Listen to Best of the Left Podcast Episodes

Air Date 11/20/2024 We're in the phase where prejudice still exists but it has become socially unacceptable to openly express it - but to deny the impact on our politics just because people don't admit to their prejudice would be to completely misunderstand…

Air Date 11/15/2024 Today’s episode is a remix of multiple past episodes but was inspired by one in particular from just back in July of this year, #1645, when we were making a point of demonstrating what a sham the idea of conservative economic populism is.…

Air Date 11/12/2024 It's easy enough to look into one industry at a time to see what's going wrong, but today we're looking at what is so often lurking in the background of higher prices, lower quality goods and services, and, ultimately, many failing…

Air Date 11/8/2024 The Best of the Left team holds a special post-election discussion available to all listeners to present the initial takes on the election as well as our own reactions and suggestions for how to move forward. Be part of the show! Leave us a…

Air Date 11/5/2024 There's big money in politics, and then there's 2024. The role and influence of billionaires have taken on new shapes and patterns as the threat of fascism has made itself undeniably known. From the candidate and campaigners to those…

Air Date 11/2/2024 The cult of Trump isn't just about Trump, it's religion and patriarchy reacting to a moment of global economic and climactic instability. But those organizing the religious right aren't just reacting to their environment, they've also been…

Air Date: 10-31-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - How neoliberalism is fucking up renewable energy transitions - Marketing and why the viral Stanley Cup never should have gone viral - How big tech is heavily surveilling school kids without any…

Air Date 10/29/2024 Trump has only come close to perfecting the grift of the American conservative, he certainly didn't invent the strategy. Today we look at some current and past grifts and explore why they work. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or…

Original Air Date: 2/14/20223 Today, we take a look at some origins, alternatives and misunderstandings of capitalism from the Dutch East India Company, to Adam Smith and up through the planned obsolescence and marketing that have tricked us all into working…

Air Date 10/22/2024 This is your one-stop reference guide to every issue that is being wrongly blamed on immigrants as the Trump campaign rhetoric turns evermore fascist and xenophobic. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email…

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Hear the Full Show, Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Air Date: 10-20-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - Yet another GOP animal abuse horror - Why weather machine conspiracy theories took off so easily - The…

Original Air Date: 5/27/2022 Today we take a look at the disruptions to society that can unfold in times of economic distress such as high inflation, price gouging, wage stagnation and income inequality as well as some policy ideas for turning things around.…

Air Date 10/15/2024 Just as COVID tended to expose the preexisting fractures and inequalities in our society causing undue harm, supercharged by disinformation, so do natural disasters. And the impact of disinformation and conspiracy has only grown in recent…

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Hear the Full Show, Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Air Date: 10-14-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - A member voicemail about autopilot cars  - Some call backs, including JD Vance being unsurprisingly weird with…

Air Date 10/11/2024 Humans insatiable need for increasing amounts of energy and our tendency to want to at least have the option to wipe entire populations off the map has led to a renewed age of risks related to nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear waste,…

Presenting an episode of 'To See Each Other,' a show that complicates the narrative about small town Americans in our most misunderstood, and often abandoned, communities. This season, host George Goehl travels to Lincoln County, Wisconsin to follow a small…

Air Date 10/8/2024 Immigration dominates our politics in the worst way because one side benefits from lying about it and the other can't get their messaging together to create an effective rebuttal. Opposing immigration and stoking blatantly racist arguments…

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Hear the Full Show, Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Air Date: 10-7-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - The Today Show's take on viral phenom Moo Deng - The GOP's obsession with killing animals - How the media made a…

Air Date 10/4/2024 When women's value is seen only in relation to their ability to bear and raise children, you get policies that strip them of the right to choose whether that is something they actually want for themselves - the lived consequences are…

Air Date 10/1/2024 There's still no end in sight to Israel's war on its neighbors and the US continues its toothless efforts to de-escalate while maintaining seemingly unconditional support in spite of standing laws that should prevent our sale of weapons to…

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Hear the Full Show, Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Air Date: 9-29-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - Why Cards Against Humanity is fighting Elon Musk - How car-related deaths have soared in the US - How partial…

Air Date 9/27/2024 Let's just say that it's not a coincidence that right-wing authoritarians are on the rise at the same time as people around the world are having a harder time than ever figuring out what's true. That said, society is beginning to fight back.…

Air Date 9/24/2024 The positive dad vibes of Tim Walz came onto the national scene in the middle of an ongoing crisis of masculinity that stretches from the youngest generations to the oldest. Both positive and negative aspects of masculinity tie in with the…

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Hear the Full Show, Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Air Date: 9-23-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - Musk's latest - J.D. Vance's war on truth and brown people - The super villains who spread lies - Sane Washing…

Original Air Date: 3/21/2023 Today, we take a look at how GOP-controlled states are subverting democracy with a form of "competitive autocracy" and some of the horrifying legislation these states then pass after they are no longer subject to the opinions of…

Air Date: 9-19-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - the fallout from the debate, Trump's lies, and how his incoherence is being sanitized - The inadequacy of workplace protections, even in unionized shops - how worker stress and consumer misery are…

Air Date 9/17/2024 It's not just the threat of the electoral college handing the presidency to the loser of the popular vote, nor the specter of a repeat of a January 6th-like event hanging over the election - there's also copious lies and disinformation…

Air Date 9/13/2024 We've been living through the modern equivalent of the oil boom, back when poking a hole in the ground would make one of the world's most valuable substances, upon which entire economies would be built. But in our case, it's not oil, it's…

Air Date 9/10/2024 It's said that we live in a melting pot here in the United States. Perhaps it's more of a salad bar, who knows? In any case, there are a lot of people coming from a lot of different backgrounds, cultures, histories, and geographies all about…

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Hear the Full Show, Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!)   Air Date: 9-8-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - labor unions fighting for time off when it's too hot - cooling tech - electric trains - and the corporations…