Libsyn Directory

SOLVED! #19 - Big Data: Putting Digital Fingerprints in the Pie of Freedom

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Release Date: 08/19/2025

#1737 State of the Resistance: Labor, Anger, and Knowing That We've Been Here Before

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 9/16/2025 Between recent Labor Day rallies and Republican Town Hall meetings, we're seeing that resistance to Trump's deeply unpopular policies is alive and well. Plus we're going to look at some historical legacies of resistance movements that can both inform and inspire us today. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show, SOLVED! on ! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) KEY POINTS KP 1: KP 2: KP 3: KP 4: KP 5: KP 6: KP 7: (00:53:35) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On what our...

#1736 Not the Opposition Party the Country Need Right Now

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 9/11/2025 I've always learned the high-level understanding that the Nazis were partly able to come to power because the opposition at the time was too caught up with infighting to create a coherent resistance. With hindsight, it's easy to lament how badly they miscalculated the circumstances but living through the modern day and watching the Democratic Party struggle gives even more clarity to how that kind of inability to get organized in the face of existential threats to democracy can happen. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at...

#1735 Trump's Making Friends of Enemies and Enemies of Neighbors (Foreign and Domestic Wars)

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 9/7/2025 Trump has been setting a new tone both at home and abroad which is shaking up everything from the war in Ukraine to threats of force against Mexico, Venezuela, and our own American cities with the militarization of domestic policing. And we made all of this before Trump posted an Apocalypse Now meme about using the Department of War against Chicago. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email KEY POINTS KP 1: KP 2: KP 3: KP 4: KP 5: KP 6: KP 7: KP 8: (00:56:33) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR...

SOLVED! #21 - GerryF**ked: How to Fix Congressional Representation and End Homelessness

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date: 9–3-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - The surprising origins of Gerrymandering Ch. 2 - The options we have to improve congressional representation for everyone in the country Ch. 3 - Democratic states response to Republican gerrymandering threats Ch. 4 - The argument for DC statehood and the people to blame for why it hasn’t happened yet Ch. 5 - How to end homelessness and what you can do to help those being targeted in DC SOLVED! BACKSTAGE: Beyond the Algorithm: The only correct opinion about the Cracker Barrel rebrand (This episode drops on...

#1567 How to Sell an Immoral Economic System to the Masses (Throwback)

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date: 6–20-2023 Today, we take a look at the story of how neoliberalism was born, how corporations were organized to help push it into the mainstream, and how the courts were reshaped to permanently tilt the rules in favor of corporate power. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show, SOLVED! on ! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) ! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Ch. 2: Ch. 3: Ch. 4: Ch. 5: Ch. 6: Ch. 7: Ch. 8: Ch. 9: Produced by Jay! Tomlinson...

#1734 Where is the Revolutionary, Anti-Fascist Art?

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 9/1/2025 The way people consume almost every variety of media, entertainment, and art is different now than it was only 10-15 years ago. That means that the way protest music, revolutionary art, and even mass market productions and performances are going to be different, feel different, and likely find you in different ways than in the past. But the drive to create never dies and art will always be part of the resistance to oppression. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new...

SOLVED! #20 - America’s Brain Drain: How Scientific Empires Fall

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date: 8–28-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - How scientific empires fall Ch. 2 - How fascists of the past have destroyed their country’s scientific progress in fear of inconvenient truths Ch. 3 - How other countries are taking the opportunity to poach American scientists Ch. 4 - Living in a society that is shifting away from believing in evidence based science Ch. 5 - The 1938 pro-science manifesto that defended democracy against fascism BACKSTAGE: Beyond the Algorithm - Trump’s eugenicist mindset and what we didn’t have time for from our main articles ...

#1733 The Impossible Promise of Make American Healthy Again: MAHA vs MAGA

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 8/27/2025 RFK Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement aren't completely wrong about everything, they often identify the larger structural problems with the US health industrial complex even if their proposed solutions are wildly off the mark. But the problem they failed to see coming when partnering with Trump and the Republicans is that they're only going to be allowed to misguidedly defund and dismantle parts of the government that support health which is in line with the broader burn-it-all-down vibes of the MAGA movement, but under no circumstances will they be allowed to...

#1732 It's Never Just About the Kids (Online Censorship, Age Verification, and the Project 2025 Agenda)

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 8/24/2025 The nature of politics and public policy is that there's always a need to balance opposing interests. Almost nowhere is there a more intractable set of opposing interests than in the attempt to protect children from harmful content on the internet while maintaining free access to adults, particularly because people wildly disagree about what qualifies as harmful and what degree of privacy invasion is an acceptable tradeoff. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show,...

#1731 Raw Power, the Presidency, the Courts, and Democracy in the Balance

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 8/20/2025 There's been a faction of conservatives who have been trying to instill king-like powers into the presidency for a long time, so it shouldn't be surprising that Trump is getting so much help from the packed court and the apparatchiks in the states who are more than happy to turn their precious federalism on its head as long as their king is in charge. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show, SOLVED! on ! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to...

More Episodes

Air Date: 8–19-25

Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:

Ch.1 - The Trump administration’s unprecedented attempts to get your data from the states
Ch. 2 - Why Trump’s new private health tracking system is a wolf in sheep’s clothing
Ch. 3 - How HIV patients suffering in the 80s, 90s and early 00s from constant health data breaches is a hint of what could come
Ch. 4 - Why a new UK law trying to protect children from seeing terrible things online is doing more harm than good
Ch. 5 - Tips on keeping your digital privacy intact as best as you can in this data hungry world
BACKSTAGE: Beyond the Algorithm (Members Only): How an activist organization used debanking to make video game companies censor their content, where that tactic might lead, and more.
A funny thing happened on the way to recording… (blooper)

YouTube (This episode drops on YouTube on Friday - please share!)

Nostr public key: npub1tjxxp0x5mcgl2svwhm39qf002st2zdrkz6yxmaxr6r2fh0pv49qq2pem0e

REFERENCES:

States Have More Data About You Than the Feds Do. Trump Wants to See It. - NY Times

Trump Announces Plan to Launch Private Health Tracking System With Big Tech Firms - Time

HIV & Civil Rights: A Report from the Frontlines of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic - ACLU

Blocking Access to Harmful Content Will Not Protect Children Online, No Matter How Many Times UK Politicians Say So - EFF

'A disaster waiting to happen' — Cybersecurity experts react to UK age verification law - Toms Guide