Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Louis Hyman on the Rise of the Gig Economy Nov 03, 2018

Show notes

We tend to think about the "gig economy" as a new development - brought into being by Uber and our smartphones. But Louis Hyman shows us the deep roots of casualized and contract labor, tracing the centrality of temps, day laborers, and consultants from the post-World War II years through the present.

Louis Hyman is Associate Professor of History at the ILR School of Cornell University and the Director of the Institute for Workplace Studies in New York City. He is the author of Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary. He was previously a guest on the first episode of Who Makes Cents.

Devin Fergus on the Rise of Financial Fees Oct 04, 2018

Show notes

Over the past few decades, financial companies have begun charging more and more hidden fees. Devin Fergus explains why Americans pay so many fees and how these fees function to redistribute wealth from ordinary Americans to the wealthy - and how this strategy has especially impacted black Americans.

Special Episode on Intersectionality and Capitalism Sep 01, 2018

Show notes

All too often recently, some have claimed that an analysis that is intersectional militates against one that focuses on class. Well, we're very excited to bring you a special program this month. Rather than our normal interview format, we're featuring a panel that took place at the University of California-San Diego. David was able to participate in this exciting symposium on the topic of race, gender and the contradictions of capitalism.

All the speakers also have recently released books. Ula Taylor is Professor and H. Michael and Jeanne Williams Department Chair of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is author of The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam. Barbara Ransby is Professor and Director of the Social Justice Initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is author of Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century. And Charlene Carruthers is Charlene Carruthers is a strategist, writer and leading community organizer in today's movement for Black liberation. She is author of Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements.

We're grateful to the UCSD Black Studies Project, Scholars for Social Justice, and all the people who worked on the events, especially Dayo Gore, Sarah Haley, and Prudence Cumberbatch.

Jennifer Le Zotte on the Sale and Consumption of Second-Hand Clothing Aug 01, 2018

Show notes

For decades, consumers of second-hand goods have argued that purchasing used items allows buyers to opt out of capitalism, saving money and environmental resources in the process. As one thrifty advice blog puts it, "Buying used goods cuts down on manufacturing demands and keeps more items out of the landfill!" But what exactly is the relationship between the purchase and sale of second-hand goods and capitalism more broadly?

On this episode, Jennifer Le Zotte tells us about the sale and consumption of second-hand clothing in the twentieth century.

Jennifer Le Zotte is Assistant Professor of History and Material Culture at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is the author of From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies.

Jeremy Milloy on the Political Economy of Workplace Violence Jul 04, 2018

Show notes

Just last week in the Supreme Court's decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the court undermined the power of organized labor in the public sector by making it, for all intents and purposes "right to work." As our former guest, Sarah Jaffe wrote in the New York Times about the decision: "the corporate class … and its allies on the Supreme Court have dealt labor another body blow."

On this episode, we speak about the literal violence that can manifest on the job if oppressive workplace conditions are left unaddressed. Jeremy Milloy argues that workplace violence from the 1960s-1980s needs to be considered not only as a private matter, but as a matter of politics and economics.

Jeremy Milloy is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the Frost Centre for Canadian and Indigenous Studies at Trent University. He is author of Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Violence at Work in the North American Auto Industry, 1960-80

Raj Patel and Jason Moore on Capital, Nature, and Cheap Things Jun 02, 2018

Show notes

When we think about the relationship between capitalism and the environment, it's all too easy to see them as separate spheres bouncing into one another – capitalism devouring nature, like when a forest is razed for development, or nature threatening capitalist progress, like when a natural disaster later wipes out that development. Raj Patel and Jason Moore see the relationship as much more complicated, while also arguing that the environmental crises we face today are the inherent products of the way that capitalism operates. They trace the relationship between capital and the environment through seven cheap things: nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives.

Mehrsa Baradaran on Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap May 02, 2018

Show notes

The racial wealth gap is among the most dire problems in contemporary society. As of 2014, Black households had fewer than seven cents for every dollar owned by white households. This situation of racial wealth inequity is disturbingly similar to the one that existed at the end of slavery.

Today, we welcome back to the show Mehrsa Baradaran, our guest from episode 30. We speak to Mehrsa about her recent book about the history of the racial wealth gap and how Black banks—a solution that is often suggested—have instead operated as a decoy, and distracted from more far-reaching solutions.

Mehrsa Baradaran is author of The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap. She is Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives & J. Alton Hosch Associate Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Malcolm Harris on Millennials and the Economy That Made Them Apr 04, 2018

Show notes

Tired of reading endless clickbait articles about which industry millennials are killing today? Our guest Malcolm Harris explains how economic restructuring and the ideology of human capital helped to create the millennial generation - and continue to shape the choices they have in the present.

Keona Ervin on Black Women's Activism in St. Louis Mar 04, 2018

Show notes

In the summer of 2014, activists in Ferguson, Missouri helped catalyze a cycle of struggle against racist policing, extractive fines and fees, and myriad other injustices that are rooted in racial capitalism and the state. Decades before this in nearby St. Louis Black women activists propelled another vibrant movement for justice and equity.

On today's show, however, we speak with Keona Ervin about St Louis's actually existing working class and the role of Black women activists played in shaping the struggle for economic dignity in the city.

Keona K. Ervin is assistant professor of History at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She received her PhD in History from Washington University in St. Louis in 2009. Professor Ervin's main research and teaching areas are black freedom movement studies, urban history, black women's history, and US labor and working-class history. She is the author of the forthcoming Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky).

Melinda Cooper on Neoliberal Family Values Feb 06, 2018

Show notes

We often think of neoliberalism as operating at odds with the traditional family. Our guest, Melinda Cooper, shows why neoliberals and social conservatives have enjoyed an alliance over the past forty years, and how neoliberalism has long had anxiety about family and morality at its core.