
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

Feb 7, 2025 • 1h 50min
Theatre of the Austere w/ Melissa Gira Grant (02/06/25)
Beatrice and Jules speak with Melissa Gira Grant about the Trump administration’s anti-trans executive orders in the context of their broader attack on “wokeness” and DEI. We discuss what the broader impact of these orders could be, what elements are a retread of longstanding rightwing attacks on trans life, and what parts of them seem like a new and evolved form of attack.
Read Melissa's piece "Why Are Hospitals Bowing to Trump’s Illegal Gender-Affirming Care Ban?" here:
https://newrepublic.com/article/191084/hospitals-childrens-national-trump-gender-affirming-care-ban
And find more of her recent reporting here:
https://newrepublic.com/authors/melissa-gira-grant
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 3, 2025 • 15min
Teaser - Executive Functions (02/03/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121450929
Beatrice, Artie and Phil discuss the Trump administration’s early and sweeping power grab: freezing government spending, infiltrating the systems that distribute federal payments throughout the US, and dramatically cutting off science research and funding. We explain what’s going on and why, and how each of these actions represents the new administration’s self-professed intentions to root out what it has called “wokeness” and “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering.”
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 1:12:56

Jan 30, 2025 • 1h 30min
RFK, Health Capitalism, and the Myths of Wellness
This episode was originally released for patrons on November 18th, 2024 and we're unlocking it today with a new introduction in response to this week's RFK confirmation hearings in the Senate. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
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 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

Jan 27, 2025 • 17min
Teaser - Menace to the Future w/ Jess Whatcott (01/27/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120917942
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.
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 1:09:43

Jan 23, 2025 • 1h 31min
LA Burns but We Keep Us Safe (Part Two) (01/23/25)
Beatrice and Tracy discuss how the situation in Los Angeles has evolved since last week, and speak with organizers in Los Angeles who have stepped up during the fires to support people the state has left behind. In Part Two, we speak with organizers from the LA Tenants Union's South Central Local, KtownForAll, and Union de Vecinos, the Eastside Local of the LA Tenants Union.
Links to organizations mentioned in the episode:
Find LA Tenant Union (LATU) here: https://latenantsunion.org/
Donate to KtownForAll here: https://www.ktownforall.org/donate
Donate to National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/lafires2025
Support All Power Books here: https://ko-fi.com/allpower
All Power Books volunteer form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5hxQwEP6nWePPU8IeX8BLDrxfiQzC7AnbrN4Iec64D4UJ8A/viewform
All Power Books PPE and air filter request form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2B_6upY0E1gMFvzjLc4VMprFUnJHsz7Ttu-uvV1gP68HYGw/viewform
Mask Bloc LA’s Mask Requests and Volunteer Interest Form here: www.bit.ly/MBLAfire
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 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

Jan 20, 2025 • 14min
Teaser - The Monster at Our Door (01/20/25)
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120426993
Beatrice and Artie discuss the rise of avian influenza cases last year in the U.S. through a discussion of The Monster at Our Door, Mike Davis' 2005 book on the looming threat of H5N1.
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 1:12:58

Jan 17, 2025 • 1h 35min
LA Burns but We Keep Us Safe (Part One) (01/16/25)
Beatrice and Tracy speak with organizers in Los Angeles who have stepped up during the fires to support people the state has left behind. In Part One, we speak with organizers from Youth Justice Coalition and Mask Bloc LA. Part 2 will be out next week.
Find Youth Justice Coalition here: https://linktr.ee/youthjusticela
Donate to Support System Impacted Young People and Their Families: http://youthjusticela.org/donate
Find the audio clip played in the first interview (with subtitles) here:
https://x.com/YouthJusticeLA/status/1877832188583887042
https://x.com/YouthJusticeLA/status/1877834081523859759
Find Mask Bloc LA here: https://linktr.ee/maskblocla
Mask Bloc LA’s Mask Requests and Volunteer Interest Form here: https://www.bit.ly/MBLAfire
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 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

Jan 13, 2025 • 22min
Teaser - The Politics of “Risk Assessment” w/ William Boyd
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/119936307
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.
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 1:22:10

Jan 9, 2025 • 1h 32min
Best of 2024: Mask Bans Are Everyone’s Fight
As this year comes to a close, we’re releasing a Best of 2024 series—by no means objective, and making plenty of tough decisions to leave a few favorites out. Each of these will also be posted in the public feed. We’ll be back January 13th with new episodes.
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: www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/mask-bans-are-everyones-fight
Watch the full Nassau County mask ban hearing here: https://vimeo.com/994184432
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

Jan 8, 2025 • 2h 28min
Best of 2024: A Killing Peace w/ Rasha Abdulhadi (Parts 1&2)
As this year comes to a close, we’re releasing a Best of 2024 series—by no means objective, and making plenty of tough decisions to leave a few favorites out. Each of these will also be posted in the public feed. We’ll be back January 13th with new episodes.
Original description: Beatrice speaks with Rasha Abdulhadi about the last six months in the escalation of genocidal violence against the people of Palestine, what has and hasn’t changed since the last time Rasha spoke with us on October 13th, and why appeals to “peace” are not the same as calls for liberation, as well as the linkages between the struggle for Palestinian liberation and political action around covid and long covid.
This episode was originally released on April 18 & April 25, 2024.
Transcript for Part 1: www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/killing-peace
Transcript for Part 2: www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/killing-peace-2
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
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