3 chapters across the catalog
Noam Chomsky explains how slavery was reinstituted after the Civil War through the criminalization of black life and the lease of convict labor to industries like U.S. Steel. The discussion connects this history to modern Alabama, where incarcerated people work for private companies like McDonald's and Wendy's. The state takes a 40% cut of their wages, which the hosts characterize as a continuation of the master-slave economic system.
A clip from a 1983 interview with a former CIA agent describes how the agency feeds false information to the State Department for media distribution. The agent discusses Noam Chomsky's concept of the "Fifth Freedom"—the imperial right of the United States to rob, exploit, and kill. The hosts react to the agent's "cold laughter" when discussing the reality of American global operations and the suppression of the original four freedoms.
Noam Chomsky discusses "The Crisis of Democracy," a book by the Trilateral Commission that argued there was "too much democracy" in the 1960s. The commission expressed concern that institutions like schools and churches failed to properly indoctrinate the young. This led to theories about the hijacking of counterculture movements in places like Laurel Canyon by the military-industrial complex.
