Cocktails & Capitalism

In this episode, Andy – host of The Poor Prole's Almanac & Tomorrow, Today – tells the story of the sheep craze that decimated the northeastern US in the early 1800s. The introduction of this industry has long-lasting negative consequences for the environment and the farmers whose livelihoods are quickly transformed and left in ruins.

The Poor Prole's Almanac is a podcast that tackles topics from a deeply ecological anticapitalist viewpoint. Across podcasting platforms, they are described as offering:  “A leftist perspective on prepping, foraging, homesteading, weapons, community-building, and global warming during late-stage capitalism.” Their Patreon page describes the show as a “project dedicated to taking the best knowledge from science and indigenous practices to develop a framework for an ecology-centered vision of the world after capitalism inevitably collapses.” Go check it out! 

You can listen on Spotify, Apple, Podbean, etc., and you can support their great work on Patreon.

Jesse Torres crafted some unforgettable cocktails that play on the sheep theme of this episode. He really did his research to pull together the perfect array of ingredients. Follow him on IG @jessejamz and try these delicious drinks he’s crafted for us! You can hear Jesse describe how to mix them in the episode. 

Ivermectin 

2 oz Sheep Dip Blended Malt Scotch Whisky

¾ oz Honey Ginger Syrup

¾ oz Lemon Juice

½ oz Mulassano Bitters

Add all ingredients except Mulassano Bitters into a shaker tin and shake with ice. Fine strain into a double old-fashioned glass filled with fresh cubed ice. Slowly pour the Mulassano Bitters over drink to float. Garnish with a piece of candied ginger.

Arsenic & Old Fleece

2 oz Sheep Dip Blended Malt Scotch Whisky

¾ oz Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro

¼ oz Vermont Sugar Maple Syrup

Rinse St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with plenty of ice. Stir until very cold—about ten seconds. Take a chilled coupe glass and rinse with St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram. Pour out any remaining Allspice Dram into your mouth then strain into the coupe glass. Garnish with a dehydrated lemon wheel.

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

This week we’re joined by Jordon of the 805UNCENSORED podcast, who tells the story of media mogul William Randolph Hearst. After inheriting wealth and a newspaper from his father, Hearst builds a ruthless media empire. He comes to own a quarter of the newspapers in America, reaching 20 million readers daily. 

Popularizing the term “Yellow Journalism” – a highly sensationalized form of reporting – Hearst even peddles a myth about the Spanish attacking the USS Maine to catapult America into war with Spain. His greed-based racism drives his campaign to demonize weed, which he refers to as “marijuana” in order to associate the drug with immigrants from Mexico. Tune in to hear more about this ruthless, racist capitalist.

You can find 805UNCENSORED on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you podcast. You can follow the show on Instagram and Twitter.

Shoutout to our anticapitalist bartender friend, Jesse Torres ( @jessejamz ), who did a beautiful job of improving the Hearst Cocktail! This drink was originally enjoyed by Hearst’s employees, many of whom must have been complaining about their employer while decompressing from their stressful jobs. 

The Improved Hearst Cocktail

2 oz Xoriguer Gin de Mahon

1 ozDolin Rouge Vermouth

1 dashOrange Bitters

1 dashAromatic Bitters (like Angostura) 

RinseAbsinthe

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with plenty of ice. Stir until very cold—about ten seconds. Take a chilled martini glass and rinse with absinthe. Pour out any remaining absinthe into your mouth then fine strain into the martini glass. Express an orange swath over the drink, cut sexily, and garnish.

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

This week, we’re joined by stand-up comedian, filmmaker, and activist Toni Nagy! She explains how her dream to start a green fast food company was crushed as she became too familiar with our toxic capitalist patriarchy. Tune in to hear Toni discuss the nonprofit industrial complex, the psychology of wealth, and the kind of rape culture that is perpetuated under capitalism.


Toni Nagy has written, directed, and acted in over 50 videos, and she has nearly 100 hilarious videos on TikTok, many of which involve slapstick interpretive dancing. Her performance art often conveys an anti-capitalist social and environmental message. Go find her on Instagram and TikTok (where she has a huge following)! You won’t regret it!


She founded an independent media company called Cavelight Productions which aims “to serve as a visual comedic manifesto to deconstruct culture by using satire as a means for social change, political awareness, and equal opportunity genital jokes.” 


Toni’s activism has centered on voting rights and cannabis advocacy. Rather than joining me in drinking a cocktail, Toni chose to light up a joint! I decided to meet her in the middle, so I added THC/CBD tincture to the cocktail that I crafted for this episode. 


I named the cocktail after the corporate practice of “greenwashing” -- a marketing strategy that uses green PR to deceive the public into believing that a company’s products or activities are environmentally sound. This is very different from the kind of green enterprise that Toni worked to build from the ground up, because she was never willing to compromise on her social and environmental values. 

The Greenwash Cocktail

1 ½  oz white rum

¾ oz lime juice

½ oz simple syrup

1 egg white

¾  oz green chartreuse

Optional: mint sprig and/or CBD/THC tincture

Add all ingredients except Chartreuse to shaker, dry shake, add ice and shake, strain into coupe glass. Light chartreuse on fire, pour into glass, garnish with mint

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

Continuing the story of the Peasant Revolt of 1381, Lauren B details the demands that the rebels make of 14 year old King Richard II. They demand an end to serfdom, rent reduction, the freedom to trade, and freedom from any punishments for their uprising. Tune in to hear the conclusion of this true tale of blood, guts, and betrayal.

Huge thanks to Lauren B for bringing this story to life for us. Her brilliant research and her animated storytelling brought so much fire and substance to the show. She even created the cover art for this and a few of our previous episodes! You can find more of her collage work as well as her time-lapse illustrations and hand lettering on our C&C Instagram page or her personal page, which you can find here. 

I also want to thank our resident anticapitalist bartender -- Jesse Torres -- for creating an amazing cocktail for this episode. He joins us again to explain how he crafted this cocktail and how you can easily make your own at home.  You can find Jesse on Instagram here.

Cocktail Pairing:

The Billerickey Ambush

1 ½ oz   Gin (Hendrick’s, Bombay, and Chicago Distilling are all women made gins)

¼ oz  Fresh Lime juice

          Soda water

Take a Collins glass and fill with cubed ice. Add gin, lime juice, and top with soda water. Give a small stir to incorporate and then top with 3-4 dashes of aromatic bitters like Angostura. Add a straw, garnish with a lime wedge and smile. 

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

In this episode, Lauren B continues the story of the Peasant Revolt of 1381. After the Black Death and a subsequent famine, the surviving peasants face artificially suppressed wages at the same time that they are being taxed to fund a foreign war.  In response, they organize and carry out a country-wide uprising.

Heads roll in this episode, so brace yourselves!

Lauren also created the incredible collage art for this episode series! Go check her out on Instagram here!

I'm excited to introduce Jesse Torres -- our resident anticapitalist bartender! He crafted an amazing cocktail for this episode and he joins us to explain the historical significance of this delicious drink. You can find him on Instagram here.


EPISODE COCKTAIL: The Archbishop’s Head

3 oz   Tawny Port (Dow’s is commonly available and pretty good)

¼ oz  Jamaican Rum (Smith & Cross, Hampden, or Worthy Park)

½ oz  Simple syrup (1:1 ratio)

2 thick slices of Lemon

Add all ingredients to a shaker and muddle the lemon slices very well. Add plenty of ice and shake vigorously until very cold. Fine strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed or pebble ice. Add a straw and garnish with a bouquet of mint, more lemon slices, berries, or other fruit in season. Smile.

SOURCES:
Here are the links to all of the sources used in the writing of this episode

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

This week, Lauren B. tells us about the horrors and injustices experienced by the peasants in medieval England. By fleshing out the effects of the plague and the oppressive measures that colonial rulers forced upon the surfs, Lauren lays the groundwork for the story of the Peasant Revolt of 1381. Tune in next week to hear the rest!

Lauren B is an incredibly talented subsistence maker who creates masks and other socially and environmentally ethical products out of secondhand materials. She wrote our prior episode titled "Resisting Fast Fashion," in which she explains the social and environmental horrors of the fashion and fabric industries.  Check out her masks here!

Sources:

Boring Tony Robinson BBC Documentary

Terry Jones Medieval Lives 1 of 8 The Peasant

https://www.historyonthenet.com/medieval-life-feudalism-feudal-system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt

https://www.worldhistory.org/Peasants'_Revolt/

https://johnball1381.org/

https://www.1381.online/

Piers Plowman Great Uprising 

http://www.1381.online/people_and_places/

https://mittelalter.hypotheses.org/12062

When the Weather Went All Medieval 

The History of Plague

History Collection

https://explorethearchive.com/peasants-revolt

https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-B\

Women in 1381

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England 

http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html

https://www.worldhistory.org/Serf/

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

Joined by John and Ben once again, Erika completes the story of George Orwell’s life. This episode outlines Orwell’s efforts to combat the totalitarian influence of Stalin, whom he feared would forever stain the name of socialism. We also address “Orwell’s list” -- a controversy that has tarnished Orwell’s reputation amongst many leftists. 

Since 1984 and Animal Farm are the novels that made Orwell famous, Erika describes the creation of these works and the political messages they were intended to convey. These novels were misused by the CIA and the IRD as Cold War propaganda, much of which has fueled the misunderstandings of Orwell's works that persist today. 

COCKTAIL:

THE TWO MINUTES HATE

1.5 oz dry gin
.5 oz Jeppson's Malört
.5 oz lemon juice
1 heaping bar spoon marmalade
Orange peel

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. Express an orange peel over the drink, add to glass. Drink and feel the hate!

This drink was crafted by bartender Jesse Torres ( IG @jessejamz ) who based the recipe on the breakfast martini but chose to include the infamous Jeppson's  Malört -- a bitter liquor that he described as "hate in a bottle."



SOURCES:

BBC video on Youtube: George Orwell: A Life in Pictures Full Documentary https://youtu.be/s6txpumkY5I

Newsinger, John. “Life After Death: The Relevance of George Orwell.” Journal of Contemporary History, 2013.

Roback, Jennifer. “The Economic Thought of George Orwell.” American Economic Review, 2001.

White, Richard. “George Orwell: Socialism and Utopia.” Utopian Studies. 2008. 

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “Blair, Eric Arthur [pseud. George Orwell]” 

The Guardian, 1/24/17 “Sales of George Orwell's 1984 surge after Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative facts'”

“There Dystopian World of 1984 Explained”

“How Soviet spies targeted George Orwell during Spanish civil war” The Guardian, Oct 2020 

This article about "The List" is often cited, though Norton's sensationalized portrayal of Orwell misrepresents the author's political convictions and actions: "George Orwell was a reactionary snitch who made a blacklist of leftists for the British government"

“​​Briton spied on Orwell in Spain” The Guardian May 2003 

“Was George Orwell secretly a reactionary snitch? How the author became an internet meme and target of the hard left”

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

In this episode, Erika continues to tell the story of George Orwell’s life to her friends Ben and John. We discuss Orwell’s time fighting fascists in the Spanish Civil War, during which he is shot in the neck while fighting alongside trade union members, Marxists, and anarchists. He is amazed by the anarcho-communes that crop up in Catalonia. When the leftist anti-fascist militia he’s joined is attacked and defeated by the Soviet-backed party in control of the Spanish government, his criticisms of Stalinism only deepen. 

Tune in to hear about Orwell’s experience of the Blitz back in England and his efforts to resist fascism during WWII.

Cocktail: The George Orwell

2 oz gin 

2 oz sparkling white wine 

1 oz tea

1/2 oz lemon juice

½ oz honey syrup

Add gin, tea, lemon, & honey syrup to a glass with ice, top with sparkling wine.


Episode written by C&C host,  Erika

Edited by C&C producer, John

Special thanks to Ben for coming on the show and making us laugh uncontrollably


Huge thanks to Mike Fiore for doing an incredible job with the George Orwell voiceover work. This role was crucial since no recordings exist of Orwell’s voice. Mike absolutely nailed the accent and raspy tone, knowing that Orwell was a heavy drinker and smoker. 
Mike Fiore can be reached at [email protected]

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

George Orwell offered so much political insight, but his writings and views are widely misinterpreted by conservatives and leftists alike. We begin season 2 of Cocktails & Capitalism by telling the story of George Orwell’s evolution into an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist democratic socialists who would risk his life to fight fascism. 

The first chapter in this Orwell trilogy explores the author’s childhood and the time he spends serving in the British imperial police force in Burma. This experience teaches him to despise the oppressive violence of the British Empire. Leaving his position, he lives on the street until a publisher offers him a writing assignment to report on the misery of the working class.

With fascism on the rise in Italy, Germany, and Spain, Orwell volunteers to fight in the Spanish Civil War. 

Tune in the next two weeks to hear the rest of Orwell’s story.


…………………………………………………

Episode written by C&C host,  Erika

Edited by C&C producer, John

Special thanks to Ben for coming on the show and making us laugh uncontrollably


Huge thanks to Mike Fiore for doing an incredible job with the George Orwell voiceover work. This role was crucial since no recordings exist of Orwell’s voice. Mike absolutely nailed the accent and raspy tone, knowing that Orwell was a heavy drinker and smoker.
Mike Fiore can be reached at [email protected]

…………………………………………………

WORKS CITED

-BBC video on Youtube: George Orwell: A Life in Pictures Full Documentary https://youtu.be/s6txpumkY5I

-Newsinger, John. “Life After Death: The Relevance of George Orwell.” Journal of Contemporary History, 2013.

-Roback, Jennifer. “The Economic Thought of George Orwell.” American Economic Review, 2001.

-White, Richard. “George Orwell: Socialism and Utopia.” Utopian Studies. 2008. 

-Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “Blair, Eric Arthur [pseud. George Orwell]” 

-The Guardian, 1/24/17 “Sales of George Orwell's 1984 surge after Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative facts'”

-“There Dystopian World of 1984 Explained” https://youtu.be/GQxOKXEff4I

-“How Soviet spies targeted George Orwell during Spanish civil war” The Guardian, Oct 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/11/revealed-soviet-spies-targeted-george-orwell-during-spanish-civil-war

-“​​Briton spied on Orwell in Spain” The Guardian May 2003 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/may/05/books.artsandhumanities

-“Was George Orwell secretly a reactionary snitch? How the author became an internet meme and target of the hard left” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/george-orwell-snitch-list-reactionary-grass-blacklist-communists-information-research-department-ird-government-celia-kirwan-a8414066.html

Support the show

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to educate, agitate, and amplify the voices of those who are working to dismantle capitalism and create a better world.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
Some episodes on YouTube. Subscribe & enjoy! Cheers!

Season  2 of Cocktails & Capitalism starts Tuesday, October 26! We'll be dropping three episodes about the coolest anticapitalist who ever got shot in the neck by fascists - George Orwell. Featuring my dear friends Ben and John, with voiceover work by Mike Fiore.

We plan to released weekly episodes every Tuesday. Don’t forget to tune in! 

Cheers! 🍸

Cocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support our work with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to strengthen the class consciousness of folks suffering under capitalism around the globe.

https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism