Invent The Future

Dan from Work Stoppage and Red Game Table tells us about the chilling history of the US and its intelligence apparatuses' collaboration with the Nazis, including how the CIA took Nazi human experimentation research and ran with it, leading to programs such as MKULTRA. Music: Fonola Band - "Bella Ciao" Phil Ochs - "I Ain't Marching Anymore" The Mountain Goats - "Maybe Sprout Wings" Frederic Mercier - "Spirit" Sources: Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War by Christopher Simpson Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ Warfare Tests Over Populated Areas by Leonard Cole Trading with the Enemy: An Exposé of the Nazi-American Money Plot, 1933-1949 by Charles Higham Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair The Search For the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control by John Marks https://jeff-kaye.medium.com/a-real-flood-of-bacteria-and-germs-communications-intelligence-and-charges-of-u-s-4decafdc762 https://www.liberationschool.org/fascist-plots-in-the-u-s-contemporary-lessons-from-the-1934-business-plot/ https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/sirhan-sirhan

Eilex, Taylor, and Ethan look back on the year, going through the major events of each month and going on some longer digressions about COVID-19 vaccine backlash, critical race theory, the hope of labor struggle, and how easy it was to assassinate world leaders a hundred years ago. Outro music: "Auld Lang Syne," Alexandrov Ensemble

In this episode originally intended to be recorded and released before Halloween, we go over the social/political trends undergirding 90 years of US horror cinema decade by decade. Eilex shares a few frightening Latin American folktales and their ideological basis in colonization, and Jeremy talks about No One Gets Out Alive (2021) and the messages behind it. James Bell, “US Horror Film and the Capitalist Crisis (1974–1985)”, ep 1 of Prolekult Mark Steven, Splatter Capital Susan Sontag, “The Imagination of Disaster”, Commentary Magazine

This is a non-standard ITF episode because we had Jeremy back but we didn't have anything prepared, so we did an off-the-cuff roundup of the state of things, including blowing off steam about COVID, reading some absurd financial press opinions on China, and brainstorming timely bumper stickers. This one's all over the place, but we'll be back to providing thoughtful and researched content next time! Any opinions shared by ITF members on this episode do not represent the views of ITF or its members. Outro music: "Motherless Child," Romare

ITF's first in-person episode! As a result, Eilex, Taylor, and Ethan have a wide-ranging and somewhat freeform discussion about happiness, what it means, how it's measured, and why capitalist ideology wants to quantify it. Outro: "It Was A Good Day", Ice Cube

We interview conservationist Jules Jackson about the field of conservation, its relationship with corporations and its use in global capital, the narratives involved in eco-tourism, and how solving environmental problems is framed as an individual responsibility. [EDITOR'S NOTES: 1. To supplement the recommendations at the end, we would also suggest participating in mass organizations and/or socialist parties and either finding what they're already doing related to the environment or finding new ways to do that work in those organizations. 2. Jules let us know afterwards that Jeremy Davidson was three years old, and the company was A&G Coal Corporation.] You can reach Jules at JacksonJV@hollins.edu for comments or further questions! Outro: "4 Degrees," ANOHNI Suggested reading: Brockington & Duffy, ed. Capitalism and Conservation. Graf von Hardenberg, Kelly, Leal, & Walkild. ed. The Nature State: Rethinking the History of Conservation Scott, James C. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance https://bluevirginia.us/2020/11/delegate-sam-rasoul-calls-for-decisive-action-to-cancel-the-mountain-valley-pipeline http://www.collegiatetimes.com/opinion/lobbying-from-the-appalachian-mountains-to-washington-d-c/article_37288270-ad04-11eb-ac25-f7bfb6824fd8.html https://roanoke.com/photo/photos-tech-professor-locks-self-to-mountain-valley-pipeline-construction/collection_b4ec55ad-77d1-54c5-a0a1-dec140b67443.html https://all-med.net/pdf/our-roots-run-deep-as-ironweed/ https://appvoices.org/2021/04/16/tree-sitters-removed-mvp/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/moving-mountains/ https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4489461 https://measurepnw.com/blog/what-is-greenwashing-a-nestl%C3%A9-case-study https://www.jstor.org/journal/conssoci https://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/joe https://antipodeonline.org/ Examples of bad things: https://www.corvuscoffee.com/blogs/news https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mygsb/faculty/research/pubfiles/5477/corporate%20environmentalism.pdf

Savanah and Alekx cover a bit of the history of racism within the US medical field. A LOT is covered here, from medical training to prejudice in doctors to the concept of IQ and much more. This gets graphic at points, so please use caution. Related/Suggested Reading: Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology - Robert V. Guthrie Racism and Psychiatry: Contemporary Issues and Interventions - Morgan Medlock, Derri Shtasel, Nhi-Ha T. Trinh, and David Williams https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/4/10/holden-chapel-history-cadavers/ https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bodies-in-the-basement-the-forgotten-bones-of-america-s-medical-schools https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gory-new-york-city-riot-shaped-american-medicine-180951766/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-need-cadavers-19th-century-medical-students-raided-baltimores-graves-180970629/ https://todayincthistory.com/2021/01/12/january-12-yale-body-snatching-triggers-week-of-rioting-in-new-haven/ US Surgeons’ Perceptions of Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care - Britton, et al Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present - Harriet A. Washington https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/medicaleducation/87171 Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites - Hoffman, et al "Microaggressions in Everyday Life" by Derald Wing Sue "Racism and Psychological and Emotional Injury: Recognizing and Assessing Race-Based Traumatic Stress" by R. Carter (2007) "Stigma, Prejudice, Discrimination, and Health" J. Stuber, I. Meyer, & B. Link (2008) "Cognitive and Affective Expectation of Stigma, Coping Efficacy, and Psychological Distress Among Sexual Minority People of Color" by Ouch & Moradi (2019) Putting Mendel in His Place: How Curriculum Reform in Genetics and Counterfactual History of Science Can Work Together - Jamieson and Radick Learned Inequality: Racial Labels in the Biology Curriculum Can Affect Racial Prejudice - Donovan Podcast Episodes: "Racism in Medicine and the Covid-19 Vaccine"- We the (Black) People "Racism in Medicine & Healthcare: Dr. Callistus Ditah" - From Where Does it STEM? "Antiracism in Medicine Series Episode 2: Dismantling Race-Based Medicine Part 1"- The Clinical Problem Solvers

In this free-ranging and discursive discussion, Alekx, Eilex, and Ethan talk about Western films (cowboy movies, not the whole capitalist cultural category) and how they portray Mexico and Mexicans, how the films launder settler Manifest Destiny and settler-colonialism, how gender is depicted and reified through the films, and US perceptions of citizenry, property, and morality are all mixed in with the ideas they contain. It goes all over the place. Yee haw. Suggested reading/viewing: Black, Liza. Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941-1960. Hernández, Kelly Lytle. Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol Molina, Natalia. How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts Diamond, Neil & Bainbridge, Catherine & Hayes, Jeremiah. dirs. Reel Injun: On The Trail of the Hollywood Indian. 2009. Ford, John. dir. Stagecoach. 1939 Leone, Sergio. dir. Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars). 1964 McLagen, Andrew. dir. The Shadow Riders. 1982 Peckinpah, Sam. dir. The Wild Bunch. 1969 Sturges, John. dir. The Magnificent Seven. 1960

Ethan goes over the history of the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic from French colonization up until about present day, and Alekx describes modern Laos and its struggles and achievements. Outro: "Lao People's Party / ພັກປະຊາຊົນ ປະຕິວັດລາວ" Sources / Suggested reading (As always, remember that bourgeois sources we list here should be read very critically) https://liberationschool.org/mung-lao-a-portrait-of-the-lao-peoples-democratic-republic/ Blum, William. Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions since World War II. Evans, Grant. A Short History of Laos: The Land Between. "Laos." Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, edited by Melissa Sue Hill, 14th ed., vol. 4: Asia & Oceania, Gale, 2017, pp. 489-504. https://socialistvoice.ie/2018/05/laos-building-the-foundations-of-socialism/ https://thediplomat.com/2016/09/laos-reform-or-revolution/ Noonan R. (2020) Summary and Conclusions. In: Noonan R. (eds) Education in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 51. Springer, Singapore. Timothy Alan Wittick, Ketsomsouk Bouphavanh, Vannyda Namvongsa, Amphay Khounthep & Amy Gray (2019) Medical education in Laos, Medical Teacher, 41:8, 877-882, DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2018.1552780 Recommended by a comrade: For regional news, check out The Isaan Record, a publication from ethnic Lao in Thailand, and DinDeng, a Thai publication that covers regional politics.

In this collaboration with The Tolerant Left, we're in full cultural theory mode to talk about all manner of spooky topics: the nature of where many fears come from, the gendered and racialized aspects of fear, portrayals of mental illness in horror films, and a long discussion of the history and portrayal of witches and witchcraft! Big content warning for discussions of sexual assault and trauma. Outro: Talking Heads, "Psycho Killer" For comments or questions, send an email to inventthefuturepod@gmail.com or hit us up on twitter!

In this wide-ranging episode first part of a two-part series, Ethan talks about the history of fossil fuel extraction and how it has shaped global capitalism. We're still recording remotely and dealing with audio issues, so please excuse points of poor audio quality. Outro: "III. Speech" from Anthracite Fields, Julia Wolfe Suggested reading: Andrews, Thomas G. Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War Malm, Andreas. Fossil CapitalMitchell, Timothy. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil

William and Ethan explain the history and various missions of Interkosmos, the program that sent socialist cosmonauts from all over the world into space on Soviet ships. Outro: Sun Ra, "Interstellar Low Ways" Further Reading:  Burgess, Colin & Bert Vis. Interkosmos: The Eastern Bloc's Early Space ProgramCaswell, Kurt. Laika's Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog.Petrov, G.I. (Ed.), Conquest of Outer Space in the USSR

No June episode! Instead, enjoy this talk from Angela Davis in 1972: "Oppression and Repression in the US" at California State University - Fullerton.

In this wide-ranging episode, we talk about some specific examples of art used in a communist and/or revolutionary setting throughout history. Taylor teaches us about how the Western kitchen developed and discusses the socialist perspective on the kitchen/cooking, Eilex talks about Mexican muralists during and after the Mexican Revolution, Ethan talks about the Siege of Leningrad and the circumstances around the performance of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, Alekx discusses radical Asian-American newspaper Gidra, and William discusses Russian Futurism and Soviet Constructivism. Further Reading: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/mexican-muralism/ Amaro, Fernando Sampaio. 2004. Mexican mural movement: Myths and mythmakers. Ph.D. diss., Universidade do Algarve (Portugal) (got this from school) "The History of Art, Pt. 1" - Proles of the Round Table https://thewire.in/history/leningrad-symphony-siege-world-war-two-germany-russia https://museumstudiesabroad.org/olga-bergholz-biography/ https://medium.com/@bounddv/a-woman-you-should-know-olga-berggolts-b2f4834ec4f8 Salisbury, Harrison. The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. Adamovich, Ales & Daniil Granin. Leningrad Under Siege: First-hand Accounts of the Ordeal. http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/great-patriotic-war-and-siege-of-leningrad/ https://www.topic.com/the-forgotten-zine-of-1960s-asian-american-radicals Instagram.com/andria_does_art Instagram.com/prolemex Outro music: Confessions Pt. III, Badbadnotgood & Colin Stetson

We discuss what's on everyone's mind: COVID-19 and the various responses to it around the world. We talk about the current timeline, talk about how states deal with pandemics, go over some some historical responses of socialist countries to various plagues and pandemics, and discuss a number of other plague-related topics. Someday we'll all record in the same room, which will change the interpersonal dynamics and the audio quality, but until then, come along with us as we figure out this new project. Sources:   “How the Soviet Union coped with the epidemic of smallpox in 19 days” - http://csef.ru/en/politica-i-geopolitica/326/kak-sssr-spravilsya-s-epidemiej-chernoj-ospy-za-19-dnej-9106 “40 years without smallpox” - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5762823/ Murrey, Amber, ed. A Certain Amount of Madness: The Life, Politics, and Legacies of Thomas Sankara Foucault, Michel; History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 Gillon, R; "Refusal to Treat AIDS and HIV Positive Patients" https://www.vox.com/2015/8/23/9191907/hurricane-katrina https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/us/puerto-rico-earthquakes-fema.htm https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/us/fema-puerto-rico-maria.html Camus, Albert. The Plague Case report on first covid-19 case in the US: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191?fbclid=IwAR1osuo9jHmhMtt8FXpsh8iZ_ewvCC1dWPqzv5nSdXooYqLDQoGzixjGQDs Cuba MenB vaccine: https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/americas/cuba/4086-cf200815 More MenB vaccine info:https://www.liberationnews.org/cuba-not-britain-pioneered-meningitis-b-vaccinations/ Interferon alpha 2b: https://www.liberationnews.org/cubas-contribution-to-combating-covid-19/ Huoshenshan hospital: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-s-coronavirus-hospital-built-10-days-opens-its-doors-n1128531 Covid timeline Brookings: https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-federal-governments-coronavirus-actions-and-failures-timeline-and-themes/ Covid timeline Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-timeline-history-major-events-2020-3#january-13-the-first-coronavirus-case-outside-of-china-was-reported-in-thailand-5 Covid timeline Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_from_November_2019_to_January_2020#cite_note-243 Covid timeline Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/07/timeline-trumps-coronavirus-response-is-increasingly-damning/ WHO starts multinational covid drug trials: https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/18/who-to-launch-multinational-trial-to-jumpstart-search-for-coronavirus-drugs/ Covid 19 world map by Johns Hopkins University: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 Cuba and China provide support to Italy: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/25/821345465/for-help-on-coronavirus-italy-turns-to-china-russia-and-cuba China donates medical supplies to New York: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/29/823543513/project-airbridge-to-expedite-arrival-of-needed-supplies-white-house-says What the US can learn from China’s covid response: https://www.barrons.com/articles/what-the-u-s-can-learn-from-chinas-response-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-51584699300 More actions China took to slow covid: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/china-s-aggressive-measures-have-slowed-coronavirus-they-may-not-work-other-countries Even more details on Chinese covid response: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00741-x