Grace speaks to Ruth Wilson Gilmore, prison abolitionist, scholar, and professor of geography at the City University of New York. She is the author of several books, including Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California and, most recently, Abolition Geography: Essays Toward Liberation . They discuss who is profiting from the criminal justice system, how existing institutions within the system serve to support and reinforce capitalist social relations, and wha...
Sep 21, 2022•50 min
Suzi talks to UCSB labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein to get his analysis of the impending rail strike and the tentative deal reached to prevent it by labor leaders, the government, and the freight rail companies. The workers are demanding paid sick days and more predictable and humane schedules, but they weren’t at the table forging the tentative agreement. They are, however, the ones who will decide whether or not to ratify or reject the deal. Nelson says rail workers are shaking up labor onc...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 16 min
We mark Queen Elizabeth's passing by looking at towering work of royalist kitsch, THE KING'S SPEECH (2010). We discuss how this Oscar-winner humanizes the monarchy in order to uphold it. See Luke speak at the Toronto International Festival of Authors on September 27 - https://festivalofauthors.ca/event/critical-conversation-new-working-class/ Hear Will on Canadaland - https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/815-our-royals-our-elves/ Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling...
Sep 19, 2022•43 min
Doug discusses child poverty: How much was it down, really? Then Mario Pino offers another view of the Chilean constitutional referendum. Finally, Arielle Angel, editor of Jewish Currents and author of a new article, "Beyond Grievance," explores the problems with organizing politics around pain and the issues of "foregrounding grievance in the name of justice." Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to ...
Sep 19, 2022•53 min
Featuring Thulani Davis on The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom, a monumental history of freedpeople organizing amid the Civil War and Reconstruction. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto by China Miéville haymarketbooks.org/books/1990-a-spectre-haunting
Sep 18, 2022•1 hr 46 min
Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom and Oscar Mendoza to get their analysis of the monumental defeat in Chile on Sunday, September 4, when Chileans went to the polls to approve or reject a new progressive Constitution, born in response to the massive social protest movement and revolt in October 2019. The demand that grew out of that movement was for a new Constitution to replace the reactionary Pinochet constitution imposed in a fraudulent plebiscite in 1980. A Constituent Assembly was elected,...
Sep 16, 2022•1 hr 8 min
We're joined by the left's preeminent cultural critics, Catherine Liu and Eileen Jones, to assess why cultural production is so awful right now and what its root causes are. We also have professor René Rojas to help us understand why the progressive constitution in Chile failed horribly after years of mounting social pressure. Jen Pan examines some new independent union alternatives and why they don't stack up to traditional labor power. Finally, we pay tribute to Barbara Ehrenreich, one of our ...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 47 min
Chilean political activist Antonia Atria explains why that country’s voters rejected a proposed new constitution. Juliana Fredman, a public interest lawyer in the Bay Area, analyzes Biden’s student debt relief plan. 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...
Sep 12, 2022•53 min
Featuring Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore on racial capitalism, intergenerational organizing, internationalism, and a whole lot more. Dan's live Dig interview from the Socialism 2022 conference in Chicago. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our archives and weekly newsletter at thedigradio.com Check out Breaking the Impasse by Kim Moody haymarketbooks.org/books/1873-breaking-the-impasse...
Sep 10, 2022•1 hr 36 min
Deepa Kumar returns to Long Reads for a discussion about imperial militarism and its relationship to Islamophobic bigotry. Deepa is a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and the author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire . This is part two of a two-part interview. You can find the first part here . 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 ...
Sep 10, 2022•45 min
Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative joins to discuss the demographics of the million people in state prisons (with a coda on the fight around cash bail in New York). Then historian James Chappel talks about "postliberalism," namely the reactionary Catholic law prof Adrian Vermeule (a contributing editor of the would-be left–right hybrid magazine, Compact ). This is an encore version of a show first broadcast in April. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of econo...
Sep 08, 2022•53 min
One of the key films of Brazil's Cinema Novo movement, Glauber Rocha's masterpiece TERRA EM TRANSE aka ENTRANCED EARTH (1967) envisions a fictional Latin American country where the left- and right-wing parties both feed from the same trough, and asks what role art can play in revolution, if any. Friend-of-the-show Violet Lucca returns to place the film within the context of Brazil after the 1964 coup that led to decades of military dictatorship. "Revolutionary Lessons"by Robert Stamm - https://w...
Sep 06, 2022•40 min
Grace is joined by Mareile Pfannebecker and James A. Smith to discuss their book Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism . They discuss why we are working so hard, what kind of work is valued, and what a post-work future might look like. A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making th...
Sep 06, 2022•49 min
Featuring Rahmane Idrissa on Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The region has been beset by jihadist insurgencies and, in the case of Mali and Burkina Faso, recent military coups. This is a comprehensive interview that puts the present conflict—which has drawn in French military and then Russian mercenary intervention—into deep historical and political-economic context from struggles over the slave trade, through French colonialism, to the neocolonial imposition of neoliberalism. Idrissa’s work: ne...
Sep 02, 2022•2 hr 15 min
Vivek Chibber, author of Confronting Capitalism , joins Jen Pan to explain what we can learn from both the Bolshevik and social democratic past to more effectively challenge and overcome capitalism in the 21st century. David Griscom of Left Reckoning is also with us to discuss whether or not socialists can also be patriots, or if that's playing with fire. Thomas Gokey of the Debt Collective helps us understand what Biden's decision to cancel $10k of student debt means. Finally, Paul Prescod expl...
Sep 01, 2022•1 hr 29 min
Matt Colquhoun talks about Mark Fisher on the reissue of his essay collection Ghosts of My Life . Then Matt Huber, author of a recent article for the New Left Review blog Sidecar titled " Mish-Mash Ecologism ," criticizes the climate austerity camp. 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...
Aug 30, 2022•53 min
This week, Grace talks to Andrew Murray, former chair of the Stop the War Coalition, former chief of staff at the Unite trade union, and former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn. We discuss his forthcoming book, Is Socialism Possible in Britain? Reflections on the Corbyn Years , which examines the Corbyn moment within the long history of the Labour Party. A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around th...
Aug 29, 2022•54 min
The new documentary ALEX'S WAR (2022) seeks to "look past the caricature" of the Infowars gadfly Alex Jones. Your hosts find themselves disagreeing on the usefulness of this nonjudgmental profile of the notorious conspiracy theorist. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Aug 29, 2022•58 min
Deepa Kumar joins Long Reads for a discussion about imperial militarism and its relationship to Islamophobic bigotry. Deepa is a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, and the author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire . This is part one of a two-part interview. 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. Produced b...
Aug 28, 2022•53 min
Featuring Quinn Slobodian on his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. The story of neoliberalism’s Geneva School—including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke—and their vision for a new global order to protect the market from democratic forces in the metropole and across the decolonizing world. An interview from archives first conducted in November 2018. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out these Haymarket titles: Keywords for Capitalism ...
Aug 27, 2022•2 hr 16 min
Historian Gary Gerstle joins us to discuss what gave rise to the New Deal political order, the role that global communism played in the capital-labor compromise, and prospects for renewed social democracy after neoliberalism. Liza Featherstone also joins us to discuss how and why the left gets smeared as sexist or bigoted—and what the left should do about it. Finally, Paul Prescod joins Jen Pan to discuss both the Minneapolis teachers revoking seniority and the possibly impending rail strike. Ga...
Aug 26, 2022•1 hr 21 min
Doug is joined by David Palumbo-Liu to discuss the politics of Stanford University and its infamous alum, Peter Thiel. We then get writer Indrajit Samarajiva 's analysis of the political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka. 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...
Aug 25, 2022•53 min
On October 15th, 1969, over 100,000 people gathered on Boston Common for the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. It was a country-wide protest in which two million people took part in demonstrations, teach-ins, and other actions in over two hundred cities. For the event, Zinn delivered this speech, discussing the need for immediate withdrawal of US troops, the hypocrisy of American democracy, a longer history of foreign policy and intervention, and the necessity of political and social transfo...
Aug 24, 2022•24 min
Grace is joined by James Schneider, former Head of Strategic Communications for Jeremy Corbyn and the co-founder of Momentum, to talk about his book Our Bloc: How We Win . They discuss challenges facing the left—and how we can bring together disparate parts of our movement into a coherent bloc to build power. A World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory, and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor ...
Aug 21, 2022•47 min
Featuring Adom Getachew on the story of how decolonization struggles across the Black Atlantic tried to not only cast off European rule but also to remake the entire world system. An October 2019 episode from the archives. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Aug 19, 2022•2 hr
Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad, two of the left's most brilliant critics of US empire, sit down with Jacobin Show's Ariella Thornhill to discuss their new book The Withdrawal . To Chomsky and Prashad, US global power acts much the same way a Godfather rules over a Mafia family, imposing its interests on all who stand in its way domestically or internationally. The wide-ranging discussion touches on American exceptionalism, Military Keynesianism, the roadblocks for a new Iran Nuclear Deal, and th...
Aug 18, 2022•1 hr 50 min
Our Superdelegate patron tier was mad as hell that we hadn't yet discussed Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky's NETWORK (1976) and wasn't going to take it anymore. We watched an American classic and discovered that Howard Beale's famous speech isn't even the most important speech in the movie. Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.
Aug 17, 2022•45 min
Doug interviews Leigh Phillips on why nuclear power has to be part of any serious decarbonization program. Volodymyr Ishchenko discusses Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as part of a bid to consolidate power—and how the ruling classes of both countries are political capitalists of a sort unknown in the West. 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.leftbusiness...
Aug 16, 2022•53 min
Suzi talks to economic historian Robert Brenner to get his understanding of this strange economic moment. What makes it strange? Inflation has dampened spending, the economy is shrinking, and many call it "shaky." Yet profits are strong and soaring, especially in the energy sector, in part because of Russia’s war on Ukraine. And job growth continues. Despite wage increases, workers’ wages overall are still lagging, but CEO pay is skyrocketing—and the Fed continues to raise interest rates to curb...
Aug 15, 2022•50 min
Dina Khoury joins Long Reads for the second in a two-part conversation about Iraq since the US occupation. Dina is a historian of the Middle East, and her books include Iraq in Wartime . Listen to part one here: https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/long-reads-us-destruction-of-iraq-part-1 Read her piece for Catalyst , "Iraq After US Occupation," here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/09/iraq-after-us-occupation Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and t...
Aug 13, 2022•51 min
