this serves as a bridge from the podcast formerly known as 'reunion.' this episode covers Friedrich Engels's seminal text - Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880). using this pamphlet, we explore how we should interpret modern day capital-M Medicine through a Marxist lens. just like you see throughout other sectors of society, the medical-industrial complex has its own division of labor and class distinctions that consolidate power into an owning/ruling class with the ability to dictate the conditions of healthcare finance and administration. what are these classes? who constitutes these classes? how do we use that information to understand politics? to create a better healthcare system? all of these important questions will be answered - and more! (whether u like it or not.)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.marxismandmedicine.com

what's good yall? (nothing right now to be exact.) #1 & #2 are back in this admittedly long ass episode where we dissect COVID-19, its implications on our healthcare system, and (importantly) the potentially drastic social-economic effects on the world's most vulnerable people. stock exchange is down, anxieties are up, and Clorox® is MIA. what's the best way to interpret a pandemic in the 21st century? by boldly traversing uncharted territory - something nobody else is trying - doin a podcast.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.marxismandmedicine.com

welcome back to our 2-part special on the medical-industrial complex... part 2. today #1 returns to center an important piece of modern propaganda - the individualisation of struggle - which tells us that our choices alone determine our future, while ignoring the collective economic shitstorm of society that plays a much bigger role in the poisoning of our social relationships in general.

how do we understand the improvement of society as an intersectional, collective struggle? a struggle based on individual needs, but more fundamentally class, as well as identity? how do we connect health justice with other societal goals like housing justice? the women's movement or queer liberation? reproductive justice? black, brown, and indigenous emancipation?

capitalism is an economic system that gives rise to certain political structures and social/cultural formations. it digs its claws into every aspect of our world to make money and commodity the primary endpoints of human life rather than mutual aid and cooperation across our planet. it divides people based on constructed differences of class, race, gender, sexuality, or citizenship status, people who are otherwise like-minded and want the same things: safety and prosperity for themselves, their families, and humanity. it is an economic system that creates leisure for the few and suffering for the rest; and while privatized healthcare is merely one way this suffering is extended to the masses, it interacts with many other sectors of society like education or food or child care to create the perfect storm of exploitation.
we cannot interpret anything in a vacuum because it's all connected - just like each and every one of us, no matter how alienated we all sometimes feel from each other.

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episode art by @toosphexy on instagram
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.marxismandmedicine.com

this episode is brought 2 u by an edited prior recording from #1.

this is part 1 on the medical-industrial complex, its immense flaws, its destructive capabilities, and how it relates to clinical healthcare workers and affects our relationships with our patients. as we explore this topic, we should think about how we could create a New Hippocratic Oath - something that doctors can actually be proud of; something that centers patient care; something that goes beyond just medicare for all.

artwork by coresident/friend of the show [name redacted]


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follow us on instagram: @reuniondocs

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.marxismandmedicine.com

welcome to the reunion podcast! in episode 1, #1 and #2 sorta just wing it entirely (???) but end up chatting about waning physician autonomy and the increasing role of administrators at work, the ever-increasing cost of healthcare to patients/providers, and the political propaganda that obfuscates the reality of how badly we need a single payer healthcare system in the united states.

[email protected]
follow us on instagram: @reuniondocs

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.marxismandmedicine.com