Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

The Dig: Cyborg Revolution with Donna Haraway May 09, 2019

Show notes

Donna Haraway's work defies disciplines, combining insights from both biology and feminist thought, and drawing on her own involvement in political projects organized around feminism and radical science. Haraway’s most recent book, Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, takes up these questions as the fragility of earth’s webs of life is becoming frighteningly and increasingly apparent. What are the ethical and political demands in the face of the most pressing threat of our era—catastrophic climate change? To stay with the trouble, Haraway argues, is to reject technofixes that will save us from doom on the one hand, and on the other, to reject the pessimistic idea that “it’s too late” to make the world better. The book outlines a view of what Haraway calls “multispecies flourishing” and the obstacles to achieving it through theoretical insights and speculative fiction imaginings. Interviewed by Jacobin editorial board member Alyssa Battistoni.

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Alyssa's piece on Haraway for n+1: nplusonemag.com/issue-28/reviews/monstrous-duplicated-potent

Sophie Lewis's critique of Haraway and population politics: viewpointmag.com/2017/05/08/cthulhu-plays-no-role-for-me

The Leap Manifesto: leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto

The Xenofeminist Manifesto: laboriacuboniks.net

The Vast Majority: "Bernie Sanders Wants You to Fight" with Meagan Day May 07, 2019

Show notes

If we want to transform the United States in a socialist direction, we're going to need to do much more than elect Bernie Sanders as president. Nobody harps on this point more than Bernie himself. You can see it in his "not me, us" campaign slogan, or his emphasis in stump speeches on how massive industries like health insurance companies would mobilize against Medicare for All. President Bernie couldn't do much without a mass working-class movement at his back. But that doesn't mean that such a movement and the Sanders campaign are two separate things — Bernie's campaign can help and has already helped bring those movements into being. Micah talks with Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day about it. You can read Meagan's article "Bernie Sanders Wants You to Fight" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/03/bernie-sanders-movements-not-me-us And you can read her article "Wielding the Imperial Presidency" in the new print issue of Jacobin or here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/wielding-the-imperial-presidency Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe

The Dig: Real Estate Capitalism and Gentrification with Samuel Stein May 02, 2019

Show notes

What is gentrification? It isn't just about what was once known as the hipster and is still known as the artist, the telltale warning signs of impending demographic change. It's part of an entire political-economic order that has made real estate global capitalism's most prized asset for storing wealth—one that has helped bend place-based urban governments to the will of mobile, and thus more powerful, capital. Dan interviews Samuel Stein on his book, Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State.

Come to The Dig's Slavery's Hinterlands symposium Thursday through Saturday in Rhode Island: facebook.com/events/661508874305008/

Check out the English transcript of last week's Spanish-language interview with Communist Chilean Mayor Daniel Jadue jacobinmag.com/2019/04/communist-party-chile-left-governance-recoleta

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Jacobin Radio: Democratic Primary; Victor Serge May 01, 2019

Show notes

Alan Minsky, producer of Jacobin Radio, is the guest on this episode. He wears multiple hats and one of them is Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). We talk about the Democratic primary field, and Alan reports on conversations he had on his recent trip to the European Parliament as part of a contingent of the American left. Then, a conversation with Mitch Abidor, translator of Victor Serge's just-published Notebooks, about the Belgian-Russian anarcho-Bolshevik and lifelong Left Oppositionist, who was one of the great writer-thinker-activists of the twentieth century. Serge's contribution is especially attractive today because he never compromised his commitment to the creation of a society that defends human freedom, enhances human dignity, and improves the human condition — and insisted that democracy was at the heart of the socialist project. This makes him both a contemporary as well as a man for our future. Serge’s life as a maverick and renegade relegated him to the margins. He was always poor. His last exile was in Mexico, and a rich trove of his daily writings, his notebooks, were discovered in Mexico in 2003. They were published in France in 2012, and NYRB has just published the English translation. We are fortunate today to speak to the translator, Mitch Abidor.

The Vast Majority: "The Socialist Manifesto" with Bhaskar Sunkara Apr 30, 2019

Show notes

It's the first episode of The Vast Majority, which will be bringing you conversations on American and international politics from a socialist perspective. So who better to have on than Bhaskar Sunkara, Jacobin's editor, publisher, and founder. Bhaskar is the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality, which is out today, April 30. Micah talked to Bhaskar about the state of the socialist movement, socialism’s relationship to liberalism and markets, and Bhaskar’s utopian vision of a Buffalo Wild Wings on every corner.

You can order The Socialist Manifesto from your bookseller of choice or your local bookstore. And you can read Bhaskar's editorial "The Exercise of Power," where he talks about "class-struggle social democracy," in the latest issue of Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/the-exercise-of-power

A New Podcast from Jacobin: The Vast Majority with Micah Uetricht Apr 29, 2019

Show notes

It's a new podcast from Jacobin: The Vast Majority, hosted by Micah Uetricht. We'll be talking to authors from Jacobin and its sister publications like Catalyst and Tribune in the UK, plus whoever else is thinking and doing important work on the Left. The first episode will be out April 30.

The Dig: Un laboratorio del socialismo en Chile. Entrevista con Daniel Jadue. Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

*This episode of The Dig is a special Dig in Spanish. Visit Jacobin for a transcript in English. Este episodio de The Dig es un Dig especial en español. Entra a Jacobin para una transcripción en inglés.*

Cuando se piensa en Chile desde el extranjero, generalmente surge la imagen de su pasado reciente marcado por la dictadura cívico–militar. Y esto con toda razón. El legado del régimen genocida de Pinochet todavía está presente en todas partes—en la memoria personal y colectiva, en las leyes y en una constitución profundamente neoliberal que sigue condenando al sistema político a un bipartidismo e impide las transformaciones deseadas por la soberanía popular. Daniel Jadue, el alcalde de la comuna de Recoleta, ubicada en la Región Metropolitana del Gran Santiago, se ha entregado a la empresa de construir en su territorio un laboratorio del comunismo del presente y del futuro. Junto a su equipo ha abierto una farmacia popular, una óptica popular y una linda librería popular. Todos estos servicios de primera necesidad venden sus productos a precios bajos y justos desafiando con ello a un mercado supuestamente autoregulado que en Chile sólo ha demostrado funcionar más bien estimulando prácticas de monopolio—un capitalismo salvaje.

Si nos estas escuchando hoy por primera vez con este episodio especial en español y también hablas inglés, por favor revisa nuestro archivo que contiene muchísimas entrevistas con intelectuales y activistas de la izquierda: blubrry.com/thedig/

Behind the News: Rossana Rodriguez, Benjamin Fogel on Bolsonaro Apr 19, 2019

Show notes

Rossana Rodriguez on her successful campaign as a socialist for the Chicago city council, where she will join five other socialists. Then, Benjamin Fogel, author of this and this, on the lunacy of Bolsonaro's early months as president of Brazil.

The Dig: Empire and the War in Yemen Apr 18, 2019

Show notes

The US has played a major role in fomenting violence across Yemen, backing the Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led forces attacking the country while also conducting a direct war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula under the guise of counterterrorism. But while it's understandable that US involvement is the top focus for the American left, understanding the war in Yemen requires a much broader analysis. The Yemeni conflict not only includes multiple outside actors but also multiple groups of Yemenis pursuing different outcomes, rooted in a complex history that few outside of Yemen understand. Explaining that context is what this show, in partnership with the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), is all about. This special episode includes two interviews with contributors to Middle East Report, MERIP's print publication. First, up is Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasser and political scientist Stacey Philbrick Yadav; and then, Dan speaks with political-economist Adam Hanieh.

Check out The Fight for Yemen, the latest issue of Middle East Report at merip.org/magazine/289

Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.org

Please support this podcast with your cash at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jacobin Radio: Elections in Chicago and Israel Apr 11, 2019

Show notes

Our guest Yoav Peled argues that Netanyahu is the only issue in the April 9 election. Netanyahu is under indictment for one case of bribery and two cases of fraud, but Yoav says he is likely to win even though his party and their bloc — with far-right, racist and religious parties — is more or less tied with the anti-Bibi “Blue and White” coalition or bloc. Yoav also discusses his new book, The Religionization of Israeli Society— which sheds light on how the country has moved from secular Zionism to an increasingly far-right expansionist religious Zionism, and how that helps us understand the election, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and the relation between culture, politics, nationalism, secularization, and new social movements.

Suzi then talks toMicah Uetricht in Chicago, where 5–6 socialists were just elected to the City Council. Micah argues they will have outsize influence in determining the political issues — much as we have seen nationally with the election of democratic socialists to Congress. In his aptly titled article in the Guardian“America's socialist surge is going strong in Chicago” Micah writes that the socialist victories in Chicago were not a fluke, people are miserable with the status quo of austerity — and if Chicago’s elections are any indication, it just may be that people are ready to try socialism.

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