Jacobin Radio

Podcasting in the time of coronavirus: Suzi's new episode of Jacobin Radio features interviews with Marxist greats Mike Davis and Robert Brenner. Mike Davis is writing widely on the COVID-19 pandemic in Jacobin and the Nation. Fifteen years ago, Davis published The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu, and he sees the coronavirus pandemic as the familiar monster now at our door. We get his views on the huge challenges coronavirus poses for humanity, and the impotence of global capitalism in the face of biological crisis. He calls it a “Medical Katrina” that exposes the woeful unpreparedness of our disinvested public health system as well as the stark class divide of health care in the United States. <o:p></o:p> Suzi then turns to Robert Brenner for his analysis of the deepening crisis and its political implications. Brenner says that the economic meltdown was triggered by COVID-19 but not caused by it. We get his account of the politics — that is of the way wealth is now attained by political rather than the old-fashioned means: how an alliance of top corporate managers and the very rich, plus leading politicians from both political parties, have rigged the political economy in favor of the 1 percent. It is from the standpoint of this transition from capitalism (back) to feudalism that we need to understand how the crisis is unfolding and the various political responses to it, from the establishment and from the Left. <o:p></o:p>

Coronavirus is decimating the planet right now, and it's made far worse by the fact that we don't have a public healthcare system. We talked to Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program and a doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, about this. Forgive the self-promo in a time of society-wide breakdown, but: the book by host Micah Uetricht and Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day, Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism, has had its release date bumped up to March 24. Please preorder it! It's 20% off from Verso: https://www.versobooks.&lt;wbr /&gt;com/books/3167-bigger-than-&lt;wbr /&gt;bernie

Dan interviews Mike Davis about everything we are all suddenly trying to figure out.Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dan interviews NYC DSA down-ballot candidates. Samelys López is running for a US House seat in the Bronx. Jabari Brisport, Marcela Mitaynes, and Phara Souffrant Forrest are running for seats in the state legislature. All four are campaigning on a platform of housing justice.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Kali Akuno on why black voters like Joe Biden. Then, Dibyesh Anand on the belief system of India’s Hindu fascists (book here).

An interview on how the Democratic Party got here today with Ryan Grim.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Pep talk time: Dan interviews Rep. Ilhan Omar to give us some perspective and prepare us for the fight ahead.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Mass incarceration has rightly become a major topic of discussion and organizing on the Left recently. But our guests today, Adaner Usmani and John Clegg, have some issues with how we talk about that incarceration system and many of the standard strategies for how we go about dismantling it. John and Adaner are the authors of the Catalyst article "The Economic Origins of Mass Incarceration," which you can read here: https://catalyst-&lt;wbr /&gt;journal.com/vol3/no3/the-&lt;wbr /&gt;economic-origins-of-mass-&lt;wbr /&gt;incarceration Also, you can and should preorder Bigger than Bernie by Meagan Day and your host Micah Uetricht here: https://www.versobooks.&lt;wbr /&gt;com/books/3167-bigger-than-&lt;wbr /&gt;bernie

Suzi looks at the significance and aftermath of South Carolina and Super Tuesday, asking basic questions about the disconnect between the enthusiasm and support for progressive policies and Bernie Sanders (and Elizabeth Warren to a lesser degree), and the reality of people then voting for Biden. Was it fear, motivated by the constant drum of the corporate media that Bernie is not electable but Biden is? We get views and analysis from our guests Matt Karp and Adolph Reed.

<style></style>Super Tuesday has come and gone, and Joe Biden is now the frontrunner. There's nobody better to talk about this stuff than Jacobin staff writer and Senior Biden Correspondent Branko Marcetic, author of the new book Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. We discussed Biden and the state of the race as a whole.Branko's book is excellent. You can buy it for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/store