Workers' Lit

It's time to break the ICE.Jen and Jacob discuss the dramatic week that's passed since the murder of Renée Nicole Good, the latest stats on ICE, Trump, and Congress' popularity, and the campaigns in motion to hold these fascists to account.Read Renée's poem here:https://poets.org/2020-on-learning-to-dissect-fetal-pigsSources cited in the episode:https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2026/1/dfp_ice_shooting_minneapolis.pdfhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/04/ice-2025-deaths-timelinehttps://zeteo.com/p/keith-ellison-minnesota-ice-trump-vancehttps://www.cnn.com/polling/approval/trump-cnn-poll-of-pollshttps://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspxhttps://substack.com/home/post/p-184378952

April is the cruelest month, but it’s January so we should be good.Today we’re discussing T.S. Eliot’s 1922 modernist poetic masterpiece, “The Wasteland.” We also discuss Eliot himself…who’s a lot less cool than his poem.Joining us as we wander the wasteland is Chris Richards, AKA The Eclectic Radical. You can check out his work here!

Author and Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad, returns to the show to discuss the United States' kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, Trump's claim that the United States now owns Venezuela's oil industry, and American foreign policy in the age he calls "hyperimperialism." We also get into Venezuela's unique and tumultuous history as it struggles to build socialism despite US aggression.Is all the discussion of Venezuela, Maduro, sanctions, international law, and all that jazz a little confusing? Vijay breaks it down perfectly.Also, stick around to hear Vijay's thoughts on the American education system in one of our best tangents ever.Check out the Tricontinental Institute here!The episode art is Vijay with Nicolas Maduro himself.

It's crime time.We're ringing in 2026 with James Ellroy's 1990 work of nasty neo noir, "LA Confidential." And we're mad about it! Why are there so many bizarre little policemen running around in this book???Joining us is Brian Wishart of "Moviepod: A Reclaimed Cinema Podcast" to unpack the weird freak that is James Ellroy, get exasperated over this absurd book, and occasionally acknowledge parts that are good.Check out Brian's podcat here!Learn about LA Police Gangs (in real life) here.Episode art is from the novel's second edition cover.

We took a weeklong break from talking about the news, but it's time to get back into the doings of the United States government...namely, starting new wars.Today we discuss Trump's Christmas strikes on Nigeria, the bombing of a Venezuelan port, and preparations being made inside Venezuela itself for siege and war. Also, we mention our favorite holiday movies.Articles referenced in this episode:https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/nigerian-residents-of-jabo-are-rattled-after-close-u-s-airstrikes-made-their-homes-shake-and-the-sky-glow-redhttps://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/29/nigeria_strikeshttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/30/trump-bombs-venezuelan-land-for-first-time-is-war-imminenthttps://substack.com/home/post/p-182894927?source=queue