Upstream

There are many traditions or tendencies among the left. In fact, sometimes just trying to wrap our heads around all of the rich theoretical frameworks and various anti-capitalist thinkers can be dizzying. But it's also exciting — the richness of leftist history and theory is vital to learn and to build our work from. In this episode we've brought on someone who knows a thing or two about leftist theory — in fact, he's got multiple podcasts that go into depth on historical figures, theory, and philosophy from a post-capitalist perspective. Breht O'Shea is the host of Revolutionary Left Radio, Red Menace, and Guerrilla History. He's also an activist and organizer based out of Omaha, Nebraska. Although his breadth of knowledge spans an incredibly wide range, we brought Breht on today to focus on the Leninist tradition. We'll explore the fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism, as well as the related theoretical framework of Maoism. We talk about the importance of theory in informing our organizing, why it's important to learn about both the good and bad parts of historical figures and revolutionary movements – even when it comes to figures as controversial as Mao or Stalin. We also have a conversation about fascism in the United States, where we can go from here, and why it's important to center love and humanity in all we do. Thank you to Parsley Sound for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation, Resist Foundation, and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3bW70wR Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Is the growing ascendance of digital money simply an organic evolution away from the purported inconveniences of physical cash? Or is this transition actually a nefarious, corporate-engineered, neo-enclosure of money by Big Finance and Big Tech? In his latest book, Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets, author, journalist, and financial hacker Brett Scott lays out an extremely compelling case arguing that corporations are engineering an enclosure of money — transforming it into a completely digital form which they alone will control. In this Conversation, we take a deep dive beneath the surface of the global financial system to explore the technical and political differences between various forms of money, why corporations are attacking physical cash and plotting to completely replace it with digital money, who will really benefit from a cashless society, and why the fight for ownership of our digital footprints is one of the most pressing battles of our time. Thank you to The Pixies for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3bW70wR Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Traditionally within Marxist thought, there are two major classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, or workers and capitalists. Within these two classes, however, there are many strata — and in this episode we take a deep dive into one particular stratum. The professional managerial class, or the PMC, is comprised of highly educated, often centrist or liberal leaning individuals who tend to uphold the systems and institutions of capitalist society while at the same time viewing itself as the virtuous vanguard of progress. And although this class falls within the working class, its allegiances and sympathies lie with capitalists. And indeed, in most ways, it does benefit from capitalism. To discuss the professional managerial class and its position within capitalism further, we've brought on someone who's written an entire book about it. Catherine Liu is a professor of Film & Media Studies at UC Irvine and author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class. In this conversation we discuss who the PMC is comprised of, how this class emerged, and why it poses a unique threat to socialist and communist aspirations. Thank you to Sleater-Kinney for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

It may not come as a surprise to most of you to hear that capitalism is the root cause of climate change. But if we unpack this a little bit, we see that it's a specific component of capitalism that's mostly responsible: the need for exponential and perpetual expansion. Growth isn't just a byproduct of capitalism, it's an imperative — an imperative to which we are all hostage. That's why, according to our guest in this week's Conversation, unless the climate movement centers degrowth in its strategies and policy proposals, nothing will fundamentally change. Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and author most recently of Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World. We first spoke with Jason five years ago on his book The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions, and then again in 2020 on international capitalism during the pandemic. In this conversation, Jason explains why 'growthism' is so problematic for our health and the health of the planet. He talks us through alternatives to growth, and shares how we could realistically unhook from perpetual expansion and transition to a post-growth, post-capitalist economic system where we are all living healthier, happier lives on a thriving planet. Thank you to Mazzy Star for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

The logic of orthodox economic thinking has come to dominate and permeate every aspect of our lives, from the deeply internalized capitalism which shapes our thoughts and hopes and dreams, to policy decisions that shape our lives, constrain our possibilities, and steal public goods out from under our noses. How did we get here? How did economic rigidity gain such supremacy? Are the principles of orthodox economics really value neutral, as its champions claim? And if not, what moral philosophies underpin them? What are their origins? And how have they come to dominate policymaking in the last several decades? In the first half of this Conversation, we've brought on Jonathan Aldred, a Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics at Emmanuel College, Lecturer in the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, and author of the book License to be Bad: How Economics Corrupted Us. Jonathan will walk us through the philosophical foundations of orthodox and neoliberal economics. And then in the second half we've brought on Elizabeth Popp Berman, an economic sociologist, associate professor of organizational studies at the University of Michigan, and author of the book Thinking like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy. We'll talk with Elizabeth about the policy implications of dogmatic economic thinking. Thank you to Galaxie 500 for the intermission music in this episode. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

The US Supreme Court has just overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights which had set the precedent for almost 50 years, throwing authority over abortion down to the states to decide. As of now, a dozen or so states have trigger laws which will outlaw abortion fairly rapidly, and many others will likely follow suit in the coming weeks and months. In light of this, we're interrupting our regular 2 week episode release schedule to bring you a special extra episode. There's a lot of media coverage on the Roe decision, of course, but a lot of it is lacking in its analysis, and that's why we've brought on two guests to provide a much needed perspective. Diana Moreno is an immigrant rights activist and Democratic Socialists of America organizer in Queens, and Jenny Brown is an organizer in the women's liberation movement and the author of several books on feminism, reproductive rights, and labor, including Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now and Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work. Both Diana and Jenny approach their feminism with a socialist analysis that provides a strong materialist grounding, a deep understanding of the dynamics around immigration, and an orientation that challenges traditional liberal and oftentimes white, heteronormative feminism that dominates most mainstream discussions. In this Conversation we explore the history of abortion in the United States, a class analyses on abortion and reproductive justice, the ideologies of liberal versus socialist feminisms, the abject failure of the Democratic Party, possible paths forward, and much more. Thank you to Against Me! for the intermission music in this episode. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

There's a broad conflation within our present day capitalist society between the success of individual members of certain oppressed and marginalized groups and their collective success and liberation. This is particularly true when it comes to Black people and their liberatory struggles. Too often, the successes of individual people — Oprah, or LeBron James, for example — or their rise to certain leadership positions, take Barack Obama — are seen as collective successes, whereas, when it comes to the material conditions of all Black people, these individual successes don't have a significant impact. What are the dangers of this conflation between individual and collective success? Can Black liberation be achieved through individual successes within capitalism — through Black capitalism? And what would it mean to truly build Black wealth in the United States and beyond? In today's Conversation, we've brought on someone to help unpack these questions. Francisco Pérez is the Executive Director of the Center for Popular Economics and author of the recent piece in Nonprofit Quarterly, “How Do We Build Black Wealth? Understanding the Limits of Black Capitalism.” Thank you to Tracy Chapman for the intermission music in this episode. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

What if what we thought we knew about environmental conservation is wrong and it's not the ethical and regenerative movement we thought it was? Turns out the philosophy and practices of conservation — pioneered by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Henry David Thoreau and John Muir — are intimately intertwined with colonialism, imperialism, and racialized capitalism. And, unfortunately, this isn't just a historical analysis — it's a legacy that has continued well into the movement's modern day configurations. In fact, things may have even gotten worse. This is according to a recent paper in the journal Environment titled "From Racialized Neocolonial Global Conservation to an Inclusive and Regenerative Conservation." In the paper, the authors outline the problems with mainstream conservation methods and policies — policies that impose artificial binaries between Indigenous communities and the lands they have stewarded, perpetuating patterns of extractivism and greenwashing and leading to countless harms inflicted onto these communities all in the name of 'wildlife preservation.' In this Conversation we've brought on the paper's lead author, Prakash Kashwan, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Research Program on Economic and Social Rights at the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut. Prakash is the author of the widely reviewed and acclaimed book "Democracy in the Woods" and a Co-Editor of the journal Environmental Politics. He also serves on the editorial advisory boards of Earth Systems Governance, Progress in Development Studies, Sage Open, and Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. How is much of the modern conservation movement still steeped in its racist, colonial, imperial past? And what might an inclusive and regenerative conservation look like? Join us to explore these questions and more. You can request a full-text version of the paper From Racialized Neocolonial Global Conservation to an Inclusive and Regenerative Conservation at Research Gate (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352971729_From_Racialized_Neocolonial_Global_Conservation_to_an_Inclusive_and_Regenerative_Conservation). You can also write to Prakash to request a pdf copy of the paper at kashwan@gmail.com. Thank you to The Breeders for the intermission music and to Bethan Mure for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Fully automated luxury communism. Fully automated luxury gay space communism..? Fully automated, queer, neo-decadent, meta-modern communism? Okay so, what does all of that mean? You've probably heard the phrase fully automated luxury communism before, whether in a podcast like this, or in a meme maybe, but what exactly does it mean? Maybe the phrase conjures up images of a utopian, moneyless society where all of our jobs have been taken by robots and we just frolic and play all day? Perhaps it evokes ideas of a Starship Enterprise tech utopian world marked by adventures and quests. Maybe it's something in between. In this conversation we've brought on two guests to explain what fully automated luxury communism is, what some different iterations of it might look like, why it's an important Northstar for the left to reach for, and how we might get there. Zarinah Agnew is a trained neuroscientist formerly at University College London, and then UCSF, a self-described guerrilla scientist, and part of the Beyond Return organization. And Eric Wycoff Rogers is a scholar, organizer, designer, artist, and currently PhD student in American history at Cambridge and also part of the Beyond Return organization. This episode's cover art was designed and illustrated by Instagram's @ radleftdad and @ adorable_communism_too. Thank you to Archie James Cavanaugh for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

More than just a region, Silicon Valley has also become a concept — and what that concept represents means a lot of different things to different people. Some might think of it as a techno-utopian dreamland where billionaires are made. Others, perhaps a soul-sucking dystopia driven by a never ending rat race — also where billionaires are made. Whatever you may think, one thing that's hard to disagree with is the idea that work dominates Silicon Valley, and while some here are simply working to live, a certain privileged class of society actually lives to work. It's this class of workers that are the main characters in Carolyn Chen's new book: Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley. Carolyn Chen is an Associate Professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies and Comparative Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. How has work become the new religion in Silicon Valley? What material and historical conditions led to the spiritualization of work? What strategies do workplaces deploy to ensure workers find meaning and purpose in work — and what other realms of life does this impact? What happens when work takes over the institutions that shape our souls? These are just some of the questions we'll explore in this conversation with Carolyn Chen. Thank you to Beck for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. If you're interested in learning more about how spirituality is being deployed to create more docile, pliant workers, check out our conversation with Ron Purser on his book McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

The latest installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC report, released this month, gives us three years to drastically cut emissions. “It's now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees,” the authors of the report warn. But in reality, it's more likely that we'll double that number. If you haven't already seen the headlines, the report indicates that we'd need to cut emissions by almost half by 2030 and be at negative emissions by 2050 — that means we'd need to be taking carbon out of the atmosphere at that point — in order to avert the worst of climate change. But these are just the headlines — the actual report is around 3000 pages long, and is a pretty groundbreaking and radical document, at least when it comes to these kinds of reports by typically conservative scientific bodies. The report includes a great deal of research from social scientists, and for the first time, in a major way, debunks much of the economics behind neoliberal climate solutions, even going so far as to name colonialism as a driver for climate change, and even alludes to capitalism as a major contributing factor. To unpack it all, we've brought on someone who's actually started reading all of the entire 3000 pages of the report. Amy Westervelt is an award-winning climate journalist, founder of the Critical Frequency podcast network, and host of the podcast Drilled. Is the fossil fuel industry, as they would like us to believe, a demand-driven industry? Or has it really become more of a market looking for a product? Are we getting to a place where mainstream narratives no longer simply call for individual actions, but focus much more heavily on collective and systemic solutions to climate change? And are we finally moving away from seeing global warming as a strictly environmental issue, and instead to seeing it as one more rooted class struggles against systems like capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism? These are some of the topics we explore in this conversation with Amy Westervelt. Thanks to Bedouine for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

“The pursuit of private financial gain is what drives inequality and ecological harm.” This is the perspective of Jennifer Hinton, a leading proponent of the not-for-profit business, which is differs in fundamental ways from a traditional nonprofit organization and, of course, from for-profit businesses. Not-for-profit businesses models are often invisible in the many movements to reimagine our economic system, but the idea is starting to gain momentum. Jennifer offers a vision of an entirely not-for-profit economy made up exclusively of not-for-profit businesses that de-emphasize profit and growth and instead prioritize businesses as a means for social and environmental benefit. Together we look at examples and operating principles of this model, we explore how it navigates the capitalism/socialism binary, and we ask what conditions would be necessary for this model to truly offer a bridge to a post-growth, post-capitalist world. Dr. Jennifer Hinton is a systems researcher, activist, and ecological economist who is a Senior Fellow at the Schumacher Institute and the author of two books: How on Earth: Flourishing in a Not-for-Profit World by 2050 (https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1902/1902.01398.pdf), co-authored with Donnie Maclurcan of the Post-Growth Institute, and Relationship-to-Profit: A Theory of Business, Markets, and Profit for Social Ecological Economics (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348742711_Relationship-to-Profit_A_Theory_of_Business_Markets_and_Profit_for_Social_Ecological_Economics) Thanks to Between Friends for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Standing Rock was a pivotal moment in regards to Indigenous resistance — but it was just one in a long line of battles that Indigenous peoples have been fighting against the twin forces of colonialism and capitalism since first contact. In this episode, we're taking a deep dive into Indigenous resistance against colonialism, capitalism, and climate change — from the Amah Mutsun's fight to save their most sacred site in California to the Wet'suwet'en's battle against a gas pipeline on Canada's western coast, and then up into the North American tundra and across into Northern Europe's arctic circle where the Inuit and Sámi peoples are fighting to save the ice that they rely on. What parallels lie between the struggles of the Amah Mutsun Costanoan Ohlone, the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, the Inuit, and the Sámi peoples of northern Europe? How have the forces of capitalism and colonialism led to the destruction of Indigenous lives, land, language and culture? What can tens of thousands of years of a diversity of Indigenous insights, knowledge, and wisdom — along with a more modern amalgamation of Indigenous-Marxism — teach us about it? And what invitations for paths forward can we take to lead us to a future committed to solidarity, healing, and ecological restoration? Join us in exploring these questions with guests: Valentin Lopez: Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of the Costanoan Ohlone Eleanor Castro: Amah Mutsun Costanoan Ohlone Elder Sleydo' (Molly Wickham): Member of the Wet'suwet'en Nation and spokesperson for the Gidimt'en Checkpoint Sungmanitu Bluebird: Oglala Lakota activist, researcher, writer, member of The Red Nation and the host of the Bands of Turtle Island podcast for The Red Media Sheila (Siila) Watt-Cloutier: Canadian Inuit activist, political representative for Inuit, International Chair for Inuit Circumpolar Council, and author of The Right to be Cold Beaska Niillas: Northern Sámi traditional handicrafter, hunter and gatherer, activist, Sámi school kindergarten teacher, politician, and the host of the SuperSápmi Podcast Florian Carl: Indigenous ally and member of the Cloudberry Collective Alberto Saldamando — Indigenous Environmental Network's Counsel on Climate Change and Indigenous and Human Rights Music by: Chris Zabriskie Qilaut (Sylvia Cloutier) A. Paul Ortega and Joanne Shenandoah G. I. Gurdjieff and Thomas De Hartmann as performed by Cecil Lytle Douglas Spotted Eagle Thank you to Cerberus Star for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you and the Guerrilla Foundation. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

There are many ways women across the world have been disproportionately impacted by COVID. The pandemic has simultaneously increased the demand for unpaid labor from women — including childcare and homeschooling — while decimating industries like retail, leisure, hospitality, education and entertainment which are their main employers. So many of the jobs lost during the pandemic were held by women, that the resulting economic recession has been called a “she­cession” — or even an example of “disaster patriarchy.” But our current economic system has always had a history of harming women disproportionately — in fact, in many ways, COVID has simply revealed and exacerbated already existing inequalities. But where there is a crisis, there is also opportunity. And in this space, some are asking what a feminist response to COVID could look like? There are, however, multiple kinds of feminism. In this episode we explore what kind of feminism could not only lead us beyond this present crisis, but also offer us a vision of a more just world where equality and liberation are premises, not aspirations: a feminism for the 99%. Featuring: Khara Jabola-Carolus — Executive Director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women Tiek Johnson — Reproductive Justice Advocate and Doula Sarah Jaffe — Independent journalist and author of Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone Tithi Bhattacharya — Associate Professor of History and the Director of Global Studies at Purdue University and author of Feminism for the 99 Percent: A Manifesto Nicole Aschoff — Editor at large at Jacobin Magazine, senior editor at Verso Books, and author of the book, The New Prophets of Capital Music by: Thank you to Thao and the Get Down Stay Down Marissa Kay Chris Zabriskie Thank you to Chiara Francesca for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

By traditional metrics, the U.S. economy is doing pretty well right now — better than any other high income countries. But, at the same time, we have the worst COVID health outcomes of any of these countries too. It seems pretty obvious that by reopening the economy and all but abandoning any interventions aside from the vaccine, the Biden administration has pretty much this outcome. But of course, the problem goes much deeper — it's a combination of years of disinvestment and neoliberal policies. In this Conversation we're talking COVID with Beatrice Alder-Bolton (twitter: @realLandsEnd), co-host of the Death Panel podcast and co-author of the forthcoming book, "Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto," which will be published by Verso Books this fall. What are the structural causes of our skyrocketing COVID rates? How has COVID laid bare the rotting foundations of not just the U.S. healthcare system — but almost every single institution in this country? How are our political leaders using the pandemic as a launching ground for the rewriting for the social contract in a way that even further minimizes the responsibility of the state to protect people? These are just some of the questions we explore in this Conversation with Beatrice Alder-Bolton. Thanks to Godstomper for the intermission music and to Bethan Mure (twitter: @beemure) for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers lose focus every three minutes. We tend to think of things like this as inevitable and we personalize them, we create little narratives about personal failure or a lack of willpower. But this isn't really the case. The problem is systemic, and in his latest book, Lost Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention – And How to Think Deeply Again, author and journalist Johann Hari explains why everything we think we know about this crisis of attention is wrong — and why we need an attention revolution. Johann Hari is also the author of the books Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, as well as Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions. Intermission music by Tallest Man on Earth. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Why do so many of us often feel like shit when we leave work? Where does that ambient feeling of alienation come from? That nagging sense that we've somehow been taken advantage of? That subtle anger — or sometimes even outright hatred — many of us feel towards our supervisors, our managers, our bosses? And why — despite devoting the majority of our waking hours to "making a living" — does it still feel like we're always one emergency away from financial ruin? A lot of people these days are starting to seriously question the political-economic system we live under. And if you're someone who listens to this podcast, you're probably already well aware of the faults and, really, the horrors of this system that we're all imprisoned in: capitalism. Although it's relatively easy to critique capitalism through our lived experiences of it, it's not always as easy to frame those critiques and those nagging feelings into economic language or a political framing. Canonical texts like Marx's Capital can be fairly opaque and inaccessible, and oftentimes, even among those who study it, capitalism can be difficult to pin down. What is it, exactly? What is it not? And what precisely is that thing that we often think of as its opposition: socialism? In this Conversation, we've brought on someone who can explain all of that. Hadas Thier is the author of "A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics," published by Haymarket Books. In this Conversation, Hadas Thier will help us break down capitalism into its most fundamental components — and not in an overly technical way, but in a manner that situates it within historical and modern day events and processes — and which hopefully provides you with a pretty comprehensive and compelling explanation as to why we're all feeling so exploited, alienated, and imprisoned in this oppressive and life-denying set of operating principles and beliefs we know as capitalism. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

It's probably safe to say that at this point, most people recognize that it's not a question of whether climate change will have devastating impacts on humans and our environment — but more, just what the political fallout of inevitable climate collapse will look like… In this Conversation, we're exploring just that: the political consequences of climate collapse. We've brought two guests to help explore this, co-authors of the book Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future, published by Verso Books. Geoff Mann is the Director of the Centre for Global Political Economy at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and Joel Wainwright is a human geographer who teaches political economy and social theory at Ohio State University. Thanks to Matt Kish (matt-kish.com) for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Happy Solstice 2021! Here is our second annual solstice conversation with fellow podcasters Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai. In this conversation we ask each other the core questions at the heart of our shows, we reflect on key themes, insights, and inquiries that we have traced through our interviews and documentaries in 2020, and we give gratitude and gifts of inspiring books, practical invitations, and a beautiful closing solstice meditation. Manda Scott is an award-winning novelist, podcaster and smallholder whose life is underpinned by the shamanic dreaming she gave voice to in her Boudica: Dreaming novels. For the past two years, she has been host of the Accidental Gods podcast which originally aimed at fostering conscious evolution and is now leaning more towards finding an inspiring way through to a flourishing future. Nathalie is an international speaker, consultant and author of two books: the recently published Business Unusual: Values, Uncertainty and the Psychology of Brand Resilience, and best-seller, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion. Her work explores the intersection between persuasive technology, ethics, and the psychology of online behavior. Nathalie also hosts The Hive Podcast, and contributes to national publications, television and radio on the impact of technology in our lives. Intermission music by American Football. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. This episode was edited by Caro C. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

In this episode, we're talking inflation — a somewhat slippery topic that has been dominating headlines recently. It's all caught up in the murky and often misleading narratives floating around on the pandemic economy, things we've discussed recently like the quote labor shortage, supply chains, spending bills in Washington. Anyways, the mainstream narratives get a lot wrong. Especially when they're coming from the more right-wing elements — there's just a lot of bad analysis and straight up mis- and even dis- information out there. So, we're gonna take a shot at trying to actually unpack this idea of inflation: what is it? Why are we seeing inflation taking place? Why is the mainstream coverage of it often flawed? We've brought on two guests to unpack things for us. Dean Baker is an American macro-economist who co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Richard Wolff is an economist, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School in New York. Thank you to Bethan Mure (bmuredraws.com) for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

In this episode we're talking NFTs. If you don't know what this latest phenomenon in the crypto, blockchain, asset speculation world is, if you've heard of NFTs but wanna know more, or if you wanna hear why NFTs might be leading us to an (even more) dystopian future — we've got you covered. We've brought on two guests to help unpack the NFT craze: Nathan Schneider is an Assistant Professor of Media studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, journalist, founder of the Media Enterprise Design Lab, and author most recently of Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy, published by Nation Books. Cory Doctorow is an author, activist, journalist and blogger, editor of Pluralistic dot net, former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and author of the novels Attack Surface and Walkaway, as well as nonfiction books like How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism. Thank you to Beulah for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3HRN2OX Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

It often feels like contemporary life diverges from everything that actually matters. Our global economic system could not be less in touch with patterns of creation, natural systems, and the real wealth of healthy soil, clear water, and bonded communities. Of course, it hasn't always been this way — and it doesn't have to continue to be. In this conversation, or yarn, we speak with Tyson Yunkaporta of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland, Australia, about the connections between Indigenous economics, complexity theory, and systems thinking. We also discuss caring for the commons, explore how to hold each other accountable, and hear the story of the world's first corporation. Tyson carves traditional tools and weapons, works as a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne, and recently authored the book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. Thank you to Fugazi for the intermission music in this episode. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

With strikes in a wide variety of private sectors popping up all across the country — Kelloggs, Kaiser Permanente, coal miners in Alabama, John Deere, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Taxi Drivers on hunger strike in NY, and more — the United States might be on the verge of a strike wave, and we've brought on the perfect guest to explain exactly what's going on. Alex Press is a staff writer at Jacobin Magazine, host of the Primer podcast, and author most recently of the Jacobin articles, “US Workers Are in a Militant Mood” and “Halyna Hutchins's Death on the Set of Rust Was “Not a Freak Accident.” The Conversation will bring you up to date on all of the labor activity currently underway, but will also zoom out to explore the state of the labor movement more broadly, taking a deep dive on how the pandemic has transformed the movement, unpacking what's really behind the so-called “labor shortage,” and getting to the root of why workers are starting to stand up to bosses in a way that we haven't seen for quite some time. Thank you to Utah Phillips for the intermission music in this episode. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Support for this episode was provided by the Guerrilla Foundation and by listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Feminism means different things to different people. If you listened to our episode earlier this year, Feminism for the 99 percent, we took a deep dive into this, unpacking how women's issues intersect with class and race, what trickle-down feminism is, who's included and precluded from certain forms of mainstream, American feminism, and why it's important for feminism to be truly intersectional and inclusive. In this Conversation, we take a deep dive into how the ideology of whiteness permeates mainstream, Western feminism, and how those on the peripheries are often left out — and even exploited by — feminism and certain feminists. Rafia Zakaria is a columnist for Dawn in Pakistan and author, most recently, of Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption, published by Norton and Company. Against White Feminism has made quite a splash since its publication in August, with a lot of positive reception, but also drawing the ire of many of those who it seeks to critique — namely, a certain cadre of feminists, often upper-middle class and white, who hold onto their very specific ideas about what feminism is, what it's not, and perhaps most importantly — who gets to define it. We explore how a certain liberal form of white-supremacy permeates much of mainstream feminism, how the white feminist savior complex and imperial feminism have been deployed throughout history — and well into our present times, such as in Afghanistan — to marginalize women of color and impose the “correct” form of feminism in non-consensual and harmful ways, what trickle-down or #girlboss feminism are, and more. Thank you to The Raincoats for the intermission music in this episode. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

It's pretty crazy to think that it's already been a decade since Occupy Wall Street — but, at the same time, it also feels like forever ago. So much has changed since the encampment in Zuccotti Park, and subsequently, the thousands of encampments which popped up all over the world. But, sadly, a lot remains the same. And actually, if you're looking at wealth inequality and the power of the financial sector — things might even be worse. But no matter what your thoughts are on the Occupy movement, it's impossible to deny its sweeping impact, not just on the left, but much more broadly as well. You may have heard folks say that Occupy Wall Street was a failure — and if you're talking about how the movement failed to, say, overthrow capitalism and usher in a new era of eco-socialism devoid of subprime loans and hedge fund managers, then yes, sure, Occupy definitely didn't accomplish that. But to say the movement was a failure is to overlook so, so much. And that's what we want to talk about in this episode: the things that Occupy gave us. The networks that were built, the ideas that were shaped around democracy — not just the electoral form of democracy that's confined to the ballot box, but real, direct democracy — the space that was created to exercise the muscles of solidarity and cooperativism, mutual aid and political organizing, as well as the shifts in public discourse…in the next hour, we'll look at how the chaotic, fervent explosion that was Occupy Wall Street manifested from the moments after the encampments were cleared to today — ten years later. Featuring: Chris Hedges – Journalist and author of many books, including Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt, and most recently, America: The Farewell Tour Ethan Earle – Paris-based political consultant who has written extensively about Occupy Wall Street Stephanie Luce – Professor of labor studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and also a professor of sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center Ruth Milkman – Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City Nathan Schneider – Professor of media studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder and author of Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy Tamara Shapiro – NYC activist and facilitator, a co-founder of Movement Netlab, and currently the Program Director at the NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives Esteban Kelly – Executive Director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Co-ops Music by: ​ Do Make Say Think Chris Zabriskie Taylor Deupree Karl Blau American Football Thank you to Bethan Mure for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. This episode of Upstream was produced as part of a collective of podcasts brought together to explore the legacy of Occupy Wall Street, in light of the 10 year anniversary. Through this project you can also hear analysis on the impact of Occupy from shows like The Dig, Economic Update, and Belabored — all podcasts that we would highly recommend checking out. The producing partners for this project are the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's New York office and The New School's Milano program. You can learn more and listen to some of the other episodes by visiting RosaLux.NYC/Occupy Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

The summer of 2020 saw perhaps the largest collective uprising in the United States. The uprising, sparked by the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd, catapulted an important question into the public imaginary: is modern day policing...reformable? Or do we need to move beyond it entirely? Most of the thousands of people who poured out into the streets last summer understood that the murder of George Floyd was not just an isolated incident — not just the actions of a single bad apple. They understood that the entire institution of policing was responsible, that despite the years of reform, police continue to kill about a thousand people every year, they continue to terrorize Black, Brown, and poor communities, and they do what they do, for the most part, with zero accountability. For the first time since this institution was actually created, people, in very large numbers, were saying, “No. We're done with reform. It's not a few bad apples — the entire barrel is rotten.” In this episode of Upstream, we explore the current establishment backlash against the abolish/defund movement, and ask the questions: what does more cops on our streets actually mean? Does more police and more police funding actually lead to safer communities? How about reforms — do they actually lead to better policing? What's happening with the defund or abolish movement, which seemed so unstoppable just a year ago? We not only examine these questions, but go further to ask: what is the history and function of policing? How is it inextricably intertwined with racism and capitalism? Whose interests do the police really serve? Is it even possible to reform this institution? And if not, what should take its place? And How can we bring about safer and better resourced communities — for everyone? Featuring: Cat Brooks– Co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project in Oakland, Executive Director of the Justice Teams Network, and co-host of Upfront on KPFA Alex Vitale – Professor of sociology, coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, and author of The End of Policing published by Verso Books Kay Gabriel – Teacher and organizer with the #DefundNYPD campaign D'atra Jackson – National Director of BYP 100 John – Part of the Working Class History Project Sen. Sydney Kamlager- State Senator for California's 30th Senate District ​​ Music by: ​ Godspeed You! Black Emperor Chris Zabriskie Do Make Say Think Tristeza Thank you to Phil Wrigglesworth for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship. For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

What are the material conditions which underpin much of the bizarre phenomena taking place during this strange era that we're in? What unites the conspiracy theories surrounding COVID vaccines with, say, the fanatical obsession with Russian election meddling? How does capitalism — and our economic, material relations within it — lead to a sense of powerlessness that manifests in attempts to explain the world that range from QAnon to Russiagate? In this conversation, we speak with Matt Christman, co-host of Chapo Trap House, one of our favorite podcasts, which was founded in 2016 and hosted by Matt, along with Will Menaker and Felix Biederman. The conversation includes many of the themes and topics mentioned above and discussed on Chapo, but begins with a conversation around Matt's new podcast, Hell of Presidents, which he just launched with Chapo producer Chris Wade. The podcast tells the story of American history through a materialist, political-economic examination of the institution of the presidency. It might sound a bit wonky, but through this specific history Matt and Chris explore a wide range of topics, from the evolution of waged-labor to the many contradictions that this country was founded on and which we continue to experience today. Hell of Presidents is available through Stitcher Premium, but you can listen to the first episode anywhere you can hear Chapo Trap House. Upstream theme music is composed by Robert Raymond Intermission music is “...And We Thought Nation States Were a Bad Idea” by Propagandhi. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/upstreampodcast instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

We are currently living in an era dominated by overwork. Whether it's your punch-in, punch-out job, the side hustles and extra gig work you pursue to help make rent, the drive to produce and consume “content” during every waking hour, or the expectation to look a certain way and constantly keep up with whatever trends surround you — it's relentless. In this Conversation, we speak with Dr. Devon Price, a social psychologist at Loyola University in Chicago, explores these topics in their book, Laziness Does Not Exist, published by Atria Books. How have the concepts of “productivity” and “laziness” been manufactured and deployed by capital to cultivate pliant, profitable workers? How have the ideals of hyper-productivity encouraged not just willing but enthusiastic participation in the hustle-and-grind culture of modern capitalism? And what can we do to escape this prison? These are just some of the questions in this Conversation. Upstream theme music is composed by Robert Raymond. Intermission music is “I Hate the Weekend” by Taco Cat. We're wrapping up our fall season‘s crowdfunding campaign! We hope to produce at least three documentaries, including episodes on the defund/abolish movement and the Sharing Economy, Pt. 2, looking at the gig-economy landscape five years after our very first documentary. We also plan on releasing dozens of interviews for our In Conversation series. Please consider chipping in any amount that you can — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of folks like you. Visit upstreampodcast.org/support to contribute. Thank you! Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship. For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

We're always told that if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. But what if you're being tricked or manipulated into thinking you love what you do? Or what if your “labor of love” is actually being exploited by someone who stands to gain from your work? What does loving your work actually mean, in a system that is designed to keep you devoted to your job, by any means necessarily? In this conversation we speak with Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone, published by Bold Type Books. Sarah's book is an examination, and critique, of the labor of love myth — an upstream journey on the nature of work. She reveals how all of us have been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work, while unpacking why "doing what you love" is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives. Upstream theme music is composed by Robert Raymond Intermission music is “Oh My God” by Lula Wiles. We recently launched our fall season‘s crowdfunding campaign! We hope to produce at least three documentaries, including episodes on Defunding the Police and the Sharing Economy, Pt. 2, looking at the gig-economy landscape five years after our very first documentary. We also plan on releasing dozens of interviews for our In Conversation series. Please consider chipping in any amount that you can — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of folks like you. Visit upstreampodcast.org/support to contribute. Thank you! Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship. For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

There are many ways women across the world have been disproportionately impacted by COVID. The pandemic has simultaneously increased the demand for unpaid labor from women, including childcare and homeschooling, while decimating industries like retail, leisure, hospitality, education and entertainment which are their main employers. So many of the jobs lost during the pandemic were held by women, that the resulting economic recession has been called a “she­cession” — or even an example of “disaster patriarchy.” But our current economic system has always had a history of harming women disproportionately — in fact, in many ways, COVID has simply revealed and exacerbated already existing inequalities. But where there is a crisis, there is also opportunity. And in this space, some are asking what a feminist response to COVID could look like? But, of course, there are multiple kinds of feminism. In this episode, we explore what kind of feminism could not only lead us beyond this present crisis, but also offer us a vision of a more just world where equality and liberation are premises, not aspirations: a feminism for the 99%. Featuring: Khara Jabola-Carolus — Executive Director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women Tiek Johnson — Reproductive Justice Advocate and Doula Sarah Jaffe — Type Media Center reporting fellow and an independent journalist and author of Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone Tithi Bhattacharya — Associate Professor of History and the Director of Global Studies at Purdue University and author of Feminism for the 99 Percent: A Manifesto Nicole Aschoff — Editor at large at Jacobin Magazine, senior editor at Verso Books, and author of the book, The New Prophets of Capital Music by: Thank you to Thao and the Get Down Stay Down Marissa Kay Kohala Chris Zabriskie And thank you to Chiara Francesca for the cover art and to our Upstream correspondents Elle Bisgard Church and Noah Gabor for their research and support on this episode. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert. We just launched our fall season‘s crowdfunding campaign! We hope to produce at least three documentaries, including episodes on Defunding the Police and the Sharing Economy, Pt. 2, looking at the gig-economy landscape five years after our very first documentary. We also plan on releasing dozens of interviews for our In Conversation series. Please consider chipping in any amount that you can — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of folks like you. Visit upstreampodcast.org/support to contribute. Thank you! Also, if your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship. For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Here in the United States we live on colonized land. In recent years, the conversation around “decolonization” has been seamed through many different contexts, from the land back movement to the push to decolonize various institutions. But what would actual decolonization look like? And how do we decolonize things like our minds and our belief systems? In this Conversation, we spoke with Rupa Mayra and Raj Patel on their book, "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice," which will be out on August 3rd. The book explores one specific kind of colonization: that of medicine. They authors provide both a practical and metaphorical exploration of the impacts of colonization through the idea of inflammation — inflamed bodies, an inflamed society, and an inflamed planet. How can we dismantle colonization in our institutions and in our minds while building new connections and ways of being through what the authors call “deep medicine”? These are just some of the topics we explore in this Conversation. Rupa Mayra is a physician, activist, composer, Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF and faculty director of the Do No Harm Coalition. Raj Patel is an activist, award-winning author, film-maker and academic. Raj is Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin and a Senior Research Associate at the Unit for the Humanities at the university currently known as Rhodes University (UHURU), South Africa. Upstream theme music is composed by Robert Raymond Intermission music is “Stolen Land” by Rupa and the April Fishes Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/upstreampodcast instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

COVID has in many ways monopolized the public imagination in the last year or so, and at times it’s seemed like many other conversations were put on hold — or at least had their volume turned down. Now, with the threats of COVID subsiding — at least in the U.S., and at least for the time being — we’re remembering some of the other important conversations that need to be picked up again. Perhaps the most pressing of all is the conversation around climate change. In this Conversation, we spoke with Thea Riofrancos, Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, and co-author, along with Kate Aronoff, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Alyssa Battistoni, of "A Planet to Win: why we need a green new deal," published by Verso. In this conversation, Thea gives us an update on where we are on climate change — and what the Biden administration is proposing to do about it (spoiler alert: it’s not nearly enough). We also talk about the problems with neoliberal attempts to address climate change, how capitalism is at the heart of the climate crisis, and why we need a Green New Deal. Upstream theme music is composed by Robert Raymond Intermission music is "In Our Talons” by Bowerbirds Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/upstreampodcast instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

In this conversation, we spoke with Niki Franco, AKA, Venus Roots. Niki is a Caribbean abolitionist community organizer, multidisciplinary cultural worker, writer, podcaster, and facilitator of spaces for collective study. Currently based in Miami, Niki serves as the political education director for (F)empower MIA and civic engagement organizer for Power U Center for Social Change. We spoke with them about abolition, the phenomenon of Black capitalism, the insidious nature of neoliberal feminism, capitalism’s tendency towards co-opting its own opposition, disaster capitalism amidst COVID, why Instagram is probably bad for us, and much more. Upstream theme music is composed by Robert Raymond Intermission music is "Cut From the Cloth" by The Evens Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Upstream. Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Throughout history, crises and disasters have always catalyzed new strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism. We are seeing this during COVID through the blatant disregard for the lives of essential workers and the refusal of wealthy nations to lift COVID vaccine patents which restrict poorer countries from manufacturing their own supplies. In this 2-part Conversation, we spoke with Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore, who co-authored the book, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet. In our conversation, Raj and Jason explore how capitalism relies on cheapness, the era of the capitalocene — which the authors prefer to the more common term, anthropocene — the myth of overpopulation, which has its roots in racism and often borders on ecofascism, and much more. Upstream theme music is composed by Robert Raymond Intermission music is "Decaying" by Capitalist Casualties Cover Art by Agitpropdoll (on Instagram and Facebook) Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Upstream. Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify. Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

In this Conversation, we spoke with Eric Holt-Gimenez, author of the book, “A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat.” Why does hunger exist? What are the causes of food insecurity? Why do those in working in the food system, from the farmers who till the soil to the server who places your meal on the table, receive largely unlivable wages? Eric’s answer to these questions is simple: capitalism. Together we trace a line from the enclosures of the early 17th century to the present, looking at how food was commodified and how the market capitalist economic system has done a great job of overproducing food, and a poor one of distributing it equitably. Portions of this interview were originally published as a written Q&A by Truthout.org. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Upstream. Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify. Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

It’s been a year since Covid hit the United States and radically altered our lives. It won’t be news to most that the Trump administration completely botched their response to the pandemic, and even under a Biden administration, the state has been slow to move on a lot of the promises that were made during the lead up to November’s election. Is this changing? In this conversation, we dove deep into the details and specifics of the United States’ political response to Covid with Eric Levitz, senior writer for New York Magazine's Intelligencer blog. Eric wrote a piece titled, “Coronavirus Creates an Opening for Progressivism — Also Barbarism,” where he explored what Covid means for the future of politics in the United States. What political cracks in fishers has Covid opened up? What divisions has it given rise to? What new forms of connection? How has it demonstrated the vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our political system, both domestically and also in how we interface with the rest of the world? Is the United States moving towards a period of more right-wing or neoliberal barbarism? Or will the Covid crisis finally be a wake up call to move towards a more just, equitable, and solidaristic form of politics? These are just some of the questions we explore in this conversation. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Upstream. Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

Over the last few decades, mindfulness has gone viral. These days, the practice has found its way into corporations, prisons, schools, police departments, and even the U.S. military. There are many benefits to mindfulness of course, but in his book, “McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality,” author Ron Purser explores the more pernicious part of the practice buy examining how capitalism had co-opted mindfulness to further exploitation and extraction. Interestingly, it turns out that mindfulness can be very compatible with our current neoliberal ideologies of individualism, inward-focus, and the watering-down of sociality. It has been expertly applied in a way which encourages us to only look inside for solutions to our problems, instead of challenging the systems and structures that drive the suffering we experience. McMindfulness is a way of pacifying a population and instilling a victim-blaming mentality: if you’re stressed, anxious, depressed, just “mindfulness up,” and get over it. How did we get here? What can we do about it? How can mindfulness be reclaimed and in fact used as a radical force for system change and psychological well being? We explore these questions and more in this conversation. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Upstream. Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

What do you see when you peek behind the curtains of neoliberal capitalism? What happens when you lift the veil off? Well, you see a mythological character. An apparition that haunts our collective consciousness. A spectre that permeates our institutions and that has epistemologically imprisoned us. Homo economicus. The term Homo economicus, or economic man, is a core principle in mainstream economic thinking. It’s a portrayal of humans as being inherently rational, greedy, and self-interested. We first got interested in the idea of Homo economicus when we started noticing a consistent barrier that many people have with the possibility of imagining a more just, solidaritistic, and sustainable economic future, stems from their assumptions about human nature. Time after time, we’ve heard — “But, humans are naturally selfish, so any system based on trust, equity, and true democracy would never work.” Where did the idea of Homo economicus come from? Why is it so embedded in mainstream economic thinking? And most importantly, is it true? Are we Homo economicus? Or are we the opposite — kind, compassionate, altruistic beings whose good nature has been thwarted by a mistaken view of our own humanity? Or is the truth somewhere in between? These are some of the questions we will be exploring in this episode, “Debunking the Myth of Homo economicus.” Featuring: Bayo Akomolafe — Philosopher, author, professor, and organizer currently based in India David Sloan Wilson — Evolutionary biologist and a Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at Binghamton University in New York. George Monbiot — Journalist and author of "Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis" Kate Raworth — Renegade economist and author of "Doughnut Economics" Matt Christman — Co-host of the Chapo Traphouse podcast Peter Fleming — Professor in organization theory and author of "The Death of Homo economicus" Tom Crompton — Co-director of the Common Cause Foundation Vas — Former economics student (Vas declined to provide her last name) Yuan Yang — Founder of Rethinking Economics Music by: Haley Heynderickx American Football Many thanks to Charlie Young for the cover art, as well as to Elle Bisgard Church, Lilly Datnow, and Emmanuel Brown for their research and support for this episode. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Upstream. Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support Support for this episode of Upstream was provided by The Guerrilla Foundation, supporting activists & grassroots movements to bring about major systemic change. Additional support was provided by the Upstream Works Collaborative. Taking a systems approach to uplifting communities, they also go upstream to address the root causes of social, economic, and environmental injustices. Learn more at UpstreamWorks.org. For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast twitter.com/UpstreamPodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcast: www.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up…/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

In this episode, we’re bringing you a special solstice // New Year's conversation. Upstream host Della Duncan comes out from interviewer's chair to be in conversation with two other baddass womxn podcast hosts — Manda Scott (Accidental Gods) and Nathalie Nahai (The Hive) to debrief all that has been 2020 and to look ahead to what is possible and potentially emerging in 2021. Nathalie is the host of The Hive Podcast, exploring our relationship with technology, one another and the natural world. She is also an international speaker and author of Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion. Manda Scott is the host of Accidental Gods, looking at the liminal space between science and spirituality, philosophy, politics, and creativity – working towards the conscious evolution of humanity. She’s also the award-winning author of the Boudica novels, a screenwriter, and a political activist.

It won’t come as a surprise to most to hear that the Trump administration has completely dropped the ball on their response to the covid pandemic. The misinformation campaign, lack of empathy, and outright failure of this administration to address the dangers and impacts of covid are jaw-dropping. But it’s not just a matter of this particular administration. In his new book “The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself,” Richard Wolff, a professor of economics and founder of Democracy at Work, outlines how the root cause of the failure to adequately respond to this pandemic is rooted in our economic system itself — capitalism. We spoke with Richard Wolff about how the Trump administration and our current economic system are both responsible for the disastrous response that the United States has shown in the face of such a major disaster. We go over how other countries have responded, how the United States could have done things differently, why capitalism is doomed to fail us, and how restructuring our economic system towards one that is more collective and cooperative could address many of the issues that we are facing today. Full transcript is available at upstreampodcast.org/conversations Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHsto

The idea of Silicon Valley means many things to many people. The most prominent associations with this region and culture probably have to do with the tech industry — but that’s not the whole story. Not even close. There’s a dark side to Silicon Valley that doesn’t always make it into mainstream conversations and popular assumptions. Beneath the image there is a stark reality. In this Upstream Conversation, we spoke with Wendy Liu, an author and Silicon Valley insider turned critic. Her debut book, Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology From Capitalism, is a memoir and a manifesto on how to transform the tech industry from the hypercapitalist culture of inequality, gentrification, and greed that it is to something more equitable, accessible, and supportive of the real disruptions we need today. Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHsto

What if you got your neighbors together and occupied the public spaces on your book, transforming them into whatever you would all want it to be? What would you include? ...A solar-paneled tea station? A little free library? A mural? This is the type of urban placemaking that the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon inspires and facilitates. In this Upstream Conversation, we spoke with Mark Lakeman an urban place-maker, permaculture designer, and community facilitator who co-founder of The City Repair Project. In the last decade, he has directed, facilitated, or inspired designs for more than three hundred new community-generated public places in Portland, Oregon alone. We spoke with him while he was visiting Santa Cruz about the capitalist history of the Urban Grid and how to reclaim our streets, revive community, and belong once more to place. Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHsto

Dr. Nafeez Ahmed is a journalist and researcher who uses systems thinking to support the just transition to a more equitable and sustainable future. We contacted him after we came across his article, "White Supremacism and the Earth System," connecting the worldview that underpins capitalism to the racism that the Black Lives Matter movement is working to address, as well as the climate chaos and environmental devastation that we are experiencing globally. In this conversation, we spoke about why systems thinking is a useful practice, the connection between capitalism and white supremacy, and the great potential we are in for a global phase shift to a post-capitalist world. Nafeez is the executive director of the System Shift Lab and a research fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems. He currently writes for VICE and he is the author of "A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilisation: And How to Save it," and "Failing States, Collapsing Systems: BioPhysical Triggers of Political Violence." Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHsto

Continuing our focus on the coronavirus pandemic and its intersection with capitalism, in this Conversation, we spoke with London-based economic anthropologist Jason Hickel. Jason in the author of The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and Its Solutions, Jason’s new book, “Less is More,” is being published in August by Penguin. We spoke with him about international capitalism during the pandemic, new opportunities for degrowth economics, and how to fundamentally move to a post capitalist world — which will take more than just a shift in economic policy, but a fundamental shift from the world view of capitalist thought. Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHsto

Continuing our focus on the coronavirus pandemic and its intersection with capitalism, in this conversation we speak with Doug Henwood, an economist and host of the radio show and podcast Behind the News. Doug is a regular guest on our show, and in this conversation he helped make sense of much of the economics surrounding the coronavirus, explaining the failure of the government's response, the different possibilities of how we might come out of this pandemic in the long run, and what coronavirus has taught us about the failures of capitalism. The interview was conducted by Upstream producer, Robert Raymond. Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond. Thanks to Haley Heyderickx for the intermission music. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHsto Haley Heynderickx

Continuing our focus on the coronavirus pandemic and its intersection with capitalism, in this conversation we speak with New York State Senator, Julia Salazar, who represents New York's 18th district in northern Brooklyn, which includes the neighborhoods of Bushwick, Cyprus Hills, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, and East New York. This pandemic has hit New York City harder than any other city in the world, and the neighborhoods represented by Senator Salazar are some of the hardest hit in New York City itself. We spoke with the Senator about how she got into organizing and politics, democratic socialism, feminist economics, and the economics of the coronavirus pandemic. This interview is part of a series of Upstream conversations about the coronavirus, capitalism, and potential systemic interventions and solutions during this challenging time. Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond. Thanks to Will Stratton (willstratton.com) for the intermission music. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

It’s unfortunate that it’s taking a global pandemic to reveal it, but the unprecedented crisis catalyzed by the coronavirus has exposed our capitalist economy for what it is: an economic system that puts profit over people (and the planet). This pandemic is an unprecedented event, but it’s the sharpening of class divides, the gutting of our social safety net, and the mentality of selfish individualism encouraged by capitalism which have turned this pandemic into an unimaginable crisis. In this conversation we speak with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed about our current epidemic of insecurity and how it has unfolded through this current crisis. El-Sayed is a doctor, an epidemiologist, a candidate in Michigan’s 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary election, and the author of "Healing Politics, A Doctor’s Journey Into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic," just out this month (April 2020). Senator Bernie Sanders has referred to El-Sayed as "One of the brightest young stars in the future of the progressive movement." This interview is part of a series of Upstream conversations about the coronavirus, capitalism, and potential systemic interventions and solutions during this challenging time. Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

In recent months, thousands of people from coast to coast have confronted politicians and asked them to take action on climate change. Few of these political leaders seem to be listening, however, and so, in the face of this inaction, and with a renewed sense of urgency, people of all ages and backgrounds have begun taking directly to the streets and participating in mass disruption events in the United States and beyond. Extinction Rebellion (XR) is on the forefront of these actions. XR is a global environmental movement with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid ecological collapse. Growing out of the United Kingdom in 2018, XR now has an international presence. You may know them through their provocative style of direct action which includes intentional arrests, public swarms, banner drops, die-ins, gluing themselves to prominent structures, and more. Gail Bradbrook is a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion. We spoke with her in southwest England. Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

What do an indigenous ceremony in Canada, Burning Man, and an occupied salami factory in Rome have in common? They are all expressions of the gift economy featured in a new documentary by Robin McKenna, the guest of this Upstream conversation. Robin McKenna has worked in film for twenty years on several projects, including The Take with Naomi Klein (a film about workers who take over the means of production in Argentina in the wake of an economic collapse). Drawing inspiration from Lewis Hyde’s book, The Gift, Robin McKenna set out to chronicle gift cultures around the world that are challenging the logic of global capitalism. The result is her first feature-length documentary — GIFT, which is out now in theaters across the United States and Canada. Gift-giving is a radical act of resistance to the status quo. It requires trust, being open to receiving, and confronting traditional notions of wealth, ownership, and property. In this conversation we share stories of gifting, imagine what a more gift-oriented world might look like, and trace out the pathways to that transition. We spoke with Robin while she was visiting San Francisco for a primier of the film. To learn more about the film GIFT visit: giftitforwardproject.com Upstream's theme music composed by: Robert Raymond Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upst…am/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

It's often said that the economic system is rigged. The truth, however, is that the system is working exactly as it was designed to. Those in power, whether they hold public office or whether they sit in the boardroom of a multi-billion dollar international corporation, have taken great lengths to set up a system of rules that benefit them and maintain the status quo. Helena Norberg-Hodge, a pioneer of the New Economics movement, has spent many years studying the driving forces behind why our economies are failing us, and what we can do about it. Helena’s perspectives are informed by a systems thinking and colored by the many years she spent in Ladakh, part of the larger region of Kashmir, where she watched global capital completely transform entire communities. Helena Norberg Hodge is the Founder and Director of Local Futures, producer and co-director of the documentary films The Economics of Happiness and Ancient Futures: Lessons from Ladakh and Right Livelihood Award Laureate. We spoke with her in her home in Devon in the U.K. Theme music composed by: Robert Raymond Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532 Spotify: spoti.fi/2AryXHs

The dark shadow of Silicon Valley is growing longer everyday, covering more and more of the globe and spreading not just technology, but a particular value set as well. By this time many know about the hyper-exploitative business models of companies like Uber or TaskRabbit. Or about how AirBnB has heavily reduced housing stocks in cities worldwide. But in his new book, Keith A. Spencer goes further than just picking on a few high profile companies. He lays out an argument for why Silicon Valley, at its core, is a highly exploitative and problematic industry. With a look at the tech world from the vantage point of the marginalized and oppressed—those who have not benefited from the incredible wealth bubbling up in the valley—”A People’s History of Silicon Valley: how the tech industry exploits workers, erodes privacy, and undermines democracy,” presents a damning thesis for why this new world of addictive gadgets and union-busting is increasingly undemocratic and dangerous. A People’s History of Silicon Valley is published by Eyewear Publishing. Upstream producer Robert R. Raymond spoke with Keith A. Spencer at the offices of Salon in San Francisco, where Spencer is an editor. Intermission music: The California Honeydrops Cover Art: Robert Raymond Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation — Thank you! www.upstreampodcast.org/support For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on social media: Facebook.com/upstreampodcast Twitter: @upstreampodcast Instagram.com/upstreampodcast You can also subscribe to us on iTunes, Spotify, and Google: iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/upstr…d1082594532?mt=2 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2AryXHs Google Play: play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/sulp