Jacobin Radio: Remembering Mike Davis (Part 1)

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2022

⏱️ 87 minutes

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Summary

We pay tribute to Mike Davis, who died on October 25. Mike was a prolific writer, historian, political activist, urban theorist, and author of dozens of books. There has been an avalanche of tributes and obituaries, a testament to Mike’s powerful and distinctive influence, his generosity, his tireless life as a fighter against everything that diminishes human dignity and ravages the planet. He was also a dear friend and a friend of this podcast: I counted at least 30 interviews with him over the years.

We'll hear from those conversations: first, a 2005 interview just a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast; and then, two interviews, a decade apart, on the intensifying California wildfires and his famous argument for “letting Malibu burn.” Finally, we round out this podcast episode with an interview with Mike from March 22, 2020, just at the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Fifteen years earlier, his book The Monster at Our Door warned of a coming global threat of viral catastrophe. In this interview, Mike considered the coronavirus pandemic as the familiar monster now at our door, a biological crisis that poses huge challenges for neoliberal global capitalism. Mike called it a "medical Katrina," one that exposes the woeful unpreparedness of our disinvested public health system as well as the stark class divide of health care in the US.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Jacobin Radio, I'm Suzy Weissman. On today's program, we pay tribute to Mike Davis,
0:21.4	who sadly died on October 25th. Mike was a prolific writer, historian, political activist,
0:27.9	urban theorist, unabashed leftist, and author of dozens of books, most of which we featured in
0:34.2	discussion right here on beneath the surface. He was also a dear friend and a friend of this
0:40.1	program, and I counted at least 30 interviews with him over the years. We begin paying tribute to
0:45.9	Mike, and then we'll hear from Mike all this when our program returns in just a moment.
1:04.0	This is Jacobin Radio, I'm Suzy Weissman. We're going to spend the hour paying tribute to Mike Davis,
1:10.6	my dear friend of nearly 50 years. I've lost my dear friend, and the world has lost a voice,
1:17.4	like no other. An avalanche of remembrances and articles have appeared all over the world,
1:24.1	and covering multiple pages of the LA Times, New York Times, Guardian, L. Paises,
1:30.2	Desit, the Emanifesto, Nibiracion, and so many more all over the world, all a testament to Mike's
1:38.1	powerful and distinctive influence, his many books and articles, his generosity, his tireless life,
1:45.5	as a fighter against everything that diminishes human dignity and ravages the planet.
1:51.8	I visited Mike a week ago with Bob Brenner, and knew this day was coming. He had been bravely
1:57.8	battling a triple whammy of cancers and had run out of steam. Mike chose his time to withdraw,
2:04.2	thanks to California's age in dying law, surrounded by his amazing loving family who survived him,
2:11.0	Alessandro Mactesuma, James, Casey, and Rochene Davis, and even last week when we visited,
2:19.4	we had wide-ranging discussions about Scottish and American revolutionary history,
2:24.4	rock formations in the Pacific, the LA City Council scandals, the state of politics in the world.
2:31.1	It's impossible to think that there won't be more. Our hearts and our love go to
2:36.7	Alessandro James, Casey, Rochene, and Jack in Ireland. I'd like to tell the listeners how I met
2:43.5	Mike and how we became friends. I was a grad student at Glasgow University at the Institute of
	...

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