Bad Faith Briahna Joy Gray & Virgil Texas

After he tweeted about Bertrand Cooper's viral Current Affairs article "Who Actually Gets to Create Black Pop Culture?," we invited Very Smart Brothers co-founder Damon Young to dialogue with Cooper about his piece. The two pop culture commentators debate whether it's a problem that so few poor Black Americans are able to create art about poor Black folk -- even though that version of "the Black experience" is increasingly marketable as an avenue for White catharsis in the age of Black Lives Matter.

Brie flew to Cleveland to report on how locals in Ohio's 11th district are feeling about the congressional race between Senator Nina Turner and Shontel Brown. From interviews with AG Kieth Ellison and DFA's Yvette Simpson to speeches by Nina Turner and Danny Glover, this is a perspective you're not going to get anywhere else.

This week, Brie debates one of America's foremost Black conservative public intellectuals, Brown University Economics Professor Glenn Loury. Is there overlap between conservative critics of liberal race politics lefty critics of liberal "woke" culture? Or does the conservative focus on fixing "Black culture" serve the same function as the liberal focus on "curing racism" to the exclusion of material interventions? It's a difficult but productive conversation.

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Over 1000 coal miners in Alabama have been on strike since April 1st over cuts in pay, loss in paid holidays and time off, and spiking health insurance costs. Brie spoke to Kim Kelly, an independent journalist, and Phil Smith, Director of Communications and Governmental Affairs United Mine Workers of America.

UMWA Strike Fund: https://umwa.org/umwa2021strikefund

Brie traveled to Seattle to speak to activist Andre Stackhouse of Whole Washington about his group's effort to achieve Medicare for All in Washington State. But first, she spoke to 2016 Green Party VP candidate and national spokesperson for Black Alliance for Peace Ajamu Baraka about third party politics, the importance of internationalism, BLM's controversial statement in support of the Cuban government, how being drafted into the Vietnam War radicalized him, and more.

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This week, I spoke to founder of the Debt Collective Astra Taylor about the possibility of a student debt strike, and how to address the bad faith arguments against student debt relief from both sides of the aisle.