Pullback is a podcast that explores big ideas and asks: is this a real solution or a distraction? Through discussions with leading experts, we cover ideas that proponents say will address global problems like inequality and climate change.
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
Encore! Look for pod favourite episodes being re-released outside of the regularly scheduled show.
“I mean I just smell like vinegar. I don’t know if that’s better.”
In this episode, Kyla and Kristen fail at the ultimate sustainability challenge: going zero waste. Learn about some easy wins, as well as Kristen and Kyla’s “probably never” list. Topics: what is zero waste; the disposable society; single-use plastics and our oceans; the zero waste movement; zero waste principles (reduce, reuse, recycle, compost); how to go zero waste(ish); waste-free shops; Kristen and Kyla try DIY zero waste recipes while riding out week 1 of the pandemic.
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Website: https://www.pullback.org/research/zero-waste
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday Jun 14, 2022
Tuesday Jun 14, 2022
This week, Kyla and Kristen are joined by Paris Marx, host of Tech Won't Save Us, a weekly podcast that critiques the worldview of Silicon Valley. Paris has been published by NBC News, CBC News, Toronto Star, Jacobin, Tribune, OneZero, Canadian Dimension, and more. Paris holds a Master's degree in Geography and will be talking to us about their new book, “Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation”. This book explores the history of transportation and the current problems with tech in transport, with a focus on Silicon Valley and their visions of the future. Topics: history of cars; history of taxis; why Silicon Valley struggles to meet the needs of the general public; how to argue with an Elon Musk apologist; better solutions for the future.
Get your copy here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3995-road-to-nowhere
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Website: https://www.pullback.org/episode-notes/episode86
Tech Won't Save Us: https://www.techwontsave.us/
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Find Paris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/parismarx
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Encore! Look for pod favourite episodes being re-released outside of the regularly scheduled show.
“That’s typically what taxes are, Kyla. We just don’t apply them to a lot of big companies…”
Kristen and Kyla wrap up their discussion on electronics by exploring the complicated story of conflict minerals. Topics: what are conflict minerals; Democratic Republic of the Congo and conflict minerals; The Enough Project; what companies can do; what legislation can do; what you can do.
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Website: https://www.pullback.org/research/conflictminerals
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Kristen and Kyla are joined by activist Robert Miller to discuss Corey Doctorow’s book “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism”. For extra credit Kyla and Kristen also tried to read Shoshana Zuboff’s “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”, as Doctorow wrote his piece in large part as a response to Zuboff’s. Topics: what is surveillance capitalism; what are the harms of surveillance capitalism; what would a world without surveillance capitalism look like.
Robbie encourages listeners to support BSA (Black Socialists in America) - https://blacksocialists.us/dual-power-map
Robbie would also like everyone to read more Murray Bookchin - https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/murray-bookchin
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Website: https://www.pullback.org/episode-notes/episode85
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Read "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" here: https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday May 24, 2022
Tuesday May 24, 2022
Encore! Look for pod favourite episodes being re-released outside of the regularly scheduled show.
"I remember years ago going to an optometrist, and they ask how many hours of screen time I have in a day and at the time I think I sort of sheepishly said like 4 hours, or something like that, knowing it was actually higher. But today if I went it's like… well how many hours am I awake in a day?"
Kristen and Kyla explore the ethics of consumer electronics, with a deep dive into human rights and the environment. Topics: the history of electronics; what's in a computer; supply chains; factory working conditions; mining; rare earth mineral refining and toxic waste; e-waste dumping and recycling; the right to repair and planned obsolescence; what you can do.
Website: https://www.pullback.org/research/sugar
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday May 17, 2022
Tuesday May 17, 2022
Kyla and Kristen join Eva and Emma of team Gender Troubles to kick off their Porn Month with a chat about whether porn can be ethical, and what ethical porn looks like in practice. Topics: Kristen and Kyla think Bridgerton is porn; Kyla eats a banana; what are the labour rights of folks in the porn industry; is big tech ruining porn with surveillance capitalism; how to support creators directly; legalizing the sex work industry; what policy makers should do next.
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Website: https://www.pullback.org/episode-notes/episode84
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Gender Troubles on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gendertroubles1?s=20
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Gender Troubles on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gender.troubles.pod/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Gender Troubles on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gendertroublespod/
Gender Troubles recommend: "Porn Work: Sex, Labor and Late Capitalism" by Heather Berg
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781469661926
They also recommend checking out their patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gender_troubles
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday May 10, 2022
Tuesday May 10, 2022
Encore! Look for pod favourite episodes being re-released outside of the regularly scheduled show.
In this episode, Kristen and Kyla are joined by food, migration, and labour historian Alexandra (Lex) Sundarsingh. Lex adds her knowledge about historical human rights abuses in sugar production — which, unfortunately, look a lot like present-day human rights abuses in sugar production. In their discussion, Lex, Kyla, and Kristen explain sugar production and why human rights practices are so fraught. They also discuss what you can do if you want to combat human rights abuses in sugar. Topics: Lex misses stationary street food; Toronto’s racist health panic (the one about food trucks, not COVID-19); Pad Thai robots!!; France’s kitchen brigade system; Canada is terrible at food diplomacy; sea lice is a thing, apparently; Lex’s new project on complaints filed by female Indian indentured labourers on British colonial sugar plantations; indentured servitude in the British empire; sugarcane versus sugar beets; sugarcane is still a human rights hellscape; there’s some baggage in the history of Canadian sugar beet production; Stevia and biopiracy; Kyla goes through sugar withdrawal; Kristen struggles to find fair trade; Lex is giving out Sweetness and Power like it’s a car and she’s Oprah.
Website: https://www.pullback.org/research/sugar
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Lex on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ATSundarsingh
Lex recommends the book Sweetness and Power: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/322123/sweetness-and-power-by-sidney-w-mintz/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday May 03, 2022
Tuesday May 03, 2022
Kristen and Kyla celebrate May Day with special guest Emily Leedham, Prairie Reporter for Press Progress, and editor of Shift Work, a weekly newsletter round-up of national labour news, strikes, lockouts and new organizing across Canada.
Some of the topics covered in this episode include the current state of labour and unions in Canada, discussing how companies employ anti-union tactics (calling out Uber and Amazon specifically), how COVID has and will continue to affect labour in Canada, how the current state of journalism hurts the labour movement, and how workers can become empowered to protect themselves in a world that is becoming increasingly difficult to work in. Emily recommends the Organizing For Power Course, as well as Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age and Eric Blanc’s Red State Revolt to learn more!
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Website: https://www.pullback.org/episode-notes/episode83
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/
Press Progress: https://pressprogress.ca/
Shift Work: https://pressprogress.ca/shiftwork/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Emily Leedham on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emily_leedham_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Emily recommends!
https://pressprogress.ca/amazons-anti-union-tactics-around-the-world-show-what-canadian-warehouse-workers-are-up-against/
https://janemcalevey.com/speaking-engagement/organizing-for-power-the-core-fundamentals/2022-05-10/
https://janemcalevey.com/book/no-shortcuts-organizing-for-power-in-the-new-gilded-age/
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2955-red-state-revolt
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Encore! Look for pod favourite episodes being re-released outside of the regularly scheduled show.
In this episode, Kristen and Kyla are joined by activist Robert Miller for a special May Day episode reflecting on the state of the labour movement. Topics: problems and challenges; successes and promising starts; the future of labour; and what you can do.
Website: https://www.pullback.org/research/mayday
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
It’s Fashion Revolution Week! Kristen and Kyla are joined by special guest Erin Polowy, Partnerships and Programming Lead with Fashion Revolution; the founder and editor of My Green Closet, a YouTube channel, blog, and community for slow fashion; and the author of Quit Fast Fashion. Topics: what is Fashion Revolution; what are the problems within the fashion industry; what solutions are activists working on; how to engage with fashion activism.
Leave us a voicemail! https://podinbox.com/pullback
Website: https://www.pullback.org/episode-notes/episode82
My Green Closet: https://mygreencloset.com/
Harbinger Media Network: https://harbingermedianetwork.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PullbackPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pullbackpodcast/?igshid=i57wwo16tjko
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullbackPodcast/
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.