Manufacturing Dissent Since 1996
New interviews throughout the week
 freedom for palestine now   f ck the bbc

If you look at what people sort of senior levels in the BBC have said about this, it's this idea that the BBC needs to be a calm space where people, when they surface from their echo chambers, can find reliable information and not feel like they're being attacked for their views. But the problem with that is, first of all, not all echo chambers are equal. Um, you know, social media increasingly has been colonized by far right ideas and rhetoric and propaganda. The other problem is that that only works if the kind of the impartial balanced space that you are providing as the alternative is actually doing the job it should do, which is to tell the truth. On a key issue of the day, the Gaza War, the BBC has not been able to kind of tell the truth about what's happening in as clear and focused away as as we need it to.

Daniel Trilling returns to discuss his new Equator piece, "Inside the BBC’s Gaza Fiasco: How the world’s most trusted media organisation fell apart.

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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.

Posted by Matthew Boedy

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

Joyce Mao - Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism

Eve Ewing - Phantoms Playing Double-Dutch: Why the Fight for Dyett is Bigger than One Chicago School Closing

William Deresiewicz - The Neoliberal Arts: How college sold its soul to the market [subscription required]