The Pop Doctrine

Welcome to part 2 of my chat with American writer Colette Shade! Last week we had a chat about her article 'The Politics of Mental Health' and in this episode we dive into some of her other writings, including her January article for the Nation 'The Problem With Mental Health Awareness'. Here's a link to the book Colette mentioned, 'The End of the Myth' by Greg Grandin Keep an eye on Colette's twitter for details about her upcoming book 'This Sucks'...

Back in March, American writer Colette Shade was generous enough to have a chat with me about her recent article for Tribune Magazine 'The Politics of Mental Health' and her thoughts on why it's a mistake to think of mental illness as an individual, apolitical issue. We look at how rates of mental illness can be positively correlated with economic and political oppression and what incentives exist for the those in power to mystify this relationship. We talked for almost an hour and a half so I've split the chat into two parts. Tune back in next week to hear us talk about some of Colette's other work, including discussions on the value of mental health awareness campaigns, what the end of the American Empire could mean for how we feel in our heads, and why being encouraged to cry at work isn't the progressive shift some may think it is... Sorry this one took so long to get to you! Been a very busy few weeks but I'm aiming to return to our regular schedule :)

Back at the start of 2021, I was very lucky to have a chat with Australian writer and academic, Jessica Whyte, about her 2019 book The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism. The book looks at the simultaneous rise of Neoliberalism and the modern day human rights movement, showing their shared moral and historical roots and how the latter has ultimately been co-opted by the former. I reached out to Jessica after hearing her interviewed on ABC Radio National and considered it an aspirational gesture - I had only just started releasing episodes and Jessica was exactly the kind of writer I'd wanted to speak to when I conceived of this project. I'm very grateful to her for taking the time to answer my questions. You can buy Jessica's book here or if you're a Perth local, shoot me a message on insta and you can borrow my (heavily and messily annotated) copy.

UK writer and activist, Chloe Koffman (@chloelou_k on twitter) joined me for a chat about two of her recent pieces for UK socialist publication, Tribune Magazine: 'Remembering Australia's Green Bans' and 'Remembering Wave Hill: When Australia's Indigenous Fought Back'. Both pieces look into the history of the Australian workers movement, highlighting the roles of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) and Indigenous Australians respectively in challenging capitalist power in the mid-late 20th century. As well as discussing these two historical events, we look to the present and speculate on the potential for similar change to occur in our current age of neoliberal realism and hyper individualism. ** a warning that this episode contains the names of Indigenous Australians who have passed away ** Chloe also writes for Morning Star, New Matilda, and Crikey News. You can find more of their work here, including the Steven Donziger piece we discuss in the interview.

What a way to bring in the start of season 2! About a month ago, I was very lucky to have a chat with Matt Christman about his new podcast (with Felix Biederman) Time For My Stories. The series focuses on the rise of television as an artistic medium, what precipitated this, and what the cultural impact has been. In our chat, we talk about the changing face of prestige television, the fall of the antihero, the moral complexity and / or depravity of Tony Soprano, and what the future holds in our age of streaming and scolding. Other podcasts / series you may know Matt from are Chapo Trap House and his much-tweeted-about CushVlogs. If you haven't listened, check them out, I wouldn't be doing this podcast if it weren't for Matt's work!

In this season 1 finale, I am very lucky to be joined by Tim Clifford, who is The Greens (WA) MLC for the East Metropolitan region of WA. We recorded this episode the day the WA Liberals announced their net-zero emissions plan so we spent a bit of time discussing its content and contrasting it with the net-zero emissions plan that Tim and The Greens (WA) announced in late 2020. From there, we move onto the upcoming WA Election (March 13 - plan your vote!), the impact of the latest COVID-19 lockdowns, an exploration of Tim's background and his journey to politics and the Greens, and finally some movie-talk. In case you can't click on the article links, here they are: Liberals Plan --> https://www.afr.com/politics/wa-liberal-party-promises-to-shut-coal-power-stations-by-2025-20210211-p571gb Greens Plan --> https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/western-australia/greens-unveil-climate-change-attack-plan-to-cut-through-mcgowan-s-popularity-and-save-seats-20201214-p56ndv.html I'm going to take a break for a few weeks and then got some exciting interviews and episode ideas pencilled in for season 2. Thanks a bunch for listening to the first season! Tom

In the final part of our long discussion, Jai Wilson and I focus on his work for the SOUTH WEST ABORIGINAL LAND AND SEA COUNCIL. In doing so, Jai provides a primer on how Native Title works, its history, and recent developments in its application as far as land rights and compensation for Noongar people is concerned.   I think we managed to avoid interference this time.

Jai Wilson joins me again for the next part of our chat. In this episode, we discuss Jai's successful motion at the 1999 WA Labor State conference to decriminalise the cultivation, possession and use of cannabis by adults. We discuss how he set about doing this, what happened when the WA 2001 Gallop Labor Government was elected and his reflections on the policy's ultimate derailment and what makes change stick. You can find a summary of these events here as well.  Sorry this one's a bit late. As you've probably noted, I'm now uploading on Sundays, not Fridays, so I can have the whole weekend to edit episodes. This one was further delayed by the WA Covid-19 lockdown now in effect so it's up Monday instead. One or two bits of interference, sorry!

Last week, I had a chat to Tom Reynolds about the Australian Government's 'JobSeeker' supplement. In particular, we focus on some of the difficulties he encountered while trying to access information about the supplement from his job service provider and the ABC feature in which he discussed these in late 2020. We also talk about Covid-19 and how the unprecedented JobSeeker supplement (formally Newstart), at least in its initial incarnation, represented the possibility for a 'new normal' as far as social security is concerned.  Links: Confused about your JobSeeker requirements? You don't have to Work for the Dole, by Normal Hermant for ABC News, Wed 26 August 2020--> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-26/your-rights-work-for-the-dole-during-covid-19/12592546 [Tom Reynolds Feature]  Dole Obligations Causing Confusion, by Norman Hermant for ABC Radio, AM with Sabra Lane, Linda Mottram, Wed 26 August --> https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/dole-obligations-causing-confusion/12596104 Unhappy new year for more than 1 million Aussies on JobSeeker as COVID assistance winds back, by Claudia Long and Jack Snape for ABC News, Thu 31 December 2020 --> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-31/jobseeker-coronavirus-supplement-january-1/13021484

I'm very excited to be joined by Bassendean Councillor Jai Wilson to discuss his work as a union representative, how this has informed his perspective on the Australian Labor Party, and how solidarity is our most effective weapon against the exploitation of workers.  My interview with Jai was long and fruitful - as such, I have split it up over a few episodes. In upcoming segments, we talk about his instrumental role in bringing about Marijuana law reform in WA and his current work with the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council. **ALSO** there's a little interference around the 6 and 35 minute mark - it only last a few seconds so please don't be discouraged! 

I'm once again joined by Perth muso friends Jeremy (of Segue) and Laurent (of Catwalk) (both also of Didion's Bible) to finish our two-part retrospective on the music of Arcade Fire. We discuss their latter 3 albums, The Suburbs (2010), Reflektor (2013) and Everything Now (2017) and how they have grappled with the transformation of the 'suburb' into an extension of the corporate world, the hegemonic rise of the echo-chamber that is social media, and the rein of Donald Trump. Closing music 'Rick Moranis', courtesy of Catwalk. Texts: The Political Project of Psychoanalysis, by Todd McGowan, 2013 Non-places, by Marc Augé, 1992 Capitalist Realism, by Mark Fisher, 2009

In this first episode of a two part retrospective, I'm joined by my Perth muso friends Jeremy (of Segue) and Laurent (of Catwalk) (both also of Didion's Bible) to discuss the music of Arcade Fire and how their first two albums (Funeral, 2004 and Neon Bible, 2007) tap into the zeitgeist of 2000s Americana and its changing socio-economic landscape. Topics of discussion include the band's preoccupation with nostalgia and innocence; their grappling with a post 9/11 and pre GFC U.S. (where the American dream seems to be well and truly in tatters); and their growing sense of technologically induced paranoia.  Next week, we look to The Suburbs (2010) and beyond...  Closing music 'I get it', courtesy of Segue.  Texts: You Are Now Remotely Controlled, by Shoshana Zuboff (for The New York Times), 2020 --> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opinion/sunday/surveillance-capitalism.html Hate Inc., by Matt Taibbi, 2019 --> (first hundred pages or so...) https://astudygroup.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/hate_inc_by_matt_taibbi_v0.1_1.pdf The Perverts Guide to Ideology, written by Slavoj Žižek and directed by Sophie Fiennes, 2006 --> (They Live clip) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwKjGbz60k Requiem for the American Dream (feat. Noam Chomsky), Dir.  Peter D. Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott, 2015.

‘The prison has become a black hole into which the detritus of contemporary capitalism is deposited. Mass imprisonment generates profits as it devours social wealth, and thus it tends to reproduce the very conditions that lead people to prison.' - Angela Y. Davis In the conclusion to our two-part series on John Carpenter's 1981 dystopia, Escape from New York, we examine the role of privatisation in the development of the modern day prison industrial complex (PIC) and how the profit motive incentivises ever-growing mass incarceration and longer sentences.  We also look to the ideological underpinnings of the PIC, its roots in chattel slavery and how the general public have been manipulated by the media and big business into accepting prisons as part of the natural social order.  texts: My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard, by Shane Bauer (for Mother Jones), 2016 --> https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-prisons-corrections-corporation-inmates-investigation-bauer/ Are Prisons Obsolete?, by Angela Y. Davis, 2003 --> https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Angela-Davis-Are_Prisons_Obsolete.pdf My Dinner with Andre, Dir. Louis Malle, 1981 --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWZk24MA7TE [sampled in introduction] 

Today, in the first of a two-part series on the film, we look to John Carpenter's 1981 dystopia, Escape from New York, as a jumping off point to examine the emergence of the modern prison industrial complex (PIC) over the past century and it's socio-political underpinnings and impacts.  The year is 1997 and, in an America overrun by crime, Manhattan island has been designated the one prison for the whole of New York county, whereupon entering, prisoners are condemned to live out the rest of their years. The city is walled off from the rest of society and there are no guards on the inside, only the prisoners and the rudimentary society they have developed.  In this episode, we examine what Carpenter got right in his dystopian prophecies, what he didn't foresee and the historical developments which lead to the PIC as we now understand it.  texts: The Prison-Industrial Complex, by Eric Schlosser (for The Atlantic), 1998 --> https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/ Mass Incarceration's Dangerous New Equilibrium, by Yves Smith (for Naked Capitalism), 2017 --> https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/06/mass-incarcerations-dangerous-new-equilibrium.html  John Carpenter's Escape from New York 1981 DVD Commentary (John Carpenter and Kurt Russel)--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mooWs8xwpjY

Inspired by Naomi Klein's 2007 book, 'The Shock Doctrine', this podcast aims to use pop culture (non-academic movies, television shows, books, music and other media - accessible stuff) as a way to understand and flesh out the perils of neoliberalism. The first section of this episode introduces the concept of the show and what kind of content we'll cover. [00:00 - 08:20] The second section explores  the central thesis of Klein's book via the short film, 'The Shock Doctrine', released in 2007 and directed by Jonas Cuarón. [8:20 - end]  We also have a look at some readings from David Harvey's 2005 book, 'A Brief History of Neoliberalism' to provide a more concrete definition of neoliberalism.  Made by: Tom Cockram Music by: Turtle Bay Television