The Harper’s Podcast

The western United States is experiencing longer-burning, wider ranging, and more deadly fires now than at any point in the past century. The attitude towards fire and fire management in the rural West and Washington, however, has changed little in the last 100 years: Rather than letting it burn, as part of a natural process, firefighters must risk their lives to extinguish it; requiring the use of fire-retardant materials in homebuilding, tree-thinning on at-risk property, or restricting where homes can be built is dismissed as “big government.” In his August cover story “Combustion Engines,” Richard Manning reports from the fires that swept through Montana’s Lolo National Forest last summer and reveals the social and political obstacles to protecting American communities from fire.In this episode, Manning, a longtime Montana resident and frequent contributor to Harper’s, joined Web Editor Violet Lucca to discuss how we must all adapt to better live with new normal. “The West is just the vanguard,” says Manning. Soon other parts of the world, including the American Northeast, will be facing fire too.Read Manning’s article: https://harpers.org/archive/2018/08/lolo-peak-rice-ridge-mega-fires/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit harpersmagazine.substack.com

The United States has the largest population of prisoners in the world: at present, nearly 2.2 million adults are inside correctional facilities. The incarcerated are disproportionately African-American and Latinx, and nearly half have been diagnosed with a mental illness. In her book Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness, journalist Alisa Roth reports on the lack of care available to these vulnerable populations, and describes the abuse and punishment that exacerbates their illnesses. This conversation between Roth and Eyal Press took place at Book Culture on April 24, 2018. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit harpersmagazine.substack.com

Bank-owned bikeshares and empty condos. Record numbers of homeless families and “curated” pop-up shops. A poverty level that’s higher than the “Fear City”–era. Such are the realities of living in New York City in 2018. In his July cover story “The Death of a Great American City,” Kevin Baker peels back the veneer of urban affluence and reveals how public amenities have been gradually destroyed by private interests and neglect from politicians. In this inaugural episode of The Harper’s Podcast, Web Editor Violet Lucca is joined by Baker and Jeremiah Moss, author of Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul, to discuss the neoliberal underpinnings of this decline and how to reverse it.Read Kevin Baker’s feature here: https://harpers.org/archive/2018/07/the-death-of-new-york-city-gentrification/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit harpersmagazine.substack.com