Locking people away for long periods of time seems like a tough but effective way to deal with crime but multiple studies have shown that states with draconian sentences have the same amount of crime as states with more lenient laws. Imprisoning just one person costs tens of thousands of dollars per year and there’s other costs. When parents are taken away from their children families are strained and communities are weakened. When the prison sentence is done, people traumatized by imprisonment are released into communities where they face discrimination in housing and employment. In her book Talking About Abolition Sonali Kolhatkar looks at alternatives to the current system of policing and imprisonment.

In the late 1970’s and early 80’s the New Deal era where the government regulated businesses and protected citizens from the excesses of capitalism was­ overturned by Neoliberalism the idea that the market, left to its own devices, would produce an optimal economic system. Neoliberalism was wildly successful at producing billionaires. Their incredible wealth, disproportionate far beyond historical norms, has now bought a United States President. In his book Midnight Kingdom Jared Yates Sexton traces the origins of apocalyptic religious traditions that have shaped the Trump phenonium and what life under autocracy has been like historically.

In his book Should We Go Extinct Todd May takes an objective look at what we add to the community of life on the planet and what we destroy. This isn’t a call to end humanity as much as it’s a call to be better humans and citizens of Earth.

Raising girls has never been easy but in the age of social media it’s even harder. According to a 2024 study by the CDC over half of teen girls feel “persistently sad or hopeless.”

In this episode of The Progressive Page Turner I talk with Jo-Ann Finkelstein about her book Sexism & Sensibility. She has over twenty years experience helping girls face toxic messages about beauty, sex and femininity and offers advice for parents trying to raise confident girls in a culture that often demeans them.

The abortion ban in Texas included a bounty hunter clause that would allow vigilantes to enforce the law. This is the sort of alliance between private citizens and the state that allowed the reign of terror by the KKK to flourish. But blue states are not entirely without weapons in this war for the soul of the nation. In this episode I talk with David Noll, author of Vigilante Nation.

Billions of people all over the world use apps and websites. We have an unprecedented amount of information at our fingertips but it’s also allowed detailed dossiers to be collected on all of us. While most of the collected data is used for advertising there’s also the possibility of data being used for law enforcement and economic discrimination. In this episode of the Progressive Page Turner I talk to Tom Kemp, author of Containing Big Tech about who’s collecting our data, what they’re doing with it and how you can prevent surveillance.

Social Media has become a battleground for psychological warfare. In this episode I talk with Annalee Newitz about how propaganda worked in the past and how both domestic and foreign agents are targeting voters in the US.

In his book Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity David Jay Brown interviews people who look at the world in some very non-traditional ways. I talked to him about how we experience the world and why psychedelics like DMT might be the door to a new understanding of our minds and consciousness.