Advertise on podcast: The Socialist Program with Brian Becker

Following the recent Israeli election, Benjamin Netanyahu may be about to lose power. But will it matter for the Palestinian people? Meanwhile, Trump has ordered a massive deployment to the Middle East in preparation for more war against the people of Iran. Brian Becker and Layan Fuleihan discuss. This is a preview of a patrons-only episode. Subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/TheSocialistProgram to hear the full episode, get access to all our patrons-only content, and help make this show possible.

Mass layoffs are coming to big tech. High-paying jobs are on the chopping block…and we’re just getting started. Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of staff, to cut costs while boosting investment in artificial intelligence. Brian Becker and Professor Richard Wolff discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

Protests throughout France against the government’s austerity program have brought more than a half million people into the streets. Thousands have been arrested. But these protests and student strikes are continuing. What do these protests mean for France, for the Macron government, and for the people of the world who are also seeing vast attacks on their living standards by the capitalist establishment? Brian Becker and Professor Richard Wolff discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

The war in the Middle East is widening and people around the world are feeling the impact. Resistance forces in Yemen have delivered crippling blows to key infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, a key US ally. Brian Becker and Layan Fuleihan discuss the roots of the war between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, how the current conflict was triggered by the unprovoked US-Israeli war against Iran, and how this conflict goes back several decades.  Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

Hundreds of millions from Elon Musk, bankers, corporate entities, and others are flooding the 2026 political races to keep Republicans in power—despite mass opposition against Donald Trump. Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

Are we headed toward a massive economic contraction? A recession? depression? 18 years after the 2008 meltdown on Wall Street and the bankruptcy of many of the biggest banks and corporations – are the billionaires and capitalists dragging the country toward another economic catastrophe? Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

People who are sick and tired of Donald Trump’s bullying of other countries, including Canada, took a liking to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney when he stood up and rebuked Trump, saying the relationship between Canada and the United States has fundamentally changed. But the old adage “your enemy’s enemy is your friend” should definitely not apply as the working class evaluates Canada’s bourgeois leadership. Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

Recent elections in Germany show that the mainstream capitalist political party is in crisis. Left-wing pro-working class forces have made huge gains in Berlin and at the same time the right-wing political party AfD is rising. Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the implications of this development, plus Mark Carney and the Trump-Canada trade conflict. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

The biggest capitalist CEOs of AI companies have been forced in the last week to address the question raised by their own profit-driven efforts: will the AI technologies they are rapidly developing not only threaten communities where data centers are being imposed, but also threaten society and life as we know it? Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

A gas company just paid a record-breaking $5.3 million for its tanker ship to skip the Panama Canal’s long line, a line induced by the US-Iran war. Meanwhile the US fired on Iranian positions in the Strait of Hormuz. The US bond market is also in its worst state in 30 years. Professor Richard Wolff and producer Nicole Roussell unpack the state of today’s volatile global economy. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

Speaking on behalf of Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the United States would embark on a new campaign to destroy Iran’s economy with sanctions. He gave the operation a name: ‘Operation Economic Outcast.’ Professor Richard Wolff and Brian Becker discuss. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

You may have heard that the US government recruited Nazi scientists to work for NASA, but did you know they also recruited them to experiment on US soldiers? Their recruitment was part of Operation Paperclip, and the scientists were only a fraction of this program. It also recruited Nazi SS spies and unleashed them into the Cold War, installed Nazi generals into top positions in West Germany and NATO, and helped Nazi war criminals flee prosecution. And this story goes even deeper, all the way to the initial rise of Nazi Germany, directly challenging the dominant US narrative about its history. We’ve compiled it all into an immersive, 1 hour and 20 minute podcast that explores the many facets of this scandal and how they are connected. We’ve combed through tens of hours of oral testimony to bring the story to life with shocking first-hand accounts.  This is part of our new podcast series: ‘Socialist History,’ which uncovers the real story of US imperialism through a socialist lens, told from the perspective of the people who fought back. In this first season each episode unpacks a different Pentagon or CIA operation.  This is a preview, get the full episode at https://www.patreon.com/collection/2243748

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent billions of U.S. dollars to buy and prop up the Japanese currency, the yen. Professor Richard Wolff and Brian Becker unpack the economic and geopolitical calculations of the Trump White House, and what it means for the US economy.  Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.

“It's kind of in the DNA of American bourgeois capitalist politics: demonize your enemy, call them a communist, and that's the end of the story. But there's another element, which is the Republican Party, the MAGA project, Project 2025 — the Trump White House is failing.” The House Ways and Means Committee has sent a subpoena to BreakThrough News, demanding internal communications, financial records and more. We are not charged with any crime, because our only “crime” has been to tell the truth – about the Palestine solidarity movement, about ICE’s terror in our streets, about Washington’s crimes around the world, from Cuba to the Congo. This is a flagrant abuse of power, and a direct attack on our work as journalists and on the First Amendment. The State Department’s dangerous “Cuba report” released Monday – blasting Havana as the global center of a sinister anti-American communist plot by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea– is just the latest step in the Trump administration’s McCarthyist revival. But attacks on the left didn’t start with Trump: Brian Becker, host of the Socialist Program, joins BT Live to discuss how this latest crackdown on free speech is rooted in US history: From the Palmer Raids to COINTELPRO, every time a mass movement for a more just world starts to gain real traction, the state reaches for the same playbook. DONATE / SIGN THE PETITION: https://breakthroughnews.org/bt-under-attack

The Trump administration is catalyzing a longtime trend in the US where corporate criminals get a fine or nothing, while almost two million working class people sit behind bars. Professor Richard Wolff and producer Nicole Roussell discuss what this shows about the nature of the capitalist system and why we need socialism. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.