#1689 The Media and the Moguls: Corporate Media is not equipped for Trump
Air Date: 2-7-2025
Transcript
Trump came in with a plan to subdue the media and large swaths of the media came in with a plan to acquiesce. But it's important to understand why because it's not a conspiracy or people wanting to do harm, it's structural to the system.
Read more#1688 International Decline: The Old Is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born
Air Date: 2-4-2025
The era of unquestioned US hegemony is undoubtedly on the decline but the future is much more complicated and uncertain than the straightforward idea of China rising to take our place that we've been told. Though Trump is not the cause of US decline, he may send us out in a tragic blaze of glory.
Read more#1685 Faux Populism and Neoliberalism: Working People Are Stuck Between Oligarchy and Disregard
Air Date: 1-21-2025
Decades ago, the conscious decision was made to exacerbate inequality for the sake of economic growth that would supposedly lift all boats. What probably wasn't understood at the time is that the logical conclusion of that choice would be to break democracy and usher in oligarchy. Now working people are left with only bad choices and empty promises.
Read more#1683 Oligarchy Unmasked: President Musk, the crackup of capitalism, and the MAGA meltdown
Air Date: 1-15-2025
Elon Musk is leading the way for his class of tech broligarchs anxious to take over the MAGA movement and shape it to their own ends of deregulation, tax cuts, and lucrative government contracts. The disappointment that is inevitable for the MAGA populists is coming even faster than expected.
Read more#1680 The US puts the Hell in Health Care: For-profit insurance, Pharma, and the hatred and conspiracies they breed
Air Date: 1-4-2025
The murder of a health insurance CEO being met with widespread approval and the risk of going backward on life-saving vaccines pretty much sums up the current state of our approach to health care in this country.
Read more#1554 Destroying Education and Democracy for Fun and Profit (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 4–19-2023
Today, we take a look at the history and present of the interconnected movements to privatize education and dismantle democracy.
Read more#1566 Wrestling with Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 6–13-2023
Today, we take a look at the struggle to act ethically, at least by our own measure if there's not a universally agreed standard to compare with, relating to the purchase of both the necessities of life we all need as well as the more luxury items that get added on top.
Read more#1677 Dems Can't Have Their Billionaires and Beat Them Too: The politics of anti-elitism
Air Date: 12-17-2024
Changing the direction of a political party doesn't happen overnight and it usually takes a major disrupting event to shake it out of its well-wore groove. The loss of the Harris campaign to Trump and the evident desperation people have for a new economics that works for people might finally be enough to put Democrats on track to a more full-throated support of economic populism.
Read more#1669 Private Equity: The worst of capitalism, amplified
Air Date: 11-12-2024
It's easy enough to look into one industry at a time to see what's going wrong, but today we're looking at what is so often lurking in the background of higher prices, lower quality goods and services, and, ultimately, many failing businesses: Private Equity.
Read more#1543 Capitalism doesn't live up to the hype (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 2–14-2023
Today, we take a look at some origins, alternatives and misunderstandings of capitalism from the Dutch East India Company, to Adam Smith and up through the planned obsolescence and marketing that have tricked us all into working far harder than necessary while failing to make us happy.
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