Sam and Emma host Jules Boykoff, Pacific University professor of politics and government, former US Olympian and author of NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Beyond, to discuss the Olympics industrial complex and the growing international movement for ending the development of Olympic complexes. They walk through the history of the games as an elite affair, originally created by a French Baron and now a multibillion-dollar corporate industry, and how the International Olympics Committee is able to capitalize on public money and the role of their athletes to make huge material gains for themselves and corporations at the expense of local infrastructure and participating athletes. Professor Boykoff delves into the particularly brutal role the Olympics have in displacing low-income folks in every city they move to, and how this helped spur DSA LA’s housing work to move towards establishing the NOlympics project. Jules, Emma, and Sam also look into the history of local protests against the Olympics, and how NOlympics seeks to change these from momentary uprisings to a global movement to end the Olympics as they exist. Emma and Sam round out the first half reflecting on the legacy of anti-imperialist and U.S. Senator Mike Gravel, exploring his biggest moments on the political stage.

And in the Fun Half: Tony from Illinois calls in for advice on the best tactics to push Medicare for All in conservative entrenched areas, Mitt Romney plays off the Big Lie as more of a Big Game, comparing U.S. Politics to Wrestling and perhaps explaining his commitment to his heel persona, and Marjorie Taylor Green garners the Sarah Palin comparison as Sam wonders aloud why Bernie has never gotten the birtherism argument pushed against folks like AOC and Obama (it’s pretty obvious). Then, Tucker Carlson rallies up white fear, pushing a conspiracy of white genocide, Dan Crenshaw eyes up an age-old dog whistle on Black activism in sports, and Ben from NY reflects on the few lessons learned from the FTV project. They wrap up the fun half by discussing YouTube’s algorithms and the importance of building anti-trust infrastructure, and looking into the growth of the Delta variant of COVID alongside vaccine fear-mongering, plus, your calls and IMs!