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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

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

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

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Laughter Is The Worst Medicine w/ NYC DSA Medics

War crimes. Freakouts. Drugs. Rebellion. A narrative of the Iraq war buried by the media and politicians, told through the incredible oral history of Clifton Hicks--tank crewman in Iraq who refused to go back, won a Conscientious Objector fight, then spent years helping other soldiers do the same.

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"You'd Better Stay At Home" - The Clifton Hicks Story

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, two of the Obama administration's most consistently hawkish advisors, former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes and former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power have rebranded themselves as anti-war voices in a world turned upside down by Trump’s radical foreign policy and what we’ve been told is an global environment of rising "authoritarianism."

With a perfunctory “we could have done more” gesture towards accountability for their role in an administration that turned Libya into a broken state and assisted the destruction of Yemen before they move on to positioning themselves as truth-tellers on behalf of a kinder, gentler machine gun hand in the run up to a potential Warren, Sanders or Harris administration, Rhodes and Power have tested the limits of liberal amnesia.

On this episode, we take a closer look at their rebranding and what it says about the so-called “foreign policy” debate in the 2020 democratic primary and what actual accountability looks like beyond empty tweets and self-serving “I was trying to change things from the inside” revisionism.

Our guest is Dr. Shireen Al-Adeimi of Michigan State University.

Episode 76: The Anti-War Rebranding of Rhodes and Power and the Moral Hazard of Faux Mea Culpas

The ongoing US coup attempt in Venezuela came to a head recently after
US officials raided the Venezuela embassy in Washington DC in a
flagrant violation of international law. Five activists were arrested
inside that made up the Venezuela Embassy Protection Collective,
guarding the building from seizure by opposition goons. Abby and
Robbie Martin talk to Anya Parampil, the journalist who was embedded
inside the embassy for ten days, about the diplomatic war being waged
as the latest front of US war in Venezuela.

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast please consider donating to Media Roots Radio on Patreon // www.patreon.com/mediarootsradio

FOLLOW // twitter.com/AbbyMartin // twitter.com/FluorescentGrey

Media Roots Radio 

Embassy Takeover, Latest Front of US War on Venezuela w/ Anya Parampil

Since the beginning of the so-called War on Drugs, authorities in the United States have viewed drugs not as a public health issue but one of crime, vice and violence, requiring the funding and mobilization not of medical officials but police, DEA agents and a sprawling network of paramilitary actors. 

In response, corporate media and its culture of parasitic, “ride-along” coverage has evolved in parallel taking this same line, reflecting the state’s approach rather than influencing or challenging it. “Drug stories,” with rare exception, fall under the “crime” reporting rubric rather than being seen as stories to be covered by reporters familiar with the actual science of drugs and addiction - skirting empiricism for police stenography and cartoon narratives replete with good guys and bad guys.

The result: a feedback loop of a police and federal government determined to keep the War on Drugs in their domain, shaping a media narrative that manufactures and manipulates the public’s and lawmakers’ perception of drugs and drug-related crime. But what if there’s another way? Increasingly, public health advocates and journalists have been pushing back, trying to demilitarize not just the public approach to drugs but how they’re covered in the media. 

On this episode, we explore how we got to this point––where drugs are viewed as an enemy force to be combated with violence and prisons––and highlight ways people are trying to fundamentally rewire the way we talk about the problems of drugs and addiction.

With guest Zachary Siegel, Journalism Fellow at Northeastern University’s Health in Justice Action Lab.

Episode 78: The Militarization of U.S. Media's Drug Coverage

Trump ramps up wars on two fronts: his Christian extremist war on Trans people, and his Blood For Oil war on Iran. Spenser and Mike discuss why we must oppose both. 

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War On Iran / War On Trans Troops

“Satellite Images Raise Questions About Iran Threat, Experts Say,” worries The Daily Beast. “Iran And Trading Partners Will Find Ways To Skirt Sanctions, Analysts Say,” frets NPR. “Iran uses proxies to punch above its weight in the Middle East, experts say,” declares NBC News. “Fuel from Iran is financing Yemen rebels’ war, U.N. experts say,” writes the Associated Press.

Experts say. Analysts say. Officials say. We hear these qualifiers constantly in the media and when it comes to reporting on Iran, experts, analysts, scholars and Fellows are consistently tapped to weigh in on the latest nefarious thing the "Islamic Republic” is up to now.

But who are these so-called experts? What’s their track record like and what are their tangential, non-Iranian, related regional political goals? And what does a recent partnership between the Trump State Department and Foundation for Defense of Democracies that targets peace activists on social media tell us about the broader problem of so-called neutral experts? On today’s episode, we’ll dig into some of the resumes of the media’s favorite experticians and breakdown how a revolving door of deeply ideological partisans use US media to pawn themselves off as apolitical scholars.

We are joined today by journalist and editor Arash Karami.

Episode 79: How 'Neutral' 'Experts' Took Over Trump's Iran Policy

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

EYES LEFT is a socialist, anti-war military podcast hosted by veterans.

Support this project at Patreon.com/EyesLeft

"You'd Better Stay At Home" - The Clifton Hicks Story

Eyes Left Podcast