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Talking Strategy, Making History

Talking Strategy, Making History

Written by: Richard Flacks
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 Each episode will focus on a different aspect or example of the general theme. Our kick-off frame is the awkward position that progressives find themselves in. It seems obvious, at least to a significant portion of Leftists, that “working within the Democratic Party” has to be part of any realistic strategy for making substantive, social democratic or radical change in the United States. What is far less clear is what this means practically, in terms of organization and elections. For many years, the slogan of the Left has been to work both “inside and outside” the Democratic Party. But what does that “inside” part actually look like? The podcast project comes from our experience as progressive activists--and from the urgency of now. Dick Flacks taught sociology at UC Santa Barbara and Umiversity of Chicago for 60 years. He's of the founding generation of Students for a Democratic Society and helped write the Port Huron Statement (along with Tom Hayden and the big Lebowski). He and his late wife Mickey recntly published a memoir of their lives--political and personal. It's called MAKING HISTORY/MAKING BLINTZES: HOW TWO RED DIAPER BABIES FOUND EACH OTHER AND DISCOVERED AMERICA. He's written a lot about the American Left--most notably MAKING HISTORY: THE AMERICAN LEFT AND THE AMERICAN MIND. His weekly radio show called'The Culture of Protest' can be heard 6 pm Thursdays on www.kcsb.org. Daraka Larimore-Hall is vice-chair of the Democratic Party of California and a political and organizational consultant working primarily for social democratic parties and trade unions abroad. A lifelong political activist, Daraka first met Dick when he was in Jr High School, and first getting involved in local progressive politics in Santa Barbara. Since then, Daraka has been a national leader and staffer for DSA, a board member of the International Union of Socialist Youth, an activist and elected officer of United Auto Workers Local 2865, as well as active in the Democratic Party at all levels. He received his PhD, supervised by Dr. Flacks, in 2013. Per Hoel is the producer/director of our effort. Per helped found the DSA chapter in Santa Barbara in the aftermath of the Sanders campaign in 2016. He's a professional videographer and multimedia designer and works in instructional design.© 2020 Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • #52 Talking with reform activist Sam Rosenthal about How Democrats lost in 2024 and what is to be done

    #52 Talking with reform activist Sam Rosenthal about How Democrats lost in 2024 and what is to be done
    Jan 5 2026

    #52 Talking with Democratic Party reformer Sam Rosenthal about how the Democrats lost in 2024 and what is to be done
    Sam Rosenthal is political director of Roots Action, whose autopsy of the 2024 election offers a springboard for creating a strategy to change the party. Sam has, as well, been a national leader in DSA's eletoral activity. We're all preoccupied with the Venezuela situation (which happened the day after Daraka and Dick talked with Sam) but that increases the urgency for devising effective political strategy--and this episode is of use for that end. The Roots Action report is at Autopsy-The-Democratic-Party-In-Crisis.pdf
    Sam's band "Personal Spaces" hjas several records out and can be heatd on Apple Music, etc. We concluded the episode with one of the tracks.

    Mixed & Edited by Next Day Podcast

    info@nextdaypodcast.com
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • #51 Talking about Seattle's astonishing mayoral election with union organizer Michael Laslett & Prof Jim Gregory

    #51 Talking about Seattle's astonishing mayoral election with union organizer Michael Laslett & Prof Jim Gregory
    Dec 13 2025

    #51 Talking about Seattle's astonishing mayoral election with union organizer Michael Laslett & Prof. Jim Gregory
    Seattle's mayoral election was, like the Mamdani victory in NY, an important progressive victory. Veteran community organizer Kate Wilson, defeated the incumbent, liberal mayor. We (Dick Flacks & Daraka Larimore Hall) invited University of Washington labor historian Jim Gregory and veteran Seattle union leader Michael Laslett to explore how Seattle's class struggle history, and contemporary grassroots battles with Amazon and other corporate giants, led to this outcome--and, why we need to pay attention to Seattle going forward.
    music: Michael Laslett performs "They All Sang Bread & Roses" by Si Kahn.

    Mixed & Edited by Next Day Podcast

    info@nextdaypodcast.com
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    55 mins
  • #50 Daraka & Dick talking about what the recent election might mean for living in the USA

    #50 Daraka & Dick talking about what the recent election might mean for living in the USA
    Nov 11 2025

    #50 Daraka & Dick Talking About the Recent Election
    Mamdani's astonishing campaign in NYC along with the Democratic sweep last week inspired us to grab our mics for a conversation. How will Mamdani be able to bring the change his supporters are hoping for? How can the electoral repudiation of MAGA be built on and to what ends? We try to go beyond the horse race patter and cynical tone of media and online chatter. We're pushing instead hope to help fuel the hard work ahead.
    Music: "Zohran Mamdani for Mayor" Red Dawn t7
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    1 hr and 2 mins
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