Behind the News – Mar 23, 2023
Upcoming Episode
Behind the News
12:00 PM (Noon) Pacific Time: Thursdays
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Bank drama, carceral state gets back into action, the Saudi-Iran deal
DH comments on the bank failures • Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative updates us on the state of the carceral state • Annelle Sheline on the Chinese-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran
fundraising special: Florida revisited, and repression & resistance in Israel
Historian and union president Paul Ortiz on the DeSantis agenda and resistance to it • human rights lawyer Noa Levy on the far right agenda in Israel and resistance to it
State-level repression: sex in Indiana, academic freedom in Florida
Journalist Judith Levine on moves to defund the Kinsey Institute, and on the trans kids panic • Phil Wegner of the University of Florida on Gov. Ron DeSantis’s moves to quash academic freedom in that state
Fundraising special: nationalize the railroads, they suck!
Kari Lydersen, author of this In These Times article, and Ron Kaminkow, locomotive engineer and general secretary of Railroad Workers United, talk about the miseries of the industry and why it should be naitonalized.
War fever in the US and corruption in Indian capitalism
Anatol Lieven on the slim prospects for peace in Ukraine and growing bellicosity towards China • Jairus Banaji, author of this Phenomenal World article, on the politicized structure of Indian capitalism generally, and the scandal surrounding Gautam Adani (Hindenburg report here)
Behind the AI hype, and Lula returns to power in Brazil
Software engineer Dwayne Monroe on the reality behind the hype around ChatGPT (and the sinister implications of AI) • Political economist Alfredo Saad-Filho on Lula’s return to the presidency of Brazil, and the landscape of the country’s politics generally
The war in Ethiopia, and a common currency for Brazil and Argentina?
Ann Neumann, author of this article (sorry, probably paywalled), on the bloody war in Ethiopia • two views on a proposed South American currency arrangement launched by Brazilian president Lula, one from Andres Arauz, the other from Brian Mier
The rot of Britain and the fight for abortion rights 50 years ago
Josh White, author of Goodbye United Kingdom, on that country’s trajectory of decline • Felicia Kornbluh, author of A Woman’s Life Is a Human Life, talks about the fight for abortion rights in the late 60s and early 70s, and how it must be part of a larger struggle for reproductive justice
The state of Afghanistan and the ecology of the port of LA
Matthieu Aikins, author of this article (among many), on the situation in Afghanistan with the US gone and the Taliban in control. And Christina Dunbar-Hester, author of Oil Beach, on the ecology of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
A look rightward: what’s the GOP all about, and one of these left–right hybrids
Emily Jashinsky of The Federalist on the GOP: the meaning of the speaker fight, and what is the base of the Freedom Caucus anyway? And Sohrab Ahmari, co-founder of Compact Magazine, offers a left–right hybrid.