Left Anchor

For the free episode this week, we are UNLOCKING a bonus episode from back in April on Ilhan Omar and Patriotism.  We are doing this for unfortunately timely reasons, in light of Trump's bigoted, xenophobic attacks that then were amplified by a chanting crowd at his rally soon thereafter.  In this discussion from the bonus episode archives, we discuss the ongoing conservative hate campaign against...

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This time we've got Jeff Spross filling in as guest host to chat with Chris Arnade , author of Dignity , a Studs Terkel-style ethnography of American poverty. We talk about what inspired him to leave Wall Street and start writing about poverty, the varied characteristics of broke Americans, and the real problem with the top 20 percent (hint: it's not their incomes, but their politics). The intervi...

Subscribe here to hear the full episode, and you can find Tomorrow without Fear here .

This time we've got David Sessions on to talk about the extraordinarily weak tea contained in Adam Gopnik's new book A Thousand Small Sanities . Are liberals responsible for all the good things that have happened in the last 300 years, or is penny-ante moderation the appropriate response to all problems? Tune in to find out! (Read David's review of Gopnik here .)

Max Alvarez joins us again to talk about his experience navigating the treacherous waters of higher education this time. We discuss how he came to end up in graduate school, how the logic of markets has penetrated the university, and the political function thereof. Find some of his writing on this here , here , or here .

For once we've got a timely episode! Today we're talking with Carl Beijer , whose People's Policy Project paper on the international financing of climate change policy came out today. Tackling this problem is going to require an eye-watering quantity of international subsidies, and it's worth thinking about how that might happen.

Here we discuss a section of Jeane Kirkpatrick's famous essay on why America should support right-wing dictatorships. Subscribe now to hear the full episode!

This time we've got historian Greg Grandin on to talk about his new book The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America , about the history of the American frontier, how it has functioned politically over the years, and how Trump is drawing on that legacy today. (Also listen for an interlude about whether it was appropriate for Bernie Sanders to oppose Reagan's de...

In this excerpt we talk about some strengths and blind spots in Warren's foreign policy ideas. Subscribe here to hear the full episode!

We bring on Astra Taylor to talk about her twinned book and documentary on democracy ( What Is Democracy and Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone ). We discuss the theory and practice of self-government, how she developed her film and book, and what lessons she learned in the process.

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Did you know Vidal Sassoon was a committed anti-fascist who brawled with Oswald Mosley's followers after the Second World War? Today we learn that and more from Natasha Lennard , author of the recent essay collection  Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life . We talk about the psychological and economic roots of fascism, the role of violence in defeating it, and how society might be changed to...

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Today we take a partial look at Bernie's policy platform -- his anti-usury bill, his agriculture policy, his ideas to desegregate education, Medicare for all, his plan to fix Puerto Rico, and more! 

Subscribe now to hear this (and all previous) bonus episodes, plus a clean feed including all free ones as well!

We've got all-time champion returning guest Jeff Spross on to talk about Modern Monetary Theory -- what does it say, what are its implications, and does it provide better policy guidance than other theoretical economic frameworks? Tune in to find out!

This time we've got Corey Robin, author of The Reactionary Mind and professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, on to talk about freedom and his excellent upcoming book The Enigma of Clarence Thomas  ( pre-order now !). We talk about how most workers experience a severe lack of freedom in the workplace , and then move on to discuss Clarence Thomas's history and...

This time we've got a real live Frenchman on the pod! Manu Saadia , author of the book Trekonomics , comes on to discuss two scholarly analyses of the Yellow Vests protests, their complicated class and racial politics, and how Emmanuel Macron's presidency is playing out . Is he the Mayor Pete of France? Listen to find out!

This time we bring on economist Marshall Steinbaum to talk about his article praising Elizabeth Warren's free college/student debt cancellation proposal, plus his previous articles discussing ending segregation in higher education, and a broader theory of why college should be considered a public good, not a method of building up "human capital." Enjoy!

Check out this preview of our latest bonus episode, available here ! 

This time we bring on lawyer and activist Emma Caterine to talk about her article analyzing the feminist aspects of the wretched 2005 bankruptcy reform bill, and her article endorsing Queens DA candidate Tiffany Cabán on prison abolition grounds. (The book The Communist Horizon we mention can be found here as well.) Enjoy!

This time we bring on famed labor activist and writer Rich Yeselson to talk about Eric Loomis's new book A History of American in Ten Strikes (see Rich's review in The Nation here ). We discuss the timid politics and continuing decline of the American labor movement, how it was organized in the past, and how it might be revitalized.

This time, we talk about Theodor Adorno 's essay " Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda ," and the Public Seminar roundtable discussing it. We hit on the fake image of fascist vigor and efficiency, and the utterly moronic consequences of fascist governance. 

This paid episode is unlocked for 48 hours! Enjoy!   This time we're breaking new ground with 2 guests simultaneously -- Maximillian Alvarez of The Baffler and the Working People podcast , and Aisling McCrea of Current Affairs! We talk about why there is no good conservative comedy, the madness of valuing history for history's sake, why James K. Polk is a badly overrated president, and several oth...