Episode 866
Childhood's Endstage
Sep 12 2015
Enshittification is not a theory about you shopping wrong or about fetishizing your consumption choices, nor is it even a theory about how the people who are doing this are bad. It is a theory about what happens when our policy makers create an enshittogenic environment. Whether the product is free or not, you are the product if they can get away with making you the product. A hospital that can't fix its own ventilator did not get a free advertising supported ventilator. The reason they're being charged 200 bucks for a technician to come out and type an unlock code after they make the repair is not because they didn't pay enough for the ventilator. It's because we have a law that makes it illegal for them to bypass that step.
Cory Doctorow returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his new book from Verso, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It. "Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi and "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follow the interview.
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Sep 11 2015
Posted by Matthew Boedy
Listen live tomorrow 9AM - 1PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM or stream here at thisishell.com
9:15 - Economist Michael Hudson explains how finance became capitalism's driving force.
Michael is author of the new book Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy
10:05 - Jacobin editor Megan Erickson explores childhood in an age of austerity and division.
Megan's new book is Class War: The Privatization of Childhood from Verso Books.
11:05 - Sociologist Javier Auyero profiles daily life in Argentina's most dangerous neighborhood.
Javier is co-author (along with María Fernanda Berti) of In Harm's Way: The Dynamics of Urban Violence from Princeton University Press.
12:05 - Writer Michelle Chen looks to the present and future of digital labor organizing.
Michelle wrote the article The Unionization of Digital Media for The Nation.
12:45 - Jeff Dorchen bashes (from the left) a left-basher bashing from the left.
We're worried that many left turns puts Jeff on the right.
Sep 10 2015
Posted by Matthew Boedy
Here's what Chuck is reading this week to prepare for Saturday's show:
Michael Hudson - Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy
Megan Erickson - Class War: The Privatization of Childhood
Javier Auyero & María Fernanda Berti - In Harm's Way: The Dynamics of Urban Violence
Michelle Chen - The Unionization of Digital Media
Sep 4 2015
Posted by Matthew Boedy
Heather Exner-Pirot explains how a melting Arctic and international politics threaten indigenous land and political autonomy.
Heather wrote the chapter Whose Arctic Is it? in the Worldwatch Institute's report State of the World 2015: Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability.
Aug 28 2015
Posted by Matthew Boedy
9:10AM - Historian Joyce Mao explores China's role in shaping modern American conservatism.
Joyce is author of Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism from University of Chicago Press.
10:05AM - Lawpagandist Brian Foley explains the importance of narrative and storytelling in the courtroom.
Brian will be talking about the Legal Writing Institute.
10:35AM - Writer Eve Ewing remembers the ghosts of closed public schools in Bronzeville and beyond.
Eve wrote the letter Phantoms Playing Double-Dutch: Why the Fight for Dyett is Bigger than One Chicago School Closing at Seven Scribes.
11:05AM - Author William Deresiewicz surveys the cost of a neoliberal university education.
William is author of the September Harper's cover story The Neoliberal Arts: How college sold its soul to the market.
12:05PM - Activist Alberto Roque Guerra contrasts LGBT life in Cuba and the United States.
Dr. Roque Guerra will be speaking at the LGBTs in Cuba event on September 1st.
12:45PM - Jeff Dorchen pokes the turd of nationalist paranoia.
Don't worry, Jeff will be using a stick in this metaphorical situation.
Aug 27 2015
Posted by Matthew Boedy
Here's what Chuck is reading this week to prepare for Saturday's show:
Joyce Mao - Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism
Eve Ewing - Phantoms Playing Double-Dutch: Why the Fight for Dyett is Bigger than One Chicago School Closing
William Deresiewicz - The Neoliberal Arts: How college sold its soul to the market [subscription required]
Aug 21 2015
Posted by Matthew Boedy
9:10AM - Journalist Gary Rivlin revisits the first days and bad decisions of the Katrina disaster.
Gary is author of the new book Katrina: After the Flood from Simon & Schuster.
10:05AM - Live from Kabul, Matthieu Aikins profiles the gangster-politicians of Karachi.
Matthieu's latest writing is The Gangs of Karachi for Harper's and Yemen's Hidden War for Rolling Stone.
10:35AM - The Radical Pessimist, Kevan Harris examines China's influence in South Africa.
Kevan just returned from South Africa and will be in-studio tomorrow.
11:05AM - Writer Alyssa Katz explores the US Chamber of Commerce's influence on American politics.
12:05PM - Psychology researcher Rael Dawtry points out the blind spots in the minds of wealthy people.
Rael is co-author of the study Why wealthier people think people are wealthier, and why it matters.
12:35PM - The Hopleaf's Michael Roper looks ahead to the inevitable craft brew bubble pop.
Michael will be in-studio with a couple beer choices and the chance to support a local public school by getting day drunk.