This Is Hell!

Feb 02 2025 500 ep. 81 mins 11.9k

This Is Hell! Podcast artwork

This is Hell is four hours of completely uninterrupted unedited blah blah blah which airs every Saturday morning in Chicago. Troublemakers, muckrakers, whistleblowers, host Chuck Mertz does in-depth interviews with rabble of all sorts. Noam Chomsky has called This is Hell "a voice of sanity on talk radio." After you listen, you'll know why we think Noam's gone insane.

Comedy Society & Culture

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Natasha Hakimi Zapata/What Different Parts of the World Has That the US Lacks

Feb 02 2025 89 mins

Award-winning journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata joins us to discuss her new book, “Another World Is Possible: Lessons For America From Around The Globe”, published by The New Press. Her articles can be found be found in In These TImes, The Nation, and The New York Times. Purchase the book at this link: https://thenewpress.com/books/another-world-possible Natasha Hakimi Zapata�

Putting the Community in Community Schools Can Save Public Education / Jeff Bryant

Jan 28 2025 117 mins

Jeff Bryant joins us to discuss his recent writing on the threats facing community public education and the ways schools and communities are resisting them. Articles to be discussed include "How a Struggling Boston School Found Success in the Roots of its Haitian American Community," and "Voters Across the Political Spectrum Gave Public Education Important Wins in the 2024 Election

Parenting Toward Abolition / Maya Schenwar & Kim Wilson

Jan 21 2025 117 mins

Maya Schenwar returns to This is Hell! Maya will be joined by the co-editor Kim Wilson who are co-editors of the new collection, "We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition" from Haymarket Books. Maya is editor in-chief of truthout. Kim is the cofounder, cohost, and producer of Beyond Prisons, a podcast on incarceration and prison abolition. Rotten History from Renaldo

Our Grief and Mourning can Interrupt the Flow of Capitalism / Sarah Jaffe

Jan 19 2025 95 mins

Sarah Jaffe, author of “Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone and Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt” joins us to discuss her new book “From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire”, published by Bold Type Books. Purchase the book at this link: https://bookshop.org/p/books/from-the-ashes-grief-and-revolut

Spotify's Plot Against Musicians / Liz Pelly

Jan 12 2025 102 mins

Liz Pelly joins This Is Hell! to discuss her Harper's cover article titled "The Ghosts in the Machine: Spotify's Plot Against Musicians," excerpted from her new book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist (One Signal Publishers). An all-new Moment of Truth with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Liz's article: https://harpers.org/archiv

Defunding the Police and Abolition as Forms of Democracy / Sonali Kolhatkar

Jan 12 2025 84 mins

Sonali Kolhatkar, author of “Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice” joins us to discuss her new book “Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World Is Possible”, published by Seven Stories Press. Purchase the book at this link: https://sevenstories.com/books/4670-talking-about-abolition?srsltid=AfmBOopfJr7eEoqqTYOKWx9Q_aJhojtOxT5fyipK4DfbqnIfm4q0VBy1

Best of 2024: A Forceful History of Black Resistance / Kellie Carter Jackson

Jan 07 2025 64 mins

Kellie Carter-Jackson returns to discuss her new book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance (Seal Press). Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Best of 2024: Right-Wing Conspiracy, Trafficking inside the Catholic Church / Gareth Gore

Jan 05 2025 66 mins

Best of 2024: Gareth Gore on his book, "Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church," published by Simon and Schuster on the day of the interview. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Best of 2024: Louisiana Is a Testbed for a Fascist State Apparatus / Gabrielle Perry

Jan 01 2025 60 mins

Gabrielle Perry joins us to discuss her recent Scalawag article, "Louisiana is the blueprint for further fascist repression." Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Best of 2024: Cop Feminisms / Sophie Lewis

Dec 31 2024 71 mins

Returning to This is Hell! is listener favorite Sophie Lewis, author of Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, as well as Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation. Sophie will be on to talk about her new writing at The Drift, "Lipstick on the Pigs: Kamala Harris and the Lineage of the Female Cop." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview.