This Is Hell!

We have on journalist Katya Schwenk to discuss her Baffler Magazine article, "The Crime Wave That Wasn't." Faithful correspondent Jeff Dorchen explores ways to dissolve world Leadership. And the Question From Hell contest collapses into its barn-burning resolution.

Dr. Lewis Gordon, department head and professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, discusses his most recent book titled, Fear of Black Consciousness. This episode also features this week in Rotten History and new responses to the Question from Hell! Lewis Gordon is a philosopher at the University of Connecticut who works in the areas of Africana philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of race and racism, philosophies of liberation, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of religion. He has written particularly extensively on Africana and black existentialism, postcolonial phenomenology, race and racism, and on the works and thought of W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon. Find Fear of Black Consciousness at: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374159023/fearofblackconsciousness Manufacturing dissent since 1996: https://thisishell.com/pages/support

Recorded Monday, January 30th 2023, we speak with Rachel Garbus, a writer and editor based in Atlanta. Rachel discusses her piece recently published on Welcome to Hell World titled, "Stopping Cop City, the murder of Tortuguita, and the trees that got us here". This episode also includes a new Question from Hell! and this week's Hangover Cure. https://www.welcometohellworld.com/stopping-cop-city-the-murder-of-tortuguita-and-the-trees-that-got-us-here/ Rachel Garbus is a writer, editor and oral history maker in Atlanta, GA. She writes for Atlanta Magazine, covering politics and arts & culture for print and digital. She is the culture editor at WUSSY Mag, with writing and podcasting about all things queer with a Southeast lens. She is the co-founder of Out Down South, a multimedia history project and podcast celebrating the stories of LGBTQ+ Southerners. She's on Twitter @rachel_garbus Manufacturing Dissent since 1996: https://thisishell.com/pages/support

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: we spin the never-before-aired-on-WNUR-because-it-was-the-start-of-covid interview from 3/25/20 with Max Haiven who had, at that time, just written the ROAR Magazine article, “No return to normal: for a post-pandemic liberation: Today, new forms of solidarity, mutual aid, and common struggle are emerging in the pandemic. How will they shape tomorrow’s struggles for a post-capitalist world?” Also, from behind the paywall we retrieve Chuck's poignant recollection of his long-lived romantic partnership that requires no state sanction. And the Question From Hell contest careens towards its dazzling fulfillment.

We revisit the strange times of the early 2020 Covid-19 pandemic social breakdown with interviews that never before graced the radiowaves of 89.3 WNUR, Northwestern University community radio across Evanston and North Chicago. At the time, we were locked down and out of the broadcasting studio. This interview was originally recorded on March 31st, 2020 with economist Eileen Applebaum about her article, "The U.S. Response to COVID-19: What’s in Federal Legislation and What’s Not, but Still Needed" written with Shawn Fremstad for CEPR. We consider it with 2023 hindsight and review the present week's Question from Hell! The entire past show exists on our website at: https://soundcloud.com/this-is-hell/tih20200331 Manufacturing dissent since 1996: https://thisishell.com/pages/support

We play the first of three "lost" interview from the early days of the Pandemic that was never played on the radio. We also present this week's Question from Hell! as well as the Hangover Cure. And then producer Seb has a best-off repeat of a Past inside the Present from last summer, the last he will read live in studio before leaving for greener pastures.

Reporter, public records requester, researcher Julia Rock joins us to discuss her article at The Lever, "How Big Pharma Actually Spends Its Massive Profits: New research shows that pharmaceutical companies have spent more on enriching shareholders than drug research and development over the past decade."

Our host Chuck Mertz postpones his scheduled interview with philosopher Rebecca Gordon due to stomach flu. Lindsey Gorry fills in at the studio by playing back Gordon's interview with This is Hell! in 2016 about the case for prosecuting the Bush administration for post 9/11 war crimes. Also featuring an extra sticky week in Rotten History and new responses to the Question from Hell. Rebecca Gordon teaches at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of Mainstreaming Torture, American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes and is now at work on a new book on the history of torture in the United States. Prior to teaching at USF, Rebecca spent many years as an activist in a variety of movements, including for women's and LGBTQ+ liberation, the Central America and South Africa solidarity movements and for racial justice in the United States. If you would like to contribute to This is Hell! and the manufacture of dissent, you can buy merch, subscribe to Patreon, or donate any amount by following this link: https://thisishell.com/pages/support

Chuck welcomes friend of the show Brian Mier to talk about Brazil's January 6 knockoff event and the differences in how Brazil fights fascism to how the US refuses to. We have this week's Question from Hell!, your weekly Hangover Cure, and producer Sebastian brings a new Past inside the Present segment. In honor of Martin Luther King Day Sebastian talks about slavery in America.

Today we have the return of journalist Christopher Ketcham who co-wrote The Intercept piece, "The Shutdown of “Luxury Emissions” Should Be at the Center of Climate Revolt."