Barely Gettin' By
64 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsTrained historians Chloe Ward and Emma Shortis discuss, analyse and critique the big issues of our time.
To figure out the events shaping our world, they apply critical thinking with history-charged commentary.
The pair didn’t predict Brexit, Trump or the Australian election. So, they’re slowing down to unpack and review: this is your explainer on what’s really going on. Barely Gettin' By is sponsored by RMIT.
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Episodes
The End of the Cold War - Episode 1, Part 3
May 06, 2020 05:00 - 15 minutes - 14.6 MBEmma Shortis and Chloe Ward are back, for a nostalgic but-not-uncritical take on the 1990s and what it means for today. In three instalments, they outline the ideas and the political and economic forces that set out what the 1990s would look like. They start with the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s famous prediction of the ‘end of history’ and liberal triumph, before looking at the Cold War and its – surprising – peaceful end, and the much more cautious predictions about the ...
Introducing Season Two: The Long 1990s
May 04, 2020 06:03 - 5 minutes - 4.77 MBBarely Getting' By is back! In separate states and from isolation, Emma and Chloe preview Season Two, as they give us a taste of their upcoming nine week long exploration of how the politics and culture of the 1990s set us up for today’s catastrophic failures, as well as what is and isn’t considered history. Season Two premieres on Wednesday 6 May. Credits: Ronald Reagan speech excerpt Courtesy, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Bill Clinton speech excerpt Courtesy, William J. Clinton ...
Barely Gettin 2019 - Mini Episode
December 20, 2019 02:55 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBOne week on from Boris Johnson’s big victory in the British General Election, Emma asks Chloe what on earth just happened. They talk racism, neoliberalism, and the role of leadership. Does “electability” matter? And how might all of this play out in other places, like Australia and the US? And speaking of the US...Trump has been impeached, but does it even matter? In this final episode of Barely Gettin’ By, Chloe and Emma reflect on the end of the year and what might be in store for the wor...
Barely Gettin Boomers
December 12, 2019 23:14 - 52 minutes - 48.7 MB‘Ok, Boomer’? Chloe and Emma have been thinking about boomers, millennials, and intergenerational warfare for a while now. In this episode, they discuss racist aunties on the internet and what to do about them. Next, they dive into historical questions like, who are boomers, why are they so entitled, and why are they so bad at the internet? They narrow down their discussion to the ‘boomer elite’, who got the best of all worlds in the second half of the 20th century as beneficiaries of first ...
Barely Gettin The British Election - Mini Episode
December 03, 2019 20:20 - 25 minutes - 24.2 MBWith just one week until the UK General Election, Emma asked Chloe for a special mini episode to explain exactly what's happening. Chloe outlines the differences between elections in Britain and Australia, why this makes polling difficult, and why it makes predicting an outcome even harder. They discuss how Brexit, the NHS, and media bias will shape voters’ decisions, and what to look out for in the election on 12 December as the Labour Party seeks to deny the Conservatives the majority they...
Barely Gettin Feminism
November 22, 2019 03:25 - 44 minutes - 41.3 MBFrom Elena Ferrante to Roxane Gay, in this episode Chloe and Emma talk about the many women who inspire them … and a few who enrage them. They take a historical tour of feminism from the first wave to the second, through the 1980s when feminism became *very comfortable with capitalism*, and up to the present day of #MeToo. After talking about feminist heroes of old, they ask: who should we be reading and listening to, to understand what feminism means today? (hint: it’s not Julie Bishop). [...
Barely Gettin Fiction
November 06, 2019 02:18 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBEmma and Chloe have now spent a bit of time talking about British politics, and they’ve already spent some time delving into the rise of the right--or possibly even neo-fascism--in the US. In popular analysis, it’s basically impossible to avoid references to fiction in discussions about politics on both sides of the Atlantic. How many times have you heard the word “Orwellian” when you read about the state of politics today? But who exactly was Orwell and what did he actually write about? Chl...
Barely Gettin Fascism - Part 2
October 21, 2019 03:15 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBIf Donald Trump’s presidency suggests America is sliding towards fascism, what can we do about it? Picking up on their last conversation, in this episode of Barely Gettin’ By Emma and Chloe look at the role of American institutions in enabling Trump. They compare this with the democratic weakness that enabled the Nazis’ rise to power in Germany in the 1930s, to unpick the myth of America’s uniquely strong, resilient democracy. If Congress, the Senate, and the Supreme Court can’t stop Trump, ...
Barely Gettin Fascism - Part 1
October 16, 2019 23:13 - 41 minutes - 38.1 MBIs Donald Trump a fascist? In this episode of Barely Gettin’ By, Emma and Chloe ask if we are seeing a visitation from Europe’s fascist past in America’s present. With the help of Chloe’s unusually vast library on the subject, they look at Trump’s use of propaganda and the media, his targeting and marginalisation of people of colour, Jews, and LGBTIQ people, the rise of the (pseudo) intellectual right and the weakness of American institutions. They ask how this compares with the rise of fasc...
Barely Gettin Climate Change
October 03, 2019 05:09 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBEmma and Chloe discuss the recent election result in Australia and what it means for the environment. What should people worried about climate change do now? To explore that question, they go back and look at former PM Bob Hawke’s environmental legacy and the role he played in saving Antarctica from mining. They discuss how environmental wins come about and how the landscape has changed since Hawke. How do we talk about climate change today and why isn’t that translating into action? What ki...
Barely Gettin Trump and Brexit - Mini Episode
October 01, 2019 23:55 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBChloe and Emma get together to update us on big moves in the US and the UK. Emma explains why the Democratic Party launched impeachment proceedings against President Trump last week, why it took them so long, and what happens next. Meanwhile, the British Supreme Court has ruled Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament illegal. Chloe explains why this offers hope to opponents of Brexit, and why it also introduces new dangers to an already explosive political situation.
Barely Gettin By with the USA
September 18, 2019 23:49 - 53 minutes - 49 MBThis week, Scott Morrison is going to Washington--or is it Mar-a-Lago? In anticipation of the Australian PM’s state dinner with Donald Trump, Emma and Chloe look back on the history of American-Australian relations. From the ANZUS treaty to Iraq (and detouring through conspiracy theories, Gough Whitlam, and the CIA), Australia has a track record of following the US everywhere it goes, including into war. With Trump ‘locked and loaded’, Emma and Chloe ask whether history repeating, and will A...
Barely Gettin Brexit
September 05, 2019 04:57 - 57 minutes - 53.1 MBWith Brexit fast approaching, Emma and Chloe are slowing down to look back at how Britain came to the brink of crashing out of the EU. In this very first episode of Barely Gettin’ By, they discuss how hard Britain worked to get into Europe in the first place and why, ever since, more and more people have wanted to get Britain out. Starting with David Cameron’s decision to put the question of Britain’s membership of the EU to a referendum, they go over a long three years of political mistak...
Introducing Barely Gettin' By
September 02, 2019 05:00 - 2 minutes - 3.16 MBHistorians, millennials, and friends Emma Shortis and Chloe Ward spend a lot of time getting angry at the way public discussion about history and politics is dominated by the same voices-- sometimes old, usually white, and almost always male. So, like many woke bros with opinions (and a few unreflective white ladies), they decided to start a podcast. Barely Gettin’ By is about trying to make sense of a world that is changing in ways Emma and Chloe, as historians, never could have predicted....