Library
Filter
401-500 of 1,702 results
75 min
"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 rebuild society at the end of the fossil fuel era.
13 min
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...
130 min
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.
13 min
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...
8 min
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
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...
13 min
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...
The ruling elites, despite the accelerating and tangible ecological collapse, mollify us, either by meaningless gestures or denial.
Chris Hedges
25 min
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...
62 min
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...
14 min
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...
10 min
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...
14 min
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...
While millions of people are spellbound by falsehoods, actual threats go unheeded and unchecked.
Jeremy Lent
Pumping up GameStop will do nothing to change what people hate about Wall Street. There’s a better way.
Hamilton Nolan
The Democrats and Republicans have legalized a level of greed and fraud that even heirs of the robber barons thought unsustainable.
Chris Hedges
15 min
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...
6 min
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
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
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.’
7 min
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...
9 min
Support The Show On Patreon!
63 min
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...
21 min
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.
104 min
"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...
17 min
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."
9 min
"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...
12 min
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
10 min
"The new battle in the country & the world is no longer Conservative vs Liberal, it's People vs Oligarchy"
32 min
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.
12 min
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
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.
4 min
A short film by Eat The Moon.
6 min
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.
115 min
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...
259 min
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...
55 min
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...
5 min
Can you see the absurdity of our world? Can you imagine another society?
2014 Book Review: Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
Michael Hoexter
3 min
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...
4 min
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.
11 min
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...
107 min
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.
9 min
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...
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...
11 min
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.
4 min
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
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.
120 min
Part 1: introductions are made, along with a treatment on the origins and nature of systemic racism in the USA.
165 min
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...
4 min
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...
12 min
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
11 min
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.
57 min
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.
2 min
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...
54 min
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.
"Love of life is the guide and motivator of ecological healing on Earth. Next comes learning how to put that love into action. How do we do that for that most alive of all places, the Amazon?"
Charles Eisenstein
21 min
Created by the Diverse Solidarity Economies Collective, The Banker Ladies tells the stories of Ginelle, Aisha, and Mabinty, three Black women in Toronto creating diverse financial services for their communities through Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCAs).
58 min
Who holds the purse strings to the majority of the world's wealth? There is a new global elite at the controls of our economic future, and here former Project Censored director and media monitoring sociologist Peter Phillips unveils just who these players are.
Would you like to be rich? Chances are your answer is: “Yes! Who wouldn’t want to be rich?” Clearly, in societies where money can buy almost everything, being rich is generally perceived as something good. It implies more freedom, fewer worries, more happiness, higher social...
Julia K. Steinberger, Thomas Wiedmann and Manfred Lenzen
The well-intentioned drive among white progressives to “check their privilege” or “take responsibility” for their unconscious biases won’t do much to fight racism. But forging real solidarity through concrete campaigns, protests, and movements can.
Hadas Thier
81 min
Today Bhaskar Sunkara, editor & publisher of Jacobin magazine, is joined by professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Adolph Reed Jr., to talk about what materialist political history actually looks like and how the charge from liberals...
Looting is the word of the day, on the lips of every newscaster, the president, and elected officials across the country. And, indeed, looting is a major problem in America.
Thom Hartmann
The pandemic is very quickly teaching us what’s important: health, love, food, a safe and comfortable home, creativity and learning, connectedness, and being able to get out into nature. Shouldn’t those things be the pillars around which our societies are organised? The virus...
Laura Basu
This morning the president of the United States threatened state-sanctioned murder in response to “looting,” laying bare the way in which white supremacy, capitalism and the state work together to violently repress people who defend Black life.
William C. Anderson
2 min
Joe Brewer is a complexity researcher and evangelist for the field of culture design. The spoken audio is from a Kosmos Live podcast, "on cultural design and midwifing a new era".
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Despite all the demands from climate activists, scientists, and even policy makers, hardly a single country is taking the shift to renewable energy seriously. Even countries and regions that claim to be...
Richard Heinberg
The coronavirus (covid-19) has caused upheaval across the world, deaths of the most vulnerable, closed borders, financial market crashes, curfews and controls on group gatherings, and many more devastating effects.
Degrowth Editorial Team
A week before the announcement of the Janata [public] Curfew slated for March 22, 2020, I spoke with a 43-year-old close relative in her village in Leh, Ladakh, by phone from Delhi. Around that time, the news of rising infections from the novel coronavirus coming in from...
Padma Rigzin
7 min
Three students challenge outdated economics by debating with their professor about the nature of humankind, with rap and puppetry. This animated film is a collaboration between economist Kate Raworth, puppet designer Emma Powell and song writer Simon Panrucker. The critique...
The danger of conspiracy theories is their ability to breed apathy and resignation, offering an easy narrative that makes people susceptible to influence and limits social change. There is another way.
Aragorn Eloff
85 min
Despite low unemployment rates and a rising stock market, 3 out of 4 economists are expecting a recession by 2021. We are already facing a #crisisofpoverty and economic precarity, where 140 million people are poor or low-income, the costs of living are going up and the...
8 min
Cycle courier cooperatives are turning technology on the gig economy giants.
What would it cost to wipe out everybody’s student loans? The answer may surprise you.
Sparky Abraham
AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP MIROWSKI - Many observers expected that the 2008 financial crisis would mark the end of neoliberalism. Instead, we saw a wave of privatization and sharp cuts in public services. Today, the forces best placed to exploit the coronavirus pandemic are...
Alex Doherty
29 min
We have a story to tell you…and it's a new story. We are being called by children everywhere to begin seeing the world from their eyes and telling a new story about the better world our hearts know is possible. We, all of us, in the WorldSummit movement are already creating...
48 min
A film on Climate Change, Degrowth and System Change. The effects and risks of climate change are compelling young people the world round to call upon radical system change as the only solution to avoid a catastrophic collapse. This film studies the role economic growth has...
The divide between the haves and the have nots has been highlighted by the impacts of the pandemic.[1] For those able to work online with a spacious and secure home base, and some financial resources to ride out the pandemic, life has mostly been tolerable. Consumption has...
David Holmgren
7 min
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich breaks down why "corporate social responsibility" is a total farce, and explains why corporations can never be trusted to do the right thing on their own.
6 min
George Monbiot exposes the billionaire class.
There is worse ahead. In acceptance, hope is transformed into energy for the unimaginable.
Instead of lambasting yesteryear’s renewable energy, the movie could have taken up current, more relevant questions.
Kate Aronoff
Building a lifeboat culture is about taking action and preparing communities to be sustainable and functional in the face of a global, national or regional economic and environmental collapse.
Unless we rapidly move through the stages of climate grief, from paralysis to...
Andrew Willner
28 min
Four-part video series on Paul Fenn, pioneer of the Community Choice Energy movement in the United States. Produced by Stuart Farmer. Directed by Yoni Goldstein. Written by Charles Schultz. Production Assistant is Sebastian Alvarez. Filmed on location at Local Power in...
The first crisis point of the COVID-19 disaster was figuring out how to respond, after being caught flat-footed, to the immediate health threat. Now that the death curve in many places has begun to flatten and the scope of economic disaster is hitting home, we are approaching...
Cylvia Hayes
The end of growth will come one day, perhaps very soon, whether we’re ready or not. If we plan for and manage it, we could well wind up with greater well-being.
Richard Heinberg
A study involving more than 20 specialists in conservation ecology and ecological economics highlights the contradiction between economic growth and biodiversity conservation.
Adopting limits to international trade in resources or reducing and sharing the work, are some of...
Robert Orzanna
92 min
Derek Hallquist is an earnest young filmmaker who wants to get to the bottom of the energy debate. How is the world going to become a truly responsible consumer of energy? Is it even possible? While searching for answers to these burning questions, Derek decides to make a...
"The writing is on the wall: Powerdown is inevitable. If we want any hope of achieving it peacefully, we’ve got to start shifting — minds and physical infrastructure — today."
Joanne Poyourow
With regular life on pause, we have a chance to stop and question the path we are taking at the deepest level.
Jason Angell
113 min
Tomasz Biernacki’s thought-provoking documentary about the homeless crisis in Seattle. Deftly interweaving in-depth stories of community members who are living the crisis on the streets with interviews of political leaders and community advocates, vivid images of the current...
In a recent article called “Coronavirus Requires a Collective Response” by professor David Harvey, I was struck by the timeliness of his argument. Harvey quoted Karl Marx a bunch but I’m going to simply paraphrase. Marx claimed that any major project to change the world will...
The United Electrical workers’ union and the Democratic Socialists of America are teaming up to help nonunion workers organize during the coronavirus crisis. The goal: find workers who are already spoiling for a fight and help them win it.
Meagan Day and Mark Meinster
This pandemic health crisis exposes the injustices of the global economic order. It must be a turning point towards creating the systems, structures and policies that can always protect those who are marginalised and allow everyone to live with dignity.
TNI
7 min
Free market capitalism died over a 100 years ago and gave way to monopoly capitalism. Now, to avoid dystopian capitalism, there may be only one way forward...
2 min
Do you know where the gold in your ring comes from?
The Shadow of Gold takes an unflinching look at how the world’s favourite heavy metal is extracted from the earth. The film explores both sides of the industry: the big-time mining companies that dig deep and lop off...
2 min
FREIGHTENED – The Real Price of Shipping, reveals in an audacious investigation the mechanics and perils of cargo shipping; an all-but-visible industry that relentlessly supplies 7 billion humans and holds the key to our economy, our environment and the very model of our...
74 min
By the end of the 21st century, beaches will be a thing of the past. That is the alarming forecast of a growing number of scientists and environmental NGOs. Sand has become a vital commodity for our modern economies: we use it in our toothpaste, detergents, and cosmetics, and...
4 min
The welfare state is an ineffective and expensive system that hurts and targets the poor more than it helps. Universal basic income is a better alternative that could work. The question becomes, then, where would the money for UBI come from? There are a myriad of reasons why...
Amid a horrific human tragedy of sickness and death, much of it taking place in hospitals staffed by brave but overworked and under-equipped doctors and nurses, we are all learning once again what it feels like when economic growth comes to a shuddering stop and the economy...
Richard Heinberg