The author of The Shock Doctrine, No is Not Enough, and This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate sits down with us to discuss her new book The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists (http://bit.ly/BattleParaidise).

Naomi talks about Wall Street investors’ view of post-hurricane Puerto Rico as a potential “blank canvas” to host their various schemes, and puts this in the context of a long colonial history of U.S. attempts to depopulate the island—including through mass sterilization—in order to overcome the impressive resistance of Puerto Ricans.

She also spoke with us about the daily shocks of life under Trump, and the urgent need for political education for people to understand where these attacks are coming from and overcome the prevailing sense of disorientation.

In our opener, Jen and Danny talked about the debunking of the famous “Marshmallow Study” that many claimed could predict your future based on whether you can wait 15 minutes for a treat as a 4-year-old (http://bit.ly/MarshmallowStudy). And we gushed for a bit about the terrific new website for Socialist Worker (http://bit.ly/NewSocialistWorker).

Links

Get a copy of The Battle for Paradise in English (http://bit.ly/BattleParaidise) or Spanish (http://bit.ly/SpanishPR).

All royalties go directly to JunteGente (http://bit.ly/JunteGente), a gathering of Puerto Rican organizations resisting disaster capitalism and advancing a fair and healthy recovery for their island.

Learn more about the campaign to audit Puerto Rico’s debt (http://bit.ly/auditPRdebt).

Check out the video of Naomi’s recent event in New York City with a number of Puerto Rican activists (http://bit.ly/CooperUnionevent).

Also check out No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need (http://bit.ly/NKNoNotEnough).

Follow Naomi Klein at her website (http://bit.ly/NaomiKleinsite) and at The Intercept (http://bit.ly/NKIntercept).

And check out the video of Naomi speaking with a number of other activists at last year’s Anti-Inauguration (http://bit.ly/AntiInauguration).

Finally check out some of Socialist Worker’s coverage of Puerto Rico’s:
• resistance to colonialism (http://bit.ly/PRcolony)
• debt crisis (http://bit.ly/DebtBeforeStorm)
• teachers union (http://bit.ly/MercedezMartinez)
• May Day protest (http://bit.ly/PRMayDay)

Music in this episode

The Boy & Sister Alma, “Lizard Eyes” (Dead Sea Captains Remix)
Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby, “Marshmallow World”
Calle 13, “Baile De Los Pobres”
Hector Lavoe, “Juanito Alimaña”
Andrés Jiménez, “Despierta Boricua”
Tito Puente, “Five Beat Mambo”

Guests