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Bea and Abby speak with Adia Benton about how neoliberalism constrains what public health interventions are considered possible while simultaneously expanding what political issues can be depoliticized as simply a "public health issue." We also look at some of Adia's statements from early in the pandemic on the role of austerity in shaping the covid response, and discuss how development and NGO work shapes the political economy of health.
Adia Benton is a cultural anthropologist who studies global health, biomedicine, and the political economy of humanitarianism. She is a Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Northwestern University and the author of HIV Exceptionalism: Development through Disease in Sierra Leone.
Find Adia's book here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/hiv-exceptionalism
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
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As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
