The Bruenigs

Liz and Matt are joined by Antti and Joona of Parecon Finland.

Liz and Matt have a wide-ranging discussion with citizen advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. We ask him about his views on recent trends in the Democratic party and play a game: Nader 2000 Platform Item or Fresh New Democratic Idea. Nader has a new humor book out called How The Rats Reformed Congress here: https://ratsreformcongress.org/.

The crew sits down with Tom Frank (Listen Liberal, What's the Matter with Kansas?) and have a sprawling conversation primarily about fascism, the subject of Frank's next book. Apologies for the slight audio issues on this one. They are fixed going forward. Subscribe: https://www.patreon.com/thebruenigs

The gang discuss Matt's cancellation over his blog post about student debt forgiveness in the first half of the episode. Will Butler of Arcade Fire comes on in the second half of the program to discuss the suburban gothic, Betomania including The Beto Tweet, and his experiences with Canada Medicare system and welfare state.

In their thanksgiving special, Liz and Matt eschew hot topics in favor of a full episode on the pitfalls of consumer markets. The jumping off point for the discussion is the recent writing about the Decline of Sex, but your wacky hosts think these articles miss the fact that the Decline of Sex is not a sui generis phenomenon, but is instead an outgrowth of consumer capitalist encroachment that we see in many areas of life. Theme song was created by Tom Weyman (@tomweyman on Twitter).

The wacky crew is at it again. Come for the theme song. Stay for the top notch discussion of politics and culture.

Liz and Matt discuss hot topics, Lauren Greenfield's Generation Wealth, and the underrated policy instrument of self-regulation via nationalization threats. Along with the bonus episode, The Bruenigs produced a record 1 hour and 20 min of content this week. This extra productivity does not get recorded in the national accounts however. Generation Wealth Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyfC1AVhfb8 Kids + Money on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/22811/55556079

Liz and Matt discuss Halloween happenings, the DC elections (poorly), the strange socialist posturing in climate policy, a philosophical tension in competition, among other things. The gas company (aka the Russians) interrupt the podcast midway through by jackhammering the street outside our dwelling. But Matt powers through to finish the episode.

Liz and Matt discuss a recent poll showing Democrats have more confidence in Amazon than any major US institution, the opening shots in the pundit effort to distinguish Bernie from Warren, geoengineering, some the Catholic sex scandal, and the CEA's socialism report. Bernie v. Warren pieces 1. Dayen: https://newrepublic.com/article/151871/essential-difference-bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren 2. Sunkara: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/23/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-democratic-party-2020-differences 3. Pollitt: https://www.thenation.com/article/elizabeth-warren-meets-the-lefts-circular-firing-squad/

We discuss the hot topic of the Warren DNA debacle, our 5 year old run in with Gavin McInnes, the Kamala Harris LIFT credit, the superiority of the child allowance over other welfare state programs, Matt's political platform he calls the Family Fun Pack, and then finally Christmas decorations and our struggling plants.

Liz and Matt go through the usual hot topics, discuss an inane survey about "political correctness," and talk about how Liz got in trouble with the internet for saying alcohol consumption contributes to a lot of social problems.

After joking about it for a dozen or more episodes, Liz and Matt now does have a Patreon for the podcast. Episodes will now release on Patreon first and then after a delay to the public. Please support us on Patreon to get the episodes when they are released, to get bonus tidbits, and to support our work. https://www.patreon.com/thebruenigs

Liz and Matt discuss the silly discourse around the Kavanaugh confirmation process (Liz wrote a WaPo piece on it), what Amazon's $15 min wage teaches us (Matt's wrote a WaPo piece on it), and some disappointments in a new paper on "accountable capitalism."

Liz discusses her blockbuster story about a rape at our high school: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/opinions/arlington-texas/?utm_term=.af69b738f075 We also talk about the high school generally, including some of the antics Matt got up to, including both times he was disqualified from running for student body president for "offensive campaigning materials" (really a pretense to keep him out of power).

Matt discusses his trip to Finland. Liz gives her hot sports opinions on Batman and his impending marriage. And both discuss Sportradio 1310 the Ticket, which has influenced them greatly.