Darts and Letters

By Cited MediaSociety & Culture News Education News Commentary Philosophy

Darts and Letters episodes

December 03, 2021EP42: The Road From Roe (ft. Becca Andrews, Chelsea Ebin & Laurie Bertram Roberts)
For years, abortion rights advocates have worried about the United States drifting towards abolishing Roe vs. Wade. Could this be the moment? The Trump-heavy, right-wing, partisan Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The court may overturn two decades’-old decisions–Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey–that protect the right to an abortion. At the same time, a Texas case that bans abortions after six weeks is also making its way through the court. On this episode of Darts and Letters, we look at the road from Roe: years of court cases and anti-choice activism that have led to the current showdown that threatens the right to choose.
First, (@8:28) anti-choice activists have long used the courts to try to rollback or block abortion rights. Becca Andrews is a writer with Mother Jones and the author of the forthcoming book on the history and future of Roe v. Wade, it’s called No Choice. She takes us through the court cases in Mississippi and Texas. Plus, she talks about what it’s like reporting on abortion while living in Nashville, Tennessee.
Then, (@26:14) what is it like to drive hundreds of miles to get an abortion only to be met with some onerous, anti-choice regulation that forces you to drive back? Laurie Bertram Roberts is the head of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund and the Yellowhammer Fund in Alabama. They discuss their own reproductive rights experience and their work on the ground helping folks secure access to reproductive health–from rides to gas money, hotels, and more. They also take us through the broader battle for reproductive justice in the United States.
Finally, (@54:35) Abortion used to be primarily a Catholic issue. Today, it is the wedge issue for conservative evangelicals in the United States. How did that come to be? Chelsea Ebin is Assistant Professor at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and the co-founder of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. She looks at the strategy and coalition building that turned abortion into a partisan mission to build a radical future.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Becca Andrews has done plenty of reporting on abortion rights and access. Have a look at some of her work at Mother Jones, including the cover story “When Choice is 221 Miles Away: The Nightmare of Getting an Abortion in the South” and her pieces on the Texas abortion case here and here. See her Mother Jones page for more, plus an interview with her about her upcoming book No Choice.
Learn more about Laurie Bertram Roberts’ work by visiting the Mississippi Reproductive Fund and the Yellowhammer Fund, and donate to the former here and the latter here.
Have a look at Chelsea Ebin’s work on her website and keep an eye open for her forthcoming co-edited book Male Supremacism in the United States and her upcoming monograph Prefiguring the Past: Conservative Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building on the Right (1965-1985). Also, visit the Institute on Male Supremacism to learn more about their work.
Plus, for a primer on Roe and Casey, check out this CNN article and this SCOTUSblog piece. You can read the Mississippi law here and the Texas law here.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW————————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel where you can see interview videos. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected].
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn. This week’s assistant producer is Ren Bangert. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. David Moscrop is our research assistant and wrote the show notes.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This is a production of Cited Media. And we are backed by academic grants that support mobilizing research and democratizing the concept of public intellectualism. This episode is part of a wider project that supports episodes on the rise of far-right political ideologies. This project is supported by professors André Gagné at Concordia, Ronald Beiner at the University of Toronto and A. James McAdams at the University of Notre Dame. The research assistants on these episodes were Isabelle Lemelin and Tim Berk.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
1 hr 18 min
November 27, 2021EP41: Canada’s Dumbest Public Intellectuals (ft. Kate Jacobson, Hilary Agro, Big Shiny Takes & Andre Goulet)
Canada’s intellectual culture is now like a barren soil that struggles to give life to even the simplest flora. They’re just not that smart. We make too many right wing cranks, self-help charlatans, blood-thirsty reactionaries, insipid centrists, and third-rate Hayekians. But which are our worst? We invite our new friends from the Harbinger Media Network to help scour the national intellectual wasteland to find Canada’s dumbest public intellectual. The idea is simple: each guest makes the case for why their pick is the best at being the worst. Plus, Andre Goulet talks about the Harbinger Network and the state and future of left podcasting in Canada.
First, (@7:03) Hilary Agro nominates Jordan Peterson. The failson philosopher became an international sensation for those looking for…something. Salvation? A father figure? The meat sweats? He appeals to a certain type of person. You can guess who. Hilary is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and was the host of the Marxist drug podcast Bread and Poppies, and she’s had enough self-help hokum.
Next (@18:04), Kate Jacobson nominates Max Fawcett. Max is a Calgary-based columnist with the National Observer and proud centrist. You can never go wrong in Canada riding the centre line and attacking the conservative right. The Laurentian Consensus abides. Kate is host of the podcast Alberta Advantage, and she’s had enough nuance-mongering.
Then (@34:35), some writers are so bad that their writing becomes an inimitable work of art. The fellas at Big Shiny Takes — Eric Wickham, Marino Greco, and Jeremy Appel — explore in awe and wonder at three such figures: Vancouver-based Washington Post columnist J.J. McCullough, former George W. Bush speechwriter and Atlantic regular David Frum, and political scientist and Consevrative luminary Tom Flanagan.
Finally (@1:01:52), Darts and Letters is proud to be a part of the Harbinger Network. Andre Goulet is the network’s executive director; he talks about the network, the importance of solidarity, and why he does the work he does.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Check out Hilary Agro’s podcast Bread and Poppies and visit her Patreon. Also, dig deeper into Jordan Peterson’s handling of addiction over at Read Passage with a piece by Eli Fox.
Listen to Kate Jacobson’s podcast, The Alberta Advantage and read Max Fawcett’s article asking whether or not Jason Kenney is…a socialist. (Spoiler alert: he is not.)
Pull up some episodes of Big Shiny Takes, starting with their episode on J.J. McCullough.
Visit the Harbinger Network and support them here.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW————————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel, where some videos of these interviews will be available next week.
If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
1 hr 14 min
November 19, 2021EP24: Darts and Lasers (ft. Cory Doctorow, Nalo Hopkinson, & Batya Weinbaum) [Rebroadcast]
Note: Hey all, We’re on break this week as we rest up and prepare for more top-notch programming, so this week’s episode is a rebroadcast of one of our favourites.
It’s stardate 99040.01 and lead producer Jay Cockburn is temporarily taking over command of Darts and Letters for an episode. This week we enter the world of science fiction, revealing how it’s long been a vehicle for radical thought We dig into post-scarcity, Afrofuturism, and feminist speculative fiction as we set our phasers to fun and go where no podcast has gone before.
First (@11:37), Cory Doctorow is a journalist, activist, blogger, and author of many books including the post-scarcity speculative fiction novel Walkaway. He takes us through the idea of a post-scarcity world as he breaks down the idea of abundance and what we might do with it, or not.
Then, (@34:44), Nalo Hopkinson is a science fiction writer, editor, professor, and author of Brown Girl in the Ring. She talks to us about Afrofuturism as a critical lens and different ways of seeing the future for different communities — and re-imagining the present. Plus, be sure to read her own recommendation: Sister Mine.
Finally, (@50:27), Batya Weinbaum is a poet, artist, professor, and the editor of FemSpec, an academic journal of feminist speculative fiction. She charts the history of feminism in science fiction and how art, including novels, helps drive social, political, and economic change.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————-
Check out Cory Doctorow’s blog site Craphound, including the shop where you can buy his books, including Walkaway, which is featured in this episode. Also have a look at this latest book, Attack Surface.
Visit Nalo Hopkinson’s homepage, including the list of her books and her Patreon. You can pick up Brown Girl in the Ring through her publisher’s site or wherever books are sold.
Dig into the interdisciplinary feminist journal FemSpec, edited by Batya Weinbaum and visit her Google Scholar page to peruse her many academic articles.
We mentioned a number of books in this episode you may want to check out, including Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Iain M. Banks’ the Culture series.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic; this week our guest host and lead producer is Jay Cockburn. Gordon Katic is our editor. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. Our research assistants this week are Addye Susnick and David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber. Our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us a research grant to look at the concept of “public intellectualism.” Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia is the lead academic advisor.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
1 hr 1 min
November 12, 2021EP40: War Games (ft. Tanner Mirrlees)
Why are there so many war games? They exploded in popularity post 9/11. Maybe you’ve played some of them. Or all of them. SOCOM: US Navy Seals. Call of Duty. Battlefield. Splinter Cell—and the entire deep library of Tom Clancy games. There’s plenty more, too. This ain’t just a story about the free market and our own proclivities—it’s the state. Games have a long history of being developed by, with, and for the military. From the earliest DARPA-funded projects at public universities, to today’s DOD-subsidized military/corporate partnerships. This week on Darts and Letters, Tanner Mirrlees, associate professor in the Communication and Digital Media Studies Program at Ontario Tech University and author of Hearts and Mines: The US Empire’s Culture Industry, joins us as we plunge headlong into the history of the militainment industrial complex, to understand the militarization of gaming and the gamification of war.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Visit Tanner Mirrlees’ academic page and scroll through his research, including his piece on Medal of Honor, his article on Socom: Navy Seals, and his look at the depiction of Muslims in post-9/11 wargames. Also, check out his 2013 book Global Entertainment Media: Between Cultural Imperialism and Cultural Globalization.
For more, see his work for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on Power, Privilege and Resistance in the Digital Age.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW————————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel, where some videos of these interviews will be available next week.
If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. David Moscrop is our research assistant and wrote the show notes.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This is a production of Cited Media. And we are backed by academic grants that support mobilizing research and democratizing the concept of public intellectualism. The founding academic advisor of the program is Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia. This episode was also part of a wider series looking at the politics of video games, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and housed at the University of British Columbia and Waterloo University.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
51 min
November 05, 2021EP39: Three Corporations in a Trenchcoat (ft. Matt Stoller & Dwayne Winseck)
If you eat, use a cell phone, connect to the internet, open a bank account, down a pint, or pick up a prescription in Canada, you’re probably experiencing the country’s familiar brand of oligopoly and monopoly. It’s arguably worse than the US. We’re basically three corporations in a trenchcoat. This arrangement means we unfortunately have to follow the moves of our corporate overlords–because really, these folks run the joint. Recently, the Succession-style drama surrounding the Rogers family, owners of one of the country’s major telecom companies, has at least provided us all some entertainment. This week on Darts and Letters, we look at monopoly and anti-monopoly, how corporate concentration affects Canada’s communications system, the global supply chain, and politics on both sides of the border.
First (@7:23), Canada does capitalism old school–neo-feudal style, led by dynastic families. Dwayne Winseck is Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University and the director of the Canadian Media Concentration Project. He takes us through the Rogers family kerfuffle, the autocracy of our corporate governance structures, the researchers/hired guns who fill our public policy space with nonsense, and the absurdity of oligarchical capitalism dominating our gutless politics.
Then (@33:02) what do broken McDonald’s ice cream machines tell us about monopoly? A lot, in fact. Matt Stoller is the author of the Substack Big and the book Goliath: The 100–Year War Between Monopoly, Power, and Democracy. Stoller also explains how monopolies exacerbate global supply chain crises, discusses Biden’s legislative agenda, and tells us about the history of monopoly-friendly intellectuals (on the right and the left).
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Visit Dwayne Winseck’s Canadian Media Concentration Project and his blog, For more, see his academic page.
Go deeper into the proposed Rogers-Shaw merger with Winseck’s co–written piece with Ben Klass and Bianca Wylie. Also, read Winseck and Klass’s argument against the merger submitted to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, The Great Reversal: Why the Rogers–Shaw Merger is a Raw Deal and Regulators Should Deny It.
Read more on the Rogers family drama here and peruse the CRTC submissions on the Shaw-Rogers merger from Bell and Rogers.
Sign up for Matt Stoller’s Substack, Big and read his entry on counterfeit capitalism and his ShortageWatch. Also, be sure to check out his book Goliath: The 100–Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. And for more, head over to his webpage for more articles, videos, and plenty of other stuff. For more still, read “America Faces Supply–Chain Disruption and Shortages: Here’s Why.”
Listen to Stoller’s Radio Open Source appearances “Five Stones for Goliath” and “Monopoly vs. Democracy.” Plus, check out his article for The Chronicle “It’s Time to Break Up the Ivy League Cartel.”
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW————————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel, where some videos of these interviews will be available next week.
If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. David Moscrop is our research assistant and wrote the show notes.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This is a production of Cited Media. And we are backed by academic grants that support mobilizing research and democratizing the concept of public intellectualism. The founding academic advisor of the program is Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
58 min
October 29, 2021EP38: Democracy Dies in Snarkness (ft. Michael Tracey & Robert McChesney)
You can’t have a functioning democracy without a trusted media. That fact explains the state of U.S. democracy, at least in part. The United States has the lowest rate of media trust in the industrialized world, with just under a third of respondents in a 2020 Reuters poll saying they trust the media they consume. But whose fault is it? And, is the media even trustworthy? A string of failures suggest otherwise: weapons of mass destruction, the global financial crisis, Brexit, Russiagate, and plenty more. This week on Darts and Letters, we talk to two media critics about the shortcomings of the fourth estate.
First (@4:26), did Donald Trump break the brains of liberal journalists? Is hyper-partisanship a problem? Michael Tracey is an independent journalist on Substack sometimes called a “left heretic,” and he’s been calling out liberal orthodoxies around surveillance, censorship, and hysterical forms of anti-Trumpism. We discuss how the media changed during the Trump era, how it didn’t, and what that means. Oh, also, how Tom Morello and the New York Times are…WRITING IN THE NAME OF!!
Then (@33:52), it’s the political economy, stupid. Robert McChesney says cost-cutting and corporate conglomeration explain hyper-partisan elite media; because it’s cheaper for FOX and MSNBC to create political entertainment than to do actual reporting. McChesney is Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He’s also the author of several books criticizing corporate media. He pursues a structural critique of the media that interrogates the values that journalists internalize and the range of debate journalists enable — or don’t — based on the owners of media, and the economic incentives that drive them.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Visit Michael Tracey’s Substack and sign up to read his work. Also, consider following him on Twitter to get a perspective you might not find elsewhere.
Head over to Robert McChesney’s homepage and dig into his work, including his many books, such as Rich Media, Poor Democracy, Dollarocracy: How the Money-and-Media Election Complex is Destroying America and The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again.
Plus, visit Free Press, the national media reform organization that McChesney co-founded.
—————————-SOME NEWS————————-
We’re excited to share that we’re now officially a part of the Harbinger Media Network. Harbinger is home to several left-wing podcasts in Canada, including Alberta Advantage, Nora Loreto’s Take Back the Fight, and Paris Marx’s Tech Won’t Save Us.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW————————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content. For instance, next week we’ll have the full unedited video interview with Michael Tracey on our page for our Patreon subscribers. So, if you want to see that, join today.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel, where some videos of these interviews will be available next week. The full uncut Michael Tracey interview will only be on Patreon, though (thanks, Patrons!).
If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. David Moscrop is our research assistant and wrote the show notes.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This is a production of Cited Media. And we are backed by academic grants that support mobilizing research and democratizing the concept of public intellectualism. The founding academic advisor of the program is Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
52 min
October 22, 2021EP37: Save the Whales (ft. Torulf Jernstrom, Mary Flanagan & Maru Nihoniho)
We’ll save the Moby Dick puns for the episode itself, but suffice it to say that sinister game developers are on a whale hunt. This episode is about the sophisticated psychological tactics they use to hunt and capture their prey. Free to play mobile games as glorified slot machines, in-game purchases even for triple-A titles, game design that keep gamers hooked to their rigs. These practices are often exploitative and, for some who fall victim to them, devastating. Some countries, like China, are pushing back. But their restrictions are overbearing and unlikely to work as people skirt the restrictions. There are better ways. On this episode of Darts and Letters, we take a journey to save the whales.
First (@11:38), habit loops, slot machine tactics, skinner boxes, and praying on the lizard brain. What’s wrong with that? Torulf Jernstrom is founder of Tribeflame, a Finish game development company that makes table and mobile games. He’s known for a 2016 conference presentation that was totally masks off. It was called “Let’s Go Whaling: Tricks for Monetising Mobile Game Players With Free-To-Play.” Gamers freaked out, calling him a scam artist and scum bag. But he doesn’t think he’s any worse than other developers; he just happened to be the one who said the quiet part out loud. We debate the morality of these practices.
Then (@33:25), we tack in a different direction and ask: Where do values fit into game design and development? Mary Flanagan is a radical developer, artist, and the Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Digital Humanities at Dartmouth College. She inquires into the politics of games, relations of power, who is represented, how, and what that says about a game — all the way down to the level of mechanics. She pushes developers to think about the fundamental values that drive their work, or not.
Finally (@50:29), some games exploit and undermine agency, but others empower players. Maru Nihoniho is a Maori game developer in New Zealand and the founder and managing director of Metia Interactive. Her games are designed to educate and help people — one of them is quite literally mental health treatment. She talks about how games can help us understand and navigate mental health and wellness.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Watch Torulf Jernstrom’s talk on monetization, Let’s Go Whaling, at the 2016 Pocket Gamer Connects in Helsinki and visit his company Tribeflame to view their catalogue of games. Plus, watch YouTuber and World of Warcraft player Asmongold’s hilarious reaction to the video.
Visit Mary Flanagan’s homepage to explore her art, games, writing, and more. Also, have a look at her academic page and her books Critical Play: Radical Game Design and the co-written (with Helen Nissenbaum) Values at Play in Digital Games. Plus, check out her indie board game company Resonym.
Explore Maru Nihoniho’s development studio Metia Interactive, including their most recent game Guardian Maia, Episode 1, which is available on Google Play and the App Store.
Read about China’s attempts to legislate gaming, including a memo they sent to game developers. Plus, read about South Korea’s abandonment of their gaming curfew law.
For more of the stop gaming content we discussed from Reddit, visit r/StopGaming, including this, this, and this quotation we cited.
—————————-SOME NEWS————————-
We’re excited to share that we’re joining the Harbinger Media Network. Harbinger is home to several left-wing podcasts in Canada, including Alberta Advantage, Nora Loreto’s Take Back the Fight, and Paris Marx’s Tech Won’t Save Us.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW————————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel, where some videos of these interviews will be available next week.
If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn and our assistant producer this week was Jason Cohanim. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. David Moscrop is our research assistant and wrote the show notes.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research as part of a project that funded us to look at the politics of video games. It’s housed at the University of British Columbia & the University of Waterloo.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
1 hr
October 15, 2021EP36: Koch Block My Campus (ft. James L. Turk & Jasmine Banks)
Right wing money in academia is pervasive and influential. Libertarian-minded billionaires like the Kochs and their partners have funded scholars and think tanks across the US, and similar things go on in Canada too. The money shows us that the right spends it because they care about education. Maybe not in the classic way—higher learning, enlightenment, the pursuit of Truth or truth or whatever you want to call it. They care about education because they believe it can change the world. It’s an investment, and big money expects a return. Lucky for them, and unlucky for the rest of us, universities are happy to sell out. On this episode of Darts and Letters, we explore big money and its corrosive influence on academic freedom and academic integrity.
First (@7:22), just how far does the Koch network’s scholarly funding extend? Jasmine Banks is the executive director of UnKoch My Campus—a non-profit dedicated to identifying and the impact of investors and their dark money investments on higher education. She takes us through the role of dark money and wealthy investors in shaping campus life and, more broadly, the country and the world.
Then (@33:02), we look back on the long history of campuses for sale. Professor James L. Turk is the director of the Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University and the former executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. He tells us stories of the right wing in academia—from the robber barons at the turn of the century, to the battles of today—and talks about how scholars and academic unions have pushed back.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Visit UnKoch My Campus to learn about the organization and their work, including groundbreaking reports and their campaigns. Plus, read more from Jasmine Banks in The Nation, including “The Radical Capitalist Behind the Critical Race Theory Furor.”
Visit James L. Turk’s academic page at the Centre for Free Expression. And check out his edited 2014 book Academic Freedom in Conflict: The Struggle Over Free Speech Rights in the University.
Read the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ report on the relationships between Canadian universities and corporations Open for Business on What Terms? An Analysis of 12 Collaborations Between Canadian Universities and Corporations, Donors, and Governments.
Dig into related works from the episode, and more on the Koch’s and their influence, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy Maclean and Jane Meyer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Plus, read more of Jane’s work on dark money in the New Yorker.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel, where videos of these interviews will be available next week.
If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn and our assistant producer this week was Jason Cohanim. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. David Moscrop is our research assistant and wrote the show notes. We had research and advising from Franklynn Bartol and Professor Marc Spooner.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us a research grant to look at the concept of neoliberal educational reforms. Professor Marc Spooner at the University of Regina is the lead academic advisor.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
58 min
October 08, 2021EP19: Seizing the Means of Run Production (ft. Dave Zirin of the Nation) [Rebroadcast]
Programming note: It’s Major League Baseball postseason and Darts and Letters is (coincidentally) on a break this week. In honour of the playoffs, we’re running one of our favourite episodes — one fit for the season.
America’s national pastime is being taken over by a woke mob and a global communist cabal. So say the Republicans. If only…! Racism, conservative nostalgia, and economic exploitation is baked into the MLB. We discuss what’s wrong with baseball, why baseball matters, and what needs to be done to fix it.
First (@6:51) Dave Zirin of the Nation breaks down the recent GOP hysterics over the 2021 MLB All-Star Game, and we have a wider conversation about left-wing sports journalism, and why sports ought to matter to the left–sports fan, and non sports fan alike.
Then (@32:42), Jeremy Wolf was drafted in the 31st round by the New York Mets. He recounts the struggles of his short-lived minor league career, including the crummy food, poverty-level wages, and frightening economic precarity. Minor leaguers need support, and Wolf is doing just that through his work with More than Baseball.
Plus (@50:04), Blue Jays writer Andrew Stoeten gives us the corporate history of Gordon’s favourite team, the Toronto Blue Jays. Canada’s team is owned by one of Canada’s major telecommunications monopolies; what does that mean for the Blue Jays baseball, and what does it say about corporatization in the wider MLB?
Finally (@60:06), philosopher Mark Kingwell reminds us why baseball is beauty, and why it ought to be protected. We discuss Kingwell’s philosophical, personal, and political reflections from his book Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters.
——————-FURTHER READING & LISTENING——————-
Subscribe to Jeremy Wolf’s The Grind Podcast and check out the work he’s doing with More than Baseball.
Subscribe to Andrew Stoeten’s Substack the Batflip for regular deep dives into all things Blue Jays.
Read more of Dave Ziron’s writing in the Nation, especially his article the the 2021 All-Star Game, the story about how things went very differently when something similar happened a decade ago, and his moving obituary of Hank Aaron.
Find Mark Kingwell’s op-ed in the Globe and Mail about the GOP’s recent hysterics around the 2021 MLB All Star Game, and listen to an old episode of CBC’s Ideas if you want to hear more about Fail Better.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers — such as Janice, Hart, and Sean — usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn, our assistant producer is Ren Bangert and our chase producer is Marc Apollonio. Our research coordinator is David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber. Our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us a research grant to look at the concept of “public intellectualism.” Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia is the lead academic advisor.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
1 hr 23 min
October 01, 2021EP35: The Bland Corporation (ft. Daniel Bessner)
There’s a foreign policy intellectual blob that serves as the architects for empire. They’re at academic departments, quasi-academic think tanks, and places like the RAND Corporation–famously lampooned in Dr. Strangelove as the BLAND Corporation. These boring calculator men are part of why we have forever war. These people are part of a long tradition that sees citizens as a problem to be managed.
The national security state is particularly contemptuous of the people it ostensibly serves. Left, right, doesn’t matter. The technocrats rule, making life and death decisions for home and abroad. And if you don’t like it? Too bad. No one asked you anyway.
On this episode, host Gordon Katic speaks with Daniel Bessner, Associate Professor at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Relations at the University of Washington, author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual, and co-host of the podcast American Prestige. Daniel explains how the ideas and ideology of the technocratic national security state came to be, who carries them, and how the defense-intellectual complex keeps it standing from the media to quasi-academic think tanks to academic departments and beyond.
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Have a look at Daniel’s book Democracy in Exile and check out his other books and articles on his academic homepage, including his co-authored volume The Decisionist Imagination: Sovereignty, Social Science and Democracy in the 20th Century.
Listen to his podcast, American Prestige, including the latest episode special “Auf Wiedersehen, Merkel.”
Read more of his popular writing in The Nation, including “Can We Live Without Twitter,” The New Republic, including “The Case Against Humane War,” and Jacobin, including “Everything You Need to Know About What’s Happening in Afghanistan — An Interview with Derek Davison.”
For some further reading on the national security state, dig into Top Secret America: The Rise of the American Security State by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin.
For more from Daniel, visit his personal homepage.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, we have a new YouTube channel featuring extended interviews with our guests. More to come! So subscribe today.
If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn. Our assistant producer is Ren Bangert. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. David Moscrop wrote the show notes and is a research assistant.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us with a research grant to look at the concept of “public intellectualism.” Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia is the lead academic advisor.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
43 min

About Darts and Letters

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This is about ‘arts and letters,’ but for the kind of people who might hack a dart. We cover public intellectualism and the politics of academia from a left perspective. Each week, we interview…