#1605 Our Prison System is a Demonstrable Failure (Throwback)
Release Date: 12/06/2025
#1768 The End of an Era: The International Rules-Based Order Gives Way to Trump's Might-Makes-Right Plutocracy
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 1/29/2026 Today we examine the collapse of the American-led, rules-based world order (such as it was) in real time. Canada’s Prime Minister pointed out that the emperor has no clothes and declared US hegemony over while Europe called Trump's bluff on Greenland... all the more reason why he would prefer a fake “Board of Peace” that he can rule over as a worldwide plutocracy. 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...
info_outline
SOLVED! FROM THE ARCHIVES - “Of Horse Races and Men: The Result of Decades of Media Atrophy (aka: Uncertain and Powerless”
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Re-Air Date: 01–26-26 Original Air Date: 06-09-24 Unless you were a member in June of 2024, this episode of SOLVED! will be brand new to you! If you were a member back then, THANK YOU and this one is worth a re-listen. We’re slowing down production for a little bit to reorganize our production processes, so enjoy this episode from our archives (and before YouTube) where Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: - How the media focus on the "politics" of an event trivializes the impact that event has on real people - The detrimental effects combining the daily news grind and the...
info_outline
#1767 Wars Are Won By Teachers and Trump is Attacking Them Like a Foreign Adversary
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 1/25/2026 Today we examine education as the battleground for democracy itself. We'll hear how authoritarians erase history to maintain power, why liberal arts colleges don't exist in authoritarian societies, how the administration is punishing universities for their political views, and what the detention of student protesters reveals about the cost of dissent in Trump's America. 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...
info_outline
#1766 The Fragility of State Violence: The ICE Occupation, Renee Good, and the Minneapolis Uprising
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 1/21/2026 Today we look at ICE's reign of terror as a paramilitary occupation force and the communities pushing back. We'll hear about Renee Goode, an unarmed woman shot dead by federal agents, and Keith Porter, killed by an off-duty agent on New Year's Eve, in addition to historical parallels from Civil-Rights Era Selma, Alabama and the Boston Massacre. The signs of hope here are that the oppressed won those fights and the oppressors were forced to retreat - there's every reason to believe that the same pattern can repeat today. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at...
info_outline
SOLVED! SAMPLE! #31 - There is no “Male Loneliness Crisis(TM)”: Why Patriarchy & Capitalism Are Hurting Us ALL
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 01-12-26 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - Why it’s actually NOT a “Male Loneliness Epidemic (TM)” and even the non-crazy male influencers aren’t helping Ch. 2 - Why loneliness is better understood by age, and how society has not emotionally equipped men for struggle Ch. 3 - Why American-style capitalism is the root cause of loneliness epidemic and is stranding women and mothers Ch. 4 - Why the solutions for societal loneliness don’t align with fascist governments, and calling out those who would rather you stay lonely and buy stuff SOLVED!...
info_outline
#1765 AI Capitalism Will Not Deliver an AI Utopia
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 1/17/2026 There's a lot to be concerned about with AI but the biggest concern is the economic system we have in place at the moment when AI is being introduced. Capitalism is not a good steward of new and potentially dangerous technology, as we've seen from Zuckerberg's move-fast-and-break-things era of social media that he later recognized as having triggered a genocide. When the profit drive necessitates light-speed growth, ethical and safety considerations are the first things to be jettisoned and things get broken. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991,...
info_outline
#1764 Wealth Inequality is Bad for Society and There's No Good Counterargument
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 1/14/2026 Being a bad person who doesn't care about others is helpful in one's pursuit of becoming wealthy. However, becoming wealthy is also helpful in becoming a bad person who doesn't care about others, not that anyone sets out with this as a goal but it is a natural byproduct of wealth and the normal functioning of our market economy. What this means is that the nature of money, market dynamics, and wealth to corrode morality is a systemic problem, not a collection of individual failings, and should be addressed as such. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at...
info_outline
#1763 It's Not a Health Care System, it's a Wealth Extraction System
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 1/9/2026 The Republican Party has been angry about every government service and regulation designed to help average people for at least the past 90 years. And, given any opportunity to hobble or destroy any of those services or regulations in the past decades, they've done just that. Now, after 15 years of striving to destroy the Affordable Care Act - itself originally a conservative plan from the Heritage Foundation (not joking) - they're using the cult-like hold that Trump has on the party to move faster and more recklessly than they are usually able. And again, average people are...
info_outline
#1248 There you go again. Venezuela and America's addiction to imperialism (Remix)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Original Air Date: 2/8/2019 Amid the ongoing fallout of a contested presidential election, we take a look back, briefly, at the last 100 years of Venezuelan history to understand how they went from oil riches and inequality to revolution and social progress only to run afoul of American imperialism. 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 shop and for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! ! ...
info_outline
#1762 Trump's Imperialistic Shakedown of Venezuela
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 1/3/2026 Imperialism is best thought of as a "Wealth Pump," extracting wealth from one country and depositing it in another. Venezuela has wealth and wealth is the only thing Trump cares about, his willingness to break his promise of being the peace president and go along with traditional Republican hawks is not a complicated mystery. 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 shop and for a non-evil...
info_outlineOriginal Air Date: 1-23-2024
The recent discovery of hundreds of bodies buried behind a jail in unmarked graves sparks a renewed discussion about the futility and counter-productiveness of our system of incarceration and the context of our history that has brought us to this point.
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 Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com
Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube!
BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!)
SHOW NOTES
Ch. 2: The Most Infamous Jail in America - Olurinatti - Air Date 3-29-23
Ch. 3: Behind the News: The State of the Carceral State w/ Wanda Bertram - Jacobin Radio - Air Date 3-20-23
Ch. 5: The Part of History You've Always Skipped | Neoslavery - Knowing Better - Air Date 4-4-22
Ch. 6: Penitence for the privileged - Beyond Prisons - Air Date 7
EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE
8 Ways You Can Advocate for Justice Reform in 2024 (Vera)
Prison and Jail Reform (Brennan Center for Justice)
Criminal Justice Reform (Equal Justice Initiative)
Cutting Jail and Prison Populations (Brennan Center for Justice)
SHOW IMAGE
Description: Photograph of the outside of Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. Barbed wire lines the fences of the entrance in front of the dark gray cement building with tinted windows.
Credit: "A sagebrush sea change from behind barbed wire" by U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0 | Changes: Cropped
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com