Unf*cking The Republic

It’s chilly here in New York so we’ve got the Caribbean on the brain. Actually, we’re just building on our money and power episodes and tying in lessons from our shows on Milton Friedman, Cuba and climate change. Because we can’t just sit on a beach sipping a frozen drink with an umbrella. But that’s why you love us. The United States didn’t invent colonialism in the Caribbean, we just perfected i...

President Biden signed H.R. 3684 into law with leaders in Washington breaking their arms to pat themselves on the back. Never mind that the infrastructure bill is either 20% or 40% of what the American Society of Civil Engineers believes is necessary (depending upon your interpretation of the allocated funds), or that it doesn’t begin to address climate change, or that it’s stuffed with old school...

Last week we reviewed the global order of money. Today we examine money’s sister, power. It’s an American-centric journey spanning 75 years, from the Cold War through the War on Terror. We start with a deep dive into the five years following the Second World War and highlight the men who crafted the policies that would determine the fate of the world. We dissect how these policies changed over the...

We’ve hit on some big economic themes from capitalism and socialism to deregulation, privatization and Modern Monetary Theory. And we’re typically focused on results and outcomes of policies related to these theories. Today we’re taking a step back to examine the nature of capital and examining the nature of currency, trade and debt. Money is great, but who prints it? Who decides how much to print...

In this week’s installment of how to lose friends and disappoint people, we’re talking about the independent platform media culture, mostly of the male persuasion. So, yes. Much of this will drip with irony as I, a white male with a small platform, attempt to mansplain how to think about other men with platforms. Our three main subjects today have been in the news for various reasons. Dave Chappel...

In today’s cure for insomnia episode, we explore the origins of the ISMs the pundit class abuses each and every day. We’re focusing on the big ones. Fascism, Socialism, Communism, Marxism and Capitalism. The show covers the theorists who created these theories, touch on the circumstances that inspired their thinking and how far from these concepts we have moved as a society. Plus, we’ll talk throu...

Today’s episode is a mashup of a Quickie and a full fledged Unf*cking. We start by going back in time to tell the origin story of the Progressive Party colloquially known as the Bull Moose Party. We examine the original party platform and draw a straight line between the issues facing the nation in 1912 that still face us today. Then we follow with a Quickie on three progressive members of the Hou...

It’s the one-year anniversary of Unf*cking the Republic. Yay us. Only 1.6 million other podcasts have passed this historic mark. We couldn’t let the moment pass, however, without offering our profound thanks to those who got us here on this little journey of ours. So today we reflect a bit on the last year, draw some conclusions and tie things up with a bow. We end with a look forward at some of t...

Economist John Williamson presented a paper titled The Washington Consensus in 1989. More of a reflection than a policy statement, the Washington Consensus became a policy framework in the neoliberal school of expansion and trade, particularly as it relates to Latin America and the Caribbean. Today we examine the legacy of Williamson’s seminal paper, how it has echoed throughout American foreign p...

Today we begin a conversation about the LGBTQ movement in the United States, with a nod to our Canadian friends as well. In order to properly introduce issues facing LGBTQ people into the larger context of socio economic and political topics we cover on UNFTR, we wanted to start with a conversation about the evolving language of inclusion and representation within the LGBTQ community.  Resources E...

Today we break from our format to introduce you to our partners from Native Coffee Traders on the Poospatuck Reservation in New York. Harry Wallace, the elected chief of the Unkechaug people, founded Native Coffee Traders in 1994. The company is now run by his niece and head roaster Amy Wallace. Harry and Amy joined Max in the studio to discuss issues facing native people today, the importance of...

The world is more fucked than the United States. And we’re pretty fucked, so that’s saying a lot. Perhaps there’s a way to mitigate this mess by playing upon our worst instincts as a nation and the competitiveness that drives the world. Today we take an alternative view of our response to climate change through the lens of the most dispassionate and powerful observer in the world: The U.S. Militar...

Today’s episode is a departure from our normal format. We were tempted to let the 20th anniversary of 9/11 pass given it will be oversaturated with remembrances and armchair punditry as well as the usual tragedy porn imagery. But the impact of 9/11 remains so widespread that it’s impossible to ignore. So, we wanted to add something honest, critical and ultimately hopeful to the mix. This episode c...

The last time California had a “successful” gubernatorial recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor. While we try not to wade into current events, there is significance in this current attempt to unseat Gavin Newsom that goes far beyond the borders of California. In this episode we catch up on what’s happening in California. Beyond the biblical weather events, an ongoing plague and rampant hom...

We love to promote our democratic principles. We love to spread them across the globe as well. But there are three procedural quirks in our system that are so laughably undemocratic it’s surreal. The Electoral College, filibuster and gerrymandering have been such integral parts of our system for so long that we barely recognize them for the travesties they are. Right now, Democrats have tenuous co...

Operation “Blame the Afghan People” is in full swing. The countdown to us forgetting completely about Afghanistan has also just begun and the media is doing its best to shove a comparative narrative to Vietnam down our throats. Today’s episode explores our national amnesia, examines the Vietnam comparison, talks about what happens when our occupations end and questions the continuation of a wartim...

Momma always said, "Power is as power does." With democrats in charge, Bernie managing the budget and endless wars ending, it's a new day in Washington. Or is it? Today's Quickie highlights three policies - Immigration, Military Spending and Drone Strikes - that seemed to be changing under Biden but might be more of the same. Resources The Intercept - Nobody Knows the Identities of the 150 People...

Progressives continually lose the debate on issues of institutional poverty, structural inequality and systemic racism because they’re loaded with history and meaning that require thinking. It’s a lot easier to say, “Make America Great Again,” “Free Markets,” or “America First.” This episode uncovers the economic side of systemic racism in the United States throughout history and how it led to the...

They look like us. Sound (mostly) like us. And they know everything about us. And yet, we know precious little about our best friends up north. That ends today, Unf*ckers. Today we cast our gaze upwards to honor our friends and allies from the Great White North. Our friends at Canadaland, the top independent political pod network in Canada, help guide the ship today as we give a brief overview of...

We recorded today’s episode right before a brief vacation so the team could get some rest and chill out for a bit. So, we’re running a special show today to highlight the lighter side of UNFTR: our inter-episode sketches. To guide you through our sketch journey is the one, the only Manny Faces. Catch you back next week for a regular episode, Unf*ckers. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rati...

We’re nearly 10 years on from Occupy Wall Street. We wanted to get a jump on the retrospective before every mainstream news outlet hops on and gives it perfunctory treatment and dismisses it as a failed movement. It wasn’t a failure. If anything, it was the scariest movement the establishment has seen since the anti-Vietnam War protests. It was fast but it was furious. And aspects of it continue t...

Few concepts get under the skin of traditional economists, Wall Street executives and academics as Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT. We’ve been building to this episode for quite a while in our examinations of the United States budget and it’s time to properly unf*ck this massively important economic concept. MMT posits the idea that any government that issues its own currency can run extraordinary...

In today’s Quickie we celebrate the upcoming Olympics with our own field of challengers for the nation’s top Stupid White Guy! Exciting times. Our contestants include three Republican governors and it’s a real barn burner. Governors Kemp of Georgia, DeSantis of Florida and Abbott of Texas battle for the gold to be decided by Unf*ckers who can vote for their (least) favorite at  unftr.com . -- If y...

While the ink is still wet on the Trump era, we’re going to talk through what the real legacy might be before revisionists get a hold of it one way or another and navigate how we can have productive conversations about this period which still divides us. To many of us on the left, the mystery remains as to why anyone with a conscience would have voted for such an abhorrent, pugnacious, racist, mis...

Today we take on News Corp., the most egregious example of “manufactured consent.” The fact that we let this monster from down under invade our thought space and contaminate the discourse in this nation is a crime. Rupert Murdoch’s companies have made us dumber, angrier and more susceptible to conspiracies. Of this there can be no doubt. To reveal how he accomplished this, we’ll travel through a b...