Francisco Pérez of the University of Utah talks about the CFA franc. Caitlin Chandler , author of a 2022 Harper's article about "the next frontier in the war on terror," discusses US interests in Niger. 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 online ....
Featuring Amna Akbar, Gabriel Winant, and Thea Riofrancos on the American conjuncture. Did an era that began with Occupy and Ferguson—marked by teachers strikes, two Bernie campaigns, the explosive growth of DSA, Standing Rock, and summer 2020 rebellions—just end? What social, political, and economic terrain is emerging in the wake of the pandemic, and how should the left navigate it? The first of a two-part and wide-ranging interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig All Haymarket books ar...
When Simone de Beauvoir died in 1986, French TV news described her as a “symbol of women’s liberation,” but they couldn’t resist bracketing her name with that of Jean-Paul Sartre, her lifelong partner. Almost four decades later, Beauvoir’s reputation as a pioneering feminist thinker is well established. The main challenge she faces today is misunderstanding rather than neglect. Emma McNicol joins Long Reads to discuss Beauvoir’s work and legacy. Emma is a research fellow at the Monash Gender and...
Unfortunately, there was no avoiding it. We finally went to see the right-wing human-trafficking blockbuster SOUND OF FREEDOM (2023) and had one of our more unpleasant viewing experiences. We discuss the film's astroturfed box office, as well as the reasons for its very real cultural resonance. "Tim Ballard Has ‘Stepped Away’ From Operation Underground Railroad, Org Says" by Anna Merlan - https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7z74x/tim-ballard-sound-of-freedom-operation-underground-railroad-stepped-a...
Sara Goldrick-Rab talks about rampant food and housing insecurity among undergrad and grad students. David Broder , author of Mussolini's Grandchildren and a recent article in the New York Times , discusses the whitewashing of far-right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. 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 online ....
Barry Eidlin returns to guest host, talking to San Diego Teamster Justin Alo , Detroit Teamster Emily Butt, and San Francisco Teamster John Elward about the tentative agreement reached on July 25 between the Teamsters Union and the shipping giant UPS, one week before the contract covering 340,000 workers across the US was set to expire on July 31. Talks broke down on July 5, and practice pickets were building towards what would have been one of the largest strikes in U.S. history. Teamsters lead...
Reporter Dharna Noor learns about the Tennessee Valley Authority: the good, the bad, the past, and the future. This is the 5th episode of The Dig Presents . Produced by Dharna Noor. Edited by Liza Yeager and Mitchell Johnson. Support The Dig at patreon.com/thedig All Haymarket books are 40% off! Shop at haymarketbooks.org
Tim Shorrock marks the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean war as tensions mount across the region. Christopher Morten discusses how the drug industry uses patents and secrecy to fatten its profits at the expense of patients and the broader public. 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 online ....
For almost fifty years, Portugal was ruled by a right-wing dictatorship. There was a military coup against Portuguese democracy in 1926. Antonio Salazar became the leader of the so-called Estado Novo in the same year Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House. His successor Marcelo Caetano was still in power when Richard Nixon was re-elected four decades later. Then, in April 1974, a group of junior army officers made a plan to overthrow the dictatorship. The Carnation Revolution brought down th...
So, why do they call it "the little death"? Will is joined by film critic Adam Nayman to discuss Claire Denis's transgressive masterpiece TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001) and how it scandalized film culture circa 2001. PLUS: What is it like to teach the history of satire at a university? Follow Adam Nayman on Twitter and find his books here . Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage....
Gabriel Hetland , author of Democracy on the Ground , talks about contrasts in popular participation between Bolivia and Venezuela. Then Doug speaks with Leigh Cowart, author of Hurts So Good , on seeking out pain for pleasure. 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 online ....
Featuring Daniela Gabor, Ted Fertik, and Tim Sahay on Bidenomics. We define and debate the new American industrial policy, the energy transition, the New Cold War with China—and more. Support this podcast with a contribution at Patreon.com/TheDig Subscribe to The Polycrisis newsletter phenomenalworld.org/series/the-polycrisis Buy Travellers of the World Revolution versobooks.com/products/2938-travellers-of-the-world-revolution Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible...
Reports of God's death remain greatly exaggerated in GOD'S NOT DEAD 2 (2016), in which Evangelical Christianity is put literally on trial. We welcome back Alex Shephard (staff writer for The New Republic and expert in the blockbuster Christian film franchise), and discuss how this installment's relentless focus on Facts and Logic situates it in a recent but very different era of the culture war. PLUS: Ron DeSantis continues to have no juice. "Ron DeSantis Has a Ron DeSantis Problem" by Alex Shep...
Barry Eidlin sits in for Suzi Weissman, talking to longtime UPS Teamsters Carlos Silva, Carthy Boston and Greg Kerwood , who are mobilizing around the UPS-Teamster contract fight. Talks broke down on July 5, and the UPS contract expires July 31. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has vowed that UPS Teamsters will walk out on August 1st if there is no deal. This is one of the most important labor negotiations in U.S. history that could culminate in one of the largest strikes in U.S. history, with 3...
Harrison Stetler discusses recent riots in France. Peter Turchin , complexity theorist and author of End Times , explains why the US is heading for a smashup. 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 online ....
We return to a TV show that is one of the prime relics of mid-2000s libertarian culture. We watch episodes of PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! on topics as disparate from handicapped parking to reparations, but find that for the libertarian funnymen, it all comes back to property rights. PLUS: thoughts on the QAnon human-trafficking thriller that's rocking the box office, and a shocking allegation that Napoleon Bonaparte was a bad guy. Our first episode on PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! - https://www....
Japan may be a powerhouse of global capitalism. But it also developed a powerful socialist movement in the twentieth century. During the Cold War, the Socialist Party led the opposition to the ruling Liberal Democrats. Japan today still has a Communist Party with a mass membership and a serious electoral base. Kenji Hasegawa joins Long Reads for a conversation about the Japanese left. He’s a professor of modern Japanese history at Yokohama National University and the author of Student Radicalism...
Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order , explores the links among neoclassical economics, austerity, and fascism. Edwin Ackerman, author of a recent article for the New Left Review blog , looks at AMLO’s presidency in Mexico. 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 online ....
Featuring China Miéville on The Communist Manifesto . Miéville is the author of A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto . Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Register for Dan's event with Miéville eventbrite.com/e/digressions-china-mieville-on-the-communist-manifesto-tickets-674432434567 Subscribe to Jacobin bit.ly/digjacobin Buy A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine by David K. Seitz nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496227997...
Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019) hit the zeitgeist by consciously going against the 2019-era cultural grain. Tarantino looks back on the winds of change that greeted the movie business in the late 1960s and lands firmly - but not uncomplicatedly - on the side of the old guard. PLUS: Bluesky vs Twitter, wrapping up the Toronto mayoral election, and checking in on a man by the name of Lights Camera Jackson. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumblin...
Anatol Lieven, Eurasia director of the Quincy Institute , discusses Prigozhin’s aborted uprising in Russia and Putin’s status. Samuel Bazzi, co-author of a paper on "The Confederate Diaspora," talks about the effects of white migration out of the South after the Civil War. 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 online. https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html...
William Morris is renowned for his work as an artist and designer. But he was also one of Britain's greatest socialist thinkers. Morris combined his opposition to capitalism with a deep understanding of environmental questions that was rare in his own time. Matthew Beaumont, professor of English at University College London and author of books including The Spectre of Utopia and Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London , joins Long Reads to discuss the life and thought of William Morris. Read...
Did Tetris bring down the USSR? That's the implication of TETRIS (2023), a highly fictionalized account of the beloved video game's journey from the Soviet Union to your phone. We examine what anti-Communist kitsch looks like in the year 2023. PLUS: Russian coups, disappearing subs, and further thoughts on the movie on everyone's lips, The Flash. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Behind the News is slaying sacred cows this week. M. E. O’Brien, author of Family Abolition , discusses doing that and “communizing care." Then Jane Chung, author of a recent article in The Nation , lays out what’s wrong with the American cult of homeownership. 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 online ....
Jacobin Radio pays tribute to the late Daniel Ellsberg, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year and passed away on June 16 at age 92 . A committed, consequential activist with a moral compass that never left him, Ellsberg was always generous with his time. Shortly after he publicly announced his terminal illness, he took part in a Progressive Democrats of America Town Hall on April 9th, 2023, joined by Jacobin Radio producer Alan Minsky and Vietnam War historian Christian Appy...
Featuring Meredith Whittaker, Edward Ongweso Jr., and Sarah Myers West on the mundane dystopia concealed beneath the AI hype machine. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Subscribe to New Left Review newleftreview.org Register for the Socialism 2023 Conference socialismconference.org...
Our sacred quest to tackle every political comedy inevitably reaches the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis vehicle THE CAMPAIGN (2012). We discuss what a middle-of-the-road comedy from the middle of the Obama era captures of its time and ambience. PLUS: Checking in on some of the wackier characters in the Toronto mayoral race. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
While other shows are getting applause for interviewing Corey Robin about his excellent book on Clarence Thomas (who is very much in the headlines these days), Behind the News was there first, as it so often is. This is a rebroadcast of a show that first ran in 2019: Corey Robin on The Enigma of Clarence Thomas . 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 online ....
Featuring Giuliano Garavini on his book The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the Twentieth Century . The second in a two-part series on the 20th-century history of petrostates, petrocapitalists, and the world system. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Subscribe to n+1 . Go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkout Learn more about Haymarket's Book Clubs at haymarketbooks.org...
Italy’s current prime minister Giorgia Meloni can trace her political roots all the way back to Mussolini. But what exactly does the Italian far right of today have in common with its fascist forebears? In part two of our interview, David Broder, Europe editor for Jacobin and the author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren , discusses the rise and record of Meloni. You can find the first part of the conversation on Jacobin Radio. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and t...
