Jacobin Radio

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Jacobin Radio: UC Strike! Dec 16, 2022

Show notes

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 the strike, asking Congress to impose a settlement and compel the workers to accept a contract. Goldfield explains why this arcane Act to prevent transportation workers from striking came into being and why it is still in effect.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.

Michael and Us: Musicians for Free-Range Chickens Dec 14, 2022

Show notes

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.

Jacobin Radio: Nationalist Enmity at the World Cup Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

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 conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.

Behind the News: The Italian Bourgeoisie w/ Paolo Gerbaudo Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

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

The Dig: Modern Housing w/ Gail Radford Dec 11, 2022

Show notes

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/TheDig

Check out Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire (1882-1917) by Eric Blanc haymarketbooks.org/books/1907-revolutionary-social-democracy

Long Reads: Michela Wrong on Eritrea's Endless War Dec 07, 2022

Show notes

Eritrea’s long struggle for independence finally ended in victory three decades ago. It seemed like a fresh beginning for one of Africa’s smallest countries. But the Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki soon established a highly repressive political system that caused many young people to flee. Since 2020, Afwerki’s army has been a key protagonist in one of the world’s most destructive wars.

Michela Wrong, journalist and the author of several books about African politics including I Didn’t Do It For You, joins the podcast to discuss a history of modern Eritrea.

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.

Michael and Us: Dust Bowl Ballads Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

The quintessential American folk troubadour and a beloved national icon, Woody Guthrie was also a committed lefty for whom art and politics were intertwined. We discuss his life and legacy via Hal Ashby's biopic BOUND FOR GLORY (1976), which takes a broad look at Guthrie and during the Great Depression. PLUS: How Joe Biden crushed a railroad workers' strike.

Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Behind the News: Communism and Black Liberation w/ Jodi Dean Dec 05, 2022

Show notes

Jennifer Berkshire discusses the latest version of right-wing school politics (since the last versions haven’t been working for them). Then Doug interviews Jodi Dean, co-editor (along with Charisse Burden-Stelly) of Organize, Fight, Win, a collection of Black Communist women’s writings from the late 1920s into the early 1950s.

Jacobin Radio: World Cup Controversy w/ David Goldblatt Dec 03, 2022

Show notes

Suzi talks to Alan Minsky and Meleiza Figueroa, creators and hosts of The People’s Game podcast, to get their unique perspectives on the 2022 Qatari World Cup. This is much more than soccer, but there is that too. They combine on-the-field analysis with discussions of the political, economic, and cultural subtexts of the World Cup—its intersection with climate, sport, society, rebellion, and everything else. This World Cup is all superlatives: the biggest sports spectacle in the world, with more people watching than ever. It is also the most expensive ever, by a long shot. The Qatari government has spent a staggering $250 billion building and remodeling the city for the event, a giant investment using sports for political influence.

Alan and Meleiza then talk to David Goldblatt, author of The Age of Football: Soccer and the 21st Century about his recent article in the London Review of Books that explores the political messaging and many controversies of this World Cup. We see the brave protests and athletes sporting armbands expressing solidarity with women and the LGBTQ community. Less visible is Qatar’s migrant labor force working in searing heat to build literally everything on temporary work visas, without rights, adequate pay, or decent housing.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.

The Dig: Founding Finance with William Hogeland Dec 02, 2022

Show notes

Astra Taylor interviews William Hogeland on his book Founding Finance: How Debt, Speculation, Foreclosures, Protests, and Crackdowns Made Us a Nation. Hogeland recovers a fascinating crop of mostly-forgotten rebels, the movements they led, and their radical demands that put the landlords and lenders of their day on edge. He also recounts the complex and sometimes deadly machinations that went into suppressing them in order to create a nation that was safe for the owning and investing classes.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

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