As Ukrainians flee the war in their home country, some have found their way to the U.S. southern border where they are immediately escorted into the country. Because they're seeking refuge from a dangerous conflict and seeking asylum in the land of the free. And they're getting in. Quickly. Through Mexico. Meanwhile... you can probably guess where this is headed. Anyhoo, today's episode looks at immigration policy in the United States and fingers (ew) the real bad guy in our story that crafted t...
Mar 26, 2022•49 min
In today's Show Notes minisode, Max revisits Thomas Piketty's theory of universal inheritance, we continue talks of NATO + Russia, and 99 yells about Phish some more. Listen to the main episode accompaniment here Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Previous Episode Thoughts: 00:01:36 Emails: 00:08:03 Facebook Shout Outs: 00:30:59 Twitter Shout Outs: 00:32:45 Instagram Shout Outs: 00:35:59 Coffees and Members: 00:40:15 Housekeeping: 00:45:31 Outro: 00:47:00 Resources Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a Wo...
Mar 23, 2022•47 min
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the global political calculus almost overnight. While catastrophic and horrific in nature, this shift has provided unforeseen opportunities that were unthinkable just a few months ago. The question is how best to mobilize in this darkness to affect positive change moving forward. We examine the work of Thomas Piketty and Erica Chenoweth to help wrap our minds around what’s possible, no matter how audacious. Chapters Intro: 00:00:07 Chapter One: 00:03:13 Chapt...
Mar 19, 2022•51 min
In today's Show Notes minisode, Max reads a cutting room floor draft, we share some Unf*cker feedback, and discuss Russia and Ukraine a bit further. Listen to the main episode accompaniment here Chapters Intro: 00:00:21 Cutting Room Floor: 00:00:55 Buy Me A Coffee Donations + Memberships: 00:07:38 Facebook Shout Outs: 00:24:52 Twitter Shout Outs: 00:26:27 Instagram Shout Outs: 00:31:44 Emails: 00:38:48 Reviews: 00:57:00 Housekeeping: 00:57:55 Outro: 00:59:41 Resources American Scandal: LA Steals...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 1 min
A psychopath in Russia just committed a war crime by invading Ukraine. Now he’s a mass murderer as well. Today’s episode examines whether the United States has standing in this fight, the role of NATO since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the bullshit narrative surrounding rising oil and gas prices that literally no one is getting right. We also destroy some current popular right wing talking points about Biden, fossil fuel and energy independence. And Max shares one of his favorite stories...
Mar 12, 2022•50 min
On this bonus UNFTR, 99 revisits Book Love segments past in hopes to inspire your reading lists. We’ll be back with full-fledged Unf*ckings very soon! Resources UNFTR Book List on Bookshop.org Unf*cker Book Recommendations -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com . Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com . Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republi...
Mar 05, 2022•28 min
Today we have a special episode for you—a Manny & 99 takeover. While Max is away the minions will play! We run through some listener feedback and share some behind the scenes details of our recording process. Enjoy! Unf*cker Resources Swing Left Indivisible Manny + 99's Podcast Recommendations News Beat Hip-Hop Can Save America Louder Than A Riot Code Switch Stuff You Should Know Last Podcast on the Left American Scandal How Did This Get Made Comedy Bang Bang U Talkin’ U2 2 Me (Plus REM + Ta...
Feb 26, 2022•41 min
The showwwwww noteessss. In this experiment, we break out show notes into their own unf*cking minisode so we can spend more time answering y'all Unf*ckers. Listen to the main episode accompaniment here . Resources from Unf*ckers Bobby McD on Instagram and Facebook Jacobin: Can We Criticize Foucault? Josh Mitchell: The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook , ...
Feb 23, 2022•57 min
Because inflation is on everyone’s minds and the media can’t seem to get this right, we dive even deeper into the inflation narrative to dispel both propaganda and myth. Surprise, surprise, the real story of inflation is wrapped up in corporate America’s rather impressive year. We’ll talk about how increasing rents, pain at the pump and higher consumer prices went back into the pockets of large corporations and Wall Street and explain why it only happened in America. Chapters Intro: 00:00:25 Pro...
Feb 19, 2022•56 min
We’re hitting the pause button in honor of our 50th full episode. Quite the milestone and we wanted to celebrate together. And in true UNFTR fashion, we celebrate by running through 2021 from a congressional perspective. What did we actually accomplish and why? How? We top it off with some ways for Unf*ckers to get involved and make change in their communities so that come end of ’22 we can (hopefully) tell a different story. Chapters Intro: 00:00:38 Chapter 1: 00:01:47 Chapter 2: 00:08:46 Chapt...
Feb 12, 2022•1 hr 17 min
Oil is everywhere. It’s all around us. It’s in everything and it makes the world go around. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that renewable energy will comprise 27% of the world’s energy production by 2050, all things being equal. Pretty great, right? Not really. Based upon population and economic growth trends, the EIA also predicts that the use of liquid fuels will continue to increase over the same period. So as much as we think we might be getting ahead, we’re really not....
Feb 05, 2022•1 hr 32 min
This week’s alliterative Quickie is brought to you by the letter “i.” In typical Quickie fashion we delve into three distinct but related topics: Invasion, Inflation & Immigration, as seen through the lens of Fox News. We’ll tie in some prior themes and set the table for a couple of future episodes in this barn burner of a Quickie featuring the worst people on television. For those listening and not just reading, after a heartfelt message toward the end of the episode Max has a rather ugly a...
Jan 29, 2022•1 hr 3 min
In part two of “Libertarians are Exhausting” we’re still talking about freedom and liberty. Economic freedom, personal liberty and the next important concept we need to unpack: The Rule of Law. Plus we'll take a look at the masters of the libertarian universe (aka the brains, money, economists and lawyers) behind the nouveau American style fiscal-anarcho-capitalist-minarchist-neoliberal-objectivist cauldron of bullshit we know as modern day libertarianism. Chapters Intro: 00:00:07 Prologue: 00:0...
Jan 22, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Libertarians can be exhausting. Because libertarianism has so many attractive features and strong statements about “freedom” and “liberty” they have a lot of perceived political high ground when arguing with them. The problem with libertarianism - as it is with Marxism, capitalism and so many other philosophies - is that it’s entirely theoretical. Trying to construct an actual framework around the concepts they hold dear is like arguing over how Santa Claus fits down the chimney. That said, ther...
Jan 15, 2022•1 hr 9 min
As many of you know, we’ve had this on the pod-docket for months. It’s finally time to unf*ck our food system and talk about veganism. We decided not to pursue this topic from a moral or ethical perspective, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a story about justice. 40% of the world’s working population is in some way employed in the food and agriculture sector. A third of all food is wasted. 50% of the earth’s land has been cleared for livestock and farming. Overfishing and chemical runoff is dest...
Jan 08, 2022•1 hr 16 min
Our little Unf*cking team wishes the Unf*cking community a safe and healthy holiday season. We'll be back on January 8th with a new drop but here's a Holiday Quickie to tide you over. In this Quickie we examine three positive things that have occurred since Biden took office. (We had to look pretty hard for these, but wanted to end on a positive note.) Then we offer thanks and praise to Joe Manchin for taking a giant shit on the poor. What a guy. Happy, Merry and all that crap. See you in the Ne...
Dec 25, 2021•1 hr 5 min
From Pullman and Carnegie to Kellogg's and the PRO Act, this week we unf*ck the labor movement in the United States. No single episode can possibly do labor justice but we give it our best shot. The episode includes a blow-by-blow analysis of a recent interview with the CEO of Kellogg's to translate Wall Street speak for “how to fuck workers and influence inflation.” And we rip off a few Milton references to exercise our #FMF muscle. Chapters Intro: 00:00:42 Segment 1: 00:02:11 Segment 2: 00:04:...
Dec 18, 2021•1 hr 15 min
There were 15 references to China in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. The recent bill passed by the House, which is more than what President Biden requested (because that makes fucking sense) contains 89 references to China. It’s official. We have our new existential bogeyman threat. Battle stations, everyone. We’re going to war with China. Someday. Or are we? Why would we? What the actual fuck is our problem? Today’s episode pulls back the cover on our latest propaganda campaign des...
Dec 11, 2021•52 min
Today we celebrate the life of Noam Chomsky who turns 93 this week and discuss the nature of punditry, the role of true intellectuals in today’s society and the cult of pseudo intellectual charlatans. Chapters 00:01:32 Intro 00:04:52 Segment 1 00:17:22 Segment 2 00:27:02 Segment 3 00:33:28 Show Notes 00:34:48 Book Love 00:35:34 Emails + Shoutouts 00:53:44 Outro GoFundMe Keep Kanatsiohareke Warm this Winter Resources New York Times: QAnon Now as Popular in U.S. as Some Major Religions, Poll Sugge...
Dec 04, 2021•55 min
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 it. From wild tales of vigilante slave owning gold diggers and gunboat diplomacy to economic gangster...
Nov 26, 2021•59 min
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 pork and contains none of the human elements promised to us. It’s a bill that got signed in Washing...
Nov 20, 2021•55 min
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 years to suit a narrative that ensured the continued growth of the military industrial complex and ...
Nov 13, 2021•1 hr 10 min
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 and what it’s worth? Who creates the rules of engagement for international trade? Big picture stuff...
Nov 06, 2021•1 hr 13 min
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 Chappelle, Jon Stewart and Joe Rogan. These three have a combined audience reach that rivals any major netw...
Oct 30, 2021•1 hr
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 through how most of these theories (except fascism) are more alike than we’ve been led to believe. (99 an...
Oct 23, 2021•1 hr 2 min
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 House of Representatives that give us hope for the future. Resources Indian Country Today: Theodore Roo...
Oct 16, 2021•56 min
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 the issues we’re set to tackle in the coming months and remark on a few trends that are both hopeful ...
Oct 09, 2021•52 min
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 policy over time and what it portends for an uncertain economic future in the era of climate change. ...
Oct 02, 2021•53 min
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 Edmonton CityNews: Hope blossoms as first two-spirited MP elected Code Switch: Is It Time To Say R.I.P...
Sep 25, 2021•47 min
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 economic development and sovereignty, and why their coffee is so fucking delicious. Resources Shop U...
Sep 23, 2021•46 min
