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Citations Needed podcast

A discussion of racism and its manifestations in so-called liberal communities, and the way that white progressives oftentimes overlook issues of race and white privilege, and thereby torpedo their own efforts for social justice...

Are Progressive Cities Worse For Racial Justice

The first episode of Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson's podcast, Citations Needed, tackles media hype surrounding the privatization of education.

Show notes can be found here:

2010 tax form for Participant Foundation used to fund Waiting for Superman (note: four donors-- Waltons, Eli Broad, Donald Fisher, Dave Einhorn): http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/261/261292762/261292762_201106_990PF.pdf
Gates $2 million contribution to film https://web.archive.org/web/20101016004049/https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2010/Pages/Participant-Media-LLC-OPP1019819.aspx

The economic, pro-Wall Street origins of charter schools: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/04/why-hedge-funds-love-charter-schools/

Guest Jennifer Berkshire’s blog: 
http://haveyouheardblog.com/
Guest Jennifer berkshire’s articles: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/tips-391 
http://www.salon.com/writer/jennifer_berkshire/ 

Books mentioned by Berkshire: The One Percent Solution https://www.amazon.com/One-Percent-Solution-Corporations-Remaking/dp/1501703064

New Orleans graduation rate stats article from 2014 by Adam http://citationsneeded.com/2014/05/24/charter-schools-katrina-memory-hole/

Harlem Children Zone original board: 
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cq8wM7cWgAAUfHN.jpg

Further reading:


http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/turnover-charter-school-plague-article-1.3272954

https://newrepublic.com/article/140319/charter-schools-good-bad-black-students

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2010/11/11/myth-charter-schools/

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/11/01/vote-no-charter-schools

https://www.counterpunch.org/2009/08/25/the-charter-school-hype-and-how-it-s-managed/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2009/08/26/the-future-of-charter-schools/

http://www.alternet.org/education/how-charter-schools-are-undermining-future-public-education

https://www.counterpunch.org/2010/03/10/i-was-a-charter-school-teacher/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdPACwRgw04

Episode 01 : The Charter School Scam

In the second episode of Citations Needed, Nima and Adam breakdown the history and present "crisis" on the Korean peninsula.

Episode 02: The North Korea Memory Hole

Episode 03: The Rise of Superpredator 2.0

Episode 3 is about the media narrative surrounding the rise of so-called “gang raids” that have exploded over the past three years. These high-stakes, headline-grabbing spectacles target, almost exclusively, black and brown people and are carried out by hundreds of local, state, and federal officials with little scrutiny from the media. 

Our guest: Josmar Trujillo, a Harlem-based organizer, writer, trainer, and agitator.

See show notes here: https://goo.gl/JeXczy

Episode 03: The Rise of Superpredator 2.0

Iran, Iraq, and the New York Times’ Master Class in Reality Inversion.

In this episode we dissect the true history of what caused chaos in Iraq, who’s to blame and what the real motives were behind the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations designs for the country. All this in the context of a battle for control over remaining ISIS territory in Syria and Washington, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv’s desire to stop the dreaded “Shia crescent”.

Show notes: https://goo.gl/zcGHvd

Episode 04: Iran - The Root of All Evil

On Episode 5, we explore the history of the media erasing socialists of color from the history books and present day discourse––a tactic that serves to both commodity and water-down black radicalism and pawn off leftwing politics as a uniquely white or middle class enterprise.

Our guests: Robert Greene II and Roqayah Chamseddine.

Show notes: https://goo.gl/QPYT7C

Episode 05: Purging Socialists of Color From History

There was a time when gold money had real value.  Yet now it floats free, a fantasy made real by our belief. Are there alternative fantasies that we could create to generate different and perhaps better realities?  Or is there something special about the fantasy of money that makes it irreplaceable?

Guardian columnist Stephen Hewlitt asks CEO of Timebanking UK Sarah Bird, reporter for the Financial Times Izabella Kaminska and The Social Life of Money author Nigel Dodd to explore the alternatives to money.

The Fantasy Of Money | Nigel Dodd, Sarah Bird, Izabella Kaminska

Fighting against the far right forces of the Republican Party and their auxiliary white supremacist media makes attempts to appropriate notions of nationalism into a liberal mold a compelling short cut for Democrats looking for easy clapbacks and viral RT’s. The temptation to promote a kinder, gentler, "woke" patriotism is understandable.

But what is the collateral damage of this approach? From the justifiably horrified response to mass shootings to the jingoistic worship of all things military, what is the long-term downside of lifting up #VetsForGunControl and retired military brass as a counter to the vulgarity of Trumpism? Can the Left – including liberals – embrace a more holistic and anti-imperialist moral grammar that avoids short cuts and rejects the idea of nationalism altogether?  

We are joined by Maggie Martin, co-director of About Face.

Episode 30: Liberal Media’s Myopic Military Worship

Bill rambles about toupees, clean living and baseball fights.

Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast

TAMMP 4-12-18

Bill rambles about taxes, Syria and not being a rat.

Monday Morning Podcast

MMPC 4-16-d18

They’re not lies, they’re “falsehoods”; it’s not racism, it’s “racially charged comments”; it’s not torture, it’s “enhanced interrogation.” For years, U.S. media has prioritized, above all else, norms and civility.

Mean words or questioning motives are signs of declining civility and the subject of much lament from our media class. However, op-eds explicitly advocating war, invasion, sanctions, sabotage, bombing and occupation or cutting vital programs and lifelines for the poor are just the cost of doing business. What’s rhetorically out of bounds - and what isn’t - is far more a product of power than any objective sense of "civility" or “decency.”

Where did these so-called norms come from, who do they benefit, and why is their maintenance–-even in the face of overt white nationalism––still the highest priority for many liberals and centrists in U.S. media?

We discuss this, and more, with The Huffington Post's Ashley Feinberg.

Episode 40: The Civility Fetish

Russia, as we all know, has sinister “oligarchs” whereas in the United States, we are told, we have “philanthropists,” “job creators,” and “titans of industry” who earn their wealth through hard work, moxie, and guile. Aside from a few cartoonishly evil billionaires – like the Walton family, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers – the average American has a warm and fuzzy feeling about the super wealthy. 

The most notable of these Benevolent Billionaires is Bill Gates, whose foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, operates the largest overseas “nonprofit” regime in the world, worth over 40 billion dollars–– twice that of the next biggest foundation. The Gates Foundation receives almost uniformly softball coverage from the media, many of whom receive funding from Gates through various investment and donor arrangements, both from his personal coffers and the foundation that bears his name.

In this two-part episode we ask how much this network of patronage effects Western media’s overwhelmingly positive and uncritical coverage of Gates. How can one can be critical of this type of massive outsized influence without devolving into paranoia? What is the nature of the capitalist ideology that informs Gates’ so-called philanthropy? And how do his programs often harm those they allegedly aim to help?

We are joined this week by Dr. Linsey J. McGoey, associate professor of sociology at the University of Essex and author of the book, “No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy.”

Episode 45: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire - Bill Gates and Western Media

Russia, as we all know, has sinister “oligarchs” whereas in the United States, we are told, we have “philanthropists,” “job creators,” and “titans of industry” who earn their wealth through hard work, moxie, and guile. Aside from a few cartoonishly evil billionaires – like the Walton family, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers – the average American has a warm and fuzzy feeling about the super wealthy.

The most notable of these Benevolent Billionaires is Bill Gates, whose foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, operates the largest overseas “nonprofit” regime in the world, worth over 40 billion dollars–– twice that of the next biggest foundation. The Gates Foundation receives almost uniformly softball coverage from the media, many of whom receive funding from Gates through various investment and donor arrangements, both from his personal coffers and the foundation that bears his name.

In Part II of this two-part episode, we ask how the media is - or isn't - holding Gates accountable for his deeply ideological, often opaque efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. 

We are joined by Mariam Mayet, executive director of the African Centre for Biodiversity

Episode 46: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire, Part II - Bill Gates in Africa

Long ep this week! In Pt 1 Raghav Mehta joins me to talk about this week's news and my Joe Rogan odyssey. 

In Pt 2, Jordan, Peter, Brad, and Syd, from NYC DSA Medics tell me about their expedition to Charlottesvile and then to DC to work as street medics for counter protesters at the 2nd annual Unite The Right rally events. 

Outro track is Death Grips - Streaky

@poddamnamerica
@feraljokes
@ACLUOfficial
@NYCDSAMEDICS
@SummerDuckz
@petersaysathing
@_doctorgorgeous
and brad is on OkCupid

for weekly bonus eps subscribe to our patreon at 
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Laughter Is The Worst Medicine w/ NYC DSA Medics

Post-Cold War liberal chauvinism knew no better ideological conduit than the hit NBC series The West Wing. Foreign policy was imperial, staffers were self-satisfied, and Serious Democrats fended off radical leftists and made the Tough Choices needed to run a benevolent superpower. 

The West Wing, created and primarily written by Aaron Sorkin, heavily influenced the politics of dozens of high-status Obama-era liberals. By their own admission, we know it had among its superfans Obama staffers Sam Graham-Felsen and Eric Lesser, Vox founders Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias, The New Statesman’s Helen Lewis, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell (who produced and wrote for the show), Democratic party hacks Meredith Shiner and Micah Lasher, and many more. Indeed, it’s fair to say anyone under 40 who came up through the ranks of liberal public relations and politics during the Obama years was either directly impacted by The West Wing or, indirectly, by those under its comforting, Starbucks-color-palette worldview. 

On this week's episode, we discuss how this Sorkinized worldview both informed and reflected prevailing thought in the Democratic Party, promoted smugness as the highest virtue, and––more generally––how ideology is spread through seemingly benign cultural products like schlocky television dramas. 

We are joined by Toronto-based writer and co-host of the Michael and Us podcast Luke Savage.

Episode 51: How 'The West Wing' Poisoned the Liberal Mind

"Diversity" is a simultaneously important and buzzword-y term beloved by the media, corporations, real estate agents and elite universities. It’s something to strive for and take pride in, a symbol of inclusion and tolerance. 

While diversity is a noble feature – and something all large systems should strive for – it originally was not supposed to be an ends in-and-of-itself. Diversity, in this vein, has morphed under capitalism into a PR industry, supplanting notions of equity, decolonization and desegregation for something much more sanitized.

The term is now often used as a catch-all for making white people feel better about the schools they go to, businesses they run, neighborhoods they gentrify. It largely exists, in its current iteration, to ameliorate whiteness rather than confront it, allowing for the commodification of the idea while giving existing power structures a glossy patina of liberal race-awareness. 

We are joined this week by journalist and author Jeff Chang, Vice President of Narrative, Arts, and Culture at Race Forward.

Episode 52: Attacks on Affirmative Action and the Commodification of Diversity

Trump says he opposed the war in Iraq, but in fact said he supported it in an obscure interview in 2004. McCain was for the tax cuts before he was against them. Republicans say they’re Christians, yet support a philandering liar. Hypocrisy takedowns – which reached peak popularity during the heyday of The Daily Show – have been the bread and butter of liberal discourse for years.

Gawker founder Nick Denton famously said that “Hypocrisy was the only modern sin”––doctrine-driven ideologies had been replaced by the nihilistic ersatz ideology of not contradicting oneself. Consistency, even in the service of nothing and in defense of power, was the highest moral achievement.

But as outright lying and contradiction were not only ignored but embraced by Trumpism, this worldview began to lose any remaining purchase. And as the emptiness of this approach grew more stark, a new generation of politically engaged people sought out traditional ideologies based on first principles, on the left this broadly manifested as a resurgence of socialism, which offered an alternative to the self-contained cult of self-satisfaction.

On today's episode, we discuss the limits of hypocrisy-as-critique, when it can still be useful and why never contradicting oneself is often evidence more of cowardice than principle.    

Our guest is Roqayah Chamseddine.

Episode 53: The Increasingly Dull Edge of 'Hypocrisy' Takedowns

"The suspect fled on foot, police said. Call this number if you have any information." "The incident took place at the 1200 block of Grove." "Police say." "Police sources are telling us." "Suspect is thought to be armed and dangerous."

We’ve all heard this type of Official Copspeak before. The local press dutifully informs us about "suspects" and "gang members" and "burglars." They're infiltrating our neighborhoods, rampaging through our streets, climbing in our windows. The police, of course, are just doing their part to keep us safe. Local media and community-based message boards they pander to read like police blotters. "Dial 1-800-985-TIPS for your friendly neighborhood detective!"

But what if publishing police department press releases isn't really journalism, but rather free public relations for an already extremely powerful, routinely violent, often corrupt and deeply conflicted institution? What if the genre of so-called “crime’ reporting is inherently reactionary and the whole enterprise of how we think about “crime” needs to be deconstructed and reconsidered? 

On this week’s episode, we discuss why local "crime" reporting widely suffers from racist tabloidism and what overworked and under-resourced journalists can do to gather information from sources that don't wear badges.

We are joined by Chicago-based activists Sharlyn Grace and Malcolm London.

Episode 54: Local "Crime" Reporting as Police Stenography

From the NPR website:  In preparation for a 2011 conference on Brown University on juvenile justice reform, "Tell Me More" host Michel Martin speaks with Time Banks USA founder Edgar S. Cahn about how the TimeBanking concept reminds us that some things in life are more valuable than money.  The technique has successfully been used to reduce recidivism rates among juvenile offenders by 60% in diversionary Youth Courts in the District of Columbia.  Photo by Amy Ta.

NPR Story - Beyond Bartering: Banking On Community Connections

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Episode 53: The Increasingly Dull Edge of 'Hypocrisy' Takedowns

Citations Needed Podcast