Jacobin Radio

Confronting Capitalism: This Century’s Biggest Labor Battle

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:59:00 -0000

Our modern economy is now dominated by massive mega-companies like Amazon and Walmart, with operations spanning many different sectors and employment types. With the US labor movement at historically low levels of unionization, bold strategies are necessary to protect the working class.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek speak with ASU professor Benjamin Fong about the challenges and opportunities that organizing Amazon presents to the labor movement.

Ben has recently published an essay collection, co-edited with Paul Prescod, on civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. You can find a link to the book and its description here: https://www.damagemag.com/p/rustins-challenge

Join Confronting Capitalism for a live recording in Brooklyn on April 6! Find more details and RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jacobin-who-speaks-for-the-working-class-majority-tickets-1984301239423

TICKETS: $10 solidarity rate. $20 standard entry. Seats are first come, first served.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: Complications of the Iran War w/ Mouin Rabbani

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:30:21 -0000

Mouin Rabbani talks about the Iran war and its many complications. Helen Yaffe talks about Trump’s oil embargo on Cuba — its effects and how Cubans are reacting.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Economic Warfare w/ Aslı Bâli, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Nicholas Mulder

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0000

Featuring Aslı Bâli, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, and Nicholas Mulder on the economic warfare unfolding with the US-Israeli war on Iran — and beyond.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Find Ethnic Studies at the Crossroads at UCPress.edu

Buy Cold War on Five Continents at Haymarketbooks.org

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Long Reads: El Salvador’s Jailer in Chief

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:30:00 -0000

Donald Trump is a huge fan of Nayib Bukele, the current president of El Salvador. Last April, Bukele visited the White House and offered to help with a campaign of domestic repression in the United States. In El Salvador, which relies on US support, Bukele’s government has detained tens of thousands of people in mass arrests. Hundreds have died inside their notorious prison system.

Our guest today for a conversation about El Salvador under Bukele is Hilary Goodfriend. Hilary is a postdoctoral researcher at UNAM in Mexico City and she writes about Salvadorean politics for Jacobin.

Read Hilary’s article “An Infinite State of Exception in Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador” here: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/el-salvador-us-bukele-trump-authoritarianism

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.

Behind the News: Beyond Debates of Class vs. Identity w/ Nancy Fraser

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 18:45:47 -0000

Nancy Fraser goes beyond the class/identity disputes. Natalie Y. Moore, who wrote a recent article for Hammer and Hope and EHRP, looks at effects of federal layoffs on black women.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Nusantara Ep. 1 — The Long Arc of Dutch Colonialism

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Nusantara is a new Dig series on the history of Indonesia: a hinge in the world system where colonialism and revolution have decisively shaped the trajectory of global history. This episode traces a long period of European plunder and domination that began with the Portuguese and then continued, for centuries, under the Dutch—a story stretching from the murderous mercantilism of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) seeking to monopolize the spice trade to a modern colonial administration profiting from plantations, petroleum, and countless commodities. The first installment features Rianne Subijanto and Made Supriatma. Other scholars of the archipelago will join us in the episodes that follow.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Find Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Writers at UCPress.edu

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: Trump’s Historic Blunder in Iran

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:59:00 -0000

The US-Israeli war against Iran may have been initiated without any coherently stated goals or popular support, but we can already see that it’s a horrific quagmire. It also doesn’t look like Trump and Israel will get the swift Iranian regime change they hoped for.

On the latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber is joined by Jason Brownlee, a professor of government at the University of Texas Austin, to discuss the history of regime change wars, the geopolitical interests in the Middle East, and Trump’s further descent into the neoconservative blob.

Read Jason’s most recent Catalyst essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/03/shadow-wars-and-corporate-welfare

Interested in attending our live show? Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jacobin-who-speaks-for-the-working-class-majority-tickets-1984301239423

TICKETS: $10 solidarity rate. $20 standard entry. Seats are first come, first served.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: 2003 All Over Again w/ Kevan Harris

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Two weeks into the US-Israeli assault on Iran, every prediction of its architects has collapsed. The regime stands. Protests haven't reignited. Iran’s new Supreme Leader — more hardline than his assassinated father — has vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. And the war began just as negotiations in Geneva were apparently close to a deal.

Suzi speaks to UCLA sociologist and Iran expert Kevan Harris on Day 14 of Operation Epic Fury. We examine Iran’s domestic political economy, the corrupt economic empire of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), and the regime's brutal repression after the January uprising.

On the fantasy of regime change by bombing, Kevan says, “There are zero historical cases of air power bombing a country into revolution from below. Zero." Every US intelligence agency told the White House this. They went ahead anyway. It’s 2003 all over again.

Kevan describes Israel’s war strategy as a widening gyre with no limit and no endpoint — one likely to produce another war on Iran within two years. That's why, Kevan argues, building an anti-war movement the Left’s most urgent task. "We might have a hot summer in the United States."

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Homeland Empire w/ Nikhil Pal Singh

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:50:00 -0000

Historian Nikhil Pal Singh, author of a recent article for Equator, talks about how the Trump regime weaves foreign and domestic policy into a single domain of impunity, Homeland Empire.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: Trump’s Nation-Breaking War w/ Afshin Matin-Asgari

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:30:00 -0000

We’ve now entered the second week of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Donald Trump’s War Secretary Pete Hegseth has boasted about the US military machine bringing “death and destruction” to the country.

Afshin Matin-Asgari joined Long Reads on Monday, March 9, to discuss the war. Afshin is a professor of Middle East history at California State University in Los Angeles. His most recent book is Axis of Empire: A History of Iran–US Relations.

Read Afshin’s coverage of the protests from January: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/iran-protests-khamenei-trump-israel

And an edited transcript of this podcast interview here: https://jacobin.com/2026/03/trump-iran-regime-war-israel

Jacobin Radio: The US-Israeli Attack on Iran w/ Yassamine Mather

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0000

What are Iranians actually experiencing right now? Suzi speaks with Yassamine Mather, an Iranian socialist who has been in direct contact with relatives, colleagues, and comrades inside Iran throughout the bombing. Yassamine is chair of Hands Off the People of Iran, editor of Critique, and researcher at Oxford's Middle East Centre.

She describes near-hourly strikes, hospitals hit, internet cut, and a propaganda war in which state TV claims nothing happened while satellite channels say nothing is left. She explains why Trump’s promise to 'liberate' Iran has had opposite effects: People who were in January’s anti-regime protests are now joining pro-government demonstrations — not for the regime, but out of rage at foreign attack. She assesses Khamenei's death, the removal of his brake on IRGC adventurism, Netanyahu’s real objective (to destroy Iran as a country, not just its nuclear program), and why this war makes 2003 look well planned. She also addresses dangerous illusions some on the Left hold about Russia or China as potential saviors. She closes with a new initiative: Nur, a project for regional solidarity across Iran, Palestine, and the Arab world, launched with veteran socialist Moshé Machover.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Anti-War w/ Ben Mabie & Salar Mohandesi

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:30:00 -0000

Featuring Ben Mabie and Salar Mohandesi on what the war on Iran tells us about US imperialism, and why the US doesn’t have a massive anti-war movement even amid historic anti-war public sentiment. Capitalist states have changed war-making in ways that insulate imperialism against popular resistance. We must make movements that can thrive and win under new conditions.

Find Venezuela in Crisis at haymarketbooks.org

Find Anti-Eviction at UCPress.edu

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dig party in London with Equator magazine this Friday March 13. Tickets all claimed but sign up for the waitlist and you can probably come anyhow. Info here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561?

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: The Decades-Long War on Iran w/ Behrooz Ghamari

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:00:00 -0000

Behrooz Ghamari, author of The Long War on Iran, looks at the politics and culture of the country. Anatol Lieven analyzes the effects of the war on Iran on the region and 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.

The Dig: Primary Strategy w/ Geoff Simpson

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Featuring Geoff Simpson on Justice Democrats’ massive 2026 slate of insurgent House candidates taking on AIPAC/Big Tech money. Also: the history of post-Bernie 2016 primary challenges, the Israel lobby’s legitimacy crisis, radicalizing liberals, and the role of electoral politics in the larger left project.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561?

Subscribe to Heat the Ground Up from Haymarket Originals: tinyurl.com/heatthegroundup

Find Leave if You Can: Migration and Violence in Bordered Worlds at UCPress.edu

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: How Work Got So Bad

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 10:59:00 -0000

Why does every new technology seem to make work harder and not easier? In 1974, Harry Braverman published a seminal text Labor and Monopoly Capital to answer that question. Combining a careful study of scientific management and technological innovation with several of Marx’s key concepts, Braverman explained why workers under capitalism are gradually transformed into mere cogs in the machine.

On the latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek discuss the process of managers breaking down workers’ skills and why work under capitalism tends to degrade rather than fulfill us.

TICKETS: $10 solidarity rate. $20 standard entry. Seats are first come, first served.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

The Dig: Breaking the Machine w/ Peter Linebaugh

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:30:00 -0000

Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the Luddites’ machine-breaking revolt against the enclosure of handicraft production, the central role played by capital punishment in the consolidation of the capitalist state, and remaking the struggle against enclosure for the 21st century.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561?

Find Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy at Haymarketbooks.org

Find Revolutions: A New History at Versobooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: The Psychology of the Epstein Gang w/ Tessa West

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:00:00 -0000

Tessa West, professor of psychology at NYU, examines the social dynamics that kept the Epstein gang together. Nick Srnicek, author of Silicon Empires, discusses AI. And Wanda Bertram breaks down the costs of mass incarceration following a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/money2026.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.

Long Reads: The Sudanese Catastrophe w/ Joshua Craze

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:00:00 -0000

Last October, the war in Sudan took a new turn with the capture of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces. The city in western Sudan had been under siege by the RSF for more than two years before the Sudanese armed forces suddenly withdrew. After taking control of El Fasher, the RSF began to carry out a massacre of civilians. A UN fact-finding mission recently found that the crimes in El Fasher bore “hallmarks of genocide.”

The Sudanese catastrophe is all the more depressing because it comes after a brief moment of greater political openness and optimism after the ousting of a dictator in 2019.

Joshua Craze joins Long Reads to discuss the evolution of the conflict in Sudan and its likely future. Joshua has written many articles about the politics of Sudan and South Sudan for publications such as the New Statesman, the New York Review of Books, and Jacobin.

Read Joshua’s 2023 essay for Jacobin, “Only You Can Save Darfur”: https://jacobin.com/2023/07/only-you-can-save-darfur

And find other work on his personal website: https://www.joshuacraze.com/essays

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.

Jacobin Radio: Four Years of War in Ukraine w/ Oleksandr Kyselov

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:59:00 -0000

Suzi speaks to Ukrainian socialist Oleksandr Kyselov, who says the current “peace process” is a dangerous illusion. Russia’s goal, he argues, is not compromise but subjugation — and any ceasefire that doesn’t confront that reality only postpones the next war. We discuss the Witkoff-Dmitriev 28-point plan (critics call it the “DimWit plan”), exhaustion inside Ukraine, and why calls from the Western left for immediate, unconditional ceasefire, without a single protest outside a Russian embassy, are, as Kyselov puts it, “beyond naive.”

Ksenia Kagarlitskaya then joins us from her exile in Montenegro. Her father, Marxist sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, has now spent two years in Penal Colony No. 4 for opposing Putin’s war. She discusses her father’s imprisonment and the explosion of political prisoners inside Russia since 2022. Ksenia runs Freedom Zone, an organization that raises funds and organizes events globally to support political prisoners and their families. Ksenia reminds us that political prisoners don’t appear in any of the current peace negotiations, because Russia doesn't acknowledge that they exist.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Authoritarianism From Below w/ Stuart Schrader

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Naomi Hossain analyzes politics in Bangladesh generally and the recent election specifically. Stuart Schrader discusses “authoritarianism from below” — the role of local cops in the Trump crackdowns.

Read Stuart’s article: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/02/14/authoritarianism-from-below-trump-city-takeovers-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.

Confronting Capitalism: Is AI Coming for Our Jobs?

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:59:00 -0000

The developments in artificial intelligence appear to promise a radical transformation of modern work. But what happens if AI turns out to be much more like previous waves of technological change?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek discuss the history of automation, the effects of technology on employment and wages, and why socialists should want to harness AI to create human flourishing.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: How Mortgage Fraud Devastated East New York w/ Stacy Horn

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:59:00 -0000

Stacy Horn, author of The Killing Fields of East New York, on the damage mortgage fraud did to that neighborhood. David Backer, author of As Public as Possible, on how we finance schools and how we could do better.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: The Ceasefire Scam in Gaza w/ Yara Hawari

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:18:43 -0000

Last October, the Trump administration announced a ceasefire deal in Gaza after two years of relentless carnage. Since the deal was announced, Israel has continued to occupy much of Gaza, and its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has launched his so-called Board of Peace to administer Gaza without any input from Palestinians. Having received a blank check for his scheme from the UN Security Council, Trump now presents the Board of Peace as an alternative to the UN itself.

Yara Hawari joins Long Reads for an update on conditions in Gaza and the wider international context. Yara is the co-director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

Read her analysis of Palestinian politics here: https://al-shabaka.org/authors/yara-hawari/

The Dig: The Commons w/ Peter Linebaugh

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the long histories of commons and commoning, connections between enclosures in Europe and imperial conquest abroad, and writing history from below.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Engineered Conflict: Structural Violence and the Future of Black Life in Chicago at Haymarketbooks.org

Buy Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet at Versobooks.com

Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561?

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Jacobin Radio: From Outrage to Power in Minneapolis w/ Luis Feliz Leon

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:38:27 -0000

When federal immigration raids went from brutal to deadly in Minneapolis, the epicenter of Trump’s escalating war on immigrants and Blue cities, residents responded with coordinated “no work, no school, no shopping” shutdowns that drew tens of thousands into the streets there and around the country. It wasn’t technically a general strike — but it demonstrated how unions, clergy, and community networks could create the organizing infrastructure to transform outrage into collective power, building a movement and a new strike culture.

We explore how all this happened and what organizers believe comes next with labor journalist Luis Feliz Leon and President of Minneapolis CWA Local 7250 Kieran Knutson, who bring us stories of daily life under ICE occupation. Feliz Leon situates this Minneapolis moment in the history and theory of mass strikes. Knutson explains the role of mutual aid, the strategic targeting of corporations, and the push toward a worker assembly to shape the next steps. They show how ordinary people organized democratically to vanquish fear, turning moral shock into power.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: How Capital Works w/ David Harvey

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:00:00 -0000

David Harvey speaks about his new book The Story of Capital. We hear an excerpt from Mark Carney’s Davos speech. Adam Federman discusses Trump’s Greenland obsession.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Confronting Capitalism: When Do Protests Become a Revolution?

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:59:00 -0000

The Trump administration has ramped up its bellicose rhetoric against the Iranian regime after it clamped down on the latest wave of protests. Is the regime teetering on the edge of collapse?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek contrast the Iranian Revolution of 1979 with the current protests, and discuss what makes a revolution possible.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: The Myth of Respectable Conservatism w/ David Austin Walsh

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:30:00 -0000

David Austin Walsh, author of Taking America Back, looks at the relationship between the kooks and respectables on the Right. Laura Field, author of Furious Minds, examines the intellectual wing of Trumpism.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Minneapolis Fight Back w/ Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, and JaNaé Bates Imari

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Featuring Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, and JaNaé Bates Imari on how Minneapolis achieved its fight back against ICE/Border Patrol occupation. A decade building aligned mass movements has made Minneapolis among the best-organized cities in the country. Those carefully built structures, however, had to be nimble in confronting the federal onslaught.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Listen to Unruly Subjects, a new podcast from Chenjerai Kumanyika and The Dig’s producer, Alex Lewis https://pod.link/1849696769

Check out equator.org for long-form articles, public events, and reading groups

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Long Reads: Iran on the Brink w/ Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:59:00 -0000

As this episode was being finalized, the Trump administration was threatening to attack Iran for the second time in less than a year. The threats come against the backdrop of mass protests inside Iran that appear to have been repressed by the state security forces for the time being.

Long Reads is joined by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi. He’s a lecturer on the international politics of the Middle East at the University of St Andrews. And the author of Revolution and Its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran. Eskandar joined us last summer to talk about the situation in Iran, and we spoke again earlier this week to cover the latest developments. This interview was recorded on Tuesday January 27th.

Read a transcript of this interview: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/iran-protests-authoritarianism-trump-israel

Listen to our interview from last summer here: https://apple.co/4rI5ekr

Behind the News: Israel’s Assault on Lebanon w/ Aurélie Daher

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:26:00 -0000

David Bier of the Cato Institute looks at what’s behind Trump’s war on immigrants. Aurélie Daher examines the current state of Hezbollah and why Israel is bombing Lebanon.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Silicon Empires w/ Nick Srnicek

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:00:08 -0000

Featuring Nick Srnicek on Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI. A deep exploration of the political economy of AI: the fulcrum of the authoritarian tech oligarchy — and of global contests for economic and military dominance.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Cold War on Five Continents at Haymarketbooks.org

Check out equator.org for long-form articles, public events, and reading groups

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Jacobin Radio: Trumpism as Counterrevolution w/ Robert Brenner and Dylan Riley

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Suzi speaks with historian Robert Brenner and sociologist Dylan Riley about the deeper meaning of Trump’s return to power.

Is Trump just a narcissistic strongman — or the carrier of a coherent counterrevolutionary project? Brenner and Riley argue that Trumpism is not a return to the past but an attempt to reorganize society for a future in which capitalism can no longer grow — only command, police, and exclude.

They trace the roots of Trump Two to decades of economic stagnation, the collapse of US hegemony, the failure of Bidenomics, and a deep class split between credentialed and non-credentialed workers.

They describe Trumpism as a reactionary social revolution from above, aimed at dismantling the social bases of liberal democracy. Its pillars include the attack on universities, the expansion of the security state as an ICE jobs program, AI as a form of class warfare undermining credentialed labor, and the dismantling of the international order.

It’s a wide-ranging conversation about empire without growth, class politics under stagnation, and the future of the left in what Brenner and Riley call the wilderness of contemporary capitalism.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Venezuela’s Past, Present, and Future w/ Forrest Hylton

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:30:00 -0000

Forrest Hylton, contributor to the London Review of Books, discusses Venezuela past, present, 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.

Confronting Capitalism: Why the US Never Got a Labor Party

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:59:00 -0000

While European labor movements established foundations for their welfare states in the late 19th century, it was not until the New Deal that the US began instituting policies like unemployment insurance and old-age pensions. But although working-class struggle was also key to this success, several unique factors in American history proved an impediment to more egalitarian policies.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek continue their deep dive into the history of social democracy. Together, they look at the impacts of craft unionism, mass immigration, racial tensions, and employer violence in explaining American exceptionalism.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Iran’s Protest Movement w/ Yassamine Mather and Kevan Harris

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:30:00 -0000

Over the past several weeks, Iran has experienced its most serious wave of protests since the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022. What began as an economic protest quickly turned political, with chants calling for an end to the Islamic Republic — and the most brutal response of repression in the history of the Islamic Republic, with killings, mass arrests, executions, and an internet blackout.

UCLA historical sociologist Kevan Harris reconstructs the spark that ignited the protests — a technocratic reform perceived as an unjust tax, adding to economic and political grievances that exploded into a broader uprising. Iranian scholar and political activist Yassamine Mather examines the brutal repression that followed and the dangerous media distortions surrounding the uprising as exile groups promote monarchist fantasies and openly flirt with US and Israeli intervention. Mather says Iranian protesters overwhelmingly reject both the Islamic Republic and the shah’s dictatorship — and foreign intervention threatens to crush the very movement it claims to support.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Long Reads: Latin America’s State of Siege w/ Tony Wood

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 15:00:00 -0000

This is a special, extra episode of Long Reads.

It’s now two weeks since the US attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio made explicit threats to countries like Colombia and Cuba in the aftermath, washed down with the usual fantasies about drug trafficking.

Tony Wood joins Long Reads to discuss the attack on Venezuela and what it means for the Latin American left. How have left-wing governments and parties been reacting, and what are the long-term implications going to be?

Tony is a professor of Latin American history at the University of Colorado Boulder and a regular contributor to publications such as New Left Review, the London Review of Books, and Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/author/tony-wood

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.

The Dig: MAGA Empire w/ Aslı Bâli and Greg Grandin

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 01:00:00 -0000

Featuring Aslı Bâli and Greg Grandin on the MAGA model of US imperialism.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Subscribe to the Unite and Win podcast at podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unite-and-win-a-guide-to-workplace-organizing/id1866713309

Check out equator.org for longform articles, public events, and reading groups.

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Long Reads: Western Sahara’s Struggle for Freedom w/ Jacob Mundy (Part 2)

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

This week’s episode of Long Reads is the second part of a two-part interview about the history of Western Sahara. Our last episode covered events leading up to Morocco’s invasion of the country. This episode examines the fifty years of occupation and the recent push by the Trump administration to legitimize Moroccan rule.

Our guest Jacob Mundy is a professor of peace and conflict studies at Colgate University. He’s the co-author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution.

Read his piece for Jacobin, “For 50 Years, Morocco Has Denied Western Sahara Freedom”: https://jacobin.com/2025/11/morocco-western-sahara-freedom-colonialism

Behind the News: Maduro Kidnapped w/ Alejandro Velasco

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:00:00 -0000

Alejandro Velasco analyzes the situation in Venezuela. Eric Blanc defends Victor Berger, Milwaukee’s sewer socialist, against charges of racism.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Confronting Capitalism: The Coup in Venezuela

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 10:59:00 -0000

The kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro on January 3rd was a shocking escalation in the United States’s ongoing strangulation of Venezuela. This has immediately provoked questions about the domestic Venezuelan power struggle and the demise of the Bolivarian Revolution.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber is joined by Gabriel Hetland, author of the Catalyst essay titled “From Chávez to Maduro.” Together, they analyze the US’s imperial meddling, Delcy Rodríguez’s shaky interim leadership, and Maduro’s legacy in the context of the Pink Tide.

Read the essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2024/12/from-chavez-to-maduro

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: The Donroe Doctrine w/ Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 14:30:00 -0000

Trump’s January 3rd military assault on Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolas Maduro marks a turning point in global politics. Trump made no humanitarian or democratic claims — only a blunt assertion of power, resources, and control. Suzi talks to Brazilian political economist Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos who says this new “Donroe Doctrine” is openly transactional, unapologetically imperial, and signals weakness: a declining hegemon turns to force to secure oil, minerals, and supply chains. We discuss why Venezuela was targeted, how China figures centrally in US strategy, and the trouble of defending Maduro in the name of “anti-imperialism.”

That question — how to oppose US imperialism without defending corrupt regimes — leads directly to Ukraine. Denys Pilash of Ukraine’s democratic socialist organization Sotsialnyi Rukh draws on his scholarly work on Venezuela. He is speaking from Kyiv in blackout conditions, under bombardment and infrastructure attacks. We discuss why the struggle against Maduro’s government and the struggle against American imperialism are not opposites, but two sides of the same conflict, in which people become pawns in political games. Pilash says for this reason, as internationalists, "we must speak out in solidarity with the people of Venezuela, the same solidarity that Venezuelans showed towards Ukraine in its resistance to Russian aggression." He argues that accepting a world divided into imperial spheres of influence fatally undermines any consistent opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Venezuela w/ Alejandro Velasco, Gabriel Hetland, and Yoletty Bracho

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:30:00 -0000

Featuring Alejandro Velasco, Gabriel Hetland, and Yoletty Bracho on the US attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro. An expansive conversation analyzing Trump’s imperialist project and assessing Chavismo and its oppositions from Chávez through Maduro.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Check out equator.org for longform articles, public events, and reading groups

Buy Middle Class New Deal at UCPress.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: Abundance Needs Socialism

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:59:00 -0000

Over the past year, Democrats have learned to embrace economic abundance thanks to Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s bestselling book. But is this the same kind of abundance the Left has traditionally argued for?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber is joined by Matt Huber, co-author alongside Fred Stafford and Leigh Phillips of a new Catalyst essay titled “The Left Has Always Fought for Abundance.” Together, they discuss the need for an energy infrastructure build out, the historic origins of stagnant state capacity, and what socialist abundance entails.

Read the essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2025/12/the-left-has-always-fought-for-abundance

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: The Best of 2025

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 14:55:06 -0000

Emile Torres on the transhumanists. Quinn Slobodian on eugenics and neoliberalism. Femi Taiwo on DEI and the war on it. Kristin Du Mez on white Christian nationalism. Anatol Lieven on the Trumpian worldview. Laleh Khalili on the relationship between the Pentagon and US capitalism. And Susannah Glickman on similar.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Zohran’s Message w/ Andrew Epstein

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 15:01:19 -0000

Featuring Andrew Epstein on the Zohran campaign’s savvy, funny, sharp, disciplined, and moving comms operation. As one hundred thousand volunteers knocked three million doors, Andrew and a team of strategists, speechwriters, designers, and filmmakers wrote a giant love letter to New York City and inoculated voters against a lavishly-funded fusillade of smears and attacks.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy After Savagery at Haymarketbooks.org

Buy From Apartheid to Democracy at UCPress.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Jacobin Radio: What Happened in Chile? w/ Oscar Mendoza and Pablo Abufom

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Chile has just elected its most extreme far-right president since the Pinochet dictatorship. José Antonio Kast won the December 14 runoff by a commanding margin — a stunning reversal in a country that in 2019 experienced a massive social uprising over the unaffordability of life and extreme inequality. The social revolt ended with the pandemic lockdown, but the following year a broad leftist coalition swept into power, electing the 34-year-old former radical student leader Gabriel Boric, whose government promised to bury neoliberalism once and for all.

How did Chile move so quickly from an anti-neoliberal social rebellion to the return of the hard right? Was this a vote for authoritarianism — or a vote against insecurity, inflation, and political stalemate? What does Kast’s victory tell us about the global resurgence of the far right, from Latin America to Europe and the United States?

Suzi examines Chile’s political reversal with two Chilean analysts: Oscar Mendoza explains this electoral shift by looking at the failed constitutional process, the role of mandatory voting, media panic over crime and immigration, and the institutional constraints Kast will face in office. Pablo Abufom situates Kast’s victory in a longer historical trajectory, arguing that this is the first democratic government of pinochetismo — a project combining authoritarian neoliberalism, moral conservatism and anticommunism, now aligned with a global far-right resurgence.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Confronting Capitalism: The Golden Age of Social Democracy

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 10:59:00 -0000

After World War II, political parties championing redistribution, full employment, and egalitarianism gained power across the globe, especially in Western Europe. But why did these social democrats give up the ambition to transition to socialism?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains why the golden age of capitalism was a rare period of triumph for the Left, even though the movement faced serious challenges from class enemies, state structures, and tensions within its own coalition. Any leftist trying to change the balance of class power would benefit from understanding why social democracy achieved such lasting success even as it remains in the political minority today.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code, CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature w/ Alyssa Battistoni

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 14:30:00 -0000

Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, looks at the complications of using lithium batteries to green our future. Alyssa Battistoni, author of Free Gifts, examines the weird relationship between capitalism and nature.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: NYC and the Hegemonic Project

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 19:00:00 -0000

Featuring Sumaya Awad, Sumathy Kumar, and Nathan Gusdorf on building power on the ground as our allies exercise it from above in the service of a larger hegemonic project to transform the United States. As Zohran Mamdani takes office on January 1, it’s time for governance—and all of the opportunities, constraints, and contradictions that entails. A recording of last week’s live Dig in Brooklyn.

Support The Dig (and check out our cool new merch) at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy After Savagery at Haymarketbooks.org

Buy From the Clinics to the Capitol at UCPress.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Long Reads: Western Sahara’s Struggle for Freedom w/ Jacob Mundy (Part 1)

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 17:00:00 -0000

The occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco has now lasted for half a century. The anniversary of the invasion passed at the beginning of November. It came just as the Trump administration was working at the United Nations to legitimize permanent Moroccan rule over the land and its people, including the indigenous Sahrawis.

Today’s episode is the first part of a two-part interview on the history of Western Sahara. Part one is going to cover the experience of Spanish colonial rule and the emergence of a movement for independence before the invasion by Morocco in 1975. Part two will carry the story up to the present day.

Our guest Jacob Mundy is a professor of peace and conflict studies at Colgate University. He’s the co-author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution.

Read his piece for Jacobin, “For 50 Years, Morocco Has Denied Western Sahara Freedom”: https://jacobin.com/2025/11/morocco-western-sahara-freedom-colonialism

Jacobin Radio: The Least Unjust Peace in Ukraine? w/ Oleksandr Kyselov

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:30:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Oleksandr Kyselov and Alyssa Oursler about what’s being sold to the world as “peace” in Ukraine, and what it looks like from the standpoint of Ukrainians who are actually living through the war. Trump’s 28-point plan for Ukraine — drafted behind closed doors by his real estate ally Steve Witkoff and a Russian sovereign wealth fund chief — reads less like diplomacy and more like a property deal: Russia gets the land, the US takes its cut, Europe foots the bill, and Ukraine is told to choose between surrendering now or surrendering later — with little input in the process.

Ukrainian political analyst Oleksandr Kyselov argues that what’s on the table is not a just peace but an “imperial carve-up,” and that Ukrainians are forced to fight for “the least unjust peace” that can realistically be won today. Then journalist Alyssa Oursler, reporting from Kyiv, describes how Ukrainians are reacting to the plan — from sudden funerals to conversations with leftists and soldiers who say Trump has prolonged the war and treated Ukraine as a bargaining chip.

We ask what a real peace would look like, why Ukrainians fear being forced into this deal, and what international solidarity from the Left ought to mean now.

Read Oleksandr’s Jacobin article, “Ukraine Faces and Imperial Carve-Up”: https://jacobin.com/2025/12/ukraine-russia-war-concessions-trump

Support for Jacobin Radio comes from The Regrettable Century podcast: https://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Trump’s Militaristic Master Plan w/ Anatol Lieven

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:31:28 -0000

Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute analyzes Trump’s official national security strategy. Susannah Glickman, recently interviewed by the New York Review of Books, looks at the transformation of the US government into a private equity firm.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Welcome to the Resistance w/ Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, Waleed Shahid

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Featuring Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, and Waleed Shahid on the liberal resistance’s sharp left turn since Trump returned to the White House. Libs are voting Zohran at the ballot box, fighting ICE in the streets, and just generally looking favorably upon socialism. This discussion puts the moment in historic context and plots out the strategic exigencies and opportunities ahead.

Rest in power Asad Haider. Check out our 2018 interview with Asad on his book Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump thedigradio.com/podcast/mistaking-identity-politics

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Learning to Live in the Dark at Haymarketbooks.org

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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.

Confonting Capitalism: Reform and Revolution

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:59:00 -0000

Social-democratic politics have been part of the socialist movement for over a century. Some features, like the commitment to pursuing economic rights for the working class via the state, have remained consistent over time. But when did social-democratic ambitions to overthrow capitalism turn into efforts to reform the system?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber takes a broad look at the early agenda of social-democratic parties. Through an examination of their views on the state, class, and socialism, he unpacks social democracy’s relationship to the Left’s politics today.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: The Honduran Elections w/ David Adler and Matt Kirkegaard

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 14:20:00 -0000

David Adler and Matt Kirkegaard of the Progressive International debrief the Honduran elections. Elfadil Ibrahim examines the Sudanese civil war. And finally Eric Blanc, drawing from Milwaukee’s decades of “sewer socialism,” offers lessons for Mamdani and Wilson.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Three Million Doors w/ Tascha Van Auken

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 10:59:00 -0000

Featuring Tascha Van Auken on how Zohran’s campaign mobilized an army of 100,000 volunteers to knock three million doors. Van Auken has been an architect of NYC-DSA’s field operation and its general electoral strategy since the beginning. Organizers everywhere have a lot to learn. Guest hosted by Micah Uetricht.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Live Dig episode in Brooklyn on December 10: Zohran and the Return of Municipal Socialism. Navigating opportunities and contradictions of governance with NYC-DSA leaders Sumathy Kumar and Sumaya Awad alongside the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Nathan Gusdorf. Free entry but please RSVP. Party afterwards! eventbrite.com/e/zohran-and-the-return-of-municipal-socialism-tickets-1972951976472

Buy No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine at Haymarketbooks.org

Read the latest issue from The Nation‘s Books & the Arts section TheNation.com/books-and-the-arts

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

The Dig: What’s Left w/ Malcolm Harris

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Featuring Malcolm Harris on What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis. An open-minded and anti-sectarian discussion about an ecumenical book that plots out three paths forward for the Left — arguing we must embrace all three simultaneously.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Live episode of The Dig in Brooklyn on December 10: “Zohran and the Return of Municipal Socialism.” Navigating opportunities and contradictions of governance with NYC-DSA leaders Sumathy Kumar and Sumaya Awad alongside the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Nathan Gusdorf. Free entry but please RSVP. Party afterwards! eventbrite.com/e/zohran-and-the-return-of-municipal-socialism-tickets-1972951976472

Buy No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine and Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy at Haymarketbooks.org

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Long Reads: Prosecuting Israel’s Genocide w/ John Reynolds

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 14:59:43 -0000

Since Donald Trump announced a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces have killed more than 300 Palestinians. They also continue to occupy large parts of Gaza and have vowed not to withdraw.

Despite the ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank alike, Western states clearly want to move on as if the atrocities of the past two years had never happened. Yet Israel is still facing efforts to hold it accountable under international law. South Africa has brought a case before the International Court of Justice accusing it of violating the Genocide Convention. And the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

To discuss the ongoing case, Long Reads is joined by John Reynolds, a professor of law at Maynooth University. He’s the author of Empire, Emergency, and International Law.

Find John’s previous interviews with Long Reads here: https://jacobin.com/author/john-reynolds

Support for this episode comes from Revol Press: revolpress.com

Jacobin Radio: Sewer Socialism w/ Eric Blanc

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 14:20:00 -0000

Suzi talks with historian Eric Blanc about a timely chapter in American socialist history: the rise — and limits — of Milwaukee’s “sewer socialists.” His article, “Socialists in City Hall? A New Look at Sewer Socialism in Wisconsin,” reexamines this often-disparaged experiment in municipal socialism at a moment when New York prepares for Zohran Mamdani’s administration. Mamdani’s victory — built on years of organizing in immigrant and working-class neighborhoods — reopens the question of whether socialists can not only win, but govern in America’s most unequal cities.

A century ago, Milwaukee elected socialist mayors who delivered clean, efficient, working-class governance — public power, parks, housing, and real material improvements. They weren’t making a revolution; they were governing within capitalism, and ran up against its limits: employer backlash, national political shifts, and the hard reality that municipal power can only go so far without broader working-class strength.

Eric argues that this history offers essential lessons for the Left today: how to build durable political organization, use office to win tangible gains, and govern competently while expanding working-class power — without mistaking municipal office for municipal socialism, or making the sewers more important than the socialism.

Support for Jacobin Radio comes from The Regrettable Century podcast: https://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: War and Neocolonialism in Sudan w/ Mosaab Baba

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 10:59:00 -0000

Mosaab Baba, who wrote an article about Sudan for Black Agenda Report, looks at what’s behind the horrendous civil war. Jake Adelstein, an American journalist who’s been living in Japan for almost 40 years, discusses that country’s reactionary new prime minister.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: 500th Episode Party w/ Brace Belden and Liz Franczak

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 18:00:00 -0000

Featuring Brace Belden, Liz Franczak, Gabriel Winant, Aziz Rana, Sumaya Awad, Thea Riofrancos, and Alex Lewis. Toasts and roasts celebrating 500 episodes of The Dig. Plus a short speech from Dan. Live at Brooklyn’s Littlefield.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

On December 10th in Brooklyn, join us for a live-recorded Dig episode: “Zohran and the Return of Municipal Socialism.” Navigating opportunities and contradictions of governance with NYC-DSA leaders Sumathy Kumar and Sumaya Awad alongside the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Nathan Gusdorf. Free entry but please RSVP. Party afterwards! eventbrite.com/e/zohran-and-the-return-of-municipal-socialism-tickets-1972951976472

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: Economic Populism at a Crossroads

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 10:59:00 -0000

While Democrats recently scored some much-needed electoral wins, the party remains in crisis. Recent reports like Welcome PAC’s “Deciding to Win” argue that the Democrats must drop unpopular cultural positions and recenter economic demands. Can a populist economic agenda shorn of unpopular identity politics get the party back on track?

On this episode of Confronting Capitlism, Vivek Chibber evaluates these reports and examines the pros and cons of this approach. Based on recent polling data, working class voters have rejected elitist cultural demands but support social-democratic economic solutions.

The latest issue of Catalyst Journal is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: The Grassroots Coalition Behind Mamdani

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 16:31:05 -0000

Zohran Mamdani’s decisive mayoral victory was powered by a coalition of tenants, immigrants, and workers. Suzi talks to Alina Shen, organizing director of CAAAV Voice, Jagpreet Singh, political director of DRUM Beats (Desis Rising Up and Moving), and Alicé Nascimento, political director of NYCC (New York Communities for Change) — representatives of three organizations that, along with the New York City branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, helped make this victory possible.

They discuss how grassroots groups expanded the electorate and built the People’s Majority Alliance, a movement for housing, justice, and democracy.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Extraction w/ Thea Riofrancos

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 14:00:56 -0000

Featuring Thea Riofrancos on Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. The green energy transition requires a vast array of inputs: copper, cobalt, rare earth elements, and the focus of this discussion, lithium — all of which must be mined from the earth. This is a wide-ranging discussion stretching from Chile to Nevada, and from the dawn of colonialism to the geoeconomic conflict between the US and China — and a lot more.

In New York City? See Thea discuss Extraction with David Wallace-Wells tonight, Friday, November 14, at McNally Jackson Seaport. Say hi to Dan if you attend! Tickets here: mcnallyjackson.com/event/thea-riofrancos-david-wallace-wells

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Black History is for Everyone at Haymarketbooks.org

Get your first month free at OVID.tv using promo code DIG25

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Jacobin Radio: Mamdani’s Win w/ Alex Press and Luke Savage

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 13:59:00 -0000

Suzi speaks with Jacobin writers Alex Press and Luke Savage about Zohran Mamdani’s insurgent — and successful — New York City mayoral campaign.

Alex Press takes us out after dark in Queens with the democratic socialist mayor-elect, meeting taxi drivers at LaGuardia, nurses and residents at Elmhurst Hospital, delivery workers on the night shift — the people who keep New York running while the city sleeps.

Luke Savage analyzes the bipartisan meltdown that Mamdani’s campaign provoked among billionaires, media moguls, and the Democratic Party establishment — all united to stop a democratic socialist from gaining power.

We talk about Mamdani’s agenda: free public transit and childcare, a $20 minimum wage, regulation of gig companies and labor rights for delivery drivers, freezing rents, and more. And we discuss why the working-class movement behind him has elites so terrified.

Read Alex’s report on Mamdani and late-night New York: https://jacobin.com/2025/11/mamdani-night-shift-nyc-mayoral-election

Read Luke’s report on the establishment meltdown: https://jacobin.com/2025/11/socialism-barbarism-mamdani-cuomo-trump

Support for this episode comes from Revol Press: revolpress.com

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Forgotten Albania w/ Lea Ypi

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0000

Gabriel Hetland, author of a recent article for Jacobin, looks to Venezuela for a model of municipal socialism. Lea Ypi, author of Indignity, looks into her grandmother’s story and unfolds a rich history of Albania and its environment.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Brazil and the World System w/ Fernando Haddad

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 10:59:00 -0000

Featuring Fernando Haddad on Brazilian political economy and where Brazil fits into a world capitalist system structured by relationships of domination and unequal exchange. Haddad is Finance Minister of Brazil. He served as mayor of São Paulo and in 2018 was the Workers’ Party (PT) presidential candidate.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy From Apartheid to Democracy at UCPress.com

Read the latest issue from The Nation‘s Books & the Arts section TheNation.com/books-and-the-arts

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: Why Neoliberalism Won

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 10:59:00 -0000

Neoliberalism’s victory over Keynesianism wasn’t an intellectual revolution — it was a class offensive. Vivek Chibber unpacks how employers and political elites turned economic turmoil into an opportunity to reshape society on their terms.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: Silicon Valley’s Rightward Tilt w/ Jacob Silverman

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 17:59:24 -0000

Jacob Silverman, author of Gilded Rage, examines the rightward move of the Silicon Valley elite. Forrest Hylton conducts a political tour d’horizon of South America.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: Pedro Sanchez and Spanish Politics w/ Eoghan Gilmartin (Part 2)

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

We’re joined again today by Eoghan Gilmartin to continue our discussion about the government of Pedro Sanchez in Spain. Eoghan is an Irish journalist based in Madrid, a regular contributor to Jacobin, and co-host of the Sobremesa podcast about Spanish politics.

In contrast with Greece and Portugal, Spain still has a government today headed by the center left. The Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has attracted a lot of interest from the international media for appearing to buck the trend as many European countries shift to the right. He’s been unusually outspoken on the subject of Gaza. And Sanchez was the only European leader to directly challenge Donald Trump over his demand for a big increase in military spending.

Sanchez feels confident that he will lead the Socialist Party in the next general election, but his government is facing a number of challenges, including a corruption scandal that implicated some of his political allies. Today, we’re going back to the early stages of the Sanchez government, before asking whether it has a future in the years to come.

Hear part one of our interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/long-reads-pedro-sanchez-and-spanish-politics-w/id791564318?i=1000732303080

Find Eoghan’s recent articles, including “Spain Is Right to Reject Increased Military Spending,” on the Jacobin website: https://jacobin.com/2025/06/trump-nato-spain-military-sanchez

Support for this episode comes from Revol Press: revolpress.com

The Dig: Third World Networks w/ Walden Bello and Jane Nalunga

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 13:30:26 -0000

Featuring Walden Bello and Jane Nalunga on neoliberalism’s defeat of Third Worldist radical projects and the Global South social movement and civil society networks that rose from the ashes to take on neoliberal globalization. A wide-ranging interview with two important, long-standing Global South leaders.

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Dan in the New Yorker newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/03/daniel-denvir-digs-zohran-mamdani

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Read the latest issue from The Nation‘s Books & the Arts section TheNation.com/books-and-the-arts/

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: Big-Tech War Profiteers w/ Susannah Glickman

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Margaux MacColl, co-author of a series of articles in the SF Standard, discusses Zoomer tech bros. Susannah Glickman, who wrote a recent piece for the New York Review of Books, looks at the new arms makers who want to disrupt the legacy prime contractors.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Another World Was Possible

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Featuring Alexandra Wandel, Gonzalo Berrón, and Paul Adlerstein on the 1999 mass protest against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and on the giant global justice movement that mobilized unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest advocates, and various radical leftists all over the world. Recorded live in Brussels with the European Trade Justice Coalition. First in a two-part series. Next up: a view from the Global South with Jane Nalunga and Walden Bello.

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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.

Confronting Capitalism: Office Hours With Vivek

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Grab your coffee and your backpack — it's time for Professor Chibber's Office Hours!

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek answers YOUR questions. We received so many interesting and thoughtful emails from listeners, we decided to dedicate a whole podcast to them. Vivek talks about how socialists should confront discrimination in their organizing, the relevance of the concept of monopoly capitalism, and the class implications of home ownership.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Louisiana Labor Struggle w/ Jesse Baum & David Williams

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:00:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Capital & Main reporter Jesse Baum and David Williams, a Dollar General stocker and organizer with Step Up Louisiana, about how workers are fighting for dignity and better working conditions in “right-to-work” states — places where an anti-union climate, legal roadblocks, and intimidation make winning union recognition nearly impossible.

Dollar Store workers in Louisiana organized with Step Up Louisiana and won tangible gains despite the system being rigged against them. They used the Pre-Majority Unionism strategy — acting like a union without having one — walking out, marching on shareholders, and forcing companies to raise wages and improve safety and respect on the job. We talk about whether this organizing could chart a path forward for labor in the US’s low-wage sectors, short of unionizing.

Support for this episode comes from Revol Press: revolpress.com

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Ceasefire Update w/ Ilan Pappé

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Ilan Pappé, author of Israel on the Brink, gives an update on the ceasefire and how the deepening crisis of Israeli society could lead to something better. Jennifer Berkshire examines the appalling Trump educational agenda.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: Pedro Sanchez and Spanish Politics w/ Eoghan Gilmartin (Part 1)

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 13:30:00 -0000

Long Reads continues our recent focus on the politics of southern European countries over the last decade. This week and in our next episode, we’re looking in detail at what’s been happening in Spain.

Sanchez may be gaining admirers as well as enemies on the international stage. But his position at home is quite precarious. His governing coalition with the left-wing party Sumar doesn’t have a majority in parliament. And some of his political allies have been accused of corruption.

Over the next two episodes, Long Reads will concentrate on how Sanchez came to power, what his record in office has been, and whether his government is likely to endure.

Eoghan Gilmartin is an Irish journalist based in Madrid. He’s a regular contributor to Jacobin, and he co-hosts the Sobremesa podcast about Spanish politics.

Find his recent articles, including “Spain Is Right to Reject Increased Military Spending,” on the Jacobin website: https://jacobin.com/2025/06/trump-nato-spain-military-sanchez

Behind the News: Is Trump De-Escalating With China? w/ Jake Werner

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Jake Werner of the Quincy Institute analyzes Trump’s creeping softness on China, and how that country sees its role in the world. Jeet Heer, author of a recent book review for the Nation, talks about the slick but odious William F. Buckley

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Jacobin Radio: How to Resist ICE and Win w/ Bill Gallegos

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 13:30:00 -0000

Professor Tom Alter, a tenured historian at Texas State University, was recently fired for speaking at an online socialism conference. His remarks were secretly recorded and doctored by a self-proclaimed fascist influencer who launched a smear campaign. There was no due process, a blatant violation of his First Amendment and academic freedom rights. The president of Texas State University upheld the firing of Tom Alter after a court ordered his reinstatement. A broad coalition has formed to “Defend Tom Alter.” Tom joins Suzi to describe what happened and why his case has become a flashpoint in the new McCarthyism sweeping US campuses.

Then, longtime Chicano activist Bill Gallegos tells the story of how Los Angeles united to defeat Trump’s deployment of troops to enforce ICE raids and terrorize immigrant communities. Unions, immigrant organizations, artists, faith leaders, and even business groups built a united front demanding troops out — and they won. Trump’s troops were forced to withdraw. LA showed the country what resistance and broad solidarity can achieve: when people organize and stand firm, even a president bent on repression can be pushed back. LA was supposed to be Trump's model for his authoritarian power grab, but instead it was the template for defeating it.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: From Fiscal Austerity to Monetary Abundance w/ Melinda Cooper

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 20:23:07 -0000

Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. Balanced budget conservatism and supply side populism engineered a politics of austerity and budget deficits. Deep cuts to the social wage like welfare reform disciplined labor so severely that Fed chair Alan Greenspan opened the floodgates of easy money confident it would juice the price of assets alone. Assets like homes, the value of which spiraled ever upward until the global financial crisis. The crash made the politics of revolutionary conservatism that dominate us today with MAGA. But the crisis also revealed powerful monetary tools that we could wield to make socialism—if only we organize the power necessary to seize them.

The second in a two-part series.

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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.

Confronting Capitalism: Reviving Class Politics Today

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 09:59:00 -0000

In this tumultuous political era, it’s common to hear that the Left needs to rebuild its historic sources of power. But it’s more accurate to say that the Left is essentially in the process of starting over again.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, we share Vivek Chibber’s keynote address at the Jacobin conference, “Socialism in Our Time,” which marked the 15th anniversary of the magazine. He discusses how capitalism has changed since the turn of the century, how the Left has been neoliberalized, and why Zohran Mamdani’s campaign may point in a new direction.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Imperialism in the 21st Century w/ Ilya Matveev

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:16:15 -0000

At the end of September, political theorist Ilya Matveev joined the Critique editorial board to present his ideas about imperialism in the 21st century. Suzi Weissman moderated that enlightening discussion and brings it now to Jacobin Radio.

Matveev examines the emerging era of inter-imperialist rivalry and asks what’s really driving the strategies of Russia, China, and the United States. China has risen as a manufacturing superpower, with national capital tightly fused to the party-state. Russia, in a neo-fascist turn, has shattered the global free-trade order with its invasion of Ukraine. The United States, still unmatched in military and financial power, confronts both as rivals even as Trump’s second administration dismantles the alliances and institutions that once underpinned American primacy.

What theories of imperialism can help us make sense of this fractured world order? Matveev argues that to grasp today’s disjointed global system, we must reckon not only with the structural contradictions of capitalism but also with the sovereign decisions and ideological projects of political elites.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Trump’s Dubious Gaza Scheme w/ Mouin Rabbani

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 13:15:00 -0000

Erin Thompson considers the politics of public monuments as Trump talks of restoring Confederate statues. Mouin Rabbani returns for a look at Trump’s dubious Gaza peace scheme. Ted Hamm, author of Run Zohran Run!, discusses Mamdani’s campaign for NYC mayor.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: Portugal’s Left in Retreat w/ Catarina Príncipe (Part 2)

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 14:30:00 -0000

This week’s episode of Long Reads is the second in a two-part interview. In our last episode, we spoke to Catarina Príncipe about the politics of Portugal since 2015. Today we’re going to cover developments from 2022 onward.

One of the main themes in that period has been the rise of the far right. In 2022, the parties of the radical left, the Communist Party and the Left Bloc, lost ground and were no longer part of the governing majority. In this year’s general election, the right-wing Chega Party became the second-largest force in the Portuguese parliament. Chega’s breakthrough came at the expense of the Portuguese Socialist Party, which now had the third-largest group of MPs. For the Socialists, it represented a dramatic fall in the space of three years.

Catarina Príncipe is a contributing editor for Jacobin and she co-edited the book Europe in Revolt. She’s also a member of the Left Bloc.

Listen to the first part of the interview here: https://apple.co/4mmUUec

Read Catarina’s article “How Portugal’s Right Won the Election” here: https://jacobin.com/2024/03/portugal-right-wing-chega-election

The Dig: Counterrevolution w/ Melinda Cooper

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 11:59:00 -0000

Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. Neoliberalism remade the American economy into an engine for the appreciation of assets stretching from the single-family suburban home to the stock market. This revanchist offensive sought to enforce not only the class order and fiscal rectitude but also gender, sexual, and racial hierarchies.

The first in a two-part series.

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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: Tech Capital Is Taking Over Politics w/ Thomas Ferguson

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:28:00 -0000

Thomas Ferguson has investigated money in politics for decades, and he has found, over and over again, that money and election outcomes are directly linked.

He joins Suzi to talk about how Silicon Valley, finance, defense, and crypto have fused into what he calls “red tech.” Ferguson explains why the Democrats’ crisis isn’t about messaging — it’s about failing to deliver for working people while catering to donors. We dig into the investment theory of politics, the K-shaped recovery, crypto’s bipartisan capture, and the structural impasse at the heart of the Democratic coalition.

What does this new tech-capital bloc mean for labor, democracy, and the future of US politics?

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Recognizing Palestine w/ Mouin Rabbani

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 13:45:00 -0000

Mouin Rabbani explains what is behind all these fresh diplomatic recognitions of Palestine and speculates on the future of Gaza. Ernesto Semán, author of a recent piece for the New York Review of Books, looks at the Argentine situation and the US bailout of the libertarian Javier Milei.

Read Mouin’s article “The Meaning of Western Recognition of Palestine” here: https://jacobin.com/2025/09/recognition-palestine-israel-genocide-zionism

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Confronting Capitalism: The Origins of Capitalism

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 09:59:00 -0000

It’s well understood that capitalist economies are a recent development in human history. But there is persistent disagreement on the Left over exactly how and where the transition to capitalism occurred, as well as what role colonial plunder played in enriching the West.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains the origins of capitalism, what primitive accumulation means, and how colonialism actually affected European development.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code, CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Trump’s War on Dissent w/ Pema Levy

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 11:30:00 -0000

The Roberts Court gave Trump sweeping immunity — and he’s using it to intimidate critics, greenlight ICE’s racial profiling raids, extort universities, law firms, corporations, and foreign governments, and crack down on political speech. Pema Levy of Mother Jones joins Suzi to unpack the landmark decision in Trump v. United States, a ruling that didn’t just grant Trump protection for official acts but armed him with the ability to wield the Justice Department as a personal weapon against political rivals. It’s as if the DOJ were Trump’s private legal office. Levy traces how legal and political practices are converging in an authoritarianism that threatens us all.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: State of Impunity w/ Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:56:50 -0000

Featuring Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader on Trump’s intensification of police, ICE, and military repression. What does this all reveal about MAGA’s fascist and authoritarian project — and about the illiberalism already immanent in the US carceral and imperialist state? This is the second in a two-part series.

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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.

Behind the News: High Church Neoliberalism w/ Quinn Slobodian

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 13:32:35 -0000

Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards, speaks about the eugenics/race science tendencies within High Church Neoliberalism. Molly White looks at stablecoins and the Trump–UAE deal.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: Portugal’s Left in Retreat w/ Catarina Príncipe (Part 1)

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Long Reads spoke to Yanis Varoufakis earlier in the year to mark the tenth anniversary of the Greek referendum on the austerity programs of the European Union. This week, we’re going to be looking at another country that bore the brunt of Euro-austerity after the 2008 crash.

Ten years ago, the Portuguese Socialist leader Antonio Costa formed a government with the support of two radical-left parties, the Left Bloc and the Communist Party. Costa’s government appeared to be a success story for the European center left at a time when most of its parties were losing ground. Portugal also stood out as one of the few West European countries where the far right was still a marginal force.

Costa’s party increased their vote share in 2019 and he remained in office. In the election of 2022, the Portuguese Socialists even won an absolute majority. But Costa resigned as prime minister two years later and his party lost power after the fourth general election in less than a decade.

Another general election this year was a disaster for the Socialist Party and the radical left. With just over 20 percent of the vote, the Socialists were now on a level footing with the far-right party Chega. The combined vote share for the Left Bloc and the Communist Party was less than a third of the figure from 2015.

Our guest today for a conversation about the last decade of Portuguese politics is Catarina Príncipe. Catarina is a contributing editor for Jacobin and she co-edited the book Europe in Revolt. She’s also a member of the Left Bloc.

This week’s episode is the first of a two-part interview. Today we’re going to cover the period from 2015 until the general election in 2022.

Listen to the second part here: https://apple.co/46z7qmw

Read Catarina’s article “How Portugal’s Right Won the Election” here: https://jacobin.com/2024/03/portugal-right-wing-chega-election

The Dig: Fascist Police State w/ Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:36:02 -0000

Featuring Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader on Trump’s intensification of police, ICE, and military repression. What does this all reveal about MAGA’s fascist and authoritarian project—and about the illiberalism already immanent in the US carceral and imperialist state? The first in a two-part series.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Call in to leave a question for The Dig’s mailbag episode: speakpipe.com/ListenerMailbag

Get your first month free at OVID.tv using promo code DIG25

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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: Block Everything w/ Sebastian Budgen

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Sebastian Budgen in Paris about the collapse of Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government and the “Block Everything” mobilization against Macron’s austerity agenda, which brought unions, students, and grassroots activists into the streets. Another national strike is set for September 18. What makes this mobilization different — and what does the crisis mean for the Left, the far right, Macron’s presidency, and the future of the Fifth Republic? Suzi then talks to Joe Allen about his new book Teamsterland, exploring the Teamsters’ notoriety and contradictions, the near-strike at UPS, and how Teamsters president Sean O’Brien’s embrace of Trump mirrors the challenges facing US labor today.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: The Utopian Dreams of AI Moguls w/ Émile Torres

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:30:00 -0000

Émile Torres, who co-wrote an article with Timnit Gebru for First Monday about AI, discusses tech moguls’ dreams of transcending the merely human. Daniel Wortel-London, author of The Menace of Prosperity, looks at the fiscal history of NYC, and considers how we could do better than subsidizing the rich.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Confronting Capitalism: Populism’s Promises and Pitfalls

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Populism is in the air, providing unique opportunities and challenges to the Left. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber discusses how populist sentiment — popular anger at elites and a demand for economic redress — helped socialists reinsert economics back into politics.

Recent electoral victories, such as Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City Democratic primary, have shown the success of centering material demands with widespread appeal. While not populist in the classic sense, campaigns like Mamdani’s have been able to harness this broader mood of popular discontent. The strategy is not without its limitations, but it holds important lessons for how the Left can reshape a political environment that has been hostile to workers for decades.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out, and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: From Debs to DSA w/ David Duhalde

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 16:32:52 -0000

John Roosa looks at what’s behind the riots in Indonesia. David Duhalde, author of a paper for the Rosa Luxemburg Stinting, discusses the Democratic Socialists of America in relation to its ancestor, Eugene Debs’s Socialist 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.

The Dig: Class Struggle for the University w/ Ian Gavigan

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 13:24:08 -0000

Featuring Ian Gavigan on how the bipartisan neoliberalization of higher education laid the groundwork for Trump’s all-out assault. Workers must unite on every campus, articulate an alternative vision for the university, and fight to win 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.

Behind the News: William Buckley’s Life and Influence w/ Sam Tanenhaus

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:59:00 -0000

Sam Tanenhaus, author of Buckley: The Life and the Revolution that Changed America, on Bill, his thought, and his influence.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Jacobin Radio: Inside Ukraine at War w/ Tanya Vyhovsky

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 20:25:00 -0000

Suzi talked to Vermont state senator and democratic socialist Tanya Vyhovsky, just back from several weeks in Ukraine. Senator Vyhovsky traveled from Kyiv to L’viv, Kryvyi Rih, and Dnipro, meeting with trade unionists, feminists, students, and survivors of Russia’s bombardment. Her visit came as Putin sat down with Trump in Alaska without Zelensky at the table. Tanya shares her eyewitness reflections and analysis of Ukraine’s fight for survival, the central role of labor and grassroots organizations in keeping society alive, and why international solidarity has never been more urgent.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Pie Down Here w/ Robin D. G. Kelley

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 12:30:00 -0000

Featuring Robin D. G. Kelley listening back and reflecting upon old tapes of the interviews with sharecroppers he conducted in the 1980s while researching Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression. This is an episode of Signal Hill, a new audio magazine made by friends of The Dig. Produced by Conor Gillies and edited by Liza Yeager and Omar Etman.

Listen to Dan’s Dig interview with Robin Kelley on Hammer and Hoe thedigradio.com/podcast/hammer-and-hoe-with-robin-d-g-kelley

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Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: Why Class Matters

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0000

Utilizing class analysis is the bread and butter of socialist politics. But understanding how classes are shaped and reproduced has changed over time.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber breaks down how the Marxist tradition has theorized class, the difference between a class in itself and a class for itself, and how class analysis is used within political organizing.

The latest issue of Catalyst Journal is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code, CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM:

https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Reach out here: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: The Air Canada Strike w/ Barry Eidlin

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 20:59:46 -0000

Labor sociologist Barry Eidlin joins Suzi to discuss the recent Air Canada strike, which has now reached a tentative agreement. The strike began when 10,000 flight attendants, organized in the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), walked off the job on August 16, after months of failed negotiations. The Canadian government responded with its usual move: a back-to-work order under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code — a provision that ostensibly regulates strikes, but is instead used to short-circuit them. But this time, something unusual happened: the workers defied the order, chanting “Forced to fly? We won’t comply!”

After an all-night bargaining session, they secured a tentative settlement on August 19th — showing what labor can do when it doesn’t back down.

We talk about the strike, the government response, its outcome, and what it portends. We’ll also talk about the differences between Canadian and US unionizing and labor law, strike outcomes, and public policy.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Bourgeois Attire w/ Derek Guy

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 14:25:00 -0000

Osita Nwanevu, author of The Right of the People, examines the flaws of US democracy — and some cures. Derek Guy outlines the evolution of upper-class men’s dress over the decades.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: Iran Under Fire w/ Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:59:00 -0000

The war that Benjamin Netanyahu launched against Iran in June killed hundreds of Iranian civilians. After pleading with Donald Trump to intervene on his behalf, Netanyahu even managed to anger his patron in Washington. Still, the possibility of a second Israeli attack on Iran remains.

Long Reads is joined by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi for a conversation about Iran, Israel, and the US. Eskander is a scholar of Middle Eastern politics and history at the University of York and the author of Revolution and its Discontents: Reform and Political Thought in Iran.

Read the recent piece Eskander co-wrote for Jacobin, “The Failson and the Flag,” here: https://jacobin.com/2025/06/reza-pahlavi-iran-israel-intervention

Jacobin Radio: The Legacy of Revolutionary Ukraine w/ Vladyslav Starodubtsev

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Ukrainian left activist, historian, and soldier Vladyslav Starodubtsev joins Suzi to connect two moments, separated by more than a century, in the fight for Ukrainian self-determination.

We begin with the Trump–Putin Alaska photo op summit on August 15th, an attempt to decide Ukraine without Ukraine at the table. Thankfully, a Munich in Alaska was averted, no deal was struck. We then turn to the Ukrainian People’s Republic of 1917-1923, born in the revolutionary upheavals of 1905, WWI, and the February 1917 Russian Revolution. Built on grassroots power from peasants, workers, soldiers, and cooperatives, the Ukrainian People's Republic legislated sweeping land reform, gender equality, national-personal autonomy for ethnic minorities, and a cooperative economy. It did not last. Its history is tied to the larger story of revolution, civil war and defeat. Starodubtsev traces the through-line from that struggle to today’s resistance: lessons on power, sovereignty, and the future of democracy.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Beyond the Capitalist Economy w/ Aaron Benanav

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Aaron Benanav, author of a recent article for New Left Review, outlines possibilities for a democratically planned economy. Jerome Nikolai Warren examines the possibilities for cooperatives.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Death and Life Under Capitalism w/ Sarah Jaffe

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 13:51:40 -0000

Featuring Sarah Jaffe on her book From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire. The ordinary death of a loved one under a capitalist order that routinely forbids sufficient time off to mourn. Workplace injuries, deindustrialization, police violence, pandemic, genocide, social murder, and how we can make sense of loss through struggle.

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Jacobin Radio: A Left Split From Labour w/ Tariq Ali

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Suzi speaks to Tariq Ali about Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party — provisionally called Your Party — which has surpassed Labour’s membership with over 650,000 sign-ups. Your Party calls for public ownership, redistribution, and a politics rooted in communities, unions and social movements. Starmer’s Labour government has nothing for the population, but billions for war and complicity in genocide. Supporters see a historic opening for the Left; critics warn it could split the vote and hand power to Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK, which has overtaken the weakened Tories. We get Tariq Ali’s assessment of Your Party’s politics, prospects, and perils.

Then Flor Melendrez of CLEAN Carwash, the country’s first car wash worker center, talks to Suzi about the escalating ICE raids on carwasheros across Southern California. ICE uses racial profiling to conduct suspicion-less stops, warrantless home raids, and illegal workplace actions. A new class action lawsuit demands an immediate halt to these violations of the 4th and 5th Amendments of the Constitution. Flor tells us how ICE raids are hitting carwasheros in their workplaces, and how these workers are organizing to defend their jobs and families.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Confronting Capitalism: The PMC Isn’t Going Away

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 09:59:00 -0000

The “professional managerial class” has become a staple of political debate on the Left.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains why the “PMC” is better understood as a heterogeneous layer within capitalism rather than a distinct class, how and why the middle strata have expanded, and what has pushed so many professionals toward anti-capitalist politics. While skeptical of the PMC as a precise analytical category, Chibber argues that the term still captures something real about one of the most politically influential groups in modern America.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out, and you can subscribe for just $20 using the link below:

https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: The “Anti-Woke” Culture War w/ Jodi Dean

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 14:45:00 -0000

Jodi Dean, author of a recent article about the “classism of defeat,” makes a case for why going anti-woke is very wrong. Emily Jashinsky analyzes Marjorie Taylor Greene’s use of the word “genocide” and other curious developments on the 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 online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

Long Reads: Trump’s Gaza Famine w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 17:15:00 -0000

Gaza is experiencing a man-made famine as Israel blocks the supply of almost all humanitarian aid. By the start of August, Israeli soldiers had killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians as they were looking for food. Most of the killings happened near sites managed by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the GHF. The GHF was sponsored by the Trump administration earlier this year to replace legitimate aid organizations with a track record of operating in Palestine.

For this week’s episode, we spoke to Akbar Shahid Ahmed of the Huffington Post about the famine and recent massacres in Gaza. Akbar has been a guest on the show several times before. He’s currently working on his book about the Biden administration and Gaza, which will be published next year.

Find Akbar’s previous interviews with Long Reads here: https://jacobin.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmed

The Dig: Chicago’s Left Experiment

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:30:00 -0000

Featuring Alex Han, Asha Ransby-Sporn, and alderwoman Jeanette Taylor on Chicago’s left political experiment. In the wake of Zohran’s remarkable victory in New York, organizers all over the country are taking a close look at Chicago under Mayor Brandon Johnson. A Chicago Teachers Union leader elected in 2023, Johnson’s win was the culmination of years of militant labor and social movement struggle. But while much has been achieved, Johnson and his allies have also suffered many defeats — and the mayor’s approval ratings are alarmingly low. In this episode, three long-time local organizers, including a socialist member of city council, analyze the state of the Left’s bid for governing power and what broader lessons it holds. Recorded live in Chicago.

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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.

Behind the News: Can Mamdani Reform the NYPD? w/ Alex Vitale

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:55:00 -0000

Alex Vitale, author of a recent Nation article, discusses Zohran Mamdani, the NYPD, and policing generally. Plus: Dwayne Monroe takes on the latest wave of AI mania.

Jacobin Radio: Israel’s Gaza Starvation Campaign w/ Yoav Peled

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:55:00 -0000

Suzi speaks to Yoav Peled of Tel Aviv University about the accelerating crisis in Israel and Gaza. Though there is a “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s war, the relentless and devastating destruction of Gaza grinds on with staggering human costs. Gazans are starving and the world is taking notice.

Netanyahu faces growing international condemnation and internal anger. Along with Israeli spokesmen and far right cabinet members, he denies there is starvation, or blames it on Hamas. Polls now show that most Israelis want the war to end and the hostages returned even if Hamas remains in power. Weekly public protests are growing, but haven’t yet matched the pre-war anti-Netanyahu demonstrations.

We explore the broader political implications of the war: the disarray of the opposition, the growing authoritarianism of the state, public awareness and public opinion, and the push to disqualify Arab parties from the slated October elections which Yoav thinks could come earlier.

Can Netanyahu stay in power? Peled says Bibi has worked hard to remove any potential threat or successor, so “there's no government, there's no Israel, there's only Bibi.”

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Confronting Capitalism: Why the Democrats Can’t Fight for Anything

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Democratic voters are enraged by their party’s spineless “resistance” to the Trump administration’s draconian agenda. But the party’s dysfunction goes far deeper than just cowardly, uninspiring leaders.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber speaks with Philip Rocco about how the Democrats’ abandonment of organized labor has resulted in a party that is ineffective at fighting the right or putting forward a compelling political vision.

Read Philip Rocco’s essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2025/07/why-the-democrats-are-so-useless

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: Why the US Needs “Better Elites” w/ Samuel Moyn

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 13:30:00 -0000

Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute looks at US relations with the world under the Trump regime, specifically Russia–Ukraine, Israel–Palestine, and US self-evisceration. Samuel Moyn, author of an article for Boston Review, talks about democracy, checks and balances, and the need for “better elites.”

Long Reads: The Crypto Scam Goes Mainstream w/ Ramaa Vasudevan

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Back in 2023, Long Reads spoke with Ramaa Vasudevan of Colorado State University for an episode about the development of crypto capitalism. Since then, the crypto industry has launched a concerted effort to establish itself at the heart of the global economic system. Just a few days ago, Donald Trump gave his approval for a major bill designed to boost the sector.

Ramaa Vasudevan spoke to Long Reads again about the mainstreaming of crypto and the threat it poses to global economic stability. This conversation was recorded at the end of March.

Read a transcript of the interview here: https://jacobin.com/2025/06/the-crypto-state

And find Ramaa’s essays for Catalyst here: https://catalyst-journal.com/author/ramaa-vasudevan

The Dig: Actual Abundance w/ Isabella Weber, Malcolm Harris, & Paul Williams

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 12:30:00 -0000

Featuring Isabella Weber, Malcolm Harris, and Paul Williams on Abundance. A debate and discussion of: the book; the discourse; the underlying economic and political questions of how we make the affordable housing, green energy, and fast trains we need; and how actual capitalist social relations appear to us in mystified form as “supply” and “demand.”

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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.

Behind the News: Health Care Havoc w/ Adam Gaffney

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Adam Gaffney, co-author of a recent article for the New York Review of Books, looks at Trump & Co.’s dismantling of health care and research. Also on the podcast, Alan Beattie of the Financial Times tries to make sense of Trump’s nonsensical trade policy.

Jacobin Radio: Russia’s Anti-War Political Prisoners w/ Simon Pirani

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

At the recent Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago, Suzi moderated a panel about political prisoners in Russia and brings it now to Jacobin Radio.

We hear from Ksenia Kagarlitskaya, founder of the Freedom Zone campaign that organizes festivals around the world in support of political prisoners and their families. She plays a recorded message from her father, imprisoned Marxist Boris Kagarlitsky in Penal Colony No. 4. Historian Simon Pirani and exiled scholar Ilya Budraitskis draw attention to the silenced left prisoners of conscience resisting war — both from inside Russia’s prison system and in exile. This is not just about Russia. As authoritarianism surges globally, the criminalization of dissent follows a familiar script.

The day before this panel on July 3, eleven political prisoners, including Kagarlitsky, issued an open letter to world leaders. They called for the mass release of Russian political prisoners and Ukrainian civilian hostages — an estimated 10,000 people — as part of any peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine. As pressure builds for an end to the war, their call must become ours: freedom for all political prisoners!

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Confronting Capitalism: How Iraq Became the Regime Change Playbook

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 09:59:00 -0000

US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last month were a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict with Iran. But while a ceasefire has remained in place, there’s good reason to believe that Iranian regime change isn’t off the table just yet.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber looks back on how the US pursued regime change in Iraq and why that disastrous invasion may wind up being the playbook again in Iran.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: The Case for a Four-Day Workweek w/ Juliet Schor

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:59:44 -0000

Juliet Schor, author of the book Four Days a Week, looks at experiments in reducing the workweek. Katherine Moos and Noé Martin Wiener, authors of a paper for the The Economic and Labour Relations Review, discuss the issue of overwork among teachers.

The Dig: Notes on the New Regime w/ Aslı Bâli & Gabriel Winant

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 19:00:00 -0000

Featuring Aslı Bâli and Gabriel Winant on the emerging conjuncture: the Trump regime’s fascist and authoritarian second coming; the giant vacuum created by the Democratic establishment’s inability to act like an opposition party; and the resurgent dynamism and energy now coming so powerfully from our political forces on the socialist left. Conducted before a live audience at the Socialism 2025 conference.

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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.

Long Reads: The Legacy of Greece’s Oxi Referendum w/ Yanis Varoufakis

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 14:30:00 -0000

It’s now ten years since the people of Greece voted in a referendum on the austerity program of the European Union. The referendum was called by the government of Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza party after months of negotiations with the EU. It brought the attention of the world media to what was happening in Greece after years of economic crisis.

To the surprise of many, there was a decisive 61 percent majority for the “no” side. But then, with bewildering speed, Tsipras signed up to a new austerity program that was more punitive than the one voters had rejected a few days earlier. The U-turn triggered the resignation of the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.

Yanis joins Long Reads for a discussion about the legacy of the 2015 referendum.

You can find a loosely edited transcript of the interview here: https://jacobin.com/2025/07/yanis-varoufakis-on-the-legacy-of-greeces-oxi-referendum

Behind the News: Rule by Private Equity w/ Megan Greenwell

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 14:30:00 -0000

Lily Lynch, who wrote about the NATO summit, discusses the event. Megan Greenwell, author of Bad Company, talks about the depredations of private equity.

Jacobin Radio: Mamdani’s Spectacular Victory w/ Alan Minsky

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, just stunned the political establishment — defeating Andrew Cuomo to win New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. If elected, he’ll be NYC’s first Muslim mayor and the first democratic socialist to lead a major US city in generations, one that is both the epicenter of world finance and marked by extreme economic inequality. Mamdani’s campaign, powered by DSA activists and 50,000 volunteers, grew from years of organizing among young progressives and working-class immigrant communities long pushed to the party’s margins, and he won across the city in nearly every constituency.

Alan Minsky of Progressive Democrats of America argues that Mamdani’s win is a vindication of Bernie-era politics, the best way to fight the far right, and a challenge to the Democratic Party establishment to open its doors to America's vibrant left.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: How Zohran Won w/ NYC DSA

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 17:45:00 -0000

Featuring NYC DSA co-chairs Gustavo Gordillo and Grace Mausser on how Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary. NYC DSA spent years building an electoral juggernaut that has now made history and offers a model for the left everywhere across the United States. A behind-the-scenes look at how NYC DSA and the Zohran campaign did 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.

Behind the News: What’s Going on in Iran? w/ Sohrab Ahmari

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Sohrab Ahmari, US editor of UnHerd, provides perspectives on the current state of the conflict between Iran, Israel, and the US.

Leigh Claire La Berge, author of Fake Work recounts her journey into the ludicrous side of financialized capitalism.

Confronting Capitalism: How Trump Became a Neocon

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Much of Trump’s popular appeal was wrapped up in his anti-establishment and anti-war posture on the campaign trail. But in only a few months, Trump’s populist mask has slipped completely and revealed him to be just another neoconservative Republican.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Paul Prescod discuss Trump’s phony right-wing populism, the US involvement in the war with Iran, and how the Republicans are getting away with Medicaid cuts.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: A Dangerous Turning Point in the Middle East w/ Yassamine Mather

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 18:00:00 -0000

Late on June 21st, Trump joined Israel’s war on Iran. Just two days after warning Iran it had two weeks to make a deal, Trump unleashed the military might of 30,000-pound bunker busters delivered by B2 bombers on Fordo, while Tomahawks struck Natanz and Isfahan. With typical bombast, Trump bragged that Iran's nuclear sites were “totally obliterated." Iranian officials, however, claim the facilities had been emptied of nuclear materials months ago.

Suzi spoke to Yassamine Mather just before Trump started bombing to get her analysis of Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” — a unilateral military strike on Iran marking a dangerous new escalation in an already volatile region. The attack comes amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, accelerating dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank, pager bomb assassinations in Lebanon, and land grabs in Syria. Netanyahu’s war cabinet is committed to military solutions on all fronts — now including Iran.

Iran has retaliated deep inside Israeli territory. This is a first for Israel, and it is dangerous in every way. Although the US was fully informed of Israel's intentions, Netanyahu defied Trump's public opposition to the strike. Trump then flipped, backing Netanyahu's attack and warning Iran to make a deal or else. Now we see the 'or else.'

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Israel’s War on Iran w/ Mouin Rabbani

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Mouin Rabbani explains the regional and global context of Israel's war on Iran and Joel Schalit describes the society and politics that have informed Israel's latest aggression.

The Dig: Israel’s Forever Wars w/ Mouin Rabbani

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 20:51:00 -0000

Featuring Mouin Rabbani on Israel’s war on Iran, possible direct US intervention, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

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Listen to Thawra and our five-part Iran series: thedigradio.com/series

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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.

Confronting Capitalism: Why We Don’t Revolt

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 09:59:00 -0000

The Left often invokes the media’s power of persuasion to explain why people accept their situation within capitalism. But what if instead the system remains stable by “the dull compulsions” of economic life?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber discusses the difference between consent and coercion, the real role of the media, and the conditions for organized resistance.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

The Dig: Student Debt w/ Ryann Liebenthal, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Mike Pierce

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 21:09:20 -0000

Featuring Ryann Liebenthal, Chenjerai Kumanyika, and Mike Pierce on Ryann’s book Burdened: Student Debt and the Making of an American Crisis. Interview by guest host Astra Taylor.

We are working on an episode analyzing Israel's war on Iran amid the ongoing Gaza genocide—it will be out soon. For now, check out our five-part series on the history of Iran and also Thawra, our 19-part series on the history of Arab politics (lots on Iran in the final episodes). Find both series here: thedigradio.com/series

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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.

Behind the News: Marx in America w/ Andrew Hartman

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 08:59:00 -0000

Paolo Gerbaudo, author of recent articles for Phenomenal World, traces the rise of Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD. Andrew Hartman, who has written the book Karl Marx in America, discusses the bearded one’s reception in the US.

Red Star Over Palestine: Oslo and After

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

For many years, Palestine had one of the strongest left-wing movements in the Arab world, represented by prominent figures such as Emile Habibi, Leila Khaled, and Ghassan Kanafani. At the beginning of the First Intifada in the 1980s, Palestinian left groups were still the main challengers to the hegemony of Fatah, although the Left has lost much of its influence in the period since then.

Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. We examine the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We also look at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life.

Our final episode examines how the Left responded to the framework of the Oslo Accords, as Hamas became the main force articulating opposition.

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Jacobin Radio: How the Right Won in Poland w/ David Ost

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 12:30:00 -0000

David Ost, professor of politics and Hobart and William Smith, joins Suzi to unpack Poland’s June 1 presidential election. The race was tight, but in the end, Karol Nawrocki, the far-right, hardline nationalist with MAGA-style politics and Trump’s backing, narrowly defeated Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.

After voters rejected Trumpist candidates in recent elections in Canada, Australia and Romania, Polish voters went the other way, swinging back to the hard right just two years after electing liberal leader Donald Tusk. What does this election reveal about the continuing attraction of the authoritarian and nationalist right to working class voters?

Ost argues that Tusk in power promised a program of radical changes, but delivered too little, dampening enthusiasm and turnout, echoing the troubles of Biden and Harris in the US. There was also the liberal-left campaign which focused on Nawrocki’s negative personal qualities, including criticism of his tough working class background, rather than his reactionary, xenophobic, chauvinist agenda — missteps that fed class resentment and fueled the far right.

Populism has shown to have staying power, and center-left governance has failed to offer a durable counter. Is Poland a warning to liberal democrats everywhere? What are the implications for Ukraine, Europe and the globe?

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: The Pentagon’s Big-Tech Pact w/ Laleh Khalili

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Laleh Khalili, author of a recent piece for the London Review of Books, analyzes the long relationship between the US military and industry. Kyle Chan, author of a New York Times opinion article, explains how China is surpassing the US.

The Dig: From Rebellion to Reaction w/ Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Asha Ransby-Sporn

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 17:00:38 -0000

Featuring Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Asha Ransby-Sporn on 2020's summer of mass protest and rebellion sparked by the police murder of George Floyd. As Keeanga puts it: "The pressing question is how we went from twenty-six million people on the streets to a fascist in the White House?” We must urgently build organizations and movements that meet the moment as both popular resistance and authoritarian repression intensify. To do that, we need to learn from the 2020 uprising.

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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.

Behind the News: Capitalism’s Critics w/ John Cassidy

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 09:59:00 -0000

John Cassidy, author of Capitalism and Its Critics, discusses just that. Sandeep Vaheesan, author of a recent article for Boston Review, looks at abundance — neoliberal vs. genuine.

Confronting Capitalism: The US Started the Cold War

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 09:59:00 -0000

The Cold War is often portrayed as a great power struggle between the forces of democracy and a spreading communist threat. But what if the conventional story gets it exactly backwards?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek discuss the rise of the American empire and how the US used the Cold War to spread capitalism across the globe.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Red Star Over Palestine: Intifada

Sat, 31 May 2025 18:30:00 -0000

Our fifth episode focuses on the period from the First Intifada, arguably the high-point of the Palestinian left-wing movement, to the Oslo Accords.

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

The Dig: Menswear and the World System w/ Derek Guy

Fri, 30 May 2025 13:59:00 -0000

Featuring Derek Guy on the politics, history, economics, and style of Western menswear. Guest hosted by Dennis M. Hogan.

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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.

Behind the News: Israel’s Campaign of Total Destruction w/ Meron Rapoport

Tue, 27 May 2025 12:59:00 -0000

Mouin Rabbani surveys Israeli politics, the fate of the Palestinians, and Trump’s fundraising tour of the Middle East. Meron Rapoport, co-author of a recent investigation for +972 Magazine, on Israel’s strategy of destruction in Gaza.

Read the article here: https://www.972mag.com/israel-gaza-total-urban-destruction/

Jacobin Radio: The Americans Disappeared by Pinochet w/ John Dinges

Sat, 24 May 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Journalist and author John Dinges joins Suzi to discuss his new book, Chile in Their Hearts. The book reopens the case of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi — two young Americans who went to Chile to experience the radical democratic socialist experiment of Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government — and were detained and executed in the days following the brutal military takeover of September 11, 1973.

The story was immortalized in Costa-Gavras’ Oscar-winning film Missing, which depicted Horman as the man who knew too much about U.S. involvement in the coup. That became the widely accepted story of Horman’s death, as well as that of Frank Teruggi, who was arrested, tortured and killed during the coup’s brutal early days. But John Dinges, himself a young journalist who lived in Chile from 1972-1978, uncovered circumstances and facts of their cases that challenge this version as a myth. His meticulous examination of the evidence reveals the shoddy investigation of the facts and the coverup behind its false conclusions.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Endless US Wars w/ Courtney Rawlings & Alex Jordan

Thu, 22 May 2025 13:59:00 -0000

Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, talks about why the gyrations in the value of the US dollar matter. Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan, hosts of Always at War, a new show from the Quincy Institute, explain why the US is always buying more weapons and bombing people.

Confronting Capitalism: Are We Still in Neoliberalism?

Wed, 21 May 2025 09:59:00 -0000

The past fifty years have been the era of unchallenged market dominance in all areas of life. But with the global upheaval brought on by the Trump trade war, are we seeing the neoliberal order unraveling?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek discuss the historic origins of neoliberalism, so-called “pro-worker” conservatism, and the prospects for deglobalization.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Trump’s Middle East Pivot w/ Juan Cole

Tue, 20 May 2025 20:25:00 -0000

Juan Cole joins Suzi to break down Donald Trump’s dramatic pivot in the Middle East: sidelining Israel, cozying up to Gulf monarchies, cutting billion-dollar deals, promising to lift sanctions on Syria, and exploring a new nuclear agreement with Iran.

Trump vowed quick peace in Gaza and Ukraine, but neither materialized because the aggressors don’t want peace. Putin wants Ukraine without Ukrainians. Netanyahu wants Gaza without Palestinians. Now he's zigzagging between billion-dollar deals and back-channel diplomacy. Is this strategic realignment, opportunism, or just more chaos?

We unpack the U.S.-brokered hostage deal with Hamas that bypassed Netanyahu, the collapse of the Assad regime, and the regional powers now vying for influence over Syria’s new government — amid Trump’s promise to lift sanctions. Is a coherent Trump doctrine beginning to emerge? Juan Cole gives us the big-picture view.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Hayek’s Bastards w/ Quinn Slobodian

Tue, 20 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Featuring Quinn Slobodian on his book Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. MAGA and its far-right populist siblings around the world aren’t just a backlash to neoliberalism. The far-right has also long been animated by extremist mutant neoliberal, anarcho-capitalist, and paleo-libertarian strains that in the 1980s and ’90s built a new New Fusionist politics of capitalist extremism — a politics that promoted IQ as the measure of individual and racial value; hard borders for humans with free trade for capital; and gold as the only true currency.

Support The Dig at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Red Star Over Palestine: Revolution and Counterrevolution in Lebanon

Sat, 17 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Our fourth episode focuses on the movement’s turn to Lebanon, where Palestinian radicals found a new base and hoped to launch a wider Arab revolution.

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Jacobin Radio: The Americanization of a Russian Émigré w/ Emil Draitser

Thu, 15 May 2025 15:05:00 -0000

Emil Draitser — Soviet satirist turned American memoirist — joins Suzi to talk about his new book, Laughing All the Way to Freedom: The Americanization of a Russian Émigré. It's a sharp, funny, and moving account of his journey from censorship and conformity in the USSR to the chaotic freedoms of the 1970s United States.

We explore how satire served as both survival and resistance in the Soviet Union, and how his identity was reshaped — culturally, politically, and personally — through the messy process of becoming American.

Emil reflects on the welcome once extended to Cold War refugees like himself, and the stark contrast with today's hostile climate for immigrants. We also touch on the uneasy “friendship” between Putin and Trump, imperialists determined to redefine the character of politics.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Canadian Election Debrief w/ Jeet Heer

Mon, 12 May 2025 13:13:48 -0000

Jeet Heer surveys Canadian politics and the recent election. Natasha Piano, author of Democratic Elitism, discusses Italian “elite theory.”

The Dig: A Conversation w/ Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Sat, 10 May 2025 13:34:00 -0000

Featuring Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing French party La France Insoumise. How the radical left confronts and then defeats the far right, in France and everywhere. Recorded before an audience at n+1’'s Brooklyn office.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Reconsidering Reparations at haymarketbooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: How the Democrats Abandoned Workers

Wed, 07 May 2025 09:59:00 -0000

It’s often said that the working class drifted away from the Democratic Party in response to cultural backlash and globalization. But what if the truth is more damning?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber speaks with Neal Meyer, author of “The Democrats Embrace Dealignment,” from the latest issue of Catalyst. They explore how Democratic leaders — from Clinton to Obama to Biden — consciously distanced the party from its working-class base, paving the way for today’s political crisis.

Read the article here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2025/04/the-democrats-embrace-dealignment

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: The State of US Empire w/ Vijay Prashad

Tue, 06 May 2025 17:05:00 -0000

Vijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental, discusses the state of the US empire and the state of the global working class. Becca Rothfeld, author of All Things Are Too Small, speaks up for bigness.

The Dig: Rogue State w/ Aziz Rana

Sun, 04 May 2025 17:32:56 -0000

Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the final in a four-part series, traces the great unraveling of the American empire from the 1970s to our present MAGA 2.0 moment.

Would you like to know more? Aziz made a bibliography for you: thedigradio.com/newsletter102

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Enemy Feminisms and I Didn't Come Here to Lie at Haymarketbooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Red Star Over Palestine: Ghassan Kanafani & Leila Khaled

Sat, 03 May 2025 17:05:00 -0000

Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. The podcast examines the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We also look at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life.

In our third episode, we discuss two of the most prominent figures associated with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: Ghassan Kanafani and Leila Khaled.

Get a digital subscription to Jacobin for just $1, or $10 for the print magazine, by following this link: https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2025

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Happy May Day!

Thu, 01 May 2025 15:33:00 -0000

To celebrate International Workers’ Day, we’re offering solidarity digital subscriptions for $1 and print subscriptions for $10.

Subscribers get four new issues a year and access to our entire back catalog.

At Jacobin, we’re trying our best to reach millions with the argument that creating a better world requires challenging those who profit from the misery and exploitation of others. Over the past decade, we’ve put out over 15,000 articles, and, thanks to the support of subscribers like you, we’ve made thousands of those articles available for free online.

Help support our work by subscribing today. And if you've already subscribed, get a gift subscription for a friend or comrade.

Use the code MAYDAY2025 at checkout or follow this link: https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2025

New York listeners: Join Jacobin in Brooklyn for a special May Day celebration tonight! Featuring Bhaskar Sunkara, Matt Bruenig, and Nancy Fraser: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/may-day-2025-charting-a-socialist-future-tickets-1308797010089

Behind the News: The Constitution v. Democracy w/ Aziz Rana

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind, describes how the system crafted by the US Constitution led to Donald Trump and has constricted our ability fight him.

The Dig: Black Power, Cold War w/ Aziz Rana

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 20:05:42 -0000

Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the third in what is now a four-part series, looks at how black movements responded as the Vietnam War and the limits of formal civil rights victories combined to explode the Cold War's contradictions.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Reconsidering Reparations at Haymarketbooks.com

Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15 — a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: The True History of the Vietnam War

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 09:59:00 -0000

April 30th marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. But although the conflict still looms large in American memory, the reasons why the US went to war have been distorted in the mainstream account.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek explain the real imperialist history and remember the courageous struggles of both the Vietnamese resistance and the US anti-war movement.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Trump’s War on Free Speech & Higher Ed w/ Alan Wald

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Alan Wald, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan and a member of the academic council of Jewish Voice for Peace, to unpack the Trump offensive against higher education — a campaign that escalated after last spring’s clampdown on student encampments protesting the Israel–US war on Gaza.

Since October 7, universities have cracked down on protests under the guise of protecting “Jewish student safety.” What does it mean when many of those protesting are themselves Jewish? And, despite the repression, these crackdowns haven’t earned universities any favor with the government. Congressional hearings forced the resignation of university presidents, and now the Trump administration is threatening to withdraw federal research funds. Columbia University buckled, while Harvard, Princeton, and others are holding the line and fighting back.

At the center of it all is the redefinition and weaponization of antisemitism as a political tool used to quash criticism of Israeli policy and chill speech. This isn’t just censorship. It’s an authoritarian bid to impose ideological control over the academy.

Alan Wald has tracked this turn — its roots, its enablers, and its eerie echoes of McCarthyism. He helps us understand where we are — and what it means.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Race and Neoliberalism w/ Quinn Slobodian

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 13:59:00 -0000

Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards, talks about the IQ- and race-obsessed goldbugs of second generation neoliberalism.

The Dig: Liberal Hegemon w/ Aziz Rana

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 15:08:00 -0000

Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the second in a three-part series, takes the story from World War I’s hyper-nationalist, xenophobic First Red Scare, through the convulsions of the middle decades of the 20th century: the Communist Party USA, the New Deal, World War II, the civil rights movement, the Warren Court, and ultimately the Cold War, when American liberalism, anti-communism, and empire triumphed.

Buy Iran in Revolt at Haymarketbooks.com

Subscribe to Jacobin in print for $15/yr at bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst in print for $20/yr at bit.ly/digcatalyst

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Red Star Over Palestine: The PLO Left

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 12:59:00 -0000

Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. We’ll be looking at the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We’ll also be looking at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life.

This second episode examines the left-wing movement that took shape under the banner of the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the role of figures such as George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh.

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Behind the News: Ways Out of a Global Crisis w/ Malcolm Harris

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Charlie Eaton and Alina Gibadullina, coauthors of a recent paper, discuss the increasing prominence of hedge fund and private equity titans on elite university boards. Malcolm Harris, author of What’s Left, lays out a trio of political approaches to the climate 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

The Dig: Settler Empire w/ Aziz Rana

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American capitalist, imperialist project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the first in a three-part series, traces the foundation of the American settler empire from the revolutionary generation up to the eve of World War I.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy White City, Black City at Plutobooks.com

Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15 — a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: The End of NATO?

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 09:59:00 -0000

President Trump has threatened to upend the US’s role in NATO unless the Europeans increase their military spending. But far from just a budget reshuffling, European remilitarization massively increases the prospects for war and austerity.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek explain the Cold War origins of NATO, how the US organizes European geopolitics, and why Russia and China have been deemed national security threats.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: Contradictions of the Trump Tariffs w/ Sam Gindin

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Jason Wade of the UAW explains the union’s endorsement of Trump’s auto tariffs. Sam Gindin, former long-time adviser to what used to be known as the Canadian Autoworkers Union and the author of a recent article for nonsite.org, takes a look at the issues obscured by the tariff controversy.

Red Star Over Palestine: The Communist Movement

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 13:30:00 -0000

Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. We’ll be looking at the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We’ll also be looking at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life.

This first episode focuses on the communist movement in Palestine from its early years until the 1960s.

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

The Dig: Blue Collar Empire w/ Jeff Schuhrke

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Jeff Schuhrke on his book Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade. During the Cold War, organized labor’s top leadership acted as an agent of the US national security state abroad: undermining left-wing unions, fomenting right-wing coups, and promoting the US-led capitalist order. At home, those same forces destroyed left-wing unions and organizers. That history goes a long way in explaining the weakened, conservative, and ineffectual workers’ movement we still confront today.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig (don’t sign up using the Patreon iPhone app because the ghouls at Apple are now requiring a fee! use a web browser or non-iPhone app)

Buy Hidden San Francisco at Plutobooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Jacobin Radio: Letters From Russia’s Opposition w/ Joy Neumeyer

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Journalist and historian Joy Neumeyer joins Suzi from Warsaw to discuss her March 13 piece in the New York Review of Books, “Russia: Letters from the Opposition.” Last summer, Neumeyer wrote to 14 of Vladimir Putin’s political prisoners — dissidents locked away in penal colonies for opposing Russia’s war on Ukraine. While human rights organizations estimate that some 20,000 anti-war critics have been detained, a smaller number face trial and sentencing, disappearing into Russia’s vast prison system. Neumeyer was struck by the deeply personal, often unexpected responses she received — offering a rare glimpse into the lives, fears, and resilience of those behind bars.

While figures like Boris Kagarlitsky, Russia’s most well-known left-wing critic, have drawn international attention — including on this podcast — many political prisoners remain unknown, their suffering largely overlooked both inside and outside Russia. Neumeyer shares the powerful insights from her correspondence, revealing not just the punishments these prisoners endure, but also their defiance, hope, and unwavering resistance.

We explore Putin’s escalating repression, the deeply human stories of imprisoned dissidents, and the culture of war and propaganda that fuels the political climate in Russia. And we ask a critical question: what happens to these prisoners if — and when — the war ends?

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Trump and the Courts w/ Samuel Moyn

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Samuel Moyn talks about Trump and the courts. Chris Maisano, author of a recent Jacobin article about class “dealignment,” discusses class and politics. Finally, Evgenia Kovda reflects on hipster nihilism, which she wrote about for the Nefarious Russians newsletter.

Confronting Capitalism: Can the Republican Party Survive Trump?

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 09:59:00 -0000

The Republican Party has become a hegemonic force in US politics today. But how much of their dominance is predicated on Donald Trump’s personal rule?

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber discusses the historic evolution of the Republicans with Paul Heideman, author of “Trump’s Takeover of the Republican Party,” an essay in the upcoming issue of Catalyst. Vivek and Paul focus on the business coalitions behind Trump, how he was able to muster elite support, and how the level of that support is a lot lower than it seems.

Read the article here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2025/04/trumps-takeover-of-the-republicans

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

The Dig: New World Order w/ Ilias Alami and Tim Sahay

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 17:59:00 -0000

Featuring more analysis from Ilias Alami and Tim Sahay on the shape of global geopolitics and geoeconomics. We discuss: the fault lines of the green energy transition; the US and China battle for dominance while the rest of the world seeks advantage and opportunities for leverage; the US and Russia’s full-throttle commitment to fossil capitalism; the IMF’s ongoing imposition of neoliberal austerity on the world’s poorest countries, which, in opposition to these plans, want to remake the entire world capitalist system. Plus: Why the economic weapon failed against China and Russia, and a lot more.

The second in a two-part series.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Subscribe to The Polycrisis newsletter phenomenalworld.org/series/the-polycrisis

Download a free copy of The Spectre of State Capitalism by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon academic.oup.com/book/57552

Transnational Institute reports: The New Frontline: The US-China Battle for Control of Global Networks tni.org/en/article/the-new-frontline Geopolitics of Capitalism: State of Power 2025 tni.org/en/publication/geopolitics-of-capitalism

Get 50% off Pirate Care and other books in your first order from plutobooks.com with code ‘DIG50′. Use code “DIG” for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: Professional-Class Liberals w/ Lily Geismer & Brent Cebul

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer, editors of the new collection Mastery and Drift, discuss professional-class liberalism. Plus: a brief reprise of a 2019 interview with Gabriel Winant about the PMC.

Long Reads: The Rise and Rule of India’s Hindu Right w/ Siddhartha Deb

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:50:00 -0000

Last year, Narendra Modi celebrated a decade in office as India’s prime minister. Modi was aiming for a third consecutive election victory and a parliamentary landslide that would give him a free hand to advance his right-wing, Hindu nationalist agenda. But the election proved to be a disappointment for Modi and his allies, who lost their majority in parliament. Modi had to form a coalition to maintain his grip on power.

Long Reads is joined by one of Modi’s leading journalistic opponents to discuss the rise and rule of the Hindu right wing. Siddhartha Deb is the author of several novels, and his non-fiction work has exposed the dark side of contemporary India. Haymarket Books published a collection of his writings last year, Twilight Prisoners: The Rise of the Hindu Right and the Fall of India.

The Dig: Global Conjuncture w/ Ilias Alami and Tim Sahay

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Featuring Ilias Alami and Tim Sahay on a global conjuncture defined by Washington’s shredding of the liberal international order’s legitimacy amid a panic over decline: the escalating Cold War with China; Gaza genocide; Trump’s tariff wars and militarism, and his pivot toward Putin on Ukraine; European defense buildup and fiscal revolution; what this all means for the poor majority of the Global South, and more. Part one of a two-part series.

Subscribe to The Polycrisis newsletter phenomenalworld.org/series/the-polycrisis

Download a free copy of The Spectre of State Capitalism by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon: academic.oup.com/book/57552

Transnational Institute reports: The New Frontline: The US-China Battle for Control of Global Networks: tni.org/en/article/the-new-frontline Geopolitics of Capitalism: State of Power 2025: tni.org/en/publication/geopolitics-of-capitalism

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: Marxist Morality w/ Vanessa Wills

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:25:00 -0000

Vanessa Wills, author of the book Marx’s Ethical Vision, speaks about the morality behind Marxian science. Mathis Ebbinghaus discusses the recent paper he co-wrote about the effects of the summer 2020 anti-cop protests on police budgets.

Jacobin Radio: The Cause of Labor w/ Barry Eidlin & Eric Blanc

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged about the world today, but the labor movement is giving us real cause for hope. Across industries and regions, workers are organizing on a scale we haven’t seen in decades — and they’re winning. What sets this new wave of labor activism apart from the usual staff-driven campaigns is that workers themselves are leading the way. Important challenges remain. Organizing is up, but nowhere near the scale needed to reverse labor’s trajectory. And with the Trump–Musk attack on workers’ rights and MAGA’s onslaught on democracy writ large, labor organizing is more important than ever.

Eric Blanc, labor activist and teacher, joins Barry Eidlin to discuss his new book, We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Based on in-depth research and his own on-the-ground organizing experience, Blanc lays out what is driving the organizing upsurge, and how it provides a model for reversing labor’s fortunes. Blanc sets out a vision of worker-to-worker organizing, explaining how it works and why it is labor’s best and only hope for the future.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Workers Organizing Workers w/ Eric Blanc

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Featuring Eric Blanc on We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Interview conducted by guest host Gabriel Winant.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Defend federal workers and federal services: actionnetwork.org/forms/let-us-work/

Contact the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) for help organizing your workplace: workerorganizing.org

Contact Workers Organizing Workers (WOW) if you are interested in taking a job in a strategic industry to unionize it: form.jotform.com/250337473301045

Buy All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence at Haymarketbooks.com

Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: Can Trump Bring Back Manufacturing?

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:59:00 -0000

Donald Trump has made restoring American industry a priority across his administrations. But rather than continue Biden’s efforts to bolster domestic manufacturing through subsidies, Trump has instituted a series of tariffs intended to reshore former pillar industries and improve US trade balance.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber and Jacobin contributor Melissa Naschek explore the promises and limits of a state-led industrial growth strategy. While industrial policy has led to success stories around the globe, implementation is often easier said than done when capitalists oppose it.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Behind the News: Tech Worker Militancy w/ Ben Tarnoff

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 13:59:00 -0000

Ben Tarnoff talks tech worker militancy and the bosses’ reaction: a crackdown and hard turn to the right. Jodi Dean, author of Capital’s Grave, discusses the concept of “neofeudalism.”

The Dig: Slopworld w/ Brace Belden & Liz Franczak

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:59:00 -0000

Featuring TrueAnon hosts Brace Belden and Liz Franczak on our freakish and reactionary tech oligarchy. Musk and friends built a technological infrastructure that has warped everyone’s minds, including their own. Now they’re seizing the state.

The hideous AI “art” we discuss: https://bit.ly/4ksG1aM http://bit.ly/3DmDfTD

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Use code “DIG” for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: Worker-to-Worker Unionism w/ Eric Blanc

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:59:00 -0000

Eric Blanc, author of We Are the Union, talks about worker-led organizing at Amazon, Starbucks, and beyond. Molly O'Neal, Quincy Institute fellow, analyzes the recent German election.

Jacobin Radio: Ukraine’s Fight for Self-Determination w/ Howie Hawkins

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Jacobin Radio presents a webinar, moderated by Suzi and sponsored by Haymarket Books and the Ukraine Solidarity Network, marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just days after this discussion, the Trump administration laid out a deal that trades an end to the fighting for U.S. economic control over Ukraine’s minerals without providing security guarantees. This is no peace plan but a surrender, a betrayal of Ukraine’s fight for self-determination. Denys Pilash, Grusha Gilaeva, and Howie Hawkins unpack Trump’s blackmail, the consequences of a more Putin-friendly policy, what’s at stake for Ukraine, and what it will mean for political prisoners and the left in Russia.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Woke Wars w/ Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, & Mike McCarthy

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Featuring Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Mike McCarthy on the MAGA and DOGE war on woke, the complicity of bankrupt liberal identity politics, and the centrality of various oppressions to the class domination of capital and struggles against it.

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Read Mike’s article “The Problem of Class Abstractionism” epublications.marquette.edu/socs_fac/356

Buy Enemy Feminisms at Haymarketbooks.com

Buy Solidarity Betrayed at Plutobooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: Don’t Cry for USAID

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Among the many government agencies facing cuts from President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, USAID has garnered wide support in the media. But for whatever humanitarian good it’s done in the world, the agency has played a role in US imperialism.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber examines the true history of USAID and breaks down the false dichotomy between soft and hard US power.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Trump’s Turn on Ukraine w/ Ilya Budraitskis

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 20:59:00 -0000

On February 21, Suzi talked to Zakhar Popóvych, a Ukrainian researcher and activist in Kyiv with roots in labor and socialist organizing, and Ilya Budraitskis, a Russian historian and political theorist now in exile, about Trump’s foreign policy moves regarding Ukraine on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The Trump administration has engaged in peace talks in Saudi Arabia that excluded Ukraine entirely. Trump has even embraced Putin’s revisionist narrative claiming Ukraine started the war.

What does this mean for Ukraine’s survival, Europe’s stability, and the broader left struggle against imperialism and authoritarianism? Suzi asks Zakhar and Ilya to unpack the shifting geopolitical landscape, the implications of Trump’s concessions to Putin, the resilience of Ukraine, and the role of the internationalist left in an era of resurgent imperialism.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: DOGE-ism w/ Quinn Slobodian

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Anatol Lieven looks at the global dimensions of Trumpism. Quinn Slobodian, who wrote a recent article for the New York Review of Books, muses on whether Trump is a neoliberal and examines the three major strands of DOGE-ism.

Long Reads: The Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza w/ Paul Rogers

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:45:00 -0000

For now, the ceasefire deal between Hamas and the Israeli government appears to be holding. However, Donald Trump has openly proposed the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Trump has used the destruction of Gaza with American-made bombs as a rationale for his plan.

Paul Rogers, emeritus professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford and the author of many books, joins Long Reads for a conversation about Trump’s scheme and whether it can be stopped. Paul’s most recent work is The Insecurity Trap: A Short Guide to Transformation.

Stay tuned for our series about histories of the Palestinian Left, which we postponed to address the current danger facing Palestinians.

The Dig: Psychiatric Struggle w/ Danielle Carr

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:30:00 -0000

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.

Buy Empire of Normality at Plutobooks.com

Buy Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal at Haymarketbooks.com

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Check out our vast archives and newsletters at thedigradio.com

Jacobin Radio: Resistance in the Time of Monsters w/ Colin Smalley

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:30:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The DEI Obsession w/ Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 15:00:00 -0000

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.

Confronting Capitalism: Who Benefits From Trump’s Tariffs?

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:59:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Christian Nationalism w/ Kristin Du Mez

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:30:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Deportation Nation w/ Chris Newman

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 21:31:42 -0000

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

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

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Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15—a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

Long Reads: Anabaptism and the Radical Reformation w/ Martin Empson

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 15:50:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Trump’s Administrative Coup w/ David Cobb & Kali Akuno

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:04:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Tech Moguls and Journalism w/ Eoin Higgins

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:25:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Building the Union w/ Hannah Srajer

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 17:00:00 -0000

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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Buy My Country, Africa at Versobooks.com

Jacobin Radio: Defending Immigrants w/ Victor Narro

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 10:59:00 -0000

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.

Confronting Capitalism: The End of Wokeness?

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 10:59:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Abolish Rent w/ Leonardo Vilchis and Tracy Rosenthal

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 11:55:00 -0000

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.

Support Reclaim RI https://secure.actblue.com/donate/reclaimri

Buy Abolish Rent haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Subscribe to Dissent at dissentmagazine.org/subscribe

Use code ‘DIG50’ for 50% off your first order at Plutobooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: Trump's Middle East Plans w/ Mouin Rabbani

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 14:25:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Ceasefire in Gaza? w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 13:59:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Billionaires Killing California w/ Yasha Levine

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Policing the Crisis w/ Michael Denning

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 20:31:28 -0000

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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Donate to Jacobin Magazine at jacobin.com/donate

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Jacobin Radio: Mass Politics Today w/ Nancy Fraser

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 11:30:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Crisis in Korea w/ Tim Shorrock

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -0000

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.

Confronting Capitalism: A Return to Materialism

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 10:59:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Stuart Hall’s Marxism w/ Michael Denning

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 18:04:57 -0000

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/

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

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Use code "DIG" for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: Best of 2024

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:00:00 -0000

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: Farewell Biden w/ Branko Marcetic

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -0000

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.

Confronting Capitalism: Why Elites Love Identity Politics

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 10:59:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Reversing the Left's Decline w/ Bill Fletcher Jr.

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:15:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Rise and Fall of Assad’s Syria w/ Bassam Haddad

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

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

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Palestine in a World on Fire at Haymarketbooks.com

Buy Against the Crisis at versobooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: HTS Takeover w/ Trita Parsi & Joshua Landis

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Class Struggle in Ancient Rome w/ Sarah Bond

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 14:42:08 -0000

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.

The Dig: Assassin Nation w/ Patrick Blanchfield

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 14:45:00 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Listen to the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast at ordinaryunhappiness.buzzsprout.com/

Read Patrick’s essay on the death drive late-light.com/issues/issue-1/death-drive-nation

Buy China in Global Capitalism at haymarketbooks.com

Use code “DIG” for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com

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.

Confronting Capitalism: Socialism in the 21st Century

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:59:00 -0000

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.

Confronting Capitalism: Workers Without a Party

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 10:59:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Georgia's Democratic Crisis w/ Sopo Japaridze

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:59:00 -0000

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).

Jacobin Radio: Collapse in Syria w/ Gilbert Achcar

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 14:50:00 -0000

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.

Confronting Capitalism: Why Liberalism Lost Again

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 10:59:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Offshore Capital w/ Brooke Harrington

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 10:59:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: MAGA 2.0 w/ Quinn Slobodian & Wendy Brown

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 10:00:50 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Share Thawra with a friend thedigradio.com/Thawra

Use code "DIG" for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com

Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

Long Reads: Netanyahu Is a Wanted Man w/ John Reynolds

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 14:30:13 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: The Landslide That Wasn't w/ Marc Cooper

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 17:14:27 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Ethel Rosenberg's Execution w/ Michael Meeropol

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 10:00:52 -0000

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

The Dig: Crypto Dystopia or Popular Democracy w/ Hilary Goodfriend & Jorge Cuéllar

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 14:32:29 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Share Thawra with a friend thedigradio.com/Thawra

Check out nacla.org for in-depth coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean

Buy Defund: Conversations Toward Abolition at haymarketbooks.com

Behind the News: Predicting Trump Policy w/ Alex Vitale & Anatol Lieven

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 14:49:37 -0000

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.

The Dig: Neoliberalism, Violence, Migration w/ Hilary Goodfriend & Jorge Cuéllar

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:32:28 -0000

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.

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

Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

Buy Abolish Rent at Haymarketbooks.com

Jacobin Radio: Return of the Trumpian Right w/ Dylan Riley

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:31:13 -0000

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.

Long Reads: The Forever War on Gaza w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:15:54 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Post-Election Analysis w/ Robert Brenner

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 11:00:42 -0000

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.

Behind the News: How the West Imagines Ukraine w/ James Foley

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 11:00:12 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Art of the Deal

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 14:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Democratic Dealignment w/ Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:14:22 -0000

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

Buy Solidarity is the Political Version of Love at haymarketbooks.com

Behind the News: Israel and the Axis of Resistance w/ Mouin Rabbani

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 11:00:08 -0000

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.

The Dig: Oligarchy, Empire, Revolution w/ Hilary Goodfriend & Jorge Cuéllar

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 21:48:48 -0000

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

Buy Disaster Nationalism at Versobooks.com

Jacobin Radio: Pre-Election Special w/ John Nichols

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 09:50:35 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Roadside Picnic

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:55:50 -0000

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.

The Dig: Solidarity w/ Astra Taylor & Leah Hunt-Hendrix

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 09:00:48 -0000

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

Behind the News: The Scale of US Aid to Israel w/ William Hartung

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:09:34 -0000

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.

Long Reads: The German Peasants' War w/ Martin Empson

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 16:38:03 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Requiem for a Joker

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 15:05:36 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Belligerence of Biden-Harris w/ Anatol Lieven

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 15:23:19 -0000

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.

The Dig: Down the Rabbit Hole w/ Naomi Klein

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 21:45:25 -0000

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

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Subscribe to Dissent magazine at Dissentmagazine.org/subscribe

Buy Rosa Luxemburg at Haymarketbooks.com

Behind the News: Revisiting Marx's Capital w/ Paul North & Paul Reitter

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 09:59:54 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Imperialism Today w/ Robert Brenner

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 14:53:40 -0000

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.

Thawra Epilogue: Genocide and Resistance

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 22:46:41 -0000

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

Long Reads: Israel's Year of Genocide w/ Rashid Khalidi

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 16:23:20 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Myth of the Good Billionaire w/ Tim Schwab

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:19:53 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Labor Rising w/ Sara Nelson & Nina Turner

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:32:25 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Israel's Imperial Patrons w/ Rashid Khalidi

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 13:24:01 -0000

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.

The Dig: Ending the New Cold War w/ Jake Werner

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 17:50:29 -0000

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

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Our History is the Future at Haymarketbooks.com

Use code "DIG" for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com

Behind the News: AMLO vs. Neoliberalism w/ Edwin Ackerman

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 18:42:27 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Israeli Politics Since October 7 w/ Yoav Peled

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:18:10 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Mahdi Amel's Anti-Colonial Marxism

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:15:44 -0000

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

The Dig: Third Worldism w/ Aslı Bâli & Aziz Rana

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 19:30:53 -0000

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.

Support The Dig now at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Center of the World at UCPress.edu

Buy Abolish Rent at Haymarketbooks.com

Behind the News: Inequality Through History w/ Branko Milanovic

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 09:59:21 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Progressive Central w/ Bernie Sanders

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 10:00:43 -0000

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.

Thawra Epilogue: Decades of American Destruction

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 01:17:49 -0000

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

Michael and Us: From Jysk with Love w/ Luke Lebrun

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 10:55:07 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Legacy of Slaveholder Wealth w/ Neil Sehgal

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:23:24 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Macron's Rightward March w/ Bruno Amable

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 16:36:59 -0000

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

The Dig: Morbid Symptoms w/ Amna Akbar, Gabe Winant, Thea Riofrancos

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 10:00:12 -0000

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

Buy Unbuild Walls at haymarketbooks.org

Subscribe to Jacobin in print for $15/yr at bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst in print for $20/yr at bit.ly/digcatalyst

Behind the News: The German Far Right w/ Robert Pausch

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 14:58:05 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Void Soys Back

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 10:00:28 -0000

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.

Thawra Epilogue: Islamic Revolution and Gulf Wars

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 10:00:48 -0000

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

Behind the News: An Uprising in Bangladesh w/ Naomi Hossain

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 20:23:04 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Kamala's Coronation

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 12:00:01 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Bottled Time

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 13:19:39 -0000

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.

Behind the News: A Progressive Path for U.S.–China relations

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 21:21:42 -0000

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.

The Dig: Beasts of Burden w/ Sunaura Taylor

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 10:00:57 -0000

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

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Michael and Us: Shore Leave

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 15:20:42 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Russia's Anti-War Political Prisoners

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 16:00:17 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Are Pro-Worker Republicans Real? w/ Hamilton Nolan

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 14:52:29 -0000

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.

Long Reads: The Return of Indonesia's Old Guard w/ Michael Vann

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 11:30:25 -0000

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-part conversation 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

Michael and Us: Death of the Iron Age Café

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 13:49:02 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Israel's Illegal Occupations w/ Heidi Matthews

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 10:30:20 -0000

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.

The Dig: Solidarity w/ Jeremy Corbyn and Laleh Khalili

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 21:09:50 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Albanian Bacon w/ Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 10:59:10 -0000

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.

Macrodose! The Future of Global Capitalism

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 20:41:21 -0000

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

Behind the News: J. D. Vance's Tech Ties w/ David Palumbo-Liu

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:30:16 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 16 - Siege of Beirut

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 09:00:40 -0000

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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Spread the word about Thawrathedigradio.com/Thawra

Check out the Palestinian Revolution website! learnpalestine.qeh.ox.ac.uk/teach

Take 25% off a subscription to n+1 at nplusonemag.com/thedig. Enter THEDIG for discount.

Jacobin Radio: A Democratic Turning Point? w/ Micah Sifry

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:30:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: It's Joever w/ Branko Marcetic

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 10:00:03 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Israel's Triple Jeopardy w/ John Reynolds

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:29:54 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The GOP's Pro-Labor Sham w/ Brandon Mancilla

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:00:13 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 15:31:34 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: The Elections in France & Iran

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 11:00:36 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 15 - Black September

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 09:58:11 -0000

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

Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

Behind the News: Labour's Non-Mandate w/ Richard Seymour

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:16:17 -0000

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/

Long Reads: Britain's Tory Wipeout w/ Phil Burton-Cartledge

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:41:57 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Studio Sucky (Continued) w/ Will Menaker

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 10:00:06 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Hamas Unbeaten w/ Robert Pape

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:11:46 -0000

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

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 14 - The Palestinian Revolution

Sun, 07 Jul 2024 13:03:56 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

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Jacobin Radio: Debate Debriefing w/ Robert Brenner & Marc Cooper

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 15:05:33 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Search for Sonny Skies

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 10:00:53 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Surprise Elections in France & Britain w/ Sebastian Budgen

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 13:22:23 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Israel and the Arab States w/ Steven Simon

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 15:38:34 -0000

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/

Michael and Us: Cinematic Civics Lesson

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 12:30:42 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Europe's New Right-Wing Bloc w/ David Broder

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:16:53 -0000

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

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 13 - Revolutionary Arabia

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 02:00:00 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

Buy tickets for live Dig with Jeremy Corbyn in London:

unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili

Buy The Last Human Job at Princeton.press/job

Buy How to Abolish Prisons: Lessons from the Movement against Imprisonment at haymarketbooks.org

Behind the News: Radicals on the Run w/ Joel Whitney

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 11:00:38 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Notes on Labor Notes w/ Al Bradbury and Jane Slaughter

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 16:52:51 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: An Oedipal Day in the Neighborhood

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:32:57 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: The Fate of Russia's Opposition w/ Ilya Budraitskis

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 14:39:11 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Hindu Right w/ Siddhartha Deb

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 14:51:10 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 12 - Origins of Saudi Reaction

Sun, 09 Jun 2024 17:13:15 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

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Long Reads: Biden's Gaza Double Talk w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 15:23:30 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Labor for Palestine w/ Academic Workers in CA

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:16:51 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Constitution's Failure w/ Aziz Rana

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:49:29 -0000

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.

The Dig: Gaza and the US Conjuncture w/ Dylan Saba and Waleed Shahid

Fri, 31 May 2024 18:42:43 -0000

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.

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The Socialism Conference will be held in Chicago from Aug 30 - Sept 2. Learn more and register at socialismconference.org (early bird discount until 6/28!)

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Jacobin Radio: The Trial Continued w/ Boris Kagarlitsky

Wed, 29 May 2024 16:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Update on Gaza w/ Mouin Rabbani

Tue, 28 May 2024 19:21:25 -0000

Mouin Rabbani discusses Israel's war on Gaza and the broader context of the conflict. Stefanie Stantcheva discusses her recent economic papers about why people hate inflation.

Long Reads: Immanuel Wallerstein's World-System w/ Gregory Williams

Fri, 24 May 2024 14:01:14 -0000

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

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 11 - Ba’ath Seize Power

Fri, 24 May 2024 02:00:00 -0000

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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Subscribe to Dissent magazine in print or online at dissentmagazine.org/subscribe

Jacobin Radio: UAW's Southern Campaign w/ Chattanooga Auto Workers

Thu, 23 May 2024 13:34:30 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Why I Quit the State Department w/ Annelle Sheline

Mon, 20 May 2024 17:40:57 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Studio Sucky

Mon, 13 May 2024 17:32:03 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 10 - Iraqi Revolution, Communist Power

Sat, 11 May 2024 15:41:19 -0000

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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Behind the News: Neoliberalism's Far-Right Wing w/ Quinn Slobodian

Fri, 10 May 2024 15:31:24 -0000

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 recent articles 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

Behind the News: Criminalizing Protest w/ Adam Federman

Mon, 06 May 2024 18:04:24 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Nazarene Troublemaker

Sat, 04 May 2024 12:00:44 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 9 - Palestine on the Road to Revolution

Fri, 03 May 2024 14:53:29 -0000

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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Long Reads: Serbia After Milošević

Thu, 02 May 2024 16:22:58 -0000

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

May Day PSA

Wed, 01 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: The Price of Palestine Solidarity w/ Jodi Dean

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 11:30:43 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 8 - Origins of the Arab New Left

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 19:33:01 -0000

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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Long Reads: The Death of Social Europe w/ Aurelie Dianara

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 09:55:41 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Technofeudalism? w/ Yanis Varoufakis

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:55:41 -0000

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.

The Dig: Scholars Against Genocide

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:15:37 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Donate to Palestine Legal palestinelegal.org/donate

Watch more from the World Academic Forum for Palestine youtube.com/c/haymarketbooks

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Michael and Us: Embrace the Fire w/ Alex Shephard

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 14:59:08 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Israel and the World Court w/ Heidi Matthews

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 18:02:45 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 7 - United Arab Republic Against Eisenhower

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 21:19:06 -0000

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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Michael and Us: Sit Down, Sit Down

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 16:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Weaponizing 'Safe Space' Discourse w/ Natasha Lennard

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 11:30:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: J. B. S. Haldane's Science and Socialism w/ Samanth Subramanian

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 16:33:53 -0000

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.

Behind the News: How Israel Exploits the Shoah w/ Pankaj Mishra

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 16:06:50 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 6 - Cold War Heats Up

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 13:28:33 -0000

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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Jacobin Radio: Russia's Election w/ Ilya Matveev

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 14:23:07 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Kung Fu Bicycles

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:10:13 -0000

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.

Behind the News: AIPAC Influence w/ David Moore

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 13:30:48 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 5 - The Struggle for Syria

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 15:54:26 -0000

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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Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

Buy The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Wont Save the Planet at versobooks.com

Buy Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism at haymarketbooks.org

Behind the News: Death of the Future w/ Steve Fraser

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:43:21 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Fresh Prince of Persia

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 10:00:39 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Global North in Decline w/ Vijay Prashad

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:15:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Party's Over

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Weaponizing Anti-Semitism w/ Warren Montag

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 14:01:59 -0000

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.

Organize the Unorganized: Lessons

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:55:10 -0000

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

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 4 - From the Nakba to Nasser

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 18:04:25 -0000

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.

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Long Reads: Big Pharma's Toxic Record w/ Nick Dearden

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 10:55:28 -0000

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

Behind the News: The Black Panthers, Myth & Reality w/ Donna Murch

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 17:30:00 -0000

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.

Organize the Unorganized: Is There an End to the CIO?

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:55:06 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 3 - The Post-Colonial Arab State System

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:58:24 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: A Talk on Latin American Revolts

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:23:16 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 2 - Birth of Arab Nationalism

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0000

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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Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

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Buy Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom at versobooks.com

Organize the Unorganized: War

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 10:55:29 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Desi Diaspora Politics w/ Jeet Heer

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 22:00:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: An Irreverent Tendency

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 20:00:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: From Gaza to Yemen w/ Helen Lackner

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 16:57:11 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Repression in Russia w/ Ilya Budraitskis

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 21:30:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Thawra Ep. 1 - Europe's Imperial Juggernaut

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 17:01:03 -0000

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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Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

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Behind the News: The Eternal Present w/ Anna Kornbluh

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 20:00:00 -0000

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.

Organize the Unorganized: From the Docks to the Killing Floors

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:55:09 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Eat the Rich

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 16:42:42 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Climate Politics w/ Ajay Singh Chaudhary

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 18:11:57 -0000

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.

Long Reads: France's First Revolution w/ Justine Firnhaber-Baker

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 19:30:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Your Money Or Your Life w/ Luke Messac

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:47:27 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Subscribe to a year of Jewish Currents at secure.jewishcurrents.org/forms/subscribe 50% off with special code DIG2024

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Michael and Us: Adaptation

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 15:05:10 -0000

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.

Organize the Unorganized: Little Steel

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:55:01 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Tribute to Ed Broadbent

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 10:59:26 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Genocide Case Against Israel w/ Sean Jacobs

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 18:27:56 -0000

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.

The Dig: The German Question w/ Emily Dische-Becker

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 02:19:58 -0000

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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Check out our newsletters 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 Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine before the Nakba at haymarketbooks.org/books/2325-against-erasure

Organize the Unorganized: Taking Stock

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 10:55:36 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Inevitable Barbie Episode

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 14:31:18 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Israel on Trial w/ John Reynolds

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:42:50 -0000

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

Behind the News: Red Sea Crisis w/ Shireen Al-Adeimi

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:28:47 -0000

Shireen Al-Adeimi of Michigan State and the Quincy Institute discusses the Houthis. Political scientist Aurélie Daher gives another view of Hezbollah.

The Dig: Yemen and the Houthis w/ Helen Lackner

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 02:00:00 -0000

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

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Environmentalism from Below: How Global People’s Movements are Leading the Fight for our Planet at haymarketbooks.org/books/2101-environmentalism-from-below

Buy The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger at versobooks.com

Organize the Unorganized: Sit Down!

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 13:53:05 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Hezbollah in Context w/ Joseph Daher

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 17:00:01 -0000

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.

Organize the Unorganized: Powerful Personalities

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 10:59:36 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Argentina's New President w/ Jacqueline Behrend

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 17:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Very Important People w/ Ashley Mears

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 21:10:29 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Contact Spotify and tell them: stop hiding The Dig! Why is The Dig so hard to find on Spotify? support.spotify.com/contact-spotify-support

Buy Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine before the Nakba at haymarketbooks.org/books/2325-against-erasure

Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15. A special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin

Michael and Us: Meet Me in Helsinki

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:46:01 -0000

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.

Organize the Unorganized: Under the Blue Eagle

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 11:00:08 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: The Trial w/ Boris Kagarlitsky

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 15:18:45 -0000

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.

The Dig: Colonialism, Zionism, Sectarianism w/ Ussama Makdisi

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 17:57:06 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Contact Spotify and tell them: stop hiding The Dig! Why is The Dig so hard to find on Spotify? support.spotify.com/contact-spotify-support/

Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

Buy The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger at versobooks.com

Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible

Behind the News: The Year in Labor w/ Alex Press

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:43:38 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Biden's Vietnam w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 19:04:05 -0000

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

Michael and Us: We Invented Chill!

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:49:49 -0000

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.

Introducing... Organize the Unorganized

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 11:30:58 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Grassroots Democracy in Latin America w/ Gabriel Hetland

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 11:00:47 -0000

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.

The Dig: Age of Coexistence w/ Ussama Makdisi

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 16:38:17 -0000

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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Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

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Michael and Us: Gun Kata

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 10:00:04 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Far-Right Resurgence in Argentina w/ Forrest Hylton

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 18:00:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: The Flemish Revolutions w/ Jan Dumolyn

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 15:29:59 -0000

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

Behind the News: Israel's Motives in Gaza w/ Joel Schalit

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 11:00:32 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: A Whiff of Grapeshot

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 17:13:04 -0000

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.

The Dig: Zionism vs. Anti-Zionism Ep. 2 w/ Shaul Magid

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 16:32:40 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Join Jewish Voice for Peace jewishvoiceforpeace.org/join-us

Buy The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation at Versobooks.com

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Michael and Us: Ratings War

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 14:41:26 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Gaza in Global Context w/ Trita Parsi

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 18:31:14 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: A Confederated State Solution? w/ Omer Bartov

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 16:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Zionism vs. Anti-Zionism Ep. 1 w/ Shaul Magid

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 02:00:00 -0000

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.

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

Use code DIG2023 for 50% off a subscription to Jewish Currents at secure.jewishcurrents.org/forms/subscribe

Long Reads: The Gaza Massacre w/ Bashir Abu-Manneh

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 15:37:11 -0000

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/

Michael and Us: A Prurient Interest

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 15:37:59 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Marx for Cats w/ Leigh Claire La Berge

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 18:48:54 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Killers of the Flower Moon

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:52:20 -0000

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.

The Dig: Palestine w/ Mohammed el-Kurd

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 20:21:19 -0000

Featuring Mohammed el-Kurd on Palestine. A short but expansive interview.

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Check out our newsletters and vast archives at thedigradio.com

Shop Haymarket's ALL 40% off Holiday sale at haymarketbooks.org

Take the Bookmatch quiz nplusonemag.com

The Dig: Global Palestine Politics Ep. 2 w/ Richard Seymour

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 01:14:44 -0000

Featuring Richard Seymour on the global politics of the Palestinian struggle and Israel’s war on Gaza. The *second* of a two-part interview.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

Buy Going for Broke haymarketbooks.org/books/2097-going-for-broke

Take the Bookmatch quiz nplusonemag.com

Behind the News: Inside the Mind of an “Ecoterrorist” w/ Christopher Ketcham

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 12:00:12 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Class Struggle in Medieval England w/ Dominic Alexander

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:00:34 -0000

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.

The Dig: Global Palestine Politics Ep. 1 w/ Richard Seymour

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 23:28:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Gaza, Ukraine, and the US w/ Anatol Lieven

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:06:40 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: The UAW Strike Victory w/ Nelson Lichtenstein

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 15:43:49 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Dinosaur Hour

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 17:54:45 -0000

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.

The Dig: J. Edgar Hoover's America w/ Beverly Gage

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 11:00:22 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin bit.ly/digjacobin

Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible

Behind the News: Palestinian Citizens of Israel w/ Amjad Iraqi

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 16:40:46 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Nosferatu, the Wrath of Pod

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 15:32:58 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Palestine and the New McCarthyism w/ Rashid Khalidi

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:35:13 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Catastrophe in Gaza w/ Rami Khouri

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 16:01:36 -0000

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.

The Dig: Hamas w/ Tareq Baconi

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 21:00:15 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Contribute to Palestinian relief:

pcrf.net

map.org.uk

anera.org

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

Behind the News: UAW's Strategy w/ Stephanie Ross

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 17:19:52 -0000

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.

The Dig: Palestine Teach-In

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 23:54:54 -0000

This episode is The Dig's Palestine Teach-In. The most informative clips from our archives on Palestine and Israel.

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

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

Michael and Us: Citizen of the World

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 18:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: War on Gaza w/ Noura Erakat & Arielle Angel

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Featuring Noura Erakat and Arielle Angel on the apartheid system and the violence it drives in Palestine.

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

Donate now to support Gaza relief pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief

Buy On Edward Said haymarketbooks.org/books/1556-on-edward-said

Buy Palestine: A Socialist Introduction haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-socialist-introduction

Long Reads: Preventing a New Nakba w/ Bashir Abu-Manneh

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 14:12:30 -0000

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

The Dig: The Missing Revolution w/ Vincent Bevins

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 10:45:28 -0000

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

Behind the News: The Gaza Siege w/ Haggai Matar

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 17:34:41 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Kenya's Haiti Mission

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 15:12:51 -0000

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.

The Dig: If We Burn w/ Vincent Bevins

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 15:54:24 -0000

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

Michael and Us: I Heart New Wave

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 12:00:45 -0000

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

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.

Long Reads: Padmore's Pan-African Marxism w/ Theo Williams

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 14:01:58 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Wheatfield with Crows

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 13:55:00 -0000

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

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.

Jacobin Radio: WGA Strike w/ Alex O'Keefe & Howard Rodman

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:13:46 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Niger Coup w/ Samar Al-Bulushi

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 15:26:56 -0000

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.

The Dig: Long Land War w/ Jo Guldi

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 20:33:19 -0000

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

Behind the News: How Sick Is Capitalism?

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 14:51:20 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Jewellbilly Elegy

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 15:02:48 -0000

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

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.

The Dig: Organizing and Socialist Strategy

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 12:35:06 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Strike at the Big Three w/ Nelson Lichtenstein

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:57:34 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Crypto Capitalism w/ Ramaa Vasudevan

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 15:12:57 -0000

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

Behind the News: Postliberalism w/ Jodi Dean

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 16:13:44 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: The Chilean Coup, 50 Years Later (Part 2)

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 14:30:46 -0000

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.

The Dig Presents: Alien Jerky Sold Here

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 15:12:40 -0000

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

Behind the News: Cold War Liberalism w/ Samuel Moyn

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 15:06:06 -0000

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.

The Dig: Seizing Labor's Moment w/ Alex Press & Eric Blanc

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 19:13:22 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Airport Paperback

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:37:32 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: The Chilean Coup, 50 Years Later (Part 1)

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 20:09:55 -0000

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.

The Dig: AOC on US Hegemony and Latin American Sovereignty

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:00:23 -0000

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

Long Reads: The Hidden Rosa Luxemburg w/ Peter Hudis

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 15:16:16 -0000

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.

Behind the News: A Social History of the Internet w/ Taylor Lorenz

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 15:05:42 -0000

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.

The Dig: Emergent Terrain w/ Akbar, Winant, & Riofrancos

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 14:58:25 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Arrested Development

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 15:45:50 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The State of Trans Politics w/ Erin Reed

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 16:04:26 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Long Live the New Flesh

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 16:03:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: US Interests in Niger w/ Caitlin Chandler

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 12:59:37 -0000

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.

The Dig: Conjuncture w/ Akbar, Winant, & Riofrancos

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 19:28:57 -0000

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

Long Reads: Simone de Beauvoir's Socialist Feminism w/ Emma McNicol

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 14:38:46 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Sound of Freedom Episode

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 08:59:49 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Student Hunger & Insecurity w/ Sara Goldrick-Rab

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 14:10:13 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Update on the UPS Contract Fight

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:47:01 -0000

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.

The Dig Presents: Power Struggle

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 17:21:53 -0000

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

Behind the News: The Korean Armistice w/ Tim Shorrock

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:59:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Portugal's Revolution w/ Raquel Varela

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 14:10:07 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Le Petite Mort w/ Adam Nayman

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 09:00:34 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Democracy in Bolivia and Venezuela w/ Gabriel Hetland

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 17:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Bidenomics w/ Daniela Gabor, Ted Fertik, & Tim Sahay

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 19:47:23 -0000

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

Michael and Us: He's Surely Alive w/ Alex Shephard

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:00:46 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Struggle at UPS

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 13:47:26 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Riots in France w/ Harrison Stetler

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 13:37:12 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Futility Thesis

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 14:58:20 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Japan's Socialist Tradition w/ Kenji Hasegawa

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 14:24:56 -0000

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

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

Behind the News: How Austerity Spawns Fascism w/ Clara Mattei

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 16:48:24 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Manifesto w/ China Miéville

Sun, 09 Jul 2023 17:41:38 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Deaths of Cinema

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 14:49:11 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Confederate Diaspora

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 18:50:30 -0000

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.

Long Reads: William Morris, Romantic Revolutionary w/ Matthew Beaumont

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:02:57 -0000

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

Michael and Us: In Soviet Russia, Game Plays You

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 09:30:56 -0000

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: Abolish the Family w/ M. E. O'Brien

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 17:00:00 -0000

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: Tribute to Daniel Ellsberg

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 13:49:48 -0000

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.

The Dig: AI Hype Machine w/ Meredith Whittaker, Ed Ongweso, and Sarah West

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 21:31:50 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Let's See What's On Netflix...

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 16:35:07 -0000

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.

Behind the News: On Clarence Thomas w/ Corey Robin

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 14:30:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Fall of OPEC w/ Giuliano Garavini

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 21:26:04 -0000

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

Long Reads: Mussolini to Meloni w/ David Broder (Part 2)

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 12:55:35 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: If Movies Tire You, What Will Podcasts Do?

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 10:30:02 -0000

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

Behind the News: The US Role in Ukraine w/ Christopher Layne

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 15:00:05 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Rise of OPEC w/ Giuliano Garavini

Sun, 11 Jun 2023 17:48:34 -0000

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

Michael and Us: America Would Never

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:07:01 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Probation and Parole w/ Wanda Bertram

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 16:30:40 -0000

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.

The Dig: Colonial Lives of Property w/ Brenna Bhandar

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 23:19:09 -0000

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

Buy Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes haymarketbooks.org/books/1922-let-this-radicalize-you

Michael and Us: Motern and Us

Wed, 31 May 2023 11:00:52 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Sea Change w/ Tina Gerhardt

Tue, 30 May 2023 11:00:48 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Utopia Postponed? w/ Marc Cooper

Sun, 28 May 2023 15:00:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: iPhone, Therefore I Am

Sun, 28 May 2023 08:00:30 -0000

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.

Dig Presents: Transmissions from Jonestown

Sat, 27 May 2023 15:01:21 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Mussolini to Meloni w/ David Broder (Part 1)

Thu, 25 May 2023 08:00:22 -0000

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.

Behind the News: A Slow Civil War w/ Jeff Sharlet

Mon, 22 May 2023 15:50:27 -0000

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.

The Dig: Crack-Up Capitalism w/ Quinn Slobodian

Sat, 20 May 2023 20:23:24 -0000

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

Michael and Us: By Grapthar's Hammer

Wed, 17 May 2023 08:59:41 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Cop City Primer w/ Micah Herskind

Mon, 15 May 2023 15:40:05 -0000

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.

The Dig: Trans Children w/ Jules Gill-Peterson

Sat, 13 May 2023 16:59:04 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Subscribe to n+1 at nplusonemag.com/thedig. Enter THEDIG at checkout.

Michael and Us: A Populist Dracula

Wed, 10 May 2023 09:00:45 -0000

"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.

Jacobin Radio: Writers Guild Strike w/ Howard Rodman

Tue, 09 May 2023 09:00:35 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Chicago Model w/ Stacy Davis Gates, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, and Alex Han

Mon, 08 May 2023 15:13:24 -0000

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

Special: May Day w/ Richard Wolff

Sat, 06 May 2023 08:59:06 -0000

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

The Dig: Philly's Left Turn w/ Helen Gym & Nikil Saval

Fri, 05 May 2023 15:57:11 -0000

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

Long Reads: The Life and Death of Yugoslavia w/ Catherine Samary (Part 2)

Thu, 04 May 2023 18:00:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Know Thyself w/ Alex Shephard

Wed, 03 May 2023 15:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Chicago's New Mayor w/ Micah Uetricht

Mon, 01 May 2023 14:01:36 -0000

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

Dig Presents: Superhighway!

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 17:51:15 -0000

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

Snell-Rood Lab

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

Jacobin Radio: Putinism w/ Ilya Budraitskis

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:58:12 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Great Moving Right Show

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 17:18:38 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Green New Dead End? w/ Josh Mason

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:03:34 -0000

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.

The Dig: Teach the Children Well w/ Jennifer Berkshire & Jack Schneider

Sun, 23 Apr 2023 20:29:19 -0000

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

Long Reads: The Life and Death of Yugoslavia w/ Catherine Samary (Part 1)

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:44:58 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Ten Days That Shook the World

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 13:39:45 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Living on Less w/ Kate Soper

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:25:54 -0000

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.

The Dig: How to Build a Fighting Labor Movement w/ Jane McAlevey

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 18:41:13 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Of Shoes and Men

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 15:02:53 -0000

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.

Behind the News: University Unionism w/ Donna Murch

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 16:39:27 -0000

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.

The Dig: Zionism's Civil War w/ Edo Konrad & Joshua Leifer

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 17:54:36 -0000

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

Long Reads: Mariátegui's Marxism w/ Mike Gonzalez

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 17:15:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Crises in France and Israel

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 13:44:35 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: One Insular Tahiti

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:00:37 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Resisting Bibi w/ Nimrod Flaschenberg

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 16:20:09 -0000

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.

The Dig Presents: A Garden in Cairo

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 16:50:07 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Artificial Intelligence

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 09:00:26 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Neo-Fascism in Italy w/ David Broder

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 16:03:24 -0000

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.

The Dig: Sexual Hegemony w/ Max Fox and Chris Nealon

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 21:30:01 -0000

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

Michael and Us: London and World Assurance

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 09:00:10 -0000

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.

Long Reads: The Wounded Knee Uprising w/ Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 09:00:30 -0000

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/

Trailer: The Dig Presents

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:48:51 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The State of the Carceral State w/ Wanda Bertram

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:26:32 -0000

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.

The Dig: Racism, Class, and the Opioid Crisis

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 14:51:30 -0000

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

Michael and Us: I Don't Like Sand

Sat, 18 Mar 2023 18:05:02 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: 50 Years of Chilean Politics w/ Marc Cooper

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 19:24:20 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The DeSantis Agenda w/ Paul Ortiz

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 14:43:48 -0000

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).

The Dig: Labor Histories w/ Nelson Lichtenstein

Sun, 12 Mar 2023 23:32:12 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: A Year of War in Ukraine

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 22:07:52 -0000

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.

Long Reads: The Cathar Crusade w/ Elaine Graham-Leigh

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 10:01:04 -0000

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

Michael and Us: My Orwell Left or Right

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 10:15:37 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Trans Kids Panic w/ Judith Levine

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 16:12:36 -0000

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.

The Dig: American Militarism w/ Nadia Abu El-Haj

Sun, 05 Mar 2023 15:41:31 -0000

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

Michael and Us: I Am Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 18:40:26 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Railroad Workers w/ Ron Kaminkow & Kari Lydersen

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 17:22:46 -0000

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.

The Dig: Combat Trauma w/ Nadia Abu El-Haj

Sun, 26 Feb 2023 01:19:45 -0000

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

Long Reads: Pakistan's Political Crisis w/ Ayyaz Mallick

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 16:42:41 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Empire Records w/ Meagan Day & Branko Marcetic

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 15:45:20 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Indian Capitalism w/ Jairus Banaji

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 16:13:04 -0000

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/

The Dig: Higher Ed Industrial Unionism w/ Donna Murch and Todd Wolfson

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:07:39 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Fully Automated Luxury Centrism

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 11:00:09 -0000

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/

Jacobin Radio: Dealignment? w/ Robert Brenner & Dylan Riley

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 14:40:35 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Chatbot Hype Versus Reality w/ Dwayne Monroe

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:59:12 -0000

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.

The Dig: Higher Ed Crisis w/ Dennis Hogan

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 19:22:01 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Heaven on Earth

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 18:33:02 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Kevin Anderson on the Anti-Colonial Marx

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 18:37:13 -0000

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

Behind the News: Ethiopia's Bloody War w/ Ann Neumann

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 16:33:34 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Politics and Practice of Tenant Organizing

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 21:03:41 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Own Your Bad

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:01:55 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Grassroots of Abortion Rights w/ Felicia Kornbluh

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 19:02:27 -0000

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.

The Dig: Freedom Dreams w/ Robin D.G. Kelley

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:11:46 -0000

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

Long Reads: Kristin Surak on Japan's Lost Generation

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 14:42:42 -0000

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

Behind the News: Afghanistan Update w/ Matthieu Aikins

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 12:00:37 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Mondo Argumento

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 17:18:47 -0000

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.

The Dig: Gramsci, Organization, Crisis w/ Michael Denning

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 18:21:31 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The View From Nowhere

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 10:00:59 -0000

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.

Behind the News: A Look Rightward

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:40:30 -0000

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.

The Dig: Gramsci & Hegemony w/ Michael Denning

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 20:04:12 -0000

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

Long Reads: Pepijn Brandon on Revolution in the Netherlands (Part 2)

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:46:47 -0000

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.

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

Jacobin Radio: California's Extreme Weather w/ Ali Meders-Knight

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 16:00:37 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Rising Expectations

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 18:55:42 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Remembering Mike Davis (Part 2)

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 17:15:22 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: 3rd Annual Year-in-Review Extravaganza

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 12:38:20 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Capitalist Conjuncture w/ Tim Barker

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:35:39 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Remembering Mike Davis (Part 1)

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 13:35:24 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Tech, AI, and Luddism w/ Edward Ongweso Jr

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 15:56:53 -0000

Kathryn Joyce discusses the far right and its internal battles. Doug then interviews Edward Ongweso Jr about tech, AI, and Luddism.

The Dig: Monetary Politics w/ Tim Barker

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 21:58:15 -0000

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

Long Reads: Pepijn Brandon on Revolution in the Netherlands (Part 1)

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:01:48 -0000

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.

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

Michael and Us: House of Pelosi

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 16:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Railroad Union Struggle w/ Ryan Grim

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 17:11:55 -0000

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.

The Dig: New Deal Ruins w/ Edward Goetz

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 17:02:21 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: UC Strike!

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 20:49:47 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Musicians for Free-Range Chickens

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 19:21:35 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Nationalist Enmity at the World Cup

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:06:16 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Italian Bourgeoisie w/ Paolo Gerbaudo

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:14:35 -0000

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.

The Dig: Modern Housing w/ Gail Radford

Sun, 11 Dec 2022 15:47:43 -0000

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

Long Reads: Michela Wrong on Eritrea's Endless War

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 12:00:01 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Dust Bowl Ballads

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 15:11:30 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Communism and Black Liberation w/ Jodi Dean

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 15:48:30 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: World Cup Controversy w/ David Goldblatt

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 20:06:58 -0000

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.

The Dig: Founding Finance with William Hogeland

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 18:33:44 -0000

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

Michael and Us: God and Country

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:33:12 -0000

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.

Behind the News: COP27 w/ Tina Gerhardt

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 10:00:12 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: War Report w/ Jeremy Bigwood

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 16:00:37 -0000

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.

The Dig: The "Woke Mob" Made Them MAGA?

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 01:24:00 -0000

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

Long Reads: Jonathan Wilson on Football, Money, and Power

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 13:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Election Debrief w/ Jodi Dean

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 21:00:10 -0000

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.

The Dig: Iran, 1997-2022. Reform, Reaction, and Crisis

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 20:11:11 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

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

The Dig: Iran, 1979-1997. Islamic Republic, War, and Thermidor

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 15:02:56 -0000

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

Behind the News: Bibi's Return w/ Joel Schalit

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 14:36:34 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Silent Majority

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:46:39 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Elections in Brazil & Protests in Iran

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 15:00:00 -0000

Political economist Alfredo Saad-Filho discusses the Brazilian elections. Then, Mina Khani and Mohammad Salemy look at the ongoing, women-led uprising in Iran.

The Dig: Iran, 1953-1979. From the Shah to Islamic Revolution

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:56:50 -0000

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

Long Reads: Aaron Benanav on Automation and the Long Downturn

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 13:27:22 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Decision Points

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 18:24:58 -0000

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.

The Dig: Iran, 1941-1953. Tudeh, Mosaddegh, Oil, and the CIA-MI6 Coup

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 20:21:56 -0000

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

Behind the News: The New New Left w/ Raina Lipsitz

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:18:20 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The Long War in Ukraine

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 18:30:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Head, Hand, Heart

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 09:00:27 -0000

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.

The Dig: Iran, 1906-1941 w/ Eskandar Sadeghi & Golnar Nikpour

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 22:10:27 -0000

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

Behind the News: Saudi Oil w/ Annelle Sheline

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 18:16:56 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: A Bigger, Better Left w/ Jane McAlevey

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:11:17 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Protest in Iran

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 20:32:02 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Gondola Song

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Antony Lerman on Antisemitism, Israel, and the Left

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 08:00:22 -0000

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.

The Dig: Conspiracy of Equals w/ Laura Mason

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:08:45 -0000

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

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: Saving the Earth

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 18:36:23 -0000

Doug speaks with Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass, authors of Half-Earth Socialism, about their scheme to save the world.

Special: Adam Tooze on Inflation and the Cost-of-Living Crisis

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:02:05 -0000

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

A World to Win: Mussolini's Shadow w/ David Broder

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 20:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Lula's Road to Power

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 15:01:43 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Learn to Code

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 17:49:59 -0000

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.

The Dig: Europe w/ Anton Jäger & Dominik Leusder

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 16:08:37 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Privatization of Everything w/ Donald Cohen

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 17:19:41 -0000

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/

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Nuclear Blackmail w/ Ilya Matveev

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:59:59 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Ukraine Horror w/ Anatol Lieven

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:40:13 -0000

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).

Michael and Us: I'm Not Mad

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 19:18:51 -0000

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.

The Dig: On the Line w/ Daisy Pitkin

Sun, 02 Oct 2022 14:12:50 -0000

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.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Check out The Dig newsletter at thedigradio.com

Subscribe to n+1 at nplusonemag.com/thedig. Enter THEDIG at checkout for a discount.

Jacobin Show: Italian Fascism w/ David Broder

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 14:05:58 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Internet Enclosure w/ Ben Tarnoff

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 09:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Barbara Ehrenreich Remembered

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 09:30:16 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Penn and Paintbrush

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 14:41:06 -0000

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.

The Dig: Taming Free Speech w/ Laura Weinrib

Sun, 25 Sep 2022 14:15:03 -0000

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

Long Reads: Elizabeth Schmidt on Somalia and the Superpowers

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 18:00:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Can We Red the Fed? w/ Samir Sonti

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 18:55:08 -0000

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

A World to Win: Seizing the State w/ Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 11:15:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Rail Worker Struggle w/ Nelson Lichtenstein

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 09:00:10 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Coronation Training Montage

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 18:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Pain and Power w/ Arielle Angel

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 14:03:59 -0000

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."

The Dig: Emancipation Circuit w/ Thulani Davis

Sun, 18 Sep 2022 15:02:17 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Chile Rejects New Constitution

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:00:17 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Is Culture Dead? w/ Catherine Liu & Eileen Jones

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 20:01:51 -0000

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

Behind the News: Challenges in Chile w/ Antonia Atria

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 14:27:23 -0000

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.

The Dig: Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin Kelley, and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Sat, 10 Sep 2022 18:54:08 -0000

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

Long Reads: Deepa Kumar on Islamophobia and Empire (Part 2)

Sat, 10 Sep 2022 14:20:32 -0000

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.

Behind the News: State Prison w/ Wanda Bertram

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 15:07:44 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: In Old Brazil w/ Violet Lucca

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 18:30:00 -0000

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.

A World to Win: All Work, No Play

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 13:33:48 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Sahel w/ Rahmane Idrissa

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 17:31:14 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Confronting Capitalism w/ Vivek Chibber

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 15:50:53 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Mark Fisher's Legacy w/ Matt Colquhoun

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 09:00:38 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Parliamentary Socialism w/ Andrew Murray

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 21:01:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Alex's War

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 15:45:45 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Deepa Kumar on Islamophobia and Empire (Part 1)

Sun, 28 Aug 2022 07:30:07 -0000

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.

The Dig: A History of Neoliberalism w/ Quinn Slobodian

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 14:24:02 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: New Deal Order w/ Gary Gerstle

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 09:00:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Crisis in Sri Lanka w/ Indrajit Samarajiva

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 00:00:00 -0000

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.

Special: Howard Zinn's 1969 Speech Against the Vietnam War

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 14:30:00 -0000

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

A World to Win: Left Bloc w/ James Schneider

Sun, 21 Aug 2022 09:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Worldmaking after Empire w/ Adom Getachew

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:23:32 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: US Empire in Withdrawal? w/ Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 17:40:29 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: A Vast and Ecumenical Holding Company

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 21:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Nuclear Options w/ Leigh Phillips

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 09:00:43 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Economic Weirdness w/ Robert Brenner

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 13:40:51 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Dina Khoury on the US Destruction of Iraq (Part 2)

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 14:50:09 -0000

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

The Dig: Britain After Empire w/ Kojo Koram

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 21:51:04 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: The Logic of Capital w/ Deepankar Basu

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 09:00:18 -0000

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.

A World to Win: The Folly of Green Capitalism w/ Adrienne Buller

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 20:30:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Ruling-Class 'Chums' w/ Simon Kuper

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 09:05:52 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Omni Consumer Products

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 16:50:06 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Tory Chaos w/ Phil Burton-Cartledge

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 09:15:51 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Brandon, Can You Spare a Dime? w/ Matt Huber

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 19:20:24 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Tornado, Earthquake, or Godzilla? w/ Justin Decloux

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 19:00:11 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Technocracy in Italy w/ Paolo Gerbaudo

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 17:59:57 -0000

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.

The Dig: Dead Generations w/ Matt Christman

Sat, 30 Jul 2022 15:53:55 -0000

Featuring Matt Christman on how American history brought us to this awful present.

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Long Reads: Dina Khoury on the US Destruction of Iraq (Part 1)

Sat, 30 Jul 2022 14:20:12 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: A View From Ukraine w/ Bohdan Krawchenko

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 16:00:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Ukrainian expert Bohdan Krawchenko, just back from Kyiv, to get his perspective of the state of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The view from Ukraine, as Bohdan Krawchenko reports, is that Russia is losing this war, has wasted thousands of lives, and is running out of troops and war materiel. Despite their huge costs and losses, Moscow is getting more aggressive and brutal. Many Ukrainians in the occupied territories of the Donbas region have been forcibly deported to Russia or sent to "filtration" camps. We get Bohdan Krawchenko’s assessment and analysis of the current situation and prospects.

Jacobin Show: Du Bois's Legacy w/ Jeff Goodwin

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 09:00:03 -0000

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

Behind the News: War on Public Education w/ Jennifer Berkshire

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 09:00:06 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Fear and Loathing in San Francisco

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 20:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Chile's Resurgent Left w/ René Rojas

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 20:00:11 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Inequality Matters w/ Mike Savage

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:12:38 -0000

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.

The Dig: How Capitalism Works w/ Nancy Fraser

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 21:06:16 -0000

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

Behind the News: Contradictions of Afropessimism w/ José Sanchez

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 16:56:47 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Adrienne Buller on the Rise of Asset-Manager Capitalism

Sat, 16 Jul 2022 14:30:43 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Anti-Imperialism & Socialism w/ Aziz Rana

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 08:55:36 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Abortion Struggle w/ Jenny Brown

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 09:00:48 -0000

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.

A World to Win: The War on Tenants w/ Vicky Spratt

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 18:00:53 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Always Be Closing

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 12:51:58 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: The End of Boris w/ Tariq Ali

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 13:14:02 -0000

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.

The Dig: It's Still Capitalism w/ Evgeny Morozov

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 17:53:44 -0000

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

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Read our newsletter and explore the archives at thedigradio.com

Michael and Us: The Forrest Gump Episode

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 09:00:54 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Making Cops Obsolete w/ Geo Maher

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 13:48:57 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Rail Strike! w/ Eddie Dempsey

Sun, 03 Jul 2022 19:05:07 -0000

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."

Long Reads: Helena Sheehan on Marxism and the Scientific Revolution

Sat, 02 Jul 2022 14:05:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Identity, Power, and Speech w/ Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 22:23:22 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Colombia w/ Forrest Hylton

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 16:27:49 -0000

Suzi talks to Forrest Hylton about Gustavo Petro’s historic victory in Colombia’s June 19 Presidential Election. Historic because it is the first victory for a leftist candidate in Colombia's history, despite a heavy challenge from the right. Former Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro and his VP, the Afro-Colombian environmental activist and human rights lawyer Francia Márquez, won on a platform of a green transition, tackling climate change while creating new jobs with labor rights, and pledging to make Colombia a leader in the global fight on climate. Their election spells the end of the far-right, militarist politics of Uribismo that has dominated Colombia for much of this century. It promises a new beginning for Colombia and Latin America and a new relationship with the US. We get Forrest Hylton’s assessment of the victory, the challenges ahead, and what it means for the hemisphere.

Jacobin Show: Neoliberalism and Depoliticization w/ Felix Biederman & Gary Gerstle

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 09:00:22 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Socialism with Disneyan Characteristics

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 22:00:31 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Middle-Class Myths w/ David Roediger

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 15:16:46 -0000

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.

The Dig: In This House w/ Jared Clemons

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 17:31:19 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Is a Recession Coming? w/ Richard Wolff & Bhaskar Sunkara

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 17:54:48 -0000

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

Behind the News: A Deep History of Racial Inequality w/ Ellora Derenoncourt

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 19:22:05 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Metaverse of Madness

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 14:17:36 -0000

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.

The Dig: The American Right w/ Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 21:43:59 -0000

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

Long Reads: Esther Leslie on Walter Benjamin's Messianic Marxism

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 15:51:46 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Crime and Punishment w/ Ana Kasparian & Nando Vila

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 08:59:18 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Half-Earth Socialism w/ Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 11:00:38 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Failures of the New Democrats w/ Lily Geismer

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 17:00:23 -0000

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.

The Dig: Gunpower Death Drive w/ Patrick Blanchfield

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 20:31:53 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Elites Are Lying About Inflation w/ Samir Sonti

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 11:00:00 -0000

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

A World to Win: The TikTok-ification of Colombia's Election w/ David Adler

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 19:30:13 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Pieces of Flair

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 11:00:21 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Colombian Presidential Election w/ Forrest Hylton

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 12:00:50 -0000

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.

The Dig: The New Democrats w/ Lily Geismer

Sun, 05 Jun 2022 23:17:11 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: What's the Matter with California? w/ Catherine Liu

Sun, 05 Jun 2022 09:00:46 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Trust the Plan

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 09:00:55 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: 13 Jealous Republics w/ Mike Davis

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 15:37:08 -0000

Historian, urban theorist and activist Mike Davis is writing a new book called Star Spangled Leviathan: An Economic History of American Nationalism. On May Day he read from the chapter "13 Jealous Republics: The Myth of American Genesis" sponsored by Trinity College's Social Justice Initiative, organized by Jordan Camp and Christina Heatherton. A selected discussion follows. The talk was dedicated to Fred Pfeil, Trinity Professor, public intellectual on the street and the page, troublemaker and beloved collaborator with Mike on the Verso/Haymarket series called The Year Left. Fred Pfeil died in 2005. Check out his writings, including Another Tale to Tell and White Guys: Studies in Postmodern Domination and Difference.

Behind the News: Sex, Labor, and Capitalism w/ Heather Berg

Tue, 31 May 2022 15:02:28 -0000

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.

The Dig: Ruth Wilson Gilmore w/ Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bhandar

Sat, 28 May 2022 16:24:48 -0000

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

Long Reads: Maya Goodfellow on Resisting Racism in Britain's 'Hostile Environment'

Sat, 28 May 2022 14:53:12 -0000

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."

A World to Win: Pandemic Political Economy w/ Sahil Dutta & Nick Taylor

Thu, 26 May 2022 17:13:12 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: A Wave of Worker Organizing w/ Steven Greenhouse

Wed, 25 May 2022 14:25:59 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Crypto's Scam-Ridden World w/ Molly White

Mon, 23 May 2022 19:35:21 -0000

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.

The Dig: Center and Periphery w/ Margarita Fajardo

Sat, 21 May 2022 13:40:20 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Just Asking Questions

Sat, 21 May 2022 09:00:33 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Roots of a 50-Year Drug War w/ Kojo Koram

Thu, 19 May 2022 19:01:47 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Climate Change Is Class Struggle w/ Matt Huber

Tue, 17 May 2022 15:44:29 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Futility Consensus

Sun, 15 May 2022 18:45:17 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Tom Mills on the BBC's Partisan Politics

Sat, 14 May 2022 18:53:32 -0000

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

The Dig: The Return of Labor Militancy

Fri, 13 May 2022 22:13:33 -0000

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

A World to Win: Turning the Earth Into Money w/ John Bellamy Foster

Fri, 13 May 2022 14:12:10 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Corporations Won't Save Roe or the Climate w/ Natalie Shure & Matt Huber

Thu, 12 May 2022 15:44:16 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Show About Nothing

Mon, 09 May 2022 18:13:01 -0000

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.

The Dig: SCOTUS, Politics, and the Law w/ Aziz Rana, Amna Akbar, & Marbre Stahly-Butts

Sat, 07 May 2022 16:03:27 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Why Blue Cities Keep Failing the Homeless w/ Clayton Aldern

Fri, 06 May 2022 14:49:06 -0000

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

A World to Win: The Radicalism of Hope w/ Mikaela Loach

Thu, 05 May 2022 14:19:24 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Pleasant Valley Sunday

Wed, 04 May 2022 18:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Impending Debt Crisis w/ David Adler

Mon, 02 May 2022 14:00:09 -0000

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

The Dig: Before the West w/ Ayşe Zarakol

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 21:47:40 -0000

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

A World to Win: War and Inter-Imperialism w/ Barnaby Raine

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:00:17 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: How We Broke the Supply Chain w/ David Dayen

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 00:00:22 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Fatal Shore

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 20:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: A New Economic Bill of Rights?

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 10:00:50 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Lessons From Assata w/ Donna Murch

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 13:27:58 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Gilbert Achcar on the Second Wave of Arab Uprisings

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 13:34:25 -0000

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

The Dig: Bonds of Inequality w/ Destin Jenkins

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 21:49:40 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: The Calamity of Clintonism

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 19:02:25 -0000

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

A World to Win: Against Ecofascism w/ Sam Moore

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 13:58:44 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: What's Left?

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 13:52:09 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Population of Our Prisons w/ Wanda Bertram

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 20:32:51 -0000

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

The Dig: Police w/ Mariame Kaba and Geo Maher

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 19:08:52 -0000

Mariame Kaba and Geo Maher discuss police, the politics of policing, abolition, reform—and more.

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Show: The Downfall of Defund w/ Cedric Johnson

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:00:17 -0000

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

A World to Win: Who Benefited from Britain's Empire? w/ Kojo Koram

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:00:12 -0000

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 w/ Suzi Weissman: Russia’s War on Ukraine

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 20:58:01 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Tao of Jack Ryan

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 17:13:27 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Jan Toporowski on Michal Kalecki and the Politics of Full Employment

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 17:00:21 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Worker Victory on Staten Island w/ John Logan

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 21:26:14 -0000

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.

The Dig: Price Wars w/ Rupert Russell & Isabella Weber

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 20:14:53 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Labor in Limbo?

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 09:05:03 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Akira, the Wrath of God

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 13:09:34 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Yemen War

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:28:51 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Imperialism and the Energy Crisis w/ David Wearing

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:38:37 -0000

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.

The Dig: Vaccine Apartheid Endures w/ Achal Prabhala

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:37:38 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Debate! On Ukraine & Ideology w/ Slavoj Žižek

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 22:23:23 -0000

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

Long Reads: Anton Jäger on Belgium, the World's Most Successful Failed State?

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 13:35:27 -0000

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

A World to Win: The War on the Poor w/ Alfie Stirling

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 20:33:23 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Hunters in the Snow

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 13:34:42 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: How Democrats Lost Rural America w/ Anthony Flaccavento

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 14:44:38 -0000

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 Dig: Clash of Empires w/ Ho-fung Hung

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 15:20:20 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Dispatch From Russia

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 14:04:39 -0000

Suzi talks to Russian Marxist sociologist, activist, and author Boris Kagarlitsky to get his perspective of Putin’s war from inside Russia. How does he understand Putin's surprising decision—and miscalculation—to invade Ukraine? Kagarlitsky dismisses Putin's declarations about NATO expansion and restoring the Russian Imperium, and says domestic political, economic, and social pressures were the motivating factors. Putin’s prestige and popularity have plummeted along with the prolonged decline in living standards. Kagarlitsky says Putin's hugely unpopular pension reform and other austerity measures were more about the colossal level of corruption than economic policy designed to deal with decline. Public opinion can be seen by the poor showing of Putin's party in the September 2021 election, which was marred by allegations of fraud. We also get a sense of the socio-political divide in Russia between those who support Putin and his war, and those who oppose and defy Putin. As Boris argues, Putin is losing this war, and this has multiple ramifications.

The Dig: China Boom w/ Ho-fung Hung

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 13:31:10 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Leaving Occupy Anarchism in the Past w/ Ben Fong & Christie Offenbacher

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 09:20:33 -0000

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

A World to Win: The Cost of Living Crisis w/ Gary Stevenson

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 19:49:48 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Contract With America

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 20:41:08 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: War Motives and Anti-War Resistance

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:30:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Monopoly Medicine & the Anti-Dollar Axis

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:12:14 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Lea Ypi on the Enigmas of Modern Albania

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 16:07:37 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Overcoming Working-Class Alienation w/ Krystal Ball

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 09:59:12 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

The Dig: War w/ Sophie Pinkham and Nick Mulder

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 21:50:54 -0000

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

A World to Win: Housing and Class Struggle w/ Susanne Soederberg

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 20:56:52 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Sympathy for the Riddler

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 09:59:55 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The Perverse Logic of War in Eastern Europe

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 21:30:00 -0000

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/

Behind the News: Seeking Peace in Ukraine w/ Anatol Lieven

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 18:15:08 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives w/ Adolph Reed Jr.

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 09:59:21 -0000

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

A World to Win: Inequality Explosion w/ Max Lawson

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 15:55:23 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Lords of Easy Money

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 17:06:51 -0000

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.

The Dig: Russia Invades w/ Tony Wood

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 01:20:12 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Shlock Rock

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 22:02:17 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Ukraine and the Anti-War Resistance

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 18:26:12 -0000

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.

The Dig: Invisible Hands w/ Kim Phillips-Fein

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 19:36:09 -0000

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

Long Reads: David Edgerton on the Myths of Modern Britain

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 14:45:10 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Permanent Inflation? w/ Ramaa Vasudevan

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 16:00:00 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Behind the News: Ottawa, the NFL, and Amazon

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 18:50:16 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: I Only Read It for the Articles

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 21:05:10 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Canada’s Alt-Right Rage

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:32:09 -0000

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!"

The Dig: Feminist International w/ Verónica Gago

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 22:08:41 -0000

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

Behind the News: Prison and Public Health

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 15:13:09 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Coronavirus Criminals w/ John Nichols

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 19:27:23 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Rural America and the Democratic Party

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 22:21:37 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Feminism Against Fascism w/ Laurie Penny

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 18:49:48 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Rorschach Tests

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:03:21 -0000

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.

Long Reads: John Foot on Italy's Two Republics From Anti-Fascism to Anti-Politics

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 15:34:34 -0000

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.

The Dig: Inflamed w/ Raj Patel and Rupa Marya

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 23:47:01 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: When Does Culture Matter? w/ Vivek Chibber

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 20:35:57 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: COVID and the Crisis in Education

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 17:41:16 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Cries and Whispers

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 10:59:40 -0000

We discuss one of the least sentimental films about death and family, Ingmar Bergman's CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972), and provide a possible political reading of Sweden's most famous auteur. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

The Dig: Financial Empire w/ Daniela Gabor & Ndongo Samba Sylla

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 23:48:15 -0000

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 Show: Why Isn't "Ecosocialism" Winning Workers? w/ Leigh Phillips

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 18:13:17 -0000

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."

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

A World to Win: Elite Capture w/ Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 19:32:08 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Explaining the US-Russia Saber-Rattling

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 19:01:43 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Oliver Gloag on Jean-Paul Sartre and the Crimes of Empire

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 17:26:23 -0000

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.

Special: Nina Turner Is Ready to Keep Fighting

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 21:00:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Ukraine w/ Volodymyr Ishchenko

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 19:05:24 -0000

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/

ponarseurasia.org/how-maidan-revolutions-reproduce-and-intensify-the-post-soviet-crisis-of-political-representation/

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 Show: Why Everything Is Politics Now w/ Anton Jäger

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 22:00:00 -0000

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.

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

Sports Show: Confronting Racism & Police Brutality w/ Etan Thomas

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 11:00:01 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Guy's Winnipeg

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 15:27:53 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Tension on the Russia-Ukraine Border

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 18:00:05 -0000

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?

The Dig: Biden's Pandemic w/ Justin Feldman

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:45:57 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Why the Left Can't Win Without West Virginia w/ Ted Boettner

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 11:00:20 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

A World to Win: Speculative Communities w/ Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 15:32:34 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Cédric Durand on the Twilight of Neoliberalism

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 16:02:39 -0000

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.

The Dig: Next Shift w/ Gabriel Winant

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 23:20:15 -0000

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

Why Are Democrats Such Losers? w/ Amber Frost & Danny Bessner

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 21:27:55 -0000

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

Michael and Us: 300th Episode Spectacular

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 11:00:35 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Taking Back the Streets

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 16:23:18 -0000

Suzi talks to Warren Montag about the danger of the organized and armed far right. He argues in "The Necessity of Taking Back the Streets" in the journal Spectre that the left has not recognized the danger of the far right, and has been outflanked by the right’s strategic advance politically, electorally, and militarily. Warren sees the January 6, 2021 action as a big success for the right—and the left’s inability to respond to the danger encapsulates the political situation today, the actual balance of power. The right’s advance is not just in the streets, but in every level of government as well as law enforcement and all branches of the military. They have not been repudiated by the Republican Party, now a far right party of white supremacy. The Republican Party understands it can only win elections through the ever-increasing exclusion of the majority of the electorate, achieved through legal means as well as a campaign of fear and intimidation against opponents. Montag sees historical precedence both for the organized right’s march to power and the left’s complacency about the scale of the threat. To stop the right will require more than investigations and prosecutions. It will require understanding the danger the right represents, and mass mobilizations to defend democracy.

The Dig: Interregnum w/ Aziz Rana, Nikhil Pal Singh, Wendy Brown

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 23:22:51 -0000

Everyone feels bad right now because conditions are awful and the outlook is bleak. What is going on, and where might things be headed? How might we become unstuck from this interregnum? Dan interviews returning guests Aziz Rana, Nikhil Pal Singh, and Wendy Brown.

Primer: Thinking Outside the Big Box

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 22:11:39 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Democratic Losership Council

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 10:55:54 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Two Interviews on Chile

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 16:12:08 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Boric's Landslide Victory in Chile

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 11:30:12 -0000

Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom in Chile about Gabriel Boric’s impressive landslide victory in the second round of Chile’s Presidential election held December 19. Boric, a 35 year old former student leader from the Apruebo Dignidad (I Approve Dignity) coalition, decisively defeated the first round winner, Jose Antonio Kast, the ultra-right admirer of Pinochet’s dictatorship whose campaign stoked fear and demonized migrants as narco-trafficking terrorists, opposed women’s rights, same sex marriage and promised repression. Pablo Abufom Silva discusses Boric’s politics and the immense challenges he faces in making the changes his campaign has promised in a divided country and a divided parliament, reeling from an economic downturn exacerbated by the pandemic. Boric is a moderate leftist representative of the anti-neoliberal popular movement that exploded on the streets in October 2019 and won the right to scrap Pinochet’s constitution and elect constituents to draft a new one. The structural reforms Boric championed include tax reform, de-privatizing pensions, taking on police brutality and human rights violations, urgent action on climate change, fighting for gender equity, the empowerment of women and indigenous peoples. Hundreds of thousands flocked to the streets to celebrate Boric’s victory as their own. Pablo describes the relief and joy of their triumph: they defeated Pinochetism and can now continue the cycle of transformations that prompted the popular revolt of October 2019.

Jacobin Show: The Rise of the Brahmin Left w/ Catherine Liu

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 20:01:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Private Money with Stefan Eich

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 18:15:27 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Everything Is Awesome

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 11:30:26 -0000

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

Weekends: Inflation, Labor Upsurge, and Neoliberalism's Discontents w/ Richard Wolff

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 19:03:28 -0000

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

Long Reads: Michael Vann on Indonesia's Killing Fields (Part 2)

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 16:44:59 -0000

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.

The Dig: Cryptocurrency w/ Edward Ongweso Jr & Jacob Silverman

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 21:56:20 -0000

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/

Jacobin Show: A Year in Strikes (and Scabs) w/ Jane McAlevey

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 18:00:10 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Weekends: Our Collective Descent Into Ideology w/ Liza Featherstone

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 19:48:15 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Kanehsatake Resistance

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 19:00:00 -0000

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/

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Victory at Starbucks, Struggle at Kellogg's

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 17:07:34 -0000

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.”

Long Reads: Michael Vann on Indonesia's Killing Fields (Part 1)

Sat, 11 Dec 2021 15:10:13 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: The Evolution of Racial Justice Under Neoliberalism w/ Touré Reed & Adolph Reed

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 21:30:00 -0000

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.

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 Dig: Bolsonarismo with Rodrigo Nunes

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 16:09:55 -0000

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

Weekends: The Class Path to Racial Liberation w/ Adaner Usmani

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 18:00:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Promiscuous Dope Fiends

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 11:30:09 -0000

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)

Behind the News: The Limits of Trials & Elections in Chile and Honduras

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:22:44 -0000

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.

The Dig: Brazil w/ Sabrina Fernandes & Andre Pagliarini

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 20:11:12 -0000

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

A World to Win: The Colonial Roots of the Climate Crisis w/ Asad Rehman

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 20:50:35 -0000

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 Show: The Erosion of American Democracy w/ Chris Maisano

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 19:32:40 -0000

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.

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 and Us: Team Avengers, World Police

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 17:09:53 -0000

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

A World to Win: The Fight for Debt Justice w/ Heidi Chow

Fri, 26 Nov 2021 14:00:31 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: How Capitalism Created the Drug Crisis w/ Meagan Day

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 11:30:45 -0000

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.

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

Primer: Black Friday

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 20:13:59 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Inside the New Wave of Labor Militancy

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 18:00:40 -0000

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 Dig: Visions of Freedom w/ Piero Gleijeses Part 2

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 15:18:01 -0000

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.

Weekends: The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan w/ Tariq Ali

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 17:23:40 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Outsider

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 16:36:43 -0000

With its story of an idealistic political outsider who arrives in Washington to shake things up, Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) helped codify what is perhaps the quintessential archetype of American politics. But... what does the movie actually say? To find out, we sat down and actually watched it. This one has been a long time coming, folks!

Behind the News: COP26 Debrief & Steve Bannon's War on the State

Sat, 20 Nov 2021 15:00:00 -0000

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).

The Dig: Visions of Freedom w/ Piero Gleijeses Part 1

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:20:02 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The 'Big Quit' & Chilean Election News

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:05:19 -0000

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.

A World to Win: A History of Everything w/ David Wengrow

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: America Loves a Moral Panic w/ Roger Lancaster

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 22:41:01 -0000

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.

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 and Us: The Dialectic of Cool Britannia

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 15:15:18 -0000

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.

Weekends: What's Left of Build Back Better w/ David Sirota

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: October 1917

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 16:50:08 -0000

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

Long Reads: Fabien Escalona on French Socialism from Mitterrand to Meltdown

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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.

A World to Win: The Production of Uselessness w/ Neil Vallelly

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 15:37:50 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Dawn of Everything w/ David Wengrow

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 04:36:17 -0000

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

Behind the News: Debate on 'Degrowth'

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 14:59:24 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Nuance Mongering

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: A Future for the Left w/ Nina Turner

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 19:29:08 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: What Do Working-Class Voters Want? w/ Jared Abbott

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 19:32:15 -0000

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.

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 Dig: Striketober

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 15:46:11 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: All the News That’s Fit to Click w/ Caitlin Petre

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Why Is NYC Letting Taxi Drivers Starve? w/ Zohran Mamdani

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 20:34:52 -0000

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

Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Behind the News: The Reactionary History of the Supreme Court w/ Samuel Moyn

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 18:43:59 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Lost Futures

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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.

Primer: The Amazonification of Fiction?

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 13:55:07 -0000

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.

The Dig: Strike! with Jane McAlevey

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 00:43:25 -0000

A Striketober-relevant episode from The Dig archives.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and receive our weekly newsletter by email

Jacobin Show: Slavoj Žižek on the Legacy of the Russian Revolution

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:30:38 -0000

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.

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

Behind the News: Lebanon Crisis & COVID Conspiracies

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Power, Profit, and the American War Machine w/ Andrew Cockburn

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:40:00 -0000

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.

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

Long Reads: Vanessa Chishti on Kashmir's History of Repression and Resistance

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 07:00:00 -0000

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.

Primer: Microworking for the Weekend

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 19:00:41 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Net Zero Is Not Enough w/ Holly Jean Buck

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 10:30:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Behind the Republican Party Crack-up w/ Paul Heideman

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 20:48:23 -0000

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.

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

Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

The Dig: The Right to Sex with Amia Srinivasan

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 01:44:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Slow Cancellation of the Future

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 17:30:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: How to Debate the Right and Win w/ Ben Burgis

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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

Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Striketober

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 19:27:23 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Big Scary 'S' Word w/ Yael Bridge

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 22:00:26 -0000

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

A World to Win: Work Without the Worker w/ Phil Jones

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Afghanistan with Tariq Ali

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 00:48:40 -0000

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

Weekends: What's Wrong with an "Entitlement Society"? w/ Matt Bruenig

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Milton Friedman's War on Public Education

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Hollywood Dreamscape

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 11:30:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Sean Larson on Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Weimar Germany

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 12:00:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Queerness, Social Reproduction, and Capitalism

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 17:30:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Did the Frankfurt School Ruin the Left? w/ Jeremy Cohan & Ben Serby

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 12:30:00 -0000

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."

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

Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

A World to Win: No Final Defeat w/ Nina Turner

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 13:27:09 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Black Men in the Job Market

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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."

Michael and Us: Radioactive Dreams

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 19:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: A Congressional Standoff & COVID in Los Angeles

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 11:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: How the US Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War w/ Sam Moyn

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 19:00:00 -0000

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.

Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub

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Sports Show: A Conspiracy Grows in Brooklyn w/ Haley O'Shaughnessy

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 14:07:00 -0000

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 jacobinsports@gmail.com

The Dig: Near Futures with Kim Stanley Robinson

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 17:16:04 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: The Left Case Against the 1619 Project w/ James Oakes

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 14:11:32 -0000

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.

Verso book club:https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub

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A World to Win: Climate, Capital, and the State w/ Geoff Mann

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 17:10:44 -0000

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.

Weekends: Big Pharma Is Killing Us w/ Dean Baker

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 07:00:00 -0000

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

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Michael and Us: 2006 Forever!

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 18:30:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The Legacy of Occupy Wall Street

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 10:38:25 -0000

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.

The Dig: Occupy at 10 with Astra Taylor

Sun, 26 Sep 2021 02:00:09 -0000

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/

Long Reads: Kristen Ghodsee on the Lost World of Bulgarian Communism

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 11:38:29 -0000

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.

A World to Win: The Long Decline of the Tory Party w/ Phil Burton-Cartledge

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:10:54 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Kaepernick Effect

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 13:00:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Carlson Doctrine w/ Alex Shephard

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 20:00:00 -0000

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

Weekends: The Left 10 Years After Occupy Wall Street w/ Meagan Day & Seth Ackerman

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 14:31:31 -0000

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

The Dig: War on Terror W/ Spencer Ackerman Part 3

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:56:47 -0000

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

A World to Win: Demand a Shorter Working Week w/ Will Stronge and Kyle Lewis

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 13:45:27 -0000

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 Show: Are You Watching Propaganda? w/ Eileen Jones

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:32:29 -0000

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.

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Behind the News: US-China Rivalry and the Reactionary Right in Texas

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 08:30:00 -0000

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/

The Dig: War on Terror w/ Spencer Ackerman Part 2

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 18:03:13 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Escalating Fascism in Brazil

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 14:26:21 -0000

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."

Weekends: How COVID Shook the World's Economy w/ Adam Tooze

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Ghosts

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 13:30:33 -0000

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

Long Reads: Ho-Fung Hung on China's Future Under Xi Jinping

Sat, 11 Sep 2021 23:16:38 -0000

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.

The Dig: War on Terror w/ Spencer Ackerman Part 1

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 19:20:55 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: American Empire After 9/11 w/ Noam Chomsky

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:44:25 -0000

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.

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Behind the News: Police Against Protest

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Will Infrastructure Sink Biden?

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 21:20:00 -0000

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 Show: Why Liberals Love Losing w/ Luke Savage

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 09:30:00 -0000

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?

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Behind the News: An Economic History of Cuba w/ Helen Yaffe

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 18:14:33 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Media War w/ Adam Johnson and Eric Levitz

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:03:02 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Sculpting in Time

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 18:46:56 -0000

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.

A World to Win: The Transgender Issue w/ Shon Faye

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 13:22:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The Unheeded Afghan Collapse Memo

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 09:20:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Against Lifestyle Environmentalism w/ Matt Huber

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 20:40:58 -0000

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

Long Reads: Jamie Maxwell on Scotland's Rocky Road to Independence

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 17:54:03 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: The Class War to Come w/ Maximillian Alvarez

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 23:08:51 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

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The Dig: Chile w/ Aldo Madariaga & Camila Vergara

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 18:38:23 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Money Never Tweets

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 09:30:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The End of the Occupation in Afghanistan

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 15:48:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Capitalism Alone w/ Branko Milanovic

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 15:00:00 -0000

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

Primer: Stronger Than Steel

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 14:14:40 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Reviving the Fight for Medicare for All

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 15:38:31 -0000

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.

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYT

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A World to Win: Monopsony Capitalism w/ Ashok Kumar

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 14:26:12 -0000

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.

Weekends: The Fall of Andrew Cuomo w/ Liza Featherstone

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 19:09:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Oliver's Twist w/ Anders Lee

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 14:04:23 -0000

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

Behind the News: On Anti-Vaxxers

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 20:35:00 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Antoni Kapcia on Revolutionary Cuba and the Legacy of the Castros

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 15:39:42 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Post-Extractivist Green Transitions w/ Thea Riofrancos

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 20:36:04 -0000

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.

Primer: Covering the Labor Beat

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 13:15:03 -0000

This week, we speak with Lauren Kaori Gurley, a prolific labor reporter at Vice's Motherboard.

The Dig: Jesus and John Wayne w/ Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:39:49 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Remembering Richard Trumka and Maida Springer

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 21:00:00 -0000

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

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

Behind the News: Riots in South Africa

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 10:30:00 -0000

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).

Weekends: Labor's Long March w/ Vivek Chibber

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 20:58:00 -0000

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

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Michael and Us: Rank Punditry

Sat, 07 Aug 2021 13:50:36 -0000

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.

Primer: Theseus's Warehouse

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: The Trouble with Disparity w/ Adolph Reed and Walter Benn Michaels

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 19:45:10 -0000

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

A World to Win: The Right to Roam w/ Nick Hayes

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 15:07:04 -0000

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.

Weekends: How Socialists Can Win w/ Cornel West

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 21:27:14 -0000

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.

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: Peter Shirlow on Unionism and the Brexit Crisis in Northern Ireland

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 14:01:06 -0000

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.

Primer: Class War in Seattle

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 16:14:17 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Capitalism Is Killing Us w/ Marianne Williamson

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 22:00:15 -0000

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

A World to Win: Asset Manager Capitalism w/ Adrienne Buller and Ben Braun

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 12:51:12 -0000

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.

The Dig: Inflation Politics with Tim Barker

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 14:00:18 -0000

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 digradiopod@gmail.com 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!

Behind the News: Haiti in Context w/ Robert Fatton

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 12:25:44 -0000

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.

Primer: Up All Night

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 15:05:00 -0000

We speak with Jonathan Bailey and Ted Miin, Amazon workers and members of Amazonians United.

Michael and Us: Bugs Bunny is Dead, Long Live Bugs Bunny!

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 09:30:00 -0000

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

A World to Win: Go Big w/ Ed Miliband

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 19:03:04 -0000

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.

Weekends: What Michael Brooks Taught Us

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 23:11:18 -0000

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.

Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Meleiza Figueroa and Ali Meders-Knight on Climate Emergency

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 13:59:10 -0000

Suzi speaks to Meleiza Figueroa and Ali Meders-Knight — they both work with the Chico Traditional Ecological Stewardship Program — about the recently leaked Sixth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with its dire warnings about the coming consequences for the planet. Hundreds of millions of people live in areas at risk, and as these areas become unlivable, we see population dislocation and migration, species extinction, and widespread disease. These effects have led to social unrest and demands for systemic responses. Meleiza Figueroa and Ali Meders-Knight give us the broad takeaways from the IPCC report, the dangers we face, and their own work on climate catastrophe mitigation.

Behind the News: Real Estate and Palestine w/ Kareem Rabie

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 10:30:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: The Doomsday Gap

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 19:30:00 -0000

At last, we have decided to stop worrying and love the bomb. We discuss Stanley Kubrick's immortal DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) and how its depiction of small, pitiable men against a vast backdrop brought the Kubrick project into sharp focus. PLUS: why the billionaire space race encapsulates what's wrong with this damnable world of ours.

Long Reads: Helen Lackner on Yemen's Road to Crisis

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:48:23 -0000

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.

Primer: A Force of Nature

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 13:10:00 -0000

We speak to Alec MacGillis, author of Fulfillment, a new book about Amazon and the country left in its wake.

A World to Win: Ignorance Is Power w/ Linsey McGoey

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 13:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: The Legacy of the French Revolution w/ Slavoj Žižek

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 18:38:12 -0000

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

The Dig: How China Escaped Shock Therapy w/ Isabella Weber

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 14:15:38 -0000

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

Weekends: Latin America's Fight Against Imperialism and Neoliberalism w/ Greg Grandin

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 08:59:00 -0000

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.

Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Haiti in Crisis w/ Frantz Voltaire

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 19:59:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Frantz Voltaire, Haitian historian, filmmaker, and publisher, about the chaotic situation in Haiti. President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his home in the middle of the night on July 7 by men wearing DEA uniforms, some speaking Spanish and English. A hit squad of Colombian attackers have been arrested along with two Haitian Americans, but everything is murky about the assassination. The country was already in a political and constitutional crisis with both a non-functioning Parliament and Judiciary — and that crisis has now greatly increased with two different men claiming interim authority, while armed gangs fight to command the streets. Some Haitian officials have called for US military assistance, while others are adamantly opposed to more outside intervention whether by the US, UN, or aid groups. We get Frantz Voltaire's understanding of the current situation, how and why the assassination took place, the political-economic context from which it arose, and what we can now expect to happen.

Behind the News: Economic Reform in China w/ Isabella Weber

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 15:32:25 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Imperial Nostalgia w/ Peter Mitchell

Sat, 10 Jul 2021 09:45:00 -0000

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 Show: Against Elon Musk, For Scientific Socialism w/ Leigh Phillips

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 19:59:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Conquest of the Useless

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 15:30:00 -0000

The classic documentary BURDEN OF DREAMS (1982) captures director Werner Herzog as he's mounting the most ambitious feat of his career: attempting to haul a literal steamship over a literal mountain for his film Fitzcarraldo. We discuss how this legendary saga of directorial megalomania in a world where directorial megalomania has gone out of fashion. PLUS: the complicated reasons why there are no nice things in American politics.

Primer: On the Shop Floor

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 17:56:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Miami Condo Disaster, Hustle Culture, and America's Radical Past w/ Harvey Kaye

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 21:26:40 -0000

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.

Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Michael and Us: Enemy at the Gaetz

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 18:28:43 -0000

The HBO documentary THE SWAMP (2020) follows three "maverick" Republican congressmen who seek to fulfill Donald Trump's promise to "drain the swamp," even if that means alienating their party leaders. But what you really need to know about this documentary is that the main one is Matt Gaetz, and he is a huge doofus. PLUS: thoughts on Canada Day, Alex Gibney's Agents of Chaos, and a look back at the media coverage of the War in Iraq.

Behind the News: How White Men Won the Culture Wars

Sun, 04 Jul 2021 15:07:20 -0000

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.

Long Reads: Ramaa Vasudevan on Global Capitalism After COVID-19

Sat, 03 Jul 2021 13:26:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: The Promise of Radical Universalism w/ Nivedita Majumdar

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:25:00 -0000

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

Primer: Organizers Across Borders

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 19:29:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Ruling Class with Doug Henwood

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:03:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Teamsters, Amazon, and Biden's Bad Infrastructure Deal w/ Branko Marcetic

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 18:50:47 -0000

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.

Join the Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Michael and Us: PhD in Freakonomics

Sat, 26 Jun 2021 08:30:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: The Triumph of Militant Liberalism w/ Cedric Johnson

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 16:49:42 -0000

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

Primer: A Walk Through the Warehouse

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 20:37:00 -0000

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.

If you want to support Chris's organizing, the GoFundMe for his union is here.

A World to Win: The Liberalism of 'The Economist' w/ Alexander Zevin

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:51:11 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Yoav Peled on Israel's Election

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 17:05:04 -0000

Suzi talks to Yoav Peled about the outcome of Israel’s 4th election in two years, ending Benjamin Netanyahu's long reign--for the time being. Netanyahu unleashed a major shock and awe campaign against Gaza for 11 days last month -- as he did in November 2019, to deflect attention from his own legal problems and his inability to form a governing coalition. This time Hamas rockets and Israeli bombs failed to save Netanyahu’s hold on power and prevent a more moderate coalition from upending his rule. Neftali Bennet, far right leader of the tiny Yamina (Rightward) party will be PM for two years, yielding to his secular-centrist coalition partner Yair Lapid for the next two years. Netanyahu, facing criminal corruption charges, warns "he’ll be back." Yoav Peled clarifies what this means, and explains the dynamics of nationalism and religion in Israel (his latest book is the timely The Religionization of Israeli Society) among both Muslims and Jews.

The Dig: Empire's Workshop with Greg Grandin

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 03:02:00 -0000

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

Weekends: Celebrating Juneteenth w/ Bill Fletcher

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 16:58:00 -0000

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: Sarah-Anne Buckley on Ireland's Carceral State

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 15:41:12 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Why the Media Sucks w/ Matt Christman & AFSCME Contract Fight w/ Ernest Garrett

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 17:12:14 -0000

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

Primer: Get Big Fast

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 21:33:00 -0000

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!

A World to Win: Is Good Work Possible Under Capitalism? w/ Amelia Horgan

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 20:29:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: A Surprise Win in Peru w/ Nicolas Allen

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 13:17:26 -0000

Suzi speaks to Nicolas Allen of Jacobin America Latina about the June 6 nail-biter election in Peru. Socialist trade unionist Pedro Castillo, from an indigenous background, has won the presidency by less than 1%. His victory represents a devastating defeat for Peru’s populist neoliberal politics, represented by his rightwing opponent Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori – who sits in jail for corruption. Castillo’s campaign slogan was “No more poor people in a rich country.” The deeply unpopular Fujimori campaign resorted to relentless anti-communist scaremongering. We get Nicolas Allen’s explanation of the surprise result, situating the rejection of Fujimori in the larger context of the crisis of neoliberal rule, popular revolt, and the raging pandemic.

The Dig: Our History Is the Future with Nick Estes

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 02:16:39 -0000

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

Weekends: Pedro Castillo's Victory and the Future of British Trade Unionism w/ Ronan Burtenshaw

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 19:02:17 -0000

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

Behind the News: The Peruvian Election

Sun, 13 Jun 2021 14:17:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Matt Kierkegaard, coordinator of the Progressive International’s delegation to observe the Peruvian election, on the apparent very narrow victory of the socialist, Pedro Castillo. Then Doug interviews Ross Barkan, author of The Prince, on the dark, evil Andrew Cuomo.

Michael and Us: The Dirty Trickster

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 16:59:00 -0000

The archetype of the shadowy, Machiavellian political strategist is potent in the popular imagination, and no strategist has leaned into this potency harder than Roger Stone. We look back at one of Trumpworld's wackier characters by watching the Netflix documentary GET ME ROGER STONE (2017) and discuss how he is both a more and less significant figure than he seems. PLUS: Roger Stone's fashion blog!

Jacobin Show: How Nonprofits Preserve Inequality w/ Ben Fong & Melissa Naschek

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 08:59:00 -0000

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: Episode 1, Enter the Ama-Zone

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:59:00 -0000

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!

A World to Win: The Capitalocene w/ Jason W. Moore

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 16:05:00 -0000

This week, Grace speaks with Jason W. Moore, environmental historian and professor of sociology at Binghamton University, about capitalism and climate breakdown. They discuss his brilliant books, Capitalism in the Web of Life and Capitalocene or Anthropocene?, and ask what Marx can teach us about the multiple, overlapping ecological crises our planet is currently facing.

Find Jason on Twitter: https://twitter.com/oikeios

For access to the full episode, support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/aworldtowinpod

Weekends: Anti-Populism and the Wuhan Lab-Leak Hypothesis w/ Thomas Frank

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 18:36:08 -0000

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

The Dig: Climate Politics with Kate Aronoff

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 17:56:02 -0000

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: Adam Mayer and Baba Aye on Nigerian Politics from Independence to #EndSARS

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 12:50:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Can the US Become a Social Democracy? w/ Bhaskar Sunkara

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 18:39:13 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Hope and Despair

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 18:40:00 -0000

Paul Schrader's FIRST REFORMED (2017) looks at a world that might be beyond saving, and asks: "How can we go on living?" We discuss how this great film about religion, capitalism, and the environment is a rare Movie Of The Moment that actually is one. PLUS: the legacy of Canada's residential schools.

A World to Win: Marxism 101 w/ Hadas Thier

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 15:20:51 -0000

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.

Weekends: Is Neoliberalism Over in Chile? w/ René Rojas

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:36:29 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Bernie versus the Space Barons

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 01:00:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Organizing DSA's PRO Act Campaign

Mon, 31 May 2021 17:17:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: The End of the End of History w/ Alex Hochuli

Fri, 28 May 2021 15:49:37 -0000

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

A World to Win: Overheated w/ Kate Aronoff

Thu, 27 May 2021 13:36:51 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Chile's Progressive Victory

Wed, 26 May 2021 15:12:32 -0000

Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom about the historic victory for progressives in the election held in Chile on May 15-16. This outcome would have been unimaginable just two years ago, after nearly fifty years of neoliberal governance, first under Pinochet’s brutal military dictatorship until 1990, then the so-called center-left Concertación. We can thank the social protests of October 2019 for this epoch-making achievement, showing that mobilized popular forces could win against the long entrenched center and right. A key demand that emerged and united the protestors was for a new constitution to replace the fraudulently approved 1980 Pinochet Constitution which had cemented neoliberal, repressive rule against any attempt to create a more equitable society. That new constitution would not be written by members of the political class, but by delegates elected by the people, with gender parity and indigenous representation. Pablo Abufom was in the thick of the 2019 protest movement and spoke to us about it at the time. He returns to explain what has been won by the new left coalition Apruebo Dignidad in the elections, as well as the possible pitfalls that lay ahead.

Behind the News: The Politics of Israel

Tue, 25 May 2021 08:59:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Joel Schalit and Orly Noy (separately) on the politics of Israel: What are the internal dynamics that make it so bellicose and repressive?

Weekends: Palestinian General Strike, Mark Kelly's Money, and Dystopian Amazon w/ Alex Press & Big Wos

Mon, 24 May 2021 17:38:40 -0000

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

The Dig: From the River to the Sea w/ Noura Erakat and Tareq Baconi

Sat, 22 May 2021 16:35:27 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The People vs Mr. Burns

Fri, 21 May 2021 19:50:35 -0000

THE SIMPSONS taught a generation to be skeptical of authority. And then, at some point, it stopped. We revisit one of the greatest television show with two of its greatest episodes - "Marge vs. the Monorail" and "Sideshow Bob Roberts" - before venturing into the Season 26 episode "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" with guest star (...sigh...) Elon Musk. PLUS: Netflix's Dirty Money, the shifting discourse on Israel-Palestine, and an airtight theory about what Kramer would be doing today.

A World to Win: Free Palestine w/ Akram Salhab

Wed, 19 May 2021 13:50:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Gaza with Aya Alghazzawi & Issam Adwan

Tue, 18 May 2021 23:15:52 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Christian Socialism

Mon, 17 May 2021 20:21:00 -0000

Micah and Meagan speak with Josh Davis and Aaron Anderson of the Institute for Christian Socialism about — you guessed it — Christian socialism.

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://christiansocialism.com/the-bias-magazine/

References:

https://christiansocialism.com/herbert-mccabe-class-struggle-capitalism-marxism-christianity/

https://christiansocialism.com/christian-socialism-statement/

https://wipfandstock.com/9781532613609/misrecognitions/

Weekends: How Israel Is Carrying Out Apartheid w/ Amira Hass

Mon, 17 May 2021 16:15:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Hammer and Hoe with Robin D.G. Kelley

Sat, 15 May 2021 15:21:40 -0000

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: Paul Buhle on C.L.R. James and the Black Jacobins of Haiti

Sat, 15 May 2021 14:40:18 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Where Labour Won w/ Matthew Brown and Paul Dennett

Fri, 14 May 2021 20:06:56 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Cleggmania Revisited

Thu, 13 May 2021 19:00:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Public Education Post-Pandemic w/ Megan Erickson, Rebecca Garelli and Jay O'Neal

Thu, 13 May 2021 15:17:00 -0000

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

A World to Win: Amazonification w/ Alex Press

Mon, 10 May 2021 19:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Colombian Protests, Vaccine Patent Waiver, and the Rotting Ruling Class w/ Doug Henwood

Mon, 10 May 2021 15:05:00 -0000

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

The Dig: "Cancel Culture" w/ Moira Weigel, Nikhil Pal Singh, Patrick Blanchfield

Sun, 09 May 2021 19:58:40 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Bringing It All Back Home

Fri, 07 May 2021 22:00:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: From Posting to Politics and Runaway Inequality w/ Les Leopold

Thu, 06 May 2021 18:30:00 -0000

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

Weekends: May Day w/ Richard Wolff and Meagan Day

Mon, 03 May 2021 17:30:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: A Tasteful Thickness

Mon, 03 May 2021 13:38:41 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. We finally tackle the ultimate movie about '80s Wall Street excess, AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000), which refracts Bret Easton Ellis through the prisms of Mary Harron and Christian Bale. We discuss its central performance, its many ambiguities, and why it is a quintessentially late-'90s statement on the '80s. PLUS: how capitalism is prolonging the pandemic, and why the drug companies are not your friends.

Long Reads: Thea Riofrancos on Biden, the Green New Deal, and the Climate Movement After COVID-19

Sat, 01 May 2021 14:15:00 -0000

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." ***

The Dig: Big Ship Capitalism with Leila Khalili

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 22:09:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Donna Murch and Ben Burgis

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 15:54:20 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug interviews Donna Murch on why this is a fruitful moment for labor organizing (Guardian article here). Plus, Ben Burgis, author of Canceling Comedian While the World Burns, on why cancel culture is bad.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: US-China Green Rivalry and a Myanmar Report

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 13:56:00 -0000

Suzi talks to eco-socialist writer-activist Richard Smith about a different sort of rivalry between the US and China: which leading polluter can be greener? President Biden has announced a very ambitious Green infrastructure package, and China is promising to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. At the same time, China has posted an 18.3% growth rate for the first quarter this year. What does this tell us? Richard Smith, author of China's Engine of Environmental Collapse looks at the environmental costs of China’s rapid growth, as well as its green claims. We’ll get his understanding of this seeming paradox. Suzi then talks to Carlos Sardiña Galache -- who reports on Burma -- about the full scale civil conflict underway in Myanmar, which has steadily escalated since the Feb 1 military coup. The military junta is waging a brutal war against the massive protest and strike movement, in a rampage of blind brutality designed to terrorize the entire nation into total submission. It isn’t working: the military has not managed to take full control; the enormous civil disobedience movement has paralyzed the economy through strikes in key sectors, and the growing conflict threatens economic collapse.

Jacobin Show: How Should the Left Think About Crime? w/ Adaner Usmani

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 12:30:00 -0000

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

A World to Win: Border and Rule w/ Harsha Walia

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 17:20:42 -0000

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.

Weekends: Canceling Comedians w/ Ben Burgis, Biden's Cuba Embargo, and Asian Race Czars

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:00:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Empire in the Philippines with Rick Baldoz

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 21:07:25 -0000

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

Michael and Us: An Interview w/ Steven Donziger, Literal Prisoner of Chevron

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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.com/

A text version of this interview can be found in Jacobin, here - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/attorney-steven-donziger-chevron-ecuador-prosecution-corruption-trial

Michael and Us: Frontier Justice

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 14:44:20 -0000

We travel back to Nixon's America with 1974's DEATH WISH, the franchise-spawning Silent Majority hit in which Charles Bronson transforms from a bleeding-heart liberal to a gun-wielding avenging angel. We discuss how the film's reactionary politics and apocalyptic vision of an American city are still being replicated in conservative media today. PLUS: The Last Blockbuster, new advancements in product-placement technology, and an unlikely new kingpin in the NFT landscape.

A World to Win: Planet on Fire w/ Mat Lawrence and Laurie Laybourn-Langton

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 19:30:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Identity Politics in Our Gilded Age w/ Matt Karp

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 13:30:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Meagan Day, Micah Uetricht, and Jane McAlevey

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 09:55:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, he speaks with Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, authors of Bigger than Bernie, just out in paperback, on the legacy of the Sanders campaigns. Plus: Jane McAlevey, author and organizer, on why the union lost to Amazon in Alabama (Nation article here).

Weekends: Housing Crisis, Global Tax, and the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine w/ Leigh Phillips

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 18:45:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Gospel According to Pasolini

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 20:01:00 -0000

A gay communist atheist directing the most reverential film ever made about Jesus Christ? It happened! Pier Paolo Pasolini's THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (1964) uses neorealist aesthetics to emphasize the material side of Jesus's life over the divine, and foregrounds His politics over his miracles. PLUS: the pleasures and perils of being extremely online during a pandemic, and what conservatives say about democracy behind closed doors.

"A Cinema of Poetry" by Patrick Rumble - https://www.artforum.com/film/patrick-rumble-on-pier-paolo-pasolini-38175

"Behind Closed Doors, Republican Plutocrats Conspiring Against Democracy Let the Mask Slip" by Luke Savage - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/voting-rights-hr1-bill-republicans-antidemocratic

"Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century" by Jane Mayer - https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century

Check out our Patreon for exclusive bonus episodes - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Long Reads: Lea Ypi on Rosa Luxemburg's Revolutionary Legacy

Sat, 17 Apr 2021 16:01:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Combat Liberalism w/ Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Mindy Isser, & Zachary Hershman

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 21:47:59 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: Sex and the State w/ Kristen Ghodsee

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 13:30:00 -0000

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

A World to Win: Biden's America w/ Doug Henwood

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:53:05 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: John Logan on Bessemer

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 19:01:00 -0000

Suzi talks to labor historian John Logan who assesses the historic unionization drive against Amazon at the new Bessemer Alabama warehouse — and processes the outcome: a no vote for the Retail Workers union. Front line workers took on the second largest, notoriously anti-union company in the US during a pandemic — and won widespread sympathy and media coverage — but failed to win enough votes to get union recognition. With so much riding on this struggle, we ask what was achieved, and what the defeat means for organizing in the US, where labor law is stacked in favor of the employers. We get John Logan’s perspective on the larger significance of this drive as well as the nitty gritty of the obstacles faced every step of the way.

The Vast Majority: Sliding Into (and, Hopefully, Out of) Reaganland

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 11:00:00 -0000

Micah talks with Chapo Trap House's Matt Christman about historian Rick Perlstein's Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980, the politics of the 1970s and the possibilities for political alternatives to the right turn America ended up taking, the parallels of that era to the Obama/Bernie/Trump era, and (what else?) the desperate need to revive labor to escape our neverending culture wars.

Behind the News: Jennifer Berkshire and Helen Yaffe

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 10:59:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Doug interviews Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, about teachers’ unions and school reopenings. Plus: Helen Yaffe on Cuba’s handling of COVID-19 and their impressive vaccine development (Counterpunch article here).

Weekends: Amazon Union Aftermath, Remote Workplace Control, and the Left Post-Bernie w/ Meagan Day

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 19:57:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Q Vadis?

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 14:01:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Black Left with Charisse Burden-Stelly

Sun, 11 Apr 2021 18:23:28 -0000

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

Constructing Deportable Subjectivity: Antiforeignness, Antiradicalism, and Antiblackness during the McCarthyist Structure of Feeling

Caste Does Not Explain Race

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Labor Struggle at Amazon

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 15:53:11 -0000

Lauren Kaori Gurley at Vice.com’s Motherboard has covered the unionization drive at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama for more than a year. Voting ended March 29 and counting is currently underway. If they vote to join the RWDSU they will become the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the country. Suzi talked to Lauren K. Gurley about Amazon’s business model, the pee scandal, and the anti-union campaign Amazon has mounted against the RWSDU. All eyes are on this titanic labor struggle in the anti-union south because it has enormous potential for the labor movement far beyond Alabama, and for that reason the battle has been fierce.

Weekends: Biden Wants to Spend Trillions... Why Are We Still Mad? w/ Seth Ackerman

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 19:45:00 -0000

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: Christy Thornton on Revolutionary Mexico's Plan to Transform the World Economy

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 15:23:13 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Guillotine in Piccadilly

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 16:30:00 -0000

With the British monarchy at its lowest ebb of popularity since the week after Diana's death, we consider these two moments within the context of the wretched institution's ignoble history. We watch Christopher Hitchens' documentary DIANA: THE MOURNING AFTER (1998) - a controversial dissenting take on the Diana myth - and also discuss Netflix's THE CROWN and the Harry/Meghan phenomenon. In the process, we speculate how the existential threat facing this frankly worthless institution might lead to an unholy reinvention. PLUS: a rueful look back at James Berardinelli, the most popular web-based critic of the '90s.

"The British Monarchy Will Not Survive Late Capitalism — And Harry and Meghan Are Proof" by Luke Savage - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/03/british-monarchy-neoliberal-age-prince-harry-meghan-markle

The Dig: Asian America w/ Andy Liu, Jay Caspian Kang, & Tammy Kim

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 23:25:44 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Socialists on City Council in NYC and Chicago

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 20:53:17 -0000

Micah moderated a recent discussion between Chicago Democratic Socialists of America city council members (Alds. Jeanette Taylor, Daniel La Spata, and Byron Sigcho-Lopez) and New York City DSA city council candidates (Tiffany Cabán, Jaslin Kaur, Adolfo Abreu, Michael Hollingsworth, Brandon West, and Alexa Avilés).

A World to Win: A Marine History of Capitalism w/ Laleh Khalili

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 21:01:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Matt Christman on Amazon Union, Biden's FDR Comparisons, and Pfizer Profits Over People

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:30:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Counterculture to Cyberculture with Fred Turner

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 23:08:29 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Print the Legend w/ Aisling McCrea

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 20:52:08 -0000

The forces of liberal democracy (Jimmy Stewart) and rugged frontier self-reliance (John Wayne) come head-to-head in John Ford's masterpiece THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) - an elegiac look at a Wild West becoming tamed by progress. Aisling McCrea (contributing editor and podmaster general at Current Affairs magazine) fills in for Luke to discuss who shot Lee Marvin's chaotic outlaw, and what it means. The answers may surprise you! PLUS: the death of "mythos" in cultural criticism, and the history of "the Dilbert guy."

Check out the Current Affairs podcast - https://www.currentaffairs.org/podcast

"Satanic Panics and the Death of Mythos" by Aisling McCrea - https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/02/satanic-panics-and-the-death-of-mythos

"The Adams Principle" by Aisling McCrea - https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/the-adams-principle

"Dilbert: A Reckoning" by Miles Wray - https://www.theawl.com/2017/12/dilbert-a-reckoning/

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Mike Goldfield & Gabriel Winant

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 18:10:00 -0000

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^st 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.

Jacobin Show: Socialism and Music w/ Jason Myles

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0000

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Behind the News: The Awfulness of Andrew Cuomo

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 17:12:03 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks withSochie Nnaemeka, director of the New York Working Families Party, on the awfulness of Andrew Cuomo. Then, an interview with Susie Bright, the original sexpert, on what the pandemic is doing to our libidos.

The Dig: Global Vaccine Apartheid with Achal Prabhala

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 17:22:35 -0000

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: Talat Ahmed on Gandhi and the Politics of Sainthood

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 15:15:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Canadian Cringe

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 22:00:00 -0000

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&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/

A World to Win: Public Health Colonialism w/ Eugene Richardson

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 15:12:12 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Matt Karp & Emil Draitser

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 21:45:00 -0000

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.

The Vast Majority: The Intimate Life of Woody Guthrie

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 19:53:06 -0000

Micah spoke to Gustavus Stadler about his new book Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life.

Weekends: Lula Livre and Biden's American Empire w/ Daniel Bessner

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 22:01:00 -0000

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

The Dig: We Need the PRO Act with Jimmy Williams

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 16:07:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: State of the Unions with Alex Press & Jonah Furman

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 16:06:00 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Both Sides Now w/ Alex Shephard

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 15:06:00 -0000

America is divided, capitalism is to blame, and the only solution is... more capitalism. That's the thesis of STARS AND STRIFE (2020), another centrist documentary from the last election in which the architects of oligarchy and globalization, and big money in politics call for... an end to those things. Niall Ferguson, Rahm Emanuel, Amy Chua, Alan Greenspan, and Francis Fukuyama are just a few of the titans who deliver wildly contradictory prescriptions to America's ills in this truly dreadful documentary. We're joined by New Republic staff writer Alex Shephard to discuss. PLUS: the ongoing grift of David Brooks.

"David Brooks and the Endless Grift of the Conservative Commentariat" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/161621/david-brooks-endless-grift-conservative-commentariat

Jacobin Show: Why Liberals Make Everything About Race w/ Touré Reed

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:05:00 -0000

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

A World to Win: Love Kills Capitalism w/ Kristen Ghodsee

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 16:30:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Climate Class War, Personal Responsibility, and Cuomo's Scandals w/ Ross Barkan

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 19:40:00 -0000

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: Jim Wolfreys on Vichy France's Dark Legacy

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 15:01:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Revisiting Racecraft with Barbara and Karen Fields

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 18:04:08 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: How Working Women Beat the Boss w/ Karen Nussbaum

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 23:35:00 -0000

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Michael and Us: Tracy Flick for President

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 20:50:00 -0000

We finally watch one of our most requested movies: the political parable ELECTION (1999), which presents a vision of American politics circa 1999 as represented by three student candidates and one faculty power-broken in a high school election. PLUS: Neera Tanden, the Golden Globes, and what happens to culture when the zeitgeist is taken away?

Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Behind the News: Cultural Devolution of the Right & DSA's Public Power Campaign

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 19:30:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Mike Lofgren on the cultural devolution of the right (article here). Plus, an interview with Gustavo Gordillo and Brandon Tizol of DSA’s public power campaign on socializing electricity.

Weekends: The Biden Doctrine on Foreign Policy w/ Nicole Aschoff, the PRO Act, and Cult of the Elites

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 18:15:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Mike Davis's Forecast

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 22:36:00 -0000

The interviewer becomes the interviewee this week, as Micah Uetricht talks with Jacobin staff writers Meagan Day and Alex Press about his recent piece in the Nation, "Amid the Wildfires: Mike Davis's Forecast for the Left."

Read the piece here: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/mike-davis-old-gods-set-night/

Michael and Us: The Wreck of the Straight Talk Express

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 20:50:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Work Won't Love You Back with Sarah Jaffe

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 15:36:14 -0000

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

A World to Win: An interview w/ Sarah Jaffe

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 15:06:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Why Americans Hate the Government w/ Matt Bruenig

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 01:25:00 -0000

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...

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Behind the News: Bolsonaro's Brazil & Alabama Amazon Workers

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 22:25:07 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Forrest Hylton on Bolsonaro's Brazil: disease, chaos, and creeping military dictatorship. Plus: Luis Feliz Leon on organizing Amazon workers in Alabama (Gainesville article here; Bessemer, here).

Weekends: Texas Power Outage Market Failure, Domestic Terrorism Commission, and the Cuomo COVID Cover-up

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 18:00:00 -0000

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: Peter Hudis on Frantz Fanon and the Revolution Against Racism

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 15:18:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Post-Partisan Struggle Session

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 20:38:27 -0000

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).

Jacobin Show: Life in the Labor Movement w/ Richard Hooker

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 13:25:00 -0000

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...

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

The Dig: Conservative Intelligentsia with Sam Adler-Bell & Matt Sitman

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 01:26:00 -0000

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:

"What’s left of liberalism? Why the left and right both seem to agree that liberalism has failed us." By Sam Adler-Bell

"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

"Anti-'68ers and the Racist-Libertarian Alliance: How a Schism among Austrian School Neoliberals Helped Spawn the Alt Right." By Quinn Slobodian

"Leaving Conservatism Behind: How I renounced the God-and-guns conservatism of my blue-collar roots and embraced class politics." By Matt Sitman

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

The Vast Majority: US Socialists Can Learn from the UK Labour Party's Early History

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 15:59:00 -0000

Bad things happen when workers don't have a party of their own, as workers in the United States do not. How do we solve the problem of being stuck with the Democrats? To answer this question, Eric Blanc studied the history of the early British Labour Party — and found a wide range of lessons for American socialists today.

You can read Eric's article here:https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/labour-party-uk-lessons-socialists

Jacobin's new issue "Biden Our Time" is out now. Subscribe: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe

A World to Win: Ugandan Politics and Corruption w/ Moses Khisa

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 21:20:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Biden's Corporate Unity, Taylor Guitar Co-Op, and Indian Farmers' Protest w/ Vijay Prashad

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 19:35:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Remembering Working-Class Hero Karen Lewis

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 21:07:00 -0000

Former Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis died this week at the age of 67. In remembrance of one of the most important left labor leaders in recent history, we hosted a remembrance of her for the Jacobin YouTube channel.

Behind the News: Noreena Hertz and Rossana Rodríguez

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 17:35:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Noreena Hertz, author of The Lonely Century, on what loneliness is doing to our minds, bodies, and societies. Rossana Rodríguez, Chicago city council member, puts in a word in favor of mutual aid.

Jacobin Show: Pain and Politics in Rural America w/ Jennifer Silva

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 22:01:00 -0000

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...

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Michael and Us: Tony Benn, Against the Tide

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 16:45:00 -0000

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

A World to Win: The War on Disabled People w/ Ellen Clifford

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:55:00 -0000

In this episode, Grace talks to Ellen Clifford, author of The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe (ZED Books, 2020), who is on the steering committee of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC).

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.

The Dig: Empires Without Imperialism with Jeanne Morefield

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:55:54 -0000

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

Sports Show: The Not-So-Super Super Bowl w/ Lyndsey D'Arcangelo

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 19:38:00 -0000

In the latest episode of The Jacobin Sports Show, Matthew and Jonah talk with Lyndsey D'Arcangelo about the Big Game that was anything but, Sarah Thomas and the NFL's efforts to promote hiring more women, WNBA free agency, and Lyndsey's new book about the overlooked but meaningful history of the National Women's Football League.

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: jacobinsports@gmail.com

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Meredith Whittaker and Ilya Budraitskis

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 23:30:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Black Capitalism, Broken Media, and Lessons from Reconstruction w/ Eric Foner

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 22:06:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Katya Kazbek and Marianela D'Aprile

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 16:30:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks withKatya Kazbek, who looks behind all the shiny stories about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Then, Marianela D'Aprile offers a socialist critique of mutual aid (older article here).

Long Reads: Gavin Walker on Socialist Politics and Theory in Japan

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 14:30:00 -0000

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.

Sports Show: What the Hell is Wrong with Liverpool FC? w/ Avantika Goswami

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 21:30:00 -0000

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: jacobinsports@gmail.com

Michael and Us: A Fistful of Quarters

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 16:45:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Digital Party with Paolo Gerbaudo

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 21:02:30 -0000

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

A World to Win: Activists Tried as Terrorists w/ Ben Smoke of the Stansted 15

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 15:00:00 -0000

This week, Grace talks to Ben Smoke, one of the members of the Stansted 15: a group of activists who stopped a mass deportation flight from taking off from Stansted airport in 2017, before being tried under law designed to prosecute terrorists. They discuss the details of the protest and the trial, the government's barbaric approach to migration policy, and why successive Tory governments seem so adept at breaking international human rights law.

For the full episode, support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/aworldtowinpod

Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bencsmoke

The Vast Majority: Kshama Sawant Is Under Attack

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 03:02:20 -0000

In 2013, several years before Bernie Sanders changed the American political landscape with his 2016 presidential run, socialist Kshama Sawant ran for Seattle city council — and won. Since then, she's accomplished much while facing an unending onslaught of attacks from all sides. Micah talked to Sawant about her time on the council and the lessons from her tenure for socialists everywhere.

Read Sawant's piece in Jacobin about the attacks she has faced from the Right, capital, and the Democrats: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/kshama-sawant-seattle-socialist-city-council-recall-campaign-tax-amazon

For a look at what some of us on the Left were thinking about socialists and elections in 2013 after Sawant's victory, read Micah and Bhaskar Sunkara's In These Times piece "Can Socialists Win Elections in the US?": https://inthesetimes.com/article/can-socialists-win-elections-in-the-u-s

Weekends: Jeremy Corbyn Interview, GameStop Stock Explained, & End the Filibuster

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 22:01:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Sarah Buehler on Biden's climate policy, Chris Maisano on Leo Panitch

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 20:45:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Doug speaks with Sarah Buehler, a British Columbia-based climate activist, on the Keystone Pipeline and Biden’s climate policy. Plus, an interview with Chris Maisano, author of this article, on the work of Leo Panitch

Michael and Us: Dustbin of History

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 10:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: The Professional-Managerial Class w/ Catherine Liu

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 22:30:00 -0000

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...

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Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jacobinmag

Sports Show: The Legacy of Hank Aaron w/ Robert Greene II

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 15:00:00 -0000

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: jacobinsports@gmail.com

The Vast Majority: The Marxism of Leo Panitch

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 02:23:37 -0000

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.com/2021/01/leo-panitch-marxism

The Dig: Pakistan Hyperreality with Fatima Bhutto

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:39:59 -0000

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

A World to Win: No Holding Back w/ Ian Lavery and Laura Smith

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 17:15:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Teamsters Strike Victory, FBI Spy Planes, and Richard Wolff on Biden Economics

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 21:00:00 -0000

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
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Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: John Logan and Veena Dubal

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:37:16 -0000

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: Kieran Durkin on Erich Fromm, Marxist Humanism, and the Revolution of Hope

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 15:38:07 -0000

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.

A World to Win: Remembering Leo Panitch w/ Sam Gindin and Max Shanly

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 21:10:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Show: Jane McAlevey on Organizing the Working Class Under a Biden Presidency

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 22:30:00 -0000

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.

Introducing... the Jacobin Sports Show!

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 18:10:00 -0000

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: jacobinsports@gmail.com

Behind the News: Jodi Dean and Quinn Slobodian

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:30:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Doug speaks with Jodi Dean on Trump and American fascism. Plus, a conversation with Quinn Slobodian, co-author of this article, on Querdenken, the eclectic German anti-mask movement that joins hippies and petty capitalists.

Michael and Us: Everything's Just Great

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:10:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Resource Radicals with Thea Riofrancos

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 01:25:24 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: John Nichols and Eric Alterman

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 15:15:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Slavoj Žižek on Biden, Race, and What It Will Take to Stop the Pandemic

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 12:55:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Show: George W. Bush Amnesia w/ Felix Biederman

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 09:59:00 -0000

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

Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

Michael and Us: Pretend It's an Insight

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:59:33 -0000

Martin Scorsese's new Netflix documentary PRETEND IT'S A CITY (2021) is nothing more or less than a series of jokes and riffs by former writer and current professional curmudgeon Fran Lebowitz. We take a dive into this New York institution and discover what happens when a legendary wit is sorely lacking a worldview. PLUS: new lockdown restrictions, what happens to politics and the media post-Trump, and Marvel vs. 1950s America.

"Pretend It's an Insight" by Will Sloan: https://willsloanesq.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/pretend-its-an-insight/

A World to Win: Cutting to the Bone w/ Vijay Prashad

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 15:10:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Noam Chomsky on the Future of the Left, Trumpism, and Wielding Power

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 21:30:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Right Riot with Nikhil Pal Singh and Joe Lowndes

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 02:15:53 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Marcy Winograd, Medea Benjamin, and Robert Brenner

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 15:10:00 -0000

Marcy Winograd, Medea Benjamin put pressure on Biden’s objectionable picks for national security and foreign policy; Robert Brenner on whither the Republicans after Trump? Whither the Democrats with Biden?

CODEPINK's Marcy Winograd and Medea Benjamin are working on blocking Biden’s most objectionable national security and foreign policy nominees, like China hawk Michele Flournoy for Secretary of Defense, and torture defender Mike Morrel for CIA. They are now concentrating on Avril Haines, tainted by Drones and torture. We also get their assessment of the present moment and their mobilizing and organizing campaign plans.

UCLA Economic Historian Robert Brenner takes a deeper look at the Republican Party after Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and the storming of the Capitol Building on January 6. While many posit a fracturing of the Republican Party post-Trump, Brenner says that Trump and the Trumpistas define the Party, notwithstanding a small number of defections. So whither the Republicans and MAGA? And what does this mean for the Democratic Party after its stunning success in the election – and especially in Georgia? The Democratic Party now has a huge opening to take advantage of the multiple crises we face in this moment, but will they? We get Brenner’s take.

Long Reads: David Ost on the Rise and Fall of Poland's Solidarity Movement

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 15:25:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Snobs and Deplorables

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 20:20:00 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. In the aftermath of the siege on the Capitol, we looked at a movie that depicts America as at war with itself. The 2020 action-satire THE HUNT is an "equal-opportunity offender" in which Liberal Elites hunt MAGA Chuds for sport - and like most "equal-opportunity offenders," it misses all the real targets. PLUS: thoughts on the Georgia runoff elections.

A World to Win: Chaos at the Capitol w/ Bhaskar Sunkara

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 14:30:00 -0000

This week, Grace talks to Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin magazine and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The case for radical politics in an era of extreme inequality. They discuss the events currently taking place in the US, as white supremacists and far right extremists storm the Capitol after the Democrats took control of the Senate in the wake of the victory of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia on Wednesday 6th January - as well as how the US left can work to build a class coalition that can resist the mounting threat of right-wing violence.

Weekends: Unceasing Afghan War, Janet Yellen Speaking Fees, and M4A Strategy w/ Natalie Shure

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 21:01:00 -0000

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

The Dig: The Social Question with Gabriel Winant

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 16:30:42 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Winter Light

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 15:45:00 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. A lot of us are feeling cold, isolated, and depressed right now, so what better time to revisit Ingmar Bergman's WINTER LIGHT (1963)? We discuss crises of various kinds of faith, and the personal and political implications of the silence of God. PLUS: Why won't the pundit class (and specifically Paul Krugman) get behind a $2000 stimulus?

The Vast Majority: 2020: Would Not Recommend

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 11:00:00 -0000

Micah and producer Sarah Hurd close out the year from hell with a look at the highs and lows of 2020.

The Dig: Family Values with Melinda Cooper

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:27:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: A Socialist Fix for the Decline of American Journalism

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 22:33:22 -0000

Most of what we hear these days about what's wrong (and what's right) with the media comes from liberals. Micah and Meagan talk to leftist media scholar Victor Pickard about how socialists should think about the state of American journalism today and how we should fix it.

Victor's book Democracy Without Journalism?: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-without-journalism-9780190946753?cc=us&lang=en&

jacobinmag.com/subscribe

Michael and Us: Joy to the New World Order

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 13:01:00 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. For our annual holiday episode, we finally did the inevitable: a deep-dive into the ideology of Disney/Tim Allen joint THE SANTA CLAUSE (1994). We got a little drunk with holiday cheer on this one, folks.

Weekends: Eviction Crisis, Techno-Feudal Dystopia, and Medicare for All w/ David Sirota

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 15:45:00 -0000

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

The Dig: China and the US with Tobita Chow and Jake Werner

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 21:03:00 -0000

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

A World to Win: Crony Capitalism w/ Ana Kasparian

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 14:05:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: Full Spectrum Dominance

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 12:00:00 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. The '90s brought a wave of movies about divorced or absentee fathers/husbands, and none had more explosions than James Cameron's TRUE LIES (1994). We revisited this action classic to decipher how the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Jamie Lee Curtis marriage is a metaphor for America at the "End of History." PLUS: Pete Buttigig at McKinsey, Wong Kar-wai's "restorations," and Tom Cruise yelling about COVID.

Behind the News: Rodrigo Nunes and Frances Gill

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 14:00:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug interviewsRodrigo Nunes, author of this article, on Bolsonaro, the appeal of pseudo-populism, and the lure of denialism. Plus: Frances Gill on progressive electoral victories in New Orleans.

Weekends: Woke Biden Cabinet, Indian Strikes, and Social Media Industry w/ Richard Seymour

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 12:30:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: The Science and Politics of COVID Vaccines

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 11:30:00 -0000

Suzi talks to her brother, Irv Weissman, Director of Stanford University’s Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, who gives us a clear and comprehensive explanation of the new COVID vaccines. The FDA has now given emergency authorization for the Pfizer COVID 19 vaccine, which like Moderna’s is an mRNA vaccine. This authorization comes in the wake of a punishing wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths as COVID rampages across the globe, with the highest rates of infection and death in the US. California is once again on lockdown. Consider this a primer on vaccines in general but COVID in particular – and we get answers to questions about how the new COVID vaccines work, what makes them revolutionary – and what obstacles -- structural, political and scientific – need to be understood – and possibly pushed out of the way?

Long Reads: Oliver Gloag on the Colonial Contradictions of Camus

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 13:30:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: How Left Parties Neoliberalized with Stephanie Mudge

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 21:11:30 -0000

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

Michael and Us: The Ministry of 1984 ½

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 11:45:00 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. Terry Gilliam sought to update George Orwell for the 1980s with his career-defining film BRAZIL (1985), but his future dystopia isn't animated by an ideology like Oceania's. We attempt to untangle the satire of a movie where bureaucracy itself is the problem. PLUS: we hash out our thoughts on Netflix's The Crown and the travails of Johnny Depp.

A World to Win: Municipal Socialism w/ Owen Hatherley

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:59:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Thomas Sugrue and Kristin Du Mez

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 16:00:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, from December 3, 2020, Doug speaks with Thomas Sugrue, author of this essay, on COVID-19’s impact on cities. Also: Kristin Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, on gender, especially the masculine kind, in evangelical Christianity.

Weekends: Trumpism After Trump w/ Corey Robin, Amazon Union Drive, and Neera Tanden

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 10:00:00 -0000

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.

Music provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkey

The Vast Majority: Looking for a Spark — with Alex Han

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 11:00:00 -0000

Longtime labor organizer Alex Han talks with Micah about the 2008 Republic Windows and Doors factory occupation in Chicago. That occupation helped catalyze labor militancy and eventually a left political pole in the city, but it didn't lead to a broader working-class upsurge across the United States. Could things be different in 2020 if a similar spark can catch fire among workers fed up with austerity and dangerous working conditions under a pandemic?

Please subscribe to Jacobin! https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe

The Dig: Identity, Power, and Speech with Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 22:25:27 -0000

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.

A World to Win: #EndSARS w/ Sa'eed Husaini

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 20:30:00 -0000

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.

The Vast Majority: Workers in the 1970s Wanted Unions

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 11:00:00 -0000

Micah talks with labor historian Lane Windham about her excellent book Knocking on Labor's Door: Union Organizing in the 1970s and the Roots of a New Economic Divide.

Michael and Us: John Rambo Innocent! w/ Micah Uetricht

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 01:30:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Tribute to Diego Maradona

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 16:30:00 -0000

Suzi introduces producers Alan Minsky, Executive Director of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), and Meleiza Figueroa, urban geographer, environmental and social justice activist, who pay tribute to Diego Maradona, the brilliant futbolista who also spoke truth to power. Alan and Meleiza are producers of the quadrennial People's Game -- as well as this podcast -- and today bring their insights and appreciation of Maradona, the soccer legend who died on November 25th, at just 60 years of age.

The Dig: Anti-Populism with Thomas Frank

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 15:35:56 -0000

Guest host Astra Taylor interviews Thomas Frank about his book The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism.

From The Dig archives on populism:

Universalizing American Liberty with Aziz Rana

Populism’s Power with Laura Grattan and Thea Riofrancos

Worker Freedom with Alex Gourevitch

Join a Dig Book Club at thedigradio.com/dig-book-club

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Long Reads: Joel Beinin on Ten Years of Arab Uprisings and Labor Struggles

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 10:30:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: New China Cold War, Biden's Debt Cancellation, and DSA in Office w/ Julia Salazar

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 15:01:00 -0000

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.

Michael and Us: RudyLeaks

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 03:20:43 -0000

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.

The Dig: The NAACP's Anti-Lynching Struggle with Megan Ming Francis

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 16:20:51 -0000

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

Behind the News: Jennifer Berkshire and Kate Sykes

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 16:24:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug talks about the current economic situation and speaks with Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, on ed reform, mostly from the right. Plus, and interview with Kate Sykes of People First Portland on some major left ballot victories in Maine’s largest city.

A World to Win: North by North West w/ Andy Burnham

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 17:01:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Corbyn Suspension w/ Ronan Burtenshaw, Prop 22 Gig Work, and Polling Failure

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 10:00:00 -0000

The guest is Ronan Burtenshaw. Ronan is the editor of Tribune Magazine. Read his latest here: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/jeremy...

Jacobin Radio: Matt Karp and Mike Davis on the 2020 Election

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 16:30:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Matt Karp, contributing editor of Jacobin, about the significance of the 2020 election in geographic and demographic terms. Biden won both the popular vote and the electoral college in an election with historic turnout, but without the kind of landslide many expected — and higher turnouts seem to have inflated totals for both parties. The Democrats may have won back the Blue Wall, taking Arizona, Georgia and Nevada from the Republicans, but Trump also secured a record vote, and the Democrats did badly in down ticket races. We get Matt's insights on the Democratic Party’s election strategy and results — as well as what they portend for the Left of the Party. Suzi then talks to Mike Davis to get his analysis of the election results, looking in particular at South Texas, as well as the exurbs. In South Texas a blue wave along the Rio Grande from El Paso to Brownsville was taken for granted, but failed to materialize, and the Republicans out-organized the Democrats. Mike helps us understand why Latinos voted for Trump, despite his horrific immigration policies — and we get Mike’s take on why the Democratic Party’s strategy — that allowed a bifurcation of Trump’s handling of the pandemic and the economy — was such a disaster.

Michael and Us: Red and Blue

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 04:02:47 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. We travel to Lumberton to plumb the dark depths of David Lynch's BLUE VELVET (1986), in which good and evil are forces that are intertwined - and not a strict dichotomy. We discuss how critics then and now have received the film's provocations, and our own relationships to Lynch's work. PLUS: red states vs blue states, Joe Biden's cabinet, and Tim Allen's discovery of Marxism.

Long Reads: Owen Miller on the Hidden History of the Korean War

Sat, 14 Nov 2020 10:00:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Mike Davis on This Moment

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 21:36:30 -0000

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/

Vast Majority: The Elections with Carlos Ramirez-Rosa

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 16:29:49 -0000

Producer Sarah Hurd steps up to mic to cohost this episode with Chicago city councilor and Democratic Socialists of America member Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, talking about Joe Biden's win, the role of economic misery in votes for Donald Trump and our desperate need for real relief measures, and how the Left should approach a Biden White House.

Read Micah's column on why Democrats attacking socialists for their poor election performance is absurd: https://novaramedia.com/2020/11/10/democrats-must-stop-attacking-socialism-their-days-are-numbered-without-it/

Read Micah's interview with Carlos when he was kicked off a gubernatorial ticket for supporting Palestine: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/carlos-rosa-chicago-bds-democratic-party

A World to Win: Survival of the Friendliest w/ Rutger Bregman

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 17:45:00 -0000

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.

The Vast Majority: American Workers Work Way Too Much

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 22:01:12 -0000

Workers in the United States are getting squeezed from every angle. One of the worst consequences: Americans work way too many hours, and spend way too many hours trying to figure out how to work more hours. Jamie McCallum, a sociologist at Middlebury College, explains.

Our conversation in written form: https://inthesetimes.com/article/workers-work-time-jamie-mccallum-union-labor-strike

Buy Jamie's book here: https://www.powells.com/book/worked-over-how-round-the-clock-work-is-killing-the-american-dream-9781541618343

Weekends: Biden's Victory and How Democrats Almost Blew It w/ Seth Ackerman

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 10:01:00 -0000

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 7, 2020. The guest is Jacobin's executive editor, Seth Ackerman.

Subscribe to the channel and press the like button!
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-...

Jacobin Radio: Robert Brenner on the political economy of the 2020 election

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 20:00:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Robert Brenner about the political-economic dimension of the 2020 election, the country, and the pandemic – and what it means for the battles ahead. The corrupt and hated President Trump was defeated, yet millions more people voted for him in 2020 than in 2016. He was undone by the raging pandemic that he tried to minimize. COVID 19 wreaked havoc with an already weak economy, creating widespread economic hardship. Because Trump failed to deal with the pandemic or extend economic relief, the economic crisis threatens to get much worse. Had Trump handled it with decisive measures, we'd just be dealing with the regular features of a declining capitalism, instead of far more catastrophic ones. The Biden/Harris ticket ultimately prevailed because it meant an end to Trumpian chaos and destruction -- and represented genuine hope for compassion and decency. There's much to unpack, and we get Brenner's analysis and perspectives.

Behind the News: Vijay Prashad and Jodi Dean

Sun, 08 Nov 2020 17:30:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Doug interviews Vijay Prashad and Jodi Dean (separately) on the election’s long-term meaning: where Trump(ism), came from and why it’s probably here to stay, especially if weaklings like Biden are the opposition.

Michael and Us: Back to Brunch

Sat, 07 Nov 2020 15:07:30 -0000

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."

The Dig: What Now with Cornel West

Sat, 07 Nov 2020 00:20:02 -0000

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: US Election Special w/ Briahna Joy Gray and Matt Karp

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 18:45:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Biden, Trump, and Socialist Politics Beyond the Horserace w/ Adolph Reed

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 10:00:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Harry Litman on Bush vs. Gore, Marc Cooper on US Election and Chilean Plebiscite

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 15:10:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Harry Litman, former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, about the grim possibility that Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s citing of Bush v Gore to support a recent Supreme Court decision could portend a replay of the Court’s notorious halting of the Florida recount to decide the 2000 election. Kavanaugh’s invoking of Justice Rehnquist’s widely derided opinion to justify the Court’s interfering in a state election -- in a case about extending the ballot deadline in Wisconsin -- signals that the high Court could once again, in 2020, swoop in and save the day for a Republican president. Harry Litman explains. Marc Cooper, journalist now writing the Coop Scoop Newsletter, gives his take on the election, looking at comparisons and possible parallels between the historic plebiscite a week ago in Chile on Pinochet’s constitution, and the US election, a referendum on Trump and his handling of the pandemic. Chileans voted by a huge majority to throw out the Pinochet Constitution and for a Constituent Assembly with gender parity to write a new one, without the participation of the politicians. It is a plebiscite with huge consequences – and Marc Cooper also thinks the US election is another consequential plebiscite, which he explains.

Michael and Us: There Goes the Neighborhood

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 20:51:47 -0000

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

Introducing... Long Reads

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 14:45:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: 2020 with Naomi Klein and Nikhil Pal Singh

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 14:44:43 -0000

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

Jane McAlevey's Post-Election Marching Orders

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 10:00:00 -0000

Meagan and Micah talk to labor strategist and writer Jane McAlevey about Tuesday's presidential election and what unions and the Left should do to prevent an undemocratic right-wing power grab.

Read a selection from Jane's first book Raising Expectations (And Raising Hell) on how the Democrats gave the 2000 election to George W. Bush: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/trump-coup-florida-2000-recount

Read Jane's recent essay on the election in the New York Review of Books: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/10/19/getting-out-of-tight-corners/

A World to Win: Ending Thatcherism w/ Zarah Sultana

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 21:25:15 -0000

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.

Weekends: Bernie's 100-Day Plan w/ Richard Wolff, Jeffrey Toobin, and Bolivian Socialism

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:10:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: The Rise and Fall of the Arab Spring with Anand Gopal

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Meagan and Micah talk to journalist Anand Gopal, author of the book No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes,about his article in the latest issue of our journal Catalyst, "The Arab Thermidor," on the rise and fall of the Arab Spring.

You can subscribe to Catalyst here: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe

Read "The Arab Thermidor" here: https://catalyst-journal.com/vol4/no2/the-arab-thermidor

Read Micah's columns on the American election at novaramedia.com.

Michael and Us: The Informer

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 23:30:00 -0000

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/

Behind the News: Moira Weigel, Ben Tarnoff, and Paul Street

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 13:49:20 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Doug interviews Ben Tarnoff and Moira Weigel, editors of Voices from the Valley, on workers in the tech industry. Also, Paul Street, author of Hollow Resistance, on the dismal post-presidency of Barack Obama.

The Dig: Ruins of Neoliberalism with Wendy Brown

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 02:41:44 -0000

Political theorist Wendy Brown on how neoliberalism attacked society and democracy and in doing so laid the foundation for right-wing authoritarianism and nihilism.

Episodes from the archives on neoliberalism:

A History of Neoliberalism with Quinn Slobodian

Family Values with Melinda Cooper

Jacobin Radio: Thanasis Kampagiannis, Kevin Ovenden, and Jon Wiener

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:00:00 -0000

Suzi looks at two historic trials, in different countries and different eras, beginning with Greece, where the extraordinary trial of the neo-fascist political party Golden Dawn has just ended after five and half years, resulting in convictions and prison sentences for its top leadership. Golden Dawn was at one point the third largest political party in Greece and is known for its violence and intimidation against its opponents, immigrants, and LGBTQ communities. Suzi spoke to Attorney Thanasis Kampagiannis, one of the lawyers who pursued this case, and journalist and analyst Kevin Ovenden to get their account and analysis of the trial and of Golden Dawn, a criminal organization that operated under the guise of being a democratically elected party. Since we spoke on October 15, the state prosecutor has proposed suspension of the sentencing until appeals hearings for all but one of the Nazi convicts, which could take years. Thanasis Kampagiannis has told the media that the state prosecutor is acting as a public defender for Golden Dawn. We get the continuing story.

The second trial is the Chicago 8 (and then Chicago 7) Conspiracy Trial that riveted the world in 1969, lasting five months. Suzi speaks to historian Jon Wiener, whose 2006 book Conspiracy in the Streets: The extraordinary Trial of the Chicago 7 has been reissued to coincide with the release on Netflix this week of the Aaron Sorkin film called “The Trial of the Chicago 7”. The Chicago Conspiracy trial brought together Yippies, antiwar activists and Black Panthers to face conspiracy charges following massive protest at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. We’ll talk about the film and the actual history of the trial, noting the significance of that moment in history for our own.

Michael and Us: The Lame Show with David Letterman

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 19:00:00 -0000

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/

Weekends: Chomsky vs Bad Faith w/ Ben Burgis, Reality TV Newscasters, and Julian Assange

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 11:00:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Unforgetting with Roberto Lovato

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 21:03:17 -0000

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/

A World to Win: A New Republic w/ Mary Lou McDonald

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 14:04:13 -0000

This week, Grace is joined by Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Fein, to discuss the issues that drove the party's dramatic rise in this year’s general election, the impact of the pandemic on the Irish economy, and Sinn Fein’s proposals for a unification poll in the event of a no deal Brexit.

Like this week's episode? Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/aworldtowinpod

Michael and Us: A "You've Got Mail" Symposium (w/ Meagan Day and Branko Marcetic)

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 14:51:38 -0000

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

Weekends: Pathetic COVID Relief, VOTE! Campaign, and Trump's Vulnerable Seniors w/ Big Wos

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 19:15:14 -0000

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

Behind the News: Kathleen Belew, Billy Fleming, and AL McCullough

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 22:30:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug interviews Kathleen Belew, author of Bring the War Home, on the history of the white power movement. Plus, Billy Fleming and AL McCullough on The 2100 Project: An Atlas for the Green New Deal.

The Vast Majority: The Night Is Still on Fire

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Micah speaks with historian Jon Wiener, coauthor with Mike Davis of the book Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.

You can buy the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3164-set-the-night-on-fire

And you can listen to Jon's excellent podcast Nation magazine podcast Start Making Sense here: https://www.thenation.com/authors/start-making-sense/

The Dig: SCOTUS, Politics, and the Law

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 21:06:14 -0000

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

Behind the News: Max Sawicky and Kelly Grotke

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:03:05 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Max Sawicky, author of this report, on the postal service's problems and what could be done about them. Plus, Kelly Grotke on college endowments and selective austerity (janitors lose, portfolio managers win).

A World to Win: The Crisis Before the Crisis w/ Rob Davies

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 14:53:26 -0000

This week, Grace talks to Rob Davies, senior figure in the South African Communist Party and former South African Minister for Trade and Industry. They discuss the impact of COVID-19 on South Africa and the rest of the Continent, the hegemony of the ANC over South African politics, and the challenges of developing an industrial strategy in a highly financialised, highly unequal, semi-perhipheral economy.

Weekends: Covid Recession, Toxicity of Spectacle, and Foreign Policy w/ Daniel Bessner

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 11:05:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Blood on the Factory Floor

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 21:03:36 -0000

Postwar American auto work in its heyday is often remembered nostalgically. But in his book Blood Sweat and Fear: Violence at Work in the North American Auto Industry, 1960-1980, historian Jeremy Milloy emphasizes how truly brutal it was, and how the violence of the production process produced violence between workers and managers.

Read about the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/05/detroit-s-radical-general-baker/

And here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/07/when-the-unions-the-enemy/

Please subscribe to Jacobin!https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe

Michael and Us: Rule of Thumb Pt. II

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:48:07 -0000

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

The Dig: Arctic Energy Frontiers with Bathsheba Demuth

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 21:44:21 -0000

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

Behind the News: Frederik deBoer and Matthew Snyder

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 20:30:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug interviews Frederik deBoer, author of The Cult of Smart, on dethroning academic “excellence” as the distributor of rewards in this society. Plus, Matthew Snyder on building a community land trust in the Inland Empire of California (that CLT, CLTs in general).

A World to Win: Liberation and Domination - an interview with Cornel West

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:52:22 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Erwin Chemerinsky and Cynthia Ganote

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 16:30:00 -0000

Suzi speaks to Dean of Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky about Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died September 18th. RBG’s dying wish was to be replaced by a new President -- consistent with recent history and the way that President Obama’s pick to replace Antonin Scalia was blocked by Senator Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans, who famously refused to hold hearings. But those Senators have now hypocritically reversed their previous positions on whether it would be appropriate to replace Ginsburg so close to the election. Amy Coney Barrett is seen as another Scalia in her judicial outlook, and is so right wing, so far from the mainstream of American society that Chemerinsky says she should not be on the Supreme Court. We get Erwin Chemerinsky's insights and analysis about the future of the Court.

Suzi then talks to sociologist Cynthia Ganote at the University of Louisville about the Breonna Taylor Grand Jury decision earlier this week: the three police officers who killed Breonna Taylor as she slept in her own home, operating on a no-knock search warrant, were not charged. One of the officers received a minor charge of wanton endangerment for firing recklessly when he was still outside the apartment, putting a neighboring apartment at risk. So the bullet that missed mattered more than the bullets that killed Breonna Taylor in her bed. Protests have erupted in Louisville and across the country demanding justice —and we get a sense of what is happening from Cynthia Ganote, who has participated in the non-violent protests in Louisville that have gone on for 125 days.

Weekends: Disempower SCOTUS, Amy Coney Barrett, and Amazon's Private Preschools w/ Samuel Moyn

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 10:20:00 -0000

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...

Vast Majority: Log Off In Your Heart with Matt Christman

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 19:45:00 -0000

Meagan and Micah discuss the new documentary The Social Dilemma, a not-worthless-but-still-often-maddeningly-wrong documentary on the perils of social media, with Chapo Trap House's Matt Christman.

The Dig: Demystifying Big Tech with Meredith Whittaker

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:58:22 -0000

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

Michael and Us: Eternal Recurrence

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:51:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Paul Mason, Ed Broadbent, and Alan Minsky

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 15:15:00 -0000

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: The New Shock Doctrine w/ Naomi Klein

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 19:53:20 -0000

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.

Weekends: Hashtag Activism w/ Amber Frost, RBG, and Confronting Feckless Democrats

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 10:15:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Child Safety Sex Panics with Paul Renfro

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 15:35:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Why You Should Be an Anti-Anti-Communist

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 10:00:00 -0000

"Anticommunism" — what is it and to what ends is it used? And why is "anti-anti-communism" a better way, even for those who don't consider themselves socialists? Meagan and Micah talked about this with Kristen Ghodsee and Scott Sehon.

Read Kristen and Scott's article "Anti-anti-communism" here: https://aeon.co/essays/the-merits-of-taking-an-anti-anti-communism-stance

Listen to Kristen's podcast about Alexandra Kollontai, AK47, here: https://kristenghodsee.com/podcast

A World to Win: Life After Bernie - an interview with Meagan Day

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 10:00:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Mike Davis, Meleiza Figueroa, and Ali Meders-Knight on the fires this time

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 17:25:00 -0000

Suzi talks to writer, historian, urban and environmental theorist Mike Davis, Mechoopda Tribal Citizen and traditional land steward Ali Meders Knight, and urban geographer and environmental and social justice activist Meleiza Figueroa about the megafires engulfing much of the West Coast from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest. Our imaginations can barely comprehend the speed or scale of the catastrophe we are undergoing – along with the pandemic – and the headlines spell it out. The actuality of climate change and accelerating apocalypse can be seen in the red, orange and black skies across much of California and Oregon. Our guests help us understand this new reality and how we got here. They also point to the alternative traditions of land management that can be utilized to radically change the way we deal with these megafires.

Michael and Us: Giuliani's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 13:15:00 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world, hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. In the weeks after 9/11, Sir Paul McCartney gathered together his rock'n'roll friends for an all-star salute to the first responders. A behind-the-scenes look at the event, Albert Maysles' THE LOVE WE MAKE (2011) is a hair-raising depiction of what it's like to be the most famous man in the world, and a time capsule of America right after the towers fell. It's also a real-life Ricky Gervais show. PLUS: James Bond, Bill Clinton, and the state of the election.

Weekends: Woodward's COVID Tapes, Phony Right-Wing Populism, and Jane McAlevey on Labor

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 12:01:00 -0000

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 12, 2020. The guest is Jane McAlevey. Jane is a union organizer and author of both No Shortcuts and A Collective Bargain.

Subscribe to Jacobin magazine here.

The Dig: Higher Ed in Crisis

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 16:43:47 -0000

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

Behind the News: Samuel Moyn and Juliet Schor

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 17:30:43 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Samuel Moyn, author of this article, on why calling Trump a “fascist” is neither accurate nor helpful. Plus: Juliet Schor, author of After the Gig, on the sharing economy and how to get beyond it.

A World to Win: Remembering David Graeber with Astra Taylor, Jerome Roos, and James Schneider

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 17:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Markey Beats Kennedy, Welfare Terminators, and Bernie's Five Year War

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 11:00:00 -0000

Every Saturday starting 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 from September 5th, with Ariella Thornhill filling in for Ana.

The guest today is Matt Karp. Matt is a historian, Jacobin contributing editor, and author of This Vast Southern Empire. Matt's epic new essay from the print issue can be read here.

Subscribe to Jacobin here.

Behind the News: Mike German and Hadas Thier

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 21:32:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug interviews Mike German on cops and white supremacists (Guardian article; Brennan paper) and Hadas Thier, author of A People's Guide to Capitalism, on Marx’s economics.

The Dig: Philly Black Power with Matthew Countryman

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 21:03:23 -0000

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: The Great World Bank Robbery with Walden Bello

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 17:05:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Laleh Khalili and Kayla Popuchet

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 23:30:39 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Laleh Khalili, author of Sinews of War and Trade, on the role of shipping in the development of capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. He also speaks with Kayla Popuchet on what’s been going on in Belarus.

Weekends: The NBA Strike, Save the Post Office, and Deindustrialization in Kenosha, WI

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 12:15:00 -0000

The guest today is Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union.

Subscribe to the channel and press the like button! Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...

Michael and Us: The Centrist Manifesto

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 11:30:00 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. Filmmaker and Twitter personality Rob Reiner looked back at the Kennedy/Johnson era through the lens of the Obama era in LBJ (2016), the story of how an idealist's vision can only be achieved by a pragmatism... and how the pragmatist's centrism may or may not have actually camouflaged an idealist the whole time. A piece of Boomer-porn, this movie is unmistakably the vision of a Joe Biden primary voter. PLUS: fiery hot thoughts on the Canadian Conservative Party leadership race, the Ed Markey/Joe Kennedy III battle, and the controversial release of TENET.

The Vast Majority: Coalition or Confrontation for Socialists

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 17:58:39 -0000

We talked to Jared Abbott about his article in the new print issue of Jacobin, the title of which is a pretty accurate summary of it: "The Two Paths of Democratic Socialism: Coalition and Confrontation."

You can read Jared's article here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/08/the-two-paths-of-democratic-socialism-coalition-and-confrontation

Read Jared's coauthored Catalyst article here: https://catalyst-journal.com/vol3/no2/a-socialist-party-in-our-time

Read Adam Hilton's article on New Politics here: https://jacobinmag.com/2016/02/bernie-sanders-new-politics-democratic-party-realignment-primary

A World to Win: 'Neoliberal Authoritarianism' - an interview with Guillaume Long

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 17:10:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Lizaveta Merliak and Sarah Mason

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 18:00:00 -0000

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.

Weekends: Modern Slavery and Uber Capital Strike (ft. Mark Dudzic)

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0000

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. This is the podcast version. Weekends features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and left political strategy, as well as interviews with prominent individuals on the left.

The guest for this episode, which originally aired August 22, 2020, is Mark Dudzic. He is a longtime union activist, former national organizer of the Labor Party, and current national coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare.

Subscribe to Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...

The Dig: Yanis Varoufakis on the Economic Situation

Sun, 23 Aug 2020 14:58:58 -0000

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/

Behind the News: Christian Parenti

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Christian Parenti, author of Radical Hamilton, on appropriating the state-led developmentalism of the Founding Father for the left.

The Vast Majority: The Bleak Present and Future of Italian Politics

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 16:29:11 -0000

Jacobin Europe editor David Broder has a new book out, First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy. It's an excellent, though depressing, look at Italian politics today, and how the developments in the country over the last several decades might foreshadow developments in the rest of the world.

You can buy David's new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2974-first-they-took-rome

Casualties of History: "They Came Out of a Culture"

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 21:18:27 -0000

In our final episode, we talk about the emergence of what Thompson sees as mature class consciousness in the English working class. Through the writing and agitation of figures like Cobbett and Owen in the slow 1820s and then the great reform struggle of the early 1830s, the working class moved from its ambivalent position — partly resisting proletarianization, partly looking forward — toward a more aggressive vision of its own social power. We also reflect a bit on what we've taken away from this reading and collective project.

References:

Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy

Tobias Higbie, Labor's Mind: A History of Working-Class Intellectual Life

Richard Biernacki, The Fabrication of Labor: Germany and Britain, 1640-1914

A World to Win: 'Proudly Socialist' - a conversation with Jeremy Corbyn

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 14:37:16 -0000

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.

Weekends: Cancel Culture Toxicity and the Myth of Free Trade (ft. Leigh Phillips)

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 01:26:21 -0000

Every Saturday starting 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, along with interviews with prominent individuals on the left. The guest for this episode, which originally aired August 15th: science writer and EU affairs journalist, Leigh Phillips. He is the author of Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts and co-author of The People's Republic of Walmart.

Purchase Leigh's book: https://www.jacobinmag.com/store/prod...

Read Leigh's latest Jacobin article: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/on...

Subscribe to the channel and press the like button! Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...

Michael and Us: Modern Times

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 22:47:23 -0000

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. In this episode, episode #166, we revisited Charlie Chaplin's Sadly Still Relevant® classic MODERN TIMES (1936) to ask: what are the politics of the Little Tramp... and what are the politics of his famous author? We discuss how Chaplin depicted work, class, and poverty, and the many ways that people have interpreted him. PLUS: Joe Biden as FDR (or not), and thee unholy return of Blockbuster Video.

The Dig: Organize to Win with Andres Celin and Rapheal Randall

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 22:06:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Elizabeth Wrigley-Field and Tom Philpott

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 14:44:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Doug speaks withElizabeth Wrigley-Fieldon race and mortality: years lost to police violence and how many white people would have to die of COVID-19 to equal a “normal” year of black death. (paper here, NYT article here). Then an interview with Tom Philpott, author of Perilous Bounty, on the ecological crises facing US agriculture.

The Vast Majority: Kamala Harris: No Choice but to Stan

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Biden/Harris 2020, Harris(/Buttigieg??) 2024 — who could be unhappy about the political scenario we now find ourselves in?? Meagan and Micah talk about the Kamala Harris VP pick and how cool and good everything is right now.

Branko Marcetic's long profile of Harris's career: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/kamala-harris-trump-obama-california-attorney-general

CNBC: "Wall Street executives are glad Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his VP running mate" https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/11/joe-biden-vp-pick-wall-street-executives-are-happy-about-kamala-harris.html

Weekends: August 8, 2020 (ft. Abby Martin)

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 23:49:42 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Lebanon special

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 15:43:51 -0000

Suzi talks to Gilbert Achcar about the 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.

The Dig: Border Patrol with Kelly Lytle Hernández

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 14:23:34 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: The Mass Politics of Antislavery with Matt Karp

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 21:03:16 -0000

We speak to historian Matt Karp about his Catalyst article "The Mass Politics of Antislavery" and what the success of abolitionist politics in the 19th century has to teach radicals in the 21st. Matt is a new dad so this episode features some background baby sounds.

Matt's article: https://catalyst-journal.com/vol3/no2/the-mass-politics-of-antislavery

Behind the News: Edwin Ackerman and Marcia Chatelain

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:09:00 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Edwin Ackermanon Mexican president AMLO andMarcia Chatelain, author ofFranchise, on the impact and role of black McDonald’s franchisees.

Jacobin Radio: David Dayen and Alex Vitale

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:41:43 -0000

Suzi talked to David Dayen, editor of the American Prospect, just days before Congress failed to negotiate a new package to replace the CARES Act, which came to an end July 31. That means the weekly $600 lifeline supplement ended, exposing tens of millions to hunger and eviction. The mostly secret negotiations were stuck by divisions within the Republicans, while the Democrats -- pushing their Heroes package -- did not appear to have a clear strategy to win. Dayen’s daily Unsanitized reports have carefully unpacked the details of the CARES Act, showing who has benefited most – and he joins us to discuss the last minute stalled negotiations over what kind of extension or package we are likely to see. Suzi then talks toAlex Vitale, author of The End of Policing – to get a deeper understanding of the nature and role of policing as a critical component of maintaining our economic system, essentially a tool of social control. Alex does not see police violence as an aberration to be reformed, but a feature of the system. We get his take on various reform efforts, how he sees police and camouflaged federal cops deployed to quell the broad movement that has emerged in response to police killings, the demand to defund the police – and how he envisions public safety without policing.

Introducing... Michael and Us

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:07:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Tobita Chow and Donna Murch

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 13:52:13 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. This week features Tobita Chow on the roots and dangers of Sinophobia in the US and Donna Murch, author of Living for the City, on the emergence of the Black Panther Party out of early 1960s campus study groups.

The Dig: Goodbye Columbus with Matthew Frye Jacobson

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 22:18:25 -0000

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

Vast Majority: Why We Don't Have a Labor Party with Barry Eidlin and Chris Maisano

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 05:46:14 -0000

Micah and Meagan speak with sociologist Barry Eidlin, author of Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada, and Jacobin contributing editor Chris Maisano on why the US doesn't have a labor party and why that matters.

Barry's book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/labor-and-the-class-idea-in-the-united-states-and-canada/356399CB43939B0B259AE018615D5587

Barry's article "The Phantom Limb": https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/11/labor-third-party-us-canada-ccf-ndp-democrats-unions/

Chris's review of Barry's book: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/labor-party-in-the-usa-workers-party-history

Casualties of History: "Held Down by Force"

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 23:57:00 -0000

In this episode we discuss Chapter 15, "Demagogues and Martyrs." The period immediately after peace in 1815 saw both a rapid rise in militancy and intense repression, such that an increasingly agitated and radicalized population had no organizational capacity to express its militancy. This gave rise to personalized leadership around individual demagogues and to an oscillation between insurrectionary and constitutionalist approaches. We also discuss the Peterloo massacre, which is narrated in this chapter, and Mike Leigh's recent film Peterloo on the subject.

Weekends: July 25, 2020, Remembering Michael Brooks

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 21:25:22 -0000

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

Behind the News: Jason Wilson and Forrest Hylton

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:08:35 -0000

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. This show features Jason Wilson on the protests and storm troopers in Portland. Then, Forrest Hylton on COVID-19, repression, corruption, and drug gangs in Latin America.

The Dig: Cops and Counterinsurgency with Stuart Schrader

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 17:28:49 -0000

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

Weekends: July 18, 2020, Michael's last show (ft. Vivek Chibber)

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 20:14:00 -0000

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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The Vast Majority: In Loving Remembrance of Michael Brooks

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 19:33:04 -0000

All of us at Jacobin are devastated and in deep shock about the untimely death of our collaborator, comrade, and friend Michael Brooks. Michael was truly a one-of-a-kind figure, warm and loving and smart and hilarious and completely irreplaceable.

Jacobin's Meagan Day, Micah Uetricht, Luke Savage, and Ben Burgis talked about Michael's impact on them and legacy on the Left. We'll miss you, Michael.

Bhaskar Sunkara's remembrance of Michael: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/07/remembering-our-friend-and-comrade-michael-brooks

Meagan's remembrance: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-remembrance

Jacobin Radio: Joel Jordan and Constance Penley on Schools Reopening

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 13:12:40 -0000

Suzi talks to Joel Jordan and Constance Penley who make the case against school reopening for K-12 and the Universities. JoelJordan,retired 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.

The Dig: Young Lords with Johanna Fernández

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 02:42:27 -0000

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

Weekends: July 11, 2020 (ft. Nomi Prins)

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 17:49:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Read This, Not White Fragility. With Jared Loggins and Wendi Muse.

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 14:48:35 -0000

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

Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya

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

The Meaning of Freedom by Angela Davis

Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Vast Majority: An Actual Socialist Win with Nikil Saval

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 22:14:22 -0000

Things have been pretty bleak across the US lately, so Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht were eager to talk to a socialist who actually won something recently: Nikil Saval, a democratic socialist who recently won the Democratic Primary for a state senate seat in Pennsylvania's first district.

A profile of Nikil: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/05/pennsylvania-nikil-saval-rick-krajewski-reclaim-philadelphia

Nikil's 2016 article about Bernie: https://nplusonemag.com/issue-26/the-intellectual-situation/canvassing/

Casualties of History: "Thrust Beyond the Bounds of the Constitution"

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 23:32:22 -0000

In this episode, Gabe talks with Gavin Mueller about Luddism. (Alex's internet died, so she's not part of this one.) What can an insurrection of machine breaking tell us about how solidarity develops? How should we relate to technology, and what role does technology — and opposition to it — play in the development of solidarity?

Secondary readings:

Eric Hobsbawm, "The Machine Breakers," https://www.jstor.org/stable/649989

Sophie Lewis, Full Surrogacy Now (https://www.versobooks.com/books/2951-full-surrogacy-now)

Salar Mohandesi, "Class Consciousness or Class Composition?" https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/siso.2013.77.1.72

Online library of Johnson-Forest Tendency writings: https://libcom.org/tags/johnson%E2%80%93forest-tendency

The Dig: Nativist Carceral State, Aziz Rana interviews Dan Denvir

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 15:56:25 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Robert Brenner on Coronavirus

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 21:34:26 -0000

Suzi talks toRobert Brenner,who has just published “Escalating Plunder” in New Left Review 123, about the federal response to the shutdown of the economy in the wake of the coronavirus. The punchline is that the COVID-19 bailout, or Cares Act, not only escalates plunder, it is predation on steroids in a stalled economy in worsening decline. In other words, the bipartisan establishment has concluded that they can only intervene — and call it rescue — by underwriting the rip-off already in motion, bailing out the top 0.1 percent in the face of plunging production, employment, and profits. Brenner calls out predation. We get his analysis.

The Vast Majority: Dirty Break with Eric Blanc and Kim Moody

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 16:00:00 -0000

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.com/2017/12/democratic-party-minnesota-farmer-labor-floyd-olson

Read Kim Moody’s rebuttal here: https://newpol.org/dirty-break-for-independent-political-action-or-a-way-to-stay-stuck-in-the-mud/

Weekends: June 27, 2020 (ft. Julia Salazar)

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:26:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Mike Davis on Prisoners of the American Dream

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 02:53:31 -0000

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

Casualties of History: A Political Artisan

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 15:36:00 -0000

On this episode, we offer readers an extra week to read Chapter Fourteen. Instead, we speak with Labour MP John McDonnell about the coronavirus pandemic, economic crises, and how he's liking The Making of the English Working Class on this reading.

Jacobin Radio: Black Lives Matter LA; Geoffrey Berman

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 15:19:35 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Eric Reinhart and Erin Hatton

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 19:39:13 -0000

Eric Reinhart on jails as COVID-19 spreaders (article here, AER article on pretrial detention here). Then, Erin Hatton on “coerced” workers, from prisoners to grad students.

Weekends: June 20, 2020 (ft. Sean Jacobs)

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 23:50:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Defund Police Organizers Forum

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 21:41:29 -0000

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

Casualties of History: Carrying Brickbats and Stones

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 20:33:01 -0000

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.

References:

Sheila Rowbotham, Hilary Wainwright, and Lynne Segal, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism (https://books.google.com/books/about/Beyond_the_Fragments.html?id=OlYqAAAAYAAJ&source=kp_book_description)

Sheila Rowbotham, Woman's Consciousness, Man's World (https://www.versobooks.com/books/1768-woman-s-consciousness-man-s-world)

Sheila Rowbotham, Women, Resistance, and Revolution: A History of Women and Revolution in the Modern World (https://www.versobooks.com/books/1558-women-resistance-and-revolution)

Sheila Rowbotham, Hidden from History: 300 Years of Women's Oppression and the Fight Against It (https://www.plutobooks.com/9780904383560/hidden-from-history/)

"How Science Can Tell If Your Great-Grandparents Were Strikebreakers" https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/12/inquiring-minds-christine-kenneally/

Black Dwarf https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/black-dwarf/index.htm

Antibody, Ep 3: Combat

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 16:18:58 -0000

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/book/9780820354217/rights-in-transit)

A Few Basic Demands (produced by Chenjerai Kumanyika (twitter.com/catchatweetdown)

After the Peak (by Karim Sariahmed (twitter.com/sariahmed), 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/_idontCaroline)

Get in touch with DCH1 Amazonians United (facebook.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) Brave Space Alliance (bravespacealliance.org) and the Indigenous Kinship Collective (indigenouskinshipcollective.com).

Weekends: June 13, 2020 (ft. Kshama Sawant)

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:45:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Empire Unhinged with Aslı Bâli & Aziz Rana

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 17:53:44 -0000

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:

bostonreview.net/war-security-politics-global-justice/asl%C4%B1-u-b%C3%A2li-aziz-rana-sanctions-are-inhumane%E2%80%94now-and-always

lawreview.uchicago.edu/publication/constitutionalism-and-american-imperial-imagination

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Casualties of History: The Most Vigilant Overlooker of All

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:28:31 -0000

Chapters ten and eleven — "Standards and Experiences" and "The Transforming Power of the Cross" — plus guest Jane Humphries, professor of economic history at Oxford University.

Supplementary Reading:

Jane Humphries. ChildhoodandchildlabourintheBritishIndustrialRevolution(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

The Vast Majority: Defund the Police with Rossana Rodriguez and Jeanette Taylor

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 19:00:00 -0000

The demand to "defund the police" has become central to the protests that have kicked off all around the United States over the last two weeks. We talked with Chicago socialist city council members Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez and Jeanette Taylor about it.

Rodriguez-Sanchez and Taylor are two of the four coauthors of the op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times calling to defund the police, which you can read here: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/6/8/21284037/chicago-police-department-unfunding-cpd-city-council-budget

Weekends: June 6, 2020 (ft. Touré Reed)

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 00:47:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Defunding the Police

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 18:34:17 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Alex Vitale and Ben Tarnoff

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 17:53:08 -0000

Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, on why cops are being so brutal and what should be done with them. Then, Ben Tarnoff, co-founder of Logicmagazine, on tech worker organizing (essay here).

Antibody, Ep 2: Making Contact

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 16:58:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Uprising with Cathy Cohen, Jasson Perez, Malaika Jabali

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 21:49:10 -0000

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.

Weekends: May 30, 2020 (ft. Wosny Lambre)

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:57:00 -0000

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, Ep 1: Existing Conditions

Sun, 31 May 2020 18:41:07 -0000

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)

The Vast Majority: Socialism 102 with Leo Panitch

Sat, 30 May 2020 00:06:17 -0000

We talked with longtime socialist thinker Leo Panitch about key socialist concepts beyond the basics. The conversation is based on Leo's book The Socialist Challenge Today: Syriza, Corbyn, Sanders (coauthored with Sam Gindin and Stephen Maher).

You can read Eric Blanc's review of the book here: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/05/the-socialist-challenge-today-corbyn-sanders

You can buy the book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1473-the-socialist-challenge-today

And you can watch Leo's lecture on Ralph Miliband here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBJR3xfmgA4

Introducing Antibody, a Dig special series on COVID-19.

Fri, 29 May 2020 19:04:55 -0000

From The Dig and Jacobin: a new narrative series about how COVID-19 has changed everything and nothing at all. The first of three episodes is coming soon.

Casualties of History: Eager to Discuss the Differential Calculus

Fri, 29 May 2020 01:20:00 -0000

Chapters eight and nine of EP Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class.

Additional reading:

Aaron Benanav, "Automation and the Future of Work—1" https://newleftreview.org/issues/II119/articles/aaron-benanav-automation-and-the-future-of-work-1

Aaron Benanav, "Automation and the Future of Work—2"https://newleftreview.org/issues/II120/articles/aaron-benanav-automation-and-the-future-of-work-2

E.P. Thompson, "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism" https://www.sv.uio.no/sai/english/research/projects/anthropos-and-the-material/Intranet/economic-practices/reading-group/texts/thompson-time-work-discipline-and-industrial-capitalism.pdf

Jacobin Radio: Set the Night on Fire with Mike Davis and Jon Wiener

Thu, 28 May 2020 16:46:56 -0000

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.”

The Dig: Ebola in West Africa with Adia Benton

Sat, 23 May 2020 21:52:28 -0000

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

Casualties of History: When We Burn Down Your Barn

Sat, 23 May 2020 18:22:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Green New Deal, Vaccines

Mon, 18 May 2020 18:55:01 -0000

Thea Riofrancos, co-author of this book, on why the Green New Deal is more urgent than ever. Then, Alexander Zaitchik, author of this article, on how the profit-driven drug industry is an obstacle to developing a vaccine.

The Dig: Science for the People with Nafis Hasan and Frank Rosenthal

Sun, 17 May 2020 02:16:07 -0000

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

Casualties of History: "Are We Not Always in an Exceptional Situation?"

Thu, 14 May 2020 21:04:54 -0000

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/books/35-for-marx

Louis Althusser, “Contradiction and Overdetermination” (from For Marx)

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1962/overdetermination.htm

Louis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey, and Jacques Rancière, Reading Capital

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2042-reading-capital

Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm

Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis”

https://newleftreview.org/issues/I23/articles/perry-anderson-origins-of-the-present-crisis

Perry Anderson, Arguments Within English Marxism

https://www.versobooks.com/books/576-arguments-within-english-marxism

Asad Haider, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity

Karl Marx, Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/appx1.htm

E.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English”

https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1965/english.htm

E.P. Thompson, “An Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski” https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1973/kolakowski.htm

E.P. Thompson, “The Poverty of Theory:Or, An Orrery of Errors” https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1978/pot/intro.htm

E.P. Thompson, “Outside the Whale”

https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1978/outside-whale.htm

The Dig: Beyond Economism with Nancy Fraser [From the archives]

Sat, 09 May 2020 17:05:31 -0000

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.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Casualties of History: The Ruffian Crew of Power

Wed, 06 May 2020 15:57:01 -0000

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/issues/I23/articles/perry-anderson-origins-of-the-present-crisis

Perry Anderson, “Socialism and Pseudo-Empiricism,” https://newleftreview.org/issues/I35/articles/perry-anderson-socialism-and-pseudo-empiricism

Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War https://www.versobooks.com/books/475-the-persistence-of-the-old-regime

Tom Nairn, “The British Political Elite” https://newleftreview.org/issues/I23/articles/tom-nairn-the-british-political-elite

Tom Nairn, “The British Working Class” https://newleftreview.org/issues/I24/articles/tom-nairn-the-english-working-class

Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part I” https://newleftreview.org/issues/I27/articles/tom-nairn-the-nature-of-the-labour-party-part-i

Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part II” https://newleftreview.org/issues/I28/articles/tom-nairn-the-nature-of-the-labour-party-part-ii

E.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English” https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1965/english.htm#n1

Coronavirus in Scandinavia; Southern Politics

Tue, 05 May 2020 18:50:55 -0000

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 discusses his new book,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.

The Vast Majority: The Romance of American Communism with Alyssa Battistoni, Sean Estelle and Meagan Day

Mon, 04 May 2020 21:54:17 -0000

No book better captures what it's like to be a socialist who has jumped headlong into the fight for a better world than Vivian Gornick's The Romance of American Communism. Thankfully, Verso has reissued it after the book was out of print for decades. Micah Uetricht talks to Alyssa Battistoni, Sean Estelle, and Meagan Day about it.

You can buy Romance from Verso here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3110-the-romance-of-american-communism

Read Alyssa's review here: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/bad-romance

Buy Bigger than Bernie for just $12.95 here: https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/69

The Dig: Don't Blame Robots with Aaron Benanav

Fri, 01 May 2020 16:24:48 -0000

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.

Casualties of History: "God sent Meat into the World for us Poor as well as Rich"

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:48:44 -0000

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.

The Vast Majority: Bernie's Campaign Strategy Wasn't the Problem with Hadas Thier and Paul Heideman

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 19:48:53 -0000

There are too many bad takes out there about the end of the Bernie Sanders campaign. Thankfully, Hadas Thier and Paul Heideman wrote one that is good: "Bernie's Campaign Strategy Wasn't the Problem."

Read it here: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/bernie-sanders-campaign-strategy-democratic-party-biden-trump

Find Hadas's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1481-a-people-s-guide-to-capitalism

And Paul's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/946-class-struggle-and-the-color-line

And you can still get Micah Uetricht and Meagan Day's 'Bigger Than Bernie' for only $12.95 from Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/69

Behind the News: Vijay Prashad, Meagan Day, and Micah Uetricht

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:29:00 -0000

Vijay Prashad on China (and Sinophobia), Kerala, and the crucial importance of social organization. Then, Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, authors of Bigger than Bernie, on Bernie Sanders, socialism, electoralism, and where it all goes from here.

The Dig: Bigger Than Bernie with Meagan Day & Micah Uetricht

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 13:55:24 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Coronavirus; Warehouse Organizing

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 18:20:58 -0000

Suzi talks with her brother Irv Weissman, director of Stanford University’s Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine about the science and politics of coronavirus, and with Sheheryar Kaoosji, director of the Warehouse Workers Resource Center, about the dangerous working conditions at Amazon fulfillment centers and the threat they pose to the company’s workers and to public health. Irv explains why coronavirus is so devastating, how our immune system has responded to it, and why the disease is more dangerous for those who are older. He also discusses the fragility of our public health infrastructure, what safe practices are needed to protect the population now, and the barriers to scientific research posed today by the political and religious right. Sheheryar reports on the walkouts taking place by Amazon workers in the Inland Empire, and elsewhere around the country over the lack of safety equipment and practices in their workplaces.

Behind the News: Yanis Varoufakis

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 18:15:35 -0000

Yanis Varoufakis talks about life under COVID-19, the economic crisis, vultures stripping Greece, and democratizing the European Union (includes bonus audio clip of Jim Cramer recalling his Trotskyist past).

The Dig: Blowback with Brendan James and Noah Kulwin

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 23:23:20 -0000

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.

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Casualties of History: The Kingdom Within

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 20:17:00 -0000

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).

The Dig: Fear City with Kim Phillips-Fein

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 00:51:04 -0000

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

Casualties of History: Preface

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 22:17:51 -0000

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).

The Vast Majority: Bernie Is Out with Marianela D’Aprile and Eric Blanc

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 18:30:38 -0000

Bernie Sanders is out of the race. We can’t go on; we must go on. Micah talked about it with Jacobin contributor Eric Blanc and Democratic Socialists of America National Political Committee member Marianela D’Aprile.

Read Eric’s piece on Bernie dropping out here:

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/bernie-sanders-campaign-supporters-2020-election

Buy ‘Bigger than Bernie’ here:

https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/69

The Dig: Organizing Now with Sarah Jaffe & Jasson Perez

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 14:50:40 -0000

Dan interviews veteran organizer Jasson Perez and journalist Sarah Jaffe on left organizing amid covid and where it might go.

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio: James K. Galbraith and Aaron Benanav

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:05:12 -0000

Suzi talks to James K. Galbraith on the economic policies we need, and Aaron Benanav on the crisis of unemployment. James K Galbraithresponds to the multiple crises and challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic, laying out the economic policy we need now, and the mobilization necessary to get it. He proposes concrete measures, like a Health Finance Corporation, that could be an efficient one-stop shop for all the resources needed. We ask why the economy as currently organized has been unable to deal with the challenges of the pandemic. Galbraith's watchwords: solidarity, organization, and determination.Aaron Benanav writes about employment, especially the irregular, informal and precarious forms of employment — the ones that fall through the large holes in the shredded safety net. His article, “Crisis and Recovery” looks at the cataclysmic economic crisis unfolding in tandem with the public health crisis. We get his findings.

The Vast Majority: Bigger than Bernie with Meagan Day

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 23:36:10 -0000

'Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism' is out this week, and coauthors Micah Uetricht and Meagan Day are talking about it today.

Buy it from Jacobin for $12.95 here: https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/69

The Dig: Surviving This Plague with Amy Kapczynski and Gregg Gonsalves

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 22:56:17 -0000

Dan interviews Amy Kapczynski and Gregg Gonsalves on the politics of public health and what we can learn from ACT UP.

Please support The Dig with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Who Got Bailed Out with Eric Levitz

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 15:38:20 -0000

Dan interviews New York magazine writer Eric Levitz on the big corporate bailout that gave workers precious little to survive the corona crisis.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Coronavirus Economics with Grace Blakeley

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 04:15:22 -0000

Dan interviews Marxist economist Grace Blakeley on coronavirus economics.

Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: COVID-19

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 19:11:08 -0000

David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program and CUNY on how US health policy got us to this desperate pass. Then, Helen Yaffe on Cuban interferon and COVID-19, and the country’s biotech industry and health system (YUP article here).

Jacobin Radio: Mike Davis and Robert Brenner

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 13:36:00 -0000

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.

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.

The Vast Majority: Coronavirus Shows Why We Need Medicare for All with Adam Gaffney

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 19:33:50 -0000

Coronavirus is decimating the planet right now, and it's made far worse by the fact that we don't have a public healthcare system. We talked to Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program and a doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, about this.

Forgive the self-promo in a time of society-wide breakdown, but: the book by host Micah Uetricht and Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day, Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism, has had its release date bumped up to March 24. Please preorder it! It's 20% off from Verso: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3167-bigger-than-bernie

The Dig: Mike Davis on Coronavirus Politics

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 18:56:25 -0000

Dan interviews Mike Davis about everything we are all suddenly trying to figure out.

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: NYC DSA on the Ballot

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 22:05:15 -0000

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.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: Kali Akuno and Dibyesh Anand

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 19:10:26 -0000

Kali Akuno on why black voters like Joe Biden. Then, Dibyesh Anand on the belief system of India’s Hindu fascists (book here).

The Dig: We've Got People with Ryan Grim

Sat, 14 Mar 2020 06:10:30 -0000

An interview on how the Democratic Party got here today with Ryan Grim.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Organize and Fight with Ilhan Omar

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 23:45:35 -0000

Pep talk time: Dan interviews Rep. Ilhan Omar to give us some perspective and prepare us for the fight ahead.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Vast Majority: The Economics of Mass Incarceration with Adaner Usmani and John Clegg

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:45:53 -0000

Mass incarceration has rightly become a major topic of discussion and organizing on the Left recently. But our guests today, Adaner Usmani and John Clegg, have some issues with how we talk about that incarceration system and many of the standard strategies for how we go about dismantling it.

John and Adaner are the authors of the Catalyst article "The Economic Origins of Mass Incarceration," which you can read here: https://catalyst-journal.com/vol3/no3/the-economic-origins-of-mass-incarceration

Also, you can and should preorder Bigger than Bernie by Meagan Day and your host Micah Uetricht here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3167-bigger-than-bernie

Jacobin Radio: Matt Karp and Adolph Reed on Super Tuesday

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 13:36:00 -0000

Suzi looks at the significance and aftermath of South Carolina and Super Tuesday, asking basic questions about the disconnect between the enthusiasm and support for progressive policies and Bernie Sanders (and Elizabeth Warren to a lesser degree), and the reality of people then voting for Biden. Was it fear, motivated by the constant drum of the corporate media that Bernie is not electable but Biden is? We get views and analysis from our guests Matt Karp and Adolph Reed.

The Vast Majority: Joe Biden Returns with Branko Marcetic

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 21:20:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Bernie 2020 with Michael Brooks and Natalie Shure

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 22:20:42 -0000

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

The Dig: Race for Profit with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 22:41:19 -0000

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/

Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Bernie 2020 with Alex Press and Bhaskar Sunkara

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 06:02:49 -0000

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

Behind the News: Colleen Eren and Jamieson Webster

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 18:06:47 -0000

Colleen Eren, author of Bernie Madoff and the Crisis, on why the Ponzi schemer deserves release from prison (op-ed here). Then, Jamieson Webster psychoanalyzes money and left melancholy (interview with Fiona Alison Duncan here).

The Dig: Catholic Anticommunism with Giuliana Chamedes

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 15:32:13 -0000

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/

Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: Yasha Levine and Lizzie O'Shea

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 20:07:41 -0000

Yasha Levine on Chrystia Freeland, Ukrainian Nazis, and the proxy war against Russia. Then, Lizzie O’Shea, author of Future Histories, on fake techno-utopianism and imagining a better future.

The Vast Majority: The Path to Bernie Victory Goes Through the Working Class with Shawn Gude

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:14:29 -0000

Bernie Sanders has won two states in a row, first Iowa and then New Hampshire. But how exactly did he do it? We talked to Jacobin's Shawn Gude, who gives some details about what the Sanders campaign's organizing looked like in Iowa, who ended up turning out for him, why Sanders has to overcome the barrier of post-Obama political despondency, and the campaign's path forward post-New Hampshire.

Here's Shawn's article from Iowa: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/02/iowa-working-class-satellite-caucus-sanders

And here's Meagan Day's article on the campaign's organizing: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/02/bernie-iowa-caucus-immigrant-factory-workers-organizing

The Dig: Right-Wing Racism with Daniel Martinez HoSang & Joe Lowndes

Sat, 15 Feb 2020 00:43:44 -0000

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.

Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio: Geo-Engineering; Bolivia

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 19:23:59 -0000

Suzi talks to Ansar Fayyazuddin, theoretical 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.

Turning to the aftermath of the Bolivian coup, Suzi talks toLinda Farthing, 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.

People's History Podcast: "False Hope" (S1E6)

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 21:09:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Sofia Japaridze and Margaret Kimberley

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 17:03:16 -0000

Sofia Japaridzeon Congressionally protected wage theft in the libertarian paradise of post-Soviet Georgia. Then, Margaret Kimberley, author ofPrejudential, on the long, oppressive relationship of presidents to black people.

The Dig: Hong Kong with Au Loong Yu

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 20:36:44 -0000

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.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: Mass Incarceration; US–China Trade War

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 16:23:08 -0000

John Clegg, co-author of this article, on the economic roots of mass incarceration. Then, Tobita Chow and Jake Werner, authors of this paper, on the US–China trade war

The Dig: This Life with Martin Hägglund

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 22:14:00 -0000

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.

Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Vast Majority: Socialism in Chicago with Rossana Rodriguez

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 21:00:00 -0000

Six members of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America won election to the Chicago city council last year. One of them is Rossana Rodriguez, elected as alderwoman of the 33rd ward on Chicago's Northwest Side.

If you want the full backstory of Rossana's life, you can listen to the episode of The Dig that I guest hosted back in 2018: https://blubrry.com/jacobin/38881826/the-dig-rossana-rodrguez-sanchez-a-socialist-for-chicago/

We talked about what her eight months in office have been like, why she's supporting Bernie Sanders for president, and the continued battering of her native Puerto Rico by both weather and climate change and austerity.

The Hurricane Maria relief fund that she mentions in the interview can be found here: https://www.mariafund.org/

Behind the News: Human Rights Politics; Alexandra Kollontai

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:29:37 -0000

Jessica Whyte, author of The Morals of the Market, on the relations between neoliberalism and human rights politics. Then, Michele Masucci and Joanna Warsza, editors of Red Love, on Alexandra Kollontai and her views on love, comradeship, and the family.

The Dig: Daniel Denvir interviewed by Astra Taylor

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 04:33:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: If You Want to Defeat Trump, Bernie Is Your Candidate with Meagan Day

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 07:38:40 -0000

Bernie Sanders is not just the candidate with the strongest left platform as well as the only candidate with a vision of social and political change coming from the bottom-up rather than the top down. He is also the most electable candidate. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Meagan Day is a staff writer at Jacobin. She's the coauthor, with Matt Karp, of "Bernie Is the Candidate Who Can Beat Trump. Here’s Why" in Jacobin, which you can read here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/12/bernie-sanders-vs-donald-trump

Preorder our forthcoming book from evil Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Political-Revolution-Democratic-Socialism/dp/1788738381

People's History Podcast: "Carson Beach" (S1E5)

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 21:30:00 -0000

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.

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod

Jacobin Radio: Marc Cooper on Journalism

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 21:52:28 -0000

Suzi talks to longtime journalist Marc Cooper about the changing world of journalism and asks how the carrier of information, which used to be predominantly newsprint, then TV, and now digital, changes our concept of knowledge? And because the new technologies make possible the democratization and de-professionalization of journalism, we ask, who is a journalist? How do we interact with the new media landscape — and how do we make it work for those of us trying to build a more just society?

The Vast Majority: Building a Left Foreign Policy with Daniel Bessner

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 17:09:00 -0000

We were terrifyingly close to an open war on Iran recently. The near-miss was a reminder of how brazenly American imperial power is wielded around the world and how easy dragging us back into another major war would be for Trump or anyone else in his position. It also was a reminder that we don't have a real antiwar movement in this country that can fight back against these kinds of escalations.

I talked about all these issues with Daniel Bessner, a historian and professor of international studies at the University of Washington, as well as the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual and a forthcoming history of the RAND Corporation. He's also a regular contributor to Jacobin.

Daniel's cowritten essay on democratizing US foreign policy: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2017-04-05/democratizing-us-foreign-policy

Daniel's essay on the continued supremacy of the American military: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/american-us-empire-not-in-decline-superpower-trump-proves-it-is-stronger-than-ever-militarism-daniel-bessner

Daniel's review of George Soros's most recent book: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/george-soros-defense-of-open-society-philanthropy

David Klion's profile of the Quincy Institute: https://www.thenation.com/article/quincy-institute-responsible-statecraft-think-tank/

The Dig: America's Long War with Nikhil Pal Singh

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 16:54:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Australian Fires; Badges Without Borders

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 14:28:52 -0000

Writer Jeff Sparrow on the Australian fires. Then, Stuart Schrader, author of Badges Without Borders, on counterinsurgency and policing.

The Dig: Planet to Win with Thea Riofrancos and Daniel Aldana Cohen

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 03:24:43 -0000

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

People’s History Podcast: "Free Breakfast" (S1E4)

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 16:15:00 -0000

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.

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod

Jacobin Radio: Juan Cole and Yousef Baker on Iraq and Iran

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 16:14:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Evangelicals; India's Citizenship Law

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 13:51:57 -0000

Adam Kotsko, author of “The Evangelical Mind,” on the life and thought of that tendency. Then, Shailja Sharma on India’s new citizenship law and protests against the country’s drift into fascism.

Jacobin Radio: Achin Vanaik on Modi's India

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 21:23:36 -0000

Suzi continues to look at the spectacular global movements that have rocked the world in 2019. The mass protests are not dying out and as the year comes to an end, they are gathering force, as we see in India — with huge demonstrations challenging Narendra Modi’s rule. The government’s repressive response has only added fuel to the protests and strikes. Achin Vanaik, scholar-activist in Delhi, gives us the big picture of Modi’s far-right government and Hindutva policies that have sparked massive protest, especially the new Citizen Amendment Act which denies citizenship based on religion, excluding and further marginalizing the country’s 200 million Muslims.

Behind the News: British Election, Why You Should Be a Socialist

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 21:14:25 -0000

Aditya Chakraborty on the British election, BoJo, Brexit, and the state of the Labour Party. Then, Nathan Robinson, author of Why You Should Be a Socialist, on that very topic.

The Dig: Down-Ballot Fights with Jessica Cisneros, Stephen Smith, and Heidi Sloan

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 22:55:00 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: What's Next for the Labour Party with David Broder

Thu, 26 Dec 2019 11:00:00 -0000

There's no way around it: the recent election results in the UK were crushing for the Left. But they also weren't the referendum on socialist policies that centrist pundits would have you believe they were.

Micah talked about this with David Broder, Jacobin's Europe editor. David wrote two articles for Jacobin in the wake of the election, which you can read here:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/12/uk-election-results-labour

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/12/labour-party-uk-brexit-jeremy-corbyn-general-election

The Dig: Single-Payer Now! with Tim Faust

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 19:10:48 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Krystal Ball, Matt Karp, and Michael Brooks on Bernie and the 2020 Elections

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 22:47:27 -0000

Krystal Ball, Matt Karp, and Michael Brooks on Bernie and the 2020 Elections

For the release of our latest print issue, "From Socialism to Populism and Back," we held a launch party at the Verso Books office in Brooklyn. We held a panel discussion at the party on Bernie Sanders and the 2020 elections featuring Krystal Ball, cohost of The Hill's Rising morning show; Matt Karp, historian and Jacobin contributing editor, whose article "Is This the Future Liberals Want?" appears in the new print issue; and Michael Brooks, host of The Michael Brooks Show.

Watch Rising here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLri3HDD8DQuWyMc7pSbVk0SZrAhA4j80

Read Matt Karp's article here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/future-liberals-want-matt-karp-populism-class-voting-democrats

Watch and listen to The Michael Brooks Show here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh2UY1hxlMr4_7Az_iQ82HQ

Buy the new issue here: https://jacobinmag.com/issue/from-socialism-to-populism-and-back

The Dig: Capitalism with Michael Hardt

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 19:51:43 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Anthony Clark, Socialist for Congress

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 20:00:00 -0000

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/

Behind the News: Leslie Salzinger and Forrest Hylton

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 19:00:00 -0000

Leslie Salzinger, a contributor to Mutant Neoliberalism, on gendering Homo economicus. Then,Forrest Hylton on the coup in Bolivia and popular rebellions against neoliberalism in Chile and Colombia (see Hylton's Jacobin and LRB articles).

Jacobin Radio: Mass Protests in France and Iran

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 18:51:00 -0000

Millions people are protesting worldwide to challenge neoliberal capitalist austerity policies that add to economic insecurity, inequality, and poverty for the vast majority. In Iran, Iraq, Hong Kong, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, France, and beyond, masses of people have taken to the streets, and faced state violence in response. What are the underlying issues motivating the protests? Suzi talks first to Stathis Kouvelakis in France, where, since December 5, strikes and demonstrations more than a million strong have paralyzed the country. Teachers, nurses, students, and Yellow Vests have stood alongside the old vanguard of railway and transport workers to halt President Macron’s “Thatcherite” attacks on pensions and the welfare state. Suzi then turns to Iran and talks with Kevan Harris about the spectacular, illegal protest movement rocking the nation since November 15. The government has responded brutally, killing at least 200 and arresting thousands. The catalyst for the Iranian protests, as with the French Yellow Vest movement the previous year, was a hike in gas prices.The spark produced a conflagration in an already existing environment marked by economic insecurity, the breakup of the social contract, high inflation, and negative economic growth. Further ignition was provided by the week-long government shutdown of the internet. As in France, movements have converged, and pose a threat to the regime.

The Dig: From the archives, Paul Frymer on Westward Expansion

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:41:18 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Winning a Radical Green New Deal with Alyssa Battistoni, Carlos Rosa and Sean Estelle

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 07:51:06 -0000

We’ve got a new book out: ‘A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal,’ by Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Kate Aronoff, and Thea Riofrancos. Alyssa was recently in Chicago, so we held a book launch party and panel discussion featuring Carlos Rosa, socialist and Chicago city council member; Sean Estelle, elected member of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America; and Micah, your humble host and Jacobin editor.

Buy the book here:

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3107-a-planet-to-win

People's History Podcast: "Rent Strike" (S1E3)

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 16:05:00 -0000

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.

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod

The Dig: Coup in Bolivia with Jeff Webber

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 06:35:06 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Labour Manifesto, Netanyahu Indictments, and the Bolivian Coup

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 20:12:44 -0000

Suzi speaks with Kevin Ovenden about Jeremy Corbyn’s new Labour Party manifesto. The just-launched manifesto promotes a vision for the country with broad appeal that challenges and counteracts the politics of austerity, despair, and decline that have characterized the last several decades. Corbyn is campaigning for real change, and we get Ovenden’s analysis. Suzi then talks to Yoav Peled in Tel Aviv about what happens now that interim Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving PM, has been indicted on three counts of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Neither Netanyahu’s Likudnor Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party have been able so far to form a government since Israel’s second election of 2019 in September, and the indictments put Israel in uncharted political territory. We get Peled's insights on what happens next. Finally, Suzi talks to political sociologist Gabriel Hetland about Bolivia, now caught in a spiral of horrors as the far-right regime of terror consolidates its rule after the ouster of Evo Morales on November 10.We also get Gabriel’s latest research into the conditions of the disputed elections that led to Evo Morales’s contested victory and forced resignation.

People's History Podcast: "Grove Hall" (S1E2)

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 16:30:00 -0000

As urban rebellions arise in cities, welfare rights advocates in Boston public housing use militant tactics to get services they are owed.

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.

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/peopleshistorypod

The Dig: World on Fire with Naomi Klein

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:53:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Ryan Grim, Jenny Brown

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 20:59:56 -0000

Ryan Grim, author of We’ve Got People, on the long fight between insurgents and establishment in the Democratic Party. Then, Jenny Brown, author of Without Apology, on the history and politics of abortion in the United States (check out National Women’s Liberation and Redstockings).

The Vast Majority: Ecological Politics for the Working Class with Matt Huber

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 23:25:09 -0000

The Green New Deal is on the political agenda in the United States, and thank God for that. Can you imagine how depressing it would be to hear all of these climate reports from scientists around the world without the sense of hope and optimism that the GND has brought discussions of climate change?

But how we go about fighting for a GND is crucial. Matt Huber argues in a recent essay in Catalyst that we need a class-struggle approach to fighting climate change. Workers hold more power than any other social group in society; without putting the working class at the center of a GND strategy, we're bound to lose.

Matt Huber is a professor of geography at Syracuse University, and the author of 'LifeBlood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital,' as well as a forthcoming book on class and climate politics from Verso. His essay "Ecological Politics for the Working Class" appears in the Spring 2019 edition of Catalyst. Read it here: https://catalyst-journal.com/vol3/no1/ecological-politics-for-the-working-class

People's History Podcast: "Placement" (S1E1)

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 14:15:00 -0000

At Columbia Point, a Boston public housing project built in 1954, mothers organize to try and close the city dump.

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.

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 Dig: Colonialism in Puerto Rico with Yarimar Bonilla

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 22:18:41 -0000

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

People's History Podcast: Trailer

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:14:00 -0000

A new audio documentary about struggles in the United States. Each six-episode season covers one local story, told from the viewpoint of working-class people. Our first season, The Point, traces a social history of Boston from the urban rebellions of the 1960s, through busing in the 70s, into the Clinton era.

Season one, episode one drops November 19th on Jacobin Radio.

Behind the News: Quinn Slobodian on Neoliberals

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:15:04 -0000

Historian Quinn Slobodian makes a return appearance to talk about neoliberals: their opposition to the European Union (essay in Mutant Neoliberalism), their hatred of the 1960s, and their embrace of racial and culturalist politics.

The Vast Majority: Financialized Capitalism and Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn?? with Grace Blakeley

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 09:25:52 -0000

Two of the most pressing questions facing humanity are as follows: 1. What exactly has changed and what has stayed the same about the global capitalist economy in the 21st century? 2. Are we gonna have a Prime Minister Jezza in the UK before Christmas?

Micah posed these questions and others to Grace Blakeley, a socialist economist, economics commentator at the New Statesman, and research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). She's also the author of a new book, Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialization.

She came through Chicago on the American leg of her book tour, and sat down for a discussion about the book and UK politics in front of an audience at Volumes Bookcafe.

Thanks to Volumes for hosting the event. You can buy Grace's book Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialization here: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/stolen-how-to-save-the-world-from-financialisation/

Jacobin Radio: Tariq Ali on the UK Election

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 15:49:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Tariq Ali, author of The Extreme Center,about the UK election, Jeremy Corbyn, and the Labour Party campaign. Unlike the endless US presidential election campaign, the British general election is run on a mercifully concentrated, if intense political timetable of just twenty-five working days once the election is called by Parliament. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and if the Conservatives, the Brexit party. and the Lib Dems have their way, the campaign will focus on Brexit, which has sucked the air out of politics and worse, divided the working class and the Left without addressing what led people to vote to leave in the first place. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has made his campaign about reversing the decades-long night of austerity and the need to commit £400 billion of investment to the twin crises of the climate emergency and social deprivation. We get Ali's insights.

The Dig: Socializing Ownership with Mathew Lawrence

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 03:40:03 -0000

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 Vast Majority: Rebecca Parson for Washington

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 21:15:00 -0000

What a time to be alive, when there are so many socialists running for Congress that it's difficult to schedule them all. We've interviewed two socialists running for House recently: Heidi Sloan, who's running in Texas, and Cathy Kunkel, who's running in West Virginia.

Today, we're interviewing a third socialist House candidate: Rebecca Parson in Washington's sixth district. Rebecca is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, an activist with the Tacoma Tenants Organizing Committee, and a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Pierce County, advocating for children in the foster care system.

You can visit her website here: https://rebeccaforwa.com/

Behind the News: Grace Blakeley and Emmanuel Saez

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 21:48:00 -0000

Grace Blakeley, author of Stolen, on where financialized capitalism came from and how we could get out of it. Then, economist Emmanuel Saez, co-author of The Triumph of Injustice, on how the rich got richer while paying less of their income in taxes than the working class (Tax Justice website here).

The Dig: Settler-Colonial Revolutionaries with Joshua Simon

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 21:02:37 -0000

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.

Thanks to n+1. Dig listeners can take 25% off a year’s subscription. Go to nplusonemag.com/thedig to subscribe, and enter THEDIG at checkout.

Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: Chile; Nobel in Economics

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 20:21:44 -0000

René Rojas, author of this article, on the social explosion in Chile. Then, Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven, author of this article, on the little problems, little answers approach of this year’s economics Nobelists.

The Vast Majority: Checking in with NY State Senator Julia Salazar

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 20:30:48 -0000

It's safe to say that Julia Salazar's campaign for state senate in New York was the most watched and most brutal state legislature race in recent history, maybe in all of US history. But what she's done in office since then hasn't received as much attention. Micah sat down with Salazar to talk about what she's been up to since heading to Albany.

jacobinmag.com/subscribe

Behind the News: PMC; US Hegemony in Decline

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 14:51:33 -0000

Gabriel Winant, author of this article, on the professional–managerial class and its decomposition (the 1977 Ehrenreich papers are here and here; their 2013 follow-up is here). Then, Alan Beattie, author of this paper, on the US-led global order and its decomposition.

Jacobin Radio: October Uprisings in Chile and Lebanon

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 19:13:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Worldmaking after Empire with Adom Getachew

Sun, 27 Oct 2019 22:13:00 -0000

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/

Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

What Bernie Could Do For Racial Justice with Briahna Joy Gray, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Ariella Thornhill

Sun, 27 Oct 2019 04:00:00 -0000

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.

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.

Behind the News: Jodi Dean on Political Belonging

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:06:00 -0000

Jodi Dean, author of Comrade, on the sense of political belonging formed by and essential to common struggle.

Behind the News: Corey Robin on Clarence Thomas

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:34:51 -0000

Corey Robin, author of The Enigma of Clarence Thomas, on the life and thought of a conservative black nationalist.

The Dig: Hindu Nationalism with Achin Vanaik

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 13:56:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Israeli Election

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 19:28:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Tel Aviv University professor YoavPeled, whose latest book is The Religionization of Israeli Society, about the still unclear outcome of the September 17 Israeli election — the second election this year. Likud prime minister Bibi Netanyahu got thirty-two seats and Benny Gantz of Blue and White got thirty-three, but so far Netanyahu has not been able to form a coalition that would get the 61 seats out of 120 needed to rule, and the clock is ticking toward the October 24 deadline. Secular far-right nationalist Avigdor Lieberman refuses to form a coalition with Netanyahu (unless he can be acting PM) and Netanyahu needs the immunity granted to the PM from the indictments he faces. If neither Netanyahu nor Gantz succeed in forming a governing coalition, there could yet be a third election, in a single year. Yoav Peled explains the election results, what could happen next — and how we should understand the continuing ascendancy of the Israeli far right.https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif" />

Austerity Created the 'Joker' with Connor Kilpatrick

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 21:37:05 -0000

'Joker' is not an ode to the alt right. It is a film about the devastating consequences of austerity. This is an objective fact, which I spoke with Jacobin story editor Connor Kilpatrick about.

You can read my review of 'Joker,' which touches on many of the themes we talk about in this discussion, for the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/10/joker-far-right-warning-austerity Eileen Jones's piece about 'Joker' and America's long history of movie moral panics is here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/09/joker-and-the-long-history-of-movie-moral-panics

The Dig: Worker Freedom with Alex Gourevitch

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 15:13:34 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: UAW Strike; Green New Deal

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 13:53:17 -0000

Suzi talks to UCSB Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein about the ongoing UAW strike against General Motors, the first strike since 2007, with 50,000 workers on the picket lines. Lichtenstein shares his views of the strike, the union leadership, and the impact he thinks this strike can have on politics and work life, in reviving and reshaping industries and workplaces — and the political order. Suzi then talks to Daniel Aldana Cohen about the Green New Deal (GND) in the wake of worldwide climate strike actions, and how the GND intersects with the housing crisis, racism, inequality, and energy and food systems, not to mention the political and socioeconomic order while seeking to decarbonize the economy. Plus — it is reviving the Left. It’s not pie in the sky and we get Cohen’s take on why.

Behind the News: Impeachment; Sanders's Climate Plan

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 20:37:12 -0000

Samuel Moyn (author of this article and this) on the political snares of impeachment. Then, Tom Athanasiou on the Sanders climate plan and the need for a global Green New Deal (article here)

The Dig: Palestine and the Law with Noura Erakat

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 11:20:51 -0000

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.

The Vast Majority: "War Is A Racket" with Rory Fanning and Sarah Lazare

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 21:03:00 -0000

Our newest print issue is “War Is a Racket,” focused on war and imperialism. At the Chicago issue release party, I spoke with two organizers and writers who appear in the issue: Rory Fanning and Sarah Lazare.

Rory is a former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan and became a war resister there. He’s the author of the book ‘Worth Fighting For’ and now works at Haymarket Books. He was profiled by our assistant editor Alex Press in the new issue.

Sarah is a web editor at In These Times. She has an overview of where the top five Democratic candidates stand on the issue of foreign policy and war in the issue.

If you’re not a subscriber, please buy a copy of the issue. You can purchase it here: https://jacobinmag.com/issue/war-is-a-racket

And subscribe to Jacobin here:

https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=WARISARACKET

Behind the News: Israeli Elections; Justin Trudeau

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:25:38 -0000

Joel Schalit, co-founder and editor of The Battleground, on the Israeli election. Then, Martin Lukacs, author of The Trudeau Formula, on that slippery Canadian prime minister.

The Dig: Ayn Rand's Optimistic Cruelty with Lisa Duggan

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 01:36:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: UAW Strike; Slavery in the Early United States

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 19:15:17 -0000

Sam Gindin on the UAW’s strike against GM, and the possibilities for the green repurposing of a plant GM is abandoning. Then, Robin Einhorn on the role of slavery in shaping tax politics in the early United States (article here).

The Dig: The Class Politics of Suburban Racism with Matt Lassiter

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 17:49:14 -0000

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

Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Vast Majority: "West Virginia Isn't Just Trump Country" with Cathy Kunkel

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 18:31:57 -0000

As we trudge closer to 2020, candidates are emerging for elected office beyond the presidency. And, thank God, they don't all suck. Like Cathy Kunkel, who is running for Congress in West Virginia's second district.

Cathy is an energy analyst, cochair of the Working Families Party in West Virginia, an activist during the 2018 West Virginia teachers strike, and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She's also a contributor to Jacobin, where she's written half a dozen articles about West Virginia and Puerto Rico.

You can read her Jacobin articles here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/cathy-kunkel

You can learn more about her campaign at her website: https://kunkelforcongress.com

Jacobin Radio: Paul Mason and George Kerevan on Brexit

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 18:17:17 -0000

Suzi talks to Paul Mason on Brexit and George Kerevan on Brexit in Scotland — to unravel the complexities and many political-economic ramifications of the issue. The Brexit crisis is as consuming for the United Kingdom as Trump is for the United States. Paul Mason calls it "Brexhaustion," and says chaos is being normalized … albeit manufactured. The daily ins and outs are confusing, especially to outside spectators, but we shed light on this now constitutional crisis with British journalist and writer Paul Mason, and with political economist, journalist, and former SNP MP George Kerevan, who fills us in on the Scottish case by framing for us just how the United Kingdom came to this pass, how Britain has been massively convulsed by the internal divisions rocking the dominant Conservative (Tory) Party — such that Boris Johnson, now in power, could be seemingly denouncing the very capitalist interests the Conservative Party was supposed to represent. Brexit didn’t create these developments, but it is the outward form in which these divisions are being played out — and we get both George Kerevan and Paul Mason’s analyses.

Behind the News: Brexit; Slavery

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 14:56:00 -0000

Margaret Corvid, city councilor in Plymouth, England, on Boris Johnson and Brexit madness. Then, John Clegg on slavery’s profound effects on the US political structure.

The Dig: Silvia Federici on Women and Capitalism

Sat, 14 Sep 2019 00:11:18 -0000

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

Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Black Socialism, Nationalism, Neoliberalism with Michael Dawson

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 17:01:24 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: "We Need A Green New Deal For Housing" with Daniel Aldana Cohen

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 07:00:25 -0000

We need a Green New Deal to stop climate catastrophe. Everybody knows this. But housing has to be a key piece of the GND, as Daniel Aldana Cohen argues in the Spring 2019 issue of Jacobin on housing.

Daniel Aldana Cohen is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative and coauthor, with Alyssa Battistoni, Kate Aronoff, and Thea Riofrancos, of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal from Verso Books. The four of them also coedit the Green New Deal series at Jacobin.

Buy a copy of our housing issue, "Home Improvement," here: https://jacobinmag.com/issue/home-improvement

Read Daniel's articles for Jacobin here: https://jacobinmag.com/author/daniel-aldana-cohen

Read our Green New Deal series here: https://jacobinmag.com/series/green-new-deal

Behind the News: Moscow Protests; Amazon on Fire

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 20:16:00 -0000

Journalist Yasha Levine on the “democracy” demos in Moscow: for a flossier neoliberalism. Then, Maria Luisa Mendonça, director of Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos (Network for Social Justice and Human Rights) in Brazil on the Amazon fires: who’s setting them, why, and what can be done.

Behind the News: Hong Kong and Kashmir

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 19:56:48 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: "It's the Demand of the People That Creates Real Change" with Heidi Sloan

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 12:00:00 -0000

Heidi Sloan is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America running for Congress in Texas's 25th district. She's challenging a Republican incumbent, used car salesman, and incredibly rich person Roger Williams.

Sloan recently sat down to talk about her story, her work with homeless people in Texas, how she came to join the DSA, her socialist political vision, and which corporate supervillain she would most like to grill as a member of the House of Representatives.

Read more about Heidi at her website: https://heidifor25.com/

The Dig: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on Indigenous History

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 21:34:58 -0000

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

The Dig: Keywords of Capitalism with John Patrick Leary

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 15:01:00 -0000

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

Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Vast Majority: "What is the Rank-and-File Strategy, and Why Does It Matter?" with Barry Eidlin

Thu, 22 Aug 2019 19:57:23 -0000

The question of how socialists should engage with the labor movement has always been a critical one. One proposal: the rank-and-file strategy, which the Democratic Socialists of America adopted in its recent convention. But what is it? Labor sociologist Barry Eidlin explains.

Barry Eidlin is an assistant professor of sociology at McGill University in Montreal and the author of Labor and the Class Idea in the United States in Canada.

Read Barry's short explainer on the rank-and-file strategy here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/03/rank-and-file-strategy-union-organizing

Read Barry and Micah's article on the "militant minority" here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160449X19828470 (Behind an academic paywall, but message Barry or Micah on social media to get a PDF of it)

Read Kim Moody's 2000 pamphlet on the strategy here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/unions-socialists-rank-and-file-strategy-kim-moody

Buy Barry's excellent book here: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781107514416?aff=TomLutz

Jacobin Radio: How to End Homelessness; Eugene V. Debs

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 20:34:32 -0000

Suzi talks to UCLA law professor 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.

The Dig: Socialist Manifesto with Bhaskar Sunkara

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 14:32:56 -0000

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

Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: On the Clock with Emily Guendelsberger

Sat, 10 Aug 2019 02:42:39 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Puerto Rico, US-Iran

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 14:43:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Race and Class in the Liberal Suburbs with Lily Geismer

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 16:47:50 -0000

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

Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Vast Majority: "DSA 2019 Convention Breakdown" with Andrew Sernatinger

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 20:15:21 -0000

The Democratic Socialists of America's biennial convention is in Atlanta this weekend. The rise of the DSA is one of the most promising developments in American politics in at least half a century. I talked to Andrew Sernatinger, a member of Madison DSA, an elected delegate to the convention, and a rank-and-file member of Teamsters 695, about what's at stake at the convention.

You can read Andrew's pieces about the convention and the state of DSA in New Politics: https://newpol.org/dsa-2019-convention-breakdown/https://newpol.org/dsas-growing-pains/

Also, if you're going to be in Atlanta, come to the Jacobin "Our Socialism Is International" event, featuring leftist guests from Peru, Sudan, Brazil, Japan, Germany, the Philippines, and Yemen. https://www.facebook.com/events/489420788296872/

The Dig: From the archives, Aziz Rana on Two Faces of American Freedom

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 21:28:22 -0000

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.

Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio: Report From the Border; UK Politics

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:48:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: The Struggle in Chile with Alondra Carrillo & Pablo Abufom

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 23:38:39 -0000

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

Behind the News: Puerto Rico and Turkey

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 14:49:53 -0000

Professor of philosophy Bernat Tort on Puerto Rico’s economic and political crisis. Then, sociologist Sahan Karatasli on Turkey’s economic and political crisis.

The Vast Majority: "They're Not Just Mad at AOC — They're Scared of Her" with Miles Kampf-Lassin

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 22:03:00 -0000

It's gotten heated this last week between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the squad, on the one hand, and Nancy Pelosi, centrist Democrats, and the House Democratic Party leadership on the other. But this conflict isn't empty intra-party bickering. It's an actual political and moral battle, with one side, AOC's, on the right side of history and one, Pelosi's, not.

Miles Kampf-Lassin wrote about the battle and what it means, in an article called "They're Not Just Mad at AOC — They're Scared of Her." https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-nancy-pelosi-democratic-party

We also mentioned a recent Washington Post profile of AOC's chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, that's worth a read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/07/10/feature/how-saikat-chakrabarti-became-aocs-chief-of-change/

The Dig: Abolish the Family with Sophie Lewis

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 22:17:59 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: "Why Bernie Was Right to Oppose US Intervention in Central America" with Hilary Goodfriend

Tue, 09 Jul 2019 23:45:00 -0000

The New York Times recently attacked Bernie Sanders’s record on solidarity with Nicaragua in the 1980s. It probably won’t be the last time we see red-baiting attacks against Sanders in the election season, so it’s important to establish what exactly happened in Central America in the 1980s, how brutal US intervention in the region was, what the Central American solidarity movement of that era looked like, and what side of history was the right one to be on. Hilary Goodfriend discusses all of this in her recent article ”Why Bernie Sanders Was Right to Oppose US Intervention in Central America.”

Hilary is a doctoral student in Latin American Studies at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City. You can read her article here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/bernie-sanders-central-america-sandinista.

Jacobin Radio: NYT Bias, "Junkie Communism," and Deaths of Despair

Tue, 09 Jul 2019 15:11:00 -0000

Suzi does three stories on this episode of Jacobin Radio, beginning with Katie Halper's expose in Jacobinof 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.

The Dig: Astra Taylor on Socialism, Democracy, Liberalism

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 17:42:00 -0000

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.

The Vast Majority: “Elizabeth Warren Can and Should Do Better on Foreign Policy" with Sarah Lazare

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 02:58:00 -0000

Elizabeth Warren is, by American political standards, a very strong presidential candidate. She has taken up a robust domestic social-democratic agenda — one that, while not as strong as Bernie Sanders’s, is pretty damn good.

Foreign policy, however, is a different story. Here, Elizabeth Warren is far from the most hawkish in her party. But she still leaves much to be desired, as Sarah Lazare recently wrote in a piece titled “Elizabeth Warren Can and Should Do Better on Foreign Policy.”

Sarah Lazare is a web editor at In These Times. You can read her piece on Elizabeth Warren’s foreign policy here.

The Vast Majority: “What a Socialist Society Will Actually Look Like” with Sam Gindin

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:44:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Our History Is the Future with Nick Estes

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 15:02:00 -0000

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.

The Vast Majority: "Why Bernie Talks About the New Deal" with Seth Ackerman

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 00:19:00 -0000

Bernie Sanders has been talking a lot about the New Deal lately, mentioning it in his recent speech on democratic socialism. Ironically, the response from many liberals has been to argue that the New Deal wasn’t really socialism. Jacobin’s Seth Ackerman has a few quibbles. Plus, we talk about why the idea that the New Deal was racist doesn’t fully capture its relationship to white supremacy.

Read Seth’s article on Bernie’s New Deal rhetoric here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/new-deal-socialism-bernie-sanders-democratic-primary Read an interview with New Deal historian Richard Walker, who discusses the charge that the New Deal was racist, plus many other aspects of the New Deal’s wide-ranging policies, here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/green-new-deal-roosevelt-public-works

Jacobin Radio: US-Iran Crisis, Hong Kong Protests

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 18:50:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Russia Beyond Putin with Tony Wood

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 03:11:00 -0000

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

Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: Danish Elections, the Indigenous in Canada

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 15:22:00 -0000

Political scientist Rune Møller Stahl on the Danish elections, which the Left won but partly by going anti-immigrant. Then, Heidi Matthews, author of this article, on Canada’s genocidal treatment of its indigenous people.

The Dig: The Italian Situation with David Broder, Lorenzo Zamponi, and Marta Fana

Sat, 15 Jun 2019 21:49:33 -0000

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

The Dig: The Spanish Situation with Carlos Delclós and Magda Bandera

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 23:32:29 -0000

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 Vast Majority: "The Militant Minority" with Eric Blanc

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 23:05:49 -0000

Part two of our discussion with Eric Blanc on his new book Red State Revolt: The Teachers Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics. We discuss the role of a "militant minority" of rank-and-file radicals in Arizona and West Virginia's teachers strikes — as well as what it means when that militant minority wasn't present, as in Oklahoma.

This episode is of particular interest to rank-and-file union members who are interested in making their unions more democratic and militant, as well as members of socialist groups who support unions but want to figure out how to get personally involved in the labor movement.

Read Micah's article (coauthored with Barry Eidlin) in Labor Studies Journal, "US Union Revitalization and the Missing 'Militant Minority,'" here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160449X19828470 (Sorry, you'll need academic access.)

Buy Eric's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2955-red-state-revolt

Jacobin Radio: Breaking Down the European Parliament Elections

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 15:44:09 -0000

Two interviews on the results of the May 26 European Parliamentary elections, which did not cleanly match predictions that there would be a further shift to to authoritarian hard-right parties. The biggest losers across the continent were the center-right neoliberal mainstream parties, but the shift to the Right was not as pronounced as feared. First, Sebastian Budgen, contributing editor for Jacobin, analyzes the election across Europe, especially in France, where the failed policies of the center were critical in understanding the results. We also get his take on the continuing protest and promise of the gilets jaunes social movement. Then Kevin Ovenden takes a deeper look at the vote in Great Britain, where the upset couldn’t have been more pronounced in the wake of the repeated failure by the Tories’ Theresa May to implement Brexit. The Conservative Party had its worst result in history, but Labour also lost votes, as Jeremy Corbyn tried to bridge the divide between those in favor and those against Brexit. The newly created “Brexit” Party of Nigel Farage took first, with the center Lib-Dems in alliance with Scottish and Welsh nationalists and Greens doing very well.

The Dig: The French Situation with Sebastian Budgen and Danièle Obono

Sat, 08 Jun 2019 18:47:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Labour's Brexit Bind with Grace Blakeley, Maya Goodfellow, and Richard Seymour

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 04:05:56 -0000

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

The Dig: The European Situation with Chris Bickerton and Jerome Roos

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 20:39:23 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: "Red State Revolt" with Eric Blanc

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 01:50:40 -0000

The teachers strike wave of the last year and a half is the most important development in US working-class politics in decades. And nobody has covered that strike wave closer than Eric Blanc.

Eric has been Jacobin's man on the ground for most of these strikes, and he was there when they kicked off in West Virginia, then spread to Arizona and Oklahoma. (Since then, he's written many articles about strikes in Denver, Oakland, Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, and elsewhere.)

He wrote the "red-state" strike wave in a new book, Red State Revolt: The Teachers Strikes and Working-Class Politics, published by Verso as part of the Jacobin series. I can't recommend this book enough — it's one of the best labor books published in recent years in the United States, of interest both to rank-and-file workers looking to organize their workplaces but also anyone seeking to understand how and why these strikes came about.

This is the first of two Vast Majority episodes with Eric. This one talks about the role of the Bernie Sanders campaign in bringing together the strikers, the myth of the "red-state" voters and their willingness to go on strike, the role of social media in the strikes, why low wages aren't enough to kick off strikes, and more. The second episode, which will be out later this week, covers the role of a "militant minority" in organizing the strikes and consolidating the strikes' gains.

You can buy Eric's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2955-red-state-revolt

You can read his many Jacobin articles on the strikes and other issues here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/eric-blanc

The Dig: Rashida Tlaib

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 22:10:20 -0000

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

Behind the News: Tim Shorrock and Vijay Prashad

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 19:33:00 -0000

Tim Shorrock (Nation page here) on the US conflict with North Korea. Then, Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute, on Modi’s recent victory in India.

The Dig: Bernie and Black Voters with Malaika Jabali and Wendi Muse

Thu, 30 May 2019 15:51:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Barry Eidlin on Labor

Thu, 30 May 2019 14:29:00 -0000

Here, before a live audience at United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) headquarters, Suzi talks to Canadian sociologist and labor activist Barry Eidlin about socialist politics and the many issues facing radicals oriented to the working class. The interview is followed by a lively, well informed discussion from the largely DSA audience. The result is a remarkable “town hall” meeting that could serve as a primer for socialist politics in the present moment. Some of the issues discussed: the Democratic Party vs. Canada’s labor party or NDP (New Democratic Party); the potential of today’s labor upsurge and teachers' strike wave; the labor bureaucracy and the rank-and-file strategy required to combat it; how to develop a “militant minority” within the workers' movement; the relationship between organizing in the traditional industrial working class and new struggles oriented around problems of social reproduction; and how to relate to Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party, and electoral politics.

The Vast Majority: "The Case for Open Borders" with Suzy Lee

Tue, 28 May 2019 16:19:34 -0000

What should the Left say about borders? Free flow of people across borders has always been a key topic for leftists, perhaps never more so than right now — especially given the realities of climate change. Some on the Left advance a maximalist demand of completely open borders; others (including, recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders) argue that social-democratic policies like Medicare for All require some restriction on the flow of people who can enter a country and access those goods.

Suzy Lee is no fan of the latter argument. In "The Case for Open Borders" in the Winter 2019 issue of our journal Catalyst, she argues that the Left can't give any credence to restrictionist arguments by accepting the need to restrict people from entering the US or any other country.

You can read Suzy Lee's essay "The Case for Open Borders" here: https://catalyst-journal.com/vol2/no4/the-case-for-open-borders

You can also read Daniel Denvir's piece in Jacobin, "How Bernie Should Talk About Borders": https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/bernie-sanders-immigrant-rights-border-policy

And you can subscribe to Jacobin at https://www.jacobinmag.com/subscribe

The Dig: Doug Henwood on DSA

Sat, 25 May 2019 14:52:14 -0000

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

The Dig: Capitalism and Slavery. Part 2.

Wed, 22 May 2019 16:05:27 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: Socialism: The Movie with Yael Bridge

Mon, 20 May 2019 23:06:38 -0000

Socialism: The Movie with Yael Bridge

Yael Bridge is one of the filmmakers behind the forthcoming documentary Socialism: An American Story. She talks with Micah about what she's trying to do with the film as well as her own transformation from a liberal into a socialist through the Bernie Sanders campaign.

You can read more about Socialism: An American Story and chip in a donation for it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/socialismmovie/socialism-an-american-story-post-production

Behind the News: Teachers Strikes and Community-Based Reparations

Mon, 20 May 2019 18:43:00 -0000

Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt, on the teachers' strikes. Then, Catherine Kaiman, environmental lawyer, on community-based reparations (paper here).

The Dig: Capitalism and Slavery. Part 1.

Thu, 16 May 2019 02:37:23 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: "Chicago's Socialist Surge" with Carlos Ramirez-Rosa

Tue, 14 May 2019 22:22:12 -0000

Chicago recently made international headlines for the victories of six — six!! — members of the Democratic Socialists of America running for city council. It’s an astonishing victory, the biggest socialist victory in any American city in probably a century.

These victories matter both for Chicago, which has seen growing working-class pushback to neoliberalism in recent years, but also for socialist organizers in cities around the country, who can learn from how Chicago won so many elections on a left platform.

One of the six victors in the April elections was Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who represents Chicago's 35th Ward, a gentrifying area on the city’s northwest side. Carlos was the only incumbent socialist city council member (or “alderman”); despite being attacked repeatedly by the area’s wealthy real-estate developers, he won re-election comfortably.

You can read my interview with Carlos from two years ago, when he was kicked off a gubernatorial ticket for his support of Palestine (which we mention in our discussion) here:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/carlos-rosa-chicago-bds-democratic-party

And you can read my piece in the Guardian on the Chicago electoral victories here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/03/americas-socialist-surge-chicago

The Dig: Cyborg Revolution with Donna Haraway

Thu, 09 May 2019 03:45:04 -0000

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

The Vast Majority: "Bernie Sanders Wants You to Fight" with Meagan Day

Tue, 07 May 2019 23:56:00 -0000

If we want to transform the United States in a socialist direction, we're going to need to do much more than elect Bernie Sanders as president. Nobody harps on this point more than Bernie himself. You can see it in his "not me, us" campaign slogan, or his emphasis in stump speeches on how massive industries like health insurance companies would mobilize against Medicare for All. President Bernie couldn't do much without a mass working-class movement at his back.

But that doesn't mean that such a movement and the Sanders campaign are two separate things — Bernie's campaign can help and has already helped bring those movements into being. Micah talks with Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day about it.

You can read Meagan's article "Bernie Sanders Wants You to Fight" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/03/bernie-sanders-movements-not-me-us

And you can read her article "Wielding the Imperial Presidency" in the new print issue of Jacobin or here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/wielding-the-imperial-presidency

Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe

The Dig: Real Estate Capitalism and Gentrification with Samuel Stein

Thu, 02 May 2019 14:30:13 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Democratic Primary; Victor Serge

Wed, 01 May 2019 19:52:00 -0000

Alan Minsky, producer of Jacobin Radio, is the guest on this episode. He wears multiple hats and one of them is Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). We talk about the Democratic primary field, and Alan reports on conversations he had on his recent trip to the European Parliament as part of a contingent of the American left. Then, a conversation with Mitch Abidor, translator of Victor Serge's just-published Notebooks, about the Belgian-Russian anarcho-Bolshevik and lifelong Left Oppositionist, who was one of the great writer-thinker-activists of the twentieth century. Serge's contribution is especially attractive today because he never compromised his commitment to the creation of a society that defends human freedom, enhances human dignity, and improves the human condition — and insisted that democracy was at the heart of the socialist project. This makes him both a contemporary as well as a man for our future. Serge’s life as a maverick and renegade relegated him to the margins. He was always poor. His last exile was in Mexico, and a rich trove of his daily writings, his notebooks, were discovered in Mexico in 2003. They were published in France in 2012, and NYRB has just published the English translation. We are fortunate today to speak to the translator, Mitch Abidor.

The Vast Majority: "The Socialist Manifesto" with Bhaskar Sunkara

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 16:08:00 -0000

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.com/2019/02/the-exercise-of-power

A New Podcast from Jacobin: The Vast Majority with Micah Uetricht

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:38:23 -0000

It's a new podcast from Jacobin: The Vast Majority, hosted by Micah Uetricht. We'll be talking to authors from Jacobin and its sister publications like Catalyst and Tribune in the UK, plus whoever else is thinking and doing important work on the Left. The first episode will be out April 30.

The Dig: Un laboratorio del socialismo en Chile. Entrevista con Daniel Jadue.

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 20:00:52 -0000

*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/

Behind the News: Rossana Rodriguez, Benjamin Fogel on Bolsonaro

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 13:12:55 -0000

Rossana Rodriguez on her successful campaign as a socialist for the Chicago city council, where she will join five other socialists. Then, Benjamin Fogel, author of this and this, on the lunacy of Bolsonaro's early months as president of Brazil.

The Dig: Empire and the War in Yemen

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 01:06:00 -0000

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/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

Jacobin Radio: Elections in Chicago and Israel

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 13:18:00 -0000

Our guest Yoav Peled argues that Netanyahu is the only issue in the April 9 election. Netanyahu is under indictment for one case of bribery and two cases of fraud, but Yoav says he is likely to win even though his party and their bloc — with far-right, racist and religious parties — is more or less tied with the anti-Bibi “Blue and White” coalition or bloc. Yoav also discusses his new book, The Religionization of Israeli Society— 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 — and the relation between culture, politics, nationalism, secularization, and new social movements.

Suzi then talks toMicah Uetricht in Chicago, where 5–6 socialists were just elected to the City Council. Micah argues they will have outsize influence in determining the political issues — much as we have seen nationally with the election of democratic socialists to Congress. In his aptly titled article in the Guardian“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 — and if Chicago’s elections are any indication, it just may be that people are ready to try socialism.

Behind the News: Police Surveillance; ISO

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 20:18:46 -0000

Jason Wilson on how cops are more interested in surveilling the Left than the Right (article here; Will Parrish article here). Then, Todd Chretien reflects on the forty-two-year history of the International Socialist Organization, which dissolved itself at the end of March.

The Dig: Chinese Class Conflict with Jenny Chan

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 18:12:27 -0000

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

The Dig: Against Idiocy with Kafui Attoh

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 14:18:51 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Bolsonaro Comes to D.C.

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 17:47:02 -0000

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 Dig: Strike! with Jane McAlevey

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 13:17:33 -0000

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

Behind the News: Tony Wood on Russia

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 14:19:39 -0000

Tony Wood, author of Russia Without Putin, on contemporary Russia and Putin.

The Dig: Why Socialism Wins in Chicago

Sat, 23 Mar 2019 20:29:57 -0000

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

The Dig: End of the Myth with Greg Grandin

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 21:04:43 -0000

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

Behind the News: Feminism for the 99%; Capital City

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:54:00 -0000

Cinzia Arruzza and Tithi Bhattacharya, authors (along with Nancy Fraser) of Feminism for the 99%, on a truly transformative feminism. Then, Sam Stein, author of Capital City, on bourgeois urban planning, with an emphasis on NYC.

Behind the News: New Deals Past and Present; Left Internationalism

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 15:52:52 -0000

Richard Walker, geographer and director of the Living New Deal project, on what the original New Deal can teach the Green one. Then, Aziz Rana on the need for a left internationalism.

The Dig: A Theory of ISIS with Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 20:53:54 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: DSA; Generation Priced Out

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:02:41 -0000

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.

The Dig: Green New Deal Architect Rhiana Gunn-Wright

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 17:33:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Feminism for the 99% with Tithi Bhattacharya

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 19:05:38 -0000

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

The Dig: Hegemony How-To with Jonathan Matthew Smucker

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 20:20:15 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Kate Aronoff on Democratic Party Politics

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:26:45 -0000

Suzi talks to Kate Aronoff about Bernie Sanders’s candidacy, the Green New Deal, and the Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders raised a whopping $6 million the first day he announced his run for president in 2020, making him the most important candidate in the race, and not just because of the money. His 2016 run within the Democratic Party but against its politics has changed the political conversation, brought tens of thousands into the work of politics, elected a new cohort of left Democrats to — and thanks to Bernie, all the candidates are now at least proclaiming support for Medicare for All, striking teachers, and a Green New Deal. As Kate Aronoff puts it, “The types of ideas laughed off in the 2016 primary as magical unicorns are now firmly in the party’s mainstream, even as they make its top brass sweat.”

Behind the News: Housing and the Green New Deal

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:10:48 -0000

Daniel Aldana Cohen, author of this article, on the role of housing in a Green New Deal. Then, Joel Whitney, author of this article, on the CIA's history as a purveyor of fake news.

Behind the News: AIPAC; the Green New Deal

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 16:21:00 -0000

Noah Kulwin, staff writer with Jewish Currents, on why Ilhan Omar’s AIPAC tweets weren't antisemitic. Then, Thea Riofrancos, one of editors of Jacobin's Green New Deal series, on the agenda's scope and politics.

The Dig: Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire with Dylan Riley

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 22:59:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Contradictions with Eric Levitz

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 16:17:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: 2020 with Briahna Gray, Dave Weigel, and Waleed Shahid

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 16:43:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Robert Brenner on the State of the Economy

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 18:45:00 -0000

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 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.

The Dig: Palestine Politics with Linda Sarsour

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:50:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Venezuela

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 03:39:00 -0000

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

The Dig: The Drug War in Mexico with Anabel Hernández

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 16:10:42 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Anatomy of the LA Teachers Strike

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:41:45 -0000

#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.

Behind the News: Alex Caputo-Pearl and Jane McAlevey on the LA teachers strike

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 18:32:17 -0000

Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the Los Angeles teachers’ union and Jane McAlevey, author and organizer, on the union’s great victory in their LA strike, protecting public education against the plutocrats’ attacks

Behind the News: Trump's Foreign Policy; GE

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 16:40:00 -0000

Historian Andrew Bacevich tries to make sense of Trump’s foreign policy. Then, Steven Maher (author of this article) on the rise and fall of GE.

The Dig: Populism's Power

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 20:47:48 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: LA Teachers on Strike!

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:03:20 -0000

On this special #RedforEd edition of Jacobin Radio, Suzi speaks with former teacher, member of the School Board, City Council, and State Assembly Jackie Goldberg, who is running in the March 5 special election to the LAUSD School Board. If elected, Jackie will be an experienced and effective progressive voice for public education, opposing the charter school privatizers who were elected with money from the bank-rollers who "have stacked the deck against district public schools.” We talk to Jackie about the strike, the fight to save public education, and how the forces are aligned from Los Angeles to Sacramento to Washington. Suzi also speaks to Eric Blanc, former teacher and author of the forthcoming Red State Revolt:The Teachers Strike Wave and Working Class Politics. Erichas been covering the strike for Jacobinand looks at the larger issues in the UTLA strike, the billionaires arrayed against the LA schools, the dilemma this strike poses for establishment Democrats, and why this fightback is historic.

The Dig: LA Teachers Strike with Sarah Jaffe

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 20:17:38 -0000

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

The Dig: Astra Taylor on Democracy

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 23:06:45 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: LA Teachers, and Fossil Fuel Transitions

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:30:31 -0000

Suzi speaks to energy specialist and author Simon Pirani about his new book, Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption that traces the relentless rise in oil, gas, and coal use since the mid-twentieth century — and shows how consumption has grown fastest since the discovery of global warming in the 1980s. Simon argues that fuels are mainly consumed through technological systems, which are in turn embedded in social, economic, and political systems — and that the transition away from fossil fuels will mean the transformation of all of these.

Then: the LA teachers strike is on! Suzi talks toArlene Inouye, secretary of United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) and co-chair of the negotiations team about what happened in bargaining, and how important this strike is for public education, indeed, for the public. UTLA is demanding a fair agreement that addresses class size, funding for nurses, counselors, and librarians, a halt to further privatization through charterization, and teacher pay. The LAUSD’s Austin Beutner failed to show up for the last two bargaining sessions, lied to the media, and presented an inadequate proposal, so now he has to face teachers, students, and community on the picket lines. After the spectacular Red State teachers' strikes of last year, the LAUSD strike has enormous potential in practical and inspirational terms — for labor and community as a whole.

The Dig: Rethinking Migration with Aziz Rana

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 04:45:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Family Values with Melinda Cooper

Fri, 04 Jan 2019 15:46:49 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: The "Miracle" of Silicon Valley; Democratic Party Futures

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 17:30:00 -0000

Suzi talks to scholar activist Richard Walker about his new book, Pictures of a Gone City, an urban geography of the San Francisco Bay Area, America’s richest and fastest changing metropolis. Walker explains both the miracle of Silicon Valley — including the sometimes delusional ideas behind this new tech boom, and the heavy price being paid for it in terms of affordability, traffic paralysis, environmental disruption, as well as the political challenges and movements it has spawned. We then speak to Jacobin’s Matt Karp, who evaluates the importance of the midterm elections and the politics of the Democratic Party, who went after suburban voters in this election. The Democrats are about to control the house, but Matt says their professional-class politics are a cul de sac, when what is needed is a political revolution driven by the needs and aspirations of the multiracial working class.

The Dig: The Green New Deal with Kate Aronoff

Thu, 27 Dec 2018 21:03:00 -0000

Trump and fossil-fueled conservatives have pit working-class prosperity against environmentalism. This, of course, is incredibly dangerous. It's also premised on a misreading of environmental politics as having nothing to do with human well-being. But climate change, of course, threatens not only non-human nature but also the entirety of human life that is fundamentally dependent on it. Right now, coastal homes and cities, agriculture, wildfire-prone forests, and the water supply are all under threat. And so an ecologically sustainable response to this crisis must definitionally also be a socially and economically just one: something like a Green New Deal, a broad vision that climate activists and left insurgent politicians are uniting behind. Dan's guest today, climate reporter Kate Aronoff, is going to tell us all about it — as well as about the general state of domestic and global climate politics.

The Dig: Crashed with Adam Tooze

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 03:37:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: Gilets Jaunes, the Gamification of Class Struggle

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 19:31:45 -0000

In this episode, Suzi talks to Jacobin contributing editor Sebastian Budgen about the gilet jaunes protests rocking France, named for the yellow traffic vests the protestors wear. The movement was ignited by President Emmanuel Macron’s so called climate measures — hiking gas taxes and reducing the speed limit, but quickly included other basic economic demands about low wages and the increasing impossibility of making ends meet, while the wealthy were getting tax breaks. Sebastian Budgen looks at the movement’s origins, politics, support, and potential. Then Sarah Mason joins Suzi to describe her experience as a Lyft driver doing precarious work in the gig economy. She explains, in her article in the Guardian, how workers are motivated, essentially in game mode, to do insane amounts of driving, and how the insertion of the algorithm into the traditional class struggle has changed the way workers can fight.

Behind the News: Paying for Medicare for All; The Problems with Post-Work

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:53:00 -0000

Robert Pollin, lead author of this paper, on how to pay for Medicare for All — covering everyone and saving money. Then, Anton Jäger on the problems with the anti-/post-work position.

The Dig: Yellow Vests with Danièle Obono and Jerome Roos

Sat, 15 Dec 2018 23:15:40 -0000

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

The Dig: Bad Objects with Andrea Long Chu and Marissa Brostoff

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 04:01:00 -0000

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!

Behind the News: Gun Politics

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 18:05:43 -0000

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment, on the politics of guns.

Jacobin Radio: GM Shutters Plants; Life at the US-Mexico Border

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 16:29:00 -0000

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 near the US-Mexico border, where thousands are sheltering, with hopes of entering the US.

The Dig: Haddad and Varoufakis Fighting Right-Wing Populism

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:10:00 -0000

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

The Dig: The Left Knows No Borders with Richard Seymour

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 05:03:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Jeff Sessions's Brutal Legacy

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 20:21:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Barbara Ransby on Black Lives Matter

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 20:38:00 -0000

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!

Jacobin Radio: Fires Raging in California

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 18:27:40 -0000

A look at the fires raging across California, and the impending teacher’s strike. Suzi talks to urban theorist Mike Davis for his “Tale of Two Fires,” contrasting the Paradise and Malibu conflagrations, which he says is like comparing two Californias. She then talks to United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) president Alex Caputo Pearl who addresses another sort of fire, this one threatening public education. Alex explains the issues behind the historic 98 percent strike-authorization vote from the UTLA membership, issues that go to the heart of the competing visions for public education from the union (UTLA), and the district (LAUSD, the second-largest in the country) that is in austerity and downsizing mode, while the union is pushing for smaller classes, more funding, more staff, and the needs of students and education as a whole.

The Dig: A History of Neoliberalism with Quinn Slobodian

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 14:47:00 -0000

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 Dig: The Roots of White Power Violence With Kathleen Belew

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 18:27:00 -0000

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!

Jacobin Radio: Bolsanaro in Power

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 15:43:22 -0000

Suzi talks to political economist Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos about the October 28 election that brought the ultra-right wing Jair Bolsonaro to power. Bolsonaro promised to cleanse Brazil of crime and corruption by killing tens of thousands — and won formidable support from the poor who have been left behind by the neoliberal policies of successive governments, and whose neighborhoods are riddled with violence and crime. They turned away from the Workers Party (PT), tainted by its austerity policies and corruption, like the other political parties. But what can the working class and the poor actually expect from Bolsonaro, who represents a violent extreme of authoritarian neoliberalism, on the rise across the world? We get Pedro Paulo's analysis of the vote, Bolsonaro’s political-economic strategy, and what Bolsonaro’s victory means for Brazilian democracy and Latin America as a whole.

Behind the News: Trans Politics; Fascist Bolsonaro

Mon, 05 Nov 2018 15:38:39 -0000

Historian Amanda Armstrong on the importance of trans politics. Then, political economist Alfredo Saad-Filho on the prospects for Brazil under the fascist Bolsonaro.

The Dig: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on the Life of Howard Zinn

Sat, 03 Nov 2018 15:55:03 -0000

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 Dig: Madawi al-Rasheed on Saudi Royal Brutality

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 03:45:00 -0000

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

The Dig: The Color of Economic Anxiety

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 22:48:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Rossana Rodríguez-Sanchez, a Socialist for Chicago

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 20:28:29 -0000

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

The Dig: Economics Discounting Climate Catastrophe. REPOSTED.

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 13:50:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: On Two Upcoming Elections

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 20:01:16 -0000

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.

Behind the News: German Politics; Why the Supreme Court Sucks

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 19:51:35 -0000

Leandros Fischer on German politics, with an emphasis on refugees. Then, Samuel Moyn, author of a recent Boston Review article, on why the Supreme Court sucks and what can be done about it.

The Dig: Explaining Brazil's Crisis with Alfredo Saad-Filho

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 21:46:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Sawant on Socialism Against the Amazonification of Seattle

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 13:46:20 -0000

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

The Dig: Reasonable Men Calming You Down with Moira Weigel

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 22:31:55 -0000

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

The Dig: Lessons from the New Left with Max Elbaum

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 03:45:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Brett Kavanaugh's Banal, Reactionary Mind

Tue, 09 Oct 2018 16:20:48 -0000

Meagan Day, Natalie Shure, and Alissa Quart reflect with Suzi Weissman on the toxicity — and banality — of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation to the Supreme Court. We look at the way the contentious, emotional hearings exposed the fault lines between gender, privilege, class, and politics in the US — and ask why the Democrats have been so meek, diffident, and ineffective in the face of the Republican Party’s disciplined march to impose the future, violating every norm to get an extreme right-wing bloc on the Supreme Court. We also look at what that means for the fightback. Natalie Shure looks at the Federalist Society and their influence and politics that go beyond gender justice to the very defining characteristics of Kavanaugh’s ideology and the political movement that groomed him. Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America writes about class privilege and the women who are invisible to Kavanaugh and his class. Christine Blasey Ford is heard, but betrays her class by stepping forward, whereas the testimony of Debbie Ramirez, Julie Swetnick, and thousands of other women workers are disregarded.

The Dig: Lisa Duggan on the Open Secret of Sexual Assault

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 17:43:00 -0000

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

Behind the News: Ruling-Class Power

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 14:40:38 -0000

Sociologist Shamus Khan on the culture of elite schools and the sense of entitlement they breed. Then, political scientist Thea Riofrancos on the delegitimation of our ruling class and the political possibilities inhering in that.

The Dig: Reclaiming Philadelphia

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 19:43:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Winners Take All

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 20:32:48 -0000

Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All, on the win–win business- and plutocrat-friendly philanthropy of today’s nouveau riche.

Jacobin Radio: Far-Right Rising

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 20:29:48 -0000

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.

The Dig: Patrick Blanchfield on Serious Men

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 03:45:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Socialist Women Winning Office

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 17:55:03 -0000

This episode's guests are Margaret Corvid, who recently won a city council race in Plymouth, England, and Julia Salazar, who just won the Democratic primary for New York state senate in Brooklyn.

The Dig: #AbolishDEA

Sun, 23 Sep 2018 19:26:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: The Problem with the Problem With Appalachia

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 17:02:00 -0000

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.

Support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig!

The Dig: Beyond Economism with Nancy Fraser

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 17:05:00 -0000

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!

Jacobin Radio: Mayor 1 Percent; Puerto Rico After Maria

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 18:32:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Neofascism in Germany and Israel; #MeToo

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 15:06:00 -0000

Writer Joel Schalit on neofascism in Germany and Israel. Then, Heidi Matthews, assistant professor of law at York University, on #MeToo.

The Dig: Matt Bruenig Spreads the Wealth Around

Sun, 09 Sep 2018 16:36:05 -0000

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

Behind the News: Racism in the United States

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 17:48:54 -0000

Raven Rakia, a journalist with The Appeal, on the nationwide prison strike (more here and here). Then, Asad Haider, author of Mistaken Identity, on race and class.

The Dig: Race or Class? Bad Question. With Nikhil Pal Singh.

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 14:01:05 -0000

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

The Dig: Organizing Amid Rising Tides

Fri, 31 Aug 2018 23:41:24 -0000

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

Behind the News: Free Market Isn't Free

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 17:45:45 -0000

Rob Larson, author of Capitalism vs. Freedom, explores how the “free market” is a realm of unfreedom, and Keith Gessen discusses his new novel about contemporary Russia, A Terrible Country.

The Dig: Eco-Socialism and the Climate Crisis

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 15:40:03 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Robin Blackburn on Corbyn

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 20:15:39 -0000

Suzi Weissman talks to Robin Blackburn about Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party's left-wing leader. Drawing on Robin's article, "The Corbyn Project," in the May/June 2018 New Left Review, Suzi asks Blackburn to explore the challenges and constraints a Corbyn Labour Left government would face after a decade of Tory austerity policies — that came on the heels of Thatcher and Blair's neoliberal politics making Britain the most unequal country in Western Europe. Suzi also asks Robin what fundamental changes a Corbyn government could implement, and to sketch the proposals and prospects for an egalitarian shift in the UK, with lessons for the US and beyond.

The Dig: Criminal Injustice with Josie Duffy Rice

Sat, 25 Aug 2018 15:47:44 -0000

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

Support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Russia Beyond Caricature

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 04:01:29 -0000

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

Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: The Red Army Faction

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 19:46:00 -0000

Christina Gerhardt, author ofScreening the Red Army Faction(2018, Bloomsbury), on the RAF’s history and artistic reception in the context of the German 1960s and 1970s.

The Dig: Aslı Bâli on Syria, Part II

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 15:03:00 -0000

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.

Support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig!

The Dig: Aslı Bâli on Syria, Part I

Wed, 15 Aug 2018 14:04:00 -0000

[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

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

Support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio: Katie Halper; Murray Mednick and Maury Sterling

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 20:19:45 -0000

Suzi and Alan Minsky talk to Katie Halper of WBAI's The Katie Halper Show about the role of independent media and politics in the Trumpian landscape we inhabit. Then Suzi speaks to prolific, award-winning playwright Murray Mednick, whose enigmatic "Mayakovsky and Stalin" runs until August 19 at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood. The play examines two lives and two suicides, related but distant, responding to the liberating freedom of revolution in the Soviet Union, but then increasingly strangled and suffocated by the top down brutal dictatorship of Stalin, played by actor Maury Sterling (best known as Max on Homeland), who joins the conversation. The play traces the parallel stories of the giant of Russian poetry, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and his relationship to his love and muse, Lilya Brik (darling of Russia’s avant garde) and her husband, the literary critic Osip Brik. Their relationship exemplifies the freedom from conventional mores in the early years of the revolution. The second life and suicide is that of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin's young wife who committed suicide during a state dinner in 1932, renouncing her husband and his horrific policies, reflecting her despair and suffocation being married to the supreme dictator while millions perished.

The Dig: Making Sense of Soros

Sat, 11 Aug 2018 21:54:00 -0000

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.

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!

Behind the News: Globalization, Trump, and the American Empire

Fri, 10 Aug 2018 17:50:00 -0000

Adam Tooze and Leo Panitch, separately, on globalization, Trump, the American empire, declinism, etc. Tooze is a professor of history at Columbia University and serves as director of the European Institute. His new book Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World is out this week. Panitch is a professor of political science at York University and the author of many books, including The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy Of American Empire.

The Dig: Boots Riley on Sorry to Bother You and Communism

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 04:00:00 -0000

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.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot versobooks.com/books/2732-out-of-the-wreckage And October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville versobooks.com/books/2731-october.

Support this podcast with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig to receive our weekly newsletter

The Dig: Kerri Harris Runs for Delaware Upset

Fri, 03 Aug 2018 17:46:00 -0000

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.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life by Adam Greenfield versobooks.com/books/2742-radical-technologies. And support this podcast with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig to receive our weekly newsletter!

Jacobin Radio: Russiagate

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 18:22:25 -0000

Suzi talks to Jacobin's executive editor, Seth Ackerman, and editor of Critique (and Russia expert) Hillel Ticktin, about the actual state of US-Russia relations and how they are portrayed. Seth Ackerman skewers mainstream-media reporting on Russia and asks why there is such a divergence between the substance and fact of US Russia policy — and what the media obsession and hysteria over the supposed Russian threat represents. Hillel Ticktin asks why the US has been so harsh on Russia, when Putin represents a Christian capitalist, if authoritarian, politics? We’ll get his take on what is behind making Russia our archenemy once again, now that it no longer pretends to be communist, and is indeed a fraction of what it was industrially, in terms of its population, and its strength.

The Dig: Stop Whore Stigma with Melissa Gira Grant

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 03:18:00 -0000

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.

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!

The Dig: Kaniela Ing is Fighting for Aloha

Fri, 27 Jul 2018 23:41:00 -0000

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.

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!

The Dig: A Post-Janus Plan for Labor

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 02:18:00 -0000

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.

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.

Support this podcast with your $ and receive our weekly newsletter and lefty books at patreon.com/TheDig!

Behind the News: The Hammond Pardons; AMLO

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 13:43:49 -0000

Journalist Jason Wilson on Trump's pardoning of Oregon ranchers Dwight Lincoln Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven Hammond, as well as on the recent right-wing riot in Portland. Then, sociologist Christy Thornton analyzes AMLO’s victory in Mexico’s election.

The Dig: Mistaking Identity Politics

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 15:04:00 -0000

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).

And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio: Confirming Kavanaugh

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 14:40:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, about the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Chemerinsky writes that Senators should exercise their power and insist Kavanaugh reveal his views on crucial constitutional issues — and that Kavanaugh should not be confirmed if he refuses to answer questions. Suzi also talks to Dan La Botz about the landslide victory of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) in Mexico’s recent presidential election. AMLO arguably had the election stolen from him in 2006, but this victory was too large to undermine or steal. But what are his politics and what is his program?

The Dig: A New Party of a New Kind

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 01:30:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Julia Salazar Brings Socialist Insurgency to Brooklyn

Thu, 12 Jul 2018 21:08:11 -0000

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

The Dig: Bernie on Ocasio-Cortez-Style Victories

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 16:16:00 -0000

Capitol Hill used to be a lonely place for a leftist. And, frankly, it still is. But now that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appears to be headed to Washington, Senator Bernie Sanders will likely have some powerful company. Today, Sanders is Dan's guest, and they're talking about the impact of Ocasio-Cortez's victory and where the Left goes from here. This is the latest interview in this week's Ocasio-Cortez super series, which has already included interviews with Ocasio-Cortez and Cynthia Nixon. Next up is DSA member Julia Salazar, who is running for state senate in Brooklyn.

Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Cynthia Nixon on Challenging Cuomo in Wake of Ocasio-Cortez Win.

Tue, 10 Jul 2018 16:25:00 -0000

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's victory should make New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a larger-than-life bully and ideologically-chameleon Democrat, very afraid. He faces a challenge from Dan's guest today, Cynthia Nixon, who has spent the years after her time on Sex in the City organizing for public education. After what happened to Joe Crowley, the left is more energized than ever. And what once appeared to be a long-shot attack on the king of New York politics now appears like it might just hit its target. This is the second episode in this week's super series on left electoral politics in the wake of Ocasio-Cortez's stunning win.

Thanks to Verso. Check out Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity

Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Winning Power

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 23:29:04 -0000

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

And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: AMLO Shatters Mexican Establishment

Sat, 07 Jul 2018 18:23:50 -0000

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

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

The Dig: The Italian Left’s Collapse with David Broder

Tue, 03 Jul 2018 21:04:16 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio: Our Squeezed, Post-Recession Lives

Mon, 02 Jul 2018 20:42:00 -0000

Suzi talks to Joel Jordan and then Alissa Quart, who in different ways are both looking at our squeezed post-recession lives and the fight to win or win back a decent standard of living. Longtime teacher and teacher-union strategist Joel Jordan joins us to talk about the spectacular mass strikes of the red-state teachers — and draw comparisons with the worsening conditions for teachers in California. Then, Suzi seapks with Alissa Quart about her new book, Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America,which tells the stories of the financial instability — and downward mobility — of what she calls the "middle precariat": highly educated but insecure, so-called middle-class Americans who can barely afford to raise children and meet expenses.

The Dig: The Trump Doctrine and Its Mandarin Detractors

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 02:37:58 -0000

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

The Dig: Whither White Ethnics with Matthew Frye Jacobson

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 04:19:43 -0000

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.

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

The Dig: Child Casualties of the Border War

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 04:02:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: David Harvey on Capital

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 16:08:00 -0000

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.

And support this podcast with $$ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig.

Jacobin Radio: David Graeber on Bullshit Jobs

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 16:32:45 -0000

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 Dig: Naomi Klein and Mercedes Martínez on The Battle for Puerto Rico

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 03:45:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Spain Part II, Rajoy Falls

Sun, 10 Jun 2018 05:48:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Democracy in Chains with Nancy MacLean

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 03:07:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: 1968 with Tariq Ali

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 18:15:46 -0000

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.

The Dig: Two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal

Sat, 02 Jun 2018 12:29:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Left Out of Spain’s National Question

Wed, 30 May 2018 13:53:00 -0000

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 Dig: Resisting the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Sun, 27 May 2018 14:38:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Telling a New Story with George Monbiot

Wed, 23 May 2018 09:29:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio: No Way Back For Gaza

Mon, 21 May 2018 18:21:46 -0000

Author and activist Mark LeVine on the recent horrific events in Gaza and Jerusalem, which he sees as a point of no return. LeVine interprets Zionism's fundamental nature and history as one of settler colonialism, and he explains why he thinks resistance to Zionism around the world, both by Jews and non-Jews, is in the process of transforming itself and taking off.

Behind the News: Declining Health; Anticommunism

Mon, 21 May 2018 18:14:00 -0000

The Brookings Institute's Carol Graham (papers here, here, and here) on failing health and declining prospects among poor white people in the United States. Then, Kristen Ghodsee, co-author of this article, on the vile uses of anticommunism.

The Dig: Free Palestine with Noura Erakat

Fri, 18 May 2018 18:15:00 -0000

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 Dig: The Law in Its Majestic Equality

Wed, 16 May 2018 03:21:00 -0000

“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!

Behind the News: Venezuela; the Making of American Political Science

Mon, 14 May 2018 16:50:46 -0000

Historian Alejandro Velasco sorts fact from fiction when it comes to contemporary Venezuela. Then, Jessica Blatt, author of Race and the Making of American Political Science, on the racist origins of the discipline.

The Dig: Policing Poor Black Families with Dorothy Roberts

Sat, 12 May 2018 18:12:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Struggle and the State

Wed, 09 May 2018 04:02:00 -0000

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!

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Educators' Strikes and Left Foreign Policy

Mon, 07 May 2018 20:14:59 -0000

Suzi talks to veteran union negotiator and labor writer Joe Burns about the teachers strike wave from West Virginia to Arizona — and about how public-sector workers and teachers are reviving the most powerful weapon in the working class arsenal: the strike. Then, Daniel Bessner joins Suzi in conversation about his new book Democracy in Exile —and the rise of intellectuals in foreign-policy institutions and think tanks with all their anti-democratic implications, how Trump represents a continuation rather than a break in the history of US foreign policy, the rise of intellectuals in foreign-policy institutions — as well as what a left foreign policy might look like.

The Dig: Bernie, Krasner, Keeanga, and Premal

Sat, 05 May 2018 14:46:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: The Right to Have Rights Part II

Fri, 04 May 2018 13:32:36 -0000

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

The Dig: The Right to Have Rights Part I

Wed, 02 May 2018 03:45:00 -0000

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

The Dig: Comey Liberal Cop Fetish

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 20:08:46 -0000

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

The Dig: Radicalizing Jackson with Chokwe Antar Lumumba

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 03:45:00 -0000

It's yet the latest installment in our ongoing series on the Left and electoral politics. Dan’s guest is Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. Last year, Mayor Lumumba pledged to make Jackson "the most radical city on the planet." Lumumba, who comes out of a decades-old revolutionary black nationalist movement, is serious about that. But he also faces challenges: Jackson is a majority black city which, like many such cities, has much of its wealth appropriated by its largely white suburbs. The human and infrastructural needs are enormous, and the tax base is thin. This is precisely why so many on the Left have found what's going on in Jackson to be so interesting, and why Dan was eager to invite the mayor onto the show.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism by Nisha Kapoor versobooks.com/books/2551-deport-deprive-extradite and 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 at Patreon.com/TheDig!

Behind the News: Teachers' Strikes and Zombie Liberalism

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 20:30:00 -0000

The CUNY Grad Center's Kate Doyle Griffiths on teachers’ strikes and the crisis in social reproduction. Then, Thea Riofrancos and Daniel Denvir join to discuss Yascha Mounck and zombie liberalism (their review is here).

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: David Harvey on Marx Today

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 17:29:00 -0000

This week on Jacobin Radio, Suzi discusses the relevance of Marx for our present moment with anthropologist and Marxist geographer David Harvey. Harvey's newest book, Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason,explicates the core of Marx's thinking in the three volumes of Capital, and in less than 200 pages, Harvey develops those ideas so we all can use them to grasp what's going on in the capitalist economy today.

The Dig: These Primary Colors Don’t Run with Dave Weigel

Sat, 21 Apr 2018 16:01:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: DSA at the Ballot Box

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 02:08:00 -0000

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!

Behind the News: Winnie Mandela; Colombian Election

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 19:49:06 -0000

Sean Jacobs, founder of Africa Is A Country, joins Doug to discuss Winnie Mandela’s legacy. Then, Forrest Hylton talks about Colombian politics in the run-up to May’s presidential election.

The Dig: Petro-Imperialism with Timothy Mitchell Part II

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 02:24:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Petro-Capitalism with Timothy Mitchell Part I

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 03:40:00 -0000

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.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Walmart Workers

Mon, 09 Apr 2018 16:45:00 -0000

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,and how 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.

The Dig: Reviving Resistance to Empire with Aziz Rana

Sat, 07 Apr 2018 21:37:00 -0000

It’s our 100th episode and the launch of our spring fundraising drive! Aziz Rana returns to The Dig fifteen years after the invasion of Iraq to reflect on the paucity of substantive anti-imperialist politics across much of the American left. Socialism isn’t just an internationalist politics on principle: domestic and foreign struggles are inherently linked, just as the forces we struggle against are globally intertwined — and the latter benefit from perpetuating an ideology that artificially divides the two. But for decades, a bipartisan consensus has governed foreign policy, to disastrous ends. Why, Rana asks, is there no foreign policy equivalent to the new left-wing domestic policy litmus test on single-payer health care? Check out Aziz’s n+1 article here: nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-lefts-missing-foreign-policy. Thanks to our supporters at 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 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!

The Dig: Student-Debt Capitalism

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 03:30:00 -0000

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

The Dig: No Human Being Is Illegal with Mae Ngai

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 03:45:00 -0000

Many Americans take the existence of so-called "illegal immigrants" for granted, whatever their opinion of the matter. But illegality isn't a property of immigrants; rather, it's a creation of positive law. And we can only understand how immigrants are declared "illegal" by the government by examining this country's too-often ignored history of racist and exclusionary immigration politics. Dan’s guest today is Mae Ngai, an historian at Columbia and the author of Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing and Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Behind the News: Strikes, Strikes, and More Strikes

Tue, 27 Mar 2018 17:55:39 -0000

Education reporter and host of Have You Heard? Jennifer Berkshire on teachers’ strikes, in West Virginia and beyond. Then, Forbes contributor Stan Collender on fiscal follies in Washington, D.C.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Brazilian Upheaval

Tue, 27 Mar 2018 17:27:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Real Sanctuary Means Ending Mass Policing with Kade Crockford

Sun, 25 Mar 2018 15:15:00 -0000

Perhaps nothing has more defined the monstrosity of Donald Trump than his racist demonization and targeting of immigrants from Mexico, Muslim-majority countries, and those nations he deems "shitholes." But what's seldom reported is that one of the key mechanisms the administration has used to target immigrants was rolled out under Barack Obama. It's called Secure Communities, and it's the culmination of decades of policy-making and politicking that have intertwined the US systems of mass incarceration and immigrant enforcement — facilitating the growth of both. To fight both mass deportation and mass incarceration, localities and states must move beyond what's currently defined as sanctuary, as a new report by Kade Crockford from the Century Foundation and ACLU of Massachusetts argues: tcf.org/content/report/beyond-sanctuary. Also: Check out Dan’s essay on Trump’s proposal to execute drug dealers: slate.com/technology/2018/03/trumps-call-to-execute-drug-dealers-is-a-natural-progression-of-american-policy.html. And 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 also Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art.

The Dig: MLK, Political Philosopher

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 13:10:00 -0000

Tommie Shelby and Brandon M. Terry talk about their new book, To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. King is often remembered for his soaring oratory. But the commonplace emphasis on his rhetoric in place of his ideas too often allows enemies of King's agenda to domesticate him or, worse, to weaponize his out-of-context words to bolster the very forces of racism and oppression that King struggled to defeat. Shelby and Terry talk about King’s theory of nonviolence (more complicated than you might think), his debate with the Black Power movement, and his thinking on gender, hope, political economy, Beloved Community, and more. 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 Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Behind the News: What's Wrong With UBI, and Xi Jinping's Presidency for Life

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 20:37:20 -0000

John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty on what’s wrong with a universal basic income (UBI), a proposal that's become increasingly popular among part of the Left and the Right. Then, Isabel Hilton of ChinaDialogue.net on Xi Jinping’s becoming China’s president for life.

The Dig: Lamb Is Not Enough. Three Leftist Women Run in PA

Sat, 17 Mar 2018 17:03:00 -0000

Democrat Conor Lamb's victory is a rebuke of Republicans. But Lamb is far from an ideal candidate, and so the race also raises a perennial debate between the left and liberal center over what kind of alternative to the Republican right we need. Dan’s guests are Elizabeth Fiedler, Sara Inammorato, and Summer Lee, three leftist women running for state rep in Pennsylvania — all three DSA members endorsed by their local chapters. Other stuff: Patrick Blanchfield’s article on guns and neoliberalism discussed last week is here splinternews.com/the-market-cant-solve-a-massacre-1823745509 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 Police: A Field Guide versobooks.com/books/2530-police. Support us with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Teacher Strikes and Trump v. California

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:41:00 -0000

Are we on the cusp of a new wave of worker militancy? We talk to Rebecca Cohen and Shaun Richman about the victory of West Virginia teachers (and public sector workers) and the coming Oklahoma strike as they set a date to go the West Virginia way — at the same time that the Supreme Court is likely to further weaken public sector unions with the Janus v. AFSCME decision. Shaun and Rebecca talk about the possible unintended consequences that ruling could bring about. Then Dean of Boalt Law School (UC Berkeley) and constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky joins us to untangle the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the state of California over three state laws the California legislature has passed to ensure that the state isn’t complicit with the Trump administration’s use of ICE raids, detention, and deportation — which the state sees as unconstitutional and “un-American.”

The Dig: the State of Labor with Sarah Jaffe and Gabriel Winant

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 03:30:00 -0000

In West Virginia, a focal point of Trump-era liberal armchair ethnography, teachers have won a historic state-wide strike just as the Supreme Court is poised to rule in Janus, a case that will mark the culmination of a long right-wing effort to gut public sector unions. It's a scary time — but maybe, just maybe, also an exciting one. Dan’s guests today are Sarah Jaffe, Nation Institute fellow and author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, and labor historian Gabriel Winant. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out The Right to Have Rights by Stephanie DeGooyer, Alastair Hunt, Lida Maxwell, Samuel Moyn and Astra Taylor versobooks.com/books/2424-the-right-to-have-rights and Greece and the Reinvention of Politics by Alain Badiou versobooks.com/books/2560-greece-and-the-reinvention-of-politics. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

The Dig: Gun Culture is Neoliberalism with Patrick Blanchfield

Fri, 09 Mar 2018 22:54:00 -0000

Neoliberal culture expects little from government and everything from plucky individuals — including, apparently, the self-sacrificing courage to charge an AR-15 wielding gunman while your classmates cower behind bulletproof backpacks. Writer Patrick Blanchfield returns to the show to discuss his recent essays on guns for New York magazine (forthcoming) and The Intercept (theintercept.com/2018/02/28/parkland-florida-school-shootings-arming-teachers). 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 support this podcast with $ at Patreon.com/TheDig!

The Dig: Gun Culture and Masculinity in an Age of Decline

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 04:45:00 -0000

How does gun culture get built from the ground up? What are the everyday politics of guns? Sociologist Jennifer Carlson does ethnographic fieldwork that provides answers to these questions, showing how men see guns as a way to be a protector in a time of economic precocity and how the NRA’s massive training operation helps shape the racialized identity of “citizen protectors” defending “sheeple” against the “wolves.” Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out The Right to Have Rights by Stephanie DeGooyer, Alastair Hunt, Lida Maxwell, Samuel Moyn and Astra Taylor versobooks.com/books/2424-the-right-to-have-rights and Greece and the Reinvention of Politics by Alain Badiou versobooks.com/books/2560-greece-and-the-reinvention-of-politics. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Behind the News: Liza Featherstone on the Meaning of the Focus Group

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:07:15 -0000

Liza Featherstone, author of Divining Desire, on the history and meaning of focus groups [disclosure alert: Featherstone is the host’s wife].

The Dig: Nomiki Konst on the Fight Inside the Democratic Party

Fri, 02 Mar 2018 20:45:00 -0000

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.

The Dig: Glenn Greenwald on Surveillance Hypocrisy Amid Russiagate Mania

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 04:45:00 -0000

Did the "Woke Blacks" Instagram account really cost Clinton the election? Glenn Greenwald returns to the show to ask basic but rarely asked questions about the troll army’s presumed efficacy, explain his often mischaracterized position on Russiagate, and call out Republicans and Democrats for hypocritically supporting unfettered power for national security state surveillance. Thanks to Verso and University of California Press. Check out The Right to Have Rights by Stephanie DeGooyer, Alastair Hunt, Lida Maxwell, Samuel Moyn, and Astra Taylor and The Progress of This Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World by Andreas Malm at versobooks.com Check out Miller's Children: Why Giving Teenage Killers a Second Chance Matters for All of Us by James Garbarino at ucpress.edu Support this podcast with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Robert Brenner on the Economy

Wed, 21 Feb 2018 16:08:44 -0000

On this “podcast-versary” of the premiere of Jacobin Radio – one year since her first podcast, Suzi Weissman invites Robert Brenner back for another extended conversation on the state of the economy, especially given the dramatic plunges of the stock market, the wage and inflation reports, Trump tax cuts, and the proposed infrastructure plan. Robert Brenner is Professor of History at UCLA, co-editor of Catalyst, Director of the Center for Social Theory and Contemporary History (CSTCH) and author of many books including The Economics of Global Turbulence.

The Dig: It’s Iron Stache

Wed, 21 Feb 2018 04:45:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Aziz Rana on the Cold War’s Late Demise

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 21:43:00 -0000

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!

Behind the News: The Right on the Offense

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:40:17 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Our Chaotic, Militarized Present

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:38:55 -0000

Doug Henwood on stock market madness (longer version is here). Then Yasha Levine, author of Surveillance Valley, joins Doug to talk about the military and intelligence roots of the internet, which live on today (hi NSA!).

The Dig: Frances Fox Piven on Why Movements Matter

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 15:37:00 -0000

Four decades ago, Frances Fox Piven and her husband Richard Cloward published Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail, a classic, clear-eyed analysis of just what the title suggests. Piven, a legendary scholar and activist, talks to Dan about her life, Occupy, Bernie, the Democratic Party, anti-war movements, black bloc, mass incarceration, and more. (Also: Dan’s voice sounds a little different because he had to record in a different room.) Thanks to Verso Books and University of California Press. Check out The Great Cowboy Strike: Bullets, Ballots and Class Conflicts in the American West by Mark A. Lause versobooks.com/books/2592-the-great-cowboy-strike and Chicago on the Make: Power and Inequality in a Modern City by Andrew J. Diamond ucpress.edu/ebook.php?isbn=9780520961715.

The Dig: Baltimore’s Crisis Continues with Lester Spence

Sat, 03 Feb 2018 19:56:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: Building an American Empire with Paul Frymer

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 04:48:00 -0000

We are living on land from which indigenous people, over hundreds of years, have been violently removed. Almost everyone knows this — yet it’s rarely mentioned in stories that Americans tell themselves about who we are as a country and how we got here. Dan’s guest is Paul Frymer, a professor of politics and director of the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. In his recent book, Building an American Empire: The Era of Territorial and Political Expansion, he provides a close study of the empire America built in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth century, a project of geographic expansion facilitated and also limited by the demands of racial engineering. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out The Great Cowboy Strike: Bullets, Ballots and Class Conflicts in the American West by Mark A. Lause versobooks.com/books/2592-the-great-cowboy-strike. And from University of California Press, Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us about the World by Isa Blumi ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520296145!

Behind the News: Trump and the Global Left; Feminism and Economics

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 15:21:00 -0000

Author Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College, on Syria, Trump, and the state of the global left. Then, Jennifer Cohen, assistant professor of international studies at Miami University, joins the show to discuss feminism and economics, and a recent article in the New York Times.

The Dig: Why Democrats Fought Then Folded on DACA with Jeff Stein

Thu, 25 Jan 2018 23:14:00 -0000

Excitement that Democrats had developed a spine in the fight for Dreamers reverted to familiar despondency and fury when they capitulated and voted to reopen the government on Monday. Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein offers his analysis of the role that the media and the Democratic Party’s right flank played in pushing senators to fold. This interview was recorded Tuesday and posted early because things are moving fast.Thanks to Verso Books for their support. Check out Europe’s Fault Lines: Racism and the Rise of the Right by Liz Fekete versobooks.com/books/2555-europe-s-fault-lines. And please support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

The Dig: The Militant '70s Labor Movement You Never Heard Of

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 14:18:00 -0000

Everyone agrees that the 1970s were the beginning of the end of capitalism as we had known it since the New Deal. But historian Lane Windham makes it clear that it wasn’t for a lack of worker struggle in her new book, Knocking on Labor’s Door: Union Organizing in the 1970s and the Roots of a New Economic Divide. In case studies of union fights in department stores, shipyards, offices, and textile mills, Windham explains that women and workers of color seized the civil rights victories of the 1960s to fight for economic rights in the '70s. Thank you to Verso and University of California Press. Check out The Age of Jihad: Islamic State and the Great War for the Middle East by Patrick Cockburn versobooks.com/books/2518-the-age-of-jihad and Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520295711 Support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Behind the News: Sandra Cuffe, Alexander Main, and Janet Capron

Mon, 22 Jan 2018 16:54:54 -0000

Journalist Sandra Cuffe on Honduras after a stolen election and waves of official violence. Alexander Main, Senior Associate of International Policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, on US policy towards Latin America under Trump. Then, Janet Capron, author of Blue Money, on drugs and sex work in 1970s New York City.

The Dig: Workers' Rights Are Students' Rights

Fri, 19 Jan 2018 21:50:52 -0000

Student workers at Rutgers University are fighting for $15 an hour. Undergraduate history major and dining-hall worker Danny Taylor of @RutgersUSAS talks about their struggle. 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/books/2535-alt-america, and support this podcast with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig! Also: Jacobin has published a transcription of Dan's interview with the Fields sisters jacobinmag.com/2018/01/racecraft-racism-barbara-karen-fields

The Dig: A New Poor People’s Campaign with Nijmie Dzurinko

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 04:30:00 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Iranian Uprising

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 14:55:20 -0000

Suzi talks to UCLA sociologist and Iran expert Kevan Harris about the massive uprising that began in Iran at the end of December and quickly spread to every corner of the country. Persistent poverty and inequality are driving discontent, but Harris says that isn't the whole story. Suzi then talks to economist Dean Baker from the Center for Economic Research, who has some innovative ideas about how California can get around the tax-cut plan passed by the Republicans, which directly targets California and other so-called high tax states that also have relatively decent public services. She also asks Baker about the state of the economy, unemployment and wage growth, whether we’re in a new bubble, and why the media does such a bad job informing the public on economic issues.

The Dig: That Trump Book Tho with Patrick Blanchfield

Sat, 13 Jan 2018 20:51:13 -0000

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

The Dig: Killing the Black Body with Dorothy Roberts

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 04:30:00 -0000

Chattel slavery made black women’s reproduction the source of private property — and in doing so, invented race and American racism. Ever since, the denigration and regulation of black women’s childbearing has been central to the construction of white supremacy and the exploitative economic order that it protects, as scholar Dorothy Roberts explained in Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, a pivotal book first published in 1997. In this episode, Roberts talks about the book and what lessons it holds today as Trump and Republicans seek to destroy yet more of the social safety net and use racism as a smokescreen to distract white Americans from their class war against working people. Thanks to Verso Books for their support. Check out Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art. And please support The Dig with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Behind the News: What Social Reproduction Theory Offers Us

Mon, 08 Jan 2018 15:07:42 -0000

Professor Tithi Bhattacharya, editor of Social Reproduction Theory on capitalism, Marxism, feminism, and society. Social reproduction theory is a type of socialist feminist analysis of the connection between worker and society, with particular attention paid to the family and household as critical units for the reproduction of society. While this can sound abstract, social reproduction theory has a lot to contribute to today's most pressing issues, from social security reform to the #MeToo movement.

The Dig: Troop Veneration and US Empire with Catherine Lutz

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 03:18:00 -0000

The protest movement against the onset of the Iraq War was countered by a call to “support our troops” from militarists on the Right. But venerating American soldiers is not about supporting actual American soldiers; it's a rhetorical device to preclude questioning or criticism of the wars they are sent to fight. In a face-to-face interview at Brown University’s Watson Institute, anthropologist Catherine Lutz discusses John Kelly’s recent diatribe, Khizr Khan, Trump’s attack on protesting NFL players, and the roots of it all in the Nixon administration’s response to GI rebellion against the Vietnam War. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System by Wolfgang Streeck versobooks.com/books/2519-how-will-capitalism-end And support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Bhaskar Sunkara on the Bolsheviks

Wed, 27 Dec 2017 06:15:00 -0000

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.

Behind the News: Yanis Varoufakis on the Need for a Progressive Internationalism

Fri, 22 Dec 2017 18:08:00 -0000

Doug Henwood explains the bitcoin craze, and then ex-finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis ties up some loose ends on Adults in the Room, and discusses the need for a progressive internationalism.

The Dig: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Recovering Identity Politics from Neoliberalism

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 04:30:00 -0000

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor returns to The Dig to discuss her new book How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Forty years ago, a group of black feminists coined the term “identity politics” in the Combahee River Collective Statement. For them, it was a way to identify the various ways that capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and homophobia created a set of interlocking oppressions. And the point of identifying how those systems operated together was not to create an itemized politics of particularity, as is too often the case today, but rather to create a framework for solidarity. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out Futures of Black Radicalism and support this podcast with $ at Patreon.com/TheDig.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Media and Democracy

Mon, 18 Dec 2017 15:58:06 -0000

Journalists Robert Scheer, and Marc Cooper join Suzi Weissman in a wide-ranging discussion on "Media and Democracy: From the Vietnam War to the Consolidation of Alternative Facts in the Digital Era," that was recently held at the REDCAT theater in Los Angeles. Suzi Weissman looks at what was behind the social conflicts of the 1960s and the present. Robert Scheer, renowned journalist and former editor of Ramparts, tells the story of Ramparts and provides an inside look at how the war was conducted, including the widespread secrecy and surveillance of the FBI in an attempt to crush dissent. Journalist Marc Cooper looks at media delivery in the present digital era of democratized information that has introduced new potential as well as new dangers.

The Dig: Revisiting Racecraft with Barbara and Karen Fields

Wed, 13 Dec 2017 14:32:00 -0000

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!

The Dig: The Destruction of Black Wealth with Ryan Cooper

Sat, 09 Dec 2017 04:49:00 -0000

Journalist Ryan Cooper talks about the new paper he wrote with Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, a new left-wing think tank. "Foreclosed: Destruction of Black Wealth During the Obama Presidency" details how the Wall Street-induced foreclosure epidemic wiped out huge swaths of black wealth — and how Obama could have taken multiple actions to save most homes but did not. Check out the report and this article about it. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy by Lynne Segal. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig.

The Dig: Peace Can Happen in Korea with Tim Shorrock

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 04:30:00 -0000

The prospect of nuclear war with North Korea sits near the top of the list of things that have been unthinkably bad about Donald Trump’s presidency. But the conflict with North Korea didn’t begin with Trump. It’s critical that we understand the Koreas and their historical context right now. Journalist Tim Shorrock breaks it all down — North Korea, South Korea, the role of the US, and others — from World War II to the present. And he argues that peace is possible, but it can only achieved through engagement between North and South, not through bellicose US intervention. Thanks to Verso Books for their support. Check out Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of WWI to the Streets of Today by Anna Feigenbaum at versobooks.com/books/2109-tear-gas. And please support us with $ at Patreon.com/TheDig.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Neoliberalism on Steroids

Mon, 04 Dec 2017 16:27:00 -0000

Author and economist Dr. Jack Rasmus dissects the Trump/Ryan/McConnell Tax (Cut) Plan, that he says will only increase financial instability and economic fragility. It is neoliberalism on steroids. Then, Professor Victor Pickard discusses FCC Chair Ajit Pai's intention to repeal net neutrality protections that will threaten public access to information by limiting content and speed. He's hopeful that massive resistance can push back against this radical corporate agenda.

Behind the News: Corey Robin on the Right from Burke to Trump

Mon, 04 Dec 2017 16:08:22 -0000

Corey Robin, whose The Reactionary Mind has just been issued in an updated edition, on the Right from Burke to Trump. While most people on the Left fear and demonize the Right, they aren't interested in its ideas. Robin, however, takes them very seriously and analyzes their ideas for us.

The Dig: Clintonism's Dreadful Legacy with Robert Reich

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 23:03:17 -0000

Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary, explains one of Clintonism’s most dreadful results: President Trump. The new film Saving Capitalism, available on Netflix, is Reich’s quasi-autobiographical documentary about the origins of contemporary political-economic inequality. The premise that capitalism ought to be saved notwithstanding, Reich offers firsthand insight into Clinton’s rightward rush into the arms of Corporate America. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy by Lynne Segal versobooks.com/books/2576-radical-happiness And support us with your $ at Patreon.com/TheDig. We can’t do it without you.

The Dig: The Origins of the Opioid Crisis with Leo Beletsky

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 04:30:00 -0000

The drug war is a cause of, not solution to, the overdose crisis. Law and public health scholar @LeoBeletsky explains the origins of the opioid overdose crisis and how drug prohibition, policing, interdiction and incarceration are at its root — and continue to help make opioid use so deadly. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot versobooks.com/books/2571-out-of-the-wreckage Support us with your $ at Patreon.com/TheDig. We can’t do this without our listeners!

The Dig: Bonus Episode, Alex Vitale v. Heather Mac Donald

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 03:08:00 -0000

We’ve got a bonus episode for you today, which is audio from a debate between Alex Vitale — a recent guest on this show, sociologist and author of The End of Policing — and Heather Mac Donald, one of the leading intellectual champions of urban neoconservativism, over-policing, and mass incarceration at the Manhattan Institute. In a short intro, Dan explains why he’s rooting for one of these two individuals and why that person decisively wins. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. We work really hard and don’t paywall a thing: support this podcast with $ at Patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: Kristen Ghodsee on Post-Communist Eastern Europe

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 14:53:10 -0000

Ethnographer Kristen Ghodsee returns to the show to discuss Red Hangover, her new book on the traumas of post-Communist life in Eastern Europe. Unique for an academic text, the book is a series of essays with fictional sketches that evoke the complexities of life under Communism and the poverty and displacement that came with its demise.

The Dig: A Monstrous Tax Plan That Might Fail with Arthur Delaney

Fri, 24 Nov 2017 18:41:45 -0000

The GOP tax plan is a monstrous giveaway to corporate America but it might not pass thanks to the same contradictions within the Republican coalition that repeatedly sunk efforts to repeal Obamacare, as journalist @ArthurDelaneyHP explains. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change by Ashley Dawson versobooks.com/books/2558-extreme-cities Support us with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: The Reality of Central American Migration with Noelle Brigden

Wed, 22 Nov 2017 04:30:00 -0000

Trump's demagogic rhetoric on MS-13 is designed to obscure the truth about the reality and origins of mass Central American migration: the roots of migration from Central America lie in significant part in the violence unleashed by US-backed dirty wars and deportations of alleged gang members. The demonization of Central American gangs functions to distract the public from US complicity and legitimate a cruel deportation machine. Dan's guest, political scientist Noelle Brigden, has spent years researching on the migrant trail. For more background, check out Dan's Washington Post op-ed washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/07/20/deporting-people-made-central-americas-gangs-more-deportation-wont-help Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move by Reece Jones. And please hook us up with some $ at patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: An Autopsy on the Democratic Party; Sexual Harassment and Inequality

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 18:18:00 -0000

Norman Solomon on the findings of a recently released report he co-authored, "Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis." It examines the continuing crises within the Democratic Party with the aim of stimulating a nationwide discussion and a stimulus for action of the kind that challenges the nature of the party. Then, Guardian columnist Alissa Quart on her recent article, "What's the common denominator among sexual harassers? Too often, it's money," which looks at sexual harassment's roots in inequality and power imbalances.

The Dig: DSA Kicking Ass with Lee Carter and David Duhalde

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 21:40:00 -0000

Last week was a bad week for Republicans and a good week for Democrats — and for democratic socialists. It’s now pretty clear that Republicans will pay a price for the fact that large numbers of Americans detest our dotard-in-chief. But last week’s election once again fails to offer any sort of definitive answer to the long-running debate between the Left and the corporate Democratic establishment over who is best poised to beat Republicans. The coming anti-Republican wave is an opportunity that the Left must seize. Dan's guests are DSA member Lee Carter, who took out the Republican whip to win Virginia’s 50th House District, and David Duhalde, DSA’s Deputy Director. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out Age of Folly: America Abandons Its Democracy by Lewis H. Lapham versobooks.com/books/2517-age-of-folly Also, support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: From Offshore Wealth Rackets to Municipal Socialism

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 15:40:00 -0000

Brooke Harrington, author of Capital Without Borders, on the offshore wealth racket and the Paradise Papers. Then Kali Akuno, co-editor of Jackson Rising and a co-founder of Cooperation Jackson, on building a green municipal socialism in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Dig: A History of Human Caging with Kelly Lytle Hernández

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 04:30:00 -0000

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/2571-out-of-the-wreckage Support us with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig.

The Dig: Don't Criminalize Sex Work with Melissa Gira Grant

Sat, 11 Nov 2017 02:12:37 -0000

Journalist @melissagira eviscerates a newspaper investigation that conflates sex work with trafficking. She examines how reporters unwittingly fall into a savior complex, which ends up criminalizing workers in the name of defending women's dignity. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out Futures of Black Radicalism https://www.versobooks.com/books/2438-futures-of-black-radicalism. And support us on Patreon.com/TheDig with some cash.

Behind the News: Rich People Problems

Fri, 10 Nov 2017 22:16:08 -0000

The Intercept's Ryan Grim on the the state of the GOP, which despite recent losses in this week's elections, controls all three branches of the federal government and is currently trying to pass a tax bill. Then, Rachel Sherman, author of Uneasy Street, on the consciousness of the rich.

Behind the News: McMansion Hell and Genteel Neo-Nazis

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 13:15:00 -0000

Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell on those abominable things dotting the American landscape. Then, Donna Minkowitz, author of this article, reports on her visit to the genteel white supremacists of AmRen.

The Dig: The Hollow Center with Molly Ball and Eric Levitz

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 04:30:00 -0000

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/2501-grand-hotel-abyss Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Keeping Up with Catalonia and Democratic Party Debates

Mon, 06 Nov 2017 15:14:01 -0000

Writer and author Andy Durgan discusses the fast-moving events taking place in Catalonia. This past week, Catalonia declared independence, and the Spanish government is moving quickly to repress the independence movement's political leaders and keep the region within its fold. Then, journalist Michael Sainato joins Suzi to talk about the post-2016 election fights within the Democratic Party, and what they mean for the next wave of election cycles.

The Dig: Policing for the Market with Brenden Beck

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 20:03:25 -0000

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/2426-the-end-of-policing Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Universalizing American Liberty with Aziz Rana

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 03:30:00 -0000

Aziz Rana discusses his pivotal book, The Two Faces of American Freedom. Rana overturns conventional accounts of American history, from settlement and Revolution to the Populists and the present day. In reality, settler-colonialism, empire, and a brutally exploitative economic system grounded in racial subjugation have always been at the core of the American project. But radical thinkers and movements have consistently stepped forward at critical junctures to propose transformative alternatives that would make American freedom universal. Rana's most brilliant move is to ultimately make a devastatingly critical account of American history hopeful and optimistic. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump versobooks.com/books/ />2535-alt-america Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

Behind the News: The Far Right Rises in Austria; A Hybrid Argument Against Rent-Seeking

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 13:57:54 -0000

Benjamin Opratko, a fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin who teaches at the University of Vienna, on the rise of the far right in Austria. On Sunday, October 16, Austria held elections, and the two right-wing parties will form a government (you can read Opratko's Jacobinarticles for more on this subject). Then Steven Teles, author of The Captured Economy, launches a hybrid "liberalitarian" attack on rent-seeking.

The Dig: Alex Press on Collective Action to Fight Sexual Harassment

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 17:42:00 -0000

The exposure of Weinstein's predations has reignited widespread fury over the longstanding problem of sexual harassment and assault—especially in the workplace. Jacobin editor @alexnpress discusses two new pieces she wrote on how dealing with these problems as individuals only ends up harming individual women and why women must organize to fight back. Support us on Patreon.com/TheDig with some cash.

The Dig: Trump's Reactionary Mind with Corey Robin

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 03:20:00 -0000

Corey Robin points to a tension that has defined conservatism from the get-go, between two competing conceptions of virtue and nobility: one defined by political and military distinction and another by entrepreneurial acumen and accumulated wealth. Robin parses how Trump fits into this dynamic history, in part by taking a look back to seminal conservative thinkers like Edmund Burke and Friedrich Hayek. Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig Listen to Dan's first interview with Corey: blubrry.com/thedig/22226639/corey-robin-on-the-reactionaries-minds-under-trump/

The Dig Bonus: Ending the War on Drug Dealers

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 18:44:00 -0000

Dan was on a panel last week on ending the war on drug dealers at the Drug Policy Alliance conference in Atlanta. The panel was moderated by asha bandele and included Daryl Atkinson, Constanza Sánchez Avilé, Lyn Ulbrich, Kemba Smith and Dan. Thanks for listening. Support us at patreon.com/TheDig.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: One Hundred Years Since October

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 16:55:27 -0000

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.

Behind the News: From the Chinese Communist Party Congress to US Policing

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 14:22:14 -0000

Isabel Hilton, editor of ChinaDialogue.net, discusses recent developments at the Chinese Communist Party Congress. Then, Doug is joined by Alex Vitale, author The End of Policing, who addresses how we cure ourselves of the cop sickness.

The Dig: Let's Elect Left Candidates with Joe Dinkin

Fri, 20 Oct 2017 18:53:00 -0000

Since Bernie Sanders's success in the 2016 Democratic primary, much of the Left, from progressive Democrats to socialists, has had its sights set on something we had long at least implicitly assumed was impossible: state power and governing. The question now is how to take power, and the Left is consumed by debates over how and whether to engage with the Democratic Party or, in a more limited fashion, with the Democratic Party's ballot line. Joe Dinkin of the Working Families Party talks to Dan about the promise and pitfalls of fighting within the Democratic Party. Support us at Patreon.com/thedig.

The Dig: We must end policing as we know it with Alex Vitale

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 03:25:14 -0000

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/ />books/2535-alt-america Support us with your $$ at patreon.com/thedig

Behind the News: Yanis Varoufakis on Adults in the Room.

Fri, 13 Oct 2017 14:34:28 -0000

An extended interview with former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis on his new book, Adults in the Room, the story of his surreal negotiations with Greece’s creditors

The Dig: Matt Christman Rants, Raves, and Ruminates.

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 14:32:20 -0000

Chapo went on The Dig. Dan talks to@cushbombabout optimism, pessimism, Manitowoc, reptilians, why the internet might be mostly bad, and Dan’s personal connection to the PizzaGate coverup. Toss us some cash love atPatreon.com/thedigand check outThe End of Policing by Alex Vitale, from our sponsors at Verso Books.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Democracy in the Twenty-First Century

Tue, 10 Oct 2017 18:42:35 -0000

Suzi Weissman talks toEinde 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?

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The Dig: Let's Keep the Political Revolution In Motion with Nina Turner

Fri, 06 Oct 2017 19:06:19 -0000

Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner talks about being horrified by Trump, why single-payer is suddenly hot among likely 2020 Democratic contenders, and the work that Our Revolution is doing nationwide to fight the Democratic Party's neoliberal leadership. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books, who just published Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot. Also, catch me in Atlanta at the International Drug Policy Reform conference on October 14.

The Dig: Beware Carceral Gun Control

Fri, 06 Oct 2017 19:04:00 -0000

Prevailing debate obscures the fact that we already have a form of gun control in the United States. As legal scholar Ben Levin explains, the problem is that it’s a form of gun control that is mostly about locking up poor black men in huge numbers. The Left should demand a society without readily available weapons of war on the streets and a society without mass incarceration. Thanks to our supporters at University of California Press. Check out their new title Race and America's Long War from Nikhil Pal Singh. And check out Dan's Jacobin article on carceral gun control here. Also, catch Dan in Atlanta at the International Drug Policy Reform conference on October 14.

Behind the News: Politics from Germany to Puerto Rico to Today's Punk Scene

Fri, 06 Oct 2017 14:04:00 -0000

First, author Joel Schalit explores the rise of the right in Germany. Then, Professor Marisol LeBrón talks about the role of debt and austerity in impairing Puerto Rico's hurricane recovery. And finally, Shawna Potter of the band War on Women, on being a feminist punk rocker.

The Dig: Bonus Episode with Larry Krasner's Full Interview

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 03:30:00 -0000

Here's Dan's full interview with civil rights attorney and Democratic nominee for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. You heard some of it yesterday on the first in a four-part series on mass incarceration that we are co-producing with Cited, a podcast out of the University of British Columbia. Sponsorship from Harvard Law's Fair Punishment Project (sign up for their newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cZMccH) and The University of Washington Center for Human Rights.

The Dig: The Story Behind America's Mass Incarceration Experiment, Part One

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 03:45:00 -0000

In the late 1960s, criminologists like Todd Clear predicted America would soon start closing its prisons. They couldn't have been more wrong. Interviews with Clear, formerly incarcerated poet and legal scholar Dwayne Betts, and civil rights attorney and Democratic nominee for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.

Today's show is the first in a four-part series on mass incarceration that we are co-producing with @citedpodcast, which is out of the University of British Columbia. Special guest hosts are Cited's @Samadeus and scholar Katherine Beckett. Sponsorship from Harvard Law's Fair Punishment Project (sign up for the FPP newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cZMccH) and The University of Washington Center for Human Rights.

Behind the News: Party Politics in Germany and the UK

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 15:47:17 -0000

Journalist Lukas Hermsmeier on German politics after the recent election, which saw a breakthrough for the AfD, a far-right party, the first to have seats in the German Bundestag since the Nazi era. Then, the writer Margaret Corvid discusses the recent UK Labour Party conference.

The Dig: Marisol LeBrón & Brandy Jensen: Puerto Rico, Austerian Disaster; Roy Moore, Perfect Republican

Fri, 29 Sep 2017 16:26:00 -0000

Today’s Diglet is not really diminutive at all. Dan has two interviews with two separate guests because too much has happened over the past few weeks and there are too many smart people to analyze it all. First, scholar @marisollebron on how Wall Street-imposed austerity set Puerto Rico up for devastation, and why it will be an obstacle to a just recovery. Then, Twitter expert @BrandyLJensen on recent Republican grotesqueries. Donate to Taller Salud in PR at facebook.com/taller.salud, check out puertoricosyllabus.com and support this podcast at patreon.com/thedig

The Dig: The War on Terror Made Trump's Islamophobia A Reality with Khaled Beydoun

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 03:45:00 -0000

Islamophobia is conventionally regarded as racist and bigoted views about Muslims expressed by ignorant individuals, including the one who somehow became president. But legal and critical race scholar @KhaledBeydoun explains that the reality is more complicated. The War on Terror perpetrated state-backed Islamophobia, which nurtured and bolstered popular anti-Muslim bigotry. Support us at Patreon.com/TheDig. Check out Beydoun's article http://columbialawreview.org/content/islamophobia-toward-a-legal-definition-and-framework/

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Urban Politics from Barcelona to Chicago

Mon, 25 Sep 2017 18:37:54 -0000

We look at urban politics from Barcelona to Chicago with Isidro Lopez, PodemosMember of Parliament in Madrid, and Troy LaRaviere, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. Isidro brings us his analysis of the independence referendum in Catalonia — slated for October 1 but now banned and declared unconstitutional by the Central Government — that has brought tens of thousands to the streets of Barcelona demanding the right to vote. Then, Troy LaRaviere, who is beginning his campaign against Rahm Emmanuel for mayor of Chicago, and taking on the Democratic Party in the process, joins us to to talk about his campaign, his support for the city's public schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, and the fight against charterization and privatization.

The Dig: What Happened Is Not About What Actually Happened

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 16:23:38 -0000

For this Diglet, Dan and Eve Peyser discuss What Happened, Hillary Clinton's new book. Eve also talks about spending time with Jill Stein recently, and argues that it's wrongheaded to blame Stein for Trump. Thanks to our supporters at University of California Press. Check out their new title How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump.

Behind the News: Andrew Cockburn on Saudi Arabia and 9/11, Asad Haider on Ta-Nehisi Coates, Mark Lilla, and identity

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 09:00:00 -0000

Andrew Cockburn, author of this article, on the Saudi involvement in 9/11 • Asad Haider, author of this article, on identity, Mark Lilla, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Behind the News: Chris Sims on school reform and techno-fetishism, Christian Parenti on climate changes

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:00:00 -0000

September 7, 2017 Christo Sims, author of Disruptive Fixation, on school reform and techno-fetishism • Christian Parenti, author of this article, on climate change and the threat to coastal cities.

The Dig: Stephen Wertheim: Trump's Unexceptional America

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 14:07:11 -0000

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

The Dig: An Olympic-Size Swindle in LA with Molly Lambert and Jules Boykoff

Fri, 15 Sep 2017 17:00:31 -0000

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

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Christian Parenti on Climate Change

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 14:51:08 -0000

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.

The Dig: Houston: A Segregated Disaster in a Segregated City

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0000

This two-hour episode is a look at inequality in Houston from slavery to the present. First, Dan talks to Tyina Steptoe, historian at the University of Arizona and author of "Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City." Then Robert D. Bullard, professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University in Houston and the “father of environmental justice.” Finally, John Henneberger, an expert in equitable disaster recovery and co-director of Texas Housers. Show your love for the show and support us at patreon.com/thedig.

The Dig: César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández on DACA

Sat, 09 Sep 2017 03:55:31 -0000

Immigration law scholar César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández breaks down the lies, misdirections, and bigoted absurdities conveyed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions when announced that the Trump Administration would cruelly make some 800,000 young people who came to this country as children deportable. Check out César's blog at crimmigration.com Support us at Patreon.com/TheDig APOLOGIES FOR THE PRIOR TECH PROBLEM

The Dig: Kate Aronoff on the Populist Revolt Against the Climate Crisis

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 13:50:43 -0000

The devastation wreaked by Hurricane Harvey has made the denial of climate change all the more dangerous. But writer Kate Aronoff says that mainstream liberals and environmental groups, touting cap-and-trade and business-friendly reforms, have put forward an agenda that can’t address the crisis and won’t mobilize the masses. We need a radical and transformative climate agenda. Thanks to our supporters at UNC Press and check out Knocking on Labor’s Door https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469632070/knocking-on-labors-door/ Also, support us at http://Patreon.com/TheDig and help Houston out at http://homelesshouston.org/take-action/donate

The Dig: The Politics of Hurricane Harvey

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 16:59:19 -0000

New Republic reporter Emily Atkin talks about why Harvey is already and inherently political thanks to climate change and the potential for petrochemical disaster in Houston. Calls to not “politicize” the disaster are political too: they’re efforts to defend the destructive status quo of fossil-fueled neoliberal capitalism. Support us at patreon.com/thedig and please donate to homelesshouston.org/take-action/donate

The Dig: Adrian Chen On How Factcheck.org Won’t Save America

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:41:12 -0000

Is the internet good or bad? The debate is more often than not a proxy for one about politics more generally and populism in particular. But the real issue with the internet is this: unaccountable businesses wield oligopoly power over the digital public sphere. Support us with some cash https://www.patreon.com/thedig And check out Adrian’s article http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/04/the-fake-news-fallacy

Behind the News: Identity, Class, and the Far Right

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 14:00:00 -0000

Jodi Dean, a professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, discusses how to rethink the class vs. identity debate, as well as the tensions between online life and practice. Then, journalist Jason Wilson on Charlottesville and the far right.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Foreign Policy in the Trump Administration

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 13:00:00 -0000

First, Robert Kuttner, the co-editor of The American Prospect, recorded the day after Kuttner published his conversation with White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, just as Bannon was being ousted, likely for his call to Kuttner. Then, Bruce Cumings, University of Chicago historian and a leading expert on Korea, brings us historical perspective to help understand North Korea’s development of a nuclear deterrent.

The Dig: Trump’s Happy Place with Alex Pareene

Fri, 25 Aug 2017 21:10:35 -0000

Dan talks to Splinter Politics Editor Alex Pareene about his recent piece “Charlottesville Was a Preview of the Future of the Republican Party” and about why Phoenix is Trump’s happy place. This second weekly episode costs time and money. We can only keep it up if you contribute at patreon.com/thedig Check out Pareene’s article and podcast http://splinternews.com/charlottesville-was-a-preview-of-the-future-of-the-repu-1797988745 http://tarfureport.libsyn.com/

The Dig: Andrew Bacevich on The War That Never Ends

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 12:37:47 -0000

The War on Terror’s permanence should be remarkable, an outrage. But it is precisely because the war has become permanent that it has long since been rendered unremarkable. Dan’s guest is historian Andrew Bacevich, author or coauthor of over a dozen books, including most recently, America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (Random House, 2016). Note that we spoke before Trump’s recent announcement that the US would double down on the Afghanistan War. And please support the show at Patreon.com/thedig. We can't do it without you!

Behind the News: Sex and Gender in the Former Socialist World; Race and Mass Incarceration

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 15:53:35 -0000

Kristen Ghodsee, author of Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism (Duke University Press, 2017), joins Doug to discuss sex and gender in the former socialist world, and her recent essay in the New York Times, available here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/why-women-had-better-sex-under-socialism.html. Plus, Roger Lancaster, who has a new article in Jacobin on the subject, on prison reform and the problems with the abolition movement.

RL Stephens Live from Charlottesville: Local DSA Members Speak Out

Fri, 18 Aug 2017 16:22:36 -0000

In the wake of the fascist terror attack, RL attended DSA Charlottesville's monthly meeting. Time and again, the issues of safety and violence were discussed along with how the terror attack would change their organizing work going forward. RL asked a few members to stay after the meeting for a chat.

The Dig: Why Establishment Democrats Punch "Alt-Left"

Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:12:00 -0000

New Republic writer Sarah Jones on Trump's invocation of the "alt-left," the term's unseemly centrist history, and more. We're gonna try doing two episodes each week now: the regular long Dig on Tuesdays and a shorter, hotter-take Diglet on Fridays. This will take more time and more money! If you listen to and love the show please support us at https://www.patreon.com/thedig

RL Stephens Live from Charlottesville: The Haven

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 16:27:52 -0000

RL talks with Kevin, an organizer at The Haven, a nonprofit serving Charlottesville's homeless population. Kevin knew Heather Heyer because she had helped him escape homelessness himself. He was on the scene the day of the fascist attack that killed her.

The Dig: What's Next for the Colombian Left with Forrest Hylton

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 14:25:14 -0000

The FARC peace accord is a historic victory for Colombian society. But the struggle to build an urban left strong enough to take on the country's powerful right remains a daunting one. Today's guest is Forrest Hylton, the author of Evil Hour in Colombia. Check out a great article from Forrest here https://www.academia.edu/26907051/The_Experience_of_Defeat_The_Colombian_Left_and_the_Cold_War_that_Never_Ended And also Forgotten Peace: Reform, Violence, and the Making of Contemporary Colombia from our supporters at University of California Press http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520293939

Stockton to Malone #7: Don't Call it a Comeback

Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:39:49 -0000

Paula Mielke lives in Falcon Heights, Minnesota--where Philando Castile was murdered by a police officer. She had never before considered herself an activist, but after Philando's death, she got to work. She and her team organized protests, petition drives, and vigils. They've also met weekly and attended every city council meeting in the year since Philando's murder. Now, Paula's running for city council herself. You can find out more about Paula's campaign here: https://votepaulamielke.com/Micah and RL recorded the introduction to the interview with Paula from a new studio. Special thanks to Wan for providing the technical support.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The Democrats, Trump, and The Case For Universal Health Care

Fri, 11 Aug 2017 17:29:34 -0000

On Jacobin Radio, Dan La Botz. co-editor of New Politics discusses the Democrat Party's "bullshit deal;" Professor Jeremy Bendik-Keymer talks about Trump and fascism; and Dr. Adam Gaffney analyzes the demise of Trumpcare and why we need truly universal health care.

The Dig: Confronting the Neoliberal Narco-State in Mexico with Christy Thornton

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 19:18:11 -0000

With Trump, Mexico is the symbol and source of so many things that are wrong with the United States. Oftentimes, these stories told about Mexico in the United States aren’t just wrong but serve to obscure the true source of our shared problems—which, more often than not, are both countries’ ruling classes. Today's guest is Christy Thornton, a professor of history and international studies at Rowan University, and soon to be fellow at the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global Transformations at Harvard. Thanks to our sponsors at University of California Press.

The Dig: R.L. and Ella on The Upcoming DSA Convention

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 19:17:49 -0000

We’re taking a quick break halfway into our four-part series of interviews on Latin America because this week is a big week for the American Left: Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, is holding its first national convention since the organization has undergone a massive explosion in size. R.L. Stephens and Ella Mahony, running on competing slates for leadership in the organization, explain what's at stake. This episode is long and we apologize that some of the audio quality is a little worse than usual. But the debate and discussion is great.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: The State of the US Economy and Mainstream Politics

Mon, 31 Jul 2017 13:37:53 -0000

On Jacobin Radio, UCLA historian and coeditor of Catalyst Robert Brenner joins Suzi to discuss the state of the US economy, mainstream politics, and neoliberalism. How are today's political earthquakes connected to the economy, and what can we expect from changes in US economic policy? What do the proclaimed health of the unemployment rate and stock market mean for working people?

The Dig: Explaining Venezuela's Crisis

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 18:49:11 -0000

A decline in oil prices gutted the revenue stream that Venezuela depended on to bankroll its social spending. The government led by Chavez’s successor Nicolás Maduro is increasingly turning to repression in response to constant, and often violent, protests from the opposition. NYU historian and NACLA Executive Editor Alejandro Velasco explains what's happening in Venezuela and why, as well as how the promise of the Bolivarian Revolution might still be salvaged. Thanks to supporters at nacla.org, an unrivaled source for left-wing news on Latin America.

Behind the News: Race and Mass Incarceration

Sat, 22 Jul 2017 13:00:00 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, James Forman, Jr., author of Locking Up Our Own, analyzes the relationship between race and mass incarceration. Then, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, in a reprise of her interview with Doug in June 2016, talks about a political response to incarceration and racist police violence.

Behind the News: Single Payer in CA, What's Wrong with the Pension System?

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 13:00:00 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, Robert Pollin, a professor at U Mass-Amherst, addresses the economics of how single payer can work in CA. Then, Michael McCarthy, author of Dismantling Solidarity, tells us the story of how we got our current private pension system, with workers' savings appropriated by Wall Street

Behind the News: China, Climate, and the Paris climate accord; Nancy Maclean on the Right's War on Democracy

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 13:00:00 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, Kate Gordon, a Senior Adviser at the Paulsen Institute, talks about China, Climate, and the Paris climate accord. Then, Nancy Maclean, author of the recent book Democracy in Chains, talks about the Right's stealth war and democracy, paying special attention to the role of James Buchanan.

The Dig: Left Power and Environmentalism in Ecuador

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 17:48:24 -0000

Dan’s guest today is Thea Riofrancos, a political scientist at Providence College. They discuss Ecuador’s 2017 elections, in which the left won a narrow victory despite the crisis hitting the Pink Tide of left governments throughout the region.Former President Rafael Correa accomplished much for the country’s poor majority. Unfortunately, he did so thanks to a commodity boom that has since gone bust, a strategy that has put the government in conflict with indigenous and environmental movements.

Behind the News: Korean Politics, Shakeups in the Wake of the British Elections

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 13:00:00 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, Tim Shorrock on the two Koreas: while South Korea has a recently-elected leader, the North continues testing missiles while the US continues threatening engagement. Then, Margaret Corvid updates us on British politics in the week following the recent surprise election.

Behind the News: The Kochs' Academic Network, the Politics of Brazil

Tue, 18 Jul 2017 20:39:28 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, investigative journalist Alex Kotch talks about the Koch academic network. Then, Alfredo Saad Filho, a professor of political economy at the SOAS, University of London, updates us the political and economic situation in Brazil. This episode was recorded the day before Lula was found guilty on corruption and money-laundering charges, and Filho sent an update for the show's listeners, which Doug reads on the show.

The Dig: Trump & the Deportation Machine Reloaded

Wed, 12 Jul 2017 18:52:20 -0000

Dan talks with Dara Lind, the immigration reporter at Vox. They discuss how Trump has made Obama's massive deportation machine into a terrifying spectacle in a bid to to scare undocumented immigrants from the country.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Major Failure for the Democratic Party & Emmanuel Macron's New Majority

Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:26:49 -0000

In the latest episode Suzi will cover election results across the globe. First, Tom Ferguson, Professor Emeritus at U Mass Boston, will discuss the Democratic Party’s recent election defeats, the party's ties to finance, and their rejection of the Sanders political line within their own base. Then, Sebastian Budgen will join from Paris for an analysis of the recent Parliamentary elections that gave Emmanuel Macron's new Party "En Marche" a majority.

The Dig: Fighting the Boss with Sarah Jaffe

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 18:31:57 -0000

Workers have for years faced a neoliberal onslaught administered by a bipartisan establishment of technocratic elites who have ensured the redistribution of wealth into the hands of the rich. This is an elite that has abetted the decimation of labor unions and whose primary disagreement are over how severely those expelled from the labor market should be allowed to suffer. Dan's guest today is journalist Sarah Jaffe. Jaffe talks about the state of work, particularly the manufacturing and retail workers she writes about in recent pieces at The Nation and racked.com. Thanks to supporters at Verso and University of North Carolina Press.

The Dig: Bringing Down the Trump Brand with Naomi Klein

Wed, 28 Jun 2017 21:18:02 -0000

Naomi Klein takes on President Donald Trump’s brand, and offers some thoughts as to how to tarnish it, in her new book “No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need.”

The Dig: Locking Up Our Own, with James Forman Jr.

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 16:08:46 -0000

Mass incarceration controls poor people and populations that have been excluded from the labor market. Politically, tough-on-crime rhetoric has for decades been a tool for politicians to appeal to white voters’ racism. But what’s less discussed is the complicated history of criminal justice politics within black communities and amongst black politicians. Yale Law professor James Forman talks about his new book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: How Should We Engage the Democratic Party?

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 22:32:18 -0000

Joining Suzi are Maria Svart, National Director of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Becky Bond, co-founder of the Knock on Every Door campaign and former advisor on the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign. They will review the recent People's Summit conference as well as take a deep look at the Democratic Party. Specifically, they'll explore how the party can and should be engaged as well as the party leadership and its hostility to the pro-Sander's contingent.

The Dig: Richard Seymour: Under Corbyn, Labour's Got Momentum

Tue, 13 Jun 2017 18:34:34 -0000

Bernie would have won. And in the UK, he sort of did last week. The Labour Party, under left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn (full name: Jeremy Bernard Corbyn) came far from behind and stripped Prime Minister Theresa May of her majority in parliament — after the punditocracy had confidently predicted that radicals had doomed Labour to electoral oblivion. Dan speaks to Richard Seymour, the author most recently of Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical politics, and a founding editor of Salvage.

Stockton to Malone #6: Picket Signs & Wicked Rhymes

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 16:15:55 -0000

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.

Behind the News: The Pepe/Putin Connection

Thu, 08 Jun 2017 22:23:50 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, Yasha Levine, author of the forthcoming Surveillance Valley, discusses Russia, the NSA, and the Intercept election hacking leak. Then, Angela Nagle, author of Kill All Normies, chronicles the alt-right's rise.

The Dig: Donald Trump's Big Finance Bait and Switch

Wed, 07 Jun 2017 23:17:22 -0000

Dan interviews journalist David Dayen on President Trump's financial policy. Despite espousing white populist rhetoric on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has stacked his administration with Big Finance elites. Dodd-Frank is on the chopping block and Wall Street is set to deepen its predatory financial practices. Thanks to our advertisers at The Nation! Get a deal on magazine subscription at thenation.com/dig and find their podcast at https://www.thenation.com/authors/start-making-sense/

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Can Corbyn Win?

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 19:22:36 -0000

Suzi interviews two guests about the surging Jeremy Corbyn and the fate of leftwing class politics in the coming UK elections. Journalist and author Paul Mason joins the conversation from London. Blogger and analyst Kevin Ovenden is based in Athens.

Behind the News: U.S. Origins of Nazi Race Law; How Strikes Can Challenge Bourgeois Law

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 19:49:57 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, James Whitman on the U.S. origins of Nazi race law. Second, Alex Gourevitch discusses strikes and their challenge to bourgeois law.

The Dig: Trump's Wall Has Already Been Built

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 18:47:34 -0000

Donald Trump pledged to build a big, beautiful wall on the border with Mexico. For liberals, the wall now shares a toxic association with Trump. But until recently, militarizing the border with Mexico was accepted as a core piece of the commonsense, bipartisan establishment immigration and drug policy agenda. Dan talks about border policy with Peter Andreas, a professor at Brown University and the author of Border Games: Policing the US-Mexico Divide.

The Dig: The New Drug War Landscape Under Trump

Wed, 24 May 2017 16:58:08 -0000

The drug war is winding down around the country and heating up under Trump at the same time. Rick Lines of Harm Reduction International lays out the humane and evidence-based alternative to the war on drugs.

Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Why We Need Hope

Mon, 22 May 2017 19:45:41 -0000

Hope is more than a mood or feeling — it's the basis for all political action, argues Ronald Aronson in an interview with Suzi Weissman. Bernie Sanders's campaign inspired collective action to make the world more equal; the Trump campaign and presidency are its mirror opposite. Aronson's book We: Reviving Social Hope is out now.

By Taking Power: Spring 2017 Issue Launch

Sat, 20 May 2017 17:08:42 -0000

Jacobin's latest issue, "By Taking Power," asks: What has the Pink Tide accomplished? What is its future? When the Pink Tide emerged in Latin America, the U.S. Left was done with governing. The Pink Tide was a confident call back to the old-time religion, a return to not ceding state power to the Right, but wielding it to improve lives in the here and now.Jacobin editor and publisher Bhaskar Sunkara spoke with Rene Rojas, a PhD student in sociology at NYU, to discuss the ebb and flow of the Pink Tide at the Verso Books offices on May 16.

Stockton to Malone #5: Get Out, Brocialism and the "Terminegro"

Fri, 19 May 2017 18:56:37 -0000

Micah and RL finally release their take on Jordan Peele's film "Get Out." Micah sees the story as standard brocialist propaganda, an ode to unionized public sector workers and the social democratic investments that produce them. RL can't get past the protagonist picking cotton and turning into the "Terminegro" at the film's climax. But like Saul on the road to Damascus, RL sees the light and Micah converts him mid-take. This episode is in honor of Yale maintenance worker Corey Menafee, MTA employee Darryl Goodwin, and all the other unionized workers who have stood up to racism on the job. Follow us on Twitter at @RLisDead and @micahuetricht.

The Dig: What's the Matter with Appalachia? Capitalism.

Wed, 17 May 2017 20:39:04 -0000

What’s the matter with Appalachia? Many liberal elites think they know the answer. Since Trump’s campaign began, the region has become a symbol of all that is wrong with Red State America: guns, bigotry, a willingness to get swindled by right-wing snake-oil salesmen. There is, indeed, a lot wrong with Appalachia. But what’s most wrong is that a region where people waged militant labor struggles has now been devastated by coal company greed, automation, shifts in global commodity markets, and, of course, by Republican reaction and neoliberal neglect. Sarah Jones, social media editor at the New Republic, explores the possibilities for left-wing revival in Appalachia and discusses her own life in the region.

Stockton to Malone #4: Boss So Salty

Thu, 11 May 2017 20:15:01 -0000

Micah welcomes RL to the Jacobin staff family. RL immediately pitches "Marxistpiece Theater," making Micah instantly regret their new work situation. Later, Micah interviews Erik Forman, a labor organizer and former salt. They all discuss their experiences organizing as low wage workers, as well as the history of salting in both radicalism and the labor movement. Listen closely for Micah's horrible lefty dad humor and RL's ridiculous Easter egg. Follow us on Twitter at @RLisDead and @micahuetricht.

The Dig: Against Lean-In Feminism, with Liza Featherstone

Wed, 10 May 2017 16:58:27 -0000

The Women’s March on Washington showed the power of women's leadership in the battle against Trump and the Right. But significant divides that pervaded the 2016 primary campaign remain. Those debates continue to divide the feminist movement and the Left.Dan’s guest today is Liza Featherstone, a member of The Nation’s editorial board and the editor of False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Behind the News: UK Elections, Labour, and Sex Work; Turkey's Rising Authoritarianism

Mon, 08 May 2017 21:33:10 -0000

Doug interviews two guests. First, Margaret Corvid on the British election, the Labour Party—and sex work. Second, Emre Öngün on Turkey’s deeper slide into authoritarianism.

Dean Baker on Trump's Tax Plan for the Rich

Fri, 05 May 2017 15:29:11 -0000

Why do Republicans only seem to care about deficits and debt when they’re trying to cut social welfare programs? Dan's guest for this special episode is Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He discusses Trump’s regressive tax proposal and the GOP's never ending efforts to redistribute wealth the super-rich.

The Dig: Adam Johnson on All the Fake News That's Fit to Print

Wed, 03 May 2017 18:08:26 -0000

Under President Trump, the media has become a part of the story like never before. Journalistic probing has irritated our touchy president. But media outlets have also played a role in Trump’s rise. During the campaign, cable news outlets provided him with wall-to-wall free advertising and, more recently, lauded Trump as “presidential” because he decided to bomb Syria. Adam Johnson, a writer at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, breaks it down.

Behind the News: The Sorry State of the French Elections + Georgia, Libertarian Paradise

Fri, 28 Apr 2017 18:02:03 -0000

Sebastian Budgen on the second round of the French elections, pitting a centrist against a fascist. And Sofia Japaridze on how foreign NGOs turned Georgia (the country) into a broke libertarian paradise.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman: Tariq Ali on Vladimir Lenin

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 23:50:20 -0000

Weissman interviews Tariq Ali, filmmaker, activist, and author of numerous books, on his new book The Dilemmas of Lenin: Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution and the legacy of Vladimir Lenin 100 years after the Russian Revolution.

The Dig: The Neoliberal vs the Neofascist in France

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 14:42:49 -0000

The Dig normally serves up ice cold, well-digested takes. Sometimes, however, something important happens and Dan finds someone who can help us understand it quickly. Last weekend’s election in France, which advanced the far-right National Front’s Marine Le Pen and neoliberal centrist Emmanuel Macron to a runoff, is one such event. Sebastian Budgen is an editor for Verso Books, a contributing editor at Jacobin, and a member of the editorial board at Historical Materialism.

The Dig: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Black Liberation and Socialism

Tue, 25 Apr 2017 21:22:18 -0000

Putting “black faces in high places,” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor argues, has not only failed to benefit the working class and poor black majority — it has actually harmed them by pushing an individualistic, meritocratic narrative that blames poor black people’s condition on their own personal failings. Taylor is a professor of American-American studies at Princeton and the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, from Haymarket Books. She is a regular contributor to Jacobin and contributed a chapter called "What about racism? Don't socialists only care about class?" to The ABCs of Socialism.

Stockton to Malone #3: Making Sense of a Murder in Chicago

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 09:00:00 -0000

RL interviews Chantel Johnson, whose brother Richie was one of the hundreds of young black men murdered in gun violence in Chicago in recent years. She and RL discuss the ties between violence and austerity in the city, the feeling of "conspiracy" against Richie and other poor black men like him in her neighborhood, and how anger at inequality in the city has become part of her grieving process.

Behind the News: Thea Riofrancos on Ecuador, Landon Frim and Harrison Fluss on the Alt-Right

Fri, 21 Apr 2017 16:16:19 -0000

Politicial scientist Thea Riofrancos on Ecuador's elections, the state of social movements and the Left there, and the decline of the pink tide in Latin America. Philosophers Landon Frim and Harrison Fluss on Jason Jorjani and the philosophy of alt-right.

The Dig: The Ubiquity and Invisibility of Incarceration

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 11:00:00 -0000

Prisons don’t just keep inmates in; they keep the public out. Even at a moment when mass incarceration is under unprecedented criticism, it is hard for people on the outside to empathize with people who they cannot see or speak to. My guests today are Brett Story and Jordan Camp. Story is a filmmaker who has made an incredible new documentary called The Prison in 12 Landscapes, which shines a harsh light on America’s prison archipelago without ever taking a peek inside. Jordan Camp is a scholar of the American carceral state.

The ABCs: Don't Rich People Deserve to Keep Their Money?

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 15:51:52 -0000

The Right has long looked to lower taxes, especially for rich people, out of a belief that rich people deserve to keep their money because they earned it. In other words, taxes impinge on their freedom. Mike McCarthy argues this is the wrong way to think both about taxation and about freedom. Mike McCarthy is a sociologist at Marquette University in Milwaukee and the author of Dismantling Solidarity: Capitalist Politics and American Pensions Since the New Deal. He has a chapter in The ABCs of Socialism called “Don’t the rich deserve to keep most of their money?”The ABCS of Socialism is available for only $5 on Jacobin’s web site. You can get it at jacobinmag.com/store. Also, be sure to listen to the other podcasts in our ABCs series, which tackle questions that include Why do socialists talk so much about workers? Doesn’t human nature make socialism impossible? Is socialism a western, Eurocentric concept? And isn’t the United States already king of socialist?

Behind the News: Max Sawicky on Republican Tax Schemes, Vijay Prashad on Syria

Fri, 14 Apr 2017 16:40:08 -0000

Max Sawicky on Republican tax schemes and Vijay Prashad on Syria.

The Dig: Is Neoliberalism Over? With Nicole Aschoff

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 21:24:03 -0000

Trump’s oligarchic regime is an extreme version of the imperial and economic vision that has guided presidents of both major parties. But the popularity of Trump’s chauvinist, xenophobic appeal points to a major crisis in the ideological and political-economic regime of the United States and the world for decades. That’s neoliberalism, a system that isn't quite over under Trump. But as Nicole Aschoff argues in the most recent issue of Jacobin, it has radically changed. Today, my guest is Nicole Aschoff, managing editor at Jacobin and the author of The New Prophets of Capital, part of Jacobin's Verso Series. You can read her article "The Glory Days Are Over" in the new issue of Jacobin and at jacobinmag.com.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman: Sebastian Budgen on France's Elections

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 16:28:48 -0000

Suzi Weissman talks with Verso Books editor Sebastian Budgen about the French elections.

Behind the News: We Need Robots Working More So We Can Work Less

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:00:00 -0000

Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, authors of Inventing the Future, on getting beyond folk politics to a world where robots work more and people (supported by a universal basic income) work less.

The ABCs: Isn't the US Already Kind of Socialist?

Thu, 06 Apr 2017 20:28:26 -0000

You’ve probably seen the memes purporting to show just how socialist the United States already is by listing a bunch of government programs, services, and agencies. The idea that any government activity is synonymous with socialism has major political and strategic implications. After all, if our country were already at least partly socialist, then all we would have to do is keep gradually expanding government.But simply electing politicians to office or watching the government expand by its own momentum has never been, and never will be, enough. Economic power is political power, and under capitalism the owners of capital will always have the capacity to undermine popular democracy—no matter who’s in Congress or the White House.This is the last episode of The ABCs of Socialism, a four-part series taking up some of today's common questions asked about socialism. Each of those questions is also a chapter in The ABCs of Socialism, which was produced by Bhaskar Sunkara and the editors of Jacobin, and published by Verso Books. You can buy the book for just $5 at the Jacobin store: https://www.jacobinmag.com/store/ The sessions are recorded at the Verso loft in Brooklyn, New York, in front of a live audience.Chris Maisano is a contributing editor at Jacobin and a union staffer in New York.

The Dig: Matt Bruenig on Why Welfare Is Great and We Need More of It

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:09:29 -0000

Medicaid expansion saved Obamacare from repeal. There’s a lot to hate about Obamacare, but that expansion did something very good on a very large scale — and it made just enough Republicans very nervous about taking it away. It's an important lesson about economic policy generally: the more universal a program is, the greater the number of Americans who become advocates for its preservation — a fact conservatives know and fear thanks to Medicare and Social Security but that many liberals don't. Today, my guest is Matt Bruenig, a writer who is one of most incisive analysts of poverty, inequality and welfare systems, and the political conflicts that surround them.

Behind the News: Jodi Dean on Populism and Jane McAlevey on Real Organizing

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 11:00:00 -0000

Doug Henwood interviews Jodi Dean on why the temptations of populism should be resisted, and Jane McAlevey, author of No Shortcuts, on real organizing, not fake organizing.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman: Adam Curtis: The Left Must Present an Alternative Vision

Fri, 31 Mar 2017 10:00:00 -0000

Suzi Weissman interviews documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis on why the Left has to present a compelling, alternative vision of a better future — or it's doomed.

The ABCs: Is Socialism Just a Western, Eurocentric Concept?

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 20:01:53 -0000

Socialism is in the air. But the idea of socialism is under attack—and not only from the Right. Within the Left itself, there is suspicion of an ideal many view as single-mindedly focused on economic issues and distant from other everyday sufferings, especially those of black and brown people.The underlying assumption is that socialism, a supposedly Western and white ideology, while capable of addressing economic injustices, can't speak to the lived experience of oppression and discrimination in the Global South and to oppressed groups elsewhere. Is there any validity in this criticism? We pose the question to Nivedita Majumdar, an associate professor of English at John Jay College and secretary of the Professional Staff Congress, the CUNY faculty and staff union.This is the third episode of The ABCs of Socialism, a four-part series taking up some of today's common questions asked about socialism. Each of those questions is also a chapter in The ABCs of Socialism, which was produced by Bhaskar Sunkara and the editors of Jacobin, and published by Verso Books. You can buy the book for just $5 at the Jacobin store: https://www.jacobinmag.com/store/ The sessions are recorded at the Verso loft in Brooklyn, New York, in front of a live audience.

The Dig: Corey Robin on the Reactionaries' Minds Under Trump

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 11:00:00 -0000

What a moment to read, or to re-read, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, political scientist Corey Robin’s 2011 collection of essays — especially if you need to disabuse friends and family of the notion that Trump is some historic degradation of conservatism’s good name rather than a malignant, nasty outgrowth of a long history of violent reaction against left movements for equality. Robin is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center and a contributing editor at Jacobin. We’ll take a look back at The Reactionary Mind and discuss how its pre-Trumpian insights apply to a political moment quite that is quite different but, upon closer inspection, still all too familiar. A new edition of The Reactionary Mind is due out in September with new chapters on Trump and Trumpism, a chapter on Burke and his economic theory, and a chapter on Hayek, Nietzsche and neoliberalism.

Behind the News: Yanis Varoufakis on Europe's Crises

Fri, 24 Mar 2017 10:00:00 -0000

Doug Henwood interviews the former Greek minister of finance Yanis Varoufakis, discussing the interminable euro crisis, austerity, Brexit, the nationalist international (Trump, Le Pen, etc.), and DiEM25, among other things.

The Dig: The Democratic Socialists of America and the Fight Against Trump

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 10:00:00 -0000

The Democratic Socialists of America are growing — suddenly and explosively. Last June ahead of the Democratic National Convention, DSA counted 6,500 members. Today, after a presidential bid from a self-proclaimed democratic socialist and Trump’s terrifying election, membership has grown to more than 19,000 and counting. People are considering socialism, long a dirty word in American politics, in far larger numbers than in decades past — especially young people. Today, Daniel Denvir talks to DSA National Political Committee member Sean Monahan and National Director Maria Svart to discuss some tough questions about the fight for socialism in the coming months and years, both for DSA members and those who aren't.You can support the Dig by visiting its Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4839800

Behind the News: The Fight for Single Payer and What's Next After the Women's Strike

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 18:20:37 -0000

We are happy to announce that we will be hosting journalist and author Doug Henwood’s show Behind the News on Jacobin Radio.In addition to writing a number of excellent books and many articles on finance and politics over the years, Henwood has hosted a consistently excellent radio show, interviewing experts on a wide range of topics both domestic and international. Behind the News is one of the best radio shows on the Left, and we’re proud to be a home for it. For his first show on Jacobin Radio, he interviews Steffie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program on Ryancare, Obamacare, and the prospects for single-payer, and Cinzia Arruzza on what’s next after the March 8 women's strike.

Kool AD on Art, Capitalism, and Why Marx Would've Been a Great Rapper

Sat, 18 Mar 2017 12:00:00 -0000

Since leaving the joke-rap/not-joke-rap group Das Racist in 2012, Victor Vasquez, AKA Kool AD, has stayed busy. His many artistic endeavors—music, visual art, a novel, and even a kids book ('The Selfish Shellfish')—frequently seek to imagine life in a post-capitalist utopia.In an interview with Jacobin's Tanner Howard, he discusses gentrification in Oakland, "the hustle" under capitalism, and why Karl Marx would make a great rapper.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman: Mike Davis on Trump, the Democrats, and the Working Class

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 16:04:05 -0000

Suzi Weissman interviews longtime Marxist writer Mike Davis on the questions facing the Left in the wake of Donald Trump's victory. How did Hillary Clinton and Democrats lose this election so badly? How should we think about the white working class in Trump's win? Can the Sanders coalition be kept alive as an independent movement bridging the racial and cultural divides among American working people?You can read Mike Davis's piece "The Great God Trump and the White Working Class" at jacobinmag.com. The piece comes from the forthcoming first issue of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, edited by Vivek Chibber and Robert Brenner.Mike Davis is the author of many books including Planet of Slums, City of Quartz, and Late Victorian Holocausts.

The ABCs: Does Human Nature Make Socialism Impossible? with Adaner Usmani

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 20:04:46 -0000

Sure, the concept of socialism sounds nice, but people aren’t very nice, right? Isn’t capitalism much more suited to human nature — a nature dominated by competitiveness and venality? Isn't socialism great in theory but terrible in practice? Adaner Usmani, a PhD candidate in sociology at New York University, answers these questions in a discussion with Jacobin's Jason Farbman.This is the second episode of The ABCs of Socialism, a four-part series taking up some of today's common questions asked about socialism. Each of those questions is also a chapter in The ABCs of Socialism, which was produced by Bhaskar Sunkara and the editors of Jacobin, and published by Verso Books. You can buy the book for just $5 at the Jacobin store: https://www.jacobinmag.com/store/The sessions are recorded at the Verso loft in Brooklyn, New York, in front of a live audience.

The Dig: What the Media Doesn't Get About the Left, with Dave Weigel

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 20:42:37 -0000

On the Left, few forms of mainstream journalism are more detested than political reporting. It often substitutes the horse race for substance, dresses up conventional inside-the-Beltway wisdom as real analysis, and resorts to the false balance of he-said-she-said instead of establishing facts. Political reporters took a serious hit after Donald Trump won the Republican primary and then the presidency, and Bernie Sanders mounted a real challenge to the Democratic Party’s anointed candidate. Trump is now using his bully pulpit to wage an assault on empirical reality, clinging to his own “alternative facts” and labeling the media as an opposition party purveying “fake news.” My guest today is Dave Weigel, a reporter at the Washington Post who is amongst the best in the game. Weigel has also worked for Slate and, in his early years, at the libertarian outlet Reason. He doesn’t come from the Left, but he gets us better than any mainstream reporter out there.

The ABCs: Why Do Socialists Care So Much About Workers? with Vivek Chibber

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 12:30:00 -0000

Socialists put the working class at the center of their political vision. But why, exactly?Vivek Chibber, Professor of Sociology at New York University and the author of Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital, answers this question here, as well as capitalism's inability "to deliver the goods" for workers, who exactly workers are, the precarity of work today, and the problems with the twenty-first century labor movement. Chibber is in discussion with Jason Jacobin's Farbman.This is the first episode of The ABCs of Socialism, a four-part series taking up some of today's common questions asked about socialism.Each of those questions is also a chapter in The ABCs of Socialism, which was produced by Bhaskar Sunkara and the editors of Jacobin, and published by Verso Books. You can buy the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2219-the-abcs-of-socialismThe sessions are recorded at the Verso loft in Brooklyn, New York, in front of a live audience.

The Dig: Fighting for Black Lives Under Trump, with Charlene Carruthers

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 18:22:24 -0000

The Movement for Black Lives’ insistence that black lives matter is deceptively straightforward and minimal. But it has transformed black politics, and American politics as a whole. From the tension and contradiction of the Obama years, in which a black man became the most powerful person on earth but conditions continued to worsen for black people as a whole, the Movement for Black Lives erupted and made radical demands for social and economic justice, and to an end to police violence and mass incarceration. The movement now has to find a way forward in the time of Trump’s law-and-order backlash.

Stockton to Malone #2: White Privilege vs. Obama's Jordans

Thu, 02 Mar 2017 20:43:57 -0000

Episode 2 of Stockton to Malone. No interview here, just RL and Micah discussing RL's performance of the socialist equivalent of Kendrick Lamar's "Control" at the Young Democratic Socialists conference, Micah's years speaking with extreme vocal fry to atone for his white male privilege, that time Obama took the bowling alley out of the White House and replaced it with a basketball court, and RL's cousin who was in Kriss Kross.Follow us on Twitter at @RLisDead and @micahuetricht.Thanks to Tanner Howard for producing the show.

The Dig: Marie Gottschalk on Mass Incarceration and Trump's Carceral State

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 15:32:06 -0000

Mass incarceration should be central to any analysis of American political economy. It's also a moral monstrosity. But before The New Jim Crow and anti-mass incarceration activists across the country loudly insisted this was the case, it received little attention. Marie Gottschalk, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, and The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America. She talks with The Dig about prisons in American life. You can read Gottschalk's recent piece for Jacobin "Conservatives Against Incarceration?" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/12/carceral-state-mass-incarceration-conservatives-koch-trump/

Matt Karp and Eric Foner on US Slaveholders' Foreign Policy

Mon, 27 Feb 2017 17:06:04 -0000

American slaveholders before the Civil War oversaw an incredibly brutal economic system that generated enormous wealth for a tiny elite while denying enslaved Africans the most basic rights. But they also presided over American foreign policy, overseeing US territorial and economic expansion. As historian Matt Karp explains in This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy, they didn't just want an independent slaveholding south — they wanted to spread their empire of slavery to the entire United States and beyond. In November 2016, Karp spoke at the New School in New York City with historian Eric Foner, Dewitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and author of many books on the Civil War including Reconstruction and The Fiery Trial. Karp is an assistant professor of history at Princeton University and a contributing editor at Jacobin. Follow him on Twitter at @karpmj.Produced by Tanner Howard.

The Promise and Pitfalls of Fighting Trump

Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:08:56 -0000

The horrors of the Trump administration have shown no signs of slowing in the month he has been in office. But so far, neither has the pushback we've seen in the streets. The protests have reminded Ellie Mae O'Hagan of the anti-austerity protests in the United Kingdom — both in terms of the hope they represent and the potential dangers and pitfalls they face. O'Hagan wrote about this in a recent article for Jacobin, "Lessons from the Anti-Austerity Movement," which you can read here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/lessons-from-the-anti-austerity-movement/ Ellie Mae O'Hagan is a frequent contributor to the Guardian who lives in London. Follow her on Twitter at @MissEllieMae.

Lessons from the 1980s for a New Sanctuary Movement

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 21:39:46 -0000

Donald Trump's viciously xenophobic policies have put the word "sanctuary" on many people's lips. But immigrant rights organizers under Trump don't have to reinvent the wheel: the 1980s saw a vibrant sanctuary movement in response to US intervention in Central America.Hilary Goodfriend is a researcher based in San Salvador, El Salvador, who has covered Central America for Jacobin. Here, she talks about the sanctuary movement's history, its practical and ideological components, and the movement's lessons for today. You can read Goodfriend's article on the Central American sanctuary movement here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/sanctuary-movement-central-america-el-salvador-trump-deportations/ And you can follow her on Twitter at @HilaryGoodfrien.Produced by Tanner Howard.

The Dig: Jedediah Purdy on Donald Trump and the Courts

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 17:08:26 -0000

All eyes have turned to the judiciary. It’s the one potential institutional check on Trump on the federal level (aside from the national security state). But the judiciary, despite pretenses to the contrary, is fundamentally political. It has historically shred civil rights and economic protections more often than it has protected them.Today, Dan Denvir speaks to Jed Purdy about the judiciary and other matters. Purdy is a professor at Duke Law and the author of three books on American political identity including The Meaning of Property. His most recent book is After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene and he has published articles in many, many publications.

Chasing Oscar Romero's Killers

Sat, 18 Feb 2017 17:54:16 -0000

The Salvadoran Civil War is one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history. The United States funded far-right, quasi-fascist forces who had no qualms with bathing the country in blood in the name of anti-communism. Few incidents illustrate this better than the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the country's top Catholic leader, whose brief period speaking out on behalf of the poor and against the military led to his murder while giving mass. Matt Eisenbrandt is the author of Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Óscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice, a fast-paced, often heartbreaking look into a uniquely depraved period of the Cold War. Eisenbrandt is a former attorney at the Center for Justice and Accountability, which brought a case in the United States against Romero's killers. Here, he walks through the history of the Salvadoran conflict and the attempts to pursue the architects of the archbishop's assassination in both the United States and El Salvador.

The Way Forward

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 17:52:38 -0000

The first episode of Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman, featuring a wide-ranging interview with Bhaskar Sunkara and Robert Brenner that covers prospects for resistance with a rising anti-Trump sentiment but a weakened labor movement, the Democrats' refusal to learn any lessons from November's election, and the widespread support for a social-democratic agenda that the Left can capitalize on.Bhaskar Sunkara is the founding editor of Jacobin. Robert Brenner is the director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA, author of numerous books including The Economics of Global Turbulence, and coeditor with Vivek Chibber of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, forthcoming from Jacobin.

Public Education in the Age of Trump

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 17:28:50 -0000

Betsy DeVos is now Secretary of Education. A far-right billionaire heiress to a pyramid scheme — sorry, alleged pyramid scheme — who has never spent a day teaching but has devoted much of her career to dismantling public education, her tenure will likely prove disastrous for schools. But DeVos's nomination also drew unprecedented pushback, forcing a tie on her confirmation vote that Vice President Mike Pence had to break in her favor. Activists actually turned her away from a public school in Washington, DC, last week by blocking an entrance. While things look bleak for public education, there is also an opportunity for teachers and parents to fight back, as Megan Erickson, a public school teacher in Brooklyn, explains in this conversation. Erickson is a member of Jacobin's editorial board and the author of Class War: The Privatization of Childhood. You can read her articles for Jacobin here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/megan-erickson/ And buy her book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1954-class-warThanks to Tanner Howard for producing this segment.

The Dig: Mark Blyth on How Austerity Brought Us Donald Trump

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:18:50 -0000

Mark Blyth wasn't surprised by the rise of Donald Trump, nor Brexit, nor the crises spreading across Europe. He actually predicted them all. Blyth, the author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea" and professor of political economy at Brown, explains how economic crisis has led to upheaval in a political establishment that worked obsessively to eliminate inflation and maximize profits at the expense of general wellbeing. This crisis has produced horrific peril, as the Trump administration's first weeks have made clear. But for the Left, it also provides historic opportunities.Blyth recently spoke with Daniel Denvir in a live taping of the Dig in front of a crowd of 150 in Providence, Rhode Island.

Stockton to Malone: Underground Abortion Before Roe v. Wade

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 22:09:08 -0000

Welcome to the first episode of Stockton to Malone, a podcast from Jacobin magazine. For the first episode, ahead of protests and counterprotests at Planned Parenthood clinics around the country and forthcoming attacks on abortion rights under President Donald Trump, hosts RL Stephens and Micah Uetricht interview Judy Wittner. Before Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion was illegal throughout most of the country. In 1969, Wittner, who was involved in the feminist movement in Chicago, discovered she was pregnant and wanted an abortion. She sought out assistance from doctors around the Chicago area but was turned away. Eventually, she turned to an illegal feminist abortion service, the Jane Collective, and ended up receiving an abortion on her kitchen table in Evanston, Illinois. We sat down with Judy in that same kitchen to talk with her about that experience and the state of reproductive rights today.

The Dig: George Cicariello-Maher on Violence and Free Speech

Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:20:45 -0000

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.

We Can Do Better

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 17:35:43 -0000

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.

The Anti-Inauguration — feat. Naomi Klein, Anand Gopal, Jeremy Scahill, Owen Jones, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Thu, 02 Feb 2017 00:24:15 -0000

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 Dig: Fighting the Trump Bans: Linda Sarsour and Nicholas Espíritu

Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:19:39 -0000

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.

The Dig: Diane Ravitch on Trump, DeVos, and the Corporate Education Reform Agenda

Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:12:01 -0000

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.