Podcast appearances and mentions of jeremy slevin

Air Date 6/10/2020 Today we take a look at the long arc of racism in America as a primer for many of the topics it would be good for you to be acquainted with as we live through yet another convulsive societal awakening regarding racism and police abuse in our country. If you only ever share one episode of this podcast with friends, family or another else, make it this one. Be part of the show! Leave us a message at 202-999-3991 MEMBERSHIP ON PATREON (Get AD FREE Shows & Bonus Content) Support us on PodHero Support us on Flattr EPISODE SPONSORS: Clean Choice Energy IF YOU'RE GOING TO SHOP AMAZON: Amazon USA | Amazon CA | Amazon UK SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Confederacy - @LastWeekTonight with @iamjohnoliver - Air Date 10-09-17 Confederate symbols are still celebrated despite the ugly history they symbolize. John Oliver suggests some representations of southern pride that involve less racism and more Stephen Colbert. Ch. 2: History of Slaveowners Receiving Reparations with DeRay, Sam, Brittany and Clint - Pod Save the People - Air Date 4-23-19 Discussing the New York Times story: When Slaveowners Got Reparations Ch. 3: 40 Acres and A Mule, Today with Brian Balogh and William Darity - BackStory - Air Date 5-24-19 “40 acres and a mule” promised ex-slave families 40 acres of tillable land on the southeastern coast. However, after many families had settled on the land, the policy was reversed and the area was reinstated to white farmers and former slave owners. Ch. 4: The history of the raising of Civil War monuments - @offkiltershow - Air Date 8-18-17 Jeremy Slevin speaks with Professor Kirk Savage, an author and expert on civil war monuments, to discuss the troubling history of these monuments. Ch. 5: As Confederate Monuments Come Down, the Struggle Continues - On the Media - Air Date 5-26-17 Bob talks with Malcolm Suber, an historian and co-founder of the group Take 'Em Down NOLA, about the significance of removing monuments to white supremacy, and the work that still remains to be done. Ch. 6: Bryan Stevenson wants us to confront racial terrorism and then say, Never again. Part 1 - Cape Up - Air Date 4-24-18 “We can’t go on. We cannot pretend that something really destructive, something really corruptive happened when communities came to celebrate this kind of violence. We have to talk about it. We have to acknowledge the wrongfulness of it.” Ch. 7: Study On The Impact Of Nazi Propaganda - @TheYoungTurks - Air Date 06-19-15 Cenk Uygur discusses the power of propaganda. A study has been released which looked into the effect of Nazi propaganda on Germany, particularly it's long-term impact. Ch. 8: Bryan Stevenson wants us to confront racial terrorism and then say, Never again. Part 2 - Cape Up - Air Date 4-24-18 “We can’t go on. We cannot pretend that something really destructive, something really corruptive happened when communities came to celebrate this kind of violence. We have to talk about it. We have to acknowledge the wrongfulness of it.” Ch. 9: The Great Migration - @DecodeDC - Air Date 5-14-15 Isabel Wilkerson spent 15 years researching and writing her book, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” The book is the story of nearly 6 million African Americans who migrated out of the South. Ch. 10: A Dream Remembered? How we came to revere MLK - @Making_Contact - Air Date 1-17-17 Gary Younge, author of “The Speech” talks about Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and the story behind it. Ch. 11: MLK What They Won't Teach In School - News Beat - Air Date 1-8-18 We take an alternative look at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, examining how the civil rights icon was so much more than simply the “I Have a Dream” soundbite. Ch. 12: Michelle Alexander on The New Jim Crow - Leid Stories - Air Date 8-26-15 Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, discusses in a presentation at the University of Tennessee the policies that produced mass incarceration. Ch. 13: The True Origins of the War on Drugs - News Beat - Air Date 8-9-17 One trillion dollars. That’s how much the United States has spent in the last 40 years on the war on drugs. Currently, more than 450,000 Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses—up from 40,000 in 1980. Ch. 14: Racism vs Prejudice - Kat Blaque - Air Date 10-5-14 Ch. 15: Responding to the black-on-black-crime talking point - About Race - Air Date 9-1-15 Ch. 16: A More Beautiful & Terrible History The Whitewashing & Distortion of Rosa Parks and MLK_s Legacies - @DemocracyNow - Air Date 02-06-18 Professor Jeanne Theoharis’s new book is titled “A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History.” It shows how the legacy of the civil rights movement has been distorted and whitewashed for public consumption. Ch. 17: When Is the Right Time for Black People to Protest? - The Daily Show - Air Date 9-25-17 Trevor unpacks the backlash that NFL players, Stevie Wonder and ESPN commentator Jemele Hill received after speaking out against racism. Ch. 18: How whiteness distorts our democracy, with Eddie Glaude Jr. - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 4-4-19 Glaude is the chair of Princeton University’s department of African American studies, the president of the American Academy of Religion, and the author of the powerful book Democracy in Black. Ch. 19: Why We Riot The language of the unheard - NewsBeat - Air Date 12-18-17 MLK, Jr. once referred to “riots” as the “language of the unheard.” The reasons for such rebellions are myriad: political, social & cultural. FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 12: Final comments MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions): Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Derailed - The Depot The Envelope - Aeronaut Beast on the Soil - Desert Orchard The Cast and Favor - Bayou Birds Waltz and Fury - Macrame Landon Depot - The Depot Inessential - Bayou Birds Rafter - Speakeasy Midday - Pecan Grove Chrome and Wax - Ray Catcher Around Plastic Card Tables - Desert Orchard Turning to You - Landsman Duets Turning on the Lights - Speakeasy Line Etching - Marble Run Insatiable Toad - Origami The Coil Winds - Vacant Distillery Curio - Vacant Distillery Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Support the show via Patreon Listen on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | +more Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Facebook!

A roundup of some of the year’s most under-covered stories on poverty and inequality, with special guest Mara Pellittieri, editor-in-chief of TalkPoverty.org—and a teary goodbye to our own Jeremy Slevin.

Inside Trump’s “public charge” attack on immigrant families with the Protecting Immigrant Families campaign; Jocelyn Frye on how little has changed since Anita Hill; and Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week.

Jared Bernstein unpacks the new Census data on poverty, income, and health insurance; Liz Weintraub on how Kavanaugh’s confirmation would set disability rights back 50 years or more; and Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week, In Case Yachts Missed It

This week on Off-Kilter, over the past 40 days, more than 2,000 people have been arrested across the country as part of nonviolent civil disobedience through the Poor People’s Campaign. Many of those activists came to DC this past Saturday to mark the completion of the campaign’s first phase as it continues the work that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who founded the original Poor People’s Campaign began 50 years ago. Rebecca talks with Greg Kaufmann, editor in chief of TalkPoverty.org, about the activists fueling this growing movement and where it goes from here. Next, this week marks the 80th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which put in place the first-ever federal minimum wage and much more. But 80 years later, key parts of the law remain unchanged—including an obscure provision that allows people with disabilities to be paid pennies on the dollar for their labor. For a look at the history of the Fair Labor Standards Act—and how 80 years on, it’s still leaving workers with disabilities behind—Rebecca speaks with Rabia Belt, an assistant professor of law at Stanford Law School.  Later in the show, as June comes to a close, another Pride month is wrapping up. But the celebrations in places like San Francisco and New York look very different from those in places like rural Mississippi. In a state that helped put Mike Pence and his ideology into the White House, people like painter Jonathan Kent Adams are still finding ways to celebrate themselves and their communities. Rebecca (joined by David Ballard, one of Off-Kilter’s producers, in his on-air debut) talk with Jonathan about how he uses art as a tool for LGBTQ activism, what it was like growing up gay in rural Mississippi—and what marking Pride in the era of Trump looks like there. But first, the Supreme Court continues its all-out assault on workers with the Janus decision; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rides to victory running on a platform of universal health care, abolishing ICE, and more; Michigan Governor Snyder signs a cruel bill putting 700,000 Michiganders’ Medicaid at risk; and in a rare piece of good news, the Clean Slate Act—first-of-its-kind legislation to enable people with minor criminal records to have their records automatically sealed once they’ve remained crime-free—becomes law in Pennsylvania; and more… Jeremy Slevin returns to unpack the news of the week ICYMI. 

This week on Off-Kilter, a new report sheds horrifying new light on the state of the nationwide affordable housing crisis. A minimum wage worker earning $7.25 an hour would need to work a staggering 122 hours per week, literally all 52 weeks of the year — the equivalent of three full time jobs — to afford a two bedroom apartment at fair market rent. Rebecca speaks with Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, about the new report “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing.” Later in the show, while Trump and Congressional Republicans actively seek to exacerbate the affordable housing crisis, some states and cities are taking matters into their own hands. Rebecca sits down with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to hear how Denver’s tackling their affordable housing crisis and working to curb chronic homelessness. And finally, it’s no secret the Trump tax law that took effect earlier this year is already worsening inequality in the U.S. But it’s also a recipe for massively exacerbating racial inequality — and even mass incarceration. Rebecca talks with Darrick Hamilton and Michael Linden, both fellows at the Roosevelt Institute, about how “hidden rules of race are embedded in the new tax law.” But first: concentration camps for kids; how Trump’s plan to reorganize the federal government is just his latest effort to redefine everything from childcare to health insurance as “welfare”; what you’re not hearing about the Trump economy: wages FELL last year (!); momentum grows for expanding paid leave to include chosen family; and more — as Jeremy Slevin, aka your beloved Slevinator, returns with the news of the week ICYMI (and an even longer beard than last week).

This week on Off-Kilter, while Trump spent much of the week crowing about how he’s to thank for the so-called “best economy ever,” the United Nations released a scathing indictment of poverty and inequality in the U.S., finding that for all but the richest, “the American Dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion.” The report’s findings are damning and specifically call out Trump and the GOP for lavishing massive tax breaks on the wealthiest while 5.3 Americans live in “third world conditions of absolute poverty.” Rebecca speaks with Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who authored the fiery report. Later in the show, ride-hailing corporations like Uber and Lyft have adopted the dirty tactics of the gun and tobacco industries to buy political influence and override local policies intended to protect consumers and drivers. In 2016, Uber and Lyft deployed a whopping 370 lobbyists around the country—more than Amazon, Microsoft, and Walmart combined. To unpack how Uber and Lyft have rewritten state laws in a staggering 41 states to benefit their own bottom lines at the expense of their drivers and consumers, Rebecca talks with Rebecca Smith, director of work structures at the National Employment Law Project, and one of the authors of the recent report, “Uber State Interference: How TNCs (Transportation Network Companies) Buy, Bully, and Bamboozle Their Way to Deregulation.” But first, Michigan passes a slightly less racist but still awful bill jeopardizing Medicaid for 350,000 Michiganders; the story behind the “Save Our Tips” signs all over D.C.; the return of the Equal Rights Amendment; why did Trump try to hide the Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report? and more. Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week in poverty and inequality, In Case You Missed It.

Victorian diseases eradicated long ago with the advent of antibiotics are making an unlikely comeback across the pond. You heard that right - scurvy and other illnesses related to malnutrition are now having devastating effects on thousands of families as hunger and hardship have spiked, following eight years of austerity cuts in the U.K. To discuss the state of the U.K.'s austerity cuts - which lawmakers in Washington would be wise to consider a cautionary tale as they debate a Farm Bill that would strip 2 million Americans of meager yet vital food assistance - Rebecca talks with Mary O'Hara, a columnist with The Guardian and the author ofAusterity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp Edge of Cuts in the UK. Later in the show, some 1 in 4 Americans report difficulty affording necessary prescription drugs, as prices have skyrocketed in recent years. In response to this growing crisis, a range of lawmakers in Congress have called for legislation to curb rising drug costs, and states have begun to take action as well, with Vermont's legislature last week passing a bill to allow the state to import prescription drugs from Canada. To dig into what drives rising drug prices - and what we can do to bring their cost down - Rebecca speaks with Fran Quigley, who coordinates of People of Faith for Access to Medicines and serves as a clinical professor in the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University's School of Law. But first, Jeremy Slevin, aka the Slevinator, returns with the latest on the Farm Bill debate (and his cat mitzvah!) and other news of the week, in another installment of In Case You Missed It.

Last week, Ben Carson, President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, unveiled a proposal to triple rents for the poorest families and take housing assistance away from unemployed and underemployed workers. This announcement comes amid a nationwide affordable housing crisis: In no state in the U.S. can a minimum wage worker earning $7.25 afford even a one-bedroom apartment at market rent. Meanwhile, just 1 in 5 eligible low-income families receive help from the nation’s already massively underfunded housing assistance programs, leaving others paying 50, 60, 70 percent of their incomes on rent — while they languish on years, sometimes decades-long waitlists. Many end up facing eviction. A new dataset produced by sociologist and Evicted author Matthew Desmond and his team at the Eviction Lab shines staggering new light on the scale and scope of the eviction epidemic. Cities such as Richmond, Virginia, face annual eviction rates as high as 1 in 9 households. Meanwhile, an exhibit at the National Building Museum based on Desmond’s book brings the issue to life. This week on Off-Kilter, to help Ben Carson — and the rest of us — get up to speed on the reality of America’s affordable housing crisis, which his proposal would put on steroids, Rebecca speaks with two people working to fight eviction in very different ways. But first, Jeremy Slevin, aka The Slevinator, returns from his brush with the bubonic plague with the news of the week, In Case You Missed It.

President Trump declared the opioid crisis a “national public health emergency” this week, directing a variety of federal agencies and administrators to focus on fighting this issue. Declaring the opioid crisis a “national public health emergency” instead of a “national emergency” makes a significant difference in sources of funding, administrative jurisdiction, and actions that Congress can take. Jeremy Slevin, associate director of advocacy for the Center for American Progress' Poverty to Prosperity program, details the pitfalls the Trump administration faces in fighting the opioid crisis. Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, talks about a reasonable and constitutional path to change the electoral college into a winner-take-all system through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.