Hear the Bern

As the right dominates many online spaces, Briahna asks two prominent creators how more progressive voices can reach audiences on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. Jim Sterling is an independent video game journalist and commentator whose YouTube channel skewers the "AAA" gaming industry for its exploitation of both workers and customers. Hasan Piker, a journalist with The Young Turks, also livestreams on Twitch as HasanAbi, where he pushes back against right-wing arguments while chatting with thousands of followers.

Jim's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JimSterling

Hasan's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hasanabi

Excerpt from Zeynep Tufekci's TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads

Last week, Bernie announced that he would cancel all $1.6 trillion of student debt. All of it, for everyone. Briahna's conversations in this week's episode prove just how revolutionary Bernie's plan would be for the millions of Americans - young and old - delaying major life plans because of student loan payments. Plus, we talk with Jordan Long, a former Morehouse College student who argues that the charity of billionaires will never solve the student debt crisis.

We dive back into Bernie's speech on democratic socialism with the help of Bhaskar Sunkara, founder and editor-in-chief of Jacobin magazine. Bhaskar explains why it makes sense for Bernie to call himself a democratic socialist and traces the long history of democratic socialism in America. Plus, we hear from a few more parents what democratic socialism means to them.

Bhaskar's book, The Socialist Manifesto: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2939-the-socialist-manifesto

For this episode, we try something many of you have done yourselves: talk democratic socialism with our parents. We tune into to Bernie's big speech on democratic socialism from last week. And Briahna talks with Howard University's Dr. Greg Carr about the ways that democratic socialism and African American history are deeply intertwined.

Why do American workers face some of the weakest labor protections - and consequently some of the highest inequality - in the developed world? To find out, Briahna turns to Dr. Lane Windham, a Georgetown professor and author of Knocking on Labor’s Door, and Ryan Grim, DC Bureau Chief at the Intercept and author of the new book We’ve Got People. Dr. Windham tells a story of workers, including women and people of color, fighting for access to union rights on the eve of the country’s turn toward neoliberalism. On the political side, Ryan describes the Democratic Party’s fateful pivot away from labor power and toward big money politics in the early 1980s.

Ryan’s book We’ve Got People: https://strongarmpress.com/catalog/weve-got-people

Lane’s book Knocking on Labor’s Door: https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469632070/knocking-on-labors-door

“28 Ghosts IV” by Nine Inch Nails is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 License.

“Glueworm Evening Blues” by Lobo Loco is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.

Bernie staffers and DACA recipients Belén Sisa and Luis Alcauter talk about the power of coming out as undocumented. Activist Viridiana Martinez recounts her successful infiltration of an ICE facility, dramatized in the documentary The Infiltrators. Brianna Rennix, a lawyer and Current Affairs senior editor, fills us in on the difference between immigration and political asylum and shares her work on behalf of detained families, including children, in the Dilley Detention Center in South Texas.

The Infiltrators on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6885114

Brianna’s Current Affairs article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/05/waiting-for-the-holy-infant-of-atocha

Briahna talks to Christine Chen of APIAVote about the rising (and neglected) power of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters. Arjun Sethi, author of American Hate: Survivors Speak Out, discusses the spike in hate crimes under the Trump administration. And a panel of campaign staffers share what AAPI month does (and doesn’t) mean to them, as well as how to talk to your parents about Bernie.

Arjun's book, American Hate: Survivors Speak Out: https://thenewpress.com/books/american-hate

APIAVote: http://www.apiavote.org/

On this episode, Briahna explores how, as AOC recently put it, "justice is purchased." Thanks to cash bail, thousands of low-income Americans sit behind bars without any kind of trial, conviction, or sentencing — all because they cannot afford to buy their freedom. Lara Bazelon, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, explains how cash bail criminalizes poverty. Akeem Browder talks about how his brother Kalief spent three years in Rikers Island starting at age 16 simply because he couldn’t afford bail, and how the psychological toll of that experience led him to take his own life.

Bernie and AOC announcing their Loan Shark Prevention Act legislation: https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/976956259362039/

ACLU and Color of Change report on the companies behind bail bond agents: https://www.aclu.org/report/selling-our-freedom-how-insurance-corporations-have-taken-over-our-bail-system

WaPo article on the companies backing the anti-bail reform effort in California: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/29/petition-drive-backed-by-private-equity-company-pays-signature-overturn-californias-new-law-ending-cash-bail/

What does it mean to be "electable"? Do voters really gravitate toward "safe" (read: white, male, and centrist) candidates? How much do policies matter to voters? And can Bernie beat Trump?

To answer these questions and debunk some persistent polling myths, Briahna talks to Malaika Jabali, a public policy attorney and writer, and Ben Tulchin, president of Tulchin Research and the campaign’s pollster.

Malaika's Current Affairs article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/10/the-color-of-economic-anxiety

Rural Organizing poll on rural voters: http://ruralorganizing.org/polling-brief-2018-national-rural-survey

Pew poll on non-voters: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/01/dislike-of-candidates-or-campaign-issues-was-most-common-reason-for-not-voting-in-2016/

Longtime Bernie staffers share what makes the Senator tick. Jeff Weaver explains where Bernie falls on the Batman vs. Superman debate and tells stories of their youthful road trips around Vermont in the '80s. Chuck Rocha dishes on Bernie's IHOP habits. And David Sirota discusses his decision to leave journalism for the campaign and what it's like to work as Bernie's first speechwriter.