

Death Panel
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
w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson.
https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 30, 2025 • 27min
Teaser - Against Carceral Infrastructure w/ Mon Mohapatra (06/30/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132653960
Beatrice speaks with Mon Mohapatra of Community Justice Exchange (CJE) about their new resource “If They Build It: Organizing Lessons & Strategies Against Carceral Infrastructure,” a resource looking at the strategies deployed in anti-carceral organizing over the last few decades for strategies to strengthen future campaigns against carceral infrastructure and to strengthen future organizing against all types of cages.
Find the resource here: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/resources-all/if-they-build-it-organizing-lessons-amp-strategies-against-carceral-infrastructure
Runtime 1:36:26
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

Jun 26, 2025 • 1h 27min
Long Covid Under Trump w/ Sick Times (06/26/25)
Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles W. Griffis, editors and co-founders of The Sick Times, dive deep into the impacts of the Trump administration on long COVID research and public health. They highlight how policies dismantled vital frameworks and how data manipulation obscures the true scale of long COVID. The duo advocates for disability rights, stressing the need for transparency and community resilience. They explore the ongoing fight against the normalization of long COVID issues and the importance of grassroots advocacy in fostering awareness and support.

Jun 23, 2025 • 23min
Teaser - Another Way Out w/ William C. Anderson (06/23/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132134082
Beatrice speaks with William C. Anderson about the liberal tendency to limit political action to voting while simultaneously blaming victims of the electoral system for their own oppression (e.g. dismissal of the south as somehow “deserving” Republican control). We also discuss how this tendency towards indirect democracy vs direct democracy can spur despair and resignation, and how to resist it.
Read William's piece, Another way out: Fighting back against inaction here: https://prismreports.org/2025/06/03/inaction-voting-revolutionary-change/
Runtime 1:35:00
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

Jun 19, 2025 • 1h 45min
US v. Skrmetti and the Long History of Youth Transition
Note: This episode was originally released for patrons on September 23rd, 2024 and is being re-aired today in reponse to the Supreme Court's ruling in the case, as Artie explains at beginning of the episode. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Beatrice and Jules discuss an amicus brief Jules co-authored for the Supreme Court case United States v. Skrmetti, a case heard at the court this week that could have a dramatic impact on young people’s access to medical transition. We talk through the brief and the historical evidence it contains dispelling popular myths that trans kids are new or that transition is itself dangerous, and show that medical transition and youth transition have histories stretching back far further than popular accounts would lead you to believe.
Read the brief here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-477/323955/20240903153746246_23-477tsacAmericanHistoricalAssociation.pdf
Find Jules book Histories of the Transgender Child here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517904678/histories-of-the-transgender-child/
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
Preorder 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

Jun 16, 2025 • 15min
Teaser - What We Burn w/ Marques Vestal (06/16/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/131635837
Against the backdrop of riotous anti-ICE actions in Los Angeles, Beatrice and Tracy speak with Marques Vestal about the history of property and place, eviction and forced removal in LA and how the state's policies of expulsion shaped mass evictions in 1907, the Watts Rebellion in 1965, and radical LA today.
Runtime 1:41:30
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

Jun 12, 2025 • 1h 17min
Seizing the Means of Reproduction w/ Annie Powers & Tracy Rosenthal (Re-Air)
Note: This episode was originally released November 14th, 2024 and is being re-aired today in solidarity with the actions taking place in Los Angeles and elsewhere. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
Beatrice and Tracy Rosenthal speak with Annie Powers about how our organizing can meet the moment, with lessons from homeless, landless, and poor people’s movements from the 1930s, 1980s, and today.
Annie Powers is an organizer with Union de Vecinos, the Eastside Local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, and a scholar of landless people’s political movements in the United States. She studies the history of housing and homelessness, and poor people’s urban land struggle, in the US and the world.
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
Preorder 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

Jun 9, 2025 • 1h 53min
Sick Sad World w/ Vicky Osterweil (Unlocked)
Vicky Osterweil, an author and writer known for her book 'In Defense of Looting', joins the conversation to unpack the political climate during Trump's second term. They discuss the alarming rise of fascism and mass deportations, emphasizing the importance of grassroots movements. Vicky critiques how health is weaponized against marginalized communities, advocating for resilience and community organizing. As they reflect on existential joys, the duo urges listeners to find everyday revolutionary actions that foster hope and change in challenging times.

Jun 5, 2025 • 1h 21min
Mad World w/ Micha Frazer-Carroll (Re-Air)
Micha Frazer-Carroll, an author and journalist known for her book 'Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health,' delves into the complexities of mental health in this discussion. She challenges traditional notions of care, advocating for a more inclusive approach beyond standard therapy. The conversation critiques capitalist influences on mental health diagnoses and treatments, emphasizing the need for peer-led support and community collaboration. Frazer-Carroll also highlights the intersection of activism and mental health, pushing for innovative, human-centered care models.

Jun 2, 2025 • 17min
Teaser - The Pro-Infection Presidency w/ Jane Thomason (06/02/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/130544835
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.
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 NNU's call to action letter about NIOSH here:
https://nnu.org/saveniosh
Runtime 1:09:48
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: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

May 29, 2025 • 1h 15min
Refusing Genocide, from Palestine to Pandemic w/ Rasha Abdulhadi (Re-Air)
Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released September 27th, 2024 and is being re-aired today in solidarity with Palestine, and to be able to re-share Rasha's guided reflection near the end of the discussion (beginning 44:55).
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 Rasha Abdulhadi about how, as we near 11 months and 100+ years of genocidal settler colonial violence in Palestine, it is vital to remain steadfast in our demands for Palestinian liberation. We discuss turning away from despair towards patience and boldness in our actions, why our demands must push for and beyond “ceasefire,” and draw connections between settler colonialism here and in Palestine; inviting us all to become more skillful in keeping each other alive.
This episode was originally recorded at the 2024 Socialism Conference. We will be returning for this year's 2025 iteration for our third annual collaboration with the conference organizers, in Chicago the weekend of July 4th. (Masking required!) Details at https://socialismconference.org/
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