Bad Faith

As a 6 month anniversary bonus, we're releasing an audio version of last Friday's live stream with Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, journalist David Sirota, constitutional lawyer and Nancy Pelosi challenger Shahid Buttar, & former AOC advisor & communications professional Corbin Trent. It was an incisive discussion about the ways Democrats can continue to fight for a $15 minimum wage. We hope you enjoy. 

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Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Brie and Virgil speak to two guests on opposite sides of the labor divide. Journalist Lauren Gurley update us about the historic RWDSU union drive at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama. Then we're joined by CEO Dan Price, who went viral after he set a $70,000 minimum wage at his company. Now that Democrats have thrown the "fight" for 15, what does the struggle look like going forward?

But first, Brie and Virgil catch up on the latest COVID bill developments and review the liberal response to what Senator Nina Turner has aptly described as "half a bowl of shit." Brie and Virgil annoy each other with awful videos.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube to access our full video library. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod)and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

This week, we tackle a subject close to Brie's heart, and by heart, we mean the amygdala, where anger is born: Student debt. Conversations about student debt are often stuck in the primordial stage. We spend so much time going back and forth with Pete Buttigieg types and their bad faith attacks that it's hard to get to the interesting questions: Why do we have a hierarchical higher education system to begin with? Why do we expect high school to be free but not college? What would it actually cost to cancel all student debt, and what perverse incentives exist for debt holders who profit off of America's students?

We get into it all with debt aficionado, Current Affairs editor, and attorney with Equal Justice Works Sparky Abraham. We're also joined by Bridget Read, journalist at The Cut and author of recent pieces on the movement to cancel student debt, and the ongoing political battle over the $15 minimum wage.

We close the episode by catching up on the fight for fifteen and the latest Kardashian news.

Read Sparky's articles on student debt at Current Affairs Magazine:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/01/what-a-better-biden-would-say-about-student-loan-debt

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/11/if-you-want-to-enact-free-college-cancel-student-debt-immediately

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/02/student-debt-forgiveness-lets-do-some-math

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/04/the-case-for-free-college

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/06/how-student-debt-is-worsening-gender-and-racial-injustice

Listen to the referenced episode of Current Affairs podcast with Astra Taylor and Liz Breunig here: https://cloudutil.player.fm/series/current-affairs/medical-debt-special-with-astra-taylor-and-elizabeth-bruenig

Read Bridget's latest on the fight for $15 here: https://www.thecut.com/2021/03/pramila-jayapal-interview-minimum-wage-filibuster.html

And her interview with Astra Taylor and Kendra Brooks here: https://www.thecut.com/2021/02/joe-biden-can-cancel-all-student-debt-he-just-wont.html

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon at www.patreon.com/badfaithpodcast to hear this full episode. 

In Bad Faith's 50th episode spectacular, Brie and Virgil ask California Rep. Ro Khanna the tough questions: Does the $15 minimum wage debacle prove again that the "inside" game doesn't work? Why don't the policy priorities of Democratic congress members reflect the policy priorities of Democratic voters? Why haven't House progressives worked toward a replacement for Nancy Pelosi? What's the timeline for Medicare for All? Why do you support capitalism? 

Come for an analysis of what's really keeping us from getting a $15 minimum wage. Stay for Brie struggling to remember enough from a 2010 copyright class to justify closing out these episodes with dope tracks. 

Find Ro Khanna on Twitter at @rokhanna.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube to access our full video library. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod)and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Did Bernie do enough to win the Black vote? Is the left doing enough to push back against the narratives spun by Black figureheads and media figures who fatally impacted Bernie's chances in South Carolina? What opportunities does the "Black voter block" present to a left looking for leverage with the Democratic Party? How do we contend with the weaponization of identity? On this last episode of Black History Month, we put those questions to Adolph Reed, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania; Paul Prescod, public school teacher, political liaison with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and contributing editor for Jacobin; and Dean Robinson, Associate Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst.

But first, Virgil and Brie give a Neera Tanden update in their new segment NEERA WATCH, and Brie and Virgil explain their wrong opinions on Pod Save America and Bobs Burgers respectively.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Brie speaks to Martin Luther King III, MLK Jr's oldest son, about how to hold the Democratic Party accountable to the "base" it largely ignores between campaign season. In particular, Brie asks about Joe Biden's leaked call with civil rights leaders, and what to do about Jim Clyburn, whose policy preferences often align more with Clyburn's donor base than the party's base.

Virgil and Brie weigh in on the status of Neera Tanden's OMB confirmation: What will Bernie do now that Joe Manchin has declined to confirm her, and how might this affect the ongoing negotiations around the fight to include a $15 minimum wage in the next COVID bill?

Also, our producer Ben catches us arguing about eggs.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube to access our full video library. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod)and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Virgil & Brie take on one of the world's most cancelable subjects -- one which, ironically, is often ignored by the conservative cancel culture discourse: the Israel/Palestine conflict. Professor, author, and activist Marc Lamont Hill and his co-author ReThinking Foreign Policy's Mitchell Plitnick join us to discuss their new book Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics and explain why positions like BDS and human rights for Palestinians remain a third rail in American politics -- even on the left.

But first, Brie and Virgil cover two recent deaths: entertainer Rush Limbaugh, and Joe Biden's political goodwill, which passed during Wednesday night's CNN town hall.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Find your copy of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics from Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books.

Find more of Mitchell Plitnick's work at rethinkingforeignpolicy.org and mitchellplitnick.substack.com.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Virgil & Brie talk to poet, sex worker, and true romantic Rachel Rabbit White about her acclaimed book of poetry, Porn Carnival, long-distance dating in the age of COVID, whether tragedy is at the heart of romance, and her silver-screen worthy relationship with author bank robber Nico Walker, whose novel Cherry has been made into a film dropping later this month.

Katie Halper, Leslie Lee III, and Nathan J. Robinson join today's panel to discuss the rise and maybe fall of three historic posters: former think tank head-turned-OMB nominee and "loathsome ambassador for Bidenism" Neera Tanden; former President-turned-insurrectionist Donald J. Trump; and former Guardian columnist-turned-podcast panelist Nathan Robinson, fired over innocuous tweets.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Monday brings a play-by-play of the big game: the contest over who's getting stimulus checks. Brie and Virgil talk to American Prospect's David Dayen about where we are on that promised $2000 and that $15 minimum wage and that Katie Porter. Also, Brie struggles through sports talk, and the pair discusses which racist logo they want to root for.