Bea, Artie, and Phil discuss the pervasive, perennial myth that the Medicare and Social Security trust funds are on the brink of imminent collapse, a myth that feeds austerity in policymaking and false panic that the programs "won't be around" when younger generations grow old--and that Trump and Musk's DOGE are currently taking advantage of to press for cuts.

This episode was originally released for patrons on April 17, 2023, as Artie explains in a brief note at the top of the show. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Death Panel

Death Panel 425 Trust Falls

Become a patron

Trust Falls

Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released January 27th for Death Panel patrons and is being unlocked today for the first time. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice speaks with Jess Whatcott about the ideological links between incarceration and eugenics, how policies like immigration detention are a form of population control, and their new book, Menace to the Future: A Disability and Queer History of Carceral Eugenics.

Find Menace to the Future here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/menace-to-the-future

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' latest book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Menace to the Future w/ Jess Whatcott (Unlocked)

Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released May 5th for Death Panel patrons and is being unlocked today for the first time. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice speaks with Nathan Tankus to walk through an oral history of the early months of DOGE's ongoing infiltration of the Treasury payments system and Social Security, why the "Trump-Musk Payments Crisis" threatens a bigger fundamental threat of US economic breakdown than even Trump's tariffs, and why Nathan tried (and failed) to crash the stock market.

Transcript: www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/doge-nathan-tankus

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' latest book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Nathan Tanks the Economy: An Oral History of 100 Days of DOGE w/ Nathan Tankus (Unlocked)

Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released for patrons November 18, 2024 and is being re-aired today with a new brief intro from Artie at the top of the episode. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Original description:

Beatrice and Artie discuss Trump’s nomination of prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency overseeing healthcare, infectious disease, food safety, and more. We discuss some of RFK’s more unseemly beliefs, the responses to his nomination so far, and how his nomination doesn’t come out of nowhere, but instead follows decades of struggles over the political economy of health that have laid the groundwork for a figure like him to come into power.

Find the episode "Health Fascism Descends" here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/health-fascism-128800850

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

RFK, Health Capitalism and the Myths of Wellness (Re-Air)

Note: This episode was originally released August 31st, 2023 and is being re-aired today as we continue to adjust to our return from parental leave. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice speaks with Micha Frazer-Carroll about her book Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health.

Transcript: https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/mad-world-micha-frazer-carroll

We will be returning to the Socialism Conference this year for our third annual collaboration with the conference organizers, in Chicago the weekend of July 4th—where Micha will also be a featured speaker. (Masking required!) Details at socialismconference.org/

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Preorder Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Mad World w/ Micha Frazer-Carroll (Re-Air)

Note: We are back from parental leave! This episode was originally released April 28th for Death Panel patrons and is being unlocked today for the first time in solidarity with the protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice and Vicky Osterweil discuss what the first months of Trump’s second term tell us about the administration’s particular approach to fascism, the holes in their theory of power this time around, and how the field is ripe for mass movements to challenge not just Trump administration policies like mass deportation, but federal power itself.

Find Vicky's writing and support her work at CAW Journal here: https://www.cawshinythings.com/

Find Vicky's 2020 book In Defense of Looting here or read it for free at The Anarchist Library: https://bookshop.org/p/books/in-defense-of-looting-a-riotous-history-of-uncivil-action-vicky-osterweil/14595474

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' latest book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Preorder Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Sick Sad World w/ Vicky Osterweil (Unlocked)

Note: This episode was originally released for patrons on September 23rd, 2024 and is being re-aired today in reponse to the Supreme Court's ruling in the case, as Artie explains at beginning of the episode. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice and Jules discuss an amicus brief Jules co-authored for the Supreme Court case United States v. Skrmetti, a case heard at the court this week that could have a dramatic impact on young people’s access to medical transition. We talk through the brief and the historical evidence it contains dispelling popular myths that trans kids are new or that transition is itself dangerous, and show that medical transition and youth transition have histories stretching back far further than popular accounts would lead you to believe.

Read the brief here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-477/323955/20240903153746246_23-477tsacAmericanHistoricalAssociation.pdf

Find Jules book Histories of the Transgender Child here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517904678/histories-of-the-transgender-child/

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Preorder Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

US v. Skrmetti and the Long History of Youth Transition

To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice speaks with Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles W. Griffis of The Sick Times about what the Trump administration has done in its first few months to set back long covid research and to deepen what we’ve long called the sociological production of the end of the pandemic.

Transcript forthcoming.

Find The Sick Times here: https://thesicktimes.org/

Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Preorder Phil's new book, Counting Like a State, here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Long Covid Under Trump w/ Sick Times (06/26/25)

To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice and Artie discuss a disturbing set of arguments that evidence of famine in Gaza—and genocide deaths themselves—can be invalidated by showing that the victims had “pre-existing conditions” or “underlying health conditions,” most brazenly demonstrated in a recent Free Press piece called “They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems.”

Donate links for projects mentioned in the episode:

Gaza Funds - https://gazafunds.com/

Sameer Project - https://linktr.ee/thesameerproject

Medical Campaign x Sameer Project - https://chuffed.org/project/136892-medical-campaign-x-sameer-project

South Gaza: Tents, Food & Water (Sameer Project) - https://chuffed.org/project/113222-tent-campaign-the-sameer-project

The Refaat Alareer Camp (Sameer Project) - https://chuffed.org/project/113327-refaat-alareer-camp-the-sameer-project

North Gaza: Food, Water & Other Distributions (Sameer Project) - https://chuffed.org/project/help-us-deliver-vital-aid-to-gaza-families-in-need

Gaza Municipality's Artificial Limbs and Polio Center - https://mogaza.org/campaign/2

Workshops for Gaza - https://www.workshops4gaza.com/workshops

Workshops for Gaza Bookstore - https://open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/collections/workshops-4-gaza-bookstore

Crips for eSIMs for Gaza - http://cripsforesimsforgaza.org/

Show Links:

Health Communism is now out in paperback! Find it here or order at this link to add a donation to Sameer Project: https://open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/w4g-adler-bolton-beatrice-artie-vierkant-health-communism

Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Outro by Time Wharp: https://timewharp.bandcamp.com/track/tezeta

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Death Panel Episode 583 Can the Subaltern Starve? (08/28/25)

Can the Subaltern Starve? (08/28/25)

Note: This episode was originally released August 11th for Death Panel patrons and is being unlocked today for the first time. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice speaks with Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam about their book Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice and the solidarities required to organize at the intersection of sex work, migrant justice, and disability justice.

Find the book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2258-not-your-rescue-project

Health Communism is now out in paperback! Find it here or order at this link to add a donation to Sameer Project: https://open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/w4g-adler-bolton-beatrice-artie-vierkant-health-communism

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Not Your Rescue Project w/ Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam (Unlocked)

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/138451663

Artie breaks down the Trump administration's latest attacks on covid vaccines, key moments from RFK's heated Senate testimony last week, and why calls to force RFK out of HHS need to include removing many of the figures he's managed to bring in with him.

Find the past episode mentioned near the beginning here: RFK, Health Capitalism, and the Myths of Wellness (11/18/24): https://www.patreon.com/posts/rfk-health-and-116273220

Runtime 1:20:00

Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Tracy's book Abolish Rent here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Unlock full episode

Teaser - Dead Kennedys (09/08/25)

Politics, culture, and public policy from the left. Stay alive another week.

w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson. 

https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Mad World w/ Micha Frazer-Carroll (Re-Air)

Death Panel

Related tracks