Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

The Dig: Whither White Ethnics with Matthew Frye Jacobson Jun 27, 2018

Show notes

Everyone wants to know what's wrong with Appalachia. But beginning in the 1960s, it was "white ethics"—Italians, Irish, Polish, Jews and other non-WASPs—who broke from the New Deal coalition, embracing their Ellis Island immigrant roots in reaction to the Black Freedom struggle and, ultimately, Latin American migration. Dan’s guest today is Matthew Frye Jacobson, an historian at Yale and the author of Roots Too: White Ethnic Revival in Post–Civil Rights America, from Harvard University Press.

Thanks to Verso. Check out Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot, now out in paperback versobooks.com/books/2732-out-of-the-wreckage George did a Dig interview too blubrry.com/thedig/34202825/telling-a-new-story-with-george-monbiot/

And register for the Socialism 2018 conference (July 5-8, Chicago!) at socialismconference.org

Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig: Child Casualties of the Border War Jun 22, 2018

Show notes

Vox immigration reporter Dara Lind, one very bright spot in an often disappointing landscape of mainstream immigration journalism, discusses the historical, political, and legal context of Trump’s family separation policy. Dan also just wrote a lengthy piece on this for Jacobin, which you can read at jacobinmag.com/2018/06/trump-immigration-child-family-separation-policy

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out the new paperback edition of China Miéville’s October: The Story of the Russian Revolution versobooks.com/books/2731-october

And register for the Socialism 2018 conference (July 5-8, Chicago!) at socialismconference.org.

And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig.

The Dig: David Harvey on Capital Jun 20, 2018

Show notes

David Harvey has taught Capital to huge numbers of people. Dan interviews him about his latest book, Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason. Harvey explains why he thinks all three volumes are of Capital are key, why we’re still living under neoliberalism at least unless and until ethnonationalist autarchy pushes it aside, how capitalism might survive climate change via mass immiseration, and linking struggles over production and consumption in the fight to transform society toward socialism. And more.

Thanks to Verso. Check out Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity.

And support this podcast with $$ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig.

Jacobin Radio: David Graeber on Bullshit Jobs Jun 19, 2018

Show notes

Suzi speaks with David Graeber, whose earlier Debt: the First 5000 years was an international best-seller. From Adbusters to Occupy to the history of debt, Graeber has demonstrated his creative and provocative thinking. He takes on the biggest shibboleth — our very work — in his new book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory.

A recent UK poll found that 37 percent of full-time workers were sure that their jobs made no meaningful contribution to the world. Bullshit jobs are the pointless ones that could be erased — and their absence would hardly be noticed. Graeber points to the ubiquitous administrative layer that has ballooned even as joblessness has grown in the last decade, creating an entire sector in academia, health administration, human resources, public relations, financial services, telemarketing, and the like. Graeber suggests we can move from the "bullshitization" of jobs to caring jobs and a caring society, but is it possible under capitalism?

The Dig: Naomi Klein and Mercedes Martínez on The Battle for Puerto Rico Jun 13, 2018

Show notes

The US colony of Puerto Rico has been repeatedly shocked and Puerto Ricans are traumatized. That is precisely what successful shock doctrines like this one — which wants to remake the island into a utopia for rich Americans and crypto-bros and a dystopia for everyone else — depend upon.

This is also the subject of Naomi Klein's new book from Haymarket, The Battle For Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists. Today, Klein returns to The Dig, and is joined by Mercedes Martínez, president of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out A World to Win: The Life and Works of Karl Marx with Sven-Eric Liedman versobooks.com/events/1785-a-world-to-win-the-life-and-works-of-karl-marx-with-sven-eric-liedman.

Also, register for the upcoming Socialism 2018 conference at SocialismConference.org.

Support this podcast with $ and get our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig!

The Dig: Spain Part II, Rajoy Falls Jun 10, 2018

Show notes

Last week, we posted an interview Dan recorded in Barcelona on Spanish politics — specifically, on the question of Catalan independence, and the municipalist movement governing cities like Barcelona. What wasn't discussed much was the fact that the conservative Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy was about to fall — which it did, just a few days later. So, Dan brought sociologist Carlos Delclós back for a follow-up interview.

Production note: Dan sounds like he’s speaking in an aquarium or calling into his own show because he messed up the recording. So, don’t blame Alex Lewis.

Thanks to Verso. Check out Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties by Tariq Ali versobooks.com/books/2666-street-fighting-years.

Also, register for the upcoming Socialism 2018 conference at SocialismConference.org

And support this podcast with $ and get access to our stellar weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig!

The Dig: Democracy in Chains with Nancy MacLean Jun 06, 2018

Show notes

For libertarians, liberty means something different. It’s about liberty for property owners. And in their quest to preserve that absolute freedom for the ownership class — whether their assets be human slaves, factories, or extractive industries — democracy must be curtailed and the power of the people must be checked and repressed.

This is the argument put forward by Dan’s guest, historian Nancy MacLean, in her book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America. The book makes a powerful argument for the anti-democratic origins and trajectory of free market fundamentalist, Koch Brothers-aligned economists who have come to profoundly shape and warp American politics to fit their dystopian vision. The book has also been controversial.

Thank you to Verso Books. Check out Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism by Nisha Kapoor versobooks.com/books/2551-deport-deprive-extradite.

Thank you to the Socialism 2018 conference. Register now at socialismconference.org!

Want to get access to our stellar weekly newsletter? You can do so by making a contribution to the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig.

Jacobin Radio: 1968 with Tariq Ali Jun 05, 2018

Show notes

On this edition of Jacobin Radio, Suzi talks to legendary street-fighting man, author and playwright Tariq Ali about 1968 — as seen from today, fifty years later. The first cover of Black Dwarf, founded by Tariq and others in May 1968, is reproduced in the latest London Review of Books: “We Shall Fight, We Will Win, Paris, London, Rome, Berlin.” Now there is an emerging strike wave in France — and the slogan is “We are not commemorating 1968, we are continuing 1968.” Suzi talks to Tariq Ali about continuity and change since 1968.

The Dig: Two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal Jun 02, 2018

Show notes

Fifty years ago, a mainstream group of high-profile Americans declared the following: "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American. This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution." The Kerner Commission, established by President Johnson, embodied left liberalism at its most bold and idealistic. But that vision of radical reform was eviscerated by the American war on Vietnam, the rise of neoliberalism and the modern conservative movement, and liberal triangulation that reached its apotheosis under Bill Clinton.

Dan talks to Vanessa A. Bee, a consumer protection lawyer in D.C. and a social media editor for Current Affairs magazine, about her New York magazine essay on the subject: nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/how-we-can-get-a-more-equal-union.html.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and access our new weekly newsletter.

The Dig: Left Out of Spain’s National Question May 30, 2018

Show notes

Spanish politics are complicated. Dan speaks to Carlos Delclós, Kate Shea Baird, and Bécquer Seguín to help clarify the Catalan independence movement, the radical municipalist governments that now govern major Spanish cities including Barcelona, and the promise and problems of the left-wing party Podemos.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art. And Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism by Nisha Kapoor versobooks.com/books/2551-deport-deprive-extradite. And please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and access our new weekly newsletter!

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