This week we discuss Tarence's dialectical history of the opioid epidemic in The Baffler. Long story short: the police bear just as much responsibility as Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. 

Read the full piece here: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/united-in-rage-ray

Support us on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 207: Animal Pharma

"America's 50 best cities to live in," reveals USA Today. "These rising U.S. cities could become the top places to live and work from home," reports CNBC. "The best U.S. cities to raise a family," lists MarketWatch.

Over and over again in American media we hear stories centered around ranking, judging and analyzing the rather vague concept of  a city. But who is being discussed when we talk about "cities"? How are "cities" a meaningful unit to understand a given space, especially in a country marked by runaway inequality and segregation?

When we’re told Johns Creek, Georgia, is the best city for "young people," or Carmel, Indiana, is the most "livable," whose lives and experiences are the media really talking about? Who is the audience for these reports about the best cities for families, for nightlife, for safety, for education, for happiness?

The criteria most U.S. corporate media uses centers a very particular constituent: Your average homeowner or prospective homeowner, usually white, upwardly mobile, namely, those who marketers, investors and real estate agents most want to reach.

Cities then, aren't deemed livable for their fair labor practices, but for their business-friendly policies. They're not worth moving to for their abundance of free public space in low-income neighborhoods, but for their charming boutiques and chic restaurants. They don't rank high for their strong rent-control laws, but for their ability to attract tech companies and they capture attention not for their excellent mental-health statistics, but for their "booming economies".

On this episode, we parse the ways in which media coverage of cities and urban living — often crafted by white professional-class writers for white professional-class audiences, and funded by faceless parent companies and corporate advertisers — centers the most powerful while ignoring the needs of the working class, the homeless, people with disabilities, and the vast majority of Black and brown residents.

Our guest is VOCAL-NY's Jawanza James Williams.

Episode 141: How "Most Livable Cities" Lists Center Upwardly Mobile White Professionals

In this recording of a Live Interview for Patrons from 7/22, we discuss the scheduled shock doctrine of global sporting events like FIFA and the Olympics and how they use the PR spectacle of sports––and the emotional blackmail of "supporting athletes"–– to enhance security states, displaced the poor, loosen environmental and labor restrictions, and, above all, serve the interests of large corporate advertisers and real estate developers. 

with guests Shireen Ahmed and Jules Boykoff.

Live Interview: How the ‘Pandemic Games’ Expose the Neoliberal Scam of Global Sporting Events

This week we make a rare dive into right-wing agit-prop, with a Federalist article about Simone Biles. We also talk about the importance of learning about rocks at a young age, and end with some Speak Your Piece.

Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 209: Ready To Meet God

To hear the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/TrueAnonPod.
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We take a long look at the rough life and weird death of Elliott Smith. 

Autopsy report here: justiceforelliottsmithcom.wordpress.com/autopsy-report/

Episode 171: Either/Or (teaser)

We welcome Anne and Jonny from NOlympics LA to talk about how much they hate the Olympics 

First NOlympics episode here: patreon.com/posts/episode-6-29250584

Episode 172: NOlympics 2

"Concerns rising inside White House over surge in violent crime," CNN tells us. "America's Crime Surge: Why Violence Is Rising, And Solutions To Fix It," proclaims NPR. "Officials worry the rise in violent crime portends a bloody summer," reports The Washington Post.

Over and over this summer we have heard – and will no doubt continue to hear – the scourge of rising crime is the most urgent issue on voters' minds. Setting aside the way media coverage itself shape public opinion, the rising murder rates in urban areas is indeed very real and its victims disproportionately Black and Latino.

In response, like clockwork, Democrats and Democratic Party-aligned media have allied with conservatives and right-wing media are rehashing the same tired responses: more police, longer sentences, and tougher laws. But this time, they assure us it will be different: it won’t be racist and overly punitive. Instead, in addition to the return of 1990s Tough On Crime formula. we will get enough nebulous reforms and anti-bias training that it will somehow be enlightened and consistent with the demands of Black Lives Matter.

But everything we know about the past 50 years tells us this will not be true. Indeed, if more policing and prisons solved crime, the United States would be the safest country on Earth, but, of course, it is not. According to The American Journal of Medicine, compared to 22 other high-income nations, the United States' gun-related murder rate is 25 times higher despite imprisoning people at rates 5-10 times what other rich nations do.

So why do lawmakers and the media always reach for the same so-called "solutions" when it comes to crime? What are the assumptions that inform how we respond to an increase in homicides and other violent crime? How can the wealthiest nation in the world throw billions of dollars, more police, longer sentences, and tougher prosecutors at our high murder rates only to continue to wildly outpacing the rest of the so-called developed world on this, the most urgent of metrics?

On this episode, we explore the origins of "crime," what crimes we consider noteworthy and which are ignored, how property rights and white supremacy informed the crime we center in our media, how the crimes of poverty, environmental destruction, wage theft, and discrimination are relegated to the arena of tort, with its gentle fines and drawn out lawsuits – while petty theft and drug use results in long prison sentences. We’ll study how these bifurcations inform both media accounts of crime and how we respond with more police, and longer sentences the second we are faced with so-called crime waves.

Our guests are Civil Rights Corps' Alec Karakatsanis and sociologist Tamara K. Nopper.

Ep142: The Summer of Anti-BLM Backlash & How Concepts of "Crime" Were Shaped By the Propertied Class

We're back with news from Ghislaine, Jeffrey and the rest of the creep show, plus: We discuss the dark underbelly of the “real” internet and look toward the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Episode 174: Jestermaxx

This week we cover Cuomo, climate change, cops, and vaccine mandates

Subscribe to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 211: Leaving Cop City

Tanya, Aaron, and Tom provide updates on Cop City in ATL, Bishop Sycamore, and talk about "the next 9/11" and what the foreign policy ghouls suggest we do about it.

Episode 215: Have You Forgotten? (Tanya Did)

This week we discuss a local controversy, an anti-Biden rap song by veterans, the Build Back Better bill, and the workshopping of Jan 6

Check out Tom's podcast Faces In The Corner: https://soundcloud.com/facesinthecorner

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 209: Ready To Meet God

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