This week on the Jacobin Sports Show, a very special episode with former NBA player and poet/writer/activist Etan Thomas. Etan's latest book, Police Brutality & White Supremacy: The Fight Against American Traditions , dives into the tradition and enshrinement of police brutality against Black people and talks with activists, allies, police, and media members about why and where action is needed, as well as concrete proposals to combat it. What can athletes do to change things? The press? The...
Jan 26, 2022•58 min
The great Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin was assigned to make a documentary about his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He made MY WINNIPEG (2007), a hilarious, surreal dreamscape that combines autobiography, history, and fiction into a free-flowing meditation on a city and a home. We discuss the film's treatment of truth, memory, and the Canadian identity. PLUS: Luke discusses the glamorous life of being a published book author. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling ...
Jan 25, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Bohdan Krawchenko , author of works on Ukrainian politics and history, talks to Suzi from the University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan about the potential disaster on the Russian-Ukrainian border—and looks at the bigger picture of Putin’s government in Russia. We talk about what is driving Putin’s actions and what is at stake in the dangerously escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Is this geopolitical gamble with the West aimed at negotiating with the US to keep NATO at bay—or is it a...
Jan 21, 2022•46 min
Epidemiologist Justin Feldman makes a comprehensive and devastating critique of Biden's pandemic response. Read Justin's essay: jmfeldman.medium.com/?p=88452c696f2 Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Angela Davis: An Autobiography haymarketbooks.org/books/1741-angela-davis...
Jan 21, 2022•1 hr 49 min
Researcher Ted Boettner of the Ohio River Valley Institute outlines West Virginia’s political shift from blue to red through the history of coal mining and discusses why the Left can’t win without rural and working-class voters. Matt Bruenig explains the pandemic baby boom in the Nordic countries, and Jen Pan discusses a surprising increase in the number of self-identified Republicans in the US. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, t...
Jan 21, 2022•54 min
Grace talks to Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, associate professor of sociology at UCL, about his book Speculative Communities: Living with Uncertainty in a Financialized World . They talk about the formation of a new kind of subject—homo speculans—and how mutual cooperation in the context of the deep and pervasive uncertainty that characterizes life under financial capitalism is building new communities and new forms of resistance. A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringin...
Jan 18, 2022•49 min
Cédric Durand joins Long Reads for a conversation about global capitalism and the pandemic. Cédric is a French economist who teaches at the University of Geneva, and the author of Fictitious Capital: How Finance Is Appropriating Our Future . Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. You can find Cédric's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/book...
Jan 15, 2022•48 min
Historian Gabriel Winant discusses The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America. It's a fascinating study of the emergence of the service sector and a new working class out of the wreckage of deindustrialization through the story of the rise and fall of unionized steel in Pittsburgh and its replacement by a massive hospital industry. Listen to my past interview with Winant on the social worlds that make US politics and how that sociality is rooted in the ...
Jan 14, 2022•2 hr 22 min
Chapo Trap House’s Amber A’Lee Frost and Jacobin contributor Danny Bessner investigate whether the Democrats are losing on purpose. Ross Barkan discusses New York mayor Eric Adams’s unlikely coalition of black working-class voters and wealthy developers, and Jen Pan debunks blue-state racecraft. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is th...
Jan 14, 2022•1 hr 24 min
To mark a very special milestone, we decided to reach back to early in the podcast's history and revisit MICHAEL MOORE HATES AMERICA (2004). Mimicking Moore's own filmmaking style, this amateurish documentary sees a conservative man go on a cross-country journey to land and interview with Michael himself. We discuss why this piece of right-wing kitsch has remained so firmly lodged in our minds, and why it is such a product of its time. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our c...
Jan 13, 2022•51 min
Suzi talks to Warren Montag about the danger of the organized and armed far right. He argues in "The Necessity of Taking Back the Streets" in the journal Spectre that the left has not recognized the danger of the far right, and has been outflanked by the right’s strategic advance politically, electorally, and militarily. Warren sees the January 6, 2021 action as a big success for the right—and the left’s inability to respond to the danger encapsulates the political situation today, the actual ba...
Jan 12, 2022•56 min
Everyone feels bad right now because conditions are awful and the outlook is bleak. What is going on, and where might things be headed? How might we become unstuck from this interregnum? Dan interviews returning guests Aziz Rana, Nikhil Pal Singh, and Wendy Brown.
Jan 06, 2022•2 hr 11 min
This week, we speak with Alex Han, executive editor of Organizing Upgrade about a recent conversation he moderated between an Amazon activist named Howard and Wade Rathke, chief organizer of ACORN in the U.S. from 1970 – 2008. The discussion focuses on the successes and failures of organizing during the era in which Walmart was the ascendant force in commerce, a role Amazon plays today. Organizing Upgrade published the conversation as a three part series you can read here . You can listen to Pri...
Jan 05, 2022•45 min•Ep. 15
In 1985, a group of plucky renegades banded together to take on the political culture in the Democratic Party—demolishing Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition" to create a coalition that could win elections. That's the thesis of CRASHING THE PARTY (2016), a hagiographic documentary that chronicles the rise of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and its star candidate, Bill Clinton. We discuss how funny it is that the documentary came out in mid-2016, just when it appeared that the Clintonit...
Jan 04, 2022•56 min
Doug speaks with Antonia Mardones Marshall on the recent presidential election and its winner, Gabriel Boric. Plus: Antonia Atria, in an interview from October 2020, on that country's constitutional referendum. 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 here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html...
Dec 28, 2021•53 min
Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom in Chile about Gabriel Boric’s impressive landslide victory in the second round of Chile’s Presidential election held December 19. Boric, a 35 year old former student leader from the Apruebo Dignidad (I Approve Dignity) coalition, decisively defeated the first round winner, Jose Antonio Kast, the ultra-right admirer of Pinochet’s dictatorship whose campaign stoked fear and demonized migrants as narco-trafficking terrorists, opposed women’s rights, same sex marriage and...
Dec 24, 2021•51 min
Catherine Liu, professor at University of California, Irvine, joins The Jacobin Show to discuss the rise of elite liberalism and the professional class. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from December 20, 2021 with Jen Pan and Cale Brook hosting. Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag....
Dec 22, 2021•2 hr 25 min
Episode two of our two-part series on cryptocurrency: political theorist Stefan Eich on how crypto fits into Hayek's old neoliberal dream of private money and why that vision emerged in a new form in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Read Stefan's article: static1.squarespace.com/static/5ae8a7b625bf02c0b85aec02/t/5c923c13eef1a1ce843836ff/1553087508427/Stefan+Eich%2C+Old+Utopias%2C+New+Tax+Havens+%282019%29.pdf Check out We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Cul...
Dec 22, 2021•2 hr 4 min
For months we've been immersing ourselves in such Intellectual Property soups as Ready Player One, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and The Simpsons in Plusaversary, so we felt it was time to examine the animated hit that helped birth this new phenomenon: THE LEGO MOVIE (2014). PLUS: the return of COVID, a bad week for the Democrats, and the actual, honest-to-goodness phenomenon of official Rifkin's Festival NFTs. "What’s behind global covid inequalities? Corporate greed" by Luke Savage - https://www.wa...
Dec 21, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Economist Richard Wolff joins Weekends to explain why Congressional partisan battles are like professional wrestling and why global capitalism continues to experience crisis after crisis. Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the (last!) episode, which aired December 17, 2021. Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://ja...
Dec 20, 2021•2 hr
Michael Vann joins Long Reads for a conversation about Indonesia’s turbulent past and present. Michael is a professor of history at Sacramento State University. He specializes in the history of Southeast Asia. This is the second part of a two-part interview. The previous Long Reads episode covers events leading up to Suharto’s coup in the 1960s. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writer...
Dec 18, 2021•58 min
Edward Ongweso Jr. and Jacob Silverman on cryptocurrency, NFTs, Elon Musk, the metaverse, meme stocks, and techno-utopianism amid the crushing reality of our neoliberal hellscape. The first in a two-episode series on crypto. Read Dan's new essay on border control politics: nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/border-crises/
Dec 16, 2021•2 hr 14 min
Labor organizer and writer Jane McAlevey discusses the strike wave, the Great Resignation, and the union-busting efforts of the past year and looks at where the labor movement might go in 2022 and beyond. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from December 13, 2021 with Jen Pan and Paul Prescod hosting. ...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 28 min
Jacobin columnist Liza Featherstone joins Weekends to discuss how deindustrialization and stagnant wages have affected working-class men, and how right-wing politicians and pundits like Josh Hawley and Tucker Carlson have exploited this group’s downward mobility to sound the alarm over a “crisis of masculinity.” Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from December 1...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 57 min
For 78 days in 1990, a group of Mohawk protestors withstood a siege from the Canadian armed forces. The root of the conflict? A town in Quebec sought to take over their land to expand a golf course. The Oka Crisis is the subject of Alanis Obomsawin's acclaimed documentary KANEHSATAKE: 270 YEARS OF RESISTANCE (1993), which offers us an opportunity to consider how Canada treats its First Nations. Watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yP3srFvhKs Michael and Us is a podcast about politica...
Dec 13, 2021•35 min
Suzi talks with John Logan about the unionization victory at Starbucks in Buffalo, and the continuing Kellogg Co. strike: workers rejected the agreement and Kellogg's said it will permanently replace the workforce. Since that announcement, Kellogg's has been flooded with bogus job applications . John's most recent piece on the Starbucks victory appeared in The Conversation : “Union Battles At Amazon And Starbucks Are Hot News—Which Can Only Be Good For The Labor Movement.” They talk about the vi...
Dec 13, 2021•52 min
Michael Vann joins Long Reads for a special, two-part conversation about Indonesia’s turbulent past and present. Michael is a professor of history at Sacramento State University who specializes in the history of Southeast Asia. Today’s episode covers the events leading up to the coup in the 1960s, when General Suharto seized power and slaughtered the Indonesian left. Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the maga...
Dec 11, 2021•48 min
Touré Reed and Adolph Reed discuss their new article in Socialist Register, how the project of racial justice became unmoored from political economy in the postwar era, and how this disconnect continues to shape our understandings of race and inequality today. The Jacobin Show offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from D...
Dec 10, 2021•2 hr 16 min
How neoliberal conditions create popular constituencies, ideologies, and subjectivities among poor and working-class people for a violent, mean, and repressive neoliberalism—and how those reactionary politics from below converge with those generated from above. Political theorist Rodrigo Nunes analyzes Bolsonarismo (the ideology and politics surrounding far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro) and far-right politics everywhere. Read Rodrigo's essays: radicalphilosophy.com/article/of-what-is...
Dec 10, 2021•1 hr 34 min
Adaner Usmani joins Weekends to explain why fighting racial inequality today depends on forging a working-class coalition, and why race-based solutions to inequality are ultimately a dead end. Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila features free-flowing and humorous commentary on current events and political strategy. This is the podcast version of the show from December 3, 2021. Verso book club: https://www.versobooks.com/bookclub Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/su...
Dec 07, 2021•1 hr 59 min
