Manufacturing Dissent Since 1996
New interviews throughout the week
Coffee exploitaton

We are no doubt partly to blame. We consume agricultural products like coffee, for example, which are linked to land use changes that then impact disease. And while we are responsible as consumers for our consumption, I think we also need to point a lot of responsibility to the companies that are facilitating this consumption and also facilitating the types of consumption, right? And also hiding a lot of the ecological impacts from us. They purposefully don't make links between things like coffee and deforestation and deforestation and malaria because who wants to be thinking about potentially giving kids malaria as they're enjoying their morning cup, cup of Joe, right? Are we somewhat complicit or enablers as consumers? Of course, but again, the companies really hide a lot of the destruction that occurs from our viewpoint. And of course, it's these companies that are making the majority of the profits. In terms of coffee in particular, some studies show that it's these huge roasting companies that make up to 90 or 95 cents on every coffee dollar sold while less than 5 cents is going to the typical coffee farmer in someplace like rural Uganda.

Brent Z. Kaup and Kelly F. Austin join This Is Hell! to talk about their new book "The Pathogens of Finance: How Capitalism Breeds Vector-Borne Disease" published by University of California Press. The Pathogens of Finance explores how the power and profits of Wall Street underpin the contemporary increases in and inadequate responses to vector-borne disease.

Brent Z. Kaup studies how the transformation of nature affects social inequalities and societal well-being. In addition, he seeks to understand how the materiality of nature shapes markets, policies, and social movements.  Through his research, he has... read more

 


Posted by Matthew Boedy

Here's what Chuck is reading this week to prepare for Saturday's show:

John Kay - Other People's Money: The Real Business of Finance [Public Affairs Books]

John Cassidy - Five Things Jeremy Corbyn Has Right [New Yorker]

Morten Jerven - Africa: Why Economists Get it Wrong [Zed Books]

Alice Dreger - Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science [Penguin]

Episode 867

Revolution Brewing

Sep 19 2015
Posted by Matthew Boedy

Listen live tomorrow 9AM - 10:30AM Central on WNUR 89.3FM or stream here at thisishell.com

9:10 - Historian Ray Raphael explores the politics behind America's revolutionary moment.

Ray is co-author (along with Marie Raphael) of the book The Spirit of 74: How the American Revolution Began from the New Press.

9:50 -  Filmmaker Leslee Udwin follows a rape, a backlash, and a political movement in India.

Leslee is the director of the documentary India's Daughter. She'll be screening and talking about the film on Wednesday night at the Siskel Film Center. Listen live to win tickets!

Episode 866

Childhood's Endstage

Sep 12 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.

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

Episode 865

The Arctic Line

Sep 5 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.

Episode 864

Dire Education

Aug 29 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.