This Is Hell!

The return of economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research. Dean is on to discuss his most recent writing, including, “Structuring the Economy to Give Money to the Rich Is Inflationary.”

Penny M. Von Eschen is author of the new book, “Paradoxes of Nostalgia: Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder since 1989.” Penny is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Studies and Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of, “Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War,” and “Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957.” We speak with Penny about the enduring legacy of the Cold War in international politics.

Sociologist Laura Mauldin talks about her Baffler article "Care Tactics: Hacking an Ableist World," we introduce this week's Question from Hell!, and bring you your Hangover Cure for this Monday. Also, producer Seb gives another history lesson on the Nazis, and the Holocaust - and why we need to remember it.

Gender and Sexuality studies scholar Heather Berg talks about her Boston Review article "Freedom, Not Benefits Sex workers are labor’s vanguard. The left ignores them at its peril." We have the winning answer to this week's Question from Hell!, and producer Seb introduces his rebranded segment "The Past inside the Present" with the first half of a two-parter on the most fun topic of all: the Holocaust. https://bostonreview.net/articles/freedom-not-benefits/

Algernon Austin, Director for Race and Economic Jusice at the Center for Economic and Policy research discusses his recent writing including, "Black People Need Better Options than the Morgue or Mass Incarceration," "Black People (And Everyone Else) Should Avoid Crypto," "Only Radical Changes Will Make Rents Affordable," and "Black Children are Disproportionately Harmed by Extremist Gun Rights Policies in the US.

Chuck is back from his vacation! Today he talked to journalist Steven Thrasher about his book "The Viral Underclass The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide." We also have your Hangover Cure, this week in Rotten History, and some of your answers to the Question from Hell!.

Producer Dan introduces two interviews with activist and scholar Norman Finkelstein, talking about the Israeli siege of Gaza. We also crown this week's winning answer to the Question from Hell!.

Producer Lindsey presents a 2020 interview with Labor historian Tamara Fernando on disease and East Indian pearl fisheries, and what those early capitalist labor conditions in relation to diseases can tell us about the still-current moment.

Producer Seb introduces a 2016 interview with postcolonial studies scholar Ashley Dawson on capitalism powered extinction events around the globe. He also has some answers to this week's Question from Hell! and tries (without success) to come up with a valid hangover cure.

Producer Lindsey plays a 2015 interview with science journalists Elizabeth Grossman and Valerie Brown on the failure of government regulatory agency and corporate greed in the chemical industry and how those things are making everyone sicker and less safe.

Producer Dan introduces two interviews with Kurdish activist Dilar Dirik, talking about the movement for Kurdish liberation and how that movement's politics represent an alternate vision to the neoliberal world order.

Producer Dan plays two interviews from the vault that deal with the U.S. war in Iraq, and the subsequent rise of ISIS in the region.

We welcome investigative journalist Amanda Sperber back to the program to talk about her recent Baffler article "Prelude to a Redeployment - Listening for signs of the Americans in Kismayo, Somalia." After the interview we present a brand new Moment of Truth with Jeff Dorchen, and declare the winning answer to this week's Question from Hell!. https://thebaffler.com/latest/prelude-to-a-redeployment-sperber

Sociologist Raul Perez talks about his book "The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy," we have this week in Rotten History, and read more of your answers to this week's Question from Hell!.

We welcome Gerald Horne back to the show to talk about most recent book "The Counter-Revolution of 1836 - Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism." Stay tuned and learn of this week's whale-snack sized hangover cure, hear this week's Question from Hell!, and learn from Seb's Soapbox about some of the origins of Whiteness.

We welcome legal scholar and lawyer William E. Forbath to the program to talk about his book "The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution." Chuck muses about 26 years of running God's favorite radio program with Jeff Dorchen in this week's Moment of Truth, and we declare the winning answer to this week's Question from Hell!

We welcome law scholars Dre Cummings and Kalvin Graham to talk about their work published in Tulsa Law Review about the relationship between race massacres and capitalism. We also have This Week in Rotten History, and more of your answers to this week's Question from Hell!

We welcome Dean Starkman of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to talk about the coverage of the Uber Files, detailing the misdealings and corruption that the rideshare giant engages in. Producer Seb Wuepper gets on his soapbox to talk about the old question whether or not the United States is a democracy, we present your hangover cure for this week, and also introduce this week's Question from Hell!

Producer Lindsey introduces a 2015 interview with anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Jeff Dorchen delivers another Moment of (Super)Truth on a flashforward seance in the stone age, and we declare the winning answer to this week's Question from Hell!.

Producer Dan Hill presents a 2017 interview with writer and medical sociologist Zoe Samudzi and activist William C. Anderson on their piece "The Anarchism of Blackness" piece in Roar Magazine. Dan also has this week in Rotten History, and reads more of the listeners' answers to this week's Question from Hell!. https://roarmag.org/magazine/black-liberation-anti-fascism/

Producer Seb hijacks the studio for a soapbox-y episode while Chuck recuperates from surgery. Seb gets on his soapbox to question what, if anything, the Nazis can teach us, and plays a 2019 interview on capitalism and forced, migrant labor with writer and housing advocate Richard Hunsinger. We also have an all new Question from Hell! with some replies from the listening audience.

Producer Dan presents an October 2017 interview with Ajamu Nangwaya and Kali Akuno from Cooperation Jackson, talking about retaking democracy for the people and how to build functional, bottom-up cooperation. Jeff Dorchen presents this week's Moment of (SUPER!)Truth, and Dan declares a winning answer to this week's Question from Hell!

Chuck is out, preparing for surgery, so cross your fingers and send good vibes. Inspired by the preceding episode's new interview with Kate Manne, producer Lindsey plays the 2017 interview with her on her book "Down, Girl - The Logic of Misogyny." We also have this week in Rotten History, and Lindsey reads more answers to this week's Question from Hell!

We welcome writer and philosophy scholar at Cornell University, Kate Manne. Kate talks about her Substack article "Criminalizing Pregnant People: A Brief Retrospective." We present this week's Hangover Cure, as well as the newest installment of Seb's Soapbox, where our resident historian producer takes the Turner Thesis to task.

Jon Schwarz talks about his Intercept article "Right-Wing Supreme Court Continues Its “Great Fraud” About the Second Amendment." We also hear from Jeff Dorchen in this week's Moment of Truth about a new UFO conspiracy, and we announce this week's winning answer to the Question from Hell!

We welcome political theorist and legal scholar Zachari Manfredi to talk about his Boston Review article "Radicalizing Human Rights." Then we have more of your answers to this week's Question from Hell!, as well this week's installment of Rotten History. https://bostonreview.net/articles/radicalizing-human-rights/

Chuck welcomes Spencer Roberts, science writer and contributor to Jacobin Magazine, the Intercept, Wired, and others to the program to talk about his research into the looming extinction of the Mexican grey wolf, a species whose repopuluation efforts are endangered by corrupt government officials, and greedy cattle ranchers. We also have this week's hangover cure, a new Question from Hell!, and producer Seb steps on his soapbox, fighting the misconception that things keep always getting better.

Chuck talks to freelance writer, journalist, and Wire contributor Kamala Thiagarajan about her Wired.com article "India is Not Prepared for the Combination of Heat and Humidity." Jeff Dorchen reveals the Super Truth(R), and we announce this week's winning answer to the Question from Hell!.

Latin Americanist Susan Paulson returns to the show to talk about her contributions to the collected edition "Degrowth & Strategy" published by Degrowth Vienna. Producer Sebastian steps on his soapbox to talk about how our understanding of past sexuality is likely wrong. Answers to this week's Question from Hell! are read and hilarity ensues. https://www.degrowthstrategy.org/

Chuck welcomes Reece Jones to the show to talk about his book "Nobody Is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States." We have your weekly Hangover Cure, this week in Rotten History as well as a brand new Question from Hell!

Chuck welcomes back This is Hell! Brazil correspondent and writer for Brazilwire, and Telesur English, Brian Mier to talk about the upcoming elections in Brazil and the possibility of a coup by far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro. Jeff Dorchen basks in the glory of the Jan 6 Insurrection Show, and we declare the winning answer to this week's Question from Hell!

Chuck welcomes historian Donna Murch to talk about her book "Assata Taught Me: State Violence, Mass Incarceration, and the Movement for Black Lives." We have this week in Rotten History, and new answers to this week's Question from Hell! https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1650-assata-taught-me

Independent scholar Laura Basu talks bout her OpenDemocracy article "Attention Deficit Disorder - The Anticapitalist Condition."

Chuck welcomes economics editor and scholar at the University of Utrecht Laura Basu to talk her OpenDemocracy article "Attention Deficit Disorder, the Anticapitalist Condition." We present this week's hangover cure, and producer Seb gets on his soapbox to talk about why hero worship is dangerous in democratic societies.

Chuck welcomes writer and journalist Pranay Somayajula to the show to talk about his Jacobin article "From Buffalo to India, the Right’s Demographic Paranoia Fuels Deadly Violence." We will also have this week's Rotten History *and* this week's Moment of Truth with Jeff Dorchen *and* this week's winning answer to the Question from Hell!

Chuck is taking a sick day, so Producer Dan plays a 2020 interview with environmental scholar Giorgos Kallis and with Latin Americanist Susan Paulson on their book "The Case for Degrowth." https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-case-for-degrowth--9781509535620

Scholar, writer, professor, and cultural critic Henry Giroux talks to Chuck about his recent Counterpunch magazine article "Targeting Children - Killing Fields in the Age of Mass Shootings." Seb gets on his soapbox for a lesson on why people doing monstrous things should never be denied their humanity. https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/05/31/targeting-children-killing-fields-in-the-age-of-mass-shootings/

Adrian Shirk talks to Chuck about her book "Heaven is a Place on Earth: Searching for American Utopia." In a Moment of Truth Jeff Dorchen takes the Party of Manson Family Values to task. A winner of the weekly Question from Hell! is chosen.

Legal scholar Joseph Marguelies talks to Chuck about his Boston Review article "A Path to Neighborhood Power." We have new answers to this week's Question from Hell!, and other shenanigans.

Political scholar Aasim Sajjad Akhtar talks to Chuck about his Catlyst Journal article "Breaking Afghanistan." We also have a new Rotten History, and your weekly Hangover Cure. https://catalyst-journal.com/2022/03/breaking-afghanistan

Chuck interviews, Dominic Boyer, professor of anthropology at Rice University and Berggruen Institute fellow, who wrote the Noema Magazine article "Why We Have To Give Up On Endless Economic Growth." Jeff Dorchen is doing some deep brooding in a brand new Moment of Truth. A winner is declared for the weekly Question from Hell!

Chuck is back! He welcomes writer, activist, and co-founder of the Los Angeles Tenants Union Tracy Rosenthal, who wrote the New Republic article "Inside L.A.'s Homeless Industrial Complex" Also: A new Rotten History, and a new Hangover Cure, and a new Question from Hell! https://newrepublic.com/article/166383/los-angeles-echo-park-homeless-industrial-complex

Producer Sebastian muses on origin and utility of racial categories and introduces a 2019 interview with writer Ben Ehrenreich explains how Enlightenment-era ideas of progress and Western civilization collapsed time and space around the bumbling, destructive European ideology of early capitalism, and why those ideas still mis-guide the bumbling, destructive European ideology of late capitalism on a dying planet. https://thebaffler.com/salvos/after-the-storm-ehrenreich

Producer Lindsey introduces a 2017 interview with Journalist Sharon Lerner, who reports on the Exxon Mobil refinery polluting the majority-black Charlton-Pollard neighborhood of Beaumont, Texas, and the poisonous, 14 year silence from the EPA after the citizens' civil rights complaint, and connects the mechanisms of environmental racism to a history (and present) of regulatory rollbacks and industry noncompliance in powerless communities across the country.

Producer Dan introduces an interview with African American studies scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor who in her book "Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership" examines the mechanism of racism in the American real estate industry - as post-1968 public policies pushed Black renters and homeowners into a racially stratified, predatory housing market without Civil Rights protection, a predatory inclusion took shape, funneling wealth into private industry and foreclosing the futures of Black families for decades to come. https://uncpress.org/book/9781469653662/race-for-profit/

Chuck is back live in studio for his first full interview in two months, welcoming back independent journalist and writer Alexander Zaitchik, who wrote the book "Owning the Sun - A People's History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to COVID-19 Vaccines." Chuck and Alexander talk about medical monopolies, the role people like Bill Gates and Joe Biden play in keeping medical patents in place, and why this makes the world sicker and poorer. It is a new week, so we have a new Question from Hell! as well as a new Hangover Cure and an all new Rotten History! https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/owning-the-sun/

Black Agenda Report's Danny Haiphong examines the lies at the root of the story America tells itself - as the corporate media obscures the reality of social relations at the base of American power, our collective notions of exceptionalism and innocence mask the exploitation that occurs around us everyday, and the exploiting class at the top of American society. In a brand new Moment of Truth Jeff Dorchen takes the Catholic Fascist United States Supreme Court Justices to court. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/American-Exceptionalism-and-American-Innocence/Roberto-Sirvent/9781510742369 https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

Writer DaMaris Hill traces a history, and present, of Black women imprisoned in America - under a parallel regime of sexual violence and exploitation in the Jim Crow era and beyond, subject to the edges of a legal and economic system built on repression, risking freedom and safety in the simple acts of navigating daily life in a racist country. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-bound-woman-is-a-dangerous-thing-9781635572629/ https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

Producer Dan presents a 2019 interview with organizer Jenny Brown who examines the long history and present politics of the fight for abortions in America, and explains why the left must be clear and honest about abortion - as an unrestricted right, as a social service to be included in national healthcare, and as an unfinished front of the feminist revolution. https://www.versobooks.com/books/3095-without-apology https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

Alex plays two interviews with Black Agenda Report founders Bruce Dixon (Jan 2017) and Glen Ford (Dec 2008)