
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

May 21, 2025 • 1h 28min
RFK, Health Capitalism and the Myths of Wellness (Re-Air)
Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released for patrons November 18, 2024 and is being re-aired today with a new brief intro from Artie at the top of the episode. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Original description:
Beatrice and Artie discuss Trump’s nomination of prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency overseeing healthcare, infectious disease, food safety, and more. We discuss some of RFK’s more unseemly beliefs, the responses to his nomination so far, and how his nomination doesn’t come out of nowhere, but instead follows decades of struggles over the political economy of health that have laid the groundwork for a figure like him to come into power.
Find the episode "Health Fascism Descends" here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/health-fascism-128800850
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

May 19, 2025 • 28min
Teaser - There Is No Place For Us w/ Brian Goldstone (05/19/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/129388051
Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Tracy Rosenthal speak with Brian Goldstone about how we intentionally undercount the homeless in America, and what life looks like for those that don’t make the official count; the myths of homelessness and personal responsibility that draw attention away from the demise of public housing and rise of neoliberalism; and Brian’s new book There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.
Find Brian's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645871/there-is-no-place-for-us-by-brian-goldstone/
Runtime 1:42:01
Note: We're back! Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes and many kind messages during our parental leave. We have a lot coming together soon processing current events and reacting to some big developments that happened while we were away. As we ramp production back up we'll be prioritizing the patron feed first to make sure patrons get a full new episode every week.
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

May 14, 2025 • 2h 31min
Nathan Tanks the Economy: An Oral History of 100 Days of DOGE w/ Nathan Tankus (Unlocked)
Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released May 5th for Death Panel patrons and is being unlocked today for the first time. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Beatrice speaks with Nathan Tankus to walk through an oral history of the early months of DOGE's ongoing infiltration of the Treasury payments system and Social Security, why the "Trump-Musk Payments Crisis" threatens a bigger fundamental threat of US economic breakdown than even Trump's tariffs, and why Nathan tried (and failed) to crash the stock market.
Transcript: www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/doge-nathan-tankus
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

May 12, 2025 • 27min
Teaser - Health Fascism Descends (05/12/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/128800850
Beatrice, Artie and Phil review the early months of the second Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, with health agencies undergoing mass purges, Medicaid cuts looming, millions declared administratively “dead” by the Social Security Administration, and top officials asserting “healthy people don’t consume healthcare resources.” We discuss the false claims that each of these attacks are attempts to target “waste, fraud and abuse” and why it is that health is such a particular target of the administration this time around.
Runtime 1:30:03
Note: We're back! Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes and many kind messages during our parental leave. We have a lot coming together soon processing current events and reacting to some big developments that happened while we were away. As we ramp production back up we'll be prioritizing the patron feed first to make sure patrons get a full new episode every week.
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

May 8, 2025 • 1h 8min
Menace to the Future w/ Jess Whatcott (Unlocked)
Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released January 27th for Death Panel patrons and is being unlocked today for the first time. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Beatrice speaks with Jess Whatcott about the ideological links between incarceration and eugenics, how policies like immigration detention are a form of population control, and their new book, Menace to the Future: A Disability and Queer History of Carceral Eugenics.
Find Menace to the Future here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/menace-to-the-future
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

May 4, 2025 • 38min
Teaser - Nathan Tanks the Economy: An Oral History of 100 Days of DOGE w/ Nathan Tankus (05/05/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/128245289
Beatrice speaks with Nathan Tankus to walk through an oral history of the early months of DOGE's ongoing infiltration of the Treasury payments system and Social Security, why the "Trump-Musk Payments Crisis" threatens a bigger fundamental threat of US economic breakdown than even Trump's tariffs, and why Nathan tried (and failed) to crash the stock market.
Runtime 2:36:28
Note: We're back! Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes and many kind messages during our parental leave. We have a lot coming together soon processing current events and reacting to some big developments that happened while we were away. As we ramp production back up we'll be prioritizing the patron feed first to make sure patrons get a full new episode every week.
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

May 1, 2025 • 1h 36min
Let This Radicalize You w/ Mariame Kaba & Kelly Hayes (May Day Re-Air)
Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released May 18th, 2023. We are re-airing it today to celebrate May Day, as Artie explains in a brief intro at the top of the episode. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Original description:
Beatrice speaks with Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes about their book Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care.
Transcript: https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/let-this-radicalize-you-mariame-kaba-kelly-hayes
Find Let This Radicalize You here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1922-let-this-radicalize-you
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 28, 2025 • 20min
Teaser - Sick Sad World w/ Vicky Osterweil (04/28/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/127684119
Beatrice speaks with Vicky Osterweil about some of the major events that happened during our parental leave—from Trump’s kidnapping of protesters for political speech to the proposed autism registry—and what the first months of Trump’s second term tell us about the administration’s particular approach to fascism.
Note: We're back! Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes and many kind messages during our parental leave. We have a lot coming together soon processing current events and reacting to some big developments that happened while we were away. As we ramp production back up we'll be prioritizing the patron feed first to make sure patrons get a full new episode every week.
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 24, 2025 • 1h 34min
Mask Bans Are Everyone’s Fight (Re-Air)
Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released August 22nd, 2024. We are re-airing it today in light of New York Governor Kathy Hochul's ongoing push to force a mask ban through New York state budget negotiations, as Artie explains in a brief intro at the top of the episode. Please note that the county-level mask ban discussed in this episode was implemented last year; as we discussed in our episode Covid Year Five, within a week of implementation the law was used to arrest an individual for masking in circumstances that sound like a revival of New York's racist stop and frisk initiative.
Original description:
Beatrice, Artie and Jules discuss the mask ban passed in Nassau County last week, the latest in a dramatic rise in legislation criminalizing face masks and targeting the Palestine solidarity movement. We look at what happened in the overtly hostile public hearing over the ban, the history of the New York statute that ban proponents want back, and how the threat of mask bans goes far beyond public health: mask bans embolden racist policing; they’re anti-trans; and they target the whole of the left.
Transcript: https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/mask-bans-are-everyones-fight
Watch the full Nassau County mask ban hearing here:
vimeo.com/994184432
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 21, 2025 • 19min
(We're BACK!) - Teaser - Love in a Fucked Up World w/ Dean Spade (04/21/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/127162993
Beatrice speaks with Dean Spade about holding together political coalitions, friendships, and organizing partnerships in the face of a culture of disposability and a world on fire.
Note: We're back! Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes and many kind messages during our parental leave. We have a lot coming together soon processing current events and reacting to some big developments that happened while we were away. As we ramp production back up we'll be prioritizing the patron feed first to make sure you all get a new episode every week.
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