Original Air Date 12/3/2022
Today, we take a look at the mega-companies that touch all of our lives and the monopolistic practices that have been developed to keep power and wealth concentrated with the few while the rest of us get screwed.
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Transcript
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Tech Monopolies - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Air Date 6-13-22
John Oliver discusses tech monopolies, and how to address the hidden harm they can do.
Ch. 2: How Ticketmaster Is Destroying Live Music - More Perfect Union - Air Date 10-19-22
Ticketmaster is destroying live music. Their scam fees now cost as much as 78% of a ticket. They control the events, the venues, and even the artists. There’s a movement pushing the Justice Department to take on its monopoly. Cory Doctorow breaks it down.
Ch. 3: Corporate Greed Is Causing Inflation But The Rich Blame Workers - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 11-16-22
Not since the Great Depression have corporate profits soared so high. But it is not enough to satisfy them. More than 54% of the inflation America is experiencing is caused by record-setting corporate profits.
Ch. 4: Why Food Prices Could Skyrocket Thanks to This Grocery Merger - More Perfect Union - Air Date 11-14-22
Safeway, Ralphs, Smiths, Harris Teeters, Shaws, Kings, Randalls, and about 25 other brands, will all be owned by a single company if the Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through. And that’s really bad news for the prices you pay.
Ch. 5: Chokepoint Capitalism (with Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin) - Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer - Air Date 11-1-22
Novelist Cory Doctorow and intellectual property expert Rebecca Giblin discuss their new book, Chokepoint Capitalism, which documents the increasing tensions between extractive corporations and creative laborers.
Ch. 6: Making The Case For Abolishing Billionaires - MSNBC - Air Date 11-21-22
"One after another, four of our best-known billionaires laid waste to the image of benevolent saviors carefully cultivated by their class," Anand Giridharadas writes in a recent New York Times column.
Ch. 7: Elon Musk Is An Idiot (and so are Zuck and SBF) - Adam Conover - Air Date 11-23-22
Tech CEOs aren't geniuses, and here's the proof.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 8: Chokepoint Capitalism (with Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin) Part 2 - Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer - Air Date 11-1-22
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 9: Final comments on how regulation helps stop financial scams
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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#1165 To Exist is to Resist: Life and Activism in Occupied Palestine Working Toward Rights and Democracy For All in Israel (Throwback)
#1163 Strange Bedfellows: Looking at why Ethno-Nationalists Admire Israel and the Violence Inflicted on Gaza (Throwback)
Bonus Sample: #293 I love you, man
#1615 Envisioning a Leftisț Economic Future of Postcapitalism, High-Tech Automation, Universal Basic Income and a World (Mostly) Without Work
#1614 Deep-Fakery and Deep Consequences for Democracy: AI-generated fake news threatens elections around the world and makes people question the ability to know what is real
Bonus Sample #292 Techno Authoritarians vs Interoperabilities
#1613 Breathless Speculation: Biden's Baggage, Trump's Tyranny, Misleading Media, Courts and Criminality
#1612 New Tech and the New Luddite Movement; Inequitable Distribution of Benefits from New Technology Always Sparks Demands from Labor and AI is Rekindling the Old Arguments
Bonus Sample #291 Recommendations and Manipulations
#1611 Higher Education: the Myths, McCarthyism, and Change Makers at a time when education is under attack for free speech, DEI and CRT but arguably needs changes to meet a changing world
#1610 The Border, and Our Border Politics, Are a Mess - As Trump and MAGA-driven misunderstanding and panic about the nature of immigration dominates election concerns.
#1609 The Post-Roe World is Bad But it Could Still Get Worse - Abortion Bans in the US Are Causing Widespread Suffering for Both Patients and Doctors Attempting to Navigate the New Normal
#1608 Widespread Loneliness is a Solvable Social Problem - Urban Design, Architecture, Co-housing, and Community Action and Support Can Make Our Towns Better
Bonus Sample #289 A Cul-de-Sac of Ignorance
#1607 The Tangled, Flammable Web of War in the Middle East
Bonus Sample #288 Make the Children Cry in Order to Save Them
#1606 Biden's Barriers and Boons to Reelection
#1605 Our Prison System is a Demonstrable Failure
#1604 The Border Crisis is Manufactured for Political Opportunity
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