Astra Taylor is a writer, documentary filmmaker, and organizer. Her latest film is What Is Democracy? and her latest book is Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions.
Pro-Palestine student protesters are being smeared as puppets of shadowy “outside agitators.” The presence of community members and experienced activists in the protests is nothing to be ashamed of: we need outside agitators to build a better world.
In the US, patients recovering from life-threatening illnesses often find that their first concern is not their health but the massive medical debts they’ve incurred. Right-wing politicians, insurers, and hospitals have worked to maintain this status quo.
In an interview, writer Thomas Frank discusses how populism brought together workers, farmers, and all those struggling against the wealthy for a more egalitarian society — and why that’s made it a dirty word for the elite, both in the 1890s and today.
You wouldn’t know it from the widespread glorification of America’s “founding fathers,” but the years around American independence were shot through with class conflict between elites and working people. And most of the founding fathers were on the wrong side.
We talk to activist and filmmaker Astra Taylor.
Municipal bonds once allowed cities to quickly fundraise for important infrastructure and public housing projects. We should organize against today’s system of bondholder supremacy, which enables investors to extract tax-free profits from communities.
Serious consideration of the archaeological record puts to bed the myth that human history follows an evolutionary arc from simple and egalitarian to complex and hierarchical, challenging the assumption that democracy can work in small groups while scaling up requires domination.
Legendary activist Angela Davis and filmmaker Astra Taylor talk about economic democracy, criminal justice, and why we need a socialist internationalism.
Filmmaker Astra Taylor on her latest documentary, the relationship between democracy and freedom, and why the latest round of books on the erosion of norms are “just not very good.”
From Plato to Marx, thinkers have insisted on the incompatibility between democracy and inequality. Filmmaker Astra Taylor explores that question and others in her new documentary, What Is Democracy?