Money on the Left

Superstructure cohosts Will Beaman and Natalie Smith are joined by Scott Ferguson and Andrés Bernal to reflect on a recent "close encounter" with the Dirtbag Left. They diagnose the perverse comfort that the Dirtbag Left takes in contracting political economy around fixed points of "leverage" over political elites. Touching on the Jimmy Dore controversy and a recent Chapo episode on Avatar, the team compares the austere physics metaphors that structure the Left's hopelessness to neoliberal action cinema's preoccupation with what Ferguson has called its "Hyper-Newtonian aesthetics."Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure/postsMusic: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting. flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/Twitter: @actualflirting

Kicking off a Money on the Left / Superstructure Patreon fund drive, Scott Ferguson joins Maxximilian Seijo on the Superstructure podcast to discuss MMT, eco-fascism and Avengers: Infinity War. This premium Superstructure episode offers listeners a sneak peek at Ferguson’s Hollywood Blockbuster course, which will be rolled out for subscribers in the coming months.While we appreciate support for our premium content on Patreon from those who can afford it, this is not a hard paywall! If you are unable to pay, reach out to the Money on the Left/Superstructure team for free access to our premium content.Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure/postsMusic: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/Twitter: @actualflirting

In this episode, Maxximilian Seijo (@maxseijo), Will Beaman (@agoingaccount) & Natalie Smith (@orangeasm) are joined by Matt Christman (@cushbomb) from Chapo Trap House to discuss their critique of his zero-sum methodology.Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/Twitter: @actualflirtingLink to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Frank Pasquale joins Money on the Left to discuss the legal and monetary politics that will determine the future of automation. Professor of Law at the Brooklyn Law School, Pasquale is author of The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money  and Information (2015) as well as recently published New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI (2020), both with Harvard University Press. He is a leading thinker in the law of A.I., algorithms, and machine learning and, as he makes clear in his recent book, a committed advocate for a public-money driven just transition from the current paradigm of “equality before the algorithm” to a brighter future replete with ethical, complimentary robotics. Our conversation with Pasquale covers these and a number of other surprising components of his project, including his critique of post-structuralist, post-humanist, and accelerationist discourses. There is something for everyone in this conversation--whether you’re interested in the future of robotics, the present of machine learning, the history of money, or the promise of critical theory in our post-COVID world. Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Hosts Will Beaman & Maxximilian Seijo critique the Enlightenment myth that treats private property as the basis of political economy and they reflect, in particular, on the limits of a contemporary left media ecosystem that unquestioningly relies upon this spurious foundation for analysis & praxis. Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Cohosts Will Beaman, Natalie Smith, and Maxximilian Seijo are joined by historian Dan Berger to reflect on the political economy of abolitionism and its critical importance for the Left.Dan Berger (Twitter: @dnbrgr) is an Associate Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington at Bothell.Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/Twitter: @actualflirtingLink to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Victor Pickard joins Money on the Left to discuss the public bases and potentials of money and media in The United States. Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Pickard is a prolific researcher and author of over one hundred articles and six books on the history of media institutions, media activism, and the avowedly political and public foundations of journalism and media policy. Our conversation with Pickard is far ranging. We survey his early work on the postwar settlement for American media, when the fundaments of the current media landscape such as its tendency toward private and consolidated ownership were first put in place. We explore the critical role and shortcomings of political liberalism in shaping that midcentury settlement and all that’s come after. And we identify means for creating resilient and diverse public media infrastructures that are better equipped to help leftists resolve the most pressing political, economic, and ecological crises of our moment. Along the way, we also uncover complementary impulses between Pickard’s vision for the future of public media and the Modern Money Movement’s project to democratize public money. Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Cohosts Will Beaman, Natalie Smith, and Maxximilian Seijo reflect on the importance of Modern Monetary Theory for the Left.Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Pulling from the archive, Money on the Left presents the second episode of the Superstructure podcast, "The Virus is the Virus." In this episode, hosts Will Beaman and Maxximilian Seijo embark on a deep dive into intersections between the work of philosopher Giorgio Agamben and reductive Marxist discourses around capitalism and nature. In so doing, they uncover a highly problematic historical and political economic lineage for the widely used COVID19 meme: 'Capitalism is the virus'.Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Cohosts Will Beaman, Natalie Smith and Maxximilian Seijo discuss Maxx's recent article in the Journal of Environmental Media, titled “Governing media information through a Green New Deal: History, theory, practice."Featuring a special report by Australian Twitter Correspondent @moltopopulare from inside the Superstructure, and a surprise call-in from friend of the show, Liz Bruenig.Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/Twitter: @actualflirtingLink to Maxx's paper: www.academia.edu/43950105/Governi…_theory_practice. Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure