A newsletter and podcast for all the good kids.
Hello!
Today we have another informative and deep episode with Claire Dunning, a historian and associate professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. Her first book, which came out with the University of Chicago Press in 2022, is a history of urban nonprofits and philanthropic organizations titled Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An Urban History of Inequality and the American State. More recently she has written about what she calls the “nonprofit industrial complex” as well as the growing turn away from neoliberalism in the philanthropic sector which Claire recently wrote about in a Nonprofit Quarterly essay entitled “What Does the ‘End’ of Neoliberalism Mean for the Nonprofit Sector?”
We had Professor Dunning on to talk about the discourse about "the groups," how the non-profit industry became an industry and arguably lost its way, how to change the influence they might have in politics into something that could be good and serve more people, and a whole lot about the history of how both the term "non-profit" and the relationship these groups have with the government changed over the course of the past seventy of so years.
enjoy!
Hello!
Today we have on Max Kim, the Seoul correspondent for the LA Times and a repeat TTSG guest to provide a worthy service. If you are interested in what's happening in Korea but don't know a whole lot about Korea history, politics, or even who President Yoon might be outside of a few viral clips of him singing and his incredibly stupid recent coup attempt, Max is here to provide his analysis and his reportage on everything from what Yoon might been thinking, how he came into power, the Korean traditions of protest, and everything else you might want to know that we could fit into an hour and fifteen minutes.
Please read Max's writing on this.
a great piece from 2022 in the Baffler about Yoon
LA Times article from yesterday on "who is running South Korea right now?"
A moving piece about the Gwangju Massacre
This week we have on David Hill, the author of a great Rolling Stone article on the online sports betting industry. Dave is the best writer on this topic in America and we talked about his childhood in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the history behind some of these big companies like Draftkings and FanDuel and how they try to exploit players to turn a profit. We also talk about how those profits have not really materialized for these companies and how the whole industry feels like a giant bubble right now. If you want to know everything worth knowing about all these ads you’re seeing and all these bros talking about their parlays, enjoy!
Also, wanted to say that we will be having an episode on the failed coup in Korea next week. Given the fluidity of the situation, did not want to jump the gun on something that would be out of date by the time we hit publish.
And as always, if you enjoy this podcast — and thousands of you tune in every week — please hit the subscribe button and help us keep the lights on over here.
thanks!
Hello!
Today for the holiday weekend, we have Nancy Fraser, the Henry and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science at the New School. She has written widely on feminism, injustice, the problem with identity politics, and neoliberalism. Her most recent books are Cannibal Capitalism and The Old is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born, both of which were published by Verso.
We revisited an extremely prescient essay she wrote in 2017 for American Affairs about progressive neoliberalism, hegemony, and how Trump both disrupted and reified the existing order. Lotta great talk in this one about whether the Democrats will ever wake up, economic populism, what Trump might do in his second term and more!
Hello!
Today we have Jamie Lauren Keiles, the author of an upcoming book about the rise of nonbinary identity in America, back on the show. We talk about the thinly veiled post mortems by some within the Democratic coalition to abandon 'the whole trans thing,' the history of how trans rights became such a large part of the country's political conversation, and much more.
If you want to follow Jamie's very cool instagram, it's @sexchange.tbt.
Enjoy!
Hello!
Today we brought back our polling experts Ben Recht, a professor of computer science at UC Berkeley and Leif Weatherby, a professor of German and the founding director of the Digital Theory Lab at NYU. We set out to really talk about one question: Can we trust these polls and were they right or wrong? Then we talked a lot about how campaigns think and how our data driven society leads to a bunch of very odd and almost random decisions but also very little reflection. Luddites rejoice, this one is for you.
Also, as always, we would really appreciate any help to keep the lights on. We give away this podcast for free every week and can only keep doing it with continued donations from you. It’s just five dollars a month, which is about what you pay in delivery fees every time you order Chipotle from DoorDash or come up with some other five dollar purchase that fits in here. We do appreciate it and thank you so much to everyone who subscribed last week!
Hello!
Today we brought back our polling experts Ben Recht, a professor of computer science at UC Berkeley and Leif Weatherby, a professor of German and the founding director of the Digital Theory Lab at NYU. We set out to really talk about one question: Can we trust these polls and were they right or wrong? Then we talked a lot about how campaigns think and how our data driven society leads to a bunch of very odd and almost random decisions but also very little reflection. Luddites rejoice, this one is for you.
Also, as always, we would really appreciate any help to keep the lights on. We give away this podcast for free every week and can only keep doing it with continued donations from you. It’s just five dollars a month, which is about what you pay in delivery fees every time you order Chipotle from DoorDash or come up with some other five dollar purchase that fits in here. We do appreciate it and thank you so much to everyone who subscribed last week!
Tyler and Jay talk about the distressing results with Trump at 92% to win on the needle, what might happen for the Democrats in the future, and spend a whole lot of time talking about the "minority vote" and what went wrong. We promise we do very little "I told you so" in this episode. Honestly, it's about as morose as you'll ever hear us as we both go through what we think the next four years will look like.
Hello!
We talk about the Trump rally in New York City, Kamala’s closing statements and why, despite months of criticizing the Harris/Walz campaign and living in deep blue states, we both ended up voting for it. We also try to tee up what the next four years might look like for the Democrats whether Harris wins or loses.
As always, this show is funded by subscriptions. We give everything away for free and don’t have any paywalls but we do rely on your generosity to keep the lights on and the Zyn stocked. If you could reach over and just hit that subscribe button, it helps us bring you these takes.
Thank you!
Hello!
This week we are discussing the state of reading in America and the big Atlantic article that said that college kids can’t really make it through difficult books anymore and blamed woke or something. Our guest is Susannah Grossman, a veteran teacher who has been on both sides of this debate. Really good episode this week imho — lotta lively talk and perspective from someone who has been inside these classrooms.
Hello!
Today we’re talking about Kamala Harris’s plan for Black men, crypto, one million loans for $20,000, and Trump’s 30 minute spotify playlist party which included his favorite song (Time to Say Goodbye). We also give our best case for the Harris campaign’s strategy and its endless tacks to the right. The LEAST toxic TTSG in months!
As always, we appreciate all our listeners but if you could help us keep the lights on, please reach over and hit that subscribe button for $5 a month. Thank you!
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