This follow-up to Valentin Thurn’s documentary, Taste the Waste, spotlights the people and companies throughout Europe who are working to salvage usable food. It is estimated that European households throw away 100 billion Euros worth of food each year. Thurn asks why is it...

4 min

The Condition of the Working Class (2013) (trailer)

Everything changes and yet everything stays the same. 1844: Friedrich Engels writes his book The Condition of the Working Class in England, a classic denunciation of the appalling living conditions for working people living at the heart of the industrial revolution in...

3 min

Spirited Away - Why Work Is Toxic

Hidden in the fantastic otherwordly narrative of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is an allegory about society’s toxic obsession with work. The Studio Ghibli classic was released in 2001 and commented on Japan’s losing its soul to capitalism in the context of the country’s...

24 min

Is The US Really A Meritocracy?

One of the most common misconceptions about US society is that we live under a perfectly fair, egalitarian system which rewards those who have intelligence and a strong work ethic. This is the myth of American meritocracy. In this episode, Second Thought explores why the US...

13 min

To The Ends of the Earth (2016)

"Wonderfully in touch with this historical moment". - Mark Achbar, The Corporation "To the Ends of the Earth" follows concerned citizens living at the frontiers of extreme oil and gas extraction, bearing witness to a global crossroads. They call for human ingenuity to...

75 min

Does Capitalism Really Drive Innovation?

One of the more common arguments for capitalism asserts that there would be no innovation without it. Given how prevalent this talking point is, one would assume that it's difficult to debunk. That's not the case. In this episode, Second Thought takes a look at why capitalism...

13 min

Money Puzzles (2016)

Money Puzzles is a documentary film about money and debt and the widespread misunderstanding about what they are and how they function to be found in the media, everyday life and even university economics departments.

130 min

The Truth About Food Insecurity

We live in a world with a rapidly growing population. Some people would have you believe that food insecurity is caused by overpopulation, or that we've reached the earth's carrying capacity. Is that really the case? In this episode, Second Thought takes a brief look at the...

13 min

Killer Mike: Amazon Using Slave Labor to Enrich the Richest Man in the World

Killer Mike delivered a powerful speech at a rally for Alabama Amazon warehouse workers who are fighting to unionize. If their efforts succeed, it could be the spark that ignites successful Amazon union drives across the country.

8 min

Why America Throws the Poor in Prison

America built mass incarceration: the wholesale imprisonment of entire populations. Why, exactly, are so many people in prison – more than the entire population of New Mexico? That’s our focus for this week’s video: how a crisis of capitalism created a surplus population of...

8 min

David Cross: Why America Sucks at Everything

America: the greatest, richest, freest country in the world – or is it? David Cross, of Mr. Show, Arrested Development, and The Dark Divide discusses why Americans, despite living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, have a much worse standard of living than...

13 min

The Age of Social Murder

The ruling elites, despite the accelerating and tangible ecological collapse, mollify us, either by meaningless gestures or denial.

Chris Hedges

Capitalist Realism, Mental Illness and Societies of Control

Capitalist realism is the ambient all pervasive atmosphere where it's just sort of implied that capitalism is all there is. It conditions how we view the world, how we work, our social relations, even our thoughts and behaviors. When it comes to mental health, capitalist...

25 min

Power, Profit and Populism: The Battle for Hard Brexit (2021)

Brexit was presented as a populist revolution against the elite. But in the years since the referendum, a group of men deep in the heart of the British establishment have been carrying out a coup of a different kind – using Brexit to try and turn Britain into a low-tax, low...

62 min

America Compared: Why Other Countries Treat Their People So Much Better

We're taught to believe that America is the greatest country on earth and that it couldn't possibly get any better. Let's put that claim to the test. In this episode, we'll compare the US to other wealthy nations using several key metrics: "low-skilled" job compensation...

14 min

The Man Who Exposed Amazon

The Gravel Institute is launching a new series to supplement our explainer videos: mini-documentaries on the struggles of workers in our stagnating, highly unequal economy. This video focuses on Chris Smalls, an Amazon warehouse employee who exposed their deeply unsafe...

10 min

The Free Market Isn't Free | The GameStop Saga Explained

By popular demand, here's Second Thought's take on the GameStop/Reddit/Robinhood stock market debacle. In this episode, we take a look at the strange and deeply funny spectacle of a bunch of normal people tanking a hedge fund, but more importantly, we analyze what the...

14 min

The Five Real Conspiracies You Need to Know About

While millions of people are spellbound by falsehoods, actual threats go unheeded and unchecked.

Jeremy Lent

You Can't Hurt the Gangsters at the Capitalist Casino by Shuffling the Chips Around to Different Bets. You Take Their Chips off the Table.

Pumping up GameStop will do nothing to change what people hate about Wall Street. There’s a better way.

Hamilton Nolan

The Oligarchy Knows Class Warfare Is the Real Fight—Why Don't Liberals?

The Democrats and Republicans have legalized a level of greed and fraud that even heirs of the robber barons thought unsustainable.

Chris Hedges

The Minimum Wage Debate Explained

Since the minimum wage is in the news again, I figured it would be a good time to address some things that are never brought up. In this episode we take a look at the minimum wage and why some people are against it being raised, but more importantly, we examine what the whole...

15 min

Does Capitalism Mean Freedom? | Zephyr Teachout

According to the standard account, capitalism—whatever your criticisms of it—is synonymous with freedom. Zephyr Teachout explains how we are told other systems necessitate central planning by undemocratic bureaucracies. But what if that’s not true? capitalism puts us at the...

6 min

Is "Big Government" Really the Problem? | Briahna Joy Gray

Conservatives like to complain about "Big Government," but despite lower government spending than many peer nations, America is less prosperous and less free. Briahna Joy Gray explains how the government isn't bad because it's big: it's bad because it's bought.

6 min

How 100% Clean Energy Could Power Our Cities and Towns

Grist built this tiny model town to show what it would look like if we tried to transition to 100% clean energy. In the real world, it’s even more difficult. Staff reporter Shannon Osaka wrote about what it really means when cities say they’re going ‘100 percent renewable.’

6 min

Does Capitalism Actually Reduce Poverty? | Richard Wolff

You’ve probably heard that “capitalism has reduced global poverty by 90 percent.” It’s a line frequently parroted by capitalism’s most enthusiastic promoters. But there’s a problem with those claims: they’re either misleading or outright false. Professor Richard Wolff breaks...

7 min

MSNBC Suddenly Realizes Bernie Was Right

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9 min

Halting Hades: the Moral Imperative (2017)

Filmmaker, Scott Danville creates a film, Halting Hades: The Moral Imperative, documenting the the science, politics, and economics of the world's most important issue, climate change, and the factors that will lead to a revolution through the intersection of science and...

63 min

PROJECT CYBERSYN (2021)

Project Cybersyn tells the story of applied cybernetics in early 1970s Chile during the Allende Presidency and evaluates its legacy, value and potential. Translations of this video are welcome.

21 min

The War at Home: The Untold History of Class War in the United States (2021)

"In a time when many are questioning institutional integrity across society, seeking accurate and relevant information to help make sense of our supposedly post-truth era, Noble shines a spotlight into our dark past while providing a crucial class context often missing or...

104 min

What Greed has Done | Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges talks to Bill Moyers about the destruction of America's manufacturing base by American corporations as well as the effect that unfettered and unregulated capitalism has had on the poor and vulnerable. Hedges calls them "sacrifice zones."

17 min

Battlestar Climatica (2020)

"The consumer society - it's hyperindividualism - and hyperindividualism is a form of disempowerment, and they know it. So you get to express your personal identity, while you are being stripped of collective power. And the elites are not going to go without a fight. Look at...

9 min

You're Probably Already A Socialist

If you turn on the news today, odds are you'll hear someone use the term "socialism" incorrectly to try to scare you. In this video, I hope to correct the record and explain what socialism really means. - Second Thought

12 min

People Didn't Win The Election... Wall $treet Did | Ryan Knight

"The new battle in the country & the world is no longer Conservative vs Liberal, it's People vs Oligarchy"

10 min

Nowtopia: A Documentary About Economic Alternatives (2020)

The term ‘Nowtopia’ is increasingly used by both activists and academics to describe a variety of interconnected tendencies. It can, for instance, apply to seeking freedom outside the confines of wage labour, or the creation of liberated common space in the here and now.

32 min

How America Can Leave Fossil Fuels Behind, In One Chart

VOX talked to physicist and engineer Saul Griffith, who takes us through his incredibly detailed road map for how the US could actually walk away from fossil fuels in the next 30 years.

12 min

America's Unemployment Problem

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on America's job market, leaving millions without steady pay or healthcare. We know that unemployment is a real problem, but the "official" unemployment figures don't tell the whole story. The true rate of unemployment is much worse than you think.

12 min

Neoliberalism: The Root of Our Problems

A short film by Eat The Moon.

4 min

Why Everyone Deserves A Basic Income | Guy Standing

There is a simple solution to the economic problems we face today. It’s called a universal basic income and this is the justification for it.

6 min

World Localization Day 2020 (Short Version) Be Part of this Inspirational Movement for Change!

After COVID-19, we can return to stressful disconnected lives and climate catastrophe or we can slow down, scale down and rebuild our connections to each other and to the Earth. On June 21, we hosted an inspiring online festival of ideas and inspiration in celebration of...

115 min

World Localization Day - full version. Be part of this inspirational movement for change!

259 min

The Man Card: White Male Identity Politics from Nixon to Trump (2020)

For years, right-wing politicians and pundits have repeatedly criticized the left for playing “the race card” and “the woman card.” This new film turns the tables and takes dead aim at the right’s own longstanding – but rarely discussed – deployment of white-male identity...

55 min

Can You See It ? | Extinction Rebellion France

Can you see the absurdity of our world? Can you imagine another society?

5 min

Naomi Klein’s “Hard-Money” Ideas Undermine Her Laudable Climate Action Goals

2014 Book Review: Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate

Michael Hoexter

Detropia (2012) (trailer)

Originally the birthplace of the middle class, Detroit is now on the brink of complete collapse. Loosing over 25% of it’s population and 50% of its manufacturing jobs over the past decade, Detroit is now in a state of emergency. Racial tension, globalization, lack of...

3 min

Honest Government Ad | The Recession

The Australien Government has made an ad about the recession, its cuts to Jobseeker/Jobkeeper, tax cuts for the rich, cuts to the Environment Act; and the 'Gas-led Recovery' - and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.

4 min

Worker Cooperatives: Expanding Democracy In The Workplace

For the vast majority of people, work is miserable, tedious, and meaningless. It doesn't have to be that way. Expanding workplace democracy through worker co-ops is a step in the right direction. This video was written in part by a Second Thought patron! Big thanks to Thought...

11 min

The New Corporation (2022)

The Corporation (2003) examined an institution within society; The New Corporation reveals a world now fully remade in the corporation's image, perilously close to losing democracy.

107 min

Can Universal Basic Income End Our Cultural Obsession With Work? | Philosopher Andrew Taggart

In 1948, German philosopher Josef Pieper predicted that society was headed for a dystopia he called 'Total Work'. With most of us in 2017 working too long, missing social events, working on weekends, and egging on our older years just for the retirement, practical philosopher...

9 min

What to Do When the World is on Fire

In December of 2019, my best friend Kit took me and my partner to the place where she grew up, in the remote Thora Valley, in the pristine forested foothills of Eastern Australia’s Great Dividing Range. As we drove down Darkwood, the single road into the Thora, Kit told us...

Henry Coleman

Are You Really "Free" Under Capitalism?

For decades, Americans have used the words "capitalism" and "freedom" as synonyms. In this video by Second Thought, we'll explore why capitalism not only fails to provide the freedom it promises, it also actively suppresses real freedom.

11 min

What is Work? | Nancy Folbre

What counts as work and what doesn't? Nancy Folbre shows how nearly half of all work done in this country is ignored by economists. She argues that we need to create better measures of non-market income, consumption and investment.

4 min

Globalization's Discontents | Joe Stiglitz

The promise of globalization is built on a lie, designed to spread risk while concentrating reward. Joe Stiglitz digs into why so many economists and policymakers have twisted the facts in support of this form of globalization.

4 min

Revolution Now! with Peter Joseph

Part 1: introductions are made, along with a treatment on the origins and nature of systemic racism in the USA.

120 min

InterReflections: A Story about The Greatest Revolution of Our Time (2020)

InterReflections is an experimental, mixed genre narrative feature film by Peter Joseph, adapted from his book The New Human Rights Movement. The ambitious, nearly 3 hour work challenges not only contemporary thinking about society, it challenges the very art of filmmaking...

165 min

Revolution In Reverse: Debt, Work and the New Colonialism (2014)

Anthropologist David Graeber guides us on a profound analysis of the financial systems, current crisis and upheavals in the world. Taking as a starting point the tireless Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, the documentary uses reflections of Graeber and other experts to...

79 min

Is Universal Basic Income The Future?

Imagine a future in which every person was afforded the basics of life. How would this change our society? Is UBI the future? – Second Thought

12 min

Capitalism And Monopolies: How Five Companies Control All US Media

You're probably aware that Disney owns Marvel and Lucasfilm, but do you really know how consolidated the American media landscape is? In this episode of Second Thought, we're looking at how just five mega-corporations control the entirety of US media.

11 min

The Troublemaker: How Extinction Rebellion Became A Global Climate Movement (2020)

The film scratches the niggling itch that is lurking in many of our brains about the extinction of planetary systems that seems to be going on all around us, and the dawning realisation that something has to be done.

57 min

Until Further Notice

I made this video after a friend left me a voicemail. We had both recently been laid off our jobs and all non-essential businesses were being shut down. We didn't realize it at the time but we were the lucky ones - essential workers were out there risking their health to keep...

2 min

COVID's Hidden Toll (2020)

How the COVID crisis has hit vulnerable immigrants and undocumented workers who have helped keep America fed during the pandemic. This journalism is made possible by viewers like you.

54 min

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