Episodes
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Jane Fonda is a towering figure and an American legend. From Barbarella, to Klute, to 9 to 5, to her workout videos, she’s been gracing our screens for more than 50 years. And, though she may be best known for her role as an artist, surprisingly Jane says that’s not how she thinks of herself: “I consider myself, first and foremost, an activist.” And she has for quite some time.
For the final episode of Season four, Abby talks with Jane about the power of activism– work that Jane defines as building “people power in order to change systems that are wicked and evil.”
In recent years, to protest government inaction on climate change and the burning of fossil fuels, Jane launched Fire Drill Fridays. On select Fridays she can be found in Washington, DC leading thousands in civil disobedience. She’s also working to get “climate champions” elected to office via the Jane Fonda Climate Pac.
Jane reminds Abby that her activism started way back when she was a young actress who opposed the Vietnam War: “I was completely confused,” she admits, yet “it was hard to remain on the sidelines.” She describes the winding path she’s cut ever since.
As the conversation proceeds, Jane and Abby bond over how both find joy in activism. Jane describes the balm it has provided in her life. “One thousand percent activism saved me,” she declares. And, though there’s a lot to be angry, or to despair about, she ends with this rhetorical question: “Do you find–because I do–that when you take action, you get less depressed?”
You can follow Jane on Twitter @Janefonda, on Instagram @janefonda, and you can follow Jane’s climate activism on Twitter @janeclimatepac and @firedrillfridays, or you can go to janepac.com, or firedrillfridays.org.
EPISODE LINKS
The Village of Ben Suc (New Yorker)
Donald W. Duncan, 79, Ex-Green Beret and Early Critic of Vietnam War, Is Dead (NY Times)
Robert Kennedy Jr. (and Abigail Disney) Arrested While Protesting With Jane Fonda (The Hollywood Reporter)
On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (Naomi Klein)
The evidence is clear: the time for action is now. We can halve emissions by 2030. (IPCC)
CO2 Emissions in 2022 (IEA)
Homeboy Industries (Homeboy Industries) -
What if we thought of America’s economic inequality as design flaws of policy, rather than the result of personal failings? And what would our policies look like if we included everyone in the design process? These are the questions that drive the work of Abby’s guest this week, Dr. Michael McAfee, president and CEO of PolicyLink. PolicyLink is a venerable think tank that works to create a more inclusive economy and democracy by lifting up communities that have been purposely and systematically kept out of the American dream.
No question things are out of whack: today around 100 million Americans–one in three–are economically insecure. That, says Michael, is a threat to our very democracy. It’s also a “wonderful opportunity” to redesign our policies–from housing, to wages, to education, to clean water.
And though there are those in America who are working to sow seeds of division, Michael says, “there is nothing to be ashamed of in caring for everyone.” Americans, he says, “need to stop focusing on what’s wrong. We’ve overbuilt that part of our brain. What we need to do now is spend every cell that we have in our brain focused on real practical solutions that can bridge us to where we want to go.”
Listening to Michael, it becomes clear that pragmatic optimism is his calling card: “This is an awakening moment that is painful as hell. And it's messy. And it's hurtful. There's a lot of beauty in it as well.”
Follow Michael McAfee on Twitter @MikeMcAfee06, on Instagram @Michael.McAfee, and on LinkedIn.
EPISODE LINKS
The Leading Edge of Collective Impact: Designing a Just and Fair Nation for All (SSIR Magazine)
Zip Code Destiny w/ Raj Chetty (NPR Hidden Brain)
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic)
New Study Shows CA Cost-of-Living So High that $180k is New “Middle Class”
When Private Equity Becomes Your Landlord (ProPublica)
Twilight of the NIMBY (NY Times)
Camp Lejeune's poisoned water has spawned thousands of claims. But victims are still waiting for closure (CNN)
Wells Fargo to pay $3.7 billion for illegal conduct that harmed consumers (Reuters)
More than 10-hour wait and long lines as early voting starts in Georgia | US elections 2020 (The Guardian) -
Episodes manquant?
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In a recent New York Times op-ed, “America Is in a Disgraced Class of Its Own”, sociologist Matthew Desmond writes about the shameful amount of poverty in America, and our responsibility for it. He also writes about solutions. He points to B Corp as a beacon of light, a resource for people who want to support corporations that actually respect workers, their communities and the environment. Our guest this week, Jay Coen Gilbert, is one of B Corp’s founders. He’s also someone Abby consulted with while making her documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales. She says Jay helped her think through many complicated economic questions, especially around how to limit the power and influence of American corporations and their leaders.
According to Abby, “Jay is the rarest of creatures—a smart businessman who knows how to run a company—but he's also unashamed to say that values matter, principles matter, and that greed is—now, are you sitting down for this?—not good.” Over the course of the conversation, Jay explains what a B Corp is and why it may hold the potential to fundamentally change the way corporations function in our culture and our economy. In most states, the law essentially requires companies to maximize financial returns to shareholders. Profit at all costs, Jay tells Abby, has become the “source code” for modern capitalism’s operating system. B Corps, he says, are attempting to rewrite that code: “they are changing the settings” he explains, so that other “stakeholders” can be included in a company’s mission. In other words, a company’s board can pay workers a living wage, for instance, or work towards a sustainable, equitable supply chain—and not be punished by shareholders for doing so, but instead encouraged to do it. Ultimately, Jay hopes that “the settings” that B Corps are pioneering will become mandatory for companies above a certain size: “at a certain point, if you're too big to fail, you're too big to not only fail your shareholders, you're too big to fail society.”
You can learn more about B Lab and B Corp at bcorporation.net, and you can learn more about Jay’s work to reset economic systems at imperative21.co.
EPISODE LINKS:
America Is in a Disgraced Class of Its Own (NY Times)
A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits (NY Times)
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, by Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman (Goodreads)
Untold: The Rise and Fall of And1 | Official Trailer | Netflix (Youtube)
Patagonia 50: Purpose Over Profit (Patagonia)
On Nespresso Controversy: Are B Corps turning against B Lab? (Fast Company)
The legal requirement for Certified B Corporations (B Lab) -
This week, Abby talks with business writer Rick Wartzman about what he learned while reporting his latest book: Still Broke: Walmart's Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism. Rick spent nearly three years documenting how Walmart’s directors worked to significantly improve wages and conditions for employees — and how it wasn’t nearly enough. The book is a fascinating look at how good intentions, even from a behemoth like Walmart, are ultimately not enough to overcome the demands of Wall Street, where keeping shareholders happy, even at the expense of workers and their communities, is the name of the game.
Rick takes Abby back to 1962, when Sam Walton, affectionately called “Mr. Sam” by his employees, opened his first store. As he grew an empire over the next several years and decades, he paid workers poorly and used cut-throat techniques, including hiring union-busting firms—the likes of which are still operating today. What was different back then, Rick explains, was that Mr. Sam not only made his workers feel like they were an important part of the enterprise, he also offered them profit sharing, which offset low wages for many.
Sam Walton died in 1992. Rick explains how, and why, in the years that followed, the company became a hellscape for workers and one of the most vilified companies in the world, a veritable symbol of American capitalism gone wrong. Yet by the time Rick finds himself inside Walmart in 2018, he meets executives who genuinely want to pay workers a living wage, clean up Walmart’s sustainability record, and generally improve Walmart’s public and moral standing. While Walmart has seen some success, and taken great strides, at the end of the day, Rick tells Abby, the market will not allow a company to be socially responsible. “Voluntary efforts will only take corporate America so far,” Wartzman declares, saying that his research has led him to believe that the private market can’t address these challenges on its own. “It’s not fast enough,” he says. “We need a government solution to this.”
Rick’s consulting company is Bendable Labs and his book is Still Broke: Walmart's Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism.
EPISODE LINKS:
Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs (NY Times)
Clinton Global Initiative Panel Discussion
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
Top CEO group Business Roundtable drops shareholder primacy (Fast Company)
Walmart raises minimum wage as retail labor market remains tight (CNBC)
Rick’s Recommendations:
For great data, head to the Economic Policy Institute
To understand how living wages are calculated in your region, check out Living Wage for US and MIT’s Living Wage Calculator
To learn more about frontline workers, visit United for Respect -
If you've been paying attention, you've heard how unionization efforts are popping up all over the country, from Starbucks, Amazon and Apple; to airports, nursing homes and college campuses. Indeed, in numbers not seen in generations, American workers are fighting for higher wages, better benefits and, yes, a little more dignity on the job. This week, Abby talks about what all this portends with Mary Kay Henry, president of the nation’s second largest union, the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU currently represents about 2 million workers, including the custodians profiled in Abby’s documentary about economic inequality, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.
Mary Kay tells Abby that The SEIU is committed to eliminating the kind of poverty wages that have come to define service work, especially the jobs that predominantly go to women and minorities, jobs like child care and home health assistance. Mary Kay has been at this for a long time. She started organizing in 1980, just around the time former President Ronald Reagan advanced policies that crippled union power. What kept her going during those dark years, Mary Kay says was “the incredible courage of individual people who were willing to risk their jobs, to make things better for themselves, their families, and their coworkers.”
The fight is far from over. Despite some well-publicized victories for labor in recent years, and regardless of talk of how frontline workers were “essential” during the pandemic, Mary Kay tells Abby that corporate America is spending millions on union busting campaigns, vociferously fighting workers’ efforts to have a place at the bargaining table. These corporate campaigns are unacceptable, she says, and one of her goals is to change the public’s attitude toward the employers who keep unions out. Just like the Me Too Movement made sexual harassment unacceptable, Mary Kay declares: “we want to make it unacceptable to have anti-union behavior.”
Follow Mary Kay Henry, the SEIU, and the Fight for 15 on Twitter: @MaryKayHenry, @SEIU, @fightfor15
EPISODE LINKS:
FightFor15
The incredible decline of American unions, in one animated map (The Washington Post)
The New Deal devalued home care workers. Advocates hope new legislation can undo that. (The 19th)
‘Working People Want Real Change’: A Union Chief Sounds Off on the Crisis (NY Times)
Sectoral Bargaining: What It Is, How It Works, Pro and Con Debate (Investopedia)
Thinking Sectorally (The American Prospect)
Judge grants hold on California fast-food worker law AB 257 (Los Angeles Times) -
Picture your favorite doughnut. Whether it’s chocolate glazed with sprinkles, vanilla pastry cream, red velvet, you’re inadvertently invoking one of the most important reimaginings of our economy of the last 20 years: Doughnut Economics. It posits that our economy should remain in balance with our communities and the planet, and visualizes that balance in the shape of the much beloved pastry. This theory is the brainchild of Abby’s guest this week, the brilliant, renegade economist, Professor Kate Raworth. Raworth initially set out to study economics because it is “the mother tongue of public policy.” But over time she became disillusioned with the field and its inability to see beyond markets and growth. It was working on projects to alleviate problems like poverty and climate change and also becoming a mother, that led her to find a new way to frame ideas about the very purpose of the economy and who it is meant to serve. That was 11 years ago. While Raworth has been dismissed outright by some of her more conservative colleagues, the ideas in her book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, are not only shaking up conventional economic thought, they’re being put into practice. These days, communities and cities across the world—including Amsterdam, Brussels, Melbourne and Berlin—are trying to make their local economies look like a doughnut.
You can see the Doughnut here, check out Kate’s fun economic animations here, and learn more about her work at the Doughnut Economics Action Lab. Follow Kate on Twitter @KateRaworth.
EPISODE LINKS
Kate Raworth: A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow (TED Ideas)
Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps etymology
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (NOAA)
Rational Economic Man (Investopedia)
The Economist by Xenophon (Gutenberg Project)
International Student Movement: Rethinking Economics
Exploring Economics
Amsterdam’s ‘doughnut economy’ puts climate ahead of GDP (PBS News Weekend) -
Settle in with Abby and labor organizer Erica Smiley for a free-wheeling conversation about unions, democracy, history, and so much more. Smiley is the Executive Director of Jobs with Justice, a national labor group working to change the meta-narrative about who the economy is for and what it should look like. She is also the author, along with Sarita Gupta, of The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century. The book focuses on where the labor movement has been, while also imagining a future in which working people fight to regain power, influence, and dignity not only in the workplace, but beyond. Abby calls the way Smiley frames the concept of collective bargaining “radically important.” According to Smiley, workers who are struggling to form unions at places like Starbucks and Amazon “are seeing their struggles in the workplace not simply as something that they need for themselves…But also as their way of contributing to the effort to save and expand democracy.” She points out that the civil rights movement was also about economic justice. Martin Luther King Jr’s March on Washington was for Jobs and Civil Rights. “Visibilizing” that connection is important, Smiley tells Abby. As they talk, Abby and Smiley travel through time and space, linking up slave labor management to practices still used in today’s service economy. They end by agreeing that it’s better to fight together than apart.
Follow Smiley on Twitter @SmileyJWJ. For more information on Erica Smiley, and her work at Jobs with Justice, go to https://www.jwj.org/.
EPISODE LINKS
The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century (Buy it here.)
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) (now Worker’s United)
Encyclopedia Britannica’s Definition of Taylorism
Book Review: “Accounting for Slavery” — Plantation Roots of Scientific Management (The Arts Fuse)
Poor People's Campaign (The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute)
The Last March of Martin Luther King Jr. (The Atlantic)
New Orleans Apologizes for 1891 Lynching of Italian-Americans (Smithsonian)
How Black washerwomen in the South became pioneers of American labor (The Washington Post) -
This week, as Congressional Democrats attempt to convince Republicans to impose taxes on the very wealthy, Abby talks “tax positivity” with the delightful Austrian activist Marlene Engelhorn. Engelhorn made headlines around the globe when she announced that she wanted the government to take away–through taxes–most of her multi-million dollar inheritance. Marlene, whose ancestors founded giant pharmaceutical and chemical companies, tells Abby about growing up in a family that consistently downplayed their wealth. As a child she thought she lived in a “big house.” Later, she realized it was a huge mansion. “I don't see why a person like me should have this power.” she tells Abby. You wouldn’t pick someone out of ‘the sperm lottery’ and give them a double-digit multimillion sum and say go play! But that's what happens when you inherit. And frankly, history has not proven this a good idea.” Marlene says unfair tax laws worldwide are causing inequality to grow and threatening democracy. Whether in the United States, or Austria, she says “Nobody gets asked whether or not they want to pay taxes other than wealthy people.” Abby, who herself has spent years advocating for higher tax rates on fellow plutocrats, points out that she and Marlene are members of a tiny demographic: “people who are questioning their disproportionate wealth and power, and working to end both.”
Marlene's organization is called taxmenow, and is based in Vienna. Similar groups include the Patriotic Millionaires and Resource Generation in the US, Resource Justice in the UK, and Resource Movement in Canada.
EPISODE LINKS
Marlene Dietrich
She's Inheriting Millions. She Wants Her Wealth Taxed Away. (NY Times)
'Gobsmacked' and Other Astonishing Words (CS Monitor)
Hannah Arendt
Early BASF Historical Timeline
For context on BASF's role in WWII, see the 2008 Kirkus Review of Hell's Cartel
Iron Man Writer Says Elon Musk is Real-World Tony Stark Inspiration (Esquire)
Salt-N-Pepa's Let's Talk About Sex -
A week after President Joe Biden’s fiery State of the Union address focused on re-growing America’s middle class, Abby has a lively conversation with millionaire reformer Nick Hanauer about what Biden is doing and why it’s so important. Hanauer, a venture capitalist and activist, has long been sounding the alarm on our inequality crisis, warning that trouble is coming our way if nothing is done to address the problem. In fact, he argues that that trouble will likely involve angry people with pitchforks. We got a preview, he says, when President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol: “The toxic stew that is created when you make the tiniest sliver of us extremely wealthy, while everyone, even people in the 90th percentile feel like they're falling behind …It just makes people mad and it should make people mad. I’m very sympathetic to that anger.” According to Hanauer, President Biden’s “middle-out” economic policies make him America’s first “post-Reagan” president, and that gives him hope. But much more still needs to change the system which among other things, gives, “moral cover to shitbags.” It’s important to take power from the very rich, he says, because they won't give up power voluntarily. “Jeff Bezos,” for instance, “will never wake up and say ‘Hey, I should really run Amazon.com differently.’” There aren’t rewards for empathy at the very top, Hanauer tells Abby. For billionaires like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk the rewards come from “ being cold-blooded and exploiting people”.
Follow Nick Hanauer on Twitter or Facebook. His podcast is Pitchfork Economics.
EPISODE LINKS
Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (American Economic Review, Vol. 84, No. 4, September, 1994)
Raising the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Kill Jobs; It Boosts Productivity, Says ITIF (ITIF)
2021 US GDP: $23.99 trillion (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
Data about the Capitol rioters serves another blow to the White, working-class Trump-supporter narrative (The Washington Post)
Power and Peril: 5 Takeaways on Amazon's Employment Machine (NY Times) -
If you’ve seen Abby’s documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, you won’t forget the wisdom imparted by the formidable writer and policy analyst Heather McGee. In the film, Heather reminds us that the economy is not like the weather–it is actually something we can control. And, crucially, she tells a story about American history that’s not told often enough: how deep seated racism in the 20th Century helped unravel a whole host of government policies responsible for creating the largest middle class the world had ever seen. Because so much of their powerful and thought-provoking 2021 conversation never made it into the documentary, this week Abby goes into the vault to share an extended version. Too often, Heather tells Abby, American history gets “Disneyfied.” It's important, she says, that people know the truth, because “when we don't know what the powerful will do in order to keep power, we are vulnerable to the powerful doing it again”. Heather’s insights, based on her groundbreaking book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, help explain why so many Americans are working full time, yet unable to pay their bills.
Follow Heather @HeatherCMcGhee on Instagram and Facebook, @HMcGhee on Twitter.EPISODE LINKS
Dumbo Crows (Disney Fandom)
How the Federal Government Built White Suburbia (Bloomberg)
Time to Fight: How the Powell memo convinced big business it was losing American hearts and minds (Slate)
How Slavery Inspired Modern Business Management (Boston Review)
Why Black workers still face a promotion and wage gap that’s costing the economy trillions (CNBC)
Insurance Policies on Slaves: New York Life’s Complicated Past (NY Times) -
Kicking off the fourth Season of All Ears, Abby gets on the line with one of her economic heroes, Robert Reich. Reich understands the issues at the heart of The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, Abby’s new documentary, better than almost anyone, because he’s been speaking out about exploitative labor practices and corporate greed for decades. From within the halls of power, when Reich was Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, he was vocal about rising inequality, and he’s in no mood to stop now. In recent years, Reich has become one of the most powerful and effective voices explaining the inequality crisis in clear, unequivocal language. Over the course of their rousing conversation, Reich shares his vision for a bottom-up economics and provides some introspection on his own commitment to fighting inequality. He also clues Abby into the real cause of rising inflation last year (hint: it’s not labor!) and lets her know when he’ll believe corporations deserve the same rights as people (hint: something to do with Texas!)
EPISODE LINKS
Robert Reich on linkt.ree
Robert Reich's Substack
What Ownership Society? (The American Prospect)
Civil Right Workers Remembered 50 Years After Slaying (USA Today)
It’s A Wonderful Life Trailer
Republicans block bill requiring dark money groups to reveal donors (The Hill)
Meet The 24 Robber Barons Who Once Ruled America (Business Insider)
When Did Corporations Become People? (NPR) -
Abigail is back in front of the microphone! Season 4 of All Ears will kick off on Thursday, February 2, 2023 with a conversation with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Abigail took a podcasting hiatus while out promoting her documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, in which she examines the inequality crisis through the lens of the company her grandfather helped found, The Walt Disney Company. In the film, she asks how it is possible that so many workers at Disneyland, aka “the happiest place on earth,” can’t afford life's basic necessities, even when they work full time. For the fourth season of All Ears, Abigail poses that question to people who are doing the most Disney thing of all–using their imaginations–in this case to rethink capitalism. She talks with business leaders, union organizers, and economists to learn how to fix our broken economy.
Join her every Thursday starting February 2nd!Watch The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales on iTunes, Amazon, or Vudu. Find out more about the film at AmericanDreamDoc.Com.
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It’s our final episode of the season, and who better to finish it off with than feminist icon and Abby’s longtime friend, Gloria Steinem. Steinem has been a pioneer and leader in the feminist movement for more than half a century. Her political and cultural impact is truly immeasurable, but it’s undeniable that she, alongside women like Dorothy Pittman Hughes and Florynce Kennedy helped lay the foundation for the modern feminist movement. She’s spent much of her extraordinary life traveling the world: marching in solidarity, giving talks, introducing ideas, facilitating conversations, and most of all, listening. Now, in her 87th year, she says she’s enjoying being home for what may be the first time in her long life. In this week’s conversation with Abby, we learn about the time they ended up in Botswana on the back of an elephant named Cathy together, how families built on equality can temper political trends of authoritarianism, and what it is that gives her hope about the future of feminism. Tune in to our last episode of the season for a fun and thoughtful conversation between old friends, and we’ll be back soon.
Follow Gloria on Twitter: @GloriaSteinem
EPISODE LINKS
Elephants Without Borders
Abu Camp Elephant Conservation
Gloria Steinem's Website
Theosophical Society of America
New York Mag, After Black Power, Women’s Liberation, 1969
NPR's Fresh Air, Feminist Activist Gloria Steinem, 2020
National Geographic, How Gloria Steinem became 'the world's most famous feminist', 2019
Ms. Magazine, The Story of Iconic Feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes: “With Her Fist Raised”, 2021
New York Times, With Plan to Walk Across DMZ, Women Aim for Peace in Korea, 2015
New York Times, What I See: Gloria Steinem, Shoulder to Shoulder With Women of Color, 2018
New York Times, Gloria Steinem Is Nowhere Near Done With Being An Activist, 2020 -
This week on All Ears, Abby talks food and food policy with New York State Senator Jessica Ramos. Jessica burst onto the New York political scene in 2018 when she and several other progressive candidates ousted a powerful group of conservative New York Democrats who had been crossing party lines to caucus with Republicans. She represents District 13 in Queens, where more than 24,000 food workers live in just three square miles. In 2019 Jessica helped pass the Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act, which gave farmworkers in upstate New York long overdue rights, things like overtime pay and unemployment insurance. She also pushed hard to remove New York City’s cap on street vending permits. In this week’s conversation with Abby, Jessica discusses her love of food, her love of Queens, the powerful influence of Julia Child’s unmitigated use of butter, and why our country is long overdue for comprehensive immigration reform. And you won't want to miss the tasty story that kicks off the episode: All Ears Producer Christine Schomer profiles vendors who work in Corona Plaza, one of the most exciting and diverse outdoor food courts in the country--just blocks from Senator Ramos' office.
To learn more about The Street Vendor Project, visit https://svp.urbanjustice.org/
EPISODE LINKS
New York Times, Food Is Not a Prop For Senator Jessica Ramos, It’s a Platform, 2021
New York Times, No Papers, No Jobs: The New Street Vendors of Queens, 2020
City and State New York, Jessica Ramos isn’t sugarcoating anything, 2020
Grub Street, State Senator Jessica Ramos Likes Her Food Very Local, 2019
New York Focus, Unlicensed Street Vendors Fear Steep Fines as Enforcement Escalates, 2021
Eater, City Council Moves to Lift Street Vendor Permit Cap in Historic Vote, 2021
New York City Business Solutions, Street Vending
Institute for Justice, Groundbreaking Report Highlights Economic Impact of New York City Vendors, 2015 -
With the United Nations’ 26th annual climate change conference–aka COP26–happening in Glasgow, Scotland this week, we thought it was the perfect time to re-air Abby’s conversation with environmental activist Varshini Prakash. Varshini is the executive director and co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-centered climate activist group that’s helped bring the climate crisis to the forefront of national politics in the United States. The organization has made a name for itself by coordinating confrontational climate protests, and working to popularize the Green New Deal. Back when Abby interviewed Varshini, nobody would have predicted that two Democrats (Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona) would bring down President Biden's plan to implement sweeping progressive policies nationwide. Still, Sunrise is not letting the President off the hook: on October 20, five Sunrise activists began staging a hunger strike outside the White House, demanding that he take executive action, in spite of legislative obstacles. After 14 days without food they ended the strike, when President Biden promised a 50% decrease in emissions by 2030.
Tune in for an inspiring conversation about the determination of younger generations to lead, and the power of grassroots movements to address the climate crisis.
Follow Varshini and The Sunrise Movement on Twitter: @varshprakash and @sunrisemvmt
EPISODE LINKS:
The Sunrise Movement Website
United Nations Climate Change, Glasgow Climate Change Conference
New York Times, Key to Biden's Climate Agenda Likely to Be Cut Because of Manchin Opposition, 2021
New York Times, Your Country Is Getting a Bad Deal, and You Can Do Better, 2021
The Guardian, Climate advocates who backed Sinema exasperated by blocking of Biden bill, 2021
Al Jazeera, Climate activists go on hunger strike near WH urging Biden to act, 2021
Huffington Post, 5 Young Activists On Hunger Strike Demand Democrats Not Cut Back On Climate in Bill, 2021 -
This week on All Ears it’s the second part of our two-part interview with journalist and activist Imara Jones. Abby and Imara talk in-depth about “The Anti-Trans Hate Machine”, a fantastic 4-part podcast by Imara and Translash Media. It’s an investigative series that looks into the political activities of powerful far-right wing Christians to advocate for and help create laws that discriminate against trans people. One of the most influential people in this sphere of influence is former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family has reportedly donated over $200 million to Republicans and Republican causes. Imara walks Abby through the agenda of Dominionism, a theology that seeks to elect and install a Christian nationalist government based on biblical law. Sharing audio and details of her reporting, Imara paints a dramatic portrait of a coordinated, well-funded effort to influence democratic institutions by using anti-trans legislation as a cultural wedge. You won’t want to miss this one.
Last week in part one Imara and Abby covered the Netflix/Dave Chappelle controversy, Please take a listen if you haven’t had the chance!
EPISODE LINKS:
The Anti-Trans Hate Machine Podcast, on A-Cast
ACLU, Legislation Affecting LGBT Rights Across the Country
The Gathering Conference
Politico, Trump’s education pick says reform can ‘advance God’s kingdom’, 2016
Rolling Stone, Betsy DeVos' Holy War, 2017
Mother Jones, Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America's Schools to Build 'God's Kingdom', 2017
Vanity Fair, The Strange Ascent of Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince, 2018
Politico, A look at DeVos family philanthropic giving, 2018
The Daily Beast, The $1-Billion-a-Year Right-Wing Conspiracy You Haven’t Heard Of, 2014
Sludge, America’s Biggest Christian Charity Funnels Tens of Millions to Hate Groups, 2019
Political Research Associates, Christian Reconstructionism, 1994
The Texas Observer, The Radical Theology That Could Make Religious Freedom a Thing of The Past, 2016 -
This week on All Ears, Abby is joined by Imara Jones. Imara is an activist, journalist and the creator of TransLash Media, a cross-platform journalism, storytelling and narrative project. She’s also the host of the TransLash podcast, a show that centers trans narratives and experience. Imara’s and Abby’s conversation was so rich and varied, we decided to split it up into two episodes. In this week’s conversation, she discusses the love and acceptance she found in her family after transitioning, the immense and intractable power of storytelling, and what went wrong in Dave Chappelle’s most recent Netflix special, ‘The Closer.’ Tune in for a compelling and insightful conversation about why we should all be invested in the fight to protect black trans women.
TransLash Media
Translash, Episode 3: Family Matters
Time, Imara Jones: Why Black Trans Women Are Essential To Our Future
The Guardian, Trans black and loved: what happened when I returned to the deep south after transitioning
NPR, Amid Wave Of Anti-Trans Bills, Trans Reporters Say 'Telling Our Own Stories' Is Vital
New York Times, Dave Chappelle's Brittle Ego
IndieWire, Dave Chappelle’s Last Netflix Special Is a Season Finale With Nothing New to Say
New York Times, Netflix employee who criticized Dave Chappelle’s comedy special is among three suspended
New York Times, Netflix workers plan a walkout as fallout over Dave Chappelle continues -
This week on All Ears, Abby is joined by Ellen Pao. Pao made headlines in 2012 when she sued venture capital firm Kleiner-Perkins for gender discrimination. In 2015 she lost the lawsuit, but it sent shockwaves throughout Silicon Valley and got people talking about the rampant bro-culture, sexism and bad behaviors that had gone unchallenged there for so long. She went on to become the interim CEO of Reddit, where she banned revenge porn and shut down some of the worst subreddits. Now she runs Project Include, a non-profit that is focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. In this week’s conversation with Abby, she talks about the impact of her lawsuit, her brief but influential time at Reddit, Silicon Valley’s obsession with 26 year-old white, cis men in hoodies, and her hope for the future of the tech industry. Tune in for a thoughtful discussion on what can go right and what does go wrong in Silicon Valley.
EPISODE LINKS
Ellen Pao's Website
Project Include Website
Reset: My Fight For Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen Pao
The Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Gender Discrimination Lawsuit
The Guardian, 'They don't think it's important': Ellen Pao on why Facebook can't beat hate, 2020
New York Times, Ellen Pao Disrupts How Silicon Valley Does Business, 2015
New York Times, Ellen Pao Loses Silicon Valley Bias Case Against Kleiner Perkins, 2015
New York Times, Lawsuit Shakes Foundation of a Man’s World of Tech, 2012
VOX, A Who’s-Who of the Kleiner Perkins-Ellen Pao Trial, 2015
The Verge, Ellen Pao shifted hiring practices at Reddit to improve diversity, 2015
The Guardian, Reddit chief Ellen Pao resigns after receiving ‘sickening’ abuse from users, 2015
The Verge, Timnit Gebru was fired from Google–then the harassers arrived, 2021 -
This week on All Ears, Abby is joined by E. Jean Carroll. Carroll is a journalist, memoirist, and the author of America’s longest running advice column. She’s also one of the many, many women who have come forward with sexual assault allegations against former President Donald Trump. When Trump denied the allegation Carroll sued him for defamation, and oral arguments are set to begin on December 3rd. Here, Carroll tells Abby her side of the story in vivid and exacting detail. What follows is a personal narrative in the hands of a master storyteller: E. Jean spins a web of drama, dry wit, and boundless vivacity as she recounts her childhood in Indiana, her lawsuit, the road trip that makes up the contents of her memoir, and what exactly it is that we need men for.
EPISODE LINKS
E. Jean Carroll's Substack
Askejean.com
E. Jean Carroll v Trump
E. Jean Carroll on America's Talking (1995)
The Cut, Hideous Men by E. Jean Carroll, 2019
The Atlantic, 'I Moved On Her Very Heavily' The E. Jean Carroll Interviews, 2020
New York Times, Why E. Jean Carroll, the 'Anti-Victim,' Spoke Up About Trump, 2019
New York Times, What Happened Between E. Jean Carroll and Elle Magazine? 2020
The New Yorker, There's A Lot More to E. Jean Carroll's Book Than Trump, 2020
NPR, Biden DOJ Plans To Continue To Defend Trump, 2021
The Cheerleaders, by E. Jean Carroll
What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal
Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson -
This week on All Ears, Abby is joined by NYT bestselling author and New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino. Before working at the New Yorker, Jia was a writer and editor at Jezebel and The Hairpin. She’s devoted her career and her unique voice to writing about a wide variety of cultural and social issues, including America’s ever-changing relationship to feminism, abortion, Britney Spears’ conservatorship, and what it means to walk away from a religion. In this week’s conversation with Abby, she discusses what it’s like being a new mother, the persistent failures of capitalism, and the urgent need for collective action on climate change. Tune in for a fun and stimulating conversation about what kind of world she hopes her daughter will get to grow up in.
EPISODE LINKS
The New Yorker Contributors: Jia Tolentino
Losing Religion and Finding Ecstasy in Houston (The New Yorker)
How To Blow Up A Pipeline by Andreas Malm
Trick Mirror: Reflections On Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
Why Andrea Dworkin Is The Radical Visionary Feminist We Need In Our Terrible (The Guardian)
Before #MeToo There Was Catherine A. MacKinnon (NYT)
The Daphne Foundation Website
Fight for $15 Website
Ask a Sane Person: Jia Tolentino on Practicing the Discipline of Hope (Interview Magazine)
Athleisure, Barre And Kale: The Tyranny Of The Ideal Woman (The Guardian) - Montre plus
