Astra TaylorEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

In this week's episode, we speak with Astra Taylor, a critically acclaimed writer, filmmaker and organizer about practicing solidarity in an age of insecurity. Taylor discusses insecurity as a structural feature of capitalism and advocates for solidarity, which fosters collective responsibility and mutual obligation. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Show Notes: Host Sanjay Ruparelia and Astra Taylor discuss the practice of solidarity in an age of insecurity. Taylor distinguishes between existential and manufactured insecurity, emphasizing that insecurity is a structural feature of capitalism. She also contrasts solidarity with unity and fraternity, highlighting solidarity's relational and transformative nature. She advocates for a "solidarity state," which fosters collective responsibility and mutual obligation. Taylor also addresses the challenges of achieving global solidarity, noting the debt Western nations owe to the Global South due to historical injustices. She emphasizes the need for international cooperation to address crises like climate change and pandemics. Host: Sanjay Ruparelia , Jarislowsky Democracy Chair and Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. Guest: Astra Taylor , co-founder of the Debt Collective, documentary director, author and frequent contributor to publications including Dissent, The New Yorker and n+1. Her most recent book, co-authored with Leah Hunt-Hendrix, is Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Background Reading: Yogendra Yadav's Making Sense of Indian Democracy: Theory in Practice Suhas Palshikar, K.C. Suri and Yogendra Yadav's Party Competition in Indian States: Electoral Politics in Post-Congress Polity Alfred Stepan, Juan J. Linz and Yogendra Yadav's Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies Astra Taylor's The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor's Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea

Hello! This week we’re extremely excited to have on Astra Taylor, a filmmaker, author, and organizer with the Debt Collective . We talk about Walz, whether VP picks matter, good vibes and joy for once, and also what the hell was RFK Jr. thinking when he dumped that dead bear cub in Central Park. Astra also talks to us about the book she co-authored with Leah Hunt-Hendrix titled “ SOLIDARITY: THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF A WORLD CHANGING IDEA ,” which all of you should pick up and read as it’s extremely relevant to everything we discuss on the show. Enjoy! Jay and Tyler This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Charles Dickens would recognize our predicament at once: the winter of despair and the spring of hope; an age of foolishness and an age of wisdom; Darkness in combat with Light. Life is never one thing isolated from every other thing; a lot of things can be—and are—happening at once. Contradiction—the dynamic, noisy, frenetic magnificence of life as it’s actually lived—is the universal experience of humanity.We’re fortunate to be joined by the smart and inspiring organizer/activist/artist Astra Taylor, someone willing to dive into rather than run away from contradiction as she illuminates both our problems and our possibilities in new ways. Taylor is a founding member of the Debt Collective and author, most recently, of The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart. Taylor’s work—and this conversation—is an antidote to despair and a call to action.

It's Occupy Wall Street's tenth anniversary. Dan interviews Astra Taylor. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our new weekly newsletter. Listen to other pods in the retrospective series https://rosalux.nyc/occupy/

Democracy Through the Camera Lens Astra Taylor is an author and filmmaker whose documentary What is Democracy? covers much of the same ground as our own series, but with a different essential question in mind. In this interview, Astra Taylor and host Andrew Keen reflect on what they drew from ancient Athenian democratic practices in their respective quests to understand democracy and predict what it will look like (and sound like) in the future. From the evolution of citizenship to the impact of capitalism and debt on democracy, Taylor and Keen trace threads of democracy from antiquity to the present day.

Today we've got Astra Taylor on to talk about her new essay collection, Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions . We talk about the student debt crisis, the politics of refugees, what she calls "fauxtomation," and more! Links to things we discussed: the Debt Collective (which has so far erased some $2 billion in student debt!), Astra's short documentary You Are Not a Loan , and her previous film What Is Democracy? (which she discussed on a previous episode ).

Cold open: What is Democracy? Outro: Jeff Mangum and Guy Picciotto at the Rolling Jubilee telethon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztyj7kE9tNc Extremely excited to be joined by Astra Taylor – acclaimed author, activist, filmmaker, and dream TMK guest – for a wide-ranging discussion about engaging with big important things like democracy, debt, and technology, about putting politics into practice to improve people’s lives, about paying close attention to not just the operators of the machine, but those who are thrown into its gears, and about so much! Grab Astra’s latest book: haymarketbooks.org/books/1635-remake-the-world Follow Astra: twitter.com/astradisastra Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

In Season One we asked ourselves, what does it mean “to citizen”? How do we show up and stand up for our community? Coming off the heels of January 6th, 2021, Baratunde starts Season Two by taking a step back with the question, “How can we citizen with so much division?”. In this episode, we speak with author and filmmaker Astra Taylor who takes us back to ancient Greece and reveals how our political and economic rights are deeply intertwined. Guest: Astra Taylor - writer, organizer, and documentarian Twitter : @astradisastra Bio: Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, writer, and political organizer. She is the director of the philosophical documentary What Is Democracy? ; the author of T he People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age ; and co-founder of Debt Collective . SHOW NOTES + LINKS Go to howtocitizen.com to sign up for show news, AND (coming soon!) to start your How to Citizen Practice. Please show your support for the show in the form of a review and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords! We are grateful to Astra Taylor for joining us! Follow her at @astradisastra on Twitter. or find more of her work at hiddendriver.com ACTIONS PERSONALLY REFLECT Find a “We” Are you a worker? A student? A freelancer? Reflect on the communities you are (or could be) a part of and organize with other community members to advocate for causes you all care about. Find strength in numbers! BECOME INFORMED Press the Subscribe/Follow button We’re not being vain. This season we’ve got a lot of incredible guests and more ways for you to show up and citizen. So buckle up, and join us on this journey. PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE Join the Debt Collective Are you in debt? Join Astra’s union for debtors, The Debt Collective, at debtcollective.org . Become a part of a movement of debtors who are wielding their collective economic power. If you take any of these actions, share that with us - action@howtocitizen.com . Mention It’s All Greek to Me in the subject line. And share about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen. Visit the show's homepage - www.howtocitizen.com - to sign up for news about the show, to learn about upcoming guests, live tapings, and more for your citizen journey. Also sign up for Baratunde's weekly Recommentunde Newsletter and follow him on Instagram or join his Patreon . You can even text him, like right now at 202-894-8844. CREDITS How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston, Elizabeth Stewart and Misha Euceph. Stephanie Cohn is our Senior Producer and Alie Kilts is our Producer. Kelly Prime is our Editor. Original Music by Andrew Eapen . Valentino Rivera is our Engineer. Sam Paulson is our Apprentice. This episode was produced and sound designed by Stephanie Cohn. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio. Special thanks to our citizen voices Marie Ture, Glenn Maida, Adan Ayala, and Jenn

Finance editor Sparky Abraham is joined by contributing editor Eli Massey, activist and filmmaker Astra Taylor, and journalist Elizabeth Bruenig to discuss the American medical debt crisis—who's behind it, what's being done about it, and potential paths to eradicating it. "Churches Step In Where Politicians Will Not": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/opinion/covid-medical-debt-church-charity.html "A Saint's Sins": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/opinion/junipero-serra-catholic-saint.html https://debtcollective.org/ This episode was edited by Dan Thorn of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA.

Dianne Feinstein is losing her marbles and Covid relief hangs in the balance. Writer and organizer Astra Taylor joins Francesca and comedian Nato Green to talk about pushing Biden to immediately abolish all student debt, an idea that’s catching on even with Chuck Schumer. Plus how the GOP is embracing minority rule, and finally a Hanukkah-themed segment about what we’ll need to make a political Revolution last for at least 8 nights! Featuring: Astra Taylor, writer & organizer (@astradisastra) Nato Green, comedian (@natogreen) Francesca Fiorentini (Host, @franifio) Give The Bitchuation Room Podcast 5 Stars on iTunes.Follow TBR on Twitter Watch LIVE every Sunday 6/9pmEST on YouTube and Twitch.Special Thanks to Becca Rufer, Kelly Carey, and Dorsey Shaw. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Watch The Bitchuation Room LIVE on Tuesdays 1pm PT/4pmET on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/franifio or Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/franifio. Listen to the show on: iTunes: http://bit.ly/iTunesbitchuation Google Music: http://bit.ly/GoogleBitchuation Spotify: http://bit.ly/spotifybitchuation Follow the show on: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bitchuationroom.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/bitchuationroom/ Twitter: https://x.com/BitchuationPod Follow Francesca on: IG:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/franifio/⁠ Twitter: https://twitter.com/franifio BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/franifio.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.com/@franifio Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Franifio Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today Grace speaks to Astra Taylor, Jerome Roos and James Schneider about their memories of the brilliant anthropologist and activist David Graeber, who tragically died last week.

Podcast : Hot & Bothered: A Dissent Climate Podcast (LS 38 · TOP 2% what is this? ) Episode : Hot & Bothered Podcast: Debt vs. Democracy, with Astra Taylor Pub date : 2020-04-30 Get Podcast Transcript → powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization Under the weight of COVID-19, every lie we’ve been told about how the economy works is busting open, and our institutions are revealing themselves to be incapable of offering a path to recovery. Worse yet, many governments are using the crisis as a pretext for a punishing return to austerity. Why? The answer can be summed up in one word: debt, an issue that Astra Taylor has spent the last several years organizing around as co-founder of the Debt Collective . Also a prolific writer and documentarian, Astra is the author most recently of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone and director of the companion film What Is Democracy? She has recently written about both the food system and debt crises as they intersect with the pandemic (and climate change, too). On this week’s show, Kate and Daniel talk to Astra about what the coronavirus pandemic has to do with eating meat, whether we really need a technocratic savior, why debt relief is inherently tied to democracy, and more. Kate and Daniel also take a look at the toxic record of Larry Summers, and why Democrats shouldn’t let him anywhere near the party platform. Check out the full Hot & Bothered archive <a

Under the weight of COVID-19, every lie we’ve been told about how the economy works is busting open, and our institutions are revealing themselves to be incapable of offering a path to recovery. Worse yet, many governments are using the crisis as a pretext for a punishing return to austerity. Why? The answer can be summed up in one word: debt, an issue that Astra Taylor has spent the last several years organizing around as co-founder of the Debt Collective . Also a prolific writer and documentarian, Astra is the author most recently of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone and director of the companion film What Is Democracy? She has recently written about both the food system and debt crises as they intersect with the pandemic (and climate change, too). On this week’s show, Kate and Daniel talk to Astra about what the coronavirus pandemic has to do with eating meat, whether we really need a technocratic savior, why debt relief is inherently tied to democracy, and more. Kate and Daniel also take a look at the toxic record of Larry Summers, and why Democrats shouldn’t let him anywhere near the party platform. [contentblock id=3] [contentblock id=2] [contentblock id=10] [contentblock id=3] If you like the episode and want to hear more from Kate and Daniel, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. And as a special thank you to everyone who’s able to pitch in right away, supporters who sign up by May 1 will automatically get bumped up to the next subscription tier. So don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today . Further reading Kate: Don’t Let Larry Summers Block Climate Progress Again ( The New Republic ) <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/494475-progressive-g

Democracy is a term that’s been used, misunderstood, and taken for granted by many — so what does democracy really mean? Am Johal sits down with activist and filmmaker Astra Taylor to explore how people interpret ‘democracy’ and how we can better understand it. Astra is the director behind the film What is Democracy?, a documentary that tackles this question, alongside celebrated theorists and a diverse cast of folks from different walks of life. Together, they try to understand who gets to participate in democracy and what that means for our society from a place of curiosity and a search for deeper meaning. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/21-astra-taylor.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/21-astra-taylor.html Learn more about the film and Astra’s newly-released book, “Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone”: https://www.whatisdemocracy.info/. Bio: Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, writer, and political organizer. She is the director of the philosophical documentaries What Is Democracy?, Examined Life (TIFF 2008), and Zizek! (TIFF 2005); the author of the American Book Award winner The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age; and a co-founder of the Debt Collective. She has written for The New York Times, The London Review of Books, The Guardian, The Walrus, The Baffler, n+1, and many other outlets. She is a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and a former touring member of the band Neutral Milk Hotel. Her new book, Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone, will be out from Metropolitan Books in early 2019. Cite this episode: Chicago Style Johal, Am. “Do we really know what democracy is? — with Astra Taylor” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 22, 2019. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/21-astra-taylor.html

Astra Taylor We begin our third season with a fundamental question: What is democracy? Astra Taylor grapples with this question in a documentary of the same name and a forthcoming book. We talk with her this week about what she learned from traveling the world and talking with people from all walks of life. As you’ll hear, she did not set out to make a documentary about democracy, but kept coming back to that question. Taylor is a writer, documentarian, and organizer. In addition to What is Democracy?, her films include Zizek! , a feature documentary about the world’s most outrageous philosopher, and Examined Life , a series of excursions with contemporary thinkers including Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Cornel West, Peter Singer, and others. A companion book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone , was released May 7. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, the London Review of Books, n+1, the New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic, and elsewhere. She is the editor of Examined Life, a companion volume to the film, and the coeditor of Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America. Her 2015 book, The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age , won an American Book Award. Additional Information What Is Democracy? Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss it When It’s Gone The Debt Collective Discussion/Reflection Questions What does democracy mean to you? Does it matter that people have different views of what democracy is? What do you see as the relationship between equality and democracy? How do you practice democracy in your day-to-day life? Interview Highlights [5:36] Why did you want to make a film about democracy? I kept coming back to democracy and I think for me the big takeaway of making this film and writing the companion book that goes with it is that I’ve actually become more of us, more democrat. It’s sort of inspired a deep conviction in the concept, in the practice, and things that bothered me about the term, it’s a vagueness? What does it mean? All sorts of people say that they believe in democracy. I mean North Korea uses the word “democratic,” but it is a vague use of the word. There’s a sense that democracy was corrupted, that it was synonymous with bureaucracy so I would have been more attracted to words like freedom, equality and justice and even socialism, a revolution. Things are really changing, we are in a very different political moment. We are in a moment when people are feeling we are in a political crisis and democracy we had for granted is declining, and people’s reaction is “I better pay attention to this thing I was ignoring”. [8:55] Did you see people’s perception of democracy change over the course of making film? The last week of filming was the 2016 election. I filmed for a few days after Trump’s victory and you know like most people I was surprised. I think people became more concerned with democracy. They got more sort of panicked and yet, I think what’s interesting about the film and how it turned out in the editing room is actually the footage that I shot earlier was