Krystal Kyle & Friends

This was a banner week for liberals making the case for political unity. Make no mistake, though: a long history of unity went unmentioned in Joe Biden’s inaugural speech and in media reports on the new political moment. Biden’s own presidency was made possible by the rallying of fellow establishment candidates around his failing campaign on Super Tuesday. Far from “healing the soul of the nation,” this unity among financial, political, and media elites has had devastating consequences for decades on the majority of Americans and is deployed cynically to maintain a status quo that gave us Trump and denies us Medicare for All.

Sen. Nina Turner is now running for Congress because she heeds a higher political mandate than unity. In our fourth conversation on Krystal Kyle & Friends, we’re joined by this visionary leader to discuss her campaign for Ohio’s eleventh congressional district, her theory of change, and her thoughts on how a people’s candidate interacts with the political establishment.

Subscribe now to watch the video or listen to the audio above! The audio is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all the major podcasting platforms.

As Nina will tell you, staying “unbought and unbossed” is not a recipe for winning the adoration of the media, of party elites like Pelosi, or of top-dollar campaign donors. But as Sen. Turner believes, referencing the legacies of Shirley Chisholm and Fannie Lou Hamer, it is the only way to challenge the power of institutions that keep the people from rising up.

Those familiar with her work on Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign won’t be surprised to learn that at a time when working people are in uniquely dire straits, Sen. Turner is building a movement to bring those people to Congress with her. You’ll want to hear all about this movement — exactly what this political moment is calling for — and you can start by listening Episode 4 of Krystal Kyle & Friends, where Nina Turner spells it all out for us.

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

First off, we can’t thank you all enough for the remarkable response to the first episodes of KK&F. We’ve been blown away. This is the last week that the video episode will be free here and on Kyle’s channel. So if you want to continue to get the video, subscribe below. The audio will always be free here on Substack and on all the normal podcasting platforms. Next week we have the incomparable Nina Turner on!

In this week’s episode, we sit down with Thomas to flesh out the story of how the Democrats abandoned working-class politics, how Republicans seized the populist narrative, and how Americans can look to a people-led political movement in our own past as a bulwark against Trumpism. Thomas is a leading voice on this topic, as he demonstrates in books from What’s the Matter with Kansas? to last year’s The People, No. Thomas Frank argues that the Democratic establishment has displayed a “lack of faith in ordinary Americans” for decades, right down to Hillary Clinton’s support for Reaganite policies and ideas in her 2016 run for the presidency. On the opposite side of the aisle, Republican elites openly embrace the gutting of social support systems and the oppression of labor. The Trumpian maneuver is to channel legitimate grievance into endless culture war. But Democrats play easily into their hands by centering their party around scolding ordinary people. That’s why “populism” has become a dirty word among liberal politicians and commentators: they use the Trump mob to indict all working people and to crush the core populist idea that ordinary people should have power and a say in governance.

As Thomas argues in his own work, building a strong American left from the lessons and legacy of the Populist movement is precisely what we need to do in the present. Listen to our conversation with Thomas — available here and on major streaming platforms like Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts — to get a sense of how we honor and learn from that legacy. To become a paid subscriber and access the videos of our weekly conversations on Krystal Kyle & Friends, click the button below. Audio of KK&F will remain free as always, and we’re so glad to have you listening in.

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

During our pre-interview conversation on Tuesday with this week’s guest, Bhaskar Sunkara, Bhaskar raised the issue of polarization. What kind of polarization is actually necessary not to harm the left and erode democracy, but to support it? We could not have anticipated how timely this topic would become. A deeply radicalized right-wing group stormed the U.S. Capitol the following day. Whether this insurrection was a direct grab for power or a symbolic maneuver — which we discuss at the start of our second episode — it has brought the political themes of polarization, protecting democracy, and building durable political power to center stage. We delve into these topics at even greater length in our conversation with Bhaskar, available in audio above, in video for our paid subscribers, and on streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher.In this conversation, Bhaskar argues that it isn’t enough for the left to demand polarization without substance. Within a liberal framework, fascism is presented as the opposite of order and decency; these two poles set the terms for political discussion. But, as Bhaskar points out, the liberal representatives of “order and decency” are Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden — two people who have dedicated careers to promoting an elite-friendly status quo. The left needs polarization that is centered on class struggle against exploitation. While Trump exists as a threat to American democracy, neoliberals will weaponize that threat to shut down progressive demands. To break out of this bind, the left must build power strategically — working in coalitions only when meaningful change can be delivered, and never compromising the anti-establishment spirit that seeks to put the people in power.It’s a pleasure to hear Bhaskar discuss the political background that led him to found Jacobin and become a prominent figure on the American left. From Marx, he gained an understanding of history through the lens of class struggle, but critical to his politics and to the politics of Jacobin is the project of making these fundamental ideas accessible, not alienating. As Bhaskar puts it, these ideas offer answers to big questions like “Who gets to dictate decisions about how society is structured?” — questions that are deeply relevant to the working class in America and around the world. In a country where the moon landing was a major political priority but ending homelessness is not, the left has the insight to point out why government isn’t answering to human need. To hear more about how we go about changing that, and where we go from here, Krystal Kyle & Friends invites you to listen to our conversation with Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto. We hope you enjoy it, and as always, we’re so grateful to you for tuning in.

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

When we were considering who to have on our very first episode, Marianne seemed like the obvious choice. Why? Well she’s maybe uniquely positioned to help make sense of the hell we just lived through in 2020 and situate it in the broader sweep of American history, the current political moment and our own deeply personal experiences with the universe and the human experience. We both also felt like the events of 2020 had brought us closer to some of Marianne’s views, making us more compelled to explore her synthesis of politics with deeper questions about health, happiness, and meaning. She did not disappoint.

In this (first!) episode, Marianne discusses her intellectual influences, her opposition to the status quo of the Democratic Party, and her views on the populist energy bubbling up around Medicare for All and COVID stimulus checks. Bringing all of these topics together, of course, is Marianne's fierce advocacy for the value of humanity and the promise of a more just world.

What you may find striking is that Marianne transcends the "new-age" spiritual label that is often ascribed to her. Given her attentiveness to the current issues that Americans are facing -- from unaffordable healthcare to hostile elites in power -- Marianne is clearly sensitive to modern struggles. Yet she's also drawing upon a greater tradition of humanitarians and philosophers, those who have argued for generations that human beings inherently deserve opportunities to flourish intellectually, spiritually, and socially. In this way, Marianne offers a perspective that you can't get anywhere else. Hers is a vision that marries pressing demands for justice with profound intellectual considerations of happiness, peace, and the things that give life meaning. After listening to our conversation with her, we think you’ll agree: Marianne Williamson is someone to take very, very seriously.

We hope that you enjoy this (first) episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends! For the next few weeks, you’ll have access to video recordings of our Friday interviews through Secular Talk. After that, paid subscribers to our Substack will have access to the video every Friday. The audio will post on Saturdays and always be free to all here on Substack and on all the major podcasting platforms. Apple takes a little while to verify so it will be a couple weeks before you can find the audio there but it’s available now on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google and more. Happy New Year! Appreciate you all! Enjoy!

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