Doug Henwood's radio archives
(since January 2006)

latest content added July 13, 2017

Best Music on a Show About Economics & Politics
Village Voice Best of NYC 2005

"incisive, accessible, and engaging" — Pod2Mod.com

— iTunes user rating

For fifteen years, Doug Henwood did a radio show on WBAI, New York, covering economics and politics. When the interim program director, a mediocrity named Tony Bates, wanted to cut it back to every other week, he quit. For more on all this, see here and here. Fortunately, the show is still broadcast on KPFA, 94.1 FM Berkeley, Thursdays at noon. Here are the archived shows.

You can get the five most recent shows by visiting the show’s iTunes page. The show is also available via Stitcher (web, iPhone, and Android).

People often ask about the theme. It’s “Wawshishijay (Our Beginning)” by Odo Addy from Pieces of Africa by the Kronos Quartet. I inherited it from WBAI’s late and much-missed program director, Samori Marksman, who gave me one night of his four-time-a-week show in 1995. After he died, I kept the theme in his memory.pciture of an old radio

Note that the dates of the shows are links. If you want to direct someone right to a specific show, copy that link.

TECHNICAL NOTES The files are in MP3 format, at two levels of fidelity - high (FM radio quality), at 128kbps (as of the December 20, 2012 show—before that they were 64kbps), and low (telephone quality), 16kbps. Shows are about 52 minutes long; the 128kbps versions are around 50 megabytes, and the 16kbps versions, around 6 megs. The old streaming option is no longer available; it had stopped working on some browsers and devices.

Thanks to Jordan Hayes of Bitway for hosting the archives.

For shows earlier than January 2013, click here.

FULL SHOWS

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July 13, 2017 Alex Kotch (articles here and here) on the Koch campus network • Alfredo Saad Filho on the economic and political crisis in Brazil (Temer’s indictment, Lula’s sentencing)
July 6, 2017 James Forman, Jr., author of Locking Up Our Own, on race and mass incarceration • Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, in a reprise of her June 2016 interview, on a political response to mass incarceration and racist cop violence
June 29, 2017 Robert Pollin works out the economics of single-payer in California (paper here) • Michael McCarthy, author of Dismantling Solidarity, on the history of pension funds in the U.S.
June 22, 2017 Kate Gordon of the Paulson Institute on climate, the Paris Accords, and China • Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains, on right-wing scheming, particularly James Bucahan and Charles Koch
June 15, 2017 Tim Shorrock (his Nation articles are listed here) on the two Koreas, North and South • Margaret Corvid on the aftermath of the surprise British election results
June 8, 2017 Yasha Levine, author of the forthcoming Surveillance Valley, on Russia, the NSA, and the Intercept election hacking leak • Angela Nagle, author of Kill All Normies, on the alt-right
May 25, 2017 James Whitman, author of Hitler’s American Model, on the U.S. origins of Nazi race law • Alex Gourevitch, contributor to this Boston Review roundtable, on strikes and their challenge to bourgeois law
May 18, 2017 Anne Elizabeth Moore, author of Body Horror, on homeownership, chronic illness, getting revenge on rapists, and the working conditions of models • Greg Kaplan, co-author of this paper, on the (stagnating) course of lifetime incomes
May 4, 2017 Margaret Corvid on the British election, the Labour Party—and sex work • Emre Öngün on Turkey’s deeper slide into authoritarianism
April 27, 2017 Sebastian Budgen on the French election: the neoliberal vs. the neofascist • Sofia Japaridze on how foreign NGOs turned Georgia (the country) into a broke libertarian paradise
April 20, 2017 Thea Riofrancos on Ecuador, where the pink tide has not gone out • Harrison Fluss and Landon Flim (authors of this and this) on the philosophy of the alt-right
April 13, 2017 Max Sawicky on Republican tax schemes • Vijay Prashad on Syria

April 6, 2017 Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, authors of Inventing the Future, on getting beyond folk politics to a world where robots work more and people (supported by a basic income) work less

Here’s an Indiegogo site to raise money for a documentary about the book.
March 30, 2017 Jodi Dean on why the temptations of populism should be resisted (article here) • Jane McAlevey, author of No Shortcuts, on real organizing, not fake organizing
March 23, 2017 Chris Arnade on his travels through the busted heartland of America (Guardian author page) • James Livingston, author of No More Work, on how jobs suck and we should all get free money
March 16, 2017 Steffie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program on Ryancare, Obamacare, and the prospects for single-payer • Cinzia Arruzza on the women's strike

March 9, 2017 Yanis Varoufakis back on BtN for the first time in over two years! He discusses the interminable eurocrisis, austerity, Brexit, the nationalist international (Trump, Le Pen, etc.), and DiEM25, among other things. The full Varoufakis–Ali–et al. debate is here.

The version of this show that ran on KPFA was truncated because the station is fundraising. Please donate and keep this worthy enterprise going. If you do, please mention Behind the News!

March 2, 2017 Mark Blyth on neoliberalism and global Trumpism (the Guardian/Observer article on Mercer and Cambridge Analytica he talks about is here)

The version of this show that ran on KPFA was truncated because the station is fundraising. Please donate and keep this worthy enterprise going. If you do, please mention Behind the News!

February 23, 2017 Angela Nagle, author of this and the forthcoming Kill All Normies, on the alt-right • Laleh Khalili on Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s new national security advisor

This show didn’t run on KPFA because the station is fundraising. Please donate and keep this worthy enterprise going. If you do, please mention Behind the News!
February 16, 2017 Sean Guillory (author of this) on the rich history of Western Russophobia • Larry Bartels, co-author of Democracy for Realists, on the prospects for democracy with a detached, ill-informed electorate
February 9, 2017 John Ackerman on Trump and Mexico • Art Goldhammer surveys the French political landscape as a presidential election approaches
February 2, 2017 Mae Ngai and Avi Chomsky (separately) on Trump’s immigration decree • Joel Whitney, author of Finks, on the CIA, the cultural Cold War, and particularly the Paris Review
January 26, 2017 Asad Haider, author of this, on the problems of “white privilege” discourse • Lucinda Rosenfeld, author of the new novel Class, on race and class in the world of Brooklyn public schools
January 19, 2017 Yasha Levine on the politics of encryption • Elayne Tobin on celebrity (bibliography here)
January 12, 2017 Nancy Fraser on “progressive neoliberalism,” feminism, Trump, and a way out of all this (see here, here, here, and here for more)
December 29, 2016 Zahra Billoo on Donald Trump, the Muslim registry, and how to resist it • Andrew Cockburn on Russophobia
December 22, 2016 Rania Khalek on Syria (new material) • George Joseph, author of this article, on Teach for America going global (rebroadcast of an interview that first ran in July)
December 15, 2016 Shannon Monnat on the miserable health indicators in Trump-voting rural counties (paper here) • Mark Ames, co-host of the Radio War Nerd podcast, on the Putin-did-it mania
December 8, 2016 Kerry Brown on China in the Trump era • David Broder on the defeat of the Italian constitutional referendum (article here)
December 1, 2016 Sean Jacobs on Fidel Castro and Africa (article here) • Cinzia Arruzza on Berlusconi and Trump (article here)
November 17, 2016 Alan Finlayson on the similarities between Brexit and Trump • Larry Cohen, chair of Our Revolution (the successor to the Sanders campaign) on their plans
November 10, 2016 Reactions to the election of the horrid Donald Trump, from Jodi Dean, Glen Ford, and Alex Gourevitch
November 3, 2016 Dmitri Holtzman on the turmoil on South African university campuses • Oddný Helgadóttir, author of this article, on Icelandic politics
October 27, 2016 Gareth Porter on who’s who in Syria • Jerry Davis on changes in the U.S. corporate elite (popular summary here)
October 20, 2016 Josh White on Scottish independence and Brexit • Valerie Wilson on the expanding black-white wage gap
October 13, 2016 Rania Khalek on just how much of a lesser evil Hillary is • David Golumbia, author of The Politics of Bitcoin, on libertarianism as money
October 6, 2016 Alex Nunns, author of The Candidate, on the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon • Greg Grandin on Colombian voters’ rejection of the peace deal
September 29, 2016 Elise Gould on the latest income & poverty numbers • Joel Beinin on Shimon Peres
September 1, 2016 Alfredo Saad Filho on the impeachment of Dilma Roussef in Brazil • Dibyesh Anand on how and why India is brutalizing Kashmir
August 18, 2016 Dvora Meyers, author of The End of the Perfect 10, on the transformations of women’s gymnastics • Arun Gupta on Fight for 15 organizers who are making $9 an hour
August 11, 2016 Sharon Higgins on the mysterious Turkish imam, Fethullah Gulen • Bob Pollin on Trump-o-nomics
July 21, 2016 Jodi Dean on her book Crowds and Party
July 14, 2016 Lester Spence, author of this article, on police shootings • Aaron Bastani on anarchy in the UK
July 7, 2016 George Joseph, author of this article, on Teach for America going global • Adolph Reed on politics after Bernie
June 30, 2016 Alan Finlayson and Priyamvada Gopal on Brexit
June 23, 2016 C.J. Chanco, author of this article, on the trigger-happy president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte • Jonah Birch, author of this article, on popular protest in France
June 16, 2016 Richard Seymour, author of Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics, on Brexit • Virginia Heffernan, author of Magic and Loss, on why the internet is a work of art
June 9, 2016 Sarah Leonard, author of this article, on the gender issues around Hillary Clinton •  Harry Franqui-Rivera on the Puerto Rican debt crisis
June 2, 2016 Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, on how BLM might become a transformative movement
April 28, 2016 Greg Grandin on the recession of the Pink Tide in Latin America • Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks, on aging and ageism
April 21, 2016 Bruce Dixon, managing editor of the Black Agenda Report, on black voters’ mysterious lingering romance with the Clintons • Alfredo Saad Filho on the vote to impeach Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff
April 14, 2016 Ann Neumann, author of The Good Death, on how we spend our final days in the USA • Richard Florida on class and urban space
April 7, 2016 David Howell on the increase of the minimum wage to $15 in California and New York • Vidar Thorsteinsson, author of this article, on the political crisis in Iceland unleashed by the Panama Papers
March 31, 2016 Nikil Saval, author of this article, on the hippie-inspired new architecture of the Silicon Valley • Alfredo Saad Filho on the ongoing political and economic crisis of Brazil
March 24, 2016 Rachel Price, author of Planet/Cuba, on the art scene in that country as Obama visits • Sam Stein, author of this article, on neoliberal housing programs, de Blasio style
March 17, 2016 Ben Zachariah on the activities of India’s fascist BJP government at home and abroad •  David Rieff, author of The Reproach of Hunger, on the economic development racket

March 10, 2016 Anne Balay, co-author of this article, on the tough but romantic life of the truck driver • Lester Spence, author of Knocking the Hustle, on neoliberalism and black politics

[Back after KPFA fundraising break. If you like these shows and want to keep them coming, please support KPFA. If you do, be sure to mention Behind the News.]
February 11, 2016 Tim Shorrock on panic over North Korea (Nation author page) • Robert Fatton on the mess in Haiti on the departure of Sweet Micky from the presidency
February 4, 2016 Matt Karp on the demographics of Sanders’ support (Jacobin author page) • Jasson Perez on the Black Youth Project 100 (full agenda here)
January 28, 2016 Shane Bauer on his imprisonment in Iran and how Hillary Clinton made it worse (with some remarks about solitary in the U.S.) • Jennifer Mittelstadt, author of The Rise of the Military Welfare State, on that, and its privatization from Clinton onwards
January 21, 2016 Adolph Reed on reparations to black Americans (a reaction to this Ta-Nehisi Coates piece; Reed’s 2000 piece on reparations is here) •  Steffie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program on single-payer, Sanders, and Clinton Inc.’s lies
January 14, 2016 Isabel Hilton on the Chinese financial melodrama • Chris Maisano (author of this article) on legal challenges to public sector unions
January 7, 2016 Jason Wilson reports from Oregon on the rancher occupation • Toby Jones on Saudi Arabia
December 3, 2015 Benjamin Page, co-author of this paper, on the politics of the top 1% • Alfredo Saad Filho on the political and economic crisis in Brazil
November 26, 2015 Jason Moore, author of Capitalism in the Web of Life,criticizes the idea that humans and nature are separate entities • Jennifer Doyle, author of Campus Sex/Campus Security, talks about security, paranoia, sex, and the large public university
November 19, 2015 Yezid Sayigh on ISIS • Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson on efforts to bring sustainability and worker power to the Mississippi economy
November 12, 2015 Raquel Varela updates her report of two weeks ago, as the right-wing Portuguese government is replaced by a center-left one • Mark Oppenheimer, author of this article, on the culture of Yale and its impact on campus racial politics • Max Geller on why Renoir Sucks at Painting
November 5, 2015 Sungur Savran, editor of Red Med, on the Turkish election • Christian Parenti, author of this article, on what the climate movement can learn from the developmental state
October 29, 2015 William “Sandy” Darity on the racial wealth gap (links to papers here) • Raquel Varela on the Portuguese elections
October 22, 2015 Leo Panitch on the Canadian election • Megan Erickson, author of Class War: The Privatization of Childhood, on class and schools
October 15, 2015 Greg Grandin, author of Kissinger's Shadow, on the ghoulish diplomat’s five-decade rampage
October 8, 2015 David Bloomfield talks edu-policy as Arne Duncan leaves • Elizabeth Bruenig, both journalist and Catholic (and author of this), on papal politics
September 10, 2015 Megan Marcelin, author of this and this, puts the post-Katrina gentrification of New Orleans into historical and theoretical perspective • Josh Bivens, co-author of this, on the gap between productivity and pay
August 27, 2015 DH on the China gyrations • Roger Lancaster on mass incarceration in the U.S.
August 20, 2015 Steve Horn on how Hillary Clinton’s State Department worked to open up the Mexican oil industry to U.S. interests • Isabel Hilton gives the rundown on law, politics, and economics in China
August 13, 2015 William Darity on discrimination, a job guarantee, and baby bonds • R.L. Stephens II, founding editor of Orchestrated Pulse and author of this essay, talks about Black Lives Matter and the creation of a leadership class
August 6, 2015 [vacation encore] Ian Bone, author of Bash the Rich, on anarchism (first broadcast March 2007) • Bethany Moreton, author of To Serve God and Wal-Mart, on Christian free enterprise and the Behemoth of Bentonville
July 23, 2015 James Galbraith and Leo Panitch (the article that launched a thousand righteous polemics) on Greece
July 16, 2015 Jane McAlevey, author of Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell), on Alinsky, power, and organizing (her article on the topic in Politics and Society is behind a paywall, breachable by many with university connections)
July 9, 2015 Nantina Vgontzas on the domestic politics of the Greek crisis (see her Jacobin pieces here) • Mark Blyth on why it’s wrong to blame Greece for its crisis (Foreign Affairs article here)
July 2, 2015 Alyssa Katz, author of The Influence Machine, on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce • Rafael Bernabe and César Ayala on Puerto Rico’s debt crisis
June 25, 2015 Bruce Bartlett on the relationship between the GOP and the Confederacy • Alex Gourevitch cautions against pushing for tighter gun laws (article here) • Saqib Bhatti on the modern engineered urban fiscal crisis, with emphasis on Chicago
June 18, 2015 Trudy Lieberman, author of this article (behind a paywall, but subscribe to Harper's, it’s excellent & cheap), on the pitfalls of Obamacare • Leah Gordon, author of From Power to Prejudice, on the transformation of the study of race in the U.S. from the structural/systemic to the individual/psychological
June 11, 2015 Adolph Reed on the state of the left • Sungur Savran, editor of Red Med, on the Turkish election and challenges to the AKP’s rule
June 4, 2015 Lee Drutman, author of The Business of America Is Lobbying, on the growth and power of lobbying in DC • Josh Bivens on the Fed’s vast asset-purchasing program [video of the Brookings presentation is here]

 

May 28, 2015 Katha Pollitt, author of Pro, on the importance of legal abortion that’s actually available • Raquel Varela about the dimensions of Portugal’s economic crisis

back after fundraising break—if you like these shows and want to keep them coming, please support KPFA (and mention BtN)
April 30, 2015 Bruce Dixon on Loretta Lynch and the black misleadership class • Sean Jacobs on anti-immigrant violence in South Africa
April 23, 2015 Micah Uetricht on the consequences of the recent Chicago mayoral election for independent politics over the longer term (article here) • Bill Frelick on the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean
April 16, 2015 Bruce Bartlett talks about supply-side economics yesterday and today (papers here) • Ken Jacobs, author of this article, on public subsidies to low-wage work •  Kevin Alexander Gray, co-editor of Killing Trayvons, on racist police violence [April 9 was a rerun of a show from October]
April 2, 2015 Stacy Philbrick Yadav (lots of articles at that link; also see article here) briefs us on why Yemen is dissolving into violent chaos • Elizabeth Economy on what’s up with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and U.S.–China relations
March 26, 2015 Sam Stein on the reality behind New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s progressive image • Jodi Dean (review here) on climate politics and the problems with Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything
March 19, 2015 Ryan Grim on the Chicago Housing Authority’s strange cash hoard (article here) • Joel Schalit on the Israeli election
March 12, 2015 Gene Nichol on North Carolina’s war on poor people and on academic freedom • Eilyanna Kaiser and Brendan Michael Conner, respectively co-editor and contributor to $pread: The Best of the Magazine that Illuminated the Sex Industry and Started a Media Revolution, on the perils and delights of running a magazine by and for sex workers
March 5, 2015 Mark Ames, author of this article, tells us who Boris Nemtsov, the dissident shot on the streets of Moscow last week, was • David Kotz, author of The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism, talks about the history and structure of the beast
February 26, 2015 James Galbraith on Greece's deal with its Euromasters • Kenzo Shibata of the Campaign for An Elected, Representative School Board on Rahm Emanuel and Chicago politics

February 19, 2015 Jane McAlevey, author of this article (and this book) on Bruce Rauner’s attack on public sector unions in Illinois and on how labor and the left need a theory of power

back after fundraising break—if you like these shows, and want to keep them coming, please support KPFA
January 29, 2015 Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek economist who’s appeared on this show 16 times since 2008 discussing mainly the Eurocrisis, is now the finance minister of Greece. Here are excerpts from 5 of those interviews. At the very end of this episode, he discusses what Greece’s strategy towards its creditors should be.
January 22, 2015 Priyamvada Gopal, author of this article, on the curious relationship of freedom and unfreedom in Western words and deeds • Maya Schenwar, author of Locked Down, Locked Out, on imprisonment.
January 15, 2015 Lily Geismer, author of Don’t Blame Us, discusses the evolution of suburban liberalism • Art Goldhammer on French satire and politics in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre
January 8, 2015 Stan Collender on the budget melodramas facing us in Washington this year • David Kotz, author of this article, on about the Russian economic crisis
January 1, 2015 (partial return after fundraising and holiday hiatus) encore presentation of two interviews on policing and prisons: Alex Vitale on broken windows and the militarization of policing • Naomi Murakawa, author of The First Civil Right, on the underestimated contributions of liberals to mass incarceration (both first broadcast in August)
December 4, 2014 Anatol Lieven of Georgetown U–Qatar (and author of this) on Hillary the Hawk • Alex Vitale, author of City of Disorder, on Ferguson in the context of American policing
November 27, 2014 Lucia Green-Weiskel on the U.S.–China climate quasi-deal • Steven Teles talks about Hillary, kludgeocracy, and neoliberalism.
November 20, 2014 Yanis Varoufakis on the eurocrisis • Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for NYS governor, on the party’s future
November 13, 2014 Detroit bankruptcy exit special: Shea Howell of Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management, offers an activist perspective, and Wallace Turbeville (see writings here) runs the numbers
November 6, 2014 Heather Boushey, director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, on inequality • George Joseph, author of this article, on Teach for America
October 30, 2014  Kevin Alexander Gray, co-editor of Killing Trayvons, on racist police and vigilante violence • Trudy Lieberman on the snares of Obamacare

October 23, 2014 [back after fundraising hiatus]  Ryan Grim (author of this article) on Gary Webb, crack, and the CIA • Jake Blumgart (author of this article) on a mini-Detroit on the outskirts of Philadelphia

If you like these shows and want to keep them coming, please contribute to KPFA—and mention Behind the News if you do.
September 25, 2014 Mark Blyth on the Scottish independence referendum • Laleh Khalili on the theory and practice of counterinsurgency.
September 18, 2014 Gilbert Achcar on the Middle Eastern landscape
September 11, 2014 Dana Goldstein, author of Teacher Wars, on the history of education politics in the U.S. • Christian Parenti, author of this article, reclaims Hamilton for the left (and for climate politics)
September 4, 2014 Rebecca Tiger, sociologist and author of Judging Addicts, on the history of punishment in the U.S., drug courts, and the marriage of the therapeutic culture to the carceral state
August 28, 2014 Naomi Murakawa, author of The First Civil Right, on the underestimated contributions of liberals to mass incarceration • Amy Binder, author of this article, on why Harvard grads flock to Wall Street
August 21, 2014 Chase Madar, author of this article, on overpolicing/overcriminalization in the USA • Jeff Smith, author of this article, on Ferguson, St Louis, and political science

August 14, 2014 [back after vacation and fundraising hiatus] Mark Ames on Silicon Valley wage-fixing and their selective libertarianism • Alex Vitale on broken windows and the militarization of policing

If you like this show, please support KPFA, without which it wouldn’t be possible. If you contribute—and there’s no reason you shouldn’t if you’re not broke—please mention Behind the News.
July 10, 2014 Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute discusses the flabby, unsatisfying state of the job market • Sean Jacobs (one of the founders of Africa Is A Country) talks about the political economy of soccer.
July 3, 2014 Esther Kaplan, author of this article, on a plant closure in Tennessee and the dubious economic logic of offshoring • Alex Kane on what Israel is up to in the wake of the West Bank kidnappings
June 26, 2014 Sarah Stillman, author of this article, on the for-profit probation racket and “offender-funded justice” • Bruce Bartlett on the state of the Republican party after the Tea Party’s series of electoral defeats
June 19, 2014 Jennifer Taub, author of Other People’s Houses, on the deep history of the mortgage crisis • Margaret Gray, author of Labor and the Locavore, on the exploited workers behind the local food movement
June 12, 2014 Suzanna Danuta Walters, author of The Tolerance Trap, argues against queer embourgeoisement • Tony Samara, lead author of The Rise of Renter Nation, on the affordability crisis for people who rent their dwellings
June 5, 2014 Art Goldhammer on European politics, with an accent on France • Nikil Saval, author of Cubed, on the history and sociology of the office
May 29, 2014 Yanis Varoufakis on the European elections • Mohamad Elmasry on Egypt

May 22, 2014 Matt Taibbi, author of The Divide, on criminalizing the poor (and dissenters) and letting bankers run free

BtN has been fundraising for KPFA all month. This is the first show with original content since April 24—this interview only, less the fundraising. So it’s short. But please contribute to KPFA if you want to keep these shows coming. Be sure to mention BtN when you do.
April 24, 2014 Heidi Shierholz on the plight of young adults in the job market • Kshama Sawant, socialist member of the Seattle city council, talks about a $15 minimum wage and how to make revolutionary politics practical
April 17, 2014 Trudy Lieberman on how much you'll have to pay for health care even if you're insured • Priyamvada Gopal on the fascist threat in India
April 10, 2014 Keith Gessen on Ukraine and Russia (article here) • Martin Gilens on how the rich rule and the people have no say (paper here)
April 3, 2014 Jane McAlevey, author of Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell), on the UAW in Tennessee, etc. • Doug Henwood reviews Thomas Piketty (text version here)
March 27, 2014 Philip Shelley on firing tenured faculty in Maine (for more search this Twitter hashtag) • César Ayala (UCLA) and Rafael Bernabe (University of Puerto Rico), authors of Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History since 1898, on the Puerto Rican economic mess
March 20, 2014 Anatol Lieven on Ukraine • Micah Uetricht, author of Strike for America, on the Chicago Teachers Union
March 13, 2014 Andrew Ross, author of Creditocracy, on debt and resistance • Evelyn McDonnell, author of Queens of Noise, on The Runaways
March 6, 2014 Greg Grandin, author of Empire of Necessity, on the real history behind Melville's Benito Cereno •Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the Whore, on sex work as work
February 27, 2014 George Ciccariello-Maher, author of We Created Chavez, on the unrest in Venezuela • Adolph Reed, author of this article, on the long, sad decline of the American left
February 20, 2014 Richard Walker, co-author with Suresh Lodha of The Atlas of California, on the Golden State’s physical and social geography, history, economy, ecology
January 30, 2014 Laura Newland, author of Chasing Zeroes, on how Wall Street is messing up college life • excerpts from Kshama Sawant’s response to the State of the Union • Tom Philpott on GMOs and ag tech
January 23, 2014 Christian Parenti on nature, capital, and the state • Anne Elizabeth Moore on political unrest in Cambodia
January 16, 2014 Stephanie Coontz on why men need feminism • Branko Milanovic on the world income distribution (paper here)
January 9, 2014 (back after holiday reruns) two interviews recorded on a visit to Lisbon: economist Ricardo Paes Mamede and labor historian Raquel Varela on Portugal and the eurocrisis
December 19, 2013 (back after fundraising hiatus) Sam Gindin, former advisor to the Canadian Auto Workers Union, on why unions need a left • Christy Thornton, grad student organizer at NYU, on unions and the corporate university
December 5, 2013 Mark Fisher, author of “Exiting the Vampire Castle” and Capitalist Realism, on Russell Brand, identitarianism, and depressive hedonia • George Scialabba, author of For The Republic, on democracy & plutocracy
November 21, 2013 Jennifer Silva, author of Coming Up Short, on the consciousness of younger working-class adults • Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute on what has and hasn’t been driving wage inequality (paper here)
November 14, 2013 Richard Seymour on the politics of austerity in the UK (here’s the pic of David Cameron preaching austerity from a gold lectern) • Arun Gupta looks behind the fast food workers organizing campagin (article here)
November 7, 2013 Max Blumenthal, author of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, on repression and daily life in that country
October 31, 2013 Michelle Chen, author of this article, on how drug companies use patents to screw the sick • Mark Ames on libertarianism and the Koch Bros. network
October 24, 2013 Bruce Bartlett, former Republican, on the lunacy of his former party • Isaac William Martin, author of Rich People’s Movements, on the history of popular mobilizations to untax elites (i.e., the Tea Party is nothing new)

October 17, 2013 Jodi Dean, professor of political science at Hobart & William Smith and author of The Communist Horizon, on the need for a left party • Kshama Sawant on her campaign as an open socialist for the Seattle city council

[This program was a return after KPFA fundraising hiatus—if you want to keep these shows coming, please support KPFA and mention Behind the News.]
September 19, 2013 Daniel Denvir on the crisis in Philadelphia public schools • Jonathan Crary, author of 24/7, on the ill effects of always-on culture
September 12, 2013 Sanjay Reddy on the Indian economy • Jesse Walker, author of The United States of Paranoia, on conspiracism
Sepember 5, 2013 Greg Shupak, author of this article, on the bad effects of NATO’s Libyan adventure • Monica Potts on the declining life expectancy of poor white women • Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak on Gramsci (excerpts from an August 24 talk at the Gramsci Monument)
August 29, 2013 Mariana Mazzucato, author of The Entrepreneurial State, on the vastly unacknowledged role of the state in supporting technological breakthroughs • Anna Allanbrook, principal of the Brooklyn New School, on education, progressive and otherwise
August 22, 2013 Darius Charney of the Center for Constitutional Rights on the NYPD’s odious stop & frisk strategy • Philip Mirowski, author of Never Let A Serious Crisis Go To Waste, on the durable ideology of neoliberalism
August 15, 2013 Thomas Sugrue, author of
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, on the long history behind that city’s bankruptcy filing • Alfred Blumstein on crime and punishment stats
August 8, 2013 Penny Lewis, author of Hardhats, Hippies, and Hakws: The Vietnam Antiwar Movement as Myth and Memory, on how elites didn’t oppose that war and the working class didn’t support it, and what that means today
July 18, 2013 Kathi Weeks, author of The Problem With Work, on less work, more money • Steve Horn, author of this article, on the Obama-linked liberal foundation at the heart of public school privatization
July 11, 2013 Gilbert Achcar of SOAS on the uprising and coup in Egypt • Adolph Reed on the new generation of (neoliberal) black politicians (with a coda on how poverty came dominate American discourse on inequality)
June 27, 2013 Rachel Kushner on art, politics, and her novel The Flamethrowers • Mark Mizruchi, author of The Fracturing of the Corporate Elite, on the rot of the managerial class
June 20, 2013 Chase Madar, author of The Passion of Bradley Manning (out in this new edition) on Manning & Edward Snowden • Mark Dery, author of All The Young Dudes, on glam rock & straight male sexuality
June 13, 2013 Alan Finlayson on the ideology of Bonoism (which is the ideology of hip capitalists) • Betsy Hartmann on the durable toxic appeal of Thomas Malthus
June 6, 2013 Sungur Savran on the Turkish uprisings • Slavoj Zizek on the limits of spontaneity (excerpt from a conference talk—full video here) • Lee Badgett on LGB poverty (paper here)
May 30, 2013 Harry Browne, author of Frontman: Bono (In the Name of Power), on the dreadfulness that is Paul Hewson • Eamonn Fingleton on how Japan isn’t as bad off as they’d like you to think
May 23, 2013 David Cay Johnston, columnist for Tax Analysts, on the IRS scandal • Richard Katz, editor of The Oriental Economist Report, on the long Japanese slump and the prospects for Abenomics
May 16, 2013 Barbara Garson, author of Down the Up Escalator, on how people are coping with the Great Recession, its aftermath, and 40 years of general decline (updates to the book here)
May 9, 2013 Corey Robin, political scientist at Brooklyn College and author of The Reactionary Mind, on how the right thinks (with additional discussion of this essay on Nietzsche, Hayek, etc.)
May 2, 2013 Mark Blyth, author of Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, on just that
April 25, 2013 Alex Vitale on the militarization of police forces • Josh Eidelson on spreading worker actions against Walmart and fast food
April 18, 2013 Minqi Li on the Chinese economy • George Ciccariello-Maher, author of We Created Chavez, on the social movements that allowed for Hugo Chavez’ emergence and he in turn stimulated
April 11, 2013 Tom Mills (author of this article) and Richard Seymour (author of this one) on the dreadful Margaret Thatcher
April 4, 2013 Kate Losse, who spent five years at Facebook and wrote about it in The Boy Kings, on Sheryl Sandberg’s “lean-in” corporate feminism (which she reviewed here) • Ahmad Shokr, historian and journalist, on Egypt’s economic troubles
March 28, 2013 Terry Kupers on the psychological effects of prison • Haley Sweetland Edwards, author of this article, how Wall Street took over Dodd-Frank
March 21, 2013 Yanis Varoufakis on the economies of Australia, Cyprus, and Greece • Jonathan Westin of Fast Food Forward on organizing fast food workers in NYC
March 14, 2013 Özgür Orhangazi, author of this paper, on the economics of Venezuela under Hugo Chávez • George Ciccariello-Maher, author of the imminently forthcoming We Created Chavez, on the politics of Venezuela under Hugo Chávez
March 7, 2013 Robert Gordon on the end of growth (paper here) • Adolph Reed, author this review essay, on some recent “race” movies (Django Unchained, etc.)

February 14, 2013 Barbara Fields, professor of history of Columbia and co-author (with her sister Karen Fields) of Racecraft, on the ideology of race in the U.S. and its relation to material practice

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February 7, 2013 Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute makes the corporate libertarian case for immigration (paper here) • Joel Schalit on the complexities of a cultural boycott of Israel, and the rise of theo-fascism there
January 31, 2013 Helaine Olen, author of Pound Foolish, on the personal financial advice racket • Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, co-author of this paper, on what’s driving wage polarization
January 24, 2013 Natasha Lennard, author of this article, on the Aaron Swartz case and prosecutorial abuse of power • Nikihil Goyal, fresh out of high school, on the education “reform” agenda
January 17, 2013 Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, authors of The Making of Global Capitalism, on U.S. imperial power, etc. [rerun of September 27, 2012, show, with some music added]
January 10, 2013 Sarah Jaffe, author of this article, class angles feminism • Greg Grandin, professor of Latin American history at NYU, on Chavez, Venezuela, and social democracy in Latin America

January 3, 2013 Brad DeLong on fiscal follies (apologies for the wretched audio quality—damn cell phones) • Seth Ackerman, author of this article, on a possible socialism

 

For shows earlier than January 2005, click here.