Unf*cking The Republic

Progressives continually lose the debate on issues of institutional poverty, structural inequality and systemic racism because they’re loaded with history and meaning that require thinking. It’s a lot easier to say, “Make America Great Again,” “Free Markets,” or “America First.” This episode uncovers the economic side of systemic racism in the United States throughout history and how it led to the uncomfortable reality where Blacks in America have been locked out of every period of wealth accumulation by design. We ask and answer difficult questions that used to only be asked in polite company but have now become off-the-cuff talking points on the right. The show also challenges conventional economic wisdom within the Black community and draws a conclusion that can only be called “inevitable”: Reparations or Revolution. Resources Electronic Frontier Foundation - The FCC and States Must Ban Digital Redlining: eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/fcc-and-states-must-ban-digital-redlining CNET - The broadband gap's dirty secret: Redlining still exists in digital form: cnet.com/features/the-broadband-gaps-dirty-secret-redlining-still-exists-in-digital-form NDIA - AT&T’s Digital Redlining Of Cleveland: digitalinclusion.org/blog/2017/03/10/atts-digital-redlining-of-cleveland Public Knowledge - It’s 2021. Why is Redlining Still Happening?: publicknowledge.org/blog/its-2021-why-is-redlining-still-happening/ Bloomberg - Amazon Doesn’t Consider the Race of Its Customers. Should It?: bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-amazon-same-day Book Love Mehrsa Baradaran - The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap: bookshop.org/a/23377/9780674237476 Richard Rothstein - The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America: bookshop.org/a/23377/9781631494536 Adam Jentleson - Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy: bookshop.org/a/23377/9781631497773 Jelani Cobb - The Essential Kerner Commission Report: bookshop.org/a/23377/9781631498923 Pod Love Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer: pitchforkeconomics.com News Beat - Kerner Report 50 Years Later: America Is Even More ‘Separate & Unequal’: usnewsbeat.com/kerner-report-50-years-later News Beat - Redlining & Climate Change: A Deadly Combination: usnewsbeat.com/redlining-climate-change-a-deadly-combination -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Check out the UNFTR Pod Love playlist on Spotify: spoti.fi/3yzIlUP Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Max and distributed by 99. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They look like us. Sound (mostly) like us. And they know everything about us. And yet, we know precious little about our best friends up north. That ends today, Unf*ckers. Today we cast our gaze upwards to honor our friends and allies from the Great White North. Our friends at Canadaland, the top independent political pod network in Canada, help guide the ship today as we give a brief overview of the Canadian economic and political system and dispel a few myths along the way. Resources Canadian $$ in Tax Havens Reach $199 Billion: taxfairness.ca/en/news/canadian-tax-havens-reach-199-billion Book Love David McGrane- Applied Political Theory and Canadian Politics: bookshop.org/a/23377/9781442628434  Gary Schlee- Unknown and Unforgettable: A Guide to Canada's Prime Ministers: bit.ly/3zR9R0o Pod Love Canadaland: canadaland.com/shows/canadaland/ The Backbench: canadaland.com/shows/backbench/ -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Max and distributed by 99. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We recorded today’s episode right before a brief vacation so the team could get some rest and chill out for a bit. So, we’re running a special show today to highlight the lighter side of UNFTR: our inter-episode sketches. To guide you through our sketch journey is the one, the only Manny Faces. Catch you back next week for a regular episode, Unf*ckers. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Max and distributed by beachside vacations. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re nearly 10 years on from Occupy Wall Street. We wanted to get a jump on the retrospective before every mainstream news outlet hops on and gives it perfunctory treatment and dismisses it as a failed movement. It wasn’t a failure. If anything, it was the scariest movement the establishment has seen since the anti-Vietnam War protests. It was fast but it was furious. And aspects of it continue to resonate through our society. It was the grand awakening from our post-9/11 haze and the people took to the streets to revolt against a system of inequality and systemic oppression. Occupy might have been brutally cleared from Zuccotti Park, but the spirit of the movement lives on through Progressives today and the lessons from it will carry us into the future. This is Occupy at 10: A Love Story.  -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by This Guy Right Here and distributed by Fuhgeddaboudit. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’ Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Few concepts get under the skin of traditional economists, Wall Street executives and academics as Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT. We’ve been building to this episode for quite a while in our examinations of the United States budget and it’s time to properly unf*ck this massively important economic concept. MMT posits the idea that any government that issues its own currency can run extraordinary deficits to finance basically anything without fear of negative monetary or fiscal consequences. In short, all of those wonderful progressive notions like universal healthcare, a federal jobs guarantee and food security are entirely possible without mortgaging our future. Book Love Stephanie Kelton- The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy: bookshop.org/a/23377/9781541736184 Pod Love UNFTR Economics Playlist: spoti.fi/3yH2O9Z -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Bill and distributed by Ted. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’ Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today’s Quickie we celebrate the upcoming Olympics with our own field of challengers for the nation’s top Stupid White Guy! Exciting times. Our contestants include three Republican governors and it’s a real barn burner. Governors Kemp of Georgia, DeSantis of Florida and Abbott of Texas battle for the gold to be decided by Unf*ckers who can vote for their (least) favorite at unftr.com. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Inigo Montoya and distributed by True Love. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’ Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While the ink is still wet on the Trump era, we’re going to talk through what the real legacy might be before revisionists get a hold of it one way or another and navigate how we can have productive conversations about this period which still divides us. To many of us on the left, the mystery remains as to why anyone with a conscience would have voted for such an abhorrent, pugnacious, racist, misogynist, lecherous pufferfish like Trump. So we should dissect the man and his rhetoric before we attempt to determine where he fits into history. And we’ll offer some (hopefully) useful advice on how to talk to your (still) Trump supporting friends.  Pod Love Check out the other great podcasts featured in The Times’ piece 8 Podcasts to Help Make Sense of Post-Trump America: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/arts/podcasts-trump-politics.html -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Bruno Tattaglia and distributed by Barzini all along. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’ Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we take on News Corp., the most egregious example of “manufactured consent.” The fact that we let this monster from down under invade our thought space and contaminate the discourse in this nation is a crime. Rupert Murdoch’s companies have made us dumber, angrier and more susceptible to conspiracies. Of this there can be no doubt. To reveal how he accomplished this, we’ll travel through a brief history of American media, discuss the legislation at the center of the disaster that is our media, and place our polarized news landscape in its proper context. The pivot centerpoint of our feature is 1996. Max also introduces two new themes into the show and addresses listener feedback to the Fuck Milton Friedman episode during show notes. #FMF #FRM Pod Love Ralph Nader Radio Hour- Be a Smart News Consumer: https://spoti.fi/3gBzF8Q Book Love Michael Wolff- The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch: https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9780767929523 Ken Auletta- Backstory: Inside the Business of News: https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9780143034636 Matt Taibbi- Hate, Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another: https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9781682194072 Noam Chomsky + Edward S. Herman- Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media: https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9780375714498 -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by the ghosts of Bloomsbury and distributed by honey bees. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’ Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here we are Unf*ckers. It’s our great hope that we contextualize the Chicago School of Economics and its high priest Milton Friedman by alternately expanding our view of the world and narrowing in on crucial moments that changed the course of history. As mentioned in the teaser last week, we’ll give credit where credit is due. At no point will we call into question the intellect or even integrity of Milton Friedman or the institution he is synonymous with. To the contrary, we firmly believe that Milton Friedman was indeed a man of great integrity. His downfall, as we’ll argue, was his undying commitment to orthodoxy. His belief that economics is an exact science and that markets are inherently just and therefore capable of taming the worst instincts of human nature. Fuck. Milton. Friedman. Chapters Intro: 00:00:22 Chapter One: 00:06:40 Chapter Two: 00:27:24 Chapter Three: 00:43:40 Book Love: 01:08:41 Pod Love: 01:09:54 Housekeeping: 01:10:37 Outro: 01:18:46 Pod Love Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff: economicupdate.libsyn.com Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer: pitchforkeconomics.com The David McWilliams Podcast: davidmcwilliams.ie/podcast Book Love Joseph Stiglitz- People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent: bookshop.org/a/23377/9780393358339 Binyamin Appelbaum- The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society: bookshop.org/a/23377/9780316512329 Johan Van Overtveldt- The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business: bookshop.org/a/23377/9781932841190 Zachary D. Carter- The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes: bookshop.org/a/23377/9780525509035 Thomas Piketty- Capital and Ideology: bookshop.org/a/23377/9780674980822 -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Immodest Max and distributed by people who care about the world.  Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’ Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this teaser episode we do a quick recap on why the fuck we're so mad at Milton Friedman and briefly summarize prior episodes that are useful primers on our upcoming blowout episode on The Chicago School of Economics. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftrpod.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republic on Substack at unftr.substack.com to get the essays these episode are framed around sent to your inbox every week. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by adding this direct RSS link into your podcast app. Full instructions here. Unf*cking the Republic is produced and engineered by Manny Faces Media, Original music by Tom McGovern. The show is written, hosted and distributed by Max. Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, ‘Unf*cking the Republic.’ Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.