#1672 Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out

Air Date 12/13/2024 The most important thing to understand about authoritarian and dictatorial governance is that it is neither efficient nor competent, contrary to the myth. The problem lies with the need to hire people based on their unquestioning loyalty rather than any kind of demonstrated ability to do the jobs they're tasked with. The results are, unsurprisingly, chaos. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email [email protected] Full Show Notes | Transcript Send the Gift of Membership! (Or on Patreon) Join our Discord community! KEY POINTS KP 1: Fight Trump With Everything You Have! Shocking Warning From Hungarian Democracy Movement - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 11-25-24 KP 2: MAGA 2.0 w Quinn Slobodian & Wendy Brown - The Dig - Air Date 11-29-24 KP 3: A Slew Of A$$hole Nominations...- The Muckrake Political Podcast - Air Date 11-15-24 KP 4: What Pete Hegseth Has Said About Civil War and Whiteness - Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast - Air Date 11-27-24 KP 5: Trump goes off the deep end with Cabinet pick - No Lie w Brian Tyler Cohen - Air Date 12-1-24 KP 6: The Trump Trials... Cases Closed - Americast - Air Date 11-29-24 KP 7: MAGA 2.0 w Quinn Slobodian & Wendy Brown - The Dig - Air Date 11-29-24 (54:37) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On why it's important to stay engaged Don’t Let Donald Trump Drive You Into Internal Exile - NYTimes DEEPER DIVES (58:44) SECTION A: THE LINEUP (1:27:56) SECTION B: THE PLAYBOOK (1:52:28) SECTION C: GLOBAL REFERENCE (2:12:50) SECTION D: CRACKS IN AUTHORITY SHOW IMAGE Description: Composite graphic of Trump giving the double thumbs up over black silhouettes of people in suits with the clown face emoji on their heads and “MAGA” on their chests. Credit: Composite design by A. Hoffman. Various images via Pixabay.   Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastadon | Threads | X

Introducing Don’t Steal Your Grandma’s Handicap Sticker with Anastasia Pagonis from Good Game with Sarah Spain.Follow the show: Good Game with Sarah SpainParalympic swimmer Anastasia Pagonis joins Sarah to discuss how she prepared for blindness, how her guide dog Radar gives her much-needed confidence, and what it’s like to work with brands to change how people see visually impaired folks. Plus, a What The Fact about moms who coach and Angel City's newest investment in the community. The full NCAA volleyball tournament schedule is here  This weekend’s NCAA basketball games can be found here Check out the ESSENCE cover story about Sha’Carri Richardson here  And keep sending us your holiday traditions!! Leave us a voicemail at 872-204-5070 or send us a note at [email protected]  Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.bsky.social Instagram: @Spain2323 Follow producer Misha Jones! Bluesky: @mishthejrnalist.bsky.social Instagram: @mishthejrnalist TikTok: @mishthejrnalist Follow producer Alex Azzi! Bluesky: @byalexazzi.bsky.social   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to [email protected].

Air Date: 12-12-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - What the orcas are up to  - Confronting the truth about eating meat  - How to not let grief destroy leftist movements - Living a better life by accepting our own mortality FOLLOW US ON:  Bluesky Mastadon Instagram Facebook YouTube Nostr public key: npub1tjxxp0x5mcgl2svwhm39qf002st2zdrkz6yxmaxr6r2fh0pv49qq2pem0e REFERENCES: Confessions of a Former Carnivore For Our Movements to Win, We Must Learn How Not to Let Our Grief Destroy Us You Are Going to Die   Join our Discord Server Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Produced by: Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft  Contact me directly at [email protected]  Review the show on Apple Podcasts!

Air Date 12/10/2024 In a moment of darkness, it's important to not only look for light but also understand how to create your own. Today we're exploring the philosophy of Tragic Optimism, the differing frameworks of freedom-from and freedom-to, and the slow progress of democracy but also the organizing strategies that are themselves the best coping mechanisms and path to progress. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email [email protected] Full Show Notes | Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Membership 20% off for the Holiday! Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Send the Gift of Membership! (Or on Patreon) Join our Discord community! KEY POINTS KP 1: The Tragic Optimist's Guide to Surviving Capitalistic Nihilism - Dasia Sade Part 1 - Air Date 11-29-24 KP 2: Where Do We Go From Here? Featuring Kali Akuno - Millennials Are Killing Capitalism - Air Date 11-10-24 KP 3: How To Fight Fascism In America - Why, America? with Leeja Miller - Air Date 11-20-24 KP 4: Timothy Snyder: Is Freedom Misunderstood? - The Agenda - Air Date 10-9-24 KP 5: Neoliberalism Borrowed From Lenin, Why Can’t We? - Unf*cking The Republic - Air Date 11-22-24 KP 6: The Tragic Optimist's Guide to Surviving Capitalistic Nihilism - Dasia Sade Part 2 - Air Date 11-29-24 (49:55) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On holiday memberships DEEPER DIVES (52:31) SECTION A - ORGANZING A1: Organizing in Rural America (w/ Luke Mayville) - Know Your Enemy - Air Date 11-27-24 A2: The Quest for the Offline Left with Cecilia Guerrero: Organizing the South - Fucking Cancelled - Air Date 11-3-24 (1:11:16) SECTION B - COPING MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions) uxnpfz6i Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastadon | Threads | X

Original Air Date: 11/29/2023 The movement for universal health care is still underway, though it rarely gets recognized in mainstream discourse. The murder of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson is an occasion worth using to look at the progress being made to improve our system of promoting the health of all people in the United States as well as efforts to rein in the power of big Pharma that's used to gouge the American people with exorbitant prices. So, that's what we're doing. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email [email protected] Full Show Notes | Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Clips and Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Healthcare Activist Ady Barkan Dies of ALS; Watch His 2021 Interview on Demanding Medicare for All - Democracy Now! - Air Date 11-27-23 Healthcare activist Ady Barkan has died at the age of 39 of the neurodegenerative disease ALS. His story is told in the documentary Not Going Quietly. In 2021, Democracy Now! spoke with Ady Barkan just ahead of the film’s premiere. Ch. 2: Why your health insurance is tied to work - The Weeds - Air Date 10-18-23 The wartime policy that changed health insurance forever Ch. 3: Rethinking the path to winning single payer - Code WACK! - Air Date 4-10-23 Winning Medicare for All in the U.S. may be at a standstill at the federal level, but it's a different story In the states. In 2021 alone, 18 single-payer bills were introduced in states such as Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, and Oregon. Ch. 4: How Can This Predatory Exploitation Be Considered Health Care - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 11-15-23 If Medicare Advantage, the profit-driven entity that is decidedly NOT part of REAL Medicare, could be summed up in three words, they might be: deny, deny, deny. Ch. 5: Biden vs. Big Pharma Medicare to Begin Negotiations to Lower Price of 10 Costly Drugs & Insulin - Democracy Now! - Air Date 8-30-23 Peter Maybarduk joins us to discuss how the new negotiation process aims to break up drug monopolies and disband the pharmaceutical industry’s profit incentive. Ch. 6: Inequality Undermines Health & Healthcare in the U.S. - Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff - Air Date 11-14-23 Ch. 7: Big Pharma Explained Why Are Meds So Expensive [& The Solution] - The Laura Flanders Show - Air Date 6-12-23 Ch. 8: The Challenge of Caring for Our Elders - The Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 11-15-23

Sign Up or Manage Your Membership Air Date: 12-6-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - The political origins of SimCity and how capitalism warps our choices - A new video game offering a very different vision of societal management - Naomi Klein's insights on the Left's missteps responding to the Mirror World - Applying cynicism and skepticism in moderation FOLLOW US ON:  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bestoftheleft.bsky.social Mastadon: https://mastodon.social/@[email protected] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bestoftheleft/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BestOfTheLeft/ Nostr public key: npub1tjxxp0x5mcgl2svwhm39qf002st2zdrkz6yxmaxr6r2fh0pv49qq2pem0e REFERENCES: SimCity Isn’t a Model of Reality. It’s a Libertarian Toy Land Build-a-Brrr Naomi Klein on her doppelganger (and yours) Be Like Claud Cockburn: Tell Truths to the Masses   Join our Discord Server Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Produced by: Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! ugf9dzuv Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft  Contact me directly at [email protected]  Review the show on Apple Podcasts!

Air Date 12/3/2024 At a time when there are very legitimate concerns about men's place in society, the Manosphere has stepped in to fill the gap in the cultural discussion to give an answer, not a good answer but an answer, to young men about modern masculinity which included a strong push to vote Trump. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email [email protected] Full Show Notes | Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community! KEY POINTS KP 1: The Role of the Press in This Moment with Matt Pearce - Why Is This Happening - Air Date 11-19-24 KP 2: The #MenToo Election Catholics, Latinos, and the Manosphere - Straight White American Jesus - Air Date 11-11-24 KP 3: Inside Elon's Twitter Takeover with Ryan Mac and Kate Conger - Factually! with Adam Conover - Air Date 11-13-24 KP 4: The #MenToo Election Catholics, Latinos, and the Manosphere Part 2 - Straight White American Jesus - Air Date 11-11-24 KP 5: Make America Male Again Fifteen years of aggrieved men - It's Been a Minute - Air Date 11-19-24 KP 6: Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation ( Feat Esosa Osa)- Gettin' Grown - Air Date 11-12-24 KP 7: How the Fediverse can make social fun again - WordPress - Air Date 8-12-24 (56:23) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On the slow process of fixing our broken internet DEEPER DIVES (1:02:00) SECTION A - MEDIA LANDSCAPE (1:22:06) SECTION B - MEN ARE NOT OKAY (1:52:03) SECTION C - WHAT WE CAN DO SHOW IMAGE Description: Photo of the back of a young man standing on a subway platform putting headphones on as a silver train whizzes past. Credit: “People guy man sound music” by StockSnap, Pixabay | License: Pixabay   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastadon | Threads | X

Air Date 11/29/2024 Today’s episode is a remix of a 5-part series of episodes we did several years ago about telling native stories beyond what the US tends to share about its history. The series stretched all the way from Columbus to modern day and today we’re sharing the highlights reel of what stuck out to us looking back. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email [email protected] Full Show Notes BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community! Ch 1: Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on Thanksgiving: "It Has Never Been About Honoring Native Americans" - @DemocracyNow - Air Date: 11-29-16 Ch 2: American expansion and violence against Native Americans - @BackStory - Air Date: 01-19-2018 Ch 3: The legal structures that uphold violence against Indigenous people #MMIW - Let's Talk Native... with John Kane - Air Date 2-14-19 Ch 4: Doctrine of Christian Discovery Part 1 - Let’s Talk Native - Air Date 3-18-19 Ch 5: Beyond Tragedy: The Living History of Native America - Ideas from CBC Radio - Air Date 2-20-19 Ch 6: Hawaiian Indigeneity and the theft of Aloha with W. Gerry Ebalaroza - Breakdances With Wolves - Air Date 8-21-18 Ch 7: Confederacy Inc. Donald Trump, Racist Police, and the Whitewashing of History Part 1 - Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill - Air Date 7-1-20 Ch 8: Indigenous historian Nick Estes discusses the trivializing of native people - @Intercepted w @JeremyScahill - Air Date 10-23-18 Ch 9: Sexual Violence and Native American Genocide - @Making_Contact - Air Date 11-26-13 Ch 10: ’Reel' Indians and the invention of Hollywood Indian English - Backstory - Air Date 11-22-14 Ch 11: The moral narratives of colonization as relates to the Western Frontier and Israel - Citations Needed (@CitationsPod) - Air Date 8-22-17 Ch 12: Confederacy Inc. Donald Trump, Racist Police, and the Whitewashing of History Part 2 - Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill - Air Date 7-1-20 Ch 13: What we inherit: Explaining intergenerational trauma - Code Switch - Air Date 6-6-18 MORE CLIPS IN FULL SHOW NOTES Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastadon | Threads | X

Air Date 11/26/2024 In a world of infinite information but a finite amount of time to check your facts, we're living the logical conclusion of an online environment that favors false information over truth and the most popular online media reflects that reality perfectly. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email [email protected] Full Show Notes | Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community! KEY POINTS KP 1: Aaron Rodgers moment perfectly sums up how fake information spreads - All In with Chris Hayes - 11-14-24 KP 2: Why is everyone suddenly an expert? (Even when they’re not) - The Bunker - Air Date 5-20-24 KP 3: How Right-Wing Media Took Over America Part 1 - Why America? with Leeja Miller - Air Date 11-18-24 KP 4: The Manosphere Celebrates a Win. Plus, M. Gessen on How to Survive an Autocracy - On The Media - Air Date 11-8-24 KP 5: We DON'T need a LEFTIST Joe Rogan - The Kavernacle - Air Date 11-14-24 KP 6: Stop Having an "Open Mind" - Breaking In The Habit - Air Date 5-31-24 KP 7: Birds Aren’t Real? How a Conspiracy Takes Flight | Peter McIndoe - TED - Air Date 9-13-23 (49:25) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On the nature of skepticism and open-mindedness DEEPER DIVES (55:48) SECTION A - THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE AND THE MEDIA (1:27:00) SECTION B - TRUST AND BELIEF (1:53:40) SECTION C - CENTRISM (2:23:47) SECTION D - ROOTS SHOW IMAGE Description: A graphic depicting a silhouette of the Thinking Man statue with a chaotic swarm of letters coming from the top of his head. The word “Heterodoxy” is written along the curve of his back. Credit: Composite design by A. Hoffman | “thinker words thoughts mind white” image by Convegni_Ancisa via Pixabay (Pixabay license)   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastadon | Threads | X  

Air Date: 11-24-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, and Erin discuss: - A few sort of fun-ish news things because it's very necessary right now - A clear-eyed but concise take on why people voted the way they did - Why the hard right political philosophy and their lies are catching on, and what the left can do to stop the appeal FOLLOW US ON:  Bluesky Mastadon Instagram Facebook YouTube Nostr public key: npub1tjxxp0x5mcgl2svwhm39qf002st2zdrkz6yxmaxr6r2fh0pv49qq2pem0e REFERENCES: Here’s Why I Decided To Buy ‘InfoWars’ Alex Jones Is Trying to Halt the Sale of Infowars. Elon Musk’s X Just Got Involved in the Case. American Kakistocracy Yes, Trump's Defense Secretary Pick Pete Hegseth Once Said 'Germs Are Not a Real Thing' Americans Didn't Vote for What Donald Trump is About to Give Them A Modest Proposal: Let Trump Be Trump  Steve Bannon Has Called His “Army” to Do Battle—No Matter Who Wins in November   Join our Discord Server Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Produced by: Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft  Contact me directly at [email protected]  Review the show on Apple Podcasts!