This Is Hell!

Today's dive into the archives features a July 4, 2009 interview with political scientist Chalmers Johnson about the state of American Empire. Sadly, not much has changed. Chalmers Ashby Johnson (August 6, 1931 – November 20, 2010 was an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consultant for the CIA from 1967 to 1973 and chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1972. He was also president and co-founder with Steven Clemons of the Japan Policy Research Institute (now based at the University of San Francisco), an organization that promotes public education about Japan and Asia.

Saskia Sassen is professor of sociology and member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Saskia's most recent book is 2007's "A Sociology of Globalization" (WW Norton). She wrote this week's openDemocracy piece, "The new executive politics: a democratic challenge". Before that, she wrote April's openDemocracy article, "Too big to save: the end of financial capitalism."

Rick Shenkman is the author of "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth about the American Voter" (Basic Books), the second chapter of which was excerpted at TomDispatch.com as the article, "How Ignorant Are We?: The Voters Choose… but on the Basis of What?." Rick is an Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter, New York Times bestselling author, and associate professor of history at George Mason university is also the founder and editor of History News Network, a website that features articles by historians on current events. He also blogs at "How Stupid?"

Jeremy Leaming talked with us about his article, "Christian Reconstructionists Are Trying to Take Dominion in America -- and They Have Powerful Friends." Jeremy is a communications associate for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. You can learn more about the organization here: http://www.au.org/

Chuck is off for the next couple of weeks, you will be stuck with producer Will. This episode features an interview from July 7, 2007 with S. Derek Turner when he discussed what his group, Free Press, has done with the Center for American Progress. Their study, "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," shows how the right wing's grip on the airwaves is because of a failed market, not a cultural revolution. You can find the report here: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-structural-imbalance-of-political-talk-radio/

Today on This is Hell! Chuck interviews Dave Denison about his Baffler article “The Shame of the Suburbs” Dave Denison is a senior editor of The Baffler. He has written and edited for The Texas Observer, CommonWealth magazine, and The American Prospect. A selected archive of his writing is warehoused at www.davedenison.net. A transplanted Midwesterner, he lives near Boston and claims to be an amateur carpenter, an aspiring mason, and an above-average bowler. Read Dave’s article on Baffler at https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-shame-of-the-suburbs-denison

Distinguished anthropologist Alex Hinton joins Chuck to discuss his Sapiens article, "Two Myths Fueling the Conservative Right's Dangerous Transphobia." The discussion includes Alex's insights from the most recent CPAC. You can find the article here: https://www.sapiens.org/culture/transphobia-myths/ Alex is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention.

Miliaku Nwabueze talks with Chuck about her Scaliwag essay, "How to Build the End of the World: In Defense of the Chaotic Protester."

Micah Herskind discusses his Scalawag article, "This is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City," and his MSNBC post, “If those supporting ‘Cop City’ prevail in Atlanta, your city could be next.” Micah Herskind is an Atlanta-based organizer and writer. Find more of his writing on his website, micahherskind.com and follow him on Twitter at: micahinATL Read Micah’s article here: https://scalawagmagazine.org/2023/05/cop-city-atlanta-history-timeline/ #StopCopCity

Historian Jo Guldi joins us to discuss her Boston Review article, "The Earth for Man: Redistributing land was once central to global development efforts---and it should be today." This article is adapted from her 2022 book from Yale University Press, "The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights." You can find the article here: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-earth-for-man/ And the book here: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300256680/the-long-land-war/ Jeff Dorchen delivers the first installment of a two-part "Moment of Truth." This week's Question from Hell! winner is announced. The competition this week was fierce.

McMansion Hell's Kate Wagner returns to discuss her new Baffler article, “Bad Manors: The McMansion as harbinger of the American apocalypse.”

Matt Mazewski joins This is Hell! to discuss his new article, "The Pandemic Isn't Over." Matt Mazewski is a contributing writer and book critic at Commonweal, where he writes on economics and public policy. He is a former research analyst in the research and statistics group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Matt teaches courses on economics and labor studies for high school students at Columbia University's pre-college programs, as well as being an economics tutor. He's an independent researcher working on several projects related to labor economics, including the measurement of union membership over time at a fine geographic level, the impacts of collective bargaining on retirement outcomes, and the dynamics of monopsony power in labor markets. Read Matt’s article "The Pandemic Isn’t Over" at commonwealmagazine.org

Writer, speaker, and ecofeminist Jennifer Lunden joins This is Hell! to discuss her new book "American Breakdown, Our Ailing Nation, My Body's Revolt, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Who Brought Me Back to Life," out now from Harper Collins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/american-breakdown-jennifer-lunden You can learn more about Lunden and her work at her website: https://jenniferlunden.com/ Jeff Dorchen is back with another "Moment of Truth," in which he cleans up after the dogman.

American journalist Nick Terse joins This is Hell to discuss his recent Intercept piece, "Kissinger's Killing Fields." Interviews with more than 75 witnesses and survivors of U.S. military attacks and an exclusive archive of documents show that Henry Kissinger is responsible for even more civilian deaths in Cambodia than was previously known. You can find the article here: https://theintercept.com/series/henry-kissinger-killing-fields/

Economic historian Trevor Jackson joins This is Hell! to discuss two recent pieces: "Overproduction and Its Discontents: Capitalism's inherent predilection for excess" in Baffler Magazine and "The Price of Crypto: Despite its boosters' frequent references to democracy and freedom, cryptocurrency reflects a radical marketization of politics in which major players can rewrite the rules as needed" in the New York Review of Books. You can find the Baffler article here: https://thebaffler.com/latest/overproduction-and-its-discontents-jackson You can find the New York Review of Books article here: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/06/08/the-price-of-crypto-the-cryptopians-laura-shin/

Lindsay Koshgarian and Ashik Siddique, co-authors of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies report, “The Warfare State: How Funding for Militarism Compromises Our Welfare. You can check out there report here: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2023/warfare-state-how-funding-militarism-compromises-our-welfare/ LIndsay Koshgarian is Lindsay's work and commentary on the federal budget and military spending has appeared on NPR, the BBC, CNN, The Nation, U.S. News and World Report, and others. At NPP, her work is at the intersection of military and domestic federal spending. Ashik Siddique is a research analyst for the National Priorities Project, working on analysis of the federal budget and military spending. After the interview, Jeff fills us in on the codplast boom. Finally, Chuck and Will's favorite answer to this week's Question from Hell is revealed!

Writer and editor Benjamin Schwarz and international affairs scholar Christopher Layne join Chuck to discuss their recent Harper's article, "Why are We in Ukraine? On the dangers of American hubris." You can find their article here: https://harpers.org/archive/2023/06/why-are-we-in-ukraine/ Benjamin Schwarz was formerly the national and literary editor of The Atlantic and the executive editor of World Policy Journal. Christopher Layne is the University Distinguished Professor of International Affairs and the Robert M. Gates Chair in National Security at Texas A&M University.

Historian Madga Teter joins This is Hell! to discuss her new book, "Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism" now available from Princeton University Press: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691242583/christian-supremacy . The work offers "a panoramic cultural and legal history that traces the roots of antisemitism and racism to early Christian theology." Jeff Dorchen shares another "Moment of Truth," followed by another installment of Renaldo Migaldi's Rotten History.

Historian Gabriel Winant on the N + 1 article, “J. D. Vance Changes the Subject: A senator from the unconscious.” You can find Gabriel's article here: https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-45/politics/j-d-vance-changes-the-subject-2/

Chuck interviews Claire Provost and Matt Kennard on their book, "Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy."