Summer Friday: History of Capitalism; Air Conditioning; Black Lung's Return; Elie Mystal

For this "Summer Friday" we've put together some of our favorite conversations this year: John Cassidy , staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI (Macmillan, 2025), talks about his new book that traces the roots of criticism of today's global capitalism to its beginnings. From our centennial series "100 Years of 100 Things," Eric Dean Wilson , Queens College writing instructor and the author of After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort (Simon & Schuster, 2021), walks us through the promise of air conditioning of the past 100 years -- how it relieved people of warming temperatures and how they have eventually contributed to climate change. Black lung had largely been eradicated by the end of the last century. Now, the disease has reemerged in coal country, and federal cuts threaten at-risk miners. Kate Morgan , Pennsylvania-based freelance journalist, talks about her reporting on black lung for the New York Times . Elie Mystal , justice correspondent and columnist for The Nation magazine and host of the podcast, Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal, and author of Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America (The New Press, 2025) talks about the ten laws he calls a "Bill of Wrongs" - like felony murder and immunity for gun manufacturers. These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity and the original web versions are available here: The Long History of Critiquing Capitalism (May 12, 2025) 100 Years of 100 Things: Air Conditioners (Jul 24, 2024) How Black Lung Reemerged (Jun 24, 2025) Elie Mystal's List of Laws that Need to Go (Mar 27, 2025)