We speak with author and culture critic Odie Henderson about his latest book, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema. Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras is a spirited history of a genre and the movies that he grew up watching, which he loves without irony (but with plenty of self-awareness and humor). … Continued
As the plight of the Palestinians, many of them refugees in their native lands, dominates world headlines, a look at the ways that international policy, though entities like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has not been driven by altruistic motives. Instead, as historian Laura Robson argues, much of what takes place under the … Continued
We speak with author and culture critic Odie Henderson about his latest book, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema. Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras is a spirited history of a genre and the movies that he grew up watching, which he loves without irony (but with plenty of self-awareness and humor). … Continued
Following the mass George Floyd demonstrations, it appeared as if a racial reckoning was taking place in the United States, although of a puzzling nature. Amazon, Walmart, and other prominent corporations declared that Black Lives Mattered and dedicated funds to ostensibly address systemic racism. In cities across America, individuals denounced white silence and took on … Continued
State-ownership of the means of production and a planned economy appear to be the hallmarks of Marxist thought, along with the notion that revolution necessitates passing through socialist and communist stages. But, as Peter Hudis points out, these ideas don’t originate with Marx. He discusses his Critique of the Gotha Program, in which Marx most … Continued
There have been numerous exposés of the conditions in factory farms, where livestock are crammed together by the hundreds of thousands. But anthropologist Alex Blanchette argues that animal agribusiness, rather than being a sordid, exceptional case, has represented the cutting edge of capitalist industry for more than one hundred years. He discusses the exploitation of … Continued
We speak with organizers Carlos Gabriel and Rachel Jackson about Tesla violation of the county’s shelter-in-place order that forced the electric car maker to cease vehicle production at its factories in California and ongoing attempts to sabotage employee efforts to form a union. We also discuss the upcoming general worker strike 2.0 scheduled for June … Continued
Are the rich wealth creators, as we commonly hear? Should we be grateful to investors and entrepreneurs, as they like to be called, for generating jobs and greasing the wheels of the economy? Or is the source of their massive wealth the rest of us? Scholar Andrew Sayer discusses rentiers, capitalists, and why, for the … Continued
