Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin Magazine.

My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island.

Today's episode is an extremely short one to let you know about a great new documentary about

the history and present of American socialism, The Big Scary S-word.

It's by Yail Bridge, and it's a great film to show to your skeptical uncle or to anyone

new to or curious about socialist politics who's trying to figure out what is going on,

what it's all about, et cetera. You watch the big scary S word on iTunes or Apple TV or a number of other

platforms by visiting socialismmovie.com slash screenings. That's socialismmovie.com

slash screenings.

I will include a link to that in the show notes.

Okay, here's Jail Bridge, an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker.

Her first feature, The Big Scary S-word,

traces the history and resurgence of socialism in the United States.

Okay. of socialism in the United States. Yael Bridge, welcome to the dig.

Thanks, Dan.

Thanks for having me.

Your original title, if I remember correctly, was socialism, an American

story. And anti-socialist and anti-communist politics in the U.S. have, of course, always

framed socialism with a nativist lens as this threat of foreign origin. Why did you decide that it was

important to remind Americans interested in socialism

that there's this long history of socialist politics right here in the U.S.? Yeah, well,

there's an easy answer and like a more thoughtful answer. The easy answer for that title is

...