Mechanical Freak

Friends of the show Ryan Archibald and Brendan McElmeel are back to finish our discussion of the Byzantine structure of higher education institutions. We uncover the rot at that core of higher education and, guess what, it’s the same rot that is hollowing out everything in America!

Want to learn more about the onset of neoliberalism? Check out Ending the Myth!
https://www.mechanicalfreak.website/podcast/episodes/ending-the-myth-ep-23-rollback-pt-2-neoliberalism

Want to learn more about the way that neoliberalism has hollowed out higher education, see the work of Chris Newfield: https://chrisnewfield.org/?page_id=93

For more on the Byzantine funding of the university system, see The Dig podcast’s interview with Dennis Hogan: https://thedigradio.com/podcast/higher-ed-crisis-w-dennis-hogan/

Get more Mechanical Freak content by becoming a Patron!
https://www.patreon.com/mechanicalfreak

Brian is joined by old friend of the show Ryan Archibald and new friend of the show Brendan McElmeel for an exploration of higher education’s Byzantine labor system. Will we find light at the end of the maze or will we be killed by the Minotaur of adjunctification and budget cuts on the way? Only one way to find out!

Read more about the CSU contract debacle here:
https://truthout.org/articles/my-faculty-union-leadership-claims-a-win-but-their-compromise-eroded-our-wages/

Check out our interview with Ryan on Ending the Myth here:
https://www.mechanicalfreak.website/podcast/episodes/ending-the-myth-ep-12-the-politics-of-travel-w-ryan-archibald

Become a Patron and get all the extra Freak content here:
https://www.patreon.com/mechanicalfreak

The boys take a look into the future of high tech, literally! Then they discuss the JET taskforce’s raid of four Seattle gay bars over the weekend. Does the arrow of progress always bend toward justice? Or is reality more complicated than a story you tell children?

Follow Vivian McCall’s reporting on the JET raids at The Stranger here:
https://www.thestranger.com/authors/78925422/-vivian-mccall

For more on the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights in Seattle, check out our 2019 interview with Dr. Kevin at:
https://www.mechanicalfreak.website/podcast/episodes/dr-kevin-s-feel-good-rainbow-power-hour-pt-i

Become a Patron and get all the extra Freak content here:
https://www.patreon.com/mechanicalfreak

Greg and Brian catch up on some stories that we have been covering on the show. Tanya Woo, elected! (kind-of). Alec Baldwin, indicted! Boeing, the struggle continues! All that and more!

If you never want to fly on a plane again, check out this breakdown of the lawsuit against Spirit Aerosystems made by a plane-crank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSGujNq4bVM

For more on the bipartisan effort to turn the US-Mexico border into a charnel house, see Brian’s article “A War in the Desert” here:
https://jacobin.com/2018/05/united-states-mexico-border-immigration-deportation-military

Become a Patron and get all the extra Freak content here:
https://www.patreon.com/mechanicalfreak

This week on Mechanical Freak we’ve got Hannah Krieg from The Stranger to help us say our farewells to Andrew Lewis, the wettest council member ever to lose reelection.

Check out Hannah’s city reporting in The Stranger and her Lewis retrospective in particular: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/01/08/79333251/drugs-hotel-workers-waffles-what-happened-to-council-member-andrew-j-lewis

The boys get together to recap the UW National Championship debacle, lady problems at SPD, and an exciting new student outreach program at Florida State. Finally, we discuss South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ.

Read South Africa’s case against Israel here: https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf

Become a Patron and get all the sweet paywalled content here: https://www.patreon.com/mechanicalfreak

The boys get back together in the new year to talk about all the exciting new Seattle news. We check the help wanted ads at the Seattle Times before speculating on the new council and finish with a hot new cop-editorial in the Tacoma News Tribune. All that and more!!

Catch the rest of this episode by becoming a patron on Patreon!
patreon.com/MechanicalFreak

Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/94801190

The boys are joined by journalist and author Vincent Bevins to discuss his new book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. We have a wide ranging discussion about how the decade that produced the largest mass protests in human history, saw virtually nothing but setbacks for the Left internationally.

Get a copy of Vincent Bevins’ new book, If We Burn https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/vincent-bevins/if-we-burn/9781541788985/?lens=publicaffairs

Also, check out Vincent Bevins’ previous book, The Jakarta Method https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/vincent-bevins/the-jakarta-method/9781541724006/?lens=publicaffairs

Oh, and read his article about the American origins of the internet, “Surfin’ USA,” in The Baffler https://thebaffler.com/latest/surfin-usa-bevins

Finally, become a Patron and listen to our interview with The Stranger’s new police-beat reporter Ashley Nerbovig at patreon.com/MechanicalFreak

The boys share their thoughts on the death of Henry Kissinger and the resumption of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Finally, we talk with friend of the show Carl about what life is like under Israel’s unique brand of Apartheid.

Maybe now is a good time to go back and listen to our 5th Annual Thanksgiving Pageant Spectacular! https://www.mechanicalfreak.website/podcast/episodes/5th-annual-thanksgiving-pageant-spectacular

Come join us on Patreon, where this week we will be interviewing The Stranger’s new reporter covering the bad-cop-beat: patreon.com/MechanicalFreak