The Diet Soap podcast began in 2009 in response to the economic crisis of 2008. Since then it has gone through many transformations, including becoming the podcast for a critical theory imprint out of the UK. Today the Diet Soap podcast is running under its original name for Sublation Media.Sublation Media includes a book publishing effort for critical theory and left politics, a magazine that covers current events and theoretical issues, youtube videos on theory and politics, and finally the Diet Soap podcast. The podcast is where we continue to interrogate the left and each other while having a good time.
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dietsoap
episode 428: Social Workers Are Magic? (Understanding a Compassionate Response)
Ryan and Lavit discuss San Francisco's new Compassionate Alternative Response Team program and ask whether it's possible that the "unhoused population" in San Francisco will truly benefit from a program that does not spend more to address the material needs of the homeless but instead attempts to change the attitude and social framing around the care that is currently on offer. Can treating homeless people as if they are "worthy of life and dignity" and relying on "trauma-informed, unarmed civilians" to provide help rather than "institutions of control" really improve conditions for the homeless in San Francisco, or is this "new" program just a rebranding effort for a project of neoliberal neglect?