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In the United States, we talk about how it is that through centuries of colonial capitalism,

the institutions of race and of gender have been policed and embodied.

And so today, when you see communities of people of color disproportionately affected by COVID and by respiratory disease and by air pollution,

you can see that not as a sort of unfortunate liberal accident to the otherwise benign unfolding of capitalism,

but actually integral to the way that capitalism works and has always worked.

And that's important so that we can understand not only why our bodies are inflamed, but also why it is that our communities and our planet are suffering from the inflammation that comes from the long season of fire that is ahead of us.

You are listening to Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. Upstream.

An interview and documentary series that invites you to unlearn everything you thought you knew about economics.

I'm Dela Duncan. And I'm Robert Raymond.

In this two-part conversation, we spoke with Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore, who co-authored the book A History of the World in seven cheap things.

A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet.

In the book, Raj and Jason explore how capitalism relies on the cheapening of nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives in order to keep going.

We spoke with Raj and Jason about cheapness, the era of the capitalocene, which the authors prefer to the more common term, the anthropocene, the myth of overpopulation, which has its roots in racism and can border on eco-fascism, and much more.

We hear from Raj in the first half of the episode and then Jason in the second half.

Hi Raj and welcome to Upstream. Thanks so much for taking the time today.

And yeah, I'm wondering if you could just maybe start by briefly introducing yourself for our listeners.

Thanks so much for having me here. My name is Raj Patel. I'm a research professor at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

And I have, for much longer than I've been a professor here, been an activist for transformation and revolution in the food system.

Great. Before we get into the questions around the topics in your book specifically, I'd like to start by asking you what your thoughts are on COVID and what that's revealed about, maybe specifically our food system, but also just broadly about our current national and global economic system.

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