Exposing the "Master Planners" with David Sirota
Sounds Like Impact: A newsletter for audio and action
Welcome to Sounds Like Impact!
This edition we have an interview with David Sirota, host of the Master Plan podcast, one of the most important shows I’ve listened to this year. Don’t miss it!
FYI: Next week there won’t be an edition because we’ve already had four this month (don’t you love long months!). We’ll be back on 11/6. In the meantime, there will be plenty of recs (including some relevant to U.S. Election Day) to keep you busy until then!
Before jumping into the intro section though, I want to also share that next week is my birthday! So can I ask a favor? In honor of my 35th birthday, can you share this newsletter with 3-5 people? Or 35 people if you want extra brownie points 😁. I would love to reach 1000 subscribers by the end of the year.
ICYMI: Last week’s newsletter was curated by Lisa Phillips, host of From Now On podcast.
#SLI Community
- , of Democracy Notes, re-launched the Democracy Notes podcast.
I’ve said this before, but I love what
is doing over at American Inequality. He wrote this recent piece “Why Does Inequality Matter” and you should give it a read! And also congratulate him on his new book deal on the very topic!- of Bingeworthy interviewed Kaitlin Prest, creator of The Heart podcast which re-aired The Gaza Monologues in their latest season, “With Great Love | Gaza Monologues Revisited.”
Into the Stacks
At the end of last month I shared that I was taking an indefinite hiatus from Instagram. Aside from finding the time to invest in generating content, I was becoming increasingly aware of how difficult it was to promote social impact / justice content.
also called this out recently. Last week on User Mag, journalist Taylor Lorenz, wrote Democracy Dies on Instagram.“Meta deems any content that discusses social justice or identity (things like LGBTQ rights, reproductive justice, etc) as “political”. The company says it will restrict any image, video, or text post that “identifies a problem that impacts people and is caused by the action or inaction of others,” which is an incredibly wide swath of content. If you speak about these things on Meta, your reach will be limited and your account will be surfaced to fewer people.”
- , writer of Olurinatti and former public defender, recently had Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika—host of Empire City podcast—on her show to talk about The Absurd Cost of Ego-Driven Policing.
Speaking of Empire City, I attended “Reporting the Empire City” at NYU last Friday and it was really cool to hear from the team behind the show and from Asad Dandia who sued the NYPD and won! I saw they were recording, so you may be able to catch it online soon. Also, Empire City has an episode that talks about how we arrived at the Comstock Act, which is just as relevant to today as it was when it was created, when it come to attempts to dismantle abortion. Read this recent post from Abortion, Every Day to get the details.
Reminder: To guest curate, be interviewed, advertise and more, click here.
📣 Spotlight
For the full interview with David where we talk what we can do to disrupt the “Master Plan” but also why reform is difficult, and how he and his team translate this complex and frustrating story into audio, please click the link below.
I am going to start this interview a bit differently, by asking a controversial question: Is the concept of checks and balances dead within the U.S. government? Master Plan spends a great deal of time explaining how enmeshed congressional partisan politics are with our judicial branch, that I couldn’t help but feel we are without hope in that sense. What’s your interpretation of the events you detail?
One of the master planners’ key revelations was that in a country where their self-enriching policies are unpopular, they’d need to focus on the least democratically accountable branch of government - the judiciary. It’s a branch that’s not subject to elections and that’s filled with people who enjoy lifetime appointments. They understood that if they could take that branch over, and turn it into a super-legislature that actually makes laws, they wouldn’t have to worry as much about the desires of the general public.
The system of checks and balances has subsequently broken down both because of the judiciary turning itself from a law-interpreting branch into a law-making branch - and because the other branches have basically accepted that with little push back. Congress has plenty of ways it could reassert its power, and the executive branch could certainly work to reorganize or expand the courts. But that hasn’t happened.
The one line that keeps echoing in my head from Master Plan is the legal argument underpinning all of the legalized corruption we have today: “Money is free speech.” This is unfortunate because I had already begrudgingly acclimated to–not accepted–“Corporations are people.” I am no lawyer, but I wonder, if the former statement is true, and the second is true, is there not an argument to be made about fairness? Is all free speech equal? That can’t be true if some have more money than others to exercise speech, to the point where they can stifle others speech. Has that been argued? Or is it naive to believe that our elected officials and courts care about fairness?
Legally-speaking, there used to be a distinction between citizens’ speech and commercial speech. However, in practice, that distinction has largely evaporated, giving corporations the right to use money as a constitutionally protected form of unlimited speech - which translates into corporations and their owners using massive amounts of money to control the entire political process. The system is totally out of balance because equating money with speech effectively allows the speech of those with lots of money to completely drown out the speech of everyone else. Those who created and now preserve this system clearly aren’t interested in anything resembling “fairness.”
It becomes clear, though Republicans or Conservatives have really benefited from these intentional cracks in our campaign finance system, that Democrats have also benefited and have aided in upholding some of the judicial confirmations and legislation that have weakened campaign finance reform. I mean, I was surprised to learn that late Republican Senator John McCain led the charge on reform and that a Democrat controlled Senate confirmed Justice Clarence Thomas. Who today, in any party, is trying to call out legalized corruption and where are they in addressing the issue?
There are people who call it out - Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse come to mind. And even Joe Biden has periodically lamented the domination of big money in politics. But one takeaway from Master Plan is that without a popular uprising demanding real reforms, any allies inside the system simply will not be able to make change.
Part of the reason that uprising hasn’t happened is because we live in a society whose tribal politics inculcates us to believe that we can’t criticize or pressure “our side” - and that if “our side” happens to be winning inside the corrupt system, then everything is fine. But that kind of psychology perpetuates the corruption we have now - and prevents any kind of reform from happening.
Finish reading the interview by clicking here.
🗳️ More Politics
Below is a round-up of how U.S. politics has been covered on Sounds Like Impact. I encourage you to read and listen before Election Day and to really envision the type of society you want to live in. Also, even if you are an uncommitted voter, please make sure you are aware of what ballot measures there are so you don’t skip Election Day completely.
Guest Curations
Get out the vote or go home [to vote] (P.S. some eps aren’t evergreen)
Interviews
Jenna Spinelle, When the People Decide
Corryn Freeman, Future Coalition Podcast
Kevin Blackistone & Robert Greene II, Our New South
Big Ballot Issues (Read them here)
Abortion - Renee Bracey Sherman & Regina Mahone
Criminal “Justice”
Legal System - Stephanie Marudas & Emily Previti
Policing - Adell Coleman & Chris Colbert
School Safety - Emily Reeves
🌟 Classifieds
Nothing to promote but still want to support? You can donate here.
