Delete Your Account Podcast

Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by longtime guest host and prison-industrial complex abolitionist extraordinaire Mariame Kaba, pseudonymously known as @prisonculture. Mariame is the founder and director of Project NIA, an advocacy group focused on ending youth incarceration, and has co-founded a number of other organizations including Survived & Punished and the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women.  Mariame shares her insight into the current momentum behind abolitionist demands in the wake of the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, which she recently wrote about in a New York Times op-ed. Mariame and Kumars take stock of what the latest wave of Black Lives Matter protests have achieved thus far as well as state and corporate attempts at co-optation, assessing the sea change in discourse on policing in the United States and the criteria by which we should judge the various police reforms being proposed at all levels of governmen

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by returning guest Shanti Singh, communications coordinator with the California statewide renters' rights group Tenants Together. Shanti discusses the challenges of navigating the landscape of housings advocacy, and how a pandemic and unprecedented unemployment numbers have turned already challenging campaigns for housing rights into minefields for renters and activists alike. Shanti also helps us tackle the intersection of class disparity and police repression, and how the police further housing insecurity in order to protect the property owning class while homelessness surges and Black communities face increased racial segregation. You can follow Shanti Singh on Twitter @uhshanti and Tenants Together @tenantstogether and learn more about how you can support at tenantstogether.org If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the sho

This week, Roqayah and Kumars have a rare one-on-one debrief on the wave of protests that have erupted in every US state in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. After recapping the basics of Floyd’s case, they give listeners a rundown of the spread of the protests across the country and the ensuing media narratives about looting and outside agitators. Roqayah and Kumars also touch on the brutal police repression of both protesters and journalists in mostly Democrat-run cities and states, as well as the growing calls for greater carnage from Trump and the right.  The Delete Your Account duo rounds out the hour with some helpful resources if you want to support the mutual aid efforts of People’s Breakfast Oakland and jailed protesters nationwide via the National Bail Fund Network. 

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by legal advocate, grassroots organizer, and congressional candidate Shahid Buttar about his campaign to unseat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as he runs for California's 12th Congressional district.  Buttar, a lifelong activist, describes the lessons he's drawn from the Bernie Sanders campaign in developing his own progressive coalition and campaign, as well as what drew him out from the world of grassroots organizing and into the political arena. Buttar also discusses the failures of not only Nancy Pelosi and how his concerns with the speaker of the house transcend her office and lay at the feet of the Democratic Party itself. You can follow Shahid on Twitter @ShahidForChange, and visit shahidforchange.us to learn more about how you can support his campaign. If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do th

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by journalist and editor at The Electronic Intifada, Nora Barrows-Friedman. We are also joined by Ali Abunimah, co-founder and editor of The Electronic Intifada. Ali is also the author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine and One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. We discuss Israel's response to the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip, which has included an end to the bare minimum testing of Gaza's besieged population. Ali and Nora tackle the issue of Palestinian life under lockdown, how it collides with and dissects and from the usual, draconian measures applied by the Israeli government. They also discuss the implications of the systemic attacks on necessary infrastructure by the Israeli government, which has included medical facilities, building supplies, and even tents. We also cover the impact of the Trump administration's position on the annexation of the West Bank, and why so-called bipartisan peace plans have resulted in further set

Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by two friends of the show, Sam Sacks and Sam Knight, journalists and founders of the District Sentinel News Co-op. Together they host the daily District Sentinel Radio podcast as well as Means Morning News, their new weekly collaboration with Means TV. The Sams talk about the challenges of getting a TV news show off the ground amid the pandemic and how they see the DC Sentinel’s role in the budding left mediascape. The gang then discusses the mercenary raid on Venezuela, Bill Gates’s sinister designs for New York, how both parties workers are being sacrificed to the stock market, and why media narratives about left- and right-wing populism are anything but anti-establishment.  You can follow Sam Sacks on Twitter @SamSacks and the official District Sentinel account @TheDCSentinel. To watch their tomfoolery every week, subscribe to Means TV, but Means Morning News is now also available to nonmembers, in audio-only form, wherever pods are

This is just a teaser for today's episode, which is available for Patreon subscribers only!   We can't do the show without your support, so help us keep the lights on over here and access tons of bonus content by subscribing on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. While you’re at it, we also love it when you subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts.  This week, Roqayah and Kumars were joined once again by Matt Lubchansky, cartoonist and associate editor of the left-wing comics emporium The Nib. Matt is the writer and illustrator of the long running webcomic Please Listen To Me, and you can find their work in VICE, Eater, The Intercept, Mad Magazine, Gothamist, and Brooklyn Magazine, among untold others. This time the gang takes a deep dive into the documentary miniseries Tiger King, plus obligatory updates on Matt’s social media shenanigans, quarantine cuisine, and aliens.

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Sydney Ghazarian, a Los Angeles-based climate organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America, the founder of that organization’s Ecosocialist Working Group, and an advisory board member for the climate justice magazine The Trouble. After filling Roqayah and Kumars in on her own political background and evolution, as well as her recent involvement in DSA’s coronavirus response, Sydney talks about her work as a member both of the DSA’s Environmental Steering Committee and Green New Deal campaign committee.  The gang discusses Sydney’s article for In These Times outlining an agenda for escalating climate organizing based on tried-and-true labor tactics. Sydney shares her insight into major issues facing climate activists and others on the left, running the gamut from the racial politics of the environmental movement and what we can learn from indigenous-led pipeline blockades, to the socialist answer to the deepening oil price crash. Follow Sydney on Twitter

Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined by farmer and organizer Nate Kleinman, cofounder of the nonprofit cooperative Experimental Farm Network (EFN) and project organizer of the EFN’s Cooperative Gardens Commission, a campaign to help millions of people carve out some measure of food sovereignty in the face of COVID-19. Nate begins by giving listeners a glimpse into his storied history of organizing, from Democratic political campaigns and labor union work to leading the charge on Occupy Sandy hurricane relief and running for Congress twice himself as a challenger to conservative Democratic incumbents, initially as “the first Occupy candidate” and then against Trump Democrat turned Republican Jeff van Drew.  Nate and Kumars then tackle the ins and outs of the EFN’s operation, including their free open-source platform for participatory plant breeding and developing new crops and infrastructure capable of providing for people in the face of economic crisis and climate catastrophe. Nate rounds out the

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein, current DC correspondent for The Nation whose explosive work has appeared in The Daily Beast, and The Young Turks, among others.  We take a look at Ken's latest exclusive which shows evidence that the Pentagon was specifically aware of the likelihood of a pandemic, according to an internal document composed in 2017 and obtained by The Nation. Ken guides us through some of the eerily prescient 103-page document, which warns of the likelihood of hospital bed shortages, a lack of mechanical ventilators, and inadequate pharmaceutical treatment, all of which would come to "define how a country will emerge post-pandemic". We also discuss how the US is fairing compared to other nations, as well as the impact of the Trump administration's delayed response and what this poses for our future. You can follow Ken and keep up with his work on Twitter @kenklippenstein and at The Nation. If you want to support the show and receive acce

This is a special unlocked episode of Delete Your Account After Hours, normally only available on Patreon. Subscribe there for $5 for more like this! On this herculean episode of Delete Your Account After Hours, friends of the show Nima Shirazi, Brett Payne and Bryan Quimby tag-team to give Kumars a primer on pro wrestling. Nima is a NYC-based political analyst who cohosts the podcast Citations Needed, Brett and Bryan are the hosts of Street Fight Radio, and together they share their wrestling fandom, breaking down their favorite personalities, labor issues in the industry, and the intersections between wrestling and conservative politics, including Trump’s history with the WWE.  Follow Brett on Twitter @BrettPain, Bryan @MurderBryan and Street Fight Radio @StreetFightWCRS. Nima is also @WideAsleepNima, and you can keep up with his latest work on his website and as well as Citations Needed. 

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by insurgent Congressional candidate Arati Kreibich, an activist, a neuroscientist, a borough councilmember in Glen Rock, New Jersey, and the primary challenger to conservative Democrat Josh Gottheimer, the current House representative for NJ’s 5th district.  After filling listeners in on her personal path to left-wing politics, including her family history of resistance to British colonialism and emigration to the United States, Arati describes the galvanizing effect of the 2016 election, and details the subsequent experience of disappointment after working to elect Gottheimer, ending almost a century of GOP representation for NJ-5. The gang examines Gottheimer’s record of voting with Republicans as co-chair of the right-wing “Problem Solvers Caucus,” and his reputation for personal unpleasantness. Arati, Roqayah and Kumars round out the hour with a policy discussion, covering the government’s coronavirus response and the urgency of radical climate action. Follow A

This week Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Detroit-based filmmakers Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes, cofounders of Means Media and co-creators of the new digital streaming service Means TV, a workers’ cooperative and a left-wing alternative to soul-crushing corporate behemoths like Netflix.  Naomi and Nick share how they came to left politics and made a name for themselves producing the defining campaign videos for AOC and other insurgent congressional candidates in the run-up to the 2018 midterm election. They explain why the business magazine Fast Company named them one of the world’s most innovative companies, and give listeners a rundown of their diverse slate of content, including feature films, documentaries, animation and gaming content. The gang discusses their shared love for Street Fight Radio and the value of building our own independent cultural institutions in the face of increasing attempts by establishment media to co-opt the creative energy of the rising American left.  Follow Naomi on Twitter

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Amanda, also known as @CatContentOnly on Twitter, an independent researcher based in NYC whose work focuses on cultural impressions around health and illnesses. Amanda, a medical anthropology graduate from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, discusses the one thing on everyone's mind this week: COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus. We take a deep look into what the Coronavirus is and the long term implications for those with compromised immune systems and other pre-existing medical conditions as well as homeless communities, who already face brutal restrictions and state sanctioned abuse. Amanda helps us understand the ongoing failures of the US government in responding to what the World Health Organization has classified as a "pandemic". The crew also examines the xenophobic hysteria that has resulted in attacks on Asian communities and heightened stigmatization which includes the description of this virus as "foreign" and "Chinese".  Final

Today we’re joined by writer and journalist Leslie Lee III, host of the left-wing arts and culture podcast Struggle Session, to take stock of the Bernie Sanders campaign thus far and the state of the Democratic primary race after another night of favorable results for Joe Biden.  After filling listeners in on his own origin story and the birth of Struggle Session, Leslie breaks down the media narratives around overwhelming black support for Biden and the various premature postmortems on Bernie’s 2020 bid. The gang discusses the importance of taking heart from how far we’ve come since 2016, keeping up the momentum around Bernie’s agenda to the convention, and expanding the base for a socialist movement by organizing around specific issues, regardless of electoral outcomes. Finally, the crew rounds out the hour with an obligatory Star Wars segment.  You can follow Leslie on Twitter @leslieleeiii and check out Struggle Session wherever pods are cast.  If you want to support the show and receive access to to

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Kate Willett, comedian, writer, and co-host of the left-wing feminist podcast Reply Guys. Kate has also appeared in Netflix's “Comedy Lineup” and recently made her network debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Kate dives into how she broke out in comedy and what has helped define her left-wing bona fides, including the tragic passing of her boyfriend, comedian Raghav Mehta.  We discuss her powerful essay for ELLE Magazine which explains just how Kate went from a Hillary Clinton fan to a quintessential Bernie Bro, and how canvassing for the Sanders campaign has helped her deal with the aftermath of losing Raghav. If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined from Jackson, Mississippi by veteran community organizers Pauline and Frederick Rogers. Pauline is President of the RECH Foundation or Reaching and Educating for Community Hope, and cofounder of that organization along with her husband Fred. Pauline and Frederick were both formerly incarcerated at Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm. Together they founded RECH as a prison and reentry ministry whose projects include the Wendy Hatcher Transitional Home and the Mississippi Freedom Letters Campaign in collaboration with historian and activist Garrett Felber, assistant professor of history the University of Mississippi and author of the book Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State, out now from University of North Carolina Press.  After Pauline and Fred share a bit of how their lives have been impacted by the prison system, they outline the broad range of services and advocacy they are able

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Briahna Joy Gray, National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign and co-host of the Hear The Bern podcast. After shedding light on her formative years before joining the Sanders campaign, Brie breaks down one of the most covered media narratives that has plagued the movement: the Bernie Bro myth. Brie unpacks the implications of this smear and explains just how diverse the Sanders coalition truly is.  The gang then discusses the weaponization of identity politics by members of the liberal pundit class, and breaks down how Bernie Sanders' policy positions stack up with the other candidates still left on the field. We also get into the unique outreach tactics employed by Sanders canvassers who knocked on over 500,000 doors in the lead up to the Iowa caucus, and who appealed to the most disenfranchised communities in places like Ottumwa where Donald Trump had swept in 2016. We also weigh up Mike Bloomberg's infiltration into the Democratic primary and

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Lana Polansky, a Montreal-based video game critic, designer and journalist whose writing has appeared on Vice, Paste, and Kill Screen, among other outlets. After charting her personal journey to the intersection of gaming and left-wing politics, Lana explains the experimental impulses behind the category of indie games, with the help of a series of essays for the digital arts and culture outlet Rhizome detailing how the concept of empathy has become a buzzword in the industry.  Lana then gives listeners a lay of the land with respect to labor conditions for game workers and their efforts to organize, including her retrospective on Gamergate and the function of far-right cultural politics as worker suppression in a completely neoliberal industry, the new campaign by the Communications Workers of America in collaboration with Game Workers Unite to help unionize workers at game companies, and her own work with Game Curious Montreal, the “radical book club for g