Krystal Kyle & Friends

The Fed remains a mystifying, secretive institution that defies classification. It combines elements of a public, governmental entity with elements of the private banking system. It’s run by a government-appointed team and owned by banks (through non-transferable stock). Confused? We can’t blame you. This week’s guest, Christopher Leonard, is the author of The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy. He takes us through the ins and outs of the Fed’s history and proceedings, giving us a big picture of how, at this institution’s behest, the rich keep getting richer.

Lords of Easy Money’s story leads us to today’s inequality and financial instability. In other words, it’s hard to fully understand our current moment of fiscal crisis without having a grasp on how the Federal Reserve was the key architect of past decades of financial policy, and whose interest that policy was made in. We’re grateful to Christopher for joining us. Remember that you can listen to this episode on major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pandora — and thank you for joining us, too.

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Happy first birthday, Krystal Kyle & Friends. With guests from Nina Turner and Thomas Frank to Noam Chomsky and beyond, we’ve covered a lot of ground this year, and we’re so grateful to you for joining us. We’ve debated the popularity of today’s socialist project and discussed how it will be successful going forward; we’ve taken stock of today’s Democratic Party, and with this week’s guest, Chris Hedges, we’re thinking about whether we should move beyond that party.

In the new year, we’re returning to a familiar question: is it possible to build an alternative to the Democratic Party, and how could it make concrete gains for the working class? Chris helps us think it through, contextualizing the “lesser evil” argument we hear every election cycle with the real assaults on civil liberties that Democrats have perpetuated in recent decades. This conversation was an opportunity for us to rethink the meaning of “lesser evil” as it’s used in contemporary politics, but also to imagine a political framework where votes are motivated by a positive leftist movement, not a false choice between two corporate parties.

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We’re at the peak of a season of hyper-consumerism, where the main struggles covered in mainstream media are not low wages and long hours for retail workers but supply chain issues delivering late holiday gifts. Against this backdrop, Max joins us for a necessary conversation on the mainstream narratives putting customers’ convenience over workers’ needs, the ongoing legacy of Reagan-era fetishization of wealth, and the problems and potential we see in current bipartisan support of strikes.

Right-wing talk radio and local news are breeding grounds for the idea that strikes, during which workers withhold their labor to strengthen workplace protections and benefits, come at a significant cost to the customer, who is deprived of those goods or services until the strike concludes. While our markets and consumer culture support the customer, workers can’t count on meaningful support from any major political parties. What if this were different, and both Democrats and Republicans were willing to make this a central issue? Right now, displays solidarity are as low-stakes as they come, tweeted words of support when it’s the policy that matters. But we see potential to bring over others on this essential issue, at a time when neither major party is making a serious bid to provide substantial support to the labor movement.

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Steven Donziger joined us for an exclusive interview this week, describing his experiences in prison for the crime of exposing Chevron’s environmental destruction. He was just released last week to serve the rest of his sentence at home. Steven still isn’t free, but as we discuss in this episode, there’s hope that his supporters can turn the tide — in his case and beyond. Advocacy from leftist groups and organizations, coverage from independent media, and outreach from everyday people contributed to a shift in public perception of his case. In turn, this shift changed the way that Steven’s case was treated in prison, he says.

While a grassroots movement rallied together in support of Steven, establishment media was notably silent. Only on the day of his sentencing did a mainstream news outlet step up to bring attention to the case. While their interests remain vested with Chevron and with other capitalist behemoths, ours remain with Steven — remembering that sharing his story and fighting together for his release can have a measurable impact, now and in struggles to come.

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This episode finds us sitting down with political writer Freddie DeBoer to discuss his work and ideas, particularly a debate around the popularity of the Left’s platform. In a recent piece for the New York Times, Freddie argues that major leftist electoral losses (think the two defeats of the Sanders campaign) can’t be written off as election-rigging; they must be explained by the fact that socialists don’t command the support of the voting base as well as their opponents. From the article’s title — “Democratic Socialists Need to Take a Hard Look in the Mirror” — it’s clear that, for Freddie, these electoral losses demand that the Left re-evaluate the popularity of its policies.

We bring in another perspective, arguing that among other issues, the left has been hobbled by the inaccessible and insular rhetoric that has been adopted in its struggle for some key policies. Freddie brings an interesting and well-argued perspective, and we think you’ll enjoy the debate. Thanks for joining us — and if you want to listen to this episode as a podcast, you can find it on Pandora, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.

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This week, we’re joined by professor of political science Adolph Reed Jr. to discuss the power of organizing versus mobilizing, how to address capitalism as a root problem, the task of getting money out of politics, and more.

We explore how and why the left has fallen short of building robust, lasting coalitions, and why it’s so important now. We also get into the central issue of money in politics — what kind of model, existing or otherwise, will bring about democracy in American elections? We’re incredibly grateful to Professor Reed for joining us on the show, and we hope you enjoy this thoughtful conversation.

You can listen to this conversation as a podcast on Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week, with guest David Doel, we talk about the business of labeling our politics as leftists. For someone like Kyle, who feels terms like “social democrat” might apply alongside elements of terms like “libertarian socialist,” a single label doesn’t necessarily jump out. After all, what is made to seem radical and revolutionary in mainstream U.S. politics is moderate in other industrialized countries, from single-payer healthcare to paid family leave and more.

We also cover big-ticket questions of principle and strategy when it comes to building independent platforms. David, as the host of The Rational National, shares his own expertise as someone who has built a massive online following from sharing leftist political perspectives — helping us understand how leftists can get the message out there.

You can listen to this episode as a podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s guest, Katie Halper, takes us through the country’s strike wave and other current events with her trademark humor and sharp political insight. Katie speaks openly about the frustration and despair she’s felt with electoral politics since the defeat of Bernie 2020, but she also points out the political developments that are giving her hope, and can give you hope, too.

As the host of The Katie Halper Show and co-host of Useful Idiots, Katie is a major voice in leftist independent media. Comedian, writer, and director, she’s lent her talents to many different projects, from stand-up comedy to political organizing to documentary work. We hope you enjoy this conversation — it’s also available on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s guest is Katie Rader, a professor of political science at Christopher Newport University, who was involved with Jacobin, YouGov, and the Center for Working Class Politics’s recent study on the kind of candidates, messaging, and political strategy that can win working-class votes and deliver for those voters. (You can read the study here.) How can leftist political campaigns build bona fides among working-class voters? The research shows that it’s about focusing on the issues, not shying away from the message of class struggle, steering clear of “activist speak” in favor of plain terms for material solutions, and much more — Katie lays it all out for us in this week’s episode.

You can listen to this conversation as a podcast on Substack, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s guest, TJ Kirk, gets us to think about atheism, nihilism, morality, and the social role of religion. You might know TJ from his YouTube presence as The Amazing Atheist, where he’s discussed his atheist perspective in front of millions of viewers. Kyle’s conversation with this week’s guest gives us the opportunity to reconsider conventional takes on our value systems: on the topic of nihilism, TJ makes the case that forgoing a greater meaning behind our existence doesn’t require giving up a personal sense of purpose and appreciation of life. In fact, rethinking or freeing ourselves from moral codes that don’t improve our lives might give us the opportunity to find our real purpose, rather than to follow the one that is ascribed to us.

We’re grateful to TJ for this deeply philosophical discussion, one that also touches on his own experience building a massive online platform that has reached so many people on personal, engaging topics. You can also find this conversation on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe