Articles
Pegasus, Pandemics, and the Normalization of Surveillance
All around the world, digital tools are being used in various ways to monitor data and control access. Privacy experts have long warned that these digital tools are not easily reversible; they are often repackaged, and repurposed for other means. As always, their calls have been ignored.
Breaking up the Tech Giants is not Enough
Monopoly used to be understood in a kind of one dimensional space, how a company may have gained dominance in its industry. However, today’s tech monopolies exist in multidimensions; they monopolize and control our data, they decide when and if to censor our speech, and they purchase government officials, the same ones charged with reigning them in. But our old conception of monopolies is totally inadequate to describe or understand the significance of today’s big tech companies.
Lisa Marchiano: A Return to Embodied Wisdom
In this episode, Lisa Marchiano joins me to talk about her new book Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself. Lisa Marchiano is a Jungian analyst, author, and podcaster. She is the cohost and creator of the podcast This Jungian Life. We discuss how motherhood has been devalued in our society, how Lisa addresses the fear many women have of being "chained down" by motherhood, and how she uses fairy tales in her book to illustrate lessons that women can learn about themselves through motherhood.
The Underground Episode 6: Big Tech, Censorship, and Capitalism
In this episode, we discuss the power a few big tech companies have amassed when it comes to who can say what. To have the power to silence even a president indicates a serious issue when it comes to a private company, especially when you start to look at the connections between the government and the tech companies. We discuss the way some of these companies appear to be state actors in some regards, and the need for genuine freedom of speech for everyone, a value which is being corrupted by the tech overlords’ desire for profit and power.
Sean McCarthy on How the Left Can Find its Relevance Again
In this clip from Sasha and Nesim's interview with Sean McCarthy, Sean explains what he thinks the left needs to focus on in order to regain its relevance and make real change.
The Wi Spa Incident
In this clip, Nesim and Sasha speak to their guests Charles Love and Wilfred Reilly about the recent Wi Spa incident, where antifa protestors violently harassed several individuals who oppose policies that allow transwomen to enter women's spaces (changing rooms and other areas where women are vulnerable or undressed).
Stella O’Malley: the Plight of Parents with Gender Dysphoric Children
Sasha is joined by psychotherapist and writer Stella O'Malley to discuss her new organization for parents of gender-questioning kids, Genspect. They talk about the gender medicine industry, the nightmare situation many parents find themselves in when they bring their child to a gender therapist for help, the motives of the doctors and other professionals who push this experimental craze, and much more.
McCarthyism, Political Courage and High Noon
Witch hunts in various forms are one of those recurring themes of human history. One variation, known as McCarthyism, has returned recently, at least in the lexicon. The word McCarthyism has been thrown around a lot lately. Like ‘fascist’ or ‘marxist,’ it is a part of the word arsenal deployed in our current culture wars.
The Underground Episode 5: Is Capitalism Amoral? with Charles Love and Wilfred Reilly
In this episode, Sasha and Nesim are joined by Charles Love and Wilfred Reilly to continue a discussion on capitalism that started on the Cut the Bull Podcast co-hosted by Charles, Wilfred, and Shemeka Michelle.
Nadine Strossen on the Importance of Consistent Principled Support of Free Speech
Nadine Strossen, former president of the ACLU, joins Sasha to discuss a range of issues that revolve around freedom of expression including cancel culture, at-will employment laws, pornography, and the importance of speaking out to defend those who are under attack for exercising their freedom of expression.
Anti-Oppression Politics is a Red Herring to Divert Our Attention from Empire, Inequality, and Class Solidarity
Why are the rich so much better at uniting around class issues than the plebes? Outrage is a sentiment that feels so pure and so right. When it is pointed at injustice and burns bright inside of us we are reaffirmed as the moral beings that we believe ourselves to be. That our strongly held sense of righteousness could be a useful tool for others and even redirected to serve their purposes may seem impossible and even unbearable.
What Canada’s Church Arsons Reveal About the ‘Progressive’ Country
On Canada Day, July 1, 2021, a Catholic church in East Vancouver, B.C. was vandalized with orange paint. A video posted to social media revealed two young women behind this act of vandalism.