For a moment, all the eyes of the world were on GameStop. It’s unexpected, meteoric rise. It’s inevitable fall. The saga became a rorschach test for our politics. Was it a revolutionary moment, the many pushing back against the few? Was it an old school pump and dump, just folks out to make some money? And who was against whom, exactly? 

Well, it was…a spectacle. That’s for sure. We dive into the wild world of stocks, the bubbles of present and the past, and the spectacularized social media environment that is distorting our very understanding of true politics. Abandon all hope, ye who enter. 

——————-FURTHER READING & LISTENING——————-

——————-CORRECTIONS——————-

In an earlier version of this episode, Gordon says that Wall Street ‘put the squeeze on Robinhood, and Robinhood obliged.’ He was referring to widespread speculation about whether particular hedge funds influenced the company’s decisions. Robinhood was asked to testify before Congress about such questions. But they denied the accusations. Upon reflection, we really don’t have evidence to support our strong claim–so we retracted it, and re-uploaded a version of the podcast without that line.

Still, there are investigations about their revenue model, and a potential conflict of interest here between their funders and the retail investors they are supposedly serving. This deserves greater scrutiny.

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—————————-CONTACT US————————-

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—————————-CREDITS—————————-

Darts and Letters’ lead producer is Jay Cockburn, and our chase producer is Marc Apollonio. With research and support from Addye Susnick and David Moscrop.

Our theme song was created by Mike Barber, and our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.

This episode received support by 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.