RABBITHOLE

For our very special 40th episode of Rabbithole, we're taking a break from our current series to interview our very own Pete Davis, who co-wrote, co-directed, and narrated the documentary "Join or Die," ahead of the film's premiere at SXSW this weekend. The documentary is an in-depth look at the works of political scientist Robert Putnam, whose works including 2000's "Bowling Alone" connect the decline in participation in clubs, religious groups, and other social organizations to the present crises in American democracy. In this episode, Dan and Sparky have a chat with Pete about what went into making the documentary, working with Bob, and why it's great to become a 'joiner.'Learn more about 'Join Or Die' at https://putnamdoc.com. If you're in Austin, Texas this weekend, you can watch the film as part of the SXSW Film Festival. If you aren't, stay tuned for the film coming to a film festival or screening near you, or reach out to Pete about organizing a screening for your own club or community group!This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

On today's episode, Pete and Dan talk with Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a sociology Ph.D student at Columbia University studying the politics of American criminalization, about his November 2022 essay "Effective Altruism is a political nightmare," and his critiques of the methods and assumptions behind 'effective' charities, based on his understanding of social science research methods.Read Jonathan's essay on Effective Altruism on his Substack.Follow Jonathan on Twitter at @jbenmenachem and visit his website for more information about his research and writing.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In today's episode, Pete and Dan speak with computer scientist Adly Templeton (@EigenGender on Twitter) about describing herself as 'Kinda EA,' and how her work with large language models and machine learning informs her opinions on today's discourse about 'longtermism' and AI risk as a focus area for many effective altruists.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In today's episode, we invite effective altruist Nathan Young (@nathanpmyoung) on to the podcast to discuss his recently-concluded holiday fundraiser that he conducted with EA-skeptic Émile Torres (as interviewed in Episode #3 of this series), the importance of reëvaluating one's beliefs, prediction markets, future-archy, and "spreadsheet altruism."Visit Nathan's website at nathanpmyoung.comThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

While we line up some more interviews for our Effective Altruism series, Pete and Sparky return down the 'Is School Good' rabbithole to talk with Eleanor Duckworth, professor emeritus at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, developer of the Critical Exploration model of teaching, and author of books including 'The Having of Wonderful Ideas and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning."This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley.

Continuing our investigation of Effective Altruism's skeptics, Pete talks in this solo interview with Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at MIT and author of several books including 2022's Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way. In our conversation, Professor Setiya explains his personal philosophy and outlines his critique of EA's philosophical assumptions.For more information on Professor Setiya, visit his personal website at http://www.ksetiya.net, or find him on Twitter @KieranSetiyaOrder Kieran Setiya's latest book, "Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way," on Bookshop here.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

As we go deeper down the rabbithole of Effective Altruism, it's time to hear from some critical perspectives. Émile Torres, a PhD candidate in philosophy at Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany and author of the forthcoming 'Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation' (Routledge), has been one of the most prominent critics of an increasingly-popular philosophy within the EA community called 'longtermism,' or the idea that current humans have a responsibility to far-off generations of people yet to be born millions of years into the future or further, and that consequentially, problems facing present humanity may not be as bad as they look if they don't threaten our overall survival as a species.In our talk with Émile, we discuss their recent salon.com article examining the recent collapse of EA-aligned billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (AKA SBF) and his crypto exchange FTX in the context of the longtermist philosophy that SBF publicly aligned himself with. Along the way, we talk about the academic discipline of 'eschatology,' or the study of end times, about EA as a philosophy and as a movement, and about the appropriate level of fear that one should have toward so-called 'existential risks.'Émile can be found on Twitter @xriskology. You can visit their website at https://www.xriskology.com.Read Émile's recent Salon.com article about Sam Bankman-Fried, FBX, and longtermism here.Read Émile's Current Affairs piece on longtermism here.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In our second episode of the new series, Pete and Dan have a conversation with their old friend Dylan Matthews, the senior correspondent and head writer for Vox's Future Perfect section, which covers stories about people and institutions trying to do the most good that they can. In the interview, Dylan talks about his personal journey towards thinking of himself as an effective altruist, outlines current debates and challenges within the global EA community, and responds to a few critiques of EA philosophy from unexpected angles.Read Dylan's latest big-picture article on Effective Altruism, published on Future Perfect, here.Read more articles from Future Perfect at https://www.vox.com/future-perfectThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In our first interview in our new series on Effective Altruism, Pete and Dan sit down with philosopher and educator Joshua Kissel, an effective altruist and author of the article "Effective Altruism and Anti-Capitalism: An Attempt at Reconciliation." We discuss the nature of Effective Altruism as a movement and a philosophy, address Kissel's claim that leftist politics and effective altruism are complementary to each other, and consider whether anticapitalist social movements can learn from EA and vice versa.You can find more about Josh and his research at joshuakissel.com.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

We're beginning a new series down the rabbithole! In "Is Effective Altruism Right," Pete, Sparky, and podcast editor Dan Thorn will dive deep into the fast-growing Effective Altruism research field and community. What are the philosophical origins of the movement, and how do those ideals affect individuals' choices to donate money and time towards particular charitable causes? Are preventing global pandemics, ending factory farming, preventing climate change, and preventing artificial intelligence takeover equally relevant causes to support? How does 'longtermism' as proposed by philosophers like William McAskill and Nick Bostrom relate to Effective Altruism as a whole? What does it mean that billionaires like Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk have shown a receptiveness to EA-related causes and ideas, or have professed themselves to be effective altruists outright?As always, we'll be interviewing thinkers from all walks of life, with wildly different perspectives on EA, both supportive and skeptical. As we continue our interview series, we hope to develop our own opinions, find new questions to ask about EA, and uncover deeper rabbitholes to take ourselves, and you the listeners, down!Please reach out if you have suggestions for interviews we should conduct in this series!More on the Noosphere here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoosphereThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

We're hard at work down in the burren, preparing our next interview in the 'Is School Good?' series, but we'll need just a bit more time to have that episode edited.In the meantime, Sparky has recorded Alfred North Whitehead's essay, 'The Aims of Education,' originally delivered as delivered as an address in 1916, and first published in the 1929 book 'The Aims of Education and Other Essays.'This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Pete and Sparky welcome Kevin Mattson, author, educator, and Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History in the Department of History at Ohio University, down the rabbithole to discuss punk rock, the progressive movement, and his newest book, "We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America."Buy "We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America" from Oxford University Press or at your local bookseller.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Editor's note - apologies for any audio dropouts on yesterday's upload! We've gone over everything and it should be all fixed now. Sparky and Pete speak with Jewish educator and Talmud scholar Xava De Cordova, co-host of the Xai, How Are You? Podcast, to discuss the pedagogical possibilities of a queer reading of Talmud.Listen to Xai, How Are You? on Soundcloud, support them on their Patreon, and follow them on Instagram and Twitter.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Pete and Sparky have a chat with Peter Gray, research professor of psychology at Boston College and author of the book "Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life," about the importance of unstructured, adult-free activity in children's social and intellectual development.You can learn more about Professor Gray's books, and read his blog posts, at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/peter-gray-phdThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Pete and Sparky welcome Dan Walden (@dwaldenwrites), freelance writer, educator, and Ph.D candidate in classical philology at the University of Michigan, to discuss his experience as a student at educationally-progressive private primary schools and universities, the positives and negatives of educational canons, and what features his ideal school has in common with a monastery.You can support Dan by buying him a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/danwalden. Music in the Catholicism drop is "GREGORIAN CHANT DUBSTEP REMIX" by Andrea Falaschi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgHclJGCOPYMusic in the Roberto Unger drop is “Ex/DNBD” by techtheist; the song was released under a Creative Commons attribution license.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. 

Pete and Sparky sit down to discuss the first few interviews from the Is School Good? series - what has stuck with them, what questions are left unanswered, and what their experiences as new parents have taught them so far about learning and teaching. Featuring the Rabbithole debut of the Roberto Unger drop.Music in the Roberto Unger drop is “Ex/DNBD” by techtheist; the song was released under a Creative Commons attribution license.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

In today's episode, Sparky is joined by the writer Bertrand Cooper (@_BlackTrash) to talk about his background as both a former unschooler and a graduate student of education policy, and about the advantages of disadvantages of nontraditional forms of education like unschooling compared to the current public school system.Read Bertrand's essay "Who Actually Gets to Create Black Pop Culture?", published in Current Affairs' May/June 2021 issue, here.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

We've hit some technical difficulties in the process of editing our next Is School Good? interview, and that episode will appear late this week. In the meantime, here's Sparky reading Emma Goldman's 1906 essay, "The Child and its Enemies."This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In today's extra-long episode, Sparky and Pete discuss pedagogy, martial arts, and the respective values of tradition and freeform learning with Sam (@LiberationistMA) from the leftist martial arts podcast Southpaw (@Southpawpod). How can instructors express anti-heirarchical and liberatory values in their teaching? How can understanding activities like martial arts instruction - a common after-school activity for children in America and across the globe - provide insight into other forms of education?Find Sam on Twitter at @LiberationistMA and subscribe to Southpaw (@Southpawpod) wherever you get your podcasts.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

We're burrowing back down the MMT rabbithole for a conversation between Sparky and Sam Bell (@samuelwbell), Rhode Island state senator and self-proclaimed 'Vulgar MMTer,' where Sam explains how the principles of MMT can inform state-level government policy, and how states can increase the federal money supply despite not being able to directly print money.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.Find Sparky on Twitter at @sparkyabraham

In our second interview of the Is School Good? series, Sparky and Pete are joined by Derek Gottlieb, assistant professor at the University of Northern Colorado Shool of Teacher Education and author of the book "A Democratic Theory of Educational Accountability: From Test-Based Assessment to Interpersonal Responsibility," to ask one of the biggest questions they can ask: what is school for? How do our methods of schooling reflect our politics and our ideas of what 'a good life' can be?Derek Gottlieb's books, including 2020's "A Democratic Theory of Educational Accountability: From Test-Based Assessment to Interpersonal Responsibility", can be purchased here.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

For the first interview of our new deep dive into school, Sparky sits down with Jack Schneider, Ph. D., associate professor of education at UMass Lowell, author, and cohost of the podcast Have You Heard, to discuss the history of taxpayer-funded public education in America. How did we end up with public school, and what is it supposed to be doing?Listen to Jack's podcast with Jennifer Berkshire, Have You Heard, at haveyouheardpodcast.com.Jack's most recent  book, co-written with Jennifer Berkshire, is A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Education and the Future of School. Read more about the book at wolfattheschoolhousedoor.com.Find more of Jack's information, and links to purchase his books, here. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

Join the Rabbithole crew as they sharpen their #2 pencils, open their three-ring binders, and begin a new deep dive into the topic of education! In this series, hosts Oren Nimni, Sparky Abraham, Vanessa A. Bee, and Pete Davis will discuss the ups and downs of formal education and its alternatives. Is public education good despite it so often being frustrating and unfulfilling to students? *Should* a good education system be occasionally frustrating? What civic value is there to having a shared educational experience? Why are the most 'prestigious' academic institutions often the least strict? Is freedom from compulsory education an anarchist dream or a libertarian nightmare? In this introductory episode, our intrepid hosts start planning how to answer these and other deep questions about the uses and misuses of education.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

In today's episode, Pete and Sparky sit down with Yeva Nersisyan, a Research Scholar at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and an Associate Professor of economics at Franklin and Marshall College, to discuss an MMT-informed approach to making the Green New Deal a reality, and to go over some 'MMT 101'-related questions.Read Yeva Nersisyan and Randall Wray's policy brief "Can We Afford the Green New Deal?" at https://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/can-we-afford-the-green-new-dealThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

Continuing their “Is MMT Real?” discussion series, Pete and Sparky sit down with Trevor Jackson, assistant professor of economic history at George Washington University and author of the forthcoming book Impunity and Capitalism: Afterlives of European Financial Crisis, 1680-1830, about the history of money and critiques of MMT from the left.Read Trevor's Dissent article “Future Monetary Theory” here: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/future-monetary-theoryProfessor Jackson's book Impunity and Capitalism: Afterlives of European Financial Crisis, 1680-1830 is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

Pete and Sparky welcome Colin Drumm (@drumm_colin), a Ph.D candidate in History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz, to discuss critiques of MMT as a theory from the perspective of monetary and economic history.Find more of Colin's critiques of MMT on his Substack: https://trialofthepyx.substack.com/This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

Sparky Abraham and Pete Davis are back with further interviews in the “Is MMT Real?” discussion series! In this episode, Pete and Sparky talk with Solidarity Hall founder Elias Crim (@CrimElias) about his “lost years” as a financial journalist in Chicago, where he witnessed the rise of supply-side economics. We examine the founding myths and pop-cultural resonance of supply-side economics, and consider whether MMT is poised for a similar moment in the mainstream soon. 
Elias Crim's writing can be found at https://solidarityhall.org/contributor/crim-elias/ Listen to Elias and Pete's podcast, Dorothy's Place, at https://solidarityhall.org/podcast/ This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

In this episode, Pete and Sparky discuss what they've learned from their previous eleven interviews, compare where they stand on MMT so far, and look ahead to the questions yet to be answered. This episode was originally published on May 14, 2021 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

The boys speak to Patricia Pino (@PatriciaNPino), Research Fellow at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and co-host of the MMT Podcast, getting into the weeds of inflation, debt, bonds and the other building blocks of economics. This episode was originally published on April 9, 2021 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

Thus far, the MMT series has focused mainly on the United States, home of the world's reserve currency. How would MMT work in the Global South? The boys turn to Fadhel Kaboub (@FadhelKaboub), president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and professor of economics at Denison University. This episode was originally published on December 2, 2020 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood), creator of the Left Business Observer newsletter and host of Behind The News, is perhaps the most MMT-skeptical of everyone we've seen so far. Now he enters the ring to explain his perspective. "Modern Monetary Theory Isn't Helping" This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.Find Pete and Sparky on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and @SparkyAbraham.

Rohan Grey (@RohanGrey), president of the Modern Money Network and assistant professor at Willamette University College of Law, takes the boys into the nitty-gritty of falsifiable MMT propositions—who believes what, whether it's true, why it matters, and whether we should create a trillion-dollar coin. At the end, he offers his opinion on where exactly the boys are going wrong. This episode was originally published on March 30, 2021 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. "Modern Money & Public Purpose"Randy Wray's MMT Primer series This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham 

The MMT adventure continues. This time, Sparky and Pete talk to Andrés Bernal (@andresintheory) about the practical aspects of designing MMT policies for AOC, NYC mayoral candidate Dianne Morales and more. The boys decide they have crossed a mental line. This episode was originally published on March 29, 2021 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

On this episode, Pete and Sparky have a discussion with Maxximilian Seijo (@MaxSeijo), co-host of the Money of the Left and Superstructure podcasts, and board member of the Modern Money Network. Maxximilian had some issues with how the previous episodes were presented, so in the spirit of the project, we had them on to explain their perspective. Pete and Sparky are joined on this episode by freelance writer Aisling McCrea. This episode was originally published on December 2, 2020 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

In the fifth episode of our in-depth MMT series, Pete and Sparky speak to autodidact macroeconomics guru, Nathan Tankus (@NathanTankus), research director of the Modern Money Network and editor of the beloved Substack newsletter Notes on the Crises. This episode was originally published on December 2, 2020 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

In the fourth episode of our in-depth MMT series, Pete and Sparky investigate inflation. To try and puzzle things out, they speak to J. W. Mason (@JWMason1), associate professor of economics at John Jay College, CUNY and specialist in macroeconomics. This episode was originally published on December 4, 2020 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

In this third episode of our in-depth MMT series, Pete and Sparky look for a dissenting view. They find one in People's Policy Project founder Matt Bruenig (@MattBruenig). This episode was originally published on December 3, 2020 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham 

In this second episode of our MMT series, Pete and Sparky gather their initial thoughts and move on to exploring an idea that is closely connected to MMT—the jobs guarantee. To help clarify how a jobs guarantee might work and how it connects to MMT, they speak to economist Pavlina Tcherneva (@ptcherneva), Associate Professor of Economics at Bard College and author of "The Case for a Job Guarantee." This episode was originally published on December 2, 2020 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

Modern Monetary Theory—three simple words that are tearing apart the left. Pete Davis and Sparky Abraham have spent the last few years feeling curious and confused about this highly contentious theory, which posits that the U.S. government can deficit spend much more than it currently believes it can. (Or maybe it doesn't posit that. We're not sure.) Together, they've decided to launch a new series, in which they will interview people across the spectrum of left economics, ask questions, admit what they don't know, and try and muddle through one of the most complex questions in the world of policy: is MMT real? In this episode, Sparky and Nathan J. Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) of Current Affairs magazine interview Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton), professor at Stony Brook University, author of the book "The Deficit Myth," and advisor to Bernie Sanders' 2016 Presidential Campaign. One of the preeminent theorists of Modern Monetary Theory, Professor Kelton explains a basic overview of the theory and what it offers policymakers at the federal level. This episode was originally published on December 1, 2020 on the Current Affairs podcast feed, and is being republished now as the Rabbithole podcast picks up the question of "is MMT real?" Please excuse any outdated references, and stay tuned as we continue our investigations down the rabbithole. This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley (https://dannybradleymusic.com/). If you like the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations by becoming a patron. Find Pete on Twitter at @PeteDDavis and Sparky at @sparkyabraham

Welcome, dear listeners, down the Rabbithole: a new podcast where our intrepid hosts Sparky Abraham (@sparkyabraham), Vanessa A. Bee (@Vanessa_ABee), Pete Davis (@PeteDDavis), and Oren Nimni (@orennimni) plumb the depths of often-obscure debates that divide people along unexpected political lines, questioning fundamental assumptions about things like money, school, consent, and courts.  Your non-expert hosts will interview a series of actual experts to learn what is up for debate, and to try to come to some conclusions for ourselves. Follow us down these rabbit holes. It won't be graceful, but you might enjoy the trip.On this podcast, you'll hear Pete and Sparky continue, and conclude, their celebrated and controversial "Is MMT Real?" series which began on the Current Affairs podcast feed. Soon more duos of hosts will enter down the Rabbithole to discuss new topics.We are launching the podcast with all of the previously recorded "Is MMT Real?" episodes which were previously shared on Current Affairs magazine's Patreon feed. New episodes will be shared biweekly at first and will be made available to all free of charge.We plan to release all episodes for free, but if you like the podcast, we hope you will support us at patreon.com/rabbitholepodcast and help us keep episodes accessible to all listeners.This episode, like future episodes, was produced by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn), and it features theme music by the inimitable Danny Bradley.

Coming in 2022...RABBITHOLE