The Socialist Program with Brian Becker

Big Tech stocks lost hundreds of billions in just two days. Prof. Richard Wolff and Brian Becker examine the multiple, cascading crises that are destabilizing the capital system.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.

More than fourteen hundred people have been killed in Iran, including over two hundred children. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. Countries across Asia are rationing fuel, canceling thousands of flights, and closing schools to conserve energy. The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a two hundred billion dollar funding request to Congress. The president told a rally crowd the war was won in the first hour, but today, with the casualty numbers rising, and the number of displaced reaching over a million, there is no plan for when or how this ends. Brian Becker and Layan Fuleihan discuss.

In 1953 the CIA secretly organized a coup to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran. This was the CIA's first regime change operation — code-named 'Operation Ajax' — becoming the playbook for later CIA operations. Its consequences are still reverberating around the world.In this episode we take a deep dive into how Operation Ajax was planned and executed, it's motivations, the political context locally and globally, what happened in Iran after 1953, its impact on US-Iran relations up to today, and more. We've added many archival audio clips, including first-hand accounts on both sides, sound effects, music, and more. This is the first episode in our new series on The Socialist Program. In each episode we will unpack a different CIA/Pentagon operation, each which was given its own code-name as Operation Ajax was. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get access to the next episodes in this series, more exclusive content, and help keep this show on the air.Credits:Brian Becker - writer, narratorLayan Fuleihan - writer, narratorJohn Prysner - audio engineer, producerEmily Brease - archival producer

The Trump administration has revoked the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases, a major cause of climate change and millions of premature deaths from air pollution every year. Professor Richard Wolff and Brian Becker discuss why this is happening, and the even more dire level of air and water pollution in the United States before the EPA.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.