This Is Hell!

Today's interview features Umar Farooq, author of the article, "‘The fight for our lives’: Arizona’s water regime limits the Hopi Tribe’s future" published in High Country News in collaboration with ProPublica. Umar Farooq is Umar Farooq is an Ancil Payne Fellow with ProPublica. Check out the article here: https://www.hcn.org/issues/55.7/indigenous-affairs-water-the-fight-for-our-lives-arizona-water-regime-limits-the-hopi-tribes-future See more ProPublica reporting on indigenous Americans' fight for the promised resource of water here: https://www.propublica.org/series/waiting-for-water

Maya Schenwar returns to discuss her Truthout article, “Right-Wingers Push Death Penalty Reinstatement Bills as Part of Hardline Agenda: The same forces that are attacking abortion, trans health care and racial justice are also pushing for more executions." Maya Schenwar is a writer, editor, journalist and organizer who has spent the last 20 years working tosculpt new ways for journalism to serve the public good and fuel social transformation. She spent 13 years as Editor-in-Chief of Truthout, an independent social justice news publication, and is currently the organization’s Editor-at-Large and Board President. Recently, Maya founded the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism. She is the co-author (with Victoria Law) of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (The New Press, July 2020), and the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2014). Both books challenge the ingrained logic of prison and policing that holds our society captive, and share the work of bold and creative efforts to uproot the prison-industrial complex. Maya is also the co-editor (with Joe Macaré and Alana Yu-Lan Price) of Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States, an anthology focused on the entrenched racism and violence of policing and the fight to dismantle that institution. She authored a chapter in The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom, and co-authored a chapter in the anthology Welcome to the Revolution: Universalizing Resistance for Social Justice and Democracy in Perilous Times, with Alana Yu-Lan Price. More info at https://www.mayaschenwar.com/. Also, an episode of "Rotten History."

We return to Hell today with Gerald Horne, on his new book “Revolting Capital: Racism & Radicalism in Washington, D.C., 1900-2000” (International Publishers). Sebastian Wüpper also returns with a 'Past Inside the Present.’ Find Gerald's book here (and as a raffle prize at our listener appreciation party): https://www.intpubnyc.com/.../revolting-capital-racism.../ Dr. Horne holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies. His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations and war. He has also written extensively about the film industry. Dr. Horne received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. from Princeton University.

Today's dive into the archives features a July 4, 2009 interview with political scientist Chalmers Johnson about the state of American Empire. Sadly, not much has changed. Chalmers Ashby Johnson (August 6, 1931 – November 20, 2010 was an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consultant for the CIA from 1967 to 1973 and chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1972. He was also president and co-founder with Steven Clemons of the Japan Policy Research Institute (now based at the University of San Francisco), an organization that promotes public education about Japan and Asia.

Saskia Sassen is professor of sociology and member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Saskia's most recent book is 2007's "A Sociology of Globalization" (WW Norton). She wrote this week's openDemocracy piece, "The new executive politics: a democratic challenge". Before that, she wrote April's openDemocracy article, "Too big to save: the end of financial capitalism."

Rick Shenkman is the author of "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth about the American Voter" (Basic Books), the second chapter of which was excerpted at TomDispatch.com as the article, "How Ignorant Are We?: The Voters Choose… but on the Basis of What?." Rick is an Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter, New York Times bestselling author, and associate professor of history at George Mason university is also the founder and editor of History News Network, a website that features articles by historians on current events. He also blogs at "How Stupid?"

Jeremy Leaming talked with us about his article, "Christian Reconstructionists Are Trying to Take Dominion in America -- and They Have Powerful Friends." Jeremy is a communications associate for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. You can learn more about the organization here: http://www.au.org/

Chuck is off for the next couple of weeks, you will be stuck with producer Will. This episode features an interview from July 7, 2007 with S. Derek Turner when he discussed what his group, Free Press, has done with the Center for American Progress. Their study, "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," shows how the right wing's grip on the airwaves is because of a failed market, not a cultural revolution. You can find the report here: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-structural-imbalance-of-political-talk-radio/

Today on This is Hell! Chuck interviews Dave Denison about his Baffler article “The Shame of the Suburbs” Dave Denison is a senior editor of The Baffler. He has written and edited for The Texas Observer, CommonWealth magazine, and The American Prospect. A selected archive of his writing is warehoused at www.davedenison.net. A transplanted Midwesterner, he lives near Boston and claims to be an amateur carpenter, an aspiring mason, and an above-average bowler. Read Dave’s article on Baffler at https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-shame-of-the-suburbs-denison

Distinguished anthropologist Alex Hinton joins Chuck to discuss his Sapiens article, "Two Myths Fueling the Conservative Right's Dangerous Transphobia." The discussion includes Alex's insights from the most recent CPAC. You can find the article here: https://www.sapiens.org/culture/transphobia-myths/ Alex is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention.