Podcasts about Social research

Anticolonial movements of the 20th century generated audacious ideas of freedom. After decolonization, however, the challenge was to give an institutional form to those radical ideas.Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony is a new book by the scholar Sandipto Dasgupta which provides an innovative account of how India ultimately addressed this daunting challenge.It's a fresh, somewhat revisionist look at the making of the postcolonial constitutional order and tries to place the current crisis of liberal democracy in proper historical and conceptual context.Sandipto is an assistant professor of politics at the New School for Social Research, where he works on the history of modern political and social thought, especially the political theory of empire, decolonization, and postcolonial order.To talk more about his book, Sandipto joins Milan on the podcast this week. They discuss the two-way relationship between decolonization and constitution-making, the absence of representation unity between the Congress Party and the masses, and why India's leaders believed a planned economy would forestall a social revolution. Plus, the two discuss how the absence—rather than the excesses—of democracy have led to rising majoritarianism.Episode notes:1. “Republic Day Episode: Madhav Khosla on India's Founding Moment,” Grand Tamasha, January 28, 2020.2. Sandipto Dasgupta, “Gandhi's Failure: Anticolonial Movements,” Perspectives on Politics 15, no. 3 (2017).3. Sandipto Dasgupta, “‘A Language Which Is Foreign to Us': Continuities and Anxieties in the Making of the Indian Constitution,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 34, no. 2 (2014): 228–242.

ORIGINALLY RELEASED Aug 19, 2022 In this landmark episode, we sit down with the legendary Noam Chomsky and renowned historian Vijay Prashad to discuss their insightful new book, The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power. Exploring the aftermath of America's military engagements, Chomsky and Prashad illuminate the complexities of U.S. imperial ambitions, the consequences - moral and material - of foreign interventions, and the growing cracks in America's global dominance. Noam Chomsky, widely celebrated as one of the greatest intellectual figures of our time, brings his sharp analytical mind and decades of political activism to this conversation. Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and chief correspondent for Globetrotter, adds his deep historical expertise and critical insights into global politics. Don't miss this extraordinary dialogue, unpacking profound geopolitical questions with two influential thinkers who have shaped how we understand power and resistance in our world today. ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

II News headlines II Listen here - Uruguay mourns former President José “Pepe” Mujica (89) – Ex-guerrilla turned humble leader, donated 90% of salary, legalized weed & abortion. (Film: The 12 Year Night) - EPA slow to act amid rising ocean temps. - NSW pesticide kills corellas – Hundreds of birds choke to death; chemical under scrutiny. - Gaza's deadliest day since ceasefire broke – 100+ killed in strikes. Gaza European Hospital destroyed – Only cancer center gone, ICU/incubators offline. (IDF “tunnel” footage debunked by ABC.)Song - BiGSaM - لو مرة بس (If Only Once)II Voices 4 Palestine II Listen HereFrom the rally on Nakba Day (Thursday 15th May) on south lawn of Unimelb Parkville campusSome words from emcee about campus security and repression of student activism& hearing fromRanem Abu-Izneid, a Palestinian dental student at the University of Melbourne, who was targeted by the IDF in her dorm at Al-Quds University in the West Bank in November.Thanks to Edmi, new programmer with Monday breakfast, for the recording.Song - Cairokee - Telk Qadeya كايروكي - تلك قضية        II Tamil Refugee Council Interview II Listen HereWe talk to Renuga Inpakumar from the Tamil Refugee Council about the historical and current significance of the ongoing persecution of the Tamil people both here and in Sri Lanka.May 18th, 2025, we mark sixteen years since the peak of the Tamil genocide at Mullivaikkal. It is not only a commemoration —it is a global call to actionMay 18th at 12PM, the Tamil Refugee Council will lead a mass rally at Sydney Town Hall on Gadigal LandII This is the Week II Listen hereComrade Kevin provides us with an update on the week that was.II Vijay Prashad Interview II Listen hereExcerpt from a recent interview that Tobia did with Indian Marxist jounalist/historian Vijay Prashad from The Tricontinental Institute of Social Research, Leftword Books and Global South Insights pt 1 of 3Song - Toumani & Sidiki - Lampedusa (live @Bimhuis Amsterdam)

Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani and Iranian analyst Trita Parsi talks about the latest developments in the Middle East and whether Trump is finally sidelining Israel when it comes to Gaza, Yemen and Iran. Then Vijay Prashad discusses tensions between India and Pakistan and the 80th anniversary of the defeat of fascism. For the full discussion, please join us on Patreon at - https://www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-full-128900208 Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and commentator specialising in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He has among other positions previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East with the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, and Senior Middle East Analyst and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group. Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, and a Contributing Editor of Middle East Report. Trita Parsi is the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute. He is the award-winning author of "Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy" and "Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States" and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. He is the author of forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, and The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power, written with Noam Chomsky. Vijay is the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the chief correspondent for Globetrotter, and the chief editor of LeftWord Books (New Delhi). He also appeared in the films Shadow World (2016) and Two Meetings (2017). Link to the book 'On The Pleasures of Living in Gaza' - https://orbooks.com/catalog/on-the-pleasures-of-living-in-gaza/ ***Please support The Katie Halper Show *** For bonus content, exclusive interviews, to support independent media & to help make this program possible, please join us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow Get your Katie Halper Show Merch here! https://katiehalper.myspreadshop.com/all Follow Katie on Twitter: https://x.com/kthalps Follow Katie on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kthalps/

How can sociology reclaim its commitment to rigorous inquiry and viewpoint diversity? Today, John Tomasi sits with Jukka Savolainen, Ph.D., Sociology professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and the moderator of the Heterodox Academy's Sociology community. They discuss the discipline's current challenges, including ideological bias and lack of viewpoint diversity, and explore potential paths toward reform.    Jukka shares his journey into sociology and his decision to leave Finland to pursue a PhD in the United States due to concerns about postmodernist influences in Finnish sociology. He addresses the core aims of sociology, its present state of fragmentation, and the impact of ideological bias on research and discourse. Jukka highlights the importance of empirical evidence and viewpoint diversity while pointing out taboos and restrictions on certain topics within the field.The conversation also examines the role of external interventions, using the example of the Danish government's restructuring of the sociology department at Copenhagen University in the 1980s, and the more recent actions by the state of Florida. In This Episode:

In episode 89 of the Podcast for Social Research, recorded live at BISR Central, BISR faculty Danielle Drori, Jude Webre, and Lauren K. Wolfe sat down following a screening of Stanley Kubrick's controversial final film, Eyes Wide Shut, to discuss its long thirty years in the making, its source material in fin-de-siècle Vienna, and its vision of bourgeois marriage and sexual morality in turn-of-the-millennium New York. Kicking off with behind-the-scenes Hollywood details, Jude adumbrates an argument for the film as an auteur's personal reverie, tracing resonances between it and the enigmatic story of Kubrick's own (second) married life in postwar New York City; Lauren then lets us in on the lurid sexual obsessions of Arthur Schnitzler, on whose 1926 novella Dream Story the film is based, with the interpretive aid of W.G. Sebald; while Danielle guides us through a collective Freudian analysis of the dreams that run through and construct the film's emotional core. With insightful and witty participation from the audience, the talk touches on masculinity within marriage; nudity and nakedness; coitus interruptus; Freud's stages of sexual development; dream as unconscious communication; sex and death; fucking down and marrying up; Nicole Kidman as gay icon; and whether anything of substance appears to have changed in bourgeois sexual morality between circa 1900 and 1999. The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky  

My name is Reinerio (Rey) Hernandez and I was a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California at Berkeley where I was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Ph.D. Fellowship. I am also an “Experiencer” of the paranormal Contact Modalities.This is a book about my personal experiences via the Contact Modalities, titled A Greater Reality: One Man's Journey of Discovery. This book discusses many of my personal experiences that I have kept hidden for many years because of fear that I would lose my law license and any academic credibility that I might have accumulated over many years of academic research. The book not only discusses the details of some of my most important bizarre experiences via the Contact Modalities, it also presents various theoretical hypotheses about the “Contact Phenomenon”, based upon my personal experiences, such as:1) that all of the Contact Modalities, including UFOs, have the ability to manipulate Space-Time;2) that the perceived physical beings we are experiencing, via NDEs, OBEs, UFO contact experiences, etc., and the telepathic communications we are receiving, are all “Holographic Projections” from an external non-physical source;3) that the intelligence behind the UFO contact phenomenon can “control” your conscious thoughts and even to “project” mental images and thoughts into your “Mind”;4) and many other hypotheses on the relationship between Consciousness and the Contact Modalities.I am currently the Director of the Consciousness and Contact Research Institute, or CCRI, an academic research institute comprised of more than 25 Ph.D. academics, medical doctors, and researchers whose mission is to explore the findings of consciousness research and the phenomenology of “paranormal experiences”, what CCRI calls “The Contact Modalities, a term I coined in 2013. The term “Contact Modalities” is defined as “all of the diverse ways that humans are ‘piercing the veil' of our physical reality and having perceived contact with consciousness-based Higher Forms of Intelligence”, also called “Non-Human Intelligence”. Examples of the Contact Modalities are as follows: Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), Astral Travel Experiences (ATE), (which are very different from OBEs), Conscious Aerial Phenomena (CAP-UFOs), (commonly called UFOs or UAPs), contact experiences with perceived deceased humans (commonly called Ghosts or Spirits), contact experiences via Hallucinogenic Journeys (via entheogens such as DMT, Psilocybin, LSD, etc.), contact experiences via Remote Viewing or other forms of clairvoyance, contact experiences via Channeling or Mediumship, contact via the many forms of Post Death Communications, contact experiences via Lucid Dreams, contact via perceived Poltergeists experiences or spiritual attachments, and many other types of “paranormal” contact experiences with tens of thousands of diverse forms of Non-Human Intelligence, whether they be perceived as physical or non-physical.I, and a professional documentary team that has produced 10 Star Trek documentaries with William Shatner, have recorded hundreds of commercials, rock concerts, TV commercials, Super Bowl events, and other events, and have been working on a 2-hour documentary over the last 6 years. We have filmed and interviewed, across the United States, over 50 Ph.D. academics, medical doctors, researchers and more than 100 "Experiencers" of the Contact Modalities for our documentary. The documentary, which also shares the same name as my book, A Greater Reality: One Man's Journey of Discovery, will be released in 2025. I am attaching a 3-minute trailer of the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UaF0sZdvpcBioRey graduated with honors from Rutgers College, was a Masters Candidate at Cornell University and was a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California at Berkeley where he was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Ph.D. Fellowship. He previously was a Professor for six years at the New School for Social Research and at the City University of New York. Rey is currently the Director of the Consciousness and Contact Research Institute, or CCRI, an academic research institute comprised of more than 25 Ph.D. academics, medical doctors, and researchers whose mission is to explore a new paradigm that seeks to integrate the findings of consciousness research and the phenomenology of extraordinary experiences, what Rey coined in 2013 as the “Contact Modalities”.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DWM4CM6BAll of the 9 books can be downloaded as PDF files from the CCRI website:https://agreaterreality.com/ https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/alienufopodcastMy book 'Verified Near Death Exeriences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My name is Reinerio (Rey) Hernandez and I was a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California at Berkeley where I was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Ph.D. Fellowship. I am also an “Experiencer” of the paranormal Contact Modalities.This is a book about my personal experiences via the Contact Modalities, titled A Greater Reality: One Man's Journey of Discovery. This book discusses many of my personal experiences that I have kept hidden for many years because of fear that I would lose my law license and any academic credibility that I might have accumulated over many years of academic research. The book not only discusses the details of some of my most important bizarre experiences via the Contact Modalities, it also presents various theoretical hypotheses about the “Contact Phenomenon”, based upon my personal experiences, such as:1) that all of the Contact Modalities, including UFOs, have the ability to manipulate Space-Time;2) that the perceived physical beings we are experiencing, via NDEs, OBEs, UFO contact experiences, etc., and the telepathic communications we are receiving, are all “Holographic Projections” from an external non-physical source;3) that the intelligence behind the UFO contact phenomenon can “control” your conscious thoughts and even to “project” mental images and thoughts into your “Mind”;4) and many other hypotheses on the relationship between Consciousness and the Contact Modalities.I am currently the Director of the Consciousness and Contact Research Institute, or CCRI, an academic research institute comprised of more than 25 Ph.D. academics, medical doctors, and researchers whose mission is to explore the findings of consciousness research and the phenomenology of “paranormal experiences”, what CCRI calls “The Contact Modalities, a term I coined in 2013. The term “Contact Modalities” is defined as “all of the diverse ways that humans are ‘piercing the veil' of our physical reality and having perceived contact with consciousness-based Higher Forms of Intelligence”, also called “Non-Human Intelligence”. Examples of the Contact Modalities are as follows: Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), Astral Travel Experiences (ATE), (which are very different from OBEs), Conscious Aerial Phenomena (CAP-UFOs), (commonly called UFOs or UAPs), contact experiences with perceived deceased humans (commonly called Ghosts or Spirits), contact experiences via Hallucinogenic Journeys (via entheogens such as DMT, Psilocybin, LSD, etc.), contact experiences via Remote Viewing or other forms of clairvoyance, contact experiences via Channeling or Mediumship, contact via the many forms of Post Death Communications, contact experiences via Lucid Dreams, contact via perceived Poltergeists experiences or spiritual attachments, and many other types of “paranormal” contact experiences with tens of thousands of diverse forms of Non-Human Intelligence, whether they be perceived as physical or non-physical.I, and a professional documentary team that has produced 10 Star Trek documentaries with William Shatner, have recorded hundreds of commercials, rock concerts, TV commercials, Super Bowl events, and other events, and have been working on a 2-hour documentary over the last 6 years. We have filmed and interviewed, across the United States, over 50 Ph.D. academics, medical doctors, researchers and more than 100 "Experiencers" of the Contact Modalities for our documentary. The documentary, which also shares the same name as my book, A Greater Reality: One Man's Journey of Discovery, will be released in 2025. I am attaching a 3-minute trailer of the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UaF0sZdvpcBioRey graduated with honors from Rutgers College, was a Masters Candidate at Cornell University and was a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California at Berkeley where he was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Ph.D. Fellowship. He previously was a Professor for six years at the New School for Social Research and at the City University of New York. Rey is currently the Director of the Consciousness and Contact Research Institute, or CCRI, an academic research institute comprised of more than 25 Ph.D. academics, medical doctors, and researchers whose mission is to explore a new paradigm that seeks to integrate the findings of consciousness research and the phenomenology of extraordinary experiences, what Rey coined in 2013 as the “Contact Modalities”.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DWM4CM6BAll of the 9 books can be downloaded as PDF files from the CCRI website:https://agreaterreality.com/ https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/alienufopodcastMy book 'Verified Near Death Exeriences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

A new survey by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research has revealed that consumer confidence in the United States has seen its largest drop since 1990.While the Governor of Mississippi believes rising tariffs will lead to more capital investment, we hear from a retail business in Indiana on the impact of the ongoing trade war. Rahul Tandon speaks to prominent Canadian automotive figure Flavio Volpe on the state of the country's economy ahead of Monday's general election.And a Californian government figure discusses how the state has overtaken Japan to become the fourth largest global economic force behind Germany, China and the US as a whole.

A new survey by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research has revealed that consumer confidence in the United States has seen its largest drop since 1990. In Canada voters go to the polls on Monday, and a big issue will be the country's future relationship with the US. Rahul Tandon discusses the growing economic divide in North America with prominent Canadian businesswoman Arlene Dickinson. And California has overtaken Japan to become the fourth largest global economic force behind Germany, China and the US as a whole.

In episode 16 of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Isi and Ajay discuss the return of Tony Gilroy's Andor. Before departing for a galaxy far, far away, they stop by the world of gaming to chat about Hazelight Studio's latest co-op title, Split Fiction, and the impact of Trump's tariffs on the rollout of Nintendo's Switch 2. Turning to the first three episodes of Andor's second season, Isi and Ajay discuss the show's improbable presence in the Disney universe, the promises and perils of thinking with all-too-timely cultural objects, and formal and technical differences between seasons one and two. They then evaluate Gilroy's attempt to balance the tone and feel of the original trilogy with a plausible account of fascist and imperial rule–one that explores the minutiae of bureaucratic hierarchy, financial audits, counterinsurgency tactics, fascist youth culture, the exploitation of undocumented workers, communication blackouts, and the fragility of political resistance. Along the way, they discuss Gilroy's historical and filmic references, and the show's resonances with long-time PCM favorite, Franz Neumann's Behemoth. The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky

Enemy Feminisms: Terfs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation (Haymarket Books, 2025) is a provocative compendium of the feminisms we love to dismiss and making the case for the bold, liberatory feminist politics we'll need to stand against fascism, nationalism, femmephobia, and cisness.  In recent years, "white feminism" and girlboss feminism have taken a justified beating. We know that leaning in won't make our jobs any more tolerable and that white women have proven to be, at best, unreliable allies. But in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need. Sophie Lewis offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today's anti-abortion and TERF feminists. Enemy feminisms exist. Feminism is not an inherent political good. Only when we acknowledge that can we finally reckon with the ways these feminisms have pushed us toward counterproductive and even violent ends. And only then can we finally engage in feminist strategizing that is truly antifascist. At once a left transfeminist battlecry against cisness, a decolonial takedown of nationalist womanhoods, and a sex-radical retort to femmephobia in all its guises, Enemy Feminisms is above all a fierce, brilliant love letter to feminism. About the Author Sophie Lewis is a writer. Her books, Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, and Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, have been translated into nine languages.Sophie grew up in France, half-British, half-German, but now lives in Philadelphia and teaches online courses on utopian theory at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. She also has a visiting affiliation with the Center for Research on Feminist, Queer and Transgender Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. About the Host  Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Oxford. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

On the fortieth episode of All the Film Things, I talked with professor/ author James Miller! James Miller is a liberal studies professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City. He wrote music reviews for Rolling Stone in the 70s and spent much of the 80s reviewing books and writing pop music criticism for Newsweek. Among Jim's many accomplishments, he has been a Guggenheim Fellow and his work continues to be published in magazines, peer- reviewed academic journals, and newspapers. Jim has written several books over the course of his decades- spanning career focused on various subject matters from philosophy (Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche) to politics (Can Democracy Work? A Short History of a Radical Idea, from Ancient Athens to Our World) to music. His book Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock & Roll won the ASCAP- Deems Taylor Award for the best music book written of 1999.Jim's latest book, the first he's written focused on film, is titled The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self- Portrait in Seven Films and will be published through Columbia University Press on April 29. Through this book, Jim examines the work, and by extension self, of Almodóvar through his most personal films. This book will be available for purchase wherever books are sold so preorder your copy now on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc.! You'll definitely want to click this link to preorder the book on Barnes & Noble!: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-passion-of-pedro-almodovar-james-miller/1146504374;jsessionid=473B373D1171A12E15F5B951CC989AA7.prodny_store01-atgap07 If you're in the New York area, Jim will be sitting down with Robert Polito for an hour- long conversation on pub day about his book at the New School at 6 pm. Learn more about this event by clicking this link!: https://event.newschool.edu/booklunchjimmillerThis is Jim's first appearance on ATFT! I wouldn't have had the opportunity to interview him without two- time ATFT guest, film historian Max Alvarez presenting me with this opportiunity. I'm very grateful to him and Sarah C. Noell of Columbia University Press for helping bring this interview into fruition. Before reading Jim's book, I had seen three Almodóvar films and the latter two, Parallel Mothers (2021) and All About My Mother (1999), blew me away. For a few years now, I had been wanting to go through Almodóvar's work but his films are not so easy to come by. Reading Jim's brilliant, analytical book was the perfect opportunity to finally dive in, leaving me completely changed. Why aren't people talking about Almodóvar?! Quentin Tarantino was right when he said Almodóvar is largely underrated in the US. This episode was recorded on April 3, 2025. In this episode, Jim shares incredible stories from his career from gettign a private concert from Paul McCartney to inspiring a Jimi Hendrix song. We talk about some of cinema's greatest filmmakers, such as Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock, before discussing the work of Pedro Almodóvar for much of the episode. Filmmakers and film aficionados will especially enjoy this episode. Jim also talks about the impact of Michelangelo Antoninoni's Blow-up (1966) , Almodóvar's dynamic with muse Penélope Cruz, and inspiring Tom Hayden to write his memoir. All this and much more on the latest episode of All the Film Things!P.S.) If you're listening on Spotify, share your thoughts on Pedro Almodóvar in the comments! Background music created and used with permission by the Copyright Free Music - Background Music for Videos channel on YouTube.

Enemy Feminisms: Terfs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation (Haymarket Books, 2025) is a provocative compendium of the feminisms we love to dismiss and making the case for the bold, liberatory feminist politics we'll need to stand against fascism, nationalism, femmephobia, and cisness.  In recent years, "white feminism" and girlboss feminism have taken a justified beating. We know that leaning in won't make our jobs any more tolerable and that white women have proven to be, at best, unreliable allies. But in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need. Sophie Lewis offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today's anti-abortion and TERF feminists. Enemy feminisms exist. Feminism is not an inherent political good. Only when we acknowledge that can we finally reckon with the ways these feminisms have pushed us toward counterproductive and even violent ends. And only then can we finally engage in feminist strategizing that is truly antifascist. At once a left transfeminist battlecry against cisness, a decolonial takedown of nationalist womanhoods, and a sex-radical retort to femmephobia in all its guises, Enemy Feminisms is above all a fierce, brilliant love letter to feminism. About the Author Sophie Lewis is a writer. Her books, Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, and Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, have been translated into nine languages.Sophie grew up in France, half-British, half-German, but now lives in Philadelphia and teaches online courses on utopian theory at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. She also has a visiting affiliation with the Center for Research on Feminist, Queer and Transgender Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. About the Host  Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Oxford. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Enemy Feminisms: Terfs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation (Haymarket Books, 2025) is a provocative compendium of the feminisms we love to dismiss and making the case for the bold, liberatory feminist politics we'll need to stand against fascism, nationalism, femmephobia, and cisness.  In recent years, "white feminism" and girlboss feminism have taken a justified beating. We know that leaning in won't make our jobs any more tolerable and that white women have proven to be, at best, unreliable allies. But in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need. Sophie Lewis offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today's anti-abortion and TERF feminists. Enemy feminisms exist. Feminism is not an inherent political good. Only when we acknowledge that can we finally reckon with the ways these feminisms have pushed us toward counterproductive and even violent ends. And only then can we finally engage in feminist strategizing that is truly antifascist. At once a left transfeminist battlecry against cisness, a decolonial takedown of nationalist womanhoods, and a sex-radical retort to femmephobia in all its guises, Enemy Feminisms is above all a fierce, brilliant love letter to feminism. About the Author Sophie Lewis is a writer. Her books, Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, and Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, have been translated into nine languages.Sophie grew up in France, half-British, half-German, but now lives in Philadelphia and teaches online courses on utopian theory at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. She also has a visiting affiliation with the Center for Research on Feminist, Queer and Transgender Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. About the Host  Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Oxford. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

Enemy Feminisms: Terfs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation (Haymarket Books, 2025) is a provocative compendium of the feminisms we love to dismiss and making the case for the bold, liberatory feminist politics we'll need to stand against fascism, nationalism, femmephobia, and cisness.  In recent years, "white feminism" and girlboss feminism have taken a justified beating. We know that leaning in won't make our jobs any more tolerable and that white women have proven to be, at best, unreliable allies. But in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need. Sophie Lewis offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today's anti-abortion and TERF feminists. Enemy feminisms exist. Feminism is not an inherent political good. Only when we acknowledge that can we finally reckon with the ways these feminisms have pushed us toward counterproductive and even violent ends. And only then can we finally engage in feminist strategizing that is truly antifascist. At once a left transfeminist battlecry against cisness, a decolonial takedown of nationalist womanhoods, and a sex-radical retort to femmephobia in all its guises, Enemy Feminisms is above all a fierce, brilliant love letter to feminism. About the Author Sophie Lewis is a writer. Her books, Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, and Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, have been translated into nine languages.Sophie grew up in France, half-British, half-German, but now lives in Philadelphia and teaches online courses on utopian theory at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. She also has a visiting affiliation with the Center for Research on Feminist, Queer and Transgender Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. About the Host  Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Oxford. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/politics-and-polemics

For episode 88 of the Podcast for Social Research, BISR's Rebecca Ariel Porte welcomed special guests—translator Katrina Dodson and songwriter and vocalist Lacy Rose—for an evening of reading, musical performance, and conversation honoring the enduring legacy of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. Occasioned by the release of Rose's concept album Lispector, featuring the Starling Quartet, and Dodson's Covert Joy, a selection of her translations of Lispector's short stories, the three intersperse between reading and performance a discussion of Lispector's work and the passionate attachments it inspires. What makes Lispector such a touchstone? What are the challenges of adapting her work to another language and another medium? What does it mean to find one's own idiom through the work of another? The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky  

In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Adrian Pabst. One of the big needs right now is the ability to comprehend this time of deep change unfolding across the West. Many people across the churches are struggling for some kind of foothold from which they can make sense of what is going on. Adrian provides that foothold, describing simply but profoundly the complexities that confront our societies. Both realistic and hopeful, he sets out a constructive pathway to renewal in terms of a common good political economy. He also proposes ways in which the local church can fulfil its role in this work of repair and rediscover its vocation. For Christians who wonder about what it means to be God's people in this moment, Adrian offers wise guidance.Adrian Pabst is Honorary Professor of Politics at the University of Kent and Deputy Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. An acknowledged expert in Catholic Social Thought and political economy, he is one of the leading figures in the post liberal movement developing a new politics of the common good. He is the author of several books on this subject, including Post Liberal Politics: The Coming Era of Renewal, and The Politics of Virtue: Post liberalism and the Human Future which he co-authored with John Milbank.Links for Adrian Pabst:https://niesr.ac.uk/people/pabsthttps://www.kent.ac.uk/politics-international-relations/people/2270/pabst-adrianhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-pabst-4723385/?originalSubdomain=ukhttps://x.com/adrianpabst1?lang=enArticles and recordingshttps://www.newstatesman.com/author/adrian-pabstWhat is postliberalism now?https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/leading-thinkers/how-christian-is-postliberalismThe Political Economy and the Good Life: The 2024 Postliberalism Conference (videos)Books:Postliberal Politics: The Coming Era of RenewalThe Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future (co-authored with John Milbank)For Alan J Roxburgh:http://alanroxburgh.com/abouthttps://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburghTwitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetworkBooksJoining God in the Great UnravelingLeadership, God's Agency and DisruptionsJoining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our TimeFor Jenny Sinclair:Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclairLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CGFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/ Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Anne Abel is an author and storyteller. Her first memoir, published in 2024 , “Mattie, Milo, and Me,” about unwittingly rescuing an aggressive dog, was inspired by her Moth StorySLAM win in New York City. Her second memoir, “High Hopes Bruce Springsteen and Me,” about fighting depression by following Bruce Springsteen's Australia tour, at the age of 60, even though she hates to travel and hates to be alone, won a Moth StorySLAM in Chicago. It will be published September 23, 2025, Bruce Springsteen's 76th birthday. Her credentials include an MFA from The New School for Social Research, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a BS in chemical engineering from Tufts University. She has published on topics ranging from dogs lovable and difficult, to coping with depression, family dysfunction, generational trauma, overcoming writer's block and being a FaceTime grandmother. She has freelanced for Lilith; Philadelphia Daily News; The Jewish Exponent; Philadelphia Weekly, Main Line Life and Main Line Today, and formerly wrote a weekly column, “The Homefront,” for Main Line Welcomat. She taught English and creative writing at the Community College of Philadelphia. Anne lives in New York City with her husband, Andy, their 15-year-old rescue bischon, Chase, and Wendell, a three-month old cavapoo. (They make their appearance in the background)(Moth GrandSlam) Growing up:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBfXJ-c-LW8(Moth StorySlam) Milo:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz1Z6bvwrZI(Moth StorySlam) Love Hurts:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osLo5JWfinw(Moth StorySlam) Bruce Springsteen: Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1BZPQuXvho

The hosts of Ordinary Unhappiness join the podcast to discuss D. W. Winnicott; one of the most influential figures in the history of psychoanalysis in Britain. They explain how Winnicott's work was shaped by the traumatizing effects of World War 2, debates between Anna Freud and Melanie Klein, and the place of mothers in the construction of the British welfare state. We also discuss how this history relates to contemporary struggles over social reproduction and care.Abby Kluchin is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, where she coordinates the Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies program. Abby is a co-founder and Associate Director at Large of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. She co-hosts the podcast Ordinary Unhappiness with Patrick.Patrick Blanchfield is a writer, an Associate Faculty Member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, and co-host of Ordinary Unhappiness, a podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. He is also a contributing editor at Parapraxis magazine. SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicineSoundtrack by Mark PilkingtonTwitter: @red_medicine__www.redmedicine.substack.com/

In episode 87 of the Podcast for Social Research, recorded live at BISR Central, BISR's Rebecca Ariel Porte and Dilettante Army Editor-in-Chief Sara Clugage sat down with Kyla Wazana Tompkins to discuss her latest book, Deviant Matter: Ferment, Intoxicants, Jelly, Rot. The conversation touches on, among other things: food and the early history of the War on Drugs, the racialization of sugar, jelly and cocaine, food as a means for diagnosing entrenched political problems, and how plantation capitalism—and later, industrial capitalism—altered the sensory quality of everyday life. Along the way, they ask: what are the political uses of disgust? How have coffee, rum and sugar production transformed human experience? And—with Sylvia Wynter—how do we reconcile the immateriality of ideology with the materiality of the body? The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky

In episode 71 of the Podcast for Social Research's Practical Criticism series, Rebecca Ariel Porte plays Neko Case's "Curse of the I-5 Corridor" (off the 2018 album Hell-On) for Ajay Singh Chaudhary. Their conversation ranges from convention to the sound of disillusionment to lyrical density, meta-musical gesture, vocal quality, and how you can tell if and when something is beyond saving. 

March 13. 2025 - Everything Co-op continues its Women's History Month series with the theme “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” set by the National Women's History Alliance. This episode features cooperative advocates Stacey Sutton Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, and Assata Richards, founding director of the Sankofa Research Institute. Stacey and Assata discuss the necessary components for building a solidarity economy and share their research findings related to social/economic justice Stacey Sutton Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy. She co-directs the Solidarity Economy Research, Policy & Law Project, which serves as the hub for the City of Chicago's Community Wealth Building Ecosystem. This initiative aims to promote local, democratic, and shared ownership of community assets to create more sustainable and just economies. Her research focuses on solidarity economy, economic democracy, and racial equity. Stacey Sutton Ph.D. is also a Board member of the New Economy Coalition, a Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, and a Senior Researcher with the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network. She is currently working on a book titled "Real Black Utopias," which explores Black-centered worker cooperatives and solidarity economy ecosystems in various US cities. Stacey Sutton Ph.D. holds a BA from Loyola University, an MBA from New York University, an MS from The New School for Social Research, and a joint Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Sociology from Rutgers University. Her extensive involvement in various organizations underscores her commitment to social justice and economic democracy. Assata is the founding director of the Sankofa Research Institute (SRI), a nonprofit with a mission to “create knowledge to build community” through community-based participatory research. In addition, as a public sociologist, Assata serves as the Board President of the newly formed Houston Community Land Trust, the Third Ward Cooperative Community Builders, and the Emancipation Economic Development Council. Most recently, she was elected as the founding board president of the Community Care Cooperative, Houston's first home care agency owned by caregivers and the nation's first community health workers' cooperative business. Lastly, she is a founding member of We Are The Ones, a cooperative working to build a “Black Solidarity Economy,” enabling community members to define what success is for them and hold accountable institutions that claim to act on their behalf and develop economic enterprises that fairly compensate workers and build community wealth.

Tariffs and Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump is set to implement his latest wave of tariffs, or reciprocal tariffs, on the world. And his administration has been holding talks with Russia and Ukraine respectively in Saudi Arabia. What will be the implications of these developments for the world, especially for the Global South? Our guest today is Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research.

Listen back to FMQs! Questions this week included:  Michelle Thomson  To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the recent UK Living Standards Review 2025, from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, and any implications for its work to grow Scotland's economy. Rachael Hamilton  To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is marking Endometriosis Awareness Month. Kevin Stewart  To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to tackle Islamophobia in Scotland, in light of reports of an attack on a mosque in Aberdeen at the weekend.   Transcripts are available on our website: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament 

Welcome to another edition of Scheer Intelligence, where insights come alive through the voices of our guests. I'm your host, Robert Scheer, and today we have the privilege of speaking with the insightful Vijay Prashad, a prolific author and the Director of the Tri-Continental Institute for Social Research. With an impressive body of work that includes over 40 books, Prashad has established himself as a leading voice on global affairs.In our conversation, we explore the complexities of international relations, particularly focusing on the rising influence of China, the dynamics of capitalism, and the implications of a multipolar world on the global economy. We discuss critical issues, from technological advancements to the evolving nature of democracy, and reflect on the historical context that shapes today's geopolitical landscape.Join us as we unravel the narratives behind global events and seek to understand the balance of power in a world that's rapidly changing.

In episode 86 of the Podcast for Social Research, live-recorded at BISR Central, BISR's Ajay Singh Chaudhary and Danya Glabau sat down with fellow faculty Nafis Hasan to celebrate the launch of his new book, Metastasis: The Rise of the Cancer-Industrial Complex and the Horizons of Care. Nafis kicks off the discussion with a briefing on the successful cultivation of cancer cures for mice, but not humans, fundamental failures at the clinical level, the rise of cancer as a household name, and the blockbuster drug moving for $500,000 a shot. The three then discuss the primacy placed, among researchers, on genetic mutations above environmental causes, the notion of “financial toxicity,” and what it means to critique medical research at a moment of widespread cuts to public health institutions. Key questions arise along the way: why—despite the allocation of so many resources—are we not winning the war on cancer? Why has an entire political economy developed around genetic mutations, at the expense of public health campaigns—a more proven mitigator of cancer-related deaths? Why is capitalism so embedded in efforts to defeat cancer, and is there any alternative? Note: The Novartis drug with a half-million dollar price tag mentioned at the top of the podcast is Kymriah, not Keytruda. The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky

In heterosexual partnerships, women contribute more to housework and childcare than their male partners, even if both work full time. This was the result of the annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. An interesting result is that men probably don't even notice the difference. We talk about this with the co-author of the study, Dr. Inga Lass from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. - In heterosexuellen Partnerschaften tragen Frauen mehr zu Hausarbeit und Kinderbetreuung bei als ihre männlichen Partner, selbst wenn beide Vollzeit arbeiten. Dies hat die jährlich durchgeführte Studie Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) ergeben. Ein interessantes Ergebnis dabei ist, dass Männer den Unterschied wohl gar nicht so mitbekommen. Darüber sprechen wir mit der Co-Autorin der Studie, Dr. Inga Laß vom Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.

After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University, and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round the clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak, and responsibility. Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life—of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir, longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and shortlisted for the Patrick Saroyan International Writing Prize; the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Literary Excellence, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; and the forthcoming story collection Leviathan Beach. His prose and poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Harper's, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vanity Fair, The Yale Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Dilettante Army. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame's MFA program in prose, he earned his PhD in English from The University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, and teaches courses in Black Studies, Poetics, Video Games, Queer Theory and more at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Recommended Books: Nell Irving Painter, Old in Art School Yoko Towada, Scattered All Over the Earth Alison Mills Newman, Francisco  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University, and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round the clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak, and responsibility. Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life—of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir, longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and shortlisted for the Patrick Saroyan International Writing Prize; the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Literary Excellence, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; and the forthcoming story collection Leviathan Beach. His prose and poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Harper's, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vanity Fair, The Yale Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Dilettante Army. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame's MFA program in prose, he earned his PhD in English from The University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, and teaches courses in Black Studies, Poetics, Video Games, Queer Theory and more at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Recommended Books: Nell Irving Painter, Old in Art School Yoko Towada, Scattered All Over the Earth Alison Mills Newman, Francisco  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University, and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round the clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak, and responsibility. Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life—of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir, longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and shortlisted for the Patrick Saroyan International Writing Prize; the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Literary Excellence, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; and the forthcoming story collection Leviathan Beach. His prose and poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Harper's, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vanity Fair, The Yale Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Dilettante Army. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame's MFA program in prose, he earned his PhD in English from The University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, and teaches courses in Black Studies, Poetics, Video Games, Queer Theory and more at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Recommended Books: Nell Irving Painter, Old in Art School Yoko Towada, Scattered All Over the Earth Alison Mills Newman, Francisco  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Waste, Fraud and Abuse: it is either the new right-wing code for trickle-down economics, or another sign of Trump's dementia. Republicans want us to believe that a $4.5-TRILLION tax cut for rich folks and corporations can be covered without damaging services needed by the rest of us. Their "theory": we can cover it by having Elon eliminate WF&A, plus enact bigly tariffs on our allies and China. But just in case, Trump asks that the federal debt limit be increased by $4-TRILLION. Meanwhile, Trump keeps saying he won't cut Medicare even as House Republicans signal a cut of $800-billion or more. Trump is promising to raise tariffs on Mexico and Canada in a week, posing a direct threat to Michigan's economy and the jobs of untold thousands. Another part of Trump's balance the budget plan: sell U.S. citizenships for $5-million. We simply can't imagine that a hostile government would use that as a way to embed spies into our society. (All of this is coming from a President who added 8-trillion-dollars to the national debt in his first term, and somehow manage to drive multiple casinos into bankruptcy.) On the plus side, the Musk-Trump Chain Saw Massacre continues to provide gainful employment for a lot of lawyers, with the count of lawsuits challenging them closing in on 100. So far, the plaintiffs are winning as the courts push back against the massive constitutional violations of Musk and the Muskrats. Governor Whitmer lays out her hopes and dreams for the upcoming legislative session, even as she draws some flack from Democrats unhappy with her cozying up to Trump and state House Speaker Matt Hall. And Speaker Hall has done a 180 on applying the Freedom of Information Act to the Legislature and Governor. He was, as John Kerry memorably said, for it before he was against it. Making a triumphant return to the podcast is journalist/philosopher John Lindstrom. John covered Michigan State government for more than 42 years before retiring in 2023. For the last two years, he has been a Detroit Free Press contributing columnist. His columns offer rigorous political analysis, of course, but more than that John offers readers the tools to build their own scaffolding. He doesn't tell readers how to think — he suggests ways to think. John is also the unofficial Walking Wikipedia of Michigan's political history dating back to the mid 1970s. Joining him is another veteran of Lansing journalism with a long history covering State of the State messages. Former Associated Press reporter Cindy Kyle covered her first SOS back in 1977. Now retired, she has followed state government ever since including during her 18 years directing communications for our friends at MSU's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and at the Michigan Political Leadership Program. We should mention that they are the John and Mika of Lansing journalism - except they haven't been to Mar-a-Lago lately! =========================== This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals - Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals - Issue Advocacy Research • Community - Media Relations • Issue - Image Management • Database Development & List Management

Waste, Fraud and Abuse: it is either the new right-wing code for trickle-down economics, or another sign of Trump's dementia. Republicans want us to believe that a $4.5-TRILLION tax cut for rich folks and corporations can be covered without damaging services needed by the rest of us. Their "theory": we can cover it by having Elon eliminate WF&A, plus enact bigly tariffs on our allies and China. But just in case, Trump asks that the federal debt limit be increased by $4-TRILLION. Meanwhile, Trump keeps saying he won't cut Medicare even as House Republicans signal a cut of $800-billion or more. Trump is promising to raise tariffs on Mexico and Canada in a week, posing a direct threat to Michigan's economy and the jobs of untold thousands. Another part of Trump's balance the budget plan: sell U.S. citizenships for $5-million. We simply can't imagine that a hostile government would use that as a way to embed spies into our society. (All of this is coming from a President who added 8-trillion-dollars to the national debt in his first term, and somehow manage to drive multiple casinos into bankruptcy.) On the plus side, the Musk-Trump Chain Saw Massacre continues to provide gainful employment for a lot of lawyers, with the count of lawsuits challenging them closing in on 100. So far, the plaintiffs are winning as the courts push back against the massive constitutional violations of Musk and the Muskrats. Governor Whitmer lays out her hopes and dreams for the upcoming legislative session, even as she draws some flack from Democrats unhappy with her cozying up to Trump and state House Speaker Matt Hall. And Speaker Hall has done a 180 on applying the Freedom of Information Act to the Legislature and Governor. He was, as John Kerry memorably said, for it before he was against it. Making a triumphant return to the podcast is journalist/philosopher John Lindstrom. John covered Michigan State government for more than 42 years before retiring in 2023. For the last two years, he has been a Detroit Free Press contributing columnist. His columns offer rigorous political analysis, of course, but more than that John offers readers the tools to build their own scaffolding. He doesn't tell readers how to think — he suggests ways to think. John is also the unofficial Walking Wikipedia of Michigan's political history dating back to the mid 1970s. Joining him is another veteran of Lansing journalism with a long history covering State of the State messages. Former Associated Press reporter Cindy Kyle covered her first SOS back in 1977. Now retired, she has followed state government ever since including during her 18 years directing communications for our friends at MSU's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and at the Michigan Political Leadership Program. We should mention that they are the John and Mika of Lansing journalism - except they haven't been to Mar-a-Lago lately! =========================== This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals - Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals - Issue Advocacy Research • Community - Media Relations • Issue - Image Management • Database Development & List Management

In this shortcast edition of the Podcast for Social Research, BISR's Rebecca Ariel Porte, Ajay Singh Chaudhary, and Isi Litke discuss David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001). Conversation ranges over what it means for a thing to be "Lynchian," what it means for a thing to be surreal, why Mulholland Drive isn't easily reducible to pat explanation—and why that's a good thing, and the inextricability, modeled in the film, of dream life and ordinary reality. How, in film and life, do fantasy and reality merge? Why is Lynch particularly interested in Hollywood, that great dream factory? How does Lynchian melodrama, rubbing shoulders with Lynchian menace, give viewers the permission to feel things we otherwise deny ourselves in ordinary, waking life? What makes Lynch the premier poet of broken promises and shattered dreams?

Trump isn't even hiding it anymore. He is the self-proclaimed King of the United States and anyone who questions him will be banished to Gitmo. His Majesty and court jester Musk continue the flood of executive orders, most of them blatantly or borderline unconstitutional. We do a deep dive into the invasion of U.S. government computer systems by agents of America's first convicted criminal President with MSU political scientist Matt Grossman. In Michigan, Attorney General Nessel has joined with her 21 fellow Democratic attorneys general on the frontlines of the resistance. We will be getting a new Chief Justice as Elizabeth Clement announces she's stepping down effective in 5 weeks.  Michigan's minimum wage has gone from $10.56 per hour to $12.48 effective on Friday, February 21 — and will grow in steps to $15 per hour in two years. This comes as, at recording time, the debate continues over the tipped minimum wage and paid medical leave. Whatever the outcome, plan on a lot of lawsuits. This weekend both major parties meet in Detroit to select new chairpersons. Democrats will have a fairly peaceful Transfer of Power from Lavora Barnes to Curtis Hertel Jr.; Republicans could have a mini-January 6th, minus the vicious assaults on police and, hopefully, minus pooping on Nancy Pelosi's desk. We have a return visit this week from Michigan State University political science professor Matt Grossman. Among his many efforts he's been tracking the lawlessness of the Musk-Trump administration's assault on the federal government, especially the invasion of Big Balls and the rest of Musk's teenage Ninja Hackers who have infiltrated most of the federal government's computer systems. Matt is Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at MSU He is the author of numerous books on our political world. His latest: “Polarized by Degrees“. He has also published op-eds in The New York Times and The Washington Post. =========================== This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals - Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals - Issue Advocacy Research • Community - Media Relations • Issue - Image Management • Database Development & List Management Clayton "Clay" Jones - Claytoonz.com

In episode no. 70 of Practical Criticism, Ajay surprises Rebecca with Roy Hargrove and the RH Factor's "Out of Town," off the 2003 record Hard Groove. The discussion includes a dive deep into jazz-hip-hop experiments, varieties and suspicions of musical fusion, caesuras and polyharmonies, the dissonant and the antiphonal, "open-eared moonlighting," and hybridity without history. Practical Criticism is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky

You read the title! Next month, Gil is teaching a class on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason at the Goethe Institute in downtown Chicago through the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.Enrollments are now open for anyone interested. Check out the course description and sign up here:https://thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/courses/new-york/kants-critique-of-pure-reason-chicago/Hope to see some of you there!leftofphilosophy.comMusic: Titanium by AlisiaBeats

A few moments after birth we begin to use our lungs for the first time. From then on, we must continue breathing for as long as we are alive. And although this mostly happens unconsciously, in a society plagued by anxiety, climate change, environmental racism, and illness, there are more and more instances that “teach us about the privilege that is breathing.” Why do we so easily forget the air that we breathe in common? What does it mean to breathe when the environment that sustains life now threatens it? And how can life continue to flourish under conditions that are increasingly toxic?  To approach these questions, Jamieson Webster draws on psychoanalytic theory and reflects on her own experiences as an asthmatic teenager, a deep-sea diver, a palliative psychologist during COVID, a psychoanalyst attentive to the somatic, and a new mother. The result is a compassionate and timely exploration of air and breathing as a way to undo the pervasive myth of the individual by considering our dependence on invisible systems, on one another, and the way we have violently neglected this important aspect of life. Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and faculty at The New School for Social Research. She is the author, most recently, of On Breathing (Peninusula Press, UK; Catapult, US), as well as, Conversion Disorder: Listening to the Body in Psychoanalysis (Columbia, 2018) and, with Simon Critchley, Stay, Illusion! The Hamlet Doctrine (Vintage Random House, 2013). She has written regularly for Artforum, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, as well as, many psychoanalytic publications. Helena Vissing, PsyD, SEP, PMH-C is a Licensed Psychologist practicing in California and Associate Professor in the Somatic Psychology program at California Institute of Integral Studies. She can be reached at contact@helenavissing.com. She is the author of Somatic Maternal Healing: Psychodynamic and Somatic Treatment of Trauma in the Perinatal Period (Routledge, 2023). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychoanalysis

A few moments after birth we begin to use our lungs for the first time. From then on, we must continue breathing for as long as we are alive. And although this mostly happens unconsciously, in a society plagued by anxiety, climate change, environmental racism, and illness, there are more and more instances that “teach us about the privilege that is breathing.” Why do we so easily forget the air that we breathe in common? What does it mean to breathe when the environment that sustains life now threatens it? And how can life continue to flourish under conditions that are increasingly toxic?  To approach these questions, Jamieson Webster draws on psychoanalytic theory and reflects on her own experiences as an asthmatic teenager, a deep-sea diver, a palliative psychologist during COVID, a psychoanalyst attentive to the somatic, and a new mother. The result is a compassionate and timely exploration of air and breathing as a way to undo the pervasive myth of the individual by considering our dependence on invisible systems, on one another, and the way we have violently neglected this important aspect of life. Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and faculty at The New School for Social Research. She is the author, most recently, of On Breathing (Peninusula Press, UK; Catapult, US), as well as, Conversion Disorder: Listening to the Body in Psychoanalysis (Columbia, 2018) and, with Simon Critchley, Stay, Illusion! The Hamlet Doctrine (Vintage Random House, 2013). She has written regularly for Artforum, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, as well as, many psychoanalytic publications. Helena Vissing, PsyD, SEP, PMH-C is a Licensed Psychologist practicing in California and Associate Professor in the Somatic Psychology program at California Institute of Integral Studies. She can be reached at contact@helenavissing.com. She is the author of Somatic Maternal Healing: Psychodynamic and Somatic Treatment of Trauma in the Perinatal Period (Routledge, 2023). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A few moments after birth we begin to use our lungs for the first time. From then on, we must continue breathing for as long as we are alive. And although this mostly happens unconsciously, in a society plagued by anxiety, climate change, environmental racism, and illness, there are more and more instances that “teach us about the privilege that is breathing.” Why do we so easily forget the air that we breathe in common? What does it mean to breathe when the environment that sustains life now threatens it? And how can life continue to flourish under conditions that are increasingly toxic?  To approach these questions, Jamieson Webster draws on psychoanalytic theory and reflects on her own experiences as an asthmatic teenager, a deep-sea diver, a palliative psychologist during COVID, a psychoanalyst attentive to the somatic, and a new mother. The result is a compassionate and timely exploration of air and breathing as a way to undo the pervasive myth of the individual by considering our dependence on invisible systems, on one another, and the way we have violently neglected this important aspect of life. Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and faculty at The New School for Social Research. She is the author, most recently, of On Breathing (Peninusula Press, UK; Catapult, US), as well as, Conversion Disorder: Listening to the Body in Psychoanalysis (Columbia, 2018) and, with Simon Critchley, Stay, Illusion! The Hamlet Doctrine (Vintage Random House, 2013). She has written regularly for Artforum, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, as well as, many psychoanalytic publications. Helena Vissing, PsyD, SEP, PMH-C is a Licensed Psychologist practicing in California and Associate Professor in the Somatic Psychology program at California Institute of Integral Studies. She can be reached at contact@helenavissing.com. She is the author of Somatic Maternal Healing: Psychodynamic and Somatic Treatment of Trauma in the Perinatal Period (Routledge, 2023). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

A few moments after birth we begin to use our lungs for the first time. From then on, we must continue breathing for as long as we are alive. And although this mostly happens unconsciously, in a society plagued by anxiety, climate change, environmental racism, and illness, there are more and more instances that “teach us about the privilege that is breathing.” Why do we so easily forget the air that we breathe in common? What does it mean to breathe when the environment that sustains life now threatens it? And how can life continue to flourish under conditions that are increasingly toxic?  To approach these questions, Jamieson Webster draws on psychoanalytic theory and reflects on her own experiences as an asthmatic teenager, a deep-sea diver, a palliative psychologist during COVID, a psychoanalyst attentive to the somatic, and a new mother. The result is a compassionate and timely exploration of air and breathing as a way to undo the pervasive myth of the individual by considering our dependence on invisible systems, on one another, and the way we have violently neglected this important aspect of life. Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and faculty at The New School for Social Research. She is the author, most recently, of On Breathing (Peninusula Press, UK; Catapult, US), as well as, Conversion Disorder: Listening to the Body in Psychoanalysis (Columbia, 2018) and, with Simon Critchley, Stay, Illusion! The Hamlet Doctrine (Vintage Random House, 2013). She has written regularly for Artforum, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, as well as, many psychoanalytic publications. Helena Vissing, PsyD, SEP, PMH-C is a Licensed Psychologist practicing in California and Associate Professor in the Somatic Psychology program at California Institute of Integral Studies. She can be reached at contact@helenavissing.com. She is the author of Somatic Maternal Healing: Psychodynamic and Somatic Treatment of Trauma in the Perinatal Period (Routledge, 2023). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies

On “Jesuitical” this week, Zac and Ashley chat with Simon Critchley, the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York and a Director of the Onassis Foundation, about his new book, Mysticism. Among the most prolific of modern academic philosophers, Simon has written over twenty books, from works of philosophy to studies on topics from Greek tragedy and dead philosophers to David Bowie, football and suicide. Zac, Ashley and Simon discuss:  - The historical development of the concept of “mysticism,” how it was suppressed during the Reformation and its resurgent relevance for today. - Emotionally-charged forms of piety in the high Middle Ages among women mystics like Julian of Norwich - How modern mysticism can provide access to the sacred and transcendent in a melancholic world In Signs of the Times, Zac is joined by Fr. Sam Sawyer, S.J., editor-in-chief of America, for a conversation about Pope Francis' strongly worded letter of support to the Catholic bishops of the United States in which he denounced the mass deportation of undocumented migrants initiated by President Donald Trump, and corrected Vice President JD Vance's theology.  Links for further reading:  Mysticism by Simon Critchley  Pope Francis' letter, JD Vance's ‘ordo amoris' and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration Pope Francis to U.S. Catholic bishops: Oppose mass deportations What's on tap? Gin Martini You can follow us on X and on Instagram @jesuiticalshow.   You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/jesuitical.  Please consider supporting Jesuitical by becoming a digital subscriber to America Media at americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does sexual morality have to do with genocidal politics? In this episode of Faculty Spotlight, hosts Mark DeLucas and Lauren K. Wolfe sit down with Hannah Leffingwell—historian, queer theorist, musician, and novelist—to discuss the work of Dagmar Herzog, historian of sexuality whose celebrated book Sex After Fascism undid the myth that all Nazis were closeted homosexuals by exposing how it arose in the first place, and that long after the war had ended. Along the way, the three hash out: the uses and pitfalls of theory in the study of history, strategic misprisions of the past for political needs in the present, what sort of lens the history of sexuality can be for understanding mass political phenomena, and whether and how to invoke 20th-century fascisms to explain conservative reaction in the 21st. Tune in to discover why Nazism is not the past, how fascism was never anti-sex, why anti-queer and anti-trans animus have never been peripheral, why Trump can never be camp, and positive panegyrics for Chappell Roan and A Complete Unknown. Faculty Spotlight is produced by Ryan Lentini. Notes: Dagmar Herzog, Sex After Fascism (Princeton University Press, 2007) Dagmar Herzog, Cold War Freud (Cambridge University Press, 2016) Dagmar Herzog, The Question of Unworthy Life (Princeton University Press, 2024) Dagmar Herzog, Sex in Crisis (Basic Books, 2008) Sabrina Carpenter performing “Espresso” at the 2025 Grammys Chappell Roan performing “Pink Pony Club” at the 2025 Grammys Lesser Known Women (Hannah's band) on Spotify and Bandcamp Lesser Known Women performing at Sunset Stoop on March 8th!   Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky  

In episode 85 of the Podcast for Social Research, recorded live on Facebook, BISR faculty Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Barnaby Raine, Abdaljawad Omar, and K. Soraya Batmanghelichi place the Gaza War ceasefire in the context of the conflict's broader development. Ajay kicks off the discussion with a recap of the events leading up to the ceasefire, after which each of the panelists brings their expertise to bear—Abdaljawad analyzing the dialectic of futility and resistance in Palestine, Soraya grappling with Iran's evolving geopolitical intentions, and Barnaby addressing the antisemitism panic in the Global North. The four then discuss: political developments within Israel and Palestine since October 7th, wider geopolitical reverberations, and Israel as a model for Trumpism and the global far right. An audience member's question brings the conversation to an urgent point of reflection: how can we, in the Global North, sustain attention towards Palestinian resistance in the era of social media and truncated news cycles? 0:26 - Ajay Singh Chaudhary introduction and context   11:35 - Abdaljawad Omar on futility and resistance in Palestine  33:05 - K. Soraya Batmanghelichi on the geopolitical consequences for Iran  46:23 - Barnaby Raine on the weaponization of antisemitism  1:05:12 - Trump and the protection of Western Civilization  1:11:20 - Developments within Israeli and Palestinian societies since October 7th  1:42:12 - Global paradigm shifts and geopolitical maneuvering  2:06:53 - Zionism, Trumpism, and the global far right  2:29:34 - Audience question and concluding remarks - how to sustain attention towards Palestine The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini.   Check out the video version of this podcast on the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research YouTube Channel. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky Learn more about our upcoming courses on our website.

Chronic stress from life in an unjust society can have measurable negative impacts on the health of people from marginalized backgrounds.  The concept is known as weathering, and it's the focus of the aptly named book by Arline Geronimus, a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a professor in the school of public health at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Weathering is exacerbated by racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination, and can contribute to health disparities, leading to earlier onset of diseases like cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.  Geronimus compares modern-day stressors to the literal predators of the past and urges listeners to come together to explore systemic solutions that can help mitigate the effects of weathering. “We all have to commit to seeing each other, to understanding the differences in our lived experience,” she says, “to seeing that different people have different ‘lions' and ‘tigers' …and figuring out what it is we have to do to change that.” Geronimus joined Movement Is Life's summit and spoke with Board Member Christin Zollicoffer for this podcast episode. Never miss an episode – be sure to subscribe to The Health Disparities podcast from Movement Is Life on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Lucia Pradella studied Philosophy, Social Sciences and Migration Studies at the University of Venice Ca' Foscari and the Humboldt University in Berlin. She collaborated with the project of historical-critical edition of Marx's and Engels's complete works at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. After completing her PhD on globalisation and the history of political economy using that edition (jointly at the University of Naples Federico II and Paris X Nanterre), she conducted a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship in Sociology of Economic Processes and Work at Ca' Foscari. She taught in the areas of International Political Economy, Migration, and Welfare Policies at Brunel, SOAS and Ca' Foscari. She is a Research Associate in the SOAS Department of Development Studies and in the Centre for the Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex, and member of the Laboratory for Social Research at Ca' Foscari. She joined King's as a lecturer in International Political Economy in 2015. Subscribe to our newsletter todayA note from Lev:I am a high school teacher of history and economics at a public high school in NYC, and began the podcast to help demystify political economy for teachers.  The podcast is now within the top 2% of podcasts worldwide in terms of listeners (per Listen Notes) and individual episodes are frequently listed by The Syllabus (the-syllabus.com) as among the 10 best political economy podcasts of a particular week.  The podcast is reaching thousands of listeners each month.  The podcast seeks to provide a substantive alternative to mainstream economics media; to communicate information and ideas that contribute to equitable and peaceful solutions to political and economic issues; and to improve the teaching of high school and university political economy. Best, Lev

Jacobin Radio has featured many presentations from the recent conference held in honor of Boris Kagarlitsky, author of The Long Retreat, a sobering analysis of the international Left that was discussed in our previous episode, and currently a prisoner in Russia for speaking out against Putin's war in Ukraine. We continue with Trevor Ngwane, a South African scholar-activist at the University of Johannesburg, and Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research, who bring to the table some difficult truths and critical questions for the global Left. After brief introductory comments from Patrick Bond, Trevor Ngwane outlines the brutal history of South Africa's turn to neoliberalism and its consequences — widespread suffering and deepening despair among ordinary people as well as a political crisis in the African National Congress. He asks what it will take to revitalize the vibrant, militant, working-class movements that once overthrew apartheid. Nancy Fraser then reflects on Kagarlitsky's analysis of the chaotic political reality we face today, and raises three central strategic questions for the Left and mass politics: How can we engage with actually existing social forces towards positive social change? How do we navigate the geopolitics of war and migration in mass movement organizing? And what could a transformative working-class movement even look like in the 21st century? Guest host Meleiza Figueroa and Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, follow with a discussion of the critical insights and questions brought up by Trevor Ngwane and Nancy Fraser, and consider what this means for American politics at this particular moment in history, as we face a new year filled with uncertainty, political confusion, and deepening crisis. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Where do charismatic personalities come from? Are they people born with special or even divine gifts? Or have they simply mastered a few effective techniques for cordial social interaction that anyone can learn? As business, entertainment and politics increasingly turn into popularity contests conducted through social media and TV, charisma seems to matter more and more: hence the proliferation of companies offering to teach aspiring leaders how to acquire it. But the influence that magnetic personalities can have on an audience long predates modern screen media: in 1896, a speech brimming with charisma earned one little-known young orator a not just a 20-minute standing ovation but also a US presidential nomination.Iszi Lawrence explores the role of charisma in politics and business with Julia Sonnevend, Associate Professor of Sociology and Communications at The New School for Social Research in New York and author of Charm: How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics; John Antonakis, Professor of Organizational Behaviour in the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne, and co-author of a political charismometer that predicts US presidential elections among other things; Jeremy C. Young, historian of political culture and social movements, author of The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society; as well as World Service listeners.(Photo: Smiling businessman in discussion. Credit: Thomas Barwick/Getty Images)

Audio from a talk held by Woodbine's December 22nd Research Group facilitated by Malek Rasamny and Arya Zahedi. What are the horizons, opportunities and challenges amidst the collapse of the Iranian-led order? Over the past few months Israel's genocidal assault in Gaza has more fully expanded into a regional conflict with what has been referred to as the “axis of resistance”, led by Iran. Its fall has been decisive, with the destruction of much of the senior leadership of Hezbollah, including the assassination of secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah on September 27th; and the collapse of the Assad regime on December 7th, after a lightning fast four-day offensive led by rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). BIOS: Malek Rasamny is the co-director of the research project The Native and Refugee, and the documentary film Spaces of Exception. Both seek to juxtapose and parallel the communities, spaces and struggles of American Indian reservations and Palestinian refugee camps. He is currently completing his doctoral research project on the relationship between reincarnation and the communal memory of the Lebanese Civil War amongst the Druze community. Arya Zahedi is a teacher and writer who lives in Baltimore, MD. He is a PhD candidate in Politics at the New School for Social Research, and has written a number of works on the class struggle and revolutionary movement in Iran. Aziz Alhamza is a Syrian journalist, human rights activist, and founder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) Referenced readings:-Understanding the rebellion in Syria - Joseph Daher, 2024: https://tempestmag.org/2024/12/understanding-the-rebellion-in-syria/ -Class Struggle, Autonomy, and the State in Iran - Arya Zahedi, 2024: https://illwill.com/iran -Building Alternative Futures in the Present: the Case of Syria's Communes - Leila Al-Shami, 2021: https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/the-paris-commune-and-the-world/building-alternative-futures-in-the-present-the-case-of-syrias-communes -The Revolution Post-Explosion - Malek Rasamny, 2020: https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/the-revolution-post-explosion/ Song: Syrian Revolutionary Dabke

Simon is a professor at New York's New School for Social Research and moderates the New York Times' philosophy offering, The Stone. He joins Mark and Bill to discuss his new book, On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy, and we used the occasion to explore how art and mysticism might be connected, including engaging in improv rituals. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the and hear this ad-free at podcast at philosophyimprov.com/support. Check out other Evergreen Podcast offerings.