Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

Coronavirus in Scandinavia; Southern Politics May 05, 2020

Show notes

Michael Seltzer is a cultural anthropologist and professor emeritus at Oslo University in Norway. There is a sharp contrast in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic between Norway, Finland, and Denmark, where isolation and quarantine are in effect, as compared to Sweden, where the economy is open, and the death rate is much higher. Mike says learning from the experience of Scandinavia is instructive for the United States as some states open for business, while others stay locked down. Mike looks at the history and politics behind these different approaches.

Michael Goldfield discusses his new book,The Southern Key: Class Race & Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s. He argues that the political economic evolution of the South has been the key to determining the peculiar nature of American politics. Today the South is the center of reaction, leading the fight against choice, women and LGBTQ rights, the right to unionize — and even in the fight against the lockdown and quarantine necessary to halt the spread of coronavirus. It didn’t have to be this way and Goldfield holds that the experience (and failure) of organizing the working class in the South explains the origins of the current state of the United States and the world; and that the defeats from that time closed off the possibilities for meaningful class and anti-racist politics — as well as for a successful labor movement for decades to come.

The Vast Majority: The Romance of American Communism with Alyssa Battistoni, Sean Estelle and Meagan Day May 04, 2020

Show notes

No book better captures what it's like to be a socialist who has jumped headlong into the fight for a better world than Vivian Gornick's The Romance of American Communism. Thankfully, Verso has reissued it after the book was out of print for decades. Micah Uetricht talks to Alyssa Battistoni, Sean Estelle, and Meagan Day about it. You can buy Romance from Verso here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3110-the-romance-of-american-communism Read Alyssa's review here: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/bad-romance Buy Bigger than Bernie for just $12.95 here: https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/69

The Dig: Don't Blame Robots with Aaron Benanav May 01, 2020

Show notes

Dan interviews Aaron Benanav, who argues that the problem isn't that robots are stealing our jobs but rather that capitalist growth is finding its limits and making jobs worse.

Read "Automation and the Future of Work" in New Left Review. Parts one and two.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig.

Casualties of History: "God sent Meat into the World for us Poor as well as Rich" Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

We cover chapters three and four—"Satan's Strongholds" and "The Free-Born Englishman." With guest John Bohstedt (author of The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, 1550-1850) we discuss the history and logic of riots in early modern England: why did riots occur so frequently? What did they mean? And how did they relate to the widely held ideas about English liberties, which both contributed to and inhibited the development of popular radicalism?

Secondary Readings:

John Bohstedt, Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales, 1790–1810.

John Bohstedt, The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, 1550–1850.

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Douglas Hay, Peter Linebaugh, John G. Rule, E.P. Thompson, and Cal Winslow, Albion's Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England.

Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution.

George Rudé, The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848.

Charles Tilly, "Collective Violence in European Perspective."

E.P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century.”

E.P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act.

The Vast Majority: Bernie's Campaign Strategy Wasn't the Problem with Hadas Thier and Paul Heideman Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

There are too many bad takes out there about the end of the Bernie Sanders campaign. Thankfully, Hadas Thier and Paul Heideman wrote one that is good: "Bernie's Campaign Strategy Wasn't the Problem." Read it here: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/bernie-sanders-campaign-strategy-democratic-party-biden-trump Find Hadas's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1481-a-people-s-guide-to-capitalism And Paul's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/946-class-struggle-and-the-color-line And you can still get Micah Uetricht and Meagan Day's 'Bigger Than Bernie' for only $12.95 from Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/69

Behind the News: Vijay Prashad, Meagan Day, and Micah Uetricht Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Vijay Prashad on China (and Sinophobia), Kerala, and the crucial importance of social organization. Then, Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, authors of Bigger than Bernie, on Bernie Sanders, socialism, electoralism, and where it all goes from here.

The Dig: Bigger Than Bernie with Meagan Day & Micah Uetricht Apr 23, 2020

Show notes

Dan interviews Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, the authors of Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism, to assess the campaign and the way forward.

Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio: Coronavirus; Warehouse Organizing Apr 20, 2020

Show notes

Suzi talks with her brother Irv Weissman, director of Stanford University’s Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine about the science and politics of coronavirus, and with Sheheryar Kaoosji, director of the Warehouse Workers Resource Center, about the dangerous working conditions at Amazon fulfillment centers and the threat they pose to the company’s workers and to public health. Irv explains why coronavirus is so devastating, how our immune system has responded to it, and why the disease is more dangerous for those who are older. He also discusses the fragility of our public health infrastructure, what safe practices are needed to protect the population now, and the barriers to scientific research posed today by the political and religious right. Sheheryar reports on the walkouts taking place by Amazon workers in the Inland Empire, and elsewhere around the country over the lack of safety equipment and practices in their workplaces.

Behind the News: Yanis Varoufakis Apr 20, 2020

Show notes

Yanis Varoufakis talks about life under COVID-19, the economic crisis, vultures stripping Greece, and democratizing the European Union (includes bonus audio clip of Jim Cramer recalling his Trotskyist past).

The Dig: Blowback with Brendan James and Noah Kulwin Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

Dan interviews the makers of a new podcast series telling the history of the Iraq War.

Blowback is available only on Stitcher Premium—and for a month you can listen for free. Go to stitcherpremium.com and sign up with the code BLOWBACK.

Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig