Ep 385 - MAGAcademy: The Hostile Takeover of Higher Ed with Nolan Higdon

Ep 385 - MAGAcademy: The Hostile Takeover of Higher Ed with Nolan Higdon

** Don't forget about Tuesday’s Macro ‘n Chill, the online gathering where we listen to the podcast together and discuss the issues it covers. Bring your insights, questions, and good-faith disagreements. June 23, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/yI-UE7W1TcGglJSZ2l-Ffg [https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/yI-UE7W1TcGglJSZ2l-Ffg] As much as we'd like to blame Donald Trump for the near-destruction of higher education, the rot set in long before he ever set foot in the White House. Political analyst and author Nolan Higdon is back to talk with Steve about his new book, MAGA Academy: How Corporatism Paved the Way for the Hostile Takeover of Higher Ed. Nolan makes the case that Trump's hostile takeover of the academy was only possible because fifty years of neoliberal corporatization had already reduced universities to profit-driven enterprises. (He also points out that this was spearheaded largely by so-called liberal Democrats.) From the weakening of faculty power and the crushing weight of student debt to the erosion of academic freedom and the treatment of students as mere customers, the stage was set long before MAGA became a political force. If higher education had a civic mission, it has been gutted. Critical inquiry is replaced by vapid careerism and market logic. Steve and Nolan examine how federal funding and corporate influence turned campuses into compliant institutions, more concerned with their bottom line. Steve brings the crucial macro-economic, challenging the false scarcity that puts the kibosh on public investment in education. As he often reminds us, the federal government is the issuer of the currency. It is not revenue-constrained, yet we continue to accept austerity and tuition hikes as if there were no other way. The conversation highlights how higher education reflects broader class relations and power structures within capitalism. MAGA's higher education agenda is part of a longer historical process that leads to today's intensified struggles over knowledge, ideology, and power. Nolan Higdon is a prominent political analyst, author, and media scholar. He teaches in Merrill College and the Education Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A veteran of the "corporate university" era, Higdon has authored numerous books, including The Anatomy of Fake News and Surveillance Education. His latest work, MAGAcademy, exposes the bipartisan neoliberal roots of the modern authoritarian shift in American higher education. Find his work on Substack: nolanhigdon.substack.com @NolanHigdonCML [https://twitter.com/NolanHigdonCML] on X

Ep 384 - Metabolic Rifts: Capitalism's Assault on the Earth System with Ian Angus

** Come to Macro ‘n Chill, the online gathering where we listen to the podcast together and discuss what we learned and where we agree or disagree. Tuesday, June 16, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Qm85bGIOSF2H_uNMwOmWtQ [https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Qm85bGIOSF2H_uNMwOmWtQ] Ecosocialist author, Ian Angus, talks with Steve about his book Metabolic Rifts: Capitalism's Assault on the Earth System. They explore the deep, sometimes invisible ways that capitalism disrupts the planet’s fundamental life cycles –– from soil depletion and artificial fertilizers to the carbon cycle driving global warming. Ian traces the concept of “metabolic rift” from Marx and Engels through a long socialist lineage, making the case that ecological critique has always been central to the Marxist tradition. (Indeed, some Marxists might argue that “eco-” is an unnecessary qualifier; “socialism” is enough!) Steve brings up the MMT basics challenging the austerity narrative that blocks ecological reconstruction. He reminds us that the state, as the currency issuer, can de-commodify the essentials of life, namely food, water, housing, and healthcare. However, as Ian bluntly states: “The problem is that it’s not our government, it’s their government.” Reformism and electoralism are dead ends. While listeners may disagree with some of Ian's interpretations of Soviet history, those comments do not negate the episode's compelling analysis that capitalism’s DNA demands endless accumulation and profit. Combating the ecological crisis is inseparable from the struggle to overcome capitalism. Ian Angus is founder and editor of the online ecosocialist journal, Climate & Capitalism and a founding member of the Global Ecosocialist Network. Among his many books are The War Against the Commons: Dispossession and Resistance in the Making of Capitalism [https://monthlyreview.org/product/the-war-against-the-commons-dispossession-and-resistance-in-the-making-of-capitalism/] (Monthly Review Press, 2023), A Redder Shade of Green: Intersections of Science and Socialism [https://monthlyreview.org/product/a_redder_shade_of_green/] (Monthly Review Press, 2017) and Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System [http://monthlyreview.org/product/facing_the_anthropocene/] (Monthly Review Press, 2016). His most recent is Metabolic Rifts: Capitalism’s Assault on the Earth System. [https://bookshop.org/p/books/metabolic-rifts-capitalism-s-assault-on-the-earth-system-ian-angus/863f82dbe1cb58d1] (Monthly Review Press, 2026), @ecosocialism1 on X

Ep 383 - The Complicit Lens with Robin Andersen

Join us Tuesday, June 9th, at Macro ‘n Chill, the online gathering where we’ll listen to and discuss this episode. 8pm ET/5pm PT. Register with this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/L40tjKhOSCGCJTR-R-QJvw [https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/L40tjKhOSCGCJTR-R-QJvw] The title of Robin Andersen’s upcoming book (published next week) is The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of the Genocide in Gaza. You can see why Steve wanted to talk with her. Their conversation looks at how the corporate media helped manufacture consent for Israel’s war on Gaza by erasing historical context. It is tasked with enforcing cultural hegemony à la Gramsci, and defending the interests of the imperial core. Robin goes into examples of how the media has been used to erase Palestinian history and justify war crimes. Terms like "occupation," "apartheid," and "genocide" are scrubbed from discourse to maintain ideological control. It allows the ongoing dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to go unchallenged. As MMTers we understand – and Steve emphasizes – how state resources are mobilized without hesitation for war and geopolitical control, while austerity is imposed at home as a political choice rather than an economic necessity. In this time where journalists are under attack (literally) the episode urges solidarity with truth-tellers like Francesca Albanese who confront imperialist violence. Robin Andersen is professor emerita of media studies at Fordham University and an award-winning author of a dozen single- and co-authored books. Her work examines film, television, and media coverage of war, the environment, politics, and elections. She edits the Routledge Focus Book Series on Media and Humanitarian Action, serves as a Project Censored Judge, and contributes to the annual State of the Free Press. Andersen is on the Board of Directors of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), where she also writes regularly, and is an Izzy Award Judge for the Park Center for Independent Media. Her writing has appeared in CounterPunch, LA Progressive, The Progressive, Salon, Common Dreams, and ScheerPost, among others. @MediaPhiled on X

Ep 382 - Yellow Vests & the Battle for Democracy: Beyond the Ballot Box with Ida Susser

**Every Tuesday we hold an online gathering where we listen to and talk about the episode while building community. Share your insights and questions as we educate ourselves and each other. Macro ‘n Chill, June 2, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/OEYtu7v-SciBITwiIWwdzw [https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/OEYtu7v-SciBITwiIWwdzw] A frequent theme of our podcast revolves around the contradiction between formal political rights and the material realities of the working class. This week, our guest Ida Susser talks to Steve about the French Yellow Vest movement as a reaction to the contradictions of late-stage financial capitalism which has systematically gutted the welfare state, dismantled public services in the provinces, and further abandoned the universalist promises of the French Republic. Ida, an anthropologist, is author of the book The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy: Taking to the Streets of Paris in the 21st Century. [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-yellow-vests-and-the-battle-for-democracy-taking-to-the-streets-of-paris-in-the-21st-century/fbd17d3e6df32416?ean=9781032877938] Moving beyond the liberal fetish of the ballot box, the conversation explores how the Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests, built horizontalist, leaderless power from the grassroots. They blockaded traffic circles, constructed makeshift commons, and forged bonds of class solidarity across regional and ethnic lines. Ida contrasts this bottom-up mobilization with the top-down, cultish nature of MAGA; she points out that the French movement’s refusal of vanguardism did not prevent it from “thresholding” into a broader, anti-neoliberal bloc. Steve introduces the MMT lens to expose the ideological confusion around taxation and public spending. Is it possible the Yellow Vests’ defense of the social wage and their rage against the Macronist oligarchy represent a necessary, if incomplete, rehearsal for working-class power? Ida Susser is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. She has conducted ethnographic research in the U.S., Southern Africa and Puerto Rico, France and Spain with respect to urban social movements and the urban commons, gender, the global AIDS epidemic and environmental movements. She is the author of numerous books, chapters, and articles, including The Tumultuous Politics of Scale (Routledge Press, 2020) co-edited, and Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban Neighborhood (Oxford University Press, 2012. Her most recent is The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy: Taking to the Streets of Paris in the 21st Century. [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-yellow-vests-and-the-battle-for-democracy-taking-to-the-streets-of-paris-in-the-21st-century/fbd17d3e6df32416?ean=9781032877938] (Routledge, 2026).

Ep 381 - Disinformation Nation with Mickey Huff

**Will we see you at Macro ‘n Chill on Tuesday? You’re invited to join our online gathering where we listen to the episode together and share our insights and questions. May 26 at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UHE6NoSDRbibqXYAeJJ8gQ [https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UHE6NoSDRbibqXYAeJJ8gQ ] Disinformation is neither an accident nor excess; it is the normal functioning of late capitalism’s media apparatus. Our friend Mickey Huff, executive director of Project Censored, talks with Steve about the machinery of modern propaganda, algorithmic control, and billionaire-owned media ecosystems. Their conversation highlights key tensions of a base and superstructure in decay. Mickey lays out the historical continuity of media manipulation, and they bring up surveillance as a class weapon and electoral distraction as a dead end. (Mickey may be the first guest to mention Gilens and Page before Steve does.) From Silicon Valley oligarchs and tech monopolies to the collapse of local journalism and the rise of curated realities, Steve and Mickey frame today’s information war as a struggle over who gets to shape “common sense.” Critical media literacy is not about neutral fact-checking but about exposing whose interests a narrative serves. Mickey Huff is Executive Director of Project Censored, President of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation, and Distinguished Director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College Find his full bio at https://www.projectcensored.org/mickey-huff/ [https://www.projectcensored.org/mickey-huff/] @ProjectCensored on X