Jacobin Radio

Vincent Bevins, author of If We Burn, discusses a decade of protest movements that began with high hopes and ended up with things little changed or worse. Haggai Matar, executive director of +972 Magazine, debriefs the latest horror in Israel–Palestine. This episode originally aired October 12.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

Two views of Haiti in light of the UN’s approval of the deployment of a Kenyan-led mission to control gang violence there: Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and Robert Fatton of the University of Virginia. These interviews were recorded before a Kenyan court temporarily blocked the move to send police.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

Featuring Vincent Bevins on If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. The first of a two-part interview on this important new book.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and ask Vincent a follow-up question.Buy Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism: Debates in the Second International, 1900-1910 haymarketbooks.org/books/2109-reform-revolution-and-opportunismBuy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible

In DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987), Charles Bronson wages a one-man war against the Los Angeles drug trade, despite being as old-looking as anyone has ever looked. We discuss how the ridiculous fourth entry in the iconic action franchise takes its reactionary politics a step beyond "law and order." PLUS: We discuss two milestones in cinematic surrealism (1989's THINGS and 1994's TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME) and bid farewell to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Preorder Luke's new book Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality coauthored with Ed Broadbent - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbent OTTAWA: See Luke and Ed at the Ottawa Writers Festival on October 10 - https://writersfestival.org/events/fall-2023-in-person-events/seeking-social-democracy TORONTO: See Luke and Ed Broadbent in conversation at the Toronto Reference Library on October 22 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/seeking-social-democracy-a-conversation-with-ed-broadbent-tickets-713793

For most of the twentieth century, Trinidad and Tobago had a population of fewer than a million people. But this Caribbean nation made an outsized contribution to radical theory and political activism. C. L. R. James and Eric Williams published two of the most important works about slavery and its role in the development of capitalism. Williams went on to become the country’s first leader after independence.Their fellow Trinidadian George Padmore took on a pivotal role in the struggle against racism and colonial rule. Padmore helped nurture a generation of activists who successfully challenged the idea that Europe was destined to rule the world.Our guest today is Theo Williams. He’s a lecturer in history at Durham University, and the author of Making the Revolution Global: Black Radicalism and the British Socialist Movement before Decolonisation.Read Theo's piece for Jacobin, "George Padmore Played a Vital Role in the Struggle Against Colonial Oppression" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/06/george-padmore-anti-

Late in his career, Akira Kurosawa plumbed his subconscious and came up with DREAMS (1990), one of his most underrated films. We discuss the ways that this film captures the mood and style of a dream, and its unifying theme of humankind's relationship with nature. PLUS: We attempt to define the ambient politics (and anti-politics) of the post-Trump years."Martin Scorsese: 'I Have To Find Out Who The Hell I Am'" by Zach Baron - https://www.gq.com/story/martin-scorsese-profilePreorder Luke's new book Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, coauthored with Ed Broadbent - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbentTORONTO: See Luke and Ed Broadbent in conversation at the Toronto Reference Library on October 22 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/seeking-social-democracy-a-conversation-with-ed-broadbent-tickets-713793665067VANCOUVER: See Luke and Ed at the Central Library on November 1 - https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/events/650b36ea2d0219cf8b5cf95fMichael and Us is a po

Barry Eidlin guest hosts today, talking to WGA leader-activists Alex O’Keefe, organizer and award-winning writer for The Bear, and Howard Rodman, writer and former president of the WGA. On September 24, after 146 days on strike, the WGA and the AMPTP announced a tentative agreement for the contract covering 11,500 film and TV screenwriters across the country. The WGA Negotiating Committee West and East voted unanimously to recommend the agreement, and on September 27, the strike was suspended. The strike is not over — WGA members still have to discuss the tentative agreement and vote on whether or not to ratify it by October 9. What do writers think of this deal after five months on strike? And what are the broader implications of the deal for writers and other workers in Hollywood and beyond? Based on what’s in the tentative agreement, the writers have won big. But beyond the contract language, writers have won something greater: a new sense of solidarity and the power they have as workers. That could be cru

Samar Al-Bulushi examines the coup in Niger, political unrest in France’s former colonies in Africa, and the US-led “war on terror” on that continent. Joanna Wuest, author of Born This Way, talks about the biology of sexuality.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

Featuring Jo Guldi on the global history of the long land war—a war over everything from agrarian reform to tenant rights, from India and China to England and Ireland, from the late 19th century through the present—and into the future.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDigBuy Blood Red Lines at haymarketbooks.org/books/1519-blood-red-linesBuy Abolition for the People at haymarketbooks.org/books/2095-abolition-for-the-people

Aaron Benanav, sociologist and frequent contributor to New Left Review, and Seth Ackerman, an editor at Jacobin, discuss the long-term health of capitalism: Is stagnation really the problem?Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

In 2019, Clint Eastwood's RICHARD JEWELL took aim at two institutions — the FBI and the media — that were supposed to save America from Trumpism. We discuss one of the veteran auteur's most beautiful films, which is also one of his most loaded and ambiguous political hot potatoes. PLUS: David Brooks' expensive meal, Doug Ford's about-face, and Jean-Luc Godard's film criticism."David Brooks and the $78 airport meal the internet is talking about" by Timothy Bella - https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2023/09/22/david-brooks-newark-airport-meal/See Will introduce THINGS (1989) at the Fox Theatre on October 3 - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/the-important-cinema-club-masterpiece-classics-things/Preorder Luke's new book Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, coauthored with Ed Broadbent - https://ecwpress.com/products/seeking-social-democracy-ed-broadbentTORONTO: See Luke and Ed Broadbent in conversation at the Toronto Reference Library on October 22 - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/seek

Featuring Alex Han, Astra Taylor, and Rachel Gilmer on how we build powerful organizations that win both short-term fights and the long-term struggle for socialism. A live Dig recorded at the Socialism 2023 conference in Chicago.  Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and ask Dig guests follow-up questions! Buy Our History Has Always Been Contraband at haymarketbooks.org Buy To Build a Black Future princeton.press/blackfuture

Suzi talks to historian and labor expert Nelson Lichtenstein about the historic, first-ever simultaneous strike against the Big Three automakers. Thirteen thousand workers, about 10% of UAW members at the Big Three, walked out of assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri on September 14. Instead of striking at all plants at once, the UAW is using a novel tactic they’re calling the “Stand-Up” strike with workers at select locals standing up and walking out on strike. Shawn Fain, the new militant leader of the UAW, says this tactic keeps companies guessing which other locals will be next. Nelson Lichtenstein looks at this strike in the context of the history of the UAW, the leading role the UAW played in the 1937 sit-down strikes that exemplified the power of the labor movement, and how auto workers have in many ways been canaries in the coal mine for the US working class writ large. There is broad support for striking workers, and auto workers are joining writers, actors, hotel workers, and others in thi

For its boosters, crypto finance is a modern-day version of the California gold rush, with fortunes to be made. And it seems to have attracted as many crooks and fraudsters as the original Wild West.Ramaa Vasudevan, professor of economics at Colorado State University and the author of Things Fall Apart: From the Crash of 2008 to the Great Slump, discusses the world of crypto from its beginnings as a "libertarian pipe dream" to the volatile situation today.Read her piece for Catalyst, "Silicon Valley Bank and Financial Turmoil," here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2023/06/silicon-valley-bank-and-financial-turmoilLong Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies. Music by Knxwledge.

Jodi Dean, author of a recent article for the Los Angeles Review of Books, takes on the postliberalism of Ahmari, Vermeule, Deneen, et al. Then Sarang Shidore of the Quincy Institute discusses the G20, the BRICS, and the erosion of US imperial power. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

Suzi talks to journalist Marc Cooper, Salvador Allende's former translator, for part two of our commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile. Marc returned to Chile for a month this year to probe what has and has not changed in 50 years, and to understand why the new leftist millennial government of Gabriel Boric is having such a hard time. His multipart series for Truthdig, "Chile's Utopia Has Been Postponed," features articles, photo essays, interviews and discussions looking at the ways Pinochet's legacy continues to haunt Chile. Chilean society is once again deeply polarized, with up to 40% of the population saying the coup was a good thing. Was Allende’s Popular Unity government from 1970-1973 a stab at utopia that has been postponed, or was the trauma inflicted by the Pinochet years so deep as to cancel future attempts at a more just and profoundly democratic social order? You can read Marc's personal testimony, evoking the atmosphere and strategic debates within the lef

If you look, you'll see. Most people don't look.  Produced by Stephen Cassidy Jones and Liza Yeager. Edited by Mitchell Johnson, with editorial oversight from Daniel Denvir. Featuring Mark Pilkington, Valerie Kuletz, and Trevor Paglen. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Blood Red Lines at haymarketbooks.org Subscribe to Jacobin at bit.ly/digjacobin

Sam Gindin, writer and activist on labor issues, outlines the shortcomings of the UPS-Teamster deal (read his article, and a follow-up, on The Bullet website). Then Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself, discusses how the Cold War crushed the tendency’s emancipatory side.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

Featuring Alex Press and Eric Blanc on surging labor militancy and why US unions must seize this historic moment.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and ask our guests follow-up questions!Learn more about Haymarket’s Book Clubs at haymarketbooks.org.Subscribe to Jacobin bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst bit.ly/digcatalyst

Widely described as "Hollywood's response to the Lewinsky scandal," THE CONTENDER (2000) imagines a Vice Presidential confirmation process derailed by sexism and moral prudishness. We excavate some Oscar bait from the very tail end of the Clinton Era and find... yes, another Politics Movie™.Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.