
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

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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Mar 14, 2025 • 1h 23min
Trust Falls
Bea, Artie, and Phil discuss the pervasive, perennial myth that the Medicare and Social Security trust funds are on the brink of imminent collapse, a myth that feeds austerity in policymaking and false panic that the programs "won't be around" when younger generations grow old--and that Trump and Musk's DOGE are currently taking advantage of to press for cuts.
This episode was originally released for patrons on April 17, 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 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 10, 2025 • 20min
Teaser - Death Classic: A Death Panel History of Medicare
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/124065295
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, 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.
Runtime 1:14:40
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Mar 5, 2025 • 6min
Teaser - Death Classic: Islands of Security w/ Gabriel Winant
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/death-classic-of-123573664
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:
Beatrice and Phil speak with Gabe Winant about the birth of the contemporary care economy and its relationship to deindustrialization, the shaping of the "private welfare state" in the 20th century, and resisting the temptation to look back uncritically toward the "golden age" of organized labor.
Find Gabe's book "The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America" here: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674292192
Runtime 1:24:23
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Mar 5, 2025 • 1h 37min
The New Lavender Scare w/ Melissa Gira Grant (Unlocked)
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.
This episode was originally released for Death Panel patrons November 27th, 2023.
Original episode description:
Beatrice and Jules speak with Melissa Gira Grant about the history of the Lavender Scare, the anti-gay campaign that overlapped and ran in parallel with the Red Scare, how it shaped the politics of gender and sexuality today, and whether we're experiencing a new Lavender Scare today or if instead the Lavender Scare never ended.
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

Feb 24, 2025 • 24min
Teaser - We Grow the World Together w/ Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson (02/24/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/123023212
Beatrice speaks with Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson about care work and parenting as part of abolitionist practice, lessons from integrating abolitionist values into everyday life, and how we show up for each other in dark times like these.
Find Kim and Maya’s book, We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition, here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2446-we-grow-the-world-together
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 2:36:27

6 snips
Feb 21, 2025 • 1h 27min
Enemy Feminisms w/ Sophie Lewis (02/20/25)
Sophie Lewis, a writer and independent scholar specializing in feminist studies, discusses her new book, 'Enemy Feminisms.' She delves into the troubling ties between certain feminist factions and fascism, challenging dominant narratives within the movement. The conversation ranges from critiques of 'girlboss' culture to family abolition, emphasizing the need for radical feminism that resists oppressive systems. Lewis encourages listeners to rethink feminism's intersections with imperialism and to support transformative actions for genuine liberation.

Feb 17, 2025 • 21min
Teaser - MAHA vs "The Ministry of Truth" w/ Jonathan Howard (02/17/24)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/122511116
With RFK’s Senate confirmation complete, hearings for Kennedy’s handpicked agency heads like Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary loom. In preparation, Beatrice speaks with Dr. Jonathan Howard—himself a frequent subject of both Bhattacharya and Makary’s scorn—about both of their records on the pandemic, their claims that criticism of their work amounts to “censorship” and “attacks on science,” and what disasters await us with health agencies under their watch, and RFK at the helm.
Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
Find Jules' new book here: www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a…-trans-misogyny
Runtime 1:16:38

Feb 14, 2025 • 4h 12min
Covid Year Five (Unlocked)
This episode was originally released for patrons on December 23rd, 2024. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
We present our 2024 year in review, taking a look back at the last year in the ongoing social and political consequences of normalizing the covid pandemic and rushing to bring the federal covid response to a close.
Full Transcript:
https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/covid-year-five
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

Feb 11, 2025 • 21min
Teaser - "Waste, Fraud and Abuse" (02/10/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121974390
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.
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 1:34:11
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