Mailbag!

Featuring Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on this year’s historic US election cycle. A massive blue tsunami repudiated the MAGA right in the wake of a red primary wave from the socialist left that crashed into the Democratic Party establishment. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Listen to Death in Westminster on any podcast platform   Get 20% off an annual print subscription to The Break—Down at break-down.org/dig

Featuring Alyssa Battistoni on Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature. This episode is the second of a two-part interview: Battistoni’s account of capitalist class and market rule; what’s hidden behind the mystification of the externality; existentialism and Marxism; why human freedom is the precondition for saving the planet rather than the cause of its destruction; how a theorization of nature clarifies our analysis of care work and reproductive labor—and much more.  Give Dan a birthday present and support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Find Unsafe and How to Close a Camp at Haymarketbooks.org

Featuring Alyssa Battistoni on Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature. Fossil-fueled capitalism has pushed our planet into a profound set of crises. How Marxists should make sense of this all, however, is unclear. Battistoni offers a Marxist theory of nature that’s simultaneously a brilliant reworking of Marxist theory more generally. The first episode in a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Find recent releases The Anti-Defamation League – A Critical Reader and Decolonizing Money at Plutobooks.com

Featuring Yael Bridge, Jeremy Flood, and Erick Stoll on Who Moves America, a powerful documentary about the massive 2023 Teamsters strike against UPS that ultimately did not happen.  Find or request a screening of Who Moves America at whomovesamerica.com  Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out The Nation‘s Books & the Arts section at thenation.com/books-and-the-arts Find How to Close a Camp at Haymarketbooks.org

Featuring Chris Brooks on labor’s crisis and the strategic, militant class struggle that can turn it all around. Brooks, former chief of staff to UAW President Shawn Fain, urges organizers to be flexible in their methodology, explains the federal monitor’s anti-left lawfare against the UAW over Gaza—and why labor must build for 2028. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Read more: “Is Labor at the Point of No Return?” by Chris Brooks in New Labor Forum newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/01/15/is-labor-at-the-point-of-no-return “Is Labor at the Point of No Return?” by Chris Brooks in New Labor Forum newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/01/15/is-labor-at-the-point-of-no-return “Shawn Fain’s UAW Is Facing Strong Headwinds” by Nelson Lichtenstein in New Labor Forum newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/05/15/shawn-fains-uaw-is-facing-strong-headwinds “The War on the UAW” by Ella Fanger in The Nation  thenation.com/article/economy/uaw-elections-monitor-gaza Find Bad Energy and Songs My Mother Taught Me at Haymarketbooks.org

Featuring Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian on their book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. What the world’s bizarre richest man reveals about our financially fabulist, hard tech, far-right political-economic era. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Find Against Tech Oligarchy at Haymarketbooks.org  Learn more about Hate Speech at UCPress.edu  

Featuring Ben Shanahan, the architect of socialist David Morales’ victorious campaign to be the Democratic nominee for mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. The Providence left ran a slate of left-wing candidates that not only elected Morales but also swept every single contested city council seat on a platform of capping the rent and building social housing. Read Dennis Hogan’s essays on the Providence win in n+1 and Dissent: nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-hi-neighbor-mayor/ dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/david-morales-providence-municipal-socialism/ Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Listen to Death in Westminster on any podcast platform.   Get 20% off an annual print subscription to The Break—Down at break-down.org/dig/

Featuring Daniel Denvir and Ben Mabie answering questions posed by you, our listeners. Submit a question for our next mailbag: speakpipe.com/ListenerMailbag Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Read the piece Ben mentioned “From the Camp to the Picket: Reflections from the UC Strike for Palestine” longhaulmag.com/uc-strike-for-palestine Learn more about The Shadow Court and Disability Revolution at UCPress.edu

Featuring David Wallace-Wells, Madison Condon, and Moira Birss on how insurance companies profit off climate catastrophe—and, in doing so, ensure that people and the planet suffer the consequences. Guest hosted by Astra Taylor. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Read “National Disaster Insurance for All: Single-Payer Disaster Insurance and Community Resilience Investments for Safer and More Affordable Housing” climateandcommunity.org/research/national-disaster-insurance-for-all-single-payer-disaster-insurance-and-community-resilience-investments-for-safer-and-more-affordable-housing/ Sign up! Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World reading group equator.org/events/late-victorian-holocausts Buy When We Are Kin and The Veiled Prophet at Haymarketbooks.org

Featuring Molly Crabapple on her book Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. The second in a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Decolonizing Money at Plutobooks.com  Buy Femmephilia at Haymarketbooks.org