Episodes
Sunday Oct 29, 2017
Sunday Oct 29, 2017
This week, we kick off the show with a discussion of the GOP's plans for "tax reform" with Frank Clemente, director of Americans for Tax Fairness. Spoiler alert: Bad economics + staggering hypocrisy about deficits = a muddled mess.
Then we welcome Sam Berger, a senior policy advisor at The Center for American Progress who's been tracking the Trump regime's efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act. You've no doubt heard talk of "sabotage," but it's probably worse than you thought.
Finally, Salon columnist Amanda Marcotte joins us to consider whether the outpouring of revelations of sexual harassment and other abuses that have followed Harvey Weinstein's fall signal a paradigm change or just a bump in misogyny's long road.
Playlist:
Brave Combo: "Jeopardy"
Mozart Heroes: "Mozart's Symphony No 40/ Metallica's Enter the Sandman"
College Humor: "The Beatles vs. Joan Jett vs. Cypress Hill vs. House Of Pain vs. Rage Against The Machine Mashup"
John Lurie National Orchestra: "Let's Get Ready to Rumba"
Sunday Oct 22, 2017
Sunday Oct 22, 2017
This week, we'll be joined by Sharona Coutts from Rewire News, who will tell us about a new analysis that found a significant overlap on social media between prominent white supremacists and the religious right.
Then we'll talk about Stephen Bannon's war on the Republican "establishment" -- and the grifters who are coming along for the ride -- with American Prospect columnist Eliza Newlin Carney.
Finally, we'll speak with rock star and Crooks and Liars founder John Amato about Donald Trump's latest public battle with a Gold Star family, and consider whether Niger is really "Trump's Benghazi."
Playlist:
Spearhead and Zap Mama: "To My Ba-Bay!"
Southern Culture on the Skids: "Country Funk"
Nightmares on Wax: "You Wish"
Otis Redding: "These Arms of Mine"
Wednesday Oct 18, 2017
Wednesday Oct 18, 2017
This week, we'll get our wonk on with Austin Frakt. He's a man of many affiliations -- health care economist at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and an associate professor at Boston University and visting scholar at Harvard. Austin tells us about "all-payer" rate-setting, and how it could provide another option for progressive health care reform in the coming years.
Then Crooks and Liars managing editor Karoli Kuns will join us to vent about Donald Trump, and some of the terrible things he'd done of late. There's no normalization of that guy on this show.
Finally, we'll speak with David Dayen, who wrote a piece this week for The Intercept about how Congress just gave the suffering people -- US citizens -- of Puerto Rico yet another huge middle finger.
Playlist:
The Kinks: "Big Black Smoke"
Doc Gynéco: "Dans Ma Rue"
Iggy Pop: "Candy"
U2: "In a Little While"
Monday Oct 09, 2017
Monday Oct 09, 2017
This week, we begin with Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of Psychiatry at Duke University, who will talk about an eye-raising study that he and his colleagues published in 2015 which looked at the number of Americans who display signs of impulsive anger and have ready access to a firearm. There was a subgroup among them that should be especially alarming.
Then we'll be joined by Heather "Digby" Parton to talk about the media's obsessive desire to draw parallels between Harvey Weinstein, a sleazy Democratic donor, and Donald Trump, a sleazy reality-TV host whom the Republican party nominated to run for president of the United States and who is now far more popular among the party's rank-and-file than most elected officials who didn't confess to being serial sexual harrassers.
Finally, we'll be joined by Yochai Benkler, co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, to discuss his study of the media landscape -- including social media -- which shaped the 2016 presidential election.
Playlist:
Italiano Technico: "Hey Mambo"
Son Little: "O Me O My"
Ricky Nelson: "Lonesome Town"