Behind the News – November 13, 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.
Models of municipal socialism • Albania, a personal view of history
Gabriel Hetland, author of this article, looks to Venezuela for a model of municipal socialism • Lea Ypi, author of Indignity, looks into her grandmother’s story and unfolds a rich history of Albania and its environment
Why did the tech bros move right? • a political tour d’horizon of South America
Jacob Silverman, author of Gilded Rage, on the rightward move of the Silicon Valley elite • Forrest Hylton conducts a political tour d’horizon of South America
The Zoomer tech bros • the new breed of arms makers
Margaux MacColl, co-author of a series of articles in the SF Standard, on the Zoomer tech bros • Susannah Glickman on the new arms makers who want to disrupt the legacy prime contractors (NYRB article here)
Israel on the brink • the Trump education agenda
Ilan Pappé, author of Israel on the Brink, on the ceasefire and how the deepening crisis of Israeli society could lead to something better • Jennifer Berkshire on the appalling Trump educational agenda
Fundraising special: Bill Buckley revisited; China, the US, and the world
Jeet Heer, author of this review, on the slick but odious William F. Buckley Jr. • Jake Werner on Trump’s creeping softness on China, and how that country sees its role in the world
Fundraising special: politics of public monuments revisited, Trump’s Gaza “peace plan”
Erin Thompson on the politics of public monuments as Trump talks of restoring Confederate statues • Mouin Rabbani returns for a look at Trump’s ludicrous Gaza peace scheme
Fundraising special: what’s with all these diplomatic recognitions of Palestine?
Mouin Rabbani explains what behind all these fresh diplomatic recognitions of Palestine and speculates on the future of Gaza and its people
Eugenics, neoliberal style • stablecoins, and the Trump–UAE deal
Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards, on the eugenics/race science tendencies within High Church Neoliberalism • Molly White on stablecoins, and the Trump–UAE deal
Tech transhumanism, fiscal politics of NYC
Émile Torres on the tech moguls’ dream of transcending the merely human (article written with Timnit Gebru here) • Daniel Wortel-London, author of The Menace of Prosperity, on the fiscal history of NYC, and how we could do better than subsidizing the rich
Riots in Indonesia, DSA’s pedigree
John Roosa on what’s behind the riots in Indonesia • David Duhalde on DSA and its ancestor, Debs’s Socialist Party (paper here)