Behind the News – March 20, 2025
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.
Marx’s ethics, and what did the BLM protests do to police budgets?
Vanessa Wills, author of Marx’s Ethical Vision, on the morality behind Marxian “science” • Mathis Ebbinghaus on the effects of the summer 2020 anti-cop protests on police budgets (paper here)
Fundraising special: militancy and repression in the Valley, neofeudalism
Ben Tarnoff on tech worker militancy, the bosses’ crackdown, and their hard turn to the right • Jodi Dean, author of Capital’s Grave, on neofeudalism
Fundraising special: worker-led organizing
Eric Blanc, author of We Are the Union, on worker-led organizing (Amazon, Starbucks, etc.)
Trump, a new/old kind of imperialist? • Is Trump a neoliberal?
Anatol Lieven looks at the global dimensions of Trumpism • Quinn Slobodian muses on whether Trump is a neoliberal, and examines the three major strands of DOGE-ism (NYRB article here)
The truth about DEI, a history of “choice”
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò picks apart the contradictory strands of the DEI obsession • Sophia Rosenfeld, author of The Age of Choice, explores this history of that concept over the last few centuries
The theology of MAGA, “sovereigntism” and Trump
Kristin Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, on Christian nationalism • Jennifer Middlestadt, author of this article, on “sovereigntism,” the foreign policy of Trump et al.
Moguls and their scribes, the New York intellectuals
Eoin Higgins, author of Owned, on tech moguls and the journalists, like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, who work for them • Ronnie Grinberg, author of Write Like a Man, on the mostly male, mostly Jewish New York intellectuals
The Gaza ceasefire, and sex work today
Mouin Rabbani on the Gaza ceasefire and Trump’s plans for the Middle East • Angela Jones and Bernadette Barton, co-editors of Sex Work Today, on that topic
Tech bros’ plans for SF, the Resnicks and water in California
Laura Jedeed, author of this article, talks about San Francisco and tech moguls’ plans to “fix” it • Yasha Levine, co-director of Pistachio Wars, on the Resnicks and water in California
The Y2K era, the South Korean political crisis
Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything, on culture at the turn of the millennium • Tim Shorrock discusses the political crisis in South Korea