The Chatterbox

In Britain, the US and the EU a fresh crop of young commentators are readily available for TV and radio interviews. They’re articulate, they’re polished and they’re clearly media trained. So who’s backing them? Answer: a talent agency backed by the ultra-conservative Koch think tank and the Atlas Network. 

• GUEST: Olly Haynes, freelance journalist with the Byline Times and the Guardian
• PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer

Today host Lisa Dettmer spends the hour talking to Professor Lida Maxwell,  the author of the new book out by Stanford press called “ Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer love.” Rachel Carson, for those of you who may not know, is considered one of the progenitors of the mainstream environmental movement who garnered major public attention in 1962 with her best selling book “Silent Spring.”  But Lida Maxwell argues that Rachel Carson was not only a brilliant inspiring writer and lover of nature but a queer woman whose love of nature and great love with Dorothy Freedman was a model of how we can move beyond consumptive straight Capitalist desire to a relational horizontal co-creative love and wonder, a love  of both human and non-human life, a Queer love. Maxwell sees Carson’s horizontal non domineering love of nature not unlike the indigenous respect for all life that now informs much of our current environmental movement.  And she asks Can this love of human and non-human life serve as a basis of our political movement that is based not on fear or a  love that is  anthropomorphic,  individualistic,  a commodified love  but on a real love, an infinite love, based on mutuality and respect and a  queer joy.  And, she argues, this model of love can help us remember that our intimate lives matter in how we live and create our vision of the world we want to see.

Lida Maxwell is the Associate Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Boston University. She is the author of Insurgent “Truth and Public Trials: Burke, Zola, Arendt  the Politics of Lost Causes,” and “For Chelsea Manning, Coming Out and Whistleblowing Were Deeply Linked”

The post Rachel Carson- Queer Love with Lida Maxwell appeared first on KPFA.

In this episode of The Next Page, we uncover overlooked narratives of the United Nations' history, guided by Dr. Alanna O'Malley, associate professor at Leiden University. Recorded in Geneva during the recent META-UN academic conference on ideas relevant to multilateralism, Dr. O'Malley discusses her extensive research into the unseen contributions of Global South actors to the UN, challenging the traditionally Western-focused historical narratives. She shares insights from her project funded by the European Research Council, highlighting how these actors have dynamically engaged with and transformed the UN system over decades.

Resources: Ask a Librarian!

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/research/research-projects/humanities/the-invisible-history-of-the-united-nations-and-the-global-south-invisihist#tab-1

Where to listen to this episode 

Content   

Guest: Alanna O’Malley, Associate professor, Leiden University Institute for History

Host: Francesco Pisano, Director, UN Library & Archives Geneva

Production and editing: Amy Smith

Recorded & produced at the United Nations Library & Archives Geneva 

In the heart of Berlin’s Tempelhof-Schöneberg district sits a hulking, crumbling concrete cylinder—an abandoned relic of a Nazi plan to rebuild the city as a grand imperial capital. But this eerie structure isn’t just a forgotten engineering experiment; it’s a lasting monument to one of the Third Reich’s most colossal architectural failures.

The Nazi Block

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Paris Marx is joined by Makena Kelly to discuss how Elon Musk’s DOGE is reshaping the US government and the consequences that has for government employees and the wider public.

Makena Kelly is a senior writer at WIRED and writes the weekly Politics Lab newsletter.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Makena wrote about how DOGE is replacing government IT roles and also the COBOL Cowboys back in 2020.

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When it comes to online political culture, few personalities are as influential as Joe Rogan, host of the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast. And if you tune into the show these days, Rogan is a breathless defender of Elon Musk and his controversial role reshaping government. POLITICO’s Calder McHugh reports that’s driving away some of Rogan’s long-time listeners — the fans who made him so impactful in the last election. On POLITICO Tech, McHugh joins host Steven Overly to explain Rogan’s predicament and why other online personalities face a similar challenge. 

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How is football being used as a tool of power and influence in the Gulf? This week, Guy and Francesco sit down with Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a scholar at Rice University and expert on the region, to unpack the strategic playbook behind Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE’s deep dive into the beautiful game.

Kristian explains how these states leverage football not just for global prestige but as part of their long-term efforts to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas. From the legacy of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup to Saudi Arabia’s ambitious vision for the sport’s future, we explore what these moves mean for football fans and geopolitics alike.

Plus, we discuss Kristian’s upcoming book, The Kingdom of Football: Saudi Arabia and the Remaking of World Soccer, coming this August from Hurst—available for pre-order now!

In this episode my co-host and I had planned to talk about how the new Trump administration could create unity in America. The episode title had been, “Starting with a Clean Slate: How the Trump administration could create unity in America.” By starting anew, without a political agenda, we intended to explore how a new sense of community and pride in America could evolve. However, after the group in charge eliminated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in a day, we felt we needed to talk about the new way a greater divide in America is evolving and how psychoanalytic defense mechanisms can inform us about new dilemmas we are facing as a nation.

Denial, for example, appeared to be a part of what occurred. By refusing to acknowledge the existence or importance of systemic inequalities that DEI programs aimed to address, dismantling them is essentially denying reality. Since discrimination, inequity and racism are at an all-time high in our country, eliminating programs that were designed to improve them seems to overlook what is really occurring in America.

We also believe similar defense mechanisms are at play. The administration’s justification for ending DEI programs as “illegal” and “wasteful” can be seen as a form of rationalization. This defense mechanism involves creating logical-sounding reasons to justify actions that may be driven by underlying anxieties or biases. By framing DEI initiatives as discriminatory or ineffective, the administration rationalized their decision to eliminate them.

By attacking and dismantling DEI programs, it appears as though they have externalized internal conflicts, making them easier to confront and control. The strong push against DEI initiatives could be interpreted as reaction formation, where the administration overcompensated for underlying anxieties about diversity and inclusion by taking an extreme opposite stance.

Through the employment of these defense mechanisms, the Trump administration may be attempting to manage anxieties related to changing demographics, shifting power dynamics, and the challenges of addressing long-standing societal inequities. However, it’s important to note that these actions have significant real-world consequences for federal employees and the broader goals of creating a more inclusive and equitable society.

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