Not quite in time for a Thanksgiving argument with your Facebook uncle, but well ahead of schedule for a Christmas argument with the same, we're pleased to bring you a breakdown of the November elections.

This is Fine

This Is Fine - Episode 3.1

On this episode, we speak with writer and theater director Isaac Butler, who is the author, with Dan Kois, of a new oral history of Tony Kushner's "Angels In America," titled "The World Only Spins Forward." As always, we do a brief review of recent notable political events and then get to talking about what "Angels" accomplished and what it means today.

Episode 2.2 - The World Only Spins... Forward?

Welcome back, Finers! We've returned after a long, child-induced hiatus, just in time to fire up Season 2: Everything Is Still Fine, There's Nothing To Worry About, Really. On this episode, intrepid reporter Sam Thielman joins us for a retrospective on perhaps the dumbest year in American history; we discuss everything from Russian ad buys on Facebook to the Virginia governor's race, and make 100% ironclad predictions about how the following year is going to play out.

Episode 2.1 - That Was The Year That Was

Part 2 of our conversation with Alex Wellerstein. This is a re-upload because the initial version was missing non-Alex tracks.

This Is Fine - Episode 1.16 - Part 2

Welcome to Episode 1.16: No Nukes Is Good Nukes, or Is It? Thanks for listening, Finers; please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and make sure to keep a copy of this episode in your local fallout shelter. In this two-parter, we get down into the details of nuclear weapons history with Alex Wellerstein of the Stevens Institute of Technology. We discuss various efforts intended to achieve nuclear disarmament, who has the authority for nuclear weapons use, what are the biggest threats facing us in the future, and what you can do to reduce your risk of perishing in a nuclear attack. This is part 1 of this episode, with part 2 coming approximately a week from today. In two weeks, we’ll return with a deep dive into post-Soviet Russian history, with a special focus on US-Russia relations. As always, the show notes can be found at: http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/07/30/episode-1-16-no-nukes-is-good-nukes-or-is-it/

Episode 1.16 - No Nukes is Good Nukes... Or Is It? - Part 1

Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.15: Contraventional Wisdom. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, we talk about Iran-Contra, a little over thirty years after Reagan’s apology to the country for the scandal in March 1987. We focus mainly on Malcolm Byrne’s conclusive 2014 book, “Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power,” which takes advantage of extensive primary source documents unavailable to Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh during his investigation of the scandal in the late 1980s. We discuss the scandal and its parallels to the Trump administration today. As always, the show notes are available at http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/07/07/episode-1-15-contraventional-wisdom/.

Episode 1.15 - Contraventional Wisdom

Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.14: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, Judith Miller, a law professor at the University of Chicago who worked as a federal public defender, joins us to give a public defender’s perspective on our criminal justice system. We discuss some of the criminal and civil protections for police officers, including ways in which the exclusionary rule has been hollowed out. We also discuss the ways that the defense is handicapped relative to the prosecution, in pre-trial evidence gathering, sentence reduction offers for testimony, permissible bending of the truth, and even penalties for misconduct. As always, the show notes are available at http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/06/23/episode-1-14-heads-i-win-tails-you-lose/

Episode 1.14: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.13: Mo' Prisons, Mo' Problems. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, we discuss mass incarceration and some of the injustice in our criminal justice system. We discuss Michelle Alexander’s New Jim Crow and Chris Hayes’ A Colony in a Nation. We briefly touch on order: police shootings, underpolicing, and the difficulty of prosecuting police misconduct. We also look at the law: tax farming of citizens, prosecutorial discretion and misconduct, plea bargains, and the consequences of judicial elections. Finally we look at some possible criminal justice reforms. As always, the show notes are available at http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/06/04/episode-1-13-mo-prisons-mo-problems/.

Episode 1.13: Mo' Prisons, Mo' Problems

Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.12. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, we take on the state of American health care, discussing at length the recently passed Republican zombie bill, the American Health Care Act, as well as Elizabeth Rosenthal’s book, An American Sickness, which discusses health care’s broken cost structure. We discuss some of the paths forward for health care reform, and then close with a rare foray into current events, as the Trump administration’s recklessness manages to flabbergast even us. As always, the show notes are available at http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/05/24/episode-1-12-health-care-more-like-health-dont-care/.

Episode 1.12 - Health Care? More Like Health Don't Care!

Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.11: The New, New Marshall Plan. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, guest Marshall Steinbaum, a senior economist and fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, joins us to discuss how there is no free market to be found in the state of nature and how the United States has always had an active industrial policy, often favoring the wealthy. We discuss why the movement to defund and privatize public goods like education coincided with the civil rights’ movement attempt to extend those goods to non-whites. Finally, we touch on the ways in which corporate and shareholder power, and the decline of progressive taxation have made the economy more favorable to capital and more hostile for labor. As always, the show notes are available at http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/05/02/episode-1-11-the-new-new-marshall-plan/.

Episode 1.11 - The New, New Marshall Plan

Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.10: Fox Populi. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, guest Sam Thielman helps us understand the business model that has sustained Fox News. We also talk about the ways in which state and local politicians have conspired with large corporations in places like Chattanooga, Tennessee to keep rural services like broadband expensive and only available through corporate oligopolies. Is fighting against monopoly power a way forward for the Left? As always, the show notes are available at http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/04/20/episode-1-10-fox-populi/.

Episode 1.10 - Fox Populi

Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.9: Sons of Autarky. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, we talk about how the crisis of declining male labor force participation, the opioid epidemic, the Trump vote, and racism are all connected by one powerful narrative, autarkic patriarchal white labor (APWL). That’s the belief that a man's purpose is to provide for his family and that purpose can be only honored by certain types of work. Examining APWL, we look at some of the damage this story many men tell themselves has caused, and we look for a way out. As always, the show notes are available at www.thisisfine.net/2017/04/06/episode-1-9-sons-of-autarky/.

Episode 1.9 - Sons of Autarky

Welcome to This is Fine, Episode 1.8: Any Organized Party. Thank you for listening, Finers. In this week's podcast, we talk with writer, academic, activist, and erstwhile Twitter-opinion-haver Freddie DeBoer about the challenges of left organizing in the runup to the 2018 elections. We contemplate whether the left can usefully cooperate with the Democratic Party, ask what a more small-d-democratic platform would look like, and bemoan the broken media ecosystem. Show notes are available at our website, http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/03/23/episode-1-8-any-organized-party/

Episode 1.8: Any Organized Party

Welcome to This Is Fine, episode 1.7: How Deep Is Your State? Thank you very much for listening, Finers. In this week’s podcast, we talk Turkey, or specifically the differences between the Deep State in a country like Turkey and the law enforcement and intelligence services in the U.S., particularly their leaks about the Trump campaign's involvement with Russia. As always, the show notes are available at www.thisisfine.net.

Episode 1.7 - How Deep is Your State?

Episode 1.6 - part 2 - It's Time For Some Game Theory by Jeremy Reff and Jerry Vinokurov

Episode 1.6 - part 2 - It's Time For Some Game Theory

This is Fine is a podcast, mostly about politics, mostly about how things are not fine. We discuss what is happening and what can be done in the current political emergency. With hosts Jeremy Reff and Jerry Vinokurov.

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This is Fine

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