This Is Hell!

Christopher Hood, author of the award-winning script and film, “Killing Detroit: The City That Refused To Die,” that is now in book form. A new Moment of Truth from Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

ProPublica editor-at-large Eric Umansky joins This Is Hell! to discuss his recent ProPublica article, "How Police Have Undermined the Promise of Body Cameras." A new Rotten History follows the interview. Check out Eric's piece here: https://www.propublica.org/article/how-police-undermined-promise-body-cameras Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

On MLK Day 2024, we share a 2008 talk with Black Panther Larry Pinkney and his hot and very critical take on Barack Obama shortly after Obama was elected president and before he was inaugurated. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

This Is Hell! returns with new interviews this week! Kicking off 2024, geographer Jeff Wilson joins us to discuss his new graphic novel he co-created with Bambi Kramer, "We Live Here: Detroit Eviction Defense and the Battle for Housing Justice" from Seven Stories Press. Following the interview, Jeff Dorchen returns with a new Moment of Truth in which he tries to gain perspective on the human condition with a cheap sci-fi thought experiment. Check out Jeff and Bambi's graphic novel here: https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4468-we-live-here You can find out more about Detroit Eviction Defense here: https://www.detroitevictiondefense.net Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 concludes with listener-favorite historian Gerald Horne, on his new book “Revolting Capital: Racism & Radicalism in Washington, D.C., 1900-2000” (International Publishers). Check out Gerald's book here: https://www.intpubnyc.com/browse/revolting-capital-racism-radicalism-in-washington-d-c-1900-2000/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The penultimate Best of 2023 episode features a September interview with Truthout's Kelly Hayes on the article she co-wrote the Boston Review essay with past guest Mariame Kaba, “How Much Discomfort Is the Whole World Worth?: Movement building requires a culture of listening—not mastery of the right language.” Following the interview, Jeff Dorchen delivers a Moment of Truth and we read more of your answers to the Question from Hell! Check out Kelly and Mariame's essay here: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/how-much-discomfort-is-the-whole-world-worth/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 continues with our April interview with Malcolm Harris on his Little, Brown and Company book, "Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World." After the interview, we read your first answers to 2024's first Question from Hell and the Worst of Rotten History from Renaldo Migaldi. Check out Malcolm's book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/malcolm-harris/palo-alto/9780316592031/?lens=little-brown Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 continues with writer, professor and musician Sheila Liming on her recently published book, "Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time." Check out Sheila's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717263/hanging-out-by-sheila-liming/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The best of 2023 continues with Miliaku Nwabueze on her May 5 Scalawag essay, "How to Build the End of the World: In Defense of the Chaotic Protester." Check out Miliaku's article here: https://scalawagmagazine.org/2023/05/black-radical-tradition-cop-city/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 continues with our April 10th interview with Rasha Al Aqeedi about her New Lines Magazine article, "Living — and Reliving — the US Invasion of Iraq." Check out Rasha's article here: https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/living-and-reliving-the-us-invasion-of-iraq/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 continues! M.E. O’Brien joins us in Hell to discuss her new book "Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care" published by Pluto Press. Check out M.E.'s book here: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745343846/family-abolition/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Continuing the Best of 2023 series, distinguished anthropologist Alex Hinton joins Chuck to discuss his Sapiens article, "Two Myths Fueling the Conservative Right's Dangerous Transphobia." The discussion includes Alex's insights from the most recent CPAC. This interview originally aired on June 21st. After the interview, we have both a new Rotten History and a new Moment of Truth. Alex is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention. Check out Alex's article here: https://www.sapiens.org/culture/transphobia-myths/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 continues with Matt Kennard and Claire Provost on their Bloomsbury book, "Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy." This interview originally aired on May 16th. Check out "Silent Coup" here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/silent-coup-9781350269989/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 continues with historian Jo Guldi on her Boston Review article, "The Earth for Man," on land redistribution which is adapted from her Yale University Press book, "The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights." Following the interview, we read the rest of your answers to the Question from Hell and select our favorite of the week and Sebastian Wuepper delivers another timely Past Inside the Present. Check out Jo's article here: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-earth-for-man/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Best of 2023 continues with our October interview with Alan Guebert who had just posted the The Baffler Magazine article, “Farmed Out: American agriculture is about business, not food.” Plus, a Moment of Truth with Jeffrey Dorchen and your answers to the week's Question from Hell! Check out Alan's article here: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/farmed-out-guebert Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel joins This Is Hell! to discuss her essay on the Palestinian liberation, "'We Cannot Cross Until We Carry Each Other.'" After the interview, the we read the first batch of your answers to the Question from Hell, followed by Rotten History. Check out Arielle's article here: https://jewishcurrents.org/we-cannot-cross-until-we-carry-each-other Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Our Best of 2023 series continues with Stefania Maurizi, an investigative journalist currently contributing to the major Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano after working for the last 14 years for la Repubblica, consistently rated among the top two Italian newspapers, and for the italian newsmagezine l’Espresso. She has worked with Julian Assange and his organization WikiLeaks since 2009, teaming up with large teams of international media to cover and investigate all of WikiLeaks' secret documents. Stefania speaks with host Chuck Mertz about her book "Secret Power: WikiLeaks and Its Enemies" recently published by Pluto Press: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745347615/secret-power/ After the interview, more of your answers to the Question from Hell and a Moment of Truth from Jeff Dorchen. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Today's episode features our second-most played interview of 2023, according to SoundCloud's data. Reporter, public records requester, researcher Julia Rock joins us to discuss her article at The Lever, "How Big Pharma Actually Spends Its Massive Profits: New research shows that pharmaceutical companies have spent more on enriching shareholders than drug research and development over the past decade." After the interview, we read more of your answers to this week's Question from Hell and an all-new installment of Rotten History from Renaldo Migaldi. Check out Julia's article here: https://www.levernews.com/how-big-pharma-actually-spends-its-massive-profits/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Back by popular demand in our Best of 2023 series: Journalist Christopher Ketcham who co-wrote The Intercept piece, "The Shutdown of “Luxury Emissions” Should Be at the Center of Climate Revolt." After that, Sebastian Wuepper returns with a new The Past Inside the Present. Check out Christopher's article here: https://theintercept.com/2022/12/13/climate-protest-private-jets-schiphol-airport/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Brian Mier returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his recent publication, "Anticorruption and Imperialist Blind Spots: The Role of the United States in Brazil’s Long Coup," in Latin American Perspectives. This is the first peer-reviewed study confirming that the United States played a crucial role in Brazil's long coup, which threw the left out of power in 2016 and brought about far-right rule in 2018 under the guise of anti-corruption. After that, the rest of your answers to the Question from Hell, including the week's winner, and another Moment of Truth from Jeff Dorchen. Check out Brian's article here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0094582X231213614 Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Olivia Riggio on her Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting article, “Blaming Mass Shootings on Mental Illness Doesn’t Address Either Issue: Rationalizing the horrors of a mass shooting by emphasizing the perpetrator’s mental state does little to address the larger issue,” followed by Rotten History. Check out Olivia's article here: https://fair.org/home/blaming-mass-shootings-on-mental-illness-doesnt-address-either-issue/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Christopher Ketcham on his Harper's Magazine article, "The Machine Breaker: Inside the mind of an ‘ecoterrorist’." Then a Past Inside the Present with Sebastian Wuepper. Check out Christopher's article here: https://harpers.org/archive/2023/11/the-machine-breaker/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Kay Gabriel on her n+1 magazine article, "The Anti-Trans Panic and the Crusade Against Teachers: The goal is to crumble popular support for public education." Plus, a Moment of Truth from Jeff Dorchen and Rotten History from Renaldo Migaldi. Check out Kay's article here: https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-anti-trans-panic-and-the-crusade-against-teachers/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Susan Neiman on her The New York Review of Books essay, "Germany on Edge: In recent weeks, Germany’s reflexive defenses of Israel and suppression of its critics have assumed a fevered pitch." Then another installment of The Past Inside the Present with Sebastian Wuepper. Check out Susan's article here: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/03/germany-on-edge-israel-palestine/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Pooja Bhatia Agarwal joins This Is Hell! to discuss her recent Baffler article, "Deadly Strain: How the UN sought to deny its role in Haiti’s cholera epidemic." Plus, another dose of Rotten History from Renaldo Migaldi. Check out Pooja's article here: https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/deadly-strain-bhatia Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Intercept's Nick Turse joins This Is Hell! to discuss his just-published report, "Civilian Harm Secret Pentagon Investigation Found No One at Fault in Drone Strike That Killed Woman and 4-Year-Old." In the undeclared drone war, nobody is accountable. Check out Nick's report here: https://theintercept.com/2023/11/12/somalia-drone-strike-civilian-deaths/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Saree Makdisi returns to discuss his n+1 article, "No Human Being Can Exist: How can a person make up for seven decades of misrepresentation and willful distortion in the time allotted to a sound bite?” Then, Sebastian Wuepper returns with a new The Past Inside the Present. Check out Saree's article: https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/no-human-being-can-exist/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Bloomberg's Faye Flam on her Noema Magazine article, “The 'Man the Hunter' Myth Won't Go Away: Persistent myths about strictly defined social roles for humans in the past only limit what it means to be part of society today.” Also, a 'Moment of Truth' from Jeffrey Dorchen. Check out Faye's article here: https://www.noemamag.com/the-man-the-hunter-myth-wont-go-away/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Shane Burley on his writing at Waging Nonviolence on white nationalists manipulating the Gaza crisis. Plus 'Rotten History.' Check out Shane's article, "How the far right is trying to manipulate the crisis in Gaza": https://wagingnonviolence.org/2023/11/far-right-try-manipulate-gaza-crisis/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

We had to reschedule today's guest, Nick Turse, whose article on American drone strikes and civilian casualties in Somalia remains to be published. We will let you know when that interview will take place as soon as we know. Today's episode features a timely interview from our archives. On February 15, 2015, just months after Israel's last invasion of Gaza, Middle East scholar Norman Finkelstein joined This Is Hell! to discuss the mechanisms of Israeli occupation, and the internal politics that sustain the country’s periodic massacres in Palestine. He is the author of the then-recently published book, _Method and Madness: The Hidden Story of Israel’s Assaults on Gaza_ from OR Books. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

George Monbiot returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his recent article, "The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People: The astonishing story of how a movement’s quest for rural simplicity drifted into a formula for mass death." Check out George's article here: https://www.monbiot.com/2023/10/04/the-cruel-fantasies-of-well-fed-people/ Jeff Dorchen plays the Jew card in his latest Moment of Truth. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Sophia Goodfriend discusses her Baffler article, "Blunt Force: 'Precision' warfare does not exist," on the war in #Gaza. Also, 'The Past Inside the Present" with Seb Wüpper on Money.

Center for Economic and Policy Research's Mark Weisbrot on his article, "Ecuador’s Election Could Have Lasting Consequences," which was originally posted at Common Dreams: https://www.cepr.net/ecuadors-election-could-have-lasting-consequences/ Also, Jeffrey Dorchen with a 'Moment of Truth,' and we are announcing this week's Question from Hell! winner. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Institute for Policy Studies' Phyllis Bennis on her recent writing, “As Israel and Gaza erupt, the US must commit to ending the violence — all the violence,” at The Hill and, “Both Israelis and Palestinians Are Victims of Israel’s Apartheid System," at InsideSources. We will also have this week's Hangover Cure, Question from Hell, and Rotten History. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Karen Greenberg, Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, joins This is Hell! to discuss her latest article, "Closing Guantánamo?: Yes, at a Snail's Pace...but a Pace," published in TomDispatch. Seb returns with another installment of The Past Inside the Present. Check out her article here: https://tomdispatch.com/closing-guantanamo/ Check out the United Nations 2023 special report on GITMO here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-terrorism/us-and-guantanamo-detention-facility Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

openDemocracy's Chrissy Stroop on Twitter's death and what it means for the 2024 presidential election, and anti-trans activists taking a page from the anti-abortion movement's winning playbook. Also, a note about Gaza and Chuck's adventures with media polls.

Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel joins This Is Hell! to discuss her essay on current state of the Palestinian liberation movement, "'We Cannot Cross Until We Carry Each Other.'" Check out Arielle's article here: https://jewishcurrents.org/we-cannot-cross-until-we-carry-each-other Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Hadas Thier returns to talk about her Jacobin article, "The Rot of the Crypto Economy Goes Deeper Than Sam Bankman-Fried." Check out the article here: https://jacobin.com/2023/08/crypto-economy-sam-bankman-fried-bitcoin-ftx-scam After the interview, Jeff Dorchen returns with a new Moment of Truth Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Agricultural journalist Alan Guebert joins This is Hell! to discuss the historical roots, current state, and future of the United States' food production system. Check out Alan's Baffler article, "Farmed Out: American Agriculture Is About Business, Not Food": https://thebaffler.com/salvos/farmed-out-guebert Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Writer Jessa Crispin rejects today's mainstreamed, neoliberal feminism, and calls for a return to feminism's radical promise: as a sharp-edged, outsider's social critique, as a challenge to the supremacy of capitalism, and as a path towards a radically reorganized society. Jessa wrote the book Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto from Melville House.

Journalist Sarah Sunshine Manning discusses the politics of indigenous feminism - both inside today's Women's movement, and as a longer historical force in resistance to settler colonialism and environmental destruction - and calls on social movements to recognize, respect and listen to the voices of Native American women. Sarah wrote the article No Indigenous Women, No Women's Movement for Truthdig. Writer and Bitch Media co-founder Andi Zeisler explores 50 years of tension between feminism and capitalism in popular culture, and explains how mass media has adapted and amplified the language of empowerment, but in a depoliticized form in service of selling products, and why she's hopeful that a young generation of connected girls and women can reclaim feminism's radical, libratory potential. Andi is author of We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement from PublicAffairs.

Law scholar Aya Gruber examines the intersection of gender crime and criminal law in the mass incarceration era - and explains how 'tough on crime' policies towards domestic violence expanded the policing, surveillance and punishment of marginalized communities, amplifying the harm faced by victims and their families. Aya is author of the book The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women's Liberation in Mass Incarceration from University of California Press. Historian Donna Murch recalls the effects of the Clinton political partnership on Black America during the 1990s - from landmark legislation gutting welfare and expanding incarceration, to their conscious courting of White voters through dog-whistle politics - and analyzes the factors behind Hillary Clinton's political support from Black America in 2016. Donna contributed to the Verso Books collection False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton, extracted as the piece The Clintons’ War on Drugs: When Black Lives Didn’t Matter for The New Republic.

Samuel Moyn, author of, “Liberalism against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times" Plus, Jeffrey Dorchen with a 'Moment of Truth,' and we're announcing our favorite answer to this week's Question from Hell!

The Intercept's Alice Speri joins This Is Hell! to discuss her report on Ukrainian victims of Russian atrocities being seen as collaborators. Then a Moment of Truth from Jeff Dorchen. Check out Alice's article, "Enemies Within A Ukrainian Woman Protected Her Daughter From Russian Soldiers — and Was Accused of Collaborating With the Enemy" here: https://theintercept.com/2023/09/27/ukraine-russia-war-crimes-sexual-violence-collaborators/

The Intercept's Murtaza Hussain on the Biden administration's role in ousting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for not taking sides in the Russia-Ukraine war, followed by another installment of Rotten History. Check out the article: https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/imran-khan-pakistan-cypher-ukraine-russia/ If you like, share. If you love, support completely listener supported This is Hell! at patreon.com/thisishell

Undark Magazine's Rod McCullom discusses his article, "Robot Police Dogs Are on Patrol, But Who’s Holding the Leash? Numerous cities have acquired dog-like robots for policing. Researchers say the lack of transparency is worrying." Another installment of 'The Past Inside the Present' from Dr. Seb Wüpper, this time on the Boxer Rebellion.

Kimberlé Crenshaw joins This is Hell! to discuss her new book, “#SayHerName: Black Women’s Stories of Police Violence and Public Silence” (Haymarket Books). Then, another dose of Rotten History from Renaldo Migaldi. Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell

Liza Featherstone on her In These Times article, "New York Socialists Won Big On Climate. How Did It Happen?: We don’t have to settle for neoliberal half-measures." Seb looks inside history's most devastating civil war.

Chuck interviews Truthout's Kelly Hayes on the article she co-wrote the Boston Review essay with past guest Mariame Kaba, “How Much Discomfort Is the Whole World Worth?: Movement building requires a culture of listening—not mastery of the right language.” Jeff returns with a Moment of Truth in which he travels back 39 years to revisit his visit to Morocco.

Chuck interviews Garrison Lovely on his article at The Nation Magazine, "Confessions of a McKinsey Whistleblower: Inside the soul-crushing, morally bankrupt, top-secret world of our most powerful consulting firm." Check out the article here: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/mckinsey-whistleblower-confessions/ Today's episode also features a new installment of Rotten History by Renaldo Migaldi. Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell