Upstream

Upstream

Upstream

Conversations and audio documentaries exploring a wide variety of themes pertaining to economics and politics, hosted by Della Z Duncan and Robert R. Raymond

Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 1: Parenting Under Capitalism w/ Toi Smith

Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 1: Parenting Under Capitalism w/ Toi Smith

Capitalism has placed us under many spells that influence and limit what we believe to be normal and natural. Parenting is one intimate site where capitalism’s spell is particularly impactful. Often leaving parents and children to feel especially isolated, alone, and precarious—perfect for keeping working people separated and oppressed and for grooming children into docile workers under capitalism.  To kick off our new series on Post Capitalist Parenting, we’ve invited on Toi Smith, mother of fo

Feb 25, • 1:02:21

[TEASER] China Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Jason Hickel

[TEASER] China Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Jason Hickel

This is a free preview of the episode "China Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Jason Hickel." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-wee

Feb 18, • 29:05

Trade Wars and Tariffs w/ Richard Wolff

Trade Wars and Tariffs w/ Richard Wolff

If you know anything about the way the world works—and even more so if you’re someone who’s an expert in economics, political economy, etc.—then you’ll know that the narratives and rhetoric coming out of the White House on a whole variety of topics is, well, with the kindest interpretation, confused. Some harsher critics might say these narratives do a violence to reality. And it’s no different with the current discussion around tariffs: it’s all bluster, bloviation, and, ultimately, theater.  W

Feb 11, • 1:29:42

[TEASER] (Chinese) Socialism vs (U.S.) Capitalism

[TEASER] (Chinese) Socialism vs (U.S.) Capitalism

This is a free preview of the episode "(Chinese) Socialism vs (U.S.) Capitalism." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus epi

Feb 4, • 24:13

From the Frontlines: Class Struggle and Class War in the US Southeast w/ Cecilia Guerrero

From the Frontlines: Class Struggle and Class War in the US Southeast w/ Cecilia Guerrero

Class is the thread that ties different systems of oppression together—whether it’s patriarchy, national oppression, racist oppression, reproductive injustice, anti-trans oppression. Although these forms of oppression impact individuals, they operate on systemic levels. These forms of oppression cannot be understood as single, isolated, or parallel struggles—they are all manifestations of class society and can only be abolished with the end of class society. Class is what ties it all together.

Jan 28, • 1:41:57

[UNLOCKED] From the Frontlines: Revolutionary Disaster Response in Los Angeles w/ Gage and Sean of All Power Books

[UNLOCKED] From the Frontlines: Revolutionary Disaster Response in Los Angeles w/ Gage and Sean of All Power Books

One thing that has become quite clear in recent decades is that the best form of disaster preparedness is …community. Being plugged into an organized community can make all the difference when disasters hit. This is just as true for the slow violence perpetrated against all of us under capitalism as it is for responding to emergencies like hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, or wildfires.  In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about organizing in our communities—specifically focusing on som

Jan 21, • 1:13:48

Technofeudalism w/ Yanis Varoufakis

Technofeudalism w/ Yanis Varoufakis

Technofeudalism—you might already have some sense of what the term means, even if you haven’t sat down and unpacked it fully. A mode of production with one hand in the past and another the future—an updated form of feudal relations married to an advanced epoch of the productive forces that mark late capitalism—forces that we often associate with futuristic feats of technology. Except this is not some kind of techno-utopia—it’s really a dystopia.  Is capitalism over? Have we entered into a new mo

Jan 14, • 1:01:47

[TEASER] World on Fire

[TEASER] World on Fire

This is a free preview of the episode "World on Fire." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversa

Jan 11, • 16:19

[TEASER] Four Ways to Be Anticapitalist

[TEASER] Four Ways to Be Anticapitalist

This is a free preview of the episode "Four Ways to Be Anticapitalist." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes rang

Jan 7, • 39:20

Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

Capitalism, imperialism, monopoly—far from being separate concepts that just happen to take shape parallel to one another or to overlap from time to time, these terms all really refer to the exact same overall process. We call it capitalism because it’s not always practical to call it “monopoly capitalism in its imperialist stage” or something like that, but really, capitalism is, as we’ll see, inevitably monopolistic and imperialist. The process of capitalism’s historical evolution from its so-

Dec 31, 2024 • 2:08:49

[TEASER] The More Than Human World

[TEASER] The More Than Human World

This is a free preview of the episode "The More Than Human World" You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream susta

Dec 24, 2024 • 25:47

A Solstice Celebration for 2024 w/ Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

A Solstice Celebration for 2024 w/ Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

Happy Solstice! In this annual tradition, Della is joined by two fellow podcast hosts to reflect on the past year and set some intentions for the year ahead.  Manda Scott is a novelist, smallholder, and host of the podcast Accidental Gods, which showcases individuals and organizations at the emerging edge of our world to set the foundation for a future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. Manda’s latest novel, Any Human Power, is out now and available here.  Nathalie Nah

Dec 21, 2024 • 1:30:31

Historical Materialism w/ Torkil Lauesen

Historical Materialism w/ Torkil Lauesen

Historical materialism is the science of Marxism. It’s the theory developed by Marx and Engels that explains how human societies develop and change over time based on economic organization. Like Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection, historical materialism serves as a powerful tool in understanding the world around us. It explains why societies are arranged the way that they are, why there are classes, why revolutions happen—and when taken together with the Marxist philosophy of

Dec 17, 2024 • 1:58:36

[UNLOCKED] Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness w/ Da'Shaun Harrison

[UNLOCKED] Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness w/ Da'Shaun Harrison

Anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Being Black and fat in our capitalist, white-supremacist, ableist, heteronormative society is to live in a body that is subjected to a form of unique violence marked by policing, misdiagnosis, discrimination, abuse, trauma—the list goes on.  And anti-fatness and anti-Blackness are not simply two separate things—disparate nodes on a circuit of oppression—anti-fatness and anti-Blackness form a crucial intersection, and are ultimately one and the same, according to o

Dec 12, 2024 • 51:52

[TEASER] Towards Socialism and the End of Capitalism: An Introduction

[TEASER] Towards Socialism and the End of Capitalism: An Introduction

This is a free preview of the episode "Towards Socialism and the End of Capitalism: An Introduction." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll al

Dec 10, 2024 • 18:38

How to Be a Good Ancestor w/ Roman Krznaric

How to Be a Good Ancestor w/ Roman Krznaric

It's been said that “the shortest path to the future is always one through the deepening of the past.” But how do we balance the past, present, and future, when all three weigh so heavily on our consciousness and our social existence? Perhaps one way to find a balance—or at least to distill these various webbed threads of temporality—might be to pose them as questions: what can we learn from the past to help us in the present? And how can I be a good ancestor for the people of tomorrow? These ar

Dec 3, 2024 • 1:22:12

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 14: Decolonial Marxism w/ Patrick Higgins

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 14: Decolonial Marxism w/ Patrick Higgins

This is a free preview of the episode "Palestine Pt. 14: Decolonial Marxism w/ Patrick Higgins." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be

Nov 26, 2024 • 22:04

The Exhausted of the Earth w/ Ajay Singh Chaudhary

The Exhausted of the Earth w/ Ajay Singh Chaudhary

Exhaustion. What a perfect and powerful word to describe our times. Exhausted bodies—over-worked, over-productive, over-stretched. Bodies pushed to their limits, treated like machines whose sole existence is to produce profit. Exhausted ecosystems—extracted, ruined, plundered. Viewed as nothing but raw material for the ceaseless flow of capital accumulation. Exhausted minds—hurried and harried, no time for joy, for introspection, for pondering the cosmos. Our minds are tethered to an orbit delin

Nov 19, 2024 • 1:34:47

[TEASER] Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness w/ Da'Shaun Harrison

[TEASER] Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness w/ Da'Shaun Harrison

This is a free preview of the episode "The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness w/ Da'Shuan Harrison," which will be unlocked in a few weeks. To can get early access to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper sti

Nov 12, 2024 • 18:57

Prefigurative Politics and Workplace Democracy w/ Saio Gradin and Nicole Wires

Prefigurative Politics and Workplace Democracy w/ Saio Gradin and Nicole Wires

Prefigurative politics, building the new within the old, exercising our muscles of collectivity and collaboration—muscles that have grown weak and atrophied under capitalist hegemony—these are all ideas and practices that play a crucial role in our revolutionary movements. And examples of prefiguration can and do take many interesting and inspiring forms—one of these forms is worker self-direction, or worker cooperatives.  In today’s episode we’re talking prefiguration and worker self-direction—

Nov 7, 2024 • 2:08:25

[RE-RELEASE] A Marxist Perspective on Elections w/ August Nimtz

[RE-RELEASE] A Marxist Perspective on Elections w/ August Nimtz

“This is the most important election of our lifetimes.” “Voting for a third-party candidate? Might as well throw away your vote!” “You may not like her, but you’ve just got to hold your nose and vote for her — otherwise, Trump might win.”  We're sure you’ve heard each of these lines many times — we know that we have. But, at some point you have to ask: how can every election be the most important one? Am I really throwing away my vote by voting for a candidate whose policies I agree with? Can we

Nov 5, 2024 • 1:41:17

[TEASER] Disabled Ecologies w/ Sunaura Taylor

[TEASER] Disabled Ecologies w/ Sunaura Taylor

This is a free preview of the episode "Disabled Ecologies w/ Sunaura Taylor." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Up

Oct 29, 2024 • 23:25

The Fight for The Congo w/ Vijay Prashad

The Fight for The Congo w/ Vijay Prashad

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, or The DRC, is—despite being in one of the most resource-rich regions on the planet—one of the poorest countries in the world. It sits atop a wealth of minerals that form the central components to much of our technology in the 21st century, and yet, none of this wealth remains in the country. Well, almost none of it—there is of course some that is skimmed off the top by local elites. But the vast majority of the wealth, along with the raw materials, are expo

Oct 22, 2024 • 1:02:40

[TEASER] Western Marxism w/ Gabriel Rockhill

[TEASER] Western Marxism w/ Gabriel Rockhill

This is a free preview of the episode "Western Marxism w/ Gabriel Rockhill." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep U

Oct 15, 2024 • 18:11

Palestine Pt. 13: Al-Aqsa Flood and the Resistance Axis w/ Matteo Capasso

Palestine Pt. 13: Al-Aqsa Flood and the Resistance Axis w/ Matteo Capasso

The Al-Aqsa Flood operation, which took place one year ago today, was perhaps one of the most important blows against U.S. imperialism that we’ve ever seen—both ideologically and materially. Nothing can ever be the same—and it shouldn’t, because what we considered normal, if we even thought about it at all, was a nightmare for the vast majority of people on the planet. The Global South and the Resistance Axis that has taken up the fight against the U.S. and Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in

Oct 8, 2024 • 1:38:32

[UNLOCKED] Oil, Monopoly Capitalism, and Imperialism w/ Adam Hanieh

[UNLOCKED] Oil, Monopoly Capitalism, and Imperialism w/ Adam Hanieh

Oil is much more than just a source of energy—it’s a commodity that has shaped—and has been shaped—by the forces of capitalism perhaps more so than any other commodity. The story of oil is one of monopoly capitalism, one of imperialism, one of cheap labor, resource extraction, ecosystem devastation, climate change, assassinations, environmental disasters, genocides—the list goes on. Oil is the commodity which not just lubricates the actual, literal machinery driving the system—but which also lub

Oct 3, 2024 • 1:32:27

[TEASER] Will the Revolution Be Funded? w/ Nairuti Shastry and Zac Chapman

[TEASER] Will the Revolution Be Funded? w/ Nairuti Shastry and Zac Chapman

This is a free preview of the episode "Will the Revolution Be Funded? w/ Nairuti Shastry and Zac Chapman." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. Yo

Oct 1, 2024 • 14:11

The Politics of Pleasure w/ Eric Wycoff Rogers and Zarinah Agnew

The Politics of Pleasure w/ Eric Wycoff Rogers and Zarinah Agnew

Capitalism’s addiction to growth doesn’t just show up in the external world. It can also be found inside us—in our manufactured desire for more and better. Not only do we have to keep wanting to keep the machine going, we have to keep wanting what is “scarce” and easily privatizable or commodifiable so that the capitalist class can continue to profit. Critical hedonism(s) is an approach to pleasure and care that is critical of capitalism. It is a politics of pleasure that invites us to remake ou

Sep 24, 2024 • 1:26:31

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 12: Resistance in the West w/ Max Geller and Sanyika

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 12: Resistance in the West w/ Max Geller and Sanyika

This is a free preview of the episode "Palestine Pt. 12: Resistance in the West w/ Max Geller and Sanyika." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. Y

Sep 18, 2024 • 18:43

Breaking the Chains of Empire w/ Abby Martin (Live Show)

Breaking the Chains of Empire w/ Abby Martin (Live Show)

U.S. empire—the world’s greatest enemy. U.S. imperialism is not a "single issue," it's directly connected to hundreds of millions of people's lives, capital accumulation and global inequality, climate change, fascism in the US, crumbling infrastructure, monopolies, and much, much more. U.S. imperialism is the issue that ties all of the other issues together, founded as it is on capital's need to accumulate profits and maintain U.S. political hegemony. There is not a single issue in your life tha

Sep 10, 2024 • 1:28:23

[TEASER] Oil, Monopoly Capitalism, and Imperialism w/ Adam Hanieh

[TEASER] Oil, Monopoly Capitalism, and Imperialism w/ Adam Hanieh

This is a free preview of the episode "Oil, Monopoly Capitalism, and Imperialism w/ Adam Hanieh." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also

Sep 3, 2024 • 19:10

Better Lives for All w/ Jason Hickel

Better Lives for All w/ Jason Hickel

We’re often told that it would be unfeasible for everyone on the planet to live good lives—that if there wasn’t some degree of poverty—or at least lower living standards—in the rest of the world, then we’d blow right through the ecological limits of the planet. Even if it’s not said explicitly, the argument is that some people need to be poor in order for us in the Global North to live good lives. There’s a lot wrong with this assumption on a lot of different levels, but most importantly—it’s em

Aug 27, 2024 • 1:06:03

[TEASER] Nathan Fielder's "The Curse" w/ Carlee

[TEASER] Nathan Fielder's "The Curse" w/ Carlee

You can listen to the full episode "Nathan Fielder's 'The Curse'" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep th

Aug 20, 2024 • 24:53

The Logical Case for Socialism (and Against Capitalism) w/ Scott Sehon

The Logical Case for Socialism (and Against Capitalism) w/ Scott Sehon

Facts don’t care about your feelings. Logic isn’t fair. Reason isn’t concerned with your emotions. These oft-regurgitated cliches hurled at the left by those on the right might sound familiar to you. Hey, maybe they’ve even been directed at you personally. And, aside from seeing these claims from the right as simply funny, they’re also quite ironic. Because, when you actually dig down into the arguments of both the left and the right, it becomes quite clear, quite quickly, that the facts are act

Aug 13, 2024 • 1:58:06

[UNLOCKED] Capitalism and the Weight Loss Industry w/ Johann Hari

[UNLOCKED] Capitalism and the Weight Loss Industry w/ Johann Hari

Weight loss has become a fully fledged industry in the United States—another classic trick by the capitalist class: manufacture a problem to make profits, and then sell a half-solution back to the population to purportedly address that problem. Are you experiencing health issues from the poisonous food manufacturing industry in the United States? No problem, we got you. Here’s a drug.  You might have heard of a drug called Ozempic—if not, don’t worry, we’ll bring you up to speed soon, but for no

Aug 8, 2024 • 58:10

[TEASER] The Liberal Virus

[TEASER] The Liberal Virus

You can listen to the full episode "The Liberal Virus" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project

Aug 6, 2024 • 24:08

Walter Rodney, Marxism, and Underdevelopment with D. Musa Springer & Charisse Burden-Stelly

Walter Rodney, Marxism, and Underdevelopment with D. Musa Springer & Charisse Burden-Stelly

Pan-African Marxist, underdevelopment theorist, guerrilla intellectual, father, husband, radical—these are all terms that we could use to describe Walter Rodney. You may know him from his classic text, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, you may know that he was assassinated at the age of 38 for his activism, or you may not know who he was at all—either way, his ideas and his influence have most likely reached you, if not directly, then indirectly, through the waves and ripples that his life and w

Jul 30, 2024 • 1:22:42

[TEASER] Sex, Desire, and the Neoliberal Subject

[TEASER] Sex, Desire, and the Neoliberal Subject

You can listen to the full episode "Sex, Desire, and the Neoliberal Subject" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us

Jul 23, 2024 • 15:48

Breaking Up with Capitalism w/ Malaika Jabali

Breaking Up with Capitalism w/ Malaika Jabali

As socialists in the United States one of our most important tasks—at least under our current material conditions—is to raise class consciousness among the mass of people: the basic work of tuning people in to the existence of structures and systems that define and limit our lives.  As much as we on the left might take these things for granted, it’s always important to remember that many, many folks out there don’t think of the world in terms of socialism, capitalism, Marx, Engels—certainly not

Jul 16, 2024 • 54:46

[TEASER] Capitalism and the Weight Loss Industry w/ Johann Hari

[TEASER] Capitalism and the Weight Loss Industry w/ Johann Hari

Listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. Find out more at Patr

Jul 9, 2024 • 18:19

Righteous Indignation, Love, and Running for President w/ Dr. Cornel West

Righteous Indignation, Love, and Running for President w/ Dr. Cornel West

Righteous indignation, truth, justice, and, maybe most important, love. These are some of the pillars that support the work that Dr. Cornel West, today’s guest, has been committed to throughout his entire life. Dr. West, as you may likely already know,  is a longtime political activist, philosopher, theologian, and public intellectual. He is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary where he teaches courses in Philosophy of Religion and African American Critical Thought. He’s t

Jul 2, 2024 • 1:20:51

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 11: Israel and the U.S. Empire w/ Max Ajl

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 11: Israel and the U.S. Empire w/ Max Ajl

You can listen to the full episode "Israel and the U.S. Empire w/ Max Ajl" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us t

Jun 25, 2024 • 14:32

Palestine Pt. 10: Healing from Zionism w/ Meital Yaniv

Palestine Pt. 10: Healing from Zionism w/ Meital Yaniv

"What Israel is doing right now has nothing to do with antisemitism. What Israel is doing right now is a genocide. What Israel has been doing for the past 75 years is apartheid, is occupation. There is no need for any one of us to serve in the IDF. The IDF should not exist. The state of Israel should not exist." These are the words of a former Israeli soldier turned anti-Zionist organizer: Meital Yaniv. Meital describes themself as a “death laborer tending to a prayer for the liberation of the l

Jun 18, 2024 • 1:02:39

[UNLOCKED] How the North Plunders the South w/ Jason Hickel

[UNLOCKED] How the North Plunders the South w/ Jason Hickel

The imperial core—which is comprised of settler-colonial states like those in Western Europe, as well as states like the United States, Canada and Australia—have been stealing the resources and labor of the Global South—or the periphery—for centuries. It started with the direct colonial violence and resource exploitation that marked much of the last few centuries, but it didn’t end there.   Neo-colonialism—a term that you’re probably familiar with—is broadly defined as the use of economic, polit

Jun 13, 2024 • 56:59

[TEASER] Suburban Hell and Ugly Cities

[TEASER] Suburban Hell and Ugly Cities

You can listen to the full episode "Suburban Hell and Ugly Cities" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. Fi

Jun 11, 2024 • 11:32

Dialectical Materialism w/ Josh Sykes

Dialectical Materialism w/ Josh Sykes

Contradiction is one of the most important concepts in Marxist philosophy. When we think about Marxism, we typically think about the contributions that Marx, Engels, Lenin (and many others since) have made specifically to the study of political economy—but there are also deep philosophical underpinnings that form the foundation of Marxist political economy, and one of these foundational philosophies is dialectical materialism.  Dialectical materialism brings together two important components of

Jun 4, 2024 • 1:21:38

The Big Tech Con w/ Cory Doctorow

The Big Tech Con w/ Cory Doctorow

Ever wonder why it feels like almost every single tech product you use is actively trying to screw you? Why it is that your printer requires you to subscribe to ink cartridges that, ounce for ounce, cost more than gold? Why you can’t read websites anymore because of all the moving, deceptive advertisements clogging up the screen? Why you’re paying substantially more for an entire suite of buggy streaming services than your parents ever were for cable TV? Why your BlueTooth enabled electric tooth

May 21, 2024 • 1:11:24

[TEASER] How the North Plunders the South w/ Jason Hickel

[TEASER] How the North Plunders the South w/ Jason Hickel

You can listen to the full episode "How the North Plunders the South" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to kee

May 14, 2024 • 13:42

Battling the Duopoly w/ Jill Stein

Battling the Duopoly w/ Jill Stein

There’s no question that the crisis of capitalism and imperialism have reached a breaking point—it’s clearly visible not only in opinion polls but also just simply through our lived experiences. The system, and those who run it, have clearly abandoned any sense of popular wellbeing or even basic accommodations for a vast segment of the population. The system is running on fumes, the engines are sputtering out, and it’s only a matter of time before the decline turns into a freefall. Although the

May 7, 2024 • 1:07:41

[TEASER] International Workers' Day w/ John from Working Class History

[TEASER] International Workers' Day w/ John from Working Class History

You can listen to the full episode "International Workers' Day" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you will get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this

May 1, 2024 • 14:19

[TEASER] Against Condemning Hamas

[TEASER] Against Condemning Hamas

You can listen to the full episode "Against Condemning Hamas" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. Find ou

Apr 25, 2024 • 15:20

A Blunt Conversation about Cannabis w/ David Bienenstock

A Blunt Conversation about Cannabis w/ David Bienenstock

“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.” This is a quote attributed to the late astronomer, planetary scientist, and cannabis enthusiast, Carl Sagan. And if you’ve ever watched the original Cosmos series which he created and hosted, you won’t be surprised that he appreciated pot. His decades-old insights and wi

Apr 20, 2024 • 1:13:21

[TEASER] Degrowth vs Eco-Modernism

[TEASER] Degrowth vs Eco-Modernism

You can listen to the full episode "Degrowth vs Eco-Modernism" by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. Find o

Apr 16, 2024 • 13:37

Post Capitalism w/ Alnoor Ladha

Post Capitalism w/ Alnoor Ladha

“Post capitalism is not simply another ‘ism’ to replace previous ideologies. It’s not a euphemism for socialism or anarchism or Nordic capitalism—although it may contain some elements of each. Post capitalism is a conceptual container for social pluralities based on shared values that stem from an experience of the shortcomings of the existing system and the lived experience of life-centric alternatives.” These are words written by today’s guest, Alnoor Ladha, along with his co-author Lynn Murph

Apr 9, 2024 • 1:05:26

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 9: Palestine 2031 w/ Nadia Zanghari

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 9: Palestine 2031 w/ Nadia Zanghari

You can listen to the full episode with Nadia Zanghari by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast The revolutionary practice of dreaming, imagining, or simply hoping for a better world is an exercise whose importance is often overlooked. Not only are these practices crucial to keeping the embers warm in an increasingly dark age of capitalism and imperialism, but they can often serve as an instruction manual or roadmap leading to the world that we want to see. A k

Apr 2, 2024 • 12:09

Palestine Pt. 8: Indigeneity and Settler-Colonialism w/ Krystal Two Bulls & Sumaya Awad

Palestine Pt. 8: Indigeneity and Settler-Colonialism w/ Krystal Two Bulls & Sumaya Awad

As the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people continues, it's crucial that we continue to critically scrutinize and dismantle many of the myths and deadly ideologies that Israel and its Zionist supporters use to try and legitimize their project. We began our ongoing series on Palestine with a critical exploration of Zionism, and in this episode, Part 8 of this series, we’ll be zooming in on one particular element of Zionism: the claim of indigeneity. Zionists claim that the Jewi

Mar 26, 2024 • 1:07:41

[TEASER] Nationalism and the Error of Patriotic Socialism w/ Sina Rahmani and Nick

[TEASER] Nationalism and the Error of Patriotic Socialism w/ Sina Rahmani and Nick

You can listen to the full episode with Sina Rahmani of East is a Podcast and Nick of The Intervention Podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable a

Mar 19, 2024 • 20:22

[UNLOCKED] Voting for Socialism w/ Claudia De La Cruz & Karina Garcia

[UNLOCKED] Voting for Socialism w/ Claudia De La Cruz & Karina Garcia

There’s that saying that you’ve probably heard a million times: doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results is a sign of psychosis. Whether or not that’s something you might find in the DSM-5 manual, it certainly has a strong ring of truth to it. And it’s also something that rings profoundly true when we think about much of the broader left and liberal left strategy when it comes to presidential elections in the United States: just keep voting for the lesser of two evils a

Mar 12, 2024 • 1:08:01

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism w/ Kristen Ghodsee

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism w/ Kristen Ghodsee

When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall was toppled, a lot was unearthed and a lot of interesting information became available to scholars and researchers in the West. One of those little bits of information was the answer to a question that a lot of people had never really thought of even asking: did women have better sex under socialism? Well, spoiler alert, but maybe not so much if you’ve read the title of today’s episode: Yes, it seems like they did. And in today’s episode, we’re

Mar 8, 2024 • 1:14:59

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 7: Direct Action w/ Max Geller of Palestine Action

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 7: Direct Action w/ Max Geller of Palestine Action

You can listen to the full episode with Max Geller of Palestine Action by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going

Mar 5, 2024 • 11:24

Climate Leninism w/ Jodi Dean and Kai Heron

Climate Leninism w/ Jodi Dean and Kai Heron

Transition is inevitable, we’re past the point of literal climate denialism. Even the fossil fuel industry, which has known about the dangers of climate change for decades now, has a plan for transition. In fact, one could argue that when it comes to being prepared and having a plan for the inevitable transition that climate change has forced upon us, the capitalist class is much, much more organized than we are on the left. Why is this the case?  Well, the answer is kind of implied in the origi

Feb 27, 2024 • 1:04:05

[TEASER] Voting for Socialism w/ Claudia de la Cruz & Karina Garcia

[TEASER] Voting for Socialism w/ Claudia de la Cruz & Karina Garcia

You can listen to the full episode with Claudia de la Cruz & Karina Garcia by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project g

Feb 20, 2024 • 19:13

Be More Pirate w/ Sam Conniff

Be More Pirate w/ Sam Conniff

What do you typically think of when you think of pirates? Parrots? Peg Legs? Eye patches? Treasure? Is there more to pirates than these things, than corny jokes and a Disney franchise starring Johnny Depp?  Our guest for today’s episode certainly thinks so. Sam Conniff’s book Be More Pirate: How to Take on the World and Win, was published in 2018, and sparked a sequel How To: Be More Pirate, a podcast titled “Be More Pirate,” and a movement of people studying the principles and strategies of Gol

Feb 13, 2024 • 1:15:03

[TEASER] The Problem with Modern Monetary Theory w/ Doug Henwood

[TEASER] The Problem with Modern Monetary Theory w/ Doug Henwood

You can listen to the full episode with Doug Henwood by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. Find out more at

Feb 8, 2024 • 13:00

[TEASER] Socialism Betrayed w/ Roger Keeran and Joe Jamison

[TEASER] Socialism Betrayed w/ Roger Keeran and Joe Jamison

You can listen to the full episode with Roger Keeran and Joe Jamison by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, not only will you get access to at least one bonus episode a month, usually two or three, as well as early access to certain episodes and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers, depending on which tier you subscribe to, but you’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going.

Feb 6, 2024 • 11:10

Important Announcement: We Launched a Patreon

Important Announcement: We Launched a Patreon

Join the Upstream Patreon here:  https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast Below is a transcript of the update shared in this announcement episode — TL;DR: we've got tons of bonus episodes and other goodies as part of our new Patreon!  At least 1 bonus episode a month, usually 2-3 Early access to certain episodes Stickers If you’ve been following along with our episodes or on social media you’ve probably heard that we’ve been working on launching a Patreon account, and, voila—we did it. We’ll be

Feb 5, 2024 • 5:58

The Missing Revolution w/ Vincent Bevins

The Missing Revolution w/ Vincent Bevins

The past decade or so was marked by mass protests—in fact, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history, from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring to the 2020 George Floyd uprisings and even more recently with millions upon millions pouring into the streets in support of Palestinian liberation. So why, then, have conditions not improved? Why have they, in many cases, only gotten worse? This is the question that Vincent Bevins set out to answer in his latest book

Jan 30, 2024 • 1:16:57

Drinkable Rivers with Li An Phoa

Drinkable Rivers with Li An Phoa

“The sign of a healthy economy should be a drinkable river,” these are the words of Li An Phoa, an environmental activist and our guest for this episode. In 2005, Li An Phoa canoed the full length of the Rupert, a river in Canada. All along the way, she was able to drink water straight from the river. When she returned three years later, this was no longer the case. The river had been poisoned from dams, mining, and industry. Fish died, people got ill, and the delicate balance in the ecosystem w

Jan 16, 2024 • 1:01:35

Palestine Pt. 6: One State with Ghada Karmi

Palestine Pt. 6: One State with Ghada Karmi

It may seem like a distant dream to imagine that the decades-long settler-colonial project which is Israel could finally end and transform into a state where all faiths, ethnicities, and cultures could thrive together in their diversity and equality. It seems like a distant dream because, as we all know, the reality that we’re witnessing is the opposite of that — it’s an escalation of an already ruthless and bloody ethnic cleansing campaign that officially began in 1948.  Although a democratic,

Jan 2, 2024 • 1:07:54

A Winter Solstice Celebration for 2023 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

A Winter Solstice Celebration for 2023 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

Happy Winter Solstice! In this annual tradition, Della is joined by two fellow podcast hosts to reflect on the past year and set some intentions for the year ahead.  Manda Scott is a novelist, smallholder, and host of the Accidental Gods podcast, which showcases individuals and organizations at the emerging edge of our world to set the foundation for a future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. Her latest novel, Any Human Power is available for pre-order on Amazon. Nat

Dec 21, 2023 • 1:23:58

Palestine Pt. 5: The Political Economy of Palestine with Adam Hanieh

Palestine Pt. 5: The Political Economy of Palestine with Adam Hanieh

The ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip has been front and center in the world’s attention for the last couple of months, and it's important that we keep it there. But it's also important to remember that this latest escalation in violence is just that: an escalation, an increase in violence in a region where violence is the norm, not just militarily but also politically and economically — what we might call structural violence. The suffering in Palestine has been seen primarily as a humanitar

Dec 19, 2023 • 1:01:24

Palestine Pt. 4: False Solutions and Paths of Resistance with Sumaya Awad

Palestine Pt. 4: False Solutions and Paths of Resistance with Sumaya Awad

Before the Zionist project and the state of Israel placed their boots on the neck of Palestine, this region was a multicultural, multi-religious land, where Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived side-by-side in relative peace and harmony.  And despite what Israeli forces propagandize, this so-called “conflict” in the Middle East is not some millennia-old, intractable holy war between two religions. It's quite simply and very classically a case of settler-colonialism. When we see what's happening i

Dec 12, 2023 • 1:04:30

Palestine Pt. 3: Settler-Colonialism and Medical Apartheid with Rupa Marya & Jess Ghannam

Palestine Pt. 3: Settler-Colonialism and Medical Apartheid with Rupa Marya & Jess Ghannam

As the ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians continues, it’s important that we also continue to raise a magnifying glass to its perpetrators, not just looking at the state of Israel as a whole or the IDF—as blood-soaked as their hands are—but also looking at the some of the perhaps less publicly scrutinized institutions complicit in this genocide.  In this episode in our ongoing series on Palestine, we’re going to focus on healthcare institutions and their complicity in the deva

Dec 5, 2023 • 1:07:43

Palestine Pt. 2: Justice for Some with Noura Erakat

Palestine Pt. 2: Justice for Some with Noura Erakat

For those of us living in the United States, today — what we call Thanksgiving — is a very significant holiday because, for some of us at least, it’s a day to recognize and remember the violent, genocidal, settler-colonial history of the land we live on. Our lives here in North America are predicated on a history and a pattern that is repeating itself as we speak, most notably in occupied Palestine, where we are witnessing what feels like the culmination of a decades-long ethnic cleansing campai

Nov 23, 2023 • 55:14

Black Scare / Red Scare with Charisse Burden-Stelly

Black Scare / Red Scare with Charisse Burden-Stelly

The Red Scare — perhaps most well known through the era of McCarthyism that dominated the social, political, and legal spheres of the U.S. in the 1950s — is actually much more than just a brief window of time where communists in the United States were vilified, criminalized, and blacklisted. The Red Scare is actually much more pervasive and longstanding, originating decades before McCarthyism and stretching well into the present. And, when combined with the Black Scare — the fear and hatred of B

Nov 21, 2023 • 1:04:21

A Marxist Perspective on Elections with August Nimtz

A Marxist Perspective on Elections with August Nimtz

“This is the most important election of our lifetimes.” “Voting for a third-party candidate? Might as well throw away your vote!” “You may not like him, but you’ve just got to hold your nose and vote for him — otherwise, Trump might win.”  We're sure you’ve heard each of these lines many times — we know that we have. But, at some point you have to ask: how can every election be the most important one? Am I really throwing away my vote by voting for a candidate whose policies I agree with? Can we

Nov 7, 2023 • 1:28:02

How We Show Up with Mia Birdsong

How We Show Up with Mia Birdsong

As we continue to work towards outer transformation, building the structures and models that will shape the transition to a post-capitalist society, it’s also important to think about the inner transitions within ourselves — particularly, how we relate to one another personally and socially. How we show up together for a liberated future is the core theme of the book How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, written by our guest in this episode, Mia Birdsong. Mia is the Exec

Oct 24, 2023 • 1:06:01

Palestine Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction with Sumaya Awad

Palestine Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction with Sumaya Awad

Before 1948, the land of Palestine was dotted with olive groves along rolling hills between mountains and the Mediterranean sea. Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, and Christians all lived alongside one another in relative harmony, practicing agriculture and embroidery, or working in factories or along the coast in thriving port villages. Not to romanticize it too much, but in comparison to what was to come, this region was thriving.  If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you’

Oct 20, 2023 • 59:41

What Is To Be Done? with Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

What Is To Be Done? with Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

What Is To Be Done? This is the question so profoundly posed by the Russian Revolutionary and Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, in his landmark text of the same name. Although it was written well over a century ago, this text, the questions it asked, and the paths forward that it provided, are just as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago. And just as urgent. What roles do spontaneity and disciplined organization have in leftist movements? Can we focus simply on economic reform, or do

Oct 17, 2023 • 1:54:41

How to Decolonize and Indigenize with Sikowis Nobiss

How to Decolonize and Indigenize with Sikowis Nobiss

What is the connection between capitalism, colonialism, consumerism, and Christianity? How do these systems and ideologies uphold and support one another? How do we work to dismantle them and cultivate in their place a decolonized culture and politics that supports Indigenous sovereignty, human health and wellbeing, and flourishing ecosystems? These are some of the questions that we’ll explore today on this special Indigenous People’s Day conversation with Sikowis Nobiss. Sikowis is Plains Cree/

Oct 9, 2023 • 40:15

Class War and Beer with Brace Belden

Class War and Beer with Brace Belden

Although the reference to war that you just heard could very much be real, actual military conflict — after all, our guest on today’s episode has fought as a freedom fighter in a Kurdish militia in Syria — today’s episode isn’t about that. It’s about a different kind of war: class war. Specifically, class conflict as it manifests in the workplace between employees and employers. You may already know about Anchor Brewery — maybe you love the beer, maybe you’ve seen the iconic steam beer bottle ar

Sep 26, 2023 • 1:08:43

Microlending and the Financialization of Poverty with Sohini Kar

Microlending and the Financialization of Poverty with Sohini Kar

It was once very difficult for people experiencing poverty in the Global South to obtain credit and loans because they were seen as unable to provide adequate collateral. This situation changed with the emergence of microfinance, a model pioneered by Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which has now been widely disseminated to countries around the world.  At the heart of the Grameen system is the organization of borrowers into groups of women (97 percent of the bank’s loans are to

Sep 12, 2023 • 1:02:54

Capitalist Realism with Carlee

Capitalist Realism with Carlee

“It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” Those words have been attributed to both the philosophers Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek decades ago, but they couldn’t feel more true today. As we continue to stare down the double barrels of climate change and COVID without any meaningful response from those who rule over us, without organized and collective action that has been able to make a transformative material impact, and for many out there without even really f

Aug 29, 2023 • 2:23:23

Life Beyond the Clock with Jenny Odell

Life Beyond the Clock with Jenny Odell

Do you ever feel like time is marching in a particular direction? Towards, say, rising global temperatures, mass extinctions, ever-increasing divisions — and ultimately, towards inevitable collapse? What if this particular perception of time contributes to our feelings of despair and hopelessness about our futures? What if it limits our ability to imagine and fight for a more just, equitable, and regenerative system? In this conversation, we’ve brought on Bay Area artist and author Jenny Odell t

Aug 14, 2023 • 1:02:24

Buddhism and Marxism with Breht O'Shea

Buddhism and Marxism with Breht O'Shea

When you think about the philosophies and practices of Buddhism and Marxism, you might not immediately think that they have much in common. However, you might be surprised at how much overlap and complementary resonance there actually is between these two rich and beautiful traditions.  In this conversation, we’ve brought on Breht O’Shea, a Buddhist practitioner and Marxist political educator based out of Omaha, Nebraska. Breht is the host of the podcast Revolutionary Left Radio and co-host of t

Aug 1, 2023 • 1:21:42

Health Communism with Beatrice Adler-Bolton

Health Communism with Beatrice Adler-Bolton

When we think of health under capitalism, it's easy to go straight to the fight for universal healthcare, and understandably — that battle is one of the most contentious and important in the ongoing class war between the mass of people and those who rule us, the capitalist class. But it would be a mistake to think that that’s where our battle ends, that there isn't an expanded struggle over the ways that health and sickness are even conceptualized under the capitalist ideological framework which

Jul 17, 2023 • 1:36:43

Capitalism, The State, and How We Got Here with Christian Parenti

Capitalism, The State, and How We Got Here with Christian Parenti

Elements of capitalism have existed throughout history — in institutions like markets, class relations, ownership laws, credit systems, etc. But they were never dominant until they came together, escaping the isolated, laboratory conditions in which they once existed, to coalesce and form a world-dominating capitalist order.  How did the bubonic plague, the world-shattering pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia in the 14th century, along with the Little Ice Age that followed it, give rise in the

Jul 3, 2023 • 1:09:08

Everyday Utopia and Radical Imagination with Kristen Ghodsee

Everyday Utopia and Radical Imagination with Kristen Ghodsee

It’s perhaps more important than ever in these especially tumultuous, lonely, and oppressive times that we continue to believe that another world is possible. Simply reimagining the way we raise our children, the homes that we dwell in, the property we horde or share, and the form of the families we choose — can have profound and long-term impacts on the quality of our lives and on the world we’re living in more broadly. By challenging these seemingly ordinary structures of everyday life we can

Jun 19, 2023 • 2:00:33

The Political Economy of Jazz with Gerald Horne

The Political Economy of Jazz with Gerald Horne

The music we know today as jazz has deep and contested roots, but likely arose in New Orleans, Louisiana in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The music is based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery, and particularly by the tradition of the blues, an art form known for expressing the suffering and hardship of Jim Crow America.   In his book, Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music, author and scholar Dr. Gerald Horne examin

Jun 6, 2023 • 50:50

A History of California, Capitalism, and the World with Malcolm Harris

A History of California, Capitalism, and the World with Malcolm Harris

We’ve been taught to think of staggering economic inequality, the disposability of nonwhite  labor populations, hyper-exploitation, and minority rule as bugs within the capitalist system — things to be corrected by capitalist technology and innovation — but in fact, all of these things are anything but bugs — they are features of this system, baked deep into it at its very core. And, in many respects, the birthplace of modern, global capitalism, with its exclusion of racialized others, its rabid

May 23, 2023 • 1:05:41

Documentary #15: The Myth of Freedom Under Capitalism

Documentary #15: The Myth of Freedom Under Capitalism

Although its intellectual handmaidens love to insist otherwise — capitalism is not a system that truly embodies freedom. We all feel it, of course — that nagging sense that we lack any agency over the choices that shape our lives, the frustration we feel at our bosses, the tension we feel with our landlords, the sense that we’re all just stuck in a rat race. We might lack the language to articulate it, or a framework within which to situate it, but we all know, deep down, that this ain’t it — th

May 8, 2023 • 1:39:17

Reclaiming Time with Oliver Burkeman

Reclaiming Time with Oliver Burkeman

At the beginning of the 20th century, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that within a century, thanks to the growth of wealth and the advances of technology, that no one would have to work more than 15 hours a week. The challenge, in Keynes's view, would be how to fill all of our newfound leisure time without going crazy.’   That obviously never happened — so, what went wrong? Technology has advanced to the point where we could all be working much less, and with all sorts of time-ma

Apr 25, 2023 • 58:48

Trans Liberation and Solidarity with Alyson Escalante

Trans Liberation and Solidarity with Alyson Escalante

Our transgender comrades are under attack — not just by incendiary reactionaries on the right, but also by many of those on the more liberal or even left side of the political spectrum. The attacks come in many forms, from outright violence, to genocidal language, to the often arbitrary and reactionary demarcations around what constitutes “womanhood,” to the “just asking questions” industrial complex led by liberal institutions like the New York Times.  In this episode, we explore a robust rebut

Apr 24, 2023 • 1:08:03

Half Farmer, Half X with Mika Furugori and Naoki Shiomi

Half Farmer, Half X with Mika Furugori and Naoki Shiomi

Imagine this week you spent half your time growing, harvesting, preserving, and cooking food for yourself, your family, and perhaps your community — and the other half your time doing something else that you love, something that brings you joy — perhaps writing, podcasting, coaching, caring for others, or anything else. How would you feel? What would change about your relationship to food, to place, to work, and to the seasons? This is the lifestyle model championed by farmer and writer Naoki

Apr 10, 2023 • 49:20

Stop Cop City with Keyanna Jones and Matthew Johnson

Stop Cop City with Keyanna Jones and Matthew Johnson

For the past couple of years, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, has been pushing forward a project known as “Cop City” — a tactical training compound featuring a mock city which has been referred to as a kind of 'war base' where police will learn military-style tactics and maneuvers. The $90 million compound would be built on somewhere between over 300 acres of forest in Atlanta — a space known as the Weelaunee Forest, one of the largest urban forests in the country. As a result of this controve

Mar 14, 2023 • 1:07:33

Surviving the Collapse, Agroecology, & Mutual Aid with Andy C. of Poor Prole's Almanac

Surviving the Collapse, Agroecology, & Mutual Aid with Andy C. of Poor Prole's Almanac

Today on the show — surviving the collapse, permaculture and agroecology, native seed bombing, and much more with Andy C. from Poor Prole’s Almanac.   This week’s Conversation is a rebroadcast of an interview originally produced by The Response — a podcast that explores how communities respond to disaster — from hurricanes to wildfires to reactionary politics and more.   The Response, co-produced by our very own Robert Raymond, is another podcast of interviews and documentaries — we defi

Feb 28, 2023 • 1:03:59

Whiteness and Capitalism with Eleanor Hancock

Whiteness and Capitalism with Eleanor Hancock

In order to understand the disconnection, alienation, and immiseration wrought upon us by capitalism, it’s imperative to understand this social and economic system’s reliance on separation — separation from nature, from each other, from ourselves, and, crucially, from our histories and lineages.   White supremacy, for example, is not only an essential component in the creation of a class society within capitalism, but it also serves as a tool to separate us from what our guest in this episo

Feb 14, 2023 • 58:18

Radical History: The Roots of Race & Class in the U.S. with Dr. Gerald Horne

Radical History: The Roots of Race & Class in the U.S. with Dr. Gerald Horne

Much of what we learn about U.S. history — from middle school to high school to, well, most of adulthood, is a myth. Oftentimes these tales leave out important information, sometimes they draw misleading conclusions, and a lot of the time they’re simply just made-up stories without any basis in actual history.  This recognition is also true for much of what we’re taught about the American Revolution of 1776. The standard tale is that a handful of so-called “founding fathers” discovered a so-call

Jan 31, 2023 • 59:24

Liberation Ecotherapy with Phoenix Smith

Liberation Ecotherapy with Phoenix Smith

Although many therapists are beginning to understand the importance of the natural world in healing and overall mental health — for example by recommending “time in nature” to help with depression and other mental health challenges — very few also address the connected issues of economic and racial justice. Things such as a lack of access to nature, the high cost of eco-therapeutic offerings, the lack of diversity and cultural competency among practitioners, and the fact that communities of colo

Jan 17, 2023 • 1:09:47

Breaking Things at Work with Gavin Mueller

Breaking Things at Work with Gavin Mueller

As the capitalist class continues to glom onto a kind of tech-utopianism, many of us are starting to recognize not just the detrimental impacts of certain technologies on our lives, but also the lies that have been sold to us about those technologies. Despite all of the technological advancements, we’re more isolated, exploited, and alienated than ever before. And it really does feel like there’s a growing, popular backlash against many of the technologies of our modern world as well as a resign

Jan 3, 2023 • 1:04:34

A Winter Solstice Celebration for 2022 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

A Winter Solstice Celebration for 2022 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

Happy Winter Solstice! In the 3rd year of this annual tradition, Upstream host and producer Della Duncan joins two friends to reflect on the past year. Manda Scott is a novelist, podcaster, regenerative economist, and host of the Thrutopia Masterclass, which aims to help writers across all forms weave credible narratives that will lead us forward from exactly where we are, to a  flourishing future we would be proud to leave to the generations that come after us.  Her award-winning novels have be

Dec 19, 2022 • 1:04:54

Liberation Psychology with Daniel José Gaztambide Nuñez & Harriet Fraad

Liberation Psychology with Daniel José Gaztambide Nuñez & Harriet Fraad

Mainstream psychology has been complicit — whether intentionally or not — in the establishment of colonial, white-supremacist, capitalist hierarchies of oppression around the world. Individualizing pain lets the systemic causes for our suffering off the hook and places the responsibility for healing and wellbeing on individual will.  In the 1970’s in El Salvador, confronted by these dangers of western psychology — during a civil war — psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró started to develop an altern

Dec 6, 2022 • 1:19:05

The Value of a Whale with Adrienne Buller

The Value of a Whale with Adrienne Buller

Awareness of climate change has never been higher — outright climate denialism seems to be a thing of the past. Business leaders and the corporate media no longer shy away from terms like global warming or climate change like they used to, and policymakers from all sides of the political spectrum are claiming to be climate leaders.  So why, then, do things seem to be getting even worse? Why are the actions of those in power so out of line with what scientists and experts at the IPCC are urgently

Nov 22, 2022 • 1:03:40

A Left Answer to Inflation with Hadas Thier

A Left Answer to Inflation with Hadas Thier

Far from being some kind of transcendent economic phenomenon originating from higher realms of monetary physics that are indecipherable to us mere proletarian mortals, the economy is actually pretty straightforward and easy to understand — it’s mostly just politics. And that’s still true when it comes to purposefully mystified topics like inflation — particularly to how policymakers respond to inflation — it’s all just politics. Decisions made by those in power.  But the thing is right now the d

Nov 8, 2022 • 54:12

Decolonizing Archaeology with Dr. Paulette Steeves

Decolonizing Archaeology with Dr. Paulette Steeves

Colonialism and white supremacy have shaped the field of archaeology from its inception — and to this day continue to dominate the cultural and scientific paradigms of this field of study. One of the most significant ways that this has shown up in the discipline is through the hegemony of a single theory — the Clovis First Hypothesis — which claims that the Americas were populated roughly ten to twelve thousand years ago — and not earlier.  In her book, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western

Oct 25, 2022 • 1:13:39

Documentary #15: The Green Transition Pt. 2 – A Green Deal for the People Part 2

Documentary #15: The Green Transition Pt. 2 – A Green Deal for the People Part 2

When it comes to climate policy, it probably won’t come as a surprise to most that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is one of the weakest bills that has ever been passed. Not only does the bill actually lock us into more fossil fuel production — it’s really just more weak neoliberal policy that will lead to more inequality. The bill is also an incredibly anti-democratic piece of legislation. It provides tax breaks to businesses to incentivize renewable infrastructure — but it says nothing abo

Oct 11, 2022 • 1:29:54

Terra Viva with Vandana Shiva

Terra Viva with Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is an activist and tireless advocate for food sovereignty for farmers’, peasants’, and women’s rights. She’s a world-renowned ecofeminist, anti-globalization thinker and scholar, a Right Livelihood Award Laureate; and the author of several books including Reclaiming the Commons, Earth Democracy, Oneness vs. the 1%, Stolen Harvest, and most recently a memoir, Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements. In this conversation, Vandana Shiva weaves together stories of her life w

Sep 25, 2022 • 1:00:16

Documentary #14: The Green Transition Pt. 1 – The Problem with Green Capitalism

Documentary #14: The Green Transition Pt. 1 – The Problem with Green Capitalism

It’s clear that we need to decarbonize our economy as quickly as possible in order to avoid the worst of climate change — but carbon isn’t the only problem we’re facing. As the world moves towards renewables and away from fossil fuels as an energy source, we can’t forget that the technology and minerals behind this green transition need to come from somewhere — and that somewhere is primarily countries in the Global South. The supply chains which carry the lithium, copper, cobalt, and other mine

Sep 13, 2022 • 1:12:10

Revolutionary Leftism with Breht O'Shea

Revolutionary Leftism with Breht O'Shea

There are many traditions or tendencies among the left. In fact, sometimes just trying to wrap our heads around all of the rich theoretical frameworks and various anti-capitalist thinkers can be dizzying. But it's also exciting — the richness of leftist history and theory is vital to learn and to build our work from. In this episode we’ve brought on someone who knows a thing or two about leftist theory — in fact, he's got multiple podcasts that go into depth on historical figures, theory, and ph

Aug 30, 2022 • 1:49:40

The War on Cash with Brett Scott

The War on Cash with Brett Scott

Is the growing ascendance of digital money simply an organic evolution away from the purported inconveniences of physical cash? Or is this transition actually a nefarious, corporate-engineered, neo-enclosure of money by Big Finance and Big Tech? In his latest book, Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets, author, journalist, and financial hacker Brett Scott lays out an extremely compelling case arguing that corporations are engineering an enclosure of money — transforming it

Aug 15, 2022 • 1:06:31

The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class with Catherine Liu

The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class with Catherine Liu

Traditionally within Marxist thought, there are two major classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, or workers and capitalists. Within these two classes, however, there are many strata — and in this episode we take a deep dive into one particular stratum. The professional managerial class, or the PMC, is comprised of highly educated, often centrist or liberal leaning individuals who tend to uphold the systems and institutions of capitalist society while at the same time viewing itself as the

Aug 2, 2022 • 1:14:15

How Degrowth Will Save the World with Jason Hickel

How Degrowth Will Save the World with Jason Hickel

It may not come as a surprise to most of you to hear that capitalism is the root cause of climate change. But if we unpack this a little bit, we see that it’s a specific component of capitalism that’s mostly responsible: the need for exponential and perpetual expansion. Growth isn’t just a byproduct of capitalism, it’s an imperative — an imperative to which we are all hostage. That’s why, according to our guest in this week’s Conversation, unless the climate movement centers degrowth in its stra

Jul 19, 2022 • 58:06

The Problem with Economic Thinking with Jonathan Aldred and Elizabeth Popp Berman

The Problem with Economic Thinking with Jonathan Aldred and Elizabeth Popp Berman

The logic of orthodox economic thinking has come to dominate and permeate every aspect of our lives, from the deeply internalized capitalism which shapes our thoughts and hopes and dreams, to policy decisions that shape our lives, constrain our possibilities, and steal public goods out from under our noses. How did we get here? How did economic rigidity gain such supremacy? Are the principles of orthodox economics really value neutral, as its champions claim? And if not, what moral philosophies

Jul 5, 2022 • 1:18:02

A Socialist Perspective on Abortion with Diana Moreno & Jenny Brown

A Socialist Perspective on Abortion with Diana Moreno & Jenny Brown

The US Supreme Court has just overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights which had set the precedent for almost 50 years, throwing authority over abortion down to the states to decide. As of now, a dozen or so states have trigger laws which will outlaw abortion fairly rapidly, and many others will likely follow suit in the coming weeks and months. In light of this, we're interrupting our regular 2 week episode release schedule to bring you a special extra episode. There’s a lo

Jun 29, 2022 • 1:05:00

The Limitations of Black Capitalism with Francisco Perez

The Limitations of Black Capitalism with Francisco Perez

There’s a broad conflation within our present day capitalist society between the success of individual members of certain oppressed and marginalized groups and their collective success and liberation. This is particularly true when it comes to Black people and their liberatory struggles. Too often, the successes of individual people — Oprah, or LeBron James, for example — or their rise to certain leadership positions, take Barack Obama — are seen as collective successes, whereas, when it comes t

Jun 20, 2022 • 51:46

Decolonizing Conservation with Prakash Kashwan

Decolonizing Conservation with Prakash Kashwan

What if what we thought we knew about environmental conservation is wrong and it’s not the ethical and regenerative movement we thought it was? Turns out the philosophy and practices of conservation — pioneered by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Henry David Thoreau and John Muir — are intimately intertwined with colonialism, imperialism, and racialized capitalism. And, unfortunately, this isn’t just a historical analysis — it’s a legacy that has continued well into the movement’s modern day config

Jun 7, 2022 • 1:05:15

Fully Automated Luxury Communism with Zarinah Agnew and Eric Wycoff Rogers

Fully Automated Luxury Communism with Zarinah Agnew and Eric Wycoff Rogers

Fully automated luxury communism. Fully automated luxury gay space communism..? Fully automated, queer, neo-decadent, meta-modern communism? Okay so, what does all of that mean? You’ve probably heard the phrase fully automated luxury communism before, whether in a podcast like this, or in a meme maybe, but what exactly does it mean? Maybe the phrase conjures up images of a utopian, moneyless society where all of our jobs have been taken by robots and we just frolic and play all day? Perhaps it e

May 24, 2022 • 59:14

When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley with Carolyn Chen

When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley with Carolyn Chen

More than just a region, Silicon Valley has also become a concept — and what that concept represents means a lot of different things to different people. Some might think of it as a techno-utopian dreamland where billionaires are made. Others, perhaps a soul-sucking dystopia driven by a never ending rat race — also where billionaires are made. Whatever you may think, one thing that's hard to disagree with is the idea that work dominates Silicon Valley, and while some here are simply working to l

May 12, 2022 • 1:09:22

A Changing Climate with Amy Westervelt

A Changing Climate with Amy Westervelt

The latest installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC report, released this month, gives us three years to drastically cut emissions. “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees,” the authors of the report warn. But in reality, it's more likely that we’ll double that number. If you haven’t already seen the headlines, the report indicates that we’d need to cut emissions by almost half by 2030 and be at negative emissions by 2050 — that means we

Apr 19, 2022 • 56:34

A World Without Profit with Jennifer Hinton

A World Without Profit with Jennifer Hinton

“The pursuit of private financial gain is what drives inequality and ecological harm.” This is the perspective of Jennifer Hinton, a leading proponent of the not-for-profit business, which is differs in fundamental ways from a traditional nonprofit organization and, of course, from for-profit businesses. Not-for-profit businesses models are often invisible in the many movements to reimagine our economic system, but the idea is starting to gain momentum. Jennifer offers a vision of an entirely no

Apr 5, 2022 • 59:33

Documentary #13: Stories of Indigenous Resistance and Regeneration

Documentary #13: Stories of Indigenous Resistance and Regeneration

Standing Rock was a pivotal moment in regards to Indigenous resistance — but it was just one in a long line of battles that Indigenous peoples have been fighting against the twin forces of colonialism and capitalism since first contact. In this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into Indigenous resistance against colonialism, capitalism, and climate change — from the Amah Mutsun’s fight to save their most sacred site in California to the Wet’suwet’en’s battle against a gas pipeline on Canada’s we

Mar 22, 2022 • 1:23:56

Documentary #10: Feminism for the 99 Percent (Updated)

Documentary #10: Feminism for the 99 Percent (Updated)

There are many ways women across the world have been disproportionately impacted by COVID. The pandemic has simultaneously increased the demand for unpaid labor from women — including childcare and homeschooling — while decimating industries like retail, leisure, hospitality, education and entertainment which are their main employers. So many of the jobs lost during the pandemic were held by women, that the resulting economic recession has been called a “she­cession” — or even an example of “dis

Mar 1, 2022 • 58:49

COVID and the Pandemic with Beatrice Adler-Bolton

COVID and the Pandemic with Beatrice Adler-Bolton

By traditional metrics, the U.S. economy is doing pretty well right now — better than any other high income countries. But, at the same time, we have the worst COVID health outcomes of any of these countries too. It seems pretty obvious that by reopening the economy and all but abandoning any interventions aside from the vaccine, the Biden administration has pretty much this outcome. But of course, the problem goes much deeper — it’s a combination of years of disinvestment and neoliberal policie

Feb 15, 2022 • 1:22:43

Stolen Focus with Johann Hari

Stolen Focus with Johann Hari

In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers lose focus every three minutes. We tend to think of things like this as inevitable and we personalize them, we create little narratives about personal failure or a lack of willpower. But this isn’t really the case. The problem is systemic, and in his latest book, Lost Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – And How to Think Deeply Again, author and journalist Johann Hari explains why ever

Feb 3, 2022 • 1:06:40

A People's Guide to Capitalism with Hadas Thier

A People's Guide to Capitalism with Hadas Thier

Why do so many of us often feel like shit when we leave work? Where does that ambient feeling of alienation come from? That nagging sense that we’ve somehow been taken advantage of? That subtle anger — or sometimes even outright hatred — many of us feel towards our supervisors, our managers, our bosses? And why — despite devoting the majority of our waking hours to "making a living" — does it still feel like we’re always one emergency away from financial ruin? A lot of people these days are star

Jan 20, 2022 • 57:58

Climate Leviathan with Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann

Climate Leviathan with Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann

It’s probably safe to say that at this point, most people recognize that it’s not a question of whether climate change will have devastating impacts on humans and our environment — but more, just what the political fallout of inevitable climate collapse will look like… In this Conversation, we’re exploring just that: the political consequences of climate collapse. We’ve brought two guests to help explore this, co-authors of the book Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future,

Dec 28, 2021 • 1:02:15

A Solstice Celebration for 2021 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

A Solstice Celebration for 2021 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

Happy Solstice 2021! Here is our second annual solstice conversation with fellow podcasters Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai. In this conversation we ask each other the core questions at the heart of our shows, we reflect on key themes, insights, and inquiries that we have traced through our interviews and documentaries in 2020, and we give gratitude and gifts of inspiring books, practical invitations, and a beautiful closing solstice meditation. Manda Scott is an award-winning novelist, podcaster

Dec 21, 2021 • 1:11:18

Inflation with Richard Wolff & Dean Baker

Inflation with Richard Wolff & Dean Baker

In this episode, we’re talking inflation — a somewhat slippery topic that has been dominating headlines recently. It’s all caught up in the murky and often misleading narratives floating around on the pandemic economy, things we’ve discussed recently like the quote labor shortage, supply chains, spending bills in Washington. Anyways, the mainstream narratives get a lot wrong. Especially when they’re coming from the more right-wing elements — there’s just a lot of bad analysis and straight up mis

Dec 7, 2021 • 1:04:26

NFTs with Nathan Schneider and Cory Doctorow

NFTs with Nathan Schneider and Cory Doctorow

In this episode we’re talking NFTs. If you don’t know what this latest phenomenon in the crypto, blockchain, asset speculation world is, if you’ve heard of NFTs but wanna know more, or if you wanna hear why NFTs might be leading us to an (even more) dystopian future — we’ve got you covered. We’ve brought on two guests to help unpack the NFT craze: Nathan Schneider is an Assistant Professor of Media studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, journalist, founder of the Media Enterprise Design

Nov 24, 2021 • 1:02:38

Indigenous Economics with Tyson Yunkaporta

Indigenous Economics with Tyson Yunkaporta

It often feels like contemporary life diverges from everything that actually matters. Our global economic system could not be less in touch with patterns of creation, natural systems, and the real wealth of healthy soil, clear water, and bonded communities. Of course, it hasn’t always been this way — and it doesn’t have to continue to be. In this conversation, or yarn, we speak with Tyson Yunkaporta of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland, Australia, about the connections between Indigenous

Nov 11, 2021 • 58:51

Strike! Strike! Strike! ...with Alex Press

Strike! Strike! Strike! ...with Alex Press

With strikes in a wide variety of private sectors popping up all across the country — Kelloggs, Kaiser Permanente, coal miners in Alabama, John Deere, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Taxi Drivers on hunger strike in NY, and more — the United States might be on the verge of a strike wave, and we’ve brought on the perfect guest to explain exactly what’s going on. Alex Press is a staff writer at Jacobin Magazine, host of the Primer podcast, and author most recently

Oct 28, 2021 • 55:42

Against White Feminism with Rafia Zakaria

Against White Feminism with Rafia Zakaria

Feminism means different things to different people. If you listened to our episode earlier this year, Feminism for the 99 percent, we took a deep dive into this, unpacking how women’s issues intersect with class and race, what trickle-down feminism is, who’s included and precluded from certain forms of mainstream, American feminism, and why it’s important for feminism to be truly intersectional and inclusive. In this Conversation, we take a deep dive into how the ideology of whiteness permeates

Oct 5, 2021 • 1:02:07

Documentary #12: Occupy Wall Street – A Decade Later (Documentary)

Documentary #12: Occupy Wall Street – A Decade Later (Documentary)

It’s pretty crazy to think that it’s already been a decade since Occupy Wall Street — but, at the same time, it also feels like forever ago. So much has changed since the encampment in Zuccotti Park, and subsequently, the thousands of encampments which popped up all over the world. But, sadly, a lot remains the same. And actually, if you’re looking at wealth inequality and the power of the financial sector — things might even be worse. But no matter what your thoughts are on the Occupy movement,

Sep 28, 2021 • 1:05:09

Documetary #11: Abolish the Police

Documetary #11: Abolish the Police

The summer of 2020 saw perhaps the largest collective uprising in the United States. The uprising, sparked by the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd, catapulted an important question into the public imaginary: is modern day policing...reformable? Or do we need to move beyond it entirely? Most of the thousands of people who poured out into the streets last summer understood that the murder of George Floyd was not just an isolated incident — not just the actions of a single bad apple. They unders

Sep 7, 2021 • 1:22:12

American History and Much More with Matt Christman

American History and Much More with Matt Christman

What are the material conditions which underpin much of the bizarre phenomena taking place during this strange era that we’re in? What unites the conspiracy theories surrounding COVID vaccines with, say, the fanatical obsession with Russian election meddling? How does capitalism — and our economic, material relations within it — lead to a sense of powerlessness that manifests in attempts to explain the world that range from QAnon to Russiagate? In this conversation, we speak with Matt Christman,

Aug 17, 2021 • 51:10

Laziness Does Not Exist with Devon Price

Laziness Does Not Exist with Devon Price

We are currently living in an era dominated by overwork. Whether it’s your punch-in, punch-out job, the side hustles and extra gig work you pursue to help make rent, the drive to produce and consume “content” during every waking hour, or the expectation to look a certain way and constantly keep up with whatever trends surround you — it’s relentless. In this Conversation, we speak with Dr. Devon Price, a social psychologist at Loyola University in Chicago, explores these topics in their book, Laz

Aug 3, 2021 • 58:01

Work Won't Love you Back with Sarah Jaffe

Work Won't Love you Back with Sarah Jaffe

We’re always told that if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. But what if you’re being tricked or manipulated into thinking you love what you do? Or what if your “labor of love” is actually being exploited by someone who stands to gain from your work? What does loving your work actually mean, in a system that is designed to keep you devoted to your job, by any means necessarily? In this conversation we speak with Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won't Love You Back: How Devoti

Jul 20, 2021 • 54:29

Documentary #10: Feminism for the 99 Percent

Documentary #10: Feminism for the 99 Percent

There are many ways women across the world have been disproportionately impacted by COVID. The pandemic has simultaneously increased the demand for unpaid labor from women, including childcare and homeschooling, while decimating industries like retail, leisure, hospitality, education and entertainment which are their main employers. So many of the jobs lost during the pandemic were held by women, that the resulting economic recession has been called a “she­cession” — or even an example of “disas

Jun 22, 2021 • 1:05:14

Decolonizing Medicine with Rupa Marya and Raj Patel

Decolonizing Medicine with Rupa Marya and Raj Patel

Many of us around the world live on colonized land. In recent years, the conversation around “decolonization” has been seamed through many different contexts, from the land back movement to the push to decolonize various institutions. But what would actual decolonization look like? And how do we go about decolonizing things like our minds and our systems? In this Conversation, we hear from Rupa Marya and Raj Patel about their book, "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice," out on A

Jun 15, 2021 • 1:03:59

A Green New Deal with Thea Riofrancos

A Green New Deal with Thea Riofrancos

COVID has in many ways monopolized the public imagination in the last year or so, and at times it’s seemed like many other conversations were put on hold — or at least had their volume turned down. Now, with the threats of COVID subsiding — at least in the U.S., and at least for the time being — we’re remembering some of the other important conversations that need to be picked up again. Perhaps the most pressing of all is the conversation around climate change. In this Conversation, we spoke wit

Jun 1, 2021 • 58:39

Abolition with Niki Franco (aka Venus Roots)

Abolition with Niki Franco (aka Venus Roots)

In this conversation, we spoke with Niki Franco, AKA, Venus Roots. Niki is a Caribbean abolitionist community organizer, multidisciplinary cultural worker, writer, podcaster, and facilitator of spaces for collective study. Currently based in Miami, Niki serves as the political education director for (F)empower MIA and civic engagement organizer for Power U Center for Social Change. We spoke with them about abolition, the phenomenon of Black capitalism, the insidious nature of neoliberal feminism

May 25, 2021 • 53:24

A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things with Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore

A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things with Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore

Throughout history, crises and disasters have always catalyzed new strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism. We are seeing this during COVID through the blatant disregard for the lives of essential workers and the refusal of wealthy nations to lift COVID vaccine patents which restrict poorer countries from manufacturing their own supplies. In this 2-part Conversation, we spoke with Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore, who co-authored the book, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Thi

May 11, 2021 • 58:47

The Political Economy of Food with Eric Holt-Gimenez

The Political Economy of Food with Eric Holt-Gimenez

In this Conversation, we spoke with Eric Holt-Gimenez, author of the book, “A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat.” Why does hunger exist? What are the causes of food insecurity? Why do those in working in the food system, from the farmers who till the soil to the server who places your meal on the table, receive largely unlivable wages? Eric’s answer to these questions is simple: capitalism. Together we trace a line from the enclosures of the early 1

Mar 23, 2021 • 56:15

The Politics of COVID with Eric Levitz

The Politics of COVID with Eric Levitz

It’s been a year since Covid hit the United States and radically altered our lives. It won’t be news to most that the Trump administration completely botched their response to the pandemic, and even under a Biden administration, the state has been slow to move on a lot of the promises that were made during the lead up to November’s election. Is this changing? In this conversation, we dove deep into the details and specifics of the United States’ political response to Covid with Eric Levitz, seni

Mar 9, 2021 • 44:11

McMindfulness with Ron Purser

McMindfulness with Ron Purser

Over the last few decades, mindfulness has gone viral. These days, the practice has found its way into corporations, prisons, schools, police departments, and even the U.S. military. There are many benefits to mindfulness of course, but in his book, “McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality,” author Ron Purser explores the more pernicious part of the practice by examining how capitalism had co-opted mindfulness to further exploitation and extraction. Interestingly, i

Feb 23, 2021 • 57:58

Documentary #9: Debunking the Myth of Homo Economicus

Documentary #9: Debunking the Myth of Homo Economicus

What do you see when you peek behind the curtains of neoliberal capitalism? What happens when you lift the veil off? Well, you see a mythological character. An apparition that haunts our collective consciousness. A spectre that permeates our institutions and that has epistemologically imprisoned us. Homo economicus. The term Homo economicus, or economic man, is a core principle in mainstream economic thinking. It’s a portrayal of humans as being inherently rational, greedy, and self-interested.

Jan 14, 2021 • 56:37

A Solstice Celebration for 2020 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

A Solstice Celebration for 2020 with Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

In this episode, we’re bringing you a special solstice // New Year's conversation. Upstream host Della Duncan comes out from interviewer's chair to be in conversation with two other baddass womxn podcast hosts — Manda Scott (Accidental Gods) and Nathalie Nahai (The Hive) to debrief all that has been 2020 and to look ahead to what is possible and potentially emerging in 2021. Nathalie is the host of The Hive Podcast, exploring our relationship with technology, one another and the natural world. S

Dec 22, 2020 • 1:05:13

The Sickness is the System with Richard Wolff

The Sickness is the System with Richard Wolff

It won’t come as a surprise to most to hear that the Trump administration has completely dropped the ball on their response to the covid pandemic. The misinformation campaign, lack of empathy, and outright failure of this administration to address the dangers and impacts of covid are jaw-dropping. But it’s not just a matter of this particular administration. In his new book “The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself,” Richard Wolff, a professor of econ

Nov 2, 2020 • 47:58

Abolishing Silicon Valley with Wendy Liu

Abolishing Silicon Valley with Wendy Liu

The idea of Silicon Valley means many things to many people. The most prominent associations with this region and culture probably have to do with the tech industry — but that’s not the whole story. Not even close. There’s a dark side to Silicon Valley that doesn’t always make it into mainstream conversations and popular assumptions. Beneath the image there is a stark reality. In this Upstream Conversation, we spoke with Wendy Liu, an author and Silicon Valley insider turned critic. Her debut bo

Sep 18, 2020 • 59:27

Grassroots Urban Placemaking with Mark Lakeman

Grassroots Urban Placemaking with Mark Lakeman

What if you got your neighbors together and occupied the public spaces on your book, transforming them into whatever you would all want it to be? What would you include? ...A solar-paneled tea station? A little free library? A mural? This is the type of urban placemaking that the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon inspires and facilitates. In this Upstream Conversation, we spoke with Mark Lakeman an urban place-maker, permaculture designer, and community facilitator who co-founder of The Ci

Aug 13, 2020 • 57:57

A Systems Perspective On Our Current Crisis with Nafeez Ahmed

A Systems Perspective On Our Current Crisis with Nafeez Ahmed

Dr. Nafeez Ahmed is a journalist and researcher who uses systems thinking to support the just transition to a more equitable and sustainable future. We contacted him after we came across his article, "White Supremacism and the Earth System," connecting the worldview that underpins capitalism to the racism that the Black Lives Matter movement is working to address, as well as the climate chaos and environmental devastation that we are experiencing globally. In this conversation, we spoke about wh

Jul 28, 2020 • 39:22

International Development and Post-capitalism with Jason Hickel

International Development and Post-capitalism with Jason Hickel

Continuing our focus on the COVID pandemic and its intersection with capitalism, in this Conversation, we spoke with London-based economic anthropologist Jason Hickel. Jason in the author of The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and Its Solutions, Jason’s new book, “Less is More,” is being published in August by Penguin. We spoke with him about international capitalism during the pandemic, new opportunities for degrowth economics, and how to fundamentally move to a post capitalist world

May 28, 2020 • 56:49

COVID and The Rot of The American Ruling Class with Doug Henwood

COVID and The Rot of The American Ruling Class with Doug Henwood

Continuing our focus on the coronavirus pandemic and its intersection with capitalism, in this conversation we speak with Doug Henwood, an economist and host of the radio show and podcast Behind the News. Doug is a regular guest on our show, and in this conversation he helped make sense of much of the economics surrounding the coronavirus, explaining the failure of the government's response, the different possibilities of how we might come out of this pandemic in the long run, and what coronavir

Apr 28, 2020 • 39:59

COVID, Feminist Economics, and Democratic Socialism with Julia Salazar

COVID, Feminist Economics, and Democratic Socialism with Julia Salazar

Continuing our focus on the coronavirus pandemic and its intersection with capitalism, in this conversation we speak with New York State Senator, Julia Salazar, who represents New York's 18th district in northern Brooklyn, which includes the neighborhoods of Bushwick, Cyprus Hills, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, and East New York. This pandemic has hit New York City harder than any other city in the world, and the neighborhoods represented by Senator Sala

Apr 21, 2020 • 57:56

An Epidemic of Insecurity with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed

An Epidemic of Insecurity with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed

It’s unfortunate that it’s taking a global pandemic to reveal it, but the unprecedented crisis catalyzed by the coronavirus has exposed our capitalist economy for what it is: an economic system that puts profit over people (and the planet). This pandemic is an unprecedented event, but it’s the sharpening of class divides, the gutting of our social safety net, and the mentality of selfish individualism encouraged by capitalism which have turned this pandemic into an unimaginable crisis. In this c

Apr 7, 2020 • 20:11

Extinction Rebellion with Gail Bradbrook

Extinction Rebellion with Gail Bradbrook

In recent months, thousands of people from coast to coast have confronted politicians and asked them to take action on climate change. Few of these political leaders seem to be listening, however, and so, in the face of this inaction, and with a renewed sense of urgency, people of all ages and backgrounds have begun taking directly to the streets and participating in mass disruption events in the United States and beyond. Extinction Rebellion (XR) is on the forefront of these actions. XR is a gl

Feb 18, 2020 • 41:53

Gift Economies with Robin McKenna

Gift Economies with Robin McKenna

What do an indigenous ceremony in Canada, Burning Man, and an occupied salami factory in Rome have in common? They are all expressions of the gift economy featured in a new documentary by Robin McKenna, the guest of this Upstream conversation. Robin McKenna has worked in film for twenty years on several projects, including The Take with Naomi Klein (a film about workers who take over the means of production in Argentina in the wake of an economic collapse). Drawing inspiration from Lewis Hyde’s

Dec 3, 2019 • 41:11

Is Localization a Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism? with Helena Norberg Hodge

Is Localization a Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism? with Helena Norberg Hodge

It's often said that the economic system is rigged. The truth, however, is that the system is working exactly as it was designed to. Those in power, whether they hold public office or whether they sit in the boardroom of a multi-billion dollar international corporation, have taken great lengths to set up a system of rules that benefit them and maintain the status quo. Helena Norberg-Hodge, a pioneer of the New Economics movement, has spent many years studying the driving forces behind why our ec

Oct 29, 2019 • 52:57

A People's History of Silicon Valley with Keith A. Spencer

A People's History of Silicon Valley with Keith A. Spencer

The dark shadow of Silicon Valley is growing longer everyday, covering more and more of the globe and spreading not just technology, but a particular value set as well. By this time many know about the hyper-exploitative business models of companies like Uber or TaskRabbit. Or about how AirBnB has heavily reduced housing stocks in cities worldwide. But in his new book, Keith A. Spencer goes further than just picking on a few high profile companies. He lays out an argument for why Silicon Valley,

Oct 26, 2018 • 57:58

Documentary #8: Worker Cooperatives Pt. 2 – Islands within a Sea of Capitalism (Documentary)

Documentary #8: Worker Cooperatives Pt. 2 – Islands within a Sea of Capitalism (Documentary)

In the second episode of the series on worker cooperatives, we build on the conversation that we began in Episode one, which explored how cooperatives can serve as a force to widen the spheres of democracy in our society. This second episode shifts the focus outward, exploring how cooperatives confront global capitalism. "Islands within a Sea of Capitalism" takes a deep dive into the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation—the largest network of federated cooperatives in the world. We take listeners o

Jun 12, 2018 • 58:00

Documentary #8: Worker Cooperatives Pt. 1 – Widening Spheres of Democracy

Documentary #8: Worker Cooperatives Pt. 1 – Widening Spheres of Democracy

The 21st century has seen an explosion in Worker Cooperatives—particularly since capitalism's 2008 crisis. In Part 1 of this 2-part series, we'll explore how worker co-ops present a radically different kind of ownership and management structure—one that has the power to bring democracy into the workplace and into the economy as a whole. We'll take a deep dive into the cooperatively owned and run bike/skate shop Rich City Rides, exploring how they have created a community hub that puts racial & e

Apr 24, 2018 • 58:01

How Agriculture Turned Humanity into a Superorganism with Lisi Krall

How Agriculture Turned Humanity into a Superorganism with Lisi Krall

For the last 150,000 or so years of human evolution, not a whole lot changed. That is, until about 10,000 years ago, when in the blink of an eye we began organizing societies in very, very different ways. We went from small bands of hunter-gatherers to massive state societies; from having a relatively low ecological impact to devastating the natural environments we existed in; from relatively horizontal organization to extreme hierarchy and finely articulated division of labor. These now all-too

Feb 6, 2018 • 57:46

The End of Policing with Alex Vitale

The End of Policing with Alex Vitale

In this conversation we spoke with author Alex S. Vitale about his new book, “The End of Policing,” which was published by Verso Books on October 10th, 2017. Alex Vitale’s work is based on a deep examination and structural critique of the fundamental nature of policing. Vitale stresses that it’s not enough to enact superficial reforms to a system of policing which was, at its core, designed to maintain systems of oppression and inequality. Vitale argues that instead of our current approach of in

Oct 10, 2017 • 58:00

Documentary #7: Universal Basic Income Pt. 2 – A Bridge Towards Post-Capitalism?

Documentary #7: Universal Basic Income Pt. 2 – A Bridge Towards Post-Capitalism?

It has been said that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. That might have been true a decade ago, but today, the end of capitalism is becoming more and more plausible — at times it feels inevitable. In fact, at least half of Americans think that capitalism is a fundamentally unfair system, and over a third have a positive view of socialism. These numbers are rather strange for a society where just uttering the word “socialist” in public a generation

Sep 25, 2017 • 58:01

Documentary #7: Universal Basic Income Pt. 1 – An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

Documentary #7: Universal Basic Income Pt. 1 – An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

What if you were paid just for being alive? Just imagine, you are given a check every month for the rest of your life, enough to cover all of your basic needs. You wouldn’t be driving around in a Ferrari or eating avocado toast every day, but you’d be receiving enough to live relatively comfortably. And there’s absolutely nothing you would have to do in order to receive it. How would that change your life? What would you do differently? Close your eyes and just try to picture that for a second.

Aug 15, 2017 • 58:01

The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets with Jason Hickel

The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets with Jason Hickel

In this Conversation we spoke with Jason Hickel, an anthropologist formerly at the London School of Economics and now at Goldsmiths University of London. Originally from Swaziland, Jason's research has focused on a critique of development and globalization. He has also written on the topics of inequality, climate change, basic income, and soil regeneration. Jason argues that we cannot begin to seriously tackle the climate crisis until we take a hard look at the growth-dependent economic system t

May 23, 2017 • 29:52

Documentary #6: Beer - Crafting a Better Economy

Documentary #6: Beer - Crafting a Better Economy

Once an important life-force of early civilization and an ancient crafter of community, beer was, like many things under our current economic system, disfigured and twisted by the forces of the market and the drive for profit. In this episode, we take a close look at this story, starting in ancient Mesopotamia and tracing the history of beer up through the giant consolidations of the 20th century to the birth of the craft beer revolution in the 1970s and 80s. Brew expert and award-winning author

May 9, 2017 • 58:02

Doughnut Economics with Kate Raworth

Doughnut Economics with Kate Raworth

When you think about economics, what images come to mind? Maybe a supply and demand graph? Or a blackboard with complex equations scrawled across it? These images are based on a 19th century view of economics, one that is outdated and even dangerous, as we're beginning to see more and more. In this Upstream Conversation, we explore why the economy should look more like a doughnut. In her new book, Doughnut Economics, renegade economist Kate Raworth explains why it's time to explore new images th

Apr 3, 2017 • 52:01

Documentary #5: The Call For A New Economy

Documentary #5: The Call For A New Economy

Bellowing out in the songs of eco-village choirs and reverberating down city streets through the chants of the 99%, the call for a new economy echoes out over the dying gasps of late capitalism. From energy co-operatives in Spain that are literally bringing power to the local level, to a small school hidden deep in the English moors that is redesigning the study of economics, to a vast coalition in North America that is challenging domination by the 1%, this episode of Upstream explores the move

Mar 21, 2017 • 56:01

African American Co-ops with Jessica Gordon Nembhard

African American Co-ops with Jessica Gordon Nembhard

In this Upstream Conversation we spoke with Professor Jessica Gordon Nembhard, author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice. We spoke with her about the history of solidarity economics--particularly worker co-operatives--within the African American community. We travel in time from the era of slavery, through to Jim Crow segregation, share-cropping, and finally within the modern day prison industrial complex, looking at how cooperatives ha

Feb 15, 2017 • 59:50

Platform Cooperativism with Trebor Scholz

Platform Cooperativism with Trebor Scholz

In this Upstream Conversation we spoke with scholar and activist Trebor Scholz, who is an Associate Professor of Culture & Media at the New School for Liberal Arts & co-editor of the book, Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet. Trebor has a very wide breadth of knowledge in the field of digital labor, and is able to articulate a very strong critique of the modern day digital landscape. He walks us through how the in

Feb 5, 2017 • 53:33

The Solidarity Economy with Cheyenna Weber

The Solidarity Economy with Cheyenna Weber

In this Upstream Conversation with spoke with Cheyenna Weber, co-founder of SolidarityNYC and a lead organizer of the Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC. We spoke with her about the solidarity economy, where it came from, where it is right now, and where it might be headed. How did solidarity manifest during the Occupy Wall Street movement? Why is it important that we view co-operatives, credit unions, and other forms of alternative economics as part of a broader movement? What is the role of

Jan 30, 2017 • 39:48

Documetary #4: The Solidarity Economy

Documetary #4: The Solidarity Economy

In this episode we explore a phenomenon that has existed throughout centuries both within and alongside Capitalism. Wherever relationships have been based on reciprocity, sustainability, and democratic governance you'll find the Solidarity Economy. We learn of it's origin and about how it is strengthened by countermovements and during times of crisis. We follow its presence throughout the history of a particular marginalized community in the U.S., celebrating the courage of African American coop

Jan 13, 2017 • 1:00:00

Sneak Peak: Racism & capitalism (Jessica Gordon Nembhard)

Sneak Peak: Racism & capitalism (Jessica Gordon Nembhard)

You're listening to a Sneak Peak of our Solidarity Economy episode with scholar & activist Jessica Gordon Nembard, Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College in New York City. Professor Nembhard is the author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice. She will be featured in our upcoming Solidarity Economy episode in collaboration with STIR Magazine, to be released J

Jan 5, 2017 • 3:47

Election 2016 Aftermath with Doug Henwood

Election 2016 Aftermath with Doug Henwood

In this Upstream Conversation we spoke with author and journalist Doug Henwood. Doug wrote a book about Hillary Clinton called My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency, which is a critique of Hillary Clinton and her policies from the left of the political spectrum. We spoke with him about the response to his book, his thoughts on the Democratic Party and the election, the economic forecast of the Trump administration, the state of the economy, and much more.  This episode of Upstream was

Jan 1, 2017 • 24:34

The Recession isn't Over, but is Capitalism? with Richard Wolff

The Recession isn't Over, but is Capitalism? with Richard Wolff

Unemployment is down and the stock market is up. So we're in a recovery, right? Many politicians & economists would like us to think that, but in this Conversation, Professor Richard D. Wolff explains how this couldn't be farther from the truth. Not only is the recession that started in 2008 far from over, but we might actually be witnessing the collapse of capitalism as we know it. Professor Richard Wolff studied economics at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. He is the author of the recent book Capi

Dec 17, 2016 • 20:41

Documentary #3: Betrayal & Solidarity In Greece

Documentary #3: Betrayal & Solidarity In Greece

Greece was all over the news in 2014 and 2015. You might remember hearing about the new radical left party Syriza, the referendum, the violence in the streets, the German banks, the flamboyant finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. So what happened? Mistrusting the mainstream narrative coming from western media outlets, and suspicious of the abrupt end of most news coverage we decided we'd travel to Athens and see for ourselves what was going on in the aftermath of the tumultuous events which have b

Oct 1, 2016 • 1:00:00

Art of Hosting with Maria Scordialos

Art of Hosting with Maria Scordialos

Maria Scordialos is a Greek activist, co-initiator of The Art of Hosting, and founder of the Living Wholeness Institute, which runs the Axladitsa retreat and workshop center. We spoke about the Greek debt crisis, her experience living in Athens before, during, and after the referendum, gentrification and inequality, and her experiences working with governments. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this pro

Oct 1, 2016 • 58:21

The Crisis in Greece with James Galbraith

The Crisis in Greece with James Galbraith

James K. Galbraith is an advisor to former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. He is also a founding member of DiEM25, an economist who writes often for the popular press, and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. We spoke about the Greek debt crisis, inequality, and U.S. politics. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Ple

Sep 30, 2016 • 37:06

Regenerative Agriculture at Studio Hill Farm with Jesse McDougall

Regenerative Agriculture at Studio Hill Farm with Jesse McDougall

Raising animals for food is often cited as being one of the drivers of the ecological crisis we're in. But does it have to be? Meet Jesse McDougall, one of the farmers behind Studio Hill Farm in Vermont. He and his wife Caroline are part of an exciting movement known as carbon farming. We spoke with Jesse about the concept of regenerative agriculture and explored some of the politics and economics behind modern day farming in the United States. What is carbon farming? Or regenerative meat? Ever

Sep 21, 2016 • 57:00

Happy City Bristol with Liz Ziedler

Happy City Bristol with Liz Ziedler

Liz Zeidler is the Co-founder and Director of Happy City, an organization in Bristol, UK which is about giving people more of what we all want, but that our current economic system fails to give us: happiness. We interviewed her for part 3 of our 3-part series "Welcome to Frome" This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chippin

Sep 1, 2016 • 56:08

Flatpack Democracy with Peter Macfadyen

Flatpack Democracy with Peter Macfadyen

Peter Macfadyen is the radical council member and previous Mayor of Frome. He is also the author of Flatpack Democracy, a DIY guide to creating independent politics. We interviewed him for our 3-part series "Welcome to Frome". Parts of this interview are featured in the series. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping

Sep 1, 2016 • 57:43

The Spirit Level with Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett

The Spirit Level with Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett are the authors of the book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. The Spirit Level not only changed the way we understand and view inequality, it inspired the creation of The Equality Trust, an organization that works to improve the quality of life in the UK by reducing economic inequality. We interviewed them for our 3-part series "Welcome to Frome". Parts of this interview are featured in the series. This episode of Upstream was

Aug 31, 2016 • 59:40

Documentary #2: Welcome to Frome Pt. 3 – A New Cultural Vision

Documentary #2: Welcome to Frome Pt. 3 – A New Cultural Vision

In this final episode of our 3-part series, "Welcome to Frome", we explore possible futures for the small Somerset town of Frome. ​ In this episode, we'll talk to some of the leading experts on why GDP and economic growth are flawed measures of wellbeing. Then we’ll travel to a small kingdom in south Asia, an indigenous village in the sierras of Peru, and the headquarters of Happy City in Bristol. We'll talk to the visionaries of new cultural paradigms. and ask them to reveal the secrets of happ

Aug 31, 2016 • 59:06

Documentary #2: Welcome to Frome Pt. 2 - A Town Divided

Documentary #2: Welcome to Frome Pt. 2 - A Town Divided

In this second episode of our 3-part series, "Welcome to Frome", we explore the darker history of the small Somerset town of Frome.  ​ In this episode, you'll meet more Frome residents, more politicians, local historians, experts in the field of inequality, and a filmmaker. We'll tackle some timely topics and ask some difficult questions. What are the scars left from thirty years of closing factories and cutting government services? How do these scars reveal themselves in our hearts and in our c

Aug 31, 2016 • 58:51

Documentary #2: Welcome to Frome Pt. 1 - This Is What The New Economy Looks Like

Documentary #2: Welcome to Frome Pt. 1 - This Is What The New Economy Looks Like

In this first episode of our 3-part series, "Welcome to Frome", we explore how the small Somerset town of Frome started a revolution that has completely changed the nature of politics and economics. In this episode, you'll meet the head of this radical new movement, and visit some of the new economics initiatives that have emerged in Frome. What is a "Share Shop?" How about a community fridge? What happens when a town council creates a position designed to address climate change? Listen to find

Aug 31, 2016 • 57:08

Crisis Theory - A Marxist Video Game with David Cribb

Crisis Theory - A Marxist Video Game with David Cribb

Crisis Theory is a new video game developed by David Cribb. In this game, you play as the spirit of capitalism. Your one job is to keep the game from falling into crisis for as long as possible. Is it possible? We spoke with David to find out. Crisis Theory was inspired by Marxist geographer David Harvey's lecture series on Capital. It uses concepts like labor power, means of production, primitive accumulation, rate of profit, etc, etc, to help explain Marx's theory of capitalism. It's a great w

Aug 11, 2016 • 24:21

Sneak Peak: Seeing Wetiko (Martin Kirk)

Sneak Peak: Seeing Wetiko (Martin Kirk)

Wetiko is an Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit or thought-form driven by greed, excess and selfish consumption. It deludes its host into believing that consuming the life force of others for self-aggrandizement or profit is a logical and morally upright way to live. In this Sneak Peak, we spoke with Martin Kirk, Founder of The Rules, who explains the concept of Wetiko and how it relates to our late-capitalist era. He also explains how Donald Trump is a human embodiment of Wetiko. Martin

Aug 4, 2016 • 7:43

Sanders, Clinton, and Corbyn with Richard Seymour

Sanders, Clinton, and Corbyn with Richard Seymour

"The mirror of democracy is cracked and warped and people no longer recognize their reflection in it." Where should the Bernie Movement go after the campaign is over? Why would a vote for Hillary be a vote for more Trumpism? Richard Seymour explains it all.  This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or re

Jul 12, 2016 • 5:59

Sneak Peak: Why we need a 21st Century Labor Movement (Wilkinson & Pickett)

Sneak Peak: Why we need a 21st Century Labor Movement (Wilkinson & Pickett)

Inequality reduced dramatically from around the 1930s to the 1980s, when it suddenly started rising again to levels not seen for almost a hundred years. What happened? Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket, authors of the influential book The Spirit Level, explain what happened and how worker-owned cooperatives can serve as a countervailing force to neoliberalism.

Jun 29, 2016 • 5:15

Brexit with Joseph Choonara

Brexit with Joseph Choonara

In this interview we hear from Socialist Worker's Party member & Lexit Campaign Spokesperson Joseph Choonara. We spoke about the movement on the radical Left that pushed successfully for Britain to leave the European Union. We also spoke about the larger split between the movements on Left, the abandonment of the working class by Labour, the anti-immigrant nature of the EU, and how we can start to work more effectively across class divides to build a stronger, more viable Left.

Jun 26, 2016 • 32:15

Sneak Peak: Why the Radical Left Voted to Leave Europe (Joseph Choonara)

Sneak Peak: Why the Radical Left Voted to Leave Europe (Joseph Choonara)

"Neoliberalism has become embedded in the very DNA of the European Union." It was not just the Right in the UK that voted to leave the EU. Listen to our interview with Joseph Choonara of the Social Worker's Party to hear why some factions of the radical Left in Britain decided that they've had enough of the European Union.

Jun 25, 2016 • 3:31

Richard Seymour

Richard Seymour

In this interview we hear from activist and writer Richard Seymour. We spoke about the Orlando shootings, Brexit, Corbyn & the Labour Party, Trump, the decline of unions, and where the Bernie Sanders movement can go now that the nomination seems assured for Hillary Clinton. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in

Jun 23, 2016 • 42:03

Sneak Peak: What's Really Going on Behind Brexit? (Richard Seymour)

Sneak Peak: What's Really Going on Behind Brexit? (Richard Seymour)

Brexit? This Thursday Great Britain is poised to vote on whether or not to leave the European Union. The decisions and politics driving this referendum are complex, important, and might surprise you. London-based writer, activist, and broadcaster Richard Seymour gives us the lay of the terrain. Our full interview with Richard will be available soon at our website: http://www.economicsfortransition.org

Jun 21, 2016 • 6:51

Sneak Peak: Loukanikos the Riot Dog (Yianni Litovchenko)

Sneak Peak: Loukanikos the Riot Dog (Yianni Litovchenko)

In this Upstream Sneak Peak, Yianni Litovchenko of Alternative Tours of Athens tells us the story of the famous Greek riot dog Loukankios (or "Sausage").

Jun 21, 2016 • 4:54

Sneak Peak: Greek Financial Crisis Explained (Maria Scordialos)

Sneak Peak: Greek Financial Crisis Explained (Maria Scordialos)

In this Upstream Sneak Peak, we spoke with Greek activist and co-initiator of The Art of Hosting Maria Scordialos. She will be featured in our upcoming episode on the Solidarity movement and financial crisis in Greece.

Jun 15, 2016 • 7:16

The Divide with Katharine Round

The Divide with Katharine Round

Katharine Round is the director of the documentary film The Divide, which is based off of the book The Spirit Level. The Divide tells the story of 7 individuals striving for a better life in the modern day US and UK - where the top 0.1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%. We spoke with her about making the film, how inequality makes everyone less better off, and what we can do about it. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of lov

May 27, 2016 • 55:26

Stop GDP with Martin Whitlock

Stop GDP with Martin Whitlock

In this interview we spoke with Martin Whitlock, co-founder of Stop-GDP.org and author of Human Politics : Human Value: Towards a society for people as we really are (not as governments, economists and big corporations would like us to be). We spoke about how GDP is a scam and how the money economy is a terrible idea.  This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our li

May 16, 2016 • 57:51

Craftivism with Sarah Corbett

Craftivism with Sarah Corbett

Sarah Corbett is a craft-activist, or "craftivist". She is the founder of Craftivist-Collective, and has worked as a campaigner for NGOs like Oxfam and Christian Aid. Sarah takes a very unique and thoughtful approach to activism. We talked about the intersection between activism and craft-making, how activism can be slow, gentle, and kind, and about the surprising story behind why she made a handkerchief for her Member of Parliament.

May 1, 2016 • 1:00:01

Gift Economies with Angel Miles

Gift Economies with Angel Miles

Angela Miles is a professor at the University of Toronto, member of International Feminists for a Gift Economy, and author of the books Integrative Feminism and Women in a Globalizing World: Transforming Equality, Development, Diversity, and Peace. We spoke about gender, the importance of gift economies, the commodification of everything, marx and alienation, integrative feminism, and how the best way to get a high is to help somebody. Intermission music by The Wild Reeds.

Apr 27, 2016 • 56:58

The Sharing Economy with Doug Henwood

The Sharing Economy with Doug Henwood

Doug Henwood is a columnist for The Nation, Harper's, and Jacobin Mag; the radio host of Behind the News; author of Wall Street: How it Works and for Whom; and most recently of My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency. We spoke about his research on the "sharing economy", as well as the history of capitalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and possible solutions to the growing precariousness of labor.  This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a la

Apr 23, 2016 • 57:00

The Sharing Economy with Keally McBride

The Sharing Economy with Keally McBride

In this interview we spoke with Keally McBride, Professor of Politics and the Chair of International Studies at the University of San Francisco. She was featured in our Sharing Economy episode. We chatted about her research on The Sharing Economy (companies like Uber, Taskrabbit, and Airbnb), the tech industry's impact on Oakland and San Francisco, neoliberalism, and labor vs. capital in the 21st century. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream i

Apr 18, 2016 • 57:11

Spiritual Ecology with Satish Kumar

Spiritual Ecology with Satish Kumar

In this interview we hear from Satish Kumar: former monk, author, editor of Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine, long-time peace & environmental activist, founder of Schumacher College, and TED Talk alumnus. We spoke about going upstream, the fallacies of economic growth & consumption, the principles of Buddhist and Gandhian economics, what a real sharing economy looks like, and dream time. This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love —

Apr 10, 2016 • 57:25

The Sharing Economy? (15 minute shortened version)

The Sharing Economy? (15 minute shortened version)

In this shortened version of our "The Sharing Economy?" episode, we look at how companies like Taskrabbit and Uber have influenced an entire generation and entirely shifted the economic landscapes of major cities globally. Through candid conversations with journalists and industry insiders, we explore the darker side of these giant companies and investigate how this phenomenon arose and what implications are in store. Featured guests: Doug Henwood (Author, radio host, columnist for Harper's and

Mar 29, 2016 • 15:00

Transition Towns with Rob Hopkins

Transition Towns with Rob Hopkins

In this interview, we hear from Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition movement, a radically hopeful community-driven approach to creating societies independent of fossil fuel. We chatted about transition towns and how they resemble cell membranes, the power of stories, and craft beer. (Listen closely you'll hear the ambient sounds of whistling and laughter of the students of Schumacher College!)Thank you to Jacob Rask for conducting this interview. This episode of Upstream was made possible

Mar 29, 2016 • 42:36

Ecological Feminism with Nadia Johanisova

Ecological Feminism with Nadia Johanisova

In this interview we hear from Nadia Johanisova, an Ecological Economist, Professor of Environmental Studies in the Czech Republic, and the person who translated E. F. Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful" - as well as several other new economic classics - into Czech. We talked about what it was like to live and work under a communist regime and what changed when the Iron Curtain fell and neo-liberalism crept into Czechoslovakia. Nadia also talked about the book she wrote titled Living in the Cracks

Mar 23, 2016 • 49:24

Economic Democracy with Pat Conaty

Economic Democracy with Pat Conaty

Pat is a fellow Californian living in the U.K. He has worked with the New Economic Foundation since 1987 and is also a research associate of Co-operatives UK. Pat's work focuses on reclaiming money, land, and labor. We spoke about various forms of co-operative economic democracy, including community land trusts for housing, social co-operatives for care services, and ecological co-operatives for green energy and local food systems. Pat is a world leader in advocating on behalf of the commons and

Mar 12, 2016 • 1:12:04

Buen Vivir with Eduardo Gudynas

Buen Vivir with Eduardo Gudynas

This interview is a conversation with Eduardo Gudynas, a leading scholar of Buen Vivir, a Latin American social movement to focus development on “the good life.” He is also the executive secretary of the Latin American Centre for Social Ecology in Uruguay and the author of 10 books and many academic articles. We spoke about the unique history of the Buen Vivir social movement, its introduction into the constitutions of several Latin American countries, and how it challenges not just development

Feb 28, 2016 • 39:06

Gross National Happiness with Dr. Tho Ha Vinh

Gross National Happiness with Dr. Tho Ha Vinh

In this interview, we hear from Dr. Ha Vinh Tho, the Program Development Coordinator of the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan. Tho is also the founder and chairman of Eurasia Foundation, a humanitarian NGO, a visiting fellow at several universities and a Buddhist teacher in the Tradition of Vietnamese Zen Buddhism, who was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh. We speak about the history and meaning of the Gross National Happiness Index and how it can be a better index for measuring happiness, hea

Feb 8, 2016 • 58:43

The Work That Reconnects with Joanna Macy

The Work That Reconnects with Joanna Macy

In this interview, we hear from Joanna Macy PhD, a highly revered local eco-justice philosopher, activist, and leader. Joanna is a scholar, teacher, and a practitioner of Buddhism, Systems Theory, Gaia Theory, and the Deep Ecology Movement. At 86, she moves through the world with profound wisdom, passion, and the rare gift to inspire us to move from despair into empowered action for the earth and all living beings. To learn more about Joanna and the work that she does please visit http://www.joa

Feb 8, 2016 • 58:45

Robin Murray

Robin Murray

In this episode, we spoke with the late Robin Murray, a prolific sustainability and environmental economist, an advocate for a living economy, and a key player in the birth of the fair trade movement. Robin Murray was named by The Guardian as one of the fifty people who could save the planet, and worked to establish the London Climate Change Agency with the Deputy Mayor of London. Robin alternated working between innovative economic programs in local, regional, and national governments, as well

Feb 8, 2016 • 1:09:05

Growing Good Lives with Inez Aponte

Growing Good Lives with Inez Aponte

In this interview, we hear from Inez Aponte, the founder of Growing Good Lives, an organization dedicated to bringing about a socially and environmentally just economic system by putting values, needs, and wellbeing at the heart of economic development work. Inez is a storyteller, facilitator and community organizer who uses the Human Scale Development Approach in her workshops and seminars. We talked about how she came to do this work, why we need a different way of talking about the economy, a

Feb 7, 2016 • 58:51

Documentary #1: The Sharing Economy?

Documentary #1: The Sharing Economy?

In this episode we look at how companies like Airbnb and Uber have influenced an entire generation and entirely shifted the economic landscape of major cities like San Francisco. Through candid conversations with journalists and industry insiders, we explore the darker side of these giant companies and investigate how this phenomenon arose and what implications are in store. Featured guests: Doug Henwood (Author, radio host, columnist for Harper's and the Nation Magazine) Keally McBride (Profess

Feb 6, 2016 • 1:00:23

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