Author: Time To Say Goodbye

Hello!

Today we have a great interview with Nithya Raman, the City Councilmember for Los Angeles’s District 4. We talk about housing, the despair around the homelessness problem in California’s biggest cities, and whether there might be a different future for the city’s political machine.

My interest in Councilmember Raman started back when I was writing the newsletter for the Times because there was an effort by some of the more powerful local politicians to redraw her district in ways that would both disenfranchise many of the people who had voted for her to be their representative but also seemed to reflect the unrelenting power of homeowners in Southern California.

You can read some of those pieces here, here, and here.

What became clear to me during the reporting of those pieces was that Mike Davis was right when he wrote “the most powerful ‘social movement’ in contemporary Southern California is that of affluent homeowners, organized by notional community designations or tract names, engaged in the defense of home values and neighborhood exclusivity.”

The real battle in California, then, is between the self interests of homeowners to protect their value and the “character” of their neighborhoods and the best interests of everyone else. This is not a fight that follows basic partisan lines nor is it one that really has much coherence to it, but it’s the fight that every politician in California, especially in Los Angeles or here in the Bay Area, must navigate to get anything done.

Nithya and I talked about all that and the massive scandal in the Los Angeles City Council in 2022, where Latino members of the council and labor leaders were caught on tape making bigoted statements about pretty much every other group in the city. What those tapes revealed, at least to me, was how a type of identity politics actually functioned in the country’s second biggest city.

If you want to know a bit more about Nithya, here’s a link to her campaign page and a story about the leaked tape scandal.

thank you!

TTSG

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Hello!

In our Discord server, which you can access by subscribing to the show for a measly $5 a month, a user asked me to not do shows about sports. I took this request seriously as I generally aim to please, but am sad to announce that after much deliberation, I do think it’s worth having a conversation about a very distinct phenomenon I’ve observed over the past few years.

As recently as 2020, it was difficult to have a conversation about sports without bringing in all that “politics.” LeBron was talking about Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. The NFL, still enmeshed in the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick, put together a variety of initiatives around ending racism or whatever. The NBA had its weird bubble spectacle with all its Nike approved slogans on every surface possible, including the player jerseys.

Today, almost all of that is gone. Sports coverage, for the most part, feels explicitly apolitical. Even the NBA’s big concession post the summer of 2020 — that they would not play any games on election days and use their arenas as polling sites — came and went this year without any real interruption to what had become a non-stop In Season Tournament hype cycle.

Are we in a period of overcorrection? To discuss this question, I brought on Bradford William Davis, an investigative sports journalist and a former sports columnist at the New York Daily News.

Here is a sampling of Bradford’s work.

A lengthy investigation into Major League Baseball’s practice of using multiple balls during the season. (for my money, one of the finest works of investigative sports reporting in the past five years)

A look into injury and labor concerns in the NFL

An investigation into sexual assault and misconduct in US Fencing

TIMESTAMPS

6:02- are we in a moment of overcorrection for politics in sports media?

17:05 - OHTANI TALK and did he not come to SF because of crime, homelessness and wokeness?

28:45 - DRAYMOND TALK and “mental health” as a catch-all explanation.

45:00 - a defense of investigative journalism in sports

52:00 - JUST TELL US WHAT’S HAPPENING, REPORTERS!

ANNOUNCEMENT: We will be taking the next two weeks off for the break but will be back on Wednesday January 3rd.

Thank you!

Jay

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Hello!

Today on the show, we have Tyler Austin Harper, a literary scholar and an assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Bates College. We talk about the history of extinction literature, the books that tech moguls read and the vision it inspires, the dangers of science fiction and all that’s happening in the Ivy Leagues right now.

0:00 - Jay talks about the new direction of the show, which for now will be a “degenerate Asian version of In Our Time.”

2:40-6:00 - Jay and Tyler talk about Maine and the L.L. Bean outlet.

7:00-34:00 - EXTINCTION LITERATURE TALK

34:00- end - How to think about what’s happening on campus, the need to address concerns about double standards in speech with seriousness and good faith, and a defense of DEI programs.

You should read Tyler’s work as well. Here are some links

How Much Blood is Your Fun Worth? in the Atlantic.

I’m a Black Professor. You Don’t Need to Bring That Up. in the Atlantic

The Moral Theater of Social Justice Parenting in NYT

I Teach at an Elite College. Here’s a Look Inside the Racial Gaming of Admissions in NYT

Lastly, I wanted to put in a short message here about the future of the show. As noted, the show will still continue and while there’s no definitive plan yet on what the next months will look like, there will still be episodes and an ongoing assessment of what’s working and what’s not. Obviously, the show will not be the same without Tammy, but the community we built over the past three and a half years has always been extremely important to me and not something I take for granted. If you have any suggestions or complaints or whatever, please feel free to email me at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. I’m extremely grateful for all of your support over all these years and I want you to know that you also have a say in what comes next.

thanks

Jay

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Hello from the “White Projects”! 

For Tammy’s final ep as co-host, we answer questions from our beloved subscribers. Thank you for asking us to ponder: 

* Vice, Jezebel, and the loss of irreverent digital media

* What makes podcasting so terrifying (and freeing) 

* Biden vs. Trump in early polls + in Tammy’s reporting on young voters 

* Our worst takes from 3.5 years of blabbering 

* Whether TTSG was a guerilla marketing campaign for Jay’s book

To get Tammy’s infrequent writing updates (soon replacing her TinyLetter, R.I.P.), sign up here, and find links to her older work here. You can also keep in touch via email and follow her on Instagram for eventual zine-y things! 

Mai can be reached via email, but apologizes in advance for her dismal reply rate. 

Subscribe on Patreon or Substack to join the TTSG Discord community. You can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter), and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

For Tammy’s last TTSG book club as pod host (!), we welcome Jillian Tamaki, award-winning author and a key member of our early-COVID Discord crew. Jillian’s new graphic novel, Roaming, published with her cousin and co-author, Mariko Tamaki, follows three Canadian college freshmen on a spring break trip to New York. We hear about Jillian’s use of vernacular tourist archives like Flickr and YouTube to build scenes of NYC from afar; the complex dynamics among young women friends, especially when traveling; and what makes a good artistic collaboration. [Note: From 3:15 to 26:10, Jillian presents a slideshow, but the BTS is great even without the visuals!] 

🎧 Heads-up: Tomorrow (Monday, Dec. 4) Tammy and Jay will record their final co-host ep, and take listener questions! Ask away here: https://forms.gle/bVtcVVyyNKz7Epe76 

Subscribe on Patreon or Substack to join our Discord community. You can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter), and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from Philly! 

This week, Andy joins us for one of Tammy’s last eps as a host of TTSG. 🥲 After catching up on dog COVID, [6:10] we discuss how China’s historical self-identification as a vanguard of the Third World has given way, through decades of technological and economic growth, to a more general anti-West position. [29:00] We also reflect on the various pockets of U.S. public opinion on Gaza and Zionism, from Andy’s college students to our elected officials (and their press secretaries). [53:30] Finally, we debate whether the term “barbaric” has been selectively applied since October 7, along with larger questions of media bias. 

In this episode, we ask: 

Where does China’s relatively strong support of Palestine come from, and is it actually as strong as it seems? 

How does the movement for a free Palestine fit into the idea of what it means to be a good leftist? 

Should media outlets rethink when to publish gruesome images of victims of violence? 

For more, see: 

* Times coverage of the Biden-Xi Summit (and Blinken’s reaction to a Biden gaffe) 

* More on the three young Palestinian American students who were shot in Vermont, the NYU doctor who was fired over his racist social media posts, and the friendship between a Palestinian and a pro-Israel chef in Philly that has soured

* Words from Lydia Polgreen and from Jay on the question of publishing graphic photos of children killed in Gaza 

Reminder: Tammy is hosting a virtual TTSG book club meeting for subscribers tonight at 5pm PST // 8pm EST (9am in Shanghai) with cartoonist, illustrator, and Discord OG Jillian Tamaki! We’ll get some BTS insight from Jillian on the graphic novel she just published with her cousin and co-author, Mariko Tamaki, Roaming. You can find the Zoom info on Discord or in this post! 

Subscribe on Patreon or Substack to join our Discord community. You can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter), and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello! 

This week, Jay talks to a student organizer for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of seventy five student organizations who have been organizing and putting on protests on campus. Last week, the administration of Columbia University suspended two of the student groups – Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace. 

The organizer and Jay talk about why Columbia made this decision, what the climate is like on campus, and what the administration has been telling students about the suspensions. We also talk about divestment, broadly, as an organizing tactic and discuss the anti-apartheid divestment protests for South Africa. 

Tammy will be back next week for three more episodes!

Reminder: On Nov. 29, Tammy will host her last TTSG book club event over Zoom with cartoonist, illustrator, and Discord OG Jillian Tamaki—on Jillian’s new graphic novel, Roaming! Check out the Discord for details and a book discount.

Subscribe on Patreon or Substack to join our Discord community. You can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter), and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

This week, we’re joined by our friend Jamie Lauren Keiles, a former contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine who is working on a book about nonbinary identity in America and posting at the archival Instagram account @sexchange.tbt. [4:45] Jamie discusses his resignation from the Times Magazine, and why he signed the recent open letter by WAWOG (the Writers Against the War on Gaza) as well as an earlier letter criticizing NYT’s trans coverage. [47:40] We also talk about the process of unlearning pro-Israel propaganda and where a trans, anti-Zionist, observant Jew finds himself today, both institutionally and spiritually. 

In this episode, we ask: 

How is the presumed “objective” position within a media institution created and reinforced?

What good (if any) can an open letter do? And how much does it matter what an American Jew thinks about all of this? 

How do people’s minds actually get changed on Israel-Palestine? 

For more, see: 

* Jamie’s latest Substack post: Do I believe that there are questions that should never be asked? 

* Jamie and Jazmine Hughes on Democracy Now! discussing their resignations from the Times Magazine 

* Jay’s recent piece on the chilling of pro-Palestine speech within journalism 

* AP coverage of the Writers Bloc action in the New York Times building last week

[1:04:00] And a big announcement! Listen to the end to catch Tammy and Jay present a new phase for the podcast. (Spoiler: Tammy is moving on in early December; Jay is continuing and wants your feedback.) 

As always, subscribe on Patreon or Substack to join our Discord community, which we hope to continue cultivating into the future. Also: On Nov. 29, Tammy will host her last TTSG book club event with cartoonist, illustrator, and Discord OG Jillian Tamaki—on Jillian’s new graphic novel, Roaming! Check out the Discord for details and a book discount.

You can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter), and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

This week, we are joined by Tania Hary, the executive director of Gisha (“access”), an Israeli legal organization that fights for the freedom of movement of Palestinians. [2:25] We discuss the restrictive status quo that was in place long before October 7, in which Israel controlled travel in and out of the occupied territories, the flow of goods and food into Gaza, and the Census-like registry of the Palestinian population (that is implicated in the questioning of Gazan fatalities). [30:45] Tania explains how political repression and compulsory military service convince many Israelis that theirs is the “most moral army in the world.”

In this episode, we ask: 

How are Israelis consuming images from and narratives about Gaza? 

What does it mean for politicians and media to dispute information, namely death counts, coming from sources in a besieged Gaza? 

What does this war reveal about the world order, humanitarian law, and human rights? 

For more, see: 

* A recent press conference on how to report accurately on Gaza, featuring Tania

* Reporting from Haaretz on the backlash against Arab Israelis

* Tania’s testimony before the UN Security Council earlier this year

* Protesters braving it in Tel Aviv this past week

Subscribe on Patreon or Substack to join our Discord community and participate in our upcoming IRLish book event. You can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter), and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello! 

This week, New York Times Magazine contributing writer and repeat guest Rozina Ali talks with us about media coverage of the war in Israel and Gaza as well as the challenges faced by journalists, more than twenty of whom have been killed in the region over the past two weeks. We also discuss whether there has been a chilling of speech in the West, the history of suppressed expression when it comes to Israel and Palestine, and how all this may shake out in politics and public sentiment. 

In this episode, we ask: 

How accurate are the comparisons of this moment to 9/11, in terms of media suppression, Islamophobia, and our ability to parse complicated political issues? 

Does social media incentivize checking certain boxes around Israel-Palestine over moving dialogue forward? 

Why are U.S. elected officials so out of touch with public opinion? 

For more, see: 

* Retaliation within Israel (Crackdown on Freedom of Speech of Palestinian Citizens of Israel), on U.S. college campuses (A “McCarthyite Backlash” Against Pro-Palestine Speech), at the 92Y (92NY Pulls Event With Viet Thanh Nguyen Over Criticism of Israel), and more (A Surge in Suppression)

* A growing list of journalist casualties since October 7, from the Committee to Protect Journalists 

* Mona Chalabi’s visualization of deaths in the war versus New York Times coverage of those deaths

* Articles on the killings of synagogue president Samantha Woll in Detroit and of Muslim six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume in Chicago 

* Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, interviewed by Piers Morgan

* Rozi’s Times Magazine profile of Rashida Tlaib, from March 2022 

* Our first episode with Rozina, from March 2021: Kimchi nationalism, Biden on immigration and foreign policy, and Desi identities 

* Plus, our episode with Viet Thanh Nguyen, from August 2020: Ethnic Studies, Revolutionary Politics, and the Third World Liberation Front

* A recent U.S. opinion poll on the war, from CBS News/YouGov (compared with lackluster support for a ceasefire in Congress)

* Last week’s episode with Amjad Iraqi, a policy analyst and Palestinian citizen of Israel: The siege in Gaza and Israel’s end game

If you’re a writer, journalist, or media worker who has faced retaliation for expressing your views on the war in Gaza, you can reach out to the National Writers Union for support by filling out this survey. 

Subscribe on Patreon or Substack to keep us going and join our Discord community. You can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter), and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe