This Is Hell!

Today we have on James Wilt, author of, “Drinking Up the Revolution: How to Smash Big Alcohol and Reclaim Working-Class Joy.” James is a writer and PhD candidate based in Winnipeg, Canada. James discusses how working class people form their relationship with drugs and alcohol when these are commodified by big business interests as well as the way in which enforcement of norms surrounding drugs and alcohol are often racialized.

Dorothy Roberts is an award-winning author and expert on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues concerning reproduction, bioethics, and child welfare. She is a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Chuck Mertz interviews Dorothy about her latest book, TORN APART: How the child welfare system destroys black families—and how abolition can build a safer world. TORN APART available Now at Basic Books https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/dorothy-roberts/torn-apart/9781541675445/

Historian Steve Fraser talks about his Tom Dispatch article "The Trump Supreme Court is Nothing New," about how the Supreme Court has over time been used to kneecap the democrat process in the U.S., and how it's been originally designed to provide that function to uphold the rule of the powerful against the masses. https://tomdispatch.com/the-trump-supreme-court-is-nothing-new/

Steve Fraser talks about his Tom Dispatch article "The Trump Supreme Court is Nothing New." Chuck complains about the hell of a week he's had. Seb presents another Past inside the Present, in which he muses about what 9/11 means in the age of Covid. We reveal this week's Question from Hell! (anniversary edition), and this week's Hangover Cure.

Chuck Mertz talks with Sean O'Leary about his writing for the Ohio River Valley Institute on the impact of the natural gas industry on Appalachian Americans. Also including this week's Hangover Cure, Rotten History, and Introducing this week's Question from Hell. Featuring a first announcement of musical artists performing at This Is Hell's listener appreciation party on September 17th, 2022. Sean O’Leary is senior researcher of energy and petrochemicals at the ORVI and is a native of Wheeling, WV. He has written about coal, natural gas, and their role in the economies of Appalachia in a book, a newspaper column, and blog titled, “The State of My State”. Previously, Sean served as communications director at the NW Energy Coalition in Seattle, Washington.

Brianna Muir wrote the Sapiens article, "An Archaeology of Personhood and Abortion: Opinions about fetal personhood and abortion have fluctuated enormously throughout history and differ in surprising ways between cultures." Brianna is a master’s student in biological anthropology at the University of Central Florida. As an emerging bioarchaeologist, she is interested in how integrative approaches can be used to address questions of personhood, identity, and agency in the past. In particular, she investigates how these factors may have shaped and influenced a person’s lived experiences. Muir received her B.A. from the Australian National University in 2019 and has undertaken fieldwork and research in the Philippines, Vanuatu, and Australia.

William Deresiewicz is a writer and former professor of English at Yale University. William discusses his article "Why I Left Academia (Since You're Wondering)" published August 17th 2022 on Quillete.com with host Chuck Mertz. New responses to the Question From Hell and this week in Rotten History

We have on Tarence Ray from the Trillbilly Worker's Party podcast to discuss the devastating effects of recent flooding in Eastern Kentucky and how the government response affected the poor and working class.

The return of economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research. Dean is on to discuss his most recent writing, including, “Structuring the Economy to Give Money to the Rich Is Inflationary.”

Penny M. Von Eschen is author of the new book, “Paradoxes of Nostalgia: Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder since 1989.” Penny is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Studies and Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of, “Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War,” and “Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957.” We speak with Penny about the enduring legacy of the Cold War in international politics.

Sociologist Laura Mauldin talks about her Baffler article "Care Tactics: Hacking an Ableist World," we introduce this week's Question from Hell!, and bring you your Hangover Cure for this Monday. Also, producer Seb gives another history lesson on the Nazis, and the Holocaust - and why we need to remember it.

Gender and Sexuality studies scholar Heather Berg talks about her Boston Review article "Freedom, Not Benefits Sex workers are labor’s vanguard. The left ignores them at its peril." We have the winning answer to this week's Question from Hell!, and producer Seb introduces his rebranded segment "The Past inside the Present" with the first half of a two-parter on the most fun topic of all: the Holocaust. https://bostonreview.net/articles/freedom-not-benefits/

Algernon Austin, Director for Race and Economic Jusice at the Center for Economic and Policy research discusses his recent writing including, "Black People Need Better Options than the Morgue or Mass Incarceration," "Black People (And Everyone Else) Should Avoid Crypto," "Only Radical Changes Will Make Rents Affordable," and "Black Children are Disproportionately Harmed by Extremist Gun Rights Policies in the US.

Chuck is back from his vacation! Today he talked to journalist Steven Thrasher about his book "The Viral Underclass The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide." We also have your Hangover Cure, this week in Rotten History, and some of your answers to the Question from Hell!.

Producer Dan introduces two interviews with activist and scholar Norman Finkelstein, talking about the Israeli siege of Gaza. We also crown this week's winning answer to the Question from Hell!.

Producer Lindsey presents a 2020 interview with Labor historian Tamara Fernando on disease and East Indian pearl fisheries, and what those early capitalist labor conditions in relation to diseases can tell us about the still-current moment.

Producer Seb introduces a 2016 interview with postcolonial studies scholar Ashley Dawson on capitalism powered extinction events around the globe. He also has some answers to this week's Question from Hell! and tries (without success) to come up with a valid hangover cure.

Producer Lindsey plays a 2015 interview with science journalists Elizabeth Grossman and Valerie Brown on the failure of government regulatory agency and corporate greed in the chemical industry and how those things are making everyone sicker and less safe.

Producer Dan introduces two interviews with Kurdish activist Dilar Dirik, talking about the movement for Kurdish liberation and how that movement's politics represent an alternate vision to the neoliberal world order.

Producer Dan plays two interviews from the vault that deal with the U.S. war in Iraq, and the subsequent rise of ISIS in the region.