What's Left To Do?

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support There's a high probability that you like and read Jacobin Magazine; And if you don't, you will. Well, Bhaskar Sunkara is the guy who started Jacobin. Everyone's favorite Trinidadian Socialist (second to Kwame Ture, of course :-)

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Chigozie may have lost the battle - his race for a spot on Newark's city council - but something tells me he will definitely win the war.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Brace Belden is the co-host of the very popular @TrueAnon podcast. Brace is also a nut. And an artist at heart. And a fighter. But mostly a nut. Take a listen. You may be surprised what you hear.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Eugene Puryear is a native of Charlottesville, VA which he left and never returned to after city life came calling. First, DC for college at Howard. Then the bright lights of NYC where he co-founded Breakthrough News.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2 and a Bonus segment: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo I had the honor of interviewing one of the labor organizing giants of this age. Please meet and listen to Angelika Maldonado, former Chairwoman and current Vice President of the Amazon Labor Union. She is a leader, alongside Chris Smalls, who successfully organized a union election at Amazon's JFK 8 Staten Island warehouse. The fight is far from over, as you'll hear in Part 2. But, oh what a journey it's been thus far!

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Eric Blanc is an organizer, activist, scholar and now writer. You've probably seen his byline in Jacobin, read his book 'Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics,' or subscribe to his Substack (https://substack.com/profile/4706080-eric-blanc). He, of course, grew up in San Francisco :-)

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support You are now listening to the future of the left! Joe Thompson is leading the charge in the struggle to unionize Starbucks workers throughout the state of California. At 19 years old. If you are interested in getting connected to learn more about the union effort at Starbucks you can email: sbwca@gmail.com. And you can read more about their campaign for AD-28 at https://joeforassembly.org/

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Walter Riley decided to live life on his own terms quite some time ago. First, as a young teen organizing sit-ins and other actions that led to the desegregation of the south. And later as a radical Marxist-Leninist labor organizer and civil rights attorney. (No wonder Boots turned out the way he did!)

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Chased this man down for two years and I finally got ahold of him to tell his story. This couldn't have happened at a better time, as he is running for Mayor of Oakland. I present to thee, future Mayor Greg Hodge. You can learn more about his candidacy here: https://www.hodgeforoakland.com/

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Jason Myles, co-host of This is Revolution podcast, is who we will hear from this week. Buckle up for an interesting ride from the Bay to the Bayou and back, as we trace the undulations of his life and his curiosity about the world and its peoples. Also, if part 2 we fight (a little).

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support There are independent journalists, and then there's Ben Norton. He relentlessly pursues the story of what western imperialism means for countries in the Global South (and beyond). But, of course, this wasn't always the case...

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support We kick off our Season 2 opener with Jamie Peck, one of the left's favorite (Communist) party girls. See what I did there? Suffice it to say that Jamie has come a long way from her alienated suburban upbringing, where she struggled socially.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Buckle up, for a wild ride through Karthik Purushothaman's early life in his native India, where caste and class were on full display as a result of his parents' union. Before he got the bug for the arts and creative writing, he was a competitive table tennis player as a youth and went to an elite college for aerospace engineering!

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support David Duhalde: Inside Man. Who hasn't he worked for? DSA, Our Revolution, union organizer, etc. David, the self professed "process troll," is the guy in the background doing the dirty work: building the left's capacity and infrastructure.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Another excellent interview with another amazing academic! Dr. Corey Robin, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, argues that the right is very weak right now, presenting an opportunity for the left. But he also just likes to argue (not with me!), a trait he's had since childhood, growing up in Chappaqua.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Our dearest and most gentle Ben Burgis. Michigan's native son had his folks shook for a second there, having barely graduated high school. Now, PhD in hand, you can catch him in college lecture halls and on the masthead of Jacobin. You can listen to Ben on his own podcast, Give Them An Argument, here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/give-them-an-argument/id1527096105

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support This week we get to hear from the Pop Off Princess, Nomiki Konst! We get to learn about her Greek-American family's survival story from WWII, as well as how she overcame the instability in her early life and caught the bug for politics in 5th grade.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support I hope you're like me, in that Aaron Maté's fastidious debunking of the farcical Russiagate conspiracy kept you sane(ish) over the last 5 years. But who is the man behind all of the truth telling? Glad you asked, and that this interview gives some (of the best) answers

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Margaret Kimberly is the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, which she co-founded with the late Bruce Dixon and Glen Ford. Many who are familiar with her work may assume that she's been on the left her entire life, but not so! It took the absurdity of the 2000 election (theft) to shake her out of lib malaise.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support The elusive, yet still somehow omnipresent, Carl Beijer is who we'll be hearing from this week. Adding to the Christian to Marxist metamorphosis we've chronicled extensively here at What's Left To Do?

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support If she were a Catholic saint, which is hilarious because she's a staunch atheist, we would call her Our Lady of Labor. Alex Press is a staff writer at Jacobin Magazine, covering working class politics, with a particular focus on labor and unions, amidst the current spate of labor strikes ongoing in the US. She brings an interesting lens to her coverage as someone who has had to navigate both standing up and sitting down jobs, as a teen and adult. Oh, and she actually was a union organizer at one point. But before all of that, she was an elite gymnast.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Julian LaRosa is a public banking activist, an oft overlooked area of contestation for the left. But before he became a Numbers Guy on the left, he was pretty apolitical in a family of conservative Republicans. He became politicized during his time in the military, when he was deployed to Iraq (he became an anti-war, Ron Paul guy). His journey left continued in college, as he began to study economics as a way to engineer society.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Thomas Frank is one of the most preeminent writers on the left, and heavy is the head that wears that particular crown. We get in to how he rises above being bitter about being boxed out of American media in Part 2. But Part 1 starts off with a fascinating history of healthcare and populism, which he researched for the new afterword in the paperback run of his latest book, "The People, No!". Then, we take it back to his days growing up in Kansas where one of the ways he was able to explore life outside of his squeaky clean suburban life was through bbq!

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support This week we have 1/4 of The Trillbilly Workers Party, with Aaron Thorpe, who is, ironically, originally a yankee. The son of Jamaican immigrants growing up in NYC was pretty apolitical until he began sneering at the denizens of Zuccotti Park during Occupy as a high minded employee of the DNC (!!), believe it or not. He picked up his sister's copy of The Communist Manifesto shortly after, and...well...you know the rest

Join us on Patreon for Part 2 & a patrons only bonus track: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support There is absolutely no introduction needed for this episode's guest. Briahna is an attorney turned journalist, who became the National Press Secretary for Bernie's 2020 campaign. Both Parts 1 & 2 are pretty lengthy, because ya girl has a lot to say (that we should closely listen to).

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Second in the lineup of the September of Sanders Staffers is none other than Phil 'With These Hands' Agnew. As you probably already have seen or heard, Phil is a force on the campaign trail. And if you know his history, you know he REALLY comes alive as an organizer, activist and artist. I was surprised that we almost missed out on the Phil who developed into an organizer at college. But thank God that almost doesn't count

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support To my surprise and delight, David was very candid during our interview about quite a bit

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Such a pleasure to be able to sit down with one of the left's most vocal media critics. Interestingly enough, his early life was shaped by the burgeoning worldview(s) of conservative talk radio deep in the heart of Texas. You can find Adam's podcast @citationsneeded

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: www.whatslefttodo.com/support Gee is a photographer turned activist from Southern California who never dreamed he would end up being an activist, and certainly not one who would be a part of an effort to shut down an ICE facility. But he narrowly escaped becoming a casualty of gang life in his teens, and has been linking up with people serious about seeking justice for the marginalized ever since.

Join us on Patreon for Part 2: https://www.patreon.com/whatslefttodo If Patreon isn't your thing, please join us in supporting this work with a contribution over at: https://www.whatslefttodo.com/support If you've ever read Jacobin Magazine, chances are you've seen Micah's handiwork as Deputy Editor. But before he linked up with Bhaskar at everyone's favorite socialist magazine (working for $4/hr in his underwear at home), he was a PK from the midwest. He was first introduced to radical politics through the punk scene, where his ideology was expressed through veganism and dumpster diving (among other things). After moving on from punk, he *thought* academia would be his calling - and thank God attending one academic conference changed all that.

***Part 2 is up on the Patreon! If you enjoy this work and would like to support, you can go to patreon.com/whatslefttodo and for $5/month get early access to the Part 2 interviews. All episodes will be unlocked after 14 days, stay up to date with unlocks by hopping on our email list at whatslefttodo.com*** Like a fool, I thought this would FINALLY be the interview I could let my grandmother listen to, on account of me being on my best behavior speaking to a preacher

***Our interview with Assemblymember Alex Lee is up on the Patreon to accompany Chesa's episode! If you enjoy this work and would like to support, you can go to patreon.com/whatslefttodo and for $5/month get early access to the Part 2 interviews. All good if you're not able or willing to support just yet, all episodes will be unlocked after 30 days*** You see what I did there with this title? I would've loved to talk to DA Chesa Boudin longer, and really dive into how he made sense of his life's circumstances as a young child (we didn't have time to get into it, so just google it if you're not already familiar). But, alas, he's a very busy man these days. Oh, and those recalls? (Not one, but two

***Part 2 is up on the Patreon! If you enjoy this work and would like to support, you can go to patreon.com/whatslefttodo and for $5/month get early access to the Part 2 interviews. All good if you're not able or willing to support just yet, all episodes will be unlocked after 30 days*** You'd be hard pressed to find a more committed thinker, writer, composer, epicurean, college educator and Atlanta Braves fan than one Dr. Joshua Myers. But his sports obsessed youth in Orangeburg, SC and period of being "anti-academic" didn't make his arrival, as such, a given. It took coming to Howard and missing out on a fancy summer internship to set him on his future path. By this point, we've all heard of critical race theory, but Dr. Myers introduces me to critical university studies in Part 2. And how critical university studies informs the urgent need to dismantle the university (and racism).

***Part 2 is up on the Patreon! If you enjoy this work and would like to support, you can go to patreon.com/whatslefttodo and for $5/month get early access to my Part 2 interviews. All good if you're not able or willing to support just yet, all episodes will be unlocked after 30 days***

***Part 2 is up on the Patreon! If you enjoy this work and would like to support, you can go to patreon.com/whatslefttodo and for $5/month get early access to my Part 2 interviews. Supporting the Patreon is especially important this week, as I'm pretty sure Jared's wife will demand many expensive gifts from me as penance for getting him to speak so publicly about some of the unsavory days of his youth

***Part 2 is up on the Patreon! If you enjoy this work and would like to support, you can go to patreon.com/whatslefttodo and for $5/month get early access to my Part 2 interviews. Don't worry, if you can't swing the Patreon, all episodes will be unlocked after 30 days*** I could have easily spoken with her for another 3 hours. Malaika is brilliant and precise, in a way that helps me level up my own analysis on a number issues. I'm so glad I met her all those years ago in Atlanta, as a young 20-something navigating the uncharted waters of the post-Great Recession era. Little did I know, we would reconnect about a decade later when

I am over the moon to be releasing this week's episode with your favorite cherubic Mensch From The Midwest, Kenzo Shibata. Naturally, this interview took place outside of a school

Part 2 with Lydia on how her getting involved with Standing Rock was a result of how helpless she felt as a child watching everything that was happening at Wounded Knee. And Lydia got some smoke for the GND (see what I did there?)

A one time Time Magazine covergirl, and all around taker of no prisoners, Lydia politely ignores my request for a detailed chronology of her life in exchange for a dynamic narrative on how her past and lineage influenced her arrival at being a water defender from SoCal to Standing Rock. The orgs Lydia mentioned which are fighting Newsom's disastrous desalination plant plans are: -Azul.com -SoCal 350 -Sierra Club -Sunrise -Sunrise Water Watch -Extinction Rebellion

In part 2 with Fayzan, we spend a good bit of time talking about something that soooo many friends/colleagues/associates have or are struggling with: the anxiety and/or depression that can come with being unfulfilled at a cushy corporate job. Kind of freaky how close his story is to my own

(Did everyone see what I did there with this episode title?) I shouldn't have given him such a hard time at the beginning of this interview haha Fayzan is a no non-sense kind of guy when it comes to campaigns (which is probably why we did so well in The Bay). But outside of the hectic setting of a presidential primary, quite a bit of fun! Fascinating story here of a young man who had to navigate the social difficulties of enduring the divorce of his parents in his tight knit Muslim, Pakistani-American, Atlanta community (in which divorce is a huge taboo!) and how that shaped him in a number of ways as an adolescent. He got his first taste of political praxis on the erudite campus of Emory University through the organizing spearheaded by a dearly departed friend. And eventually, he was able to reintegrate and reclaim his Muslim identity through his political work.

Back with Soul Brotha's ✊

I want you to look at the thumbnail picture for this episode and give me a break for assuming Marco was Black when we first met lolol Anywho - Marco is a native son of SoCal, San Ysidro to be exact. You don't hear too many stories like his, unless What's Left To Do? is your favorite podcast

It's critical, probably more so than ever, to seize this moment for service workers (because of all of the things that Mari gets into about the conditions of workers *before* COVID, which have been exacerbated during the pandemic and recovery). If you're interested in connecting with this organization and joining its efforts, please get in touch with One Fair Wage! https://onefairwage.site/ Service Workers of the World, Unite!

Great time for this episode to drop, since the eyes of the country seem to be set on the "labor shortage" in the food service industry. Maricela (or Mari) works with the good people over at One Fair Wage, where they are fighting the sub minimum wage to which restaurant food service workers are subject. The ultimate goal? To build sectoral bargaining power for ALL service workers. To learn more about One Fair Wage, visit their website at: https://onefairwage.site/

Get ready for class, kiddos! Laksh walks us through a lot of history, and how things have evolved/devolved in the realm of housing. He also brings us into the current moment, regarding some fairly recent legislatively history in the state of California as well as the city of San Francisco. If you're interested in plugging in to the fight in SF, the website he mentions is: www.sf.community.us Also, please sign the petition he mentioned SO LONDON BREED CAN STOP PLAYING GAMES AND DO HER DAMN JOB

The title of this guest's episode comes from a Diana Ross song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkPH_L1JfM Do note that, because I don't have good sense, I really wanted to title this episode thusly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IHUl8CwCvI But poor Laksh doesn't deserve that, especially not after how I opened his interview

What hasn't this man done since leaving law school? (Not much is the correct answer). Be sure to listen until the end where I give a brief update on where things stand with AB 1400 at the moment. The orgs he name checks regarding single payer are: -Single Payer Coalition in Santa Clara County -SF Berniecrats, Healthcare Committee -Healthcare For All in Los Angeles You can find Assemblymember Kalra on twitter @ash_kalra

Your 4th favorite leftist podcast has done it again! We managed to nab an interview with California Assemblymember Ash Kalra for an interview where we discuss his life and how it has led him to being our champion in the statehouse! Assemblymember Kalra is the author of AB 1400, which is the latest policy bill for a single-payer health system in the great state of California

I was pleasantly surprised at how much we disagree about various historical and political figures, but that's besides the point. He finally arrived at being radical, and hasn't looked back since! He is one of the lucky few that are able to be uncompromising in how his politics informs his work. You can find him on twitter at @morallowground and his writing at Commondreams.org, as well as an archive of his work at https://brettwilkins.com

Brett Wilkins. Esteemed writer at Commondreams.org & Collective 20, and author. Brett Wilkins is also a fellow SF Berniecrats e-board member that I be cuttin up with during meetings lol. Brett has come a loooooong way, from being an ardent conservative. It took lots of international travel, reading the right books, and a George W Bush presidency to get him Up From Mental Slavery