Sign In
Sign In
Unf*cking The Republic
UNFTR Media
Recent Episodes
Probably the scariest, most dreaded term in economics is stagflation. Those who lived through the crisis in the 1970s can attest to this. In short, stagflation is defined as a period of low-to-no economic growth combined with high unemployment and high inflation. It’s a deadly recipe that took extraordinary measures to break the last time we experienced this phenomenon, and the method used back then is still highly contested territory.
If you’ve heard the term more often in recent months, it’s because some economists are beginning to fear a resurgence of stagflation due to the policies of the Trump administration. So today we’re doing a very deep dive into the economy to discuss the differences between now and the crisis of the ‘70s and show how Trump might be singlehandedly pushing us into an entirely new and preventable stagflation crisis.
Chapters
Intro: 00:01:00
The Phillips Curve: 00:03:34
Unemployment and Labor: 00:17:18
Trump's Conundrum: 00:20:05
Time to Rewind: 00:24:53
Lessons and Insights: 00:30:19
Post Show Musings: 00:42:28
Outro: 00:54:13
Resources
Investopedia: What Is Stagflation, What Causes It, and Why Is It Bad?
The New York Times: Strong Dollar vs. Weak Dollar
Office of the Historian: Oil Embargo, 1973–1974
Federal Reserve History: The Great Inflation
FRED: Personal Saving Rate
FRED: New Privately-Owned Housing Units Started: Total Units
FRED: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food in U.S. City Average
UNFTR Episode Resources
Housing First: Non-Negotiable #1.
Building a Civilian Labor Corps: Bracing for the AI Job Apocalypse. Non-Negotiable #2.
The Global Order of Money: How Exactly Does It Make the World Go ’Round?
--
If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, TikTok and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Check out the UNFTR Pod Love playlist on Spotify: spoti.fi/3yzIlUP.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is hosted by Max and distributed by 99.
Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/unftr
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fresh off the heels of our fifth and final Non-Negotiables of the Left series, 99 and I spent some time in the studio reviewing feedback from the UNFTR audience. While I stomped my feet like a toddler, 99 was able to finally get me under control and a productive conversation ensued.
The upshot is that the feedback was fairly muted, with most of you signaling that the Climate Trust is out of step with the other four Non-Negotiables. While I stand by the concept of Social Security for the planet and the funding mechanism behind the idea, I hear you. In the consolidated episode that will serve as the baseline for our curriculum moving forward, I’m making notes and adjustments to improve this perspective.
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:20
Emails + Comments: 00:16:25
Memberships: 01:23:13
Outro: 01:25:42
Resources
Spring Fund, Friend, and Hell Raiser: Become a UNFTR Member or donate today, and subscribe to us on YouTube
The Ezra Klein Show: Democrats Need to Face Why Trump Won
UNFTR Episode Resources
The Climate Trust: Non-Negotiable #5.
--
If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, TikTok and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Check out the UNFTR Pod Love playlist on Spotify: spoti.fi/3yzIlUP.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is hosted by Max and distributed by 99.
Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, "Unf*cking the Republic."
Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/unftr
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is the final installment of our 5 Non-Negotiables of the Left series where we detail three short-term goals to take back the country and two long-term fights that must be waged for the sake of our democracy and the planet. This fifth entry speaks to the now back-burnered but ever-present threat to life on this planet: Climate change. This is the most difficult case we’ll make to you.
We expect pushback and disappointment at first but if we do our job, we’ll shift you to acknowledgement and resolve. This fifth Non-Negotiable isn’t for us. It’s for someone you might know, but more than likely it’s for someone you’ll never meet. We present the establishment of The Climate Trust: Social Security for the Planet.
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:57
Chapter One: Diet, Exercise and Nuclear Power. 00:01:25
Chapter Two: The Social Cost of Carbon. 00:06:21
Chapter Three: Settling into Reality. 00:10:37
Chapter Four: We’ve Known It All Along. 00:17:55
Non-Negotiable #5: The Climate Trust. 00:26:36
Post Show Musings: 00:30:30
Outro: 01:23:22
Resources
IPCC: Summary for Policymakers — Special Report on Climate Change and Land
Institute for Policy Integrity: Gauging Economic Consensus on Climate Change
The Center for Climate & Security: Chronology of Military and Intelligence Concerns About Climate Change
World Economic Forum: This is How Climate Change Could Impact The Global Economy
The New York Times: 40 Million People Rely on the Colorado River. It’s Drying Up Fast.
The Black Vault: Global Climate Change Implications for the U.S. Navy
Thomas Malthus: On the Principle of Population
United Nations: Food Systems Summit
United Nations: Secretary-General’s Chair Summary and Statement of Action on the UN Food Systems Summit
US EPA: Global Greenhouse Gas Overview
Penn State: Plant-Based Diet
Rodale Institute: Farming Systems Trial
Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index
The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health
Energy Education: Discovery of the greenhouse effect
DQYDJ: Income Percentile Calculator for the United States
Eunice Foote: Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays
CNA: National Security and the Threat of Climate Change
GovInfo: National Security Implications of Global Climate Change to 2030
U.S. Department of Defense: Department of Defense 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap
Global Monitoring Laboratory: Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
UNIDO: HCFC Phase-Out
PBS NewsHour: Antarctic ozone hole believed to be shrinking
Book Love
James Howard Kunstler: The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Cent
Cass R. Sunstein: Climate Justice: What Rich Nations Owe the World—and the Future
Tad Delay: Future of Denial: The Ideologies of Climate Change
Nicoletta Batini: The Economics of Sustainable Food: Smart Policies for Health and the Planet
Mark Bittman: Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal: A Food Science Nutrition History Book
Michael T. Klare: All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change
Lester R. Brown: Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
John Tyndall: Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion
William Stanley Jevons: The Coal Question
UNFTR Resources
Building the Climate Industrial Complex.
--
If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, TikTok and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Check out the UNFTR Pod Love playlist on Spotify: spoti.fi/3yzIlUP.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is hosted by Max and distributed by 99.
Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, "Unf*cking the Republic."
Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/unftr
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week is an attempt to organize disparate content pieces from the past few weeks. Thoughts on third parties, Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress (which we mistakenly referred to as the State of the Union, oops!), notes on the final non-negotiables and random thoughts Max is working through. We’ve got a mashup of sorts on our hands so prepare for a bit of rambling.
Resources
Associated Press: Elissa Slotkin delivers Democratic response to Trump’s speech
Britannica: United States presidential election of 1912
Time: How Ross Perot Changed Political Campaigns
LWV: The League's History Sponsoring Presidential Debates
The Commission on Presidential Debates
Tampa Bay Times: Nader, Buchanan kept out of debate
--
If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, TikTok and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Check out the UNFTR Pod Love playlist on Spotify: spoti.fi/3yzIlUP.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is hosted by Max and distributed by 99.
Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, "Unf*cking the Republic."
Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/unftr
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The movement to get money out of politics will take a very long time. I know people don’t want to hear that. My guess is, in the best case scenario, we’re looking at 20 years. Best case. If it makes you feel any better, the movement to get money into politics took 181 years so by that measure, two decades to unravel what took 181 to build isn’t all that bad. Either we’re committed to playing the long game or not. The assholes that got us here were.
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:33
Chapter One: Non-Negotiable #4. 00:01:11
Chapter Two: The Long and Winding Road to Citizens United. 00:07:05
Chapter Three: Media Complicity. The Revolution Was Already Televised. 00:16:46
Chapter Four: Defying Its Creator. The Tale of Mitch McGolem. 00:20:43
Bring it Home, Max: 00:28:47
Post Show Musings: 00:37:13
Outro: 01:11:09
Resources
OpenSecrets: Money-in-Politics Timeline
Brennan Center for Justice: Since Citizens United, a Decade of Super PACs
Cambridge University: Dark Parties: Unveiling Nonparty Communities in American Political Campaigns
De Gruyter: Television Advertising in the 2022 Midterms
De Gruyter: Digital Advertising in the 2022 Midterms
Bowdoin College: Government Scholar Michael Franz on Impact of Ads during the 2024 Election Cycle
Brennan Center for Justice: Life Tenure for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Is a Global Oddity with Clear Costs
Ballotpedia News: Looking ahead at 2025 ranked-choice voting legislation
Justia: Citizens United v. FEC | 558 U.S. 310 (2010)
Senate: Saving American Democracy Amendment
Constitution Center: Interpretation: The Twenty-Seventh Amendment
Book Love
Adam Jentleson: Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy
Kermit L. Hall: The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States
UNFTR Episode Resources
Building a Civilian Labor Corps: Bracing for the AI Job Apocalypse.
What’s the Deal with Peter Thiel?
--
If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, TikTok and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Check out the UNFTR Pod Love playlist on Spotify: spoti.fi/3yzIlUP.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is hosted by Max and distributed by 99.
Podcast art description: Image of the US Constitution ripped in the middle revealing white text on a blue background that says, "Unf*cking the Republic."
Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/unftr
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.