Left Anchor

In this episode from the archives, we've got economist Marshall Steinbaum on to discuss his research on why it's necessary to cancel student debt, how to end segregation in higher education, and why the theory of "human capital" is a bunch of nonsense. Enjoy! 

Today we've got Professor Nomi Claire Lazar on to talk about her fascinating book Out of Joint: Power, Crisis, and the Rhetoric of Time . We discuss revolutionary leaders' habit of changing the calendar when they seize power (think Julius Caesar, the French Revolution, or the Bolshevik Revolution), what happens when someone locks themselves in a cave for weeks with no clocks, what time has to do w...

Subscribe now to hear the full thing!

  Today we've got Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth on to discuss their book It's not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom . We talk about the key distinctions between free speech and academic freedom, why any defense of free speech on the merits must be rooted in democratic values, and why racist (or similarly bigoted) views have no place in today's universities. Enjoy!...

Subscribe now to hear the full episode!

In this episode from the archive, we've got Alex Pareene on to discuss the recent controversy and articles about political theoretician David Shor and his "popularist" dogma. Then we move on to talk about subscription media, and the promises and pitfalls thereof for the left. Enjoy! Make sure to subscribe to Alex's newsletter . He's pretty much the best lefty writer in the business.

Today we've got Trevor Strunk, host of the No Cartridge podcast , on to talk about his book Story Mode: Video Games and the Interplay Between Consoles and Culture . We discuss the political subtext of game genres, why Japanese games can be so different from American ones, how multiplayer games can build different kinds of community, and more. Enjoy!

We've got Labor Notes staff writer Luis Feliz Leon on to talk about his coverage of the Amazon Labor Union there and at The American Prospect . We discuss the union's wildly unorthodox tactics, what leadership really means in a left-wing context, and what their prospects are for the future. Enjoy!

Subscribe now to hear the whole thing !

Mary Moriarty is running to be county attorney of Hennepin County , where she was formerly chief public defender. We talk about her history in the area, what's been going in Minneapolis since the George Floyd protests, the general state of criminal justice reform, and more. Enjoy!

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode!

We've got attorney and podcaster Sparky Abraham on to talk about the latest Supreme Court news, why many liberals are foolish to prioritize court cases, and how utterly despotic courts can be at the local level -- it turns out in some county courts, fully half of cases are about small-dollar debt collection. Things mentioned in the episode: our episode with Brian Fallon , the Debt Collective , and...

Subscribe now to listen to the full episode ! 

Clarence Thomas is apparently in the hospital, so we thought we'd return to our old episode with political scientist Corey Robin. We first talked about how most workers  experience a  severe lack of freedom in the workplace , and then move on to discuss Clarence Thomas's history and peculiar brand of black nationalism. Check out Corey's book: The Enigma of Clarence Thomas.

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode!  

Today we pose the question: how the heck did famed Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben turn into an anti-vaccine conspiracy nutcase? We've got Adam Kotsko, a leading Agamben scholar and translator of many of his works, on to discuss to what extent his goofball pandemic views emerge from his actual serious work. Enjoy! Check out Adam's Slate article on the topic here , as well as his books Neoliber...

This is the first half of our episode with journalist David Klion on the background of the Ukraine crisis. Check out the full episode here!

In this excerpt Phil talks about the weirdness of the norms of chivalry. Subscribe here to hear the whole thing !  Also don't miss his book How to Be Normal .

Today we've got economics professor Rob Larson back on the pod (see his previous episode here ) to talk about the bizarre state of the economy. The labor market is red hot, inflation is higher than in almost 40 years, and there are calls from the capitalist class to strangle the boom. We discuss whether Jerome Powell is going to pull a Paul Volcker on the labor market and what might be done to eas...

You can find the first part of the discussion with Jeff Spross here , or subscribe to hear the rest here , or check out Ryan's book here !

With the news of Justice Stephen Breyer retiring (and Ryan on vacation for the next week), we thought it would be a good opportunity to post this 2019 interview of Brian Fallon about his organization Demand Justice. Fallon is a longtime Democratic Party operative who nevertheless has become a pretty heated critic of the liberal legal establishment and an ardent advocate of Supreme Court reform. Th...

Ryan's book is finally out on January 25!! Called How Are You Going to Pay for That? Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics , it's a book about political economy, how to break free of the mental stranglehold of neoliberalism, and how to fix up this jalopy country. (And then we've got a special guest at the end as well.) Ryan's doing a book launch event with David Dayen that you can chec...

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode ! Or you can pre-order Ryan's book here , or check out the launch event on January 25 here .

Today we are taking a look back at the January 6 putsch -- the total failure to prosecute any of the top organizers, above all Trump, how that has emboldened them to further extremism, how a segment of the left is weirdly naive about all this, and more. God help us all. Check out Osita Nwanevu's article here and Corey Robin's article here.

Subscribe now to hear the full episode!