Emma hosts Amia Srinivasan, Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford, to discuss her recent book The Right to Sex: Feminism in the 21st Century. Then Emma is joined by Melanie D'Arrigo, candidate for Congress in New York's 3rd district, to give us an update from the campaign trail. Prof. Srinivasan and Emma dive right into the biggest news of the last two weeks, taking on their initial reactions to the Roe v. Wade leak, from the instinctive and personal horror to deranged awe for the American conservatives seeing their strategy of the last half-century finally come to fruition, before getting into the questions this decision raises and what the future of reproductive rights looks like when the party defending them is constantly inert. Next, they turn to Professor Srinivasan’s book, looking at the divide between the sphere of politics and the private sphere, and how she follows in the path of emphasizing the inherently political nature of feminism and sex. First looking to the feminisms of the ‘60s and ’70, Emma and Amia discuss this repoliticization of private issues, as concepts like abortion, family structure, childcare, and education became central to the feminist fight, alongside a birth of sex positivity, before the ‘80s rolled around and saw pushback amidst feelings of encouraging sex on men’s terms, looking beyond just consent at the larger coercive factors. This brings Professor Srinivasan to an analysis of the neoliberal market ideology, with consent and contracts as the only moral factor, considering sexual freedom along the same lines of tradeoffs, particularly around status, and how this analysis can be used to pushback, particularly against incel misogyny. They then look to the development of feminisms’ stances on porn, with the antithesis to sex positivity seeing porn as the lynchpin of patriarchy and a training ground for men’s subjugation of women, despite the large inaccessibility of porn at the time, before the boom of the internet in the 21st Century saw it become almost ubiquitous in much of the Western world, and thus plagued by monopoly and corruption as a neoliberal institution. Emma and Amia pin that conversation with a discussion on the importance of a sex-worker-owned-and-led world of porn as the only one where they can have a sense of security, before they wrap up the interview with a discussion on #MeToo, and the racialization and classism involved in rape accusations and where they go in the legal world. Then, Melanie D'Arrigo discusses her campaign in NY-3, and engaging as a progressive with notoriously conservative constituents. Emma also covers Israel’s murder of journalist Shereen Abu Aqleh, Finland getting closer to joining NATO, and Manchin’s objection to giving women rights, when that’s not what some Americans want!

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they listen in awe to Randy Zuckerberg’s crypto anthem sequel, before having an extensive discussion on the recent crypto collapse and the role of Luna and Terra currencies in the drop. Bryan in the Poconos gives some updates on the PA Senate race on both the left and right, Ned Price, representing Biden’s administration, does anything but address Israeli war crimes, entrusting the IDF to investigate whether or not they’re murderers, and the crew discusses constitutional reform and Latin America. Jordan Peterson declares the Bible as the basis for truth itself and Dennis Prager gets covid (again), plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Amia's book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374721039/therighttosex

Check out Melanie's campaign here: https://darrigo2022.com/

Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the week! They begin with the response from Democratic leadership to this mass stripping of rights, as they immediately step in… to expand police details for Supreme Court justices, before diving into non-Roe news from Biden once again putting domestic COVID aid on the back burner, Russian continued strikes in Odessa and along weapons supply lines, and the upcoming decisions by Finland and Sweden on joining NATO. Then, Emma and Sam dive back to the 1970s as they tackle the last fifty years of reproductive rights, with the GOP assimilating anti-choice policy into their platform as early as 1976 in an attempt to win over the apolitical evangelical wing, before becoming a foundational value as the Republican party shifted into the Reagan years. Next, they look to the Democratic Leadership’s apparently ahistorical view of party politics, as Nancy Pelosi continues to push the absolute fetishization of her opposition, pining for a strong Republican party, one that loves a woman’s right to choose and environmental activism, while reality continues to see more and more right-wing fundamentalist policy pass, before Emma dives into Pelosi’s belief that the GOP must look at their base like she looks at hers, taking it back from these “extremists,” rather than using their popularity to get your agenda passed. Next, Chuck Schumer assumes his riveting monotone delivery as he exemplifies the Democrats’ fecklessness on the Senate floor, and Joe Scarborough dives into Alito’s takedown of the 14th Amendment, walking through the myriad other rights that it puts on weak footing, and pushing the Democrats to please compromise, maybe taking like 60% of a right? Like half of a right to interracial marriage or something. They also wrap up the first half by diving into updates on the leak, the right’s continued insistence that a FELONIOUS liberal clerk leaked this decision… to hold the conservative justices to their anti-choice decision.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma cover DeSantis’ new school of propaganda, as he announces a mandatory education on “Victims of Communism Day,” and dive into his CRT-related banning of… a math textbook. They also dive into Alabama advancing a bill to criminalize all trans people under the age of 19, bolstering the already sky-high rates of depression and suicidal intent in genderqueer teens, and lending credence to the abuse and harassment that causes it. Notorious ally Jimmy Dore then rants on this mass swath of trans activists (it’s one tweet) and their violent nature, before Sam and Emma dive into the culmination of Hillary Clinton’s “use the invasion of Ukraine to weaken Russia” talking points after Russia’s invasion, as Dem consultants discuss our role in the “conflict” as “fundamentally at war by proxy.” Kev from Quincy discusses the relationship between abortion and child poverty, Julian from Spokane discusses the devastating emotion of this week, and what avenues to protect abortion exist, and Sam and Emma dive into the myth of student debt relief being an elitist policy. Plus, your calls and IMs!

It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Russ Feingold, President of the American Constitution Society and former United States Senator from Wisconsin to discuss the leaked Supreme Court Roe V. Wade opinion. Digby, Sam, and Emma get right into this leak as the culmination of the saga of neoconservatism starting with Reagan, looking back over the last three decades on how the democrats’ insisted on making more room for the GOP’s fundamentalist values, completely misunderstanding what fundamentalism is, and the impossibility of appeasing it. This brings them to the Democratic leadership, looking at their complete lapse in understanding the fight they are supposedly up again, from going soft on pro-life arguments in the early aughts to suddenly being faced with a clear cut outcome, yet still “scrambling” for what to do, likely to resort to the only tactic they do commit to: fundraising. After briefly touching on the state of the undemocratic institutions that are the Supreme Court and US Senate, Sam, Emma, and Digby take on the likelihood of a national ban coming from a Republican majority legislature, as well as the other mass changes to the US constitution we can expect, from Plessy v. Ferguson to Gov. Abbott’s recent challenge to teaching migrants. Then, Russ Feingold brings up the idea of this being a product of a Republican Party led by Donald Trump, versus it as a culmination of anti-choice rhetoric starting with Reagan, looking to the complete lack of precedent for such a decision, and diving into Feingold’s relationship to the Supreme Court. They wrap up their discussion by diving into the American Consitution Society’s method for recruiting and evaluating potential judicial nominees, from lower circuits to the Supreme Court. Sam and Emma also discuss Joe Biden’s Senate as a filibuster-controlled wing of the legislature, California’s attempt to be an abortion refuge, and Louisiana’s attempt to ban abortion after fertilization. They also touch on updates from Ukraine and Mariupol and dive into the political implication of the SCOTUS leak.

And in the Fun Half: Sam dives into his waiting experience, Emma reflects on early movie-viewing experiences, and the crew dives into Tim Pool’s reaction to the Roe v. Wade decision, including his insistence on refusing to side with Democrats’ stance of letting abortion run rampant. Chris Smalls appears on Bloomberg and gives Amazon shareholders worldwide heart attacks, and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh goes on MSNBC to assuage any worries of the Biden Administration actually following through on their campaign promises to move against union-busting. Ron Johnson dives into a whole new vaccines-cause-AIDs theory, and gets challenged when it comes to the nuances. Greg Gutfeld celebrates Donald Trump’s ability to punch up on illegal immigrants and reporters with disabilities, plus, your IMs!

Emma hosts Kim Kelly, labor reporter and columnist at Teen Vogue, to discuss her recent book Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor. Then Emma is joined by Jessica Cisneros, candidate for Congress in Texas's 28th Congressional District, to give us an update from the campaign trail. Kim Kelly begins by just situating the current state of the labor movement, particularly coming off of her reporting from Bessemer, Alabama, and reflecting on the differences between that Amazon unionization effort and the success we’ve seen in Staten Island recently, before she and Emma get into the importance of looking to labor history for lessons from past organizers and past victories. Next, they get into the mythological image of the American union worker, the older white guy with grease on him, and the electoral fetishization of appealing to him, contrasting this figure with the incredibly diverse makeup of a working class. Kelly then looks to her own connection to organizing, first reflecting on her parent’s union membership and then getting into her first experience unionizing the Vice office back in the early 2010s, becoming only the second digital media union, and seeing firsthand how unions can achieve incredible things for their workers, from accessible and gender-affirming care to reasonable wages and myriad other material changes. She and Emma then jump back to 1824 discussing the first factory strike in US history, by young women in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, as a first example of how unionization is both not a white male activity, and is incredibly effective at lifting those who are viewed as easily exploitable into positions of leverage and safety, looking to more contemporary examples of Flight Attendants as well, before looking to how executives use different racial and cultural groups to divide workers. Moving to the turn of the century, they first discuss the mass strikes of washerwomen in Atlanta during the 1881 Cotton Exposition as they get into a discussion on the segregation of the labor movement, looking also to the brotherhood of sleeping car porters (the first AFL-recognized Black union), and the Philly local aid chapter of the IWW (the first nationally recognized interracial union), before they shift slightly to the large-scale women’s organizing movement like the uprising of the 20,000 in NYC, discussing the paths they inspired including the impact of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory pushing one of the biggest engineers, Frances Perkins, of social security and the New Deal deeper into the realm of organizing. Moving to the West Coast, Kim and Emma discuss how the 1940s saw sugar cane plantations in Hawaii continuously shift between targeted immigrant communities, dropping one and looking to another as each organized themselves (before working together), and dive into the “Ya Basta!” movement for janitors in CA, before wrapping up by touching on the current state of the NLRB and the inspiration we can find in (certain places of) the Biden Administration. Emma also chats with Jessica Cisneros on fighting for workers and a progressive agenda when up against an anti-choice Democrat in Texas.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they dive into Jordan Peterson’s most recent tear-shedding event, Matt explores the tension at Peterson’s speech at a bitcoin conference, and they discuss Starbucks pivoting to what workers really want (NFTs for mid-level management… and also lower pay for union workers). Karoline Leavitt goes on Newsmax to discuss the feminine urge to invest in local politics, Ben from Staten Island calls in on the future of reproductive rights, and the crew watches JJ Redick absolutely roast the Mad Dog on First Take. They also touch on the Madison Cawthorn leaks, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Kim's book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fight-Like-Hell/Kim-Kelly/9781982171056

Donate to Jessica's campaign here: https://jessicacisnerosforcongress.com/

Sam and Emma host Jeff Hauser, the head of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Jordan Flowers, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union and The Congress of Essential Workers. First, Sam and Emma dive into the Ohio primaries, as JD Vance comes out on top to fight Tim Ryan, Nina Turner comes up short once again, and Biden’s dance around abortion while McConnell straight-up refuses to address anything but the leak. Jeff, Sam, and Emma begin with Hauser’s thoughts on the implications of the SCOTUS leak, particularly with his history working at the DOJ, diving into the need for progressive and center-left organizers to keep this central to political discourse. Next, they dive into his work as head of the Revolving Door Project, looking at the cyclical path followed by the Democratic consultant class, between working to develop policy for the party and working to get around that policy for corporations, and diving into the examples they’ve been tracking in the Biden administration, and whether that has anything to do with the Democrats’ refusal to actually stick up to corporate crime, despite the incredible popularity such action would have. They then dive further into active Democratic inaction, particularly in the realms of supply chain economics and reproductive rights, looking at other, incredibly popular moves that Democratic leadership could (and likely won’t) make, including putting on corporate pressure in the fight for consumers against price gouging, and pushing back against an antagonistic Supreme Court and forcing big decisions, even if they lose. Jordan Flowers then joins, diving into the creation and cultivation of the Amazon Labor Union and Congress of Essential Workers, before looking at the mixed bag that was the recent round of ALU elections for the LDJ-5 storage center, discussing the roles of part-time employment and storage duties played in giving Amazon easier ability to display union-busting propaganda. They also look at the incredible success of the unions, discussing today’s visit of his co-founders to the White House, and what the fight looks like going forwards.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma dive into the two democratic reactions to the Roe v. Wade decision: the first being putting it on midterm voters (as Biden did) and the second being the profoundly ahistorical tactic of blaming “Trump Republicans” (as Schumer and Pelosi did) for the extremist result. Grant Stinchfield for some reason sees KBJ as the source of the leak, definitely not because of her race or gender but for other, nonexistent reasons. Ronald Raygun reflects on various developments in Democrats’ ability to talk about serious issues, as he, Emma, and Sam look at Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s continued ability to stir passion in her base, and Aaron from Chicago dives into the role of the Supreme Court in general. Crowder dives into his views on the diverse tastes of rapists, and our favorite Men’s Rights activist calls to explore his take on the abortion topic (it’s not as bad as you’d think, but everything else he says is). Plus, your calls and IMs!

Sam and Emma host J. David McSwane, reporter at ProPublica, to discuss his recent book Pandemic Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick, on the fraudulent paths of government money at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. David begins by covering the state of our infrastructure (or lack thereof) at the start of the pandemic, including an incredible 1% of necessary strategic reserves of PPE and other equipment which had been cut down in the wake of Democrats’ sequestration attempts in the 2010s and Donald Trump’s general crippling of anything governmental. Moving into the actual governmental response, David, Emma, and Sam then dive into how the execution of early pandemic policy genuinely made the preparations look effective, as nearly half of the pandemic response budget was swallowed up by corporations who held largely expired goods, setting a government contracting frenzy shoveling cash to any dude on the streets who said they had access to masks. Exploring this, David walks through his experiences on Robert Stewart’s private jets, jumping across the country clearly in search of more excuses for the never-to-materialize masks, before getting into the story of Mike Bowen’s Prestige Ameritech, perhaps the only legitimate source of masks that the US Government explored, and how his deal fell through due to personality differences, and touching on how one Fillakit LLC acquired their contract and shipped pre-expanded soda bottles through FEMA and across the country. Next, David McSwane dives into the role of the Kushner children in expanding this fraud beyond government contracts to the Paycheck Protection Program, diving into the myriad pseudo corporations and fake farms that sprang up to claim millions. Sam and Emma also touch on the Connecticut bill attempting to protect out-of-state abortion seekers, the White House’s ongoing internal battle over whether or not to cancel student debt, and the incredible fraud of the New York Times as Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns continue to trickle out years-old behind-the-scenes drama from Republicans over Build Back Better.

And in the Fun Half: Emma pays a visit to the NLRB’s vote tally for the Amazon labor fight while Sam takes a call from John in New Mexico on MR’s relationship to their mods and covers the Right’s constant ideology that looks for culture war openings, meaning gay people’s right to exist is just as much up for debate in 2022 as it was in 1982. Casey from Washington calls in about beetles, wildfire, and Canadian lumber supply, Charlie Kirk explores the positive impacts of recessions (they fuck over workers and undermine their leverage), and Sam and Emma walk through a harrowing Marist poll in the lead-up to the midterms. Ron DeSantis rips off Trump’s Gold Card, and Ben Shapiro discusses the violent culture war instigation that was Democrats giving Black folks the right to vote. Will Cain finds out some of his Fox co-hosts might not be vaccinated, David from LA explores the CA Governor's race, and the NLRB Amazon vote trickles in, plus, your calls and IMs!

It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Ari Rabin-Havt, former deputy campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), to discuss his recent book The Fighting Soul: On the Road with Bernie Sanders. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Matthew Film Guy! Ari, Emma, and Sam first dive into what his roles were traveling with Bernie throughout the 2020 campaign, particularly in the wake of Ari’s arrival on the team in the wake of his 2016 run. Ari Rabin-Havt then explores what it’s like to have that intimate perspective, particularly when it comes to Bernie’s atypical relationship to his popularity, which jumped to unprecedented levels in 2016, and in his reflections on bringing the magic from his previous campaign into 2020. After touching further on Bernie’s evolution between the two elections, Ari reflects on the role of Democratic leadership in completely leaving Bernie out to dry when it came to his fight with Jeff Bezos in 2018 and giving him the inside lane there, and discusses how the relationship between Bernie and Elizabeth Warren developed over the course of the second campaign, from the launch of their campaigns, to Bernie’s heart attack, and all the way through the well-documented clash on the Iowa debate stage. Sam, Emma, and Ari briefly touch on any massive changes to the campaign that would’ve been made in reflection two years later, from the first debate to Super Tuesday, before they wrap up the interview by discussing the central importance of a movement of workers to actually carry and support the progressive agenda, the importance of supporting actual organizers, and what possibilities remain around a third Bernie presidential campaign. Then, Matthew Film Guy (AKA Film Guy Matthew) discloses his BTS drama in his most recent movie, and walks through THREE movie recommendations, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Syndromes and a Century,” Joanna Hogg’s romance in the time of Thatcher “The Souvenir,” and Luchino Visconti’s work “Rocco and his Brothers.” Sam gives Matthew his Disney World tips, and Sam and Emma cover re-juiced military aid to Ukraine, Biden’s tiptoe tapdance with student debt relief, and the absurdity of means-testing.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma do their darndest to decipher Elon Musk’s take on twitter’s “left-wing bias” (not liking anti-semitism?) and Sam dives into the incompatibility between the right-wing (driven by a sense of grievance, desire to own the libs) and an exclusively right-wing social media (nobody to claim is attacking them, nobody to then own). OK State Sen. Warren Hamilton objects to women receiving life-saving medical procedures, Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald discuss Russia’s (really the Democrats’) invasion of Ukraine, and why Putin (really the Democrats) did this, plus, your IMs!

Check out Ari's book here: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631498794

Check out Matthew's Letterboxd account here.

Check out Matthew's film discussion group at CommonPoint Queens here.

Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the last week, in Sam's first news day back in studio! They begin by unpacking the fact that over half of Americans, per CDC estimates, have contracted COVID at least once now, discussing the intra-studio experiences with the virus and how vastly it can differ from person to person, before they dive into Biden’s pardon of Abraham Bolden, JFK’s Secret Service member and the first Black member to serve the President’s detail, looking at why he was arrested in the first place, and what a government that doesn’t hide CIA/FBI domestic intervention from the public might look like. Next, they jump to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as US and Russia expand their war aims amidst their imperialist expansions (though employing different tactics), and unpack the US’s role, particularly as devastation continues in Yemen and Afghanistan, before they watch Rand Paul go toe-to-toe with Tony Blinken on whether Russia kinda deserves to remake their Soviet empire, and highlight the importance of pushing for Ukrainian agency. Moving deeper into discussion on the Republican Party, Sam and Emma discuss the flip in impact for Trump endorsements, as JD Vance and others see their polling numbers jump following his appearance in support of them, and look at the ever trickling in NYT leaks of Kevin McCarthy’s (and other leadership’s) turn on Trump and Trump-supporting Congresspeople immediately following 1/6. They also dive into the other incompetent party in the US, looking at Biden’s continuously ambiguous relationship to student debt cancelation, and the Democrats’ inability to run on a single issue even as their competition pushes public discourse against abortion, LGBTQ folks, and CRT further and further to the right.

And in the Fun Half: Emma has Sam unpack his stance on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, as they cover the ambiguous nature of the site’s politics and political engagement, the fear of what Musk’s “free speech” might actually mean, and watch Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin unpack their desire for Musk to fill up the Twitter ranks with garbage fascists. Devin Nunes discusses Trump’s LOVE for surprises (not to mention his feelings towards flabbergastery), CSPAN gets a call about all those minorities on TV, and Burt from Burnsville MN expands the discussion on social media solutions. Midi Doctors talks no-fly zones over Ukraine, Sam and Emma respond to the silly Aaron Maté discourse, and Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray discuss how talking about slavery is more painful than the lasting effects of slavery. James from TX discusses how transphobic and anti-teacher discourse has trickled into teachers’ minds, causing fear and panic over not being able to discern the gender of tadpoles in an elementary school science project, plus, your calls and IMs!

Sam hosts David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect, to touch on the big weekend in news, as well as all of the fantastic journalism going on at the Prospect. He and Sam kick it off with his recent piece “The Accidental Revolution,” first covering the absolute state of despair within the Democratic Party, from Biden’s low (and falling) approval rating, poor midterm polling, and a 2024 election map that makes it unlikely for the Democratic majority to last, all paving the road for a worst-case scenario for a filibuster-proof Republican majority in the Senate. Next, they jump to the main villain of the Democratic party under the Biden Administration, looking to Joe Manchin’s booming approval rating in WV, and get into what we can learn from the Democrats’ failures with Build Back Better, whether it be the ineffectiveness of trying to pack something for every silo of the party into a single bill, the absurdity of interest groups just shoving legislative possibilities together, and how the reconciliation process provides limited opportunity to get anything done. However, as David continues, he and Sam dive into what the American Rescue Plan alongside Democratic inaction has made room for, looking at the bill as a restoration of pre-pandemic employment rates, bolstering worker ability in the labor market, with the following great resignation preceding the biggest boom in labor organizing during the neoliberal era, seeing the largest employers in the country (Starbucks, Amazon, etc) get organized from the bottom up. Expanding on this, David and Sam dive into the role of labor in American party politics, and the hope of a labor party (either separate from the Democrats or by taking over leadership) finally coming to fruition as the true “accidental revolution” they are hoping for. Next, they look to the reaction to the other consequences of the American Rescue Plan, at its interaction with the supply chain’s effect on inflation, what Fed tactics to tighten up the labor market might mean for workers, and why addressing supply-based inflation with demand-based solutions is a complete mistake. They wrap up the interview by talking about Elon Musk’s Twitter bid, and what is happening to the subscription model (particularly in journalism) amidst massive inflation. Sam also covers DeSantis’s election crimes office bill, Marjorie Taylor Greene shooting the insurrection shit with Mark Meadows, and Jane McAlevey’s response to yesterday’s call on organizing social workers.

And in the Fun Half: Sam is joined by Nomiki Konst as they cover Fox’s Kennedy discussing the true problem in American culture: educating our kids for free, and Steven Crowder gets deep into the truly confusing topics (gay sex, how does penis go into penis??) as he tactfully (not at all) links homosexuality and pedophilia. Piers Morgan and Donald Trump discuss the stupidity of various key leaders in the Republican Party, and Sam notes how Trump’s body language constantly reflects his rightful place on the porcelain throne, Tucker Carlson dives into savior Elon Musk and his bid to rescue Twitter from the clutches of the powerful elite, and McCarthy goes to the border to do some grassroots whataboutism. Sam and Nomiki also touch on the inaction within the chaos of the Democratic party and their inability to deal with party politics, plus your IMs!

Check out David's piece here: https://prospect.org/politics/accidental-revolution-american-rescue-plan/

It's Sam's triumphant return to the show! He and Emma host Sandy Jacoby, Research Professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, to discuss his recent book Labor in the Age of Finance: Pensions, Politics, and Corporations from Deindustrialization to Dodd-Frank, on the contradictions ingrained in the relationship between organizing and shareholders. Professor Jacoby begins by situating the first era of union financialization at the end of the 19th Century with the birth of labor banks as a way to bolster worker funds, until the Great Depression flipped nearly every single one belly up, burning the relationship between the two sectors for much of the next fifty years over the New Deal era. The start of the neoliberal era in the 70s forced unions to look for ways to boost their power once again, turning to union pension funds, which offered both direct and indirect control over money for their workers, with a particular focus on the public State and Local funds such as CalPERS, which used their billions to bolster myriad labor fights in their state. After briefly touching on the different structures of the public pension funds, Professor Jacoby, Emma, and Sam dive into how this led to these funds putting in place shareholder policies, trading financial support for policies that favor shareholders’ profits over workers, particularly pushing stock options and stock-based pay for executives, seeing a complete shift to marketization, including swapping pensions for 401ks, and commitments to labor squeezes to bolster share prices. Next, Professor Jacoby dives into how this financialization tied the roles of these pensions, shareholders, and CEOs together, fighting for the same short term returns despite their inverse relationship with the health of corporations, labor, and community, and how this structure forced union objections to be made in alignment with shareholder profits. They wrap up the interview by exploring what separating unions’ organizing interests from their pension interests could look like, the role that de-financializing corporations plays, and where the world of labor is at in this conversation. Sam also unpacks his personal pandemic experience these past two weeks, before he and Emma unpack the continued escalation of Russian violence in Ukraine, Kevin McCarthy scrambling to get back in Trump’s good graces, and how the labor movement got to the incredible moment it finds itself in.

And in the Fun Half: Sam celebrates his return as he and Emma take calls from Kowalski and John from San Antonio, giving their typical rundowns on the worlds of agriculture and progressive campaigns, respectively, Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene show off the right’s ability to never acknowledge any potential shortcomings, and Trump campaigns for JD Vance and his ability to clamor back to Trump’s feet. The Georgia Governor’s debate sees political elite and political elite battle over who’s LESS elite, Steven Crowder and Megyn Kelly discuss the horrors of watching trans people beat women (at sports) in public, and Brennan calls in to explore unionizing his workplace. Plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Sandy's book here: https://sanfordjacoby.com/

It's Casual Friday! Emma hosts Alex Pareene, Contributing Editor at the New Republic and proprietor of the AP newsletter on Substack, to round up the week in news.

Emma hosts Paolo Gerbaudo, Director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King's College London, to discuss his recent book The Great Recoil: Politics after Populism and Pandemic.  Emma first starts off by covering the amoral impending execution of Melissa Lucio, despite growing evidence that she was not responsible for the death of her child. Then, Emma touches briefly upon the pro-wrestling promo that is the preview for Donald Trump's sit down interview with Piers Morgan. Paolo joins Emma afterwards to explain the concept behind the "Great Recoil", as well as the question of what kind of management system is most functional/beneficial for this particular market economy. Paolo also explains the concept of what the left should and does value in terms of the idea of "security"-social security, environmental security, as opposed to the traditional definitions that entail physical protection (ahem, military spending.) He notes that there is overwhelming evidence globally that people thrive within their lives when provided with social safety nets in order to succeed. Paolo then defines the concept of "neo-statism", and how a concept of delivering public goods without the necessitation of a market justification would open up so many more avenues to improve people's overall wellbeing. Emma and Paolo then touch on the question of how the prospects of democracy look globally in an era demanding more of state action regardless of political system, what happens when a country doesn't have an efficient public health, transit, and infrastructural sector can lead to (ahem, COVID, the entire US economy), and how these concepts being discussed either dovetail or mesh with the idea of "populism" as its been exemplified in the 2010's with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders's campaigns. They then touch on bureaucracy and how, while sometimes a bad word, it can be used to benefit the most vulnerable people (incentivizing young bureaucrats, working class bureaucrats and how people with access to this knowledge and literacy can transmit it to people who've never had the luxury of hiring people to understand it.) They finally touch on the US's booster shot efforts, the massive economic and social infrastructure of Amazon, and how outsourcing this type of bureaucracy to consultancies and corporations only weakens public sector structure to do what it would be capable of doing without these obstacles.

Then, in the Fun Half, Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon to discuss Rudy Giuliani's much ballyhooed debut on the Masked Singer, Don Jr. weighing in (slurring in) on the Libs of TikTok drama, Dennis Prager discussing whether leftists (who he fears more than death) can ever be truly happy, and Tulsi Gabbard continuing to turn into Dave Rubin by weighing in on the Florida "parents rights" legislation on Hannity (surprise-she's into it). Plus, your calls & IM's!

Emma hosts Daisy Pitkin, organizer at Workers United, to discuss her recent book On The Line: A Story Of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women's Epic Fight to Build A Union. Then Emma is joined by Brianna Wu, executive director of The Rebellion PAC, to discuss the upcoming primary in Ohio's 11th Congressional District between Nina Turner and Shontel Brown. Daisy begins by discussing the tone of her work, as it focuses on what it *feels* like to build worker solidarity, rather than what happens along the road to success, diving into how this work was birthed well after the labor efforts, as she reflected on her connections with those that built the union alongside her. Next, she brings Emma back to the early 20th Century as they discuss the story of the Uprising of the 20,000, a mass strike amongst young women working in the New York shirtwaist industry – the biggest general strike by women in American history – and their incredible success in bringing over 500 employers to the table, winning better working conditions, wages, and much more, before they dive into the other side of the story, as Pitkin dives into the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, resulting in 146 (easily preventable) deaths, as the picture of early 1900 organizing paints the clear benefits of winning the union fight, and the devastating consequences of employers coming out on top. Then, Daisy brings us back to her experiences working with Arizona industrial laundry workers in the early 2000s, as she walks through the myriad dangers at the factories, from laborers like Alma in the soil-sort department working with bare hands to parse through used hospital garments, to others that had to climb through intensely heated machinery to avoid production delays. She then gets into the story of her and Alma’s undercover work in setting out to create a web of solidarity, looking to their blitz method of contacting and discussing unions with almost all 220 workers at the factory in 48 hours, setting up a meeting, and unpacking the commitment all 220 of them wanted to make together, before getting into the fight that followed – from the 200+ mandatory anti-union meetings in the three weeks that followed, to the illegal firing of Alma and three other leaders. After tying together the story of this effort with the following year-long fight against the illegal union-busting practices, and the incredible ruling that pushed a bargaining order on the employer, Emma and Daisy wrap up the interview with a discussion on what today’s labor moment can learn from these stories, why we should be optimistic, and the beauty of the bottom-up tidal wave that is the current labor movement. Emma also touches on President of Deference Joe Biden continuing to go along with whatever right-wing extremist judgment comes through, the continued devastation in Mariupol, and the catastrophe that has been Pete Buttigieg’s reign as the Secretary of Transportation.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brianna Wu as they unpack her work in The Rebellion PAC, what she has learned from her own campaigns for Congress, the battle for Ohio’s 11th district, and the fight for policies that actually connect with constituents, especially those that aren’t fully invested in the political machine. Emma also covers Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow’s impassioned rejection of the Right’s aggressive targeting of queer youth, and the role religion can play in lifting up the most marginalized in society. Bill O’Reilly says “fuck it! Let's fly it live!” Ted Cruz talks Mickey Mouse f*cking Pluto, Mariana from Minneapolis discusses individuals and combating environmental change, especially in building the world you want to see, and Jesse Watters gives us the horrifying tale of how he got a first date with one of his producers. Michele Bachmann shames Islamic supremacy, since Christians are truly superior and we get some updates on Richmond Starbucks’ unionization success; plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Daisy's book here: https://www.workman.com/products/on-the-line/hardback

Emma hosts Drew Pendergrass, doctoral student in Environmental Engineering at Harvard University, and Troy Vettese, environmental historian at the European University Institute, to discuss their recent book Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future From Extinction, Climate Change, and Pandemics, on putting together a socialist model for a society that operates without economic markets and with respect for ecological theory, climate science, and urban and land-use planning. Drew and Troy begin by situating their work as an attempt to think through what socialism does, and can mean when attempting to tackle modern questions and social issues, with a particular focus on conservation. They then dive into the specific systems and infrastructures that would be necessary in such a society, from mass investment in public transportation, greater food choice to support a transition away from industrial husbandry, and a commitment to re-wilding and building up nature preserves from around 10-15% of land to around 50%, before looking at why socialism is necessary as the overarching system supporting this world. Next, Emma, Drew, and Troy look deeper at the history of conservation and the ideologies that drive it, first looking at their work as a critique building off of E.O. Wilson and completely changing our relationship to land-use as we try to undo our creation of a sixth mass extinction, before they jump back to the 1700s and the major schools of thought around our relationship to nature – including the influence of Hegel and the humanization of nature into utopia, and the Malthusian social Darwinism that sees “positive” checks (mass deaths) on population numbers as central to humanity’s continued existence. They also touch on how the role of conservationism, particularly today, almost entirely serves the realm of philanthropy, as they dive into prevailing narratives and models around tackling the climate crisis we face, and how they often act contrary to the ecological crisis, looking at nuclear power and carbon capture technology specifically, before wrapping up by discussing their own perspectives on the issue, and the video game attached to their work that lets people practice building their own environmental models for the future, and see what worlds they could support. Emma also covers a Florida judge’s overturning of the federal mask mandate on public transit and planes, Israel’s continued air raids on Gaza at the height of Ramadan, and Ron DeSantis banning textbooks for discussing social-emotional learning.

And in the Fun Half: Emma takes a call with Ken from Charleston as they unpack today’s interview, before watching Eric Bolling take Ilhan Omar’s suggestion of praying on an airplane as disrespect towards good Christians, and Fox’s the Five dive behind who’s really in charge of Biden, refusing to walk on eggshells as they daringly analyze the Easter Bunny’s role at this weekend’s White House Celebrations. She also touches on Alex Jones’s clinging to Tucker Carlson as his walls of conspiracy crumble around him, Carter from NorCal discusses the importance of the collective element of collective bargaining, even when outside of a union, and a Swedish caller dives into this weekend’s Quran book burning and the corruption of the Swedish police. Comrade Greeting Card discusses airline COVID policy, Matt and Emma dive into the Right Wing’s inability to differentiate between investigative journalism discussing the possible identity of an anonymous harasser, and the revealing of all personal information (doxxing), plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Drew and Troy's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3818-half-earth-socialism

Emma hosts Gina Dent, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to discuss her recent book Abolition. Feminism. Now., co-written with Angela Davis, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie. Professor Dent and Emma begin by discussing how the mainstream roles of feminism and abolitionism have changed over the last half-century, including how certain forms of feminism became a standard starting in the ‘70s, yet it maintains its perception as a threat to the capitalist norm, and how abolitionism has fought for decades to become a part of the national discourse, with 2020 commonly seen as the year it broke into the mainstream discussion. Next, they unpack the non-abolitionist feminisms that have played a central role in progressive rhetoric since the ‘70s, why it’s important to both align much of abolitionism and feminism, and why we must understand how these “carceral feminisms” work to reinforce the Prison-Industrial Complex, and make our communities less safe and more susceptible to all types of harm (including gender-based harm). After briefly touching on how important the work of and with incarcerated folks was for their work, Professor Dent dives into the constant work that Black Feminist Liberationists have engaged in, often either excluded from the mainstream feminist discourse or strategically incorporated to bolster the carceral state, as we see particularly with the crime bill and Violence Against Women Act in the ‘90s. She then dives into the separation of state-sanctioned and interpersonal harms in the mainstream and the emphasis abolitionism makes on discussing them together, understanding that shifting away from interpersonal violence in favor of state violence does nothing to help women, and how the individualization of crime has served to exacerbate violence, particularly as it aligned with the deconstruction of state- and community-based welfare services. Emma and her then look to the importance of disarticulating crime from punishment, understanding how criminalization is often birthed outside of choice, and what rehabilitative actions can be taken BEFORE imprisonment to reduce both antisocial behavior and the punishment that often follows. They wrap up the interview by talking through the importance of abolition’s emergence into the mainstream, how to separate reformist reforms that bolster the POC from non-reformist reforms, and the importance of uplifting trans and indigenous voices and the harm the state perpetuates against them, often in correlation with the interpersonal harm they face. Emma also touches on Russia’s ramped-up attacks in Ukraine, Israel’s SECOND attack on the Al-Aqsa mosque in the middle of Ramadan, and the devastating shootings this weekend in South Carolina. She also admires CNBC’s conversation with fresh-faced Amazon CEO Andy Jassy as they dive into why they support unions, they’re just bad for Amazon specifically.

And in the Fun Half: It’s Emma’s birthday! Kowalski from NE calls in to celebrate, the crew admires Tucker Carlson’s brave endorsement of “bromeopathy” (like homeopathy but more scrote-focused) and Bro Flamingo calls to dive into the anti-woke left, where they come from, and how they’re poisoning the well of online leftist discourse. Roger Stone and Donald Trump dish on Ron DeSantis, the crew looks back at Vic Berger's killer edit on DeSantis’s appropriation of DJT’s elegant hand gestures, and Matthew from Philadelphia dives into small-scale individual and communal action to fight climate change. The Fox Five turn on Greg Abbott, Alex from NY gives his bday fight club matchups, and Elijah Schaffer (Blaze TV) and Dave Landau spend an interview uplifting trans genocide. Sam “not a libertarian” from Gary, Indiana dives into the role of the constitution in fighting the state, and what we can or should do about the 2nd Amendment, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Gina's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1546-abolition-feminism-now

Emma hosts journalist Cole Stangler to discuss the recent French election results. Then, Emma is joined by investigate reporter Amanda Chicago Lewis to discuss her recent piece in the New Republic "Legalized Pot Was Supposed to Help Build Black Wealth in Los Angeles. It Failed." First, Cole and Emma dive into the major takeaways from the first round of the French presidential election, setting up a fight between President Macron’s political establishment and the Far Right’s Marine Le Pen, and how the democratic socialist candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon found a foothold despite a right-wing-dominated media empire, and a fractured support system in the National Assembly, by relying on a coalition of working-class voters, a recognition of multiculturalism, and a general set of bread and butter economic policy. Next, they dive into the second round matchup, as Cole covers Macron’s shift to the right over his candidacy, particularly in his embrace of Islamophobic fear-mongering, repeal of the wealth tax, and commitment to a law and order candidacy. They compare and contrast his hard pivot to racism with Le Pen’s more subtle shift away from overtly racist rhetoric (despite its continued role in her policy) as she found herself challenged from the right, before Cole covers the general anti-Macron sentiment grounding Le Pen’s campaign, and the establishment’s preparations to blame the left for any defeat from the right. Next, Amanda Chicago Lewis joins as they discuss the racial equity policy that is “all the rage” in progressive states legalizing marijuana, and the unsurprising manipulation of Black and brown business owners that’s going on behind the scenes. First, Amanda dives into the representation of the policy as a “license to generational wealth” for people of color, and how, instead, we’ve seen the process for an equity license drive business owners to predatory loans to meet absurd conditions just so they can even be considered. They wrap up the interview with the story of Kika Keith and her attempts to take advantage of this supposed equity program in her city, only to be stymied left and right by the US government (both state and federally), and look to past policies of Black Capitalism and redlining to explain the US’s need to have complete control over the terms and conditions of Black wealth. Emma also touches on the Sunset Park subway attack that occurred this morning and Joe Scarborough’s recommendation for Dems to focus on conservatives being canceled on social media… to win the midterms?

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Nomiki Konst as they cover Ben Shapiro’s reminder that rising sea levels will AT WORST, contribute to mass homelessness, Zack from Tennessee dives into conservatism in the southeast and its relationship to legislative success, and Amy Wax’s absurd collection of violently racist rhetoric about her own students. Alex Walker goes OFF on those darn whiney leftists, Spencer from Utah discusses the anti-trans anti-teacher legislation from the teacher's perspective, and Jennifer the GenX-er ends the show with a shower of positivity, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Cole's work here: https://colestangler.com/

Check out Amanda's piece in the New Republic here: https://newrepublic.com/article/16565...

Emma hosts Elizabeth Popp Berman, associate professor of organizational studies at the University of Michigan, to discuss her recent book Thinking Like An Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality In U.S. Public Policy, on how the era of neoliberalism saw a new mode of reasoning in Washington, and the lasting effects it has today. First, Emma and Professor Berman paint a picture of how she opens her book, diving into why the election of Obama in 2008 serves as a perfect climax of the hyper marketization of US policy over the last half-century, looking at his facade of change and aesthetic of progress grounded in policy that ultimately looked nothing like the progressive action of Democrats from the ‘30s to ‘60s. Next, Professor Elizabeth Popp Berman jumps back to the ‘60s as she works to summarize this Econ 101 mode of reasoning that centers microeconomic concepts such as incentive and efficiency, originally coming into the Defense Department from the Rand Corporation, emphasizing cost-benefit analysis and catching on quickly in the midsts of LBJ’s Great Society expansion. As this way of thinking spread throughout Washington, one of the most disastrous effects was how it hooked itself into the Democratic party, defanging any talk of larger social spending in the name of equality after Johnson, led by a technocratic ideology of the markets, and coming into full swing under Carter as the early administrations of the ‘70s proved its efficacy in bolstering political and market power. Diving further into Carter’s regime, Beth and Emma look to public interest groups and policy schools in bolstering faith in technocracy and the elite hyper-marketization of our government, undermining healthcare accessibility, anti-trust regulation, and much more in favor of maximizing efficiency, before touching on how these schools of thought effectively ingrained themselves in Washington’s culture. Emma then dives into the incongruous relationship between efficiency and broader claims about rights (human, civil, economic, or other), as Professor Berman discusses the impact of this on social justice policy in the neoliberal era, before they wrap up the interview by looking at the hyper-specificity of this mode of economic reasoning (opposed to a labor-focused or Keyensian mode of economic reasoning), and discuss what the future of the left looks like, particularly when it comes to shifting away from this constraint on policy. Emma also dives into updates from Ukraine, as Jake Tapper posits meeting bloodshed with even more bloodshed in order to stop the bloodshed, and looks to France as she discusses the neoliberal centrist drive to appeal to the far right.

And in the Fun Half: Emma takes a call with Dan from Boiling Springs on the new age spirituality community’s growing dissolution with the vitriol in Q Anon-like conspiracy, Chris Coons apologizes for responding to Republican corruption with obstructionism, William from CA discusses getting around abortion bans, and a start-up guru takes a dip into promoting unhealthy habits to lower insurance costs. Caitlyn Jenner gives an unsurprisingly despicable take on the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, Jeff from New Mexico gets into the nitty-gritty of today’s interview, and Jean from France discusses his “lesser evil” conundrum ahead of the upcoming election. DJT forgets who’s prosecuting him for what, and Pradeep from Canada dives into how Jordan Be Peterson-ing and the Texas abortion indictment, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Elizabeth's book here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167381/thinking-like-an-economist

Pre-order Luke's book here: https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/

Donate to Rana's campaign here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rana-mr

Emma hosts Ken Klippenstein, investigative reporter at The Intercept, to discuss his recent piece "LEAKED: NEW AMAZON WORKER CHAT APP WOULD BAN WORDS LIKE “UNION,” “RESTROOMS,” “PAY RAISE,” AND “PLANTATION”.  Ken and Emma begin by summarizing the incredible culmination of the Staten Island Amazon unionization effort, beginning back in April 2020 with a walkout for MINIMAL safety protocols in the middle of a pandemic, resulting in the firing of Christian Smalls, only for the fight to completely turn on its head as employees found inspiration and a drive to solidarity with Christian and his other co-workers turning their attention to the creation of a new, independent union for Amazon laborers, combatting wildly offensive and dismissive attempts at union-busting by the company, leading up to last weeks astounding success. After briefly touching on the incredible response to the successful union vote, looking at it as one of the biggest labor victories in half a century, Ken dives into a few of the other investigations he has held into Amazon’s poor safety regulation. They then get to the real reveal that Klippenstein discovered, as they dive into Amazon’s leaked internal messaging server and its exhaustive list of banned words ranging from the obvious (racial epithets, slurs) to the obviously exploitative (union, fire, accessibility, freedom, slave labor, living wage, identity, FREEDOM). Ken walks through both the original senior meetings that saw internal social media as a solution to their inability to keep employees, and the revelation that was realizing such a platform would also have to guard against the “dark side” of social media (worker solidarity). They wrap up the interview with a little compare and contrast between Amazon’s internal messaging and their external social media policy which is actual humans cranking out dissociatively positive tweets in support of management. Emma also dives into Howard Schultz’s return to the podium of Starbucks Town Halls as he dangles shiny tokens of the non-fungible variety in the eyes of his “partners” to distract from the incredible wave of unionization efforts occurring in his coffee shops throughout the country, before touching on the information coming in about Russian war crimes, what their retreat from Kyiv might mean, and insights into the UN’s new IPCC report.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Nomiki Konst as they show off their Elizabeth Holmes impressions, Justin from Georgia calls in to discuss the Amazon unionization victory, and how and WHY different media members tried to tie in AOC to the conversation. JD Vance discusses the bad hombres coming over the border, but just means the Sacklers, as Emma and Nomiki reflect on the absurdity of the liberal Hillbilly Elegy phase. Sarah Palin and Jesse Watters fantasize about AOC in a piece on the left just “pounding and pounding” ideas of sex and gender deeper and deeper into our heads, and Kenny from Berkeley discusses changing the conversation on electoralism. Evan from NJ talks about representations of Biden’s weaknesses, Prager U says “let us into your kids’ bed(times)” Kowalski talks about the YouTube channel “Knowing Better,” plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Ken's reporting here: https://theintercept.com/2022/04/04/amazon-union-living-wage-restrooms-chat-app/

Emma hosts Danielle Lindemann, Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University, to discuss her recent book True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us. Then, Emma is joined by Alexandra Hunt, candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania's 3rd District, to give us an update from the campaign trail! First, Professor Lindemann joins as she and Emma bond over their school rivalries and love for reality TV, diving into how these reflections of social interaction and hierarchy can provide a zany, yet very useful sociological lens. They begin by situating where and how the social juggernaut that is reality TV came to be, looking to the 2000s cultural benchmark of “Survivor” to serve as the emergence of the genre, before it took off on a wider scale amid the 2007 writers’ strike. This leads them to a discussion on how reality TV’s structure differs from typical programming, requiring drastically less overhead, from flexibility in paying talent, to lack of writers or any union staffing, and how the genre fits into the profit incentives of the industry, and thus reflects many of the economic models of our society, particularly when it comes to the gig economy. Next, Professor Lindemann dives into how she unpacks this sociological lens throughout her work, looking first at the smallest social unit of the individual, before working through what it can tell us about families and other smaller groups, leading all the way up through the larger and more abstract social structures of class, race, gender, and sexuality. Emma then gets into how, despite the largely hedonistic picture that reality TV shows paint, the majority of them still work to reinforce conservative and Christian values, showing the right ways that certain people should act and dress, as she looks to Rachel Lindsay’s discussion of being the first Bachelorette of color, and the insanely high standards she had to meet to even be a part of that world. Then, they look to American Idol as Emma and Danielle explore how reality TV is a producer’s dream in terms of its ability to be manipulated to tell a specific story, as this talent show was able to constantly spew themes of patriotism, individualism, and meritocracy. They then look to the larger themes that we can see in the genre, as it explains to us the legitimacy of the class system, from the Honey Boo Boos and Tiger Kings with their working-class buffoonery to the indulgence of the Real Housewives, and how whiteness is the standard of having your story told, all serving up an incredibly regressive picture of people under the shield of “this is just people being people.” They wrap up the interview by touching on the hold reality TV has on our culture, from forming para-social relationships in the internet age to gifting us our 45th president.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon and Matt as they unpack Charlie Kirk’s obsession with kids, and letting liberation movements run wild with supporting the self-confidence and identity of our youngest generations, and the flip the right is trying to pull by portraying queer Disney employees as the “elite” while the ones actually in power, their bosses, shut down progressive pushes inside the company, and fund homophobic bills outside of it. Wren from South Oregon calls in as she unpacks the importance of decentralized currency when it comes to access to hormones amid a shutdown on trans healthcare, and IMers celebrate today’s PA-centric show. Ben Shapiro lists off lynching statistics like a baseball-obsessed pre-teen, Sean from Washington discusses political divides between union members and union leaders, and Alex from NY gives his weekly matchups, plus, your calls and IMs!

Sam and Emma host Paul Renfro, Assistant Professor of History at Florida State University, to discuss his recent book Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State.

Check out Paul's book here:

https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190913984.001.0001/oso-9780190913984

Sam and Emma break down a crazy weekend in news, from Biden's EuroTrip to KBJ's confirmation process, labor to COVID, the courts and more! They begin with Ron DeSantis’s official signing of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, as he pulls out the classics when it comes to homophobic fear-mongering, calling out corrupt Hollywood and the predators that endanger our children, and the role of public education and our teachers as scapegoats of the Right’s attack. Next, they jump into the changing tides in Ukraine’s defense against Russia as ceasefire talks become more hopeful, Putin lets go of his “de-nazification” claim, and discussions of letting Kyiv join the EU begin, before they also touch on how the Donbas region will come into play. This brings them to a discussion on Biden’s recently released budget proposal, as he finally puts forward more progressive taxation, including a wealth tax on families worth more than $100,000,000, only to boost the defense budget by 10%, and then look to the media’s reaction to this, as CBS hosts totally unbiased technocrat and former Trump Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to explore why this wealth tax is so unnatural and perhaps even unconstitutional. They wrap up the bigger news stories by covering, “How Joe Manchin Aided Coal, and Earned Millions,” in the New York Times, diving into his campaign of corruption, starting as State Senator in the 80s as he paved the way for extra coal power plants with lower regulations, just happening to take them on as the sole customer of his mines, before striking up some political bargains with AmBit utilities, alongside getting a small stake in the company, and effectively grew his power from Governor to Senator as he benefited from his mutualistic relationship with the coal industry.

And in the Fun Half: Emma and Sam are joined by Nomiki Konst as they admire NE State Senator Bruce Bostelman’s willingness to go after the true cancer in our school systems (furries that defecate on the floor) and the horrendous sanitary implications it might have, before Nomiki and Emma dive into the $850,000,000 investment into a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills despite their renovations less than a decade ago. Madison Cawthorn drops some incredibly hot gossip on his fellow party members and their perverse behavior, Nomiki touches on Fox News SILENCING her for discussing price gouging, and the crew discusses their favorite fish, plus, your IMs!

Sam and Emma host freelance journalist Alexander Zaitchik to discuss his recent book Owning The Sun: A People's History of Monopoly Medicine From Aspirin To COVID-19 Vaccines, on the development of patent regimes from an attempt to democratize knowledge to a system of corporate and institutional control. Zaitchik begins by walking Sam and Emma back to the inception of intellectual property and patents in Elizabethan England as a tool to constrain the Crown’s power to assign monopoly rights, and why, despite this attempt to democratize the production of knowledge, liberal thinkers of the time (such as John Locke) saw it as dampening the flow of knowledge. After briefly touching on the belief in IP rights as encouraging innovation, despite the transhistorical belief in knowledge as a collective product, and the lack of financial incentives behind almost every technological development before the industrial revolution, Sam, Emma, and Alexander look to the affirmation of patents and IP in the US Constitution as a tool of democratization, as we saw in England, and how that developed into a practice of corporate obstructionism beginning in the Gilded Age. Zaitchik then dives into the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, and his attempt to further “democratize” (his words, not mine) the patent regime by aligning it with physical property rights, thus completely individualizing knowledge under the guise of opening it up. This led to a rise of corporate research labs in the late 1800s, as they figured out how to amass more and more patents for technological and medical developments, keeping them in the hands of a corporate monopoly rather than individual innovators. Next, Alexander jumps to the New Deal era and attempts to rein in the patent regime, as FDR’s Department of Justice pushed a culture of anti-trust regulation, looking back to the Constitution’s statements on patents as a charge to support the diffusion of knowledge, particularly in the wake of WW1’s technological advancements falling into the hands of corporations that would go on to work intimately with Nazis. This brings them to the period from the 40s to the 80s which saw treasury-funded research go into public control, requiring genuine commitment to public interest for any monopoly approval, before neoliberalism took over in the Reagan era, with the passing of the Bayh-Dole act and Reagan’s creation of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals as a tool to fast track the approval of monopolies, really taking ideological court-packing to a new level. They wrap up the interview with an extended discussion on Bill Gates’s philanthropy in the world of global health, his leveraging of incredible financial, institutional, and media power to push his ideology, and how incredibly representative this is of countless issues with medical and technological IP, and the laundering process that is American philanthropy. Sam and Emma also touch on Biden’s falling approval ratings as he clamors to grab onto bad faith footholds, and the live drama that we saw this weekend (at the MR show, of course).

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma cover the most ridiculous takes in the wake of Will Smith’s slapping of Chris Rock at the Oscars, some of which are offered up by our very own comments section, and Jimmy Dore realizes that the true victims of the assault are stand-up comedians everywhere. Amy Klobuchar comes at the moral authority of the Supreme Court without going far enough to impact the power they have, Rick Scott offers up his plan to hike up taxes on half of the country and take away their healthcare as McConnell, for some reason, tries to sweep it under the rug, and Lara Logan returns for some classical anti-Semitic conspiracy theory stemming from Darwin. Nick from Pittsburgh discusses nuclear power and private regulation and Kowalski from NE reflects on the live show, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Alexander here: https://www.zaitchik.com/

https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/owning-the-sun/

Emma hosts journalist William Neuman to discuss his recent book Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela. Then, Emma is joined by Summer Lee, candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania's 12th District, to give up an update from the campaign trail. William Neuman begins by jumping back to his first move to Venezuela at the start of the 2010s, as a correspondent for the New York Times, tracing the story of Venezuela’s economic collapse. He starts with the booming success of Hugo Chavez in the 2000s, as he oversaw an incredible jump in oil prices, and began a spree of government spending and borrowing, without saving the income for any future crisis – thus, when Chavez died from cancer in the wake of his 2010 reelection, passing the reins to Nicolás Maduro, only for a massive drop in oil prices, down to around a quarter of the peak of Chavez’s administration, to completely cripple the economic output of the country beginning in 2012. The rest of the 2010s saw Maduro attempt to grapple with the crisis while uncertain about altering Chavez’s pre-existing policy, as hyperinflation, depression, and rising refugee rates took over, leading up to the mass blackouts in 2019, and eventual controversy over Maduro’s reelection. This brings Neuman and Emma to the role of US foreign policy and sanctions in pushing Venezuela over the edge, as former President Trump and John Bolton pushed intervention to the extreme, with the Defense Department rejecting any actual invasion, before Bolton chose to “go for the win” and push Maduro completely out of office by putting an incredibly stringent set of general sanctions, effectively enforcing a complete oil embargo against the country, cutting them off from the world economy and digging them deeper into this crisis – effectively. This, of course, came alongside the declaration by Juan Guaidó that he was the legitimate president, with much of the West clamoring to support and recognize him, despite the similar illegitimacy of his claim in the wake of large disenfranchisement and voter suppression, with American Republicans attempting to capitalize on the socialist boogeyman to bolster their electoral push in Florida. Emma and William then dive into the counter to this negative branding of Socialism by the US, looking to Chavez’s autocratic rise as a populist, appropriating the socialist rhetoric and symbolism of the 60s and 70s in Latin America, without taking on the actual policy, pushing increasing polarization and capitalizing on the oil boom. After briefly touching on what the country looked like during the economic collapse, and the various unsuccessful (and some successful) policy the government took on at the time, Emma gets Neuman to dive into what the role of the leftist opposition in Venezuela is, as they discuss the discourse from politicians such as Henrique Capriles and the need to not just take down the bad guys in government, but to build up good and functioning institutions in the wake. Emma also touches on the end of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings, the continued Russia escalation in Ukraine, and the disastrous and corrupt shadow docket decision by SCOTUS to overturn the Wisconsin State Supreme Court’s decision regarding redistricting.

And in the Fun Half: Emma hosts Summer Lee as they unpack fighting for her base of poor and working-class Pennsylvanians when up against union-busters, being a part of a legislative arena with white supremacists strewn throughout it, and what working for Pittsburgh means to her. Then, Brandon and Matt join as Kowalski gives his agriculture update, Tucker goes deep into the role of genes and the Supreme Court, and Joe Rogan defends the ideology behind the “don’t say gay” bills, lighting fire under the bigots’ fight for the right to be themselves (violent assholes). Bee from PA discusses Leftists and the culture war, as Matt, Brandon, and Emma unpack who the “Left” is, and the difference between “culture war” and “civil rights,” before Cory Booker goes Cuckoo for Crypto, Bari Weiss takes the crown for cringiest Ukraine poem – overtaking both the Pelosi x Bono collaboration and the wonderful AnnaLynne McCord's “If I Were Your Mother” – plus, your calls and IMs!

Sam and Emma host Jacob Silverman, staff writer at The New Republic, to discuss cryptocurrency and his upcoming book with Ben McKenzie, Easy Money. Sam and Emma start off by recapping some of the crazier moments from Day 2 of Ketanji Brown Jackson (KBJ)'s confirmation hearing, like when Lindsey Graham screamed at Dick Durbin that he'd spend countless taxpayer dollars to kill Guantanamo Bay inmates, despite most of them still there never being charged with any crimes. Then they are joined by Jacob, who begins the conversation by defining cryptocurrency, the high priced Wall Street deals we've been seeing regarding the asset recently, and how "tokens" are now being used as opposed to stock options in these deals to skirt around securities regulations. They then touch upon where these massive cash infusion and expenditures go in these deals (the answer-mostly marketing and celebritizing these assets). Jacob then touches on the "greater fool theory" and how passing the buck to more and more credulous investors leads to greater profits for some of these crypto companies, and whether standard policy white papers and prospectuses exist for such a speculative asset. They then touch on how exactly Bitcoin and other cryptos could possibly be valued given how unstable an asset it is, the fallacious notion that Bitcoin is extremely "state of the art" tech to begin with, the emergence of "casino capitalism" within both crypto and sports betting, and how many of the Bitcoin scams (think Turkish Martha Stewart) mostly operate either as "rug pulls" or as basic multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes. They then discuss the limits of "DYOR" (Do Your Own Research) when the research available usually comes from people with skin in the crypto game, as well as what the hell NFT's actually are. They end the conversation with Jacob distilling the crypto business model to its essence: that of people with too much cash exploiting people with not nearly enough cash to make up for how much they'll lose investing in these products.

And in the Fun Half, Sam dishes about how he came into a vintage H.R. Geiger sculpture that he could've waited much longer to cash out on, the crew checks in on Day 3 of KBJ's hearings and Round 2 of Graham-Durbin, with Graham storming off AGAIN, Tom Cotton asking KBJ whether more or less murderers is good or bad, and Josh Hawley going hard for the 2024 QAnon constituency with his line of questioning. Then, Sen. Mike Braun says that interracial marriage should be arbitrated at the state level (he said he didn't mean it), Marjorie Taylor Greene blames Ukraine for Russia invading, and right-wing nutjobs like Steven Crowder and Ron DeSantis obsess over trans athletes. Plus, your calls and IM's!

It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Alex Pareene, Contributing Editor at the New Republic and proprietor of the AP newsletter on Substack, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by comedian Andy Kindler, host of the Thought Spiral podcast! Alex, Sam, and Emma dive right into the Democrats being faced with their biggest fear (doing literally anything for the public) as they watch Nancy Pelosi absolutely rip a reporter a new one for asking about COVID when people are dying… but not the ones dying of COVID – simply dumping the pandemic to the side in favor of the Democrats’ “single kitchen table issue” tactic, where they don’t discuss anything but, in this case, Ukraine, and how they are once again turning to a very arbitrary scapegoating of Russia. Next, they dive into the absurdity of the Dems’ (supposedly) popularist tactics, yet are scared to death of taking on “culture war” issues that are supported by vast majorities of the American public, from reproductive freedom to education and queer rights, instead reading limericks from Bono in support of the Ukrainian people, rather than, say, accepting Ukrainian refugees. Alex then leads Sam and Emma into a discussion of this fear-of-culture war that Democrats cannot overcome, and how their inaction on these issues, if anything, reinforces their inaction on genuine policy issues, especially when both of them are having rampant material effects as the right garners more and more state majorities, before they wrap up the interview with a discussion on the Cuomo coalition taking on cancel culture, with a guiding hand of the law helping them along the way. Sam and Emma also cover the horrors of the Idaho abortion bill, the 11k civilian deaths (supported by the US) in the war in Yemen that the US refuses to acknowledge, and the role the Supreme Court might play in the upcoming midterm elections.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma are joined by the great Andy Kindler, as he explores his proud time spent as a “Brief Boy,” and cover the beauty of Darlene Rudin, before they all get into the backlash to Dave Rubin (no relation) announcing that he and his husband are expecting a future baby, from friends and foes alike. Sam and Emma also cut up the pie with the ranking of US pizzas, and discuss the narrow scope of the things Democrats are actually fighting for, plus, your IMs!

Emma hosts writer Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, women's basketball writer for the Athletic, to discuss their recent book Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League, and what they’ve uncovered in diving into the history of the league and the women that played in it. D’Arcangelo and de la Cretaz dive into the research that led them to the history of this league, first studying the role of women in football writ large, before stumbling onto the Toledo Troopers, the winningest team in Pro Football history, and somehow the only National Women’s Football League team that the media has left any trace of. Next, Britni and Lyndsey walk through what the league’s relationship with the media and public looked like at the time, including the shoestring budgets and misogynistic coverage that they had to operate with, which unfortunately still reflects the state of women’s sports in the US, before they dive deeper into the limited coverage they received, which generally focused on the body shapes, and “attractiveness” of the women playing the game, and how it petered off as soon as they found it had lost its novel appeal. Jumping back to the end of the 19th Century, de la Cretaz and D’Arcangelo dive into a Harvard - Yale women’s football game that saw incredible reception, both by the women who came to play and spectate, and even by the male onlookers – despite the exploitative nature behind their attendance – and how throughout the history of Football, women have clearly shown their interest in playing and engaging with the sport. This brings them to the beginnings of the NWFL in the 1960s, as Sid Friedman, a sports agent at the time, saw an opportunity to make a spectacle of women that could play the sport against men, slowly expanding it to more and more women’s football teams in the rust belt, and eventually launching the creation of the league. Despite the success the teams saw in the run-up to the creation of the league, in the wake of the expansion the women saw little-to-no media coverage, and what they did see hinged on the misogyny they had begun the discussion with, not to mention rampant homophobia both within the media and in the running of the teams themselves, despite the largely queer player base. This brings them to a discussion of the role of infrastructure to bolster the development of young athletes, and how when it comes to male athletes the positive impact of the infrastructure is ignored, just like the negative impact on women with lacking infrastructure is ignored, as they discuss the role of Title IX’s passing in the same era as the NWFL, and look forwards to see what changes could and should be done to promote women’s sports in the future. Emma also covers the ramping efforts to get the US involved in hot warfare, alongside the complete evaporation of international aid to other war-torn countries like Yemen, and dives into Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)’s love for disaster capitalism.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt Binder and Brandon Sutton as they admire Brian Holmes pressing Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin of Idaho on her White Supremacist connections, even though she only JUST googled Nick Fuentes’s beliefs, before reflecting on a beautiful Michael Brooks clip to celebrate St Patty’s day, and Ben Shapiro and Pat Robertson take on US intervention from wildly different, yet equally violent sides. Justin from Seattle calls in to discuss revamping public housing on the federal level, Evan from Portland explores the peer review process in the scientific community, and Fox discusses Biden’s tardiness. Eric Metaxas and Charlie Kirk proclaim their appreciation for Bill Clinton’s economic policy, Ben in VT promotes his state’s upcoming constitutional amendment, and Sam from Indiana discusses personal liberties and gun ownership, plus, your calls and IMs!

Sam and Emma host Vivek Chibber, professor of sociology at New York University, to discuss his recent book The Class Matrix: Social Theory After the Cultural Turn, on the postwar shift in the left from strategic takes on the material condition of the working class to an analysis of capitalist indoctrination, and the unproductive nature of this development when it comes to organizing for the downfall of capitalism. Professor Chibber situates leftist thought in the 1800s and early 1900s with an understanding that if you want people to change the systems of the world, you must look at their material conditions, the choices they have, and the constraints they face, before contrasting that thought process with the prominent academic thought after the cultural turn that put ideological indoctrination at the center, no longer seeing workers as rational responders to their material circumstance, but as victims to the whims of the state, media, and cultural elite. They walk through the obvious elitism that resulted from driving this wedge between workers who have been fooled and academic Marxists that perceive the world as it is, before jumping back to the end of the 1800s to see how this developed. They begin with a discussion on the socialist perspective that dominated the first half of the 20th Century, seeing revolutions and upheavals of social and political orders across the world that encouraged and reinforced the inevitability of capitalism’s downfall, only to come out of the devastation of the Second World War with the system more stabilized than ever. Prof. Chibber, Sam, and Emma then walk through the material contrast that organizing offered between the 30s and the late 50s, as the circumstances required for worker solidarity became riskier and riskier, and the jobs they held became more and more central to maintaining their livelihood – not duping workers into consent, but resigning them to the hand they’ve been dealt. They then dive into the strategic work, and unfortunate failures of the union left over the 70s and 80s, forcing them into retreat as the academic world took over the role of pondering capitalism’s faults despite their removal from the material issues central to those faults. Next, Professor Vivek Chibber looks to the ’60s as he takes on the internal contradictions of solving these material issues, as this period saw incredibly high wages in the wake of decades of union success, yet also saw some of the largest waves of striking in the west, as the capitalist class offset that development with a rampant increase in the speed and level of production. They wrap up the interview by taking on the modern-day implications of this shift, the differences in funding and supporting worker organizing versus telling workers they don’t understand their world, and why seeing organizing take a front seat again might signify a shift away from this resignation, as organizing becomes more and more worth the risks, before touching on the role of the legislative arena in bolstering this fight. Sam and Emma also touch on the US media’s insistence on making sure everyone knows how much Ukraine needs a no-fly zone to deal with their “bully,” and their willingness to have the hard discussions when it comes to other people’s livelihood.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma run through some Republican Primary races, touching particularly on Herschel Walker’s touching analysis of why apes still exist if they evolved into humans, and why that’s going to help him reach the end zone of the general election for GA Senate. Arash from the 510 dives into the inability of anti-vaxxers to cite their sources, and how central a lack of scientific literacy is to their promotion of misinformation, Dave Rubin takes Crowder’s “bit” of pretending to be a woman, but still having political opinions – crazy, right? Ryan Grim questions Jen Psaki on what the US is doing to give Zelesnky leverage in negotiations with Russia, particularly on the material level, Tennessee fully commits to favoring rapists over bodily autonomy, and Candace Owens can’t get beyond the meanness of the criticism levied against her, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Sam hosts Matthew Cole, investigative reporter at The Intercept, to discuss his recent book Code Over Country: The Tragedy and Corruption of SEAL Team Six. Then, Sam is joined by Jack Crosbie, writer for Rolling Stone and Discourse Blog, to discuss the recent developments in Ukraine.  Matthew Cole begins tracing by SEAL Team Six’s origins to the combat-swimmer units in WW2, known as “Frogmen,” known as the most elite soldiers in the navy, before the failure of the US Military in the 1979 hostage rescue in Tehran inspired President Carter’s creation of a new counter-terrorism special ops unit, JSOC, with control over the Army’s Delta Force and the newly created Navy SEAL Team Six. Next, Cole dives into the origins of the corruption in the unit, reaching back to their creation under Carter, and Commander Marcinko’s lasting imprint on its culture, which he built to resemble a mafia, with himself as the Don at its center, pushing an outrageous lifestyle that included alcohol and drug abuse, fraud, and a code of silence when it came to the outside world – even the rest of the military. They then look to the wake of 9/11, as SEAL Team Six saw their first real extended warfare, beginning a twenty-year period in Afghanistan that saw unprecedented levels of violence for any individual unit. Cole and Sam parse through the little accountability that the unit faces, with their only superiors besides JSOC being the Pentagon and White House, so when things began to spin out of control, with war crimes and bodies piling up at the feel of SEAL Team Six, they were able to escape any incident with the leverage of their supposed “results.” Matthew Cole then explores Admiral Collin Green’s public rebuke of an internal review of the team, calling out the cultural virus running rampant through the community, and bringing forward the clear and obvious need for an investigation into the history and facts of SEAL Team Six, with a genuine (even if non-criminal) system of accountability for the generations of brutality and corruption. Jack Crosbie then joins the show as he covers his return from Ukraine and what he has thought of coverage at home and abroad. They also touch on Jack’s history, covering the conflict beginning in 2014, as he walks through the original violence and the eight years of constant war that followed, before he dives into this year’s Russian invasion and the much higher levels of bloodshed, alongside the absurd horror of Putin’s propaganda and what, if anything, could see us get closer to a ceasefire. Sam also covers the Texas courts’ injunction on their abusive legislation targeting trans and queer children, the Texas Supreme Court’s shutting down a final challenge on the Abortion ban, undermining that fight even further, and Rachel Maddow promoting a brand new Russian conspiracy, this time invoking the Holocaust (as a more positive example).

And in the Fun Half: Sam discusses the role of satire in a society rife with ironic and unironic misinformation, Bill Maher claims his libertarian conservatism is actually the fault of trans people and anti-police activists for suddenly coming into existence five years ago, and Dave Rubin has Nikki Haley walk him through why the US’s fear of leading with violence would lead the world into catastrophe, not something like nuclear war. Jordan Peterson relies on some low-budget misinformation to promote Ivermectin in the year 2022, only to be met with corrections by the first author of the experiment he supposedly cited. Matt Lech makes his return, plus, your IMs!

 

Sam hosts Kelly Weill, reporter at the Daily Beast, to discuss her recent book Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything. Kelly begins by situating her research into flat earthers as a case study in people’s inclination to faith and belief, separating the flat earth belief from other conspiracies in how – rather than fitting itself within established views of reality – it forces its believers to truly throw out all known information about our world. She and Sam then work to unpack the flat earth canon, walking through the enclosed disk surrounded by ice that is our “earth,” and how this view stemmed from the global construction itself. Next, Kelly dives into how, despite this being rather disprovable, flat earthers tend to not be dissuaded by contrary evidence, as she walks through different attempts to find this ice wall (both legitimate attempts and grifts), before she and Sam jump back to England in the 1840s, in the midst of a shift from religion to natural sciences, to look at Samuel Rowbotham’s foundational works on the flat earth and how they served to make sense of a rapidly changing view of our world. They then move to the 1900s in America, with the founding of the town of Zion, Illinois as a Christian fundamentalist, theocrat-ruled community that quickly was overtaken by a flat earth doctrine, and work through the malleability of this particular conspiracy in fitting alongside countless other beliefs. Moving into contemporary times, Sam and Kelly discuss the role of social media in giving flat earth the boost it needed to push it onto the fringes of the mainstream (oxymoron, sorry), as they dive into the artificial promotion on YouTube and Facebook before they look to the relationship between flat earthers and the other conspiracies flowing through the modern Right-wing, discussing how Q Anon and anti-vax believers are jumping on their overlap with other conspiracists to recruit even more to their side. They wrap up their interview by discussing the flat earth influencer hierarchy, and look into governments, Jews, and witches as the antagonists at the core of these theories. Sam also touches on Russia’s continued attacks on civilians and hospitals, and Trump’s appearance on an MMA pod to discuss his relationship with Putin and Ukraine.

And in the Fun Half: Sam is joined by Matt and Brandon as they dive into Ben Shapiro soft-pitching a new anti-environmentalist conspiracy theory, Fox News giving a voice to the voiceless CEOs of the petroleum industry, and the building bad-faith tension between Jen Psaki and Doocy Jr. They also hold an extensive conversation on the nationalization of the energy industry, Frank from Minneapolis discusses would-be watershed-moments, and Fox News hosts a discussion on false-flag bioweapons. Ben from Worcester gives his own flat earther insight, and Matt gets into Crypto dating scams, plus, your calls and IMs!

Emma hosts Andrew Ross, professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, to discuss his recent book Sunbelt Blues: The Failure of American Housing, on the continued financialization of the housing market in the wake of the 2008 recession as seen through myriad communities throughout the sunbelt. They begin by situating Professor Ross’ research within the sunbelt region, moving back two decades to the birth of Disney’s Celebration Village, where he lived as he researched the fledgling years of the town, before looking at the rapid global expansion of the affordable housing crisis, and the focus of the coverage centering on urban areas, despite the expansive effect of the crisis on rural and suburban areas. Professor Ross explores how the sharpest poverty increase has been in areas like Celebration in the Sunbelt, as he explores the sale of the town to a private equity firm in 2004 as an early example of what we saw in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis: venture capitalists swooping in and purchasing homes across the US aiming to jack up the rent, refinance them, and generally bleed them, and their communities, dry. He and Emma then look to the effects of this rampant exploitation, as Prof. Ross dives into the flood into local motels and encampments as the levels of poverty grew in this relatively well-off village, eventually making the high school in Celebration the largest enrolled of homeless students. They explore the lower requirements of motels and how this translates into a lack of tenants' rights, especially with the eviction moratoria of the pandemic, before looking to how the immediate need for money to pay for housing pushes people into the more precarious informal economy. They wrap up by taking on the complete transformation of America into a full-on rentership society, as Black homeownership has reached a lower rate than before the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and a complete lack of federal investment in affordable housing since before the Reagan years, while wage stagnation and the Wall St-focused response to the 2008 recession reinforced this, before they walk through the genuinely obvious solution of mass investment in public and full-spectrum social housing policy. Emma also covers Mitch McConnell running on the child poverty platform, and Democrats' inability to capitalize on the disgusting policies of their opponents.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Nomiki Konst as they celebrate International Women’s Day, Nomiki dives into Russia invading Ukraine the day she arrived in the Bay of Pigs, and they take on Fox’s Oil Tycoon coverage and their deep desire to serve the whims of tyrants and dictators. Wren from Oregon calls in to discuss Biden’s violent inaction in refusing to federally take on Texas’ family criminalization and separation tactics against trans kids, and Emma and Nomiki discuss Florida passing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Louie from Palm Springs expands on Florida’s insane upper-class housing projects, and Kowalski wraps up with a quick discussion on the recent IPCC report. Tulsi Gabbard ties the invasion of Ukraine back to CRT and queer people in the US, plus, your calls and IMs!

Sam and Emma host Kimberly St. Julian Varnon, Ph.D student in history at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss her work on Soviet-Ukrainian history and the role race has played in the wake of the fall of the USSR. They begin by walking through the history of the unification of Ukraine, which was split between the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires before WWI, with the eastern segment featuring the black earth region as a center of agricultural production for Russia and cities like Odessa (which birthed Orthodox Judaism), all under repressive rule against Ukrainian culture and language. With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire with the first World War, and the rise of the USSR in 1922, Ukraine finally saw its unification with the creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, becoming the second most powerful republic in the communist union, until Stalin began his five-year plan with pushback from Ukrainian peasants, responding to them with the state-created starvation of the Holodomor, killing millions of Ukrainians. In the wake of the massacre, Ukraine ended up falling in step with the USSR up until its dissolution, opening the country up in 1991 to finally acknowledging the horrors it faced under Stalin. This brings us to the contemporary era, as St. Julian Varnon explores the 1994 Budapest memorandum that officially recognized an independent Ukraine under the conditions that they give up their nuclear arsenal, up until Russia’s invasion in 2013 which officially broke the deal, before she, Sam, and Emma take on the concept of joining NATO or the EU, with the former really not gaining popularity until Putin’s recent escalation and invasion, whereas the latter became central to Ukrainian politics in the wake of the 2013 start of this conflict. This leads Kimberly to walk through the 2013 invasion of Ukraine and the 2014 annexation of Crimea in the wake of the Euromaidan protests, looking at the progression of the war between separatists and Ukraine and the fourteen thousand deaths (largely ignored by the West) leading up to Putin’s escalation in 2022. They wrap up the interview by looking at St. Julian Varnon’s study of race in the region, especially coming out of the socialist era of race-neutrality, as she takes on the legitimate claims of ultra-nationalist neo-nazi organizations (such as the Azov Battalion) in Ukraine, which have been vaguely relevant on a national level, and understanding this segment of Ukraine as something we see throughout Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and even the United States, before they look to the rapid assimilation of Ukrainians into “whiteness,” despite their previous treatment over the years, and the massive impact this has had on the treatment of African and Afro-Ukrainian people also looking to find safety and stability. Sam and Emma also touch on the 4,500 arrests in Russia in the wake of anti-war protests, Joe Scarborough’s encouraging the US to flex their nuclear arms, despite the horrors it would obviously result in (even in a best-case scenario).

And in the Fun Half: Emma and Sam take a call from Casey from Spokane on pandemic monetary policies and their impact, admire Marco Rubio admitting that he truly knows better than Ukrainian officials what dangers are facing them, and Tucker “D's get degrees when they stand for ‘donations’” Carlson ramps up the racism against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Luke from Oneonta discusses the Azov Battalion and their Neo-Nazi counterparts in the Russian army, such as the Wagner Group, Andrew Cuomo returns to remind us that we should really be canceling legislative gridlock, not sexual assault, Ronald Raygun talks tayhaysay, and Mike Lindell announces his class-action lawsuit against “all machines,” plus, your calls and IMs!

Emma hosts Alex Sammon, staff writer at The American Prospect, to discuss his recent piece in the New Republic "IKEA's Race for the Last of Europe's Old-Growth Forest." Alex dives right into his surprisingly high-risk coverage of the rampant illegal deforestation going on in Europe’s last old-growth forest in Romania, first situating his research within stories relayed to him a few years ago regarding the multiple murders of forest rangers in the region, and countless recorded assaults of folks documenting the illegal logging. Next, he and Emma jump back to 1989 and the fall of the USSR, as Romania, alongside many other countries, was opened up to neoliberalism and expansive privatization, with the Harvard University endowment jumping on the opportunity and (illegally) buying up a majority of land in the post-communist country, before selling it off to Ikea to dump the legal battles. They then accelerate to Romania’s acceptance to the EU in the oughts, which provided a perfect example of the contradictions of the union when it came to deforestation, as the increased neoliberalization and bolstering of the privatized regimes ramped up the logging, while the developing environmental “pledges” centered the forest as a key ecosystem. This finally brings us to the last decade and a half, as Alex takes on the facade of regulation offered by environmental Non-Governmental Organizations in the region, and walks through the myriad steps of the supply chain, all of which helps Ikea to obscure the illicit activities along each step of the way. Of course, this is further supported by a complete lack of regulatory capacities in the forest itself – resulting in a majority of wood from the region being produced by illegal logging – and the countless stories of violence, from full murder to attempted assault, which all make cracking down on the deforestation incredibly difficult. They wrap up the interview by looking at the future of the furniture industry, as production is expected to ramp up, and Ikea completely vacating the Russian market putting even more pressure on Romania’s forest. Emma also covers the incredibly devastating developments in Texas as the state begins investigating parents for providing gender-affirming care for their trans children, diving into the stories of actual trans children and their families, and the fear and anxiety that has suddenly been forced on them, before they touch on updates in Ukraine, as deaths continue to mount, and briefly explores stories of anti-war protestors in Russia and the inhumanity involved in blanket blaming citizens for the horrors of their government. And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they take on the incredibly unsurprising attack on Biden and the defund movement by the right, just days after Biden himself tried to do the same thing. Phil from the Chicago suburbs calls in to chat about the mineral industry and the domestic Russian politics that might be slowing down their invasion, Ron DeSantis yells at high schoolers for their PC theater, Alex from NYC talks school choice, and Brandon one-ups Ben Shapiro on pointless political analogies. Brian in Germany inquires on potential ends to the conflict in Ukraine, Kowalski gives his agriculture update, supply chain and all, and Zack from East TN grapples with aligning national progressive movements with those that already have roots in his region, plus, your calls and IMs!

Sam and Emma host Wilfred Codrington, Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, to discuss President Biden's recent nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. They begin by situating her nomination within the expectations of a SCOTUS Justice’s pedigree, as Judge Jackson’s dual Harvard degrees, three federal clerkships (including for Justice Breyer), and experiences on multiple court circuits provide a resume that fits perfectly with the other Justices, while her work as a public defender sets her apart from the typical corporate pipeline and demonstrates her commitment to constitutional questions. After walking through her work that lead up to the nomination, Sam, Emma, and Professor Codrington posit how her role could impact the court both now, as she is slightly to the left of Breyer, and down the road, as even with a conservative majority her dissents can offer important toe-holds for fights decades from now. Next, Sam and the Professor get to dive into the administrative state, as they unpack the current EPA SCOTUS case and its role in furthering the conservative agenda of completely dismantling the capacity for non-congressional agencies to make American society work, before they wrap up the interview by taking on Sam’s “pre-pack the court” tactic, and the idea of bending the rules of the Court as we unpack its undemocratic nature. Sam and Emma also touch on absentee ballot rejections in Texas primaries, the CDC easing masking guidelines, and the effect of Biden pilfering the entire country of Afghanistan, before they touch on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how the West loves to react to Christian– I mean white– I mean European– refugees in a way that absolutely demeans and dehumanizes the victims of Western imperialism outside of Europe.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma discuss the importance of emphasizing Russia’s actions as grounded in imperialism, and dive into Putin’s relationship with his oligarchs, and the obvious lack of leverage anyone in his regime has on him. They also look at Zelensky’s effective messaging in the midst of bombings and invasions, and the domestic pushback to Putin’s actions, before John from Minnesota calls in to discuss crypto and reallocation of wealth, and Bro Flamingo jumps off that with a conversation on the “Financialization of Daily Life.” Kowalski takes on the relationships between imperialism and agriculture, Condoleezza Rice takes on acknowledging her past war crimes, before they wrap up with the devolution of Jordan Peterson and Jacob from Alabama situates the current mineworkers strike as the longest one in his state’s history, plus, your calls and IMs!

It's Casual Friday! Emma hosts Derek Davison, author of the Foreign Exchanges newsletter on Substack and co-host of the American Prestige podcast, to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Then, Emma talks with Luke Savage, staff writer at Jacobin magazine and author of the upcoming book The Dead Center: Reflections On Liberalism And Democracy After The End Of History to round up the week in news! And lastly, Emma is joined by Jayar Jackson, host of The Watchlist on The Young Turks Network!

Emma hosts Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor at Harper's Magazine, to discuss his recent book The Spoils of War: Power, Profit, and the American War Machine. Then, Emma is joined by Ken Klippenstein, investigative reporter at the Intercept, to discuss his recent piece "SAUDI-RUSSIA COLLUSION IS DRIVING UP GAS PRICES — AND WORSENING UKRAINE CRISIS". However, they begin by taking a step back to look at the developments of recent weeks, leading up to last night’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, looking to how the Biden administration has signaled their response, from guessing correctly at Putin’s aims yet still making every effort to ensure he followed through, to the consistent push for more and more intense sanctions, before Andrew dives into the actual conflicts at hand, in the Donbas region and elsewhere, and explores Putin’s desire to pin everything to Nazis and communists. This fittingly leads them to look at the development of the foreign policy tactic of sanctions, first moving back to its emergence in the 1960s against the Cuban people, hoping to starve them into revolution, before they look at how it developed in a pseudo-technocratic manner, just as drone warfare did, with US officials presenting newer and newer sanctions as “precise” and “targeted,” despite everything about their effects suggesting the opposite. Next, they look at the long-lasting devastation that sanctions have wrought, even if eventually lifted – as we saw in Iran – and dive into their pointlessness as a completely unproductive involvement in this conflict. He and Emma then explore the evolution of the Military-Industrial Complex, which has driven up the Pentagon budget by ~5% per year since 1954 all while it is suggested that our actual “fighting strength” is dropping. Andrew Cockburn makes sense of this by re-situating how we look at the issue, exploring how the MIC and Pentagon are only understandable when viewed as moneymaking machines, as he walks through myriad examples, from the Air Force developing worse planes simply because they’re costlier and employ more technological precision to Korean war tactics that centered on raiding communist trenches for clothing. They wrap up by tracking the consistent reaction to any dips in the Pentagon’s budgetary growth (not budget; growth), alongside warmongering lies from the 60s “missile gap” to nuclear lies in the Middle East. Emma also walks us through the developments in Ukraine last night, tracking the invasion and what little we know about the death toll as she works her way through this tragedy.

And in the Fun Half: Ken Klippenstein joins as he discusses his recent piece on the role of Saudi-Russian collusion in driving up gas prices and enflaming the crisis in Ukraine, from Saudi Arabia bolstering Russia’s role in oil production (starting in 2015) to strengthen Putin’s hand in advancing this conflict, to the easy decisions that the US could make in just moving away from 0il, as well as touching on Biden advancing sanctions against Yemen. Then, Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they take a call from Bro Flamingo and admire Laura Ingraham’s Interruption Angle. Binder also takes on certain “leftists” refusal to acknowledge their weirdly pro-war excuses or take accountability for how they disseminate their own opinions, and he, Matt #2, Brandon, and Emma go back and forth on the role NATO should’ve or even could’ve played in the run-up, before Eric Adams, massive proponent of solitary confinement, rants on the importance of socializing in our well being. Lastly, they go off on the active violent incitement against Trans people by the right, from Marjorie Taylor Greene to Eric Prince, plus, your calls and IMs!

Emma hosts Alex Keyssar, Professor of History and Social Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, to discuss his recent book Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?, on the consistent pushback to our system of Presidential Election since the start of the 19th Century. Professor Keyssar begins by situating the Electoral College as without a doubt the most unpopular institution in American history, with more constitutional amendments introduced regarding its abolition or revision than any other subject, as well as the obvious reasons behind this, from it simply not conforming to the democratic value of “one person = one vote,” to the constant manipulation it saw over its first half-century in existence. Diving into this element, Professor Keyssar paints a picture of the Electoral College in the first century of the U.S.’s existence, with state legislatures completely in control of electoral votes, some choosing to delegate them out themselves, some looking to statewide elections, and some employing district-specific elections, with the push for winner-take-all elections growing as the two-party system ingrained itself into our political culture, but changing state-to-state based off of the party in power. Next, Alex works through the structure of the EC, with a staunch advantage to the South, originally due to the 3/5 clause – and an important element in the South maintaining the institution of slavery – but even in the wake of the Civil War, as the incredible and immediate disenfranchisement of African Americans across the south meant their “freedom” bolstered the clout of the southern White vote. After briefly touching on the tentative approval of the Electoral College by the framers, alongside their misunderstanding of how hard it would truly be to pass amendments, Professor Keyssar and Emma look to Senator Birch Bayh’s effort in the late ‘60s to bring this battle back to Congress, with the wake of WWII, the passing of the VRA, and the ongoing Cold War all pushing democratic values to the forefront, successfully passing an amendment in with 82% of votes in the House, before a Senate filibuster hosted by White supremacists forced it to a halt. They wrap up the interview with the neoliberal era, and the post-1980 Republican mindset that sees the Electoral College as central to their foothold on minority power. Emma also dives into the horrors of a White supremacist and anti-communist mass shooting at a BLM protest in Portland, and Peter Doocy’s attempt to leverage Russia over the Climate Emergency, all while oil and gas have been central to the conflict.

And in the Fun Half: Emma takes an incredible call from Willow the Wendigo as she grapples with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s declaration that Texas will now treat trans and gender-related healthcare for teenagers as abuse; they walk through the importance of teenage gender-affirming care in myriad aspects, from decreasing suicide, self-harm, and depression rates to the impermanence of puberty-blockers, allowing kids going through puberty to take time with any decision on hormonal transition. Then, Tucker Carlson reminds everyday Americans that people who believe in racism and/or are Chinese are the true enemy in the coming Russian conflict, Kyle Rittenhouse joins him to call out the liars and frauds such as… such as… Whoopi Goldberg? The DC Trucker Convoy turns into an ad for one Bob Bolus, and Phil Mickelson discusses how working WITH authoritarians is the only way for change in the PGA, plus, your calls and IMs!

Emma hosts Alleen Brown, reporter at The Intercept, to discuss her recent article series "Climate and Punishment". Then, Emma is joined by the AMQuickie's very own Jack Crosbie, currently stationed in Kyiv, to give us an update from the ground! Alleen begins by situating the research that led her to this series, with her work as a climate reporter consistently leading her to look at those most vulnerable, and find ways to tell their stories in a meaningful way, before she and Emma walk through the horrors that climate change (alongside a lack of infrastructural response) has wrought on the incarcerated members of society. They start in California with the Dixie Fire of last year still raging, encroaching on the Susanville detention center, with inmates having been locked in their cells with no electricity or lighting, and no knowledge of when the fire will reach their location, diving into the complete lack of care infrastructure that these facilities had to respond to even a generator failure, much less the wildfire that caused it. This lets them briefly touch on the exacerbation of these elements by the COVID-19 pandemic, from failures in the rollouts of vaccines, treatment, or even simple quarantine procedures, to the correlation between pandemics and climate change emphasizing how the imprisonment of these people forces their vulnerability to the climate. Next, they move from California’s fire crises, to DeSantis’ role in Florida’s flooding facilities, looking to the state as the leader in high-flood-risk detention centers, diving through stories of floods pushing water through the sewer systems and into inmates’ cells, leaving them living in human waste for hours until an eventual evacuation can be organized. They wrap up the interview by looking to Gov Abbott’s active push to deter the construction of air-conditioning in his prisons, largely in response to a collection of lawsuits from his time as Texas Attorney General that came in the wake of a multitude of deaths from heat exhaustion, before Alleen dives into why the state of the climate in these regions, as well as their expansive prison systems, served to make them apt study grounds for her research, but that by no means should suggest that this is anything by a problem of carceral states at large.

And in the Fun Half: Jack Crosbie joins Emma as they dive into the state of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, walking through the instances of both vehemently nationalist pro-Ukrainian groups and vastly pro-Russian separatist groups (both of whom receive lots of outside funding) as well as the more overwhelming desire to have any semblance of stability without bloodshed amongst Ukrainians. They also dive into the historical divide between the Donbas region, Russia, and Ukraine, stemming all the way back to 2014’s annexation of Crimea by Russia, before touching on NATO’s role in it all. Emma also touches on the difference between wanting a USSR 2.0 and wanting another Russian Empire, Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani calls for a response to imperialism that aims to build “something greater formed in peace,” Tucker fantasizes about running into AOC at Jackson Hole, and the EmMajority report goes full Emme Woods. They also cover Ben Shapiro running to the defense of Hitler jokes, plus, your calls and IMs!

It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Ben Burgis, columnist at Jacobin, host of Give Them An Argument and author of Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by comedian Jena Friedman, host and director of Indefensible on AMCPlus! Sam, Emma, and Ben begin by – surprise – diving into the legacy of Christopher Hitchens, and how he went from anti-war activist to weirdly pro-US intervention in the Middle East, looking to his slow trickle over to the side of the elite and well-educated, seeing a difference between the Cold War imperialism against peasant armies and the counter-insurrection of the ‘90s and ‘00s. Next, they look to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the state of the Ukrainian separatists in the Donbas region, the absurd notion of debating false flags, and where the Biden administration actual stands, before they explore the Democratic establishment looking for any reason to blame the progressive agenda for their losses, even with all the money mismanagement, electoral failures, and policy choices stemming from themselves, all the while refusing to acknowledge the skyrocketing child poverty rates in the wake of them stepping away from progressive policy. Then, Jena Friedman tells the crew how she went from stand-up taking on the absurdity of the true-crime genre, to working on a more self-aware take on the category and its role in the hyper-punitive, racist, and sexist culture we live in. They also admire Charlie Kirk clinging to his childhood pediatrician to make fun of vaccines, and debate how comedy’s relationship to politics and progressivism has developed, before Sam and Emma also touch on the terrible Tommy Tuberville.

And in the Fun Half: Ronald Raygun calls in to explore canceling out cancel culture, aka getting back at Disney, Milo from Maine dives into the lack of union-focused education courses, and Sean from Coco Cali takes a crack at the Kennedy assassination and dives into a conversation on the draw of conspiracy theories. Eric Trump has one question for Jesus that boils down to, “so, what’s up with Biden?” and Andrew Yang wants everyone to pay a crypto lobby group to… solve poverty? Sam and Emma discuss the unsurprisingly bipartisan defense authorization bill, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Emma hosts James Kilgore, Research Scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois, to discuss his recent book Understanding E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring, the Surveillance State, and the Future of Mass Incarceration, on the technological advancements in the surveillance state at the hands of unregulated big tech, and the role the state and its neoliberal practices play in that. James begins by walking Emma through his personal experiences with the surveillance state, living as a federal fugitive from the US for 27 years while working for social justice and liberation movements in South Africa and Zimbabwe, before his eventual extradition in 2002 for federal possession of explosive charges stemming from the ‘70s, where he then spent over 6 years in prison, and lived with an ankle monitor tracking his every movement in his later house arrest. This brings us to James’ inspiration to start his research, as he began to explore the regulations on deployment and information extraction, as well as the breakdown of who it is used on, and how it cycles people back through the prison pipeline. He and Emma then take on neoliberalism’s transition to data as the new raw material for making money, allowing for incredible specificity when it comes to the state’s deployment of bio-power, and the role of deregulated big tech in developing and disseminating this surveillance throughout society, garnering just massive swaths of data on citizens worldwide with absolutely no accountability for where it goes. After touching on the mythology of technology and its development over the last two decades, painting a picture of technocratic development that works outside of human biases despite all data suggesting it is deeply ingrained within these systems of prejudice, they look to the sanitization of the US prison system, presenting e-surveillance as an alternative TO, rather than an alternative form OF, incarceration, before James emphasizes the role of US policymakers in actively funding contracts and work with and by these surveillance tech agencies. They wrap up the interview by diving into the global impact of these investments by US officials, looking at how electronic tech adds to the already insanely brutal surveillance of Palestinians, deeply expressing the nature and goal of these systems of control and dominance. Working off of this, Emma also covers the recent revelations on the horrors taking place on an Amazon-owned deportation plane service, before she runs through the positive outlook on the upcoming PA Senate race and John Fetterman’s progressive candidacy.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they remember the Cosby show, Amber from Northern VA dives into her state’s general assembly, and Binder finds the elusive Charlie Kirk’s original Twitter account, managed by him, of his all-white basketball team, and the incredible boost it gave to his AAU stock! They also dive into the Canadian trucker convoy, walking through Dave Rubin’s identification with “both sides” of the Holocaust, misinformation and how it led to Ilhan Omar’s recent comments, and Nick from Manitoba calls in for a bit of a Canadian perspective. Brandon from TX dives into states across the country trying to manipulate the defund movement that never occurred to boost police funding and Kowalski gives his own updates, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Sam hosts investigative journalist Christopher Leonard to discuss his recent book The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy, on how the lessons that the US Government took from the 2008 financial crash led to a decade of an asset boom on Wall Street alongside wage stagnation for workers, and the role the COVID-19 pandemic played at the end of it. They begin by essentially situating what the Federal Reserve is and does, and what changed with the Great Recession in 2008, looking to the Feds creation in 1913 to manage our currency, and the Congressional acts of 1978 that dialed down their focus to specifically a mandate of managing inflation and employment, before diving into how the institution effectively printed 3.5x the money from 2008-2014 that they had printed in the near-century before that. Sam and Christopher then look to the relationship between these two mandates, with a generally inverse relationship between their respective solutions and issues, the differences between democratic fiscal policy and unilateral monetary policy solutions, and how the US has recently seen a complete paralysis of fiscal policy during a multi-decade run of Congressional inaction. Thus, Christopher arrives at how the Federal Reserve was left out as the only problem-solving actor in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis, setting the stage for the revelation for Wall Street that was quantitative easing, in which the Fed effectively funneled billions of dollars into Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as primary lenders, reducing debt, pushing the interest rate to zero, and forcing the need for riskier investments. Diving into the difference between assets, which hold their value, and material goods, Sam and Christopher dive into how this tactic worked to bump up risky lending practices, pushing for a hyper-trickle down tactic of forcing up asset prices, and effectively bolstering a separate economic boom for the exclusively-wealthy, while continued wage stagnation saw the regular economy falter and forced high-risk investments saw elites trade away job growth for the working class with no accountability for their mistakes. They wrap up the interview by looking to the CARES Act as the US Government finally coming back around on fiscal policy, despite it quite literally being what saved us from the Great Depression, and why, in spite of this, our commitment to hyper-efficient supply lines, logistics, and monopolies meant the fiscal policy would not also see the necessary systemic changes that have been lagging for 15 years. Sam and Emma also dive into Professor Jonathan Turley’s revelation on Fox News that if MLK had been treated like conservative protesters are, he might have been arrested, potentially even multiple times, some of which maybe would’ve resulted in quintessential civil rights texts that are read across the country.

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Sam and Emma break down some of the biggest stories from the weekend in news, from the ongoing situation in Ukraine to labor, the courts, COVID, and more! Beginning with updates on the Ukrainian border, Sam and Emma dive into the breaking news that a majority of the breaking news this past week has been false, and simply the US media working to fear and warmonger as tensions build in the US populace, before they look to the role of Ukrainian President Zelensky, both in how he has capitalized on US aid, and how the US media has worked to misunderstand his statements on the build-up of Russian troops. Next, Sam and Emma reflect on the US media, bolstered by Right-wing think tanks, and their inability to see war as a bad thing, almost ever. They then move to the release of the John Durham Report, and do their best to get their takes out over the screams of “Russiagate!” as they cover the falsities of the report, how it may relate to the lawsuits against Trump in NYC right now, and why it so weirdly dropped just days after the statute of limitations had expired. Sam and Emma also touch on the hubris of wealth, news on rising drought levels alongside rising temperature, and the Senate’s failure to agree on Russian sanctions.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma are joined by the one-and-only Nomiki Konst as she shines a light on the candidacy of Nabila Islam for GA State Senator, and developments in regards to Puerto Rico’s teachers' protests. They also look to the Canadian border to explore the impact of the trucker blockade, alongside Matt Walsh somehow undermining his previous statements on traffic protests, and Justin Trudeau’s potentially overboard response as reports of him freezing the protesters' bank accounts trickle in. They wrap up the fun half by touching on the state of the Democratic and Republicans parties moving into 2022, as the Republican establishment seeks to distance themselves from Trump while their candidates do the opposite, and whether Democrats will be able to muster the strength to maintain at least one of the two chambers of Congress. Lastly, Charlie Kirk knows more about your kids than you do (but it's totally not creepy), plus, your IMs!

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Sam and Emma host writer and filmmaker Rupert Russell to discuss his recent book Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World, on how the profits in Wall Street come from placing bets on the products most central to our society’s functioning. First, Rupert situates his studies over the past decade, originating with his work on the Arab Spring and studying the cascade of revolution in the wake of one of the biggest spikes in food prices, with millions becoming highly at risk for starvation worldwide at the start of the 2010s. Then, he, Emma, and Sam look to Friedmanomics to explain why we look at pricing the way we do, and dive into the role that finance plays between the seller and buyer binary, bringing in futures trading originally to provide a sense of stability and speculation for necessary production (e.g. food), before Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers came along under Clinton and worked aggressively to cover up the potential risks that had been growing behind the scenes as the math became more and more complicated. This drastically shifts the stage moving into the 2000s, as the finance world moves fully into Quantity Index Funds and derivatives, and cements themselves as the central player in setting future prices, ultimately pushing the profits away from the actual production and selling of commodities, and to the storage of such items with the knowledge of future price booms, thus pushing the prices of important goods higher and higher. Next, Sam, Rupert, and Emma move into how this was set up to compound with the Financial Crisis in 2007, as financiers had to move into a new asset class, looking to commodities in the wake of the collapse of the housing market, and taking the pre-existing price boom to an entirely new level. This, then, brings us back to the Arab Spring, as the broken food pricing wrought horror on the Authoritarian bargains set up by countless regimes in the Middle East, effectively meaning the only regimes that could provide for their people were those bolstered by massive oil reserves, like Saudi Arabia and Libya, setting the stage for the countless crisis of the decade, from ISIS’s rise to the Refugee Crisis to the boom of authoritarian populism. They wrap up the interview by looking at the lessons from the commodity de-stabilization of the 2010s, particularly around oil and drugs, and how we need to genuinely set up new systems that are funded by the banking world, without letting free reign for manipulation of those systems. Sam and Emma also touch on Biden’s frozen aid to Afghanistan, and the moderate position of refusing to support Afghani people.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma cover Lindsay Graham’s desire for drama, Seth from Portland explores electoralism and the two-party system, Emma walks through her Super Bowl experience, and Andrew Yang absolutely TEARS Democrats a new one for having the exact same goals on healthcare as he does (no public option, we will give you nothing). Candace Owens feels a wedge driven between her and her anti-Black fanbase after she enjoyed the halftime show, and then we get calls from John from San Antonio and Kenny from Berkeley. "Bret Weinstein" takes aim at Sam’s disrespect of THE Joe Rogan Experience, and explores the importance of his philosophical bro-downs, just like Thomas Jefferson’s before him, and Jesus’s before that. Hunter from Hampton Roads discusses challenging Rep. Bobby Scott for District 3 in VA, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Matthew Film Guy! Heather, Sam, and Emma dive into the Democratic party’s inability to not react to every single Fox News talking point, no matter how baseless it is or how few people genuinely believe it. This lets them walk through the rapid turnaround on harm-reduction safe smoking kits from the Biden Administration, not only pushing out any concept of promoting safer intake of crack, but then turning around and completely abandoning the policy as a whole, despite its incredible efficacy and support, before they also connect this to Biden’s response to the US’s frozen aid to Afghanistan, only granting half of the funds despite starvation and devastation in the country following our withdrawal. Next, they look to some of the better 180's done by the Dems, exploring Pelosi being bullied from extolling the virtues of lawmaker insider-trading to supporting a bill to put a stop to it, and why this looks to be a good fight heading into the midterms. Lastly, they touch on the state of the Right, exploring why the party might have seen a turn against Trump’s idea of a Vice President having the power to overturn elections, including Pence, McConnell, and Brian Kilmeade all rejecting the idea over the course of this week, before they wrap up with a discussion of the dark money behind the Canadian trucker convoy and the impact it could see on our already fragile supply chain. Sam and Emma also dive a little deeper into the unmitigated cowardice of the Biden Administration over these past two days.

And in the Fun Half: Matthew Film Guy joins Emma and Sam as they take on the Oscars and the CIA’s obvious interference and dive into the beauty of truth that captures the impossibility of truth, as seen in The Lovely Month of May (French) and Chronicles of a Summer (also French). Next, Emma and Sam also dive into the value of Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock’s seats in Georgia, especially in pushing congressional trading laws, a Texas GOP statehouse candidate professes her love for bullying trans children in the classroom, and Lindsey Graham understands that the murder of non-American civilians is simply life, and the murder of American citizens is simply impossibly horrible, plus, your IMs!

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

Support the St. Vincent Nurses today! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

And in the Fun Half: Jessica Cisneros comes on to discuss her candidacy for TX-28 in the wake of Henry Cuellar being raided by the FBI, and the progressive agenda she wants to push as San Antonio becomes bluer and bluer, then Chris Leal for HD-114 hops on to explore how he’s riding his union backing in the hopes of winning the first Democratic seat in a statewide Texas election in decades. Emma is also joined by Brandon and Matt Binder as they take on Dave Chappelle leveraging his investments against affordable housing in his town, the absurdity of recent crypto corruption, and Jason Myles from “This is Revolution” calls in to explore the problems of our guest’s representation of drug abuse, and the importance of recognizing the inherent ugliness of the problem and avoiding the need to paint a picture of a “beautiful” victim, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Brooklyn on March 26th HERE:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-majority-report-with-sam-seder-live-tickets-259736848907?aff=odwdwdspacecraft

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Donate to Chris Leal's campaign for Texas Statehouse here!

The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma host Kellie Carter Jackson, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College, to discuss her recent book Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, using the influence of Black leaders to explore the growth of the abolitionist movement from moral suasion to an understanding that intrinsic rights cannot be granted. Professor Carter Jackson begins by situating the abolitionist fight back in the early 19th Century under its prevailing narrative of being a white man’s burden, with few lasting memories of the Black revolutionaries of the time, exploring how White Christian abolitionists attempted to capitalize on religious rhetoric of guilt and shame, while their slave-owning counterparts looked to the New Testament for a defense of their status as masters. After briefly covering the state of Black Christianity and the self-identification with the Israelites of the Old Testament, Prof. Carter Jackson dives into how Black abolitionists saw the institution of slavery as one started and sustained by violence, and thus one that can only be overturned by violence, looking to the story of John Anderson’s escape to Canada, and the rallying of a crowd around his decision to murder a White stalker that followed him in his escape. Next, they dive into the middle of the 19th Century, looking to the Abolitionist papers of the time, and the influence of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act in pushing Black abolitionists well beyond the acceptance of legitimate violence, effectively shifting the line of freedom to the Canadian border, as she dives into the story of William Parker’s Pennsylvania safe house and the Black self-protection societies that worked together to ensure the safety of free folks on the lam. They wrap up the interview by looking to the Haitian Revolution, and the genuine fear it inspired amongst white slave owners, diving into the later white-washing of the Abolitionist and Civil Rights movements away from the legitimacy of violence that actually drove their progress. Sam and Emma also cover Nancy Pelosi finally coming around on legislators not being allowed to act on insider trading, and Rand Paul’s reminder that Afghanistan actually owes the US for the decades of exploitation and disaster that we wrought on the country.

And in the Fun Half: Sam, Emma, and the MR Crew explore Turkish Martha Stewart’s Bitcoin fraud, Greg Gutfeld killing it with the “who’s the real Hitler” jokes, and Dan from the center of the PNW calls in to explore the birth of Air America. They also cover the need for aid to Afghanistan, regardless of how much actually goes to the citizens, the Atlantic hires some more whine moms to cover COVID, and Fox News explores America being thrown into the gutter by toothpaste thieves. Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens discuss drug abuse and anti-semitism with glee, Geraldo stuns Dan Bongino and Sean Hannity by stating that drug overdoses are bad, and Dan from SC bonds with Emma over some 2016 election storytelling. Betty from Southern California dives into the horror of community-enforced anti-vaccination purity practices, especially when it comes to HPV and STD vaccinations for girls, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Brooklyn on March 26th HERE:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-majority-report-with-sam-seder-live-tickets-259736848907?aff=odwdwdspacecraft

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning

Subscribe to Matt’s other show Literary Hangover on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/literaryhangover

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Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder

Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma host Mark Joseph Stern, staff writer at Slate, to discuss the potential nominees for Biden's SCOTUS pick. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Annelle Sheline, Middle East research fellow at the Quincy Institute, to discuss the ongoing situation in Yemen. Mark Joseph Stern begins by situating Breyer’s brief moment as the leader of the Liberal block as a failure to lead his collective in the midst of a serious shift to the right, looking at how his position since Ginsberg’s passing has overseen a Conservative majority that is completely rewriting the rules of the Court. They dive into the contrast we see between Breyer and more activist justices like Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, and how his role reflects the attitude of the Courts at the turn of the century, rather than the one he actually sits on, before looking at the impact this can have on the next couple decades of the legal system, particularly around paving a road for young lawyers looking to find a way to have a genuine impact on Constitutional Law. This, of course, leads them to the role of the Federalist Society in ensuring that Conservatives have a collective of dedicated legal scholars that sign on to an agenda from their entrance into the world of lawyering, which Stern contrasts effectively with the collection of judges supposedly up to fill Breyer’s seat, including Ketanji Brown Jackson, Leondra Kruger, and Michelle Childs, looking to how the favorite of the Democratic corporatists, Childs, dedicated her legal career to anti-union litigation, whereas KBJ has shown a clear dedication to fighting for elements that are genuinely in the future of Democratic activism. They wrap up the interview by touching on the horrific SCOTUS decision that came forward on the Shadow Docket last night, in which Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett pushed through overturning a conservative court’s decision to block Alabama’s obviously racist redistricting, effectively undermining the only remaining element of the VRA. Next, Dr. Annelle Sheline joins as she, Sam, and Emma take on the recent developments with the US’s involvement with Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and why Biden suddenly sees increased support of obviously-destructive intervention as good and viable, just a couple of years after Democrats successfully invoked a war powers resolution for Trump’s very similar actions. Sam and Emma also touch on Matt Walsh’s wildly disgusting and exploitative transphobic honeypot endeavor, and updates on Staten Island’s Amazon unionization attempt.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma take on continuing censorship of anti–Israeli beliefs and support, particularly among teachers, and how totally crazy it is that the Bari Weiss’s of the world haven’t touched on it. MR fav Jenna then calls in to give some updates on the incredible euphoria and gender-affirmation she has found post-surgery, and the difficulties of the journey, Fred from the UK takes on his government’s inflation talking points, and Sam from Minnesota lays the road to "stroads". Sam and Emma also touch on Team Youngkin going ad hominem on a High Schooler, Brian Kilmeade sends out his Fox beams to DT, and Worcester and Memphis see some union-busting reversions, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Brooklyn on March 26th HERE:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-majority-report-with-sam-seder-live-tickets-259736848907?aff=odwdwdspacecraft

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder

Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma host Ryan Cooper, national correspondent at The Week, to discuss his new book How Are You Going to Pay For That? Smart Answers to the Dumbest Questions in Politics, on how the self-immolating ideas of the free market have locked us into a vision of government that is impotent in the face of any economic stress on the lower classes, and required to act, often violently, when it is impacting the capitalists. Ryan begins by looking at this question of “how to pay for that,” and how it reflects this view of the economy as a pre-political entity, with liberalism’s and libertarianism's belief that government borrowing on behalf of the economy, alongside most other government regulation, is inherently bad, and that the best government is no government. However, throughout the history of capitalism, all the way back to early industrialization in England, progress has been defined by economic and labor regulations, from child labor to maternity rights, to even simply forty-hour work weeks, and yet all of these developments were pushed back against at the time, as working against natural relations of human society. Moving towards the New Deal era revelations, this brings them to the absolute impossibility of a “self-regulating economy,” as economies are literally products of structures of policy with active management, active redistribution of wealth, and active regulation, and just as those elements had been working to serve and bolster the power and “rights” of the capitalist class they can work to serve the people actually engaging in labor. Ryan, Sam, and Emma then dive into the driving force of property, and the ideology of “properterianism” that has been central to all economic development, viewing property as a sacred object, and foundational to the social order, thus becoming the driving force behind the maintenance of the status quo through violence, and therefore the biggest driver of the state’s monopoly on legitimate force, from the colonial genocides and displacements to contemporary policing. Lastly, they wrap up the interview by touching on correlations between wealth and quantity of work, looking at how the ‘60s saw Europe take their wealth and work towards better privilege for workers, turning it into more free time, with mandatory paid vacation, sick leave, maternity leave, and more, while the US has instead worked to continue to build the wealth more exclusively for the capitalists, meaning more and more hours for less efficient building of wealth. Sam and Emma wrap up with updates on Russia’s building forces on the Ukrainian border, Jim Clyburn’s push for an anti-union Supreme Court Justice, and Mike Pence’s revelation of being a true #2 (this is a Pence-il joke).

And in the Fun Half: Gregory from Oklahoma calls in to explore MR’s impact on his Youtube channel “The Green Corn Rebellion Show,” and the MR crew dive into various responses to Pence's statement on his role in overturning the election, from Bannon’s rejection of his “stone-cold” cowardice, to Rubio jumping right on Mike’s wagon, using the Sinema excuse of “but what if THEY do it to US.” They also cover the Joe Rogan drama from this weekend, and where he fits into “corporate media,” before Michael from Miami discusses Democrats’ inability to ignore bad faith discussions, the Common Sense Cowboy pitches releasing dogs at the border, and Charlie Kirk forgets his Bitcoin password, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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Watch Sam on Gregory from Oklahoma's show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyKh3be23v8&feature=youtu.be

The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma are joined by Sen. Nina Turner, candidate for Congress in Ohio's 11th District to give an update from the campaign trail. Then, they are joined by Ben Dixon of The Benjamin Dixon Show to round up the week in news. Lastly, comedian David Cross joins the MR Crew ahead of his new comedy special I'm From The Future premiering on February 12th! Sam, Emma, and Sen. Turner begin by situating her upcoming race for Cleveland’s congressional seat following her loss in last year’s special election for the same seat, diving into her early lead in polling slowly being chopped away through a mass investment of dark money – from out-of-state capitalists to pro-Israel PACs – Democrats pushing to get out the vote for conservatives, and active campaigns to paint Turner, much like the Mayor of Cleveland, in explicitly racist stereotypes. Next, they dive into the divides between Rep. Shontel Brown and herself, particularly along the lines of fighting for and actively pushing a progressive agenda, rather than tailing along behind public opinion, before wrapping up by looking at the state of politics in Cleveland and Ohio at large as it undergoes a new gerrymandering process by Republicans, and exploring the similarities of the fight on local and federal levels. Then, Ben Dixon joins as they take on the state of the Democrats, exploring Sen. Wicker’s response to Biden’s proposal of a Black woman on the Supreme Court, the preparations for Pelosi’s replacement in leadership, and Biden’s proclamation of appreciation for Mitch McConnell and his role in the Senate. They also touch on the revealed footage behind another Minneapolis murder at the hands of Police, and how the hell we can get any material change through Democrats. Sam and Emma also touch on the various foreign policy disasters the US has been wading through, from murdering civilians in Syria to sanctions in Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, and Russia.

And in the Fun Half: David Cross joins as he, Sam, and Emma tackle his upcoming show “Guru Nation,” what a true season of TV means, the difficulties of Shakespearian pronunciation, and discuss his newest special “I’m From the Future,” before Sam finally gets his new, exclusive scoop out of David. Sam and Emma also dive into the continued ravaging of the US by Omicron, Ben Shapiro calling 2,632 deaths per day “a state of mind,” and Adam Carolla’s kindergarten sexism. They also touch on Russia’s amassing of their military on the Ukrainian border alongside reports of a possible false flag by Russia and the absurdity of how the State Department reported it, regardless of truth, plus, your IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Emma hosts Peter Robison, investigative journalist at Bloomberg, to discuss his recent book Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, on the deregulation and the turn to serve the shareholders exclusively that lead up to a six month period a few years ago that saw multiple plane crashes with the 737 MAX. Robison begins by situating the crashes within the last few years, exploring how, in the wake of the first crash, Boeing dove right into a strategy of blaming the piloting of the plane, only for the second crash to affirm the whisperings of Boeing simply failing to properly train and equip their pilots. Next, he and Emma take a step back, exploring how Boeing became the corporation it is today, central to the development of the US Jet Age, working from the mid 20th Century development of the 747 jets up to the 777 in the mid-90s, both of which served as symbols of great American manufacturing in aerospace. This brings them to the massive shift that occurred as the US entered the neoliberal era, starting with Harry Stonecipher’s McDonnell Douglas acquiring Boeing and immediately shifting to the Jack Welsh model of pushing shareholder profits as the driver of the company, as Peter Robison explores in their shifting proxy statements, which went from discussing customer service and safety to cost containment and efficiency over the 90s. Next, they move to the role of the government itself, with 90s Republicans and Bill Clinton teaming up to “reinvent” government into a machine of financialization and deregulation, pushing the Federal Aviation Administration itself towards a business strategy, granting Boeing and other companies self-regulatory authorities to help push planes through manufacturing and onto the runway. Finally, they take on the compounding of these elements into the manufacturing failures of the late 2010s, with their rise parallelled by a union-busting attitude in the industry and a mass shift of profits going directly into the pockets of executives. Emma also touches on the brutality of US foreign policy, including another strike in Syria with mass civilian casualties, and a refusal to even acknowledge that people see Israeli as an apartheid state, before she dives into Rocky Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks, and his absurd response to being questioned by someone he isn't paying.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they take calls on Kermit the Jordan Peterson and the engineer to military defense pipeline, and Candace and Robert Malone claim that diversity of views is easier found at home, with just your family, than at public school, with thousands of different people. Tucker continues his crusade in defense of CNN correspondents who engage in sexually questionable business practices (Zucker, Cuomo, Cuomo), and Jimmy Fallon puts forwards perhaps his most awkward interview yet, as he and Paris Hilton show off their super-personalized, totally not identical apes. Nathan from Chicago discusses Pluto TV and the overlapping of news programs, Alex from NY gives his matchups, and Emma explores misogyny in journalism, sports, sports journalism, and politics… and political journalism, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Brooklyn on March 26th HERE:

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Sam and Emma host Kyle T. Mays, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at UCLA, to discuss his recent book An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States, which attempts to reframe a history of US capitalism around as a system built around the dispossession and enslavement of indigenous peoples, from Africa to the Americas. Professor Mays begins by situating land as the starting point of a system birthed by settler-colonialism, not looking to the industrial revolution or the first American plantations as the seeds, but rather to the forced removal and transportation of Indigenous Africans to be exploited in the Americas, where they then began the removal and transportation of indigenous folks there as well. Next, he walks Sam and Emma through a few concepts of indigeneity, looking to the importance of land and culture and history, and the consistent rejection of recognition of it by the US, before they look to stories that are central to an Afro-Indigenous history of the US, exploring folks like Paul Cuffe, Phillis Wheatley, and Olaudah Equiano and how they grappled with mixed indigeneity in a country that was virulent in their oppression of Blackness and staunch in their rejection and manipulation of Indigenous Americans. After looking at the role of the slave trade in Indigenous Nations, they dive into the Universal Race Congress and early attempts to find unity in the dispossession and exploitation of indigenous folks by American capitalism, before looking to the Red- and Black Power coalitions in the ‘60s and 70s. They wrap up with an extended discussion of reparations, and how to grapple with a form of reciprocity that doesn’t reinforce the same system that drove the exploitation that made it necessary. Sam and Emma also touch on former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filing suit against the NFL and Ron DeSantis reminds us of the most fundamental of human rights: the landlord’s right to rent (not a tenant’s right to bed or shelter or the ability to live or anything.)

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma cover unlikely ally Alex Jones calling out David “Panel-Stealing” "PacMan", Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz take on the problem with having Justices with identity and race, rather than being normal, and Mitch McConnell reminds us that consciously hiring Black women is racist. They also admire the continued Doocy-Kilmeade cold war on vaccinations, Tucker and Jason Whitlock get mad at Black people speaking out against racism in the NFL and it's not even about Brian Flores, and Sean Hannity makes a comparison, very cool. Plus, your IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Brooklyn on March 26th HERE:

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma host David Dayen, executive editor of the American Prospect, to discuss the recent issue of the magazine, entitled "How We Broke the Supply Chain", walking through how the policies of the last forty years, from globalization and monopolization to financialization and deregulation, served to create a fragile supply line that maximizes profits while minimizing production. To begin, David, Sam, and Emma look at the actual structure of the supply chain, emphasizing its rejection of inventory and surplus in favor of just-in-time logistics, with China largely acting as the repository both for necessary components and finished goods, thus meaning any crisis in Chinese production results in a disruption of the entire chain, regardless of what kind of crisis it actually is (pandemic, extreme weather, etc). They then look to how monopolies on shipping have created forced bottlenecks, from providing shipping corporations a decade of profits in one year of the pandemic, to minimizing costs to the point that 40% of ocean imports come in through one US port, and giving mass retailers (Amazon, Walmart, etc) first say in shipping, all of which serve to undermine the capacity of the supply chain while boosting the profits of the corporations that run it. They wrap up by looking at the context of this problem within the last few decades, from Obama’s White House disseminating a 2015 report that a complete supply chain breakdown was imminent, to the central domestic changes that would be needed to give the US any sort of backup plan, before briefly touching on the California Single Payer bill falling through the cracks. Sam and Emma also reveal the newest upcoming live show, and walk through updates on replacing Justice Breyer’s SCOTUS seat.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma are joined by Nomiki as they cover Jen Psaki’s response to Bad Faith talking points as if anyone cares, rather than actually taking on the issue the right is dancing around (very Democrat of her), Joe Rogan’s continued pushback on the concept of misinformation, and why the fight for the right to life cannot just be fought by the oppressed. They also touch on the backlash to Amnesty International’s recognition of Israel’s apartheid state, plus, your IMs!

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Subscribe to Matt’s other show Literary Hangover on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/literaryhangover

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Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder

Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma host journalist Jonathan M. Katz, author of The Racket newsletter, to discuss his recent book Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, The Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire, which explores the founding and expansion of US imperialism in the wake of manifest destiny, as the US military looked towards Latin America and the Pacific for the future of their economic exploitations. Telling the story through the awakening of one Smedley Butler, who would go on to write “War is a Racket”, Katz begins by situating his entrance into the military, joining the Marines on the eve of the Spanish-American War in Cuba, and rising up the ranks of Imperialism throughout the beginning of the 1900s, getting increasingly insider perspectives in countless colonizations and coups until ultimately reaching a breaking point with the obvious and exclusive economic interests at play. Katz, Sam, and Emma then dive into Butler’s developing roles, looking at his entrance into imperialism with the invasion of Cuba, setting up a century defined by US intervention (but totally not colonialism…) in the region, and touch on how his role in Nicaragua and the Philippines greatly clarified the true purposes of dollar diplomacy, before the military action inched closer and closer to genocides, and the specter of fascism looked more and more like the US military. After diving into the lasting impact of slaughter and exploitation in the regions Smedley fought in, the three of them look to Smedley’s return to the US, taking on a role of speaking out against the mistreatment of veterans by the government, and how this led Gerald McGuire and the Liberty League to see him as an anti-establishment ally, rather than the anti-fascist, anti-imperialist he had become. They wrap up the interview by looking at Butler’s whistleblowing on the League’s coup attempt on FDR, and some greater notes on US fascism that the Business Plot brought about. Sam and Emma also touch on Biden ONCE AGAIN politicizing the Courts by wanting to NOMINATE a JUDGE that is a BLACK WOMAN in PREPARATION for a DIFFERENT JUDGE’s retirement.

And in the Fun Half: Jason from Columbus dives into Smedley Butler’s legacy in the marines, Paul from College explores how long COVID has been devastating young people, and Joe Rogan reminds us that the true misinformation was the knowledge that evolved along the way. Julie Banderas talks about the failure of bipartisanship, Matt Lech explores Peter Thiel’s work with the law firm that led the Guatemalan coup in the 50s, and Ben Shapiro finally finds the audience for his killer jokes about taxes (six-year-olds) Brad from Sarasota explores the Green New Deal as a step in the right direction, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Alex Pareene, Contributing Editor at the New Republic and proprietor of the AP newsletter on Substack, to round up the week in news, as they dive into Breyer’s retirement and the role of the judicial branch moving forward, as well as look at the state of Omicron and COVID stances on the left. They begin with Breyer’s announcement and the emphasis he puts on the continuation of the American “experiment” that he’s so graciously ruled over in a lifetime position, walking through the fetishization of US governance and processes that has been stunting any material change for ages, and the central role liberals have had to play in it. Next, they get into the politics of replacing Breyer’s seat, particularly within the context of the Right’s obstructionism and Biden’s decision to solely consider Black women for the seat (but don’t worry, they’ll still be Ivy Leaguers), before this lovely conversation leads to one on the future of Democratic leadership, and whether they’ll decide to move away from bipartisan fetishization, and towards getting things passed. Alex, Emma, and Sam wrap up the interview looking at the US’s COVID restrictions (or lack thereof) in comparison with much of the rest of the West, and the incredible (and endangering) freedoms we’ve enjoyed amidst nonstop whining from libertarians and liberals alike. They also touch on the judicial decision to cancel Biden’s gas and oil leases, and a Tennessee school board’s banning of Art Spiegelman’s holocaust graphic novel “Maus.”

And in the Fun Half: Micah from CA calls in to discuss promoting leftist candidacies, Ronald Raygun tears Sam a new one over not holding his kids to account, and Biden decides to leave another campaign promise up to the filibuster, with Jen Psaki shirking the responsibility over to the ever-productive Congress. The FL Senate Minority Leader is reminded by Florida's Surgeon General that science doesn’t have yes and no answers, Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson revel in the ability of people to do things that they know are bad, and Emma and Sam unpack the overwhelming response to Sam’s debate with off-brand philosophy bro Jackson Hinkle, to the point that countless Hinklers on Twitter happened to have identical responses, plus, your calls and IMs!

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Emma hosts John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, to discuss his recent book Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability For Those Who Caused The Crisis, on how the pandemic has forced a moment where we see if we are a country that will continue to refuse to hold its elites accountable, or if we are willing to look to a problem, see those who caused it and those who were hurt, and actually provide responsibility and reciprocity. Nichols begins with the Trump Administration’s active undermining of the early-pandemic messaging from international health organizations and their own health agencies, deliberately downplaying the risks of COVID to reduce fear in the populace, ultimately hoping to funnel them back into the crashing economy – and ultimately making 40% of COVID deaths during his presidency largely preventable. He and Emma dive into the multitude of reports, from Bob Woodward to Peter Navarro, that expressed the administrations early and unabashed drive to repress information on the pandemic, alongside the management of infrastructure, including Kushner taking charge over the supply chain by funding corporate imports and Pompeo’s rejection of international cooperation, to explore how the limited action the administration did take, worked to serve corporate interests rather than public health. Next, they look to the story of Mike Jackson, a Milwaukee union manufacturer and father, who was forced to return to his “essential” job making lawn care products in the winter, with little to no COVID protections, ultimately leading to his early death, and how his name has been central in Wisconsin activists’ fight for accountability. John Nichols then brings us back to FDR’s Pecora Commission in the wake of the great depression, looking at how it genuinely took the crooked economic response seriously, taking on a Mobster prosecutor in the fight against corruption in the banks, and centering the process in the public eye. They wrap up the interview by touching on the Biden administration’s failure to engage with the pandemic on the level that it should have by now, from their late arrival to providing testing to the hesitance to push against the international vaccination apartheid on the part of Pharma and its IP, before touching on a few steps we can take to move towards a culture of genuinely holding the elite and powerful to account when their actions result in devastation for millions. Emma also touches on Kayleigh McEnany listing all of the Black female politician (yes, singular) she knows, and covers some updates on what Democrats are (Breyer) and aren’t (Feinstein) retiring.

And in the Fun Half: Matt Walsh goes all-in on his incel fanbase, Matt Binder announces another drop in crypto - but this time it's a good one (his new “Scam Economy” podcast) - and Brandon joins and he, the Matts, and Emma take on a Tuxedoed Jordan Peterson’s reminder that the climate is too big to fail, so why bother! Candace Owens comes at the masculinization of women via pantsuits, in a pantsuit, the crew admires MTG being scolded by her own constituents, and Dominique from Baton Rouge explores the problems with national investment in unlikely races, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Check out The Nomiki Show on YouTube. https://www.patreon.com/thenomikishow

Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder

Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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Sam and Emma host David Pepper, former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, to discuss his recent book Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call From Behind the Lines, on how the GOP has been chiseling away at democracy from its base, with the Karl Roves and Thomas Hofellers reinventing the gerrymandering wheel in 2010. Pepper begins by looking at the snapshot of Ohio statehouse and presidential elections between 2008 and 2012, where Obama won with near-identical numbers yet saw a statehouse flip from a 10-8 Democrat majority to a 12-4 Republican supermajority, with 99% of successfully gerrymandered districts in 2011 holding throughout the rest of the decade, to the point that in  the then 2018 “Blue Wave,” MI, WI, and PA all saw a majority of votes for democratic statehouse members, yet retained either Republican majorities or supermajorities. They then dive into how this has completely flipped the game of local politics to one of extremism and keeping private entities happy, grounding success in anti-democratic principles, alongside making sense of Democratic counter-gerrymandering attempts with a complete absence of investment in state politics, while groups like ALEC, the NRA, and the Koch brothers have poured money into making statehouses into testing grounds for their policy and its support, before they push it onto the federal level. David, Sam, and Emma wrap up by looking at what Democrats, both at the municipal and federal levels, can do to reinvigorate the democratic drive in the US populace. Emma and Sam also touch on the news of Stephen Breyer’s retirement and do a little compare and contrast with Fox’s COVID coverage alongside Fox’s COVID coverage.

And in the Fun Half: Jackson Hinkle, of “The Dive,” joins to discuss why he, American Patriot and Marxist-Leninist, thinks the Squad should simply leverage their votes to capitalize on their negotiations with Biden to PASS a progressive agenda swiftly through the Senate, rather than leveraging their votes to capitalize on their negotiations with Biden to NOT pass a progressive agenda. Additionally, there was some interesting conversation on what critiques of the Squad are and are not legitimate or useful, but that was few and far between. Plus, your IM's!

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma break down all the big news from the past few days, from the rapidly developing situation in Ukraine, to COVID, labor, the courts, and more! Sam and Emma begin by diving into the “mother of all sanctions” bill being drafted by Sen. Menendez, from the semi-useful elements of to the GOP using them to wiggle in their Russian policy, and how to grapple with being anti-war and pro-Taiwan and Ukraine (it’s not that hard). Next, they look into the judicial rejection of Alabama’s redistricting, giving them two weeks to make room for a second majority Black district (despite representing over a quarter of constituents), and how cool it would be if there were a federal blueprint for what problematic gerrymandering looks like, with maybe four voting-rights-related sections before it. They wrap up the free-half with an extended discussion on the state of Omicron and the right-wing US media reaction, including Bari Weiss and Bill Maher whining about their incredible sacrifices - from washing food to watching Netflix - and the weirdness of their constant pro-Israel talking points suddenly disappearing as Israel employs the utmost policy requirements for a certain segment of their population. Ben Shapiro and Dore expand on this by reminding us that the real research was the COVID-positive friends we met (and the videos we reacted to) along the way, and Sam and Emma dive into the horrors of long-COVID in the countries with the best healthcare infrastructure.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma are joined by Nomiki Konst, as they debate who’s more lost, Donald Trump trying to talk history, or Don Jr. trying to talk… at all. They also cover the Right’s new propaganda series, made to make sure white kids never feel like their ancestors made mistakes, the differences between the non-delegation and Chevron doctrines, and Sarah Palin gets some Wattered down questioning about her COVID status as she traipses around NYC. Tucker and Sen Ron Johnson discuss those fools having conversations about COVID from their ivory towers (Note: Fox News’ building is NOT ivory), plus, your calls and IMs!

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

Support the St. Vincent Nurses today! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Check out Dr. Susan Oliver's response video debunking Dr. John Campbell's video here.

Sam and Emma host Tony Messenger, Metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, to discuss his recent book Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes The Poor In The Name Of Justice, on how municipalities across the US have instituted a system of debtors’ jail, trapping poor folks into a system of punishment and payment with no way out, solely as a way to help fund their local “justice” infrastructure. Messenger first dives into what he learned after the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and the growing realization of the pervasive nature of courts using fees and fines to lock poor people into a cycle of debt and incarceration, to the point that, throughout the US, it became viewed as simply how criminal justice worked, fundraising from powerless communities rather than wealthy ones. Tony then walks Sam and Emma through the stories of three women across the US – one of Kendalia Killman in Oklahoma, one of Brooke Bergen in Salem, Missouri, and lastly that of Sasha Darby in Colombia, South Carolina – diving into how courts, the legislature, and private debtors manipulate a pervasive presence of invisible fees and fines for going to jail and being arrested to capitalize on the lack of power, free time, money, and legal knowledge of everyday Americans, resulting in years of abuse and extortion, and devastating effects to the health and well-being of them and their families. After touching on the unanimous rejection of these “debtors’ jails” at the level of State Supreme Courts, Messenger explores the roles of local legislatures and Courts in breaking the pipeline from poverty to prison, and having to parse through and deconstruct the myriad legal fees and clauses created to entrap the populace into it. Sam and Emma also touch on the building tensions on the Ukraine border with Russia, and the progression of this conflict behind George W. Bush’s promise to Ukraine almost two decades ago.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma take on the legitimacy of discussions around the Overton Window, before unpacking the illegitimacy of the overtime window in the NFL, Lee from southern IL lays some well-deserved compliments on the staff, and Chuck Todd and Elissa Slotkin take on the disgusting and childish nature of pointing out that representatives aren’t doing their jobs. Tucker promotes whatever the candy-version of furrydom is, VA school districts attempt to claw some power back, and a parent threatens revolt, David from KC dives into misdemeanor class persecution, and Emily from Wisconsin calls in to chat about the horrors of Social Security disability insurance, and the trappings of government-enforced poverty, plus, your calls and IMs!

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

Support the St. Vincent Nurses today! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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It is a jam-packed Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Stephen Wertheim, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment and Visiting Faculty at Yale Law School, to discuss the recent developments with Russia and Ukraine. Stephen  comes in to situate where the building Russia-Ukraine conflict is at, and what role the US has played in the increasing pressure. First, they look at negotiations between Tony Blinken and Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov, and contextualize them within Biden’s statements that the use of force was not on the table, before discussing the role of NATO expansions, especially towards Ukraine and Georgia, in inflaming the rising tensions, and touching on the discourse on how not going into war could (but shouldn’t) reflect our weakness or strength towards China.Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota's 5th Congressional District to discuss everything that's happening on Capitol Hill. Rep. Omar starts off by taking on the future of a Build Back Better breakup and the fool's errand of trying to pass anything without changing the filibuster, how to negotiate writing bills between the House and Senate, and why nobody, especially six specific members of the progressive caucus, could’ve seen the passing of BIF as working against BBB. They also touch on a potential upcoming leadership fight for Democrats, and Sam and Emma explore the absurdity of corporate dems’ pitch for moderation.

Lastly,  The David Feldman, of The David Feldman Show, joins for a “David Feldman” fun half, as he eulogizes Meat Loaf and the incredible influence he had in the sexual maturation of one David Feldman, and David Feldman covers the complete distortion of MLK’s legacy by trusting the FBI’s claims that he cared about “labor organizing” and “voting rights.” Hannity triggers Trump with the “W” word, Laura Ingraham laughs off vaccinated folks having lesser COVID effects, and Jen Psaki reminds us that now is the time for activists to step up and do the Biden Administration’s work, while they shift their focus to… to… um... plus, your IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

Support the St. Vincent Nurses today! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Emma hosts Kyla Schuller, Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, to discuss her recent book The Trouble With White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism, on how mainstream feminism has been a project of theft disguised as liberation. Professor Schuller and Emma situate white feminism as one that isolates a specific element of misogyny while leaning into many forms of structural oppression, from racism to classism to transphobia. The first contrast Kyla Schuller brings to our attention is that between the feminism of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, co-author of the quintessential “History of Women’s Suffrage,” with Susan B. Anthony, and that of Frances E.W. Harper, who used the income from her poetry to fund the Underground Railroad and paint women’s rights as a movement to promote Black folks’ land rights, liberty, and literacy. Despite writing what is viewed as the quintessential “first wave” feminist text, Stanton’s and Anthony’s feminism was actively based on beliefs that Black suffrage could not take precedence over women, leaving Harper’s beliefs entirely out of their project, while appropriating and editing the works of Black women such as Sojourner Truth to fit their own narratives. Using this as a blueprint for the differences between “white” and intersectional feminisms, Schuller then looks to the appropriation of the story of escaped slave Harriet Jacobs by Harriet Beecher Stowe for her work “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and how this reflected Stowe’s feelings of the white woman’s role in protecting, teaching, and civilizing women of color, as further represented by her ultimate acquisition of the largest orange plantation in Florida, as a place to experiment with disciplining and civilizing the formerly enslaved. She and Emma also touch on the stories of Margaret Sanger and Dorothy Ferebee as an important contrast in the development of reproductive choice, versus reproductive justice, before touching on the takedown of Sandy Stone from the lesbian music collective “Olivia Records” by anti-Trans activist Janice Raymond. They wrap up the interview by touching on the concept that the universal female experience that TERFs ground their oppression in simply doesn’t exist, and look at Sheryl Sandberg’s “lean in” feminism versus AOC’s coalition feminism. Emma also looks at Biden’s decision to break up BBB, hoping to at least get some moderates on board if he’s going to lose the faith of the rest of his base.

And in the Fun Half: Brandon and Matt join Emma as they take on MLK NFTs but like IRL, exploring the commodification of the Civil Rights Movement, and crypto bros' inability to grapple with artists having the rights over their work. Warren from Toronto calls in to explore Jordan Peterson’s brief prevalence in Canadian academia, and how that all fell apart well before his retirement, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson take on the threat of “NGOs,” (totally different than corporations, they swear), and the crew explores how Jordan Peterson’s self-help work targeted people who were looking for meaning in their life, and what the left can learn from it. Anti-vaxxers turn to pissful protests, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

Support the St. Vincent Nurses today! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma Anna Della Subin, senior editor at Bidoun Projects, to discuss her recent book Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine, on the pervasive and frequently overlooked figure that began popping up at the dawn of “New World” imperialism, and has since emerged, both through oppression and resistance, countless times in the face of a singular authority. Subin begins by bringing Sam and Emma back to the end of the 1400s, looking at the “explorers” from Columbus to Cortez that saw their reception by indigenous folks as an expression of deification and mysticism, rather than an intense recognition of their sudden appearance and authoritarian claim to power. These stories were then told and retold by European settlers, bolstering the religious imperialism that defined their ideology, justifying their claim to the lands of entire civilizations, and explaining away the terror they wrought as, at worst, Godly fear that must occur to bring them the light of Christianity and the West. Next, Anna explores how these myths were central to the creation and recognition of race as a social signifier, as Spanish colonizers brought their blood puritanism to the Americas with the primary identifier shifting from religion to skin color as they converted the region. Moving forward in history, Anna, Sam, and Emma then dive into the roles of Accidental Gods that emerged under colonization, but without the imperial goals, such as Haile Selassie and Gandhi, as the imposition of their deification came from around them, bolstering the people’s belief in their resistance and emancipation, before they look at more contemporary examples of the vitriolic accidental gods that emerged, from Major John Nicholson to General MacArthur, as people they stood above attempted to reclaim the power exercised upon them. Lastly, they touch on the accidental deification that we see today, from Donald Trump to Capitalism as a whole, and the “cargo cult” of the British and American doctrine. Sam and Emma also touch on the disgusting politicization of MLK and Voting Rights, two things that never EVER had to do with politics.

And in the Fun Half: Josh calls in to chat about Bernie doing all of the heavy lifting when it comes to disseminating COVID information, Bob from FL totally debunks mistrust of the CIA, and Sam and Emma are blown away by Gary Chambers's senatorial campaign announcement. Dan Crenshaw cracks under the pressure of a pre-teen using his own words against him, and Emma and Sam take on Ron DeSantis codifying protections for white fragility into Floridian education policy. They also explore Orange County’s health director being placed on administrative leave for questioning his department’s public health practices, and OAN possibly going under after losing their corporate funding from AT&T, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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Sam and Emma host Angie Maxwell, associate professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, to discuss her recent book The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics, on how the Southern Strategy that completely restructured the electoral college behind the GOP’s turn against social progress has found long-term success in bolstering support for the Right on terms of racial resentment, modern sexism, and Christian nationalism. Professor Maxwell begins by situating the party politics after the 40s, with the Supreme Court standing behind Jim Crow laws, and the National Democratic Party being forced into a choice to either stick behind their southern force, or the unions and coalitions that drove their base after the New Deal, ultimately seeing the southern white democratic contingent secede into the Dixiecrats, leaving room for this conservative coalition in the south. Next, she works to unpack the differences between a long- and short-term view of the Southern Strategy, with the former moving beyond the years of Nixon and playing an essential role even in the Democratic victories of Carter and Clinton, before she works to outline the clear roles of racial resentment, with the Civil Rights Movement, and sexism, with the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and abortion fights, played in the GOP’s Southern takeover, before shifting to the role of religion. She, Sam, and Emma dive into the complete absence of Democratic infrastructure in the South throughout the mid-to-late 20th Century – particularly when it came to unions, who made up much of their support – thus making Churches the biggest institutions of community infrastructure, in the midst of a massive ideological shift in Southern Baptist ministers to the right. Next, they turn to the role of Southern white women in bolstering the South electorally, as their religious infrastructure shifted towards fundamentalism, as they took on mass organizing to kill the ERA in their states, looking at feminism as a threat to motherhood, family, and Christianity. After touching on the role that religion played in the early aughts US imperialism and interventionism, Professor Maxwell moves to the contemporary role the strategy has played, looking at how the South, both for the GOP and Democrats, is central to setting the tone for primaries, and how Democratic messaging has to change in the south to begin to unpack and restructure voters’ perspectives and beliefs on progressive policy goals. Sam and Emma also touch on how the month since the filibuster changed has obviously cemented the tool in the Senate, never to change again.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma are joined by Nomiki Konst as they cover the GOP and Democratic analysts coming to the bipartisan consensus that their bases are what’s wrong, and walk through some of the worst and even worse invocations of MLK from yesterday, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s CRT bill, Crowder’s dishonest honesty, and Eric Adams painting a picture of MLK as the baller hick from… Atlanta. Nomiki talks about Crypto bros and their ongoing attempt to recolonize Puerto Rico, Stinchfield admires the hysterical women that want national unity, and Jimmy Dore reminds us of the dangers of the white moderates that got in the way of Force the Vote, like AOC. Matt and Emma round out the show with an olive branch to our short kings, plus, your IMs!

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Happy MLK Day! Sam chats with Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American studies at the University of Houston to discuss his recent book The Bittersweet Science: Racism, Racketeering and the Political Economy of Boxing.

Then, our compilation of MLK-related audio returns with a new addition this year with excerpts from this newly-released speech via The Root:

-“Exclusive: Martin Luther King Jr. Talks Reparations, White Economic Anxiety and Guaranteed Income in Previously Unheard Speech”

-As well as Dr. King’s first TV “interview” from the show “The Open Mind – The New Negro” in 1957, hosted by Professor Richard D. Hefner.

-"Beyond Vietnam", the speech delivered on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City.

-MLK’s last speech “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution“ delivered at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., on 31 March 1968.

-Walter Cronkite reporting King’s assassination in 1968.

-And finally, Nina Simone performing the song “Why?” live, 3 days following MLK’s assassination at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island in April 1968.

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Francesca Fiorentini, host of The Bitchuation Room podcast! First, Digby, Emma, and Sam get into yesterday’s SCOTUS decisions, the first blocking the testing mandate with a vaccine opt-out in businesses over 100 people, and the second approving the healthcare worker mandate, explaining the stupidity of the first decision, which hinged on the view that OSHA could only protect against threats unique to the workplace, and the obviousness of the second. Parsing deeper into the first decision, Sam gets into an administrative-state-state of mind, as they explore the potential impact the decision could have on the Chevron Doctrine, and look at it as a climax of the GOP agenda of the last couple of decades, which amidst countless culture war talking points has held one policy ideology at their core, the dismantling of the capacity of the government to do practically anything. Next, they check in on Jan 6 prosecutions, diving into the half-century-long GOP project of sowing doubt in democracy and priming voters to think that election fraud was a genuine issue, helping bolster their argument that there are debatable questions on the validity of this moment, before concluding with the abject failure of the Biden administration on practically every front, with almost a year gone by without any substantive legislation for COVID, infrastructure, or voting rights. Emma and Sam also expand on the power this Supreme Court could end up having, and the pointlessness of a discussion on SCOTUS abolition when we can’t even get filibuster abolition.

Then in the second half, Francesca joins Sam and Emma as, beyond shedding some lightheartedness on the show, they tackle the upcoming the Bitchuation Room live show (featuring one Sam Seder), and ponder the efficacy of poop surveillance in getting accurate COVID numbers, before moving onto Joe Rogan’s falling right into a trap of “correct and concise COVID data,” and One America News turning to Jesus Christ’s love of prostitutes to parallel Donald Trump’s love of prostitutes, despite their subtle yet key differences. They also touch on the absurdity of petty-crime fear-mongering, and a Jan 6th attendee takes on his Fox News idols for calling him a Fed, plus, your IMs!

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sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Emma hosts Rachel Greenwald Smith, professor of English at St. Louis University, to discuss her recent book On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of An American Ideal, on compromise in art and politics, and as an American ideal. Professor Greenwald-Smith and Emma first back up and look at how the US values compromise as a whole, looking at Biden’s role in 2020 as the “compromise candidate,” and how his failures have sort of proved the validity of this title, before the Professor takes on the difference between viewing compromise as an end which, itself, is politically valuable, and viewing it as a means, which is more reflective of everyday life, and sees compromise as resulting in some feelings of loss and resentment. This brings her and Emma to the role of compromise in capitalism and liberalism, as a value that turns us around to implicitly accept some amount of suffering and exploitation, turning to the Clinton Administrations’ acceptance of neoliberalism as the beginning of our current era of leftist compromise, effectively giving up on socialist valences for almost two decades. Next, Professor Greenwald-Smith shifts to a discussion of the aesthetics of compromise, in politics, as we see with the constant attitude policing of the left, and in art, from early 20th Century avant-garde publishers to 90s and early 21st Century punk artists and look at the lessons we can learn from the punk movement, particularly around accessibility and structure. They wrap up the interview by looking at the role of compromise in reinforcing America’s anti-blackness throughout history, from the 3/5ths to the Missouri Compromise, to various reconstruction policies, and touch on how the narrative of compromise as the midpoint between pain and progress gets stretched further and further, as we’ve seen it begin to break with mass labor resignations under COVID. Emma also touches on Donald Trump turning on his MiniMe, Ron De(Santis), and Kyrsten Sinema proudly displaying another trophy claimed from the Biden Agenda.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they take on the failure of Democrats to not just support, but cultivate democracy, Mark from Mass asks for clarification on liberals' insistence on uplifting incorrect voices, and the Chi Bureaucrat and Dr. Gus give insights into the goings on of US public schools in Chicago and Florida, respectively. They also cover Gov Kristi Noem advancing educational bills to teach kids not to protest or challenge the system, and David from SC ask for the crew’s sports-personality alter egos, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Members can watch here.

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Sam and Emma host Jamie Ducharme, health correspondent at Time, to discuss her recent book Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Dr. MarkAlain Dery, infectious disease specialist at AccessHealth Louisiana and host of the Noise Filter podcast, to discuss the recent developments with COVID and the Omicron variant. Jamie walks Sam and Emma through how Juul swept across US high schools after its release in 2015, peaking at around 30% of high schoolers in 2019, before a string of misinformation on black market-THC cartridges lead to an array of anti-vape messages being disseminated across both high schools and DC, pushing Trump’s FDA to begin taking on e-cigarettes. They also discuss the validity of considering e-cigs as a cigarette alternative, before looking behind the scenes at Juul’s marketing to young people, and how truly negligent they could be. Next, Dr. MarkAlain Dery makes his Omicron return as he covers his experiences as the variant’s impact on hospitals begins to reach its peak, why, despite its lower virulence compared to Delta, Omicron is still about as deadly as the wild type, and what differentiates the variants when it comes to long COVID. He, Sam, and Emma also discuss Omicron’s impact on children, what sort of variant development we might see post-Omicron, and look deeper into efficacy numbers around testing, quarantine, and masks. Sam and Emma round out the free half with Biden’s transfer to voting rights and the filibuster, and Mitt Romney’s claim that they are really voting wrongs.

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Subscribe to Matt’s other show Literary Hangover on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/literaryhangover

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma break down news from the weekend, from developments on COVID to the courts, the Jan 6th commission to labor, and more! They begin by reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the first prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, before discussing the absurd discourse around in-person education that presumes kids are learning anything in the chaos and anxiety that is pandemic schooling. They also cover the uselessness of Biden’s pivot on the filibuster if he doesn’t also pivot on his treatment of Manchin, and dive into Eric Adams proving his worth as the newest corrupt Mayor of NYC, shifting the blame from ally Rick Gropper after he ignored a multitude of complaints and violations in the lead-up to his building catching fire in the Bronx, killing 17. In preparation for Adams's reign, Emma and Sam also discuss some extra help Gov. Kathy Hochul’s been giving, reversing course from Cuomo’s pandemic cuts to Medicaid and opening it up to 200k low-income New Yorkers, and look at the developments in California healthcare that are up, and what version of Gavin Newsom we’ll see with them. They wrap up the free half by discussing Sarah Palin’s role in capturing the Right Wing’s repressed sexuality, and how little they’ve come since then.

And in the Fun Half: COVID callers Sam and Casey discuss the absolute infrastructure and public health failures in their states of Michigan and Georgia, respectively, and Emma and Sam tackle the antidotal evidence presented by Christopher Key. Tucker Carlson can’t decide whether Covid is a hoax that is elitist or racist (against white people), and Wynn from Chicago offers an extended discussion that highlights the failures of race-blindness, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Subscribe to Matt’s other show Literary Hangover on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/literaryhangover

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Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder

Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma host Sheryll Cashin, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, to discuss her recent book White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality, on how the residential caste system built up around race and geography has ingrained itself into US cities, becoming central to how we imagine our neighborhoods and cities operating. They begin by focusing on the geographical element, as Professor Cashin looks to Baltimore to explore how the migration of escaped and freed slaves to the North saw cities resort to a contain and segregate tactic, tightly grouping Black folks into neighborhoods separated by infrastructure and investment, both in what is built, via the construction of highway boundaries, and in what isn’t, with a complete desertion of public infrastructure. Looking into the 21st Century, Cashin explores how even under Black mayors and majority-Black city councils cities like Baltimore saw the residential caste system expanded and reinforced, discussing the role of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan in putting a stop to the aptly named “red line” to connect poorer neighborhoods to downtown and the suburbs, and re-investing the money entirely into rich white areas. After discussing this element of boundary maintenance, Professor Cashin, Sam, and Emma look to how this segregation also promotes opportunity hoarding, by not only keeping wealth and infrastructure down in Black neighborhoods, regardless of economic makeup, but also by forcing them to subsidize opportunity in wealthier neighborhoods. Lastly, they touch on the role of stereotype-driven policing and surveillance and how this works to reinforce both of the previous two elements, before they wrap up by discussing Sheryll Cashin’s ideas on abolition and repair, working to reverse the destructive policies that have defined our metropolitan development over the last century and a half. Sam and Emma also touch on Ron DeSantis’s tactical “if I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist” strategy with invisible viruses.

And in the Fun Half: Sam finally gets some video proof that not all Pats fans absolutely suck, Emma compliments Sam’s “soy-boy professor” look, and the crew discusses the HIPAA violation that is a Tinder date asking DeSantis his STD status. John from SA, Kowalski from NE, and Ronald Raygun hit us with back to back to back regulars as they tackle Wisconsin gerrymandering, defeatism, and ideal FBI-Plant Dave Ramsey, respectively. Bro Flamingo also discusses how the Activision culture of abuse has been swept under the rug, and an anonymous caller discusses his experience with the disgusting gas pollution coming from the abandoned Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Support the St. Vincent Nurses today! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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It's Casual Friday! Sam hosts Osita Nwanevu, contributing editor at The New Republic, to wrap up the week in news and discuss his recent piece in the New York Times, "Trump Isn't the Only One To Blame for the Capitol Riot." Osita sits down to unpack the project of Republican grievance that has been built over the last few decades, boiling over into violence last 1/6. Osita explores how conservatives have been forced to grapple with seeing themselves as a political majority while they see the culture slip away from their values. First, he and Sam contextualize this within the last few decades, exploring how Senate Republicans have last represented a majority of voters in the 90s, despite holding a majority of seats about half of the time, and how this, along with a similar situation with the presidency, has allowed analysis to take over the right that ignores the structure of our political system, allowing them to interpret the electorate as conservative. They then dive into the narrative set up by this ideology, seeing any success of a progressive agenda on the electoral or cultural fronts as a result of Democratic conspiracy to undermine the conservative majority, and look at how Democratic institutionalists have internalized the fight for white moderate support as a necessity in politics, thus only working to reinforce this idea that they must constantly be catered to. They wrap up the interview by exploring how leftist organizing can work to do what the DNC won’t, building infrastructure on the ground to create a base that fights for its majority representation without conceding to a moderate conservatism that is antithetical to its platform. Sam also touches on some upcoming court cases taking on testing mandates, vaccine mandates, and Congress’s capacity for delegation.

Then, Sam is joined by comedian Judy Gold, host of the Kill Me Now podcast, as she makes her 2022 MR debut! Judy and Sam take on the 1/6 anniversary, the conservative fear of actually saying “fuck you” to a president, and the state of having children in Omicron. And in the Fun Half, Sam touches on the oral arguments for the SCOTUS case on vaccine mandates, Teacher Lauren discusses the failure of localities to stand behind their teachers and students, and Dennis Prager reminds us that 1/6 insurrectionists were unarmed, metaphorically. Elon Musk’s single lane, Tesla-only tunnel in Las Vegas turns out to not help congestion, Peter McIndoe preaches about the self-care of letting yourself breathe drone-free air, and Adam from OH-6 discusses a potential plan to run for Congress, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Check out today’s sponsors:

sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here’s a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

Support the St. Vincent Nurses today! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/

Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Sam hosts Adam Hilton, assistant professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College, to discuss his recent book True Blues: The Contentious Transformation of the Democratic Party, on how the party apparatus of the Democratic Party went from a three-majority monster in the midst of the 20th Century to a hollow shell of an organization. Professor Hilton begins by walking through where political parties came from, looking at them as creatures of political officials seeking to form a structure of internal coalition, while in contentious interaction with the social groups that make up their base, before they help contextualize where the Democratic Party was coming out of the New Deal. Adam and Sam walk through the coalition of Southern conservatives, big city Democratic machines, and Northern liberals that took hold of US politics for three decades after FDR’s Presidency, exploring the Confederate-like arrangement that allowed states and localities autonomy over their agendas, and why this both bolstered the unity over those decades, while also ultimately undermining the Democratic association with growing movements for civil rights, with continued coalition with a segregationist south. Next, they dive into the four years from 1968-1972 that saw a complete deconstruction of the Democratic apparatus, starting with the ’68 conventions election of Hubert Humphrey – against the public’s engagement –  and shifting towards a New Politics ideology of good government reformation amidst a rejection of racial populism. Professor Hilton then dives into how organizations like the Coalition for a Democratic Majority put themself at the center of the party in the wake of George McGovern and New Politic’s overwhelming loss to Nixon in ’72, effectively working to completely deconstruct the party reformation, leaving behind solely a shell of an organization, largely relying on outside groups for their electoral efforts. Hilton and Sam also explore the major differences between the Democratic and Republican parties at this time, before diving into how we can see the DNC or other organizations work to rebuild the party’s structure. Sam also gives some updates on Omicron and Education.

And in the Fun Half: Sam reunites with Matt and Brandon as they take on Nate Silver’s descent into a whole new realm of fear-mongering, Hannity and Meadows reflect on the true meaning of January 6th, and the crew reflects on their Omicron run-ins. Ron DeSantis debates the politicization of coup d’etats, and Brandon and Matt reflect on the legacy of the 1/6 narratives. Lin Manuel Miranda inspires a conversation on the relationship between talent and corniness, and Nathan from Chicago chats about WWE’s exploitative practices. They also chat about the Democrats' desire to respect existential threats, plus, your calls and IMs!

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam hosts Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, to discuss his recent book The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back that he co-wrote with Allen Mikaelian, on how neoliberal policies have cut up the public sphere, dividing its profits between a narrow subset of people, while turning the rest of us into competing consumers rather than communal citizens. Cohen and Sam begin by walking through how private companies take over public goods, first looking at the cautionary tale of Chicago Parking Meters LLC, originally a public good before being frantically sold for just over a billion dollars to offset the red in the city’s budget, only to see the cost of parking in Chicago skyrocket as the city realized it had undersold for fractions of the potential profits. However, solely focusing on parking drastically undersells the issue, as they explore how, beyond distributing wealth to further stratification, the privatization of public goods often ends up putting necessities in the hands of corporations, including access to clean water, education (both schools and libraries), and, of course, healthcare, resulting in the most central elements of our society turning towards the market over the community. Donald Cohen dives into this privatization of community, working through the disastrous effects of charter schools and private schools on our education system, before taking a step back in scale to discuss how socialized medicine gave us all of the benefits of the vaccines, while the privatized profits have contributed to all of the horrors of the variants, and what the privatization of the judicial system has looked like. They wrap up the interview by touching on how we can push back against rampant privatization, focusing on pressuring our local and federal governments on legislative and policy issues, and reminding the public of the surface of the state that protects us in everyday life.

And in the Fun Half: Eric Adams moves his claim over the NYPD to be one over every worker in New York City, Coby from Utah calls in to discuss the healthcare provider shortage, and Robert from Tampa follows that up with a discussion on municipal ownership of utilities. El Camino Chavez finally gets his chance to debate Sam, only to blow it out his mask, Dana Perino reminds us that if we want to conquer the elements, we need tanks, or, ya know, farming equipment. Manchin is done with shutting things down, the MR Crew admires Ted Cruz’s and Senator Hawley’s foresight on last January 5th, and Tyler from Indianapolis explores white supremacy and the military, plus, your calls and IMs!

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam hosts Suzanne Schneider, Deputy Director and Core Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute, to discuss her recent book The Apocalypse and the End of History: Modern Jihad and the Crisis of Liberalism, on the evolution of jihad as liberalism took over the world. Schneider begins by helping frame the central terms, exploring the greater project of liberalism, attempting to advance democracy, the free market, and individual liberty over the last three centuries, and how that transitioned into neoliberalism, with the takeover of the state and products of democracy by capital, before they look at jihad as a form of Islamic warfare. Suzanne then dives into how the right to engage in jihad has evolved, from the right of a state or caliphate, as seen as recently as the Ottoman Empire’s entrance into World War I, to a form of insurrection, largely in rejection of the people’s faith in the state, over the last century, only recently changing with ISIS’ s populist and elite-driven claim to a new caliphate. She and Sam dive into this development, looking at how ISIS was able to use an ideology of self-selecting to drive feelings of individual agency, and the capacity to have an actual impact, amidst democracy’s failure to deliver the same ability, and look at the similar qualities in the far-right movements in the US, giving rise to authoritarianism dressed up in religious aesthetics that thrives on disenchantment and lack of civil agency. This brings them to a discussion of neoliberalism and the process of state capture and privatization of capital, looking at how complete fealty to the market has seen the state let democracy, and civil agency slip by the wayside. Sam and Suzanne wrap up the interview by looking at colonialism, rather than domestic capitalism in the empires, as the sowing ground for today’s expression of liberalism, where the state exists for the capture of capital for private benefit and to violently suppress resentment, exploiting people and keeping them tamed through the monopoly on violence. Sam also dives into Schumer’s recent turnaround on the filibuster, and deciphering what he really is willing to give up to Manchin.

And in the Fun Half: Nomiki Konst joins us as she and Sam explore a wild set of New York News updates, from Eric Adams claiming the NYPD as his personal police, to the New York bipartisan redistricting committee practically giving up on Long Island Democrats, before they explore Sam getting Queer Eyed, Glenn and Tucker trying to balance libertarian bullshitting with authoritarian dog-whistling, and Candace Owens and Alex Jones turning their back on Trump. They also cover the Jims (Jordan and Banks) expressing excitement at Trump’s upcoming Jan 6 rally, plus, your IMs!

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Happy 2022! Sam is back from a well-deserved break as he and Matt catch up on the big developments in the news that happened over Christmas and the New Year. They walk through the overwhelming spread of Omicron across New York, address Sam’s new silver fox look, and cover Steve Cortes talking AOC and feet, somehow in a completely new, and yet entirely unsurprising fashion. Brian Kilmeade and Jesse Watters rant on how COVID testing is locking us in a box, and needs to be drastically decreased, and Hillary from Seattle calls in to discuss the developing HPV vaccine and the successful tests around it. Kowalski from Nebraska gives Sam some flack for moving the Big Live show right to the middle of planting season, Letterhack from CO calls in about the Boulder wildfires, before Sam and Matt celebrate Majority Report cracking the top 10 of Rudy Giuliani’s and Bernie Kerik’s list of conservative influencers. They also discuss this year’s midterms, tallying up preliminary numbers and what Democrats can do to not lose both the House and Senate. The MR team also reflects on Jimmy Dore and Max Blumenthal’s earth-shattering information that small-scale YouTuber “Shaun” is the keystone of the CIA COVID coverage infiltration, before exploring a report that Koch money was, unrelatedly, very central to getting us back to work in a Pandemic. Griffin from Florida calls in to discuss rhetoric and policy around gun rights, John from San Antonio asks for Sam’s defining story of 2021, and why it’s Joe Biden’s failure to manage the Senate, and Carl from Minneapolis discusses the absurdity of forcing the immunocompromised back to work in a pandemic. Then, David from Indiana and Sam talk general strikes, plus, your calls and IMs!

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

In the jam-packed FINAL day of the Best Of 2021: Sam hosts Adam Jentleson, former advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to discuss his new book Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy on how the filibuster negatively impacts American democracy. How John C. Calhoun and other Southern Senators pioneered the filibuster to block civil rights legislation during Reconstruction. How it persisted through the Jim Crow era and became normalized. Reforms that could change the majority required to pass legislation in the Senate back to 50%.

Then, Sam and Emma host Rosa Brooks, law professor at Georgetown University, to discuss her recent book Tangled Up In Blue: Policing in the American City, and her experiences as a part-time volunteer reserve police officer in Washington, D.C. Professor Brooks discusses how she came to the topic; following her work on “How Everything Became War and The Military Became Everything,” she picks up on the trail of the normalized violence of American policing and looks into the behind-the-scenes elements of how officers grapple with and make sense of their role. Beginning with the academy, Brooks walks through how the culture of policing emphasizes danger, defense, and discipline – exploring how police overstate the threat to their livelihood in the line of duty, encouraging the use of force whenever deemed necessary. Next, she, Sam, and Emma talk about the changes in the academy over the last half-decade, both as reforms slowly trickle in and younger generations begin to take hold of departments, how we can assess the success of reforms and consent decrees during a period in which crime has continued to drop (wow maybe crime CAN be a product of policing), and why even police acting within legal and constitutional guidelines engage in incredibly harmful behavior. They round out the interview with a conversation on why Rosa feels reform must be embraced, and why the conversation on policing should be focused on imagining new systems of safety, rather than on budgetary punishments of police departments.

Lastly, Sam and Emma are joined by David Feldman of The David Feldman Show as they discuss his small-government, Ayn Randian approach to Marxism, the neediness of progressives in negotiations, and the intoxicating misogyny of Jimmy Dore. Plus, David gives a spiel on Bernie Sanders’ overwhelming kielbasa.

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on January 16th HERE!

Sam and Emma host Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota's 5th District, whose recent book, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman, is out in paperback now! Representative Omar, Sam, and Emma take on a variety of issues central to the progressive cause as the Biden administration has begun to falter. They begin with key issues on immigration and refugees, as Ilhan Omar touches on the shameful continuation of Trump policies under Biden, particularly exploring the treatments of Afghan and Haitian refugees and the Biden administration’s reliance on Title 42, taking on also why he has failed to stick to this campaign promise. Next, they move to the topic of student debt relief, as Congresswoman Omar dives into the mysterious missing memo that stands as the only thing preventing Biden from putting pen to paper with an executive order, and what could be behind the delay, before they jump to the topic of the reconciliation platform and how debt relief may or may not fit in. She, Emma, and Sam also dive into the discussion around reconciliation spending, why a shorter span on funding is easily okay by progressives if Sinema and Manchin will just clarify what they would like, and explore the developing role of the progressive caucus.

Then Sam and Emma are joined by comedian Ben Gleib to discuss his recent dust up with Charlie Kirk! They run through the highlights of his very calm discussion with Charlie Kirk, including Kirk’s anger and confusion regarding human anatomy, American citizenship, and what his role is within the right.

In today's Best of 2021: Sam and Emma host Pascal Robert of the This is Revolution podcast to discuss the Moïse assassination in Haiti as a product of neoliberalism and colonialism, before they touch on the US’s foreign policy role in the Caribbean, and what Eric Adams’s Democratic primary victory means for progressive democrats moving forward. Emma, Sam, and Pascal start with the context for the Western occupation of Haiti, starting with the Haitian Revolution that forced the French, Spanish, and British armies off of the Island after centuries of brutal enslavement and abuse under settler-colonialism, with attempts by the French to reclaim the country continuing into the 19th Century. Next, Robert walks us through the U.S.’ role as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Haitian independence, with the Louisiana Purchase stemming as a direct result, and how we took advantage of the continued inequality and lack of colonial power with an occupation of Haiti from 1915-34, extracting what resources we could, and a return to colonial practices under neoliberalism, with U.S. backed Dictators as the only leaders with any prolonged stay in office since the Regan administration. They wrap up the interview by looking into how the assassination of Moïse came to be, stemming from conflict with a largely non-Haitian Oligarchical class that the U.S. likely could not stand by any longer, and Pascal Roberts discusses the importance of the Black and Creole middle classes in how the country moves forwards.

In today's jam-packed Best of 2021: Sam and Emma host author Clint Smith, staff writer at the Atlantic, to discuss his new book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America on how the legacy of slavery has been passed down and obscured through generations of storytelling, and the manner in which this manifests in modern society. They walk through the sites that Smith visits in his book – from Monticello, looking at how the stories of Thomas Jefferson perfectly encapsulate the cognitive dissonance of how Americans view ourselves, to Angola Prison as a symbol of modern enslavement literally build upon a plantation – and how the heirloom of ideology is passed down through every element of our society, through education, through infrastructure, and certainly through community policing measures. Smith explores his experiences at a Sons of Confederate Veterans celebration, and the importance of elevating empirical historical facts in making space for activists and organizers to express contemporary racism as carrying the remnants and residues of these systems through all elements of American society.

Then Sam sits down with with Harvard history professor Annette Gordon-Reed on her new book, On Juneteenth, which explores the Texas roots and national consciousness of the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the South. Beginning in the 1500s, Gordon-Reed walks us through the arrival of slavery in Texas with Spanish settlers, and its development as an Enslaver’s Republic as it broke away from Mexico and U.S. slaveholders ventured into the state to capitalize on the protection of the industry. Then, they discuss Gordon Granger’s arrival in Texas on June 19, 1865, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, and the active and direct removal of status from former slave owners and deliverance of autonomy to Black freed folk, before they move into the violence of reconstruction in Texas and the South. Professor Gordon-Reed then walks through the importance of Juneteenth since the arrival of Granger, with the purchasing of what would become Emancipation Park in Houston as a grounds for celebration directly following it, why this day, in particular, took off as a celebration of manumission, and how Juneteenth has come into more widespread popularity.

Lastly, Sam and Emma are joined by Jason Myles, co-host of the This Is Revolution podcast, as they dissect his Medium article, “I Was a Teenage Anarchist," on the growth of the punk movement around the concepts of authenticity and deconstruction, how that hindered its growth and ability to alter the mainstream, instead, setting it up to be absorbed by the machine, and what that can teach us about the state of the online left today.

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on January 16th HERE!

In today's best of 2021: Sam hosts Russ Feingold, President of the American Constitution Society and former United States Senator from Wisconsin, to discuss the legacy 9/11 has had on the American national security state, and what to expect going forward, to discuss the legacy 9/11 has had on the American national security state, and what to expect going forward. Senator Feingold starts off by jumping back to the first reports of the attacks trickling in nearly twenty years ago, and what his experiences on Capitol Hill were like as flight 93 approached DC. Then, he and Sam get into the political response in each branch of the US government, starting with George W. Bush’s response, developing from what Senator Feingold saw as one of the greatest presidential speeches, immediately following 9/11, to, within days, capitalizing on the horror to progress the conservative agenda around both the Iraq War and with the Patriot Act with his “axis of evil” speech. Sam and Russ explore how the Patriot Act was brought to the floor, recalling why Senator Feingold was the only Senator at that time to vote against the bill, including the elements in the bill that clearly had nothing to do with terrorism alongside the conservative exploitation of the moment to bolster their run to take back the house in 2002. Next, the jump into the similar role played by Democrats in approving the Iraq War – outside of those like Feingold and Wellstone – and what it took for them to come around on it, including how resistance to the war bolstered Obama’s 2008 run. They then jump into the years under Obama, and how his deference to the FBI and military allowed the progression of the Military State to continue to infringe on the liberties of citizens and non-citizens alike, before they wrap up the interview with a conversation on the developments of that we have seen in the role of SCOTUS over the last two decades, moving from the failures of Bush v. Gore in 2000 to the obstructionism of McConnell and the build of the current Court. Sam concludes the free half with a review of the Greg Gutfeld comedy hour hitting all of the key conservative comedy pieces, including wives that hate their husbands, ethnicity jokes, and laughing at whatever Donald Trump says.

Then, the ever emotionally intelligent David Feldman, of the David Feldman Show, joins to discuss the childish nature of marching for M4A, the importance of anonymous donation – such as his most recent gift to the Michael Brooks Legacy Foundation – and why Jimmy Dore, the true everyman moron that always gets it right, nailed his three-dimensional diarrhea on the American oligarchy, before Feldman connects this back to the march for M4A, and why the true oligarchs (AOC and the Squad) are the real reason M4A hasn’t come to pass.

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on January 16th HERE!