The Chauncey DeVega Show

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Ep. 31: Paul Rosenberg on Why Voting Still Matters Mar 05, 2015

Show notes

Journalist and political analyst Paul Rosenberg is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. Paul is a contributing writer to news outlets and websites such as Salon.com, Alternet, and Al Jazeera. He is also the senior editor of Random Length News. Mr. Rosenberg also runs the website Merge Left. Paul is a sharp and amazingly insightful observer of American (and global) politics. He is also very patient as he sits down with Chauncey DeVega under the learning tree. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Paul and Chauncey discuss how to keep hope alive in an era of broken politics, neoliberalism, and austerity. Paul also explains to Chauncey how "principled non-voting" is not an effective strategy and actually works in the interest of the plutocrats and the 1 percent. Paul and Chauncey also talk about how blogging and social media have changed journalism, why Obama is so malleable and weak in the face of Republican racism and obstructionism, and why the Democrats lost the midterm elections and are impotent in the face of the GOP's "drown the government baby in the bathtub" thuggery and irresponsible politics. Chauncey DeVega also offers some reflections and thoughts on the passing of the one and only Mr. Leonard Nimoy.

Ep. 30: Frank Schaeffer on the Christian Right's Threat to American Democracy Feb 05, 2015

Show notes

For this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, I had the great opportunity to talk with Mr. Frank Schaeffer. He is a frequent guest on MSNBC, Free Speech TV, and many other radio and TV outlets. Mr. Schaeffer possesses gifted insight on the rise of the Christian Right in the United States. As a young man, he was there as his father, along with the likes of Jerry Falwell, laid the groundwork for the influence of the Christian Right on the Republican Party. Frank has shared those experiences in his New York Times best-selling book Crazy for God. I have been a longtime admirer of Frank Schaeffer's honesty and truth-telling. In this conversation, he and I talk about the rise of Christian Fascism and its threat to American democracy, the popularity of the movie American Sniper, how the useful idiots of the Religious Right are duped, his insights into the unholy union between the plutocrats and the Christian Right, and touch on matters of faith, spirituality, and religion as they relate to Mr. Schaeffer's new book Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God.

Ep. 29: Mickey Hess on the Genius of Ol' Dirty Bastard Jan 30, 2015

Show notes

For this, the second episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show of 2015, I chatted with Dr. Mickey Hess about the life and times of the legendary hip-hop artist Ol' Dirty Bastard. Mickey took on the challenge of tracking down Dirty's family, friends, and fellow members of the seminal hip-hop group The Wu-Tang Clan for his new book The Dirty Version: On Stage, In the Studio, and In the Streets With Ol' Dirty Bastard. Hess's hip-hop vision quest paid off with a book full of great stories and insights about Ol' Dirty Bastard (aka Russell Jones). In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Mickey separates myth from fact. How did ODB feel about fame? What was it like hanging out with Dirty's dear friend and fellow member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Buddha Monk, at a Houlihan's restaurant? How did Dirty's drug and alcohol use impact his art and life? Did ODB's time in prison lead to his untimely death? Mickey and I also talk about ODB's unbelievable adventures such as lifting a car off of an injured child, crashing the Grammys, and of course taking a limousine with his family to cash their monthly welfare check.

Ep. 28: Jack Hamilton on the Golden Age of Hip Hop Jan 22, 2015

Show notes

To begin 2015, The Chauncey DeVega Show will feature two shows focusing on hip hop music. Our first guest for 2015 is Jack Hamilton. He is a contributing writer at Slate magazine, and also an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Media Studies at the University of Virginia. I am a member of the hip hop generation. My own work focuses on race, hip hop, and the politics of popular culture. It is always wonderful to chat with a fellow traveler such as Jack Hamilton. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Jack and I talk about the life and legacy of the late, great, MC known as The Notorious B.I.G., the current state of hip hop music, the occasion of how many seminal hip hop albums are now 20-years-old, teaching popular music in the classroom, writing about music for Slate, the colorline and black music, and how/if the conversion from analog to digital has changed--in a negative way--publics' relationships with popular music, as well as the complicated role of the white critic in black music.

Ep. 27: Tim Wise on the Lie of Post Racial Politics and the Enduring Power of White Priviilege Dec 23, 2014

Show notes

For this, the sixth episode of the third season of The Chauncey DeVega Show, I had the good fortune to chat with Tim Wise. Tim is one of the United States' leading anti-racist educators and activists. He is the author of numerous books including Dear White America, White Like Me, Speaking Treason Fluently, and Between Barack and a Hard Place. In addition to speaking engagements stateside and internationally, Tim is a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, and other media outlets. Tim's website can be found here. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Tim and I talk about the grind of travel, the merits (or not) of reading email and online comments, what it is like to have Nazi pen pals, pathetic black conservative race hustlers, his recent appearance on CNN's Headline News Network, his new documentary Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity, and why the Age of Obama has driven so many white folks--especially on the Right--into a state of mouth-frothing madness. The format for The Chauncey DeVega Show is that of a virtual bar or salon where two folks sit down and chat with the conversation going where it does naturally. Tim and I have talked over the years via email: this new episode of the podcast series is an extension of that dialogue.

Ep. 26: Jason Colavito on Fringe History, UFOs, White Supremacists and Big Foot Dec 17, 2014

Show notes

For this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, I had the great opportunity to talk with Jason Colavito. Our conversation is a real treat and gem for ghetto nerds and those others who are interested in fringe history and other types of "alternative" knowledge systems. Jason is an expert skeptic whose work appears on his eponymous website jasoncolavito.com. He is the author of numerous books. Jason has also appeared in documentaries and other media where he offers up his direct, clear, and reality based expertise on mythologies and magical thinking such as the ancient aliens hypothesis, the theory of Atlantis, and the myriad of distortions and lies about human events that have come to populate the History Channel and its auxiliary H2. As Jason and I discuss in this most recent episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, our world is full of wonder and amazing discoveries. Thus, there is no reason to lie, obfuscate, and generate from the ether, fringe histories, ancient aliens, and other like mess. Our world and universe is amazing enough without the need to create fictions that soothe our egos as opposed to nurturing the intellect. In this wide ranging and very educational conversation, Jason and I discuss why the ancient aliens hypothesis is so compelling, the faux rigor and "scientific" approaches used by the fringe history community, the fixation that white supremacists have with UFO's, Vikings, and giants, the Afrocentic dreams of how black Africans discovered the "New World", and the oft discussed case of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple who were supposedly kidnapped by extraterrestrials in the 1960s.

Ep. 25: Nick Chiles Ponders "Justice While Black" Dec 09, 2014

Show notes

The police killer of Eric Garner is free. The police killer of Michael Brown is free. The police killer of 12-year-old Tamir Rice was a documented incompetent and a member of a racist Cleveland police department: he too is still free. Even more grotesque--American police departments do not keep accurate documents noting how many people they actually kill in a given year. America may not have the "desaparecidos" of her Southern neighbors; yet, the allusion is a chilling one that hints at the power of bureaucracies to make people disappear into nothingness because the state deem acts of violence against those individuals to be "within the law". In all, America's police are the primary means through which state violence is rendered on black and brown communities, as well as the poor. What should a person of color do when they encounter the police? How can you ensure that you, your loved ones, friends, and community members best survive an encounter with the criminal justice system--what is the new Jim and Jane Crow? In this, the fourth episode of Season Three, on the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show, I had the great opportunity to chat with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Mr. Nick Chiles. He is the author of the new book Justice While Black and current editor of the Atlanta Black Star newspaper. Written with attorney Robbin Schipp, Nick's new book JusticeWhile Black is both an excellent (as well as accessible) history of the racist origins of America's police system, and a invaluable step by step guide for how to navigate the entrapping maze that is the American legal system and the many ways that it can (and will) ruin the lives of those people it encounters. In our conversation, Mr. Chiles summed up the crisis and conundrum that is when the colorline encounters the American legal system as follows: just because it is within your Constitutional rights to do a thing does not mean that a given cop will respect those rights. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Nick and I discuss what to do when a police officer stops you, how answering no more than the basic questions you are legally obligated to is the smart move, how families can cause chaos and trouble if you are arrested, the dangers of the plea bargain, the foolish hysteria around common sense "black respectability politics", tales of black lives ruined by the system, and if he watches "crime porn" such as The First 48 television show. Nick also clears up some of Chauncey DeVega's misconceptions about what he should do if the police demand to search his car.

Ep. 24: Reverend Renita Lamkin on Justice and Resistance in Ferguson Nov 20, 2014

Show notes

The imminent decision by a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri about whether to (not) indict Darren Wilson for his choice to kill an unarmed teenager named Michael Brown looms over Ferguson, Missouri. The grand jury will likely let Wilson go free without consequence for his wicked deeds. The tension in Ferguson--and around the United States--about the grand jury's decision is not an anxiety about the just Sword of Damocles. Rather, among the good, honest, ethical, and moral, the worry is that justice, of course, will not been done because black life is cheap and a white man wearing police blue has a de facto license to kill black and brown people with impunity. In the first part of our conversation here on The Chauncey DeVega Show about the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri--and how that community is responding to the killing of Michael Brown by the thug police officer Darren Wilson--I was lucky to have the opportunity to talk with Mr. Lou Dubose, editor and reporter from The Washington Spectator. For part two of The Chauncey DeVega Show's series on Ferguson, I talked with Reverend Renita Lamkin. She is a resident of Ferguson, a social justice activist, on the ground participant in the people's movement for civil rights and respect against the militarized and racist Ferguson police and local government, as well as a Pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Reverend Lamkin has been the subject of much conversation about the events in Ferguson both because of her participation in the people's movement (and subsequent injuries suffered at the hands--and at the end of the gun barrels--of the police) and bold truth-telling in her writings at the Huffington Post, a new piece at CNN, and interviews with a range of domestic and international media outlets. Renita and I talk about how the mainstream media is distorting and misrepresenting the events in Ferguson, how white privilege is operative even among those white brothers and sisters who have chosen to stand with the black community in Ferguson, how faith and "liberation theology" guides her social justice work, predictions for Ferguson when/if Wilson does not face negative consequences for his actions, and what events and experiences made it possible for Renita Lamkin to pastor a majority black church.

Ep. 23: Lou Dubose at Ground Zero in Ferguson Nov 13, 2014

Show notes

I have written extensively about the killing of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. However, like most of the cultural critics, analysts, and interested public, I have not had an opportunity to actually go to Ferguson, and to speak with the members of the under siege, bullied, and harassed by the thuggish white police, African-American community that resides there. For those of us who live outside of Ferguson, our insights into that community are mediated by others. While the broader issue of police brutality may resonate with us because of our personal encounters with racist and classist police power, this is no substitute for a direct experience and "eye on the ground" in Ferguson. In the next two episodes of The Chauncey DeVega Show, I will try to remedy that social distance. Lou Dubose, editor of The Washington Spectator, is the first guest in our two part series on the killing of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, and the subsequent police riot against the black citizens of Ferguson.

He is a very accomplished and experienced journalist who has written for The Nation magazine and has also appeared on news programs such as 60 Minutes. Mr. Dubose has written an excellent series of stories about the events in Ferguson based on his experiences there in the aftermath of the police riot against the town's black and brown community. In this conversation, Lou and I discuss the racial geography of Ferguson, what he learned from the young people he spoke to about their experiences with police harassment, how the police responded to the media, the inter-class tensions within the black community in response to the protests about Michael Brown's death, and his thoughts about the grand jury investigation into Darren Wilson and the future of Ferguson if the latter is not put on trial for the killing of Michael Brown. The grand jury in Ferguson will be issuing its decision about Darren Wilson in the very near future. My conversation with Lou Dubose is timely and essential.

Ep. 22: All Things Star Wars Nov 06, 2014

Show notes

For this, the first episode of Season 3 of The Chauncey DeVega Show, I decided to reach back to the first guest on the first episode of the podcast series from almost two years ago. Bill the Lizard is my heterosexual life partner (to quote Kevin Smith). He is also a great friend of the site and possesses a masterful intelligence and knowledge of all things Star Wars. In our first conversation for Season One, Bill and I discussed the (then) new announcement that JJ Abrams would be making Star Wars Episode VII, the challenges of that project, the Prequels, and the rebooting of the Expanded Universe. In our newest conversation we discussed what is known aboutStar Wars Episode VII (which now has a title "The Force Awakens"), to be "spoiler free" or not, what The Force Awakensmust do in order to be a compelling and exciting Star Warsmovie, space opera and Guardians of the Galaxy, why the newGodzilla movie is a hellish monstrosity of the first order, and if a person's love of the character Groot should be a barometer for the goodness of their soul. Bill the Lizard and I also played a game of "yeah or nay" regarding what characters from the Original Trilogy and Expanded Universe should make an appearance in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

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