Current Affairs

The Current Affairs panel discusses how they are approaching the 2020 Presidential campaign, we decide whether money is speech, and we all share what we think is the most important lesson that the left can learn from the right.

Tickets for the live show on January 26th at the Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C. are HERE.

The Panel

Tickets for the live show on January 26th at the Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C. are HERE.

Miscellany

Nicholas Carnes' White Collar Government book is here. Nathan's Jacobin article on money and speech is here. Corey Robin's facebook post on money and speech is here. Information on the Seattle Democracy Voucher program is here.

Tickets for the live show on January 26th at the Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C. are HERE.

Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org. To join the conversation, leave us a voicemail at 504-867-8851.

Did we mention that tickets for the live show on January 26th at the Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C. are HERE.

The Current Affairs panel opens up the phone lines, answering listener questions on postmodernism, growth, effective altruism, New Orleans and jokes.

The Panel

Miscellany

Here's Nathan's original article on the problem of academic language. Here is the 80,000 hours blog referenced in the Effective Altruism segment. Here is Nathan and Brianna's podcast on the morality of wealth. Here is a great book by John Cort on Christian socialism and here is a piece on Martin Luther King's economic radicalism. Here's more on activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and here's more on Islamic socialism. Labor's Joke Book, mentioned in the footnotes, is here.

Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org. To join the conversation, leave us a voicemail at 504-867-8851.

The Current Affairs panel discusses the politics of tragedy, we attempt to define fascism, and we all share something that gives us hope in the 2018 elections.

The Panel:

Further reading on the politics of tragedy

Nathan's piece on politicizing tragedies is here. The Outline had an essay on politicizing tragedies here and The Guardian had one on the conservative theory of tragedies here. Plus, here's Nathan's inciteful/insightful architecture article.

Further reading on fascism

Brendan O’Neill makes the case we should stop calling everything fascist here. Vox explains fascism here, Jason Stanley explains fascism here, and Peter Beinart grapples with whether Trump is a fascist here.

Further reading on Election 2018 hope

More on Lancaster Stands Up is here and here. More on unanimous juries is here. More on Florida's voter restoration is here. Briahna's piece on hope in Red America is here. More on the youth voter surge is here.

Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org. To join the conversation, leave us a voicemail at 504-867-8851.

UNLOCKED from the bird feed to the main feed: Current Affairs host Pete Davis invites Jesse Eisinger — Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist with ProPublica and author of The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives — to the Current Affairs World Headquarters to enlighten us on the topic of corporate crime, feckless white collar prosecutors, and why we should care about the underfunding of the IRS.

Read Jesse's piece on the IRS dropping the ball here. Read Jesse's piece on why only one banker went to jail after the financial crisis here. Read The New York Times' huge report on the Trump family tax fraud here. Read George Scialabba's new book, which Pete quoted at the end of the episode, here.

Many thanks to the amazing Dan Thorn for editing help on this episode.

To listen to interviews when they first come out — and gain access to our patrons' "Bird Feed" — consider becoming a monthly patron at our Patreon page. Call into Current Affairs anytime at (504) 867-8851.

In our unlucky 13th episode, the Current Affairs panel gets into the Halloween spirit: we investigate the murder of American democracy, Pete makes the case that Halloween is the best holiday, and we all share our favorite unsolved mysteries.

The Death Panel:

Miscellaneous Reading:

The books Pete referenced in segment one are Democracy's Discontent by Michael Sandel and The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism by Daniel Bell. A James Joyce halloween costume is here and a sultry Edgar Allen Poe costume is here. Nathan's writing on the joy of Mardi Gras is here. More on the sinister Countess Báthory is here. More on Ireland's Land War is here. More on Carlo Tresca is here.

Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org. To join the conversation, leave us a voicemail at 504-867-8851.

An excerpt from today's bonus episode, available in full to our Patreon patrons, in which Current Affairs host Pete Davis invites Jesse Eisinger — Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist with ProPublica and author of The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives — to the Current Affairs World Headquarters to enlighten us on the topic of corporate crime, feckless white collar prosecutors, and why we should care about the underfunding of the IRS.

To listen to this episode — and gain access to our patrons' "Bird Feed" — consider becoming a monthly patron at our Patreon page. Call into Current Affairs anytime at (504) 867-8851.

Current Affairs superlawyers Vanessa A. Bee and Oren Nimni preview their upcoming Bird Feed series focused on the law, the justice system and this year's Supreme Court term.

To listen to Vanessa and Oren's legal series — and gain access to our patrons' "Bird Feed" — consider becoming a monthly patron at our Patreon page. Call into Current Affairs anytime at (504) 867-8851.

UNLOCKED from the bird feed to the main feed: Current Affairs host Pete Davis talks with the Modern Money Network's Rohan Grey and Raúl Carrillo about Modern Monetary Theory, the big idea shaking up the Left's view of public spending. They — and their ragtag band of economists, activists and politicians — are questioning everything you thought you knew about debt, deficits, spending, and money.

Read more about MMT in The Nation, Vice, and The Washington Post. Learn more about MMT's leading voice (and Bernie Sanders advisor), Stephanie Kelton, in Barrons and The Huffington Post.

To listen to interviews when they first come out — and gain access to our patrons' "Bird Feed" — consider becoming a monthly patron at our Patreon page. Call into Current Affairs anytime at (504) 867-8851.

Lyta enters the Lefty Shark Tank to pitch a policy response to the recent Kavanaugh hearings, Malaika Jabali is interviewed about The Color of Economic Anxiety, and the Current Affairs panelists share their favorite utopian communities.

The Panel:

Further reading:

Read Malaika's essay, The Color of Economic Anxiety, here. Read Lyta's essay on Star Trek, The Dismal Frontier, here. Read Lyta's pitch for speculative fiction here and Brianna's pitch for space utopias here.

Many thanks to Anna Lathrop for editing help.

Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org. To join the conversation, leave us a voicemail at 504-867-8851.

An excerpt from today's bonus episode, available in full to our Patreon patrons, in which Current Affairs host Pete Davis talks with the Modern Money Network's Rohan Grey and Raúl Carrillo about Modern Monetary Theory, the big idea shaking up the Left's view of public spending. They — and their ragtag band of economists, activists and politicians — are questioning everything you thought you knew about debt, deficits, spending, and money.

Read more about MMT in The Nation, Vice, and The Washington Post. Learn more about MMT's leading voice (and Bernie Sanders advisor), Stephanie Kelton, in Barrons and The Huffington Post.

To listen to this episode — and gain access to our patrons' "Bird Feed" — consider becoming a monthly patron at our Patreon page. Call into Current Affairs anytime at (504) 867-8851.