The Dig Folgen

Guns in general, and American gun culture in particular, have created a horrific bloodbath. But much of the liberal gun control movement has, in concert with the NRA and Republican Right, worked to make the war on guns a central facet of mass incarceration. The upshot is that we have the worst of both worlds: a society flooded with guns, where the paradigmatic white “good guy with a gun” treasures his weapons as a bedrock constitutional right even as the supposed “bad guys with a gun,” often black men with a felony record, are mercilessly prosecuted for carrying. Dan talks to reporter George Joseph, who has a new piece up at Slate on former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ war on guns, which has led to a sharp increase in federal gun prosecutions—often hitting ordinary black men with felony records who are simply carrying for their own protection. Thanks to University of California Press. Check out their excellent catalogue of books at ucpress.edu Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Black Lives Matter is a poignant slogan and a powerful force for social transformation. It’s also shorthand for a huge array of organizations, mostly led by people that you’ve never heard of, working the daily hard grind of ordinary organizing that stitches together spectacular mass actions into a movement. That’s the subject of the new book Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century by Dan’s guest, historian and activist Barbara Ransby. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com Please support The Dig with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Neoliberalism: we all hate it, but what does it mean? Dan talks to intellectual historian Quinn Slobodian about his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, which tells the story of neoliberalism’s Geneva School—including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke—and their vision for a new imperial order establishing rules to protect the market from political interference. It’s a movement that begins with nostalgia for the bygone Habsburg Empire, moves on to fights against the decolonized world’s efforts to create a New International Economic Order, and that plays a key role in forming the European Economic Community and the WTO. Live Dig interview in NYC with Yanis Varoufakis on Challenging the New Right-Populism. Saturday December 1, 6pm. The New School’s Arnhold Hall at the Theresa Lang Student Center. Thanks to Verso Books and University of California Press. Check out their titles at www.versobooks.com and ucpress.edu Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig