Nationalize This!

Space, many believe, is the final frontier…  And like all frontiers, there’s a bunch of white men preparing to break free from their home world to colonize it for their own personal benefit. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson among others, have all showed off their conspicuous consumption by seizing upon space exploration as the signifier of the truly wealthy. Because if too many people are becoming billionaires, how do you show off that you’re an even richer billionaire? Well, you go to space. Space is for rich people.     So how much of space exploration was really meant for the public anyway? And what will it take to reclaim the airless void for the people? We talk with Shalina Chatlani, a science journalist and Nationalize This!'s resident neeeerd. 

Housing, many believe, is a human right. In America, though, we have something called a rental broker, whose sole job it is to give you the phone number of the slumlord. That costs a month’s rent, because why not? So what hopes do tenants have for a more just and equitable approach to housing? Quite a bit, actually. We speak with Tara Raghuveer, a tenant organizer in Kansas City and the Housing Campaign Director at People's Action. We share a dim view of YIMBY's.   

Without something drastic happening, fossil fuel and coal companies appear committed to burning everything in the ground they can get their hands on until the vast majority of flora and fauna on the planet are wiped out of existence. So let's start thinking of something drastic? Thea Riofrancos joins us to talk about nationalizing the grid, the politics of extraction, and the spectre of the Green New Deal.

Welcome to Nationalize This! a podcast about public ownership, democratic control, and the successes and failures of nationalization projects.  This episode focuses on the recent history of bank nationalization efforts following the 2008 financial crisis. My guest is Thomas M. Hanna, the author of “The Crisis Next Time,” a paper on the prospects of bank nationalization efforts in the US.