On December 17th, 2010, at approximately 11:30 AM, a 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi approached the governor’s office in his town, Sidi Bouzid. Standing in the middle of traffic, he shouted, “How do you expect me to make a living?” before dousing himself in gasoline and lighting a match.

Bouazizi never recovered from a coma and died in a Tunisian hospital several weeks later. But his self-immolation would literally ignite protests across Tunisia against state corruption and a lack of opportunities for young people. These demonstrations then spread across the region — most famously to Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria — in a series of uprisings now collectively known as the Arab Spring.

But while Bouazizi’s suicide may have been the immediate catalyst of the protests in Tunisia, we have to understand why he felt driven to such extreme measures if we are to discern the causes of the Arab Spring. In addition to exploring these reasons and the timeline of the protests themselves, we want to delve into the consequences of the demonstrations and the state of the region ten years later.

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Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

On Monday, April 26th, 1999, at approximately 11:30 AM, BBC presenter Jill Dando approached the front door of her house in Fulham, London. As she was about to put her keys into the lock, someone grabbed her from behind. He forced Jill Dando to the ground, so her face was almost touching the front step. According to one of Britain’s leading pathologists, the assailant then used his left hand to fire a single shot into Dando’s left temple. She died instantly.

Jill Dando was beloved among the British public. Her murder brought shock and confusion; why would anyone want to kill a newsreader? But 21 years, plenty of theories, and one overturned conviction later, the case of Jill Dando’s murder remains unsolved.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

Chances are, most of your closet probably consists of ready-made garments — clothing manufactured en masse to fit most people. And, most of us probably know that the conditions in these factories are less than ideal. International corporations like Nike and Gap have repeatedly been caught exploiting workers  — having them work long hours with little pay in factories with few safety precautions.

On April 24th, 2013, a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed, killing 1,134 people and injuring about 2,500 more. The incident is considered the deadliest structural failure accident in modern human history. But, it was more than a simple mistake on the part of the building’s architects or construction workers; it resulted from capitalist greed — valuing profits over workers’ safety. In this episode, we discuss the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

If you had internet access in 2012, you likely remember a film and social media campaign dubbed ‘Kony 2012’ — a drive to apprehend Ugandan militia leader and war criminal Joseph Kony. The 30-minute viral video created and posted by an organization called Invisible Children, Inc. urged viewers to spread awareness of Kony, with the mission of apprehending him by the end of that year.

In this episode, we have two stories unfolding at the same time: the first is the calamity of the Kony 2012 campaign — its fervid rise, rapid fall, and immortalization as an internet meme. But a second story lurks beneath Invisible Children’s glossy PR campaign — one which includes the commodification of activism, laundering United States imperialism in central Africa, and mining trauma for profit.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

On May 13th, 2006, British mountaineer David Sharp set out on a solitary expedition to the summit of Mount Everest. Though an experienced hobbyist climber, David never made it back down the mountain and is thought to have died on the 15th of May, 2006, at age 34. Whether he reached the peak is unknown.

Ascending and descending Mount Everest is extraordinarily dangerous; people die nearly every year climbing the mountain, bringing the total recorded death count to over 300 people. But David Sharp’s death, in particular, stirred controversy as several climbing expeditions passed him and did not — or were unable to — help him.

In this episode, we discuss the industry that has risen around climbing Mount Everest, the ethical responsibility to help those in need, and how — even on the world’s tallest mountain — capitalism encourages us to leave our brothers and sisters behind.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

On August 6th and August 9th of 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Combined, these bombs killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people. The two bombs — named Little Boy and Fat Man — were the first and only nuclear weapons used in armed conflict, though the global nuclear arsenal has increased to an alarming size.

In this episode, we discuss the atomic bombings of Japan — the precipitating events, the explosions themselves, and the controversy that has surrounded this use of nuclear weapons ever since.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

Henry Kissinger. George Schultz. James Mattis. William Perry. David Boies. What do these men have in common — besides being war criminals or attorneys representing war criminals? They all invested millions of dollars in a Silicon Valley start-up called Theranos. Unfortunately for them, the company once worth $9 billion dissolved in 2018 amid fraud investigations. Founder Elizabeth Holmes is set to face trial in 2021 for her role in this fraud. But who is Elizabeth Holmes, and how did a 19-year-old Stanford dropout become the face of Silicon Valley grifts?

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

On August 3rd, 2019, a gunman attacked the Walmart Supercenter near the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas. Armed with a Romanian WASR-10 rifle, the shooter killed 23 people and injured 23 others. As El Paso has a large population of reported Hispanic or Latino people, and that specific Walmart serves people from both the El Paso area and neighboring Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, the assault has been described by The New York Times as “the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern American history.” In this episode, we discuss the El Paso shooting and the fascist manifesto allegedly published by the killer.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

In the first few weeks of South Korea's coronavirus onset, efforts to test, contact trace, quarantine, and treat kept recorded infections down to just 30 people in the entire country. Then came Korea’s very own Typhoid Mary — Patient 31. The 61-year-old's escapades around the city of Daegu led to a cluster of over 5,000 cases in the area. Even stranger are Patient 31's connections to Shincheonji, Church of Jesus — a new religious movement many consider to be a cult. In this episode, we break down South Korea's COVID-19 response, what makes a cult, and whether Shincheonji is really to blame for the spread of the virus.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

If you’ve been listening to our podcast for a while now, you’ll likely have noticed that we fall pretty firmly on the side of prison abolition, but one big question looms: What about the sexually-motivated criminals? In this episode, we tackle the case of Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger and discuss whether prison successfully rehabilitated this misogynist menace to society, and how we might create a world that is safer for everyone.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DasCriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw