Jacobin Radio

Emily Jashinsky of The Federalist discusses the GOP: the meaning of the speaker fight, and what is the base of the Freedom Caucus anyway? Sohrab Ahmari, co-founder of Compact Magazine, offers a left-right hybrid.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html

Featuring Michael Denning on Antonio Gramsci. Part one of an expansive two-part interview.Read the passages of Selections from the Prison Notebooks that Dan read to prepare: thedigradio.com/gramscinotebooksSupport The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by emailCheck out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

The Dutch Revolt of the sixteenth century defeated the Spanish monarchy, the great European superpower of its day. It may not be as well remembered as the English Civil War or the French Revolution. But it was a watershed moment in the development of modern Europe. Pepijn Brandon joins Long Reads to discuss this revolt. He’s an historian at VU University in Amsterdam and the author of War, Capital, and the Dutch State. This is the second part of a two-part interview.Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.Join the Left Book Club at a discount by using the code WINFREE at leftbookclub.comGet an audiobook from Pluto Press at this link: tiny.one/jacobin

Today Meleiza Figueroa hosts the podcast. She talks to three guests about the historic series of winter storms that have been lashing the entire state of California since New Year’s Eve, causing widespread flooding, landslides, wind damage, and levee failures. With rain forecasted to continue all the way until Martin Luther King Day, the worst may be yet to come. While California is far better known for droughts, earthquakes, and wildfires, atmospheric rivers from the Pacific also bring regular flooding, sometimes on a biblical scale; an inherent feature of California’s extreme weather regime that is expected to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. Meleiza’s guests bring various perspectives to the flood that touch on its historical, scientific, and socio-political significance.Indigenous traditional ecological practitioner Ali Meders-Knight looks at the deep history of California’s 200-year flood cycle, bringing the long view to us relative newcomers in a place that has only bee

Filmed in the aftermath of the 1970 "October Crisis" that brought martial law to Canada, Gilles Groulx's radical documentary 24 HOURS OR MORE (1973) takes a disapproving look at life in Quebec under capitalism during a moment when the postwar economic boom was receding. It's the kind of movie that isn't made anymore: a movie that questions the very premises on which society is built.Watch the movie for free: https://www.nfb.ca/film/24_hours_or_more/Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Today Suzi brings part two of our tribute to Mike Davis, who died on October 25. Mike was a prolific writer, historian, political activist, urban theorist, and author of dozens of books, many featured here on this podcast.We begin with an interview from July 1986 just after Mike completed his first book, Prisoners of the American Dream, published on the centenary of May Day 1886. Mike discusses the political economy of Reaganism, or Reaganomics, which began with a frontal attack on organized labor. He also explains what makes the American working class different. The second interview, from February 1988, coincided with the Justice for Janitors campaign. David Diaz joins Mike in the discussion on Los Angeles politics, looking at what redevelopment in the city had wrought. LA, like the rest of the country, was switching from a manufacturing to a service economy, though manufacturing continued using very low-wage immigrant labor. Non-union workers could not afford the cost of housing, and the lack of affordable

As we enter 2023, it's time for our annual look back on the movies that defined our podcast over the past 12 months. In our third Year-in-Review Extravaganza, we're handing out awards for Best Movie, Worst Movie, Best End-of-History Movie, Thing We Liked Growing Up That Holds Up Relatively Well, Best Tubi Movie, and more. Will Alexandra Pelosi win an award? Will Dinesh D'Souza go home empty-handed? What about Trump vs. the Illuminati? Tune in to find out!Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Featuring historian Tim Barker on monetary politics, inflation, and the general capitalist conjuncture. The second of a two-part interview.Check out my July 2021 interview with Barker if you want a more expansive primer on inflation thedigradio.com/podcast/inflation-politics-with-tim-barkerSupport The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDigCheck out our brilliant newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.comGet After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America haymarketbooks.org/books/1927-after-life

We pay tribute to Mike Davis, who died on October 25. Mike was a prolific writer, historian, political activist, urban theorist, and author of dozens of books. There has been an avalanche of tributes and obituaries, a testament to Mike’s powerful and distinctive influence, his generosity, his tireless life as a fighter against everything that diminishes human dignity and ravages the planet. He was also a dear friend and a friend of this podcast: I counted at least 30 interviews with him over the years.We'll hear from those conversations: first, a 2005 interview just a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast; and then, two interviews, a decade apart, on the intensifying California wildfires and his famous argument for “letting Malibu burn.” Finally, we round out this podcast episode with an interview with Mike from March 22, 2020, just at the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Fifteen years earlier, his book The Monster at Our Door warned of a coming global threat of viral catastrophe. In this int

Kathryn Joyce discusses the far right and its internal battles. Doug then interviews Edward Ongweso Jr about tech, AI, and Luddism.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html

Featuring historian Tim Barker on the state of monetary politics amid the current fight over inflation.  Check out my July 2021 interview with Barker if you want a more expansive primer on inflation thedigradio.com/podcast/inflation-politics-with-tim-barker Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our brilliant newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com

The Dutch Revolt of the sixteenth century defeated the Spanish monarchy, the great European superpower of its day. It may not be as well remembered as the English Civil War or the French Revolution. But it was a watershed moment in the development of modern Europe.Pepijn Brandon joins Long Reads to discuss the Dutch Revolt. He’s an historian at VU University in Amsterdam and the author of War, Capital, and the Dutch State. This is the first part of a two-part interview.Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.Get an audiobook from Pluto Press before the end of December and you'll be entered to win a set of their entire collection: tiny.one/jacobinAnd join the Left Book Club at a discount by using the code WINFREE at leftbookclub.com

The 20-year filmmaking career of Alexandra Pelosi has been building up to this moment: a hagiographic documentary portrait of her mother, the outgoing U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We watched PELOSI IN THE HOUSE (2022)."Nancy Pelosi’s Daughter Makes Awful Documentaries Fawning Over the Establishment" by Will Sloan - https://jacobin.com/2022/12/nancy-alexandra-pelosi-documentary-filmmaking-establishment"Nancy Pelosi Delivered Little for the Left, but We Might Miss Her Anyway" by Branko Marcetic - https://jacobin.com/2022/11/nancy-pelosi-house-speaker-democratic-party-center"The Obamanauts" by Corey Robin - https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-obamanautsMichael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Doug interviews Intercept reporter Ryan Grim, author of a recent article on railroad unions, about the fight between workers and bosses in the rail industry. Then we hear from economist Sanjay Reddy, who discusses the fight between adjuncts and bosses in the neoliberal university.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html

Featuring Edward Goetz on his book New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy. Goetz tells the story of American public housing and then its destruction and dismantling, which took off in the 1980s and accelerated during the 90s under the Clinton Administration’s Hope VI program.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email plus swag.Check out Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Firehaymarketbooks.org/books/1861-light-in-gaza

Suzi talks to UAW 2865 strikers Sarah Mason and Jack Davies of UC Santa Cruz and Johnathan Guy at UC Berkeley about the UC strike, the largest strike ever in American higher education. It is crunch time for the UC system as term ends and grades are due. The academic workers are demanding significant pay increases, childcare reimbursements, and support for international scholars. They recognize that this action has the potential to change the existing model of university education. We get their analysis, experience and hopes for the strike.Suzi then talks to labor historian Michael Goldfield about the showdown in Rail: President Biden pushed through a bill forcing a contract on 115,000 overworked and exhausted railworkers who have been fighting for paid sick leave. The demand for paid sick days is a placeholder for all the quality of life issues that railroad workers are facing after years of austerity while the rail companies enjoyed record profits. Biden invoked the 100-year-old Railway Labor Act to avert th

In 1991, actor/martial artist/philosopher/current Russian special envoy to the U.S. Steven Seagal hosted Saturday Night Live for the first and only time. The result has gone down in history as one of the worst episodes of all time. We look back on this infamous show and find a nearly indecipherable time-capsule of the comedy and culture of the early 1990s. PLUS: Luke explores the relationship between celebrities and the NFT industry.Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Suzi joins Alan Minsky and Meleiza Figueroa of The People’s Game podcast for a deeper look at the history and politics behind the nationalist enmities on display during this World Cup, beyond the football. Racist chants and fascist slogans erupted from the Serbian side toward ethnic Albanians on the Swiss team, creating high stakes tension as Serbian players nearly came to blows with Switzerland’s star players who happen to be Albanian Kosovars. Where was FIFA? Was there discriminatory handling of the fans by the police who seemed uninterested in the offensive gestures, chants, and banners? The scenes at the stadium during the match take us right back to the Balkan wars of the 1990s following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the fall of Yugoslavia. Suzi joins Meleiza and Alan for some political, economic, and historical background while Meleiza and Alan put this in broader perspective in the long history of football as politics – and history. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conv

Natalia Petrzela, author of Fit Nation, discusses the history of physical culture in the US. Then Doug interviews Paolo Gerbaudo on the weakness of the Italian bourgeoisie.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html

Featuring Gail Radford on her classic book Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era. Radford tells the story of Catherine Bauer, the Labor Housing Conference, and the struggle to make the American housing system a radically social one. In place of the two-tier system that won out, Bauer and her allies proposed a massive federally-backed system of noncommercial housing that would appeal to and house the majority of Americans.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDigCheck out Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire (1882-1917) by Eric Blanc haymarketbooks.org/books/1907-revolutionary-social-democracy