Acts Of Pod

Imagine if you will, a great nation of promise filled with anxiety about its future. The world is erupting in chaos and corporate interests are balking at the thought of implementing huge social programs to relieve the strain on average citizens. Impossible! Well, of all the unlikely characters to flap their weird butterfly wings, we celebrate the contributions of one Smedley Butler and his untangling of The Business Plot or The Wall Street Putsch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have a firm understanding of the differences between a wealth tax and a marginal tax? Could you let us know? This week, we diligently try to plow through the different tax solutions brought forth by the democratic candidates and compare it to the solutions that are in place currently.  We then compare it to the conservative tax policies over the last 40 years that have contributed to growing income inequality. Warning in advance, we did have a couple of glasses of wine in order to take the edge off our discomfort with the material, we then became what I can only describe as overly comfortable, but I only hope it can be a learning experience for everyone.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the pod we take it all the way back to the 1500s to provide an overview on how the legislation of child support developed here in the States and offer a comparison to how other countries addressed similar issues.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking it back to Lovelace and Babbage to try and trace the history of women in technology. From human computers, to ENIAC programmers, women have been around since the infancy of the technology. Their relative sparseness now in the industry could have several perfectly rational explanations and we take a look at a few of those as well as a few irrational explanations as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If it wasn't so evil it might be hilarious. Right around the time Nixon was affirming that he was not a crook, a small cabal of Nixon loyalists were busy sabotaging Democratic campaigns. In this episode, we cover the dirty tricks employed by Nixon against his competitors and trace the lineage of these techniques to the most current presidential election. Anne also includes a beautiful tribute to two White House dogs that the world has been so desperate to hear.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we cover the Tennessee trial of John Scopes who was indicted for teaching evolution in the classroom in 1925. We trace the beginnings of the long feud between fundamental religious belief straining against oncoming modernity and how those trends continue in the present day.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode we give a brief history of voter suppression techniques used in American history from the exclusive original requirements for voting, to voter ID laws. While the 15th amendment provided the legal protection for voters, those protections were not enforced until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Stay tuned for the inventive methods used to discourage voting from different populations that included robocalls, threatening billboards, pamphlets dropped from planes, exact match, purging of voter's rolls and so much more! Hopefully the fight for the vote will inspire you to exercise your right.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Southeastern voting block, or the solid South, was not always republican. Around the 1950s, right about the time Brown V Board of Education was decided, the republicans began to woo back the Southern vote. In this episode, we'll map out the seduction of the Southern voter and point out some historical dog whistle campaigns that have been in use for nearly 60 years.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this very special Halloween episode of Acts of Pod, we cover the Salem Witch Trials. We take a deep dive into the economic and political conditions that made this possible and how this story has been used in political discourse over the years. Could we make the devil more boring? You shall soon see. Happy Halloween! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you read the UN report on climate change? Well, you're gonna want to sit down. Or better yet, why don't you just get the news from your buddies at Acts of Pod who are handling the news with grace. Totally unrelated, does anyone have access to a bomb shelter and/or a fresh water source? Hit us up on twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kvennafridagurinn, or Iceland's monumental Woman's Day Off campaign, had the participation of 90% of the nation's women. The next year saw legislation passed, and in the next five years Iceland would elect their first female President. In this week's pod we outline just a few of the successful female run protests and the power of these campaigns to effect change when all women join forces to fight for each other's interests. There is no particular reason we are detailing successful female led protest movements, but if you're interested in the topic, give her a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode we cover the current state of American healthcare, how prices became out of control and possible changes that could be made to help the average consumer. We talk about the possibility of socialized medicine here and use the history of the implementation of the National Health Service in the UK as a precedent. We also honor the Manchester Music scene briefly, so we welcome Stone Roses fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yikes! Back at again with the bleakest subject material around, but to be fair, we would never stack the Supreme Court against your best interest! While there is plenty of panic to go around with voting rights, marriage equality rights, employment security, healthcare etc., we thought it would be helpful to focus on one hot button issue that keeps being raised which is the possible overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision. To help put this into context, we felt it might be helpful to show what happens in those places that criminalize the reproductive choices that women and sometimes children are forced to make and unforeseen tragedies this has caused. We also discovered the "universal y 'all." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a long and successful grassroots campaign, activists were able to ensure net neutrality and have internet access classified as a utility like water or power. That was in the halcyon days of 2015, since then the FCC under this administration has overturned that ruling and we are just now beginning to see the effects of that decision. How should internet access be viewed in these times with so many jobs and vital life saving services made possible through its use? Should your location determine the quality and/or accessibility to the internet? This week we try to bridge the gap across the digital divide.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would you begin to think if a shadowy group of men began asking all of your co-workers and friends about your life, began tailing you and calling you at all hours of the night? Maybe an FBI sting? In the case of Ralph Nader, he was trying to advocate for auto safety when he became the center of a smear campaign directed by GM. This week's episode is a brief history of consumer advocacy in the US and a quick update on how consumer protections are being treated by our current administration.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thirsty? Well, if you're living in Flint this is still not an easy problem to solve. We're talking dirty water in a Michigan town. Surprise...the water crisis hits an economically underserved minority community. Meanwhile, the corporate stakeholders have been given low cost solutions to bypass the corrosive, lead-filled, and bacteria-ridden water supply. Pour a tall glass of tap water and join us! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past 20 years, every developed nation has been able to nearly eliminate all deaths related to the complications from childbirth. All except one, the United States, whose rate of maternal mortality has actually grown over the past 20 years. ProPublica and NPR recently underwent a year long study and collected over 60,000 records to help locate a potential cause. Sadly, this study helped to quantify the real life and death risks that systemic racism and misogyny can continue to play in our every day lives and what we can do to go about changing that immediately.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, in light of the news of Ivanka Trump's new job training initiative, we take a look back at the inception of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Not only was it a successful infrastructure project that went on to light the valley to this day, but at its height, provided 28,000 jobs and cutting edge farming technique training. As Anne is quick to point out, there were indeed flaws, but it does offer at least an outline of what is possible when a government invests in an area's potential.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently, at the World Health Organization assembly, the current U.S.  administration caused quite a stir when it raised concerns about the language in a bill that asked to "promote, protect, and support breastfeeding." Startling, because there has been a long, sordid history filled with everything from dressing saleswomen as nurses, to leading women to believe that their own breast milk may be an insufficient food source long after science had verified "breast is best." Also, there is talk about the best way to approach a gorilla in order to obtain their precious human-like breast milk.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode the gang's all here and we cover the stigmatization of the homeless over time as well as the uptick in homelessness as a result of significant cuts to mental health spending under Reagan. Those in most need of treatment are much more likely to end up in jail rather than a psychiatric facility. We discuss possible fixes for these issues going forward.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices