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Politics & Polemics
Darts & Letters August 10, 2022

The Colonial Lens

Analyzing Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Colonialism in Academia

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Scholars want to decolonize everything, and universities say they are doing the hard work of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. But is anything really being done, or is it all for …

Politics & Polemics

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Interviews with partisans and polemicists about their new books.

Politics & Polemics August 10, 2022

Paths of Dissent

Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Forever Wars

Andrew Bacevich and Daniel A. Sjursen

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
Compiled by New York Times bestselling author Andrew Bacevich and retired army officer Danny A. Sjursen, Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America’s Misguided Wars (Metropolitan Books, 2022) collects provocative …
Darts & Letters August 9, 2022

Letters from Herzl

Settler Colonialism at work in Palestine

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Today’s episode originally aired in May of 2021, while violence was erupting all along the Gaza Strip. Israeli airstrikes had left over 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis dead. It …
Critical Theory August 8, 2022

The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice

Nasar Meer

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why are societies still not offering racial equality? In The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice (Policy Press, 2022), Nasar Meer, a professor of Race, Identity and Citizenship in the School of …
Darts & Letters August 8, 2022

January 6th and the Myth of the Mob

The Pervasive Power of Crowd Theory

Hosted by Gordon Katic
This week, we’re showcasing some of our favourite past episodes of Darts and Letters themed around “Activism & Academia”. Today’s episode originally aired a little earlier this summer. In the …
Politics & Polemics August 3, 2022

Goliath

The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy

Matt Stoller

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
In Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time …
Darts & Letters August 3, 2022

The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed

The Intellectual Culture of Twitch Streamers

Hosted by Gordon Katic
It was billed as “the biggest event in the history of the terminally online.” A debate: socialism vs. capitalism. On your left side, the esteemed Marxist economist Richard Wolff. On …
Darts & Letters August 2, 2022

Socialise the Series of Tubes

Toward a Democratic Internet

Ben Tarnoff

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Recently a major outage took nearly a third of Canada offline. No phone, no internet… even access to 911 got shut down in some places. So why does one company …
Gender Studies July 29, 2022

Sex Is as Sex Does

Governing Transgender Identity

Paisley Currah

Hosted by Sohini Chatterjee
Every government agency in the United States, from Homeland Security to Departments of Motor Vehicles, has the authority to make its own rules for sex classification. Many transgender people find …
African American Studies July 29, 2022

Insurrection

Rebellion, Civil Rights, and the Paradoxical State of Black Citizenship

Hawa Allan

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
The little-known and under-studied 1807 Insurrection Act was passed to give the president the ability to deploy federal military forces to fend off lawlessness and rebellion, but it soon became …
Darts & Letters July 29, 2022

The Science Wars

Post-Truth and the Nature of Science

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Welcome to the final day of our weeklong deep dive into the politics of education. Today, we’ve got another episode of Cited for you. If you haven’t heard a Cited …
Political Science July 28, 2022

Ugly Freedoms

Elisabeth R. Anker

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Freedom is often considered the cornerstone of the American political project. The 1776 revolutionaries declared it an inalienable right that could neither be taken nor granted, a sacred concept upon …
Anthropology July 27, 2022

After The Apocalypse

Finding Hope in Organizing

Monika Kostera

Hosted by Joan Matamoros
Our times of crumbling structures and decaying social bonds are often depicted as apocalyptic. Monika Kostera's book After The Apocalypse: Finding Hope in Organizing (John Hunt, 2020) takes the apocalypse as …
Historical Materialism July 27, 2022

Automation and Autonomy

Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry

James Steinhoff

Hosted by Reuben Niewenhuis
Automation and Autonomy: Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) argues that Marxist theory is essential for understanding the contemporary industrialization of the form of artificial …
Darts & Letters July 27, 2022

Koch Block My Campus

How Big Money Corrupts Academia

James Turk

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Why is so much right-wing money being funnelled at such a furious pace into universities across the US? Libertarian-minded billionaires like the Kochs and their partners have funded scholars and …
Education July 27, 2022

Safe Enough Spaces

A Pragmatist's Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses

Michael S. Roth

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
From the president of Wesleyan University, a compassionate and provocative manifesto, Safe Enough Spaces (Yale UP, 2021) on the crises confronting higher education In this bracing book, Michael S. Roth stakes out …
Darts & Letters July 26, 2022

The Grift of Meritocracy

All About Grifting (Inside and Outside of the Academy)

Catherine Liu

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Our society is dominated by grifters. Cheats, cons, frauds: people who don’t really believe what they tell you. They’re just what they need to do to get ahead or to …
The Future of Higher Education July 22, 2022

The Real World of College

What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be

Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
For The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be (MIT Press, 2022), Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner analyzed in-depth interviews with more than 2,00 …
Film July 20, 2022

Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image

Erika Balsom and Hila Peleg

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Erika Balsom and Hila Peleg's edited volume Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image (MIT Press, 2022) offers intersectional, intergenerational, and international perspectives on nonfiction film- and videomaking by and about women …
Darts & Letters July 19, 2022

Donald Trump Loves Wrestlemania

American Politics and Pro Wrestling

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Darts and Letters is a show about the politics of ideas, and this week we’re searching for progressive politics in strange places… such as pro-wrestling.There have been 37 Wrestlemanias. That’s …