Jacobin Radio

Doug interviews David Roediger , author of The Sinking Middle Class , on the uses of that term in US politics. Then, a conversation with Paisley Currah , author of Sex Is as Sex Does , about trans politics. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusine...

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...

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...

Doug speaks with Ellora Derenoncourt , co-author of a National Bureau of Economic Research paper about the racial wealth gap from 1860 to 2020. Then, an interview with David Gelles , author of The Man Who Broke Capitalism , about Jack Welch, CEO of GE from 1981 to 2001. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the lo...

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 '...

Know Your Enemy hosts Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell on terrifyingly protean right-wing American politics. Check out our newsletter: thedigradio.com/newsletter Read James Pogue on the New Right: vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets Read Mie Inouye's Boston Review article on union salts: bostonreview.net/articles/labors-militant-minority

Esther Leslie joins Long Reads for a discussion about Walter Benjamin, one of the most influential cultural theorists of the last century. His unorthodox Marxism and ideas about culture and history have inspired several generations of critical thought about the world made by capitalism. Esther is a leading authority on Benjamin’s life and work who teaches at Birkbeck University in London. Long Rea...

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/sub...

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 suppor...

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 Clin...

Patrick Blanchfield analyzes the long history of US gun violence and the American death drive.  Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email. Check out our most recent newsletter on the Progressive Era roots of Clintonism's conception of the "deserving poor" thedigradio.com/newsletter32 Register for Socialism 2022 socialismconference.org  

Samir Sonti argues that the causes of current inflation are supply side issues and if the Fed chooses to fight it by raising interest rates, it will only hurt workers. Jen explores the world of "anticapitalist investing". Jared Abbott comes on to talk about what makes the US public transportation system exceptionally bad. Samir Sonti's article in the latest issue: https://jacobin.com/2022/06/what-...

This week, Grace talks to David Adler, General Coordinator of the Progressive International, about the ongoing Colombian presidential election and what the results of its first round say about the role of social media platforms like TikTok in the global political discourse. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Socialism Conference for making this episode possible.

Our Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to discuss Mike Judge's workplace satire OFFICE SPACE (1999), and it leads us down a long rabbit hole of remembering bad work experiences. PLUS: We take a fond look back on the all-time classic Man of the Year (2006) Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Doug interviews Forrest Hylton  on the first round of the Colombian presidential election and why it was bad news for the leftist candidate Gustavo Petro. Plus:   Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò , author of  Elite Capture ,  on how the ruling class has debased identity politics, and how we could reconstitute it. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politi...

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...

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:...

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...

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 dedicate...

Doug interviews Heather Berg , author of Porn Work , on relations of production in sex work. Plus: Kevin Young and Leonard Seabrooke , co-authors of a paper in the Socio-Economic Review , on the contrasting collegial styles of the Chicago and Charles River schools of economics. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, fro...

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...

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 Cross...

This week, Grace talks to Nick Taylor and Sahil Dutta, two of the co-authors behind Unprecedented?: How COVID-19 Revealed the Politics of Our Economy . They discuss the politics behind the economics of COVID—from debt to care to the labor market—and how the pandemic and current cost-of-living crises are likely to reshape the world going forward. A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and...

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...

Doug speaks with Molly White , keeper of the "Web3 Is Going Just Great" blog, on the pointless and scam-ridden world of cryptocurrencies. Also on the pod: Kathleen Belew , a scholar of white power, discusses that movement’s obsessions and unusual organization. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the...