The title of Edward Westermann's new book, Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany (Cornell University Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2021),suggests that it is about the use of alcohol by perpetrators of the Holocaust. And it is. Westermann documents extensively how alcohol served to bind perpetrators together and to help them celebrate, conduct and perhaps forget mass murder. The amount of alcohol consumed as part of the German war is astonishing.
But Westermann's book is broader than its title suggests. At the heart of Westermann's examination is the way in which commonly held understandings of masculinity fueled violence--symbolic, sexual and physical. He explores the way hypermasculinity led to soldiers to humiliate Jews and other victims as a way of feminizing them. He examines the extensive trophy-taking practiced by Germans in the East. He outlines how widespread sexual violence was. And more.
Westermann uses a wide variety of primary sources ranging from photos to diaries to interviews to understand the behaviors and beliefs of perpetrators. It is a remarkably challenging book to read. But it is a necessary one.
Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University.
We'll tell you how the U.S. plans to boost the vaccine supply worldwide.
Also, two of former President Trump's top efforts were undone. One has to do with oil, the other is about TikTok.
Plus, why security lines are getting longer at airports, where Bitcoin is now an official currency, and how to see a solar eclipse happening this morning.
President Biden is expected to announce a deal today where the U.S. will buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID vaccine and send them to 100 countries that are short on shots. This is great, but those doses alone won't help us achieve global vaccine equity. We discuss what else is being done and what more can be done.
Biden's attempt to agree on an infrastructure bill with Senate Republicans broke down this week, with Republicans fulfilling their promise of obstructing the President whenever possible. Now, Biden is working with a bipartisan group of senators and is examining the possibility of passing a bill through budget reconciliation.
And in headlines: the Keystone XL Pipeline is cancelled, Nicaragua's dictatorial president arrests opposition candidates, and Uber drivers aren't seeing proportional benefits from surging prices.
Arguably no philosopher had a greater influence on America's founding than John Locke, says Joseph Loconte, director of the Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Locke’s ideas about property and freedom helped to shape America as the Founders drew on his ideas when they wrote the nation's founding documents.
“[T]here was no philosopher who was quoted more often than John Locke by the American revolutionaries,” Loconte told “The Daily Signal Podcast.”
An expert on Locke, Loconte is presenting a paper this week on the English philosopher and the biblical roots of American democracy at the virtual John Locke Conference in Naples, Italy.
Loconte joins the show to discuss what advice Locke (1632-1704) would offer to America today and why the philosopher's writings remain so relevant to the American experiment.
We also discuss these stories:
The Biden administration rescinds former President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat.
Former President Barack Obama praises his daughters, Malia and Sasha, for their social activism.
The New York Times comes under criticism after editorial board member Mara Gay tells MSNBC that seeing “dozens of American flags” on Long Island was “disturbing.” The newspaper insists she was "taken out of context."
Paris Marx is joined by Legacy Russell to discuss how glitch feminism challenges existing ideas of what constitutes the body and the effects of having those conceptions embedded within our technological systems.
Legacy Russell is the associate curator of exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and will become executive director and chief curator of The Kitchen in September. She’s the author of “Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto” and is currently writing “Black Meme.” Follow Legacy on Twitter as @LegacyRussell.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
“It’s hard to citizen when you can’t pay the bills.” This season’s theme has revealed the economic causes of our deep division and has opened our eyes to how our democracy and economic well-being are incredibly interconnected. This week, Baratunde weaves together lessons from across this season, discovers surprising takeaways, and revisits stories that have more in common than we expected when we set out to make this season. Listen to a virtual conversation among our guests that will reveal new insights.
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Understanding the economy and the structures behind it is essential to being able to participate as a citizen in our democracy. We hope we have made that case this season, but there’s always more to learn. Head over to www.bookshop.org/shop/howtocitizen for plenty of reading materials from the season including titles written and recommended by our guests. We particularly recommend Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us and Jessica Gordon Nembhard’s Collective Courage.
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We’ve asked you to do a lot this season, from joining the fight for a $15 minimum wage to supporting various bills to investing in non-extractive real estate. And sometimes, it’s hard to know where to start. All of the actions from this season will be available at howtocitizen.com, plus we are designing a choose your own adventure to help you get started on, or further deepen, your citizen practice. Sign up for our email newsletter to stay connected as the digital arm of the show launches later in Summer 2021- visit www.howtocitizen.com to sign up!
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How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston, Elizabeth Stewart, and Misha Euceph. Stephanie Cohnis our Senior Producer and Alie Kilts is our Producer. Kelly Prime is our Editor. Original Music by Andrew Eapen. Valentino Rivera is our Engineer. Sam Paulson is our Apprentice. This episode was produced and sound designed by Stephanie Cohn. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio.
As Illinois reopens, Chicago area artists Lori Lippitz of the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, Lynne Jordan of Lynne Jordan and the Shivers, Juan Dies of Sones de Mexico and D2x reflect on what the last 15 months have been like, how the pandemic has shaped their music, and what they’re looking forward to as full capacity crowds come back.
(Encore episode.) Scientists have known for decades that one of the main causes of the smell of fresh rain is geosmin: a chemical compound produced by soil-dwelling bacteria. But why do the bacteria make it in the first place? Reporter Emily Vaughn answers this mystery.
Perhaps some number of them did, but neither these atheist leaders, nor the movement as a whole "merged with the far right," as this Salon article says. I suppose it may seem like a minor point to some, but I think it's pretty significantly journalistically irresponsible to have a headline as explosive as that, with the picture like that, and not have it be supported by the article.
More than half of U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated, and case rates are at their lowest point since the pandemic began. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the future of the pandemic. Questions about variants, vaccine booster shots and the idea of vaccine mandates in schools or publicly-funded universities.
We had a chance to put some of the questions — including ones from you — to the nation's top doctor, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, in an interview conducted on Twitter Spaces, a new platform for live audio conversations on Twitter. To participate in future Twitter Spaces conversations, follow us on Twitter @nprAudie and @npratc. You can find our episodes on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #NPRConsiderThis.
