Trillbilly Worker's Party

New premium Patreon episode up: https://www.patreon.com/posts/alan-smithee-18640298

On our 50th episode, we're joined by journalist Sylvia Ryerson and Eastern Kentucky University professor Judah Schept, to discuss the federal prison that has been slated for construction in our home of Letcher County, Kentucky. We also talk about rural prison expansion and the carceral state more generally, and about how prisons are sold as economic development for deindustrialized regions. Check out their recent article here: http://bostonreview.net/law-justice/sylvia-ryerson-judah-schept-building-prisons-appalachia And check out Sylvia's Restorative Radio project here: http://www.restorativeradio.org/audio-postcards-2/

Tanya regales us with stories of her travels. Tarence has a good new TV show. Tom's not touching any of it.

Take a trip with us to the Hazard Pavilion, where we discuss the police state, creative placemaking, and our new reality TV show called Pimp My Side by Side

Today we're joined by Claire Lobenfeld and Jonny Coleman of NOlympics LA, a campaign launched by members of the Los Angeles chapter of Democratic Socialists of America to stop the 2028 Olympics games from coming to Los Angeles. We talk about how large shiny development projects get forced onto small tax bases in order to squeeze as much money out of constituents as possible. We also talk about how Little Giants should be interpreted as a product and statement of the proletariat.

We're unlocking this week's premium Patreon episode, after technical difficulties thwarted our plan to release a new free episode this week. We're really sorry about that, we're trying our best, please don't be mad at us!! We'll have a new episode to you by the end of the weekend. This is still a good episode though, mostly because we discover that Tom has some serious acting chops.

This week we're joined by Tyler Mahan Coe of Cocaine and Rhinestones, a podcast about the history of country music. We talk about some popular songs, such as Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee" and Loretta Lynn's "The Pill," as well as other miscellaneous country music stuff. The song at the end of this episode is "Winter's End" by Michael Howard.

We recorded this before the infamous last minute teachers' pension vote in the Kentucky General Assembly. But it's probably pretty good context for what's going on in the state overall.

New post up on Patreon. This is just a preview. Like and subscribe: https://www.patreon.com/posts/17822310

This week's episode is brought to you by Ira Glass and the good libs over at Buffalo Wild Wings.