But this is, you're exactly right, that so many aspects of our lives are sites of extraction,

whether we're employed full-time or we're precariously employed or we're quote-unquote gig workers

or we're at home for various reasons.

And, you know, we have to think creatively about how we can wield economic power nonetheless

because none of us are outside the economy. Welcome to the Duff Panel to support the show and get access to the second weekly bonus episode and all of our past bonus episodes, become a Patreon

supporter at patreon.com slash death panel pod. And if you'd like to help us out a little bit more,

you can always share the show with your friends, post about your favorite episodes, or follow us

at Death Panel underscore. So with plugs out of the way, I am thrilled to be welcoming back, friend of the panel,

Marshall Steinmell. Marshall is an assistant professor of economics at University of Utah and a

senior fellow in higher education finance at the Jane Family Institute. Marshall, so glad to

have you back today. It's been way too long. Very happy to be back. Thanks for having me.

It's always a pleasure. And also joining us today, we have Astra Taylor. Astra is a writer, documentary filmmaker, and one of the co-founders of the debt collective and has been really committed to agitating for a debt jubilee for years now. Astra, I am a big fan of your work and have been for a very long time. And it is so nice to finally have you on the show. Well, really glad to be here. So it's been a while since we've

checked in on the dynamics of student loan debt. When we finished our year and review episode called

COVID year two, which was looking at all of the ways in which the Biden administration has really laid their

priorities bare through their policy actions and actually more importantly through their

inactions on COVID.

It became clear to us that it was also really time to check in on the discourse surrounding

one of Biden's biggest campaign promises, which was to cancel some degree of some student debt at

some point after being elected. An increasingly shrinking amount of student debt. Right, if he was

elected, of course. And obviously that has not happened. The failure of any debt cancellation

to have happened is both a COVID and a non-COVID policy failure.

So since we've spent a lot of time talking about many of the other pandemic protection

...