Episode

10/21 The Capitalist Roots of Poor Health w/ Rupa Marya

October 21, 2021

Emma hosts Rupa Marya, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, to discuss her recent book Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice that she co-authored with Raj Patel, on the socioeconomic roots of poor health, and the colonial seeds that brought about this issue. Professor Marya begins by defining inflammation for us, looking at it as a response to damage or threat of damage, from response to impact, virus, student debt, or intergenerational trauma, before they dive into the connections between the ideologies of modern medicine and colonization, particularly in the uses of separation and atomization – including the mind-body dichotomy, people versus nature, and white folks versus indigenous peoples – and in how they were set up in union, with medics, missionaries, and militaries leading the charge. Next, they jump into the capitalist nature of our medical system, looking at how the influence of lobbyists, the drive for efficiency, and the leverage of debt are all central to the modern medicine experience. Professor Marya and Emma then move back to the more physical repercussions of the atomization of colonial capitalism, discussing the impossibility of treating COVID at home while letting it run rampant in the Global South, before moving on to the book’s blueprint of walking through the inherent interplay between all elements of our anatomy, from our cardiovascular system to brain functioning to the microbiome in our gut. They wrap up the discussion by looking at the exploitation of the environment and workforce as a representation of the clear need for societal restructuring as the diseases of capitalism become worse and worse, and the need for new infrastructures of care become direr and direr. Emma also touches on Tim Kaine’s status as majority leader of empathy as he connects with Rahm Emanuel on the pain of governing a police force that murders your constituents, and not doing anything to stop them.

And in the Fun Half: Emma, Brandon, and Matt(s) cover a teacher’s audition for Bari Weiss’s Substack, Chuck from Indiana calls in to ask our celebs about para-social relationships, and Andrew from Greensboro talks about the hypocrisy of elite wellness critique. Kowalski gets his well-deserved celebration as he enters his 28th year of life, Seb Gorka doesn’t understand the concept of paternity, Dave Rubin defends comedians as the martyrs of truth and also the reason why Netflix should fire their trans employees, and Katt Williams talks about the importance of boundaries and the failures of comics who can’t deal with them, plus, your calls and IMs!

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