Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Longtime friend-of-show Abby Martin, maker of the remarkable documentary Gaza Fights for Freedom, drops in for a Zoom chat to discuss the outbreak of hostilities in Israel. Subscribe at usefulidiots.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Also, we semi mis-predict a patent waiver outcome, discuss a sex work ruling, and relive a beaver attack Subscribe at usefulidiots.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Friend-of-show Dr. Cornel West has been in the news a lot of late, and not always in a happy way. At the end of February, the brilliant professor of Philosophy, Divinity, and African-American studies announced he was leaving his longtime employers at Harvard University, and moving back to Union Theological Seminary, where he began his teaching career back in 1977. Harvard denied his request to be considered for tenure, apparently for political reasons. On Useful Idiots, West talked about the likely reasons behind Harvard’s decision (outspokenness on Palestine?), Joe Biden’s first 100 days, and the influence of his late mother Irene B. West. Also: Katie and I debate how many Secret Service agents it takes to get Mike Pence up a ski hill, we denounce the deeply unfunny campaign against the #YangGang, and we give detailed reviews of all of the movies nominated for Best Picture from this year’s Academy Awards ceremony (without seeing them of course). Is Nomadland a space adventure? Is Mank a misspelled fur-bearing animal? What’s the over/under on debilitating-disease themes for next year’s Oscars? We explore all these important questions, and more, on this week’s Useful Idiots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

David Sirota of The Daily Poster weighs in on SALT deductions, Biden's presidency, and the future of journalism. Subscribe at usefulidiots.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A nation is gripped by a police-abuse trial, and Republicans and Democrats both find a way to suck about it Subscribe at usefulidiots.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Talking with the former presidential candidate about the progressive candidate summit, smears, and "liberal bullshit." Subscribe at usefulidiots.substack.com to hear the extended interview with Marianne Williamso Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We interview some guy named Noam Chomsky (extended interview coming next week), get to the bottom of why we broke up with Rolling Stone, and scrutinize the thrilling PBS interview of former al-Nusra/al-Qaeda leader-turned-very-handsome-man Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Katie taps her beard-crit background, while we both investigate the two most important questions of our time: which four goateed male celebrities combined look like one PBS interviewer Martin Smith, and why do I keep thinking Smith is British? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

[This interview was recorded before the Governor of Arkansas Vetoed the anti-transgender health care bill].] The Arkansas Senate just passed a bill with a title straight out of dystopian fiction: the Arkansas Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act, or SAFE. Roundly denounced as the most extreme law of its type ever passed, the bill is one of about two dozen laws aimed at trans care currently being considered at the state level. To find out what’s actually in these bills, we spoke with Dr. Erica Anderson, a trans clinician and psychology professor from the University of California, San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this Useful Idiots interview, Matt Stoller walks us through some of the myths about big tech. Many members of Congress seem to believe the firms don’t intervene enough; Stoller explains that their massive existing levels of intervention are the problem, that the financial incentives of what he calls “surveillance advertising” move firms like Facebook to push users in the direction of ever more enraging, divisive, and conspiratorial content. Plus Matt (Taibbi) and Katie talk about Ted Cruz, Woke-washing and penis mishaps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog, co-hosts of the podcast Blocked And Reported, join Useful Idiots to talk about the failed campaign to get Singal driven off of Substack and what, according to Herzog, some of Singal's most vocal critics have in common with QAnon. They also talk about how they met and why they started their podcast and how they're not exactly canceled. Singal discusses his new book "Quick Fix," about the dangers of fad psychology. And Matt and Katie discuss the indefensible hoarding of vaccine, and debate the important question: can robbing blind people ever be funny? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/USEFULSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy