The Future Is A Mixtape

On this episode of The Future Is A Mixtape, Matthew & Jesse go beyond Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next and his apt citations of policy successes in other societies found outside the U.S., and will instead grapple with the stasis of the Left and its tragic inability to wrest change from the Death-Dealers of Neoliberalism. How can we learn from both the past and present to make another world possible? How can we transcend the suffering and carnage found in our daily lives that are as deceptively petty as buying child-socks at Target, but are, nonetheless, consumer rituals made heavy by unseen violence? Join our co-hosts as they do a politically drunk version of Jiu-Jitsu via the wreckage of what lies behind, around and ahead of us. Jesse & Matt will then imagine what strategies and tactics are most deserving of our attention in the here-and-now, so we can transcend The Poison Pyramid and finally arrive at The Golden Square.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Prior Discussions on The Poison Pyramid:

Episode 001 on Religion: "The Desire for Certainty"

Episode 002 on Capitalism: "The Invisible Hand"

Episode 003 on Celebrity: "Star-Fuckers"

Prior Discussions on The Golden Square:

Episode 007 on Food: "Grammars of the Palate"

Episode 008 on Shelter: "Gimme Shelter"

Episode 009 on Healthcare: "An Apple A Day . . ."

Episode 010 on Education: "Squaring the Golden Square: Education"

Viewing Copies of Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next

What is a ShitBox? "The ShitBox Commercial Product Review"

The History of Basic Income's Origins from Thomas Paine & Beyond

Mother Jones Magazine: "250 Years of Campaigns, Cash, and Corruption: From George Washington to Citizens United, a Timeline of America's History of Political Money Games"

Moyers & Company: One-Hour Documentary - "The United States of ALEC"

The Original Exposé on the Koch Brothers' Wealth and Political Manipulation by The New Yorker, published in 2010: Jane Mayer's "Covert Operations: The Billionaire Brothers Who Are Waging War on Obama"

A Story of Winners and Losers in 99 Homes: YouTube Excerpt of Michael Shannon Discussing Why America Only Bails Out the Winners

Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes: The Feature Film. Starring Laura Dern, Michael Shannon, and Andrew Garfield.

The Los Angeles Review of Books: "On Bureaucracy and the Left" by Guy Patrick Cunningham

David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and The Secret Joys of Bureaucracy

The Norwegian American: "How Norwegian Do It: National Elections in Norway"

The 28ers' Official Website: "The organization was established in 2012 from the ashes of Occupy Riverside, and is now a 501(c)4 non-profit that aims to pass a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by creating exclusive public financing for all federal elections, and forever sever private wealth from politics."

Joe Scarborough in Politico: "Obama's Friendship with Wall Street" (2011)

The Sunlight Foundation: "The Max Baucus Health Care Lobbyist Complex"

Lawrence Lessig's TEDtalk: "We the People, and the Republic We Must Reclaim"

Counterpunch: "The Woman Who Blew the Whistle on Halliburton Gets Canned"

Financial Times on No-Bid Contracts: "Contractors Reap $138bn from Iraq War"

UC Davis' Center for Poverty Research: "What Is the History of the Minimum Wage?"

The Official Website for Wolf PAC: It's Vision, Plan and Course for Actions

Wolf PAC's Progress Toward Calling for a Constitutional Convention: Five States Thus Far

What Is an Article V Convention? It's Origins, History and Potential for Change.

The ERA Movement: The Equal Rights Amendment Act

Beacon Broadside: "Phyllis Schlafly: Still Wrong (and Mean) After All of These Years"

Old Enough to Die in War, But Not Old Enough to Vote? A Wikipedia History of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and How Student Protests Pushed Congress to Enact Its Ratification Process for Later Passage in 1971.

The Washington Times: "Noam Chomsky: The Republican Party Most Dangerous Organization 'in Human History'"

The Washington Post: "Democrats Troll House Republicans, Sing and Wave 'Bye-Bye' as AHCA Passes"

Youtube Video of Democrats Singing "Goodbye" Song

Youtube Video of Democratic Convention Where Sarah Silverman Says to Berners: "Can I Say to the Bernie-Or-Bust People: You're Being Ridiculous!"

Gawker: "Report: Hillary Clinton Used Static Noise Machine to Prevent Reporters from Hearing Fundraising Speech"

CNN News: "Sanders Supporters Shower Clinton Motorcade with Dollar Bills"

Jane F. McAlevey's No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age

Moyers & Company: Marshall Ganz on Making Social Movements Matter: "Occupy Mistook a Tactic for a Strategy"

Murray Bookchin: Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm

Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: The Climate Versus Capitalism

Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams: Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work

What was the Mont Pelerin Society, Its Aims & Who Was Its Founders?

Nancy MacClean's Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

The North Star: Mark Fisher's "Exiting the Vampire Castle"

Russell Brand's Brilliant Counterpunches When Being Cross-Examined by Jeremy Paxman on BBC's Newsnight (& Not Getting All the Ethical Issues Right - How DARE HIM!)

Cenk Uygur's Ill-Conceived Idea of Starting Justice Democrats Instead of Doubling Down on Wolf PAC

New Poll Shows Money in Politics Is A Top Voting Concern

According to 2015 Study, 90% of Democrats, 84% of Republicans and 80% of Republicans Say That Money in Politics Has Too Much of an Influence on Our Democracy

The Los Angeles Times: "California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelves single-payer healthcare bill, calling it 'woefully incomplete'"

Ryan Skolnick: "Anthony Rendon Is Wrong: SB 562 Is Not Woefully Incomplete"

Robert Pollin's Defense of SB-562 in The Intercept: "Why Single Payer, Now, Is for Real"

Feel Free to Contact Jesse & Matt on the Following Spaces & Places:

Email Us: [email protected]

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The Future Is A Mixtape

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Beyond just talking about rabbits shitting outside their cages, in this episode of The Future Is A Mixtape, Jesse & Matt will provide a sustained analysis on Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next. Not only was this the finest documentary released in 2015, but the film is Michael Moore's magnum opus without parallel or peer in his storied and fecund oeuvre. After shooting and releasing a misshapen and badly organized documentary Capitalism: A Love Story in 2009, it seemed that the director had lost his vision or was in some sleepy and lonesome lull. But it's important to remember that the same lull in vision during his early career with Canadian Bacon (1995) and The Big One (1997) also appeared right before his breakout films, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. By going invisible for six years after the release Capitalism: A Love Story, shooting in 'secret locations' unknown to anyone, Michael Moore came back fully revitalized and more sophisticated in his rhetoric and tactics of persuasion, by rejecting partisanship and labels in order to reveal why other countries just simply do it better when it comes to solving daunting societal problems, such as work-stress, malnutrition, K-12 educational failures, student debt, work-life balance, drug addiction, prisons, as well as the loss of women's rights and demanding government reforms. Jesse & Matt hope to tell you why Where to Invade Next is so vital to revving up America's rudderless drift. They will also describe why the film's uses of framing and persuasion are worth stealing--especially given the left's tragic history at winning anything of lasting consequence amidst the Drum & Death March of Neoliberalism.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Wired Magazine's "Good Enough: Celebrating 25 Years of the Goonies"

Noam Chomsky & The Rabbit Cage: Widening the Floors of the State to Eventually Shit Outside of the Rabbit Cage

What Is Political Efficacy, and Why Is It a Better Measuring Stick Than Ideology?

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Manifesto Being Displayed at Campaign Tour-Stops

Classical Rhetoric: The Three Means of Persuasion: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

1: Michael Moore Invades Italy - Rest & Relaxation

Partial Clip of Where to Invade Next When Michael Moore Visits Italy

LUXOS on the Italian Suit-Making Masters: "Lardini: A Story Made in Italy"

The History and Personalities of Ducati as It Celebrates Its 90th Anniversary

Italy and Its Untold History of the 'Long Vacation': Six to Eight Weeks of Vacation

Italy's History of the Paid Honeymoon & the Tradition of an Extra Month of Pay for Italian Citizen's Vacations (Called the 13th Month Paycheck by Matthew)

John Maynard Keynes' Utopian Idea That the 15-Hour Work Week Was Inevitable

Italian Five-Month Maternity Leave: "Maternity Leaves Around the World"

Sweden's Poster Campaign for Paternity Leave: Here, Here and Here

Why Do 90% of Sweden's Fathers Take Paternity Leave?

Why Germans Call Americans 'Robots': The U.S. Is the Most Overworked Nation

Sam Lowry's Worker and Student Struggles in Italy: 1963-1973

Utopian, Revolutionary Socialism Requires Collective and Continual Struggle

2: France - School Lunches & Children's Nutrition

Full Clip of Where to Invade Next When Michael Moore Visits France

Quartz Media: "A Typical School Lunch for Kids in Paris vs. New York"

British Mum & American Dad Experience French School Meals

France Spends Less on School Lunches Than the U.S.

France's Tax Stubs Details Where Its Taxes Go; America Doesn't

ThinkProgress: "Study Confirms That Abstinence Education Has Utterly Failed At Preventing AIDS In Africa"

Salon Magazine: "Abstinence only, rebranded: Failed right-wing sex-ed policy returns as "sexual risk avoidance"

U.S. Teens Five Times More Likely to Become Pregnant Than French Teens

Memorable Jesse Herring Quote: "Life in America Is a Maze of Electric Fences"

John Oliver on Why America's Sexual Education Programs Rely on Ignorance, Fear, Shame and Punishment

The Failure of America's D.A.R.E. Program: "Why 'Just Say No' Doesn't Work"

3: Finland - Best Place for K-12 Education in the World

The Atlantic: "The Place Where Ranking Schools Proves They're Actually Equal"

Dr. Pasi Sahlberg's on Youtube: "What Can We Learn from the Finnish Education System?"

The Bryan Callen Show: Podcast Episode 173: Pasi Sahlberg & Finland's Education System: Only 10% Finnish of Students Take Assessment Exams Because You Only Need 10% to Find the "Blood" Results; America Takes 100% of the Blood.

Money in Politics: Testing Industries in America, Like Pearson, Make a Lot of Money Off Common Core and Testing Regimes

The Washington Post: "Eight Problems with Common Core Standards"

Chicago Study Finds Mixed Results for AVID Program

Charter Schools Don't Need to Be Tested Like State Schools & Other Dirty Secrets About the Privatization of the Commons

Noam Chomsky: Defund the Public Sphere, and Then Blame the Teachers When You Defund the Schools. "Manufacturing Failure" Let the things that are public fail.

4: Slovenia - Debt-Free College Education

The Washington Post Highlights Slovenia: "7 Countries Where Americans Can Study at Universities, in English, for Free (or Almost Free)"

Slovenian Student Protests Explode Over Worsening University Conditions

BBC News: "Students Warn MPs of Tuition Fees 'Backlash'"

The Daily Californian: The History of UC Tuition Since 1868

The State Hornet: "The California State University and University of California systems have changed terminology from "fees" to "tuition," in hopes of clarifying where student money is spent and to address problems with Post-9/11 GI Bill processing." (Published During the Tuition Crisis in 2010.)

5: Germany - Work, Labor Rights & Acknowledging State Crimes

The Germans Have a 36-Hour Work week, But Are Paid for 40 Hours

Boardroom Controlled by German Workers: Control Simple Majority Vote

BBC News: Volkswagen's Lies About Diesel Performance Reported by Its Own German Workers; Whistleblowers Protected in Germany

GQ Magazine: "The Real Story of Germanwings Flight 9525 Crash"

Slate Magazine: "How Do German Students Learn About the Holocaust?"

The Washington Post: "Germany welcomed more than 1 million refugees in 2015. Now, the country is searching for its soul."

The Huffington Post: "Why Doesn't America Have A Museum of Slavery"

David Amsden in The New York Times: "Building the First Slavery Museum in America"

6: Portugal - Decriminalization of All Drugs

Samuel Oakford in Vice News: "Portugal's Example: What Happened After It Decriminalized All Drugs, From Weed to Heroin"

7: Norway - Rehabilitation as Punishment

Reddit User Posts Images of Dorms in Macedonia Versus Images of Norwegian Prisons

Time Magazine Photo Narrative on Norway's Idea of Incarceration: "Inside The World's Most Humane Prison System"

The New York Times: "The Radical Humaneness of Norway's Halden Prison"

"A survey of inmates who were released in 2005 put Norway's two-­year recidivism rate at 20 percent, the lowest in Scandinavia, which was widely praised in the Norwegian and international press. For comparison, a 2014 recidivism report from the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics announced that an estimated 68 percent of prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years."

Business Insider: Norway Has the Lowest Recidivism Rate of 20% Versus America's Recidivism Which Is 80% in ContrastHow Norway Best Expresses Ubuntu Culture? Prisoners Vote First in the Nation

NPR News: Obama Is the First Standing President to Go to a Federal Prison

The Express Tribune: "Norway Gunman Wants Japanese Psychiatrist: Lawyer"

8: Tunisia - Women's Rights & Governmental Reform: Part I

Tunisia Live: "Abortion in Tunisia: A Shifting Landscape"

ERA Movement (Equal Rights Amendment) in the US: Unfinished Business

Article 46 of the Newly Passed Tunisian Constitution: "The state shall take all necessary measures in order to eradicate violence against women."

Mikhail Bakunin: "I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation."

Time Magazine: "Bouazizi: The Man Who Set Himself and Tunisia on Fire"

Al Jazeera News: "Mohamed Bouazizi: Was the Arab Spring worth dying for?"

9: Iceland - Women's Rights & Governmental Reform: Part II

BBC News: "The Day Iceland's Women Went on Strike [in 1975]"

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir: The First Woman President in the World to Be Democratically Elected

ThinkProgress: "Iceland, Where Bankers Actually Go To Jail For Committing White-Collar Crimes"

10: The Berlin Wall - How Ideas Like Prisons Can Be Dismantled

Nations, Like Any Human-Made Structure, Can Change:

Nina Turner's Riveting Speech for Single Payer in California, SB-562: "Whenever you feel like you're in a tomb, imagine you're in womb."

The Huffington Post: "Bernie Sanders' Socialism Is as American as Apple Pie"

Feel Free to Contact Jesse & Matt on the Following Spaces & Places:

Email Us: [email protected]

Find Us Via Our Website . . .

The Future Is A Mixtape

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On this episode of The Future Is A Mixtape, Jesse & Matt finally shoot off some long-stored Roman Candles, letting their fireworks rain down on an area of community life they've spent an inordinate amount of time living inside of: the looking glass of education. As the fourth node of The Golden Square, education is the capstone of these most basic and essential human rights. It's hard to imagine any human future that's vital or dynamic without education's essential place in the foundation of society. The co-hosts will both celebrate this cornerstone of the Golden Square as well lament its capture and brutalization from Neoliberalism's Extermination Matrix. In the last section of the discussion, Matt & Jesse will blast-out their final volleys of Roman Candles by outlining a utopian future and framework for education that all of humanity so richly deserves. And in this slice of imagineering, our guides will assert that education is a right that should be extended from the cradle to the grave.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Stephen Jay Gould: "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."

• As quoted in New Scientist, March 8, 1979, p. 777

John Rawls and The Veil of Ignorance: A Theory of Justice

Stephen Fry Narrates an Animation About John Rawls' Idea of The Veil of Ignorance

When Should Kids Learn to Read, Write, and Do Math?

Study: Holding Kids Back A Grade Doesn't Necessarily Hold Them Back

The Beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses

Can Jehovah's Witnesses Have Friends Outside Of Their Religion?

Number of Educational Institutions in the U.S.

The War On Teachers: Why the Public is Watching it Happen

George Bush's Dastardly & Doofus No Child Left Behind

Obama's Braindead Program for Education With His Race to the Top

In 2006, Finland Ranked #1. Even Though the Results Have Declined, Finland Still Ranks Among the Top Countries.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) - 2015 Interactive World Map

U.S. Students' Academic Achievement Still Lags That of Their Peers in Many Other Countries

The 2017 Condition of Education Report

LARPing: Live Action RolePlaying - The Future of Education? Study: Suspensions Harm 'Well-Behaved' Kids

Chart: See 20 Years of Tuition Growth at National Universities

Tuition and Fees and Room and Board over Time, 1976-77 to 2016-17

'The Tuition Is Too Damn High'

The Student Loan Debt Crisis in 9 Charts

Student Loan Debt Statistics 2017

Student Loans Owned and Securitized, Outstanding

State Cuts to Higher Education Threaten Quality and Affordability at Public Colleges

Who Got Rich Off The Student Debt Crisis

Noam Chomsky: The Death of American Universities

Henry A. Giroux - Thinking Dangerously: The Role of Higher Education in Authoritarian Times

University of California: State Spending on Corrections and Education

The High Salaries & Lavish Benefits of University Administrators

Benjamin Ginsberg in Washington Monthly: "Administrators Ate My Tuition"

The Utopia Of Rules By David Graeber

Daniel Pink - "Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose"

10 Ultra-Successful Millionaire and Billionaire College Dropouts

Famous Directors Who Never Went to Film School

UC Davis Chancellor Resigns After Pepper-Spray Scandal

Lecture by David Graeber: Resistance In A Time Of Total Bureaucratization

Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

Feel Free to Contact Jesse & Matt on the Following Spaces & Places:

Email Us: [email protected]

Find Us Via Our Website:

The Future Is A Mixtape

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On this episode, Jesse & Matt discuss the third most important element of The Golden Square which is so simple and obvious, that it's remarkable this idea is even contested as a human right in the Yankee-lands of Ol' Red, White and Blue: the absolute right to healthcare for every human being on Earth. Matthew will provide a surprising prologue about what's suddenly taken place in his personal life since this episode's initial recording and open up about his mother's life-long illness; in call & response fashion, Jesse will then talk about what it was like to get healthcare in Sarah-Palin-Land as a child. The co-hosts will also explore their personal relationships to this essential cornerstone to The Golden Square, and their own anxieties about having access to healthcare as middle-aged men with pre-existing conditions. And lastly, Matt & Jesse will look at healthcare systems around the world, and offer up a poignant portrait of the very near and immediate struggles facing activists as they fight for a momentous Single Payer bill in California (SB-562).

Mentioned In This Episode:

Matthew's Heavy-Breathing Prologue:

What Is a Double Pulmonary Embolism? Wikipedia Wants to Help.

The Speaker of the State Assembly, Anthony Rendon, Blocks SB-562

Why Is Single Payer in California Being Blocked? Money in Politics.

The Start-Dates for Universal Healthcare in Other Nations: A 20th Century Invention Ready for America's 21st Century?

Prologue Over & Now for the Actual Show!

Kathy Griffin / Reza Aslan: Why Free Speech Is for Everyone! We Believe In It!Jehova's Witness & Blood Transfusions: Wikipedia Provides Bloodless Triage

The Hanford Reservation, Plutopia: "The Bomb and the Explosions of U.S. Suburbs"

Neil Burton in Psychology Today: "A Short History of Bipolar Disorder"

The Fat Man & Little Boy Bombs: "The Men Who Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

Ronald Reagan's 'Strange' Gift: COBRA: Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985

PBS Newshour: 70% of American College Teachers Are Part-Time/Adjuncts

Explaining Neoliberal Tourette Syndrome (NTS): Michael J. Sandel's What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

George Lakoff's Don't Think Like Elephants: Know Your Values & Frame the Debate

George Lakoff's Metaphors We Live By

YouTube Clip of George Lakoff: "Idea Framing, Metaphors and Your Brain"

Salon Interviews Psychologist Gail Saltz: "Study: Liberals and Conservatives Have Different Brain Structures"

Prefrontal Cortex Last to Form in Humans & Why Teenagers Do The Craziest Things

Saul D. Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Practical Guide for Realistic Radicals

Saul D. Alinksy on Being Your Own Witness & Why the Right Hates Him So Much

Why the Left Falsely Thinks Logic Will Win the Day: "Keep Losing Arguments? A Psychologist Explains Why Emotions Are More Persuasive Than Logic."

Western Society's Classic Understanding of Rhetoric: "The Three Means of Persuasion: Pathos, Logos & Ethos"

The U.S. Metrics For Healthcare Delivery Are Both Dizzying & Sad:

We Spend 3 Trillion for Healthcare Annually

U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective

National Health Expenditures 2015 Highlights

The United States Has Lowest Life Expectancy in the Industrialized World & the Rate Actually Went Down for First Time in Decades

We Have the Highest Infant Mortality Rate in the Industrialized World

62% of US Bankruptcies from Healthcare Emergencies

Medical Bankruptcy accounts for majority of personal bankruptcies

Top 10 Reasons People Go Bankrupt

Warren Buffett: America's Healthcare Costs "the Tapeworm to American Competitiveness"

What Is a "5150"? A Wikipedia Working Definition.

Time Magazine: "Here's How Much the Average Worker Has to Pay for Healthcare"

Business Insider: Map of the Biggest Employers in the US: UC System Is #1 for California

The Rich History of Workers Compensation

Obamacare came from Heritage Foundation & It's Essentially a Nixonian Idea

The Affordable Health Care Act for America

Michael Moore's Masterpiece: Sicko (2007) - (At the Time the Documentary's Release, France Had the Best System in the World)

Top Ten Healthcare Rankings By Nation: Denmark Has #1 Healthcare System in the World; Not Surprisingly, Mostly Scandinavian Nations Are in the Rankings.

Worldwide Spending on Healthcare

Political Scientist Corey Robin's Book: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin

Irony of Ironies: World Health Organization's Study on Healthcare Efficiency Ranked America's System 37 and Communist Cuba's 39 (with Cuba Having a Lower Infant Mortality Rate).

The New Zealand Herald: "New Zealand Reclaims Title as World's Least Corrupt Country"

Rose Ann Demoro, the Executive Director for the California Nurses Association Says, "There is a conspiracy of silence on Single Payer."

Daniel Marans in The Huffington Post: HR-676 - Medicare-for-All - Representative John Conyers' "Bill Has Never Been This Popular"

Pew Research Center: "Currently, 60% say the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, while 39% say this is not the government's responsibility."

The Economist/YouGov Poll April 2 - 4, 2017

Once Something Might Be Taken Away: TrumpCare Actually Made Obamacare More Popular and More Well-Known as to Its Benefits

President Obama Jokes that Obamacare Is More Popular Than Trump

Tragic Nostalgia Time: "Bernie Sanders for President" Website on Medicare for All:

• Save U.S. $5 trillion over 10 years;
• Families would pay $466 and save $5,807;
• Businesses would save $9,000 a year on average.

Democracy Now!: "Report: Senator Max Baucus Received More Campaign Money from Health and Insurance Industry Interests than Any Other Member of Congress"

Democracy Now!: "Baucus's Raucous Caucus: Doctors, Nurses and Activists Arrested Again for Protesting Exclusion of Single-Payer Advocates at Senate Hearing on Healthcare"

The Problem with President Obama Thinking Like a Community Organizer: Unions Make Impossible Demands and Then Move to the Center, Whereas Community Organizers Start in the Middle: Jane F. McAlevey's No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age

YouTube Clip: Rahm Emanuel Sold Us Short for Bad Healthcare Deals: "Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste"

Curtis Black in the The Chicago Reporter: "Emanuel Is the Last Person to Give Democrats Advice on Strategy"

YouTube Clip: During a Rare Townhall Appearance, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein Calls Medicare for All a "Government Take-Over"

YouTube Clip: Lauren Steiner (from Robust Opposition) Questions Dianne Feinstein About Townhall Response Concerning Medicare for All.

Healthy California's Website for SB-562: Healthy California Act

Inland Empire: "The New Jersey of California"

The 28ers: An Original Affinity Group from Occupy Riverside & Its Swarm Campaign for SB-562

Norway: #1 Is Now the Happiest Place on Earth - Very Strong Public Financing System: 74% Public Funds; 26% Party Memberships Dues

Organizations in Support of SB-562: Healthy California Act

California Nurses Association's Main Website

Nurses Most Trusted Profession Again in America: 15 Years & Counting

Bernie Sanders Gives a Shout-Out to SB-562 and Nurses Created the Biggest Ovation and Response at Chicago's People's Summit

New York Quite Close to Getting Single Payer in the State: One Vote Short

Vermont's Attempt to Establish a Single-Payer Healthcare System

2016 Colorado Care: "Single-Payer Health Care Dream Dies In Colorado"

Previous Single Payer Bills in Calfornia

"Dirty Little Secret: Insurers Actually Are Making a Mint from Obamacare"

California Senate Passes SB-562

"Single Payer Would Save Us All a Lot of Money"

Economic Analysis of the Healthy California Single-Payer Health Care Proposal (SB-562) - UMass Amherst

Tommy Douglas: "The Greatest Canadian"

Breaking Bad: All You Need To Know About The American Health Care System

List of Countries with Universal Health Care

Nina Turner's Keynote Speech in Sacramento for SB-562: "Dear Democrats: Stop Talking About Russia & Tell Us What You're Going To Do About Healthcare." "Just when you think you're in a tomb, remind yourselves you're in a womb."

How The Labour Party Created Britain's National Health Service (NHS)

Gentrification. Housing Bubbles. Developers & Their "Pay 2 Play" Campaign Donations (Bribes) to City Council Members. And then there's the needless cruelty of permanent homelessness. On this episode, Jesse & Matt ratchet-up their manifesto on their Mixtape for the Future by talking about the second-most important cornerstone of The Golden Square: namely, the universal right to human shelter. While a good deal of the debate and conversation will provide a clear-sighted and information-packed survey on the problems, causes and solutions involved with creating universal rights to housing, Matt & Jesse will also expand past common notions of shelter that often go unnoticed in the popular conversations found in daily rituals. And in doing so, the co-hosts hope to transcend the blind and abject observations from America's TV-Clown punditry on housing.

Mentioned in this episode:

Prashant Gopal in Bloomberg: "Homeownership Rate in the U.S. Drops to Lowest Since 1965"

After the Recession, Blackstone and Other Hedge Funds Are Big Buyers of Domestic Homes: The Real News Network's "Another US Housing Bubble?"

Is Employment Actually Up? Birth/Death Statistics from the America's Department of Labor

Hilary Osborne in The Guardian: "Home Ownership in England at Lowest Level in 30 Years as Housing Crisis Grows"

BBC: "General Election 2017: Labour Pledges to Build 1M New Homes"

David Harvey's RSA Animate: "Crises Of Capitalism"

NPR's Terry Gross Interviews Historian Richard Rothstein: The American Government's Horrific Racism in Housing: From Blockbusting to Covenants and the GI-Bill's "Whites-Only Housing Loans"

Median Home Prices in San Jose Versus Median Home Prices in Youngstown

Poppy Noor's Guardian Editorial: "Utopian Thinking: Free Housing Should Be a Universal Right"

MintPress News: "Empty Homes Outnumber the Homeless 6 to 1, So Why Not Give Them Homes?"

Lack of Resources to Accurately Count Increased Homelessness in Riverside County & The Inland Empire

The Los Angeles Times' 2017 Report Housing Insecurity: "L.A. County Homelessness Jumps a Staggering 23% as Need Far Outpaces Housing, New Count Shows"

The Los Angeles Times: An Interactive Map of Homelessness in L.A. County (2015)

Mela Megat in The Highlander: "UCR Takes Steps to End Food Insecurity Among Students"

Rosanna Xia in The Los Angeles Times: "1 in 10 of Cal State Students Are Homeless, Study Finds"

Matthew Snyder's Darkly-Lit Snark: "O Great: Amber Alert for the Homeless"

Ken Ilgunas, Duke University Student: Walden on Wheels: On The Open Road from Debt to Freedom

The New York Times' Feature Article on Ken Ilgunas: "When Home Is a Parking Lot"

Twitter Page Dedicated to Millennials' Experiments with #Vanlife

Part II of Matthew Snyder's Darkly-Lit Snark: "Make Millennial Poverty Hip Again"

Wikipedia's Historical Overview of the "Rent Is Too Damn High Party"

Wikipedia's Biography on the Founder of the "Rent Is Too Damn High Party," Jimmy McMillan: "An American political activist, perennial candidate, karate expert, and Vietnam War veteran, as well as a former postal worker, stripper and private investigator from Brooklyn, New York."

Percentage of Rent-controlled Homes in Los Angeles City

The Guardian's Major Reveal: the Panama Papers and the Explosive Investments (by Wealth-Squatters) Discovered in the Big City Real Estate Market of London

Varying LA City Propositions to Deal with Both Housing and Homelessness:

The Los Angeles Times' Editorial Board and Their Op-Ed Against Measure S

The Los Angeles Times' Editorial Board's and Their Support for Measure H

The Los Angeles Times' Explores Measure S Versus Measure H

Joshua Bregman's June 1st, 2017 Facebook Post on LA's Housing Crisis:

"This is one of the bluest cities in one of the bluest states in the country. This place is run by Democrats and has been since forever. This has nothing to do with Republicans or Trump. We've got high-rise luxury condos sprouting up all over Downtown that no one actually lives in. Massive gleaming skyscrapers sitting there empty while more and more people are forced out of doors. This is a disaster. I've been to developing countries that have less people living on the streets than the second-largest city in the wealthiest country in the world.

So here's a proposal: how about not another goddamn viral clip, or tweet or magazine cover or open letter or vacuous emission of another goddamn celebrity or late-night comedian or entertainment industry luminary talking about Trump or Russia or "backwards ignorant America that votes against its own self-interest" or cracking jokes about the racist, sexist rubes that live out in the sticks until this shit is fixed? Do you seriously think this shit is not racist and sexist? How about not getting to be in the 1%, or even the 10%, to drive past literal tent-encampments on your way to work, to step over the dispossessed just moments before they turn on your spotlight and soundcheck your mic, and have a goddamn thing you have to say about politics and society get listened to? How about not getting to publicly opine about national, much less geo-politics until you can figure out how your own city council works and you drag your camera crews to right outside your studio doors and show the world what's going on in America in 2017, in one of the "strongholds" of "the resistance"? How about that?"

How Police and Firefighter Unions Take Precedence Over City Housing Budgets

The Los Angeles Times: Housing Developers Own City Councils Via Campaign Donations, But That Should End

Excerpt from Jake Halpern's Fame Junkies: How Martha Stewart's Insider-Trading Scandal (130 minutes) Dwarfed the Coverage of the War in Darfur (26 minutes)

UN Report (2005): A Shocking 100 Million People Are Homeless in the World & Over 1 Billion Humans Face Inadequate Shelter

Slate Magazine: How, in 2005, the Bush Administration Made Student-Debt Forgiveness Nearly Impossible (*Hint: Banks Lobbied Politicians)

Vice: American Students, Debt Ridden, Now Flee to Europe to Avoid Loan Repayments

Powerful Youtube Clip from 99 Homes -- Michael Shannon Spits Out the Truth to Andrew Garfield About How America "Always Bails Out the Winners"

Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes: A Film About the US Recession and Its Epic Housing Foreclosure Crisis

The Big Short: Michael Lewis' 2011 Book & Its Later 2015 Film Adaptation

Background on the NINJA (or NINA) Loans: "Non Income No Asset"

How the Repeal of the Glass Steagall Act Magnified the Great Recession's Reach

Why Infrastructure Is Equivalent to Shelter: Its Benefits to Slum-Dwellings

Clothing as Shelter

Time Magazine: "Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System Explained"

California Senate Leader, Kevin de Leon, Calls California the 5th Largest Economy After Britain's Brexit Vote

The 2017 ASCE Infrastructure Report Card - America's Cumulative GPA Is Once Again a D+

An MIT Study, By Economist Peter Temin, Says America Has Devolved into a Developing Nation Instead of Looking More Like Europe's Infrastructure

Peter Temin's The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy

America's Stunning Incarceration Rates: The United States Has 25% of the World's Total Prison Population Even Though the U.S. Only Makes Up 5% of World's Human Population

Jake Blumgart in Slate Magazine: "How Bernie Sanders Made Burlington Affordable"

The National Community Land Trust Network: FAQ - What Is a Community Land Trust?

There Are Over 250 Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in America

The Common Good Podcast: "Episode 8: Community. Land. Trust" (Interview with Two Key Players in San Diego's First Land Trust Association)

-{Matthew Snyder's Essay on "The Circle-Jerk of Gentrification" (Forthcoming!)}-

The Village Voice: "National Punch a Hipster Is Tomorrow, Apparently"

Peter Frase in Jacobin Magazine: "Resenting Hipsters"

Tyrone Beason in The Seattle Times: "Seattle's Vanishing Black Community"

The Los Angeles Times' Long, Heart-Rending Feature Article on San Bernardino's Crumbling Housing Sectors

The Guardian at Cannes: The Riveting Feature Film Premiere of Sean Baker's The Florida Project

Why Public-Private Partnerships So Often Fail

Director Roko Belic's Documentary Happy

Youtube Excerpt From the Documentary Happy, Which Explores the Powerful Benefits of the Danish Co-Housing Model

UCR Housing: It's Rich, Beautiful History and Its Tragic & Barbaric Closing

Maureen Dowd, from The New York Times, Complains About Student Dormers Self-Selecting Roommates: "Don't Send in the Clones"

Other Supplementary Facts and Sources Concerning Shelter:

HUD: The 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress NOVEMBER 2016: 549,928 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States.

As of September 8th, 2016 — ATTOM Data Solutions, the nation's leading source for comprehensive housing data and the new parent company of RealtyTrac, today released its Q3 2016 U.S. Residential Property Vacancy and Zombie Foreclosure Report, which shows nearly 1.4 million (1,361,188) U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) representing 1.6 percent of all residential properties were vacant as of the end of the third quarter.

On the Streets: A 12-part video series about homelessness in Southern California--with one of the stories involving a UCLA Grad student living in a car.

HERE'S WHAT AN AVERAGE APARTMENT COSTS IN 50 U.S. CITIES

Averages from all 50 cities on the list:

• Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $1,234.43
• Square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 678.32 square feet

San Francisco, California

$3600

San Jose, California

$2536

New York, New York

$2200

Washington, DC

$2172

Boston, Massachusetts

$2025

Los Angeles, California

$2014

Miami, Florida

$2000

ON CO-HOUSING COMMUNITIES:

The Kalkbreite cooperative in Zurich suggests how co-ops will become a viable housing option for the 21st century.

How Cohousing Communities Help Prevent Social Isolation.

For this week's episode, Matt & Jesse transition away from talking about which man-made myths must be stripped out from the the mixtape for the future ("The Poison Pyramid") or what should just be ignored while they haplessly spiral in the drain ("The Circle"). Instead, our co-hosts will introduce a new idea-shape "The Golden Square," which is comprised of the four most essential tracks in our shared mixtape for the future. All too often, the notion of rights in nation-states don't acknowledge the fundamental requirements of a just society, but our Golden Square is composed of four tracks that are essential for our shared future. The first fundamental and most immediate cornerstone of this square, and one we would be hard-pressed to ignore is the universal right to food.

Mentioned on this episode:

Racial & Economic Divides in D.C. Grocery Stores

David Love & Vijay Das in Civil Eats: "America's Food Deserts Need Community Efforts, Not Big Box Stores"

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Difference Between Positive and Negative Rights

The Difference Between Positive and Negative Liberty

Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs

The Life & Work of the Social & Political Theorist Isaiah Berlin

A Historical Overview of the U.S. Military Budget: 600 Billion & Counting

How America Went from the Gold Standard to Becoming a Fiat Currency

David Graeber's Debt: A 5,000 Year History

Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel

James Durston in CNN: "Airline 'Fat Tax': Should Heavy Passengers Pay More?"

Disneyland Had to Revamp It's a Small World Boats for Heavier Passengers

Anohni's Belief in Wicca, Feminism and Obama's Drone Presidency

Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests

Food Loss and Waste in the US: The Science Behind the Supply Chain

These 10 companies make a lot of the food we buy.

Corn Flakes Were Part of an Anti-Masturbation Crusade

Scientific Studies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Replication crisis

José Bové vs. McDonald's

Livestock and Climate Change

California's Drought — Who's Really Using all the Water?

Cowspiracy a film by Kip Anderson

Veganism & The Environment: by the numbers

Playing God in the Garden By Michael Pollan

7-Day Juice Challenge

Forks Over Knives

Food, Inc.

In the sixth episode of The Future Is a Mixtape, Jesse & Matt break out of their self-imposed duo-igloo and bring forth two friends far more adept at exploring the miraculous and shocking rise of Jeremy Corbyn in British politics: 1) Alex Biancardi, a dual British-American citizen who is an instructor of Political Science; and 2) Joshua Bregman, a "former American ex-pat" who was a film student in Britain during both the heady turbulence of the college-tuition protests and David Cameron's vicious austerity measures. Before Corbyn's rise, Tony Blair's 'New' Labour had been melting in membership and participation after "Bush's Poodle" went into retirement; and, in turn, the Labour Party's center-left mildew of "capitalism with a happy face" had repeatedly failed to inspire a broad cross-section of a detached public, who spit-out in anger and voted for Brexit anyways. It was also a nation that was increasingly fragmented by class, race, religion and civic apathy. So who is Jeremy Corbyn and how did he reverse the Zombie-stasis of UK politics? What series of odd accidents and openings lead him into a position of power and acclaim, which now threatens the 40-year reign of Thatcherism and TINA (There Is No Alternative) -- the two seedbeds of which sprouted forth from an undying belief that markets will solve everything? So what is the DUP and why is Theresa May still clinging onto her Prime Minister position when the Tories lack the outright majority to implement their Voldemort manifesto? And how might Labour cross the MP-threshold to become the majority party, creating a space for another, more successful election that pushes Corbyn into May's residence at #10 Downing Street? From listening to our first guests, Alex and Josh, we hope you'll learn why UK's Snap election has created the most exciting opening for socialism The West-left has seen in several decades.Mentioned in this episode:

Jeremy Corbyn's Majestic Glastonbury Speech at the Pyramid Stage The Guardian's Pass the Notes: "Run the Jez! The Hip-Hop Duo Playing Glastonbury with Corbyn"

DJ Closes Last Hour of Glastonbury 2017 With Techno Remix of Corbyn's Speech

Novara Radio: "Building a New Media for A Different Kind of Politics"The United Kingdom Student Protests in 2010Richard Seymour's Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics (Verso Press)Novara Radio's James Butler Interviews Richard Seymour's Verso BookJacobin Radio - The Dig: Richard Seymour: Under Corbyn, Labour's Got Momentum

Joshua Bregman's Comments About Our Sweet Childhood Naïveté in How We Imagined Politics Should Function: Schoolhouse Rock - "How a Bill Becomes a Law"

David Graeber's Brilliantly Incisive Article "Despair Fatigue" in The BafflerStagflation During the Jimmy Carter Presidency & "A Short History of Neoliberalism (And How We Can Fix It)"Jeremy Corbyn Offers Jam from His Allotment (Garden) to the TV Co-Hosts from OneShowYouTube Video of "Jeremy Corbyn Through the Ages" & Saying the Same Things With Moral Consistency and PassionYouTube of "Bernie Sanders - Through the Years" & Being Morally ConsistentVanity Fair's Article: "Nigel Farage, International Man of Mystery, Finds a Home in Trump's America"Adam Curtis' HyperNormalisation (BBC Documentary)Musician & Producer Brian Eno in the Guardian: U.S. Versus Soviet Propaganda: "Lessons in How to Lie About Iraq"Alex Biancardi: "UK Parliamentary System Is Situation Where the US Legislative and Executive Branches Are Fused" Britain's House of Lords Could Be Stripped of Hereditary Members (2007)House of Lords Votes to Protect Rights of EU Citizens After BrexitSue Richards in The Guardian: "The Government Is Trying to Privatize the NHS Through Back Door Regulations"Tony Blair & New Labour Reinstitute Tuition Fees in Britain: A History

Grants, Loans and Tuition Fees: A Timeline of How University Funding Has Evolved

Current Student Visas to Expire and Immediately Be ShortenedWarwick University Students Accuse Police of Attacking Tuition Fee ProtestDavid Harvey's Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution

Politico: "From Cairo to Madison, Some Pizza" (2/20/2011)

Nick Clegg Promised No Tuition But Raised It After Joining Coalition with Tories

Jerry Useem's The Atlantic Article: "Power Causes Brain Damage"

Branko Marcetic's Article in Jacobin: "A History of Sabotaging Jeremy Corbyn"

A Case Study: BBC's 'Trumped Up' Accusations of Jeremy Corbyn Being Anti-Semitic

The Right-Wing Billionaire Press and Their Smear Campaigns on Eve of Election

Equal and Fair Coverage of Both Candidates Found in BBC's Impartiality Policy

The 1996 Telecommunications Act That Killed 'Fair & Balanced' in American Media

Owen Jones on Twitter: "Labour Costed Their Manifesto. The Only Policy the Tories Have Costed Is 7p Per Pupil for Breakfast."

Joshua Bregman: "Theresa May Had to Reverse Her "Dementia Tax," Which Made Her Look Wishy-Washy."

HARD BREXXXIT - Porn Parody by Directed Amory Peart for Television X (Of Which Alex Biancardi Professes to HAVE NEVER SEEN or Have BREATHED IN . . .)

"Jeremy Corbyn's Dank Meme Stash" on Facebook

"Depressed Vegetarians for Corbyn" on Facebook

"Jeremy Corbyn Photoshopped into Appropriate Situations" on Facebook

The Guardian: #grime4Corbyn - Why British MCs Are Uniting Behind the Labour Party Leader

Photo of Jeremy Corbyn Being Arrested for Anti-Apartheid Actions

Jeremy Corbyn Tells Why He Was Proud to Be Arrested for Anti-Apartheid Protest

Bruce A. Dixon's Black Agenda Report: "Is It Time to Revoke John Lewis's Lifetime Civil Rights Hero Pass?"

Bernie Sanders x Killer Mike (Run the Jewels) Interview: #FeelTheBern

Barack Obama's Reveals His (Focus-Group-Managed) iPod Playlist

The Labour Party's Majestic, Moving and Brilliantly Designed Manifesto 2017

Labour's "Shadow Manifesto" - Alternative Models of Ownership

The Conservative Party's Awful, Badly Designed and Morally Depraved Voldemort Manifesto 2017

The Times Literary Supplement: The Biggest Party Vote Shift Since 1945: "Corbyn: Shifting the Possible"

In Closing & On YouTube: "OH, JEREMY CORBYN" (White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" 2hr Continuous Mix)

In this fifth episode of The Future Is A Mixtape, Matt & Jesse discuss Peter Frase's diaphanous, compact and idea-drenched work of "Social Science Fiction," which revs up & rides out to the sweet page-count of 150 pages, and contains far more ideas than most books three-times its size (ahem, The Circle). Frase's nonfiction book, Four Futures: Life After Capitalism, argues that there are actually four possible futures for humanity. The book accomplishes this task, ingeniously so, by threading together science fiction novels as well as marxist and futurist theories to see what aspects will appear in these futures, and how they might overlap or build off one another. The author doesn't simply re-shuffle the easy card-deck of the Star Trek versus The Matrix techno-binary--that Yanis Varoufakis and other activist-thinkers often cite as the only two techno-futures available. Instead, Peter Frase offers up four possible futures: Communism, Rentism, Socialism and Exterminism. And by coordinating these "ideal types" upon the axis points of equity vs hierarchy and abundance vs scarcity, the author illuminates what these four futures are likely to give us.

Mentioned on this episode:

How Captain Picard Likes His Nightcap: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."

And When Captain Picard Gets Communist-Crazy: The Earl Tea Techno Remix

Peter Frase's Four Futures: Life After Capitalism

Matthew Snyder's Apologia Pro Vita:

Verso Book Series (Correction - ABCs of Socialism Is NOT Part of the Series)

Peter Frase's Original Jacobin Essay that Became the Basis for His Debut Non-fiction Work, Four Futures: "One Thing Is Certain Of Is That Capitalism Will End"

Verso Book Talk with Peter Frase and Alyssa Battistoni Filmed in Brooklyn, NY

Four Futures: Four Original Novellas of Science Fiction - As Suggested by Isaac Asimov Who Prods SF Authors to Detail Four Possible Futures to Overpopulation

Jedediah Purdy's "The Art of the Possible: Peter Frase's Four Futures" in the Los Angeles Review of Books

Essays and Books on Doom/Paradise Future of Automation:

"The Robot Invasion" by Farhad Manjoo

Race Against the Machine by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

"Welcome, Robot Overlords. Please Don't Fire Us?" by Kevin Drum

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford

EXTERMINISM: Hierarchy & Scarcity:

Neill Blomkamp's 2013 SF film, Elysium

Bong Joon-Ho's 2014 Sci-Fi Traintopia: Snowpiercer

Paolo Bacigalupi's Dystopian Science Fiction Novel: The Windup Girl

RENTISM: Hierarchy & Abundance:

Charles Stross' Science Fiction Novel: Accelerando

Philip K. Dick's Legendary SF Novel: Ubik

Open Source Ecology: "Open Source Philosophy" - Video Presentation

Open Source Ecology - Machines: Global Village Construction Set

SOCIALISM: Equality & Scarcity:

Pacific Edge: Three Californias (Wild Shore Triptych) by Kim Stanley Robinson

Mars Trilogy Book Series by Kim Stanley Robinson

Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

Wanuri Kahiu's Brilliant SF Short, Pumzi

COMMUNISM: Equality & Abundance

Bad Trope-Texts About the End-of-Work: Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano; Pixar's Wall-E and E.M Forster's The Machine Stops (the latter work is a novella that's not only influenced Wall-E, but it's become the prophetic basis for most dystopian views on non-work and technology)

Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Cory Doctorow's Essay in Locus Magazine: "Wealth Inequality Is Even Worse in Reputation Economies"

Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek: The Original Series

Picard's Spaceship That Makes His Secret Hot Tea: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Episode Outro: Captain Picard in Star Trek: "Money Doesn't Exist in the Future"

On this episode, Jesse & Matt discuss the mucky-malarkey of Dave Eggers' 2013 "satire" (?) of Silicon Valley: The Circle. While this podcast will focus on Eggers' conscious intentions and unconscious outcomes of his novel, some discussion will also be meted out on The Circle's even more miserable film-adaptation of the same name, featuring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega. Matthew will also explore the movie's unsettling "Fear of a Black Cock," and what that says about the film's lack of awareness. Lastly, the co-hosts will illustrate why this science fictional novel is an easy signifier for contemporary art's failure to imagine possible utopias.

Mentioned In This Episode:Dave Eggers' The Circle

James Pondsoldt's Film Adaptation of The Circle

Wired's Review of Dave Eggers' "The Circle: What the Internet Looks Like If You Don't Understand It"Gawker's Review: "Circle Jerks: Why Do Editors Love Dave Eggers?"

Reuters' Review of The Circle: "How Dave Eggers Gets Silicon Valley Wrong"

Jessica Winter's Slate Review of The Circle: "All That Happens Must Be Known"M.T. Anderson's Young Adult SF Masterpiece: Feed

Gary Shteyngart's Masterful (& Better Researched) SF Novel: Super Sad True Love Story

SF Author Neal Stephenson's Landmark Essay in Wired: "Innovation Starvation"

Project Hieroglyph

Hieroglyph Anthology: Stories and Visions for a Better Future

Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed

Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind

Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next

On this episode, Jesse makes the case that the third point of "The Poison Pyramid," which should be readily designated for the dumpster, is the worship of the Celebrity. Matthew makes the case that this is just a shiny, distracting feather to something that rides upon a much larger, deeper and more worrisome creature.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82 - Obituary by The New York Times "How a 94-Year-Old Genius May Save the Planet" - Newsweek:

David Shield's Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity

Ty Burr's Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame

The Strange Power Of Celebrity - Tom Ashbrook's On Point Featuring Ty Burr

Thomas Schatz's The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era

Paul McDonald's Star System: Hollywood's Production of Popular Identities

"Clown Genius" - Scott Adam's Blog

"How Dilbert's Scott Adams Got Hypnotized by Trump" - BloombergBusinessweek

On Matt's Comments About How "Trump Rick-Rolled the Nation," Here Is How Rick Astley Got Rick-Rolled Himself: "Rick Astley on the First Time He Was Rick-Rolled: "I Kept Thinking, 'What Is This Idiot Doing?'" - People Magazine Tim Heidecker with Adam Curtis and How Trump Operates as a Click-Monster Jake Halperin Commentary on NPR: Tom and Katie, Zeus and Hera: David Giles' Illusions of Immortality: A Psychology of Fame and Celebrity

Don DeLillo's Mao II: A Novel

"How Much Do We Love TV? Let Us Count the Ways" - New York Times: "Americans Check Their Phones 8 Billion Times Per Day" - Time Magazine Who Said It: Presidential Hopeful Donald Trump or 'Idiocracy' President Camacho? - Jason Bailey's Flavorwire

Idiocracy star Terry Crews will reprise his role as President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho in a series of ads targeting current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Buzzfeed reported. John Lennon's Comments on The Beatles Being "More Popular than Jesus" Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success Excerpt from David Foster Wallace's Commencment Address at Kenyon College in 2005: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion About Living a Compassionate Life:

Little Brown and Company's Book Printing of David Foster Wallace's This Is Water

"Here Is the Scandalous Father John Misty Interview You've Been Waiting For" - Pitchfork Magazine

Father John Misty and Zane Lowe go in-depth on his new album, Pure Comedy. - Interview on Youtube

Genius prodigy-pianists are becoming all-too-common: "Virtuosos Becoming a Dime a Dozen" - New York Times