The End of America with Thomas Giovanni

Hello! Why do we put this podcast out? Who are we? Why "The End of America?" What's next?With Season One out in the world, please join myself, Nana, and Jorge as we take a moment to discuss how our experiences with American history and contemporary culture have brought us to create this space, and what we hope to keep adding to the public conversation about issues key to our future

This episode is titled SCORPION, after the parable of the Scorpion and the Frog. Looking at Black people, Democrats, and elections, we can ask: Have the Democrats been the Scorpion to our Frog? Well, I'm just saying: every election in my 50 years of life, in yet another "most important election ever/shut up and vote" election, they've asked us to put them on our backs and carry the

What would the country, specifically, the Democratic Party, look like if Black people put ourselves first, like any political demographic is entitled to? What would democrats' messaging look like if they earned Black votes, rather than demanded them? What policies would have been fought, & what wars wouldn't have been? What compromises would (or would not) be made, if we matter

Why does this country love guns so much? Why would we rather watch so many of our children, and ourselves, die by gun violence, rather than do anything other than the least to prevent deaths by firearm? Many of the answers, it'll shock no one to know, have their roots in American Enslavement, and the fear of historical and contemporary white people that Black people will one day in

Do we "dishonor" our black ancestors by not voting? Is voting a reasonable pathway to freedom or justice for the 99%? Have we created a religion of elections, a system that depends on our faith, in spite of the facts of our living conditions? When (largely middle class, relatively comfortable) Black folk push the need to participate in our system, whose lives are we saying actually