Virtually Speaking

Jay talks with Isaac Martin; fiscal sociologist and author of Rich People's Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent. One of a series of conversations exploring wealth, privilege and corruption in the context of ongoing fiscal crisis.

 

Links will be posted at VirtuallySpeaking.us

Alan Boyle talks with Jennifer Ouellette. In Me, Myself and Why: Searching for the Science of Self, she turns her attention to the mysteries of human identity and behavior; drawing on genetics, neuroscience & psychology—enlivened as always with her signature sense of humor and pop-culture references—to explore how we become who we are.

Alan Boyle talks with Jennifer Ouellette. In Me, Myself and Why: Searching for the Science of Self, she turns her attention to the mysteries of human identity and behavior; drawing on genetics, neuroscience & psychology—enlivened as always with her signature sense of humor and pop-culture references—to explore how we become who we are.

Author David Brin recently updated his essay Why Transparency will Save Privacy.  Jay and David discuss the implications of recent revelations of US government surveillance activities.

Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and ALA award winning David Brin is also the author of the remarkably prescient The Transparent Society.   Awarded the ALA Freedom of  Speech award, in this book he argues that technological innovation makes surveillance impossible to stop, but that the ultimate response by civil libertarians is to turn the camera around, and make the activities of powerful public and private organizations more transparent.

Peter Moskos is an associate professor in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is also on the faculty of CUNY's Doctoral Program in Sociology and teaches a class at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.

His first book, Cop in the Hood, won the 2008 American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence, Best Book in Sociology. His second book, In Defense of Flogging, was listed as a "Favorite Book of the Year" by Mother Jones.

We discuss the legalization of marijuana, the effect of the drug war on incarceration rates, and on society in general.

Stephanie Kelton, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the top-ranked blog New Economic Perspectives.  In this episode, she and  Gaius Publius discuss the basics of Modern Monetary Theory.  Also, at the bottom of the hour, Gaius Publius on the Unpeople of the World.  More information here.

Also, help out the show by checking out Audible's free 30 day trial, or visit our virtual bookstore.

Stephanie Kelton, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the top-ranked blog New Economic Perspectives.  In this episode, she and  Gaius Publius discuss the basics of Modern Monetary Theory.  Also, at the bottom of the hour, Gaius Publius on the Unpeople of the World.  More information here.

Also, help out the show by checking out Audible's free 30 day trial, or visit our virtual bookstore.

Tom Levenson talks about The Poisoner's Handbook poison, the emergence of systematic chemistry as a tool, the issues we face of our ignorance of so much of the chemical universe — the West Virginia spill will be our proof text there — and more –  with Pulitzer Prize winning writer Deborah Blum. Follow @deborahblum @TomLevenson

Jay and Ian Welsh continue the discussion rerun last week regarding the need to develop a new ideology in the face of the failure of our technocratic centrist elite to  deal with the consequences of the petroleum economy:

A powerful ideology is a scary thing. If your ideology isn’t strong enough, doesn’t create enough fervent belief that people will die for it, then it won’t change the world.  But if it does create that level of fervent belief, then it will be misused, so the question is simply: will this do more harm than good?

An ideology which leads to us killing a billion or more people with climate change, let me posit, is a bad ideology.  At the end of its run, neo-liberalism will kill more people than Marxist-Leninism did, and will be thought of by our grandchildren as monstrous.  Most of them will no more be able to understand how we submitted to it or even believed in it than we can understand how Hitler or Stalin or PolPot or Mao came to power.  Hyperbole?  Not in the least, because the body count is going to be phenomenal.

Jay and Ian Welsh continue the discussion rerun last week regarding the need to develop a new ideology in the face of the failure of our technocratic centrist elite to  deal with the consequences of the petroleum economy:

A powerful ideology is a scary thing. If your ideology isn’t strong enough, doesn’t create enough fervent belief that people will die for it, then it won’t change the world.  But if it does create that level of fervent belief, then it will be misused, so the question is simply: will this do more harm than good?

An ideology which leads to us killing a billion or more people with climate change, let me posit, is a bad ideology.  At the end of its run, neo-liberalism will kill more people than Marxist-Leninism did, and will be thought of by our grandchildren as monstrous.  Most of them will no more be able to understand how we submitted to it or even believed in it than we can understand how Hitler or Stalin or PolPot or Mao came to power.  Hyperbole?  Not in the least, because the body count is going to be phenomenal.