NEW Upstream EP: Walter Rodney, Marxism, and Underdevelopment with D. Musa Springer & Charisse Burden-Stelly 🎧 out today here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QxCMkc3JQ69gTM8Zdxu1s?si=OOpovLvkR8mUyrNaLP6KRw or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Pan-African Marxist, underdevelopment theorist, guerrilla intellectual, father, husband, radical—these are all terms that we could use to describe Walter Rodney. You may know him from his classic text, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, you may know that he was assassinated at the age of 38 for his activism, or you may not know who he was at all—either way, his ideas and his influence have most likely reached you, if not directly, then indirectly, through the waves and ripples that his life and work created in the many intersecting liberation movements throughout the planet.
Described by some as decolonial Marxism, by others as Pan-African Marxism, or just as a continuation of Marxist theory as applied to the African continent and the African diaspora, Rodney’s work has been monumental in advancing and applying scientific socialism to updated physical and temporal regions which were not covered extensively until Rodney. His theories on underdevelopment as part of global capitalism opened up new spaces for theorizing and understanding imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism. His work in academia was imbued with a radical, guerrilla, fervor which resulted in institutions and states taking great measures to silence him, and the impact that he had was so monumental that he was tragically assassinated in his home country of Guyana almost 45 years ago.
For this conversation we’ve invited on cultural worker, community organizer, and journalist,
D. Musa Springer and author of Black Scare Red Scare, Charisse Burden-Stelly. 🙏
Every wonder why it feels like almost every single tech product you use is actively trying to screw you? Why it is that your printer requires you to subscribe to ink cartridges that, ounce for ounce, cost more than gold? Why you can’t read websites anymore because of all the moving, deceptive advertisements clogging up the screen? Why you’re paying substantially more for an entire suite of buggy streaming services than your parents ever were for cable TV? Why your BlueTooth enabled electric toothbrush keeps breaking? Why airplanes are falling apart mid-flight? ✈️
Well, it might not seem like it at first glance, but all of these phenomena are related. They have a single cause: deregulation. Specifically, deregulation driven by Big Tech monopolies that have found all sorts of creative and coercive ways to use the legal system to screw over not just their customers, but increasingly their employees, clients, vendors, advertisers—basically everybody but a handful of shareholders and C-suite decision-makers who are growing filthy rich off of our impoverishment and immiseration.
In one of our latest upstream conversations, we’re talking Big Tech—how we got where we are and how we can fix things, with Cory Doctorow. Cory is an activist, journalist, and author. His two latest books are the science fiction novel The Bezzle and, the nonfiction book which we’ill be talking about today, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, published by Verso. 📖
THE BIG TECH CON w/ CORY DOCTOROW is out now and available here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YtFyW0uviZFXIjypgOQxX?si=3LWFqp6wRNOFrkR_7i9dyQ or wherever you listen to podcasts 🎧
How the North Plunders the South with Dr. Jason Hickel 🎙️ this Upstream Podcast conversation is out now and available here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/72V0RPJg3G1UBqzd3yJ0la?si=rTzLz41mSey6lD3ZUzIvGg
In this conversion we explore the theory of uneven exchange and how it sheds light on neocolonialism in practice, we discuss some of the key findings from Jason’s research on imperialist appropriation in the world economy, we dispel some of the myths perpetuated by those claiming that capitalism has lifted “millions out of poverty,” we talk about what a just degrowth transition of the global economy would look like and, crucially, how we might achieve it.
Jason Hickel is a professor at the The Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the author of the books The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions and Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World, and the the lead author of two papers that we’ll be focusing on today: “Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015” published in journal Global Environmental Change, and “Unequal exchange of labour in the world economy” forthcoming in the journal Nature Communications.
Who wants a deep dive into Marxist theory to understand the economic conditions of our time and how to transition to a post capitalist world? 🙋♀️✨
Theory is an essential element of the revolutionary work that we do, and it’s crucial that we familiarize ourselves with Marxist theory to help inform and guide our revolutionary practice. As Lenin said, “Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.” Understanding thsee foundational theories and philosophies that underlie the work that we do helps take our work to the next level. Familiarizing ourselves with theory and grounding our practice in it elevates our work and gives us unique tools and specialized knowledge that helps us sharpen the tools in our revolutionary toolbox and understand the world around us with more clarity and focus. This is why the Upstream Podcast is going to be sharing a few episodes over the coming months to explore Marxist theory in depth. And in this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into dialectical materialism. And we’ve brought on the perfect guest to help us through this in our latest Patreon episode.
Josh Sykes is a writer and an activist organizing with Freedom Road Socialist Organization, or FRSO. He’s the author of the book, The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism published last year by Freedom Road. Josh’s book is an introduction to Marxism-Leninism split up into seven sections, and in this episode, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the second section of the book which explores the philosophy underpinning Marxism-Leninism: dialectical materialism.
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM with JOSH SYKES is out now and available through our Upstream Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast ✨🎧
🎧 The Big Tech Con with Cory Doctorow out now and available wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast.✨
In our latest podcast conversation, we’re talking Big Tech—how we got where we are and how we can fix things, with Cory Doctorow. Cory is an activist, journalist, and author. His two latest books are the science fiction novel The Bezzle and, the nonfiction book which we’ill be talking about today, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, published by Verso.
We explore the history of trusts and anti-trust laws originating in the late 1800s, we discuss how deregulation, copyright, digital locks, IP law, and monopoly-friendly legislation have all led to a process of enclosure in multiple tech industries—from the internet to airplanes—resulting in a landscape fully devoid of anything resembling the promise of technology that has been whispered into ours ears since the dawn of the digital age.
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Listen here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YtFyW0uviZFXIjypgOQxX?si=oTBofHWySXahOejM0VV3FA or wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast 🎧
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#bigcon #internetcon #coreydoctorow #upstream #upatreampodcast #instagood #conversationsthatmatter #degregulation #antitrust #trustlaw #bigtech #tech #scifi #computer #computation #platform #internet #socialmedia #capitalism #anticapitalist #anticapitalism #postcapitalism #boeing #seizethemeansofproduction
“Empowering citizens to speak authoritatively about the economy is a prerequisite for democracy and a precondition for the good society.”
~ Yanis Varoufakis
Today is the last day to register for the course on all things Regenerative & Cooperative Economics that Della has had the joy to rewrite and co-facilitate with Emma Woods of Flourish Economics.
Together with a community of folks from around the world, we will challenge the assumptions underlying mainstream economic thinking, learn how to reclaim democracy, work and the commons, develop throughtopias to a post capitalist future and explore the alternatives economic models that have existed and we can embody and participate in right now. ✨
First module opens Saturday with our module 1 live session next week in multiple time zones.
Learn more and register here-
https://www.gaiaeducation.org/products/131361-Economic-Dimension-EN?ref=51782-Della-Z-Duncan 🌿
Hosted by Gaia Education 💐
In our recent Upstream Podcast conversation with Dr. Jill Stein, we explore the conditions that have led to the many crises we’re currently facing, the failure of either of the corporate parties to address any of them, the many intentional barriers to third-party candidates running for office in the United States, and the importance of organizing and not losing hope.
Listen to BATTLING THE DUOPOLY with JILL STEIN here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/37S7uLEw2jabFsAqgBKGjn?si=cUwhSwsFQSGsFSIdFJ2wSw or wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast 🎧
Every wonder why you can’t read websites anymore because of all the moving, deceptive advertisements clogging up the screen? Why you’re paying substantially more for an entire suite of buggy streaming services than your parents ever were for cable TV? Why your BlueTooth enabled electric toothbrush keeps breaking? Why airplanes are falling apart mid-flight?
Well, it might not seem like it at first glance, but all of these phenomena are related. They have a single cause: deregulation. Specifically, deregulation driven by Big Tech monopolies that have found all sorts of creative and coercive ways to use the legal system to screw over not just their customers, but increasingly their employees, clients, vendors, advertisers—basically everybody but a handful of shareholders and C-suite decision-makers who are growing filthy rich off of our impoverishment and immiseration.
In our latest Upstream conversation, we’re talking Big Tech—how we got where we are and how we can fix things, with Cory Doctorow. Cory is an activist, journalist, and author. His two latest books are the science fiction novel The Bezzle and, the nonfiction book which we’ill be talking about today, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, published by Verso.
We explore the history of trusts and anti-trust laws originating in the late 1800s, we discuss how deregulation, copyright, digital locks, IP law, and monopoly-friendly legislation have all led to a process of enclosure in multiple tech industries—from the internet to airplanes—resulting in a landscape fully devoid of anything resembling the promise of technology that has been whispered into ours ears since the dawn of the digital age.
Listen here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YtFyW0uviZFXIjypgOQxX?si=qZwBLbQ-RoCHh5dM9UnGBA or wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast 🎧
Recently, we had the honor of interviewing Jill Stein, 2024 Green Party Presidential Candidate🌿
In this conversation, we explore the conditions that have led to the many crises we’re currently facing, the failure of either of the corporate parties to address any of them, the many intentional barriers to third-party candidates running for office in the United States, and the importance of organizing and not losing hope. 🙌
Listen to BATTLING THE DUOPOLY with JILL STEIN here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/37S7uLEw2jabFsAqgBKGjn?si=PykI2rhBSYyfo7NB5_aVdg or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts 🎧
Special 420 @upstreampodcast conversation out today!✨🎧
A BLUNT CONVERSATION ABOUT CANNABIS with DAVID BIENENSTOCK is a celebration of a very special plant—its history, its myths, legends, culture, and much more. Listen here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Sbr2ABFmKpkqK8m2G8aos?si=MzOcH9h0ToOVZUeUei5TFg or wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast! 🎧
David Bienenstock is the author of the book How to Smoke Pot (Properly): A Highbrow Guide to Getting High, and host of the podcast Great Moments in Weed History. In this episode we explore the history and culture of cannabis from prehistoric times, through to the ancient biblical times of Jesus, and up to the present. We recount the real story of how 4/20 became a celebrated holiday, we hear some of David’s favorite weed stories, and get serious too as we discuss the impacts of criminalization, the commodification of cannabis in the legalization process, the need for racial justice to repair communities of color disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs, and the possibility of a general strike on 4/20.
So lean back, grab your joint or your pipe or your bong or your vape or if you don’t partake, just imagine you’re in the remote blunt rotation and you’re skipping your puff and politely passing the joint—and this is important—to the left-hand side, as you join Robert and David in conversation about all things cannabis. ✨🎙️
Just released! Post Capitalism with Alnoor Ladha
Alnoor Ladha is the co-author, with Lynn Murphy, of the amazing book Post Capitalist Philanthropy. We brought him on Upstream to share about what Post Capitalism is and how we can embody it and encourage it in our lives and activism.
In this conversation, Alnoor takes us upstream to the ontological root causes of colonialism and capitalism. We explore the importance of cultivating spiritual-cultural praxis and look at what it takes to become conscientious objectors of capitalism and contribute to the collective prayer and movement for the co-liberation of all beings.
SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/170ZCMytuPQG9sHuu54gvl?si=zuwHCHoEQoCTgp-JFLwKyQ
APPLE PODCASTS:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532?i=1000651843885
Happy International Women's Day!🌹
We're excited to share that we just released a special Women's Day conversation:
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism with Kristen Ghodsee
In this Upstream podcast conversation, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Kristen Ghodsee shares how capitalism shapes not just sex, but relationships, care, and much of the life of people who identify as women. She details how under capitalism sex becomes commodified and transactionalized and how under socialism, particularly during the time of the Soviet Union, economic stability and having basic needs met leads to a kind of independence and liberation that results in, well, much better sex for women. Kristen is the author of the highly acclaimed book Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence and Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life.
Listen here ~
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6SGxCjistigQLRxcEFeGqD?si=e971d4e992654df0
APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-women-have-better-sex-under-socialism-w-kristen-ghodsee/id1082594532?i=1000648440406
New Upstream podcast conversation out today! 🙌✨🎧
Drinkable Rivers with Li An Phoa is out now and available here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/102eEAIJF5iXK6o7Hjqb7w?si=kIDcvGB5SSKUOjzmDlSUsg or wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast! ✨💧
“The sign of a healthy economy should be a drinkable river,” these are the words of Li An Phoa, an environmental activist and our guest for today’s episode. In 2005, Li An Phoa canoed the full length of the Rupert, a river in Canada. All along the way, she was able to drink water straight from the river. When she returned three years later, this was no longer the case. The river had been poisoned from dams, mining, and industry. Fish died, people got ill, and the delicate balance in the ecosystem was destroyed. Realizing that drinkable rivers are not just a key indicator of ecological health, but community vitality and resilience as well, and that rivers can only be drinkable when economic systems are post-growth, truly democratic, place-based, and respectful of the commons and Indigenous peoples, Li An decided to dedicate her life to re-cultivating drinkable rivers.
Since then, Li An founded the Drinkable Rivers organization and Spring College and has walked many rivers, using citizen science to test the water quality, training others to do the same, and intervening when a river has been contaminated or is off-balance. Her 1,000-kilometer walk along the river Meuse in Europe was the subject of the documentary Long Walk for Drinkable Rivers. Most recently, she and her partner Maarten van der Schaaf wrote the book Drinkable Rivers: How the river became my teacher.
In this conversation, Li An goes upstream to explain why rivers are no longer drinkable, she offers her vision of a world with drinkable rivers, shares her process for galvanizing communities to care for their watersheds, and suggests invitations for how all of us could contribute to healthier rivers and healthier eco- and economic systems
Happy Winter Solstice! In this annual tradition, Della is joined by two fellow podcast hosts to reflect on the past year and set some intentions for the year ahead.
A SOLSTICE CELEBRATION for 2023 with MANDA SCOTT and NATHALIE NAHAI is out now and available here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/11XF37gQ8gF3CrAlq4dxwZ?si=Gd2oz7rTSiGBnsLJZzS5Eg or wherever you listen to the Upstream podcast! 🎧✨
Manda Scott is a novelist, smallholder, and host of the Accidental Gods podcast, which showcases individuals and organizations at the emerging edge of our world to set the foundation for a future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. Her latest novel, Any Human Power is available for pre-order.
Nathalie Nahai is a behavior science advisor, author and host of the podcast The Hive, which focuses on psychology, technology, and human behavior. Nathalie is the author of Webs Of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion and is also the founder of Flourishing Futures Salon, a project that offers curated gastronomical gatherings that explore how we can thrive in times of turbulence and change.
It was once very difficult for people experiencing poverty in the Global South to obtain credit and loans because they were seen as unable to provide adequate collateral. This situation changed with the emergence of microfinance, a model pioneered by Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which has now been widely disseminated to over 40 countries around the world.
At the heart of the Grameen system is the organization of borrowers into groups of women (97 percent of the bank’s loans are to women) where collateral is each woman’s social connections and reputation. This model is touted for contributing to Women’s Empowerment and for “rising people out of poverty” and even won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
But does this model actually empower women? Does it address the structural causes of poverty? Or is it just another frontier for capitalism — a new way of profiting off of the most marginalized, exploiting the trust and social cohesion among groups of women, and even triggering what’s been described as “India’s micro-finance suicide epidemic”?
To answer these questions, we invited Dr. Sohini Kar, a socio-cultural anthropologist at the London School of Economics and author of Financializing Poverty: Labor and Risk in Indian Microfinance to have a conversation with me for the Upstream podcast🎧.
Get ready to unlearn everything you thought you knew about micro-finance! ✨
Microlending and the financialization of poverty with Sohini Kar is out now and available here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2YDuxn50XShaYfqO9Fphdp?si=alvyR5nGRcCahoWcKe1vpA or wherever you listen to Upstream.🎧
How do you want to tend to your Regenerative Livelihood Garden in 2024? 🌿✨
In this video, Upstream co-host Della Duncan offers a guided practice for you to reflect on the plants in your garden (all the ways you contribute to this time), ways you might tend to your garden to bring more abundance, vitality, or even rest and how this metaphor helps you better align your work and your values.
For more, join Della for her CULTIVATING REGENERATIVE LIVELIHOODS 12-week course starting January 13th, 2024. This course, that she designed and will teach with the amazing Silvia Di Blasio, includes inspiring content on aligning our vocation with our passions and eight live sessions. The course fee is £300 per person with full and half scholarships available. Learn more and join them here - https://www.programmes.gaiaeducation.uk/regenerative_livelihoods
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🎥 Video by Kostantinos Mavrias and the Cinergies coop Production Team
What would it feel like to live your life beyond the clock?⏰
How has capitalism influenced our sense of time?💰
What would it feel like to embody a more earth-connected, place-based, decolonized sense of time?🌿
For our recent conversation on the economics and politics of time, we’ve brought on Bay Area artist and author Jenny Odell to help us unpack and reimagine our experience of time and to foster hope and inspire action for a better future. We focus on insights and stories from Jenny’s two books, her 2019 New York Times Bestseller How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy and most recently, Saving Time: Discovering Life Beyond the Clock. 📖
Listen to LIFE BEYOND THE CLOCK with JENNY ODELL here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1awmJZYYp4N9OWxz1mXeo7?si=JvaJqxc6ReeupKXePOeEVA orwherever you listen to the Upstream podcast 🎧
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#time #jennyodell #clock #productivity #capitalism #colonialism #decolonize #decolonizeeducation #podcast #upstream #upstreampodcast #savingtime #bookstagram #bookrec #bayarea #work #anticapitalism #postcapitalism #unlearn
“This is the most important election of our lifetimes.” “Voting for a third-party candidate? Might as well throw away your vote!” “You may not like him, but you’ve just got to hold your nose and vote for him — otherwise, Trump might win.”
I’m sure you’ve heard each of these lines many times — we know that we have. But, at some point you have to ask: how can every election be the most important one? Am I really throwing away my vote by voting for a candidate whose policies I agree with? Can we ever actually affect change if we’re always voting for the quote unquote lesser evil candidate or party? Isn’t that just a race to the bottom?
Well, in our new Upstream conversation released today we’re going to tackle all of those questions — and much more — with our guest, August Nimtz, professor of political science and African American and African studies in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. Professor Nimtz is the author of The Ballot, The Streets, Or Both? published by Haymarket Books. 📖
Listen wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast 🎧
🎨Original Cover Art by @b_mure 🙏
How can we be good ancestors? How can leave the world better than we found it? How can we tread lightly for those to come? How can we decolonize our minds and our systems?
These are some of the questions that we explore in this powerful Upstream conversation - HOW TO DECOLONIZE & INDIGENIZE with Sikowis Nobiss 🎧✨🎙️out now and available wherever you listen to the Upstream Podcast.
Sikowis is Plains Cree/Saulteaux of the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada At 19 she began her life's work of uplifting Indigenous rights and voices when she got her first job at the New Brunswick Aboriginal Peoples Council in Fredericton, Canada, during the Burnt Church Rebellion. Between 2010 and 2015, Sikowis attempted to work with various Indigenous folks in Iowa City to build a climate and environment organization but was unsuccessful. However, her goal to found such an organization became a reality in 2016 when she joined the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This led her to co-found Little Creek Camp in February 2017, which has since transformed into Great Plains Action Society a fully Indigenous-led organization where Sikowis works at a grassroots level to dismantle corrupt colonial-capitalist systems and rebuild them with a decolonized worldview.
🎨Cover Art by @soni_artist 🙏
