The Wicked Problems Collaborative

In the second to last segment from my chat with Ian Welsh (Ian blogs at ianwelsh.net), we dug into the state of UK politics and the unusual relationship that exists between the nation’s electorate and its media. From there we dove into the interests of wealth in our chaotic political sphere as well as more generally. As ever, Ian provided interesting insights and loads of food for thought. His discussion around the interests of wealth is particularly interesting in the context of ongoing election-related irregularities in the US.The full discussion with Ian was fun and interesting, but he was particularly animated and enjoyable to converse with during this segment. (You’ll hear me laughing more than anything else…) I hope you enjoy it.Check out my book, Pandemic Capitalism.The podcast’s backing track is Never Forget by Ketsa. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

In part 4 of my interview with Ian Welsh (Ian blogs at ianwelsh.net), I suggested that neoliberalism was on its last legs and asked Ian what he thought might follow. As with the rest of the interview, my questions were mere launching points. Here Ian dove into a broad conversation on geopolitics before coming back around to the factors that gave neoliberalism its ride, but were no longer tenable. We also talked about factors underpinning decisions in which people seemingly voted against their interests before taking a deep dive into the forces that led to the outcome of the Brexit vote, the problematic nature of wealth concentration during the pandemic, and a particular disconnect in modern society that warn of the potential for collapse when viewed in a historical context. We also discussed the US government’s handling of the pandemic, which wrapped back around to the collapse bit…The full discussion with Ian was fun and interesting, but he was particularly animated and enjoyable to converse with during this segment. (You’ll hear me laughing more than anything else…) I hope you enjoy it.Check out my book, Pandemic Capitalism.The podcast’s backing track is Never Forget by Ketsa. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

In part 3 of my interview with Ian Welsh (Ian blogs at ianwelsh.net), I asked whether a landslide loss might make the difference in getting Trump to concede. Ian talks about the potential legitimacy problem in that case before going into a discussion of what people might do to reduce their own risk (personal, political, economic…) in this uncertain moment and related considerations. We also discussed the danger represented by the model Trump has offered those seeking power, the growing problem of inequality, and the sorts of challenges that loom ahead regardless of who wins the election.Check out my book, Pandemic Capitalism.The podcast’s backing track is Never Forget by Ketsa. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

This is the second clip from my interview with Ian Welsh (Ian blogs at ianwelsh.net). For this segment, we went on a wild ride discussing the big picture mess that is US politics and society more broadly. I asked Ian what might happen if Trump lost and refused to leave and the resulting discussion meandered through a variety of interesting topics, including the 2000 Bush-Gore election debacle and the problems it enabled, the hope embodied in the squad, whether and what sort of help people want, and the specter of twelve more years of neoliberal politics. (Perish the thought.) All of this was couched in the shadow of the increasingly problematic nature of climate change. I’ll ask you to pay heed to Ian when he summons Donella Meadows in calling for people to make change where you can. That’s where I think we all ought to be focusing our attention. We need to try to ignore the cacophony as much as possible and try to pitch in where we can help the most. That seems crucial at this moment.Check out my book, Pandemic Capitalism.The podcast’s backing track is Never Forget by Ketsa. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

I recently sat down with Ian Welsh (Ian blogs at ianwelsh.net) to discuss the state of big picture challenges in US politics and society more broadly. Technical challenges on my end are slowing the release of the full discussion, but the nature of the interview was really timely given the looming election day, so I’m going to start out releasing pieces and then will push the full interview asap. In this segment, I asked Ian what scenarios were playing out in his head and as expected he didn’t answer as expected…Check out my book, Pandemic Capitalism.The podcast’s backing track is Never Forget by Ketsa. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

Here’s another clip from my interview with David Kaib. David discusses the concept of abolition and the need for it in our current circumstances.If you enjoy this segment, the full interview is available here.The podcast’s backing track is Never Forget by Ketsa. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

In my recent conversation with Jonathan Cohn, we discussed the possibility of Trump losing the election and refusing to accept the outcome—an outcome that seems ever more realistic. We discussed whether the system was made to handle this sort of outcome and what might happen.If you enjoy this segment, our full interview is available here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

My podcast interviews have been going a bit long, so I thought I’d break out some of the segments for people to pick and choose from. Here’s David Kaib from Ep. 2, answering the question, “What is socialism?”. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com

I had a great conversation with @DavidKaib this morning. We talked about the current state of politics in the US, abolition, and political education among many other things. I'm getting to work cleaning up the recording and will share it soon. For now, here’s a brief teaser in which I asked David how to handle the relentless stream of bad news that is US politics. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wickedproblemscollaborative.substack.com