Podcast appearances and mentions of stacy mitchell

Coach starts the second hour of the show talking to Matt Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts. He also talks about Girls Flag Football and it’s future as an IHSAA-Sanctioned sport. Stacy Mitchell of Warren Central joins to talk about being the Indiana Girl’s Basketball All-Star Head Coach. Coach and Nathaniel Finch also talk more about the Pacers game. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this Upzoned episode, Abby is joined by Strong Towns Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt to discuss the emergence of food deserts in the United States. In the 1980s, the U.S. government stopped enforcing price discrimination laws, letting large supermarkets use their size to leverage better prices from suppliers. This led to the closure of many small, independent groceries and helped create today's food deserts. Abby and Edward discuss the shift from grocery stores being neighborhood assets to regional destinations and how that extracts wealth from communities. Then they share bottom-up ways that everyday people can address these food shortages in their communities. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES “The Great Grocery Squeeze: How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert” by Stacy Mitchell, The Atlantic (December 2024). Abby Newsham (X/Twitter). Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

In this eye-opening episode of the Good Food CFO podcast, Sarah Delevan talks with Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, about the myths of market consolidation and how food founders can fight back against corporate monopolies. Stacy Mitchell is a writer, strategist, and policy advocate whose work focuses on dismantling concentrated corporate power and building thriving local economies. As co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, she has played a leading role in today's growing anti-monopoly movement and has authored influential works including "Big Box Swindle" and "Amazon's Stranglehold." You'll hear: The Invisible Rules: How corporations have made market rules invisible, positioning us as consumers rather than citizens with power to change policies Myth-Busting: Hard evidence disproving the "bigger is better" narrative, including the North Dakota pharmacy model that outperforms corporate chains Food System Consolidation: How the suspension of the Robinson-Patman Act in 1980 allowed big retailers to demand preferential treatment, squeezing independent grocers Beyond Consumer Power: Why "voting with your dollars" is important but insufficient for creating systemic change Paths Forward: Practical actions for founders to engage with local policymakers and join the growing movement to enforce antitrust laws Signs of Hope: Recent shifts in policy approach showing how the tide is turning against unchecked consolidation More from Stacy:  Institute for Local Self-Reliance "The Great Grocery Squeeze" in The Atlantic Stacy's TED Talk: "Why We Can't Shop Our Way to a Better Economy"   This episode is brought to you by Settle.  Settle helps you make smarter decisions, and keep your business on track to grow sustainably. Head over to settle.com/goodfood to learn how brands like Carnivore Snax use Settle to manage their cash flow and growth.   Join The Good Food CFO Community:  Follow us on Instagram: @thegoodfoodcfo  Connect on LinkedIn: @sarahdelevan  Watch on YouTube: @thegoodfoodcfo  Become a Member: BABOYOT

This week we're chatting with Stacy Mitchell of the Institute of Local Self Reliance about her recent article in the Atlantic entitled The Great Grocery Squeeze. We chat about the deregulation mood of the 70s and 80s and what that's meant for shopping, access, and how much we drive. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Substack ... @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon theoverheadwire@sfba.social Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com

How does market concentration affect you and your community? Stacy Mitchell, an outstanding thinker and writer when it comes to issues of corporate power, joined the podcast to discuss how a lack of antitrust enforcement led to the creation of food deserts and so much more. Be sure to tune in, rate, and review! You can find Stacy's article on food deserts in the Atlantic here: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/food-deserts-robinson-patman/680765/

Breakups are always hard. Especially when you’re two of the largest grocery mega-conglomerates in the country. Last week two judges – including a federal judge in Oregon and a superior court judge based in Seattle – officially blocked a merger between grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons. The companies had argued they needed to unite to compete with the likes of Wal-Mart. While an appeal is possible, Albertsons has backed out of the merger altogether and is now suing Kroger for $600 million over legal fees and the shareholder value it claims it lost in the merger attempt. It’s a big deal for the state of Washington, and not only because Governor-Elect Bob Ferguson sued to stop the merger as Attorney General. He argued it would lower competition in the industry and raise grocery prices. It was also a big deal because it would’ve meant the likely sale of 124 grocery stores here – the most of any state – to a third-party company. So... the big grocery merger is dead a major victory for Ferguson and FTC chair Lina Khan, who’s credited with reviving the federal government’s role in antitrust enforcement. But this is also an inflection point for the future of antitrust. President Trump has tapped new leaders for the FTC and the Justice Department’s antitrust division. Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee is wrapping up a hearing on “A Bipartisan Path Forward for Antitrust," where Senator Amy Klobuchar says she hopes to highlight the ways Democrats and Republicans can work together on tackling anti-competitive monopolies, including in the tech industry. So what happened to spoil the Kroger-Albertsons partnership plans, and will the next big merger go forward under Trump? Soundside spoke with John Kirkwood, a professor at Seattle University School of Law. He’s a nationally-renowned antitrust expert and established the first antitrust policy office at the FTC. Soundside also spoke with Stacy Mitchell, the co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The group opposed the Albertsons-Kroger merger. Mitchell wrote two recent articles in The Atlantic exploring the history of food deserts what the merger's failure means for the FTC going forward. Guests: John Kirkwood, professor at Seattle University School of Law. He’s a nationally-renowned antitrust expert and established the first antitrust policy office at the FTC. Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Related links: Read Stacy Mitchell's story in The Atlantic here: The Hidden Cause of Food Deserts - The Atlantic Lina Khan Goes Out With a Bang - The Atlantic Building an oasis in a rural WA ‘food desert’ | The Seattle Times KUOW - Albertsons calls off merger with Kroger. Now what? Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will Trump and His Shills For Russia like Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard Turn Us Into Putin's America? | Israel and Turkey Appears to be the Winners in Syria While Russia and Iran are the Losers | How Rising Food Prices Played a Decisive Role in the Election and Efforts to Rein In Food Monopolies Like WalMart backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Today, three to five giant corporations control up to 80% of almost every industry and marketplace. These monopolies depress wages, exploit workers, and decimate small businesses. Stacy Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance has been a leader in a growing anti-monopoly movement with a broad political base. Can this emerging movement – along with bold federal antitrust action –  create a force that can challenge corporate power for the first time in decades?  Featuring Stacy Mitchell, a Maine-based writer, strategist, and policy advocate whose work focuses on dismantling concentrated corporate power and building thriving communities and a healthy democracy, has played a leading role in today's growing anti-monopoly movement. She is Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and the author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses, and co-author of the influential report: Amazon's Stranglehold. Resources Stacy Mitchell – Democracy vs. Big Tech: How We Can Win the Fight Against Monopoly Power | Bioneers 2024 Keynote Democracy v. Plutocracy: Behind Every Great Fortune Lies a Great Crime Our Economic Future: Achieving a More Equitable Society by Radically Rethinking Our Guiding Economic Ideas | Bioneers Reade Credits Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel Written by: Kenny Ausubel Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch Program Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris Producer: Teo Grossman Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to learn more.

While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation.  The following is from our episode Trust-Busting 2024: A Bipartisan Battle Against Monopoly Power where we look at the actions underway to tackle the problem of monopolies and the detrimental impact the concentration of power in this way can have on consumers, workers and the democratic project.  Laura's guests are two experts who've been involved for decades in anti-trust action Stacy Mitchell, the Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance & Matt Stoller, Research Director for the American Economic Liberties Project. These audio exclusives are made possible thanks to our member supporters.  Please consider becoming a monthly supporter for a few dollars a month… go to https://Patreon.com/LauraFlandersandFriendsGuests:•  Stacy Mitchell: Co-Executive Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance•  Matt Stoller: Research Director, American Economic Liberties Project; Publisher, BIG & Author, Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy Full Episode Notes are accessible to all at https://Patreon.com/LauraFlandersandFriends Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, Sabrina Artel, David Neuman, Nat Needham, Rory O'Conner, Janet Hernandez, Sarah Miller and Jeannie Hopper, Nady Pina, Jordan Flaherty FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LFAndFriendsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

Is 2024 the year of trust-busting? This bipartisan issue of small versus big is a fight taking place on the streets and in the federal and state courts; led by grassroots movements and consumer protest. The Biden administration has stepped up anti-trust action, but the number of merger filings is also up. What should we make of this moment? To help answer that question, Laura is joined by two experts on anti-trust action: Stacy Mitchell, Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Matt Stoller, author of “Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy” and publisher of the newsletter “BIG” on Substack. Mitchell has played a leading role in today's growing anti-monopoly movement and her work informed the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Amazon in 2023. Stoller is the former policy advisor to the Senate Budget Committee and also worked for a member of the Financial Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives during the financial crisis. In this episode, they unpack how decades of corporate consolidation did not lead to cheaper prices, better service or more jobs, but instead worsened our local economies, the quality of our lives and democracy. How have people power and government action together brought about a shift? Is it real? Hear why one guest calls this moment a delayed policy reaction to the 2008 financial crisis, plus a commentary from Laura for tax day.“What we are seeing in this administration is we actually have people in place who are making huge change and are using the tools to the full extent that they have . . . There is a lot of grassroots support for the idea of dealing with corporate power. Everybody is feeling this . . .” - Stacy Mitchell“It's very clear that not having competition in these markets kills . . . In areas like hospices and elder care, dialysis or other parts of healthcare people die. And also in things like Boeing, people die.” - Matt StollerGuests:•  Stacy Mitchell: Co-Executive Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance•  Matt Stoller: Research Director, American Economic Liberties Project; Publisher, BIG & Author, Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy Full Episode Notes are located HERE.  They include related episodes, articles, and more.Music In the Middle:  “Culture Today” by Edy Forey. the title track from their new album.  And additional music included- "Steppin"  by Podington Bear. Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, Sabrina Artel, David Neuman, Nat Needham, Rory O'Conner, Janet Hernandez, Sarah Miller and Jeannie Hopper, Nady Pina, Jordan Flaherty FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LFAndFriendsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

"Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Guest Introduction:  This podcast is for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey who are ready to lead healthier and happier lives and improve their emotional well-being. I interview coaches, spiritual explorers and thought leaders from all walks of life about beginnings, endings, and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well.  Welcome back to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I'm your host Cindy MacMillan. I am really excited about today's interview and before we jump in, I want to say thank you for being here. Today's guest is Jerry Mikutis. She is a Licensed Reiki Master Teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training, a yoga teacher and crystal practitioner and I am so excited to share this conversation with you!  Let me tell you a little more about Jerry Mikutis. She has been enthralled by yoga ever since her first class in 2005 as a means for mental clarity from the stresses of life. The sense of peace the practice cultivated kept her coming back to the mat and the physical benefits soon made themselves evident. Her yoga practice eventually led her to subtler practices such as Reiki and other methods of energy harmonizing, such as connecting with the beauty of crystals. She facilitates yoga and Reiki classes as well as meditations online. Jerry lives in Chicago with her 2 cats Rosie and Milo and dozens of plants and looks for the magic everywhere.  Here's a glimpse of our conversation: Welcome Jerry. Jerry: “I had this coupon, a postcard, that your first class was free. And I remember that the class completely transformed me. It showed me the stillness within me; I was probably like a hundred pounds heavier, and I couldn't do any of the poses.”  Jerry: “Yoga was just really showing me how the body relates to the mind. So that was my introduction to yoga during a really difficult time in my life. It gave me that sense of peace and clarity.”  Jerry: “I came from a very linear, logical thinking family. My dad was a math teacher. All my friends from college were, that were in my life at that time, they were just very logical thinkers.”  Jerry: “That really made me realize even more that we're always in communication with each other. It may not be words, it may not be eye contact, but it's within what we carry in our energy field.” Jerry: “When people ask me what crystal they should get, I almost always say, like, start off with rose quartz, because it's soft pink, the crystal itself isn't soft, because it's quartz, but the colors are soft pink. I think of it as the light of the heart, the light of connection with others, the light of connection with the divine.”  Jerry: “So we have cats that like to sleep. So, they teach us how to rest and to sleep and take things slower. I have two cats.”  Jerry: “So back to your question about how I find the magic. I think Chicago is a very nature centered city in itself in so many ways. I live about three blocks from Lake Michigan, which is one of the largest lakes in the world.” You can find Jerry Mikutis at: Website Instagram FaceBook Holistic Living: Embracing Wholeness In Everyday Life Series The Healing Power of Sound Baths with Stephanie Weber Trust in Your Soul with Sonee Singh Empowering Your Inner Wellness Warrior: Insights from Joyce Jimenez Journey of Healing with Alana Keddie Conversation with Julie Jancius: The Angel Medium Ceremonies and Healing with Stacy Mitchell

“You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop”. ~ Rumi Guest Introduction:  Hello and a warm welcome, friends, to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast! I'm your host, Cindy MacMillan, and I hope you're finding inspiration and connection in our new podcast series – Holistic Living: Embracing Wholeness In Everyday Life. And if you happen to be joining us for the first time, a heartfelt welcome to you, new friends. Holistic living—it's not just a fancy buzzword. Think of it as returning to the very essence of yourself – your body, mind, heart, and soul. Picture a world where you show up for yourself in every way imaginable, like you're your own best friend, chef, and personal cheerleader. It's about nurturing all those beautiful facets of you that make you, well, uniquely you. But here's where the magic truly begins – wholeness.  It's embracing your stories, your scars, your stumbles, and your soaring moments, and realizing they're all essential brushstrokes that create your masterpiece. You're not a puzzle with pieces missing; you're a tapestry woven from the threads of your experiences. Grab your favorite cozy beverage, find a comfy spot to sit back and relax, because we're about to dive deep into a truly inspiring conversation. Stacy Mitchell has been a Life-Cycle Celebrant® since 2005, co-creating and officiating meaningful ceremonies across the life-cycle based on the beliefs and values of her clients. She is also a Reiki Master/Teacher, certified Soul Realignment advanced practitioner and Soul Regression therapist. Her goal is to provide others with the tools and knowledge they need for self-empowerment and self-healing through the weaving together of these offerings.  Here's a glimpse of our conversation: Welcome to the podcast, Stacy. Stacy: “In Hinduism, there is an understanding that the cycles of life are birth, life, death, and rebirth and in the Western world, we tend to stop with just death, right?  Not that rebirth part; but it's not a full cycle if we don't have that fourth.”  Stacy: “For me, life isn't about exploring cycles. It's about living into each season and cycle.”  Stacy: “I think as time goes on, we really begin to understand that we are a part of the cycle, and so we are living the cycle, whatever, that cycle that we're in is in that moment.  And really, that's the key to integration, I guess, is that that ability to just live the cycle rather than  peering in from the outside and say, oh, what's this?”  Stacy: “In the ceremony co creation process or the healing process, as a practitioner, the most important thing for me is to be an active listener.  Active listening requires you to lay down any preconceived ideas or agendas about the work, or the people that you are speaking with.  And it also requires a presencing in the moment,  to be fully there in that moment, and not  thinking in the before time, thinking into whatever's in the future,  not jumping ahead mentally or even verbally,  but to really just take in what is said  to marinate in those words  and the emotions that the words invoke  and to listen  between the lines  in order to hear what the silence is saying.” Stacy: “It can really be eye opening to, to see, like your friend, you know, to see how other cultures treat food and treat the sharing of food. And I'm sure you're aware that even in the West, sharing food after a ceremony, especially a funeral, is, like, one of the most important parts of the experience. So, it's not just, what happens within the ceremony itself, but that moment of breaking bread together, that moment of being...In community and feeding each other and in some circles would be called feeding the soul, right?”  You can find Stacy Mitchell at: Honor Your Voice Holistic Living: Embracing Wholeness In Everyday Life Series The Healing Power of Sound Baths with Stephanie Weber Trust in Your Soul with Sonee Singh Empowering Your Inner Wellness Warrior: Insights from Joyce Jimenez Journey of Healing with Alana Keddie Conversation with Julie Jancius: The Angel Medium

The Federal Trade commission sued Amazon this week, accusing it of monopolistic practices. This episode from our archive investigates how the Amazon Marketplace operates, who wins and who loses. James Thomson and Stacy Mitchell join Meghna Chakrabarti.

The Federal Trade commission sued Amazon this week, accusing it of monopolistic practices. This episode from our archive explores how Amazon operates and what power it has. Brad Stone and Stacy Mitchell join Meghna Chakrabarti.

Welcome to 1 Moment Wiser! I am Kristi Bridges. On my podcast, we discuss stories of how God is working in and changing people's lives. In 2023, special guests will join me on the podcast to discuss mental health from a Christian perspective. If you're a trauma survivor, you know you are bigger than what happened to you. Still, trauma seems to pop up as a relationship-stunter and illness-creator years after the trauma is passed. How can we fully recover? Join me as Stacy Mitchell, CSM, M.Ed., MS shares her experience.  #mentalhealth #interview #1MomentWiser #trauma #christianity Let's continue the conversation! Visit the 1 Moment Wiser website ⁠HERE⁠. Join me on Facebook for daily devotionals ⁠HERE⁠. If you enjoyed what Stacy had to share, check out her videos on TikTok HERE. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kristi-bridges0/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kristi-bridges0/support

Welcome to 1 Moment Wiser! I am Kristi Bridges. On my podcast, we discuss stories of how God is working in and changing people's lives. In 2023, special guests will join me on the podcast to discuss mental health from a Christian perspective. If you're a trauma survivor, you know you are bigger than what happened to you. Still, trauma seems to pop up as a relationship-stunter and illness-creator years after the trauma is passed. How can we fully recover? Join me as Stacy Mitchell, CSM, M.Ed., MS shares her experience. #mentalhealth #interview #1MomentWiser #trauma #christianity Let's continue the conversation! Visit the 1 Moment Wiser website ⁠HERE⁠. Join me on Facebook for daily devotionals ⁠HERE⁠. If you enjoyed what Stacy had to share, check out her videos on TikTok HERE. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kristi-bridges0/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kristi-bridges0/support

Chris Noble, the Director of Organizing at Health Access, and Allison Hardt, the Advocacy Manager at T1 International, share their personal experiences accessing life-saving medication in America. Stacy Mitchell delves into the hidden world of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — their role in the pharmaceutical industry and how their practices hinder people like Chris and Allison from obtaining essential medicines at reasonable prices.… Read More

Stacy Mitchell is Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a research and advocacy organization that challenges concentrated corporate power and works to build thriving, equitable communities. ILSR has been a pioneering leader in the growing anti-monopoly movement and has a long track record of working alongside grassroots groups to develop better alternatives, from community-owned broadband, to independent businesses, to distributed solar.Stacy recently wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times titled The Real Reason Your Groceries are Getting More Expensive, and has advocated for the FTC revitalizing the anti chain store legislation known as the Robinson Patman Act.Stacy has also produced pivotal research and reporting on the policies driving the decline of small businesses and the economic and political consequences of monopoly power. In 2020, she was profiled by the New York Times for her analysis of Amazon's power and her leadership in building a broad coalition to counter it. Her reports and articles about the tech giant have drawn a wide and influential readership. The House Judiciary Committee cited her research extensively in its “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets.” In 2022, political strategy firm Baron named her an “Antitrust Super Influencer” for her role in shaping the policy debate.

Aaron Johnson, founder and owner of Oasis Fresh Market in North Tulsa, Oklahoma, tells his journey of opening a grocery store to provide a refuge, safe place, and shelter to a community that had been a food desert for fourteen years. On the second half of the episode, Stacy Mitchell explains the policy decisions that have led to an increasingly consolidated grocery sector and the steps to take to support locally-owned, community-centric grocery models. … Read More

What will Amazon do once it's eaten every other business, automated every process, and none of us have any money to buy their products? To find out, musician Oliver Ackermann (A Place To Bury Strangers) interviews Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a national research and advocacy organization that fights corporate control and works to build thriving, equitable communities. She inspires him to create a new song ‘Always Gonna Be The Same'. Stream the song: https://ffm.to/AlwaysGonnaBeTheSame I could spin a story that would make you freak But I'm not thinking of ways to manipulate you - I don't hate you I just want you to enjoy your life And I hope you're a really good potato - Kato I don't wanna live in a stupid world I don't wanna live under their control I don't wanna buy all their useless shit That should just be thrown in a giant pit I don't wanna be hooked on all these drugs Pushed to fund someone's expensive rugs I just wanna live and have some fun I don't need to feel like I have won Cuz it's gross They're lying to our faces It's a show They stripped away their regulations What we don't know Is that they multiplied their operations So if we don't vote Then its always gonna be the same Someone's gotta play the adult in the room - with a broom We can't let these greedy fuckers take another dime - waste of time I would rather be out on vacation - in another nation But we seem to be living with some bad potatoes - Kato I don't wanna live in their stupid world I don't wanna live under their control I don't wanna buy all this useless shit That should just be thrown in a giant pit I don't wanna be hooked on all their drugs Pushed to fund someone's expensive rugs I just wanna help out my fellow man Any fucking way that I can Cuz it's gross They're lying to our faces And it's low They bought a house with our donations What we don't know Is that they buried all the allegations So if we don't vote Then its always gonna be the same --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/podsongs/message

This week, I am joined by Stacy Mitchell, also known as @dailydietitianrd, to talk about making meal prep fun and sustainable. Stacy is a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer who helps her clients master mindful, balanced eating with super simple meal ideas. In this episode, she's sharing her expertise on flexible meal prep, how you can switch things up without creating more work for yourself, and so much more. If you've been looking to bring life back into the shopping, prep, and cooking process, then this episode is just what you've been waiting for.   Links:  Shownotes Connect with Stacy Listen to The Daily Dietitian Podcast Work with Lisa FREE Guide to Intuitive Fueling

From local communities and states to federal policy, antitrust movements to dismantle monopolies are challenging the system that can be summed up as: Make Feudalism Great Again. Although breaking up is hard to do, we've broken up monopolies before. In this second of our two-part program, we join Thom Hartmann, Stacy Mitchell and Maurice B.P. Weeks to survey the landscape of rising antitrust movements to break the stranglehold of corporate power and level the playing field for a democratized economy.

Kroger wants to buy Albertsons and effectively become the second-largest grocery chain in the United States. This merger would result in less competition, rising grocery prices, and lower wages. Corporate greed has gotten us into this mess, but new federal anti-merger guidelines, and some tenacious Attorneys General, may just get us out. Returning guest Stacy Mitchell explains why mergers like this one are bad news for workers and shoppers alike. Stacy Mitchell is Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a research and advocacy organization that challenges concentrated corporate power and works to build thriving, equitable communities. Twitter: @stacyfmitchell Institute for Local Self-Reliance: https://ilsr.org  Stacy Mitchell Responds to Kroger's Bid to Buy Albertsons https://ilsr.org/statement-kroger-albertsons-merger    Report: How New Federal Anti-merger Guidelines Can Roll Back Corporate Concentration and Build Local Power https://ilsr.org/rolling-back-corporate-concentration-how-new-federal-anti-merger-guidelines-can-restore-competition-and-build-local-power Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick's twitter: @NickHanauer

This week on Building Local Power, we are joined by Brandi Collins-Dexter, author of Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and our Political Future and Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of ILSR. We engage in a riveting conversation on how political parties have monopolistic tendencies, how Big Tech has dominated mainstream media, and the future of Black-owned and led businesses in America. … Read More

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by John Farrell and Stacy Mitchell, Co-directors of ILSR, and Ron Knox, a Senior Researcher on our Independent Business team. The group discusses the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission's plan to overhaul their merger guidelines. Highlights include: The history of anti-merger laws in the United States. How the lack of merger regulation has impacted workers, consumers, and our democracy. ILSR's recommendations that detail how we can change merger guidelines. How new merger policy could revitalize local economies. “The Great Depression was in large part, and the stock market crash, driven by the merger and concentration of electric utility holding companies.” – John Farrell “So you allow these mergers to happen and it's like when Spider-Man shoots a whole spider web at a villain. These mergers shoot a whole spider web at the economy, every part of it, and really tamp down the ability for folks to earn a living, start a business, do all these kinds of things.” – Ron Knox “I think our chief recommendation was instead of calling them the merger guidelines, we should call them the anti-merger guidelines in keeping with Congress' intent and being clear about the new direction and policy that at least we're hoping to see.” – Stacy Mitchell Related Resources Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello and welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought-provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. Jess Del Fiacco: And hello everybody. Today we are going to talk about merger policy. If you're thinking, “I am not an economic policy wonk. I don't want to hear about merger policy,” don't turn the episode off because it is going to be a great conversation. And I promise it'll be interesting for everybody. Joining me to talk about this are my colleagues, John Farrell and Stacy Mitchell, who are co-directors of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, as well as Ron Knox, who is a senior researcher with our independent business team. Welcome to the show everybody. Ron Knox: Hey, Jess. Thank you. Stacy Mitchell: … be here. Jess Del Fiacco: So I can just give a little bit of a background, I think, before we dive into questions, although I'm sure I won't do as good of a job as everybody else will on this call, but I will do my best. So the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission recently announced that they're going to overhaul their guidelines around mergers. And ILSR has submitted comments, which detail basically how these guidelines should change in order to stop corporate concentration and support a more decentralized economy. So with that kind of context, I think I'm actually going to start with asking Ron and Stacy to talk a little bit about the history of anti-merger legislation in the US and how this enforcement has changed pretty dramatically over the course of the 20th century. Ron Knox: Yeah Jess. Thanks. So there is a lot of history, of course, behind the reason that we look at mergers in this country, the reason we prohibit mergers that would be bad for the economy, for workers, for small business, and for communities, but I think it's important to understand what the result is when we don't do that very well, when we don't stop those mergers. Like I think about beer a lot, not just because I enjoy beer. I do. But I also think about it because it's a great example of how corporate concentration has really gotten out of control in this country and why. So for a long time, we've had two really dominant brewers, right? We have Budweiser,

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by her colleagues John Farrell, Stacy Mitchell, and Ron Knox, a where they discuss the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission's plan to overhaul their merger guidelines. … Read More

Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a national research and advocacy organization that fights corporate control and works to build thriving, equitable communities. She directs its initiative to decentralize economic power and level the playing field for independent businesses. She has produced many influential reports and articles, designed local and federal policies, and collaborated to build effective coalitions and campaigns.She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:The problems of monopoly power by big corporationsThe positives in the current shifts to reign in of corporate powerThe reimagining of what the economy could be and how it could serve usComplete show notes HEREConnect with Stacy MitchellWebsite: www.ilsr.orgWebsite: www.stacymitchell.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/stacyfmitchellInstagram: www.instagram.com/stacyfmitchellFacebook: www.facebook.com/localselfreliance Follow WCPGR/ResilienceFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/buildresilience​Twitter: https://twitter.com/buildresilience​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildresilienceSupport the show

On this episode of the Building Local Power Podcast, Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of ILSR, is joined by Arlene Martínez, Deputy Executive Director and Communications Director at Good Jobs First. Good Jobs First promotes government accountability in economic development and tracks corporate subsidies. Stacy and Arlene discuss the use of nondisclosure agreements, the acceleration of mega-deals during the pandemic, and what true economic development looks like. Highlights include: How states have used the Care Act and American Rescue Plan funding for economic development. Defining opportunity zones and exposing how the wealthy are profiting from their favorable tax treatment. Revealing how one of the main consequences of subsidy giveaways is exacerbating racial disparities. Why a campaign called Ban Secret Deals is trying to end the use of nondisclosure agreements. “Amazon is eager to use its power to get what it wants.”- Arlene Martínez “For the 4.1 billion that cities gave to Amazon over the last ten years we could have built 672 new locally-owned grocery stores in underserved communities – connected to, say, local farmers and food producers. The scale of this money is extraordinary.” – Stacy Mitchell “The problem with the way that so much of economic development is done in this country, and the ways that these deals are structured, is that the community loses in the end, because the giveaways are so big that tax money that was given will never pay for itself.” – Arlene Martínez Related Resources Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power. A podcast dedicated to thought provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities. Where power, wealth, and accountability, remain in local hands. This week, ILSR Stacy Mitchell talks with Arlene Martínez. Arlene is the deputy executive director and communications director at Good Jobs First. Good Jobs First is an organization that promotes corporate and government accountability, and economic development. As well as smart growth for working families. Stacy and Arlene are going to discuss Amazon's use of public subsidies to advance their growth, the company's tax avoidance and more. Without further ado, I'm going to hand things over to Stacy to lead the interview. Stacy Mitchell: Well, Arlene, it's so great to have you on Building Local Power. Thanks so much for joining us today? Arlene Martínez: Thanks for having me Stacy. Stacy Mitchell: You all, Good Jobs First, your organization just does extraordinary work around the problem of corporate subsidies. These giveaways that happen across the country to big corporations. Tell us a little about what these corporate subsidies are all about? And maybe give a couple of recent examples of some of the kinds of bad deals that you're tracking and why you see them as harmful? Arlene Martínez: Yeah. Corporate subsidies are when a corporation comes to a community and wants to bring a facility, a project, and they always promise a lot of jobs. They ask for public money to help [inaudible 00:01:44] the cost of the project. They come and they say they're going to bring a lot of capital investment. They say they're going to bring a lot of jobs and officials get excited and start opening up their wallets. The problem with some of these deals is that, first of all, it's done out of public view. Sometimes the community doesn't know the company name, don't know how much money's being offered. That's the case even after the deal's closed. In some states, we never know how much money the company got. A recent deal that just happened, first when you asked that question came to mind, was [inaudible 00:02:24].

On this episode of the Building Local Power Podcast, Jess Del Fiacco is joined by Stacy Mitchell and Arlene Martínez who discuss the use of nondisclosure agreements, the acceleration of mega-deals during the pandemic, and what true economic development looks like. … Read More

On this episode of the Building Local Power Podcast, we share highlights from a recent ILSR event called “The Progressive Fight for Small Business” featuring Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and White House Advisor Tim Wu. Rep. Jayapal talks about the intersectionality between small business, health care, minimum wage, and racial inequity. Wu discusses how we need to relearn the virtues of a true American economy and how consolidation and the rise of a middleman are two of the biggest problems we face today. Highlights include: How the Paycheck Recovery Act would help small businesses if it is reintroduced. The effects of Biden's Executive Order and how the Competition Council are working towards a more equitable economy. How the economic principles that our nation subscribed to 40 years ago were not interested in maintaining a diverse set of businesses. Why it is critical for small businesses to thrive. “We have a real opportunity to use the bipartisan momentum to prevent dominant companies from maintaining market power and using their extensive resources to stifle independent and small competitors from entering the market and also to think about our communities in a holistic way and I think that is what small businesses do particularly well.” – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal “Our country has become too centralized, too national, too centered on consumption as opposed to production, and too many of the returns go to too few people. ” – Tim Wu Related Resources Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought-provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth and accountability remain in local hands. Jess Del Fiacco: For today's episode, we're bringing you highlights from a recent event that we put on. The event is all about the momentum that is building in Congress within the Biden administration and within many state houses to reign in monopoly power and level the playing field for small, independent businesses. You'll hear from Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who's the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Tim Wu, who is a special assistant to the president for Technology and Competition Policy. This event was called the Progressive Fight for Small Business, and if you're interested in watching the whole recording, you can find that and related resources archived on archive.ilsr.org. Jess Del Fiacco: With that, I'll let you listen to the show. Stacy Mitchell: I'm Stacy Mitchell. I'm the co-director of ILSR, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. More than a decade ago, I helped launch an initiative here at ILSR focused on independent business. We were, and continue to be, deeply concerned about the sharp decline in small, independent businesses that we've seen across virtually every sector of the economy. Back at that time, there were very few political leaders on either side of the aisle who had much concern about this trend. The widespread assumption at that time was that small business didn't matter much, the bigger corporations were better, more efficient, more productive, and so on. Stacy Mitchell: Today, we know that economic concentration and the losses that we've seen, both for working people and for small businesses, have had devastating effects on communities, that the decline of small business and the growing concentration across our economy is really driving racial and economic inequality, and ultimately undermining our democracy. We know that the primary driver of this trend is concentrated corporate power, whether it's the power that these corporations wield in the market or the political power that they have to rig gover...

Ted Tatos is Managing Director of EconOne and co-author of the recent report, “Protecting the U.S. Postal Service from Amazon's Anticompetitive Assault.” In the conversation, we get into a lot of different aspects of Amazon's ongoing effort to dominate the postal service. A quick note: Ted's report was funded by a conservative group called The Family Business Coalition, which includes small family-owned businesses that ship parcels. For the report, Ted also interviewed a couple of prominent voices in the antimonopoly movement whom we've had on the show before—Matt Stoller from the American economic liberties project and Stacy Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance.

On this episode of Building Local Power, we share a recording of ILSR's recent event Democratizing Power: New Citizen Initiatives Challenge Monopoly Electric Utilities. Across the country, powerful utilities are actively blocking decentralized solar energy, degrading the reliability of the power lines even as they raise prices, and failing to make the grid investments needed for a clean, carbon-free future. Listen to ILSR's Stacy Mitchell and John Farrell facilitate conversations with the advocates who are leading the movement to take back control from electric utility monopolies. Highlights of the event's discussions include: Rep. Seth Berry and Sen. Rick Bennett of the Maine State Legislature discuss Our Power, a citizen-led ballot campaign in Maine that aims to convert the utility serving most of the state to a consumer-owned electric company, allowing for competition and innovation on a public grid system. Jean Su, Energy Justice Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, explains how advocates in Arizona are using antitrust and anti-monopoly laws to fight a big utility's plans to crush customer-owned rooftop solar power. Mariel Nanasi, Executive Director of New Energy Economy in New Mexico, tells the story behind a recent and highly unusual rejection of a proposed utility merger in New Mexico, brought about by grassroots advocacy effort. “Clean electricity is how we get out of the climate emergency. And all of that needs to flow over the poles and wires. Those poles and wires are a monopoly. And because of the last 150 years or so of the evolution of that industry, we have allowed it without really thinking about it. Without really noticing, we've allowed it to globalize, we've allowed it to conglomerate. We've allowed it to be the province of the few in order to extract value from the many. And so this is about power. It is about money. It's also very much about climate. If we're going to decarbonize, we know that we need to shift to consumer ownership because it works.”     Related Resources Democratizing Power: New Citizen Initiatives Challenge Monopoly Electric Utilities The Role of Antitrust Law in Creating Energy Justice — Episode 127 of Building Local Power Mainers Consider Putting Electricity, Internet in Local Hands — Episode 103 of Building Local Power In Santa Fe, Momentum Builds for Locals to Take Charge of Electricity System – Episode 39 of Local Energy Rules Podcast A David and Goliath Fight to Tap World Class Solar – Episode 14 of Local Energy Rules Podcast Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello. Welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought-provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. Hello, today we have something slightly different for you. Last week, ILSR hosted an event called Democratizing the Grid. And at that event ILSR Co-directors, John Farrell and Stacy Mitchell were joined by Representative Seth Berry and Senator Rick Bennett of Maine, as well as Mariel Nanasi of New Energy Economy in New Mexico, and Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity. This group discussed the people-powered movements around the country that are taking on the electric utility monopolies with the aim of accelerating the shift to clean energy and winning democratic community control. We're going to share a recording of that conversation with you today. So without further ado, here's ILRS's Stacy Mitchell. Stacy Mitchell: Hello everyone. Welcome today. My name is Stacy Mitchell. I'm the co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and I'm super excited about today's event. I'm excited to welcome all of you.

Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Independent Business Initiative, which produces research and designs policy to counter concentrated corporate power and strengthen local economies. ILSR's new report, Amazon's Toll road, finds that “Amazon is exploiting its position as a gatekeeper to impose steep and growing fees on third-party sellers” and that “even as these exorbitant fees bankrupt sellers, they are generating huge profits for Amazon, a fact that the tech giant conceals in its financial reports.”

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco and ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell interview Chuck Marohn, President of Strong Towns. Chuck is also the author of the new book Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town, which explores what conventional transportation planning is costing our communities. Highlights of the conversation include: How Chuck's background in engineering and planning informed the book. How conventional transportation planning values disregard the complexity of human behavior and end up negatively impacting safety, economic growth, and community. How flawed transportation policy allowed big box retailers and chains to take over communities and why good street design could revive Main Street. Streets, roads, and “stroads” — and the key design decisions that can help communities flourish. The small steps city leaders can take to start rethinking transportation policy.   “The idea of roads and streets is really to put the focus back on what are we trying to accomplish with our transportation system. On a road we're trying to move people quickly between two places. On a street, we're trying to create wealth. We're trying to create a place. We're trying to create someplace that people want to be, a productive place where we can live, have economics, have commerce, have entertainment, have high quality of life. A street is not conducive to fast throughput and a road is not conducive to development to things that slow things down.” “Congestion is actually our greatest ally if we want to build great places, if we want to build local economies, it will actually drive the outcomes we want to see. And so the best places in America, the places that have I think the best economics, the best local small business options, are all places where you have overwhelming levels of congestion combined with… a more flexible development framework where people can actually then respond to these local needs by building stuff, to serve their neighbors.”   Learn more about Confessions of a Recovering Engineer and check out free resources here.   Related Resources Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power. A podcast dedicated to thought provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm [Jess 00:00:18] Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Jess Del Fiacco: For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. And welcome to today's show. I'm here with my colleague, Stacy Mitchell, who is one of ILSR co-directors. And we are joined by Chuck Mahron, who is the president of Small Towns. Small Towns is an organization that is rethinking how we build our communities. And Chuck is the author of a new book called Confessions of a Recovering Engineer:Transportation for a Strong Town. Chuck, welcome to the show. We're very happy to have you. Chuck Marohn: Hey, thank you. It's really nice to be here. I love the work that you all do and it's exciting to be able to chat. Stacy: We're such big fans of Strong Towns too. So it's awesome to have you. Chuck Marohn: Yeah. Thank you. I know we have so much in common and so much overlap and I really appreciated like everything that you guys have put out since I've become aware of the work you're doing. So yeah, this might be a love Fest for a while, but that's fine. That's fine. We can mutually admire each other. Jess Del Fiacco: So to get us started, I just wanted to ask, and if you got a little bit about your background, I mean, you were trained as a transportation engineer and this book is essentially your confession, you are criticizing your critique of the whole profession. What's that all about? Chuck Marohn: Yeah, well,

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Baltimore, Md., 1936. On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco, ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell, and Senior Researcher Kennedy Smith are joined by Ilana Preuss, the founder of Recast City, a firm that works with city officials and local leaders to integrate space for small manufacturers into placed-based development projects. Ilana, Jess, Kennedy, and Stacy discuss how small, locally-scaled manufacturing fits into the broader small business landscape, and how it can contribute to vibrant downtowns and commercial districts. Some highlights from their conversation include: The history of manufacturing in America's downtowns and how the modern small scale manufacturing movement compares. How manufacturing can contribute to the vibrancy of downtowns and complement the benefits of retail shops, restaurants, and other businesses. Small scale manufacturing's role in equitable economic development. Small scale manufacturing success stories from communities across the country and how funds from the American Rescue Plan Act have the potential to make a huge impact. Purchase Ilana's new book Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown With Small Scale Manufacturing at your local bookshop or through Island Press (enter the promo code RECAST at checkout for 20% off). “One of the things that I find most exciting about working with small scale manufacturing business owners is they cut across every different part of our demographics. So when we're working to build inclusive communities of business owners that really represent our demographic diversity, small scale manufacturing is a really exciting way to get there. It doesn't matter what community divide we're looking across, income, race, ethnicity, immigrant status, people make stuff. In fact, it's the basis of a lot of people's culture or heritage. And so the opportunity to teach entrepreneurship and to help build wealth in communities across the country across our demographics is really potent because so many people have this ability to make things and build wealth for themselves, their households and their communities because of it.”   “I think people are really at a moment where more people are open to what they deem new ideas even if they're really old ideas like what you were describing. They want to do more good for more people in their community, which is great. They're conscious or they're aware of what they haven't done for people in their community in their past. And so I do think we are at this really exciting transformational moment where communities can make these different decisions and say, we want to be not just a place that consumes but a place that produces. And how do we support that in all of the spending of the community and all of the ways, all of the decision-making that happens in the community can do this.”   Related Resources Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown With Small Scale Manufacturing by Illana Preuss Open Works Baltimore Made in Baltimore's Home-Run Accelerator Scaling Up! South Bend Bull Moose Music Xometry Saltbox Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and Communications Manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. Jess Del Fiacco: In today's episode, we're going to discuss how locally scaled manufacturing can fit into the broader small business landscape and how it can contribute to vibrant downtowns and commercial districts. I'm joined by my colleague, Stacy Mitchell and Kennedy Smith. Also joining us to talk about her work on small scale ma...

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by ILSR's John Farrell, Stacy Mitchell, and Christopher Mitchell. They discuss some of the exciting things happening in different sectors of ILSR's work, including: How rules established by the U.S. Department of the Treasury will affect how funds for broadband infrastructure are used by cities. The ways in which the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which was established by the American Rescue Plan Act this spring, falls short when it comes to investing in long-term connectivity solutions. How monopoly power drives energy decisions in Minnesota and other states — and how these decisions end up hurting communities and the climate. The New York Senate's approval of the 21st Century Antitrust Act, and what this means for the future of state-level antitrust enforcement. The “Big Tech Bills,” a package of Congressional legislation that aims to rein in the monopoly power of tech giants (Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple). The bills include three key things: Recognizing that break-ups are needed. Stopping and preventing unfair discrimination. Helping to end corporate consolidation.   “I think there are a lot of people who see these issues, the issues of monopoly, and the tech companies in particular, as being really fundamental to questions of democracy, questions of how our economy works, questions of equity and liberty.”   Related Resources Heather McGee's The Sum of Us Barbara Freese's Coal In the Star Tribune: Wrong Incentives Drive Energy Decisions in Minnesota, Most States Connecting Customers to Create a Virtual Power Plant — Episode 126 of Local Energy Rules New York Bill Moving Through Senate Takes on Monopoly Power FCC's Emergency Connectivity Funds Ineligible for School and Library Self-Provisioned Networks U.S. Treasury Clarifies American Rescue Plan Broadband Funding The Antimonopoly Happy Hour Community Broadband Bits Small Business Rising Athena Coalition Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello and welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought-provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth and accountability remain in local hands. And hello, today I am here, I'm joined by some familiar voices on this podcast. My colleague, Stacy Mitchell, John Farrell and Chris Mitchell. Welcome to the show everybody. Chris Mitchell: Hi. Stacy Mitchell: Really great to be here. John Farrell: Woo-hoo. Jess Del Fiacco: Woo, loving the enthusiastic opening. Thank you for the woo-hoos, John. So this conversation is going to touch on everyone's work and recent events, but I think we're going to start off with Chris. A few months ago, the Biden administration was hyping up, community broadband solutions, and yet where are we now? What's happening? What went wrong? Chris Mitchell: Well, there are some things that went wrong, but the Biden administration still does seem to be very much in support of both municipal and cooperative solutions. The Biden administration came out and somewhat unexpectedly said that it felt that the solution for broadband across America was structural reform and adding new competition, breaking up the monopolies effectively, I mean, breaking up is a bit of an overstatement, but at least no longer blindly supporting the monopolies and supporting more local structures that would provide a better restraint in terms of price increases and things like that. Chris Mitchell: And they specifically cited municipal solutions and cooperative solutions. So that was tremendously exciting. And then a little bit more recently, the Biden administration's Treasury department came out and- Jess Del Fiacco:

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco and ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell are joined by Solana Rice and Jeremie Greer of Liberation in a Generation, an organization dedicated to achieving economic liberation for people of color. They discuss their recent publication Anti-Monopoly Activism: Reclaiming Power through Racial Justice, which argues that the fight against monopoly is intertwined with the fight for racial justice, and that organizers of color must be centered in the antimonopoly movement. Their conversation touches on: The harms communities of color experience due to extreme corporate concentration. How Jeremie and Solana came to realize that corporate concentration and racial inequality needed to be more explicitly connected. The impact of this report in the activist community. The vision of a liberation economy, and what it will take to get there.   “When Amazon buys Ring and has this tool for surveillance, and police use it in Black communities to surveil Black people and arrest Black people, that is not accidental, that is not a disparate impact. That is an intentional action that has been taken. […] So my struggle with stating it as a disparate impact makes it seem as if this thing that kind of happens on accident. When what we know, and what we talk a bit of a lot about in the report, is that there are historic underpinnings for the type of racism that we see in our economy. And that what is being produced is being produced by a system that has intentionally put structures and systems in place to oppress Black and Brown communities and Black and Brown people.”   Related Resources Anti-Monopoly Activism: Reclaiming Power through Racial Justice Fighting Monopoly Power Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power. A podcast dedicated to thought provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. Jess Del Fiacco: I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power, and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. Today I'm with Stacy Mitchell, who's the co-director of ILSR, and we are very excited to be joined by Jeremie Greer and Solana Rice. They are the co-founders and directors of an organization called Liberation in a Generation, which is normalization dedicated to dismantling the current oppression economy and in its place building a liberation economy where all people of color have their needs met, are safe from harm and are valued and belong. Jess Del Fiacco: So Jeremie and Solana, welcome to the show. Solana Rice: Thank you. Jeremie Greer: Hello. Thanks for having us. Jess Del Fiacco: Yeah. And so what we're going to dig into today is a report that you recently released called anti monopoly activism, reclaiming power through racial justice. And it's fantastic. And it's so vitally important in this space right now. Stacy, I'm actually curious what your initial thoughts were when you read the report. And then maybe you can kick us off with the question for Jeremie or Solana. Stacy Mitchell: It's a really great addition to the conversation about monopoly power and about racial justice, and really begins to aluminate the intersection between those two things. And I think the question that I'm curious about is to just learn more about the path that you took to examining the intersection of monopoly power and racial justice, and what it is that led you to feel like those two issues needed to be explored in conjunction and put out in a report like this. Jeremie Greer: Yeah, I'll start. And I, for me, it's something that, it's one of those things that's kind of always been a reoccurring theme for me, but though I didn't know it that way all the time as I was going through my career.

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco and ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell are joined by Brad Lander, who represents Brooklyn's 39th District on the New York City Council. Brad shares his perspective on how the pandemic has affected NYC neighborhoods, the parallels he sees between now and past crises — including the 2008 financial crash and the city's near-bankruptcy in the mid-1970s — and how the city can avoid repeating past mistakes. They also discuss: How the city can protect small businesses and families from being priced out of neighborhoods by spiking rents and the financial impacts of the pandemic. How a city-run “land bank” would strengthen communities, boost economic development, and expand affordable housing by keeping property in the hands of non-profits and co-ops instead of for-profit developers. The successful community land trusts in Burlington and Albany that helped inspired this work and how other communities can pursue social ownership models. “Our model for community economic development for affordable housing construction and for economic development investment has really been very substantially for-profitized, so that 80% of the subsidies the city gives out for affordable housing go to for-profit private developers. And then lo and behold, 30 years later, when the mortgage is up, they've got the right to take it to market, and we wonder where the affordable housing went. But we don't have to make those choices. We could pull our affordable housing back.”   Related Resources How to Avoid a Post-Recession Feeding Frenzy by Private Developers Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson Community Ownership of Commercial Spaces Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello and welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought-provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. Today I'm here with Stacy Mitchell, who's the co-director of ILSR, and we're joined by Brad Lander, who represents Brooklyn's 39th district on the New York City Council. Welcome to the show, guys. Brad Lander: Thank you so much. I'm a big fan, so I'm really honored to be here. Jess Del Fiacco: We only let big fans come on the show so they can praise us the whole time. That's the secret. Before we get started, I also want to note that you're involved with Local Progress, which is a network of progressive local officials around the country, so we might touch on that a little bit too. But Stacy, anything you want to say before we hit the ground? Stacy Mitchell: No. I'm so glad you're here. I think we should dive right in. I think what's on my mind is thinking about the huge impact that COVID has had on New York City, both people and the business community. I am imagining that there are a lot more vacancies than there used to be when you walk around city streets. I've read that hundreds or maybe even thousands of businesses have shuttered. Can you talk about what you're seeing, particularly at the street level and with local businesses, and how the fabric of neighborhoods has changed? Brad Lander: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. I think what ILSR is doing all across the country is really inspiring. And that model of supporting communities to take more control democratically is really powerful, and an urgent time for it. So yeah, I mean, New York City has been so hard hit, and I still think even though you see it in vacant storefronts that in most of our minds, we're back in March and April hearing those sirens. Brad Lander: So the death toll and how unequal that death toll was, we're all holding it.

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco and ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell are joined by award-winning journalist Alec MacGillis to discuss his new book, Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America. Their conversation focuses on how the shift toward online shopping — led by Amazon — has reshaped America. Highlights include: How this shift has reshaped jobs and physical landscapes around the country. Amazon's ever-growing influence on the Washington, D.C., metro area. The troubling dynamic between local governments and Amazon, which often includes cities working on Amazon's behalf. The social and political consequences of the dramatic — and growing — gulf between rich and poor places in the United States. Whether or not these changes are inevitable, and what elected officials can do to shape our economy's future. “You're unable to even talk about problems because the issues manifest themselves so differently in different parts of the country. And housing is the best example. It's just surreal to be in cities where the housing debate is all about high cost and affordability… And then you go to other parts of the country where the housing problem is the absolute reverse, where it's just a problem of depopulation and blight and abandonment…. The most extreme or clearest example, of course, of this incomprehensibility to each other, is what's happened in our politics, in our electoral politics, these last few years.” Related Resources Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast, dedicated to thought provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for local self-reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remained in local hands. In today's episode we're going to talk about how a shift towards online shopping, which was led in part by Amazon has reshaped our country. Jess Del Fiacco: I'm here with my colleague, Stacy Mitchell, the co-director of ILSR, and joining us is the award-winning journalist Alec MacGillis whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and many other places. Alec has a new book out, which is called Fulfillment, Winning and Losing in One-Click America. Welcome to the show. Alec, we're happy to have you here. Alec MacGillis: Thanks for having me. Jess Del Fiacco: Could you just tell us a little bit about this book and why did you decide to write it? Alec MacGillis: This book has been in the works for a long time, and it's really goes back many years to my upbringing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, small city in Western mass. That's gone through a really hard time after it lost General Electric and just becoming more and more worried about the huge gap, growing gap between places in America, places that all these towns and cities that really have been kind of left behind, even as you had these pockets, these other cities that were growing just more and more wealthy, more and more concentrated in their prosperity and watching this happening as I was about 10 or 12 years ago out on the road, a lot reporting as a political reporter for The Washington Post and going out to towns in Ohio or Wisconsin all over the country. And then coming back to Washington and Metro Washington, as it was becoming more and more intensely wealthy and kind of complacent in its wealth. Alec MacGillis: And this is around the time of the great recession, 2009, '10, when you could barely even see the great recession hitting in Metro Washington and seeing this divide growing ever wider between places and being really bothered by it and really worried about it, and also surprised that more people weren't talking about it. And then Trump gets elected in 16,

Cities@Tufts Lectures explores the impact of urban planning on our communities and the opportunities to design for greater equity and justice with professor Julian Agyeman and host Tom Llewellyn. While you may want to stretch your legs so to speak after months of lockdown, keeping some new, pandemic-inspired aspects of local life and even deepening them collectively will be needed to combat systemic challenges like climate change and extreme wealth inequality. Today, we're bringing you a special bonus episode with the audio from an event Shareable hosted last week, How to go even more local after COVID-19. Shareable's Neal Gorenflo kicks things off by briefly sharing his lessons learned from a just-concluded, year-long life experiment in local living before launching into a discussion with Stacy Mitchell, Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and futurist Jose Ramos, Director of Action Foresight. The event launched Shareable's new e-book “A Year of Living Locally” based on Gorenflo's year-long experiment with a foreword by Stacy Mitchell. You can download the ebook here.  Cities@Tufts Lectures is produced by Tufts University and Shareable.net with support from The Kresge Foundation. (Most) Lectures are moderated by Professor Julian Agyeman and organized in partnership with research assistants Meghan Tenhoff, and Perri Sheinbaum. “Light Without Dark” by Cultivate Beats is our theme song. Robert Raymond is our audio editor, Elizabeth Carr manages communications and editorial with support from Neal Gorenflo. Joslyn Beile handles operations, and the series is produced and hosted by Tom Llewellyn.

Nwamaka Agbo is a nationally respected voice for impacted communities, working to ensure they are not left behind with the growing New Economy movement.  Her approach, which she names Restorative Economics, is strategically focused on community-owned and community-governed projects to bring residents together to create shared prosperity and self-determination and in turn build collective political power.Stacy Mitchell has for decades been the go-to person to help craft city, state, and federal legislation that protects the small and the local.  Her formidable research has laid bare the stranglehold large corporations have on commerce creating an unfair playing field for independent businesses. She is a sought-after commentator by national media, trusted to have evidence at her fingertips.  While a sharp critic of big corporations, she is at the same time an eloquent spokesperson for small businesses and the local economies and communities they help shape. 

There is growing (dare we even say bipartisan?) support for measures to rein in the power and abusive ractices of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google. Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance analyzes the problems they present, the remedies that have been proposed, and the benefits that might ensue. 

In this bonus episode of Building Local Power, ILSR Co-director Stacy Mitchell and Senior Researcher Ron Knox dig into the new report from the House Antitrust Subcommittee on monopoly power in digital markets. The report is the result of a more than a year-long investigation into the anticompetitive behavior of the four biggest tech companies: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple. Jess, Ron, and Stacy discuss: Highlights from the report's findings. The most important recommendations from the report, including that these companies should be broken up along product lines. How this report and its recommendations fits into the history of antitrust action in the United States. What we can expect to happen next and how the impact of this report might go beyond these four companies.   “…we should recognize that the power that these companies have, and their ability to engage in those kinds of behaviors and to use those sort of predatory tactics, is a function of shifts in policy. I mean, had Amazon come along in an earlier era, things that it did to gain this incredible position would have invited criminal prosecution.”   Related Resources Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets: Majority Staff Report and Recommendations Don't Let Amazon Get Any Bigger by Stacy Mitchell, New York Times Why Antitrust History Is So Important by Ron Knox, Washington Post Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power. A podcast dedicated to thought-provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth and accountability remain in local hands. Today, I'm joined by ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell and senior researcher, Ron Knox. And we're going to talk about the house antitrust subcommittee's new report, which focuses on competition in digital markets. What you've gotten a few updates from us along the way. It's been a more than a year long investigation, I believe. They've produced 400 plus, 500 plus pages. So Stacy and Ron, what is in this report? Ron Knox: Thanks Jess. So yeah, 450 pages, like right on the dot I think was the final version of that. So well, that's the report and you're right. More than a year long investigation, 16 months, 15 months, 16 months, something like that. And the report is essentially the comprehensive findings of this more than a year long investigation into the monopoly power of the four big tech companies, as we think about them, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon. So I think the report was really successful in showing the ways in which these four tech companies came to dominate and came to monopolize their respective markets. The report correctly connected the threads between these companies to show that the problem, that is the reason for their monopolization, are common among the companies. And in that way, they're more systemic in their problems of policy that can ultimately be corrected with some changes to the law. Ron Knox: So the prime example identified in the report and identified in the investigation were mergers, right? The investigation found that the poor companies had collectively closed hundreds of mergers over the last decade. And that at least some of those mergers happened because the tech monopolies wanted to extinguish competition from smaller companies that they thought could challenge its dominance in some way and at some point down the line. So the evidence showed that this was for example, Facebook's broad strategy when acquiring Instagram, when acquiring WhatsApp and other rivals. Now Facebook's monopoly position is so strong that it mainly competes with its own apps. Rather than any other social media company out there.

Host Stacy Mitchell is joined by Harry First, law professor and co-director of New York University's Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program. They chat about how competition policy has become captured by technocratic lawyers and economists, and strayed from its roots as a political movement for economic justice. They also discuss: The movement to “depoliticize” antitrust, and how decisions about how to enforce the law are always political on some level How State Attorneys General can intervene to stop mergers when the FTC and DOJ refuse to intervene The increasing number of students enrolling in antitrust classes What can be done, and what is already being done, to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement   “Everyone uses Amazon, everyone uses Google…this is not something that's esoteric or removed from peoples' lives. This is, particularly for the students we see, an integral part of their lives. They're concerned about [monopoly power].”   Related Resources Harry First Antitrust's Democracy Deficit by Harry First and Spencer Weber Waller Woodstock Antitrust by Michael H. Belzer The Microsoft Antitrust Cases: Competition Policy for the Twenty-first Century by Andrew I. Gavil and Harry First ILSR's Anti-Monopoly Resources Transcript Zach Freed: Hello and welcome to Building Local Power. I'm Zach Freed. Stacy Mitchell: And I'm Stacy Mitchell. Zach Freed: Today on the show we have a discussion between Stacy and professor Harry First of New York University law school. Harry is both a professor of law and a co-director of NYU's competition innovation and information law program. Professor First is the author of several books and essays on antitrust, including one in particular called Antitrust Democracy Deficit with coauthor Spencer Weber Waller. Stacy sat down with Professor First to talk about that essay and what can be done to make up for antitrust laws democratic deficit. Just starting, one thing that stood out to me was how candid Harry First was about the need for democratic participation in this area of law. Stacy Mitchell: Yeah, he's really got, I think an interesting analysis in that article and we hear about it in the podcast about how antitrust law has become more and more the domain of economists in this really highly technical expertise. And as it's it gone in that direction, ordinary people have been more and more excluded and the broader public purposes of antitrust law have been lost and kind of gone, it's all gone behind closed doors. Zach Freed: Another thing that stood out to me was how forthright Professor First was about the discussion of values and how it's impossible to “politicize” antitrust law because you're taking into account value judgments when you make decisions about who gets what. Yeah. That was another thread that also came up with our conversation with Professor Sanjukta Paul in our last podcast. Stacy Mitchell: Yeah. I think these two episodes actually pair really well together and you're right, that was a common thread in both of them. And one of the things I learned a lot in this conversation with some of the details of history. And so one of the things a Professor First talks about is how Robert Bork, who we all know is a person who kind of appended antitrust law and helped to really neutralize it or even turn it on its head. And Robert Bork very directly said, “Antitrust is very political.” In today's time, when people argue for stronger antitrust or that policy should incorporate a broader set of democratic values, the pushback from the establishment is often well you're just trying to make it political. And the smarter, more accurate thing to recognize is that it's already political. Stacy Mitchell: The question is, which values does it serve and whose values does it serve? One of the other things I thought was kind of interesting as just a historical fact that came up in this conversation, was that Harry First notes that in the 80s when these huge monumen...

Host Stacy Mitchell is joined by Sanjukta Paul, law professor and antitrust and labor expert. They delve into the history of our antitrust laws, and how they were originally written to help working people and small businesses. Over the last several decades, however, antitrust has been weaponized against labor and small firms, while big corporations have been given free rein. They also discuss: Sanjukta Paul How current antitrust policy gives large corporations powerful “coordination rights” in the economy — but denies these same rights to workers and small businesses. Powerful examples of antitrust enforcement and how economic theory has been used against unions and small businesses in favor of corporate monopoly power. How today's approach to antitrust harms Uber drivers and other people working in the gig economy. Why regulators must choose to balance competing interests and values, rather than look for a perfect economic equilibrium that may not exist.   We have to build a new edifice and the new edifice has to be built by many hands and not by a few hands. And that's what antitrust law originally came from, was from a mass movement and a popular movement. Basically if we decide that there aren't these sort of independent ideal theoretical answers that can be given by lawyers and economists, well then we need to give answers to more specific empirical questions, we do need people who are grounded, who are in those particular sectors. That's how we determine how to govern those markets and sectors.   Related Resources Sanjukta Paul The Double Standard of Antitrust Law, The American Prospect by Sanjukta Paul Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation by Michael H. Belzer Socializing Capital: The Rise of the Large Industrial Corporation in America by William G. Roy Transcript Hibba Meraay: Hey everyone. Welcome back to Building Local Power from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Hibba Meraay, communications manager, and today we're bringing you an interview between Stacy Mitchell, ILSR's co-director and Sanjukta Paul, law professor and antitrust and labor expert. Zach is with me today to give you a sneak preview of the conversation. Hey, Zach. Zach Freed: Hey, Hibba. Hibba Meraay: What I thought was really interesting was that antitrust law doesn't always work the way it's designed to work or protect the people it's supposed to protect. What did you think? Zach Freed: Yeah, totally. Our antitrust laws were originally written to help workers in small businesses from corporate monopoly power, but if you look around today, small businesses and especially workers and unions are severely constrained by antitrust law. While businesses like Amazon and Walmart had the go ahead to do whatever they want for a long time now, those are really the results of political decisions as professor Paul goes into during the podcast. Hibba Meraay: Antitrust law really determines kind of who gets to coordinate for a better deal. Another interesting part of the conversation was how Stacy and professor Paul talk about how economics can't always deliver us the answer in all cases, right? There isn't really an objective economic equilibrium because what we're really talking about is how we balance competing interests and even more than that, competing values. Zach Freed: So if you look at the history of antitrust enforcement, economics has really been weaponized against unions and small businesses in favor of corporate monopoly power. That's why it's so great that professor Paul is studying the history of these laws so closely and how they've been enforced because if we are going to take back power, we need to know how the other side won, so we can avoid making those same mistakes again. Hibba Meraay: Awesome. We hope you enjoyed this sneak preview and stay tuned for the full episode. Stacy Mitchell: Well, Sanjukta. Thanks so much for being on the podcast. Sanjukta Paul: Hi, Stacy,

Host Stacy Mitchell is joined by Matt Stoller, fellow at the Open Markets Institute, for a conversation about Matt's new book Goliath: The 100 Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Stacy and Matt dive into the rise of corporate monopolies starting in the 20th century and American movements to control corporate power. They also discuss: Matt Stoller, Open Markets Institute What we can glean from history to oppose concentrated corporate power today and establish a fairer economy. Why small business used to be a core part of the constituency of the Democratic party. How the rise of the law and economics movement converged with the collapse of the New Deal to produce a shift in the Democratic party, causing Democrats to turn away from anti-monopolist views. How powerful financiers and monopolists like Andrew Mellon manipulated our tax code to favor big business in the 1920s, and pushed back against the anti-monopoly movement in the 1950s.     The question I tried to answer [in the book] is why did Democrats with power screw up so badly? And how can we not do that again? That's a really important question to have right now because we see a lot of the same trends, the rise in autocratic and fascist movements all over the world, corporate concentration, regional inequality, despair, and also this amazing moment of potential hope and solutions. I think the lessons, the heritage that we have as Americans, we have a tradition of opposing concentrated corporate power.   Related Resources Goliath:The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy by Matt Stoller Open Markets Institute ILSR Monopoly Resources   Transcript Stacy Mitchell: Hello and welcome to Building Local Power. I'm Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Today on the show we have Matt Stoller, he's a fellow at the Open Markets Institute and the author of a new book, it's called Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Matt, welcome to Building Local Power. Matt Stoller: Thanks for having me. Your work is amazing and then so I'm just really happy to be here. Stacy Mitchell: That's great. Yeah, you do great work too. You're one of my favorite followers on Twitter and of course Open Markets is a longtime friend and ally of ILSR's. So the book is terrific and I wanted to get you on early, as it's just coming out, to make sure that our listeners heard about it because I think it's really one of the great, worthwhile reads out there. It's Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. And there's so much in this book that we could talk about. You start at the beginning of the 20th century and take us right through to today, and chart this back and forth war between monopoly concentration, corporate control on the one hand and democracy on the other. And really chart the rise of a democratic framework for controlling corporate power that's pretty powerful for several decades in the 20th century, and then also chart its demise. And in thinking about how to approach this conversation, I think I want to take it in two parts. So I want to start first by just zeroing in on a few key periods in that history and asking you to tell us a little bit about what was going on. And then I want to step back and ask you a few questions about some of the broader themes and issues that the book raises and how we should think about those in the context of the current moment. So, the first period that I want to start with is the 1920s. This is a period that I think is kind of in popular imagination, it's sort of the go, go '20s, flappers, it's roaring economic times supposedly. But you write that it's actually quite a dark decade, that a lot of people aren't doing very well at all. Fascism is very much in the air, not just in Europe, but here. There are academics who are saying that democracy doesn't really work and we should get rid of it. And there is this powerful figure who really encapsulates a...

Host Chris Mitchell is joined by ILSR co-directors Stacy Mitchell and John Farrell as well as ILSR co-founder David Morris to discuss the 2020 election and policy platforms that focus on anti-concentration. They also touch on: Elizabeth Warren's proposals to roll back corporate power in the big tech and agriculture sectors and the implications for our economy. How federal agencies can be instrumental in policy change rather than relying on the presidency or a divided congress. Why the rhetoric around a candidate's electability can impede progress on policy. Universal basic income as a policy proposal and its implications for the economy and the future of work. What worries me and particularly watching a campaign unfold where there's much more focus on who's electable instead of being on policy is that we end up with a candidate who sort of runs loosely on these ideas and issues but doesn't actually have any plan to back it up in a real way.   Related Resources Elizabeth Warren Has a Theory About Corporate Power Statement on Sen. Warren's proposal to Break Up Big Tech A Better Way to Think about the Future of Work (Episode 47) Why Aren't Wages Rising? The Answer Sounds a Lot Like Monopoly (Episode 42) This Ag Economist Preached Bigger is Better. Now He Says the Evidence Favors Small Farms. (Episode 32) Supporting Family Farming in the Age of Monopoly with Joe Maxwell (Episode 33) People Love Local Food. Yet Local Farmers are Disappearing. What's Going On? (Episode 65) Transcript Chris Mitchell: Hey, Stacy. I understand that there's an election coming up at some point, at least we're hoping it's going to be coming up in 2020. Stacy Mitchell: Well you'd have to think so because there's certainly a lot of people out there running. Chris Mitchell: Well we're getting pretty close to Memorial Day in 2019 so I guess we should talk about the election because all podcasts have to by law. Stacy Mitchell: Yeah, and apparently for what? The next 18 months, that's what we're going to do. Not on this show. Chris Mitchell: Right. Exactly. We're going to talk about things that we can make a difference in rather than just endlessly speculating on things that will have no value a week after they air. Stacy Mitchell: Right. Chris Mitchell: Which is not to criticize any of the many shows that I love. Please stop talking about 2020. So Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Welcome back, Stacy. Stacy Mitchell: Nice to be with you, Chris. Chris Mitchell: I'm Chris Mitchell, no relation to Stacy Mitchell. I am sitting here with two of my bosses on a television screen in front of me. John Farrell is the other one. John's co-director here in the Minneapolis office. John Farrell: Hello, Chris. Chris Mitchell: Hey, John. John does energy. Stacy does independent business. I do broadband type stuff. We also have superstar David Morris sitting next to me here who you may all know from the founding of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. David Morris: Hi, Chris. Chris Mitchell: We're going to talk about some of the things we're seeing in some of the Democratic platforms, things that we like from an Institute for Local Self-Reliance perspective. We're going to talk about how they can help to build local power which is our mission, and I think we're going to start with a focus on anti-concentration. Elizabeth Warren seems to be the person who has certainly talked about this the most and developed the most policy papers around it. So I'm going to now hope that Stacy can provide us with some good information because I don't know much more than that. Stacy Mitchell: It's great to kick off with that. I think so many Democrats are busy talking about who's electable and I think that's a fool's errand, and it's much more interesting and useful to actually talk about what are really substantial differences in matters of policy that have a lot of big implications down the road. So yeah.

In celebration of ILSR's birthday, hosts Stacy Mitchell and Hibba Meraay talk with co-founder David Morris about ILSR's journey over the past 45 years. They reflect on the Institute's growth given changing political, economic and technological contexts. They also discuss: What led to the founding of ILSR and how the governing structure of Washington D.C. played a role. How ILSR evolved from being a neighborhood organization to becoming a national organization. ILSR's innovative model of marrying policy and practice. ILSR's work on anti-monopoly issues and what that work looks like at different levels of government. Why it's important to work at both the national and local levels of policy making and how the two inform each other. Most people, when they talk about Amazon or Facebook, they're talking about privacy issues, and those are important issues, but our take on it is that they're hurting the retail sector, the independently owned business sector. And that's a sector which, if mobilized, can help change the zeitgeist and can help change the context within which policy making is done.   Related Resources ILSR's 40th Anniversary Timeline Capitalisn't Podcast Transcript Stacy Mitchell: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power. I'm Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and I'm joined today by my colleague Hibba Meraay, who is our communications manager. Hey, Hibba. Hibba Meraay: Hey Stacy! Stacy Mitchell: So, we have a special episode, today. It's ILSR's 45th birthday, which is kind of amazing. We were born in 1974, and so today, we've got a conversation with Hibba and I had with one of ILSR's founders, David Morris, and I thought it was a really interesting conversation because to kind of see what's stayed the same and sort of what's changed and the threads of ILSR's work and some of the approaches and values that we're bringing to looking at policy issues, how some of those things have changed and then also some of the ways in which context has changed. What did you find interesting about the conversation, Hibba, especially as someone who's kind of new to ILSR? Hibba Meraay: I thought it was so interesting how David talked about how ILSR marries policy and practice and how we've been doing that pretty consistently for 45 years. I think as a newer staff member, it's such a unique model in the policy space that it's sometimes hard to wrap your mind around it, but we've been doing it for a long time, so that was cool to hear about. Stacy Mitchell: Yeah, I really loved that image of Neil in the early days riding around on a garbage truck to actually understand how solid waste works, and that's sort of on-the-ground, very direct kind of hands-on kind of experience in terms of shaping, “What would early recycling policy look like? How should cities approach this issue of solid waste?” and also just kind of married with this vision of seeing it as a resource instead of actually a waste. Hibba Meraay: Yeah, we've had Neil on a couple of podcasts and I'm sure folks that are listening to those aren't surprised by his level of enthusiasm and commitment to the Waste to Wealth work. Stacy Mitchell: Yeah, it's true, and you also just see that, I think, across the work, whether it's the broadband work or, really, any of our other initiatives. You're very much both on the ground but also working on the bigger picture analysis and the policy development at the same time. I also thought it was really interesting to hear some about the fact that Washington DC where ILSR was founded had really been stripped of any political pounder and that ILSR was founded partly because the city was starting to get some of that political power back, and so there was a real opportunity to take charge, and, what could residents of the city actually do? How could they take hold of their own future? So, I thought that was interesting to hear about as well and just thinking about how much cities have changed over thi...

Host Chris Mitchell is joined by ILSR Co-Directors Stacy Mitchell and John Farrell for a conversation on various anti-competitive corporate actions and state policies that might have slipped under your radar. Topics discussed include: The recent AT&T and Time Warner merger. Stacy explains how the vertical merger enables AT&T and Time Warner to dominate their industry by owning the pipelines for content distribution as well as owning the content itself. The trio discuss why mergers continue to happen despite empirical evidence that prices rise instead of fall after mergers have gone through. How a state's clean energy policy could ultimately hurt its residents. The Energy Transition Act sets the stage for New Mexico to transition to 100% renewables but it includes a very damaging compromise which promises the monopoly utility company a big chunk of the profits from the transition instead of allowing local communities to reap the benefits. The rise of cashless retail and how it enables credit card companies and banks to skim a lot of money ($64 billion yearly) from the U.S. economy without providing much value in return. Amazon's continuing efforts to influence government and set the rules for the market. And book recommendations, of course! As these companies become less accountable to us, they hurt their smaller rivals in the market, they raise our prices, and generally harm our democracy.     Related Resources What's Going on With the Internet? (Episode 57) John Kwoka: economist focusing on mergers Twice Burned, Once Shy—Why Californians Should Be Wary of Bailing Out PG&E Again Don't-Miss Opportunity for Local Choice in Landmark Carbon-Free Bills — Episode 72 of Local Energy Rules Podcast How the Other Half Banks by Mehrsa Baradaran Boise has the largest geothermal system in the country. Here's how it works The Battle For Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists by Naomi Klein Transcript Chris Mitchell: We have an amazing Building Local Power today. We have several subjects that we're probably going to have to cut short because they're so interesting, and we're so interested in them, but we're going to try and get through all of them. We're going to talk about AT&T and Time Warner, something that we teased you about a few months ago and never got back to. We're going to talk about how a certain utility policy regarding renewable energy may seem like a quick win, but could be a real bad problem. Then we're going to talk about cashless retail and some Amazon interesting moves. We're going to talk about all that stuff with me, Chris Mitchell, who runs the broadband program at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and we've got Stacy Mitchell from the Portland office. Stacy Mitchell: Hey Chris, hey John. Chris Mitchell: And we've got John, John Farrell, the head of the energy program. John Farrell: Hey Chris, hey Stacy. Chris Mitchell: We're not going to rehash 5G, which I wanted to do, but it turns out we talked about that in Episode 57. If you're really interested in that, that was a fun conversation Hibba and I talked about at the end of our talk. But we're going to start off by talking about some of the mergers in telecom because there's been a few interesting revelations lately. Stacy, I'm wondering if you maybe just want to set a little bit of background as to why you found it interesting, this AT&T attempting to purchase Time Warner, which owns CNN and HBO but is not Time Warner Cable. This is AT&T buying a company that has a lot of content. Why is that interesting from your perspective? Stacy Mitchell: You've got this vertical merger where you have a company that owns a lot of pipelines for distribution by a company that has a lot of content. It raises questions about how AT&T, for example, might use control of that content to disadvantage companies that it competes with. The merger went through. The government did, actually, interestingly, oppose it,

Host Stacy Mitchell speaks with Leah Douglas, a staff writer and associate editor at the Food and Environment Reporting Network. As a reporter, Leah focuses on corporate power and political economy in the food sector. Her work sheds light on alarming consolidation in the food industry and its implications for farmers and consumers. Leah Douglas, Journalist Although grocery stores offer an illusion of choice with many different brands lining shelves, most brands are owned by just a handful of companies. Leah and Stacy unpack how consolidation in the food industry is bad for both consumers and farmers. They explore this problem by examining the poultry industry, where vertical integration of the supply chain has rendered chicken farmers dependent on the whim of their corporate buyers, forcing farmers out of business. Stacy and Leah also discuss the dairy sector. Dairy farms have long been the backbone of many rural towns across the nation. Leah explains why the number of dairy farms in America has dwindled from 600,000 to only 40,000 today. Stacy and Leah discuss how a major change in U.S. farm policy in the 1970s led to the consolidation we see today and the growing debate about whether we should reverse course and return to supply management, a policy approach that's more conducive to independent farming. They also explore some encouraging examples of communities fighting back against giant corporate actors including the success of a small town in Missouri, which blocked a large scale livestock farm from coming to their community. Tune in to hear how advocates, local communities, and states are taking on agriculture monopolies! Anything you can point to in the food system has really been rolled up to the point where just a few companies are controlling 50, 60 or as much as 80 percent or more of the market. Related Resources Factory Farms No Longer Have to Report Their Air Emissions. That's Dangerous for Their Neighbors A Democrat Hopes to Tip the Vote in Pennsylvania's Cow Country Farmers Are Struggling to Make Ends Meet. This Controversial Policy Could Help Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Idaho's Ag-gag law How Rural America Got Milked African Americans Have Lost Untold Acres of Land Over the Last Century Psst! The Farm Bill Includes a Rare Provision That Could Help Black Farmers Farmers increasingly look to supply management to steady U.S. agriculture ABI's Venture Capital Fund Quietly Expanding the Mega-Brewer's Reach Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism by Julie Guthman Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica M. White Right Proper Brewing Company DC Brau Running for Congress on an Anti-Monopoly Platform (Episode 53) Supporting Family Farming in the Age of Monopoly with Joe Maxwell (Episode 33) This Ag Economist Preached Bigger is Better. Now He Says the Evidence Favors Small Farms. (Episode 32) Transcript Stacy Mitchell: Hello and welcome to building local power. I'm Stacy Mitchell of the institute for local self reliance. Today on the show we have Leah Douglas, Leah is a reporter who covers food and agriculture. Her main focus is corporate power, consolidation and political economy in the food sector. She's a staff writer and associate editor at the food and environment reporting network. And you can find her work online at theFERN.org. She's also a regular contributor to mother Jones. And before that, she created the website food and power, which is a project of the open markets institute. Leah, so nice to have you on the show. Leah Douglas: Thank you so much for having me. Stacy Mitchell: I feel like if we had done this right, we would be recording this after work over some craft beer. Leah Douglas: That would be great. Yeah I would come up to visit in Maine and we could go to one of the many local breweries. Stacy Mitchell: Yeah it would be nice. Except these days what's kind of challenging is that you go to reach for a craft...