The Public Sphere

This is a pilot episode for a podcast on work. Original music by Samuel Haines.

As everybody knows, today the political landscape is sharply divided. This is especially true when it comes to economic redistribution. On the right, freedom means free markets. On the left, free markets produce inequality and oppression. This framing is of course hyperbole, but it does suggest how we take for granted the political alignment between certain economic principles.

As something of a corrective to this over simplified divide, Pete and Luke talk about Elizabeth Anderson’s Tanner Lectures in Human Values: "Liberty, Equality, and Private Government," which she gave at Princeton University in 2015. Anderson says we don’t really understand the relationship between the “free market” and some of our most cherished political ideals, namely freedom and equality. This is a historical misunderstanding that has lead to overlook how the modern workplace has become politically authoritarian even as it is championed by free market ideologues. 

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Rafael Khachaturian and Sean Guillory discuss their new article "Mapping the American Left." Both have been on the podcast before. Their article lists a few challenges faced by the Left in America.

"Mapping the American Left," Социология власти [Sociology of Power] Том 30 No 4 (2018).

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

In a shorter episode, Pete and Luke are astounded by President Trump's declaration of a State of Emergency in order to find money for his border wall.

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

A discussion about neoliberalism as a political and theoretical concept arising out of our research and reading.

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

Pete and Luke discuss a controversial article from Andrew Sullivan, "America's New Religions," in New York Magazine. They debate the differences between small-L liberalism and small-C conservatism in political theory. They also probe the role played by religion in providing the background cultural resources for stable political disagreements (as Sullivan seems to believe it must).

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

Thanks for listening.

Pete talks with frequent guest Wes Bishop about how politics (mis-)characterizes and stereotypes the working class.

Wes Bishop, "The Public Stage: The Working Class in Theatrical Representations and the Fear of America’s Declining Public Sphere," South Atlantic Review 2018 (20:3) 130-149.

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

Thanks for listening.

Pete and Luke discuss a few articles about party politics in America.

• German Lopez, "William Barr helped establish mass incarceration. Now Trump wants him as attorney general." Vox.com (Dec 7, 2018).
• Charlie Savage, "Trump Will Nominate William Barr as Attorney General," New York Times (Dec 7, 2018).
• Dylan Scott, "What we know about the alleged election fraud plot in North Carolina," Vox.com (Dec 8, 2018).
• Sydney Ember, "North Carolina Republican Says He Would Support New Election if Fraud Occurred," New York Times (Dec 7, 2018)
• Julia Azari, "Weak parties and strong partisanship are a bad combination," Vox.com (Nov. 3, 2016).
• Yascha Mounk, "Is More Democracy Always Better Democracy?" The New Yorker (November 12, 2018).
• Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro, "Political partisanship is vicious. That’s because political parties are too weak." Washington Post (Nov. 28, 2018).

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

Thanks for listening.

On this episode, Luke and Pete discuss "Scary Clowns,” an article in the Baffler by Brendan O'Conner. Luke begins with a monologue about his growing fear of extremist right-wing violence. We consider the connections between more mainstream conservative groups and fascist groups like the Proud Boys. We discuss the racial polarization of politics, and how race has crystalized into a political differentiator. Pete doesn't bother to talk Luke off the cliff after he makes the worst-case argument for a neo-fascist wave. Finally, we consider the complicity by silence of the GOP.

1. Brendan O'Conner, "Scary Clowns," The Baffler (Nov. 21, 2018).
2. "Political Violence", Public Sphere (Dec. 17, 2017).
3. Luke Mergner, "Trump," Contrivers' Review (March 2016).
4. Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (Harper Brothers, 1951; reprinted Harper, 2019).
5. John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, Identity Politics (Princeton, 2018). Summary at Vox.com by Ezra Klein.
6. National Vanguard group.
7. Turning Point USA

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

Thanks for listening.

Pete and Luke discuss Ryan Zinke, the scandal-ridden Secretary of the Interior. What does "public land for public use" mean? What is an "America First" energy policy? They also briefly revisit last week's topic, Matthew Whitaker, the newly appointed acting Attorney General.

Intro clip: Dogs at Dept of Interior, Fox New (May. 05, 2017).

Whitaker Redux

1. Shawn Boburg, "Whitaker’s unusual path to Justice Department included owning day-care center, trailer maker and concrete supplier," Washington Post (November 14, 2018)."In 2004, when he started a five-year stint as U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Iowa, Whitaker cited a personal-injury case and a dispute involving a dry-cleaning business as some of his most consequential legal work."
2. John Yoo, "Whitaker’s Appointment Is Unconstitutional," The Atlantic (Nov. 13, 2018).
3. Rational Security, "The 'Cocoon of Bitterness and Resentment' Edition (Nov. 15, 2018).

Ryan Zinke, or I can't remember which clown we're talking about this week…

• Media Matters, "A Timeline of scandals and ethical shortfalls at Ryan Zinke's Interior Department."
• Timothy L. O'Brien, "Ryan Zinke and the Murky Interior of Trumpworld," Bloomberg (Nov. 1, 2018).
• Elliott D. Woods, "Ryan Zinke Is Trump's Attack Dog on the Environment," Outside (Dec 4, 2017).

• Jimmy Tobias, "The Zinke effect," The Guardian (Nov 12, 2018)."Williams dismissively characterized the approach taken by the administration of Barack Obama: “Anything you want to do on public land, they want to see what the carbon footprint is and what the social cost is.” Under Zinke, “we’re not looking at this”, he said. The new administration was instead focused on “economic impacts”."
• Democracy in America, "Ryan Zinke's messy week," The Economist (Oct 19, 2018). "In a more normal administration, Mr Zinke’s misadventures might have got him fired. In the current administration, they barely make headlines."

What does "public lands will once again be for public use" mean? What is an "America First" energy policy?

• Conrad Black, How Trump Stood up the the Environmentalist Left, National Review (Nov. 14, 2018). (A response was published in NR by Theodore Kupfer.)
• Shawn Regan, "A Monumental Mistake," National Review (Feb. 14, 2017).- Bears Ears "defenders in this case have expressed contempt for Utah’s desire to choose its own land policies."- "If government is the things we do together, then we should govern together. And if monument designations are truly good public policy, they shouldn’t require eleventh-hour executive actions that thwart the legislative process to become reality."
• Orrin G. Hatch, "It’s time to undo the federal land grab of Bears Ears," Washington Post (April 25, 2017)."[Obama] ignored the best interests of Utah and cast aside the will of the people — all in favor of a unilateral approach meant to satisfy the demands of far-left interest groups."=> Hatch does not explain why expanding protections causes harm other than to say that it was against the wishes of Utah's politicians.
• Elizabeth Kolbert, "The The Damage Done by Trump’s Department of the Interior," The New Yorker (Jan. 22, 2018). “One of Zinke’s first acts, after dismounting from Tonto, was to overturn a moratorium on new leases for coal mines on public land.”
• Glenn Beck (Dec 5, 2017)“The Antiquities Act was supposed to protect archaeological sites from souvenir hunters,” explained Glenn, adding, “Once the land is declared a national monument, it’s closed. And I mean closed to ranching, mining, and development — but also to you. Don’t you dare pitch a tent there. This is not a park.”"...untapped natural resources" in protected federal land ?

Outro clip: "I Heart Huckabees."

The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers Review.

Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email.

The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon.

Thanks for listening.