This Is Hell!

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

Cherise Morris on the Truthout article, "To Build an Abolitionist Future, We Must Look to Indigenous Pasts: Worlds without police and without prisons have already existed, predating colonization and slavery." Seb starts a series of exploring the Century of Humiliation, which is what the Chinese sometimes call the nineteenth century. Learn about the Opium Wars.

Amanda Moore on her article at The Nation, “Undercover with the New Alt-Right: For 11 months, I pretended to be a far-right extremist. I discovered a radical youth movement trying to infiltrate the Republican Party.” And Jeff Dorchen flies the dogwhistling skies.

Professor of communications and director of gender studies at the University of Arkansas Lisa M. Corrigan joins Chuck to discuss the neoliberal dismantling of the University of West Virginia--a harbinger of a return to a tuition-based, legacy-first, exclusive educational order for all of American higher education. Check out her article, "The Evisceration of a Public University," in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/wvu-cuts-higher-education/ Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell

Hugh Ryan on his Boston Review article, "Who’s Afraid of Social Contagion?: Our ideas about sexuality and gender have changed before, and now they’re changing again." Jeff Dorchen shares another Moment of Truth. Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell

Matthew King on his New Republic article, “Big Tech’s Waste ‘Solutions’ Are a Scam." https://newrepublic.com/article/173780/big-techs-waste-solutions-scam Also, 'This Week in Rotten History.' Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell

Clark Randall on his Boston Review article, "Bond Villains: How a little-understood feature of urban finance—municipal bonds—fuels racial inequality." Sebastian looks at how the United States ended up with a drinking age most other countries laugh at - and what that means for Americans. Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Baffler's George Scialabba on his latest article, "Kudzu: The kingdom of private equity." Support This is Hell! at https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Geographer Katie J. Wells joins Chuck to discuss Uber's takeover of urban transportation. Wells is the author of Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City with Kafui Attoh and Declan Cullen from Princeton University Press. Sebastian Wuepper returns with another Past Inside The Present. In this segment, Sebastian historicizes the ongoing catastrophe in Hawai'i. If you can, please consider donating to victims of the wildfires, many of whom lost everything. Here are some ways you can help: https://www.instagram.com/lahaina_ohana_venmo/ https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/strengthening/maui-strong-fund https://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lExatubPl6zvsDcy4qUd3Sv1PvvKrzMhUyOzaKuId0o/htmlview#gid=194434303 https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kokuamaui https://mauifoodbank.org/donate/

Chucks describes his recent family vacation. Raina Lipsitz discuses her Verso Books title, "The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics." Rotten History of the 1953 coup d’état in Iran.

We return to Hell today with Gerald Horne, on his new book “Revolting Capital: Racism & Radicalism in Washington, D.C., 1900-2000” (International Publishers, 2023).

Chuck interviews historian Gerald Horne on his 2022 book from International Publishers, The Counter-Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery, Jim Crow, and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. Please show your appreciation for completely listener-supported This is Hell! by becoming a Patreon patron at patreon.com/thisishell

Historian Gerald Horne on the intertwined histories of boxing and Black men under the long reach of slavery, White supremacy and capitalist exploitation in the American 20th century, and his book The Bittersweet Science: Racism, Racketeering and the Political Economy of Boxing from International Publishers. Please show your appreciation for completely listener-supported This is Hell! by becoming a Patreon patron at patreon.com/thisishell

Historian Gerald Horne explores the terrains of race, religion, capital and slavery across the 16th century trans-Atlantic world - as European powers pillaged Africa and the Americas of both people and resources, their destruction created the enduring formations of life in the 21st century - White supremacy and rapacious capitalism. Gerald is author of the book The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century from Monthly Review Press. Please show your appreciation for completely listener-supported This is Hell! by becoming a Patreon patron at patreon.com/thisishell

Historian Gerald Horne explores the intersection of White supremacy, Cold War politics and global liberation movements in southern Africa - as the struggle against colonialism and apartheid oriented itself within the larger conflict between capitalist and socialist states, the ANC and solidarity movements won major (but compromised and incomplete) victories against regimes of racial and economic exploitation. Gerald is author of White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-Communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela from International Publishers. Please show your appreciation for completely listener-supported This is Hell! by becoming a Patreon patron at patreon.com/thisishell

While Chuck is away for the next two weeks in Northern Michigan on the annual family vacation, producer Will Ippen is holding down the fort. This episode features the first of six This is Hell! interviews with prolific historian and listener favorite Gerald Horne. This interview features a discussion of the roots of white supremacy in 17th century settler colonialism in North America as revealed in Horne's 2018 book The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean. Gerald Horne is the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews that document the history of racism as it intersects with labor, civil rights, politics, international relations, and war. Please show your appreciation for completely listener-supported This is Hell! by becoming a Patreon patron at patreon.com/thisishell

Ben Makuch discusses his recent Intercept report titled " Russian Militia Has Links to American Neo-Nazi and Anti-Trans Figures: The leader of the anti-Putin Russian Volunteer Corps is publicly connected to Robert Rundo and Christopher Pohlhaus." After the interview, a Question from Hell! winner is revealed and Jeff Dorchen remembers when we tried civilization in his latest Moment of Truth. Support This is Hell! at https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Center for Economic and Policy Research's Jake Johnston on his opinion piece at The New York Times, “The U.S. Still Can Do What’s Right for Haiti.” Afterwards, Rotten History explores the Erfurt Latrine Disaster. Support This is Hell! at https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Writer, theorist, and recovering academic Sophie Lewis returns to Hell to discuss her Baffler article, “The Good Enough Momfluencer: Disavowing maternal fantasies is easier said than done.” The article is a review of the book, “Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture,” by Sara Peterson. Peterson’s website says she writes about feminism, domesticity, and motherhood. Peterson also writes a newsletter about the myth of the ideal mother, ‘In Pursuit of Clean Countertops.’ Read Sophie’s article: https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-good-enough-momfluencer-lewis This is Sophie’s third appearance on This is Hell! She was on the show most recently in October of last year, 2022, to discuss her book, “Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation.” You may also remember Sophie being on the show back in July 2019 to talk about her book, “Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family.” Not only were both those interviews selected by listeners as among the best of each year – and replayed during our end of year ‘Best of’ special broadcasts – but you can find both conversations by going to thisishell.com and searching on ‘Lewis,’ and, as always, they are free. Sophie is currently hard at work on a book for Haymarket on enemy feminisms. Sophie’s lectures are archived at lasophielle.org. Follow Sophie on Twitter at (at)reproutopia and support her work at patreon.com/reproutopia Support This is Hell! at https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Today's episode features an interview with This Is Hell! regular Brian Mier. Brian updates Chuck on what the US corporate media has been getting wrong about Brazil. We also have the second of a two-part Moment of Truth from Jeff Dorchen. Brian Mier is a Chicagoan who immigrated to Brazil in the 1990s. He is a sociologist and geographer. He is also Brazil Correspondent for TeleSur English, co-host of Globalistas on TV 247, Brasilwire, FAIR, COHA, Truthdig, Geopolitical Economy Report, Carta Capital, Outras Palavras. Support This is Hell! on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Michael Gould-Wartofsky on his TomDispatch article, "American Inquisition: Field Notes from the Frontlines of the Government's War on the Left," which also appeared at Salon. Michael Gould-Wartofsky is a writer, ethnographer, and human-rights activist from New York City and a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University. He is the author of The Occupiers and American Inquisitions (forthcoming in 2025), and has written for the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, Tom Dispatch, Gizmodo, Jacobin, Mother Jones, The Nation, and Newsweek. You can read more of his work at mgouldwartofsky.com. Also included: Rotten History about the Port of Chicago disaster. Support This is Hell! on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

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. M.E. co-edits two magazines, Pinko, on gay communism, and Parapraxis, on psychoanalytic theory and politics. Her work on family abolition has been translated into Chinese, German, Greek, French, Spanish, and Turkish. Her writing has been published by Work, Employment and Society, Social Movement Studies, Endnotes, Homintern, Commune, and Invert. Previously, she coordinated the New York City Trans Oral History Project, and worked in HIV and AIDS activism and services. She completed a PhD at NYU, where she wrote on how capitalism shaped New York City LGBTQ social movements. Find her on twitter (at)genderhorizon and at her website https://genderhorizon.com/ Support This is Hell! on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Today's interview features Umar Farooq, author of the article, "‘The fight for our lives’: Arizona’s water regime limits the Hopi Tribe’s future" published in High Country News in collaboration with ProPublica. Umar Farooq is Umar Farooq is an Ancil Payne Fellow with ProPublica. Check out the article here: https://www.hcn.org/issues/55.7/indigenous-affairs-water-the-fight-for-our-lives-arizona-water-regime-limits-the-hopi-tribes-future See more ProPublica reporting on indigenous Americans' fight for the promised resource of water here: https://www.propublica.org/series/waiting-for-water

Maya Schenwar returns to discuss her Truthout article, “Right-Wingers Push Death Penalty Reinstatement Bills as Part of Hardline Agenda: The same forces that are attacking abortion, trans health care and racial justice are also pushing for more executions." Maya Schenwar is a writer, editor, journalist and organizer who has spent the last 20 years working tosculpt new ways for journalism to serve the public good and fuel social transformation. She spent 13 years as Editor-in-Chief of Truthout, an independent social justice news publication, and is currently the organization’s Editor-at-Large and Board President. Recently, Maya founded the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism. She is the co-author (with Victoria Law) of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (The New Press, July 2020), and the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2014). Both books challenge the ingrained logic of prison and policing that holds our society captive, and share the work of bold and creative efforts to uproot the prison-industrial complex. Maya is also the co-editor (with Joe Macaré and Alana Yu-Lan Price) of Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States, an anthology focused on the entrenched racism and violence of policing and the fight to dismantle that institution. She authored a chapter in The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom, and co-authored a chapter in the anthology Welcome to the Revolution: Universalizing Resistance for Social Justice and Democracy in Perilous Times, with Alana Yu-Lan Price. More info at https://www.mayaschenwar.com/. Also, an episode of "Rotten History."