Mechanical Freak

Pramila Jayapal joins us on the boat to talk about the hottest new trend on the American Left. We also hear from the Seattle Times editorial board on the newest danger to smol-bean landlords.

The boys are back on the digital boat to discuss the new capital gains tax that is making waves from Olympia to Plano. Then we look at the valley that is dying and the new valley that is struggling to be born.

The gang is back on the boat to talk about Boeing woes, the fight around a new light rail station, and gaze into the dark abyss of real estate capital.

The boys are all back on the boat and they are asking the heads of SVB and Signature to join them for a “bail-in.”

Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/79945601

The boys get together to discuss the hottest new trend for the new year, “premiumization.” Will this be the secret sauce that unlocks wonderful new delights here-to-fore unseen? Or is it part of the slow descent down into Lovecraftian horror that is living in modern America? Only time will tell!

Munya is mysteriously absent as Greg and Brian don their political science caps and dig into an exciting new way to do politics – minus the politics – brought to us by former Stranger writer Ansel Herz. It’s a poli-sci mega-episode full of all the requisite Aristotle, Hobbes, and David Icke references that make undergrad dorm room debates so exciting!

Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/79171896

Munya and Brian are joined by a veteran of Hollywood who has worked on such films as Blackhat and Ted 2 to discuss the movies M*A*S*H (1970) and Southern Comfort (1981). They discuss how these movies’ depictions of the military were affected by the Vietnam War and how they differ from depictions of the military today.

The boys are back to breakdown all the highlights and controversy from this year’s Super Bowl. From there they talk UFO sightings, train crashes, and Seymour Hersh’s new article about the Nord Stream Pipeline – turns out sometimes pipelines just do that.

Greg & Brian see what is the latest outrage that has conservatives shitting their pants before diving into some statewide measures that are on the ballot this February.

Munya and Brian get together to expand on some of the ideas covered in episodes 22, 23, & 24 as well as answer some listener questions. They talk Richard Nixon, foundational Marxist concepts, where healthcare went wrong, the antiwar movement, and why the Left disintegrated.

We talk a little football before asking if a car really needs a steering wheel to drive? Then we discuss the murder of Tyre Nichols at the hand of the police and go over the idiot reform ideas that are being proposed to soothe people conscious until the next murder… which has statistically already happened! Then we talk New York real estate and entertain the idea that maybe landlords lie sometimes...

We welcome esteemed sociologist Jerry Lembcke to talk about how the memory of the Vietnam War was both recreated and used in the 1980s and 1990s to unify public sentiment against the liberatory movements of the 1960s. Lembcke reminds us that even in the creation of memory, there is a political struggle for the future that needs to be waged.

Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/77857911

The guys discuss the process of deindustrialization and corresponding financialization of the economy that took place in the 1970s. Was it a market-determined fait accompli? Or a political choice?

The end of an era. This week we bid farewell to Kshama Sawant who will not run for reelection to the Seattle City Council. She's the greatest to ever do it, but after a decade on the council, there may not be another Kshama walking through that door.

Brian and Munya discuss the means by which the capitalist class in the United States was able to put the brakes on the Left in the 1960/70s. That’s right, it’s time to talk some COINTELPRO!

The boys discuss the recent MAGA redux in Brazil before discussing the “surprising” decline in larceny theft and murders on Fury Road.

Munya and Brian conclude their discussion of chapter 12 of Greg Grandin’s The End of the Myth by discussing the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr’s 1967 Riverside Speech, and MLK’s evolving legacy.

The gang takes a minute to reflect on all the ways that we plan to defile Dori’s corpse after we dig it up next week before discussing what the future might hold for two of our most beloved City Council Members.

Brian and Munya discuss how discrimination in postwar housing and Cold War militarism extended the life of the reservation system in the United States.

The gang is back on the boat again to talk about local power outages and what’s going on at Southwest Airlines and why it’s Jimmy Carter’s fault.

We’re joined by friend of the show Shaun Scott to discuss the legacy of Mike Davis and urban history of Los Angeles. If you haven’t ever read the work of Mike Davis, there is no better time to start than now and City of Quartz is a good place to start.

Munya and Brian begin their discussion of Chapter 12 of Greg Grandin’s The End of the Myth by exploring the role that Cold War policy abroad affected civil rights policy at home. They also take a deeper look at the US relationship with Apartheid South Africa.