The Plague

Our current President and his party seem to be more interested in slandering their political opponents, propagating conspiracy theories, and fomenting division and distraction in our society, than in organizing a coherent response to the pandemic, the economic crisis, and other urgent problems that a competent and responsible government would address.Have our politics always operated this way? Is this "burn it down" partisanship the same on all sides? Is this just the way the "rough and tumble" of political conflict usually works?Our guest on this episode, Dr. Julian E. Zelizer, History professor at Princeton University and CNN commentator, refers to his new book, "Burning Down The House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party," to explain that this destructive trend in the GOP is relatively new and alarming. Zelizer traces the origin of this plague to the rise of Newt Gingrich in the 1980s and 1990s, and has clear and practical recommendations for what to do about it.https://history.princeton.edu/people/julian-e-zelizerhttps://www.cnn.com/profiles/julian-zelizerhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318517/burning-down-the-house-by-julian-e-zelizer/Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named JaySound effects clips from soundbible.comlogo by Bogad, with clip art from nicepng.com

We are in the middle of the biggest protest moment in the United States since 1968, and are confronted with the greatest wave of repressive violence in response from the authorities. What is the role of the radical imagination, and the idea of Utopia, for social movements at this major turning point in our history? And how do we overcome the deeply ingrained idea that "There Is No Alternative" to our current system? Stephen Duncombe has some powerful diagnoses and prescriptions on this episode of The Plague.http://www.stephenduncombe.com/https://c4aa.org/Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named JaySound effects clips from soundbible.comclip art from nicepng.com

In this episode, we speak with guests Sabiha Basrai and Ricardo Nuñez about the plague of worker expendability in our current economy, and how worker owned-cooperatives are the cure. The coronavirus has only put into starker relief a problem we have always had--that the lives and well-being of many workers are considered disposable by the CEOs and shareholders of their employing corporations. So, how do worker-owned cooperatives give workers shared opportunity, rewarding careers, and the ability to make a living without cutthroat competition with each other? And how, in practical and legal terms, can folks start a cooperative for themselves?Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named JaySound effects clips from soundbible.comclip art from nicepng.comResources and organizations mentioned in this episode:Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives https://nobawc.org/US Federation of Worker Cooperatives https://www.usworker.coop/home/Center for Story-based Strategy and the 4th box thought exercise: https://www.storybasedstrategy.org/tools-and-resourcesDesignaction.orgSustainable Economies Law Center https://www.theselc.org/Co-oplaw.orgCalifornia's Law Office Study Program LikeLincoln.orgDemocracy at Work Institute https://institute.coop/Project Equity https://www.project-equity.org/

Artificially intelligent “bot” accounts attack politicians and public figures on social media. Conspiracy theorists publish junk news sites to promote their outlandish beliefs. Campaigners create fake dating profiles to attract young voters. We live in a world of technologies that misdirect our attention, poison our political conversations, and jeopardize our democracies.This is the plague that Oxford professor Philip Howard takes on in his new book: Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives. With massive amounts of social media and public polling data, and in depth interviews with political consultants, bot writers, and journalists, Philip N. Howard offers ways to take these “lie machines” apart.Dr. Howard gets into how these lie machines are literally causing Covid deaths throughout our society through misinformation...and how they helped to put the authoritarians, currently mishandling the pandemic, in power in the first place...But it's not all doom and gloom: he has amazing treatments and cures prescribed for this plague--from big policy demands to personal behavior recommendations to rid us of this disinformation infection.As part of the creative contribution I ask of my guest experts, he does an amazing dramatic rendition of the titles of some unlikely and weird videos that come up when you search for Covid news under today's algorithm. Benedict Cumberbatch, William Shatner, look out! Dr. Howard is overtaking you.https://liemachines.org/https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/philip-howard/Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named JaySound effects clips from soundbible.comclip art from nicepng.com

In this episode, Michael Gene Sullivan, playwright and performer, collective member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and author of a celebrated dramatic adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, talks about the culture of anti-intellectualism, class domination, distraction, and defeatism, and prescribes his resolutely revolutionary brand of political theatre. We discuss a wide range of topics along the way, and he shares with us two of the many Mime Troupe's songs that has sung.Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named JayMichael Gene Sullivan: https://www.michaelgenesullivan.com/michaelSan Francisco Mime Troupe: https://www.sfmt.org/Sound effects clips from soundbible.comclip art from nicepng.com.

In this episode we talk with artist-activists Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens about the plague of ecomatricide, and how the cure is ecosexuality. What happens when we think of the Earth, not as our mother, but as our lover?Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named JayAnnie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens: Sexecology.orgSound effects clips from soundbible.comclip art from nicepng.com

Our third podcast of the Plague features an interview with Merith Basey of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines. Merith explains to us how the corporate, profit-based biomedical research system is a plague that distorts the research and development process for life-saving medicines and vaccines. And it's a taxpayer-subsidized plague at that. Merith tells us about practical alternatives to this system that are in place and functioning in some societies, and we discuss one example of a "treatment" for this plague: the "Free the Covid Vaccine" campaign that Merith and I are both working on. Merith then honors her Welsh heritage, and her defiant attitude towards injustice, by reading us a particularly apt Dylan Thomas poem.Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named JayTo get involved in the Free the Vaccine Campaign: https://freethevaccine.org/Universities Allied for Essential Medicines: uaem.orgSound effects clips from soundbible.comclip art from nicepng.com

Our second episode of the Plague features an interview with Dr. Rupa Marya of the Do No Harm Coalition, and the band Rupa and the April Fishes. Dr. Marya explains how the racism and colonialism in daily life, the grocery store, the workplace (including the hospital she works in), and in global politics, makes Covid and other plagues more destructive. We discuss this societal plague, and how to cure it through anti-racist work and reclaiming the commons. Rupa then shares a song from her latest album, Growing Upward.Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamojaand my other friend named JayDo No Harm Coalition: https://www.donoharmcoalition.org/The April Fishes: https://www.theaprilfishes.com/Sound effects clips from soundbible.com

The launch of the Plague podcast is timed thematically during the holiday of Passover, which recounts how a series of plagues destabilized an authoritarian regime severely enough that its most persecuted immigrant minority was liberated.Our first podcast of the Plague features an interview with Jeff Conant of Friends of the Earth, an activist, author and poet who explains how the destruction of the rainforest, and of biodiversity, makes pandemics such as Covid more deadly, and more likely to occur over and over. We discuss this societal plague, and explore examples of how to cure it through playful and persistent activism. Jeff then reads for us some of his beautiful and mournful poems from his Bestiary for the End Times.Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.comMusic: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja and my other friend named JayFriends Of The Earth: foe.orgJeff Conant: https://jeffconant.com/Sound effects clips from soundbible.comPlague Song by Elana Jagoda, from Seder Song Revival, 2014