Death Panel
Death Panel
Politics, culture, and public policy from the left. Stay alive another week.
w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson.
https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson.
https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 5, 2025 • 6min
Teaser - Death Classic: Islands of Security w/ Gabriel Winant
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/death-classic-of-123573664
Hi listeners — Beatrice and Artie are currently on parental leave. (We were planning to be able to telegraph the announcement more this week, but "baby death panel" had other plans, and came early!). While we're away, we'll still have episodes in the feed, like today's episode; a mix of some old favorites we haven't revisited in a while and some unlocks. We’ll be back as soon as it’s safe and reasonable for us to do so, because with everything going on right now we want to make sure we’re here for everyone.
We also want to thank each and every one of you, because without support from our patrons it wouldn’t be possible for us to take this kind of time. So if you can, now is a great time to support the show at patreon.com/deathpanelpod — either by becoming a patron or increasing your membership.
Original episode description:
Beatrice and Phil speak with Gabe Winant about the birth of the contemporary care economy and its relationship to deindustrialization, the shaping of the "private welfare state" in the 20th century, and resisting the temptation to look back uncritically toward the "golden age" of organized labor.
Find Gabe's book "The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America" here: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674292192
Runtime 1:24:23
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Mar 4, 2025 • 1h 34min
The New Lavender Scare w/ Melissa Gira Grant (Unlocked)
Hi listeners — Beatrice and Artie are currently on parental leave. (We were planning to be able to telegraph the announcement more this week, but "baby death panel" had other plans, and came early!). While we're away, we'll still have episodes in the feed, like today's episode; a mix of some old favorites we haven't revisited in a while and some unlocks. We’ll be back as soon as it’s safe and reasonable for us to do so, because with everything going on right now we want to make sure we’re here for everyone.
We also want to thank each and every one of you, because without support from our patrons it wouldn’t be possible for us to take this kind of time. So if you can, now is a great time to support the show at patreon.com/deathpanelpod — either by becoming a patron or increasing your membership.
This episode was originally released for Death Panel patrons November 27th, 2023.
Original episode description:
Beatrice and Jules speak with Melissa Gira Grant about the history of the Lavender Scare, the anti-gay campaign that overlapped and ran in parallel with the Red Scare, how it shaped the politics of gender and sexuality today, and whether we're experiencing a new Lavender Scare today or if instead the Lavender Scare never ended.
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Feb 24, 2025 • 24min
Teaser - We Grow the World Together w/ Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson (02/24/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/123023212
Beatrice speaks with Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson about care work and parenting as part of abolitionist practice, lessons from integrating abolitionist values into everyday life, and how we show up for each other in dark times like these.
Find Kim and Maya’s book, We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition, here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2446-we-grow-the-world-together
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Runtime 2:36:27

6 snips
Feb 20, 2025 • 1h 27min
Enemy Feminisms w/ Sophie Lewis (02/20/25)
Sophie Lewis, a writer and independent scholar specializing in feminist studies, discusses her new book, 'Enemy Feminisms.' She delves into the troubling ties between certain feminist factions and fascism, challenging dominant narratives within the movement. The conversation ranges from critiques of 'girlboss' culture to family abolition, emphasizing the need for radical feminism that resists oppressive systems. Lewis encourages listeners to rethink feminism's intersections with imperialism and to support transformative actions for genuine liberation.

Feb 17, 2025 • 21min
Teaser - MAHA vs "The Ministry of Truth" w/ Jonathan Howard (02/17/24)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/122511116
With RFK’s Senate confirmation complete, hearings for Kennedy’s handpicked agency heads like Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary loom. In preparation, Beatrice speaks with Dr. Jonathan Howard—himself a frequent subject of both Bhattacharya and Makary’s scorn—about both of their records on the pandemic, their claims that criticism of their work amounts to “censorship” and “attacks on science,” and what disasters await us with health agencies under their watch, and RFK at the helm.
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a…-trans-misogyny
Runtime 1:16:38

Feb 13, 2025 • 4h 10min
Covid Year Five (Unlocked)
This episode was originally released for patrons on December 23rd, 2024. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
We present our 2024 year in review, taking a look back at the last year in the ongoing social and political consequences of normalizing the covid pandemic and rushing to bring the federal covid response to a close.
Full Transcript:
https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/covid-year-five
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Feb 11, 2025 • 21min
Teaser - "Waste, Fraud and Abuse" (02/10/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121974390
Beatrice, Artie and Phil discuss how Trump and Musk’s DOGE increasingly seems poised to go after Medicare and Social Security, how the constant refrain that Republicans are looking to cut “waste, fraud and abuse” in social spending is a lie meant to obscure their real agenda, and why the open plot to add work requirements to Medicaid would be a tremendous disaster.
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Runtime 1:34:11

Feb 6, 2025 • 1h 48min
Theatre of the Austere w/ Melissa Gira Grant (02/06/25)
Beatrice and Jules speak with Melissa Gira Grant about the Trump administration’s anti-trans executive orders in the context of their broader attack on “wokeness” and DEI. We discuss what the broader impact of these orders could be, what elements are a retread of longstanding rightwing attacks on trans life, and what parts of them seem like a new and evolved form of attack.
Read Melissa's piece "Why Are Hospitals Bowing to Trump’s Illegal Gender-Affirming Care Ban?" here:
https://newrepublic.com/article/191084/hospitals-childrens-national-trump-gender-affirming-care-ban
And find more of her recent reporting here:
https://newrepublic.com/authors/melissa-gira-grant
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Feb 3, 2025 • 15min
Teaser - Executive Functions (02/03/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121450929
Beatrice, Artie and Phil discuss the Trump administration’s early and sweeping power grab: freezing government spending, infiltrating the systems that distribute federal payments throughout the US, and dramatically cutting off science research and funding. We explain what’s going on and why, and how each of these actions represents the new administration’s self-professed intentions to root out what it has called “wokeness” and “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering.”
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Runtime 1:12:56

Jan 29, 2025 • 1h 29min
RFK, Health Capitalism, and the Myths of Wellness
This episode was originally released for patrons on November 18th, 2024 and we're unlocking it today with a new introduction in response to this week's RFK confirmation hearings in the Senate. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Beatrice and Artie discuss Trump’s nomination of prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency overseeing healthcare, infectious disease, food safety, and more. We discuss some of RFK’s more unseemly beliefs, the responses to his nomination so far, and how his nomination doesn’t come out of nowhere, but instead follows decades of struggles over the political economy of health that have laid the groundwork for a figure like him to come into power.
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod


