Krystal Kyle & Friends

As continued Israeli violence against Palestinians led to a Palestinian general strike, we had the opportunity to speak with Abby Martin about mainstream coverage of the apartheid — and about how Israel, aided by the U.S.’s imperialist interests, has controlled the narrative. This comes at a time when journalists willing to support Palestinian liberation face silencing and punishment. Days after Israeli forces destroyed the AP’s office in Gaza, the AP fired Emily Wilder, a staffer with a history of activism for Palestinian rights and critiques of Israeli leaders. While corporate media outlets restrict coverage of the truth of Palestinian oppression, it was a pleasure to speak with Abby about her own independent journalism, including The Empire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom.Become a paid subscriber to gain access to our video conversations! We’re grateful to you for tuning in to Krystal Kyle & Friends. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

We were so grateful to have Rania Khalek as our guest for Episode 20 of Krystal Kyle & Friends. Rania gave us her insight into Israel’s current ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, taking us through the past history of the Israeli occupation and the conditions of Israeli military rule. At a time when all of our minds and hearts are with the oppressed people of Palestine, we truly appreciated Rania’s thoughtful analysis of the moment, and we think you will, too. Even as the current violence against Palestinians is at the front of so many people’s minds, from Biden and Pelosi to supposed Senate lefties Markey and Warren, many Democrats are pushing the same dangerous denial of Palestinian genocide. Old video footage reveals, in fact, that Biden has a long history of unconditional support for Zionism, a stance that he’s reiterated throughout his political career.Biden’s past and present refusal to reckon with the human rights abuses committed in the name of Zionism, however, is a sharp contrast with the political leadership being shown by leftist politicians like Rashida Tlaib. While so many of her colleagues push a two-state solution or argue that Palestinians should have no right to self-defense, Tlaib gave a powerful speech on the House floor, calling out her peers’ vocal and material support for a brutal regime. The day will come when American tax dollars are not used to enable the murder of Palestinian children. Tlaib and others are fighting for it, and the least we can do is join them. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

For some, the prospect of an automated future heralds an era of robotic convenience. For others, it is another fateful step on the journey toward a cybernetic dystopia. But for many, the prospect of an automated future raises only one immediate question: what will happen if a robot takes my job?So begins James Suzman’s compelling and thorough history of work, beginning at the dawn of the Stone Age and moving forward to an analysis of current labor conditions in our capitalist society. This passage from Work: A Deep History perfectly captures Suzman’s balancing of technology’s wonders alongside the ways in which this technology is manipulated to make work for human beings more, not less, precarious. We’ve been looking forward to having him on the show, and after watching today’s episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends, we think you’ll agree that James makes a necessary intervention into the discussion on how and why we work. Does it have to be this way? History says otherwise.We’re thrilled to delve into the past, present, and future of labor with James Suzman in this week’s episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends, and we hope you enjoy the journey as much as we did. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

It was an honor to be joined this week by Dr. Cornel West, celebrated author, philosopher, and professor, for a conversation about Dr. West’s political activism and personal journey. Moving from the topic of keeping one’s personal faith to a discussion of how Harvard limits leftist perspectives on campus, this episode touches on a wide range of subjects — appropriate, given our guest’s many intellectual and political interests. Tying the broad-ranging conversation together, though, is Dr. West’s fierce love for humanity and keen insight on how we build a moment based on international solidarity. To watch the full video subscribe now!There’s much more to hear in this conversation, about the current state of the Democratic Party, Dr. West’s insights for the present moment, and his thoughts on political life. We hope you’ll enjoy this luminous discussion with one of the most inspiring and brilliant leftists of our time. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

We were very excited to welcome Professor Richard Wolff to Krystal Kyle & Friends this week. As a prominent Marxist economist and a prolific writer on the crises of capitalism, Professor Wolff is someone we always look forward to hearing from — we know many of you probably feel the same way. That’s why we couldn’t wait to get him on the show to discuss Modern Monetary Theory, how the Biden admin is measuring up to expectations, and even more. If you’re familiar with Professor Wolff’s work, you won’t be surprised to hear that in his view, the Biden presidency falls far short of its potential — restricted as that potential is by the admin’s liberal-democratic political framework. At the center of Wolff’s critique is a challenge to the austerity budgets that Biden, like so many other Democratic leaders, has supported during his years in office. Wolff makes the case that what actually drives the formation of the budget is the political will of the elites in power. Along with Stephanie Kelton and other prominent supporters of Modern Monetary Theory, Wolff has shown that when it comes time to offer massive funds to imperialist military projects, the cost-cutting concerns of these “hawks” fly out the window. Instead of allocating the profit made by workers toward projects that deprive those workers of basic needs, Wolff argues, the government has other options. Other forms of distributing wealth are possible — providing essential resources to everyone, as a guarantee, for example, rather than stripping down those programs to pay for more military weapons.Join us for more Krystal Kyle & Friends next week, and remember that you can find the audio of our conversation with Professor Wolff on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Author and longtime Steelworkers labor lawyer Dan Kovalik joined us on KK&F this week to talk cancel culture. Why does cancel culture matter? When should people be “cancelled,” and when is cancellation harmful to the left’s political goals? You’ll find these questions, as well as Dan’s thoughtful answers, in this week’s episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends. We feel that understanding how to relate to our fellow leftists in a respectful, solidaristic way is key to gaining political power, so we were grateful to bring in Dan, who has thought and written extensively about this topic in Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture.Subscribe to watch the video! Audio is always free and no ads. At the end of the day, why is the debate over cancel culture pertinent to our lives? Log off of Twitter (always a good idea) and you instantly lose connection to the day’s debate over who should be de-platformed, who’s problematic, and who needs to take a seat. It’s telling when this discourse distances itself from issues with real, material impact on people’s lives, focusing instead upon adding fodder to the culture wars. When people take issue with cancel culture, it’s often because this culture places heavy punishment on “saying the wrong thing.” This concept is broad: it distracts from the true principles that should drive a group to exclude an unsafe or harmful member. It lumps in genuine and harmless mistakes with words intended to make others feel unwelcome or unsafe, and those seeking to build an inclusive leftist movement should view these scenarios very differently. What Dan advocates for, both in this conversation and in his book, is a greater openness to discussing harm or mistakes not as a precursor to cancellation, but as an opportunity for learning and growth. We hope you’ll enjoy hearing his perspective, and we’re grateful to you for tuning in. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s guest on KK&F is Christopher Ryan, an author and researcher on human sexuality. If you’re not familiar with his book Sex at Dawn, we hope you’ll enjoy watching our conversation with him, covering everything from the personal — are our brains wired for monogamy? — to the societal and political. Drawing upon Christopher’s expertise on ancient hunter-gatherer societies, we were curious to learn how the advent of settled agriculture and private property transformed human societies in every way from how we raise our kids to how we think about sex to whether we emphasize the individual or the collective. Perhaps we weren’t expecting to hear that a social-democratic political model maintains the ethos of the hunter-gatherer society more fully than a capitalist society, but Christopher is full of compelling, provocative insights. Too often, conversations about leftist political models are shut down by the argument that “humans are inherently greedy” — we’re willing to bet that the vast majority of leftists in the United States have been fed this line. Like you, perhaps, Christopher shows that it’s more complicated, and that classifying humanity as “good” or “bad” by nature doesn’t address the real question: How do we choose to act? Acknowledging that our baser or more greedy personal impulses exist doesn’t mean we must deny other people basic rights. Even alongside those impulses, we can recognize the imperative of a society that prioritizes human well-being and allows us all to live our fullest lives.We hope you enjoy this conversation! Audio of Episode 15 is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and more. Thank you very much for joining us. To subscribe to our video conversations, which are released Friday, click below: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week, our friend June Lapine (you know her as Shoe0nHead) tells us about her political journey and radicalization among the online left, her personal journey as an online content creator, and why she’s glad she went for Bernie in 2016 — among many other things. In this episode, June speaks candidly about her relief at the political opportunity that Bernie’s first campaign offered. Juxtaposed with Clinton, Trump was treated as the anti-establishment candidate, an alternative to the elitist Beltway order. (A previous guest on KK&F, Thomas Frank, explains why Trump’s populism is a sham, if you’re looking to revisit these ideas with an expert.) In Bernie, June and so many others found a genuine populist response to the letdowns of neoliberal rule. If Clinton and Trump chose their stances on trade from the perspective of corporate interests, Sanders proposed a policy driven by the interest of the working class. Present in his 2016 campaign, and even more so in his 2020 campaign, was the identification of full-blown class warfare in the U.S., and the message that any victory must belong to the workers. And, of course, this message demands that we pass over the distractions of the culture wars: they’re filled with manufactured outrage and scandal, but they offer zero analysis of how the working class will prevail in its war against the capitalist class. While the right wants you to lose your mind about Satan shoes, leftists get organized to take power for the many, not the few. We’re grateful to June for taking the time to talk about her political journey and work — it’s a story that resonates with so many of us, and we hope you enjoy it. Subscribe to access video of our conversation, and listen to the audio on streaming platforms like Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

We’re so glad that Andrew Yang was able to join us this week after his recovery from COVID-19. At last, we got to sit down with him and dig into the million-dollar questions about his advocacy for a UBI and how that fight has changed in the last year, his stance on Medicare for All, his thoughts on the NYC political landscape, and more. Yang is currently running for the NYC mayoralty, meaning that he’s spending his time thinking about how to address economic struggle, post-pandemic renewal, and issues of social justice from a position of political power. This conversation gave us a window into his unique approach to these issues, and we’re happy to share it with you now. Remember that for $5 a month you can check out the full video version of each KK&F discussion — just hit the button below and get our videos in your inbox.People across the country know Yang as the person who popularized the demand for a universal basic income (UBI), and the stimulus checks distributed during the coronavirus crisis have shown the power of this cash support to provide essential financial stability. Yang has updated this plan for his mayoral run. As you’ll hear, we dive into some UBI logistics — what does a right- or left-wing UBI look like? — because when you get the chance to talk to Andrew Yang about UBI, you take it. You’ll also hear us mention some issues important to us and to Yang, including healthcare and his stance on the BDS movement. We disagree with the idea that the BDS movement is rooted in antisemitism, and we take different views on Palestinians’ tactics of struggle for justice against occupation. On the topic of Medicare for All, we go over Yang’s support for single-payer alongside his lack of support for the existing Medicare for All bill, talking about why single-payer is the “common sense” program. We wanted to get a sense of Yang’s reasoning for his positions on these critical issues, and we were grateful to get his responses. We hope you’ll enjoy this episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends — and remember that you can check out our audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week on Krystal Kyle & Friends, we chat with Matt Taibbi about being deported from Uzbekistan for criticizing its president, staying at a monastery, and playing professional baseball in Uzbekistan and professional basketball in Mongolia — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.You’re probably familiar with Taibbi’s work with Rolling Stone, where he’s covered presidential campaigns from an outsider perspective, revealed the corporate evil at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis, and more. As Kyle mentions during our conversation, Taibbi’s fantastic writing captured the full picture of how Goldman Sachs dragged working people into financial peril — a picture that too few are willing to describe now, and even fewer were willing to describe then. We’re grateful to have someone who sees through the mainstream platitudes in order to deliver a clear vision of the monsters that the 99% is up against, and that’s why we’re so grateful to hear from Matt Taibbi.We hope you enjoy this episode of KK&F, and we’re so grateful to you for subscribing. To become a paid subscriber, click below — otherwise, stream our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends, which brought us into conversation with the journalist and author John Nichols, turns to the history of American progressivism in order to understand how the left can analyze its opportunities in a Biden presidency and strategize to build institutional power. Nichols, whose book The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party we strongly recommend, brings up the lessons of the FDR era to show how the American government (no matter what Biden tells you) is capable of making big moves for public welfare. But he also dwells in the present moment to find the takeaways of Biden’s first months in office, to consider the survival of the Reagan era in today’s political landscape, and to offer some essential advice to leftists in power, which we hope they’ll run with. No need to wait until next Saturday for Episode 12 of KK&F — become a paid subscriber below for Friday video access to our conversations: How is the argument for a strengthened, involved government and the practicality of leftist demands playing out in the early days of Biden’s term? Nichols spells it out for us. Thanks to grassroots organizers across the country, Biden is evidently feeling the pressure to go beyond performative gestures and provide the nation with material support. Executive orders to protect DACA and to rejoin the Paris climate accords are essential steps. But, we believe, there’s a long way to go. With record numbers of children in ICE custody, a monthlong water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, and more evictions looming as the federal moratorium is set to expire in weeks, anything less than bold progressive action won’t cut it. Join us and John for a conversation about what comes next. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s conversation with Dr. Carl Hart gave us the chance to dig into the topics of the U.S.’s racist and dysfunctional criminal justice system, the importance of personal freedoms, and the struggle to legalize drug usage. In books like Drug Use for Grown-Ups, Hart has written about the double standard applied by wealthy Americans who advocate for the normalization of psychedelic usage and the incarceration of heroin users. He’s brought up the way that the prison-industrial complex destroys lives through drug charges, as well as the way that personal liberty becomes a relevant topic in our discussion of which drugs Americans are and aren’t permitted to do, and why.Join us and our friend of the week in the KK&F studio! It’s gorgeous, we promise. Become a paying subscriber to Krystal Kyle & Friends now, and get the video release of our conversations. Remember also that you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, and more. As you’ll see, our talk with Dr. Hart was truly an interesting and eye-opening conversation. The argument for total drug legalization is controversial, and given the damage that the opioid crisis has done to millions of people’s lives, it’s essential to question whether this is indeed the move that would improve our society’s relationship to drug usage. But it’s clear that this relationship currently places criminalization and incarceration above the healing and wellness of drug users, and imagining how it might be changed is an incredibly important task. Thanks as always for joining us for this week’s episode of KK&F! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

We knew that our conversation with Dylan Ratigan would give us the opportunity to pick the brain of a prominent populist, someone who has used his platform on mainstream media to call out the corruption of a bought Congress and corporations with more political power than working-class people. Episode 9 of Krystal Kyle & Friends focuses on Dylan’s critiques of money in politics, but in order to understand how Dylan became a populist who “flew under the radar” at institutions like MSNBC, we were also eager to hear about his upbringing and political journey. He absolutely didn’t disappoint. For full access to video of our conversation with Dylan, become a paid subscriber to our Substack today! Our videos are released on Friday, so you can shave twenty-four hours off of your wait time for the next episode of KK&F.At one point in our conversation, Dylan paints the picture of how the relationship between funding and political campaigns should be reformed, carving out a central role for citizen participation in deciding how our candidates access the resources to build their bids for office. Imagine the drastically different political landscape that these reforms would create. Instead of corporate ties leading to full coffers for political campaigns with no connection to the concerns of working-class people (think Hillary 2016), we could build a political system that offers resources to candidates who make meaningful appeals to their fellow citizens’ needs. We’re lucky to have Dylan Ratigan to remind us of this, and we hope you’ll enjoy the episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

For our eighth episode, we spoke with Glenn Greenwald to discuss his political work and his philosophical roots. Co-founder of The Intercept and current author of the Glenn Greenwald Substack, Glenn is someone whose opinions we want to know when it comes to important topics, as Kyle points out in the episode. That’s why we were thrilled to sit down with him for the following discussion. If you want to access video of our conversations with Krystal Kyle & Friends guests, we invite you to become a paid subscriber, just by clicking the button below. You can listen to our podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more, as it’s available on the major streaming platforms. We talk to Glenn about his decades of work bringing important stories to light, from his refusal to buy into the Russiagate insanity to his work with the Snowden archive. We discuss what it means to celebrate when a public figure passes away — and when that figure is Rush Limbaugh, a discussion that leads to a few different conclusions. We delve into Glenn’s advocacy around the issue of homelessness and his preference for Nietzsche among the philosophers. And we truly appreciated the opportunity to see how Glenn’s willingness to confront the status quo throughout his life has led him to his current work and enabled him to do outstanding things in that work. We hope you’ll appreciate it, too. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Friends,First of all: we were so sorry to hear that Andrew Yang couldn’t join us this week, as he’s currently battling COVID-19. Please join us in sending him well wishes for a speedy recovery.We start off by discussing the impeachment proceedings and the confirmation hearing of Neera Tanden. As Sen. Bernie Sanders has pointed out, it’s worth pondering whether Neera’s time spent securing corporate donations for CAP will bear upon her ability to lead the federal-level Office of Management and Budget. That’s precisely what we ponder, bringing up a past case in which Bloomberg’s backing of CAP led the think tank to erase their research on NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim communities from a study in 2015. At the same time, of course, there’s her past support for slashing Social Security, as well as her argument that Libya should pay the U.S. in oil to continue the U.S.’s “engaging in the world.” It’s not news that Neera Tanden is not a friend to working people. Seeing her claim this powerful position in Biden’s administration, in fact, tells us a lot about the interests and political will of that administration. For access to video of this conversation, we recommend becoming a paid subscriber, just by clicking the button below:Next, because Krystal Kyle & Friends is just Krystal and Kyle this week, the later part of the show offers a deep, introspective look at how each of us became politically radicalized, how we’ve arrived at our advocacy for issues like organized labor and universal healthcare, and how leftist politics fits into the terrain of our own lives. We’re thrilled to be able to share this with you — not only because you’ll see Kyle in a new light (pro golfer), but also because reflecting upon the meeting of our political journeys and our personal lives helps us to think about our own strategies for building leftist power, the lessons we’ve learned in the past, and the possibilities we envision for the American left in the future. We hope you enjoy! Remember that audio for this podcast can also be accessed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other major streaming platforms like Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Google Podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

How can a new generation of leftists learn from Chomsky’s practice as well as his theory? Our own conversation with Professor Chomsky on this week’s episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends reveals how important this question is to him. Chomsky hopes that his lifetime of work will provide insight into current political struggles — against corporate looting of workers’ wages, against the repression of organized labor, and against imperialism. After speaking with him about these struggles and about how the left can respond to them, it’s clear that the lessons Chomsky offers us are truly indispensable. There is a world of difference between Cuba’s approach to vaccine distribution — which recognizes a collective commitment to global health — and the greedy resource grabs of the U.S., which has treated vaccine development as a race to prove its supremacy. In our discussion, Chomsky points out how the U.S.’s response to the coronavirus is a disaster with international implications. His argument for international solidarity also extends through another crisis of our time: the struggle against climate change. While wealthy countries continue to exploit resources like fossil fuels, threatening communities and destroying the environment in the process, stressing individual responsibility for climate disaster won’t save us. We need international solidarity, and we need solid organizing strategies that will help us to achieve it. To hear more about Chomsky’s ideas on leftists’ challenges and goals, as well as his political journey, join us for this week’s episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends. Audio is available on major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher. To access the video, which drops on Friday through Substack, click the button below: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Here’s a roundup of the questions that might have crossed your mind this week: Will the new Democratic-majority government write checks to bail out the banks or the people? How “girlboss” is it that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was paid $810,000 to speak for Citadel, which threw money at the hedge fund that shorted GameStop? What about Nancy Pelosi buying Tesla calls while the new president makes government vehicles go electric? (Hey, maybe she’s just showing her support for “the Green Dream, or whatever they call it.”)These questions are animated by a common theme: workers make the profit, and capitalists steal that profit to play games with it. And our government is staffed by the people who actively engage in that theft, directly profit from it, or act as the puppets of these hedge-fund ghouls. The events of this week have shown that capitalism “playing by the rules” is a misnomer. There’s just one rule, handed down from party elites and their corporate backers: Financial gain for me, and not for thee. Under the new administration, “Nothing will fundamentally change,” remember? So if it seems wrong that Pelosi and Yellen, along with Wall Street, should line their pockets while the people who do the work go hungry or homeless — what do we do to force the change ourselves?We spoke to Justin Jackson this week to get an insightful, strategic perspective on this question, and as you’ll hear, he delivered. Theories about how we work with the corrupt Democratic Party, for example, are in no shortage, and as leftists, it’s on us to consider how to productively engage with electoral politics to deliver victories from the people — without becoming acquiescent, as Nina Turner argued in last week’s episode. Not only is Justin a stellar athlete on the national stage, as a running back for the L.A. Chargers, but he’s an advisory board member of the Movement for a People’s Party. He’s thought deeply about the value of a party that doesn’t dip into Wall Street’s pockets, and he clearly lays out the case for that party while spelling out how we make Democratic electeds fight for the change we need in the present moment. We can’t afford to let politicians attach the word “progressive” to their name while they turn around to support a status quo that bankrupts working people. Justin’s made the point that the future of this country is at stake. We know you’ll enjoy listening to his incisive analysis of how an anti-corporatist left makes a place for itself on the American political terrain. We know you’ll be excited to hear about what he’s working on politically. And we’re so glad to have you tuning in. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This was a banner week for liberals making the case for political unity. Make no mistake, though: a long history of unity went unmentioned in Joe Biden’s inaugural speech and in media reports on the new political moment. Biden’s own presidency was made possible by the rallying of fellow establishment candidates around his failing campaign on Super Tuesday. Far from “healing the soul of the nation,” this unity among financial, political, and media elites has had devastating consequences for decades on the majority of Americans and is deployed cynically to maintain a status quo that gave us Trump and denies us Medicare for All. Sen. Nina Turner is now running for Congress because she heeds a higher political mandate than unity. In our fourth conversation on Krystal Kyle & Friends, we’re joined by this visionary leader to discuss her campaign for Ohio’s eleventh congressional district, her theory of change, and her thoughts on how a people’s candidate interacts with the political establishment. Subscribe now to watch the video or listen to the audio above! The audio is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all the major podcasting platforms.As Nina will tell you, staying “unbought and unbossed” is not a recipe for winning the adoration of the media, of party elites like Pelosi, or of top-dollar campaign donors. But as Sen. Turner believes, referencing the legacies of Shirley Chisholm and Fannie Lou Hamer, it is the only way to challenge the power of institutions that keep the people from rising up. Those familiar with her work on Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign won’t be surprised to learn that at a time when working people are in uniquely dire straits, Sen. Turner is building a movement to bring those people to Congress with her. You’ll want to hear all about this movement — exactly what this political moment is calling for — and you can start by listening Episode 4 of Krystal Kyle & Friends, where Nina Turner spells it all out for us. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

First off, we can’t thank you all enough for the remarkable response to the first episodes of KK&F. We’ve been blown away. This is the last week that the video episode will be free here and on Kyle’s channel. So if you want to continue to get the video, subscribe below. The audio will always be free here on Substack and on all the normal podcasting platforms. Next week we have the incomparable Nina Turner on!In this week’s episode, we sit down with Thomas to flesh out the story of how the Democrats abandoned working-class politics, how Republicans seized the populist narrative, and how Americans can look to a people-led political movement in our own past as a bulwark against Trumpism. Thomas is a leading voice on this topic, as he demonstrates in books from What’s the Matter with Kansas? to last year’s The People, No. Thomas Frank argues that the Democratic establishment has displayed a “lack of faith in ordinary Americans” for decades, right down to Hillary Clinton’s support for Reaganite policies and ideas in her 2016 run for the presidency. On the opposite side of the aisle, Republican elites openly embrace the gutting of social support systems and the oppression of labor. The Trumpian maneuver is to channel legitimate grievance into endless culture war. But Democrats play easily into their hands by centering their party around scolding ordinary people. That’s why “populism” has become a dirty word among liberal politicians and commentators: they use the Trump mob to indict all working people and to crush the core populist idea that ordinary people should have power and a say in governance. As Thomas argues in his own work, building a strong American left from the lessons and legacy of the Populist movement is precisely what we need to do in the present. Listen to our conversation with Thomas — available here and on major streaming platforms like Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts — to get a sense of how we honor and learn from that legacy. To become a paid subscriber and access the videos of our weekly conversations on Krystal Kyle & Friends, click the button below. Audio of KK&F will remain free as always, and we’re so glad to have you listening in. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

During our pre-interview conversation on Tuesday with this week’s guest, Bhaskar Sunkara, Bhaskar raised the issue of polarization. What kind of polarization is actually necessary not to harm the left and erode democracy, but to support it? We could not have anticipated how timely this topic would become. A deeply radicalized right-wing group stormed the U.S. Capitol the following day. Whether this insurrection was a direct grab for power or a symbolic maneuver — which we discuss at the start of our second episode — it has brought the political themes of polarization, protecting democracy, and building durable political power to center stage. We delve into these topics at even greater length in our conversation with Bhaskar, available in audio above, in video for our paid subscribers, and on streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher.In this conversation, Bhaskar argues that it isn’t enough for the left to demand polarization without substance. Within a liberal framework, fascism is presented as the opposite of order and decency; these two poles set the terms for political discussion. But, as Bhaskar points out, the liberal representatives of “order and decency” are Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden — two people who have dedicated careers to promoting an elite-friendly status quo. The left needs polarization that is centered on class struggle against exploitation. While Trump exists as a threat to American democracy, neoliberals will weaponize that threat to shut down progressive demands. To break out of this bind, the left must build power strategically — working in coalitions only when meaningful change can be delivered, and never compromising the anti-establishment spirit that seeks to put the people in power.It’s a pleasure to hear Bhaskar discuss the political background that led him to found Jacobin and become a prominent figure on the American left. From Marx, he gained an understanding of history through the lens of class struggle, but critical to his politics and to the politics of Jacobin is the project of making these fundamental ideas accessible, not alienating. As Bhaskar puts it, these ideas offer answers to big questions like “Who gets to dictate decisions about how society is structured?” — questions that are deeply relevant to the working class in America and around the world. In a country where the moon landing was a major political priority but ending homelessness is not, the left has the insight to point out why government isn’t answering to human need. To hear more about how we go about changing that, and where we go from here, Krystal Kyle & Friends invites you to listen to our conversation with Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto. We hope you enjoy it, and as always, we’re so grateful to you for tuning in. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

When we were considering who to have on our very first episode, Marianne seemed like the obvious choice. Why? Well she’s maybe uniquely positioned to help make sense of the hell we just lived through in 2020 and situate it in the broader sweep of American history, the current political moment and our own deeply personal experiences with the universe and the human experience. We both also felt like the events of 2020 had brought us closer to some of Marianne’s views, making us more compelled to explore her synthesis of politics with deeper questions about health, happiness, and meaning. She did not disappoint.In this (first!) episode, Marianne discusses her intellectual influences, her opposition to the status quo of the Democratic Party, and her views on the populist energy bubbling up around Medicare for All and COVID stimulus checks. Bringing all of these topics together, of course, is Marianne's fierce advocacy for the value of humanity and the promise of a more just world.What you may find striking is that Marianne transcends the "new-age" spiritual label that is often ascribed to her. Given her attentiveness to the current issues that Americans are facing -- from unaffordable healthcare to hostile elites in power -- Marianne is clearly sensitive to modern struggles. Yet she's also drawing upon a greater tradition of humanitarians and philosophers, those who have argued for generations that human beings inherently deserve opportunities to flourish intellectually, spiritually, and socially. In this way, Marianne offers a perspective that you can't get anywhere else. Hers is a vision that marries pressing demands for justice with profound intellectual considerations of happiness, peace, and the things that give life meaning. After listening to our conversation with her, we think you’ll agree: Marianne Williamson is someone to take very, very seriously.We hope that you enjoy this (first) episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends! For the next few weeks, you’ll have access to video recordings of our Friday interviews through Secular Talk. After that, paid subscribers to our Substack will have access to the video every Friday. The audio will post on Saturdays and always be free to all here on Substack and on all the major podcasting platforms. Apple takes a little while to verify so it will be a couple weeks before you can find the audio there but it’s available now on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google and more. Happy New Year! Appreciate you all! Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe