12. Intercept's Andrew Fishman on Brazil, NYC artist Seth Tobocman, writer Mariya Petkova on Balkans

Free City Radio

Free City Radio podcast 12. On this edition of Free City Radio we visit the responses to the global pandemic in three places in the world, first we go to Brazil, for a discussion with Andrew Fishman who is a reporter at The Intercept and is the managing editor of The Intercept Brazil. Andrew discusses the ways that the current pandemic illustrates the deep social and economic inequalities within Brazil that are been deepened by the current right wing government. Read Andrew's work here : https://theintercept.com/staff/andrew-fishman Intercept Brazil : https://theintercept.com/brasil Second segment on this show is a discussion with NYC artist Seth Toboman who shares reflections on both the community activist response to the pandemic in NYC and the ways that the pandemic has also exposed the pre existing inequalities within New York City. Also Seth speaks about the intersections between community responses to the pandemic crisis and the movement to #DefundThePolice and to support #BlackLivesMatter, reflecting on the struggles to support calls for accountability of police over generations, look back at the case of Michael Jerome Stewart in 1983 and the community protests that took place at that time which Seth participated in. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/16/221821224/it-could-have-been-me-the-1983-death-of-a-nyc-graffiti-artist Mariya Petkova who speaks on impacts of pandemic in Balkans, specifically Mariya details the challenges that public healthcare workers in Bulgaria faced during the peak of the pandemic in Europe. This interview is particularly relevant right now as it addresses the shortcomings of public institutions in the late spring, a reality that speaks to institutional corruption in Bulgaria, the subject of mass protests right now. Also this interview explores the ways that international power relations have impacted the response to the pandemic in the Balkans, from the E.U., the U.S. and specifically the Chinese state all offering aid to regions within the former Yugoslavia. Also in this exchange Mariya speaks about the responses to the pandemic by the Turkish government, the challenges facing Turkey also as the pandemic extends. Music : "Flor do Real" by Sessa from the album Grandeza. https://sessa.bandcamp.com/ New Orbit by Matthew Shipp. Opening by Jordan Christoff. https://salmonuniverse.bandcamp.com/album/water produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff