Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe Dark Side of Fashion (w/ Alyssa Hardy)
Episode 257
Alyssa Hardy is a fashion journalist whose work has turned in recent years to exposing the underbelly of the industry, from the labor conditions of t…
2 years, 1 month ago
How To Make Schools That Children Actually Enjoy Going To (w/ Lauren Fadiman)
Episode 256
School sucks. But why? And must it? For our print magazine, Lauren Fadiman writes about how radical leftists have historically tried to rethink schoo…
2 years, 1 month ago
How Rupert Murdoch Killed The Only Good Social Media Platform (w/ Michael Tedder)
Episode 255
Perhaps only those between the ages of about 30 and 35 will remember the golden years of MySpace, which dominated social media before Facebook, Twitt…
2 years, 1 month ago
How Labor Can Drive a Hard Bargain (w/ Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor)
Episode 254
On this program, we have previously discussed the inspiring fight waged by the Amazon Labor Union on Staten Island, and the confrontational tactics t…
2 years, 1 month ago
Learning From Neglected Novels By 1900s Radicals (w/ the Rickard Sisters)
Episode 253
The Rickard Sisters, Sophie and Scarlett, have produced two wonderful graphic novel adaptations of books by early 20th century radicals. First they m…
2 years, 1 month ago
Why Minimalism? (w/ Kyle Chayka)
Episode 252
Kyle Chayka is a cultural critic and staff writer for the New Yorker. (Incidentally, he also wrote a piece back in 2017 that covered the early years …
2 years, 1 month ago
Is U.S. Democracy Just Going To Be Dysfunctional Forever? (w/ Benjamin Studebaker)
Episode 251
Benjamin Studebaker's new book The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way is Shut is a provocative critique of contemporary American politics.…
2 years, 1 month ago
What Happens to the Disappointed When Social Movements Fail? (w/ Sara Marcus)
Episode 250
Sara Marcus is the author of Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis. A lot of studies of social movement…
2 years, 1 month ago
The Disaster of Privatizing Everything (w/ Donald Cohen)
Episode 249
You name it, it's been privatized somewhere in the United States. Schools, roads, libraries, courts, prisons, and even the law itself have been outso…
2 years, 1 month ago
The Process of Leaving Jordan Peterson Behind (w/ Benjamin Howard)
Episode 248
Benjamin Howard is a Current Affairs reader who was once a huge fan of Canadian psychologist, pundit, and self-help guru Jordan Peterson. But Howard …
2 years, 2 months ago