In the case of the Boulder Dam in the 1920’s, a strong public utility—the LA Department of Water & Power —was well positioned to control water & power as public goods, despite efforts by the conservative Hoover administration to wholly privatize the process. 5/

What is more, the success of this project laid the groundwork for later rural electrification programs under FDR’s New Deal. 6/

Today, Vaheesan sees potential for public control over the IRA’s implementation because the legislation extends investment & production tax credits, formerly available only to for-profit entities, to community-controlled public and cooperative electric utilities. 7/

Thus the meaning and fate of the IRA remains up-for-grabs. Should community-controlled public & cooperative electric utilities seize hold of the IRA’s democratic potentials, the process stands to build significant capacities for a more expansive Green New Deal. 8/

Ferguson and Vaheesan close their conversation by considering the social construction of and  disputes about public money in both contemporary and historical contexts. 9/

As always, please listen & share in your networks! 🎧🤳🗣️ 10/end

Tremendous thx to Sandeep Vaheesan for joining me on the Superstructure pod to discuss his urgent new article about the still-undecided political potentials of the Inflation Reduction Act.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE W/ SANDEEP VAHEESAN moneyontheleft.org/2023/10/25/pow…

.@robbhawkes & I just wrapped up recording part 1 of a forthcoming Superstructure podcast series about money & inflation in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. Hope to release the first part sometime during the next week or so. Stay tuned to Money on the Left (@moneyontheleft.bsky.social) for updates.

New Superstructure! 📢 ✨Money, Modernism & Inflation in The Great Gatsby✨ Please listen & share! 🎧🧑‍🤝‍🧑 open.spotify.com/episode/1E9Gcu…

🥥New Superstructure!🥥 Hosts Will Beaman (@agoingaccount) and Scott Ferguson (videotroph) welcome Maggie Hennefeld (@magshenny) to the podcast to discuss her essay, “Make America Laugh Again,” published in The Minnesota Star Tribune. 1/🧵 moneyontheleft.org/2024/08/13/mak…

Previously ridiculed, Kamala Harris’s signature laughter has emerged as an electrifying rallying cry for her last-minute candidacy for President of the United States. 2/9

"[L]aughter is a lifeline for resistance against the global onslaught of authoritarian hate and fearmongering.” startribune.com/make-america-l… 4/9

.@magshenny is a feminist scholar of silent cinema & professor in the Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature Department (@UMNCSCL) at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (University of Minnesota). 6/9

.@magshenny is the author of Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema (Columbia University Press, 2024) and Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes (Columbia University Press, 2018). 7/9 cup.columbia.edu/book/death-by-…

.@magshenny is also co-curator of the four-disc DVD/Blu-ray set Cinema’s First Nasty Women (Cinema's First Nasty Women🎞️). 8/9 wfpp.columbia.edu/cinemas-first-…

Tremendous thx to @magshenny for joining us on the Superstructure podcast to discuss her recently published essay in The Minnesota Star Tribune, "Make America Laugh Again." This is a fun, wide-ranging conversation. Highly recommend!

🎙️🤍