The Wrangling Friends
Talking alternative media, politics and with public sociologist J.R.Woodward
I promised you a follow up on letters of recommendation today, but the hours got away from me: I will write that for Friday. Instead, today, I offer you a conversation with a colleague who invited me onto his podcast. And he let me use Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead” as my anthem, so you have got to love it. Please feel free to give him a boost and:
I am so pleased to share this podcast with you: it is part of a series by J.R. Woodward, a sociologist at Florida State College at Jacksonville. You can find all of his interviews at his blog, Our Social Landscape.
Woodward is a fellow-laborer in the field of getting real ideas to real people, and we had a great time. In his introduction to our conversation, Woodward writes: “We start with a discussion of what brought her into the world of education, history, and writing. We spend the remaining time analyzing the role of media in our current political landscape and we close with some thoughts on creating a more understanding and respectful political dialogue going forward.”
You will find commentary on the current state of the GOP, Second Amendment politics, critical race theory, why Florida is so screwed up, what I learned about democracy when I went to Poland, and more.
Short takes:
As I was hastily putting this issue to bed, I learned that legendary Black feminist literary critic and public scholar bell hooks has died of renal failure at her home in Berea, Kentucky. (Clay Risen, New York Times, December 15, 2021)
Jill Filipovic points out that the most pernicious effect of abortion bans may be to ensure that women remain poor and dependent. “The so-called `culture of life’ is actually a culture of misogyny,” Filipovic writes, “and it’s one that keeps poor women poor, stuck, and often downwardly mobile.” (December 15, 2021)
What are progressives not paying attention to, as they fight for Medicare for All? That Medicare for the people who already get it is being eroded, privatized and defunded. The Washington Post’s Helaine Olen (possibly one of the best journalists writing about health and health finance today) points out that “a Trump administration-initiated program that many health-care reformers argue is essentially a backdoor attempt to further privatize Medicare.” And the Biden administration is permitting the implementation to go forward. (December 13, 2021)