Jacobin Radio Folgen

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug interviews Frederik deBoer, author of The Cult of Smart, on dethroning academic “excellence” as the distributor of rewards in this society. Plus, Matthew Snyder on building a community land trust in the Inland Empire of California (that CLT, CLTs in general).

A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. On this week’s show, Grace Blakeley is joined by author, academic and activist Cornel West to discuss radical politics in the United States.West, a philosopher at Harvard’s African and African-American Studies Department, gives his views on Black Lives Matter, the “neo-fascism” of Donald Trump and the need to critique the role of American empire across the world.He also discusses how the Left can fight back against these morbid symptoms, by building a socialist spirituality, a culture of resistance and broad coalitions for social change which can transform the political landscape.A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron.Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.

Suzi speaks to Dean of Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky about Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died September 18th. RBG’s dying wish was to be replaced by a new President -- consistent with recent history and the way that President Obama’s pick to replace Antonin Scalia was blocked by Senator Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans, who famously refused to hold hearings. But those Senators have now hypocritically reversed their previous positions on whether it would be appropriate to replace Ginsburg so close to the election. Amy Coney Barrett is seen as another Scalia in her judicial outlook, and is so right wing, so far from the mainstream of American society that Chemerinsky says she should not be on the Supreme Court. We get Erwin Chemerinsky's insights and analysis about the future of the Court. Suzi then talks to sociologist Cynthia Ganote at the University of Louisville about the Breonna Taylor Grand Jury decision earlier this week: the three police officers who killed Breonna Taylor as she slept in her own home, operating on a no-knock search warrant, were not charged. One of the officers received a minor charge of wanton endangerment for firing recklessly when he was still outside the apartment, putting a neighboring apartment at risk. So the bullet that missed mattered more than the bullets that killed Breonna Taylor in her bed. Protests have erupted in Louisville and across the country demanding justice —and we get a sense of what is happening from Cynthia Ganote, who has participated in the non-violent protests in Louisville that have gone on for 125 days.