Interviews with fascinating people on science, ethics, and politics.
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 16, 2019
Wednesday Oct 16, 2019
Matt Stoller is a fellow at the Open Markets Institute and the author of Goliath: the 100 Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (out now!). He was previously a Senior Policy Advisor and Budget Analyst to the Senate Budget Committee and worked in Congress on financial services policy, including Dodd-Frank, the Federal Reserve, and the foreclosure crisis. Matt has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Republic, and elsewhere. As we discuss, Matt had a brief excursion in Hollywood, where he was a writer and actor on a TV show with Russell Brand. You may be most familiar with Matt from his very active and entertaining Twitter feed (@mattherstoller).
Goliath is a “big idea” history coming at the right time. Concentrated corporate power affects your life every day, in ways both subtle and obvious. The domination of key industries by a handful of megacorporations is not the natural or permanent state of affairs. We have successfully fought and tamed monopolies before, but have forgotten how. Goliath reminds us of the way forward.
We discuss:
Matt’s path from being a remorseful Iraq War supporter to being a vigorous opponent of concentrated financial power, the case for and against monopoly power, the neoliberal roots of the disastrous response to the financial crisis, the link between monopoly power and fascism, dangerous and desirable monopolies, the massive state intervention in the economy during and after WWII, the proper role for finance in society, the real basis for the American dream, the impact of fair trade laws and their repeal, whether small businesses are actually any better than big ones, how the ruling class frames their rule as inevitable, the law and economics movement, the Democrats’ betrayal of organized labor, the crisis of legitimacy for economics, antimonopoly’s political moment, and why Obama was actually bad.
Show notes:
Matt’s work:
When American Capitalism Meant Equality
The Progressive Case Against Obama
Other links:
Louis Brandeis's book Other People’s Money, and How the Bankers Use It (free ebook)
Dark Money: the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
Obama’s not as tough on mergers as you think
On the Obama admin’s role in the 737 Max scandal: The emerging 737 Max scandal, explained
Wednesday Oct 02, 2019
Wednesday Oct 02, 2019
Leah Garcés is the president of Mercy for Animals, one of the world’s largest effective animal advocacy organizations. She was previously the executive director of Compassion in World Farming USA. Today we discuss her new book Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry. Leah tells the remarkable story of how she teamed up with farmers to expose the world to the horrible conditions and practices in American chicken farms. As we discuss, her work with farmers, journalists, documentarians, and activists pressured chicken producers to make significant commitments to improve welfare standards for their birds.
Even if you don't care about the welfare of chickens for whatever reason, the labor conditions of the typical chicken factory farmer should be enough to outrage you. Saddled with debt and squeezed by an oligopoly of chicken producers, the typical American chicken farmer eeks out poverty wages and spends their days walking through ammonia-clogged chicken coops picking out dead birds.
Beyond these campaigns, Mercy for Animals produces a lot of other great work, like their drone footage of factory farms and the destruction of the Amazon.
Specifically, we discuss:
Leah’s vision for how we’ll relate to animals in 2050, why we should care about chickens, the evidence we have that they can suffer, conditions in a typical coop, how chickens have been bred to suffer, how Leah started working with a chicken factory farmer, the brutal economics and lifestyle of chicken farming, how the incentives conspire against the welfare of the chickens and the people farming them, Leah's work getting footage of chicken farms out to the world, her meetings with executives at chicken producers and the resulting welfare improvements, whether factory farming is the greatest moral atrocity in the world, whether factory farm executives are like war criminals, whether companies will make good on their animal welfare commitments, and her plans for Mercy for Animals.
Show notes:
NYT Opinion piece Leah’s work prompted: Abusing Chickens We Eat
Wired article on Leah’s work with Craig Watts: Hoping to Change the Industry, a Factory Farmer Opens His Barn Doors
Effective Altruism Forum post: Will companies meet their animal welfare commitments?
From Open Philanthropy’s Lewis Bollard: Will Companies Make Good on Cage-Free Pledges?
Tuesday Sep 17, 2019
Tuesday Sep 17, 2019
Lyta Gold is the Amusements and Managing Editor of Current Affairs magazine. She is also the co-editor of the Current Affairs Big Book of Amusements, a full-color collection of some of the wonderful amusements that have appeared in the pages of Current Affairs, in addition to some brand new ones. The Current Affairs print edition is chock full of beautifully-illustrated activities, quizzes, lists, comics, and more that are often the brainchild of Lyta. Some example amusements: The Best Sex Positions for Conceiving an Employable Child, Is Your Feminism Angry Enough? And Which Authoritarian Will I Vote For? Lyta also appears on the Current Affairs podcast, my biggest competitor as well as my primary source of guests.
On today’s episode we cover: feminism, Steven Pinker, IQ, feminist Utopias, whether the patriarchy is a dead, cancel culture, Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, changing norms around consent, Joe Rogan and his new lefty guests, comedy and whether any topics are off limits, Mark Fisher's essay Exiting the Vampire's Castle, and the limits of identity politics
Subscribe to Current Affairs here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/subscribe
Buy the Big Book of Amusements here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/store
Links:
Nathan Robinson’s article on Steven Pinker
On Pinker’s support for the paper arguing Ashkenazi Jews were smarter because they were forced to be moneylenders: The Unwelcome Revival of ‘Race Science’
My review of Pinker’s book The Better Angels of Our Nature
Twitter thread on Pinker’s sexual assault stats in Better Angels
Lyta’s Evolutionary Psychology Quiz
Rutger Bregman owning Tucker Carlson
Never Again Action protest movement against ICE and CBP
Sunday Aug 18, 2019
Sunday Aug 18, 2019
Eric Levitz is a political analyst and Associate Editor at New York Magazine, where he writes an alarming number of “good takes” on a huge range of topics. I think Eric’s columns are the rare combination of well-written and well-argued. I don’t know of any political columnists who are more empirically grounded. I feel substantially better-informed having read him.
We cover:
The danger of moderation in extraordinary times, the climate crisis and the Green New Deal, how our identities inform our political choices, the time-honored Republican strategy of stoking racial fears to cling to power, why Democrats should wage a vicious class war in 2020, the fallacy of thinking about politics along one dimension, the surprising popularity of some radical left positions, the mind-numbing democratic debates, how Biden could run away with the whole thing, Bernie's decision to lean into the democratic socialist label, how Eric would describe his job, bias and the myth of objectivity in political writing, and Eric's hottest takes.
Links:
Eric's writing:
Moderate Democrats’ Delusions of ‘Prudence’ Will Kill Us All
Tribalism Isn’t Our Democracy’s Main Problem. The Conservative Movement Is.
Democrats Must Reach Out to Moderates in 2020 — By Waging a Vicious Class War
Here’s Who Won (and Lost) the Second Democratic Debate, Night One
Here’s Who Won (and Lost) the Second Democratic Debate, Night Two
Other links:
There’s now an official Green New Deal. Here’s what’s in it.
Video: Fred Hampton on racism and capitalism
Article on last place aversion: Avoiding Last Place: Some Things We Don't Outgrow
Saturday Aug 10, 2019
Saturday Aug 10, 2019
Lewis Bollard leads the Open Philanthropy Project’s strategy for farm animal welfare. He directs roughly $30M in grants annually to nonprofits working to reduce suffering of farmed animals around the world. By virtue of his position, Lewis has deep insight into the state of the farmed animal welfare movement, which we get into in some detail.
Unfortunately, there are some audio issues with this episode- Macbook Airs are the bane of my existence. Otherwise, I think this was a great conversation. Lewis is a world-class expert on this topic, and his passion for the cause is clear.
We cover:
Open Philanthropy’s approach to ending factory farming, the scale, tractability, and neglectedness of factory farming, the transition to plant based meat alternatives, the hierarchy of suffering per calorie, whether you have to be a vegan to be an animal activist, the advocacy campaigns that Open Philanthropy is supporting, America’s role in defending factory farming worldwide, whether factory farming is efficient, whether we need to end capitalism to end factory farming, the psychological challenge of seeing the horror of factory farming in everyday life, undercover farm investigations, civil disobedience and violence in fighting for animal rights, the ethics of pursuing corporate campaigns, criticisms of Open Phil's approach to farmed animal welfare, and, of course, how you can get involved.
Show notes:
Lewis:
His Twitter: https://twitter.com/lewis_bollard
His conversation on the 80,000 Hours Podcast
Effective Altruism Animal Welfare Fund
Other links:
Infographic showing number of animals killed on farms compared to labs and shelters
Amount of animal suffering per calorie for different foods
Video: Baby Pig Fresh Pork Sausage Prank
At Least 3.4 Million Farm Animals Drowned in the Aftermath of Hurricane Florence
Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE)
Books:
Monday Jul 29, 2019
Monday Jul 29, 2019
Brianna Rennix is an immigration lawyer and a Senior Editor at Current Affairs magazine. She works near the border in Dilley, Texas, helping prepare detained immigrant women for their asylum hearings. This is a job that requires you to ask people about the worst things that have ever happened to them. And if you fail, they may be deported to their death.
Immigration has been in the news a lot recently, particularly the torturous conditions immigrants are being held in. Unfortunately, a lot of this coverage isn't properly contextualized and there's a lot of misinformation about how our immigration system actually works. I've wanted to have Brianna on for a while because, as I tell her, she writes about immigration with more analytical and moral clarity than anyone else I've come across. We touch on a lot of it here, and I really encourage you to read her work on immigration that can be found in the show notes.
We cover:
Brianna's work as an immigration lawyer, how Clinton and Obama laid the groundwork for Trump's immigration policies, the push and pull factors driving immigration, America's role in stoking violence in Central America, the origins of MS13 and Barrio 18, Trump's efforts to destroy the asylum process, asylum claims in theory and in practice, the intensity of asking people to relive their worst experiences day in and day out, and what you can do to help.
Brianna's work:
This Week in Terrible Immigration News 7-29-19
Waiting for the Holy Infant of Atocha
The Case for Opening Our Borders
Crammed into cells and forced to drink from the toilet – this is how the US treats migrants
Things You Can Do Beyond Calling Your Congressperson
Understanding the Administration’s Monstrous Immigration Policies
What Would Human Immigration Policy Look Like?
Can We Have Humane Immigration Policy?
Links:
Majority of undocumented immigrants show up for court, data shows
A Century of U.S. Intervention Created the Immigration Crisis
US Involvement in Regime Change in Latin America
Polls: Most Voters Are Cool With Trump’s Deportation Raids, But Not His Racist Tweets
Video of Ihlan Omar being welcomed home
‘Nobody Opened the Door’: Neighbors Rally During an ICE Raid in Houston
Video: Town Of Trump Voters Angry After Local Businessman Gets Deported
Tuesday Jul 23, 2019
Tuesday Jul 23, 2019
Spencer Greenberg is a mathematician, social scientist, and entrepreneur. He received his PhD in applied math from NYU and is the founder of SparkWave, a social venture foundry. As we discuss, SparkWave has created a number of apps tackling problems like depression, anxiety, and finding participants for academic studies. Spencer also created the site www.clearerthinking.org, which offers free online tools and training programs to help users avoid bias and make better decisions. This site has a lot of fun and thought-provoking exercises. My favorites that we didn’t dig into: common misconceptions, political bias test, and leaving your mark on the world. Spencer has spoken at Effective Altruism Global and been published in the New York Times.
We cover: life changing questions you can ask yourself, intrinsic values, some hard problems for utilitarianism, Sparkwave’s apps for anxiety and depression, how to ensure social ventures don't become evil, Effective Altruism, the profound challenge of doing good in the world, the connection between our happiness and the news, gaming Facebook for your happiness, the best legal approach to prostitution, Spencer's thoughts on fiction and nonfiction, why memorizing is underrated, and the best description of Burning Man I've heard.
When I conceived this show, Spencer was one of the first people that came to mind. As you’ll soon see, he has informed and well-developed thoughts on a huge range of topics. He’s changed my mind quite a few times, and I appreciate his approach to thinking through the hardest problems we face as a species.
Spencer’s referenced work:
Spencer’s presentation at Effective Altruism Global on “Value traps, and how to avoid them”
Facebook post on 10 policies Spencer supports
Other links:
The 36 Questions That Lead to Love
Current Affairs article on Wikipedia
Is it fair to say that most social programmes don’t work?
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. She is the author of Charged: the New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration. Emily is also the co-host of Slate’s “Political Gabfest” podcast. She has appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Fresh Air, This American Life and pretty much all the other big shows. Needless to say, I’m grateful she took the time to come on my show.
In our discussion, we cover:
The outsized and unchecked power of prosecutors in our criminal justice system, what one thing Emily would do to change that system, whether she's a prison abolitionist, Tiffany Cabán’s prospects should she wins the Queens DA race, whether it's better to get progressive prosecutors in office or pursue state level reforms, what Jeffrey Epstein says about the rule of law, and Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor and what it means for her candidacy.
Shownotes:
Emily’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilybazelon
Emily’s work referenced:
Her book Charged
Kamala Harris, a ‘Top Cop’ in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Other links:
The Paradox of the Progressive Prosecutor
Solitary Confinement: a Threat to Denmark’s Credibility
KAMALA HARRIS FAILS TO EXPLAIN WHY SHE DIDN’T PROSECUTE STEVEN MNUCHIN’S BANK
Kamala Harris calls Manafort’s relatively light sentence unfair
Friday Jul 12, 2019
Friday Jul 12, 2019
Today’s guest is attorney, and writer Vanessa A Bee. Vanessa is the Social Media Editor and now Associate Editor at Current Affairs Magazine, where she runs a fiery and informative Twitter account: @curraffairs (in addition to her own: @vanessa_abee). You can also catch her on Current Affairs’s wonderful podcast.
On this episode, we cover:
The role of social media in our politics, whether writers need to be on Twitter, Vanessa's ideological and religious journey, prison reform vs abolition, #Metoo, the boring importance of antitrust law, how standard labor contracts restrict our freedoms, the revolving door between regulators and the companies they used to regulate, and why innovation may actually be better under socialism.
There are some audio issues with this episode. Some processors can’t keep up with the recording software I use. I did what I could for this episode, and am looking into workarounds for future episodes.
Shownotes:
Vanessa’s articles:
How Not to Talk About Uncomfortable Shoulder Rubs
Can Penitent Sexual Predators Ever Be Granted Redemption?
Court-Packing is Necessary to Save Democracy
Other links:
WashPost article where Terry Cruz details his alleged sexual assault
Wednesday Jul 03, 2019
Wednesday Jul 03, 2019
Sam Miller McDonald is pursuing a PhD at Oxford studying the intersection of energy production and political power. He’s also an editor at The Trouble, a news site looking at climate change from a left perspective. In 2015, Sam co-founded ActivistLab, an online publication focused on improving social change. Sam is a prolific writer, with work in Current Affairs, the New Republic, the Baffler, In These Times, and elsewhere.
I should warn you up front that this is a bummer of a conversation, but I’m glad we had it. I found Sam to be informed and honest about the challenge before us.
We touch on:
Sam's research, the problem of climate change, whether industrial agriculture is actually efficient, what would be in Sam's Green New Deal, whether cities are as good for the environment as we may think, the challenge of resettling the predicted hundreds of millions of climate refugees, dealing with the despair that climate change uniquely inspires, Extinction Rebellion, the role of nuclear power, and how you can fight climate change most effectively.
Show notes:
Sam’s articles we discuss:
Beyond Fluorescent Bulbs: 4 Things Millennials Can Do To Fight Climate Change
Other stuff:
Effective Altruism forum post on whether climate change is an existential risk
Sam on the BBC discussing climate anxiety
Episode photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash