Episodes
Is Every Act a Political Act?
As a short follow-up to our previous episode, we discuss whether or not every act is a political act. We briefly mention commodification, socialization, industrialization, technology, capitalism, religion, and more.
You Can’t Blame Everything on Capitalism
We loosely discuss a Gawker article by Clare Coffey titled “Failure to Cope Under Capitalism”.
Are Labor Strikes Illegal in the United States? The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
We discuss a short history of labor strikes in the United States and how the federal government dramatically reduced the power of labor with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.
Black Wars in Tasmania – Genocide by Definition
We discuss the genocide of the Tasmanian Aboriginals in the nineteenth century.
2022 Report on Indian Board Schools – U.S. Department of Interior
We discuss the recently published United States Department of the Interior Report on Native American Boarding Schools which discovered 431 Federal Indian Boarding Schools and discusses many of the atrocities which took place there.
Inspirations of the Harlem Renaissance
We sit down with musician and graduate student Ashley Ellis to discuss the Harlem Renaissance and its significance including artists such as Aaron Douglas, Archibald Motley, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and others such as W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin.
Prison – Can the System be Changed from the Inside?
Our friend and prison abolitionist Donte Young got a job at a youth detention facility and tried to change things from the inside. He provides an insightful, emotional, and at times chilling account of how things went.
DayZ: A Simulated Social Experiment?
DayZ is one of many games set in an apocalypse, but unlike all others, it forces the player to create their own “narrative.” Thus, it presents the opportunity to offer commentary on both conscious and subconscious popularity of consuming apocalyptic media. Further, by placing the consumer into the story in ways none of the other mediums can, it may offer insights into the way consumers think about their role in a post-apocalyptic world.
Georg Simmel’s “The Ruin”
https://youtu.be/aldg4YNobdU We discuss the 1911 essay "The Ruin" by German sociologist, philosopher, and critic Georg Simmel in which he discusses the importance of architecture compared to the other arts and why ruins hold a special meaning for humans. The Ruin:...
Could Utopia be Apocalyptic?
Continuing our series on the apocalypse, we discuss the chapter “Dying of Happiness: Utopia at the End of this World” in Maria Manuel Lisboa’s book “The End of the World: Apocalypse and its Aftermath in Western Culture” and the idea that utopia itself might bring about the apocalypse.