Category Archives: Social Justice

Pepper Culpepper BILLIONAIRE BACKLASH: THE AGE OF CORPORATE SCANDAL AND HOW IT COULD SAVE DEMOCRACY

Pepper Culpepper is Blavatnik Professor of Government and Public Policy, and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the Blavatnik School of Government, and a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. His research explores the intersection of capitalism and democracy.

His recent book, co-written with Harvard Professor Taeku Lee, BILLIONAIRE BACKLASH: THE AGE OF CORPORATE SCANDAL AND HOW IT COULD SAVE DEMOCRACY, argues for the positive, and politically popular, role of government regulatory action against large corporations in an era of populism. The work builds on some of the scholarly insights from his five-year Advanced Grant Project funded by the European Research Council, which sought to understand how big banks and the rules that govern them became objects of political contestation after the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

His earlier books include the award winning, Quiet Politics and Business Power: Corporate Control in Europe and Japan; and Creating Cooperation. His public commentary has appeared in the Conversation, the International Herald Tribune, Le Monde, The New Republic, Times Higher Education, and The Washington Post.

We spoke with Pepper Culpepper on July 7, 2026 via Zoom.

In the Metaverse, Politicians Can Hear You Scream: Corporate Scandals, Big Tech Regulation, and the Microfoundations of Focusing Events https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/in-the-metaverse-politicians-can-hear-you-scream-corporate-scandals-big-tech-regulation-and-the-microfoundations-of-focusing-events/48096E895DC18ADE623601E7F465EF6A

Media effects revisited: corporate scandals, partisan narratives, and attitudes toward cryptocurrency regulation https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/media-effects-revisited-corporate-scandals-partisan-narratives-and-attitudes-toward-cryptocurrency-regulation/3E115E475EBCD127849D4B01C0CE24BA

‘The Economy is Rigged’: Inequality Narratives, Fairness, and Support for Redistribution in Six Countries https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140241252072

‘This was a righteous case. A holy war’: the lawyer who took on Meta and Google – and won https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jul/12/mark-lanier-the-lawyer-who-took-on-meta-and-google-and-won-interview

Bipartisan bill fails to protect US consumers from datacenters’ true costs, critics warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/05/ratepayer-protection-act-datacenters

US residents angry at datacenters ‘being shoved down our throats’ are recalling officials https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/03/datacenter-recall-elections

‘Forgive Me, I’m Gonna Use The F-Word’: A Century-Old Veteran Just Delivered The Most Brutally Honest Take On Donald Trump, And He Did NOT Mince Words https://www.huffpost.com/entry/101-year-old-veteran-blasts-trump_n_6a442e9ce4b039eff60646f5?origin=home-whats-happening-unit

Air Force Major Demands Trump’s Impeachment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf7M29U-xSg

Air Force Detains Officer Who Called for Trump’s Impeachment at Capitol https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/03/us/politics/air-force-officer-arrested-trump-impeachment.html

Pepper Culpepper in Conversation with Taeku Lee: Billionaire Backlash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uxuGgThS-A

Brendan Ballou WHEN COMPANIES RUN THE COURTS: HOW FORCED ARBITRATION BECAME AMERICA’S SECRET JUSTICE SYSTEM

What if your spouse has severe food allergies? You planned your trip to Disney World to find restaurants that prioritize patrons with such allergies. You asked your waiter several times, if your meal could be prepared without your allergens. Your waiter reassured you each time that it would be. When your food arrived without the labels marking them as safe, you expressed concern and the waiter again tells you that it is fine to eat. So you enjoy your meal. An hour later, your spouse drops to the ground struggling to breathe, and dies. You sue Disney and the company that owns the restaurant for negligence. Disney immediately moves to remove your suit from open court, to the shadows of forced arbitration, a private system of so-called justice that favors corporate defendants. Because you had signed up for the Disney + streaming service 4 years before, and had bought tickets to Disney World, and one of Disney’s lawyers was a former justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Disney had the law on its side.

This is just one scenario our guest, Brendan Ballou, cites in his latest book, WHEN COMPANIES RUN THE COURTS: HOW FORCED ARBITRATION BECAME AMERICA’S SECRET JUSTICE SYSTEM, published by Public Affairs. Perhaps you recall our 2023 interview with Brendan Ballou, when his earlier book, PLUNDER: PRIVATE EQUITY’S PLAN TO PILLAGE AMERICA, came out. https://forthright.media/2023/06/06/brendan-ballou-plunder-private-equitys-plan-to-pillage-america/

He served in the Department of Justice in the first Trump administration, and resigned because of Trump’s immigration bans. In the Biden administration, he was a Special Counsel for private equity at the DOJ’s Anti-trust Division, from 2020 – 2025. As a federal prosecutor, he prosecuted rioters, who had attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He also served in the National Security Division of the DOJ. So, he has a thorough knowledge of justice and injustice; how we got to this point; and what can be done.

We spoke with Brendan Ballou on June 22, 2026 via Zoom.

We end this edition of Forthright Radio with an analysis of the appeals prospects for the Texas anti-ICE Prairieland protestors, who were sentenced to between 30 and 100 years in prison.

Articles, etc. pertinent to this episode:

He Signed Away His Right to Sue by Subscribing to Disney+ https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/opinion/arbitration.html?searchResultPosition=1

One Man Stole $660 Million. He’ll Never Pay It Back. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/opinion/corruption-trump-accountability.html?searchResultPosition=2

Why are US consumers so angry? It’s not just high prices https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/04/us-consumer-rage-prices-economy

US supreme court backs FCC in clash with wireless carriers over fines https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/04/verizon-att-supreme-court-decision

The States Should Override Trump’s Indefensible Pardons https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/opinion/trump-presidential-pardons.html

Exclusive: FBI Files Counter Government Argument in Texas “Antifa” Trial https://inthesetimes.com/article/prairieland-antifa-trial-protest-repression-fbi

Judge blocks defense attorneys from arguing Texas ICE shooting was justified https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article314874894.html read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article314874894.html#storylink=cpy

‘This is injustice’: how leftist zines were used to sentence anti-ICE protesters to decades in prison https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/24/prairieland-texas-ice-protests-zines

Claiming an Antifa Plot, U.S. Charges 15 in Minneapolis With Conspiracy https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/16/us/minnesota-immigration-charges-antifa.html

The spectacular collapse of a case against ICE protesters: ‘It’s not justice, but it is a win’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/08/chicago-broadview-six-trump-administration

Federal jury finds army veteran and two other ICE protesters guilty of conspiracy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/28/ice-protesters-conspiracy-charges

Henry Giroux GANGSTER CAPITALISM AND CORRUPTION IN TRUMP’S AMERICA

“A new administration must screen out those who regard Government service as the door to power or wealth, those who cannot distinguish between private gains and public trust, and those who believe that old-fashioned honesty with the public’s money is both old and out of fashion.”
John F. Kennedy, 1960

Returning to be our guest again is internationally renowned public intellectual, writer, and cultural and political critic, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, & The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy – Professor Henry Giroux.

He has authored, or co-authored over 65 books, written several hundred scholarly articles, delivered more than 250 public lectures, been a regular contributor to print, television, and radio news media outlets, and is one of the most cited academics working in any area of Humanities research. His books have been translated into many languages.

Henery Giroux is on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous national and international scholarly journals, and he co-edited a series on education and cultural studies with Paulo Freire for a decade. He is on the Board of Directors for Truthout. He is interviewed regularly on a number of different media including Democracy Now! Despite these illustrious credentials, he is never dull in conversation, and he certainly isn’t in this one, which was recorded via Zoom on June 5, 2026.

Liz Helenchild from the 2018 Mendocino Poetry Celebration Photo by Dan Roberts

This edition of Forthright Radio ends with a poem by Mendocino poet and radio colleague, Liz Helenchild‘s, poem: SLICE. Thanks to Dan Roberts for broadcasting it on Rhythm Running River (6-7-26) and for permission to include it. It was recorded at the 2026 Mendocino Poetry Celebration.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

GANGSTER CAPITALISM AND CORRUPTION IN TRUMP’S AMERICA https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/29/gangster-capitalism-and-corruption-in-trumps-america/

Never again in the age of historical amnesia https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2PAID9HDNCTR7EKQXXBR/full?target=10.1080/00131857.2026.2671081

We Must Resist the Collapse of Conscience in the Age of Trump https://truthout.org/articles/we-must-resist-the-collapse-of-conscience-in-the-age-of-trump/

War Becomes Spectacle in Trump’s Horrific Propaganda Promoting War in Iran https://truthout.org/articles/war-becomes-spectacle-in-trumps-horrific-propaganda-promoting-war-in-iran/

The Myth of the Apolitical University: Education, Power and the Lie of Neutrality https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/24/the-myth-of-the-apolitical-university-education-power-and-the-lie-of-neutrality/

War on DEI’s Aim: Normalizing White Nationalism https://flaglerlive.com/dei-war/

Donald Trump’s apocalyptic and profane threats against Iran expose the unhinged language of war https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-apocalyptic-and-profane-threats-against-iran-expose-the-unhinged-language-of-war-279801

Trump’s Crusade: Christian Nationalism and the Making of a Holy War https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/20/trumps-crusade-christian-nationalism-and-the-making-of-a-holy-war/

MAGA Aesthetics and Fascist Power: Spectacles of White Supremacy https://socialistproject.ca/2026/03/maga-aesthetics-and-fascist-power/

He’s Very Unwell” – Marsh Family parody of Chuck Berry’s “Never Can Tell” from Pulp Fiction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2WWjjVlr7M&list=RD2J95CTmZUUM&index=2

Welcome to ‘the Claw’: the White House fighting cage captures Trump era rot https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/12/trump-ufc-fighting-cage

‘We call it the P-word’: Chicago professor suspended after assignment mentions Palestinians https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/05/professor-suspended-assignment-mentions-palestinians

‘We were attacked as bad Jews’: Columbia faculty who supported Gaza protests file claims with Trump’s antisemitism fund https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/columbia-jewish-faculty-protests-settlement-fund

Police want to decide which journalists can cover the Delaney Hall protests. That’s not their job https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/03/delaney-hall-new-jersey-protests-police

Trump’s UFC fight at White House combines punches and politics https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-ufc-fight-white-house-combines-punches-politics-2026-06-05/

Judge Orders Restoration of National Park Plaques Removed Under Trump Directive https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/12/judge-national-park-trump-displays

Gal Beckerman HOW TO BE A DISSIDENT

Gal Beckerman is an author and a staff writer at The Atlantic. His latest book is HOW TO BE A DISSIDENT.
Before coming over to The Atlantic, whose books section he also ran, he was an editor at the New York Times Book Review for six years. He also served as the opinion editor at the Forward newspaper and a staff editor and writer at the Columbia Journalism Review. His writing has appeared in a number of places over the years, including the Washington Post, The New Republic and Bookforum.

His previous books include The Quiet Before, which was a New York Times Notable pick in 2022, and When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone, which won two major book awards and was chosen as a book of the year by The New Yorker and the Washington Post.

Over the years he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, lived in Berlin as a German Chancellor Fellow with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and broke his arm almost in half while biking across France.

We spoke with him via Zoom on May 18, 2026.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Our show with U. of MD Law Professor, Leigh Goodmark, from 2023 is about women in US prisons for murdering their abusers. https://forthright.media/2023/03/09/leigh-goodmark-imperfect-victims-criminalization-and-the-promise-of-abolition-feminism/

Trump and His Advisers Clearly Haven’t Actually Read Thucydides https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/opinion/trump-xi-iran-war.html

Sarah Wynn-Williams and Virginia Giuffre jointly win freedom to publish prize at British book awards https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/11/sarah-wynn-williams-and-virginia-giuffre-jointly-win-freedom-to-publish-prize-at-british-book-awards

A mask can’t hide you from God’: can you shame an ICE agent into quitting? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/16/ice-agents-quit

I.R.S. to Drop Audits of Trump and Family https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/us/politics/trump-irs-doj-lawsuit-audit.html

Exclusive: FBI Files Counter Government Argument om Texas “Antifa” Trial https://inthesetimes.com/article/prairieland-antifa-trial-protest-repression-fbi

Lawrence Douglas THE CRIMINAL STATE: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice

Our guest today is Amherst College’s Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Lawrence Douglas. He is the author of seven books, including the nonfiction books, The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust; and Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Electoral Meltdown in 2020; as well as the novels, The Catastrophist, and The Vices.

The recipient of major fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Institute for International Education, and American Academy in Berlin, and the Carnegie Foundation, he has lectured throughout the United States and in more than a dozen countries, and has served as visiting professor at the University of London and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

His latest book, THE CRIMINAL STATE: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice, was just published by Princeton University Press. It’s a re-interpretation of international law’s reckoning with Nazi aggression and atrocity. He shows how the Nuremberg trials challenged centuries of thought—rooted in Hobbes and other canonical thinkers—that shielded sovereigns from legal scrutiny. Yet Nuremberg’s bid to frame aggression as the cornerstone of a new order of international criminal law largely failed, giving way to a system now centrally concerned with crimes against humanity and genocide—and leaving unresolved the legality and effectiveness of using force to stop the worst violations of human rights. It’s a provocative history of the struggle to bring perpetrators of state violence to justice, which is certainly relevant to the current conflicts around the world and, sadly, increasingly here at home, as well.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Trump says US navy like ‘pirates’ while seizing a ship in Iranian blockade https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/02/trump-us-navy-pirates-iran-blockade

Hope out of chaos: how the dark era of Trump is creating a new approach to global politics https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/02/dark-era-trump-creating-new-approach-global-politics

André Cerdini, Judge in Trial of Nazi Klaus Barbie, Dies at 96 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/world/europe/andre-cerdini-dead.html

Meet the New Leader of the Free World https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/opinion/zelensky-ukraine-trump-nato-leader.html?searchResultPosition=1

James Comey’s reindictment is the product of a twisted justice department https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/01/james-comey-indictment

Trump’s militarization of the DC police was just an opening salvo https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/27/january-6-trump-chicago-military

Trump-Appointed Judge Calls Administration’s Behavior ‘Appalling’ In 24-Page Ruling https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doj-immediately-appeals-to-subpoena-trans-patients-health-records-after-judge-blocks-attempt_n_6a063dcde4b098065be8a659?origin=home-latest-news-unit

Christopher Mathias TO CATCH A FASCIST: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right

Our guest today is journalist, Christopher Mathias. His recent book is TO CATCH A FASCIST: THE FIGHT TO EXPOSE THE RADICAL RIGHT, published by Atria. It’s a deep dive into the resurgence of white nationalist and Neo-Nazi movements in the US, that centers on anti-fascist groups working to expose and stop their violence and intimidation.

Demonized as “extremist” by both conservatives and liberals, “antifa” became a bogeyman during Donald Trump’s first term. However, few Americans understood the dangerous work antifa was doing to disrupt and unmask a new generation of white supremacists, or listened when antifa sounded the alarm about these white supremacists taking positions of power. Now this underground network of militant anti-fascists continues in their determination to stop the rising tide of fascism in America.

We spoke with Christopher Mathias on April 7, 2026 via Zoom.

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Trump is Coup-Proofing the Military https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQgLFsKjLJjrqMSbvDlXvRVmVKn

‘People should be scared’: convictions in US ‘antifa’ trial set dangerous precedent https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/29/texas-leftwing-antifa-activist-trial

Trump Administration Plans Summit Targeting Antifa: Report https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-counterterrorism-officials-plan-antifa-summit_n_69cba0ffe4b010178ee6f1f3?origin=home-latest-news-unit

Antifa used to unmask neo-Nazis, now it’s exposing ICE: ‘Predators don’t get anonymity’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/30/antifa-unmasking-ice

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/

Members of neo-Nazi ‘active clubs’ join combat events at secretive Virginia compound https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/07/neo-nazi-virginia-combat-event

‘Racist ideology lodges itself amid austerity politics’: newly elected French mayor on tackling far right https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/04/bally-bagayoko-austerity-politics-french-mayor-tackling-far-right

Italian council buys Mussolini’s villa to keep it away from ‘fascist nostalgics’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/04/italian-council-buys-mussolini-villa-riccione-fascist-nostalgics

Pete Hegseth’s holy war: the militant Christian theology animating the US attack on Iran https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/10/pete-hegseth-christianity-iran-war-crusade

Man Charged By Trump Admin After Removing Tear Gas From Crowd Found Not Guilty https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jonathan-caravello-not-guilty_n_69d801e6e4b048dba44c0d5f?origin=home-latest-news-unit

Revealed: FBI opened domestic terrorism investigations into anti-ICE activity across US https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/19/fbi-terrorism-investigations-anti-ice-activity

Bozeman’s Hidden History with the Ku Klux Klan https://sherilyndecter.com/bozemans-hidden-history-with-the-ku-klux-klan/

GRANDMOTHER FACES TRIAL IN ALABAMA FOR WEARING PENIS COSTUME TO NO KINGS PROTEST When the viral video cooled off, people thought the case against the 62-year-old would be dropped. Prosecutors doubled down. https://theintercept.com/2026/04/03/penis-costume-no-kings-protest-alabama-censorship/

Mark Twain’s War Prayer: Recited by Hal Holbrook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzGu69C2wqc

Mark Twain “War Prayer” Jesse Welles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO0Uuhzti-U

Charles G. Curtin PLACE-BASED SOLUTIONS: The Power of Regenerative Thinking in the Face of Crisis

Dr. Charles G. Curtin is the director of Regenerative Conservation Design.

He is the author of The Science of Open Spaces: Theory and Practice for Conserving Large, Complex Systems and the coeditor of Complex Ecology: Foundational Perspectives on Dynamic Approaches to Ecology and Conservation. His latest book is PLACE-BASED SOLUTIONS: THE POWER OF REGENERATIVE THINKING IN THE FACE OF CRISIS, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. His books explore the intersection of ecology and culture and focus on how the word’s messiness leads to uncertainty and unexpected outcomes, and what to do about it.

Not merely a world renowned ecologist with conservation collaborations including cross-cultural conservation exchanges from the Middle East and Africa to the fisheries of Maine. His Two-Cowboys Project involves cross-continent learning networks between Maasai pastoralists in Kenya and US ranchers in the New Mexico/Arizona and Mexico borderlands, as well as Montana’s Blackfoot Challenge. The Crown of the Continent Partnership is a collaboration project on the borders of Montana, Alberta, British Columbia and the Salish and Kootnai Confederation. You can find out more about this ecosystem here: https://www.crownmanagers.org/about-the-crown

We spoke to him via Zoom from his home in Ranchos de Taos, NM on March 23, 2026.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

How Minnesota Beat Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/opinion/columnists/minneapolis-ice-trump-neighbor.htm

Grasslands: Where Resilience Takes Root https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/stories-in-mn-nd-sd/grasslands/

Radical Ruralism: Regeneration on the Edge https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/fb86a-radicalrural-meandermagazine28229.pdf

Fear and Loathing Near Las Vegas https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/d39e6-greenfire1.pdf

New Mexico Wildfires: The Gift That Keeps Giving (Fear and Loathing Near Las Vegas Part 2) https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/50c35-greenfire2.pdf

Charting a Pathway Toward Long-term Fire Recovery https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/7f438-gft_janfeb2026_7-10.pdf

Fireshed-Watershed-Foodshed: Reenvisioning Agriculture in the Face of Climate Change https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/6fedb-beyondfiresheds.pdf

Fire, Power and Privilege in the Pyrocene https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/37aef-fire2cpower2candprivalegeinthepyrocene.pdf

The Sangre de Cristo Mountain Initiative: An Audacious Commonsense Proposal https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/d18c1-greenfire328129.pdf

Alfred McCoy COLD WAR ON FIVE CONTINENTS: A Global History of Empire and Espionage

Our guest on this edition of Forthright Radio is the Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Alfred McCoy.

For well over five decades he has specialized in the foreign policy of the United States, European colonization of Southeast Asia, and CIA covert operations and illegal international drug trade. In June of 1972, he testified before the US Senate Committee on Appropriations’ Foreign Operations Subcommittee, testifying that American officials were condoning and even cooperating with corrupt officials at the highest levels in Southeast Asia’s illegal drug trade out of political and military considerations. He testified that the CIA chartered Air America aircraft and helicopters in northern Laos to transport opium harvested by their “tribal mercenaries”.

His multiple awards winning books include, THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: CIA COMPLICITY IN THE GLOBAL DRUG TRADE; A QUESTION OF TORTURE: CIA INTERROGATION, FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR; IN THE SHADOWS OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF US GLOBAL POWER; and TO GOVERN THE GLOBE: WORLD ORDERS AND CATASTROPHIC CHANGE. He was our guest when those last two were published. His latest book is COLD WAR ON FIVE CONTINENTS: A GLOBAL HISTORY OF EMPIRE AND ESPIONAGE, published by Haymarket Books.

As in his earlier books, he reiterates the importance of maintaining dominance over the heartland of the “World Island,” comprised of Eurasia and Africa, which was articulated in Halford John Mackinder’s 1904 article, “The Geographical Pivot of History.”

Articles pertinent to this interview:

‘We wasted a lot of lives’: CIA spymaster’s caution over past Iran intervention resurfaces from beyond the grave https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/apr/20/cia-spymaster-agent-peter-sichel-caution-over-iran-intervention-resurfaces-us-middle-east

America Is Waving the White Flag in the New Cold War https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/opinion/us-china-cold-war-tariffs-trump.html

‘The powerful have their power. We have the capacity to stop pretending’: the Canadian PM’s call to action at Davos https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/21/mark-carney-davos-canadian-prime-minister-donald-trump-new-world-order

A War Foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/feb/20/a-war-foretold-cia-mi6-putin-ukraine-plans-russia

How Trump is Demolishing U.S. Global Power and Its World Order https://tomdispatch.com/in-the-autumn-of-americas-empire/

Energy Policy and the Politics of American Decline https://tomdispatch.com/ozymandias-on-the-potomac/

Thousands of Chinese Fishing Boats Quietly Form Vast Sea Barriers https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/16/world/asia/china-ships-fishing-militia-blockade.html

Expiry of nuclear weapons pact between US and Russia risks new arms race https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/03/expiry-nuclear-weapons-pact-us-russia-arms-race

C.I.A. World Factbook Ends Publication After 6 Decades https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/us/world-factbook-cia.html

The Secret History of the Deep State https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/opinion/trump-nixon-watergate-radford.html

The risk of nuclear war is rising again. We need a new movement for global peace https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/08/nuclear-war-risk-rising-global-peace

5 Times the US Invoked the Monroe Doctrine https://www.history.com/articles/times-the-usa-invoked-monroe-doctrine?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Further Back to the Future: Neo-Royalism, the Trump Administration, and the Emerging International System https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/further-back-to-the-future-neoroyalism-the-trump-administration-and-the-emerging-international-system/ABB12906CA345BBCA5049B544363D391#article

How to Read Scrooge McDuck in the Age of Donald Trump https://tomdispatch.com/trumps-foreign-policy-the-comic-book-edition/

Firesign Theater Temporarily Humboldt County https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqUyI5IIDOM&list=RDFqUyI5IIDOM&start_radio=1

Sven Beckert CAPITALISM: A GLOBAL HISTORY

“WHO CONTROLS THE PAST CONTROLS THE FUTURE, WHO CONTROLS THE PRESENT CONTROLS THE PAST.” George Orwell, 1984.

We first interviewed Harvard University’s Laird Bell Professor of History, Sven Beckert, when his tremendously informative Bancroft Prize winning book, EMPIRE OF COTTON: A GLOBAL HISTORY, was published in 2015. It weighed in at a respectable 640 pages.

His most recent tome, CAPITALISM: A GLOBAL HISTORY, dwarfs that earlier work at over 1,320 pages. In it he traces over the past thousand years, what he calls “the most impactful revolution the world has ever seen.” His exhaustive research took him to the archives on 6 continents, however it is anything but a dry disquisition. Rather it is people focused – examining their agency, resistance, ruthless coercion and innovations. From the merchants of 12th Century Aden, Yemen circulating goods from Asia, Africa and Europe to the workers in this decade’s sweat shops in Cambodia, he chronicles the ever adapting transformations of Capitalism.
We spoke with Sven Beckert, who was somewhere in Europe on January 13, 2026 via Zoom.

This edition of Forthright Radio is dedicated to the memory of Renee Nicole Good and the thousands of Iranians who have been killed demanding freedom and justice in their homelands, as well as the thousands more spurred on by the same imperatives and their courageous examples, who continue to brave dangerously cold weather and disproportionately armed agents of the state .

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Capitalism by Sven Beckert review – an extraordinary history of the economic system that controls our lives https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/23/capitalism-by-sven-beckert-review-an-extraordinary-history-of-the-economic-system-that-controls-our-lives

E.U. and South America to Form Free-Trade Zone With 700 Million People https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/business/economy/european-union-mercosur-trade.html

The Oil Company Drilled. The Government Slaughtered. Who Is Guilty? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/opinion/the-oil-company-drilled-government-slaughter-guilty.html

In Davos, the rich talk about ‘global threats’. Here’s why they’re silent about the biggest of them all https://www.theguardian.com/global/2026/jan/19/davos-rich-global-threat-economic-inequality-wealth

“The Secret Economic History of the World” with Pulitzer finalist Sven Beckert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3HZNxljhNc

‘Endangered lawyer’ day highlights US justice system’s plummeting standing https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/22/lawyers-judges-intimidation-trump

Thousands of workers flee Cambodia scam centres, officials say https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/21/thousands-of-workers-flee-cambodia-scam-centres-officials-say

ICE Said Agents Can Enter Homes Without Judicial Warrant, Group Claims https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/us/politics/ice-warrant-whistleblower.html

The Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fascists In Our Midst (Paul Cargnello w/Jonathan Emile) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2WgEOr-jaI&list=RDl2WgEOr-jaI&start_radio=1

I’m watching myself on YouTube saying things I would never say. This is the deepfake menace we must confront https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/05/deepfakes-youtube-menace-yanis-varoufakis