This Is Hell!

Legal scholar Ray Madoff joins us to discuss her new book from the University of Chicago Press, "The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Ray's book here: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo256019296.html Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episod...

Bianca Tylek speaks to This Is Hell! about “The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits" that is published by the New Press. Bianca Tylek is one of the nation’s leading experts on the prison industry and is the Founder and Executive Director of Worth Rises, a national non-profit dismantling the prison industry and ending the exploitation of those it touches. Bianca’s work has been covered by...

Writer and researcher Sasha Davis speaks to This Is Hell! to talk about his new book “Replace The State: How To Change The World When Elections And Protests Fail”, published by University of Minnesota Press. The book talks about bringing new hope for social justice movements by looking to progressive campaigns that have found success by unconventional, and more direct, means since elections and pr...

Hamid Dabashi returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his new book from Haymarket Books, "After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization." Jeff Dorchen edifies us with a new "Moment of Truth" after the interview. Check out Hamid's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2607-after-savagery Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes...

Brent Z. Kaup and Kelly F. Austin join This Is Hell! to talk about their new book "The Pathogens of Finance: How Capitalism Breeds Vector-Borne Disease" published by University of California Press. The Pathogens of Finance explores how the power and profits of Wall Street underpin the contemporary increases in and inadequate responses to vector-borne disease. (https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-pat...

Philip Kadish joins us to discuss his new book, "The Great White Hoax: Two Centuries of Selling Racism in America" from The New Press. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Philips book here: https://thenewpress.org/books/the-great-white-hoax/?v=eb65bcceaa5f Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patr...

Stewart Home speaks to This Is Hell! about his new book "Fascist Yoga: Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists, and the New Order In Wellness”, published by Pluto Press. Stewart Home is an artist, filmmaker, pamphleteer, art historian and activist, and the author of countless pulp fictions, including most recently Art School Orgy and She’s My Witch. He regularly performs to audiences across the w...

Cory Doctorow returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his new book from Verso, "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It." "Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi and "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follow the interview. Check out Cory's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3341-enshittification Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported an...

Ashley Dawson returns to discuss his new piece at the New York Review of Books, "The Costs of the Cloud: How much power does AI consume?" "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Ashley's article here: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/09/27/the-costs-of-the-cloud/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to ou...

Bronwen Everill joins This Is Hell! to talk about her new book "Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance”, published by The New Press. https://thenewpress.org/authors/bronwen-everill/?v=eb65bcceaa5f We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener...

Political Scientist Laleh Khalili joins us to discuss her new book, "Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy" out now from Verso. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Laleh's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3405-extractive-capitalism Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episode...

Matthew Boedy, author of “Speaking of Evil”, comes to This Is Hell!! to talk about his new book "The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy" published by Westminster John Knox Press. Matthew was targeted by Turning Point USA in 2016 and listed on its “professor watchlist” after speaking up against allowing concealed guns on college campus...

Omar Zahzah joins us to discuss his new book, "Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital/Settler-Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle" (Seven Stories Press). "This Day in Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Check out Omar's book here: https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4729-terms-of-servitude Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported...

Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon join us to discuss their new book, "Immigration Detention, Inc.: The Big Business of Locking up Migrants" from Pluto Press. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Nancy and Deirdre's book here: https://www.plutobooks.com/product/immigration-detention-inc/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episo...

Susan Greenhalgh joins us to discuss her new book, "Soda Science: Making the World Safe for Coca Cola" (University of Chicago Press). "This Day in Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Check out Susan's book here: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo221451790.html Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing...

Due to an unexpected rescheduling of a guest, we present a rare mailbag episode that delves into our esteemed listeners' questions and insights. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. No producers were harmed in the making of this episode. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/t...

Jennifer C. Pan joins This Is Hell! to talk about her new book “Selling Social Justice: Why The Rich Love Antiracism” published by Verso Books. (https://www.versobooks.com/products/2919-selling-social-justice) Jennifer C. Pan is a writer in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in the Nation, the Atlantic, Dissent, Damage, and elsewhere. She was formerly a host of the Jacobin Show and a staff writer...

Alana Lentin joins us to discuss her new book from Pluto Press, The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Alana's book here: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745347967/the-new-racial-regime/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www...

Journalist Megan Greenwell joins This Is Hell! to about her new book "Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream" published by Harper Collins. (https://www.megangreenwell.com/book) Megan Greenwell is a writer, editor, and newsroom leader. Megan worked as the editor of Wired.com and, for four months, the interim editor-in-chief of WIRED, overseeing the publication’s transition...

Gilbert Achcar joins us to discuss his recent book, "Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective" (University of California Press). "This Day in Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Check out Gilbert's book here: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-gaza-catastrophe/paper Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subsc...

Mark Weisbrot and Francisco Rodríguez join us to discuss their Lancet article, co-authored with Silvio Rendón, "Effects of international sanctions on age-specific mortality: a cross-national panel data analysis," and their articles based on that research, "Sanctions can kill as many people as wars" (Financial Times), and "Rethink sanctions. They’re killing as many people as war does" (LA Times). "...

Rob Wallace and Rita Valenti join us to discuss their recent articles at Truthout that cover the Trump administration's dismantling of public health in the United States. These include "Trump Is Trying to Dismantle Public Health — and Replace It With a Police State," "'Make America Healthy Again' Aims to Make Public Health Your Responsibility," and "Labor Was Crucial in Building Public Health Inst...

All-new longform interview Hell returns at last! Mikaela Loach joins us to discuss her new book, "It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World" (Haymarket Books). "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Mikaela's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2583-it-s-not-that-radical Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and acces...

We wrap up our three-part series on "No Cop City, No Cop World," by speaking with co-editor and contributor Kamau Franklin, founder of Community Movement Builders, a Black member-based collective of community residents and activists serving Black working-class and poor Black communities. Kamau's essay in the collection is titled, "Is This Enough Black Folks for You, Andre Dickens?," which is a ref...

Journalist and author Suzy Hansen will returns to This Is Hell! To talk about her New York Magazine article, "Crimes of the Century: How Israel, with the help of the U.S., broke not only Gaza but the foundations of humanitarian law." Suzy is the author of, "Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World," which was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. Her new book, "Fro...