This Is Hell!

Matthew King on his New Republic article, “Big Tech’s Waste ‘Solutions’ Are a Scam." https://newrepublic.com/article/173780/big-techs-waste-solutions-scam Also, 'This Week in Rotten History.' Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell

Clark Randall on his Boston Review article, "Bond Villains: How a little-understood feature of urban finance—municipal bonds—fuels racial inequality." Sebastian looks at how the United States ended up with a drinking age most other countries laugh at - and what that means for Americans. Support This is Hell! at www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Baffler's George Scialabba on his latest article, "Kudzu: The kingdom of private equity." Support This is Hell! at https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Geographer Katie J. Wells joins Chuck to discuss Uber's takeover of urban transportation. Wells is the author of Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City with Kafui Attoh and Declan Cullen from Princeton University Press. Sebastian Wuepper returns with another Past Inside The Present. In this segment, Sebastian historicizes the ongoing catastrophe in Hawai'i. If you can, please consider donating to victims of the wildfires, many of whom lost everything. Here are some ways you can help: https://www.instagram.com/lahaina_ohana_venmo/ https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/strengthening/maui-strong-fund https://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lExatubPl6zvsDcy4qUd3Sv1PvvKrzMhUyOzaKuId0o/htmlview#gid=194434303 https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kokuamaui https://mauifoodbank.org/donate/

Chucks describes his recent family vacation. Raina Lipsitz discuses her Verso Books title, "The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics." Rotten History of the 1953 coup d’état in Iran.

We return to Hell today with Gerald Horne, on his new book “Revolting Capital: Racism & Radicalism in Washington, D.C., 1900-2000” (International Publishers, 2023).

Chuck interviews historian Gerald Horne on his 2022 book from International Publishers, The Counter-Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery, Jim Crow, and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. Please show your appreciation for completely listener-supported This is Hell! by becoming a Patreon patron at patreon.com/thisishell

Historian Gerald Horne on the intertwined histories of boxing and Black men under the long reach of slavery, White supremacy and capitalist exploitation in the American 20th century, and his book The Bittersweet Science: Racism, Racketeering and the Political Economy of Boxing from International Publishers. Please show your appreciation for completely listener-supported This is Hell! by becoming a Patreon patron at patreon.com/thisishell

Historian Gerald Horne explores the terrains of race, religion, capital and slavery across the 16th century trans-Atlantic world - as European powers pillaged Africa and the Americas of both people and resources, their destruction created the enduring formations of life in the 21st century - White supremacy and rapacious capitalism. Gerald is author of the book The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century from Monthly Review Press.

Historian Gerald Horne explores the intersection of White supremacy, Cold War politics and global liberation movements in southern Africa - as the struggle against colonialism and apartheid oriented itself within the larger conflict between capitalist and socialist states, the ANC and solidarity movements won major (but compromised and incomplete) victories against regimes of racial and economic exploitation. Gerald is author of White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-Communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela from International Publishers.

While Chuck is away for the next two weeks in Northern Michigan on the annual family vacation, producer Will Ippen is holding down the fort. This episode features the first of six This is Hell! interviews with prolific historian and listener favorite Gerald Horne. This interview features a discussion of the roots of white supremacy in 17th century settler colonialism in North America as revealed in Horne's 2018 book The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean. Gerald Horne is the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews that document the history of racism as it intersects with labor, civil rights, politics, international relations, and war.

Ben Makuch discusses his recent Intercept report titled " Russian Militia Has Links to American Neo-Nazi and Anti-Trans Figures: The leader of the anti-Putin Russian Volunteer Corps is publicly connected to Robert Rundo and Christopher Pohlhaus." After the interview, a Question from Hell! winner is revealed and Jeff Dorchen remembers when we tried civilization in his latest Moment of Truth. Support This is Hell! at https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Center for Economic and Policy Research's Jake Johnston on his opinion piece at The New York Times, “The U.S. Still Can Do What’s Right for Haiti.” Afterwards, Rotten History explores the Erfurt Latrine Disaster. Support This is Hell! at https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Writer, theorist, and recovering academic Sophie Lewis returns to Hell to discuss her Baffler article, “The Good Enough Momfluencer: Disavowing maternal fantasies is easier said than done.” The article is a review of the book, “Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture,” by Sara Peterson. Peterson’s website says she writes about feminism, domesticity, and motherhood. Peterson also writes a newsletter about the myth of the ideal mother, ‘In Pursuit of Clean Countertops.’ Read Sophie’s article: https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-good-enough-momfluencer-lewis This is Sophie’s third appearance on This is Hell! She was on the show most recently in October of last year, 2022, to discuss her book, “Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation.” You may also remember Sophie being on the show back in July 2019 to talk about her book, “Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family.” Not only were both those interviews selected by listeners as among the best of each

Today's episode features an interview with This Is Hell! regular Brian Mier. Brian updates Chuck on what the US corporate media has been getting wrong about Brazil. We also have the second of a two-part Moment of Truth from Jeff Dorchen. Brian Mier is a Chicagoan who immigrated to Brazil in the 1990s. He is a sociologist and geographer. He is also Brazil Correspondent for TeleSur English, co-host of Globalistas on TV 247, Brasilwire, FAIR, COHA, Truthdig, Geopolitical Economy Report, Carta Capital, Outras Palavras. Support This is Hell! on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Michael Gould-Wartofsky on his TomDispatch article, "American Inquisition: Field Notes from the Frontlines of the Government's War on the Left," which also appeared at Salon. Michael Gould-Wartofsky is a writer, ethnographer, and human-rights activist from New York City and a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University. He is the author of The Occupiers and American Inquisitions (forthcoming in 2025), and has written for the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, Tom Dispatch, Gizmodo, Jacobin, Mother Jones, The Nation, and Newsweek. You can read more of his work at mgouldwartofsky.com. Also included: Rotten History about the Port of Chicago disaster. Support This is Hell! on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

M.E. O’Brien joins us in Hell to discuss her new book "Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care" published by Pluto Press. M.E. co-edits two magazines, Pinko, on gay communism, and Parapraxis, on psychoanalytic theory and politics. Her work on family abolition has been translated into Chinese, German, Greek, French, Spanish, and Turkish. Her writing has been published by Work, Employment and Society, Social Movement Studies, Endnotes, Homintern, Commune, and Invert. Previously, she coordinated the New York City Trans Oral History Project, and worked in HIV and AIDS activism and services. She completed a PhD at NYU, where she wrote on how capitalism shaped New York City LGBTQ social movements. Find her on twitter (at)genderhorizon and at her website https://genderhorizon.com/ Support This is Hell! on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Today's interview features Umar Farooq, author of the article, "‘The fight for our lives’: Arizona’s water regime limits the Hopi Tribe’s future" published in High Country News in collaboration with ProPublica. Umar Farooq is Umar Farooq is an Ancil Payne Fellow with ProPublica. Check out the article here: https://www.hcn.org/issues/55.7/indigenous-affairs-water-the-fight-for-our-lives-arizona-water-regime-limits-the-hopi-tribes-future See more ProPublica reporting on indigenous Americans' fight for the promised resource of water here: https://www.propublica.org/series/waiting-for-water

Maya Schenwar returns to discuss her Truthout article, “Right-Wingers Push Death Penalty Reinstatement Bills as Part of Hardline Agenda: The same forces that are attacking abortion, trans health care and racial justice are also pushing for more executions." Maya Schenwar is a writer, editor, journalist and organizer who has spent the last 20 years working tosculpt new ways for journalism to serve the public good and fuel social transformation. She spent 13 years as Editor-in-Chief of Truthout, an independent social justice news publication, and is currently the organization’s Editor-at-Large and Board President. Recently, Maya founded the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism. She is the co-author (with Victoria Law) of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (The New Press, July 2020), and the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2014). Both books challenge the ingrained logic of prison and policing

We return to Hell today with Gerald Horne, on his new book “Revolting Capital: Racism & Radicalism in Washington, D.C., 1900-2000” (International Publishers). Sebastian Wüpper also returns with a 'Past Inside the Present.’ Find Gerald's book here (and as a raffle prize at our listener appreciation party): https://www.intpubnyc.com/.../revolting-capital-racism.../ Dr. Horne holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies. His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations and war. He has also written extensively about the film industry. Dr. Horne received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. from Princeton University.