. You can find the first part here.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative joins to discuss the demographics of the million people in state prisons (with a coda on the fight around cash bail in New York). Then historian James Chappel talks about "postliberalism," namely the reactionary Catholic law prof Adrian Vermeule (a contributing editor of the would-be left–right hybrid magazine, Compact). This is an encore version of a show first broadcast in April.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
One of the key films of Brazil's Cinema Novo movement, Glauber Rocha's masterpiece TERRA EM TRANSE aka ENTRANCED EARTH (1967) envisions a fictional Latin American country where the left- and right-wing parties both feed from the same trough, and asks what role art can play in revolution, if any. Friend-of-the-show Violet Lucca returns to place the film within the context of Brazil after the 1964 coup that led to decades of military dictatorship.
"Revolutionary Lessons"by Robert Stamm - https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC10-11folder/TerraTranseStam.html
Check out Violet on The Harper's Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-harpers-podcast/id1405872370
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Grace is joined by Mareile Pfannebecker and James A. Smith to discuss their book Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism. They discuss why we are working so hard, what kind of work is valued, and what a post-work future might look like.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Featuring Rahmane Idrissa on Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The region has been beset by jihadist insurgencies and, in the case of Mali and Burkina Faso, recent military coups. This is a comprehensive interview that puts the present conflict—which has drawn in French military and then Russian mercenary intervention—into deep historical and political-economic context from struggles over the slave trade, through French colonialism, to the neocolonial imposition of neoliberalism.
Idrissa’s work:
newleftreview.org/issues/ii132/articles/rahmane-idrissa-the-sahel-a-cognitive-mapping
newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/kabores-defeat
nybooks.com/daily/2022/05/25/potent-policies-of-empire
lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n04/rahmane-idrissa/coup-contrecoup
lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n23/rahmane-idrissa/countries-without-currency
Special outro music from Ali Farka Touré.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out Inside the Second Wave of Feminism: haymarketbooks.org/books/1887-inside-the-second-wave-of-feminism
Vivek Chibber, author of Confronting Capitalism, joins Jen Pan to explain what we can learn from both the Bolshevik and social democratic past to more effectively challenge and overcome capitalism in the 21st century. David Griscom of Left Reckoning is also with us to discuss whether or not socialists can also be patriots, or if that's playing with fire. Thomas Gokey of the Debt Collective helps us understand what Biden's decision to cancel $10k of student debt means. Finally, Paul Prescod explains why there's a shortage of teachers going back to school.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from August 31, 2022.
Matt Colquhoun talks about Mark Fisher on the reissue of his essay collection Ghosts of My Life. Then Matt Huber, author of a recent article for the New Left Review blog Sidecar titled "Mish-Mash Ecologism," criticizes the climate austerity camp.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
This week, Grace talks to Andrew Murray, former chair of the Stop the War Coalition, former chief of staff at the Unite trade union, and former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn. We discuss his forthcoming book, Is Socialism Possible in Britain? Reflections on the Corbyn Years, which examines the Corbyn moment within the long history of the Labour Party.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
The new documentary ALEX'S WAR (2022) seeks to "look past the caricature" of the Infowars gadfly Alex Jones. Your hosts find themselves disagreeing on the usefulness of this nonjudgmental profile of the notorious conspiracy theorist.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Deepa Kumar joins Long Reads for a discussion about imperial militarism and its relationship to Islamophobic bigotry. Deepa is a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, and the author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. This is part one of a two-part interview.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Quinn Slobodian on his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. The story of neoliberalism’s Geneva School—including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke—and their vision for a new global order to protect the market from democratic forces in the metropole and across the decolonizing world. An interview from archives first conducted in November 2018.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out these Haymarket titles:
Keywords for Capitalism by John Patrick Leary haymarketbooks.org/books/1886-keywords-for-capitalism
Struggle Makes Us Human by Vijay Prashad haymarketbooks.org/books/1869-struggle-makes-us-human
Historian Gary Gerstle joins us to discuss what gave rise to the New Deal political order, the role that global communism played in the capital-labor compromise, and prospects for renewed social democracy after neoliberalism. Liza Featherstone also joins us to discuss how and why the left gets smeared as sexist or bigoted—and what the left should do about it. Finally, Paul Prescod joins Jen Pan to discuss both the Minneapolis teachers revoking seniority and the possibly impending rail strike.
Gary interview on TJS from July, discussing neoliberalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnvpdCPeIJU&t=0s
"Pathetically, Hillary Clinton Is Smearing Bernie Sanders as Sexist Again" by Liza Featherstone: https://jacobin.com/2022/08/hillary-clinton-smearing-bernie-sanders-sexism-feminism
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the episode from August 24, 2022.
Doug is joined by David Palumbo-Liu to discuss the politics of Stanford University and its infamous alum, Peter Thiel. We then get writer Indrajit Samarajiva's analysis of the political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
On October 15th, 1969, over 100,000 people gathered on Boston Common for the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. It was a country-wide protest in which two million people took part in demonstrations, teach-ins, and other actions in over two hundred cities. For the event, Zinn delivered this speech, discussing the need for immediate withdrawal of US troops, the hypocrisy of American democracy, a longer history of foreign policy and intervention, and the necessity of political and social transformation. Zinn, who died in 2010, would have been 100 today.
Read Michael Koncewicz’s article “Howard Zinn Carried Out an Act of Radical Diplomacy in the Middle of the Vietnam War” here: https://jacobin.com/2022/08/zinn-vietnam-war-antiwar-prisoners-trip
Grace is joined by James Schneider, former Head of Strategic Communications for Jeremy Corbyn and the co-founder of Momentum, to talk about his book Our Bloc: How We Win. They discuss challenges facing the left—and how we can bring together disparate parts of our movement into a coherent bloc to build power.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Featuring Adom Getachew on the story of how decolonization struggles across the Black Atlantic tried to not only cast off European rule but also to remake the entire world system. An October 2019 episode from the archives.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad, two of the left's most brilliant critics of US empire, sit down with Jacobin Show's Ariella Thornhill to discuss their new book The Withdrawal. To Chomsky and Prashad, US global power acts much the same way a Godfather rules over a Mafia family, imposing its interests on all who stand in its way domestically or internationally. The wide-ranging discussion touches on American exceptionalism, Military Keynesianism, the roadblocks for a new Iran Nuclear Deal, and the implications of Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan. We are also joined by Ben Fong to discuss how Big Pharma is licking its chops at the prospects of psychedelic legalization next year, and Jen and Cale try to make sense of the Gen-Z trend of quiet quitting at work.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from August 17, 2022.
Our Superdelegate patron tier was mad as hell that we hadn't yet discussed Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky's NETWORK (1976) and wasn't going to take it anymore. We watched an American classic and discovered that Howard Beale's famous speech isn't even the most important speech in the movie.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews Leigh Phillips on why nuclear power has to be part of any serious decarbonization program. Volodymyr Ishchenko discusses Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as part of a bid to consolidate power—and how the ruling classes of both countries are political capitalists of a sort unknown in the West.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Suzi talks to economic historian Robert Brenner to get his understanding of this strange economic moment. What makes it strange? Inflation has dampened spending, the economy is shrinking, and many call it "shaky." Yet profits are strong and soaring, especially in the energy sector, in part because of Russia’s war on Ukraine. And job growth continues. Despite wage increases, workers’ wages overall are still lagging, but CEO pay is skyrocketing—and the Fed continues to raise interest rates to curb inflation. Are they trying to induce a “mild” recession, avoid one, or what? The moment is unique because of the pandemic, supply chain blockages and shortages, and Russia’s war wreaking havoc on the world economy. We get Robert Brenner’s analysis.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.
Dina Khoury joins Long Reads for the second in a two-part conversation about Iraq since the US occupation. Dina is a historian of the Middle East, and her books include Iraq in Wartime.
Listen to part one here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/long-reads-us-destruction-of-iraq-part-1
Read her piece for Catalyst, "Iraq After US Occupation," here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/09/iraq-after-us-occupation
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Kojo Koram on his brilliant book Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. How neoliberalism reorganized colonial capitalist plunder to survive the Third Worldist challenge, and then boomeranged back into the British metropole—a history obscured by rendering “decolonization” into a symbolic culture war battle.
Check out How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT by Elena Conis hachettebookgroup.com/titles/elena-conis/how-to-sell-a-poison/9781645036753/
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Cale Brooks and Jen Pan discuss what is in the Inflation Reduction Act, the dregs of Biden’s Build Back Better plan that corporate Democrats felt they could sign onto, Matthew Cunningham-Cook outlines how the Biden admin has quietly expanded many of the policies from Trump’s Medicare privatization schemes, Rachel Cohen of Vox covers some positive developments in public housing at the state level, and Deepankar Basu tells us why we all need to learn a little more Marxist economics.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music provided by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from August 10, 2022.
This week, Grace speaks to Adrienne Buller, author of The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism. They discuss what "green capitalism" actually is, how it is being embedded in international law, whether or not it is an inherently anti-democratic movement, and how it is linked to issues today like the cost-of-living crisis.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Doug speaks with Simon Kuper, Financial Times columnist and author of Chums, on the upper-class caste that’s been ruling Britain for a decade. Then, an interview with James Meadway, director of the Progressive Economy Forum, on the dispiriting economics of the leader of the Labour Party, the drab Kier Starmer.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Many movies in the 1980s depicted American urban landscapes as lawless hellholes, but Paul Verhoeven's ROBOCOP (1987) was unique for locating the source of the problem in the corporate world. The Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to watch one of the most beloved screen satires of all time, and we were happy to oblige.
See cohost Will introduce a screening of Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You (2013) at Toronto's Fox Theatre on August 23 - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/dont-let-the-riverbeast-get-you-10th-anniversary/
Order cohost Luke's book The Dead Center - https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
This week, Grace speaks to Phil Burton-Cartledge, author of Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain, about the current leadership contest within the Conservative Party. They discuss why there's a dearth of Tory talent, why both candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, are trying to model themselves on Margaret Thatcher, and whether they have any answers to long-term issues facing both the party itself and the UK as a whole.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
This week on The Jacobin Show, Jen Pan and Cale Brooks discuss America's pitiful "industrial policy," Paul Prescod discusses the upcoming teamsters contract fight, Matt Huber talks about Joe Manchin and the climate bill, and Branko Marcetic tells us why the Democrats, despite their rhetoric, are failing to do anything about the Jan 6 assault on the capitol.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. Music provided by Zonkey. This is the podcast version of the episode from August 3, 2022.
In 1984, Godzilla rose from Tokyo Bay for the first time in nine years for THE RETURN OF GODZILLA. In 1985, an American distributor dramatically recut the movie into GODZILLA 1985. We're joined at long last by Important Cinema Club co-host Justin Decloux to discuss the many structural and ideological changes that were imposed upon Godzilla's big comeback.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews Paolo Gerbaudo on the failure of technocracy and the imminence of right-wing rule in Italy. Then Chris Bohner, author of a recent report called Labor's Fortress of Finance and a Jacobin article, "Now Is the Time for Unions to Go on the Offensive," discusses the huge stash unions have but aren't spending.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Featuring Matt Christman on how American history brought us to this awful present.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dina Khoury joins Long Reads for a two-part conversation about Iraq since the US occupation. Dina is a historian of the Middle East, and her books include Iraq in Wartime.
Listen to part two here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/long-reads-us-destruction-of-iraq-part-2
Read her piece for Catalyst, "Iraq After US Occupation," here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/09/iraq-after-us-occupation
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
This week's episode of The Jacobin Show tackles Du Bois's legacy as an analyst of class domination in America, whether the Democratic Party is hurtling toward doom as continues to fail working-class voters, and why the recent wave of union campaigns must move from spontaneity to sustained "structure-based" organizing.
Jeff Goodwin on Du Bois: https://catalyst-journal.com/2022/06/black-reconstruction-as-class-war
Sam Gindin on structure-based union organizing: https://jacobin.com/2022/07/amazon-starbucks-union-organizing-strategy
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the episode from July 27, 2022.
Jennifer Berkshire discusses Pete Hegseth, Christopher Rufo, and the right’s latest fronts in their war on public education. Then, Peter Korotaev looks at the political economy of Ukraine, before, during, and after the war.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Alexandra Pelosi strikes again! In her documentary SAN FRANCISCO 2.0 (2015), the political scion turns her attention to her home city, gazing with awe upon the tech industry's sudden takeover while registering some tepid notes of ambivalence about the gentrification that has priced many longtime residents out. We discuss why, despite being Nancy Pelosi's daughter who regularly makes films for HBO, nobody seems to know about Alexandra Pelosi.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Cale, filling in for Jen, speaks with Ben Burgis about how the left should navigate periods of defeat. Benjamin Fogel interviews René Rojas, author of a recent piece for Catalyst, "Chile's Resurgent Left," about social-democratic politics in Chile in the post-Pinochet period and especially since the 2019 uprising.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the episode from July 20, 2022.
This week, Grace speaks to Mike Savage, author of The Return of Inequality: Social Change and the Weight of the Past. They discuss the renewed focus on inequality in social science and politics more generally, different forms of inequality and how they’re linked, and different theoretical approaches to understanding inequality and social class, from Marx to Bourdieu.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Featuring Nancy Fraser on why a total analysis of capitalism requires taking Marxism beyond a narrowly economistic view: what everyday labor exploitation requires from politics, care work, war-making, borders, appropriation of nature, sexism, racism, and more. Dan's 2018 interview from the archives.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Erik Baker, author of a recent article for Bias magazine, joins Doug for another look at the latest Behind the News obsession: post-leftism. Then, José Sanchez, author of a critique in Jacobin about Afropessimism, examines the school of thought and its contradictions.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Adrienne Buller joins Long Reads for a discussion about "asset-manager capitalism" and the climate crisis. Adrienne is senior research fellow at Common Wealth, a progressive think tank, and co-author of the forthcoming book Owning the Future.
Read Adrienne's review of Trillions here: https://jacobin.com/2022/03/index-funds-blackrock-vanguard-stocks-ownership-democracy-concentration/
And her report for Common Wealth here: https://www.common-wealth.co.uk/reports/asset-manager-capitalism-where-next
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Paul Prescod explains how the rise and fall of the black middle class was set to the fortunes of the auto sector—and why the Democratic Party keeps writing off the working class. Jen Pan covers the GOP's bogus war on woke capitalism. And Aziz Rana outlines what a real, robust left internationalism should look like and how it can be tied to domestic fights for social democracy.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the episode from July 13, 2022.
Doug speaks with Jenny Brown of National Women’s Liberation (and author of Without Apology and Birth Strike) on the early struggle for abortion rights that led to Roe and what we can learn from it for today. Then David De Jong, author of Nazi Billionaires, discusses how respectable German businessmen became loyal Nazis.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
This week, Grace speaks to Vicky Spratt, author of the book Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency. They discuss the multiple problems that tenants face in accessing and maintaining secure housing and the strategies renters in the UK are using to resist the exploitative and extractive practices of landlords.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Before he was an archconservative, David Mamet wrote a great play and movie about a group of salesmen grinding in a system where morality does not exist. Our Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to discuss GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1992). Fuck you - THAT'S our name. PLUS: We say goodbye to Boris.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to Dean of Berkeley School of Law Erwin Chemerinsky about the just completed Supreme Court term, handing down decisions that overturned vast areas of law. The Court’s decisions ignored settled law and took away a Constitutional right in the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade. Chemerinsky argues that this court did not follow a judicial methodology, legal principles, or precedents: instead, a conservative majority on the court is making the Republican Party platform Constitutional law. We get Erwin’s analysis and ask what can be done.
Turning to the UK, Suzi talks to Tariq Ali about the saga of PM Boris Johnson’s resignation—brought down by Tory ministers who decided Johnson’s personality and unethical conduct had gotten in the way of his politics, which they mostly support. Tariq Ali says that the Tories have been ruthless in dumping Prime Ministers who might lose them the next election, like Thatcher, May, and now Johnson – but Labour is only ruthless in removing a Leader who poses a threat to the extreme center. Under Keir Starmer, Labour has not challenged Johnson’s political record, or presented an attractive alternative to the Tories, so Boris Johnson is going, but Britain is still stuck with the same rightwing politics. We get Tariq’s view.
Featuring Evgeny Morozov on his essay "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Thinkers from the Marxist left all the way to the neoliberal and even neo-reactionary right are convinced that we’ve exited capitalism entirely and entered neo-feudalism. Morozov argues that our bleak moment is in fact still a thoroughly capitalist one.
Evgeny's essay: newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/evgeny-morozov-critique-of-techno-feudal-reason
Evgeny's website: evgenymorozov.com
The Syllabus: the-syllabus.com
Register for Socialism 2022: socialismconference.org
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Read our newsletter and explore the archives at thedigradio.com
It's an extremely discouraging political moment for our neighbors in the United States, so we decided the time was right to finally examine one of the quintessential cinematic articulations of American exceptionalism, FORREST GUMP (1994). Is life, in fact, like a box of chocolates? We investigate.
"The Man Who Loved Presidents: On John Meacham" by Thomas Frank - https://harpers.org/archive/2021/07/jon-meacham-thomas-frank-soul-of-america/
"Tom Hanks Explains It All" by David Marchese - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/13/magazine/tom-hanks-interview.html
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug speaks with Geo Maher, author of A World Without Police, on the movement to defund and eventually abolish the cops. Then, an interview with Tariq Fancy, author of a series of articles about "sustainable investing," about the (severe) limits to using finance to fix the climate.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
This week, Grace speaks to Eddie Dempsey, Senior Assistant General Secretary of the RMT, about the strike action being taken by the rail union up and down the UK. They discuss the background to the strikes, how the government constructed a railway network that funnels money away from workers towards executives, and the union’s "militant, rank-and-file culture of democracy."
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how badly we need to understand the links between science, politics, and commercial interests. For Marxists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these were some of the most important questions to be addressed in their work. The cross-fertilization between Marxism and science had major implications for the development of both. Helena Sheehan, emeritus professor at Dublin City University and the author of Marxism and the Philosophy of Science, joins the podcast to discuss the history of this encounter.
Read Helena's article "John Desmond Bernal, Marxism, and the Scientific Revolution" here: https://jacobin.com/2021/04/john-desmond-jd-bernal-marxism-scientific-revolution
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Featuring Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò on his essay "Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference," an interview first posted in December 2020. This pairs well with last week's Jared Clemons interview on In This House We Believe antiracism. Since 2020, Táíwò has published a book expanding on these ideas: Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else).
Read Táíwò's essay: thephilosopher1923.org/post/being-in-the-room-privilege-elite-capture-and-epistemic-deference
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Read our newsletter at thedigradio.com
This week Jen Pan sits down with professor Gary Gerstle to discuss how the neoliberal order came into being and whether or not we're witnessing its dying days. We also get Felix Biederman's thoughts on the FDA's war on Juul e-cigarettes. Also, Jen offers a solution to working class depoliticization.
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the episode from June 29, 2022.
The Buzz Lightyear origin movie LIGHTYEAR (2022) has become a cultural lightning-rod in the right-wing moral panic over "grooming." We discuss this controversy (which is ridiculous, by the way), and then discuss the movie, in which we can learn a little bit about how the Disney Company views itself.
Support the National Network of Abortion Funds - https://abortionfunds.org/
Abortion Funds in Every State - https://donations4abortion.com/
The Repro Legal Defense Fund - https://reprolegaldefensefund.org/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews David Roediger, author of The Sinking Middle Class, on the uses of that term in US politics. Then, a conversation with Paisley Currah, author of Sex Is as Sex Does, about trans politics.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Political scientist Jared Clemons on feckless liberal anti-racism: how In This House We Believe racial liberalism leaves racial capitalism's inequalities in place and why, drawing on Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph, the Black Freedom Movement instead needs solidarity with the multi-racial working class.
Read Jared's article: jaredkclemons.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/7/5/117532940/clemons_2022_-_from_freedom_now_to_blm.pdf
Interview with Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell from February 2021: thedigradio.com/podcast/conservative-intelligentsia-with-sam-adler-bell-matt-sitman
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jen Pan speaks with Bhaskar Sunkara on what kind of politics a socialist successor to Bernie should push for. Then she speaks with Richard Wolff about how the left should think about economics and the likelihood that another recession is imminent. Finally, Jen argues that Democrats' gamble on the political theater of the January 6 hearings will not help them in the midterms. A much bigger problem is their complete lack of interest in campaigning to working people.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show is a weekly YouTube show offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the episode from June 22, 2022.
Doug speaks with Ellora Derenoncourt, co-author of a National Bureau of Economic Research paper about the racial wealth gap from 1860 to 2020. Then, an interview with David Gelles, author of The Man Who Broke Capitalism, about Jack Welch, CEO of GE from 1981 to 2001.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Long before the "metaverse" loomed over us, David Cronenberg's EXISTENZ (1999) imagined a completely immersive virtual environment that is even less cozy than our own. We discuss the film's porous boundary between reality and unreality, and explain why Cronenberg is one of the few Canadian filmmakers who really "gets" Canada. PLUS: Looking back at a moral panic over right-wing art from the early '90s.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Know Your Enemy hosts Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell on terrifyingly protean right-wing American politics.
Check out our newsletter: thedigradio.com/newsletter
Read James Pogue on the New Right: vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets
Read Mie Inouye's Boston Review article on union salts: bostonreview.net/articles/labors-militant-minority
Esther Leslie joins Long Reads for a discussion about Walter Benjamin, one of the most influential cultural theorists of the last century. His unorthodox Marxism and ideas about culture and history have inspired several generations of critical thought about the world made by capitalism. Esther is a leading authority on Benjamin’s life and work who teaches at Birkbeck University in London.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Jen Pan interviews Will Sommer on the Capitol riots, QAnon, and the influence of far right extremist groups on Republican party. Then we turn to Gustavo Petro and the upcoming presidential election in Colombia. And finally, we bring back our old hosts Ana and Nando to discuss what the Left can learn from the recent California elections.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 15, 2022.
This week, Grace speaks to Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass about their book Half-Earth Socialism. They discuss the problems with proposed solutions to climate breakdown like geoengineering, how neoliberals are coping with the recognition that state planning will be necessary to tackle climate breakdown, and how we can build coalitions to make sure that planning is democratic.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to Left Book Club for making this episode possible.
Suzi talks to historian Lily Geismer about her new book, Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality, which explores the Democratic Party’s promotion of market-based solutions to social problems. We get the origin and development of the Democratic Leadership Council or DLC, the ways Bill Clinton came to personify it, and how their politics changed the Democratic Party: running away from the politics of The New Deal and the Great Society to embrace essentially Republican ideas dressed up with the language of empowerment. No wonder Clinton was so hated by the Republicans, who saw him stealing their program. Geismer takes us through the various applications of the 'new thinking' defining the New Democrats, which they characterized as “doing well by doing good.” In area after area, from community development banking, market based healthcare reform, charter schools, empowerment zones, microenterprise, and free trade, the neoliberal market fundamentalist credo left disasters in its wake. We see the way figures like Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, Robert Reich, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden ‘develop’ in this narrative with great import for today as we head to the midterms, and the DLC is busy blaming the left for the Democrats' poor showing to come. Lily Geismer makes the connections.
Patrick Blanchfield analyzes the long history of US gun violence and the American death drive.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email.
Check out our most recent newsletter on the Progressive Era roots of Clintonism's conception of the "deserving poor" thedigradio.com/newsletter32
Register for Socialism 2022 socialismconference.org
Samir Sonti argues that the causes of current inflation are supply side issues and if the Fed chooses to fight it by raising interest rates, it will only hurt workers. Jen explores the world of "anticapitalist investing". Jared Abbott comes on to talk about what makes the US public transportation system exceptionally bad.
Samir Sonti's article in the latest issue: https://jacobin.com/2022/06/what-you-...
Jared Abbott's article: https://jacobin.com/2022/06/american-exceptionalism-off-the-rails
0:00 interview with Samir
21:12 Jen's segment on "anticapitalist investing"
27:21 interview with Jared
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 8, 2022.
This week, Grace talks to David Adler, General Coordinator of the Progressive International, about the ongoing Colombian presidential election and what the results of its first round say about the role of social media platforms like TikTok in the global political discourse.
Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Socialism Conference for making this episode possible.
Our Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to discuss Mike Judge's workplace satire OFFICE SPACE (1999), and it leads us down a long rabbit hole of remembering bad work experiences. PLUS: We take a fond look back on the all-time classic Man of the Year (2006)
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews Forrest Hylton on the first round of the Colombian presidential election and why it was bad news for the leftist candidate Gustavo Petro. Plus: Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, author of Elite Capture, on how the ruling class has debased identity politics, and how we could reconstitute it.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Dan's second episode with historian Lily Geismer, who he interviewed in 2019 about Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. This interview is on Left Behind: The Democrats' Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality, which details the long history of Clintonism and the Democrats’ neoliberal turn.
Read the latest newsletter. It's on what Ruthie meant when she said abolition was another word for communism: thedigradio.com/newsletter31
Listen to Geismer's first Dig interview: thedigradio.com/podcast/race-and-class-in-the-liberal-suburbs-with-lily-geismer
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Catherine Liu, author of Virtue Hoarders, joins The Jacobin Show for a discussion about the multicultural neoliberalism of California. Daniel Bessner also joins the podcast to discuss NATO and recent bids by Finland and Sweden to join the military alliance.
0:00 Jen's segment on guns and gun reform
25:00 interview with Danny
40:45 interview with Catherine
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 1, 2022.
What is a quickly-made, low-effort documentary like ONE NATION UNDER TRUMP (2016) good for? Not a lot. But one thing that this ridiculous pro-Trump hagiography provided us with was a chance to marinate for long, unbroken stretches of time in the 45th president's rhetorical style. We made some unexpected discoveries about how his distinctive way of speaking led him to the presidency.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews Heather Berg, author of Porn Work, on relations of production in sex work. Plus: Kevin Young and Leonard Seabrooke, co-authors of a paper in the Socio-Economic Review, on the contrasting collegial styles of the Chicago and Charles River schools of economics.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
What role does mass incarceration play in American political economy? What does that reveal about what sort of politics are required to overcome it? Ruth Wilson Gilmore with Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bhandar, who edited the new collection Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Assata Taught Me: State Violence, Racial Capitalism, and the Movement for Black Lives by Donna Murch haymarketbooks.org/books/1650-assata-taught-me
Maya Goodfellow joins Long Reads for a discussion about racism in Britain's "hostile environment" and resistance to the repressive migration policies put forth by both Tory and Labour governments. Maya is an academic and the author of Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats.
For more, see Maya's book as well as her article for Jacobin, "Borders Are the Problem, Not the People Crossing Them."
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
This week, Grace talks to Nick Taylor and Sahil Dutta, two of the co-authors behind Unprecedented?: How COVID-19 Revealed the Politics of Our Economy. They discuss the politics behind the economics of COVID—from debt to care to the labor market—and how the pandemic and current cost-of-living crises are likely to reshape the world going forward.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Suzi talks to longtime labor reporter and author Steven Greenhouse about the exciting new moment for labor in the US. Steven says the unionizing victories at Amazon and now 81 Starbucks stores—as well as the spread of union drives to many other workplaces in retail, higher education, the media, and healthcare—signify a moment so promising for labor that we’d have to go back to the organizing in the 1930s to see anything comparable.
Suzi and Ilya Matveev, of Openleft.ru and the Russian research group Public Sociology Laboratory, discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine twelve weeks in. We get Ilya’s analysis of the domestic situation at home, politically and economically, for the regime and for the population. While polls show widespread support for Putin’s “military operation,” reports note that support for the war is tepid, not enthusiastic. Most analysts say the country is evenly divided between support and dissent regarding the war, though propaganda and penalties for speaking out influence that figure, as Putin has taken an increasingly hard line against dissent. Ilya Matveev unpacks what the polling does or doesn’t show, and we get details of the impact of economic sanctions on the population, the state of industry and the economy, the divisions in the population and among the elite – and what losing the war might mean for Putin’s hold on power.
Doug speaks with Molly White, keeper of the "Web3 Is Going Just Great" blog, on the pointless and scam-ridden world of cryptocurrencies. Also on the pod: Kathleen Belew, a scholar of white power, discusses that movement’s obsessions and unusual organization.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Historian Margarita Fajardo on her book The World That Latin America Created: The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in the Development Era. Fajardo discusses the Latin American economists at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) who conceptualized the division of the global economy between center and periphery, and how that later gave rise to dependency theory and world systems theory. Plus Cuban Revolution and the Alliance for Progress, Allende's democratic road to socialism and right-wing coups in Chile and Brazil—and more.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dinesh D'Souza believes he has uncovered shocking proof that the Democratic Party stole the 2020 election in 2000 MULES (2022), a documentary so shoddy that even right-wing media is hesitant to publicize it. We follow the trail of Dinesh's conspiracy theory to its inevitable endpoint: a contempt for democracy itself. PLUS: we discuss the billionaire whose name is on everyone's lips, Elon Musk.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
As the London mayor plans to conduct a review on cannabis legalization, Grace speaks with Kojo Koram, lecturer in law at Birkbeck and author of several books, including The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line, about drug policy and history. They discuss the roots of drugs criminalization, the neoliberal roots of the war on drugs in the UK and US, and prospects for reform.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Matthew Huber, author of Climate Change as Class War, explains why the environmental movement needs to take class and production more seriously. Next up, Adam Kotsko explores why evangelicals are so obsessed with abortion
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
The documentary WHITE NOISE (2020) follows three very prominent members of the alt-right (you'll be familiar with all of them, folks) as their fortunes rise and fall during the Trump era. We discuss the ethics of interviewing/"platforming" ideological enemies, the differing aesthetic styles of various alt-right personalities, and what happens to political "scenes" during periods of eclipse. PLUS: Luke takes stock of the Canadian Conservative leadership race, and Liam Neeson makes a movie about the U.S./Mexico border.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Tom Mills, lecturer in sociology at Aston University and the author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, joins Long Reads for a discussion about the history of the BBC, its ideological and soft-power functions, and the future of public broadcasting.
Read Tom's article "The Left Should Stand for a Democratically Run BBC" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/02/defend-bbc-funding-public-broadcasting-license-fees-conservative-tories
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Live from New York: Dan interviews Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls, Jaz Brisack of Starbucks Workers United, SEIU Local 1199NE president Rob Baril, Jacobin writer Alex Press, and Labor Notes writer Luis Feliz Leon on the return of labor militancy that we see sweeping Amazon, Starbucks, and workplaces all around the US.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
This week, Grace talks to John Bellamy Foster, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of Monthly Review.
They discuss Marx’s metabolic theory of nature and the "metabolic rift" that shapes the relationship between humanity and nature under capitalism, as well as the ongoing relevance of the theory of monopoly capital put forward by Monthly Review founders Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
This week on The Jacobin Show, Natalie Shure explains why she doesn't think the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will turn out Dem voters in the midterms, Jen Pan pours some cold water on liberal excitement over corporations' sudden and newfound interest in reproductive rights, and Matt Huber discusses his new book Climate Change as Class War out this month from Verso, and why we have to put class struggle front in center in the fight against climate change.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the audio version of the show from May 11, 2022.
THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) is widely remembered as a prescient film that anticipates the rise of social media and reality TV. But how accurate was its forecast, really? And what, exactly, was it saying? And hey—did the audience watch Truman go to the bathroom? We investigate.
"The Audience is Us" by Jonathan Rosenbaum: https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2021/07/the-audience-is-us/
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
A timely interview from the archives: legal scholars Aziz Rana and Amna Akbar, and Movement for Black Lives lawyer Marbre Stahly-Butts, on SCOTUS, liberal court veneration, and other big questions on the law and politics facing the left.
Find Eslanda at haymarketbooks.org/books/1769-eslanda
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jen Pan speaks with Ben Burgis about why the left should continue focusing on concrete organizing and policy and not the culture wars. She also speaks with Clay Aldern, co-author of the new book Homelessness is a Housing Problem, about how to solve the housing crisis in the US. Also on the show: a look at how private universities are making a killing while paying no taxes.
Jacobin May Day sale: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2022
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from May 4, 2022.
This week, Grace talks to brilliant young climate campaigner Mikaela Loach about her work trying to shut down oil production in the North Sea, taking the UK government to court over fossil fuel subsidies, and the best ways to organize among Gen Z! Mikaela has been involved with campaigns such as Stop Cambo, Stop Jackdaw, and Paid to Pollute.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
The Monkees were a prefabricated pop band who didn't play their own instruments and didn't get much respect. But in 1968, they teamed with director Bob Rafelson and a young writer named Jack Nicholson to take charge of their image with HEAD (1968), a corrosive satire that asks: what do the Monkees have in common with the Vietnam War?
Donate to an abortion fund: https://www.thecut.com/article/donate-abortion-fund-roe-v-wade-how-to-help.html
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug speaks with David Adler of the Progressive International on an impending debt crisis, with an emphasis on the role of the IMF. Plus: Sudip Bhattacharya on the Asian American population: its diversity, its unity, its politics.
David's Guardian article about the IMF: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/18/will-biden-ever-stand-up-to-the-imfs-abuses-of-power
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Ayşe Zarakol on her book Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders. How centuries of Asian empires from Genghis Khan to Timur and the early Ming Dynasty through the Ottomans and Mughals built dominant world orders and, ultimately, shaped the rise of Europe—and how that all might shape how we think about the crisis in the world order today.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out phenomenalworld.org
This week, Grace is joined by Barnaby Raine, co-author of a recent essay for Salvage magazine analyzing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through the lens of rising nationalism, a feature of global politics especially since the 2008 financial crisis. They discuss this world-historic crisis of capitalism, how it is fueling the growth of nationalist and neo-fascist movements around the world, what that means for world politics, and how the left should respond.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Jen Pan speaks with Matt Bruenig on the terrible influence of corporate think tanks on our politics and David Dayen about how decades of pro-corporate policies have ruined our supply chains. Jen’s weekly segment focuses on why Joe Biden’s approval rating is lower among Latinos than any other group, and why so many mainstream explanations of this fact are off the mark.
See coverage of supply chain issues in the American Prospect: https://prospect.org/supply-chain
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from April 27, 2022.
Australian land and British institutions mix uncomfortably in Peter Weir's PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975). We speculate from our Canadian vantage points why this story has become one of the iconic documents of Australia's national identity. PLUS: the boys cannot stop talking about Bob Dylan!
"Picnic at Hanging Rock: What We See and What We Seem" by Megan Abbott - https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3202-picnic-at-hanging-rock-what-we-see-and-what-we-seem
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to Alan Minsky and Harvey Kaye about the 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights, which they see as both a campaign platform and governing program to rescue and renew American democracy. This is more than a to-do or must-do list for progressives, but in their words, a compelling and transformative unifying project, a manifesto to advance democracy. We ask whether they think this program is feasible and realizable given the configuration of our political winner take all system?
We then turn to the recent election in France, where incumbent Emmanuel Macron won with a 17% margin over Marine Le Pen. The period leading up to this election was far more uncertain. The contest had been narrowed from 12 parties in the first round, held April 10th, to the top two vote-getters, the centrist neoliberal Macron, and the far rightist Le Pen. Le Pen edged out the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon by a very narrow margin. The day before the election, we spoke with Sebastian Budgen, author of a recent article in the New Left Review blog, about the big question leading up to the election: Where would Mélenchon’s votes go in the second round? Though a decisive number seemed to have held their noses to vote for Macron, 26% of the electorate stayed home—in effect abstaining. An insignificant 2% of voters either nullified or turned in a blank ballot. Budgen gives an analysis of the state of the French electorate that holds lessons and warnings for the future.
Doug interviews Donna Murch, author of Assata Taught Me, on Black radical politics from the Panthers to the Movement for Black Lives. Plus: Kyle Shybunko, author of a recent article on the New Left Review blog, discusses Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán, a hero to many on the American right.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Gilbert Achcar joins Long Reads for a conversation about the second wave of Arab uprisings—and the possibility of a third. Gilbert is professor of development studies at SOAS in London. The second edition of his book The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising has just been published.
Read a 2020 interview with Gilbert in Catalyst, "The Arab Spring, a Decade Later" here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2020/12/the-arab-spring-a-decade-later
And his 2019 article "The Sudanese Revolution Enters a New Phase" here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/08/sudanese-revolution-fdfc-constitutional-agreement-signed
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Destin Jenkins on his book The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making of the American City, which makes a powerful argument about how the ubiquitous and in many ways invisible dependence of American cities on municipal debt to fund basic infrastructure has devastating consequences for democracy and entrenches spatial, racial, and wealth disparities.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Tickets for live NYC show on The Return of Labor Militancy: eventbrite.com/e/the-return-of-labor-militancy-with-the-dig-and-jacobin-tickets-320732338057
Jen Pan discusses why “cannabis equity” programs, which were designed to provide opportunities for victims of America’s decades-long drug war, have been a complete failure. Paul Prescod talks about the importance of forging electoral campaigns deeply rooted in the labor movement. And finally, Lily Geismer gives a history of the New Democrats' assault on labor and social programs. Her new book is Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from April 20, 2022.
This week, Grace talks to Sam Moore, co-author with Alex Roberts of The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right. Sam and Alex host their own podcast, 12 Rules for WHAT, which focuses on the rise of the far right. They discuss how far-right politicians are weaponizing the climate crisis to build support for an extremist, exclusionary politics based on "batteries, bombs, and borders," how this links to a longer history of right-wing environmentalism, and how the left should respond.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
The 1969 documentary WHAT'S LEFT? captures the Canadian left (and more specifically, Canada's New Democratic Party) being pulled in two directions: by an emerging, student-led generation of radical activists, and an older political class that has either grown pragmatic or complacent depending on who you ask. We discuss the history of the Canadian left, and what has both changed and remained the same in the 50+ years since the film. PLUS: We catch an acute case of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them fever!!!
Watch the documentary What's Left? here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRzNoaEw3xM
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug speaks with Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative about the demographics of the million people in state prisons and the fight around cash bail in New York. Plus, Doug talks to historian James Chappel about his recent article "Inside the Postliberal Mind" which reviews a new book by reactionary Catholic law professor Adrian Vermeule.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Mariame Kaba and Geo Maher discuss police, the politics of policing, abolition, reform—and more.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jen Pan takes a look at the politics of the pentagon budget and Daniel Zamora discusses how American-style identity politics somehow found a way of suffusing the ideological debates around the French election. Then, Jen sits down with Cedric Johnson to discuss why the defund movement failed, and why the Left should prioritize a politics of increased social spending to eliminate the very basis of what Johnson terms "stress policing" of working-class communities.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from April 13, 2022.
Grace talks to Kojo Koram, who teaches in the School of Law at Birkbeck College and is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, about why the government is trying to change the curriculum to include a more 'balanced' perspective on Britain's empire. We ask who actually benefited from the days of formal empire, how imperialism continues to this day, and why the right are so keen to keep the culture wars alive.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Jacobin Radio features the recent UCLA colloquium, “The Political Economy of Russia’s War in Ukraine,” organized and moderated by the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History’s Robert Brenner. The panelists are Boris Kagarlitsky, Ilya Budraitskis, Ilya Matveev, and Suzi Weissman, followed by a lively Q and A. The Russian decision to invade Ukraine was seen as an inevitability to some observers, but a surprise to many others. While the precise motivations are still subject to much debate, the current situation is highly dynamic and the future of the war remains uncertain. This panel examines the underlying political economy of Russia to better understand the reasons for war and its ramifications for the region and the wider world economy.
View the full video here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1im2wU5nKZj-GFHorqk19_z7rsxqE9cBR/view?usp=sharing
Luke and Will delve into the world of right-wing legend Tom Clancy and his signature character Jack Ryan with the blockbuster film adaptation of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990). PLUS: Winston Churchill predicts the future!
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Jan Toporowski joins Long Reads for a discussion about Polish economist Michal Kalecki. Kalecki is best known for his celebrated essay on full employment, which has lost none of its topical value. Jan is a professor of economics at SOAS in London and the author of a two-volume intellectual biography of Kalecki.
Read Jan's article "Michal Kalecki and the Politics of Full Employment" here: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/01/michal-kalecki-keynes-full-employment-political-economy
You can also find Michal Kalecki's classic 1943 essay, "The Political Aspects of Full Employment" here: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/05/political-aspects-of-full-employment-kalecki-job-guarantee
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Suzi talks to John Logan, labor historian and expert on the anti-union industry, about the historic victory for Amazon workers on Staten Island, who voted on April 1st to form the first US Amazon union. The new Amazon Labor Union won against the retailing giant whose profits have skyrocketed during the pandemic. This changes everything, and we get John Logan's analysis of the scope of the victory and the challenges to come.
Ilya Budraitskis, who just published Dissidents among Dissidents: Ideology, Politics and the Left in Post-Soviet Russia, joins us to discuss the state of Russia's war on Ukraine, now in its second month. We get Ilya’s understanding of Putin’s battle to control the minds of Russians at home—closing all independent media, pushing a false narrative, and imposing draconian penalties for even calling this a war. Ilya sees these as moves toward establishing a real dictatorship that depends on economic, political, social, and now even psychological control over the population.
Rupert Russell and Isabella Weber discuss Russell's book Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World and also the current politics of inflation.
Listen to Weber discuss her book How China Escaped Shock Therapy: thedigradio.com/podcast/how-china-escaped-shock-therapy-w-isabella-weber/
Look at Rupert's precious puppy: twitter.com/rupert_russell/status/1511428696409837573?s=20&t=OPVNgfXuokFY6ZQYRkxe4g
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jen Pan sits down with Jacobin columnist Ross Barkan to discuss his latest article, “Working-Class Politics Without the Working Class,” which takes a critical look at the Working Families Party. Next, Jen turns to speak with Chris Maisano about the future of the labor movement and his latest piece in Jacobin, “The Liminal Left’s Bid for Power,” in which he analyzes the conflicts and potential bright spots that arise within a new left that is young and highly educated. What does that mean for our chances of building a mass working-class coalition?
Find Chris Maisano's pieces in Catalyst and the latest issue of Jacobin here:
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/the-liminal-lefts-bid-for-power
https://catalyst-journal.com/2022/03/is-the-labor-movement-back
And Ross Barkan's piece in the latest issue of Jacobin here:
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/working-class-politics-without-the-working-class
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from April 6, 2022.
Luke and Will discuss AKIRA (1988), the groundbreaking anime classic. We hash over the film's vision of a future-dystopia, finding elements both unique to 1988 and applicable to all times. PLUS: the new Amazon union in Staten Island, and checking the pulse of right-wing politics on Canada.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug interviews Annelle Sheline, author of a new Quincy Institute policy brief about the Yemen war, on the reasons behind Saudi Arabia's brutal war. Doug also interviews Natalia Petrzela, author of the column "How Moisturizing Became Macho," on how we went from Muscle Beach to gender neutral cosmetics products.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Grace chats to David Wearing, post-doctoral researcher at SOAS and author of AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain. They discuss Boris Johnson’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and how the global energy crisis is likely to transform world politics.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Astra interviews Achal Prabhala on the lethal persistence of global vaccine apartheid. Moderna is selfishly refusing to share or even sell (license) its mRNA technology, leaving much of the world unprotected from the pandemic and incubating new variants.
Moderna's annual shareholder meeting is April 28th. Join Justice is Global, Boston DSA, and others to challenge vaccine profiteering at their Cambridge headquarters. Sign up at bitly.com/modernaaction
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Eric Levitz and Branko Marcetic debate how the left in the US should understand and respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Slavoj Žižek and Vivek Chibber debate the role of ideology in promoting capitalist stability.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from March 30, 2022.
Anton Jäger joins Long Reads for a discussion about modern Belgium and its recent history. The country's image as a harmonious center of European integration, as host of the European Union and NATO, has given way to talk of outright separation between Flanders in the north, and Wallonia in the south. Anton is a Belgian historian of political thought who’s written for a number of publications, including Jacobin and New Left Review.
Read his recent article "From Post-Politics to Hyper-Politics" here: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/from-post-politics-to-hyper-politics
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
This week, Grace and Alfie Stirling, Chief Economist of the New Economics Foundation, dissect the UK Chancellor’s spring statement. It looks set to contain very few of the measures that would be necessary to tackle the cost of living crisis, which we discussed last week with Gary Stevenson. Rishi Sunak will say there’s no money left to support people forced to choose between eating and heating—but have the Tories grossly underestimated the extent of this crisis, and will it come back to bite them?
Check out NEF’s report on the subject here: https://neweconomics.org/2022/03/23-4-million-people-unable-to-afford-the-cost-of-living
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
The great Homer Simpson once said, "What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind." In that spirit, we watched Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece SOLARIS (1972), which imagines outer space as a manifestation of our inner life. PLUS: checking in on that most important issue of our time, the Oscars.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Anthony Flaccavento, Virginia-based farmer, author, and co-founder of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, joins the Jacobin Show to discuss rural America—and why the Democrats lose so consistently in rural elections. Plus: Jacobin editor Seth Ackerman on inflation, the fed raising interest rates, and what this all means for the economy.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from March 23, 2022.
The second of our two-part interview with sociologist Ho-fung Hung on Chinese political and economic history. This episode covers the 2008 financial crisis, how China’s response deepened global and domestic economic imbalances and (alongside the US) heightened geopolitical conflict, the current situation—including Russia’s invasion—and a lot more. Listen to part one first if you haven't already.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Part one of a two-part interview with sociologist Ho-fung Hung on Chinese political economic history from the 18th century to 2008: why capitalism took off in England and then elsewhere but not in China; and then, how Maoist policy laid the groundwork for China’s ultimate capitalist takeoff and boom. Episode two will focus on the 2008 financial crisis, the deepening imbalances and heightened geopolitical conflict that resulted, and the current situation—including the impact of the crises surrounding Russia’s invasion.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
To start off this week’s Jacobin Show, Jen Pan looks at the discourse around "economic anxiety" as an explanation for voters' turn to Donald Trump and other right wing politicians. Why do mainstream commentators still refuse to see that these voters are, in fact, driven by material interests and not simply "racial resentment"? Next, Jen Pan and Cale Brooks think about how the Left should understand the middle class. What are the best social theories to understand the economic position of the middle class as well as their political interests? Must the Left win over the middle class to gain real power? Finally, we turn to the legacy of Occupy Wall Street. Jen Pan sat down with Ben Fong and Christie Offenbacher to discuss their latest Catalyst article, “Occupy in Retrospect.” While it is common to hear that Occupy was the “rebirth” of Left politics that led to the Bernie Sanders campaign and the rise of DSA, Fong and Offenbacher argue that, in fact, the contemporary Left has found success insofar as it has jettisoned Occupy’s horizontalism, anti-Statism, and refusal to issue concrete policy demands.
Read the piece in Catalyst: https://catalyst-journal.com/2022/03/occupy-in-retrospect
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
The Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from March 16, 2022.
New show alert! This week, A World to Win is expanding and launching a new format for the podcast. In addition to our regular long-form interviews, every other week Grace will host shorter, more topical discussions with one of a regular group of guests. On this episode, it's Gary Stevenson of Gary's Economics talking about the cost of living crisis—where's it coming from, who is paying for it, and what can we do about it?
Check out Gary's articles in openDemocracy, "Who should pay for the COVID crisis?" and "Following the coronavirus money trail." And his YouTube videos, "Inflation - Why We Should Have Seen This Coming" and "How COVID-19 Makes the Rich Richer."
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible. Please excuse some minor issues in our guest's sound due to a technical issue.
She's a Democrat. He's a Republican. They're speechwriters on warring campaigns... But can they fall in love??? That's the premise of the Michael Keaton/Geena Davis romcom SPEECHLESS (1994), which drew inspiration from the real-life romance between Clinton strategist James Carville and Bush advisor Mary Matalin. We discuss a movie that could only have been made in the '90s.
"John Cleese Had Thoughts on Slavery at SXSW and It Was Super Cringey" by James Hibberd - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/john-cleese-sxsw-panel-1235109668/
"Bedfellows Make Strange Politics" by Gore Vidal - https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/18/books/bedfellows-make-strange-politics.html
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to historian-activist Simon Pirani about the political and economic motives for the Kremlin's war, as well as the ominous signs of Russia's conduct seen in previous conflicts in Chechnya, Syria, and the Donbas in 2014. The campaign of devastation aimed at cities and towns across Ukraine, and the brutality of Russian forces has only prompted more protest in Ukraine—and in Russia too, despite draconian repressive measures. As the reality of the carnage and destruction sinks in, millions flee, but resistance grows. Simon writes about Russia, East Europe, the left, and resistance at his website, peoplenature.org.
Doug speaks with Alexander Zaitchik, author of Owning the Sun, on how the pharmaceutical industry became such a high-priced racket. Plus: Zongyuan Zoe Liu, co-author of a recent article in Foreign Affairs, "The Anti-Dollar Axis," discusses sanctions and the global preeminence of the US dollar.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Lea Ypi joins Long Reads for a discussion about Albanian history. Lea is a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics and the author of several books. Her most recent work is Free: Coming of Age at the End of History. It'saccount of her experience growing up in the last years of Albanian Communism and the first phase of the country's new capitalist order.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Krystal Ball joins The Jacobin Show for a discussion about the alienation and de-politicization affecting the working class, and how to break out of it. They also cover the role of independent media, the Democratic Party's turn away from workers, and the importance of labor going forward. Krystal is the co-host of Breaking Points and Krystal Kyle & Friends and co-author of The Populist's Guide to 2020. Plus: David Broder weighs in on the news from Ukraine.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from March 9, 2021 with Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Sophie Pinkham and Nick Mulder on the war, its origins, how it’s being experienced by Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans, and Americans—and also its geopolitical and global economic ramifications, particularly sanctions.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Angela Davis: An Autobiography haymarketbooks.org/books/1741-angela-davis
This week Grace talks to Susanne Soederberg, Professor of Political Economy in Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, Canada, about her book Urban Displacements: Governing Surplus and Survival in Global Capitalism. They discuss the class roots of the global housing crisis and the emergence of resistance to the cycle of debt, eviction, and homelessness in some of Europe’s major cities.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Some Batman movies have been called fascist, but THE BATMAN (2022) breaks new ground for the franchise by being lib. We wouldn't be a left-wing culture podcast if we didn't occasionally pick a new Batman movie from the lowest branch on the tree, so come join us as we chart the latest developments in the Caped Crusader's political evolution.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to Dutch Marxist anthropologist Don Kalb, editor of Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, about the state of Putin’s war against Ukraine and the crucial historical, political, economic and social background of all the actors—not just Russia and Ukraine, but NATO, US–UK, Germany, France, and even China. Don gives us a comprehensive analysis of the moment we are in, the relationships between and within the worlds now in motion, and the directions he sees as this war unfolds, changing the world from this moment forward.
Read Don Kalb's piece on "The Perverse Logic towards War in Europe's East" here: https://www.focaalblog.com/2022/03/01/don-kalb-fuck-off-versus-humiliation-the-perverse-logic-towards-war-in-europes-east/
Doug interviews Anatol Lieven on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Then, a conversation with Alyssa Giachino and Derek Seidman, among the authors of this report, "Private Equity's Dirty Dozen," about private equity and fossil fuels.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Ariella Thornhill sits down with Adolph Reed, Jr. for a special interview on his new book, The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives. Branko Marcetic discusses how the US and other countries can counter Russian aggression without war or nuclear escalation. Jen Pan explores why so many Americans still say they trust Republicans on the economy despite decades of failed trickle-down policies.
The Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from March 2, 2022.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
This week, Grace talks to Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, about their new report Inequality Kills, which you can read here: https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-kills. They discuss why inequality has increased so much over the course of the pandemic, how this increase in inequality is affecting our democracies and our ability to tackle issues like the pandemic and climate breakdown, and what we need to do about it.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Doug interviews Christopher Leonard, author of The Lords of Easy Money, on the damage done by over a decade of hyper-easy monetary policy from the Fed. Then Lea Ypi, a political philsopher and author of Free, discusses growing up in the last days of Communist Albania and the early days of its neoliberal successor.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Tony Wood returns to The Dig to discuss Russia’s invasion, what it reflects about Russian politics and geopolitics today and historically, and how the Left should be thinking about it all.
Tony's LRB essay: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n04/tony-wood2/why-didn-t-they-stop-it
Listen to past Dig eps for context on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
Tony Wood on Russia and Putin: thedigradio.com/podcast/russia-beyond-putin-with-tony-wood
Volodymyr Ishchenko on Ukraine: thedigradio.com/podcast/ukraine-w-volodymyr-ishchenko
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Eldon Hoke—better known to the world as "El Duce"—was one of the most notorious of the so-called "shock rockers" who frightened moralists during the George H.W. Bush years. His purposely rock-bottom art is explored in THE EL DUCE TAPES (2019), a culture war documentary in which the culture war is fought between different styles of reactionaries. PLUS: thoughts on draconian new Republican policies in Florida and Texas.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to Bohdan Krawchenko and Mick Cox on Russia's catastrophic war on Ukraine, the resistance, and global consequences it has sparked. Bohdan Krawchenko looks at the situation inside Ukraine. We also talk about the widespread anti-war actions from within Russia, and the level of support for Ukraine, increasingly isolating Putin. Mick Cox says that Putin’s war is about regime change in Ukraine, to make Ukraine more like Russia, which will consolidate Putin's kleptocratic control at home. It isn’t going well: Putin is contending with massive opposition as Russians take to the streets, facing arrest; Ukrainians are fighting back; and he has become an international pariah. Putin’s push for a new security infrastructure in Europe has already forced the US to shift its geopolitical focus back to Europe—and Mick Cox insists China is the true winner in this crisis, as Russia is now more economically and strategically subordinated to the vastly more powerful government in Beijing.
Dan interviews historian Kim Phillips-Fein on Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan.
Listen to Kim's Dig interview on Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics thedigradio.com/podcast/fear-city-with-kim-phillips-fein/
Listen to past Dig eps for context on Russia's invasion of Ukraine:
Tony Wood on Russia and Putin: thedigradio.com/podcast/russia-beyond-putin-with-tony-wood
Volodymyr Ishchenko on Ukraine: thedigradio.com/podcast/ukraine-w-volodymyr-ishchenko
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
David Edgerton joins Long Reads for a discussion about the making of the modern British nation. David is a professor at King’s College London, where his work concentrates on twentieth-century history, global science, and technology. His most recent work is The Rise and Fall of the British Nation, one of the most ambitious reinterpretations of modern Britain for many years.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Economist Ramaa Vasudevan explains the causes and consequences of inflation from a socialist perspective. Natalie Shure looks at the growing discontent with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the left. Jen Pan discusses the recent San Francisco school board recall and what it says about the Democrats’ abandonment of Asian voters.
The Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from February 24, 2022.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Doug speaks with Toronto-based activist and organizer John Clarke on the politics and personnel behind the Ottawa convoy. Plus: Dave Zirin on racism in the NFL (and Brian Flores’s lawsuit over it) and Justine Medina on working at Amazon and trying to unionize it. This is the show from February 17, 2022.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
In another Superdelegate-selected episode, we discuss THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT (1996), the hagiographic biopic of the Hustler Magazine publisher and First Amendment warrior. We discuss Flynt's politics and the implications of his brand of civil libertarianism. PLUS: would you like to live in a town run by Disney?
"Announcing Storyliving by Disney": www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CVucnt46ww
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Suzi talks to Canadian Labor historian Bryan Palmer about the so-called "Freedom Convoy" of truckers that held Ottawa hostage for three weeks, clogging the streets of the city as well as the US-Canadian border crossings from New Brunswick to British Columbia. Bryan calls this "Canada’s alt-right freedom rage," and while protesters said they were opposing state mandates related to the pandemic, their target is the liberal government of Justin Trudeau. They are a well-funded movement with parallels to the alt-right in the US, what Bryan calls “the lumpen petty bourgeoisie doing its revolting thing!"
Feminist political theorist and organizer Verónica Gago on Argentina’s massive feminist movement and strike, the ties that bind domestic labor and financial exploitation, neoliberalism from below, and more.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out Coup: A Story of Violence and Resistance in Bolivia haymarketbooks.org/books/1745-coup
Doug speaks with Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative on how prison sickens and kills people. Then Terry Kupers, from a 2013 interview, on the effects of solitary confinement on mental health. Refinery worker and union VP BK White talks about worker safety and health at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, California.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Ariella Thornhill speaks with John Nichols about his new book, Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers. Nichols argues that the massive number of deaths in the US were caused not by the vicissitudes of nature but by the callous and opportunistic decisions of powerful people and the ruthless profit orientation of capitalist society. Thornhill also speaks with Sean Petty, a pediatric emergency room nurse at a public hospital in the Bronx. Petty provides a picture of how nurses and healthcare professionals have been pushed to the brink by an unprepared and underfunded for-profit healthcare system, which has left nurses overworked and under-protected.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from February 16, 2022 with Ariella Thornhill and Cale Brooks hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Suzi talks to Nick Bowlin about his important new piece, "Joke’s on Them: The Democratic Party Meets Rural America" in The Drift. Nick looks at America’s rural class structure, the political attitudes of rural residents, and the Democratic Party's inability to appeal to them. It’s a crucial issue that is poorly understood—and in most accounts treated all too superficially. Both parties put on cowboy hats and wear the equivalent of flannel shirts when campaigning in rural America, as if posturing authenticity is all that’s required. It works better for Republicans than Democrats, and much of Nick’s article looks at the historical, political, economic and cultural complexities that help explain why.
Grace speaks with Laurie Penny about their new book, Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback. They discuss the roots of the resurgence of violence against women, what it means to build a culture of consent, and how women can organize to resist their oppression and exploitation.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world.
What happens when the UK's Minister for International Development accidentally calls an inevitable war "unforeseeable"? We discuss Armando Iannucci's beloved political satire IN THE LOOP (2009) and what it says about the culture of spin in U.K. politics. PLUS: further developments in the Canadian trucker protest, and thoughts on that most important institution of all: the Oscars.
Mayor Ed Koch's movie review show - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl1C-jPg7L4nsHg6EVgAXvQ
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
John Foot joins Long Reads for a discussion about Italy from the era of partisan resistance to the current predicament of "post-democracy"—and a resurgent right wing. John is professor of modern Italian history at the University of Bristol. His works include The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care and The Archipelago: Italy Since 1945.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Read John's article "Closing the Asylums" here: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/05/asylum-franco-basaglia-psychiatry-mental-health
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Industrial capitalism and colonialism are literally making us sick. Raj Patel and Rupa Marya on Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Professor Vivek Chibber discusses his new book, The Class Matrix, and the role that culture plays (and doesn’t play) in keeping workers from overturning an exploitative capitalist system. Paul Prescod debunks a new "pro-worker" proposal from Republicans to create workplace alternatives to unions, and Jen Pan takes a look at the various causes of the Great Resignation.
The Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from February 9, 2022.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Suzi talks to Arlene Inouye, UTLA Secretary and Bargaining Chair about the system-wide pressures facing teachers, support staff, students, and their families, all seeking safety and stability during the deadly and disruptive pandemic. A new NEA survey reveals anxiety, exhaustion, burnout, and an alarming number of educators leaving the profession they have loved. Arlene gives us a big picture of the crisis and the pre-existing problems made suddenly worse by COVID: teacher and staff shortages, declining enrollment, and irregular class attendance. We’ll hear how UTLA has addressed the health and safety concerns such as ventilation, masking, and other actions to make safer classrooms, and what ideas and programs they are trying to implement to address these issues in an unstable environment with ongoing funding issues. Georgia Flowers Lee brings her experiences and difficulties teaching preschoolers during the pandemic. The conditions of teacher and staff shortages—plus frequent shutdowns for two weeks whenever someone falls ill or tests positive with COVID—adds to burnout and hardship for educators, students, and their families. Hector Perez Roman, who teaches high school AP world history in Arleta in the northern San Fernando Valley, brings us news and stories from the classroom in an underserved and hard-hit area. Perez-Roman talks about how teachers and students are dealing with the trauma of COVID illness and loss, attendance uncertainty, lost time for learning, yet are still being bogged down with unnecessary standardized tests. Belinda Barragan is a LAUSD PSA (Pupil Student Attendance) counselor working with students and their families, teachers, and staff on the mental health issues brought by pandemic stress. She sees more cases of depression and social anxiety daily, with parents coming in to ask how to deal with these issues with their child at home. She describes teachers who are frustrated, anxious, and fatigued from their own classrooms while also covering their peers because of the shortage of substitutes available. We hear their stories, and Arlene Inouye discusses the UTLA platform to address these issues with solutions that bring hope.
Olúfẹmi Táíwò guest hosts an interview with Daniela Gabor and Ndongo Samba Sylla on how financial power has shaped the global economic order from colonialism through Bretton Woods, the Washington Consensus, and today's Wall Street Consensus.
Read Daniela's work: people.uwe.ac.uk/Person/DanielaGabor
Read Ndongo's work: rosalux.de/en/profile/es_detail/N8SVHTS8SA/ndongo-samba-sylla?cHash=ccf0c8d371bde0fecbac8337bbc6f832
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy The Border Crossed Us by Justin Akers Chacón: haymarketbooks.org/books/1655-the-border-crossed-us
Jacobin contributor Leigh Phillips discusses how an NGO-dominated environmental movement ended up alienating unions, what constitutes a "just transition," and why organized labor must be at the center of any successful effort to fight climate change. Tony Wood assesses the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict and liberals' conceptions of Putin. Jen Pan discusses how the pandemic led to yet more "socialism for the rich."
The Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from February 2, 2022.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
This week, Grace talks to Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò about his two new books, Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else). They discuss what "identity politics" actually means, why it's so often contrasted to "class politics," and what socialists need to do to create inclusive, sustainable social movements.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Suzi talks to professor Michael Cox about what is behind Putin’s bluster at the Ukrainian border and the hawkish, confrontational response from the US, UK, and NATO. Is the threat of war with Ukraine Putin’s way of pressing Russia’s case for revamping the post-Cold War order? What are the divisions within NATO and the European Union over how to deal with Russia, and to what extent does this current crisis reveal US weakness in terms of being in charge of European security?
Hillel Ticktin also joins to continue the discussion about the escalating tensions on the Russian/Ukrainian border. Ticktin argues that the long downturn and economic stagnation are the backdrop to understanding both Russia and the US in this crisis.
Oliver Gloag returns to Long Reads for a conversation about Jean-Paul Sartre and the philosopher's stance against colonialism. Oliver is a professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of North Carolina, Asheville and author of Albert Camus: A Very Short Introduction.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Read Oliver's article "Jean-Paul Sartre Took a Stand Against Empire" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/jean-paul-sartre-anti-imperialism-colonialism-france-politics
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Jacobin’s Micah Uetricht sat down with Nina Turner to discuss the launch of her candidacy for Congress in Ohio’s 11th District. Turner speaks about the need to prioritize bread-and-butter issues like good jobs and affordable healthcare in places like Cleveland, the need to challenge members of the Democratic party who block legislation meant to improve the material conditions of the most vulnerable, and the need to go directly to the people to build pressure for progressive change.
Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
An in-depth interview on the historical and political-economic context of the Ukraine crisis with Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko.
Read Volodymyr's work:
truthout.org/articles/ukrainians-are-far-from-unified-on-nato-let-them-decide-for-themselves/
lefteast.org/ukraine-in-the-vicious-circle-of-the-post-soviet-crisis-of-hegemony/
lefteast.org/contradictions-post-soviet-ukraine-failure-ukraine-new-left/
Tony Wood on Russia: thedigradio.com/podcast/russia-beyond-putin-with-tony-wood/
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jacobin contributor Anton Jäger explains the rise of "hyper-politics" and why everything these days is "political" but collective struggle remains elusive. Luke Savage analyzes the Democrats' recent failure to pass voting rights legislation. Jen Pan argues that the debate over affirmative action at elite universities overlooks larger inequalities.
The Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from January 26, 2022.
Read Anton Jäger's article in Tribune: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/01/from-post-politics-to-hyper-politics
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
This week on the Jacobin Sports Show, a very special episode with former NBA player and poet/writer/activist Etan Thomas. Etan's latest book, Police Brutality & White Supremacy: The Fight Against American Traditions, dives into the tradition and enshrinement of police brutality against Black people and talks with activists, allies, police, and media members about why and where action is needed, as well as concrete proposals to combat it. What can athletes do to change things? The press? The police? Interviewees include Lora Dene King, daughter of Rodney King, Rayond Santana from the Exonerated 5, Steph Curry, Isiah Thomas, Craig Hodges, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Jake Tapper, Jemele Hill, Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, Yamiche Alcindor, Chuck D and many more.
The Jacobin Sports Show covers the most meaningful stories from around the world of sports, both on and off the field. Hosted by Matthew Miranda and Jonah Birch. To find it, search for "Jacobin Sports" wherever you get your podcasts.
Show website: https://anchor.fm/jacobinsports
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jacobin-sports-show/id1548995463
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0rGF836yZQVE2jjg1k2hcd
RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/47ae1a2c/podcast/rss
Follow the Jacobin Sports Show on Twitter: @JacobinSports
The great Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin was assigned to make a documentary about his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He made MY WINNIPEG (2007), a hilarious, surreal dreamscape that combines autobiography, history, and fiction into a free-flowing meditation on a city and a home. We discuss the film's treatment of truth, memory, and the Canadian identity. PLUS: Luke discusses the glamorous life of being a published book author.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Preorder Luke's book The Dead Center- https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/
"Manitoba History - February 19, 1942: If Day" by Michael Newman - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/13/ifday.shtml
Guy Maddin's "The Heart of the World" - https://vimeo.com/115997353
Bohdan Krawchenko, author of works on Ukrainian politics and history, talks to Suzi from the University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan about the potential disaster on the Russian-Ukrainian border—and looks at the bigger picture of Putin’s government in Russia. We talk about what is driving Putin’s actions and what is at stake in the dangerously escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Is this geopolitical gamble with the West aimed at negotiating with the US to keep NATO at bay—or is it about increasing domestic political support at home, where grievances are rife about the lack of democratic rights and growing inequality?
Epidemiologist Justin Feldman makes a comprehensive and devastating critique of Biden's pandemic response.
Read Justin's essay: jmfeldman.medium.com/?p=88452c696f2
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Angela Davis: An Autobiography haymarketbooks.org/books/1741-angela-davis
Researcher Ted Boettner of the Ohio River Valley Institute outlines West Virginia’s political shift from blue to red through the history of coal mining and discusses why the Left can’t win without rural and working-class voters. Matt Bruenig explains the pandemic baby boom in the Nordic countries, and Jen Pan discusses a surprising increase in the number of self-identified Republicans in the US.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from January 19, 2022 with Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Grace talks to Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, associate professor of sociology at UCL, about his book Speculative Communities: Living with Uncertainty in a Financialized World. They talk about the formation of a new kind of subject—homo speculans—and how mutual cooperation in the context of the deep and pervasive uncertainty that characterizes life under financial capitalism is building new communities and new forms of resistance.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Cédric Durand joins Long Reads for a conversation about global capitalism and the pandemic. Cédric is a French economist who teaches at the University of Geneva, and the author of Fictitious Capital: How Finance Is Appropriating Our Future. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
You can find Cédric's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2452-fictitious-capital
And, for Jacobin, his 2018 article about the gilets jaunes movement: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/12/gilets-jaunes-yellow-vest-macron-capitalism
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Historian Gabriel Winant discusses The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America. It's a fascinating study of the emergence of the service sector and a new working class out of the wreckage of deindustrialization through the story of the rise and fall of unionized steel in Pittsburgh and its replacement by a massive hospital industry.
Listen to my past interview with Winant on the social worlds that make US politics and how that sociality is rooted in the economy, carceral state, social media, religion, and more thedigradio.com/podcast/the-social-question-with-gabriel-winant
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out The After-Normal: Brief, Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet, by David Carlin and Nicole Walker rosemetalpress.com/books/the-after-normal
Chapo Trap House’s Amber A’Lee Frost and Jacobin contributor Danny Bessner investigate whether the Democrats are losing on purpose. Ross Barkan discusses New York mayor Eric Adams’s unlikely coalition of black working-class voters and wealthy developers, and Jen Pan debunks blue-state racecraft. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from January 12, 2021 with Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
To mark a very special milestone, we decided to reach back to early in the podcast's history and revisit MICHAEL MOORE HATES AMERICA (2004). Mimicking Moore's own filmmaking style, this amateurish documentary sees a conservative man go on a cross-country journey to land and interview with Michael himself. We discuss why this piece of right-wing kitsch has remained so firmly lodged in our minds, and why it is such a product of its time.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
This week, we speak with Alex Han, executive editor of Organizing Upgrade about a recent conversation he moderated between an Amazon activist named Howard and Wade Rathke, chief organizer of ACORN in the U.S. from 1970 – 2008. The discussion focuses on the successes and failures of organizing during the era in which Walmart was the ascendant force in commerce, a role Amazon plays today.
Organizing Upgrade published the conversation as a three part series you can read here.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To keep up with us elsewhere, follow @primerpod on Twitter.
In 1985, a group of plucky renegades banded together to take on the political culture in the Democratic Party—demolishing Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition" to create a coalition that could win elections. That's the thesis of CRASHING THE PARTY (2016), a hagiographic documentary that chronicles the rise of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and its star candidate, Bill Clinton. We discuss how funny it is that the documentary came out in mid-2016, just when it appeared that the Clintonite project was almost complete.
"In Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire, Hawaiians Are No Longer the Extras" by Alex Press: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/anthony-banua-simons-cane-fire-hawaii-documentary
"Atari Democrats" by Lily Geismer: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/geismer-democratic-party-atari-tech-silicon-valley-mondale
"The Obamanauts" by Corey Robin: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-obamanauts
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Doug speaks with Antonia Mardones Marshall on the recent presidential election and its winner, Gabriel Boric. Plus: Antonia Atria, in an interview from October 2020, on that country's constitutional referendum.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Catherine Liu, professor at University of California, Irvine, joins The Jacobin Show to discuss the rise of elite liberalism and the professional class. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from December 20, 2021 with Jen Pan and Cale Brook hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Episode two of our two-part series on cryptocurrency: political theorist Stefan Eich on how crypto fits into Hayek's old neoliberal dream of private money and why that vision emerged in a new form in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Read Stefan's article: static1.squarespace.com/static/5ae8a7b625bf02c0b85aec02/t/5c923c13eef1a1ce843836ff/1553087508427/Stefan+Eich%2C+Old+Utopias%2C+New+Tax+Havens+%282019%29.pdf
Check out We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America by Kevin Mattson global.oup.com/academic/product/were-not-here-to-entertain-9780190908232
For months we've been immersing ourselves in such Intellectual Property soups as Ready Player One, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and The Simpsons in Plusaversary, so we felt it was time to examine the animated hit that helped birth this new phenomenon: THE LEGO MOVIE (2014). PLUS: the return of COVID, a bad week for the Democrats, and the actual, honest-to-goodness phenomenon of official Rifkin's Festival NFTs.
"What’s behind global covid inequalities? Corporate greed" by Luke Savage - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/13/covid-vaccine-corporatism-inequality/
"Beyond NFT: DAMOVE company is building the future of movies and entertainment" - https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/beyond-nft-damove-company-is-building-the-future-of-movies-entertainment#ixzz7FW3eISjz
Learn more about Rifkin's Festival NFTs - https://twitter.com/RifkinsfestNft
Economist Richard Wolff joins Weekends to explain why Congressional partisan battles are like professional wrestling and why global capitalism continues to experience crisis after crisis. Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the (last!) episode, which aired December 17, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Michael Vann joins Long Reads for a conversation about Indonesia’s turbulent past and present. Michael is a professor of history at Sacramento State University. He specializes in the history of Southeast Asia. This is the second part of a two-part interview. The previous Long Reads episode covers events leading up to Suharto’s coup in the 1960s.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
You can find Michael's essays about Indonesian history on the Jacobin website:
"The True Story of Indonesia’s US-Backed Anti-Communist Bloodbath" https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/indonesia-anti-communist-mass-murder-genocide
"Indonesia Still Hasn’t Escaped Suharto’s Genocidal Legacy" https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/09/indonesia-sukarno-suharto-communists-genocide-dictatorship-corruption
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Edward Ongweso Jr. and Jacob Silverman on cryptocurrency, NFTs, Elon Musk, the metaverse, meme stocks, and techno-utopianism amid the crushing reality of our neoliberal hellscape. The first in a two-episode series on crypto.
Read Dan's new essay on border control politics: nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/border-crises/
Labor organizer and writer Jane McAlevey discusses the strike wave, the Great Resignation, and the union-busting efforts of the past year and looks at where the labor movement might go in 2022 and beyond.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from December 13, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Jacobin columnist Liza Featherstone joins Weekends to discuss how deindustrialization and stagnant wages have affected working-class men, and how right-wing politicians and pundits like Josh Hawley and Tucker Carlson have exploited this group’s downward mobility to sound the alarm over a “crisis of masculinity.”
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from December 10, 2021
Read Liza's relevant articles here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/opinion/josh-hawley-republican-manliness.html
And here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/11/liberals-democrats-conspiracy-paranoia-china-covid-19-russia
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
For 78 days in 1990, a group of Mohawk protestors withstood a siege from the Canadian armed forces. The root of the conflict? A town in Quebec sought to take over their land to expand a golf course. The Oka Crisis is the subject of Alanis Obomsawin's acclaimed documentary KANEHSATAKE: 270 YEARS OF RESISTANCE (1993), which offers us an opportunity to consider how Canada treats its First Nations.
Watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yP3srFvhKs
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Suzi talks with John Logan about the unionization victory at Starbucks in Buffalo, and the continuing Kellogg Co. strike: workers rejected the agreement and Kellogg's said it will permanently replace the workforce. Since that announcement, Kellogg's has been flooded with bogus job applications. John's most recent piece on the Starbucks victory appeared in The Conversation: “Union Battles At Amazon And Starbucks Are Hot News—Which Can Only Be Good For The Labor Movement.” They talk about the victories and upsets, campaigns, strikes, and battles ahead—all part of the renewed militancy we are seeing, this time with public support. Richard Bensinger, lead organizer in the Starbucks campaign told Lauren Kaori Gurley: “This is a stunning victory that proclaims that Gen Z is Generation Union.”
Michael Vann joins Long Reads for a special, two-part conversation about Indonesia’s turbulent past and present. Michael is a professor of history at Sacramento State University who specializes in the history of Southeast Asia. Today’s episode covers the events leading up to the coup in the 1960s, when General Suharto seized power and slaughtered the Indonesian left.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
You can find Michael's essays about Indonesian history on the Jacobin website:
"The True Story of Indonesia’s US-Backed Anti-Communist Bloodbath" https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/indonesia-anti-communist-mass-murder-genocide
"Indonesia Still Hasn’t Escaped Suharto’s Genocidal Legacy" https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/09/indonesia-sukarno-suharto-communists-genocide-dictatorship-corruption
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Touré Reed and Adolph Reed discuss their new article in Socialist Register, how the project of racial justice became unmoored from political economy in the postwar era, and how this disconnect continues to shape our understandings of race and inequality today.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from December 7, 2021 with Jen Pan and Ariella Thornhill hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
How neoliberal conditions create popular constituencies, ideologies, and subjectivities among poor and working-class people for a violent, mean, and repressive neoliberalism—and how those reactionary politics from below converge with those generated from above. Political theorist Rodrigo Nunes analyzes Bolsonarismo (the ideology and politics surrounding far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro) and far-right politics everywhere.
Read Rodrigo's essays:
radicalphilosophy.com/article/of-what-is-bolsonaro-the-name
publicbooks.org/are-we-in-denial-about-denial
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get that newsletter
Adaner Usmani joins Weekends to explain why fighting racial inequality today depends on forging a working-class coalition, and why race-based solutions to inequality are ultimately a dead end.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from December 3, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
With the Beatles once again in the zeitgeist, we decided to revisit the jukebox musical ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007), which positioned the lads' music as a backdrop to the social upheavals of the 1960s. Does it completely misunderstand both the music and the milieu? (Spoiler: yes)
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Doug speaks with Matt Kierkegard and David Adler of the Progressive International on the Honduran and Chilean elections. Plus: an interview with Sarah Lustbader, author of this article, on why trials are no substitute for politics.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Bolsonaro is presiding over mass COVID deaths and the destruction of the Amazon. Lula is free and polling way ahead for next year's presidential election. But the conditions that brought the far-right to power remain in place. Sociologist Sabrina Fernandes and historian Andre Pagliarini on Brazil.
Check out Sabrina's Tese Onze YouTube channel youtube.com/channel/UC0fGGprihDIlQ3ykWvcb9hg
Support The Dig and receive our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig
This week on A World to Win, Adele Walton, filling in for Grace Blakeley, speaks with Asad Rehman, director of War on Want and organizer for climate, racial, economic, and social justice. They discuss how global inequality is reproduced by colonial legacies, the impact of structural adjustment plans, and the need for an anticolonial climate justice movement.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world.
Jacobin and Catalyst contributor Chris Maisano joins The Jacobin Show for a discussion about democracy in the U.S. Then, in a special, double "Labor Paul" segment, Paul Trujillo weighs in on the latest from the Teamsters Union.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from November 29, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Before there was Elon Musk, there was Tony Stark. We travelled back to 2008 to look at IRON MAN, the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and were excited to find that it serves its ideology on a big platter and with minimal ornamentation.
A video on the filming of Iron Man 2 at Edwards Air Force Base - vimeo.com/191818335
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
This week, Adele Walton, filling in for Grace Blakeley, speaks with Heidi Chow, executive director at Jubilee Debt Campaign, which works to end poverty, inequality, and exploitation caused by unjust debt. They discuss the legacy of Thomas Sankara, the neocolonial nature of debt, and how debt reproduces global inequality and poverty.
A World to Win is a podcast from Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Over the past year, more than 100,000 people have died from drug overdoses in the US. Jacobin editor Meagan Day joins us to discuss the roots of the opioid crisis, how the profit motive fuels widespread addiction, and what kinds of drug policies the left should be fighting for today.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from November 22, 2021 with Jen Pan and Ariella Thornhill hosting.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
On Black Friday, people in some twenty countries will target Amazon under the banner of “Make Amazon Pay.” We speak with Casper Gelderblom, the Make Amazon Pay coordinator for the Progressive International, about what to expect.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you’d like to support the show, subscribe at Patreon.com/primerpodcast. To keep up with us elsewhere, follow @primerpod on Twitter.
Crystal Hopkins just stepped down as President of IATSE Local 871 on the eve of the ratification vote citing personal obligations and frustration over the ratification process that has deeply divided the membership. The 3 year contract or Basic Agreement with studios and streaming services squeaked by thanks to a delegate voting system many compare to the electoral college: 50.4% of the popular vote rejected the deal, but the agreement was ratified with 256 delegates voting yes and 88 voting no. That has left a lot of hard feelings and there is mounting criticism of President Matthew Loeb’s leadership of the union. We get the story of the deal, what lay behind it, and Crystal’s reasons for stepping down.
UCSB labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein has an article in the Washington Post and another in Dissent that address the current enormous churn in the workplace: some call it “The Big Quit,” others a strike wave. Record numbers of workers are quitting their jobs, but there is also rising labor militancy and strikes, increasing wages and accelerating inflation. The employer response is to pay more but remain vigorously anti-union—and, as Nelson Lichtenstein says, getting millions of new workers unionized is what is required.
The second of Dan’s two-part interview with Piero Gleijeses on his book Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991. This is the story of Cuba’s military defense of the Angolan government against a US and South Africa-backed effort to overthrow the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The future of the entire region was on the line—including the fate of apartheid in South Africa and of Namibia, then a South African colony.
Learn Southern African geography by studying these maps: thedigradio.com/visions-of-freedom-maps
Support The Dig with money at Patreon.com/TheDig and receive our weekly newsletter.
Tariq Ali, author of the new book The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan, discusses how four decades of US intervention in Afghanistan destabilized the country, led to countless civilian deaths, and fueled the global opium trade. Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from November 19, 2021, with Cale filling in for Nando.
Tariq's latest book: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3939-the-forty-year-war-in-afghanistan
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Doug talks with Christina Gerhardt on the COP26 climate summit. Plus, an interview with Mike Lofgren on the dangers of Steve Bannon's war on the administrative state (article here).
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Part one of Dan's two-part interview with Piero Gleijeses on his book Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991. This is the story of Cuba's military defense of the Angolan government against a US and South Africa-backed effort to overthrow the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The future of the entire region was on the line, including the fate of apartheid in South Africa and of Namibia, then a South African colony.
Learn Southern African geography by studying these maps: thedigradio.com/visions-of-freedom-maps
Support The Dig with money at Patreon.com/TheDig and receive our weekly newsletter.
Check out Six Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters by Anthea Roberts and Nicolas Lamp hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674245952
Chloe Watlington talked to four women about their workplace experiences and their decision to quit in her article in LA Taco called "The Big Quit of 2021 – as told by women of color in Los Angeles."The backdrop is what has happened to work during the pandemic. Month after month workers have been quitting jobs at unprecedented levels—for a variety of reasons including lack of childcare, burnout from toxic working conditions, and more. We talk to Chloe to get the big picture—who is quitting, which jobs they are quitting, why they are quitting—and what the long term implications are for the future of work and working conditions.
Oscar Mendoza joins Suzi to explain the Chilean Presidential election taking place on November 21. The massive social protest movement of October 2019 accomplished what decades of center-left rule could not: the end of the Pinochet Constitution, the right to develop and write a new one based on the guarantee of universal social rights, and the recognition of Chile as a plurinational, multilingual society. The election for the constituents wiped out the right and the center. The next step was the formation of new electoral coalitions to select their presidential candidate. That brought more surprises, with the collapse of the traditional right. Gabriel Boric, the candidate of the left Apruebo Dignidad coalition, is now being challenged from the very far right pro-Pinochetista José Antonio Kast, and polls show the fascist Kast gaining on the young leftist Boric—but Oscar Mendoza cautions that the polls have been more wrong that right. We get the story.
This week, Grace speaks to David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and the author of a brilliant new book with the late David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.
In this episode, David and Grace talk about literally everything—human history, human nature, and how to change the world. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world.
Roger Lancaster, author of the book Sex Panic, joins the Jacobin Show to discuss the McMartin daycare trial, the Satanic ritual abuse panic of the 1980s, and the role of the mainstream media in fomenting moral panics across the US.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from November 15, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
THE QUEEN (2006) brings together a mismatched-buddy duo — one a symbol of stiff-upper-lipped British tradition (Liz Windsor), the other a radical left-wing politician (uh... Tony Blair?) — who both slowly realize that they might be able to learn from each other. We discuss why this is the ultimate film of the New Labour era.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
David Sirota joins Weekends to discuss drastic cuts to the Build Back Better Act and why Democrats sabotaged their own bill. He talks about how Democrats’ failure to deliver real gains for working people will likely lead to resounding electoral defeat in the midterm elections. Plus, political scientist Katie Rader speaks about a recent Jacobin/YouGov study, "Commonsense Solidarity," about successful messaging for progressive electoral campaigns.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from November 12, 2021
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
On the 104th anniversary of the Russian revolution, Suzi Weissman switches seats with Robert Brenner: She is the guest and he does the interviewing. The podcast begins with Suzi on "One Hundred Years Since October: When the Russian Working Class Opened the Possibilities For Humanity." Robert and Suzi then discuss the significance of October 1917, when workers took power with profoundly democratic institutions of popular control from below in the Russian empire, creating the Soviet Union.
The program ends with the song that revolutionaries around the world sing: the International. Billy Bragg wrote new lyrics for the song that was first written in 1871 at the time of the Paris Commune. On May 3, 2020, Billy Bragg joined a live stream celebration of Pete Seeger's 101st birthday. Bragg explains how he came to write his striking version of the 'Internationale' and Pete Seeger's role in the evolution of this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBgfNy7dk4I
Fabien Escalona, journalist at the French publication Mediapart, joins Long Reads for a discussion about the trajectory of socialism in France over recent decades. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Read Fabien's essay "François Mitterrand Gave French Socialists Power at the Price of Their Soul" on Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/05/francois-mitterrand-french-socialism-parti-socialiste-40th-anniversary
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
On this week’s podcast Grace speaks to Neil Vallelly, author of Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness.
They discuss the role of utilitarian thinking in the development of capitalism, how utilitarianism has collapsed into "futilitarianism," and the impact this pervasive sense of futility is having on our sense of individual and collective wellbeing.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies for making this episode possible.
Astra Taylor interviews archaeologist David Wengrow on The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, his new book co-authored with the late David Graeber.
Support us at Patreon.com/TheDig
Check out Hannah Arendt by Samantha Rose Hill reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789143799
Doug speaks with Sheryll Cashin, author of White Space, Black Hood, about the origins, mechanisms, and effects of residential segregation, mostly by race but also by class. Plus, Peter Victor and Robert Pollin debate the virtues of “degrowth” in avoiding climate catastrophe.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
FALLING DOWN (1993) features Michael Douglas as an ordinary man who's mad as hell, turning into a Travis Bickle for the Rush Limbaugh era. It's Hollywood's attempt to make a serious statement about a post-Cold War malaise, and folks, it's a very, very bad movie. PLUS: we share memories of Canada's greatest bad filmmaker.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner discusses the recent elections, Democrats’ disconnect from working people, and how progressives can fight the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from November 5, 2021 with Cale Brooks filling in for Nando.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Jared Abbott, a researcher with the newly launched Center for Working-Class Politics, joins us to discuss a groundbreaking new Jacobin/YouGov study on working-class voters' political preferences and what it will take to build a working-class movement in the US.
The full study will be available on the Jacobin site on November 9, 2021.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from November 1, 2021 with Jen Pan and Cale Brooks hosting.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Guest host Gabriel Winant interviews labor journalists Alex Press and Jonah Furman, as well as IATSE member Victor P. Bouzi.
Listen to Primer, Alex's podcast about Amazon patreon.com/primerpodcast
Listen to Victor's podcast WAIT, Why Am I Talking? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wait-why-am-i-talking/id1515308564
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Caitlin Petre, media sociologist at Rutgers University, has just published All the News That’s Fit to Click, a critical look at how performance analytics are transforming the work of profit-driven journalism. She exposes how newsroom metrics that measure and gauge reader engagement with digital news content represent a new form of intensified commercial pressure. Journalists are driven to optimize their content for clicks in ways that end up reshaping the newsroom power dynamics and their own working conditions. Journalism, after all is a form of labor—and one that has become increasingly casualized and precarious. Caitlin Petre’s account of data-driven journalism is also an important preview of how the metrics revolution may transform other professions with far-reaching implications. We talk to Caitlin about her research and ask what it portends for intellectual labor or knowledge work.
Read Victor Pickard's excellent review of Caitlin Petre's book in Jacobin.
Zohran Mamdani, New York State Assembly Member for District 36, discusses why he and New York cab drivers are undertaking a hunger strike, and how the city’s inaction around the taxi medallion crisis has forced working-class cab drivers into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Plus, Matt Bruenig joins to discuss the never-ending string of design flaws in the Democrats’ childcare proposals.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from October 30, 2021, with Paul Prescod filling in for Nando.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Doug speaks to Samuel Moyn, co-author of this article, on the reactionary history of the Supreme Court and how to democratize it. Plus: Deepak Bhargava, one of the editors of Immigration Matters, on immigration policy, historical, current, and future.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
We travel to postwar Vienna to visit THE THIRD MAN (1949) and discuss how this classic film's style perfectly articulates a bleak and despairing state of being. PLUS: thoughts on the dark 'n' gritty new Buzz Lightyear origin movie, AND we finally answer whether politics is upstream or downstream from culture.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
This week, we speak with Mark McGurl, professor of literature at Stanford and the author of Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. To keep up with us elsewhere, follow @primerpod on Twitter.
A Striketober-relevant episode from The Dig archives.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and receive our weekly newsletter by email
Slavoj Žižek discusses World War I and the other forces that shaped the Russian Revolution, how we should understand the Red Terror, the Russian Civil War, and the legacy of Felix Dzerzhinsky. Plus, Žižek reviews Squid Game and Denis Villeneuve's Dune remake.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from October 26, 2021 with Jen Pan, Nando Vila, and Cale Brooks hosting.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Doug speaks with Mona Fawaz on the dire economic and political crises in Lebanon. Plus: Mark Dery, author of this article, on conspiracy theories, with special emphasis on Mark Crispin Miller.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Journalist Andrew Cockburn, author of the new book The Spoils of War, explains why the United States’ astronomical Pentagon budget hasn’t led to better national defense and what’s driving the growth of the military industrial complex today.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from October 22, 2021, with producer Cale filling in for Nando.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Vanessa Chishti joins Long Reads for a discussion about Kashmir's past and present. Vanessa is professor of history at the O.P. Jindal Global University in Delhi, India. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Read Vanessa's essay "Kashmir: The Long Descent" in Catalyst here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2020/03/kashmir-the-long-descent
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
We're back! This week, we speak with Phil Jones, author of Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism, a new book from Verso Books. Jones is also a researcher for the think tank Autonomy.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. To keep up with us elsewhere, follow @primerpod on Twitter.
Grace speaks to Holly Jean Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Buffalo about her new book Ending Fossil Fules: Why Net Zero Is Not Enough. They discuss the meaning of net zero, the different trajectories we might use to get there, and how these different paths might ease or exacerbate other ecological, social and political challenges the world faces today.
You can support A World to Win by subscribing to our Patreon, where you'll get access to full-length versions of the interviews. Thanks to producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Paul Heideman debunks the myth that the Republicans are now a working-class party and explores how the structural weakness of the American party system and conflicting business interests drove the Republicans' rightward turn.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from October 19, 2021 with Jen Pan and Ariella Thornhill hosting.
Read Paul's article in Catalyst: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/09/behind-the-republican-party-crack-up
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
What are the politics of sex? Incels, porn, sexual racism, the feminist sex wars, and more. Philosopher Amia Srinivasan on her new essay collection The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century.
Want our very good weekly newsletter emailed to you? Support us at Patreon.com/TheDig
Interested in the book advertised on this week's Dig?
thenewpress.com/books/empire-of-rubber
At long last, we are finally tackling something related to The Sopranos. We discuss the many things wrong (and some things right) with the big-screen prequel THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (2021); the spirit of American decline that The Sopranos captures at its best; and what the recent surge in prequels and reboots tells us about this world we live in.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Coming off of their triumphant debate victories against Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk respectively, we're (re)joined by Ana Kasparian and friend of the show Ben Burgis to discuss how and why the left can debate right-wing ideologues.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from October 15, 2021.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Suzi talked to Crystal Hopkins, President of IATSE Local 871, just hours before a tentative agreement was reached late Saturday afternoon — ahead of the October 18 strike deadline. The contract still has to be ratified by union members and that remains a question mark. Crystal Hopkins describes the conditions and demands that are at the center of the negotiations: long working hours, low wages, and not being fairly compensated for the success of streaming service content they contribute to. IATSE workers have recounted stories like falling asleep while driving, working 17-hour days, and being unable to take time off. Listen in as we cover the issues at stake.
Alex Press, Jacobin writer and labor podcaster, has been tracking the current strike wave that some are calling "Striketober." Ten thousand John Deere UAW workers are on strike for the first time since 1986. Two thousand nurses are on strike at a Catholic Health hospital in New York, 1400 workers at Kellogg’s cereal plants across the country, eleven hundred coal miners at Warrior Met in Alabama, and four hundred twenty United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) members at Heaven Hill Distillery in Kentucky. Sixty thousand workers at IATSE may strike on October 18; Instacart workers have an Oct 18 work action; 24,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente are poised to walk out, and there are organizing drives at Amazon, and now Starbucks. So how do we characterize and explain this militancy? Alex’s latest article, "US Workers Are in a Militant Mood," looks at these strikes and campaigns now underway and we get her take on the big picture for labor.
A very short ep on a great new documentary about the history and present of American socialism: The Big Scary S-Word. It’s by Yael Bridge, and it's the perfect film to show to your skeptical uncle or to someone new to (or curious about) socialist politics.
You can watch The Big Scary S-Word on iTunes, Apple TV or a number of other sites by visiting: www.socialismmovie.com/screenings
This week, Grace speaks to Phil Jones, researcher at Autonomy and author of Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism. They discuss whether what we refer to as automation actually relies on the proliferation of poorly paid microwork around the world, who does this work under what conditions, and how workers can start to organise to resist their exploitation at the hands of some of the most powerful companies in the world.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Legendary socialist scholar Tariq Ali on the long history of Afghanistan: the 19th and early 20th-century wars against the British Empire; the communist coup, Soviet invasion, and US-backed mujahideen war; the rise of the Taliban; and the 2001 US-led NATO invasion through the recent US defeat and withdrawal. Plus, a lot about Pakistan.
Pre-order Ali's forthcoming book The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold versobooks.com/books/3939-the-forty-year-war-in-afghanistan
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and receive our weekly newsletter
Matt Bruenig discusses Joe Manchin's remarks about the US becoming an "entitlement society" and explains why so-called entitlement societies like the Nordic states somehow still seem to function.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from October 8, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Doug speaks with Nancy MacLean, author of this paper, on how Milton Friedman’s war on public education fit nicely with Southern massive resistance to desegregation. Plus: Klaus Jacob, a geophysicist, on how we can live with rising seas and heavier rains.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
We have discussed many bad films on this podcast, but now we finally turn our attention to The Worst Movie Ever Made™. We analyze how Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1957) turns the movie industry's flotsam and detritus into a Hollywood dreamscape. PLUS: The Sopranos, Necromania, and Justin Trudeau's recent vacation.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Sean Larson, historian of the German Revolution and the Weimar Republic, joins Long Reads for a discussion about party politics and worker struggles during Germany's inter-war period. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
You can find Sean's work on Jacobin, including his piece "When Germany's Social Democrats Made a Revolution by Half" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/german-revolution-1918-review
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Doug speaks with Patrick Wyman, author of this article (and this earlier Substack version) on provincial elites. Plus: Duc Hien Nguyen on queerness, social reproduction, and capitalism.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Professors Jeremy Cohan and Benjamin Serby discuss the influence of Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School on the New Left, how they continue to shape our politics today, and why the right became obsessed with "cultural Marxism."
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from October 5, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting.
Jeremy and Benjamin's article in Catalyst: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/09/the-two-souls-of-marcuses-one-dimensional-man
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
This week, Grace speaks to Senator Nina Turner, the former Ohio Senator and Democratic Nominee for Ohio Secretary of State who also served as co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Presidential Campaign.
Grace spoke to Senator Turner at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton about organizing within the Democratic Party, the future of the US left under Biden, and what lessons we can all learn from the defeats of the past few years—as well as how to make sure we don’t give up hope.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod, where you'll also get access to full versions of the interviews.
A heads up: Because of a technical issue, we had to switch to an imperfect back-up recording about twenty minutes into this episode.
Doug speaks with Algernon Austin on the plight of black men in the job market (with an excerpt from a 2005 BtN interview with Devah Pager on discrimination). Plus, an interview with Susie Bright on "pegging the patriarchy."
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Nine years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cinema's most enduring symbol of the perils of nuclear proliferation first crawled out of Tokyo Bay. We discuss how the original GODZILLA (1954) channeled the mood of its time. PLUS: how the media talks about the congressional wrangling over the reconciliation bill.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Alan Minsky is back for an update on the state of play in passing the Build Back Better Reconciliation and Infrastructure Bills. The progressives are using their leverage because the BBB bill is connected to the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill the centrists favor but want to whittle down. Media coverage has mischaracterized this as a split in the Democratic Party rather than as the LA Times did Saturday, getting it right: there are two holdouts while the rest of the Dems are behind Biden’s agenda. It’s all riveting and we get Alan’s analysis of what lies underneath, which players have more weight, the tactics employed, and what he sees as the possible outcome.
Meleiza Figueroa is the lead author on the new dispatch from Pandemic Research for the People called "To Live and Die in Los Angeles: COVID-19, Structural Stress, and the Path to a More Resilient Public Health." The dispatch identifies the ways COVID merged with and reinforced existing crises generated by a neoliberalized economy with labor precarity, housing instability, homelessness, psychosocial stress, lack of healthcare and social safety net access, contributing to the tenacity of the pandemic – and pointing to the social vulnerability to future pandemics and natural disasters. It’s a comprehensive analysis focusing on what LA County has done right and what more has to be done.
Samuel Moyn, author of the new book Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War, joins Weekends to explain why the US shifted to “humane” forms of warfare to justify and perpetuate never-ending foreign interventions.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from October 1, 2021, with Cale Brooks filling in for Ana.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Jacobin Radio presents the latest episode from our sister podcast, the Jacobin Sports Show! This week, podcast superstar Haley O'Shaughnessy joins hosts Matthew Miranda and Jonah Birch to talk about the NBA's anti-vaxx sect and what the reaction and coverage to it tells them about the players, the media, and celebrity culture. Then Matthew and Jonah play truth or dare with NBA title faves, beautiful arena names, Tom Brady and the theme of returning to old haunts, emotional sports reunions, teams they would re-relocate back to their original homes, and more!
To keep up with all the Jacobin Sports Show episodes, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts—just search "Jacobin Sports."
Follow the Jacobin Sports Show on Twitter: @JacobinSports
Email Jacobin Sports at [email protected]
Kim Stanley Robinson on science fiction, climate crisis, Marxism, geo-engineering, political violence, green Keynesianism, and a lot more. Interviewed by guest host Daniel Aldana Cohen, who read 11 of Robinson’s books during the pandemic quarantine, running from Red Mars through The Ministry for the Future.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and receive our new weekly newsletter by email.
Historian James Oakes explains how the 1619 Project misconstrues the relationship between slavery and capitalism and what the left can learn from the mass politics of the antislavery movement.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from September 28, 2021 with Jen Pan and Cale Brooks hosting. The historian Matt Karp joins the program as well.
Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10:https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey:https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
This week, Grace Blakeley speaks to Geoff Mann, Professor of Geography at Simon Fraser University and author of In the Long Run We Are All Dead: Keynesianism, Political Economy and Revolution and, with Joel Wainwright, Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future. They discuss capitalism, state power and climate breakdown, whether the pandemic has ended neoliberalism, and why democracy is so important to anti-capitalist struggle today.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Dean Baker, economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, joins us to explain what we should do with Big Pharma (hint: get rid of them). We also cover the ongoing immigration crisis and how bosses rob us through denying overtime pay.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from September 24, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
The mockumentary DEATH OF A PRESIDENT (2006) imagined what would happen if then-president George W. Bush was assassinated. Though briefly very controversial, this justly-forgotten film is a perfect encapsulation of just how conservative a liberal movie could be in the years following 9/11. PLUS: we analyze the recent Canadian federal election.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Alan Minsky discusses the Biden infrastructure plan, one that he calls an historic bill for an historic moment. As Director of PDA, Alan is involved in the politicking to get this bill passed and we get his take on the stakes involved, who of the Democrats could scuttle it and why. Though we have had the COVID relief or CARES Act passed, Biden’s infrastructure bill is different because it creates permanent and progressive public policy. COVID gives Congress the opportunity, for the first time since the 1960s-1970s, to reclaim its power to address the social ills of the US through classical social-democratic policy. That is what makes the fight so momentous and consequential, and we get the story.
Arun Gupta traveled the country visiting and writing about the many Occupy sites, chronicling the emerging politics that brought the issues of inequality, wealth redistribution, and even democratic socialism to the forefront of political attention. Arun’s In These Times article for Occupy’s tenth anniversary looks at how Occupy shaped a decade of dramatic protests. It’s title: “Occupy Wall Street Trained a Generation in Class War.” We get Arun’s take on the politics that emerged in Occupy, and discuss its legacy, significance and relevance today.
It's Occupy Wall Street's tenth anniversary. Dan interviews Astra Taylor.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our new weekly newsletter.
Listen to other pods in the retrospective series https://rosalux.nyc/occupy/
Kristen Ghodsee joins Long Reads to discuss the lost world and "progressive spirit" of Bulgarian Communism. Kristen is professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books, including Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
You can read Kristen's essay "The Youngest Partisan," about the Bulgarian militant Elena Lagadinova, here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/12/elena-lagadinova-bulgaria-partisan-amazon-gender-equality
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Grace speaks with Phil Burton-Cartledge, lecturer in sociology at the University of Derby and author of Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain. They discuss whose interests the Tory Party really represents, how the party works, and why, contrary to appearances, the Tories are in decline.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Doug speaks with Dave Zirin, author of The Kaepernick Effect, on how taking a knee spread across the country (and why leftists shouldn’t hate sports). Plus: Dwayne Monroe, cloud data architect (and author of this piece: https://monroelab.net/attack-mannequins-ai-as-propaganda), disassembles the hype around artificial intelligence.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Tucker Carlson reigns as the most-watched personality on cable news. How did he get that way? How important is he really? And what does he actually believe? To answer these questions, he enlist the help of Tucker scholar and returning guest Alex Shephard, who guides us through Carlson's trajectory from a Tom Wolfe-ish magazine scribe to a Jon Stewart punching-bag to the living embodiment of the GOP's hard-right turn.
"How Tucker Carlson Lost It" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/163567/tucker-carlson-profile-lost-mind
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Ten years after Occupy Wall Street, Jacobin's Meagan Day and Seth Ackerman join us to discuss how the left has changed. We also cover Manchin's money trail and the "Havana Syndrome."
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from September 17, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Episode three of The Dig’s War on Terror trilogy with Spencer Ackerman: Decadence, Trump, and Biden.
Subscribe to Spencer’s Substack: foreverwars.substack.com/people/2576701-spencer-ackerman
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and (starting next week) get our weekly newsletter
Grace speaks to Kyle Lewis and Will Stronge, authors of Overtime: Why We Need a Shorter Working Week. They discuss the centrality of struggles over working time to the history of class struggle, why the shorter working week should be a central demand of labor movements today, and how we need to reimagine work to build a more just and sustainable world.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Jacobin film critic Eileen Jones joins TJS to discuss the uses (and the limits) of art as political propaganda and the role of mass entertainment in modern society.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from September 14, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
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Doug interviews Clyde Barrow on how Texas, a diverse, urbanized, sophisticated state, is run by a bunch of reactionary white would-be cowboys. Plus: Anatol Lieven on the US–China rivalry and the meaning of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Read Anatol's article here: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/09/03/what-is-drowning-americans-in-new-york-not-the-chinese-navy/
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Episode two of The Dig’s War on Terror trilogy with Spencer Ackerman: Obama, ISIS, and the Sustainable War.
Subscribe to Spencer’s Substack: foreverwars.substack.com/people/2576701-spencer-ackerman
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and (starting next week) get our weekly newsletter
Alex Sammon at the American Prospect says Democrats who believe we should keep the filibuster think that offensively they are at their limit, and need to keep the filibuster to prevent things from getting any worse. It is a defensive stance against the Republicans. His article, “The Vanishing Case for Liberal Inaction” makes the case that when Democrats in Congress have power, they act as placeholders until handing it back. The Republicans, on the other hand, push their strategic goals, using whatever tactical means available.
Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos, Political Economist at UNICAMP in Brazil, says that President Bolsonaro is setting the stage for a coup to remain in power. Borrowing from Trump’s playbook, Bolsonaro is sowing doubt about Brazil’s highly-prized electronic voting system, undermining confidence in the Supreme Court, democratic institutions and the media. Bolsonaro has also borrowed the Republican stance on the pandemic and vaccinations, with catastrophic results for Brazil. Overall Bolsonaro’s approval ratings have sunk, but he remains popular among the poor and ever-growing evangelical movement, despite his extreme authoritarian proto-fascist politics. We get Pedro Paulo’s analysis of the state of Brazilian democracy. His latest piece is called “Live and Let die: Bolsonaro and the Fascist Escalation in Brazil."
Economist Adam Tooze joins Weekends to discuss how the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic differs from prior economic crashes, how elites have responded to the pandemic, and how COVID might shape the future development of China’s political and economic power.
Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from September 10, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
In Apichatpong Weerasethakul's UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (2010), the boundaries between life and death, past and present, ghost and human, and human and animal fade away. We discuss some possible philosophical and political readings of this cryptic masterpiece. PLUS: the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the media is covering the Canadian election.
"Why Justin Trudeau’s snap election is backfiring" by Luke Savage - https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2021/09/why-justin-trudeau-s-snap-election-backfiring
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Ho-Fung Hung, professor at Johns Hopkins University, joins Long Reads for a discussion on the Chinese economy, COVID, and the future under Xi Jinping. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
You can read Ho-Fung Hung's piece on US-China rivalry here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/us-china-competition-capitalism-rivalry
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Episode one of The Dig's three-part War on Terror series the with Spencer Ackerman: 9/11, bipartisan war fever, and George W. Bush.
Subscribe to Spencer's Substack: foreverwars.substack.com/people/2576701-spencer-ackerman
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and (very soon) get our weekly newsletter
Noam Chomsky joins the Jacobin Show to discuss the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, the War on Terror, and the future of American imperialism after the disastrous invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from September 7, 2021 with Paul Prescod, Cale Brooks, Ariella Thornhill, and Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
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Doug speaks with Paul Passavant, author of Policing Protest, on the change in how cops treat protesters since the 1960s. Plus: Marisol Cantú and Shiva Mishek (co-author of this article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/08/richmond-california-police-rpd-defund-budget-social-services-progressive-alliance-city-council) on how activists won a shift of public funding from cops to social services in Richmond, California.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
David Sirota joins Weekends to explain why corporate America is working to dismantle the infrastructure bill and how progressives can fight to retain the climate and anti-poverty measures in the bill. Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from September 3, 2021, with Paul Prescod filling in for Nando.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage joins us to discuss American liberalism after Trump: Has Trump Derangement Syndrome permanently altered liberalism in the US? Why do liberals still act like they're losing? Is liberalism in crisis?
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from August 31, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Doug speaks with Helen Yaffe, author of We Are Cuba!, about the country's economic history since the 1959 revolution generally and the recent “pro-democracy” demonstrations specifically.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Media critic Adam Johnson and New York Magazine's Eric Levitz on the media's warmongering attack on Biden's withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
Further reading:
nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/media-bias-biden-polls-approval-afghanistan-withdrawal.html
thecolumn.substack.com/p/on-afghanistan-withdrawal-nyts-peter
Sign up for Adam's Substack: thecolumn.substack.com
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our (coming soon) weekly newsletter
Andrei Tarkovsky's debut film IVAN'S CHILDHOOD (1962) sends us into a discussion about poetic cinema, memory, Russia, and what it means to be a national filmmaker. PLUS: Spike Lee's flirtation with 9/11 truth, and check-ins with two reactionary celebrities.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
On this episode of A World to Win, Grace speaks to Shon Faye, writer, artist, comedian, and author of the forthcoming book The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice. They discuss the prevalence of transphobia in the UK, why the transgender issue is also a class issue, and how socialists can and should support the fight for trans rights.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Jonathan Guyer of The American Prospect joins Suzi to discuss his August 26 piece called, "The Unheeded Dissent Cable." This is a knockout—a devastating memo, all the more so because it was sent to the State Department on July 13, and was then buried, never reaching the White House and National Security Council. We get Jonathan’s understanding of how this memo could have been ignored, and what it says about the Biden administration’s national security team.
Veena Dubal, Law Professor at UC Hastings, explains the August 20 decision [PDF: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21046832/castellanos-order.pdf] ruling Prop. 22 unconstitutional and “unenforceable in its entirety.” Written and funded by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates, Prop 22 rewrote labor law in favor of the app-based transportation and delivery network companies, allowing their workers to be classified as independent contractors not employees. Prop 22 deprives workers of overtime pay, unemployment and workers’ compensation coverage, and the right to unionize. And the gig companies that authored Prop 22 made it nearly impossible to change, requiring a seven-eighths vote by the California legislature to modify it. But now Judge Roesch has declared Proposition 22 unconstitutional and unenforceable, and Veena Dubal explains the ruling, the grounds for the Judge’s decision, the response of the companies, and what is likely to happen next.
Jacobin contributor Matt Huber joins Weekends to explain why appeals to "science" and "truth" and individual lifestyle changes won’t be enough to halt climate change or win a majority of workers over to an environmental movement. Any successful program to counter climate change must be rooted in a working class constituency, he argues. Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from August 27, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
The journalist Jamie Maxwell joins Long Reads for a discussion on Scottish independence. Jamie writes for Al Jazeera, Vice, the New Statesman, the Herald, and other publications.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Read Jamie's essay for Jacobin, "The Scottish National Party Can't Be Trusted to Tackle the Climate Crisis" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/scottish-national-party-climate-greens-nicola-sturgeon
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Maximillian Alvarez, editor in chief of The Real News and host of the podcast Working People, joins us to discuss the fortieth anniversary of Ronald Reagan breaking the air traffic controllers' strike, care work after the pandemic, and the future of organized labor and class struggle in the US.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from August 24, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Dan interviews scholars Aldo Madariaga and Camila Vergara about how Chilean politics have been playing out since the massive popular uprisings that began in October 2019.
Further reading:
jacobinlat.com/2021/06/19/el-neoliberalismo-atenta-contra-la-democracia-2
newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/burying-pinochet
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and (soon) receive our weekly newsletter.
In 1987, Oliver Stone introduced the world to a man who was not your daddy's capitalist: Gordon Gekko. We revisit WALL STREET to consider the strengths and limitations of its distinctly New Deal Liberal perspective on American capitalism; to marinate in the particular left-liberal Boomer perspective of Stone; and determine once and for all if greed is, in fact, good.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UC Berkeley Law explains the California recall procedure and argues that the rules of the recall violate constitutional principles, making the September 14 Recall election unconstitutional. This is an incredibly consequential election, and a lawsuit has been filed compelling the Courts to intervene and either prohibit the election or change the rules to allow Governor Newsom’s name to appear on the replacement candidate list. Chemerinsky argues that because the procedures specified by the California Constitution violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the recall should be stopped now. Otherwise voters risk allowing a candidate preferred by a small minority of Californians to be the next governor.
Anthropologists Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale did fieldwork in Afghanistan and have just published "Afghanistan: the End of the Occupation." The 20 year intervention ended in defeat for the US: 2448 American soldiers, 4000 US contractors and somewhere between 48,000 and 100,000 Afghans were killed. Many more were wounded, and one trillion dollars was spent on the war. Nancy and Jonathan help us understand the evolution of the Taliban from 2001 to 2021, unraveling stereotypes and confusion about the nature of the population’s support for them. They explain that support is the wrong word – Afghans had to choose sides and they chose the Taliban rather than the cruel and corrupt American occupiers, because the Taliban are the only force fighting the American occupation. We also ask about the challenges ahead for Afghans, especially women, the Hazara and other ethnicities, as well as the looming refugee crisis.
Economist Branko Milanovic joins Weekends to discuss the public's declining faith in capitalism, whether viable alternatives exist, how the system generates inequality, and whether social democracy can still play a role in ameliorating it. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from August 20, 2021.
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
This week, we speak with Michael Goldfield, a former labor and civil rights activist and professor emeritus at Wayne State University and the author of several books, including The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s, a great work of labor history.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you do so, you'll receive show notes and video content. To keep up with us elsewhere, follow @primerpod on Twitter.
Organizer Natalie Shure discusses strategies for reviving the fight for Medicare for All in the US after the pandemic. Organizer Christie Offenbacher details the ongoing battle to establish universal health care in New York through the New York Health Act.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from August 17, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
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This week, Grace speaks with Ashok Kumar, senior lecturer of political economy at Birkbeck and author of Monopsony Capitalism: Power and Production in the Twilight of the Sweatshop Age.
They discuss how global value chains have been reshaped under monopsony capitalism, how these changes have affected the power of workers all over the world, and how the Covid-19 pandemic will impact these trends.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Jacobin columnist Liza Featherstone joins Weekends to discuss how elite feminists worked with Andrew Cuomo behind the scenes to help bury his own sexual harassment scandal. On Fridays, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live to subscribers on the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from August 13, 2021.
Liza's article for Jacobin: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/elite-liberal-feminism-times-up-roberta-kaplan-andrew-cuomo-metoo
Become a member on YouTube to watch Weekends episodes live: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzGUT9PjV3SMBwjWXUYh4HA/join
Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
In 1994, the most vilified member of the Reagan administration tried to stage a political comeback, and it almost worked. The documentary A PERFECT CANDIDATE (1996) follows Oliver North's attempt to unseat Democrat Chuck Robb as a Virginia senator, and captures the political currents in both Virginia and the United States as a whole. Pod Damn America and Redacted Tonight's Anders Lee fills in for Luke to discuss.
Follow Anders Lee on Twitter - https://twitter.com/andersleehere
Follow Pod Damn America - https://twitter.com/PodDamnAmerica
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Doug speaks with Mia Jankowicz, reporter for Business Insider, about anti-vaxxers, notably Sherri Tenpenny. Plus: Sanford Jacoby, author of Labor in the Age of Finance, on unions’ weird alliance with Wall Street during the shareholder revolution.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
The historian Antoni Kapcia joins Long Reads for a conversation about Cuban politics since the revolution of 1959. Antoni is the author of several books on Cuban history, including A Short History of Revolutionary Cuba and Leadership in the Cuban Revolution. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Read Antoni's article for Jacobin about the legacy of Raúl Castro here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/raul-castro-fidel-che-guevara-cuba-history
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
This week Grace speaks to Thea Riofrancos, Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College and author of Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador.
They discuss the findings of the IPCC’s latest report, whether it’s possible to imagine a green transition within capitalist social relations, and how the Left can chart a path to decarbonization that doesn’t compromise the Earth’s other natural systems and communities.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
This week, we speak with Lauren Kaori Gurley, a prolific labor reporter at Vice's Motherboard.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you do so, you'll receive show notes and video content. To keep up with us elsewhere, follow @primerpod on Twitter.
Dan interviews historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez on her book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. "Having replaced the Jesus of the Gospels with the vengeful warrior Christ, it’s no wonder many came to think of Trump in the same way."
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
We now have a Discord for patrons and, starting in September, a weekly email newsletter too. If you want to join our Discord and cannot afford to contribute, just send us an email.
The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from August 10, 2021, a "Labor Paul" special, with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
David Dayen was slated to be interviewed live, but because of technical issues that had to be taped later. Become a member on YouTube to view the interview with Dayen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tucyaTWvrWs&list=PLxlNhP2f0kUIGCK-V04s-lOQQecW8a2Xf&index=1
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Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
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Doug speaks with Sean Jacobs and William Shoki of Africa Is a Country on riots in South Africa and the long trajectory of the ANC. Plus: Max Krahé, author of a report (PDF: https://www.academieroyale.be/Academie/documents/Opinio_SFPI_numerique31253.pdf) for the Belgian sovereign wealth fund on the need for central planning to cope with the climate crisis (FT article here: https://www.ft.com/content/54237547-4e83-471c-8dd1-8a8dcebc0382).
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Catalyst journal editor Vivek Chibber joins us to discuss the structural constraints within capitalism that make organizing the working class so difficult. We also delve into the business interests influencing the Biden administration, Nina Turner's recent electoral defeat, and the curse of bipartisanship.
On Fridays at 1pm ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live to subscribers on the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from August 6, 2021.
Read Vivek's latest articles here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/labors-long-march And here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/conservatism-leftism-tradition-culture-values-community-music-market-forces-tribune
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
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With an election looming in Canada, we decided to look back on a time when Justin Trudeau's father received his punishment at the hands of the Canadian media. The National Film Board of Canada documentary HISTORY ON THE RUN: THE MEDIA AND THE '79 ELECTION (1979) chronicles the unusual media landscape that led to a nine-month interruption in Pierre Trudeau's long tenure as Prime Minister. We discuss how media shapes and responds to election narratives, how things have changed since 1979, and the unusual Trudeau/Joe Clark/Ed Broadbent election. PLUS: rank punditry about Justin Trudeau's chances.
Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. To hear weekly bonus episodes, subscribe to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
This week, we speak with Chicago labor lawyer Will Bloom about the latest NLRB news on the Amazon union drive in Bessemer, Alabama. Then, a conversation with Heike Geissler, author of Seasonal Associate, a literary account of Amazon warehouse work.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you do so, you'll receive show notes and video content. To keep up with us elsewhere, follow @primerpod on Twitter.
Adolph Reed and Walter Benn Michaels join The Jacobin Show to discuss the limitations of focusing on racial disparities, why the notion that Black Lives Matter was co-opted is misleading, and how socialists today should approach history.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from August 4, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
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This week, Grace speaks to Nick Hayes, author of The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us. They discuss the radical history of English trespassers, how the enclosure of common land formed the foundations of English capitalism, and how we can fight to enforce our rights to the commons and our right to roam against the Conservatives’ assault on our basic freedoms.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Legendary socialist activist and professor Dr. Cornel West is talking to us about how the US left can still build power after the Bernie campaigns and the moral force of our movement for justice.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from July 31, 2021.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Long Reads is joined by Peter Shirlow, director of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool, and the author of several books on politics and society in Northern Ireland. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Find Peter's perspectives as well as the Civic Space project at this website https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studies/civic-space/
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
This week, on episode eight of Primer, our producer Sarah Hurd spoke to Kshama Sawant's campaign manager Emily McArthur and the campaign's field organizer Elan Axlebank about a recall election being waged against Sawant and the larger fight for the future of Seattle.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you subscribe, you'll receive show notes and video content, as well as access to the Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter @primerpod.
Author and activist Marianne Williamson joins Jacobin to discuss the Democratic Party’s rot, her presidential run, and why capitalism makes us all so miserable. Matt Bruenig of the People's Policy Project also joins us to discuss the benefits of monthly checks from the government.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from July 28, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
This week, Grace speaks to Adrienne Buller and Ben Braun. Adrienne is a senior research fellow at the think tank Common Wealth, and Ben is a political scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. They recently co-authored a paper entitled ‘Under new management: Share ownership and the rise of UK asset manager capitalism‘.
With Grace, Adrienne and Ben discuss the rise of the big three asset managers, who really makes the big decisions in today’s corporations, and whether workers can ever hope to use their power as shareholders to change capitalism.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Inflation is once again at the center of political debate. Dan interviews Tim Barker to put monetary policy in its historical and class war context.
Reading:
Preferred Shares by Tim Barker phenomenalworld.org/analysis/wage-share
email [email protected] for PDFs of the following two articles:
The Vietnam War and the Political Economy of Full Employment by Dean Baker, Robert Pollin and Elizabeth Zahrt
Class Conflict and the "Natural Rate of Unemployment" by Robert Pollin
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig...and join The Dig's brand new Discord!
Doug speaks with Robert Fatton, author of The Guise of Exceptionalism, on the assassination of Haiti’s president and the long history that led to this sorry pass.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
We speak with Jonathan Bailey and Ted Miin, Amazon workers and members of Amazonians United.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you subscribe, you'll receive show notes and video content, as well as access to the Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter @primerpod.
You may love Bugs Bunny, but you will never own him. That's the thesis of SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (2021), which sends Bugs and LeBron James through a tour of WarnerMedia's intellectual property while never letting you forget that its WarnerMedia's intellectual property. "Th- th- th- th- that's bad, folks!" PLUS: Vanity Fair in the '20s, Jeff Bezos in space, and some alarming new trends in movie marketing.
"Space Jam: A New Legacy Is a Peek Into the Bleak, Cynical Future of Film" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/163008/space-jam-new-legacy-peek-bleak-cynical-future-film
This week, Grace speaks to Ed Miliband, former leader of the Labour Party in the UK and current Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. They discuss how to fight inequality and climate crisis in the wake of the pandemic and his new book, Go Big: How to Fix Our World.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
One year after his passing, our friend and comrade Michael Brooks continues to influence the Left for the better. Lisha Brooks, Ben Burgis, and Danny Bessner join us for a tribute. We also cover the inhumane sanctions on Cuba, discuss what left foreign policy should look like, and review Obama's PR-friendly beach reads and mixtape.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from July 17, 2021.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Doug speaks with Christian Parenti, author of a chapter in this book, on carbon dioxide removal. Plus, Kareem Rabie, author of Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited, on real estate development and the Palestinian national project.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Long Reads is joined by Helen Lackner, author of Yemen in Crisis: The Road to War and a leading expert on modern Yemen who spent years living in the country. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Read Helen's piece "How Yemen's Old Order Snuffed Out the Country's Hopes for a New Dawn" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/03/yemen-war-2011-protests-arab-spring
Plus other articles here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/helen-lackner
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
We speak to Alec MacGillis, author of Fulfillment, a new book about Amazon and the country left in its wake.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you subscribe, you'll receive show notes and video content, as well as access to the Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter @primerpod.
This week, Grace speaks to Linsey McGoey, professor of sociology at the University of Essex and author of The Unknowers: How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World and No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy.
They discuss how politicians make use of ignorance and uncertainty, the difference between ignorance and deliberate misinformation, and why, if "knowledge is power," ignorance is too.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek joins The Jacobin Show on Bastille Day to discuss why the French Revolution still matters and how the Left today can embrace the the radical spirit of the Enlightenment.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from July 14, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
For Bastille Day, international subscriptions to Jacobin are just $17.89 and domestic subscriptions are $7.89. Use the code BASTILLEDAY at checkout: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe?code=BASTILLEDAY
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
How China rejected neoliberal orthodoxy and became the new workshop of the world. Dan interviews economist Isabella Weber on her book How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Well over a century of US intervention has shaped Latin America in disastrous ways. Historian Greg Grandin discusses that history, and the region's ongoing fight against imperialism and neoliberalism.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from July 10, 2021, with Paul Prescod filling in for Ana.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Doug speaks with Isabella Weber, author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy, on Chinese economic reform debates and how the country dodged post-Soviet-style collapse.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
This week, Grace speaks to Peter Mitchell, author of Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselves, which considers how the memory of empire continues to inflect British culture and politics.
They discuss how imperial nostalgia manifests itself in our politics today, the role of the Labour Party in supporting these trends, and how the Left should respond to emotive calls for a return to a better age.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Jacobin contributor and science writer Leigh Phillips joins us to discuss why socialists should embrace technological innovation and what science might look like if it were freed from the profit motive.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from July 7, 2021 with Paul Prescod and Cale Brooks hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Part II of our look at Amazon in Europe. We speak to Magda Malinovska and Agnieszka Mroz, both of whom work in an Amazon warehouse in Poznan, Poland.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you subscribe, you'll receive show notes and video content, as well as access to the Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter @primerpod.
Professor Harvey J. Kaye joined us for Independence Day weekend to discuss how to disentangle America's radical past from its failings to provide for the needs of most laboring people. We also discussed the completely avoidable tragedy of a condominium collapse in Miami and the pervasiveness of "hustle culture" on social media.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from July 3, 2021.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Doug speaks with Joseph Darda, author of How White Men Won the Culture Wars, on the role of the Vietnam vet in establishing white identity. Plus: Joshua Adams, author of this article, on the critical race theory controversy.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest for this episode is Ramaa Vasudevan, who teaches economics at Colorado State University. She is the author of Things Fall Apart: From the Crash of 2008 to the Great Slum.
Read Ramaa's piece "How Big Finance Is Making a Killing From the Pandemic" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/federal-reserve-fed-coronavirus-covid-junk-bonds
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Nivedita Majumdar, associate professor of English at John Jay College at CUNY, joins us to discuss the resurgence of cultural essentialism, the limitations of postcolonial theory, and what it would mean to forge a politics of radical universalism.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 30, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
We’re going abroad. Part I of a two-episode look at Amazon in Europe.We speak to Gianpaolo Meloni, an Amazon warehouse worker and president of his local union in Piacenza, Italy, and Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you subscribe, you'll receive show notes and video content, as well as access to the Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter @primerpod.
Who governs? Upon closer inspection, the composition of the ruling class has undergone huge changes that are driving this political moment. Dan interviews Doug Henwood, the author of "Take Me to Your Leader," an extensive analysis of the changing composition of the ruling class published in Jacobin: jacobinmag.com/2021/04/take-me-to-your-leader-the-rot-of-the-american-ruling-class
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
The Dig is taking it easy this summer so look for new episodes every two weeks.
Branko Marcetic joins us to explain why Biden's bipartisan infrastructure deal is a massive disappointment for working people desperately in need of relief. We also discuss the speculation that the Teamsters are planning to unionize Amazon and cover the contentious Teamsters election.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from June 26, 2021.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
We're still not entirely sure what the mega-bestselling 2005 book "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" was about, but it seems to have had something to do with arguing that economics is all about incentives. The 2010 anthology film adaptation FREAKONOMICS explores this thin thesis across segments directed by such documentary legends as Eugene Jarecki, Alex Gibney, and (ugh) Morgan Spurlock... but its "counterintuitive" take on capitalism ends up reinforcing some ugly ideas. PLUS: the wacky institution that is the Canadian Senate, and the long right-wing preoccupation with postmodernism.
"How postmodernism became the universal scapegoat of the era" by Richard Seymour - https://www.newstatesman.com/international/2021/06/how-postmodernism-became-universal-scapegoat-era
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 23, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting.
Cedric Johnson, associate professor of political science and African American studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, joins us to discuss the past year of racial justice protests and the swift ascent of what he calls "militant racial liberalism."
Read Johnson in Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/blackwashing-corporations-woke-capitalism-protests/p>
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Part I: a worker narrates his shift over audio recorded inside a warehouse. That segment was a collaboration between this anonymous worker and Freddie Stuart, a journalist and podcast producer based in London. You can read the duo’s feature article in the next issue of Jacobin. Freddie helped produce this episode. Part II: my conversation with ex-Amazon worker Chris Smalls. That starts around 41 minutes into the episode.
You can listen to Primer by searching for Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show, subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. When you subscribe, you'll receive show notes and video content, as well as access to the Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter @primerpod.
If you want to support Chris's organizing, the GoFundMe for his union is here.
This week, Grace speaks to Alexander Zevin, assistant professor of history at City University of New York, an editor at New Left Review, and author of Liberalism at Large: The World According to the Economist.
Their conversation covers a host of interesting questions, including about the liberal ideology, whether it’s in crisis – and where the liberal rules-based world order goes next.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
The history of the United States is in no small part the history of US intervention in Latin America. Historian Greg Grandin on his classic book Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Watch our new Dig video shorts on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=LcZb3A986p0
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from June 19, 2021. We're talking about the meaning of Juneteenth with longtime labor and racial justice activist Bill Fletcher Jr. Also covering the debate around Critical Race Theory and *why there is no* technological fix for policing.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest for this episode is Sarah-Anne Buckley. Sarah-Anne (@SarahAnneBuckle) is a leading authority on Ireland's carceral state who teaches history at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She's the author of The Cruelty Man: Child Welfare, the NSPCC and the State in Ireland, 1889-1956.
Read Sarah-Anne's article on "The Catholic Cure for Poverty" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/05/catholic-church-ireland-magdalene-laundries-mother-baby-homes
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 16, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting.
Chapo Trap House co-host Matt Christman joins us to discuss the role of the media under capitalism and the rise of alternative outlets—but more importantly—why the politics surrounding the media matters less than you think. We're also joined by Ernest Garrett, president of AFSCME D.C. 33, to talk about the union's upcoming contract fight.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
We’re opening Amazon’s books to look at the company’s finances. On this episode, I'm joined by Edward Ongweso Jr, a staff writer at Vice News's Motherboard where he covers Silicon Valley and the gig economy, and Jathan Sadowski, the author of Too Smart, a book on the political economy of digital capitalism. Ed and Jathan host the podcast This Machine Kills, a great show about technology and political economy.
You can listen to Primer via Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. If you want to support me, subscribe atpatreon.com/primerpodcast. When you subscribe, you'll get show notes, video content, and access to the Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter@primerpod. Thanks for listening!
This week, Grace speaks to Amelia Horgan, Philosophy PhD candidate researching the politics of work and author ofLost in Work: Escaping Capitalism. They discuss the changing nature of work in the UK and around the world, how these trends have been impacted by the pandemic, and whether it’s possible to imagine "good work" under capitalism. (Note there was an occasional snag in our guest's sound because of some internet trouble.)
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
The Dig is taking a break to play catch up this week and posting a favorite interview from our archives: Nick Estes on his book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. First posted on June 29 2019.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from June 12, 2021.
Ronan Burtenshaw of Tribune joins us to discuss the contentious leadership election in Britain's largest union, Unite, and its massive implications for the entire UK. We also discuss how the law has been written to serve the interests of employers and what the recent victories for Pedro Castillo and AMLO's MORENA mean for the Latin American left
Read Ronan's article here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/12/unite-general-secretary-unions-labour-left
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 9, 2021, with producer Cale Brooks filling in as co-host while Ariella and Paul are out.
Benjamin Fong and Melissa Naschek join us to discuss their latest Catalyst article on the boom of the nonprofit sector, the increasing dominance of college-educated professionals on the left, and how NGOs represent an understudied form of money in politics.
Read their article in Catalyst: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/05/ngoism-the-politics-of-the-third-sector
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Primer is a new podcast about Amazon. I'm Alex Press, a staff writer at Jacobin, and I'll be hosting the show. Consider Primer an entry point for understanding a company that is increasingly reshaping, mediating, and controlling our lives and the planet. On this introductory episode, I'm joined by Dania Rajendra, director of Athena, and Alessandro Delfanti, who has a forthcoming book on Amazon warehouse work. The three of us try to answer a pressing question: what exactly is Amazon?
You can listen to Primer via Jacobin Radio on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the show (and pressure me to spend more time on it), you can subscribe at patreon.com/primerpodcast. If you subscribe, you'll receive research notes, occasional video content, and access to the Primer Discord. To keep up with the latest updates, follow us on Twitter @primerpod. Thanks for listening!
Find Jason on Twitter: https://twitter.com/oikeios
For access to the full episode, support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/aworldtowinpod
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from June 5, 2021, with Jen Pan filling in for Nando.
Thomas Frank joins us to talk about the "lab-leak" theory, why it's appealing to a large number of people, media coverage, and its political and social implications. We also cover the homelessness crisis sweeping the country and how the Left needs to respond to mass deprivation.
Read Thomas Frank's latest: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/01/wuhan-coronavirus-lab-leak-covid-virus-origins-china
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Journalist Kate Aronoff discusses climate policy and politics and her book Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet—And How We Fight Back.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
On this episode, Dan is joined by Adam Mayer, author of Naija Marxisms: Revolutionary Thought in Nigeria, as well as Baba Aye, Nigerian activist who works for the international trade union Public Services International.
Read Adam's piece "How Nigeria's Left Helped Shape the Country's History" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/nigeria-socialism-marxist-history
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from June 2, 2021, with Jen Pan hosting and Nando Villa filling in as a guest host.
Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara joins us to discuss the promise and the limitations of social democracy in the twenty-first century, particularly after the Bernie Sanders moment. What, exactly, is social democracy (and how does it differ from democratic socialism)? Where and how has social democracy worked around the world? And can it work in the Untied States?
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
In this week’s episode, Grace talks to writer and activist Hadas Thier about her excellent book A People’s Guide to Capitalism, in which she provides a concise and readable introduction to Marxist thought. They discuss key concepts like capital, class, and imperialism, and apply them to the current crisis gripping the capitalist world system.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from May 29, 2021, with producer Cale filling in for Ana.
René Rojas joins us to discuss how the people of Chile voted for sweeping structural reform and an end to neoliberalism. It’s one of the Left’s biggest victories since the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship but there's still a hard fight ahead. We also dunk on the defense industry lackeys being forced to attend anti-racist trainings.
Read René's essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2020/12/chiles-democratic-revolution
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Why has an oligarch like Elon Musk attracted so many admirers? To answer that question, we looked at the short puff-piece documentary THE RISE OF SPACEX: ELON MUSK'S ENGINEERING MASTERPIECE (2020), which presents the story of his outer-space initiatives the way he would like them to be seen. We examine the very real political implications of his "apolitical" tech-guru brand. PLUS: an odd new footnote to Canadian WWII history, the Amazon/MGM deal, and the surprising career trajectory of Tucker Max.
"The Rise of SpaceX: Elon Musk's Engineering Masterpiece" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_T4QayqtI4&ab_channel=ritm1
How ecosocialists formed a powerful coalition with unions to fight for labor law reform and why we need a powerful labor movement to win a Green New Deal. An interview with four members of DSA's Green New Deal Campaign Committee: Ashik Siddique, Gustavo Gordillo, Sydney Ghazarian, and Thea Riofrancos. This is a collaborative episode with Bloc Party, a podcast from Justice Democrats.
Ryan Grim's post on breaking the filibuster: badnews.substack.com/p/how-the-filibuster-goes-down
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from May 26, 2021, with Paul Prescod and Jen Pan hosting.
Alex Hochuli, co-host of the podcast Aufhebunga Bunga and co-author of the book The End of the End of History, joins us to discuss "Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome" and the profound strangeness of politics after the 2008 financial crash.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
This week, Grace speaks to Kate Aronoff, staff writer at The New Republic and author of the excellent new book Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet and How We Fight Back. She’s also the co-author of We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style, and A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal.
They discuss Biden’s climate plan, the Green New Deal, and whether fossil fuel executives should be tried for crimes against humanity.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from May 22, 2021.
Jacobin staff writer Alex Press joins us to detail how powerful Amazon has become during the pandemic and what the future of organizing efforts might look like. Big Wos Lambre also joins us to discuss the unfolding events in Israel-Palestine, the Palestinian general strike, and the financial interests that are keeping Senator Mark Kelly from supporting the PRO Act. Also, as always, we make fun of how young producer Cale is.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Dan speaks with Noura Erakat and Tareq Baconi: an in-depth interview on Israeli apartheid and dispossession, the history and future of the Palestinian struggle, Israeli politics, media false equivalences, and shifting US public opinion toward Palestine.
DONATE NOW to the Palestinian people:
We Are Not Numbers wearenotnumbers.org/home/donate
Multiple organizations: muftah.org/organizations-working-in-palestine-that-need-your-support/#.YKQaGZNKhpT
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
This week, Grace talks to Palestinian activist Akram Salhab on his experience living and organising in Palestine, what’s going on in Sheikh Jarrah, and the heroic efforts of Palestinians to resist Israeli occupation – as well as what socialists around the world can do to support them.
We encourage our listeners to donate to charities supporting Palestinians on the ground. You can donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians here.
You can also support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Two voices from Gaza. The first of two episodes on Palestine this week with teacher and BDS activist Aya Alghazzawi and journalist Issam Adwan, project manager for We Are Not Numbers.
DONATE NOW to the Palestinian people:
We Are Not Numbers wearenotnumbers.org/home/donate
Multiple organizations: muftah.org/organizations-working-in-palestine-that-need-your-support/#.YKQaGZNKhpT
Josh Davis is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Christian Socialism and teaches Theology and Ethics in the Anglican Studies Certificate Program at Drew University School of Theology. Aaron Anderson is a co-founder of the Institute for Christian Socialism and the managing editor of its publication, the Bias, which you can read here: https://<wbr />christiansocialism.com/the-<wbr />bias-magazine/
References:
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from May 15, 2021.
Haaretz journalist Amira Hass joins us to discuss how recent violence by the Israeli state is part of a longstanding political project carried out against the Palestinian people.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Dan interviews historian Robin D.G. Kelley on his classic book Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression.
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest for this episode is Paul Buhle, author of the pioneering 1988 study C.L.R. James: The Artist as Revolutionary.
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
After a week that saw Keir Starmer’s Labour tank in the local elections, Grace speaks to two brilliant local leaders who managed to defy the downturn.
Matthew Brown is leader of Preston City Council and the driving force behind the Preston Model, as well as the co-author of Paint Your Town Red, which you can buy now from Repeater Books. Paul Dennett is the city-mayor of Salford, and a frequent contributor to Tribune, including a recent piece on why socialist Salford bucked the trend in the elections.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
In the wake of the Labour Party's disastrous performance in the 2021 U.K. local elections, we're taking a look back at a key moment in recent British history. The made-for-TV movie COALITION (2015) documents the wheelings and dealings that led to Nick Clegg's Liberal-Democrats joining forces with David Cameron's Conservatives after. the 2010 election left no party with a parliamentary majority. We share some larfs over a perfectly mediocre movie, and. discuss the true meaning of "Cleggmania" and its aftermath. PLUS: Why can't Keir Starmer sell centrism like Tony Blair could? And reflections on Toronto's alt-media landscape, from NOW Magazine to Eye Weekly to The Grid.
"The Grid R.I.P." - http://radiofreecanuckistan.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-grid-rip.html
"Keir Starmer’s Televised Meltdown Was Decades in the Making" by Luke Savage - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/05/keir-starmer-bbc-meltdown-labour-election-hartlepool
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from May 12, 2021, hosted by Paul as Jen and Ariella are out.
Jacobin editor and educator Megan Erickson, leader of Arizona Educators United Rebecca Garelli, and West Virginian union activist Jay O'Neal all joins us to discuss rebuilding public education after a year of pandemic lockdowns. We also examine "woke" charter schools and the COVID-era resurgence of politicians demonizing teachers' unions.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Grace talks to Alex Press, staff writer at Jacobin, about Amazon’s ruthless exploitation of its workforce, its deeply embedded culture of union busting, and its avoidance of basic labour regulation in its mission to become the ‘everything store’ — as well as how workers are coming together to resist the company.
You can read Alex’s recent work on Amazon and unions here, here, and here.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from May 8, 2021.
Journalist Doug Henwood joins us to discuss how the American ruling class has developed overtime and led us to our dystopic present. We also cover the massive protests in Colombia and the international fight over vaccine patents being waived.
Read Doug's latest here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/take-me-to-your-leader-the-rot-of-the-american-ruling-class
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
What is so-called cancel culture? Why has it suddenly emerged as arguably the issue in right-wing politics? How does today’s cancel culture discourse differ from the anti-PC discourse that first emerged in the early 1990s? How do we distinguish between liberal opponents of PC like Jonathan Chain and right-wing ones like Donald Trump? And then, finally, is there still a there there? Some problems with The Discourse that we should reflect upon?
Readings:
Some “Politically Incorrect” Pathways Through PC by Stuart Hall ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf
Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy by Moira Weigel theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump
The Use of Free Speech in Society by Asad Haider versobooks.com/blogs/4793-the-use-of-free-speech-in-society
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
The year is 1965. Bob Dylan, tired of being "the voice of a generation," is on the verge of going electric... but he still has a tour of England to do. In D.A. Pennebaker's iconic documentary DONT LOOK BACK (1967), Dylan spars with journalists who question his prophet status while also trudging through protest songs that no longer mean much to him. We discuss how this film captures Dylan at a turning point. PLUS: Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell, consuming culture in the Biden era, and reflections on Biden's first 100 days.
"Joe Biden Is Not a Radical" by Luke Savage - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/05/joe-biden-radical-policy-liberalism-first-100-days
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from May 5, 2021, hosted by Jen and Paul.
Do we need the internet to build a working-class movement? We discuss the perks and the pitfalls of using YouTube, Twitter, and other online platforms for socialist organizing. Later, Les Leopold, director of the Labor Institute, joins us to talk about his Runaway Inequality workshops and organizing working people around demands for economic justice.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from May 1, 2021.
Professor Richard Wolff joins us to talk about the historic significance of May Day and rebuilding the trade union movement. Meagan Day stops by to discuss how the Nazis tried to appropriate May Day and how the socialist vision won out. Finally, we discuss Kamala Harris's "woke imperialist" statements to Guatemala's president and what it says about today's Democratic establishment.
*** Get a digital subscription to Jacobin today for just $1. Print subscriptions are only $10 today, too. Just follow this link: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2021 ***
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. The guest for this episode is Thea Riofrancos.
Thea Riofrancos is an assistant professor of political science at Providence College and author of Resource Radicals.
Read Thea's articles:
"We Can Waste Another Crisis, or We Can Transform the Economy" https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/green-new-deal-coronavirus-stimulus
"Digging Free of Poverty" https://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/digging-free-of-poverty
And more here: https://jacobinmag.com/author/thea-riofrancos
*** Just this weekend, Jacobin is offering a May Day special! Digital subscriptions are just $1. Visit http://bit.ly/maydaymag to join and receive the latest issue, "The Ruling Class." ***
Dan interviews Laleh Khalili on Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. The Suez Canal, the colonial roots of contemporary maritime trade, Aden dock worker radicals, why Dubai is not exceptional, the impacts of steam engines and containerization—and so much more.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the episode from April 28, 2021.
Adaner Usmani, assistant professor of sociology and social studies at Harvard University, joins us to discuss the current wave of violent crime in the US, the law-and-order backlashes of prior decades, and the origins of mass incarceration.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
This week, Grace talks to author, writer, and organiser Harsha Walia on her book Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism.
They discuss the nature and location of the border, its functionality to global capitalism and imperialism, and how the Left can organise to resist right-wing populism in the age of nationalism and climate breakdown.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from April 24, 2021, with Jen Pan filling in for Ana.
Jacobin columnist Ben Burgis joins us to explain how and why cancel culture is eroding the left. We also discuss Biden’s plans to tax the rich, the end of the Castro era in Cuba, and the problem with the idea of a monolithic “Asian American community.” Burgis is a philosophy professor and regular contributor to Jacobin. He is host of the podcast Give Them An Argument.
Ben Burgis's latest book, Canceling Comedians While the World Burns, is out now:https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/ze...
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
US empire in the Philippines, Filipino migration, labor organizing in the fields, and the nativist campaign for Asian exclusion. Dan interviews Rick Baldoz on his remarkable book The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946.
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
When human rights lawyer Steven Donziger won a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the oil giant Chevron, the company retaliated by setting out to destroy Donziger’s life. Now in his twentieth month of house arrest on the orders of a Chevron-linked judge, his Kafkaesque story is a window into the corrupt and corporate-captured US legal system.
Visit the #FreeDonziger website - https://www.freedonziger.org/
The Steven Donziger Legal Defense Fund - https://www.donzigerdefense.<wbr />com/
A text version of this interview can be found in Jacobin, here - https://www.jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2021/04/attorney-steven-<wbr />donziger-chevron-ecuador-<wbr />prosecution-corruption-trial
This week, Grace talks to Mat Lawrence, director of the think tank Common Wealth, and Laurie Layborn Langton, author and researcher, about their new book Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown.
Planet on Fire argues that ‘the political status quo has no answer to the devastating and inequitably distributed consequences of the climate emergency’ and, in this episode, the guests discuss the multiple overlapping ecological, economic, and political crises the world is facing in the era of environmental breakdown, as well as how the Left should respond.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the episode from April 21, 2021, hosted by Jen and Paul.
Historian Matt Karp joins us to discuss how and why identity politics surface during eras of extreme economic inequality in the US, and the different schools of left-wing history.
Read Matt's essay: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/the-po...
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from April 17, 2021.
Leigh Philips, Jacobin's science writer, joins us to discuss the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause and the global vaccine rollout. We also look at Janet Yellen's proposed global tax and the predatory investors buying up land during the housing crisis. Leigh is the author of Austerity Ecology and People’s Republic of Walmart as well as a forthcoming Jacobin article on state failure and the global COVID rollout.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Long Reads looks in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest is Lea Ypi, professor in political theory at the London School of Economics, and author of an essay about Rosa Luxemburg, "Reform to Revolution," which can be found here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/reform-revolution-rosa-luxemburg-socialism-democracy
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Three thinkers and organizers on the much debated question of ultra-leftism post-Bernie 2020. Two texts that informed our discussion:
The Liberal to Ultra-Left Pipeline: Breaking the Cycle by Brian W.
Liberalism, ultraleftism or mass action, a speech delivered by Socialist Workers Party leader Peter Camejo.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the episode from April 14, 2021.
Kristen Ghodsee, author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, joins us to discuss socialist sex education and how Eastern European state socialism helped women gain more independence from men and, by extension, have better sex lives.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
This week, Grace talks to Doug Henwood, Marxist, journalist, host of the Behind the News podcast, and author of many books, including the classic Wall Street: How it Works and For Whom.
They discuss Biden’s stimulus package, his corporate tax hikes, and what’s been going on in US stock markets – as well as how workers can organise in the post-Covid economy.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from April 10, 2021.
Staff writer Meagan Day joins us to discuss what led to the disheartening defeat of the Amazon union drive in Alabama, how the new age of remote work will change workplace organizing, and how the left can regroup in the Biden era.
New paperback of Meagan and Micah's book: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3167...
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Filmed over three years, the new HBO docuseries Q: INTO THE STORM (2021) seeks to find an answer to the question that plagued the Trump years: who is Q, the mysterious leader of the "QAnon" movement? The documentary offers a provisional answer... but of course, there is no one simple explanation for how QAnon came to dominate the past few years. We discuss the backwash of the Trump era, PLUS: a report on Fox News' new late-night talk show "Gutfeld!"
"Howard Dean pushes Biden to oppose generic COVID-19 vaccines for developing countries" by Lee Fang - theintercept.com/2021/04/08/howar…-covid-vaccines/
"Is Gutfeld! the Worst Show on Television?" by Alex Shephard - newrepublic.com/article/161985/gu…t-show-television
Check out our Patreon for exclusive bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/michaelandus
Dan interviews Charisse Burden-Stelly on racial capitalism, the history of the US Black left, and the US government's Red Scare attacks on Black radicals.
Read Burden-Stelly's work:
Modern U.S. Racial Capitalism: Some Theoretical Insights
Black Cold War Liberalism as an Agency Reduction Formation during the Late 1940s and the Early 1950s
The Absence of Political Economy in African Diaspora Studies
Meet with Charisse Burden-Stelly at the Dig's last Book Club event thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from April 3, 2021.
We talk about why democracy demands that Bolivian coup plotters be punished, and with Jacobin's executive editor Seth Ackerman about why Joe Biden’s new spending plans won’t be enough to fix America.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Long Reads looks in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest for this episode is Christy Thornton. Christy is an assistant professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University and the author of Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy.
Read her interview with Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/mexico-development-imf-world-bank
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Dan interviews the hosts of Time to Say Goodbye podcast on Asian American politics and identity.
Check out Time to Say Goodbye wherever you get podcasts.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Before the container ship crisis in the Suez Canal, Grace spoke with Laleh Khalili, Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London, and author of Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula.
They discussed the fascinating architecture and infrastructure that underpins the backbone of capitalism—global shipping—and what it tells us about state power, corporate sovereignty, and imperialism – as well as how those networks are adapting to China’s increasingly assertive economic expansion.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from March 27, 2021.
Chapo Trap House's Matt Christman and Jacobin are live talking about unionizing Amazon sweatshops, how we expropriate Jeff Bezos's hoarded wealth, and why—despite what you're hearing in the liberal media—Joe Biden's still no FDR.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
How the 60s counterculture went on to make the techno-utopian ideology that suffuses our techno-dystopian reality. Dan interviews Fred Turner on his classic From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Mike Goldfield, whose recent book is The Southern Key, discusses the unionization drive underway at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer Alabama. Mike’s book analyzed the history of efforts to unionize the South in the 1930s and 40s, and that history is the context for the struggle to unionize Amazon today, in the same area as the fight that failed in the 1940s. The current unionization drive is widely recognized as pivotally important, and is being extensively covered. A new Brookings Institution report says Amazon’s union battle in Bessemer is about dignity, racial justice, and the future of the American worker. If successful, this will become the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the country and will also mark one of the biggest union victories in the South in decades, potentially galvanizing the labor movement and inspiring workers far beyond Alabama. We get Mike Goldfield’s view.
Gabriel Winant, author of The Next Shift: The Fall of Manufacturing and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America, joins us to talk about the expanding care economy. Gabe's op-ed in the New York Times on March 18, Manufacturing Isn’t Coming Back, Let’s Improve These Jobs Instead, looks at the underpaid and overworked health care workers whose jobs are critical to our society. Using the example of Pittsburgh, where the care industry arose on the ruins of the industrial economy, this sector has come to dominate employment across American cities, and is the face of the 21<sup>st</sup> C workforce. We get his insights on how to translate the recognition of the essential nature of the work they do caring for society into getting this sector paid their economic value, which requires more political power.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the episode from March 24, 2021. Jen and Paul are out, with David Griscom filling in as co-host.
From “The Internationale” to “Fortunate Son” to “Kill the Poor,” music has been a part of left protest movements for more than a century. Bitter Lake frontman and This is Revolution host Jason Myles joins (R&B singer) Ariella Thornhill and (country musician) David Griscom to discuss the past and present of music and socialism.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Astra Taylor interviews Achal Prabhala on emerging global vaccine apartheid: from the neoliberal turn handing the pharmaceutical industry global patents to today's government-funded vaccines put under private pharma control.
Groups fighting global vaccine apartheid
Public Citizen: citizen.org/topic/safe-affordable-drugs-devices/global-access-to-medicines
MSF: msfaccess.org
Prep4All: prep4all.org
People's Vaccine Alliance: peoplesvaccine.org
Recent work by Prabhala
nytimes.com/2020/12/07/opinion/covid-vaccines-patents.html
nytimes.com/2021/02/05/opinion/covid-vaccines-china-russia.html
theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/15/peoples-vaccine-coronavirus-covid-wto
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join the Dig Book Club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Long Reads looks in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest for this episode is Talat Ahmed. Talat is a historian who teaches at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Mohandas Gandhi: Experiments in Civil Disobedience.
Read Talat's essay, "Gandhi Led a Mass Movement for India’s Freedom — But He Also Constricted It," here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/gandhi-civil-disobedience-independence-india
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
In 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced one of his biggest scandals yet when a charitable organization to which his family had longstanding (and lucrative) ties was given a plum contract to build a high-profile volunteer program for Canadian youth. The ensuing conflict of interest scandal brought down WE Charity (formerly Free the Children), the brainchild of Canuck philanthropy wunderkinds Craig & Mark Kielburger. We watched THE PRICE WE PAID (2021), fine new investigative documentary by the CBC's The Fifth Estate series, which broke down the WE Scandal and the shady practices of the disgraced charity. We discuss how WE Charity is a perfect symbol for the deep rot in the soul of corporate philanthropy. PLUS: the Alberta government's war with Netflix; Celebrity Apprentice memories; and an introduction to the world's best/worst Oscar blogger.
Watch "The Price WE Paid" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC_wos7MwHo&amp;ab_channel=TheFifthEstate
"Jason Kenney’s Energy War Room Launches Campaign to Stop Netflix Children’s Cartoon About ‘Bigfoot’" by PressProgress - https://pressprogress.ca/jason-kenneys-energy-war-room-launches-campaign-to-stop-netflix-childrens-cartoon-about-bigfoot/
Jeffrey Wells's "Hollywood Elsewhere" blog - https://hollywood-elsewhere.com/
This week, as the anniversary of the declaration of a pandemic by the WHO approaches, Grace talks to Dr. Eugene Richardson, Assistant Professor of Global Health at Harvard and author of Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health. Eugene previously worked in Sierra Leone and the DRC supporting the response to the Ebola outbreak.
They discuss the ways in which an unequal, unsustainable capitalist world system reproduces massive economic, political, and health inequalities, and what we can do about it.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Matt Karp, Princeton historian and Jacobin contributing editor discusses President Biden’s stimulus package, the American Rescue Plan that was passed by the Senate and is touted by many as a paradigm change. Matt says an injection of much needed cash isn’t the same thing as empowering workers or creating a constituency for change, and we’ll get him to explain.
Emil Draitser joins us to talk about his new book, In the Jaws of the Crocodile: A Soviet Memoir. Emil recounts how he became a journalist in the Soviet Union and why the detour into satire was not just the only, but also the best path. We also talk about the new Oscar nominated Andrei Konchalovsky film “Dear Comrades!” about an important strike and massacre in Novocherkassk in southern Russia in 1962. Everything about that strike and the response from the authorities gives us insight into the nature of the Soviet Union.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from March 13, 2021.
Daniel Bessner joins us to discuss whether or not the Biden administration's policy is shaping up to be more of a continuation of Trump's or Obama's. We also cover the recent news of Lula da Silva's annulled conviction.
Read Bessner's review here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/02/do...
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Why we need the PRO Act with Jimmy Williams, General Vice President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
Read Alex Press's interview with political scientist Michael Goldfield on the Amazon organizing drive in Bessemer jacobinmag.com/2021/02/amazon-unionize-alabama-operation-dixie-organizing-south
Subscribe to Jonah Furman's newsletter whogetsthebird.substack.com
Support this podcast on Patreon.com/TheDig
Join The Dig Book Club and discuss The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy with Paolo Gerbaudo thedigradio.com/dig-book-club. Same to zoom with Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll on their doc You Are Not a Loan.
Dan interviews Jacobin's Alex Press and organizer Jonah Furman on the state of the labor movement.
Read Alex Press's interview with political scientist Michael Goldfield on the Amazon organizing drive in Bessemer jacobinmag.com/2021/02/amazon-unionize-alabama-operation-dixie-organizing-south
Subscribe to Jonah Furman's newsletter whogetsthebird.substack.com
Support this podcast on Patreon.com/TheDig
Join The Dig Book Club and discuss The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy with Paolo Gerbaudo thedigradio.com/dig-book-club. Same to zoom with Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll on their doc You Are Not a Loan.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is an audio version of the broadcast from March 3, 2021.
Touré Reed, author of Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, joins the show to discuss why elites have doubled down on identity and explains how we can combat race essentialism by understanding politics through a public-good framework.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
This week, we have a special International Women’s Day episode of A World to Win, in which Grace talks to Kristen Ghodsee, Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of many books, including Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism and Other Arguments for Economic Independence. The interview was recorded on International Women's Day.
Kristen skilfully deconstructs liberal, corporate, and NGO feminism, and helps us to think about how the feminist movement is about supporting everyone to build stronger, happier, healthier relationships and rediscover our unalienated humanity in the process. You can read Ghodsee’s article mentioned in the interview here.
You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from March 6, 2021.
Journalist Ross Barkan joins us to discuss the ongoing multiple scandals surrounding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. We also hear from IUPAT's General Vice President Jim Williams who's been spearheading the campaign to pass the PRO Act, how the right-wing mobilizes the politics of personal responsibility, and how climate change gets made out to be a culture war issue.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Long Reads looks in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with Jacobin’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Our guest today is Jim Wolfreys. Jim teaches French politics at King's College in London. Jim is author of Republic of Islamophobia: The Rise of Respectable Racism in France.
Read Jim's piece "How France's Vichy Regime Became Hitler's Willing Collaborators" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/vichy-france-holocaust-nazi-hitler-world-war-ii
See also his review of Jean-Marie Le Pen's memoir at https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/02/le-pen-memoir-review-national-front and other articles here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/jim-wolfreys
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
We're taking a week off to play catch up and posting an early Dig episode from the archives that people keep returning to time and again: Barbara and Karen Fields on their book Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life (episode 75 from December 13, 2017). Peruse The Dig's vast archives at thedigradio.com and we'll be back with a new ep next week.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join The Dig Book Club and discuss The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy with Paolo Gerbaudo thedigradio.com/dig-book-club. Same to zoom with Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll on their doc You Are Not a Loan.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is an audio version of the broadcast from March 3, 2021.
Karen Nussbaum, the founding director of Working America and a founder of the organization 9to5: National Association of Working Women, joins the show to discuss organizing women clerical workers in the 1970s, how her group inspired the hit Dolly Parton movie 9 to 5, and which sectors are prime for unionization today.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from February 27, 2021.
Nicole Aschoff, an editor at Jacobin and the author of “The Smartphone Society” and “The New Prophets of Capital,” joins the show to discuss Biden's foreign policy and the recent airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in Syria. We also get into what the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is and why it's important for the labor movement and how the Andrew Cuomo COVID coverup is emblematic of the broader turn in global politics toward cults of elite figures. Read Nicole's latest: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/the-bi...
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
We plunge once again into the filmography of Alexandra Pelosi, who in addition to being Nancy's daughter is a prolific maker of not-very-good political documentaries. In RIGHT AMERICA, FEELING WRONGED (2009), she follows the John McCain campaign in its final, desperate weeks, interviewing dozens of ill-mannered Republicans who feel left out of the Obama wave. The result is her bleakest and angriest film - though still not exactly what one might call "good." PLUS: Pete Buttigieg's memoir, revisionist celebrity documentaries, and is there a Republican Party exodus?
Tune into the first Michael and Us livestream. On Friday, February 27 at 6pm, Michael and Us Nation will watch 1995's BATMAN FOREVER together, as a family. Details at www.patreon.com/michaelandus
Dan interviews Sarah Jaffe on her book Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion To Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone.
Support this podcast on Patreon.com/TheDig
Join The Dig Book Club and discuss The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy with Paolo Gerbaudo thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
This week, Grace talks to Sarah Jaffe, journalist and author of Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone.
They discuss Joe Biden’s first weeks as president, the impact of Covid-19 and climate breakdown in the US, and how the world of work is changing for the worse as a result of the pandemic – as well as how we might resist it.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the audio version of the broadcast on February 24, 2021.
Matt Bruenig, founder and president of People's Policy Project, joins the show to talk about building a functioning welfare state, the Family Fun Pack, and what's wrong with how we think about the racial wealth gap today.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from February 20, 2021.
In this episode, Ana Kasparian, Nando Vila, and Cale Brooks discuss the calls for a new "9/11-style commission" to investigate the Capitol riots, the free-market energy failure in Texas, and Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID coverup in New York nursing homes. The original guest, Liz Bruenig, had to reschedule.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest for this episode is Peter Hudis. Peter teaches philosophy at Oakton Community College and is the author of Frantz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades.
Read his essay, "The Revolutionary Humanism of Frantz Fanon" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/humanism-frantz-fanon-philosophy-revolutionary-algeria
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Just when we thought we'd found the bottom of the barrel, we scrape a little bit further. From executive producers Van Jones and Meghan McCain, THE REUNITED STATES (2021) seeks to open a new chapter in the American story by highlighting people trying to bridge the left and right. But does a political "movement" that believes in nothing more than "listening to each other" actually do anything to address the issues allegedly dividing us? (Hint: no).
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the audio version of the broadcast on February 17, 2021.
Richard Hooker, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 623, discusses how he became involved in rank and file union organizing in the labor movement, how unions help break down racial tensions, and the challenges that he and other UPS workers have faced during the pandemic. We also cover the Texas power outage and workplace surveillance.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Dan interviews Sam Adler-Bell and Matt Sitman on the history and post-Trump trajectory of conservative intelligentsia.
Listen to Know Your Enemy, their really great podcast on the American Right, wherever you get your podcasts. Sign up on Patreon for bonus episodes: patreon.com/knowyourenemy
Recommended reading and listening:
"Know Your Enemy #13: What Happened to Norman? with David Klion"
"I Thought I Understood the American Right. Trump Proved Me Wrong." By Rick Perlstein
"The dark history of Donald Trump's rightwing revolt." By Timothy Shenk
"The Year the Clock Broke." By John Ganz
Join the Dig Book Club and zoom with Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club. Watch their doc You Are Not a Loan here.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
In this week’s episode, Grace talks to Moses Khisa, Assistant Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University and a research associate with the Centre for Basic Research in Kampala.
They discuss the recent elections in Uganda, in which President Yoweri Museveni won his sixth term against populist challenger and former popstar Bobi Wine, and place them in the context of Uganda’s long slide towards authoritarianism and the failed neoliberal reforms of the 1990s.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from February 13, 2021.
Vijay Prashad joins us to discuss the latest on the massive Indian farmer strikes and how socialists can build international solidarity.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the audio version of the show from February 10, 2021. Ariella and Paul are out, with David Griscom filling in as co-host.
In this episode, sociologist Jennifer Silva explains how rising economic inequality and the decline of social institutions has devastated rural America and led the rural working class to disengage from politics. Jen Pan and guest host David Griscom discuss liberals' misguided contempt for "red state" America.
Jennifer Silva is an assistant professor at Indiana University and the author of the books Coming Up Short: Working-Class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty and We're Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America.
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
For decades the most visible socialist in Britain, the late Labour Party MP Tony Benn is the rare instance of a left-wing politician who became even more radical as his political career progressed. The 1990 documentary TONY BENN: AGAINST THE TIDE, 1973-6 looks back at four years where radical change seemed possible and Benn was at the height of his power within Labour. We discuss his thwarted political vision, and how his politics remained consistent through the dark winters of Thatcher and Blair. PLUS: American media under Biden, and the death of Larry Flynt.
Watch the documentary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h9qv1HQ4…el=ModernLonelyTV
"Tony Benn Spent His Life Fighting for Democracy and Socialism" by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys - www.jacobinmag.com/2020/04/tony-be…rty-uk-new-left
They discuss successive UK governments’ breaches of the human rights of disabled people, how the Left can be made a more inclusive space for disabled activists, and how the pandemic has affected the lives of disabled people after a decade of austerity.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Dan interviews Jeanne Morefield on her book Empires Without Imperialism: Anglo-American Decline and the Politics of Deflection and how the disavowed wars have come home on the American Right.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join the Dig Book Club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Check out our vast archives at thedigradio.com
Lyndsey D'Arcangelo (@darcangel21) writes for The Athletic, covering the NFL and the National Women's Hockey League, and founded the Courtside newsletter, which covers the WNBA. She is also the co-author with Britni de la Cretaz of the book Hail Mary, about the rise and fall of the Natonal Women's Football League, available in November 2021.
Follow the Jacobin Sports Show on Twitter: @JacobinSports
Email us: [email protected]
In this episode, Suzi talks to Meredith Whittaker, who worked at Google for a decade and now directs NYU's Artificial Intelligence Institute, where she focuses on the social implications of artificial intelligence and the tech industry responsible for it. Her recent Nation article, co-authored with Nantina Vgontzas, puts forward a militant progressive vision for tech, insisting that the left must vie for control over the algorithms, data and infrastructure that shape our lives. This is all the more urgent in light of the January 6 assault on the Capitol. We get Meredith’s explanation of the way platform business models like Facebook and YouTube drive right-wing conspiracy theories and right-wing organizing. She also looks at the way big tech exploits its workers, something we explored recently with Veena Dubal looking at the implication of the passage of Prop 22. We are fortunate to have Meredith help us understand the challenges as well as suggest the way to wrest control from big tech.
Suzi then talks to Moscow writer, podcaster and political activist Ilya Budraitskis, about the massive anti-government protests that have rocked cities and towns across Russia following the arrest, detention, and now imprisonment of prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny -- who returned to Russia on January 17 after narrowly surviving being poisoned from exposure to military-grade Novichok on August 20. The protestors were met with vicious police brutality, and 10,000 were arrested. Ilya Budraitskis stands with the protestors -- and we get his views of the movement itself, his analysis of the Putin regime, and a closer look at what Navalny represents.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from February 6, 2021, with Paul Prescod filling in for Nando.
Historian Eric Foner discusses how Civil War history and the events of Reconstruction can help us understand our present political moment. Paul Prescod explains why "black capitalism" will never lead to racial equality, and Ana Kasparian offers ideas for fixing our broken media. Eric Foner is professor of history at Columbia University and the author of Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest today is Gavin Walker. Gavin history at McGill University in Canada and is the author of The Sublime Perversion of Capital: Marxist Theory and the Politics of History in Modern Japan. He is also the editor The Red Years, a new collection of essays on the legacy of 1968 in Japan.
Read Gavin's essay "The Political Afterlives of Yukio Mishima, Japan’s Most Controversial Intellectual And Global Icon Of The Far Right" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/yukio-mishima-far-right-anniversary-death
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
We're continuing a limited run of the new Jacobin Sports Show. If you'd like to keep listening, please subscribe! You can find links to Apple, Spotify, and other podcast apps here: https://anchor.fm/jacobinsports/
In the latest episode, Matthew and Jonah discuss their Super Bowl feelings and differ over whether MLB Hall of Fame voters should discriminate against suspected drug cheats. They are joined by Avantika Goswami (@aygoswami) to discuss all things English Premier League: Liverpool's struggles, Manchester City's rampaging form, Manchester United's title prospects, Chelsea's coaching change, West Ham United, Leeds and the Super League proposal.
Avantika Goswami covers Liverpool for SB Nation at The Liverpool Offside.
Follow the Jacobin Sports Show on Twitter: @JacobinSports
Email us: [email protected]
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
The story of two men competing for the world Donkey Kong championship becomes a metaphor for so much in society, from celebrity culture to institutional power. We revisit THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS (2007) and celebrate two universal archetypes: Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. PLUS: fiery hot takes on the Golden Globes, the Democrats' impending midterm strategy, and the lingering discourse on the Bernie mittens meme.
"PIXEL BURN - A King, Konquered: The Fall of Billy Mitchell" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNLqrOqUtEM
Dan interviews sociologist Paolo Gerbaudo on his book The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy. How does the promise of direct digital democracy obscure how leaders are made more powerful and less accountable? Examples from Italy (Five Star Movement) and Spain (Podemos). How does the failure to incorporate people into rooted forms of political organization undermine the left's power, coherence, and durability? Example from the USA (the funhouse mirror-appeal of a certain YouTube comedian).
Related episodes from The Dig archives:
Hegemony How-To with Jonathan Matthew Smucker thedigradio.com/podcast/hegemony-how-to-with-jonathan-matthew-smucker
How Left Parties Neoliberalized with Stephanie Mudge thedigradio.com/podcast/how-left-parties-neoliberalized-with-stephanie-mudge
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join a Dig Book Club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from January 30, 2021.
Jeremy Corbyn joins us to discuss his history of activism and his legacy as leader of the Labour Party. We also cover how Reddit users have been undermining Wall Street investors through apps like Robinhood to trade GameStop and AMC stock and what it will take for the new Biden administration to end the Senate filibuster.
Jeremy Corbyn is the MP for Islington North who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2015 to 2020, and he’s the recent founder of The Peace and Justice Project.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the War on Terror, James Bond went on a mission to find... relevance. We watched GOLDENEYE (1995), the first end-of-history Bond film, to find how 007 fit into the New World Order. PLUS: reflections on the inauguration, Canada's wacky system of governance, and the passing of Larry King.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the audio version of the broadcast on January 27, 2021.
What is the professional-managerial class and how is it standing in the way of economic redistribution? Catherine Liu explains how this group of elite workers has come to serve capitalism while insisting on their own virtue.
Catherine Liu is professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-divis...
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Today, we're continuing our limited run of the new Jacobin Sports Show. If you'd like to keep listening, please subscribe! You can find links to Apple, Spotify, and other podcast apps here: https://anchor.fm/jacobinsports/
In this latest episode, Matthew and Jonah discuss the NFL's conference championship games. They're then joined by Dr. Robert Greene II (@robgreeneII) to discuss the late Hank Aaron's astonishing yet somehow overlooked career, the whitewashing of Aaron as a Black man and icon, and the complexities of his life in and out of baseball. The pod closes with a look back at the death of Kobe Bryant and what his life and passing signify to different people, both in and out of sports.
Dr. Robert Greene II is a professor of history at Claflin University, lead associate editor of the award-winning Black Perspectives blog and book review editor for the Society of U.S. Intellectual Historians.
Follow the Jacobin Sports Show on Twitter! @JacobinSports
Email us: [email protected]
All of us at Jacobin are still grieving the death of longtime Marxist scholar Leo Panitch, a former guest of this podcast who died last month at the age of 75. Micah talks to contributing editor Chris Maisano about Leo, whose work has shaped Jacobin perhaps more than any other single thinker. Read Chris's long essay on Panitch here: https://www.jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2021/01/leo-panitch-<wbr />marxism
Dan interviews author Fatima Bhutto on social media subjectivities; Pakistani history, politics, and identity; and her novel The Runaways.
Support this podcast with a contribution at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join a Dig Book Club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
In this week’s episode of A World to Win, Grace talks to Ian Lavery MP, former Chair of the Labour Party, and Laura Smith, former MP for Crewe and Nantwitch, about their new project No Holding Back, which you can find online and on Twitter.
We discuss whether the Labour Party is still the party of the working classes, the likely impact of Brexit on the UK, and how the Left can rebuild trust with communities across the country in the wake of the pandemic.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from January 23, 2021.
Richard Wolff discusses economics for the Biden era, Nando Vila covers the recent Teamsters Local 202 strike victory at Hunts Point Market in the Bronx, and Ana Kasparian covers the expansion of domestic surveillance flying overhead. We also make fun of Tim Pool's reaction to the latest Jacobin magazine cover. Richard Wolff is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs at the New School.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
In this episode: John Logan on organizing at Amazon in Alabama and Veena Dubal on anti-worker Proposition 22 going national and global.
Suzi talks to John Logan, labor historian at San Francisco State, about the organizing initiative of Amazon workers in Alabama, taking on a notoriously anti-union company -- in the midst of a pandemic. The implications for this struggle are nothing less than historic, and titanic: taking on Amazon is akin to what it was to take on General Motors in the 1930s, with the same implication for capital-labor relations in contemporary capitalism. We also get John Logan’s views of President Biden’s promising labor-friendly measures and appointments.
Veena Dubal, Law Professor at UC Hastings joins us to talk about the exploitative condition of precarious platform workers, particularly in the ride-share companies. She says the passage of Prop 22 in California has emboldened these companies to go national, and is a grim precedent that poses extreme danger to workers everywhere. Veena strikes a note of hope for the new administration so far, but affirms that organizing will be the key.
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Our guest for this episode is Kieran Durkin. Kieran is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie global fellow at University of York, and a visiting scholar at University of California Santa Barbara. He is the author of The Radical Humanism of Erich Fromm and co-editor of Erich Fromm’s Critical Theory: Hope, Humanism, and the Future.
Read Kieran's essay here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/08/erich-fromm-frankfurt-school-marxism-weimar-germany
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
This week, in a special episode of A World to Win, we remember the brilliant Marxist thinker, writer and public intellectual Leo Panitch.
Grace talks to Max Shanly, Labour Party activist and long-time friend of Leo, and Sam Gindin, former director of research for the Canadian Auto Workers’ Union and Leo’s collaborator, including on his magnum opus The Making of Global Capitalism.
Several of Leo Panitch’s books and many of his essays are available for free through the Socialist Register. He was also a member of Tribune‘s advisory board – read his writings for us and our obituary for him here.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the audio version of the broadcast on January 20, 2021.
Labor organizer Jane McAlevey joins us to discuss strategies for building a working class movement under a Biden presidency. And we cover the Biden inauguration, new initiatives to tax the rich, and the difference between political power and vigilante violence. Jane McAlevey has been an organizer and negotiator in the labor movement for over twenty years. She is also the strikes correspondent for the Nation, senior policy fellow at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, and author of the books Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell), No Shortcuts, and A Collective Bargain.
For a limited time, the Jacobin Radio feed presents a new podcast called the Jacobin Sports Show! Co-hosts Matthew Miranda and Jonah Birch discuss the most meaningful stories from around the world of sports, both on and off the field. You can subscribe—and catch up on the first episode—on Apple, Spotify, or other platforms listed here: https://anchor.fm/jacobinsports/
This is the second episode, in which Matthew and Jonah are joined by Dave Zirin (@EdgeOfSports) to discuss the recent NBA trade in which the Nets acquired James Harden, joining Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. They discuss the news, compare other famous high-scoring trios, and chat about a sports-film crossover with the new Regina King movie "One Night In Miami...", which portrays the NFL player Jim Brown (who Dave wrote a book about) in conversation with Sam Cooke, Muhammad Ali, and Malcolm X. Plus: A preview of Zirin's upcoming project, The Kaepernick Effect.
Dave Zirin is a sports editor for The Nation, creator of the podcast and blog The Edge of Sports, and author of several books including, most recently, Jim Brown: Last Man Standing.
Follow the Jacobin Sports Show on Twitter! @JacobinSports
Email us: [email protected]
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
After the upheaval of 1968, Jean-Luc Godard said goodbye to commercial cinema to create a new kind of radical Marxist filmmaking. With TOUT VA BIEN (1972), Godard and his filmmaking partner Jean-Pierre Gorin tried to meet the audience halfway. Taking place in a moment when the student protests, the French New Wave, and even Godard's own militant phase were receding from view, this fascinating Brechtian exercise starring Jane Fonda and Yves Montand may or may not have room for optimism. PLUS: bold predictions about the incoming Biden administration, and the politics of another cinematic legend: James Bond.
Check out our Patreon for exclusive bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus
Dan interviews Thea Riofrancos on how Ecuador's Pink Tide government was constrained by an unequal world system and on the conflict over mining that erupted between leftist President Rafael Correa and the Indigenous movement that laid the groundwork for his rise to power.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join a Dig book club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Suzi speaks with John Nichols on Trump, the GOP & Impeachment and Eric Alterman on the fundamentals that define our current media ecosystem.
John Nichols discusses President Trump’s second impeachment for inciting a seditious mob to attack the US Capitol, after failing to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. John makes the case that it is not just Trump, but also his Congressional backers who have to be held accountable. They continue to embrace Trump’s lies, and largely refuse to sanction him. Nichols argues against the developing consensus that the Republican Party is fracturing, and insists that despite a handful of defections, the Republican Party is still Trump’s Party.
Eric Alterman has covered the media in The Nation for nearly 25 years and his latest column focuses on the main ideas he has been trying to get across overall. He writes that the titanic changes that have taken place in the media ecosystem make it easy to get lost in the frenzy and miss what is really essential: the underlying structures of power that are generally not seen, and which ensure that the system is the opposite of democratic. Eric calls these the “structural failings that underlie our politics” and says we have to Look Beyond the Media Frenzy and Focus on the Fundamentals -- the title of his last column – and we get him to explain.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from January 16, 2021.
We’re talking about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and its effects on the prison population, what Biden’s spending proposal does and doesn’t include, and we’ll hear from Slavoj Žižek on what it will take to end the pandemic.
Žižek is a maverick philosopher and the author of over thirty books. He is also researcher at the the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts, international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities of the University of London, global eminent scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, and global distinguished professor at New York University.
Read his essay in Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/slavoj-zizek-socialism-great-reset
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Support the Jacobin A/V Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag
Introducing... The Jacobin Show!
Every Wednesday at 6 PM ET, Jen Pan, Ariella Thornhill, and Paul Prescod host a new episode of The Jacobin Show, offering socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the audio version of a show that broadcast January 13, 2021.
The guest is Felix Biederman, co-host of Chapo Trap House.
Please rate us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening!
The Jacobin Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kUIGCK-V04s-lOQQecW8a2Xf
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Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
In this week’s episode, Grace Blakeley speaks to Vijay Prashad, head of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and author of Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups and Assassinations.
They discuss the recent wave of strikes taking place across India, the rise of the far right both there and across the world, and the mechanisms through which imperial power is exercised in today’s global economy – including the use of investor state dispute settlements by international investors to sue governments over their pandemic response.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from January 9, 2021.
The guest is Noam Chomsky. Noam is a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist who's published more than 150 books. He's also laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Nikhil Pal Singh and Joe Lowndes discuss and debate today's American Right: what sort of threat does the Far-Right pose? How does it relate to the Republican Party and to the neoliberal imperial Center? What does that mean for the Left?
Read Corey Robin's smart and short piece on impeachment jacobinmag.com/2021/01/corey-robin-what-impeachment-could-mean-trump
Listen to Dan's interview with Joe Lowndes and Daniel Martinez HoSang & Joe Lowndes on their book Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity www.thedigradio.com/podcast/right-wing-racism-with-daniel-martinez-hosang-joe-lowndes/
Support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Long Reads is a new Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Our guest today is David Ost, who witnessed the emergence of Solidarity first-hand and later wrote a book about the movement's rise and fall called The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe.
Read Ost's piece for Jacobin, "The Triumph and Tragedy of Poland's Solidarity Movement," here: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/poland-solidarity-communism-solidarnosc
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from January 2, 2021.
The guest today is Natalie Shure. Natalie is a TV producer and writer whose work has appeared in the Atlantic, Slate, Pacific Standard, and Jacobin.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Dan interviews historian and essayist Gabriel Winant on the social worlds that make US politics and how that sociality is rooted in the economy, carceral state, social media, religion, and more. Read these n+1 essays and Dissent interview for context:
We Live in a Society nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/we-live-in-a-society
Coronavirus and Chronopolitics nplusonemag.com/issue-37/politics/coronavirus-and-chronopolitics-2
Professional-Managerial Chasm nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/professional-managerial-chasm
“What’s Actually Going on in Our Nursing Homes”: An Interview with Shantonia Jackson dissentmagazine.org/article/whats-actually-going-on-in-our-nursing-homes-an-interview-with-shantonia-jackson
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join a Dig Book Club thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
From The Dig archives: Dan interviews Melinda Cooper about her book, Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism, which makes the case that neoliberalism and social conservatism have been consistent collaborators in creating an economy that redistributed wealth ruthlessly upwards with a risk-absorbing family at its privatized center. We'll be back next week with a new episode.
Listen to Antibody thedigradio.com/antibody
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join a Dig book club thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from December 19, 2020.
The guest today is David Sirota. David is editor-at-large at Jacobin. He edits the Daily Poster newsletter and previously served as a senior adviser and speechwriter on Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
A big-picture interview with Tobita Chow and Jake Werner on China that puts today's geopolitical conflict and repression into the context of global capitalism.
Join a Dig Book Club thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Support this podcast at patreon.com/TheDig
This week, Grace talks to Ana Kasparian, host and executive producer for The Young Turks and now co-host of Jacobin’s Weekends series. We discuss the media landscape in the US and the importance of alternative media to the socialist movement, the progress towards a stimulus package in the US, and how progressives should relate to a Biden presidency.
For the full hour-long episode, support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/aworldtowinpod
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from December 12, 2020.
The guest today is Richard Seymour. Richard is author of Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics, The Twittering Machine, and editor of Salvage magazine.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
New issue of Jacobin out now! https://jacobinmag.com/issue/failure-...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Long Reads is a new Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Our guest today for a discussion of Camus’s legacy is Oliver Gloag. Oliver teaches French and Francophone Studies at the University of North Carolina. He’s the author of a recently published book: Albert Camus: A Very Short Introduction.
Read Oliver's essay on "The Colonial Contradictions of Albert Camus" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/colonialism-albert-camus-france-algeria-sartre
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
What happened to social democratic politics? Dan interviews sociologist Stephanie Mudge on her book Leftism Reinvented: Western Parties from Socialism to Neoliberalism.
Join a Dig Book Club thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Support this podcast at patreon.com/TheDig
This week Grace Blakeley talks to Owen Hatherley, Tribune's culture editor and author of many books, including his most recent, Red Metropolis: Socialism and the Government of London.
Grace and Owen discuss municipal socialism, regional and class inequality in the UK, and the future of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer.
Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from December 5, 2020.
The guest is Corey Robin. Corey is the author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump and a contributing editor at Jacobin.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
New issue of Jacobin out now! https://jacobinmag.com/issue/failure-...
Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey
Prevailing identity politics norms call on people “listen to the most affected” or “centre the most marginalized." But this often works out quite badly in practice. Philosopher Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò on his brilliant essay "Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference."
It's The Dig's four-year anniversary. Support us at Patreon.com/TheDig and take a moment to post something to social media about why you listen to The Dig and how it has shaped your politics.
This week Grace Blakeley is joined by Sa’eed Husaini, socialist activist and contributor to Africa is a Country and Jacobin.
Sa’eed recently completed a PhD at the University of Oxford and is now living and working in Lagos, Nigeria. He discusses the recent #EndSARS protests, the economic and health impact of COVID 19 in Nigeria, and the history and future of the Nigerian left.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Before he became a conservative warrior, John Rambo was just a mixed-up vet. We're joined by Jacobin deputy editor Micah Uetricht to parse the ambiguous politics of FIRST BLOOD (1982), where Sylvester Stallone is just as frazzled by right-wing cops as he is by left-wing protestors. We also situate the film among other Vietnam War movies, and compare the Vietnam canon to Iraq War cinema. PLUS: Luke has been reading Obama's autobiography and has some thoughts.
Check out Micah's podcast The Vast Majority - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vast-majority/id1462787412
Check out Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism, by Micah and Meagan Day - https://www.versobooks.com/books/3167-bigger-than-bernie
Long Reads is a new Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
The guest today is Joel Beinin, an American historian who has written extensively on the history of left-wing movements in countries like Egypt, Israel, and Tunisia.
Read Beinin's latest articles:
"Arab Workers and the Struggle for Democracy" from May 2020.
"Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser Was a Towering Figure Who Left an Ambiguous Legacy" from September 2020.
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from November 21, 2020.
The guest today is Julia Salazar. Julia is the incumbent State Senator for the 18th district in New York and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
New issue of Jacobin out now! https://jacobinmag.com/issue/failure-...
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Before he was the President's attorney, he was America's Mayor. Made not long after 9/11 briefly turned Giuliani into one of the most beloved men in America, RUDY: THE RUDY GIULIANI STORY (2003) still can't hide the stone cold fact that its subject (played by James Woods!) is a complete piece of shit. We discuss Giuliani's long and sordid career, up to and including his recent hijinx. PLUS: learning to love the Snyder Cut, remembering Obama's 2009 message to David Brooks, and the loss of a beloved Toronto landmark.
Dan interviews political scientist Megan Ming Francis about the NAACP's struggle against racist violence in the teens and 20s and how it remade the criminal justice system and the civil rights movement alike.
Join a Dig book club! Next book is Wendy Brown’s In the Ruins of Neoliberalism thedigradio.com/dig-book-club/
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
On this week’s show Grace Blakeley is joined by Andy Burnham – former Labour MP and current Mayor of Greater Manchester.
Recent weeks have seen Burnham, along with other mayors in the north of England, stand up to the Tory government and demand equity in financial support during the Covid-19 crisis.
In this show, he also discusses what cities like Manchester are doing to tackle climate breakdown and the housing crisis, as well as why the Left needs to embrace a socialist devolution agenda.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from November 15, 2020.
The guest is Ronan Burtenshaw. Ronan is the editor of Tribune Magazine. Read his latest here: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/jeremy...
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
New issue of Jacobin out now! https://jacobinmag.com/issue/failure-...
Long Reads is a new, bi-weekly podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn.
Our guest today is Owen Miller, historian of modern Korea who teaches at SOAS in London.
Read Miller's article "Uncovering The Hidden History of the Korean War" from June 2020 here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/korean-war-seventieth-anniversary-north-korea-south
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Dan interviews Mike Davis on what the election reveals about this US political moment and the way forward for the Left.
Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/TheDig
Join a Dig book club! Next book is Wendy Brown's In the Ruins of Neoliberalism thedigradio.com/dig-book-club/
On this week’s show Grace Blakeley speaks to Rutger Bregman, historian and author of Utopia for Realists and Humankind: A Hopeful History.
In January of last year, Bregman shot to international fame when video of him excoriating the tax-avoiding corporate elite at Davos went viral – and in the latest A World to Win he discusses a range of topics from human nature to capitalism and the 24-hour news cycle.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
With Biden's victory all but confirmed, we discuss the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election: the narratives being spun to explain the results, Trump's response, why four years of Biden/McConnell will almost certainly be bad, and why there still may be cause of optimism. Then we discuss a movie for times like this: Charlie Chaplin's career-destroying anti-capitalist black MONSIEUR VERDOUX (1947), a film that told America, "Things are bad, and have always been bad."
Dan interviews Cornel West on how to think about and act upon the world that this week presented to us.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. This week we have a US election special on A World to Win, as the world’s leading superpower melts down over a cliff-edge presidential contest.
Grace Blakeley is joined by two guests – former Bernie Sanders national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray and Jacobin contributing editor Matt Karp – to discuss the Biden landslide that never was, the deep polarisation in American politics and the way forward for the US Left.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from October 31, 2020. The guest is Adolph Reed Jr., Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in studies of issues of racism and U.S. politics.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=AFTERBERNIE
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
In this spooky Halloween episode, we consider the politics of horror by looking at the ultimate slasher film, John Carpenter's classic HALLOWEEN (1978). We discuss the way that the horror genre has traditionally served as an outlet for society's fears and traumas, and how this suburban horror story in particular articulated a certain post-'60s, pre-Reagan reactionary current in America. Don't worry, we like this movie, we promise we won't ruin it for you. PLUS: eve-of-the-election punditry and childhood Halloween memories.
Exclusive subscriber-only episodes: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/overview
Long Reads is a new, bi-weekly podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Over the coming weeks, you’ll hear about topics ranging from the Korean War to the Arab uprisings, and about thinkers like Albert Camus and Erich Fromm.
Our guest today for a discussion on the politics of climate change is Adrienne Buller. Adrienne is a senior research fellow at Commonwealth, the British progressive think tank, where her work focuses on the link between finance and the climate crisis.
Buller's articles:
“The Pandemic Won’t Stop Climate Chaos — That Will Require Changing Our Economic System” June 2020 https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/pandemic-climate-crisis-economic-system
“Why the Green New Deal Didn’t Get a Hearing” January 2020 https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/green-new-deal-industrial-revolution-labour-party-uk
Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
What else to talk about right now other than everything about right now? Election, pandemic, BLM, climate, and how the left should think about and struggle with it all. Dan interviews Naomi Klein and Nikhil Pal Singh.
Support this podcast on Patreon.com/TheDig
Join a Dig Book Club. Next book is Wendy Brown's In the Ruins of Neoliberalism thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. This week, Grace Blakeley speaks to Labour MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana.
Since her election in December, Zarah has been one of the most prominent figures on the party’s Left – most recently speaking out against the Spy Cops Bill in parliament.
She discusses the Tories’ attempts to impose the costs of the pandemic on those least able to bear it, the lessons the Left can learn from Corbynism, and why we need to fight for a global Green New Deal in the wake of this crisis.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from October 24, 2020. The guest today is Professor Richard D. Wolff. Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School in New York.
Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub
Subscribe to Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=AFTERBERNIE
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
After he named names for Joseph McCarthy, Elia Kazan made a movie about an informer. We watched ON THE WATERFRONT (1954), one of the great American films by the most famous American rat, and discuss its personal meaning for Kazan, and the historical context behind its powerful depiction of working-class New York. PLUS: a free-flowing discussion of celebrity and politics.
"Revisiting On the Waterfront" by Kathy M. Newman - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/07/revisiting-on-the-waterfront/
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
A former prickly TV personality tries to become a better man... a former president tries to refine his brand... on the pilot episode of the stupefyingly dull Netflix talk show MY NEXT GUEST NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION... WITH DAVID LETTERMAN (2018), the onetime innovator of late night is joined by Barack Obama for a gruelling conversation. PLUS: batten down the hatches for Ron Howard's "Hillbilly Elegy."
Support the show and hear exclusive subscriber-only episodes at this link: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and left political strategy, as well as interviews with prominent individuals on the left. This is the podcast version of the show that broadcast on October 17, 2020. The guest is Ben Burgis.
Subscribe to Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=AFTERBERNIE
Roberto Lovato on Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas. Growing up Salvadoran-American in The Mission, fighting with the FMLN in El Salvador, making sense of MS-13, weaving back together the pieces of a transnational history severed by borders and violence. Lovato retells El Salvador and US history through his family's story.
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Join The Dig book club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club/
Like this week's episode? Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/aworldtowinpod
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Some topics are too vast, too vital for us to cover on our own. Today, we address one such topic. We invited Jacobin Magazine's Meagan Day and Branko Marcetic for a roundtable discussion of Nora Ephron's YOU'VE GOT MAIL (1998), starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. We discover that this parable for gentrification may be the key to all of politics and culture in the 1990s. PLUS: thoughts on the Harris-Pence VP debate and the famous fly.
"Want to Know What a Return to 'Normal' Will Look Like? Stare Into Mike Pence's Dead Eyes" by Branko Marcetic - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/mike-pence-vp-vice-presidential-debate-trump
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and left political strategy, as well as interviews with prominent individuals on the left. This is the podcast version of the show that broadcast on October 10, 2020. The guest is Wosny "Big Wos" Lambre. Wos is the culture and NBA writer for The Athletic and co-host of the Woke Bros podcast.
Subscribe to Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=AFTERBERNIE
Dan interviews legal scholars Aziz Rana and Amna Akbar, and Movement for Black Lives lawyer Marbre Stahly-Butts, on SCOTUS, liberal RBG and court veneration, and other big questions on the law and politics facing the left.
Join a Dig book club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and left political strategy, as well as interviews with prominent individuals on the left. This is the podcast version of the show that broadcast on October 3, 2020. The guest today is Daniel Bessner. Daniel is associate professor at the University of Washington and a contributing editor at Jacobin.
Subscribe to Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=AFTERBERNIE
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world, hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
What does it mean to be "America's Critic"? What does it take to be the most powerful critic the world has ever known? Several months back we discussed "Siskel & Ebert," but now we turn our attention specifically to Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer-winner who may forever be America's best-known film critic. We watch the Ebert documentary LIFE ITSELF (2014), and ponder the movie's questionable assertion that "He did not get caught up in certain ideologies of what cinema should be." PLUS: why are liberals sending thoughts and prayers to the president?
NOTE: As a special experiment for the month of October 2020, we will be posting two episodes per week - one free, one Patreon-exclusive. Like the show and want more? Go to https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus.
Episode #152 ("Rule of Thumb" Pt. I) - https://soundcloud.com/michael-and-us/152-rule-of-thumb
"Roger Ebert's Zero-Star Movies" by Will Sloan - https://hazlitt.net/feature/roger-eberts-zero-star-movies
Bathsheba Demuth on her monumental book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait. From the 19th century through today, governments and capitalists on the Russian, Soviet, and American Arctic borderlands extract energy from a natural world whose reproductive cycles they don't comprehend and strive to convert Indigenous people into national subjects.
Support this podcast with a contribution at Patreon.com/TheDig
A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. On this week’s show, Grace Blakeley is joined by author, academic and activist Cornel West to discuss radical politics in the United States.
West, a philosopher at Harvard’s African and African-American Studies Department, gives his views on Black Lives Matter, the “neo-fascism” of Donald Trump and the need to critique the role of American empire across the world.
He also discusses how the Left can fight back against these morbid symptoms, by building a socialist spirituality, a culture of resistance and broad coalitions for social change which can transform the political landscape.
A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and left political strategy, as well as interviews with prominent individuals on the left. This is the podcast version of the show that broadcast on September 26, 2020.
The guest is Samuel Moyn. He is the Henry R. Luce professor of jurisprudence at Yale Law School and a professor of history at Yale University. His most recent book is Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. He joins us to talk about Trump’s appointment of Amy Coney Barrett and how socialists can disempower the Supreme Court.
Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Guest host Astra Taylor interviews tech organizer and scholar Meredith Whittaker on the political economy of the tech leviathan that's remaking capitalism, empire, and the carceral state.
FYI: Whittaker mentioned this interview with Sarah T. Hamid on carceral technologies logicmag.io/care/community-defense-sarah-t-hamid-on-abolishing-carceral-technologies/
Support this podcast with a contribution at Patreon.com/TheDig
A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world, hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
The theory that times of strife produce great art is put to the test with Jay Roach's pandemic movie COASTAL ELITES (2020), and fails resoundingly. Bette Midler, Issa Rae, Dan Levy, and others deliver monologues excoriating the Cheeto-in-Chief while making clear that the title "Coastal Elites" is only barely ironic. PLUS: the death of RBG, the collapse of LaserQuest, and the unlikely return of Screw Magazine.
Suzi talks to British journalist and writer Paul Mason, former Leader of Canada's NDP Ed Broadbent, and Progressive Democrats of America's Executive Director Alan Minsky about their perspectives on the 2020 electoral campaign
British journalist and writer Paul Mason shares his concerns and insights from the recent election in Britain that saw the defeat of radical Labour and the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, and the victory of Boris Johnson and Brexit politics. Paul worries that the Democratic Party strategy against Trump misreads the right in some of the same ways that Corbyn did in the UK. Ed Broadbent, former NDP Leader and Member of Parliament from 1975-1989, and he is also known as the best prime minister Canada never had. He is an expert in the theory and practice of policy-making, and he shareshis views about the US campaign from his own strategic and organizational perspective. Alan Minsky, Executive Director of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) offers his inside perspective and analysis of organizing on the ground electoral strategy, including what impact the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will have on the campaign in these last six weeks.
A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. On this week’s show, Grace Blakeley is joined by academic, activist and left legend Naomi Klein to discuss the US elections, the case for the Green New Deal, and whether the world is about to face another lesson in the politics of the shock doctrine.
Naomi has words of encouragement but also a warning for activists – the smears that the establishment used against socialist leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders are “just the smallest taste of how hard they would have fought them if they’d won.”
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust, but you can help the show by signing up as a patron.
Every Saturday at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and left political strategy, as well as interviews with prominent individuals on the left. This is the podcast version of the show that broadcast on September 19, 2020. The guest is Amber A'Lee Frost. Amber is a writer and co-host of the Chapo Trap House podcast. She is currently completing her first book, on the rise of social-democratic politics post-2008 financial crisis.
Read her new essay at Catalyst here.
Subscribe to Jacobin here.
Dan interviews historian Paul Renfro on his book Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State.
Stranger Danger is also this month's Dig Book Club book. Read and discuss it with fellow listeners, and then on Zoom with Paul by signing up here: thedigradio.com/dig-book-club/
A relevant Dig ep from the archives: Melinda Cooper on her book Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism thedigradio.com/podcast/family-values-with-melinda-cooper/
Please support this podcast with a contribution at Patreon.com/TheDig
A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. This week, Grace talks to Meagan Day – staff writer at Jacobin and co-author of Bigger than Bernie: How we go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism – about the US presidential election, the economic and environmental crises currently sweeping through America and the future of the Left after Bernie.
Meagan discusses her path into politics, how Bernie Sanders won her over to socialism and why she thinks class politics are still the answer for the world’s foremost capitalist state. She also explores inequality and the changing world of work in a time of Covid-19.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune‘s designer Kevin Zweerink. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust, you can help the show by signing up as a patron.
Dan interviews Tithi Bhattacharya, Daniel Bessner, Simon Torracinta on the manifold crises engulfing higher ed as covid exposes and exacerbates decades of austerity and neoliberal iniquity.
"House of Cards: Can the American university be saved?" by Daniel Bessner thenation.com/article/society/gig-academy-meritocracy-trap-universities-crisis
"Extinction Event: Given what is to come, schools of every kind are now at risk" by Simon Torracinta nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/extinction-event/
"After 2020, There’s No Going Back to the Old America" by Dan Denvir in Jacobinjacobinmag.com/2020/09/joe-biden-imperialism-trump-america
A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. In this episode, Grace speaks to Astra Taylor, Jerome Roos and James Schneider about their memories of the brilliant anthropologist and activist David Graeber, who tragically died last week.
David Graeber was the author of many books, including Debt: The First 5,000 Years and Bullshit Jobs, and was also seminal in the early development of Occupy Wall Street.
Here, his legacy is discussed by filmmaker Astra Taylor, academic Jerome Roos, and former Corbyn staffer James Schneider, each of whom were influenced by his life and work.
A reminder that this podcast is supported by theLipman-Miliband Trust. Remember, you can support the show by signing up as apatron.
Dan interviews historian Matthew Countryman on his book Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia.
Join a Dig Book Club reading group and discuss Up South with Countryman on September 12. Sign up here thedigradio.com/dig-book-club
Support this podcast with a contribution at Patreon.com/TheDig
A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. In this episode, Grace Blakeley is joined by Walden Bello, academic, author, human rights campaigner and former member of the Filipino House of Representatives.
The show discusses the history of the Philippines, Bello’s opposition to the brutal Marcos dictatorship, his longstanding fight against US imperialism and neoliberal globalisation (including in breaking into the offices of the World Bank to steal confidential documents), as well as how Covid-19 is affecting the Philippines.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and our graphic designer, Kevin Zweerink, for their hard work on this episode.
Remember, you can support the show by signing up as apatron.
A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. In the second episode of A World to Win, Grace talks to former foreign minister of EcuadorGuillaume Longabout the impact of Covid-19 in the country, the rise and fall of the Correa government and the growth of ‘neoliberal authoritarianism’ in Latin America.
Long discusses the “huge cuts” imposed in recent years by Ecuador’s Moreno administration, an austerity plan which has seen public investment in the health sector halved and 10 percent of public health workers laid off with the support of the IMF.
He also explains the campaign of ‘lawfare,’ which has sought to criminalise Rafael Correa and prevent him from returning to office, and the systematic retaliation from Western governments to Ecuador’s progressive economic and environmental policies under Correa’s government.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and our graphic designer, Kevin Zweerink, for their hard work on this episode. Remember, you can support the show by signing up as apatron.
Suzi talks to Lizaveta Merliak, International Secretary of the Belarussian Independent Trade Union BNP, about the massive protest movement in the streets in Belarus since August 9, when the blatantly fraudulent election results were announced. President Lukashenko claimed he won 80% of the votes in a deteriorating economic situation and escalating pandemic -- which the government ignored, while spending lavishly on WWII parades. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets, workers have downed their tools to go on strike and join the protest movement – while President Lukashenko has dug in, doubling down on repression and shocking the world with the regime’s brutality.
Sarah Mason, a former Lyft driver and DoorDasher, now a grad student studying platform mediated labor, talks to Suzi about the California Supreme Court decision and Assembly Bill 5, which have determined that Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Doordash and Postmates are not tech apps, but driving companies, and their workers are employees, not independent contractors. The Court has issued an injunction against the companies, and they in turn have threatened to halt services in California until November when voters will vote on their sponsored Proposition 22, which would give them a carveout, an exemption to the law to deny their drivers rights and protections like minimum wage, sick leave and safety protections.
Dan's recent live event with Yanis Varoufakis on how 2020 revealed that 2008 had changed capitalism forever.
Also: we had some pod feed issues last week. If you missed Dan's interview with brilliant organizers Andres Celin and Rapheal Randall—and this is a must-listen for everyone interested in organizing—check it out: www.thedigradio.com/podcast/organize-to-win-with-andres-celin-and-rapheal-randall/
Welcome to the first episode of A World to Win with Grace Blakeley! A World to Win is a new podcast from Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world.
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“Who do we remember? Do we remember the Home Secretaries that imprisoned the Chartists? Or do we remember the Chartists for what they stood for, albeit unsuccessful in the immediate time?” –Jeremy Corbyn
Today, Grace is joined by Jeremy Corbyn to discuss to the UK government’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the rise and fall of Corbynism, and the future of socialism within the Labour Party.
For the first time ever, hear Jeremy on the “absurd” discussions he had with the government about its herd immunity strategy and why the furlough scheme was unlikely to have been implemented without significant pressure from key figures in the Opposition.
Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and our graphic designer, Kevin Zweerink, for their hard work on this episode. Remember, you can support the show by signing up as a patron.
A must-listen conversation on organizing to win with two extraordinary organizers from Philadelphia's Youth United for Change.
Download their book Y’all Tryna Win or Nah?! https://www.youthunitedforchange.org/y_all_tryna_win_or_nah
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
This week, Ana Kasparian and new co-host Nando Vila talk about big data capitalism, discuss US imperial ambitions in Venezuela, speak with Abby Martin about Afghanistan and China, dunk on the ludicrous arguments for reopening schools, and more!
Abby Martin is a journalist, filmmaker, and host of The Empire Files.
Weekends on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ1p5CrbecY&list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Empire Files: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG29FnXZm4F5U8xpqs1cs1Q
<font color="#000000">Suzi talks to </font>Gilbert Achcar<font color="#000000"> about the </font>horrific explosion, on August 4, in his native Lebanon. Nearly 3000 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been sitting in the port of the City for seven years ignited, leaving hundreds dead, thousands injured, and hundreds of thousands homeless. Gilbert AchcaroutlinesLebanon’s decades long history of corrupt neoliberal rule, which he characterizes as marked by exploitation, criminal neglect, sectarian divisions, and utter disregard for the population. This catastrophic explosion comes on the heels of economic collapse -- in the midst of a pandemic that derailed one of the largest and broadest protest movements from 2019, now in the streets again demanding an end to the regime in power. We spoke to Gilbert just before the Prime Minister and Cabinet resigned.
Dan interviews Kelly Lytle Hernández on MIGRA! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Dan's 2017 interview with Lytle Hernández on City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965: thedigradio.com/podcast/a-history-of-human-caging-with-kelly-lytle-hernandez
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jacobin Radio welcomes its newest show! Michael and Us, from co-hosts Will Sloan and Luke Savage, is one of our favorite film and comedy podcasts. We're joining Will and Luke at episode 164, "Mo Money Mo Problems."
Everyone agrees that money in politics is a problem, but in MEET THE DONORS: DOES MONEY TALK? (2016), filmmaker Alexandra (daughter of Nancy) Pelosi asks: is it really? She interviews some of the biggest political donors in America to find out why they donate and what they expect for their donations, and finds out... not a whole lot. Politics - what a concept! PLUS: we discuss the state of the left in electoral politics, and definitively identify the worst Twitter feed in the world.
Support the show and get exclusive subscriber-only episodes on the Michael and Us Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/overview
Dan's 2018 interview with Matthew Frye Jacobson on Roots Too: White Ethnic Revival in Post–Civil Rights America. With a new intro from Dan on the Columbus myth and the politics of white ethnicity.
Support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
In this special tribute episode of Weekends, Ana is joined by Nando Vila and many friends and colleagues to remember Michael Brooks. Guests include: Bhaskar Sunkara, Matt Lech, David Griscom, Dustin Guastella, Joshua Kahn Russell, Ben Burgis, and our own super-producer Cale Brooks.
Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Kasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian
Our police system is a product of Cold War US imperialism too. Dan interviews Stuart Schrader on Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing.
Support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig
Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks have been broadcasting live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. This week features an interview with professor Vivek Chibber on the state and the left's road to power. Sadly and very unexpectedly, Michael passed away the Monday after recording this episode.
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Read more on our website:
"Remembering Our Friend and Comrade Michael Brooks" by Bhaskar Sunkara https://jacobinmag.com/2020/07/remembering-our-friend-and-comrade-michael-brooks
"'Michael Brooks Was My Absolute Political Inspiration'," a series of reflections collected by Micah Uetricht https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-viewers-listeners-reflections
"Michael Brooks Was a True Internationalist" by Daniel Bessner https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-internationalist-remembrance
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Weekends archive on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Suzi talks to Joel Jordan and Constance Penley who make the case against school reopening for K-12 and the Universities. <u>JoelJordan</u>,ret<wbr />ired LAUSD teacher and former UTLA strategist, is helping to coordinate a coalition of the largest teacher unions in California who are leading the fight by teachers, parents, and students against school reopening at the K-12 level. The teachers and their allies have won an initial victory -- Los Angeles and San Diego counties have just announced they will not open in the Fall. The resurgence of the deadly pandemic in the region underscores the danger of going back to school until the curve is flattened and the disease brought under control, giving the unions a temporary breathing space. The Trump administration, along with its corporate and political allies, have made reopening the economy the only priority and are stepping up the pressure to reopen so parents can be freed from childcare responsibilities and go back to work. Joel Jordan fills us in on the class-wide counter-organizing that is taking place.Constance Penley, President of the Council of UC Faculty Associations and Professor at UC Santa Barbara discusses the rush to bring students back to campuses at the university level in some form this fall. The issues are somewhat different for higher education than for K-12, but faculties across the board have questioned their institutions, who have presented an ever changing series of plans, rationales and procedures for bringing people back to campus without explaining why this is the right approach -- and more importantly, have left faculty input out of the equation in making the decisions that will affect their livelihood and health security. Constance Penley and the Council of UC Faculty Associations are also fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to force in-person classes by threatening to expel international students who don’t attend physical classrooms. We get her take on what is behind this push and the fight to prevent putting everyone’s health at risk.
This is an incredible moment to learn about the Young Lords from historian Johanna Fernández, the author of The Young Lords: A Radical History.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. On this episode, Michael is on break and Nando Vila is filling in. Ana and Nando speak with Nomi Prins, Journalist and author of Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World.
Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Brooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooks
Kasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian
Dan talks to @loggins__ and @MuseWendi about why people are reading White Fragility and ten books about racism, capitalism, and Black radicalism that you should read instead.
Check out Left POCket Project @LeftPOC
Blacks In and Out of the Left by Michael C Dawson
Dig interview with Michael Dawson
Democracy Remixed by Cathy Cohen
Dig interview with Cathy Cohen, Jasson Perez, Malaika Jabali
Mapping Diaspora: African American Roots Tourism in Brazil by Patricia de Santana Pinho
Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields
Dig interview with the Fields sisters
Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household
We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele Omowale Umoja
Aziz Rana interviews Dan Denvir on how policing and mass incarceration became core features of the war on immigrants and on his book All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know It.
Please support this podcast wit $ at Patreon.com/TheDig
Buy Dan's book at versobooks.com/books/2858-all-american-nativism
Debating a "dirty break" from the Democrats, with Kim Moody, Eric Blanc, and co-hosted by Meagan Day.
You can read Eric’s article about the Minnesota Farmer-Labor party and dirty break strategy here: https://www.jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2017/12/democratic-party-<wbr />minnesota-farmer-labor-floyd-<wbr />olson
Read Kim Moody’s rebuttal here: https://newpol.org/<wbr />dirty-break-for-independent-<wbr />political-action-or-a-way-to-<wbr />stay-stuck-in-the-mud/
Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. This week, June 27, 2020, New York State Senator Julia Salazar joins the show to discuss democratic socialists' recent election wins as well as movements outside the electoral arena.
Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Brooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooks
Kasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian
Mike Davis on his classic book about why the US has long lacked strong socialist and labor politics. One recurrent answer: racism.
Read Dan's essay on the moment: jacobinmag.com/2020/06/donald-trump-war-american-democracy-riots-coronavirus
Not in the mood for a long, complex Dig interview? Check out Antibody, which is like commie This American Life: thedigradio.com/antibody
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Suzi talks to two student activist/leaders of #StudentsDeserve, Sarah Djato at Dorsey high school, and Asia Bryant, who just graduated from Hamilton High, about their organizing, in partnership with Black Lives Matter LA, to defund school police and reallocate the money ($70 million of the LAUSD budget) to bring in counselors, services, and programs that serve black and brown youth as “students, not suspects.” That idea has now been endorsed by UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles), and will be taken up at the LAUSD School Board meeting this week.
Suzi then talks to Los Angeles Times legal affairs columnist, former US Attorney Harry Litman to discuss AG William Barr and President Trump against Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Friday night Barr announced Berman would resign, but Berman refused, and Saturday afternoon Trump fired Berman. But it doesn’t stop there, and Harry Litman helps us understand the dizzying array of legal and practical questions this raises. We also talk to Harry about the surprising decision on the Bostock v. Clayton Country Georgia case announced last week that saw our very conservative Supreme Court come to an unexpected rule, by a vote of 6-3 that says Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status — a hugely significant result.
Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. The episode from June 20, 2020, features Sean Jacobs, founder and editor of Africa is a Country and associate professor of international affairs at The New School, to discuss recent BLM protests and their links to protests in Africa.
Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Brooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooks
Kasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian
A Dig special: the recording of a Zoom forum Dan hosted with leading defund police organizers from around the country. For more info:
If you live in RI, support the fight for a people's budget: actionnetwork.org/petitions/say-no-to-a-brutal-austerity-budget-in-rhode-island
Dan's essay on Trump's origins in ordinary bipartisan security politics: jacobinmag.com/2020/06/donald-trump-war-american-democracy-riots-coronavirus
In this episode, we talk with historian and socialist-feminist Sheila Rowbotham about her own political and intellectual development. Rowbotham was a close friend of Edward and Dorothy Thompson, a participant in the radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and a prominent political writer and historian. We also discuss Chapters 12 and 13: the different meanings of discipline in working-class life, the Irish presence, and class-struggle elections in ninteenth-century Westminster.
Antibody is a narrative series about how Covid-19 has changed everything and nothing at all.
In this episode:
All Cops Are Idiots (featuring Kafui Attoh, you can buy his book here: ugapress.org/<wbr />book/9780820354217/rights-in-<wbr />transit)
A Few Basic Demands (produced by Chenjerai Kumanyika (twitter.com/<wbr />catchatweetdown)
After the Peak (by Karim Sariahmed (twitter.com/sariahmed<wbr />), along with Alex Azan, Belicia Ding, Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko , Vanessa K. Ferrel, Michelle Gonzalez, Musaub Khan, and Marc Shi)
What We Talk About When We Talk About Mutual Aid (produced by Jackson Roach and Caroline Kanner (twitter.com/_<wbr />idontCaroline)
Get in touch with DCH1 Amazonians United (facebook.<wbr />com/DCH1United)
Support Put People First! Pennsylvania (putpeoplefirstpa.org)
The mutual aid groups featured in this episode include: Ground Game LA (groundgamela.org) K Town For All (ktownforall.org) The Red Nation (therednation.org) <wbr />Brave Space Alliance (bravespacealliance.org) and the Indigenous Kinship Collective (indigenouskinshipcollective.<wbr />com).
Further reading on mutual aid:
Regan De Loggans' mutual aid zine (mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/<wbr />wp-content/uploads/2020/05/<wbr />LOGGANS-mutual-aid-zine.pdf)
The complete text of Kropotkin's book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (theanarchistlibrary.org/<wbr />library/petr-kropotkin-mutual-<wbr />aid-a-factor-of-evolution)
Mutual Aid Hub (mutualaidhub.org)
Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. This week, June 13, 2020, features the socialist councilwoman from Seattle, Kshama Sawant, who has been active at the recently formed Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).
Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Brooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooks
Kasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian
Dan interviews returning guests Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana on the long history behind the crisis of American imperial legitimation that has become so manifest amid the pandemic.
Some works by Bâli and Rana cited in this interview:
lawreview.uchicago.edu/publication/constitutionalism-and-american-imperial-imagination
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Ana's out this week, June 6, 2020, but we have the writer Touré Reed to discuss recent protests, Amy Cooper, and race essentialism.
Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Brooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooks
Kasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian
Suzi talks to Philip V. McHarris about defunding and disbanding the police. Just two weeks ago the call to defund the police would have been thought of as hopelessly utopian. Now, after the public lynching of George Floyd on May 25, that demand is part of the national conversation. Mayor Garcetti in Los Angeles, along with mayors elsewhere, has said he'll redirect $250 million from the LAPD police to jobs, health, and other programs supporting communities of color. That would have been unthinkable before demonstrators marched to his house with one demand: "Defund the Police." The Minneapolis City Council has announced with a veto-proof majority that it will disband the police and start over. We get insights and innovative ideas for reform fromMcHarris, who has written widely on the questions of race, policing, and the criminal justice system.
Antibody is a narrative series about how Covid-19 has changed everything and nothing at all.
In this episode:
The Corner (featuring Pablo Alvarado and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network)
Stranger Pleasure (featuring Samuel Delany; produced by David Gutherz)
One House in Oakland (produced by Sophie Kasakove)
Role Call (produced by Andrea Long Chu)
Support day laborer economic survival with a contribution at ndlon.org
Dan interviews Cathy Cohen, Jasson Perez, and Malaika Jabali on this uprising, the conditions that made it possible, and where it might be headed.
Support Black Visions Collective at blackvisionsmn.org
Check out Malaika's short film Left Out.
Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. The guest on May 30, 2020: culture writer at The Athletic, Wosny Lambre on the protests against police brutality, politics in the NBA, and more.
Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk
Brooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooks
Kasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian
Lambre on Twitter https://twitter.com/BigWos
Antibody is a new narrative series about how Covid-19 has changed everything and nothing at all.
In this episode:
Zoom Canvass (featuring Nikil Saval)
Hardwood Flesh (produced by Ari Mejia)
Dial 3 to Admit Your Personal Failure (produced by Ian Lewis and Caroline Kanner)
You Can't Go Home Again (written by Alex Press)
The International Trans Person Helpline (produced by Cass Adair and Arlie Adlington)
Suzi talks to historians Mike Davis and Jon Wiener, touching on some of the many intersecting stories they tell in their long awaited and absolutely compelling history, Set the Night on Fire: Los Angeles in the Sixties.
Here we see Los Angeles as a hotbed of political, social and cultural upheaval — from the Watts rebellion to the Chicano Blowouts, the anti-war movement, youth protests and strikes, the women’s and gay movements, the cultural flowering and media expressions, including KPFK, the Los Angeles Free Press and the Ashgrove — as well as the ferocious, racist and violent police response at every turn. Their account of the ever increasing mass protests and the movements behind them convey that “special excitement that occurs when a group of people can see and visibly measure their potential power for the first time.”
Dan interviews anthropologist Adia Benton on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and what its politics reveal about the Covid-19 pandemic today.
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/thdig
We're on to Part II of The Making of the English Working Class. We cover chapter six and seven--"Exploitation" and "The Field Labourers," plus discuss the 1986 film Comrades, which follows the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of laborers who were transported to Australia for organizing an early trade union.
No secondary reading this week, though if you can find Comrades online, watch it! In the United States at least, it's available on Vimeo.
Dan interviews Frank Rosenthal on the history of the radical science organization Science for the People and Nafis Hasan on everything about a left-wing politics of science.
Subscribe to Science for the People at magazine.ScienceForThePeople.org
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
With guest Asad Haider, we discuss at length the theoretical polemic of E.P. Thompson against Louis Althusser. What was the historical context for each side of this conflict (in which Althusser never participated directly)? What was Thompson’s critique? Asad argues that Thompson did not understand Althusser correctly, or even provide a satisfactory conceptual account of what was best about his own empirical research. The two, may have been closer to each other than Thompson understood. A humanist, he preferred the young Marx; Althusser, an anti-humanist, argued systematically for the importance of the mature Marx. Both, however, were reacting to the Stalinist ossification of their respective national Communist parties.
Readings discussed in this episode:
Louis Althusser, For Marx
https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/35-for-marx
Louis Althusser, “Contradiction and Overdetermination” (from For Marx)
Louis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey, and Jacques Rancière, Reading Capital
https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/2042-reading-capital
Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”
https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />reference/archive/althusser/<wbr />1970/ideology.htm
Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis”
Perry Anderson, Arguments Within English Marxism
https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/576-arguments-within-<wbr />english-marxism
Asad Haider, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/2716-mistaken-identity
Karl Marx, Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
E.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English”
<u>https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1965/<wbr />english.htm</u>
E.P. Thompson, “An Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski” https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1973/<wbr />kolakowski.htm
E.P. Thompson, “The Poverty of Theory:Or, An Orrery of Errors” https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1978/pot/<wbr />intro.htm
E.P. Thompson, “Outside the Whale”
https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1978/<wbr />outside-whale.htm
Dan is playing catch up. Here's a fav interview from the archives: critical theorist Nancy Fraser on how a total analysis of capitalism requires analyzing capitalism's totality, including socially reproductive work that makes possible the world that capitalism exploits. This is painfully relevant today as people everywhere do the work of staying at home and social distancing to beat this pandemic while capitalists reap the rewards of the world's reproduction.
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We cover Chapter Five, but first have an extensive discussion of the debate between Thompson and Perry Anderson and Tom Nairn over the history of social class and economic development in England, with sociologist Jonah Stuart-Brundage. What should we make of liberalism in England at the end of the eighteenth century and what it meant for the prospects of revolution?
Secondary readings:
Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I23/articles/perry-<wbr />anderson-origins-of-the-<wbr />present-crisis
Perry Anderson, “Socialism and Pseudo-Empiricism,” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I35/articles/perry-<wbr />anderson-socialism-and-pseudo-<wbr />empiricism
Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/475-the-persistence-of-<wbr />the-old-regime
Tom Nairn, “The British Political Elite” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I23/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-british-political-elite
Tom Nairn, “The British Working Class” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I24/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-english-working-class
Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part I” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I27/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-nature-of-the-labour-<wbr />party-part-i
Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part II” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I28/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-nature-of-the-labour-<wbr />party-part-ii
E.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English” https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1965/<wbr />english.htm#n1
Michael Seltzer is a cultural anthropologist and professor emeritus at Oslo University in Norway. There is a sharp contrast in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic between Norway, Finland, and Denmark, where isolation and quarantine are in effect, as compared to Sweden, where the economy is open, and the death rate is much higher. Mike says learning from the experience of Scandinavia is instructive for the United States as some states open for business, while others stay locked down. Mike looks at the history and politics behind these different approaches.
Michael Goldfield<font color="#000000"> discusses his new book,</font>The Southern Key: Class Race & Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s. He argues that the political economic evolution of the South has been the key to determining the peculiar nature of American politics. Today the South is the center of reaction, leading the fight against choice, women and LGBTQ rights, the right to unionize — and even in the fight against the lockdown and quarantine necessary to halt the spread of coronavirus. It didn’t have to be this way and Goldfield holds that the experience (and failure) of organizing the working class in the South explains the origins of the current state of the United States and the world; and that the defeats from that time closed off the possibilities for meaningful class and anti-racist politics — as well as for a successful labor movement for decades to come.
Dan interviews Aaron Benanav, who argues that the problem isn't that robots are stealing our jobs but rather that capitalist growth is finding its limits and making jobs worse.
Read "Automation and the Future of Work" in New Left Review. Parts one and two.
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig.
We cover chapters three and four—"Satan's Strongholds" and "The Free-Born Englishman." With guest John Bohstedt (author of The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, 1550-1850) we discuss the history and logic of riots in early modern England: why did riots occur so frequently? What did they mean? And how did they relate to the widely held ideas about English liberties, which both contributed to and inhibited the development of popular radicalism?
Secondary Readings:
John Bohstedt, Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales, 1790–1810.
John Bohstedt, The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, 1550–1850.
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Douglas Hay, Peter Linebaugh, John G. Rule, E.P. Thompson, and Cal Winslow, Albion's Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England.
Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution.
George Rudé, The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848.
Charles Tilly, "Collective Violence in European Perspective."
E.P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century.”
E.P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act.
Dan interviews Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, the authors of Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism, to assess the campaign and the way forward.
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan interviews the makers of a new podcast series telling the history of the Iraq War.
Blowback is available only on Stitcher Premium—and for a month you can listen for free. Go to stitcherpremium.com and sign up with the code BLOWBACK.
We cover chapters one and two — "Members Unlimited" and "Christian Apollyon" — on this week's episode. Rachel Foxley, a professor of history at the University of Reading and author of The Levellers: Radical Political Thought in the English Revolution, joins us to talk about the English Revolution.
Secondary Reading:
Rachel Foxley, The Levellers (Manchester University Press, 2013).
Christopher Hill, The Experience of Defeat(Verso, 2017).
Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra(Verso, 2014).
CB Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Beacon Press, 1993).
Ellen Meiksins Wood, Democracy Against Capitalism(Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Dan interviews historian Kim Phillips-Fein about her book Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics and about how the destruction of social democracy made today's city where coronavirus is killing its poor and working-class people.
In other news: Dan's Jacobin essay on keeping the Bernie infrastructure alive is here and the volunteer petition to do so, which you should sign, is here.
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Welcome to Casualties of History, a podcast from Jacobin magazine. We’ll be working our way through EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class. In this first episode, Alex and Gabe introduce themselves and cover the book’s preface, as well as outline the context in which it was written. Who was Thompson, and what was he aiming to do in writing this book? Who was he arguing with, and why?
Reference is made to secondary literature:
Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis,” New Left Review 1, no. 23 (Jan-Feb 1964).
EP Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English,” Socialist Register (1965).
Thompson, “Time, Work Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” Past & Present no. 38 (Dec 1967).
Frederick Cooper, “Work, class and empire: An African historian's retrospective on E. P. Thompson,” Social History 20, no. 2 (1995).
Geoff Eley, A Crooked Line(University of Michigan, 2006).
Madeleine Davis, “Reappraising British socialist humanism,” Journal of Political Ideologies 18, no. 1 (2013).
Davis, “Edward Thompson's Ethics and Activism 1956–1963: Reflections on the Political Formation of The Making of the English Working Class,” Contemporary British History 28, no. 4 (2014).
Dan interviews veteran organizer Jasson Perez and journalist Sarah Jaffe on left organizing amid covid and where it might go.
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Dan interviews Amy Kapczynski and Gregg Gonsalves on the politics of public health and what we can learn from ACT UP.
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Dan interviews New York magazine writer Eric Levitz on the big corporate bailout that gave workers precious little to survive the corona crisis.
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Dan interviews Marxist economist Grace Blakeley on coronavirus economics.
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Podcasting in the time of coronavirus: Suzi's new episode of Jacobin Radio features interviews with Marxist greats Mike Davis and Robert Brenner. Mike Davis is writing widely on the COVID-19 pandemic in Jacobin and the Nation. Fifteen years ago, Davis published The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu, and he sees the coronavirus pandemic as the familiar monster now at our door. We get his views on the huge challenges coronavirus poses for humanity, and the impotence of global capitalism in the face of biological crisis. He calls it a “Medical Katrina” that exposes the woeful unpreparedness of our disinvested public health system as well as the stark class divide of health care in the United States. <o:p></o:p>
Suzi then turns to Robert Brenner for his analysis of the deepening crisis and its political implications. Brenner says that the economic meltdown was triggered by COVID-19 but not caused by it. We get his account of the politics — that is of the way wealth is now attained by political rather than the old-fashioned means: how an alliance of top corporate managers and the very rich, plus leading politicians from both political parties, have rigged the political economy in favor of the 1 percent. It is from the standpoint of this transition from capitalism (back) to feudalism that we need to understand how the crisis is unfolding and the various political responses to it, from the establishment and from the Left. <o:p></o:p>
Dan interviews Mike Davis about everything we are all suddenly trying to figure out.
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Dan interviews NYC DSA down-ballot candidates. Samelys López is running for a US House seat in the Bronx. Jabari Brisport, Marcela Mitaynes, and Phara Souffrant Forrest are running for seats in the state legislature. All four are campaigning on a platform of housing justice.
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An interview on how the Democratic Party got here today with Ryan Grim.
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Pep talk time: Dan interviews Rep. Ilhan Omar to give us some perspective and prepare us for the fight ahead.
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Super Tuesday has come and gone, and Joe Biden is now the frontrunner. There's nobody better to talk about this stuff than Jacobin staff writer and Senior Biden Correspondent Branko Marcetic, author of the new book Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. We discussed Biden and the state of the race as a whole.
Branko's book is excellent. You can buy it for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/store
A special pod ep from Sunday's live Boston canvass kickoff with Michael Brooks and Natalie Shure.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan interviews Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on her book Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership.
Come see Dan discuss All-American Nativism in Boston on 3/4 facebook.com/events/522615241724284/
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Live show with Jacobin's Bhaskar Sunkara and Alex Press in Cambridge, MA for Bernie 2020. Recorded the night of Nevada caucuses.
Please support us with your money at www.thedigradio.com
The Catholic Church was a powerful force throughout the first half of the 20th century. It was a force for right-wing reaction. That’s what Dan discusses today with Giuliana Chamedes, the author of the remarkable book A Twentieth-Century Crusade: The Vatican’s Battle to Remake Christian Europe.
Live Massachusetts Dig for Bernie! With Bhaskar Sunkara and Alex Press at Harvard this Saturday 2/2, 7pm: facebook.com/events/604111176850753/
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Racism on the right wing is changing in weird and important ways, and liberal anti-racism offers no viable solution. Dan interviews Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joe Lowndes, authors of Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity.
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Suzi talks to Ansar Fayyazuddin<font color="#365f91">, t</font><font color="#000000">heoretical physicist and writer, who has written on geo-engineering as an approach to mitigate the climate disaster that he contends offers a false solution, filled with fallacies bound to create unforeseen consequences. Ansar’s critique is lucid and devastating, and he argues that geo-engineering technological fixes will not get us out of this mess, but will further entrench us in a deeply eco-destructive mode of life. He finds hope in the social movements demanding fundamental change and that means not just a Green New Deal, but conceiving the possibility of the end of capitalism. </font>
<font color="#000000">Turning to the aftermath of the Bolivian coup, Suzi talks to</font>Linda Farthing<font color="#365f91">, </font><font color="#000000">Bolivia-based journalist and writer who gives us her account and analysis of what has happened in the three months since the coup that ousted President Evo Morales, sending him into exile. We get Linda’s insights on what led to the coup, who has reaped the benefits, and what has happened to the largely indigenous social movements that propelled Evo Morales to power and now face a horror show of violence. We also ask what lies ahead given elections have been called for May 2020. </font>
Columbia Point tenants face new management and a private police force.
This is the final episode of the first season of People's History Podcast! "The Point: Rebellion and Resistance in Boston Public Housing" traces a social history of Boston from the urban rebellions of the 1960s, through busing in the 70s, into the Clinton era.
We investigate these events from the lens of one community: Columbia Point, the largest public housing project in New England. Built on an isolated landfill site next to the Boston city dump, it was the site of major organizing, from welfare rights to a Free Breakfast for Children program. It was also the first public housing project to be sold off and redeveloped as private "mixed-income" development (and was a model for the federal policy "HOPE VI").
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod
The protests have subsided but coronavirus has only created a deeper crisis for government legitimacy. Dan interviews long-time Hong Kong activist and writer Au Loong Yu.
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Dan interviews philosopher Martin Hägglund on how the way we conceive of our finite lives here on earth shapes our critique of capitalism and construction of socialism.
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Daniel Denvir shamelessly interviewed on his own podcast by Astra Taylor about All-American Nativism.
Upcoming events:
1/24 All-American Nativism Brooklyn book launch with Aziz Rana facebook.com/events/606979320053356/
1/27 Race for Profit: A Conversation with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor [Live Dig interview in Providence] facebook.com/events/1416403061860397/
1/28 Rhode Island Students for Bernie Kickoff Rally with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Linda Sarsour facebook.com/events/618607768707911/
Book tour (more to be announced soon!):
1/31 Providence facebook.com/events/2432419893664520/
2/24 Philly facebook.com/events/462775997752533/
2/26 DC at solidstatebooksdc.com
2/28 Baltimore facebook.com/events/509390186368309/
3/4 Boston at tridentbookscafe.com
3/11 New Orleans: All-American Nativism and A Planet to Win double book event with Thea Riofrancos at octaviabooks.com
3/17 Austin at monkeywrenchbooks.org
3/18 Dallas at deepvellum.org
In the turmoil of busing, Betty Ann Jones advocates armed defense. Betty Washington and Dorothy Haskins lead a "wade-in" to protest segregation.
This is the penultimate episode of the first season of People's History Podcast! "The Point: Rebellion and Resistance in Boston Public Housing" traces a social history of Boston from the urban rebellions of the 1960s, through busing in the 70s, into the Clinton era.
We investigate these events from the lens of one community: Columbia Point, the largest public housing project in New England. Built on an isolated landfill site next to the Boston city dump, it was the site of major organizing, from welfare rights to a Free Breakfast for Children program. It was also the first public housing project to be sold off and redeveloped as private "mixed-income" development (and was a model for the federal policy "HOPE VI").
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod
The wars at home and abroad have always been connected. Dan interviews Nikhil Pal Singh on US attacks on Iran and the politics, history, and culture of American warmaking.
Upcoming events:
1/24 All-American Nativism Brooklyn book launch with Aziz Rana facebook.com/events/606979320053356/
1/27 Race for Profit: A Conversation with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor [Live Dig interview in Providence] facebook.com/events/1416403061860397/
1/28 Rhode Island Students for Bernie Kickoff Rally with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Linda Sarsour facebook.com/events/618607768707911/
Book tour (more to be announced soon!):
1/31 Providence facebook.com/events/2432419893664520/
2/24 Philly facebook.com/events/462775997752533/
2/26 DC at solidstatebooksdc.com
2/28 Baltimore facebook.com/events/509390186368309/
3/4 Boston at tridentbookscafe.com
3/11 New Orleans: All-American Nativism and A Planet to Win double book event with Thea Riofrancos at octaviabooks.com
3/17 Austin at monkeywrenchbooks.org
3/18 Dallas at deepvellum.org
Confronting the intertwined ecological, social, economic, and political crises. Dan interviews Thea Riofrancos and Daniel Aldana Cohen, co-authors with Kate Aronoff and Alyssa Battistoni of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Sisters Angie Irving and Linda Wade bring the Black Panthers to Columbia Point.
This is episode four of the first season of People's History Podcast! "The Point: Rebellion and Resistance in Boston Public Housing" traces a social history of Boston from the urban rebellions of the 1960s, through busing in the 70s, into the Clinton era.
We investigate these events from the lens of one community: Columbia Point, the largest public housing project in New England. Built on an isolated landfill site next to the Boston city dump, it was the site of major organizing, from welfare rights to a Free Breakfast for Children program. It was also the first public housing project to be sold off and redeveloped as private "mixed-income" development (and was a model for the federal policy "HOPE VI").
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod
Suzi looks at the likely impact of Qassem Soleimani's assassination for both Iran and Iraq. Juan Cole of "Informed Comment" examines the decision by Donald Trump to launch the strike that killed Iranian general Soleimani, escalating the stand-off with Iran to a new level of violence that could trigger a much broader and more lethal direct conflict. We get Cole's views on the ramifications for US-Iranian relations, the domestic considerations for each regime, and the wider implications at home and in the Middle East.
Suzi then talks to Yousef Baker of CSU Long Beach, who writes about the Iraqi protest movement. He says the American attacks and assassination of Soleimani has not just fanned the escalating regional conflict — it deals a death blow to the Iraqi protests. Iraqis have been pushed into the eye of the storm and every Iraqi political force now has to pick a side, with deadly consequences. The United States has made Iraq into its battlefield once again, making this escalation the most consequential action in Iraq since 2003. We get Baker's analysis and perspective.
We need Bernie but a lot more too. Dan does three interviews with down-ballot left insurgent candidates: Jessica Cisneros, a Justice Democrat running against incumbent conservative Democrat Henry Cuellar in Texas’s 28th congressional district; Stephen Smith, who is running a populist campaign for West Virginia governor; and Heidi Sloan, a DSA candidate in the Democratic primary for Texas’s 25th Republican-held 25th congressional district.
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out their huge selection of titles at ucpress.edu
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Why we need single-payer healthcare, why Medicare for All is suddenly at the center of debate, and why this is all part of a broader struggle for health justice. Dan interviews Tim Faust.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
An interview on how the transformation of capitalism has changed the possibilities for anti-capitalist struggle with Michael Hardt, co-author with Antonio Negri of Assembly.
Read Dan's essay on the 20th anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle jacobinmag.com/2019/11/seattle-world-trade-organization-protests-socialism
Read Hardt and Negri reflect on the 20th anniversary of Empirenewleftreview.org/issues/II120/articles/empire-twenty-years-on
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
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Anthony Clark is running for Congress in Illinois’s seventh district, which mostly covers Chicago’s West Side and surrounding suburbs. It’s his second attempt to unseat longtime incumbent Danny Davis. Micah spoke with Anthony recently about his life, how he became a socialist, how he sees the relationship between identity and capitalism, and, most importantly, smoking weed.
You can learn more about Anthony here: https://www.voteanthonyclark.com/
On the occasion of our third anniversary we are taking a break. Here's a classic on settler colonialism from our archives: Paul Frymer on Building an American Empire: The Era of Territorial and Political Expansion. a.k.a. episode 85 from January 30 2018.
Thanks to University of North Carolina Press. Check out their Justice, Power, and Politics series uncpress.org/series/justice-power-politics
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Tenants take their growing dissatisfaction and aim it at their landlord, the Boston Housing Authority.
This is episode three of the first season of a people's history podcast! "The Point: Rebellion and Resistance in Boston Public Housing" traces a social history of Boston from the urban rebellions of the 1960s, through busing in the 70s, into the Clinton era.
We investigate these events from the lens of one community: Columbia Point, the largest public housing project in New England. Built on an isolated landfill site next to the Boston city dump, it was the site of major organizing, from welfare rights to a Free Breakfast for Children program. It was also the first public housing project to be sold off and redeveloped as private "mixed-income" development (and was a model for the federal policy "HOPE VI").
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod
Political scientist Jeff Webber discusses the coup against Evo Morales and the recent history of Bolivia.
Read "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Macho Camacho" by Jeff Webber and Forrest Hylton www.versobooks.com/blogs/4493-the-eighteenth-brumaire-of-macho-camacho-jeffery-r-webber-with-forrest-hylton-on-the-coup-in-bolivia
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out their titles at ucpress.edu
Support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
<h4>As urban rebellions arise in cities, welfare rights advocates in Boston public housing use militant tactics to get services they are owed.</h4><h4>This is episode two of the first season of a people's history podcast! "The Point: Rebellion and Resistance in Boston Public Housing" traces a social history of Boston from the urban rebellions of the 1960s, through busing in the 70s, into the Clinton era.</h4>
We investigate these events from the lens of one community: Columbia Point, the largest public housing project in New England. Built on an isolated landfill site next to the Boston city dump, it was the site of major organizing, from welfare rights to a Free Breakfast for Children program. It was also the first public housing project to be sold off and redeveloped as private "mixed-income" development (and was a model for the federal policy "HOPE VI").
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod
Dan interviews Naomi Klein on her new essay collection On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal.
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out their huge selection of titles at ucpress.edu
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
<h4>At Columbia Point, a Boston public housing project built in 1954, mothers organize to try and close the city dump.</h4><h4>This is episode one of the first season of the people's history podcast! "The Point: Rebellion and Resistance in Boston Public Housing" traces a social history of Boston from the urban rebellions of the 1960s, through busing in the 70s, into the Clinton era.</h4><h4>We investigate these events from the lens of one community: Columbia Point, the largest public housing project in New England. Built on an isolated landfill site next to the Boston city dump, it was the site of major organizing, from welfare rights to a Free Breakfast for Children program. It was also the first public housing project to be sold off and redeveloped as private "mixed-income" development (and was a model for the federal policy "HOPE VI").</h4>
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod
Maria hit Puerto Rico as austerity dismantled its social and material infrastructure. But as Yarimar Bonilla explains, these years also taught Puerto Ricans about their own collective power, fueling the summer’s mass movement that overthrew Governor Ricardo Rosselló.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Season one, episode one drops November 19th on Jacobin Radio.
Mathew Lawrence, founder and director of the left-wing UK think tank Common Wealth, explains why ownership must be socialized, what that might look like, and how to make it happen.
Thanks to UNC Press. Check out Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice By Lana Dee Povitz uncpress.org/book/9781469653013/stirrings
Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
The divide between Latin American and the United States was not always so evident. Across the hemisphere, creoles—the descendants of European settlers, born in the Americas—launched revolutions to cast off European rule and preserve their own elite position over black and indigenous people. Joshua Simon explains how rival settler-colonial projects became today's status quo of US dominance.
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Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom and Gilbert Achcar about the ongoing massive protest movements in Chile and Lebanon, where for more than two weeks the mobilization and demonstrations have spread spectacularly in breadth and depth. In Chile 1.2 million took to the streets on Oct 25 and in Lebanon protestors formed a human chain from one end of the country to another, in both places protesting the inequity of the status quo, a generalized protest against neoliberalism, and an unjust order. Protestors have demanded the resignation of their governments in both Chile and Lebanon, and Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri has now resigned. Lebanon’s October uprising of dignity has shaken its long-resilient sectarian political system to its foundations.
Adom Getachew explains how anticolonial leaders from across the black Atlantic tried to not only cast off European rule but also end empire by constructing an egalitarian global political and economic order in its place.
Thanks to University of North Carolina Press. Check out Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor uncpress.org/book/9781469653662/race-for-profit/
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What could a Bernie Sanders presidency do for racial justice in America? Last month at Riverside Church in New York City, we hosted a discussion on this question with Briahna Joy Gray and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, moderated by Ariella Thornhill. <o:p></o:p>
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Briahna Joy Gray is Bernie Sanders’s national press secretary. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is an assistant professor of African American Studies at Princeton and a Jacobin columnist. Ariella Thornhill is a Jacobin board member.<o:p></o:p>
Perhaps nowhere is the far right stronger than in India. There, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, continues in power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi after winning a huge victory in this year’s elections. The BJP, however, isn’t just a party. It’s the electoral wing of a Hindu nationalist movement that constitutes the largest and most organized far-right force on earth. A deep dive with Indian scholar Achin Vanaik.
Read some of his recent work:
newleftreview.org/issues/II112/articles/achin-vanaik-india-s-two-hegemonies
jacobinmag.com/author/achin-vanaik
Thanks to Princeton University Press. Check out The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America by Nicholas Buccola press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691181547/the-fire-is-upon-us
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan interviews Alex Gourevitch about how 19th century US labor radicals remade the idea of freedom into a principle of working-class social transformation.
If you want more on the debate over Lexit, which they only touched on briefly, check out this June interview with Chris Bickerton and Jerome Roos www.thedigradio.com/podcast/the-european-situation-with-chris-bickerton-and-jerome-roos
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan interviews Noura Erakat, the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, a new book that analyzes the history of settler-colonialism in Palestine and the Palestinian struggle for liberation from just before the British mandate to the present through the lens of the law.
Thanks to Haymarket Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at haymarketbooks.org
Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig. We need those of you who can support us to do so because we provide every episode free to all.
Lisa Duggan wrote a book that explains everything you need to know about Ayn Rand and why she became so enormously consequential so that you don't have to read Rand's work yourself. Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed is out now from University of California Press.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
The history of suburbanite reactions to school integration in Atlanta and Charlotte reveal the class power underpinning both racism and the demolition of the New Deal order. Dan interviews Matt Lassiter, discussing suburbanite resistance to school busing, why Nixon's Silent Majority was the the product of a suburban strategy rather than a Southern one, and why the class base of all politics matters.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
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Dan interviewed legendary feminist scholar Silvia Federici on Caliban and the Witch at her Brooklyn apartment. Next year, he'll make a return trip to discuss Wages for Housework.
Here's the article on the Pawtucket factory strike by Joey La Neve DeFrancesco that Dan mentions jacobinmag.com/2018/06/factory-workers-strike-textile-mill-women
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
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Dan discusses the history of black politics in the US—left, nationalist, liberal, and neoliberal—with Michael Dawson.
Check out New Dawn, Michael's podcast on race and capitalism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-dawn/id1213696020
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Writer Brian Hioe updates us on the Hong Kong protests. Then, Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA), on India’s ongoing crackdown in Kashmir
Guest host Astra Taylor interviews Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz about Indigenous people's history to reexamine all of history, the present, and our possible futures.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Ordinary language is the sound of hegemony; it is also an archive of the struggles to overturn it. Language is an institution and a constantly emergent field of struggle; it is the product of power relations and it is also itself power relations. Dan interviews John Patrick Leary, the author of Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
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<font color="#000000">Suzi talks to UCLA law professor </font>Gary Blasi, a longtime housing activist and advocate for the homeless about the staggering increase in homelessness in LA city and county (indeed across the country). But there are misconceptions about what is driving this surge in people living on the streets. Put simply, says Blasi, homeless people are homeless because they cannot afford housing, mostly in neighborhoods where they have grown up. We get Blasi's analysis of the scope of homelessness, the effectiveness — or lack thereof —of city, county, and state measures to deal with it, as well as what more can be done.
Suzi then talks to author and activist Paul Buhle about his graphic biography of the American socialist and labor leader Eugene V. Debs— one of the most important Americans of the twentieth century according to Bernie Sanders, who also called Debs “the most effective and popular leader that the American working class has ever had.” We hear about Debs’s life, ideas, and struggles as a fighting union leader of the Pullman railroad strike and Socialist Party leader who was jailed for opposing World War I and ran for president from prison, winning over a million votes.
Dan talks to Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara about his book The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality. We must study socialism's history and plan for its future.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at versobooks.com
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Jobs have in recent years gotten much worse for millions of service workers at Amazon, McDonalds and call centers. Dan interviews Emily Guendelsberger on her book On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig
Suzi looks at the rising in Puerto Rico with professor, activist, and author Rafael Bernabe in San Juan, Puerto Rico where two weeks of massive protests brought down the corrupt government of Ricardo Rosselló, and continue amid uncertainty about what comes next. The protest movement took off after the Center for Investigative Journalism released nearly 900 pages of chat messages between Rosselló and his inner circle, revealing their misogyny, homophobia, and the contempt they held for the population. But it wasn’t just the most recent events that brought the people’s anger to the boiling point: the economic meltdown of 2008–2009 hit a Puerto Rico already ensnared in a never-ending debt crisis engineered by vulture funds, and when natural disaster hit following economic disaster, conditions went from bad to worse. Bernabe helps us understand this trajectory, and we get his view on what direction he sees for Puerto Rico after the success of the mass movement.
Asli Bâli, UCLA law professor and Middle East expert on public international law, international security, and nuclear non-proliferation, gives us a big picture look at the US-Iran conflict and its defunct nuclear agreement. Trump continues to threaten Iran, aided by the mainstream media who are freaking out over Iran’s supposed breach of the 2015 Nuclear Accord, seemingly forgetting that it was Trump who unilaterally tore up that agreement, arbitrarily imposing a new, brutal sanctions regime. Bâli looks at the deeper context of the chronic but escalating US-Iran conflict, and explores its trajectory now that Trump has essentially abandoned the deal.
Dan interviews Lily Geismer, the author of Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. While Boston whites fought school busing in the streets, suburban liberals along Route 128 maintained and benefited from the larger system of metropolitan residential and school segregation that made the crisis possible. Suburban liberals also played a key role in creating a new Democratic Party that embraced a superficial politics of recognition while advancing a technocratic elite-driven neoliberal agenda that included the demonization and persecution of poor black mothers on welfare and mass incarceration.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
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Dan is taking his first week off ever in Dig history to finish his book. Here's a classic from deep in the archives: our first interview with Aziz Rana, on his book The Two Faces of American Freedom, aka episode 62. If you've already heard this one and are hungry for more content we've got everything organized by date, guest and topic at www.thedigradio.com.
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Suzi talks to historian Myrna Santiago and immigrants' rights specialist Alicia Rusoja, who just returned from a week at the border, where they talked to men, women, and child migrants, sat in immigration court, and spoke to support groups — as well as deported veterans, and deported mothers of Dreamers in Tijuana. Their reflections and revelations include the way abuse and corruption are adding to the horrors these migrants face. Suzi then talks to Daniel Finn about British politics: while the Tories are deciding whether Boris Johnson will be their next leader, the Labour Party has its own dilemmas — over its attitude to Brexit, but also how to deal with the surprisingly effective smear campaign against Labour’s left-wing leadership, in particular leader Jeremy Corbyn. Finn looks at the underlying controversy, and as he wrote in Jacobin, despite Corbyn’s unprecedented efforts to expel antisemites from party ranks (no such similar move in the Conservative Party), Corbyn’s critics will never be satisfied — their issue is Corbyn’s politics itself. This has great relevance for our own politics, as Finn explains.
Dan's lengthy interview with two brilliant Chilean social movement organizers: Alondra Carrillo and Pablo Abufom. Carrillo organizes in the country's massive feminist movement. Abufom works in the labor-backed movement for a just pension system.
Read Dan's interview with Daniel Jadue, the Communist mayor of Recoleta, in Jacobin.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan interviews Sophie Lewis about her new book Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family. Something is deeply wrong with commercial surrogacy—but it's just not what you might think. What's wrong is the brute labor exploitation taking place at the reproductive crossroads of a racialized global capitalist order.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at versobooks.com
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Suzi does three stories on this episode of Jacobin Radio, beginning with Katie Halper's expose in Jacobinof <wbr />the New York Times'sproblem with Bernie Sanders, evident in their coverage.The problem is their correspondent Sydney Ember, who has a long record of unfairly attacking Sanders — while neglecting to mention that the sources she quotes as objective authorities are corporate lobbyists and austerity ideologues. Suzi then looks at two articles in the new journal Commune, first withM. E. O’Brien. Her article, “Junkie Communism” questions how the socialist project emphasizes the dignity of work as its basis, but leaves out those who are unable to maintain stable employment — and posits a politics that includes those whose lives have been broken by the cruel conditions imposed on us all. Suzi then talks to Chloe Watlington about her powerful piece “Who Owns Tomorrow,” a devastating and revealing look at deaths of despair — from opioids, alcohol, and unemployment in crumbling neoliberal America, an all-too-familiar story that has hit Watlington personally.
For much of the twentieth century, Cold War politics defined socialism as the antithesis of democracy. Today, an insurgent democratic-socialist movement is transforming US politics. It is socialism that is at the forefront of a fight for a radical deepening of democracy, one in which ordinary people exercise control over our political, economic, and social lives — and one in which the people is expansively defined to include those excluded by racist immigration law and mass incarceration. Dan discusses this, and more, with filmmaker and writer Astra Taylor.
Read Astra's article on socialism here: newrepublic.com/article/153804/reclaiming-future-growing-appeal-socialism-age-inequality
Check out her film, What is Democracy? on your preferred streaming service.
And her book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone, here: us.macmillan.com/books/9781250179845.
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig.
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What is a socialist society going to look like? Like, actually look like? We have to have some answers to this question. Luckily, Sam Gindin has some. He talks to Micah about his article in Catalyst, “Socialism for Realists,” which you can read here.<o:p></o:p>
Dan's lengthy interview with Nick Estes on his remarkable book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. The problem that settler colonialism was repeatedly trying to solve by unleashing such terrific violence — through massacres, by nearly eliminating the buffalo, in reservation confinement, in dominating the Missouri River — was not just indigenous people being in the way but also the existence of a larger relationship between indigenous people and the land, water, and animals. The history of resisting this capitalist and colonialist dispossession has endured through the Water Protectors' struggle at Standing Rock — which will, in retrospect, be remembered as a pivotal moment in the global struggle against climate catastrophe.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com.
Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig.
On this episode of Jacobin Radio, Suzi focuses on the intensifying US-Iranian crisis and war brinkmanship that saw us about ten minutes away from military strikes, before Trump pulled back. We get MIT historian Pouya Alimaghum’s analysis of the crisis, the implications and goals of the increasing bluster and ever more draconian sanctions, and what they mean for domestic dissent in Iran.
Then Suzi talks to UCI professor of Chinese history Jeff Wasserstrom, who has just returned from Hong Kong and has written in the Atlanticabout the gigantic protest movement that was met with extreme violence, only bringing more people into the streets. The protestors were fighting against a bill that would allow the extradition of suspects to mainland China, a further threat to Hong Kong’s partial autonomy, and for the right to assemble without persecution, to speak freely, and enjoy freedom of information. For the moment the bill has been shelved, thanks to the massive protests in the streets, but not the efforts to erode the city’s freedoms. We get Wasserstrom’s analysis.
Russia intervened and Trump is a criminal who committed obstruction of justice and is surrounded by constant criminality. But it's no doubt also true that this situation and the hawkish liberal response to it have dangerously damaged US-Russia relations. At the core of Western misunderstanding is the way we think about Vladimir Putin, which is what Dan is discussing today with Tony Wood, the author of Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their massive left-wing book selection at versobooks.com
Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register now at socialismconference.org
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There is perhaps no more depressing situation in Western Europe than that which prevails in Italy: a coalition government between the far-right Lega party and the now subordinate, bizarre, amorphously anti-corruption, internet-fetishist, pseudo-directly democratic Five Star Movement. In other words, Italian politics is dominated by a viciously racist anti-migrant politics; the left, along with most traditional forces, is in utter disarray. Today, Lega, led by Interior Minister Mateo Salvini, runs Italian politics. But the bad news is maybe also the good news: Salvini has not solved Italy's deep rooted economic problems, and so it's quite possible that the very same instability that abetted his rise will ultimately lead to his downfall. Dan interviews David Broder, Lorenzo Zamponi and Marta Fana.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their massive left-wing book selection at versobooks.com
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
In Spanish politics, the center-left Socialist Party has demolished the conservative Popular Party and checked risk of a major far-right surge. But meanwhile, the once very plausible-feeling dream of an insurgent radical left Podemos gaining power has faded. And fast. Dan discusses the Spanish situation with Carlos Delclós and Magda Bandera.
Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register now at socialismconference.org
Check out Next Left, a new podcast from The Nation magazine: thenation.com/next-left
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
The radical left has been unable to electorally capitalize on the Yellow Vest movement, a massive revolt against a vicious, unequal and alienating neoliberal order. Instead, French electoral politics has pit an insurgent far-right against a zombie liberal center that presents itself as a bulwark against the nationalist tide. Dan interviews Sebastian Budgen and Danièle Obono, a member of the National Assembly with La France insoumise.
Check out War over Peace: One Hundred Years of Israel's Militaristic Nationalism by Uri Ben-Eliezer ucpress.edu/book/9780520304345/war-over-peace
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Brexit has so dominated UK politics that it has put the Labour Party in a profoundly difficult and perhaps untenable position of strategic ambiguity toward how to handle the never-ending matter of leaving the EU. Today, in part two of our five-part series on European politics, Dan discusses this all with Grace Blakeley, Maya Goodfellow, and Richard Seymour.
Thanks to Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles at versobooks.com
Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register now at socialismconference.org
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
This week and next, we're bringing you five episodes on European politics. Today, we're starting things off with Chris Bickerton and Jerome Roos for an overview of the European situation and the debate on the European left over how to approach Europe and the EU. Then, an interview on British politics with Grace Blakeley, Maya Goodfellow, and Richard Seymour. After that, a discussion of French politics with Sebastian Budget and Danièle Obono, a member of France's National Assembly with the left-wing La France insoumise. Then, an interview on Spanish politics with Carlos Delclós and Magda Bandera. And finally, an interview with David Broder and Marta Fana on Italy.
Thanks to n+1. To get 25% off a one-year subscription, go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkout
Check out Next Left, a new podcast from The Nation magazine: thenation.com/next-left
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib on the local struggles that guide her work on behalf of the working class in Congress, the urgent need for a politics that puts people over profit, the question of impeachment, and why American people are coming around to supporting a free Palestine.
Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register now at socialismconference.org
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan has in-depth discussion on Bernie's approach to race and what he must do to win over Black voters with Malaika Jabali and Wendi Muse. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Sanders isn't unpopular with Black voters. In fact, he has done rather well with young Black people. But to win the primary and beat Biden, he must do a lot better. In particular, Malaika and Wendi argue that Bernie must integrate racial justice into the core of his class struggle agenda, rather than emphasizing it as a separate and siloed issue.
Read Dan's critique of Bernie's immigration agenda jacobinmag.com/2019/04/bernie-sanders-immigrant-rights-border-policy
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register for the early-bird rate now at socialismconference.org
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
DSA's explosive growth continues; it has already, in a few short years, become the center of a renewed American socialist movement. Dan interviews Doug Henwood, who recently published a lengthy article in The New Republic entitled "The Socialist Network: Inside DSA's struggle to move into the political mainstream."
Check out Lisa Duggan's Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greeducpress.edu/book/9780520294776/mean-girl
Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register for the early-bird rate now at socialismconference.org
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Three interviews: historian Seth Rockman, scholars Crystal Eddins and Zachary Sell, and public historians Akeia Benard, Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, Elon Cook Lee and Marco McWilliams.
Dan conducted six interviews on capitalism and slavery at The Dig’s recent Slavery’s Hinterlands symposium here in Rhode Island. This second of two episodes begins with Seth Rockman on the role of slavery in American capitalism. Then, scholars Crystal Eddins and Zachary Sell on revolution and counter-revolution across the racial capitalist global order. Finally, public historians Akeia Benard, Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, Elon Cook Lee and Marco McWilliams on teaching slavery today.
Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register for the early-bird rate now at socialismconference.org
Check out Next Left, a new podcast from The Nation magazine. Their first interview is with Rep. Ilhan Omar. thenation.com/next-left/
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Three interviews: historians Linford Fisher, Christy Clark-Pujara and Joanne Melish, and Emily Owens.
Dan conducted six interviews on capitalism and slavery at The Dig's recent Slavery's Hinterlands symposium here in Rhode Island. This first of two episodes begins with historian Linford Fisher, who explains that the English settlement of North America was a settler-colonial project that required genocidally dispossessing indigenous people of their lands. What you might not know is that a central tactic for that dispossession, in New England and Virginia alike, was the threat and actual enslavement of native people, including the widespread practice of forcing native youth to labor in English homes. Then historians Christy Clark-Pujara and Joanne Melish, who pick up where Fisher leaves off: slavery wasn't the South's peculiar institution; it was the bedrock of the northern economy. And finally, historian Emily Owens on sexual labor under slavery: what, Owens' work explores, did slavery and freedom mean for women for whom, in brothels or the home, sex was work? On the next episode, Dan has two more interviews looking at the big picture questions of slavery, capitalism, revolution and colonialism, and an interview with a group of public historians who teach about slavery today.
Thanks to n+1. To get 25% off a one-year subscription, go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkout
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Donna Haraway's work defies disciplines, combining insights from both biology and feminist thought, and drawing on her own involvement in political projects organized around feminism and radical science. Haraway’s most recent book, Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, takes up these questions as the fragility of earth’s webs of life is becoming frighteningly and increasingly apparent. What are the ethical and political demands in the face of the most pressing threat of our era—catastrophic climate change? To stay with the trouble, Haraway argues, is to reject technofixes that will save us from doom on the one hand, and on the other, to reject the pessimistic idea that “it’s too late” to make the world better. The book outlines a view of what Haraway calls “multispecies flourishing” and the obstacles to achieving it through theoretical insights and speculative fiction imaginings. Interviewed by Jacobin editorial board member Alyssa Battistoni.
Thanks to n+1. To get 25% of a one-year subscription, go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkout
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Alyssa's piece on Haraway for n+1: nplusonemag.com/issue-28/reviews/monstrous-duplicated-potent
Sophie Lewis's critique of Haraway and population politics: viewpointmag.com/2017/05/08/cthulhu-plays-no-role-for-me
The Leap Manifesto: leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto
The Xenofeminist Manifesto: laboriacuboniks.net
What is gentrification? It isn't just about what was once known as the hipster and is still known as the artist, the telltale warning signs of impending demographic change. It's part of an entire political-economic order that has made real estate global capitalism's most prized asset for storing wealth—one that has helped bend place-based urban governments to the will of mobile, and thus more powerful, capital. Dan interviews Samuel Stein on his book, Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State.
Come to The Dig's Slavery's Hinterlands symposium Thursday through Saturday in Rhode Island: facebook.com/events/661508874305008/
Check out the English transcript of last week's Spanish-language interview with Communist Chilean Mayor Daniel Jadue jacobinmag.com/2019/04/communist-party-chile-left-governance-recoleta
Thanks to Verso. Check out their massive left-wing book selection at www.versobooks.com
Please support us with your cash at Patreon.com/TheDig
It's the first episode of The Vast Majority, which will be bringing you conversations on American and international politics from a socialist perspective. So who better to have on than Bhaskar Sunkara, Jacobin's editor, publisher, and founder. Bhaskar is the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality, which is out today, April 30. Micah talked to Bhaskar about the state of the socialist movement, socialism’s relationship to liberalism and markets, and Bhaskar’s utopian vision of a Buffalo Wild Wings on every corner.
You can order The Socialist Manifesto from your bookseller of choice or your local bookstore. And you can read Bhaskar's editorial "The Exercise of Power," where he talks about "class-struggle social democracy," in the latest issue of Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2019/02/the-exercise-of-<wbr />power
*This episode of The Dig is a special Dig in Spanish. Visit Jacobin for a transcript in English. Este episodio de The Dig es un Dig especial en español. Entra a Jacobin para una transcripción en inglés.*
Cuando se piensa en Chile desde el extranjero, generalmente surge la imagen de su pasado reciente marcado por la dictadura cívico–militar. Y esto con toda razón. El legado del régimen genocida de Pinochet todavía está presente en todas partes—en la memoria personal y colectiva, en las leyes y en una constitución profundamente neoliberal que sigue condenando al sistema político a un bipartidismo e impide las transformaciones deseadas por la soberanía popular. Daniel Jadue, el alcalde de la comuna de Recoleta, ubicada en la Región Metropolitana del Gran Santiago, se ha entregado a la empresa de construir en su territorio un laboratorio del comunismo del presente y del futuro. Junto a su equipo ha abierto una farmacia popular, una óptica popular y una linda librería popular. Todos estos servicios de primera necesidad venden sus productos a precios bajos y justos desafiando con ello a un mercado supuestamente autoregulado que en Chile sólo ha demostrado funcionar más bien estimulando prácticas de monopolio—un capitalismo salvaje.
Si nos estas escuchando hoy por primera vez con este episodio especial en español y también hablas inglés, por favor revisa nuestro archivo que contiene muchísimas entrevistas con intelectuales y activistas de la izquierda: blubrry.com/thedig/
The US has played a major role in fomenting violence across Yemen, backing the Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led forces attacking the country while also conducting a direct war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula under the guise of counterterrorism. But while it's understandable that US involvement is the top focus for the American left, understanding the war in Yemen requires a much broader analysis. The Yemeni conflict not only includes multiple outside actors but also multiple groups of Yemenis pursuing different outcomes, rooted in a complex history that few outside of Yemen understand. Explaining that context is what this show, in partnership with the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), is all about. This special episode includes two interviews with contributors to Middle East Report, MERIP's print publication. First, up is Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasser and political scientist Stacey Philbrick Yadav; and then, Dan speaks with political-economist Adam Hanieh.
Check out The Fight for Yemen, the latest issue of Middle East Report at merip.org/magazine/<wbr />289
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.org
Please support this podcast with your cash at Patreon.com/TheDig
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<font color="#000000">Our guest Yoav Peled argues that Netanyahu i</font>s the only issue in the April 9 election. <font color="#000000">Netanyahu is under indictment for one case of bribery and two cases of fraud, but Yoav says </font><font color="#000000">he is likely to win even though his party and their bloc </font>—<font color="#000000"> with far-right, racist and religious parties </font>—<font color="#000000"> is more or less tied with the anti-Bibi “Blue an</font>d White” coalition or bloc. Yoav also discusses his new book, The Religionization of Israeli Society— <font color="#000000">which sheds light on how the country has moved from secular Zionism to an increasingly far-right expansionist religious Zionism, and how that helps us understand the election, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict </font>—<font color="#000000"> and the relation between culture, politics, nationalism, secularization, and new social movements. </font>
<font color="#000000">Suzi then talks to</font>Micah Uetricht in Chicago, where 5–6 socialists <font color="#000000">were just elected to the City Council. Micah argues they will have outsize influence in determining the political issues </font>— <font color="#000000">much as we have seen nationally with the election of democratic socialists to Congress. In his aptly titled article in</font> the Guardian<font color="#000000">“America's socialist surge is going strong in Chicago” Micah writes that the socialist victories in Chicago were not a fluke, people are miserable with the status quo of austerity </font>— and if Chicago’s elections are any indication, it just may be that people are ready to try socialism.
In the US, China is often viewed at best as a nefarious and enigmatic rival and at worst as a civilizational enemy. But these stories of national rivalry that permeate both major parties and the mainstream media function as a mystification, shrouding the global supply chain that connects capitalist exploitation from East to West. When we cut through the noise, a rather different picture emerges: China is home to a massive portion of the world's working-class, a class that is struggling against the combined forces of state and global capital for dignified lives. And these struggles, contrary to conventional wisdom, are deeply connected, rather than opposed to, worker struggles in the West. Dan interviews sociologist Jenny Chan on China's class conflict and labor movement.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Car dominance, public transit austerity, and the neoliberal political-economy within which both are embedded have fomented what Marx called idiocy, in its classical sense of privatized social isolation. Dan talks to geographer Kafui Attoh, the author of Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California's East Bay, about the political-economy of public transit and why the fight for transportation justice must be part of a broader struggle for the right to the city.
André Gorz's "The social ideology of the motorcar" unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-social-ideology-of-the-motorcar/
Two upcoming live Dig tapings in Providence!
April 23: Dan interviews Sam Stein on his book Capital City facebook.com/events/2164662790291372/
May 2-4: Slavery’s Hinterlands: Capitalism and bondage in Rhode Island and across the Atlantic world facebook.com/events/661508874305008/
And check out the Philadelphia Socialist Feminist Convergence, April 26-28 socfemphilly.wordpress.com
Thanks to Verso Books. Peruse their massive selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Suzi talks to political economist Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos about the Trump-Bolsonaro love fest in D.C. last week, and the new Brazilian-US relationship. Bolsonaro was "summoned" to Washington to support a US invasion of Venezuela under the pretext of "exporting democracy," and we ask Pedro Paulo how that will go over in Brazil — and note the irony that Bolsonaro is a staunch defender of military dictatorships and no lover of democracy. We also get Pedro Paulo's view of Brazilian politics and economics under their new tweeter in chief — who campaigned as a murderous, homophobic, anti-feminist, declaring open season on the Left and on the Amazon rainforest, but governs as an extreme neoliberal.
The strike is back, and big time. Teachers in particular have been walking off the job not only to demand higher wages but also to fight for an end to privatization and for a transformation of the educational system for their students. These strikes, often led by women, are no doubt inspiring, and they have won important victories for workers and the communities they serve. We are, in other words, beginning to head in the right direction—but we're not heading there even close to fast enough. Winning working class power is not only necessary to meet people's immediate material needs. It is necessary if we are to accomplish a profound democratization of this country, which is what we must do if we are to implement a just energy transition that heads off what scientists have determined to be imminent climate catastrophe. Dan talks to Jane McAlevey about the labor movement and strikes.
Jane's Catalystarticle The Strike as the Ultimate Structure Test.
And her Jacobinarticle Organizing to Win a Green New Deal.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Four of the five candidates endorsed by the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America either won outright or advanced to the runoff election on April 2, leading to talk of a Socialist Caucus on the city council. And other progressive candidates throughout the city knocked off corporate-friendly incumbents. Dan passes the mic to guest host Micah Uetricht for an interview with United Working Families Executive Director Emma Tai and In These Times web editor Miles Kampf-Lassin on how years of grassroots organizing—and partnerships between labor and community groups and socialists—can produce a sea change in urban politics.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
American liberty has since its foundation relied upon the dispossession of indigenous people and Mexicans, upon African enslavement and, ultimately, upon the constant fleeing outward that created an empire that none dare call by its name. As historian Greg Grandin writes in The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, this expansionist project has finally lost its ideological and material vitality, no longer able to neatly reconcile centuries of mounting contradictions. And so politics returned to the border as American expansion hit a wall—figuratively and, as Trump has demanded, very literally. "Trumpism," Grandin writes, "is extremism turned inward, all-consuming and self-devouring. There is no 'divine, messianic' crusade that can harness and redirect passions outward. Expansion, in any form, can no longer satisfy interests, reconcile contradictions, dilute the factions, or redirect the anger."
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out No Go WorldL How Fear Is Redrawing Our Maps and Infecting Our Politics by Ruben Andersson ucpress.edu/book/9780520294608/no-go-world
And thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig
Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou explains: it's not just that the War on Terror has warped American and European politics and society; it's that the War on Terror and Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS have become mutually-critical facets of a larger, more total global geo-political order. In other words, the terrorists and the national security states waging war against them are dependent upon one another, and together have created a more violent, divided and alienated world.
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out Red Round Globe Hot Burning: A Tale at the Crossroads of Commons and Closure, of Love and Terror, of Race and Class, and of Kate and Ned Despard by Peter Linebaugh ucpress.edu/book/9780520299467/red-round-globe-hot-burning
And to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Suzi talks to DSAers Jeremy Gong and Magally Miranda Alcazar about the larger issues they are confronting after two years of Trump, a midterm election that saw radical democratic socialists elected to Congress, and the beginning of a second Bernie Sanders campaign for president. How do they see the challenges ahead, in a more favorable national context for Democratic Socialists, thanks to Bernie, AOC, #Red4Ed striking teachers, and the Trump administration’s retrograde policies? Can the Left take over the Democratic Party and should that be their aim? Or should the social-movement work of DSA, independent of the Dems, be their focus? How do they define socialism, and what should socialists do given the structures of our politics and economy?
Then, Suzi talks to Randy Shaw about his new book,Generation Priced Out — which is a call to action that addresses the national crisis of housing, city by city, looking at how policy and neglect, as well as economic crisis, has led to skyrocketing rents and home values that have priced out the working and middle class of urban America such that young people today join the exodus from the city or face homelessness because they cannot afford to live in our cities. Generation Priced Out not only tells the stories of those impacted by the national housing crisis in more than a dozen cities, he makes the argument that cities can and must address the housing needs of residents of all income levels — and he offers specific strategies, honed from his own decades of experience as a housing activist to reverse rising economic and racial inequality.
It's irrelevant whether establishment liberals are sincerely aware of the threat posed by climate catastrophe because they are constitutionally hemmed in by a small-bore, technocratic and profoundly neoliberal ideology. But the climate justice movement understands not only the urgency of the problem but also the magnitude of the political-economic response that solving it requires: to fight global warming, according to The Green New Deal, we must transform the unequal, alienating and exploitative system that carbon emissions are rooted in. Dan interviews Green New Deal architect Rhiana Gunn-Wright.
Read Jacobin's Green New Deal series jacobinmag.com/series/green-new-deal
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Striking women have begun to reclaim feminism as a project of working-class struggle against not only patriarchy's domination of women by men but also against capitalism's domination of the many by the few—a system that sexism serves. As Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya and Nancy Fraser write in Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto, "Our answer to lean-in feminism is kick-back feminism. We have no interest in breaking the glass ceiling while leaving the vast majority to clean up the shards. Far from celebrating women CEOs who occupy corner offices, we want to get rid of CEOs and corner offices." Dan interviews Tithi Bhattacharya.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig
Dan's guest is long-time organizer Jonathan Matthew Smucker, the author of Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals. The book is both a critique of the radical left's traditional style of politics and a how-to guide to fighting and winning, from nuts-and-bolts organizing methods to theory. What is wrong with the world and how to change it are two different categories of knowledge, and effective organizing requires that we master the latter.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support us with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan discusses The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte — Marx's take on revolution and reaction in mid-nineteenth-century France, the broader theories he develops about history and the relationship between politics and the class war, and how this all might apply to today — with political sociologist Dylan Riley.
Check out Dan's recent NYT op-ed, "The Case Against Border Security."
Thanks to NACLA, reporting on the Americas since 1967. Check out their collection of articles on Latin American politics at nacla.org. And thanks, as always, to Verso. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Dan talks to Eric Levitz — who at New York magazine provides the sort of consistently thoughtful and deeply contextualized analysis that is often quite hard to find on mainstream news sites — about the increasingly impossible to reconcile immanent contradictions shaking the Democratic and Republican parties.
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams by Peter Richardson, with a foreword from Mike Davis.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
What might Bernie 2020 look like, particularly now that almost everyone claims to be for Medicare for All (whatever they might mean by that)? Will Harris's track record as a law-and-order prosecutor doom her, or will her appeal as a woman of color rally a decisive number of votes? And will Biden being exposed as utterly unfit for the 2020 Democratic base send his poll numbers crashing? What impact will AOC have on defining what voters want and demand? Dan discusses all of this and more with Briahna Gray, Dave Weigel, and Waleed Shahid.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig.
<font color="#000000">The state of the economy is, despite assertions to the contrary, not strong; it is being plundered by the alliance of top corporate managers, leading financiers and political leaders from both parties. Suzi talks to </font>Robert Brenner on politics and the state of the economy — matters of great confusion if you only pay attention to the business press and politicians, who say the economy is robust, with record low unemployment, rising wages, and the recovery of the stock market. But the Fed stopped raising interest rates, wages are stagnant, precarity and insecurity are the norm, homelessness has exploded, student debt is staggering and suffocating — and teachers are striking to force states to reinvest (stop under-investing) to save public education. So what is the real story, and if the economists and pundits are getting it wrong — why is that the case? Is it cheerleading for the status quo? We get Brenner’s analysis.
Two left-wing Muslim women newly elected to Congress—Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib and Somali-American Ilhan Omar—are resetting the Congressional debate over Palestine. In response, they have been met with slanderous attacks. On the one hand, this is exciting: we've never had people in Congress not only criticizing Israeli brutality but also supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. On the other hand, the current debate is a sobering reminder of how amongst American elected officials, overwhelming, and nearly unconditional, bipartisan support for Israel remains the norm even as Democratic voters move leftward—and in increasing opposition to the occupation. Dan speaks to organizer Linda Sarsour on the politics of Palestine in flux—and how partisan polarization on the issue is accelerating, and why that's a good thing.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Alejandro Velasco, Gabriel Hetland and Naomi Schiller on the profound economic, social, and political crisis in Venezuela. More than three million refugees and migrants have fled the country. Opposition figure Juan Guaidó has declared himself president. Trump and other right-wing leaders throughout the Americas quickly recognized him as just that. The US imposed new sanctions on Venezuela's oil and has hinted at the possibility of a military invasion. It's unclear what comes next, but foreign intervention would make an extremely bad situation catastrophic.
Meanwhile, many reactionaries throughout the Americas are pointing to Venezuela as proof that socialism cannot work. What is the correct analysis? What does solidarity with the Venezuelan people mean for today's left? These are all extremely complicated and urgent questions. Today, Dan interviews three experts on Venezuela to help answer them.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, a leader of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, is on trial in New York. After twice making his way out of Mexican prisons, he was extradited to the United States. This is what counts as a major victory in the never-ending US war on drugs, which the US has in recent decades exported to Mexico. Yet El Chapo's arrest, like that of so many others, has done nothing to stop Mexican drug cartels from continuing to export massive quantities of cocaine and heroin and other drugs. Neither has it caused cartels to pause the murderous bloodbath that they have visited upon the Mexican people. The Mexican state continues to be a corrupt one, and the domestic deployment of a Mexican military deeply implicated in human rights violations is set to continue. And there is still no justice for the disappeared students from Ayotzinapa. Dan interviews legendary Mexican investigative journalist Anabel Hernández.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
#Red4EdLA: Los Angeles teachers lead the way for the labor movement — striking FOR public education — using the strike weapon to reverse the damage of decades of neoliberal assault on everything public. Suzi talks to Joel Jordan, an education strategist currently coordinating nine of the largest urban teacher unions in California, including UTLA, about the strike strategy behind UTLA’s extraordinary historic victory. Joel lays out how UTLA’s Union Power leadership wielded the strike weapon as part of a long-term strategy explicitly linked to upcoming strikes in Oakland and elsewhere and discusses the limitations the union faced, and the broad support they built and enjoyed.<o:p></o:p>
Democracy is the proposition that the people should govern themselves. But who are the people, and how should they govern? Populist movements attempt to answer these questions. In response, establishment figures insist that it is the people and their populism that pose a dangerous threat to democracy. How should we appraise our current populist moment? And how can we distinguish between populism's left and right variants? Dan interviews two experts on populism, political scientists Laura Grattan and Thea Riofrancos.
Check out Thea's n+1 essays on populism here:
nplusonemag.com/issue-28/politics/democracy-without-the-people-2/
nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/zombie-liberalism/
nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/populism-without-the-people/
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
The teacher strike wave continues as more than 30,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles walk picket lines not only for the higher wages that they deserve but also for the well-funded and great schools that the city's working-class students of color have long been systematically denied—a situation that has been exacerbated by a corporate reform-led school board and superintendent dead-set on privatizing the district. UTLA has in recent years been led by a militant, rank-and-file caucus that has shunted aside the old guard's narrow vision of service unionism in favor of a big-picture movement unionism that makes the struggles of teachers, parents and students one on and the same. Sarah Jaffe is Dan's guest for a discussion of the strike, social reproduction and lessons from Rosa Luxemburg (interview was recorded on Wednesday).
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jacobin editor Alyssa Battistoni interviews Astra Taylor on her new film What is Democracy?, in which Astra asks ordinary people and political philosophers alike just that. The answers are often extraordinary and far more incisive than the mindless pablum emanating from Washington and its official interpreters. The film opens in New York on Wednesday January 16 at the IFC Center before traveling to theaters and campuses. Special guests on hand during opening week for live Q&As with Astra include Silvia Federici, Cornel West, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. For details, go to ifccenter.com/films/what-is-democracy. Those of us who don't live in New York can find other dates through the distributor at zeitgeistfilms.com. And if you want to bring this film to your school or town, and you really should, contact Zeitgeist Films!
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Typically, people think about migration as immigration: people crossing international borders from one nation-state to another. And for the past half century in the United States, people have tended to think about that immigration in a binary way: legal immigration versus illegal immigration. But to understand the origins of the immigration politics in general and the criminalization of Mexican immigrants in particular that have become the core of the Trump presidency, we must explode these categories, identify their origins, and analyze the history that preceded them. Dan interviews Aziz Rana.
Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig
Dan interviews Melinda Cooper about her book, Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism, which makes the case that neoliberalism and social conservatism have been consistent collaborators in creating an economy that redistributed wealth ruthlessly upwards with a risk-absorbing family at its privatized center.
Thanks to Verso Books, which has a huge collection of excellent left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Historian Adam Tooze, the author of Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, explains how crisis in an unprecedentedly powerful and interconnected global banking system coursed through American homes and European sovereign debt markets, exploding into the Tea Party and the European politics of austerity — and, ultimately, leading to today's legitimation crisis of the reigning political establishment and economic order.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com!
Please support The Dig with your money at patreon.com/TheDig.
There has been no greater exemplar of zombie neoliberalism in power than French President Emanuel Macron's imperial technocracy. Now, with the rise of the Yellow Vest (Gilets jaunes) movement, there no clearer evidence that zombie neoliberalism is bound to fail. This crisis cannot be solved with the centrist policies and politics that caused it in the first place. But where will the movement head, and who will benefit politically?And what does this reveal about neoliberal approaches to the climate crisis? Dan's guests are Danièle Obono, a French member of parliament with the left-wing party la France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, and ROAR magazine editor Jerome Roos.
Read Jerome's article in ROAR: roarmag.org/essays/gilets-jaunes-blown-old-political-categories/
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig
Marissa Brostoff and Andrea Long Chu discuss Sex and the City and the X-Files, unraveling the tangled history of Marxism and queer theory, Cynthia Nixon the democratic socialist versus Miranda the straight corporate lawyer misrecognized as a lesbian, feminism as consumption in Giuliani's New York, the remarkable resilience of heterosexuality, the Cold War's paranoiac aftershocks, history's startling return, the alt-right’s nostalgia for postmodernism, the takeover of reality by reality TV, men with tinfoil hats decrying the deep state from the heights of power, and the possibilities of stitching socialism and queer politics together into a robust movement for human liberation.
Thank you to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Suzi speaks first with Mike Parker, author, rabble-rouser, and union activist, who worked for thirty-tow years in auto in Detroit, about what is behind GM’s decision to close five plants, four in the US and one in Canada, affecting some 15,000 workers and their families as well as the towns and cities from Lordstown in Ohio to Detroit in Michigan. Ed Broadbent, former NDP Leader and Member of Parliament from 1975–1989, brings the Canadian perspective and reaction. Ed hails from Oshawa, Ontario, the site of the GM plant in Canada to be closed. His father was a clerk at GM and his still living uncle, at 104, was on the GM picket line in Oshawa in 1937 in the strike that brought industrial unions to Canada. We hear what Ed, described as the “best Prime Minister Canada never had,” thinks the political leaders should be doing now that GM — bailed out with billions from Canada — has turned its back on its workers. Plus: LA Taco’s editor Daniel Hernandez, just back from Tijuana, reports on the harrowing conditions inside the migrant refugee camp <font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">near the US-Mexico border, where thousands are sheltering, with hopes of entering the US. </font>
On Saturday, Dan was in New York to interview Fernando Haddad and Yanis Varoufakis. Haddad is the former Workers Party mayor of São Paulo who recently lost Brazil's presidential election to far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro. Varoufakis was the Greek Finance minister who tried and failed to fight the Troika's imposition of austerity and today is a leader of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025. Unsurprisingly, their topic was the fight against right-wing populism.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
How unlucky it was for Angela Nagle to make her so-called left case against immigration the same week that Hillary Clinton reprised her neoliberal case for border crackdowns. In reality, solidarity with immigrant workers has long been a core tenant for much of the socialist left and labor movement, while neoliberalism, despite pretenses to the contrary, has always been implemented alongside repression. Dan interviews Richard Seymour, a founding editor of Salvage, who has done some excellent work on left politics and migration:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/to-win-argument-22956541
https://www.patreon.com/posts/reinventing-anti-20945069
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com!
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig.
Guns in general, and American gun culture in particular, have created a horrific bloodbath. But much of the liberal gun control movement has, in concert with the NRA and Republican right, worked to make the war on guns a central facet of mass incarceration. The upshot is that we have the worst of both worlds: a society flooded with guns, where the paradigmatic white "good guy with a gun" treasures his weapons as a bedrock constitutional right even as the supposed "bad guys with a gun," often black men with a felony record, are mercilessly prosecuted for carrying. Dan talks to reporter George Joseph, who has a new piece up at Slate on former Attorney General Jeff Sessions's war on guns, which has led to a sharp increase in federal gun prosecutions — often hitting ordinary black men with felony records who are simply carrying for their own protection.
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out their excellent catalog of books at ucpress.edu.
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Black Lives Matter is a poignant slogan and a powerful force for social transformation. It’s also shorthand for a huge array of organizations, mostly led by people that you've never heard of, working the daily hard grind of ordinary organizing that stitches together spectacular mass actions into a movement. That's the subject of the new book Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century by Dan’s guest, historian and activist Barbara Ransby.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com.
Please support The Dig with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Neoliberalism: we all hate it, but what does it mean? Dan talks to intellectual historian Quinn Slobodian about his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, which tells the story of neoliberalism's Geneva School — including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke — and their vision for a new imperial order establishing rules to protect the market from political interference. It's a movement that begins with nostalgia for the bygone Habsburg Empire, moves on to fights against the decolonized world's efforts to create a New International Economic Order, and plays a key role in forming the European Economic Community and the WTO.
Live Dig interview in NYC with Yanis Varoufakis on Challenging the New Right-Populism. Saturday December 1, 6pm at the New School's Arnhold Hall at the Theresa Lang Student Center.
Thanks to Verso Books and University of California Press. Check out their titles at www.versobooks.com and ucpress.edu.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
The man who carried out the massacre in Pittsburgh was motivated by a belief that Jewish people were conspiring to destroy the white race by way of orchestrating mass immigration. It's a conspiracy theory with deep roots in America's violent white power movement and that today is echoed by Trump and Fox News. Dan interviews Kathleen Belew on her book Bring The War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, a history of the white power revolutionary movement from 1975–1995.
Thanks to Verso Books and University of California Press. Check out the excellent titles they have for sale at www.versobooks.com and www.ucpress.edu.
Please support this podcast with money at patreon.com/TheDig!
Historian Howard Zinn remains a model for left-wing intellectuals who want to not only convey ideas to a public beyond academia but also take action to transform the world that it is their profession to explain. Dan interviews Keeanga Yahmatta-Taylor, a leading intellectual of today's resurgent socialist left, on her foreword to a new edition of Zinn's autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
The brutality of the Saudi royal family had been hiding in plain sight. It was an open secret convenient to the political, media and business elites for whom the Kingdom means big business and an invaluable geostrategic proxy. But the brutal murder and dismemberment of a single Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, has forced Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and his American enablers onto the defensive as the regime's brutal war on Yemen, global support for Salafist fundamentalism, and kleptocratric repression have suddenly been subjected to intense public scrutiny. Dissident scholar Madawi al-Rasheed explains the history and political-economy of Saudi Arabia, and the now-frustrated efforts at obfuscation mounted by bin Salman and his allies.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Recently, Dan spoke to Nikhil Pal Singh about the unfortunate and never-ending debate over whether it was economics or racism that got Trump elected. This is a sequel to that discussion: because what Malaika Jabali powerfully exposes in a Current Affairs piece combining on-the-ground reporting in Milwaukee and historical and data analysis is that when we talk about the impact of economic crisis on Trump's victory, the condition of Black poor and working-class people—many of whom decided to stay home on election day—must be at its center.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Jacobin Managing Editor Micah Uetricht pulls Dave-Davies-duty for Dan and interviews Rossana Rodríguez-Sanchez, a DSA member running for alderwoman in Chicago. Rodríguez-Sanchez moved to Chicago from Puerto Rico, where the brutal austerity imposed on the island made her job as a teacher impossible. She has brought with her a radical tradition and a program to fight for the city's beleaguered public schools, for renters and for immigrant rights, and for a public safety agenda that prioritizes social workers over cops.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of radical titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
CORRECT EPISODE NOW POSTED. Today's episode is on the alarming new report out from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and how it is that William Nordhaus — an economist whose work is dedicated to arguing that that it would be too inefficient to address the ecological crisis aggressively and urgently — recently won the discipline's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Dan speaks to Alyssa Battisoni, a PhD candidate in political science and member of Jacobin's editorial board.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing books at www.versobooks.com.
Please support this podcast with your money at www.patreon.com/TheDig.
A look at two forthcoming elections: the November midterms in California, and the second round of Brazil’s general election on Oct 28. Gustavo Arrellano of Orange County, author of Ask a Mexican and Taco USA,wrote in a recent Los Angeles Times op-edthat “The Spotlight may be on the OC, but Democrats are building for the long haul in the Central Valley” — in other words, he explains why winning blue in Bakersfield and Fresno is even more important than in Republican OC — and, says it could be a template for winning back small towns and rural America.
Suzi then talks to Matthew Richmond in Sao Paulo about the Oct 28 second round of the general election. The ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal party is ahead of the PT’s Fernando Haddad (as Lula sits in jail), and we get Matthew Richmond’s analysis of how Bolsonaro was able to gain a formidable base among the poor — and why these constituencies support Bolsonaro when his economic policies will hurt them.
Brazil is headed toward fascism by way of Jair Bolsonaro, a sexist, homophobic, and violent militarist clown nostalgic for a murderous dictatorship. How did this happen? Alfredo Saad-Filho, a professor of political economy at SOAS University of London, explains the roots of right-wing reaction and left-wing collapse — and the ultimately disastrous results of a PT governance strategy centered on an accommodation with a capitalist order that could only last as long as the global commodity boom did.
Read "Bolsonaro’s Conservative Revolution" by Matthew Aaron Richmond: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/brazil-election-bolsonaro-evangelicals-security
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge catalog of left-wing books at www.versobooks.com.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Socialist Alternative's Kshama Sawant was elected to Seattle City Council way before socialism became a cool thing. Today, Dan's talking to Sawant about how socialists can build power and win at the local level—and how in Seattle, that means taking on Amazon, which recently coerced her colleagues on Council to reverse themselves on a big-business tax that was earmarked to help the homeless people who have been squeezed out of the housing market by an economy dominated by those very same big businesses.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their enormous catalogue of left-wing books at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Today, we’re addressing one of the most obnoxious corners of the identity politics debate. And that is the corner occupied by Right Liberals who believe that any desire to change the world is a divisive symptom of maladjusted affluenza emanating from pampered college students. Moira Weigel discusses her Guardian review of The Coddling of the American Mind, which makes its case by way of pragmatic folk aphorisms like: “Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child”.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge catalogue of left-wing books at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with you money at patreon.com/TheDig
Let’s ensure that the history of American socialism doesn’t repeat as farce. That’s one reason that Max Elbaum wrote Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che, an account of the little-remembered New Communist Movement that defined the American anti-capitalist Left of the 1970s. Their internationalism, anti-racism and cadre organization were in many ways admirable. Their dogmatism and sectarianism proved disastrous. Elbaum relates this history, and the lessons that the New Left failed to learn from the Old Left—lessons that today's resurgent left would be wise to study.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge catalogue of left-wing titles, including Revolution in the Air, at www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with MONEY at patreon.com/TheDig
Christine Blasey Ford and other women have revealed that our political-economic elite is pervaded by profound intimate violence, forms of brutal interpersonal domination that are the everyday and microcosmic connective tissue of systems of domination as a whole. Lisa Duggan offers her thoughts on how to link these individual stories that playing out at economic, political and celebrity peaks to the systems that order the world that the rest of us live in. Duggan also addresses carceral feminism and how "believe women" obscures the way that gender and sexuality are embedded in political and economic structures. Plus, she rethinks her controversial blog post about Avital Ronell in response to grad student critics.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge catalogue of left-wing books at versobooks.com
And please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
An interview with three members of Reclaim Philadelphia, which emerged from the Bernie 2016 campaign in Philly and has since — in a remarkably short amount of time — played a key role in getting Larry Krasner elected District Attorney, effectively won a state legislative seat, and taken over two Democratic Wards in the city. Much of the debate on the Left over how to engage in electoral politics revolves around how to relate to the inside and outside of electoral politics as they currently exist: in other words, how to approach the unfortunate reality of the Democratic Party. Reclaim Philadelphia brings an outsider perspective and base to a hard-nosed insider game. Nikil Saval, Rick Krajewski, and Amanda Mcillmurray explain what they do and how they do it.
Thanks to Verso Books. Peruse their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com!
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig.
Legal analyst Harry Litman joins Suzi to unpack the legal and constitutional questions raised in both the Mueller investigation and the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The question that is on the table is whether the Constitution and the traditional practices of the American political system can protect us from the from the power of the extreme right and the march to authoritarianism.
And then Germany: The demonstrations in Chemnitz at the end of August sent chills through Europe and the world, just a year after the electoral successes of the AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) in the September 2017 elections. They reflect the ascent of the far right, including outright Nazis on the German political scene. We talk to long-time analyst of the German far right, Volkhard Mosler, socialist activist in Chemnitz Gabi Engelhardt, and Einde O’Callaghan, a teacher and activist who has lived in Germany for twenty-five years to get an analysis of what is behind the rise of the Right — and the fight against it.
Serious people in Washington are seduced by vapid and self-serving accounts of their savvy operation of the machinery of government — works like Bob Woodward's latest exercise in extended stenography Fear: Trump in the White House. The problem with Trump — for defenders of the establishment political order that helped make his presidency possible — is precisely that he's not a man like John McCain, a bloodthirsty and world-historically successful self-mythologizer. Patrick Blanchfield on his review of Fear in n+1and obituary of John McCain in The Baffler.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their massive collective of left-wing books at versobooks.com!
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig.
The United States today exceeds at perpetually waging wars that are destined to fail to meet their purported objectives. The War on Terror is one such war. The War on Drugs is another. In both cases, failure never leads to much official questioning of the war let alone a repudiation of its underlying wisdom. The conventional wisdom is always that the war just hasn't been waged in the right way, or aggressively enough. My guest today is Leo Beletsky, who directs the Health in Justice Action Lab at Northeastern University. He and Jeremiah Goulka recently published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the abolition of the DEA, noting that after hundreds of billions of dollars spent fatal overdose rates have skyrocketed to a historic high. Let's #AbolishDEA.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out a huge catalogue of excellent left-wing books at versobooks.com.
Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
For many, conservatives and liberals alike, Appalachia provides a skeleton key for interpreting changes in American politics that might otherwise be difficult to comprehend. But the way conservatives and liberals talk about Appalachia tells us a lot more about conservatives and liberals than it does about the region. Elizabeth Catte, the author of What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia, puts the region and representations of it in historical and political-economic context.
Thanks to Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com. And thanks to University of California Press, which just published Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century by Barbara Ransby: ucpress.edu/book/9780520292710/making-all-black-lives-matter.
Legendary critical theorist Nancy Fraser argues that a total analysis of capitalism requires taking Marxism beyond a narrowly economistic view. Throughout its history, capitalism has been defined not just by labor exploitation but also by the disavowal of that exploitation's own basic conditions of possibility: the things that the daily business of labor exploitation and surplus-value appropriation require from politics, care work, war-making, mining, patriarchy, racism, and more.
Thanks to Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com. And thanks to University of California Press. Check out Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work by Alex Rosenblat ucpress.edu/book/9780520298576/uberland.
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Suzi talks to Jacobin's managing editor, Micah Uetricht, who has been writing about Chicago politics and Rahm Emanuel since 2011: in fact Micah Uetricht is to Rahm Emanuel what Hunter Thompson was to Richard Nixon. We get Micah's take on why "Mayor 1%" is not running for reelection, and what his legacy will likely be. Suzi then speaks to freelance writer Chloe Watlington, who has been writing about Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria for the Baffler and Teen Vogue. Chloe looks at the bizarre attempts to reboot the economy that profess to solve problems that aren’t the problem, and the response from labor, as well as student strikes against massive cuts to education at all levels. There is a pattern here and Chloe helps unravel it.
What socialism should offer is freedom by way of power and democratic control over our polity and economy—and thus over our future as a society. Matt Bruenig has one proposal out at his People's Policy Project on how to begin to do just that, and it's called a social wealth fund. The idea is that the state gradually socializes the assets of every single publicly-traded company in the United States by purchasing their stocks.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge catalogue of left-wing titles at versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Nikhil Pal Singh on the unfortunate obsession shared by certain pundits, journalists and social scientists: definitively proving that Trump won because of racism, and racism alone. What drives so many people to dedicate so much time to arguing that either class or race or gender or whatever matters the most—or worse yet, matters exclusively? And what does "matter more" even mean? Plus, a Dan Denvir monologue on the identity politics debate.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out versobooks.com for loads of great left-wing titles.
Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Dan speaks to Elizabeth Rush, the author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, a lyrical, mournful but ultimately hopeful account of people dealing with amongst the most tangible effects of global warming right now: the rising seas that are threatening poor and working-class people with dislocation, community destruction and compounded destitution. It's a beautifully-written guide to the current crisis that sugarcoats nothing yet that highlights how ordinary people can organize to fight for their future and that of the planet where we live.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their massive collection of left-wing books for sale at versobooks.com
And please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Today's episode is a long one. It's the first of two this week on climate politics: a live event that I hosted at Verso Books in New York a couple weeks ago. Or, at least part of it is. The event livestream, which we grabbed the audio from, malfunctioned for the first half hour or so of the episode. And so, dear listeners, we made lemonade out of audiovisual lemons and re-did the first part of the interview later over the phone from Providence.
Dan spoke to Audrea Lim, Thea Riofrancos, Ashley Dawson and Daniel Aldana Cohen about how the left should respond to the climate crisis—and how that response, for better or for worse, will require a deep transformation in social and economic relations, and also in our built environment and how we inhabit it. In other words, eco-socialism is the only solution because we can't achieve real ecological balance without socialism, and true socialism that delivers liberation would be concretely impossible without ecological balance.
Thanks to Verso. Check out so many good lefty titles at www.versobooks.com
And please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Josie Duffy Rice on Justice in America, her new podcast from The Appeal that she co-hosts with with Clint Smith, media coverage of criminal justice, carceral feminism and domestic violence, and the disturbing liberal affection for federal law enforcement under Trump.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out For a Left Populism by Chantal Mouffe versobooks.com/books/2748-for-a-left-populism
Russia: the more your average American thinks about it, the less they seem to know. National security-state enthused liberals blame Putin and for creating what is an obviously-if-incomprehensibly made-in-America monster. Trump, in turn, cannot seem to contain his giddy enthusiasm for Putin's brand of hyper-masculine authoritarianism. Meanwhile, Russia, an actual country where roughly 144 million people live, has become mostly invisible to Americans—because it has been replaced by a caricature. Sean Guillory, the host of the SRB podcast and author of seansrussiablog.org, explains it all.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future by James Bridle versobooks.com/books/2698-new-dark-age And The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love by Andy Merrifield versobooks.com/books/2765-the-amateur
Part two of a two-part interview with Aslı Bâli on the Syrian civil war and the larger geopolitical conflicts that shape the Middle East — with an emphasis on the role played the United States. During part one, which you should definitely listen to first, Bâli discussed the various powers sacrificing the lives of Syrian people in the pursuit of their perceived geopolitical and sectarian interests. In this installment, Bâli discusses the restrictive frames that dominates the American discussion over Syria, and then assesses the lack of a coherent heterodox left-wing foreign policy in the United States — something that we desperately need as the possibility of the Left taking power becomes newly plausible.
Read: "Remember Syria?" by Bâli and Aziz Rana bostonreview.net/war-security/asli-bali-aziz-rana-trump-putin-syria and "The U.S. Debt to Syria" bostonreview.net/war-security/asli-u-bali-aziz-rana-us-debt-syria.
Live recording of The Dig coming up in New York City. Friday, August 17, 7 PM at Verso Books (20 Jay Street in Brooklyn). It's called Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century https://www.facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out For a Left Populism by Chantal Mouffe versobooks.com/books/2748-for-a-left-populism.
[note: this is being re-posted because the original post was accidentally deleted. So if you have already listened, no need to listen again!]
Aslı Ü. Bâli joins Daniel for part one of a two-part interview on the Syrian Civil War and the murderously instrumentalized geopolitics that fuel it. Syrians continue to suffer and to die while various actors treat the conflict as a proxy for their own geopolitical ends; meanwhile, huge numbers of Syrian refugees languish in neighboring countries, and the much smaller number who have made their way to Europe and the United States have been utilized by a resurgent far-right to blame ordinary Syrians for violence rooted in the colonial operations of those very same countries that now insist on keeping the refugees out.
Read: Remember Syria? by Bâli and Aziz Rana bostonreview.net/war-security/asli-bali-aziz-rana-trump-putin-syria and The U.S. Debt to Syria bostonreview.net/war-security/asli-u-bali-aziz-rana-us-debt-syria
Live recording of The Dig coming up in New York City. Friday, August 17, 7 PM at Verso Books (20 Jay Street in Brooklyn). It's called Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century https://www.facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future by James Bridle versobooks.com/books/2698-new-dark-age And Prisoners of the American Dream: Politics and Economy in the History of the US Working Class by Mike Davis versobooks.com/books/2759-prisoners-of-the-american-dream
That right-wing people in the US and Europe have made George Soros the answer to so many troubling questions is not very surprising: he's a billionaire, he's Jewish and, unlike most of his cohort, he is an intellectual who spends much of his money on substantively progressive causes. Daniel Bessner's essay on him in n+1, however, not only sketches out the Right's obsessions but also offers a detailed analysis of Soros as a thinker and philanthropist — coming to the conclusion that Soros's hope for an open and pluralistic society will be forever doomed if we continue to live under the very capitalist system that made him so spectacularly rich. Here's Soros's response in the Guardian.
Live recording of The Dig coming up in New York City. Friday, August 17, 7 PM at Verso Books (20 Jay Street in Brooklyn). It's called Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century https://www.facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about!
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out eThe Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love by Andy Merrifield versobooks.com/books/2765-the-amateur.
Support this podcast with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig to receive our weekly newsletter!
Sorry to Bother You is a hilarious film about the dead-serious shittiness of life under neoliberalism's flexibilized and precarious labor regime, a system teetering upon a thin line between free labor exploitation and a form of expropriation reminiscent of full-on slave labor — all at the mercy of the thinly veiled barbarity of Palo Alto-style techno-utopianism. It's about how capitalist society divides and conquers friends and family to claim not only our obedience but also our very souls, and about how the task of left organizing is to see through that game and fight together. Dan's guest today is Boots Riley, who wrote and directed the film and also fronts the left-wing hip-hop group The Coup.
Live recording of The Dig coming up in New York City. Friday, August 17, 7 PM at Verso Books (20 Jay Street in Brooklyn). It's called Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century https://www.facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about!
If Kerri Evelyn Harris wins in Delaware, she will have knocked out an incumbent US Senator. And that would be a really big deal. Harris, a left candidate backed by Justice Democrats, is Dan's guest today. She is the latest candidate putting forward the bold proposition that in a democracy, ordinary people should govern themselves — particularly since well-credentialed incumbents like her opponent, Senator Tom Carper, so often do the bidding of corporate interests.
Live recording of The Dig coming up in New York City. Friday, August 17, 7 PM at Verso Books (20 Jay Street in Brooklyn). It's called Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century https://www.facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about!
The SESTA/FOSTA law purportedly aims to curb sex trafficking. But as my guest Melissa Gira Grant explains, it actually denies sex workers access to online platforms to more safely conduct their business. It received just two "no" votes in the Senate: from Rand Paul and Ron Wyden. It's a problem of hegemony: prohibition has long been plain common sense. So, it's our job to change that. The first step is to make it clear that there is dissent, and that prohibition is self-evidently neither good policy nor good politics.
Live recording of The Dig coming up in New York City. Friday, August 17, 7 PM at Verso Books (20 Jay Street in Brooklyn). It's called Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century https://www.facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity and The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love by Andy Merrifield versobooks.com/books/2765-the-amateur.
Support this podcast with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig to receive our weekly newsletter!
Kaniela Ing (kanielaing.com) is a DSA member running in Hawaii's 1st Congressional District, calling for an end to imperialism and rule by the wealthy, and for housing rights, a green New Deal, Medicare for All, and free college. And he's Dan’s guest. Ocasio-Cortez became an overnight celebrity when she defeated Joe Crowley. But what's most important is that you know who these candidates are before election day — because that's when they most need your help.
Live recording of The Dig coming up in New York City. Friday, August 17, 7 PM at Verso Books (20 Jay Street in Brooklyn). It's called Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century https://www.facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life by Adam Greenfield versobooks.com/books/2742-radical-technologies.
Support this podcast with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig to receive our weekly newsletter!
Janus was an entirely expected and atrocious decision. The conservative business interests that successfully obliterated private sector unions hope it will do the same to their public sector counterparts. Chris Maisano, a contributing editor at Jacobin, argues that labor has no choice but to return to its militant roots if it hopes to survive. In other words, to survive, labor has to fight for a lot more than mere survival.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity and The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love by Andy Merrifield versobooks.com/books/2765-the-amateur.
Live Dig show in NYC on 8/17! Blockadia and Beyond: Left climate politics for the 21st century: facebook.com/events/2042636042656908/?active_tab=about.
Checking your privilege. Invisible knapsacks. Intersectionality. In his new book from Verso, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump, Asad Haider questions the terms and concepts that underpin much liberal and left conversation about race and racism, exploring critiques advanced by the black radical tradition to mount a thoroughgoing demolition of what we now refer to as "identity politics" — something that had a quite different meaning when it was first coined by the black, radical lesbian feminists of the Combahee River Collective. This is not a book that dismisses racism and sexism. Quite to the contrary. Haider shows that we can only confront and defeat oppressions like racism and sexism if we recognize their relationship to the capitalist exploitation of the working class as a whole. The corollary is also true: capitalism can never be defeated without recognizing and fighting the various oppressions that help sustain it.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out We Built the Wall: How the US Keeps Out Asylum Seekers from Mexico, Central America and Beyond by Eileen Truax (versobooks.com/books/2606-we-built-the-wall) and Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx’s Lost Theory by Mike Davis (versobooks.com/books/2779-old-gods-new-enigmas).
The last episode in this week's Ocasio-Cortez super series. First, an interview with Seth Ackerman on his essay "A Blueprint for a New Party," which lays out a strategy for building independent socialist power effectively, which means opportunistically seizing the Democratic Party ballot line when necessary (jacobinmag.com/2016/11/bernie-sanders-democratic-labor-party-ackerman/).
Then, Kate Aronoff on her article "A Revolution From Within," which explains Our Revolution and Justice Democrats, two organizations formed out of the Bernie campaign that are playing critical roles in the left electoral insurgency (dissentmagazine.org/article/transforming-electoral-process-our-revolution-justice-democrats). Thanks to Verso Books. Check out The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love by Andy Merrifield versobooks.com/books/2765-the-amateur. And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig!
This week's super series on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's victory and the future of left politics continues with Julia Salazar, a DSA member running for a Brooklyn state Senate in New York's District 18. Salazar's campaign worked hard for Ocasio-Cortez; now, Ocasio-Cortez's team is returning the favor. Recently, The New York Daily News wondered if Salazar might be the new Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez responded: Salazar "isn’t the next me, she’s the first HER." Indeed, Salazar has her own story to tell. She immigrated from Colombia as a child, and came of age as a young activist by organizing a rent strike in her Harlem building. She describes herself as a democratic socialist, which she defines as recognizing "the capitalist system as being inherently oppressive and actively working to dismantle it and to empower the working class and the marginalized in our society."
Get involved with the campaign at salazarforsenate.com
Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a 28-year old Latina working-class champion committed to social transformation who beat one of the most powerful men in Congress: the King of Queens. Dan had an extended conversation with her about how organized people won her election, how she’ll stay accountable to those movements now that she’s a rock star, establishment myopia and denial, The Congressional Progressive Caucus' shortcomings, and where the insurgency goes from here. Then Intercept D.C. Bureau Chief Ryan Grim on left media and left electoral politics, why mainstream media missed Ocasio-Cortez, and why Emily's List fails to support left women challengers.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out A World to Win: The Life and Works of Karl Marx with Sven-Eric Liedman versobooks.com/events/1785-a-world-to-win-the-life-and-works-of-karl-marx-with-sven-eric-liedman And the new paperback edition of China Miéville’s October: The Story of the Russian Revolution versobooks.com/books/2731-october
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Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, won an overwhelming victory in Mexico's presidential election, shattering a corrupt, old party system that brought ordinary Mexicans rampant violence and economic immiseration. But AMLO faces powerful political and economic constraints once in office—including some of his own making. Dan's guest is Christy Thornton, a professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins. During the last week, she was an election observer for the Scholar and Citizen Network for Democracy in Mexico.
Thanks to Verso. Check out Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot, now out in paperback versobooks.com/books/2732-out-of-the-wreckage George did a Dig interview too blubrry.com/thedig/34202825/telling-a-new-story-with-george-monbiot/
And Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity
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You can find lots of great left Latin America news in English at nacla.org
Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig
Today, we're talking about Italy, where a so-called "populist" alliance of the Five Star Movement and right-wing League just took over the government with anti-migrant and Euro-skeptic agenda. Dan's guest is David Broder, a historian of French and Italian communism and frequent contributor to Jacobin. The Five Star Movement was for a time welcomed by some on the left. But it’s not of the left; rather, it is a product of the Italian left’s collapse.
Thanks to Verso. Check out Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life by Adam Greenfield versobooks.com/books/2742-radical-technologies
And register for the Socialism 2018 conference (July 5-8, Chicago!) at socialismconference.org
And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig
Stephen Wertheim, a Lecturer in American and international history at Birkbeck, University of London, breaks cuts through the suffocating foreign policy debate that shapes American Empire under Trump.
Peace has broken out across the Korean Peninsula—or, at least, the odds that Donald Trump will blow the world up have gone down a just a bit—at least temporarily. Yes, Trump is the one who pushed us way too close to the brink of nuclear war. And yes, he likely sought peace with Kim Jong-Un because he loves wins, whatever their political or ideological content. But wow, has the liberal reaction been revealing. According to the mindset that pervades the liberal media and political elite, a move toward peace with North Korea is bad because Trump is bad. Or perhaps worse yet, it's bad because the national security state conventional wisdom that has governed Washington under both parties for so long—purveyed by the very people who have brought us endless war almost everywhere—says that it's bad. It's clearer than ever that the task of the left to find a way out of this ideological closed circuit of the liberal vs. Trump foreign policy debate—and, if we win power, to shut down its warmongering for good.
Thanks to Verso. Check out Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity
And register for the Socialism 2018 conference (July 5-8, Chicago!) at socialismconference.org
Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig
Everyone wants to know what's wrong with Appalachia. But beginning in the 1960s, it was "white ethics"—Italians, Irish, Polish, Jews and other non-WASPs—who broke from the New Deal coalition, embracing their Ellis Island immigrant roots in reaction to the Black Freedom struggle and, ultimately, Latin American migration. Dan’s guest today is Matthew Frye Jacobson, an historian at Yale and the author of Roots Too: White Ethnic Revival in Post–Civil Rights America, from Harvard University Press.
Thanks to Verso. Check out Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot, now out in paperback versobooks.com/books/2732-out-of-the-wreckage George did a Dig interview too blubrry.com/thedig/34202825/telling-a-new-story-with-george-monbiot/
And register for the Socialism 2018 conference (July 5-8, Chicago!) at socialismconference.org
Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig
Vox immigration reporter Dara Lind, one very bright spot in an often disappointing landscape of mainstream immigration journalism, discusses the historical, political, and legal context of Trump’s family separation policy. Dan also just wrote a lengthy piece on this for Jacobin, which you can read at jacobinmag.com/2018/06/trump-immigration-child-family-separation-policy
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out the new paperback edition of China Miéville’s October: The Story of the Russian Revolution versobooks.com/books/2731-october
And register for the Socialism 2018 conference (July 5-8, Chicago!) at socialismconference.org.
And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig.
David Harvey has taught Capital to huge numbers of people. Dan interviews him about his latest book, Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason. Harvey explains why he thinks all three volumes are of Capital are key, why we’re still living under neoliberalism at least unless and until ethnonationalist autarchy pushes it aside, how capitalism might survive climate change via mass immiseration, and linking struggles over production and consumption in the fight to transform society toward socialism. And more.
Thanks to Verso. Check out Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity.
Register for the Socialism 2018 conference (July 5-8, Chicago!) at socialismconference.org!
And support this podcast with $$ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig.
Suzi speaks with David Graeber, whose earlier Debt: the First 5000 years was an international best-seller. From Adbusters to Occupy to the history of debt, Graeber has demonstrated his creative and provocative thinking. He takes on the biggest shibboleth — our very work — in his new book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory.
A recent UK poll found that 37 percent of full-time workers were sure that their jobs made no meaningful contribution to the world. Bullshit jobs are the pointless ones that could be erased — and their absence would hardly be noticed. Graeber points to the ubiquitous administrative layer that has ballooned even as joblessness has grown in the last decade, creating an entire sector in academia, health administration, human resources, public relations, financial services, telemarketing, and the like. Graeber suggests we can move from the "bullshitization" of jobs to caring jobs and a caring society, but is it possible under capitalism?
The US colony of Puerto Rico has been repeatedly shocked and Puerto Ricans are traumatized. That is precisely what successful shock doctrines like this one — which wants to remake the island into a utopia for rich Americans and crypto-bros and a dystopia for everyone else — depend upon.
This is also the subject of Naomi Klein's new book from Haymarket, The Battle For Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists. Today, Klein returns to The Dig, and is joined by Mercedes Martínez, president of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out A World to Win: The Life and Works of Karl Marx with Sven-Eric Liedman versobooks.com/events/1785-a-world-to-win-the-life-and-works-of-karl-marx-with-sven-eric-liedman.
Also, register for the upcoming Socialism 2018 conference at SocialismConference.org.
Support this podcast with $ and get our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig!
Last week, we posted an interview Dan recorded in Barcelona on Spanish politics — specifically, on the question of Catalan independence, and the municipalist movement governing cities like Barcelona. What wasn't discussed much was the fact that the conservative Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy was about to fall — which it did, just a few days later. So, Dan brought sociologist Carlos Delclós back for a follow-up interview.
Production note: Dan sounds like he’s speaking in an aquarium or calling into his own show because he messed up the recording. So, don’t blame Alex Lewis.
Thanks to Verso. Check out Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties by Tariq Ali versobooks.com/books/2666-street-fighting-years.
Also, register for the upcoming Socialism 2018 conference at SocialismConference.org
And support this podcast with $ and get access to our stellar weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig!
For libertarians, liberty means something different. It’s about liberty for property owners. And in their quest to preserve that absolute freedom for the ownership class — whether their assets be human slaves, factories, or extractive industries — democracy must be curtailed and the power of the people must be checked and repressed.
This is the argument put forward by Dan’s guest, historian Nancy MacLean, in her book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America. The book makes a powerful argument for the anti-democratic origins and trajectory of free market fundamentalist, Koch Brothers-aligned economists who have come to profoundly shape and warp American politics to fit their dystopian vision. The book has also been controversial.
Thank you to Verso Books. Check out Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism by Nisha Kapoor versobooks.com/books/2551-deport-deprive-extradite.
Thank you to the Socialism 2018 conference. Register now at socialismconference.org!
Want to get access to our stellar weekly newsletter? You can do so by making a contribution to the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig.
On this edition of Jacobin Radio, Suzi talks to legendary street-fighting man, author and playwright Tariq Ali about 1968 — as seen from today, fifty years later. The first cover of Black Dwarf, founded by Tariq and others in May 1968, is reproduced in the latest London Review of Books: “We Shall Fight, We Will Win, Paris, London, Rome, Berlin.” Now there is an emerging strike wave in France — and the slogan is “We are not commemorating 1968, we are continuing 1968.” Suzi talks to Tariq Ali about continuity and change since 1968.
Fifty years ago, a mainstream group of high-profile Americans declared the following: "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American. This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution." The Kerner Commission, established by President Johnson, embodied left liberalism at its most bold and idealistic. But that vision of radical reform was eviscerated by the American war on Vietnam, the rise of neoliberalism and the modern conservative movement, and liberal triangulation that reached its apotheosis under Bill Clinton.
Dan talks to Vanessa A. Bee, a consumer protection lawyer in D.C. and a social media editor for Current Affairs magazine, about her New York magazine essay on the subject: nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/how-we-can-get-a-more-equal-union.html.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and access our new weekly newsletter.
Spanish politics are complicated. Dan speaks to Carlos Delclós, Kate Shea Baird, and Bécquer Seguín to help clarify the Catalan independence movement, the radical municipalist governments that now govern major Spanish cities including Barcelona, and the promise and problems of the left-wing party Podemos.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art. And Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism by Nisha Kapoor versobooks.com/books/2551-deport-deprive-extradite. And please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and access our new weekly newsletter!
The steady pace of school massacres has revived calls to put more cops in school, with atrocities committed by white students exploited to make schools more like prisons, and ensure that the former remain a rapid-fire pipeline into the latter.
Dan’s guests are Dakota Hall, the executive sirector of Leaders Igniting Transformation, a youth-of-color-led organization fighting the school-to-prison pipeline in Milwaukee; and Dmitri Holtzman, the director of education justice campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Hara Hotel: A Tale of Syrian Refugees in Greece by Teresa Thornhill versobooks.com/books/2713-hara-hotel. And please make a contribution to support the long-run viability of this show and access our weekly newsletter at Patreon.com/TheDig!
A laundry list of modest policy solutions is not enough, it turns out. It's not just that technocratic fixes around the edges spectacularly fail to meet people's needs; in failing to articulate a big picture vision of how the world ought to be transformed, they fail to move people — either emotionally or, more concretely, to the polls.
Dan’s guest George Monbiot argues that the Left needs a powerful new story to win power and change lives in his new book, Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out A World to Win: The Life and Works of Karl Marx with Sven-Eric Liedman versobooks.com/events/1785-a-world-to-win-the-life-and-works-of-karl-marx-with-sven-eric-liedman. And support this podcast with $ and get our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig!
Israel is massacring Palestinians daring to approach a fence that occupation forces have built to shore up an ethno-state founded on the principle of apartheid. Nothing could be more clear. But you wouldn't no that from the, at best, muddied coverage that prevails in mainstream media accounts. Dan’s guest is Noura Erakat, a human rights attorney, professor at George Mason University, and a powerful and eloquent voice challenging the anti-Palestine narrative — including, straight into the lion's den of TV news.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties by Tariq Ali versobooks.com/books/2666-street-fighting-years.
Check out the Socialism 2018 conference at socialismconference.org
And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread.” The rule of law: the #resistance has construed it to be a cornerstone of opposition to Trump. It is certainly alarming to live under a president who flirts with operating in a permanent and near-total state of exception. But it's the rule of law as we've known it that has blessed the wide-open floodgates of corporate money into American politics, looked the other way in the face of unchecked national-security-state abuses, christened separate and unequal schools and, of course, rubber-stamped the rise of mass incarceration. The law has no transcendent moral basis. Rather, it is shaped by political economy.
Dan’s guest is Amy Kapczynski, professor of law at Yale Law School, and a co-convenor of LPEblog.org.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police
And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!
Recent cases of horrific child abuse have elicited widespread media attention. What the media coverage often misses is what these incidents reveal about a two-tiered child protection system that systemically surveils, punishes, and destroys poor black families while ignoring abuses perpetrated in affluent white homes. Dan's guest is Dorothy Roberts, who has closely studied the racism and poverty policing that pervades the child-protection system.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che by Max Elbaum versobooks.com/books/2707-revolution-in-the-air.
Today's Dig is a very good and somewhat unusual Dig: Dan’s got two interviews with two different people. First, journalist Eric Blanc on the teacher strike wave that he's been covering for Jacobin. Then comes the Center for Popular Democracy's Xiomara Caro Diaz on last week's May Day demonstrations against austerity in Puerto Rico.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art. Also, check out the Socialism 2018 Conference at SocialismConference.org. And please make a contribution to support the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Dan just moderated a discussion in Philadelphia with Senator Sanders, along with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, scholar and frequent Dig guest Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and veteran defense lawyer and advocate Premal Dharia. Bernie came to Philly because what's happening here is extraordinarily important: it's a city where for years cops have committed abuses and engaged in corruption with near impunity, and where prosecutors long looked the other way while feeding poor young black and brown men into the present-day peculiar institution of mass incarceration. Last year, Philadelphia elected Krasner, a long-time civil rights champion who pledged to fight the to end mass incarceration, as its district attorney. And that happened for the same reason that Bernie came out of nowhere and nearly ran away with the Democratic nomination in 2016: their message tapped into and was lifted up by massive grassroots movements, representing and speaking to an emerging majority that wants transformative change.
And so this is why Bernie Sanders came to Philly: to learn about what has gone so horribly wrong with the criminal justice system and how we can all organize and do the hard work to make it right.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Crashing the Party: From the Bernie Sanders Campaign to a Progressive Movement by Heather Gautney versobooks.com/books/2549-crashing-the-party. And please make a contribution to support the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig!
This is part two of Dan's interview on Hannah Arendt's notion of "the right to have rights." This episode covers a lot, including why we must fight not only to expand the democratic political community but also to deepen its power—all at a time when the nativist right is exploiting the many crises unleashed by neoliberalism and empire to erect walls and punish scapegoats. One upshot is that zombie liberalism can't be the answer, because it is precisely the liberal order that is a key source of the problem.
Dan’s guests today, Stephanie DeGooyer and Astra Taylor, just wrote a book about this for Verso, called the The Right to Have Rights. This is part 2. It’s strongly suggested that you listen to part 1 first.
Also: check out and support the soon-to-be-made documentary Socialism: An American Story https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/socialismmovie/socialism-an-american-story
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. And Work: The Last 1,000 Years by Andrea Komlosy versobooks.com/books/2608-work. And please make a contribution to support the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig
What are rights worth when government denies people the very right to have rights? Political theorist Hannah Arendt recognized this loss of "the right to have rights" as millions of refugees found themselves without a national home in the wake of world wars. Human rights, it became clear, proved to be an empty promise for those excluded from citizenship—the foundational right to be a member of a political community. Today, this insight remains a critical one as a record number of humans transit the globe in search of economic and physical security, and far-right nativists and establishment liberals alike scapegoat them for the chaos and precarity unleashed by neoliberalism and war. As a result, migrants are condemned to second-class citizenship or even death in the Mediterranean and desert Mexican-American borderlands.
My guests today, Stephanie DeGooyer and Astra Taylor, just wrote a book about this for Verso, called the The Right to Have Rights. This is part 1. Part 2 will be posted on Thursday or Friday.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Hara Hotel: A Tale of Syrian Refugees in Greece by Teresa Thornhill versobooks.com/books/2713-hara-hotel. And Work: The Last 1,000 Years by Andrea Komlosy versobooks.com/books/2608-work. And please make a contribution to support the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig
James Comey is liberal America’s favorite cop and now, as a result, a bestselling author as well. Patrick Blanchfield returns to talk about his Baffler review of Comey’s new book. It’s awful, of course. But it’s bad in productively revealing ways. Comey has become an icon of the liberal fetishization of the national security state as a bulwark against Trumpism—when it fact it is that very national security state and its rampant abuses that are deeply implicated in Trump’s rise. The elevation of police as a model of duty and leadership contrasted against Trump’s vulgar monstrosities renders invisible not only why Trump won but why he is so dangerous.
Here’s Patrick’s review: thebaffler.com/latest/prig-and-pig-blanchfield
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che by Max Elbaum versobooks.com/books/2707-revolution-in-the-air And Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism by Nisha Kapoor versobooks.com/books/2551-deport-deprive-extradite And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig
It's the latest installment in our series on the left and electoral politics. Dennis Kucinich is running a viable race for governor of Ohio; Cynthia Nixon, running with Working Families Party backing, has Cuomo truly freaked out in New York; and there are major primary fights underway in California. Most everywhere, it seems, some variant of the Left is on the move. But does the fact that a onetime business-aligned Democrat like Gavin Newsom is getting away with posing as the progressive in the California race for governor indicate that the Left hasn't yet built the institutional capacity to control the leftward surge among voters? Dan thinks so. These are among the topics he discusses with Dave Weigel, a political reporter at the Washington Post.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Hara Hotel: A Tale of Syrian Refugees in Greece by Teresa Thornhill versobooks.com/books/2713-hara-hotel. And Work: The Last 1,000 Years by Andrea Komlosy versobooks.com/books/2608-work. And please make a contribution to support the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig!
In the latest installment in our series on the Left and electoral politics, we're talking about the Democratic Socialists of America's new electoral strategy. DSA has almost overnight become a serious force on an American socialist left that has for decades lacked much in the way of serious forces. One of the major reasons the organization's membership rolls blew up, of course, was because of Bernie Sanders's historic 2016 run for president, which not only electrified huge swaths of the country but reminded the radical left that the point is to win power and to govern — and that, after years on the margins, we could do so. This was in part because many Americans were no longer afraid of the s-word: socialism. Yet there is still, for many good reasons, a lot of skepticism about electoral politics in general and the Democratic Party very much in particular, inside DSA and across the socialist left. That's the needle that the new DSA electoral-strategy document tries to thread.
Dan’s guests are Renée Paradis, a civil rights and criminal-defense lawyer. She has frequently worked for electoral campaigns, including most recently as the National Voter Protection Director for Bernie 2016. Michael Kinnucan is a writer, researcher, and activist in New York City. Both are members of DSA’s National Electoral Committee and the organizing committee for NYC-DSA’s Brooklyn Electoral Working Group.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police and Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo versobooks.com/blogs/3635-where-freedom-starts-sex-power-violence-metoo. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!
Historian and political theorist Timothy Mitchell joins Dan for the second of a two-part interview on his book Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, published in 2011 by Verso. In part 1, we talked about a lot of things, including how the rise of coal made both industrial capitalism and newly powerful worker resistance possible, and how the shift to oil then facilitated the persistence of imperialism in a decolonizing world while thwarting worker organizing. In this installment, we discuss imperialist assaults on worker struggles in Iraq and Iran, the co-optation of those struggles by nationalist elites, and how those imperialist attacks facilitated the rise of the Baathist security state.
We'll also look at how the true history of the '70s oil shock undermines the conventional account, how the protection of minorities was used to legitimate imperialism, how petro-dollars fueled the global arms trade, in what sense the Iraq War has been a war for oil, and the US strategy to seek advantage through the continuation of conflict and instability across the Middle East. Finally, we'll address petro-imperialism’s bedrock alliance with right-wing Islamists against democratic movements of the Left in Saudi Arabia and beyond, and why we must fight to ensure that the coming energy transition is a just one. That review of Yascha Mounk's book that Dan wrote with Thea Riofrancos is here: https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/zombie-liberalism/
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art and and Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig, where you can also check out the first edition of our new weekly newsletter.
Historian and political theorist Timothy Mitchell joins Dan for the first of a two-part interview on his book Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, published in 2011 by Verso. In this first episode, we talk about how the rise of coal made both industrial capitalism and newly powerful worker resistance possible; and how the shift to oil then facilitated the persistence of imperialism in a decolonizing world while thwarting worker organizing. On the next show, we'll discuss a lot more, including how oil companies and Western governments made autocratic governments and conservative Islamists key partners in creating the very global order that we now find in such profound crisis. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing and Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig, where you can also check out the first edition of our new weekly newsletter.
Imagine you walk into a warehouse where the workers are on break, and you stumble into a vigorous, nuanced discussion of Marx’s notion of surplus value, how it relates to organizing on the shop floor, and how it applies to flexible and often female labor. Then the conversation turns to Gramsci and workers' councils in Turin. This is exactly what Carolina Bank Muñozfound when she visited a warehouse in Chile to study how unions responded to Walmart’s entry into Chile. The majority of Walmart's workers in Chile are unionized, and we talk to Carolina about her book, Building Power From Below, Chilean Workers Take on Walmart,<font color="#000000">and how </font>Chilean retail and warehouse workers organized rank-and-file-led unions and win real economic gains along with respect and dignity on the job.
Then Nelson Lichtenstein joins the discussion on Walmart and organizing retail workers in the US. Nelson has several books on Walmart — as the face of capitalism in the twenty-first century, transforming American politics and business. Nelson anticipated a day of reckoning for Walmart as challenges to its "business model" grow at home and abroad — as the Chilean case shows. We'll also get Nelson's take on the "Amazon threat" and the state of US labor today in the Trump era.
It’s obvious that student debt can be an excruciating financial burden. But anthropologist Caitlin Zaloom explains that it has also done a lot to make American families into plunderable financial mines, part of a larger capitalist system that individualizes blame for economic failure and forces families that can to support their children into their twenties while depleting retirement savings. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out the free e-book Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo versobooks.com/blogs/3635-where-freedom-starts-sex-power-violence-metoo and The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig
Suzi talks to Wagner Moura, a Brazilian actor known for his work in the Elite Squad films and the Netflix series Narcos, about the volatile political situation in Brazil, where Marielle Franco, the socialist Rio City Councillor and her driver were assassinated on March 14, sparking huge protests across Brazil. Moura also talks about the film he is directing — Marighella — about the Bahian revolutionary Marxist writer and guerrilla fighter Carlos Marighella. We also hear from Brazilian political economist Pedro Paulo Zaluth Bastos and get his analysis of the political calculus in the move by the highly unpopular President Temer to put the military in charge of security, as well as the prospects for the Left in the coming election.
Plus: Chris Phelps from the University of Nottingham joins us to talk about the wider implications of the month-long strike of British University lecturers, who have just reached a settlement. The strike was about much more than pensions and austerity: it struck at the heart of the quality of higher education, and has ramifications for university life and workers everywhere.
Nomiki Konst, a correspondent for The Young Turks and Sanders appointee to the DNC’s Unity Reform Commission, talks about the Berniecrat struggle against a corrupt neoliberal establishment to democratize the Democratic Party. This is the first in a series on electoral politics over the next couple of months that will include conversations about DSA’s electoral strategy, an interview with Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, and more. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Greece and the Reinvention of Politics by Alain Badiou versobooks.com/books/2560-greece-and-the-reinvention-of-politics and The Progress of This Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World by Andreas Malm versobooks.com/books/2575-the-progress-of-this-storm. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig.
Dan talks to Randy Bryce, the Berniecrat ironworker taking on Paul Ryan, about how he plans to knockout the House Speaker, Scott Walker’s decimation of unions, and Foxconn’s con against the people of Wisconsin. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books and University of California Press. Check out Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future by Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright versobooks.com/books/2545-climate-leviathan and Healing from Hate: How Young Men Get Into—and Out of—Violent Extremism ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520292635 Support us with your cash at patreon.com/TheDig!
What if the Cold War only just ended in November 2016, as Donald Trump grotesquely encircled and then captured the presidency, finding it, to his surprise, unguarded? The Cold War proper, of course, ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Aziz Rana, making his second Dig appearance, argues that it was a lot more than the conflict with the Evil Empire. It was a domestic order that, he writes in the latest issue of n+1, “concerned everything from the genius of America’s domestic institutions to the indispensability of its global role. These judgments gave coherence to the country’s national identity—allowing both Barack Obama and Bill Kristol to wax poetic about America’s special destiny as a global hegemon—and legitimacy to its economic policy. But with the 2016 election, the cold-war paradigm finally shattered.” Check out Aziz’s article here https://nplusonemag.com/issue-30/politics/goodbye-cold-war/. Thanks to our supporters at Verso and University of California Press Check out The New Spirit of Capitalism versobooks.com/books/2513-the-new-spirit-of-capitalism andAmerican Islamophobia ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520297791!
Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University David Palumbo-Liu on the right-wing attacks on him and the question of academic freedom. The Stanford Politics article on the Thiel network Palumbo-Liu references is here. Then, Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges Jodi Dean on how to think about Trump.<o:p></o:p>
The uprising following the police killing of Freddie Gray drew national media attention to Baltimore and the abusive law enforcement agents that discipline and control those most exploited and excluded by contemporary American capitalism. As is often the case, however, the focus shifted elsewhere soon after disturbances in the street came to end. Political scientist Lester Spence recently wrote an article about why children were freezing in Baltimore public schools: the heating didn’t work, something that can only be made sense of when viewed in the longer history of capital flight, racial and class segregation, and the rise of a service-economy carceral state: jacobinmag.com/2018/01/baltimore-freezing-schools-children-racism-austerity. Thanks to Verso for their support. Check out The New Spirit of Capitalism by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello versobooks.com/books/2513-the-new-spirit-of-capitalism Support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!
Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Poor People’s Campaign alongside other organizers shortly before he was assassinated 50 years ago. Today, organizers nationwide are relaunching that movement as The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, tackling the evil quadruplet of poverty, systemic racism, militarism, and environmental devastation. Dan’s guest is rock star organizer Nijmie Dzurinko, making her second appearance on the show. Check out Dan’s recent work slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/the-opioid-crisis-is-blurring-the-legal-lines-between-victim-and-perpetrator.html & injusticetoday.com/philadelphia-media-slam-newly-elected-da-krasner-for-firings-but-house-cleaning-advances-his-f2da076ffb06 Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Futures of Black Radicalism versobooks.com/books/2438-futures-of-black-radicalism
Your first Diglet of the new year, and we’re talking about that Trump book. At n+1 Patrick Blanchfield makes the case that Fire and Fury is not, as some might think, a bunch of meaningless palace-intrigue that has distracted us from what Trump is doing to destroy the environment and wage relentless class war against the poor. Rather, the book in one fell swoop exposes the Trump administration for the dangerously hot mess that we all knew it was but were entirely unable to understand clearly because the deluge of drama and weird tweets had rendered it all banal wallpaper. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out How Will Capitalism End versobooks.com/books/2519-how-will-capitalism-end Like our show music? Check out Brodsky’s commercial and artistic work at Jeffreybrodsky.com and painterly.bandcamp.com
At the close of the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara discusses his new article on the Bolsheviks and what we can learn from and blame on them — and also what might be forgiven and moved beyond. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl and Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy by Lynne Segal at versobooks.com.
A lengthy interview with historian Barbara Fields and sociologist Karen Fields on their seminal essay collection Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life. Dan talks to the sister scholars about the book; how Ta-Nehisi Coates’s primordialist view of white racism spells defeat; how racism serves the interest of capitalist class war, how endless debates over Rachel Dolezal distract us from that fact; and a whole ton more. This is over two hours, so you might want to bite it off on a few chunks, or on a long drive. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso. Check out Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of WWI to the Streets of Today by Anna Feigenbaum. And support your (favorite?) left-wing podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig!
Historian Kelly Lytle Hernández tells the story of human caging in Los Angeles, from the Spanish Conquest to the mid-twentieth century, in her new book City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965. It's a story of indigenous exploitation and elimination, immigrant detention and deportation, and the suppression of cross-border revolutionary movements. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot versobooks.com/books/2<wbr />571-out-of-the-wreckage Support us with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig.
Centrist business elites believe in an America that doesn't exist. Two guests this episode: first, @mollyesque talks about her piece "On Safari in Trump's America" for The Atlantic. Her article follows the centrist organization Third Way on a “listening tour” of the real America. Then @EricLevitz (35:52), who just published on op-ed in the New York Timesentitled “America is not ‘center-right," sorts through research to argue that what Americans often mean when they say they are “moderate” is not the combination of superficial social progressivism and neoliberalism that Wall-Street-aligned Third Way types think they mean. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School by Stuart Jeffries versobooks.com/books/<wbr />2501-grand-hotel-abyss Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig
Why have the size of American police departments grown so dramatically in recent decades, even as crime rates have fallen? One factor may have been the growing centrality of real estate for urban economies, according to a new article published in the journal Social Forces by Adam Goldstein, a professor of sociology at Princeton, and Brenden Beck, a PhD student in sociology at CUNY. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out The End of Policingby Alex Vitale versobooks.com/books/<wbr />2426-the-end-of-policing Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig
Suzi Weissman switches seats with Robert Brenner: she is the guest and he does the interviewing. The program begins with a talk Suzi gave recently in Berkeley: "One Hundred Years Since October: When the Russian Working Class Opened the Possibilities For Humanity." Robert and Suzi then discuss the significance of October 1917, when workers took power with profoundly democratic institutions of popular control from below in the Russian empire, creating the Soviet Union.
In his new book The End of Policing Brooklyn College sociologist @avitale makes the case that technocratic reforms won't fix American policing. In reality, we can only fix policing by ending the carceral state and defeating neoliberalism. Thanks to Verso Books for their support. Check out Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump by David Neiwert versobooks.com/<wbr />books/2535-alt-america Support us with your $$ at patreon.com/thedig
<font size="4">Suzi Weissman talks to</font><font size="4">Einde O’Callaghan, a teacher and member of Die Linke, about Germany’s recent election, in which the far-right AfD gained 94 seats in Parliament, making it larger and more influential than the left-wing Die Linke. Then, Richard Lichtman joins us to discuss the notion (and failures) of democracy in the current period. How do we characterize a system that has the form of democracy but not the substance? Has this always been the case or is there something new in the era of Trump?</font>
Trump is normal in more ways than people care to admit, but he is different in that he parts from the bedrock ideology of American exceptionalism that has governed this country from its violent founding. Foreign policy scholar @stephenwertheim makes the case that the Trump Doctrine could reignite extreme nationalism and militarism but also provides the Left with an opening to finally launch a movement against American Empire. Thanks to University of California Press for their support. Check out their new title A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran https://www.ucpress.edu/ebook.php?isbn=9780520965843<o:p></o:p>
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The so-called Olympic spirit doesn’t match the reality of a highly-corporatized Games that often leaves taxpayers picking up the tab, engenders abusive policing and justifies the remaking of cities for the rich at the expense of ordinary and poor people. Dan’s guests today are Molly Lambert, a writer and member of Los Angeles DSA, and Jules Boykoff, the author of "Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics" from Verso. Support this pod with your money at patreon.com/thedig
On Jacobin Radio today we talk to Christian Parenti, now teaching in the economics program at John Jay College (CUNY) about the catastrophic effects of climate change already upon us — from Harvey to Irma, from Katrina to Houston, to the fires raging around the globe. Christian has written in the new issue ofJacobinon climate change, "Earth Wind, & Fire," about what the near future will look like "If We Fail" to act, but he says that technological solutions already exist, that the State will have to step up — and that brings up the question of political power and social movements.
In These Times editor Miles Kampf-Lassin cracks open a cold one with the boys in the Stockton to Malone studio/supply closet. Micah, Miles, and RL discuss their experiences walking with striking workers at the AT&T picket lines on Chicago's south side last month. RL closes out the episode by making fun of Slavoj Žižek. He was then struck by a car in a mysterious hit and run ten minutes after they finished recording. He's okay now, but be warned, Slavoj's got shooters!Follow us on Twitter at @RLisDead, @MilesKLassin, and @MicahUetricht.
George Cicariello-Maher is professor of political science at Drexel University and author of several books, including Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela, published by Verso as part of the Jacobin Series. He recently drew the ire of white supremacist, "alt-right" trolls after a mocking tweet about "white genocide," including death threats to his family.
Perhaps more concerning was the response from Drexel Administration, which almost immediately released a statement calling his tweets “utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing,” and stating that they “do not in any way reflect the values of the University.”
Drexel eventually backed off after a public campaign in defense of Cicariello-Maher. He discusses the incident as well as issues of violence and free speech in the United States.
On a recent episode of the podcast Bad with Money with Gaby Dunn, Gaby explored some basic questions about capitalism with Jacobin managing editor Nicole Aschoff: what is it? Why does it encourage companies like Facebook to monetize our personal lives? Why do young people think it's so bogus? Why is it so bogus?
Thanks to Gaby for letting us use the interview. You can subscribe to Bad with Moneyhere.
Nicole Aschoff is also the author of The New Prophets of Capital, which you can buy here.
On January 20, 2017, just a few hours after the inauguration of Donald Trump, one thousand people gathered in Washington, DC’s Lincoln Theatre (and 200,000 across the United States and abroad watched at home or at livestreaming parties) for The Anti-Inauguration, an event from Jacobin, Verso Books, and Haymarket Books.
The event featured author and activist Naomi Klein, journalist Anand Gopal, the Intercept‘s Jeremy Scahill, the Guardian‘s Owen Jones, and Princeton African-American Studies professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, with introductions by Jacobin editor and publisher Bhaskar Sunkara.
You can watch the video from the event here and download a free ebook from Jacobin, Verso, and Haymarket here.
The depravity of Donald Trump’s fear-mongering, xenophobic, anti-Muslim politics are now in full swing.
The new president has barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — including, to an unclear and ultimately-walked back degree, lawful permanent residents, from entering the United States for ninety days. All refugees are barred for 120 days, and refugees from Syria are barred indefinitely.
What’s gotten less attention, but is also quite serious, is that Trump slashed the overall number of refugees slated to be admitted this year by more than half.
Today, we bring you two interviews. The first is with Nicholas Espíritu from the National Immigration Law Center, one of the groups mounting legal challenges against the ban, who will explain the legal and constitutional challenge to the Muslim and refugee ban.
The second is with Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, a leading supporter of Bernie Sanders’ primary bid, and co-chair of the Women's March on Washington.
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Donald Trump has nominated Betsy DeVos, a free-market, far-right Christian billionaire dedicated to privatizing public schools, to be his Secretary of Education.
In her confirmation hearing, DeVos made it painfully clear that she has little understanding of public education aside from her dedication to destroying it. She is the heir to an auto parts fortune, and her husband, Dick, is the heir to a fortune derived from the direct sales company Amway, which the FTC at one point decided was not a pyramid scheme.
Interestingly, she is also the brother of Erik Prince, who founded the infamous mercenary army Blackwater has now, according to The Intercept, been quietly advising the Trump Administration. The couple, thanks to their money and relentless ideological drive, are heavy-duty power players in Michigan politics, where they have wreaked havoc on Detroit public schools.
In many ways, this oligarch’s nomination is the extreme and cartoonesque outcome of decades of bipartisan corporate-aligned policy that pushed charters and high stakes testing, and attacked the teachers unions that stood in their way.
Today, we’re joined by historian Diane Ravitch, one of the country’s leading scholars of education policy and a vocal critic of corporate reform efforts that promote privatization and high-stakes testing as the solution to problems largely created by segregation, poverty and funding inequity. Amongst many other books, Ravitch is the author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.
