The Chatterbox

Aaaand… we’re back! Welcome to the first episode of 2025, a year that I’m sure will prove, um, noteworthy? Today we’re moving on to another, and even smaller book (literally, it’s like 5 by 7 inches and only a hundred and seven pages, including the acknowledgements), No More Work; Why Full Employment is a Bad Idea by James Livingston, University of North Carolina Press, 2016. And fair warning, there are going to be a lot of ‘f-bombs’ in this episode - and the next, to be honest.

In this Episode? Work and Labor; Classicial Philosophy, history, economics; Aristotle, Marx, Arendt, and much more.

Join the conversation on Patreon!

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

“Question concerning Technology.” in Heidegger, Martin, David Farrell Krell, and Taylor Carman. 1977. Basic Writings : From Being and Time (1927) to the Task of Thinking (1964). Rev. and expanded ed. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Thought.
Livingston, James. 2016. No More Work : Why Full Employment Is a Bad Idea. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Links to check out:

PHILOSOPHY - The Good Life: Aristotle
HAC Bard. "Arendt on Resentment."
The Noble Leisure Project. “Aristotle on Work vs. Leisure.”
libcom.org "Socially Necessary Labor Time"  

Message Us!

Support the show

How did Chile's economic experiment reshape global economic thinking, and what can it teach us about the future of neoliberalism and populism in Latin America and beyond?

Sebastián Edwards is a professor of international economics at UCLA and writes about Latin American history, economics, and politics. His books include Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism, American Default: The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court, and the Battle over Gold, and most recently The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism.

Sebastián and Greg chat about the remarkable economic transformation in Chile over the last seven decades, the roots of neoliberalism and its global implications, the contemporary challenges facing Argentina, and what lessons can be gleaned from historical economic events like the U.S.’s default during the FDR era. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Recommended Resources:

• Augusto Pinochet
• Milton Friedman
• Paul Samuelson
• Ted Schultz
• Robert Mundell
• Arnold Harberger
• Jorge Alessandri
• José Piñera

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at UCLA
• Professional Website

His Work:

• The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism
• American Default: The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court, and the Battle over Gold
• Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism

Why could the U.S. justify a default while Argentina couldn't?

48:11: I think that the notion of excusable default  is important. If there is an act of God, and the Great Depression was thought to be, in part at least, an act of God, that was one element. The other one is that I think the Supreme Court rulings were very detailed and pedagogical,  and they explained that aspect of the justifiable default in a clear way.  And the third one is that the devaluation was very large, from $20.67 to $35. So, the problem with Latin America is that most devaluation crises are very timid.

On Chile's horizontal inequality

56:01: Chile is one of the most unequal countries in terms of income, but also it's very segregated.  [56:37] So, there is this horizontal inequality that I think is also important, and as the country developed and people got out of poverty, being treated in a disrespectful way by whiter citizens—there's also a racial component, but in Chile, it's not acknowledged all the time—but being treated without respect is not acceptable anymore.  People get resentful, right?  So, I think that all of that added to this quite unstable cocktail.

How inequality and slow growth created Chile's deadly cocktail

04:11: When you combine inequality with slower growth, then you have a really deadly cocktail. And that happened after 2014, and it made the criticism higher. And the third point is that there were some implicit promises that the supporters of the model made that did not happen. And that's mostly related to pensions—the fully privately run (not anymore, but originally) pension system based on individual savings accounts. The idea was that if things worked the way people thought they were going to work, workers would get a rate of replacement of about 70 to 80 percent of their income. It turns out they get about 25 percent instead of 70 or 75 percent, and people feel betrayed.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In a just world, John Protevi would be far more famous than Slavoj Zizek. An expert on the ideas of Deleuze & Guattari (among many other things), his work brings together continental philosophy, analytical philosophy, rigorous science and political radicalism. In this recording he talks about his new book Regimes of Violence, ranging over topics from the politics of neoliberalism to evolutionary psychology to the beauty of sport.

This is part of our series From Marx to Spinoza: Affect, Ideology, Materiality, co-hosted by Andrew Goffey, Jason Read and Jeremy Gilbert.

If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here.

If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here.

Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

Laura Jedeed, author of an article for the New Republic, talks about San Francisco and tech moguls’ plans to “fix” it. Yasha Levine, co-director of a new documentary, Pistachio Wars, talks about billionaire couple and self-styled philanthropists the Resnicks and their involvement in the California water crisis.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

Who and what are India’s land mafia? How do they operate, and why have they become so crucial to India’s land market? In this episode, we are joined by Chiara Arnavas for a discussion on the emergence over the past decades of a dynamic Indian land mafia that is centrally involved in moving land around, freeing it up for new uses, and passing it onto other actors for mega-profits. We analyze how the land mafia works, and what the implications are for social inequalities along the lines of class, caste, gender, and religion.

Chiara Arnavas is a Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo

Your host Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist and the leader of the Centre for South Asian Democracy at the University of Oslo.

Dating in Medellín, Colombia is being promoted to foreign men on YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms. Lots of the videos, in English and Spanish, contain misogynistic language and suggest that the local women are both accessible and easy. These videos are part of a wider trend of “passport bros” many of whom are American men, seeking life abroad in places marketed by content creators as being good for meeting women. In theory, adult men going to meet adult women is not a problem, but Medellin has a huge problem with sexual exploitation. It is often nicknamed by the press as ‘the world’s biggest brothel’. Since the pandemic the city has introduced curfews for underage girls in some neighbourhoods while NGOs work against the issue.

Listen in as we discuss how drones have changed the landscape of war.

Khalil Dewan is a dedicated researcher and practitioner with a strong focus on international law and human rights. 

Currently pursuing a PhD in Law at SOAS University of London, he is also a Member of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), SOAS Centre for Human Rights Law, and the Centre for the Study of Colonialism, Empire and International Law. 

Khalil's research primarily centers around the intersection of UK counter-terrorism practices, drone targeted killings, and international law. His work incorporates critical legal theories and the socio-legal method, with a particular emphasis on lived experiences. Khalil's academic journey includes the successful completion of an LL.M in International Law with merit at SOAS. 

I.G. @TheGambian

Twitter:

@MomodouTaal

@IbnSafad

Samaneh Moafi is the Assistant Director of Research at Forensic Architecture, a research agency operating across human rights, journalism, architecture, art, academia and the law. Their interdisciplinary investigations have been crucial in providing evidence in cases of state violence where ordinary and typical investigative journalism has failed.

Samaneh joins me today to discuss their most recent report released on the state of genocide in Palestine at the hands of Israel. ‘A Cartography of Genocide’ shows how Israel has repeatedly reshaped the Gazan territory, attacked citizens in safe zones, destroyed food and water systems, targeted medical infrastructure, attacked civilian infrastructure and targeted aid. They have come to the conclusion that the violence in Gaza is a systemic and organized campaign to destroy life.

Planet: Critical is 100% independent and community-powered. If you value it, and have the means, become a paid subscriber today.

Donald Trump is building the wealthiest cabinet in American history with 13 billionaires set to be part of his administration. That of course includes his vocal backer and X CEO, Elon Musk. But it’s not just the ones joining him in office. A parade of CEOs and business giants have met with him over the past month in Mar-A-Lago including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Canada’s Kevin O’Leary.

Even in a country where the super rich have always had an outsized role in American life, this moment stands out. But does it compare to the past and other administrations and why are they aligning themselves with Trump so publicly now?

To explore this shift we’re joined by Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University and the author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts