
Death Panel
Politics, culture, and public policy from the left. Stay alive another week.
w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson.
https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Latest episodes

Apr 17, 2025 • 1h 35min
"Waste, Fraud and Abuse"
This episode was originally released for patrons on February 10th, and we are unlocking it today as threats to cut Medicaid and Social Security have only grown louder and more explicit since it was recorded (and as our central comments on the nature of "waste, fraud and abuse" rhetoric remain, unfortunately, enduringly relevant).
We're back from our parental leave (!) next Monday in the patron feed with new episodes, and will certainly be picking up where this conversation left off very soon.
To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Beatrice, Artie and Phil discuss how Trump and Musk’s DOGE increasingly seems poised to go after Medicare and Social Security, how the constant refrain that Republicans are looking to cut “waste, fraud and abuse” in social spending is a lie meant to obscure their real agenda, and why the open plot to add work requirements to Medicaid would be a tremendous disaster.
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' latest book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Apr 14, 2025 • 20min
Teaser - State Building, Development Ideology and Debt in the West Bank w/ Kareem Rabie
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/126650833
Beatrice speaks with Kareem Rabie about how capitalist visions for “the day after” ceasefire often rely on economic development projects that act as an extension of settler colonialism, Rabie’s research on housing development projects in the West Bank in 2005-2009, and his 2021 book, Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited: Capital and State Building in the West Bank.
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Apr 10, 2025 • 1h 21min
Lifetime Care w/ William Bronston
Beatrice and Phil speak with lifelong activist William Bronston about his experiences trying to take down the infamous Willowbrook institution from within as a young doctor, his appeal to replace “long term care” with “lifetime care," and how his work towards deinstitutionalization informs his ongoing advocacy for single payer healthcare.
Transcript: https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/lifetime-care-dr-william-bronston
This episode was originally released for patrons on August 28th, 2023, as Artie explains in a brief note at the top of the show. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Find Bronston's book "Public Hostage, Public Ransom" here: www.publichostagepublicransom.org/
and the state single payer plan he coauthored here: caltcha.org/model
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' latest book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Apr 7, 2025 • 18min
Teaser - "No Use to the State" w/ Micah Khater
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/126159598
Beatrice speaks with Micah Khater about her award winning article on the intersection of race, disability, and incarceration in the southern US in the early 20th century, and her work documenting the history of how Black women experienced and theorized disability from within Alabama prisons.
Read Micah’s full article, “No Use to the State: Phrasing Escape and a Black Radical Epistolary of Disability in Early Twentieth-Century Alabama Prisons” (winner of the 2024 Toni Cade Bambara Article Prize from the Black Women's Studies Association) here: https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/9662/8007
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Runtime 1:31:04

Apr 3, 2025 • 2h 1min
Corridors of Contagion w/ Victoria Law
Beatrice speaks with Victoria Law about how prisons and jails have acted as vectors of covid transmission throughout the pandemic, the experiences of people on the inside from early in the pandemic through fights happening now over long covid in incarcerated people, and why it’s still not too late to bring back a common demand from 2020: to free them all for public health.
This episode was originally released for patrons on September 9th, 2024, as Artie explains in a brief note at the top of the show. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Find Victoria's book, Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration, here:
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2447-corridors-of-contagion
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' latest book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Mar 31, 2025 • 17min
Teaser - Disability and the Ongoing Federalism Revolution w/ Karen Tani and Katie Eyer
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/125620040
Beatrice and Phil speak with legal scholars Karen Tani and Katie Eyer about how the Supreme Court used cases related to disability and deinstitutionalization in the 1970s and 1980s as an opportunity to remake and expand its own powers, the role that these cases had in securing conservatives’ “New Federalism” revolution, and how disability cases continue to be a site of conservative judicial advancement today.
Read Karen and Katie's article, "Disability and the Ongoing Federalism Revolution," here: https://www.yalelawjournal.org/feature/disability-and-the-ongoing-federalism-revolution
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Runtime 1:25:44

Mar 27, 2025 • 1h 23min
The Politics of “Risk Assessment” w/ William Boyd
Beatrice speaks with William Boyd about how “risk assessment” became a central focus of health safety and environmental law since the 1970s, and how the political and economic factors that structure how those risks are assessed have resulted in law and policy far less likely to protect against environmental and health hazards.
This episode was originally released for patrons on August 5th, 2024, as Artie explains in a brief note at the top of the show. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Find William's articles here:
How Environmental Law Created a World Awash in Toxic Chemicals (LPE Blog) - https://lpeproject.org/blog/how-environmental-law-created-a-world-awash-in-toxins/
De-Risking Environmental Law - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4753197
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Mar 24, 2025 • 36min
Teaser - Disabled Ecologies w/ Sunaura Taylor
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/125073251
Beatrice speaks with Sunaura Taylor about how industrial pollution and systemic abandonment produce networks of disability among people, animals, and what she calls “injured landscapes;” how one community in Arizona organized against longstanding environmental pollution from arms manufacturing; and her new book, Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert.
Find Sunaura’s book here: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/disabled-ecologies/hardcover
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Runtime 1:32:58

Mar 20, 2025 • 1h 35min
Evictions, Property and the Administration of Racial Capitalism w/ Marques Vestal & Tracy Rosenthal
Beatrice and Tracy speak with Marques Vestal about the history of political conflicts over eviction and property in Los Angeles, the role of removal in producing property value, and using history to help us tell new stories about the past to shape our present.
This episode was originally released for patrons on December 9th, 2024, as Artie explains in a brief note at the top of the show. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
This episode is part of a series in collaboration with Tracy Rosenthal centered around the growing tenants’ movement and their book, co-authored with Leonardo Vilchis, Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis. Find Tracy's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent
Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny
Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Mar 17, 2025 • 8min
Teaser - Death Classic: Injury Impoverished w/ Nate Holdren
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/124584385
Hi listeners — Beatrice and Artie are currently on parental leave. (We were planning to be able to telegraph the announcement more this week, but "baby death panel" had other plans, and came early!). While we're away, we'll still have episodes in the feed, like today's episode; a mix of some old favorites we haven't revisited in a while and some unlocks. We’ll be back as soon as it’s safe and reasonable for us to do so, because with everything going on right now we want to make sure we’re here for everyone.
We also want to thank each and every one of you, because without support from our patrons it wouldn’t be possible for us to take this kind of time. So if you can, now is a great time to support the show at patreon.com/deathpanelpod — either by becoming a patron or increasing your membership.
Original episode description:
In today's episode, Beatrice and Phil speak with Nate Holdren about his book Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era, the history of worker's compensation reforms, and the tensions surrounding disablement and the working class.
Find Nate's book here: https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/twentieth-century-american-history/injury-impoverished-workplace-accidents-capitalism-and-law-progressive-era?format=HB&isbn=9781108488709
Runtime 1:34:41
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