Julie Wilson is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. She joins us today to discuss her new textbook, ‘Neoliberalism.’

What “neoliberalism” is and how it differs from classical liberalism. The role of the state in promoting neoliberalism via policy that privileges “free markets.” The different versions of neoliberalism advanced by Democrats and Republicans. The rise of neoliberalism in the late ’70s and early ’80s and how every president since Reagan has advanced it. The four D’s: dispossession, dis-imagination, de-democratization, and disposability. How social media and austerity train kids to think of themselves as market commodities who must compete with one other. How neoliberalism used the individualistic 1960s counter-culture for its own nefarious ends. How neoliberalism seeps into every aspect of our lives while simultaneously rendering itself invisible. The privatization of politics and what it means to be a neoliberal citizen. What we can do to resist neoliberalism in our everyday lives and become more communal and less alienated.

For members, Eugene Mirman and Jon Benjamin join Sam in studio. 12/14/05