The Dig Folgen

Centrist business elites believe in an America that doesn’t exist. Two guests this episode: first, @mollyesque talks about her piece “On Safari in Trump’s America” for The Atlantic. Her article follows the centrist organization Third Way on a “listening tour” of the real America. Then @EricLevitz (35:52), who just published on op-ed in the New York Times entitled “America is not ‘center-right,” sorts through research to argue that what Americans often mean when they say they are “moderate” is not the combination of superficial social progressivism and neoliberalism that Wall-Street-aligned Third Way types think they mean. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School by Stuart Jeffries versobooks.com/books/2501-grand-hotel-abyss Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

Why have the size of American police departments grown so dramatically in recent decades, even as crime rates have fallen? One factor may have been the growing centrality of real estate for urban economies, according to a new article published in the journal Social Forces by Adam Goldstein, a professor of sociology at Princeton, and Brenden Beck, a PhD student in sociology at CUNY. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out The End of Policing by Alex Vitale versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing Support us with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

Aziz Rana discusses his pivotal book, The Two Faces of American Freedom. Rana overturns conventional accounts of American history, from settlement and Revolution to the Populists and the present day. In reality, settler-colonialism, empire, and a brutally exploitative economic system grounded in racial subjugation have always been at the core of the American project. But radical thinkers and movements have consistently stepped forward at critical junctures to propose transformative alternatives that would make American freedom universal. Rana’s most brilliant move is to ultimately make a devastatingly critical account of American history hopeful and optimistic.Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Alt-America:The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump versobooks.com/books/2535-alt-america Support us with $ atpatreon.com/TheDig