A Force For Good?

Join a live recording of the podcast Barely Gettin’ By as host Emma Shortis and special guests Jeff Sparrow and Mittul Vahanvati discuss the necessity of imagining different futures, local activism, action-based research and governments’ roles.

Be part of the audience for a live recording of the podcast Barely Gettin’ By, hosted by Emma Shortis and featuring special guests: James Blackwell, Mittul Vahanvati and Jeff Sparrow. Forming part of Barely Getting By’s fourth season, “Up in Flames”, this event will examine climate policy as a global modern imperative.

Tue 10 May - 6pm – 7pm

The Capitol – RMIT

Tickets are free and available here: https://www.eventopia.co/event/MKW-Barely-Gettin-By-Radical-Hope/475617

Barely Gettin' By might be on a lockdown hiatus, but the climate news keeps coming. In the lead up to the all-important COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, this special episode examines the historic relationship between Australia and the United States when it comes to climate change. Emma reads an extract from her book, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States, and asks what that relationship might mean for Glasgow, and the future.

Emma Shortis, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States (Hardie Grant, 2021), https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/our-exceptional-friend-by-emma-shortis/9781743797839

Climate Council Australia, From Paris to Glasgow: A World on the Move, 21 October 2021, https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/paris-glasgow-world-move/

Wesley Morgan, “What is COP26 and why does the fate of Earth, and Australia’s prosperity, depend on it?” The Conversation, 14 October 2021, https://theconversation.com/what-is-cop26-and-why-does-the-fate-of-earth-and-australias-prosperity-depend-on-it-169648

Angela Dewan, “Australia is shaping up to be the villain of COP26 climate talks,” CNN, 13 September 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/12/australia/australia-climate-cop26-cmd-intl/index.html

Michael Slezak and Penny Timms, ‘Climate change report from IPCC a 'code red for humanity', United Nations chief warns’ ABC News Online, 9 August 2021, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/coal-climate-change-global-warming-ipcc-report-released/100355952

With Melbourne in the midst of Lockdown 5.0, we will be taking a short break until we can get back in to the studio again.

Donald Trump is gone, the pandemic is getting under control (in some places, maybe?), and all is well. Not.

After a long 2020 (and a very long January 2021) Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on the morning Thursday, 21 January (Australian time). What does a Presidential Inauguration look like when it’s overshadowed by a pandemic and threat of insurrectionist violence? Chloe and Emma talk about what what we can expect on Thursday, how Australia’s relationship with the USA will change after Donald Trump, what the violence on 6 January means, and what the Inauguration may tell us about the coming Biden Presidency.

Emma’s editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-lot-of-blame-to-go-around-for-the-chaos-in-the-capitol-but-some-belongs-to-australia-20210107-p56sfg.html

The Wall Street Journal put together a guide to events on the day

“Scott Morrison says 'Chinese Government should be totally ashamed' of 'repugnant' tweet”, ABC, 30 November 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/china-fake-image-australian-war-crimes-afghanistan-tensions/12934538

In the last episode of the season, Emma and Chloe reflect on Joe Biden’s victory and Trump’s refusal to concede. They look at how institutions and people are responding to Trump, and whether Fox News has finally seen the light. They ask if Trump is in fact attempting a coup, whether it will be successful, and whether fascism has to be successful in order to be called “fascism”. They then turn to the levers of power, looking at what will happen in Georgia and what that says about the future of American democracy.

Links

Samuel Moyn, “How Trump Won,” New York Review of Books, 9 November 2020, https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/11/09/how-trump-won/

Joe Guinan and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, “After Trump, before Biden: What’s next for the American left?” Renewal, 10 November 2020, https://renewal.org.uk/after-trump-before-biden-whats-next-for-the-american-left/

And don’t forget to subscribe to the Barely Getting By newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/r/3B47D9547CCBBA3E2540EF23F30FEDED

A very tired Emma and Chloe regroup, two days after polls closed to discuss the election. Were the polls wrong? What does Georgia say about American democracy? What next for the Democratic Party? A lot of things are still uncertain—and will remain so for the coming days and weeks—but one thing is clear: Donald Trump’s vote isn’t going away, even if he leaves the White House.

Articles

In this bonus, pre-election episode, Chloe and Emma speak to Matt Bevan, ABC Radio journalist and host of the America, If You’re Listening Podcast, about the past four years of the Trump Presidency, the relationship between journalism and history, and whether it’s possible—or desirable—to predict an outcome in the 2020 Presidential Election. Chloe and Emma then pick up their conversation about contingency in history and why caring about the election is part of, not a distraction from, analysing what’s happening in America.

Links

ABC Radio: America, If You’re Listening https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/russia-if-youre-listening/

Chloe and Emma on the long crisis of American Democracy in the Sydney Morning Herald https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/it-s-up-to-people-power-to-overcome-a-system-that-trump-has-trashed-20201029-p569m6.html

The Vanity Fair article that made Chloe cry https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/becoming-aoc-cover-story-2020

In this episode, Chloe and Emma welcome a very special guest - Dr Elizabeth Ingelson, Henry Chauncey Jr. ’57 Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University. Joining them from New Haven, Connecticut, Lizzie discusses what it is like to live in Trump’s America. They cover how the United States is responding to pandemic, Lizzie’s experience in rural Pennsylvania, and the volatile state of American politics.

They then turn to Lizzie’s expertise—the history of the United States and China. Lizzie brings extraordinary complexity and understanding to what is an otherwise impoverished conversation both in the US and here at home. She explains why ‘strategic competition’ is dangerous, Trump’s connections to the history the relationship, and why climate change overshadows everything.

Dr Elizabeth Ingleson - https://www.elizabethingleson.com/ or on Twitter: lizingleson

For some of Lizzie’s writing, see https://www.elizabethingleson.com/opinion

Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote - How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, Bloomsbury, 2018. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/one-person-no-vote-9781635571387/

Subscribe to our newsletter here https://confirmsubscription.com/h/r/3B47D9547CCBBA3E2540EF23F30FEDED