This Is Hell!

Award-winning author Pankaj Mishra returns to “This Is Hell!” to talk about his new book, “The World After Gaza: A History”, published by the Penguin Random House. Check out Pankaj’s book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/780437/the-world-after-gaza-by-pankaj-mishra/ Keep TiH! free and completely listener supported by subscribing to our weekly bonus Patreon podcast or visiting thisishell.com/pages/support

Noliwe Rooks returns to This Is Hell! to discuss her recent book, "Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children" from Penguin. "Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Check out Noliwe's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/721962/integrated-by-noliwe-rooks/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Tanner Mirrlees on the new Cost of War paper from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University entitled, "The Militarization of Movies and Television." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Tanner's writing here: https://home.watson.brown.edu/research/research-briefs/militarization-movies-and-tv Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Lindsay Koshgarian joins us to discuss the Institute for Policy Studies report, "The High Moral Stakes of the Policy Battles Raging in Washington." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out their report here: https://ips-dc.org/summary-high-moral-stakes/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Award-winning author Omar El Akkad joins “This Is Hell!” to talk about his new book, "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”, published by the Penguin Books. Check out Omar’s book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777485/one-day-everyone-will-have-always-been-against-this-by-omar-el-akkad/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI9NZpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRHlIY5dAk3hrnB8dk0wOc9P_cL3vOlRO6pa78Ux07cr9tv4PR_GhwkMrg_aem_ltRUIYUqFxKHG-AUz9rHsg Keep TiH! free and completely listener supported by subscribing to our weekly bonus Patreon podcast or visiting thisishell.com/pages/support

Labor scholar Eric Blanc joins us to discuss his new book published just today by the University of California Press titled, "We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Eric's book here: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/we-are-the-union/paper Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Journalist and cultural critic Kristen Martin joins “This Is Hell!” to talk about her new book, "The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood”, published by the Bold Type Books. Check out Kristen’s book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kristen-martin/the-sun-wont-come-out-tomorrow/9781645030348/?lens=bold-type-books Visit Kristen’s website: https://www.kristenmartin.net/ Keep TiH! free and completely listener supported by subscribing to our weekly bonus Patreon podcast or visiting thisishell.com/pages/support

Historian Timothy W. Ryback joins us to discuss his Atlantic essays, "How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days: He used the constitution to shatter the constitution," "The Oligarchs Who Came to Regret Supporting Hitler They helped him in pursuit of profit. Many ended up in concentration camps," and, "‘Herr Hitler, Do You Really Believe Me Capable of Such a Dirty Trick?’ The chancellor rewarded loyalty with loyalty. Until he didn’t." Timothy is director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague. He is the author of several books on Hitler’s Germany, most recently, "Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Timothy's writing at The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/timothy-w-ryback/ Check out his new book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/727483/takeover-by-timothy-w-ryback/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Physicist Erald Kolasi returns to “This Is Hell!” to talk about his new book, "The Physics of Capitalism: How a New Political Ecology Can Change the World”, published by the Monthly Review. Check out Erald’s book here: https://monthlyreview.org/product/the-physics-of-capitalism-how-a-new-political-ecology-can-change-the-world/ Keep TiH! free and completely listener supported by subscribing to our weekly bonus Patreon podcast or visiting thisishell.com/pages/support

Chuck is out of action this week COVID, so we are featuring past interviews with upcoming guests who all have new books coming out on the days we are scheduled to interview them in upcoming weeks. Today's episode features two listener-favorite historians. First up is Quinn Slobodian on his 2023 book "Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy." Greg Grandin follows with a discussion of his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2020 book "The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America." A classic Moment of Truth with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Chuck is out of action this week COVID, so we are featuring past interviews with upcoming guests who all have new books coming out on the days we are scheduled to interview them in upcoming weeks. Today's episode features two guests whose work imagine a more emancipatory, dignified, sustainable future should socialist imperatives govern the future of human development. First up is political scientist Jodi Dean, who joined us in 2022 to discuss her book "Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States" from 1804 Books. Physicist and researcher Erald Kolasi follows in a 2021 interview in which he outlines his vision for a more ecologically sustainable future as discussed in his Monthly Review article titled "The Ecological State." Rotten History from our dear friend and comrade Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Mike German, co-author with Beth Zasloff of the new book, "Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within," returns to This is Hell! Mike is a former FBI agent who went undercover in the far right whtie supremacsit movement and has appeared on the show a couple of times. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Mike's book here: https://thenewpress.com/books/policing-white-supremacy Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Disinformation and far-right digital media scholar Becca Lewis, who posted The Guardian article, “‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley." https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2025/jan/29/silicon-valley-rightwing-technofascism?fbclid=IwY2xjawIYf-tleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHc2nPsngc-4BdtZ_VAwm84lbBIMTOkq8WaTAvn1nYmXhUWlgWa_lfeyW2w_aem_L7nLbYIVbWoIlBoxR9OKLw Becca served as an expert witness in the defamation lawsuits brought against Alex Jones by parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims. She is currently writing a book on the rise of reactionary politics in Silicon Valley and online. Keep TiH! free and completely listener supported by subscribing to our weekly bonus Patreon podcast or visiting thisishell.com/pages/support

Journalist and historian Eoin Higgins, author of the new book, "Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Eoin's book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eoin-higgins/owned/9781645030461/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Award-winning journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata joins us to discuss her new book, “Another World Is Possible: Lessons For America From Around The Globe”, published by The New Press. Her articles can be found be found in In These TImes, The Nation, and The New York Times. Purchase the book at this link: https://thenewpress.com/books/another-world-possible Natasha Hakimi Zapata’s website: https://www.natashahakimizapata.com/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Jeff Bryant joins us to discuss his recent writing on the threats facing community public education and the ways schools and communities are resisting them. Articles to be discussed include "How a Struggling Boston School Found Success in the Roots of its Haitian American Community," and "Voters Across the Political Spectrum Gave Public Education Important Wins in the 2024 Election," both available at The Progressive. Rotten History from Renaldo Migaldi and The Moment of Truth with Jeff Dorchen both follow the interview. Check out Jeff's recent writing at The Progressive here: https://progressive.org/topics/jeff-bryant/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Maya Schenwar returns to This is Hell! Maya will be joined by the co-editor Kim Wilson who are co-editors of the new collection, "We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition" from Haymarket Books. Maya is editor in-chief of truthout. Kim is the cofounder, cohost, and producer of Beyond Prisons, a podcast on incarceration and prison abolition. Rotten History from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Check out their new edited volume here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2446-we-grow-the-world-together Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Sarah Jaffe, author of “Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone and Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt” joins us to discuss her new book “From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire”, published by Bold Type Books. Purchase the book at this link: https://bookshop.org/p/books/from-the-ashes-grief-and-revolution-in-a-world-on-fire-sarah-jaffe/21156243?ean=9781541703490 Sarah Jaffe’s website: https://sarahljaffe.com/ Jeffrey Dorchen also brings us his latest "Moment of Truth". Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Liz Pelly joins This Is Hell! to discuss her Harper's cover article titled "The Ghosts in the Machine: Spotify's Plot Against Musicians," excerpted from her new book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist (One Signal Publishers). Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Defunding the Police and Abolition as Forms of Democracy by This Is Hell!