Family abolition, the cult of homeownership
Slaying sacred cows: M.E. O’Brien, author of Family Abolition, on doing that and “communizing care” • Jane Chung, author of this article, on what’s wrong with our cult of homeownership
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.
Corey Robin on Clarence Thomas
While other shows are getting applause for interviewing Corey Robin about his excellent book on Clarence Thomas (who is very much in the news these days), Behind the News was there first, as it so often is. This is a rebroadcast of a show that first ran in 2019.
Why are we in Ukraine?, and using art to stimulate consciousness about slavery
Christopher Layne, co-author of the Harper’s magazine article “Why are we in Ukraine?” • Marcus Brown on his augmented reality exhibit that evokes the eighteenth-century Wall Street slave market
Varieties of correctional control and how to get around the mystifications of economics
Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative talks about some underappreciated aspects of the carceral state: probation, parole, and civil commitment • Francisco Perez of the Center for Economic Democracy on why mainstream economics is so terrible and an online course that can help civilians break through the discipline’s mystifications
Islands in a rising sea, and libertarian enclaves
Tina Gerhardt, author of Sea Change, on the effects of rising oceans on small island nations • Quinn Slobodian, author of Crack-Up Capitalism, on libertarian enclaves insulated from democracy
Fundraising special: Jeff Sharlet talks about his new book, The Undertow, a look at the dark political forces afoot in the Trumpocene
Jeff Sharlet talks about his new book, The Undertow, a collection of essays on the increasingly violent and authoritarian politics on the right unleashed by Trump
Unionizing the content moderators, and what’s behind Atlanta’s Cop City?
Michaela Chen of Foxglove on efforts to unionize the exploited workers who moderate content on social media • Micah Herskind, author of this article, on the political economy of Atlanta that’s behind Cop City
How China avoided shock therapy
Isabella Weber, author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy, on Chinese economic reform debates and how the country dodged post-Soviet-style collapse [reprise of a show from July 2021]
Progressive victory in Chicago and the Ukraine war ends Scandinavian neutrality
Jacobin editor Micah Uetricht explains how Chicago elected a progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson • Lily Lynch, editor of Balkanist and contributor to New Left Review‘s Sidecar blog on how the Ukraine war destroyed Scandinavian neutrality
Economist Josh Mason of John Jay College on how we can save the climate before we get to overthrowing capitalism • Jen Duggan of the Environmental Integrity Initiative on a lawsuit to get the EPA to enforce the Clean Water Act