Death Panel

This episode was recorded live at the 2025 Socialism Conference in Chicago, where we collaborated with conference organizers to host four discussions over the first weekend in July. All four recordings are now available for Death Panel patrons at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod feat. Beatrice, Tracy Rosenthal, Marques Vestal Session description: Discussions of “surplus populations” often fixate on labor markets; those cast out of work, left idle, or deemed unproductive. This session explores how the state organizes surplus not just through production, but through property and confinement. From land enclosures to the prison-industrial complex, the management of “surplus” has always been a question of containment, racialized abandonment, and carceral exile. Drawing on histories of displacement, abolitionist thought, and housed and unhoused tenant organizing, the discussion will examine surplus not as a demographic misfortune, but as a structural necessity of capital, and as a flashpoint of resistance. What emerges is not a question of productivity but of place—who is allowed to belong, and who must be removed to keep property regimes intact. For a longer discussion of some of the themes addressed in this session, see our episode What We Burn w/ Marques Vestal (06/16/25): https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-we-burn-w-131635837 Find our Socialism Conference 2025 sessions that have yet to be unlocked here: Gender, Sexuality, Reproduction and the State: Fighting Back Against the So-Called Law (DP x S25) — Bea, Melissa Gira Grant, Sophie Lewis www.patreon.com/posts/134643775 Dean Spade on Community Care in the Face of Collapse (DP x S25) — Bea, Dean Spade www.patreon.com/posts/134644217 Thanks to Han Olliver for our Death Panel x Socialism Conference 2024 poster image, which is being used as the cover image for this episode on platforms that support it. Find and support Han's work at www.hanolliver.com Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent Find Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/ Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/135737340 Beatrice, Artie and Tracy discuss the potential impacts of a new Trump executive order called “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” which threatens to dramatically expand involuntary psychiatric commitment and make it easier for the government to disappear people off the streets, allegedly in the name of “compassion.” Runtime 1:51:47 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 Tracy's book Abolish Rent here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

This week marks the 60th anniversary of Medicare. To mark the occasion, even as the Trump administration continues to assail health programs, today we bring you a DP classic: A Death Panel History of Medicare, originally released for patrons on July 5th, 2021. This week we also released a big rundown of the healthcare cuts in Trump's budget bill and what it means for the health struggle ahead. Find that episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/welfare-for-07-135176028 Original description: In today's episode, we survey the extremely messy history that led to the passage of original Medicare, the role private insurers and other industry groups played in its creation, and some of its unintended consequences we live with to this day. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod 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 Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent Find Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/ Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/135176028 Beatrice, Artie and Phil discuss the effects the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” will have on the healthcare system for years to come, the effects we’re already seeing, and why it’s one of the biggest blows to the US welfare state in modern history. Then we take a look at longtime Death Panel foil Ezekiel Emmanuel’s impressively convoluted proposal for the kind of health policy he thinks Democrats should pursue in response. Runtime 1:30:44 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 Find Tracy's book Abolish Rent here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

This episode was recorded live at the 2025 Socialism Conference in Chicago, where we collaborated with conference organizers to host four discussions over the first weekend in July. All four recordings are now available for Death Panel patrons at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod feat. Beatrice, Artie, and Vicky Osterweil Session description: With the new administration, the federal government has been actively attacking healthcare funding for the poor and intensified its targeting of trans and disabled people and the immiseration of healthcare workers. In this session, we discuss what the fight for health communism may look like under this new regime, and what strategies and forms of politics may help us move forward. With Death Panel co-hosts and co-authors of Health Communism Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant, joined by writer and organizer Vicky Osterweil. Find a written version of Beatrice and Artie's remarks here: https://blindarchive.substack.com/p/where-is-the-site-of-struggle-in Find our other Socialism Conference 2025 sessions here: Gender, Sexuality, Reproduction and the State: Fighting Back Against the So-Called Law (DP x S25) — Bea, Melissa Gira Grant, Sophie Lewis https://www.patreon.com/posts/134643775 Dean Spade on Community Care in the Face of Collapse (DP x S25) — Bea, Dean Spade https://www.patreon.com/posts/134644217 The Proletariat Has No Homeland: Property and the Surplus Class (DP x S25) — Bea, Tracy Rosenthal, Marques Vestal https://www.patreon.com/posts/134644582 Thanks to Han Olliver for our Death Panel x Socialism Conference 2024 poster image, which is being used as the cover image for this episode on platforms that support it. Find and support Han's work at www.hanolliver.com 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 Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent Find Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/ Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/134643287 Today's patron episode is, instead, four episodes: our sessions in collaboration with this year's Socialism Conference. Just over three hours in total, and featuring contributions from Tracy Rosenthal, Melissa Gira Grant, Vicky Osterweil, Sophie Lewis, Marques Vestal and Dean Spade. We are working on transcripts and will be releasing these over the coming weeks in the public feed as well, but patrons get them all today. Today's teaser is the first section of the session titled "Deny, Defend, Depose: Health Struggle After 'Luigi.'" Here are today's new episodes: Deny, Defend, Depose: Health Struggle After "Luigi" (DP x S25) — Bea, Artie, Vicky Osterweil https://www.patreon.com/posts/134643287 (Note: Start here if you want some timely commentary on Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill," which was signed the day we recorded this. We will also be discussing the passage of the bill at length in an upcoming episode, coming soon) Gender, Sexuality, Reproduction and the State: Fighting Back Against the So-Called Law (DP x S25) — Bea, Melissa Gira Grant, Sophie Lewis https://www.patreon.com/posts/134643775 Dean Spade on Community Care in the Face of Collapse (DP x S25) — Bea, Dean Spade https://www.patreon.com/posts/134644217 The Proletariat Has No Homeland: Property and the Surplus Class (DP x S25) — Bea, Tracy Rosenthal, Marques Vestal https://www.patreon.com/posts/134644582 Thanks to Han Olliver for our Death Panel x Socialism Conference 2024 poster image, which is being used as the cover image for this episode on platforms that support it. Find and support Han's work at www.hanolliver.com 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

Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released June 2nd 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 Jane Thomason of National Nurses United (NNU) about the Trump administration’s disbanding of the CDC’s HICPAC committee, the body that oversees infection control practices across the healthcare industry — and a committee that Jane was briefly involved with as part of an advisory workgroup since last summer. We also discuss the Trump administration’s staggering cuts across NIOSH, a key agency for workplace health and safety protections, and their significance within the broader “MAHA” agenda. Find NNU's call to action letter about NIOSH here: https://nnu.org/saveniosh Jane Thomason is NNU’s lead industrial hygienist. She was last on the show in March 2024 and August 2023 to speak about a campaign against proposed infection control cuts being considered by HICPAC, after which she was added to a HICPAC workgroup that May. Jane returns today now that, with HICPAC disbanded, she’s once again able to speak more openly about committee deliberations. 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 Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent Find Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/ Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/134133903 Beatrice speaks with Melissa Gira Grant about “Alligator Alcatraz,” Trump’s new concentration camp in Florida. We discuss what the site means for the US under new, swelling ICE budgets, how it reflects a fascist fantasy of using the landscape as an arm of carceral enforcement, and the hope we can take from the long history of anti-colonial and anti-supremacist resistance movements on the very same land. Read Melissa's piece, "The Grand Opening of an American Concentration Camp," here: https://newrepublic.com/article/197508/alligator-alcatraz-trump-concentration-camp Runtime 1:37:10 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 Find Tracy's book Abolish Rent here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released May 6th, 2024 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 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. 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 Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent Find Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/ Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132654803 Beatrice speaks with Silky Shah about the historical and material links between the rise of the immigration detention system and mass incarceration, and her new book, Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition. Note: This episode was originally released for patrons on August 26th, 2024 and is being re-released today in light of ongoing resistance to ICE raids and detention. Find Silky’s book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2213-unbuild-walls Runtime 1:21:31 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 Find Tracy's book Abolish Rent here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent