Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Expertly-curated progressive politics, news, and culture produced by leftist humans, not algorithms or AI. This is an award-winning podcast that dives deeply into a wide range of national and international issues facing society and governments. We draw from hundreds of sources of progressive news and commentary. Est. 2006.
Save time by listening to a range of perspectives on a focused topic in each episode and be introduced to new sources you will not have come across on your own!
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 76 minutes
- Episodes
- 581
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
#1624 Island Fervor: Cuba and Haiti Struggle for Economic and Political Self-Determination in the Face of Respective Histories of Exploitation and Embargo
Air Date 4/24/2024
Only by understanding the past can we understand the present and the histories of Cuba and Haiti have very stark lessons to impart about the cruelty of the Cuba embargo, the reperc…
Bonus Sample #300 My People are Humans
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Air Date: 4-22-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - How Israeli citizens and government officials use of the US's s…
#1623 Burning American Credibility on Support for Israel's Genocidal War in Gaza - Biden, Netanyahu, and the double standards of the rules-based order
Air Date 4/20/2024
Old habits die hard and the American establishment's unquestioning support for Israel is a very old habit indeed. Israel's government drifts farther and farther to the right, culmi…
Bonus Sample #299 Selling Bliss
Air Date: 4-18-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - how a tech start-up is trying to sell a shortcut to bliss - the world of drug-free psychedelic experiences - the capitalists trying to …
#1249 Understanding the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians (Throwback)
Original Air Date 2/12/2019
Today we take a look at both the BDS movement and the backlash response to it resulting in firings and legislation in many states (and pending federally) to restrict emplo…
#1622 Capitalism Culture Catastrophes On Land, Sea, And In The Sky - Baltimore Bridge Collapse, Boeing Blowout, and the Continuing Threat to Railway Workers
Air Date 4/12/2024
The forces of capitalism and deregulation loom large as industrial transport disasters continue to pile up with new focus brought to the issue by the Francis Scott Key Bridge colla…
#1621 How Democrats Lost Their Way On Economics And Are Starting To Find It Again
Air Date 4/9/2024
The neoliberal legacy of the New Democrats continues to loom large but it really does seem like the progressive wing of the party and the broader demand for populist economic polici…
Bonus Sample #292 Someone is Wrong on the Internet
Air Date: 4-7-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - Many facets of our society are clearly broken by capitalism, and bizarrely for some, chaos is the only thing that beings agency to their…
#1379 Tell Stories, Not Myths: Democracy in America (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 11/10/2020
Today we take a look at the long and shifting history of the myth of democracy in America. We've never had it since the beginning but the reasons have shifted, ebbed and…
#1620 Threatening the 2024 Election to Subvert Democracy, from Legal Maneuvers in Congress and Unconstitutional Congressional Maps to Violent Threats Against Election Workers
Air Date 4/3/2024
As the country gears up for the election in November, we look at a variety of ways the GOP and their election-denialist supporters are preparing to subvert the democratic process to…
Bonus Sample #297 No Laughing Matter
Air Date: 4-1-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - how Trump uses humor to normalize his behavior and engage his supporters - how humor is not always a great weapon against fascism and au…
#1619 A Guide to Protests Against Injustice from the Peaceful to the Deadly
Air Date 3/30/2024
We are living through an age of protest from the opposition to the Iraq war, the Arab Spring uprisings, Occupy Wall Street, through to marches against Trump, and now the war in Gaz…
Bonus Sample #296 Coping: Magic Mushrooms, Bath Time, Perpetual Therapy, and Pain Killers
Air Date: 3-28-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - how the wealthy use psilocybin to deal with stress and break the rules of time - the working class get bath time and training on how …
#1463 People Are Waking Back Up To The Need For Labor Unions (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 12/23/2021
Today we take a look at some of the history of labor struggles in America and the current wave of strikes that is giving renewed energy to the labor union movement and t…
#1618 Forget Equality, Embrace the Feminism of Freedom - Breaking entirely free from the structures of White supremacy and heteropatriarchy
Air Date 3/23/2024
Equality has been at the heart of civil rights movements for decades but what we have failed to see is that in striving for equality we cannot help but reinforce the unquestioned p…
Bonus Sample #295 Cause it's all about control
Air Date: 3-21-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - how AI became a tool in the gender culture war - the real reasons "soft girls" and "tradwives" are a thing
REFERENCES: You Will Not Be…
#1617 The Profitable and Political Moral Panic Around Trans People: Debunking Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, Groomers, and Detransitioning Misconceptions
Air Date 3/19/2024
We break down some of the pseudoscience the trans panic is built on, look at the political drive to erase trans people, understand how language of panic shifts over time, and prese…
#1616 The Party of Putin and the Propaganda Leading the GOP to Trump and the US to Russian-Style Autocracy
Air Date 3/15/2024
Republicans have been trending toward Putin fandom for more than a decade but with each passing year the stakes get higher, the propaganda gets more brazen, and what they're willin…
Bonus Sample #294 Answering men's cry for help
Air Date: 3-11-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - mascuzynity and the conservative male ethos - talking to young men to prevent their slide to the right - and that brutal man camps that…
#1165 To Exist is to Resist: Life and Activism in Occupied Palestine Working Toward Rights and Democracy For All in Israel (Throwback)
Original Air Date 2-17-2018
We hear from activists and advocates to get a sense of the life, land, and walls that divide occupied Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza
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