The Women’s Strike, Anti-Semitism, and Robots

In this week’s episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki debate the complicated politics of the women’s strike, the rise of anti-Semitism in America, and humanity’s relationship to robots.

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:

• A Women’s Strike is being organized for March 8. We discussed the strike in the context of other women’s strikes and transnational feminism.
• We discussed the rise in anti-Semitism in the U.S. and abroad. Natalia noted Matthew Frye Jacobson’s book, Whiteness of a Different Color, for thinking about the limits of Jewish assimilation in the U.S.
• A recent New York Times editorial, “No, Robots Aren’t Killing the American Dream,” argued that humans have nothing to fear from robots. We talked about the history of robotics, human fears about technology, and pop culture depictions of robots including the movies Stepford Wives, Terminator, and Her.

In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:

• Natalia commented on the podcast Missing Richard Simmons.
• Neil discussed Timothy Tyson’s book, The Blood of Emmett Till.
• Niki talked about the Smitsonian.com article, “Tattooing Was Illegal in New York City Until 1997.”

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