Behind the News – June 30, 2022
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
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.
Porn work and the fellowship of neoliberals
Heather Berg, author of Porn Work, on relations of production in sex work • Kevin Young and Leonard Seabrooke, co-authors of this paper, on the contrasting collegial styles of the Chicago and Charles River schools of economics
Colombian election and elite capture of identity politics
Historian Forrest Hylton on the first round of the Colombian presidential election, which turned out to be bad news for the leader, Gustavo Petro. And philosopher Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, author of Elite Capture, on how the ruling class has debased identity politics, and how we could reconstitute it.
Marx’s economics—and KPFA economics (fundraising).
Hadas Thier talks about her book, A People’s Guide to Economics: An Introduction to Marxist Economics (from a 2020 interview). Plus fundraising.
Crypto, white power, and fundraising.
Molly White, keeper of the Web3 Is Going Just Great blog, on the pointless and scam-ridden world of cryptocurrencies. And Kathleen Belew, a scholar of white power, on that movement’s obsessions and unusual organization (rebroadcast of an October 2020 interview). Plus, fundraising: please support KPFA!
Matthew Huber, author of Climate Change as Class War, explains why the environmental movement needs to take class and production more seriously. And Adam Kotsko explores why evangelicals are so obsessed with abortion. Plus, fundraising. photo: Pixabay
More on the newest new right and an update on Ukraine.
James Pogue, author of this article in Vanity Fair, reports on the National Conservatism conference and the authoritarian politics it represents. And Anatol Lieven returns with an update on the war in Ukraine, and the US’s escalation of the conflict.
The IMF and an Impending Debt Crisis and Asian Americans: An Overview
David Adler of the Progressive International on an impending debt crisis, with an emphasis on the role of the IMF (Guardian article here). And Sudip Bhattacharya on the Asian American population: its diversity, its unity, its politics.
Donna Murch, author of Assata Taught Me, on black radical politics from the Panthers through the Movement for Black Lives. And Kyle Shybunko, author of this piece, on Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, a hero to many on the American right. photo: Pixabay
Prisoners, cash bail, and postliberalism
• Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative on the demographics of the million people in state prisons (with a coda on the fight around ending cash bail in New York State) • Historian James Chappel, author of this article, on postliberalism, notably the reactionary Catholic law prof Adrian Vermeule (a contributing editor of the … Continued
Global reconfigurations prompted by the invasion of Ukraine, and why we shouldn’t shut nuclear power plants
Vijay Prashad, journalist and historian, on the reconfigurations of global power prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and environmental economist and activist Charlie Komanoff, author of this Nation article, on why it’s a bad idea to shut nuclear power plants only to have them replaced by burning more fossil fuels.