The Socialist Program

The biggest capitalist CEOs of AI companies have been forced in the last week to address the question raised by their own profit-driven efforts: will the AI technologies they are rapidly developing not only threaten communities where data centers are being imposed, but also threaten society and life as we know it? Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

A gas company just paid a record-breaking $5.3 million for its tanker ship to skip the Panama Canal’s long line, a line induced by the US-Iran war. Meanwhile the US fired on Iranian positions in the Strait of Hormuz. The US bond market is also in its worst state in 30 years. Professor Richard Wolff and producer Nicole Roussell unpack the state of today’s volatile global economy. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

Speaking on behalf of Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the United States would embark on a new campaign to destroy Iran’s economy with sanctions. He gave the operation a name: ‘Operation Economic Outcast.’ Professor Richard Wolff and Brian Becker discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

You may have heard that the US government recruited Nazi scientists to work for NASA, but did you know they also recruited them to experiment on US soldiers? Their recruitment was part of Operation Paperclip, and the scientists were only a fraction of this program. It also recruited Nazi SS spies and unleashed them into the Cold War, installed Nazi generals into top positions in West Germany and NATO, and helped Nazi war criminals flee prosecution. And this story goes even deeper, all the way to the initial rise of Nazi Germany, directly challenging the dominant US narrative about its history. We’ve compiled it all into an immersive, 1 hour and 20 minute podcast that explores the many facets of this scandal and how they are connected. We’ve combed through tens of hours of oral testimony to bring the story to life with shocking first-hand accounts. This is part of our new podcast series: ‘Socialist History,’ which uncovers the real story of US imperialism through a socialist lens, told from the perspective of the people who fought back. In this first season each episode unpacks a different Pentagon or CIA operation. This is a preview, get the full episode at https://www.patreon.com/collection/2243748

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent billions of U.S. dollars to buy and prop up the Japanese currency, the yen. Professor Richard Wolff and Brian Becker unpack the economic and geopolitical calculations of the Trump White House, and what it means for the US economy. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.