It Could Happen Here - CZM Book Club: "Party Discipline" by Cory Doctorow, Part Four

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

Margaret finishes reading Robert Evans a novella about the near future of tech, surveillance, and teenage rebellion.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez

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You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions sponsored by Gilead now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast. And we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires.

From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, AI to the destruction of Google search. Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking.

It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking music, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors, and influencers.

Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight-up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. come again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the Cool Zone Media Book Club. Welcome to Cool Zone Media Book Club, your weekly book club where you don't have to do the reading because I do the reading. That's right. You can finally illiterate Max by forgetting how to read. You know, go ahead, wherever you're listening right now, and just hit yourself in the head as hard as you can. You know, knock some of that knowledge loose, because we're going to take care of the reading for you. With a book.

With a book, with whatever. Drain cleaner, it's all good. You know, you don't need to think anymore. We'll do that for you. Yeah, you can trust us, because we don't have political opinions. That's right. I've never known politics. Never even heard of it.

that's right i've never known politics never even heard of it the episode i just finished recording kind of talks about the fact that in the 80s everyone pretended like they didn't have politics and so therefore just had politics so that's real on my mind but i much prefer where we're at now where instead people try to be up front again about what they believe so that you can go into it having a sense of how people are yeah and cory doctorow makes it pretty clear that his work is political i don't know if y'all caught on to that by now no no political communism i wouldn't guess no never. I do love the taking the piss level of joke of the Communist Party, just meaning when communism is a thing you do. I like that. Yeah, we go take the factory and make some shit of our own for a little while. I've been thinking a lot about this in some of my own work too. One of the interesting things

about writing stuff that's supposed to have happened post a revolution is you're like a generation past when all of the politics that the people reading the book, like theoretically your characters should not be political in the same way as the reader, right? Because the thing that everyone reading this is thinking about all of our problems and why a revolution is or isn't needed. And everyone living a generation after that, your politics are just like watching an old TV show, right? It's like trying to get into Family Matters or something. Yeah. Anyway.

Is that why you added an accordionist? That's why I added an accordionist. Was that in Family Matters? Yeah. Wait, that's Urkel, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're good. Yeah.

Yes. I made my living playing accordion on the street for a while, so I was very aware of the accordionists in pop culture because there weren't a lot of them. Yeah. But what I was aware of was awkward transitions into resuming the story. Hell yeah. Let's do it. We are on part four, the rousing conclusion.

I say that as if I'm joking. It is a good conclusion. Of Party Discipline, a novella by Cory Doctorow, novella being shorter than a novel and longer than a novelette. When we last left our heroes, they had just left their communist party and they were ready to distribute shopping carts, all very criminally. I love the idea that there's a lot of tension in this, right? Because they're like, oh, they can actually get in an awful lot of trouble for printing out shopping carts and giving them to people. It's a successful bit of tension how they're like, oh, we're high school kids having a laugh, but they're like, oh, this could destroy their future.

You had that experience if you had any kind of a childhood of like, suddenly you realize the drugs are a little bit harder and like, oh my gosh, there could be consequences to this. Like this started out as just me going out with my friends and something could really happen badly here. Yeah. Like someone in your friend scene dies from the terrible decisions that you all keep making.

Yeah. Or goes to jail or wrecks their brain. Yep. We rode back to Burbank with Shirell on my lap and one of my butt cheeks squeezed between the edge of the passenger seat and the door. The truck squeaked on its suspension as we went over the potholes, riding low with a huge load of shopping carts under tarps in its bed. The carts were pretty amazing.

Strong as hell, but light enough for me to lift over my head. Using crazy math to create a tensegrity structure that would hold up to serious abuse. They were rust-proof, super steerable, and could be reconfigured into different compartment sizes or shelves with grills that clipped on to the sides. And light as they were, you put enough of them into a truck,

and they'd weigh a ton. A literal ton, and Jose, our driver's truck, was only rated for a half ton. It was a rough ride. Our plan was to pull up on skid row and start handing out carts to anyone around, giving people two or three to share with their friends. Each truck had a different stretch we were going to hit. But as soon as we got close to our spot, two things became very apparent.

One, there were no homeless people around because, two, the place was crawling with 5-0. The Burbank cops had their dumb old tanks out, big armored MRAPs that they used for riot control and whenever they wanted to put on a show of force. And there was a lot of crime scene tape and blinking lights on hobby horses. The thicker it got, the more scared we got. This kind of thing wasn't unusual for downtown Burbank.

A couple times a month, you could expect to see BPD flexing, shutting down some street. There was no reason to suspect they were out there for us. But it was asshole-tighteningly scary to be coming from a crime scene with a truck full of evidence and too many people in the front seat of the truck and looking at all this law. Turn it around, the whites of Shirell's eyes were showing, but her voice was steady. Jose, the driver, didn't need to be told twice. With robotic motions, he signaled a turn,

pulled into an empty parking lot, put the truck into reverse, backed it out, and headed back the way we came. He wasn't the only one. While some of the drivers were pulling up to the roadblock and asking the cop which way to detour, others were turning around and finding their own way. Shit, shit, shit. His voice was a low monotone. I got an idea. Sherelle's smile was funny and tight and not exactly good-natured. Uh-oh.

She punched me on the shoulder. Shut up. I got an idea. We pulled up two blocks from Ale's house, a dead-end street that backed into the railroad fence. Jose got the ramp in place without clanging it, and the casters on the carts rolled with the silence of elegant walk-away engineering, until we had them all arranged into two long snakes of shopping carts on the sidewalk. Jose looked uncomfortable as he stood by the driver's door. You sure about this? We got this. Sherelle was a lot more confident than me, and there's no point in arguing with Sherelle when she's feeling confident. Still, Jose looked at me. I gave him a thumbs up and a smile,

and Sherelle made the same gesture in a way that made sure that I knew that she was making fun of me. I know for a fact that one of the secret superpowers we get as teen girls is that grown-ass men can't stand it when we might be making fun of them. And Jose was no exception. He gave us a shake of his head and drove off. Now what? But I knew. Shirelle grabbed the handle at the back of one snake. Now we push. She set off and left me to follow her. Look, it must have been three in the morning at this point,

and if anyone saw us, they must have been left scratching their heads. But I don't think anyone saw us. Residential Burbank streets, 3 a.m.? Nah. The lights were all off at Ale's house when we pushed our carts onto his lawn, but we could still hear corny, candy-billy music coming through the door, which wasn't locked. Sherelle let herself in without knocking.

The living room was dimly lit by a few candles, and it smelled like unwashed people getting it on, which they had been doing until pretty recently. There were candy necklaces and cowboy hats everywhere, along with the bodies. One of the bodies rolled over and squinted at us. Hola, Ale, Shirell said. He was pretty, if you liked him pretty. And when he wasn't being stupid, he was pretty smart, which was more than you could say of most of the boys I'd known. It wasn't crazy for Shirell to like him, even if he was 100% destined to crash land in the

land of lost losers forever. Shirell? He scrambled to his feet, using a pillow to cover himself. Jesus, give me a sec. He gave us a view of his ass as he made his way to his bedroom and then came back out, wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. You guys are a little late. Party ended a couple hours ago. Shirelle sucked her teeth. We didn't come here for your party, Alejandro. We're on a mission. He shook his head. I don't like the sound of that. You're gonna love it, fool. Shut up and listen. Shirelle didn't bother him with the little incriminating details, just hit the high points. There were 50 shopping carts parked on his lawn, the greatest shopping carts ever made. They were a gift to Burbank's homeless people.

Don't need to know where they came from, but we got to give them out, on the down low. And that's where you and your no-good friends come into the picture. We need a street crew. I count ten of you. That's five shopping carts each. Call it an hour's work. You all have incurred quite a debt to society tonight with your debauchery and illegal dope fiending, and I'm here to offer you a way to make it up. One of the cuddle puddlers groaned and told us to keep it down,

and Ali shook his head. Sorry. I couldn't tell if he was apologizing to her or to Sherelle, or all of us. Sherelle switched from her stern glare to her million-dollar smile. Come on, Ale. These parties are getting old, but you can't even tell them apart anymore. How long before you get so tired you give up on it? On the other hand, you throw in with us and have the experience of a lifetime.

I heard her put something extra into that, and I looked back and forth between them without making it obvious. Had she already hooked up with him? I didn't think so, but watching the two of them, I could see it was a close thing. Ale, what the fuck? That was another of the sleepers. I looked more closely. I knew him. Dwayne Marshall. Graduated the year before. What the actual? Was everyone except me spending their weekends at orgies? D, get up, okay? I want to ask you something.

Holly was grinning now too, reflecting back to Shirelle's million dollar, million watt smile. That girl is unstoppable. And that's why we all love her. Much like we love ads that come in to the middle of stories. They're also unstoppable. You couldn't stop this if you wanted unless you take out your phone and press

the skip ahead button, which is easily within your willpower except for, I'm going to say, 28% of the audience who are engaged in some sort of task so precarious that they have to listen to the ensuing ads. And to you, we say, sorry. That's so often me because I listen to podcasts while I do a lot of physical crafting and I'll

be holding a shelf over my head with a drill being like, ah, dang it. Yeah. I'll see people be like, I run some sort of heavy machinery and I can't skip ahead of the ads. Damn you people. And I just want you to know, as frustrating as it is, your occasional half attention is what funds our entire life. So thank you. Thank you. No one else. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search,

Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong though, I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to god things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry

and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere.

Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba.

Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Parente. And I'm Jimei Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new phone. But you also have a lot of questions like, how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like, every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15%. I'm not saying you're going to get 15% every single year,

but if you ask for 10 to 15 and you end up getting eight, that is actually a true raise. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko.

It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house.

So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories.

Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Black Lit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back.

We're back. Hope that guy on the forklift is doing good. Yeah, I'm proud of you. Proud of you, buddy. Sleeping on the streets in Burbank is against the law, and if you can't pay the fine, you go to jail. The city's homeless aren't easy to find after dark, but there are a few places that are reliable. The food bank, the soup kitchen, the library parking lot. It's been years since the library opened its doors, but they kept the free internet.

We split into four groups of two. I figured that Sherelle would go with Ale, but she's surprised by linking arms with me. Library? I covered my surprise and shrugged. I guess. I looked at her. How come you're not with Ale? He's with Serena.

That was the girl we'd woken up at the start when we got Ale. They a thing? She shook her head. Not a thing, but you know, a thing tonight. Not my place to get in between them. Shrel, what's going on with you, that fool? She pinched my arm. Nothing you need to worry about. She shook her head. Look, he's pretty, and when he's not high, he's pretty smart, too. But Ali Martinez isn't any kind of boyfriend material. He's okay for relieving tension, you know, having a little fun. But I'm not about to tie myself up to him.

Look at him. Those clothes, I stifled a laugh. He'd even put on the miniature cowboy hat. That's why I only ever see him at his house. He's not much good on the outside. But in private, I shook my head. Shirelle and I told each other everything, except it seemed like we didn't. Not always.

Graduation was weeks away. Days, really. And I'd assumed that whatever happened with the rest of the fools I'd been locked up with since I was five, I was going to be tight with Sherelle forever. But she knew I thought Ale was a halfwit, and so she hadn't told me about him. And Ale was a halfwit. Plus, he was hooking up with other girls right in front of her. She deserved better than that. A day before, I'd have had the impulse to tell Sherelle that she was being more stupid than she had any excuse to be. Today, I felt like I just noticed a huge gap between us, but maybe it had been there all along. We were besties, but we were also about to be graduates. Did grads have besties? We pushed our snake of carts to the library, the Buena Vista branch, where there were a handful of permanent-ish homeless tents and a larger population of rotating homeless leeching

off the Wi-Fi and the power outlet set into the concrete benches. Someone had used cold chisels to smash out the dividers that were supposed to stop you from sleeping on them. There were a lot of spaces in B-Bank where you could get busted for sleeping out, but everyone knew that the homeless ruled the Buena Vista branch and its park. The wheels whispered as we steered them carefully up the driveway, past the old night deposit box for books, dentoned and fire-blackened in the harsh yellow streetlights. I guess it pays to be a light sleeper when you're homeless.

By the time we reached the middle of the parking lot, the wheels' whisper had woken up at least a dozen people, silhouetted and sitting up on benches or in the grass, draped in blankets or wrapped in sleeping bags. We stopped. They looked at us, and we looked back. I felt like we were expected to give a speech or something. We come in peace? These are for you?

A person stood. She was a white lady, not much older than me. She came closer. I realized I recognized her. She'd been a senior my freshman year. She didn't look good. No obvious bruises or track marks. And she wasn't that dirty.

But still, she didn't look good. She smiled at me and nodded her head like, Can I help you? Uh, hi. I wish Sherelle would say something. I snuck her a look. She had checked out looking glazed and tired and like someone who danced her ass off and scared herself to death and also was struggling with a shitty boyfriend. Hello. She had a great voice. I couldn't remember her name, but a clear picture came to me. Her singing in front of the school jazz band at an assembly. Uh, I gestured at the shopping carts. Between us, we'd pushed 40.

What if there were a lot more people than carts? Would we trigger a riot? Would we have to decide? Uh, good work, Linnae. That AP forensics really did the trick. We made these. They're really good, lightweight, strong, durable. I waved my hands over them like I was on a home shopping video. Neat. Her voice was lovely. Her hair was limp and stringy, and there was something wrong with the way she looked at me, squinting. Hadn't she worn glasses in high school? I wondered what had happened to them. Thought about how little difference a better shopping cart would make to someone who could barely see. She squinted harder at me.

You go to Burbank High, don't you? I nodded. Yes, ma'am. It made her smile. Pretty smile. Is this like a shop project or something? I shook my head. Nothing like that.

I looked around. It was, well, a factory in Encino was shutting down, so we had a communist party there. Made these. You had a communist party? She really did have a pretty smile. That's epic. And you made these? Kids today, you're so ingenious. Give me hope for the future. Sherelle giggled a little at that. Welcome back, Sherelle. cheryl giggled a little at that welcome back cheryl we made them for you all of you the white lady nodded when do you graduate this month she nodded again what are you doing after i'm going to glendale community college for an associates in business administration then i was going to try for financial aid at northridge i'd said this so many times to so many people, it just tumbled out. I want to stay close to home, save money. She nodded. That's exactly what I did.

Stray days all the way. Watch out for calculus for finance majors. It's brutal. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. I didn't know how she'd ended up sleeping on a park bench, but I hadn't thought that maybe it involved getting the same kinds of grades I was hoping to get. Well, uh, I swallowed hard because my eyes were threatening to overflow with tears. Deep breath. I don't know if you all can use these, but we hope maybe you could. They're really good. Light. Strong. They look really good. She was being polite. She had good manners. Thank you. Can we, I mean, can we leave them with you to give out? She smiled and looked understanding, condescending even,

like, oh, honey, you have no idea, but also, but you will. I'm sure I can figure something out. We walked away in silence But once we were out of earshot Sherelle said You think she's going to try and sell them? I mean, to the other people?

I scowled at her I was so unaccountably pissed at her But she was just being Sherelle No dummy, she's going to give them away to her friends It was dawn now, pretty and pink And the birds were waking up And saying hello to each other at the tops of their voices. Sherelle, what are you doing after graduation? Girl, I'm going

to sleep in every morning for a month. But after that? You mean college? Yeah. We turned left on Magnolia, the fancy stores with their 24-hour security guards. Some of those guys had familiar faces. A couple years before, they'd been seniors too. They were the lucky ones. The unlucky ones were barely visible, wrapped in blankets and curled up real small behind signboards and trash cans. Some of them would have familiar faces. But only because they didn't take advantage of these deals.

That's right. If you want to stay off the streets or on the streets, but in a way that's like a nice street, you know, like, what's a good street? Sunset Boulevard. Yeah. Sunset Boulevard. That one's from the songs.

Yeah. There's a Sisters of Mercy song about it I like. Sure. That's probably a happy song, I'd imagine. Yeah, Sisters of Mercy, famously happy band. All right, well, I'm going to just assume that and go ahead with my life, scheduling music to play during this birthday party. It was my birthday party to play Sisters of Mercy,

but instead, you're going to play these ads. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose this season i'm going to be joined by everyone from nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field and i'll be digging

into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible don't get me wrong though i love technology i just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean.

He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian.

Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well.

Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. real job is that first real paycheck. You're probably thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new phone. But you also have a lot of questions like, how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Toot, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like, every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15%. I'm not saying you're going to get 15% every single year, but if you ask for 10 to 15 and you end up getting eight, that is actually a true raise. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I

collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories.

Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Black Lit on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, I hope eight-year-old Kendall from Duluth enjoys the birthday party soundtrack I put together

featuring that Sisters of Mercy song and also a minute and a half of me explaining to you that I'm going to put music in the little boy's birthday. After that, it's pure ska, baby. Do you ever find yourself in regular conversations

and wanting to pivot to ads? It just gets to you? It's like how I imagine a great baseball player, Nolan Ryan. Sometimes he just throws a ball as hard as he fucking can. Yeah.

Like it probably comes out of nowhere unless you know him. Then you're just like, oh, that's Nolan. He's just, he throws a speedball every now and again. He can't stop himself. Too good at it. Yeah. Well, now that we're back from those ads. College.

She blew air out. My mom has been asking me about that too. But you got into Glendale CC, right? Yeah, I got in. college. She blew air out. My mom has been asking me about that too. But you got into Glendale CC, right? Yeah, I got in. She linked her arm with mine. In the old days, a year ago, two years ago, we'd come down to Magnolia on a Saturday and shop, or window shop, with the throngs of nice people like an outdoor mall. We loved the high-class vintage places that had survived the transition to couture brands because it was the owners behind the counter, not shop clerks whose fear of losing their jobs

made them mean. And the owners would let people like us in, let us try on clothes we could never afford. Hadn't done that since junior year, and it wasn't the same at 6 a.m. with the stores all closed. But still, it felt so good to be with my bestie on this street, arm in arm, like we were kids without a care in the world. I got in, like it was a death sentence,

but I'm not going. Shirelle, why? That side eye. Come on. I knew. You could get a loan. She snorted. How do you think that white lady in the park living out of a shopping cart? Girl, you borrow a dollar for college, you pay back 10. You miss a payment, you pay back 100. I want to spend my life on the run from a loan shark. I'll borrow money from an honest criminal on the corner, not some university. We had mandatory classes on debt management and student borrowing, and I had to admit that this is what they added up to when you looked at them carefully. This was pretty much what they were saying.

But Sherelle, I didn't have anything else to say. When you're right, you're right. Sherelle was right. So what was I going to do? Want to get some breakfast? BBs? They had the biggest portions in Burbank. Pancakes the size of manhole covers. Coffee in buckets.

We used to go there for breakfast after morning swim team at the Y. Hadn't been in a year, at least. Hell yeah, Sherelle linked arms with me. We didn't talk about school or borrowing money or communist parties for the rest of the morning. The shopping carts were everywhere, pushed by homeless people all around Burbank. You could spot them a mile away

every time I saw one in the weeks afterward. I felt a little warm tingle. I made that. I was 18 years old, and I had finally had something to show for the years I'd been walking around on the earth. The communist party at Steel Bridge didn't make the news, but the kids who'd been there gossiped about it, and I was the coolest girl in school the last

month. A couple times I got to deny having anything to do with it when impressionable freshmen came up to me and asked if it was true I'd organized the whole thing. I coasted along towards graduation on autopilot. My finals were all done, my acceptance letter from Glendale CC was stuck to the fridge, and with it, the letter pre-approving my student loan. Every time I looked at it, I got the opposite feeling to the one I got when I saw one of those shopping carts. Mama paid for the gown and mortar board rental for my graduation, and Tisha made fun of me as I tried it on in the mirror. When my phone twipped at me that night at 3 a.m. and I answered it, Tisha mouthed, I'm telling, like she always

did, and I rolled my eyes, like I always did. Sherelle, you're going to get me killed. Mama isn't joking. Linnae, then a long silence. You okay? That walk away you met at the party, with the hair? Yeah, I got a light feeling in my head, a light feeling in my guts. You still know how to get in touch with her? Not a question. Yeah. Tisha stared at me hard. She could tell from that one word something was up.

Sherelle, you're not gonna... You could come too. Like I hadn't thought that thought at least once a day for weeks and weeks, every time I thought about graduation, every time I looked at that letter on the fridge. Sherelle, it'd be an adventure. The adventure. What do you have to lose? I looked at Tisha. She had always been my mini-me and tag along, had turned into a truly good person while I watched, funny and sweet and trustworthy and sassy. So sassy. I thought about Mama. I thought about Sherelle and those times we'd gone shopping together or hung out or gone out for sports. I don't know, Sherelle. Honestly, I don't know. sports. I don't know, Sherelle. Honestly, I don't know. She drew in a breath, but I'd hate to lose it, whatever it is. Oh. Tisha was staring at me like I might explode. I got that info, though,

from that lady with the hair. It felt like the words were coming out of someone else's mouth. Okay. Don't think I should say over the phone, though. I'll bring it to school tomorrow. Put it under your doormat. I'll get it tonight. Oh, I closed my eyes. You can knock on the window when you get here. Don't want to wake you up, get you in trouble, maybe. Okay. Okay. Bye then. She wasn't at graduation. I thought of her every day that summer, working gig jobs, rating search results, saving money for school.

I kept the address of the walk-away lady with the hair, but I lost it somehow. Sometimes I think I see her, dressed like a homeless, but it always turns out to be someone else. Ali tracked me down one day to ask if I knew where she was. I shrugged and didn't even laugh at the stupid little hat. Jarell's mother called my mama a bunch of times,

but by the end of summer, that had stopped. The Semizatas threw some good parties that summer, and I got invited to some of them. None of them were as epic as my communist party. The first day of Glendale CC, as I milled around with thousands of other confused freshmen, I got a buzz. It was an error message telling me that a message I'd never sent had bounced. The address wasn't one I recognized, but I knew who it was from. Rice Pudding Dash Call Me Maybe. Who else could it be?

I started to write it down carefully on a piece of paper, then decided to commit it to memory. I've never sent it a message, but I think of it every day as I watch my grades and my student loans roll in. The end. Aww. Bummer. I. Bummer.

I don't know. Bummer and also sounds very familiar to like, I don't know, I've been thinking a lot about the transition from being young to no longer being young. And the fact that we will all be continually processing, I guess because of the way that the internet prizes certain kinds of discourse, I feel like the rest of our lives

is going to be watching our generations process getting old, which is exhausting to think about. You should age out of being able to be listened to in a public sphere. I remember hearing people in the 90s and stuff complain about how old people didn't have as much of a voice in media.

And it was like these perpetually young, good-looking people in all of your TV shows and movies. And I would like to go back to that. It turns out it sucks to watch everybody process getting older. You thinking because Cory Doctorow is writing this thinking about youth, or are you just thinking about what it means to be graduating high school and off to. Yeah. Yeah. That transition and that feeling I remember having when I was young of like feeling like I could really do something different with my life than anybody had done before. Yeah. And watching everyone that you kind of had those dreams with all make the decision to get student loans. Yeah, totally. I mean, what's interesting is I made the other decision. I went walk away, right?

Yeah, I dropped out. Yeah. I dropped out of college as soon as I was like, oh, you mean I can ride freight trains and live in abandoned buildings? That sounds amazing. I lived in the back of a car. Yeah.

And I'm glad I did that. And I think it set me up as a creative professional very well it like fucked me over in a lot of ways right but the thing i'm watching is a lot of people in my periphery who maybe made it to their mid-30s like sometimes hanging out with people who'd sort of gone walk away yeah but then didn't themselves are starting to have this like third life crisis, you know, instead of midlife crisis where they're like, Oh,

like maybe fuck these student loans and maybe like fuck this endless series of dead end jobs. And you know, yeah, I hear a lot of people complain about like the stuff they didn't do when they were younger. And I do think a lot of people have that experience. If you have that one really good kind of,

I could have pivoted from this to doing something very different with my life experience. You know, it's the Communist Party. Yeah. Printing those shopping carts. Like feeling that moment of potential and possibility and risk get further and further into your rear view mirror

as you head on in a path that could have been predicted, I guess, as a vibe. And it's hard because it's like, I'll do talks at colleges, right? And people will be like, hey, what do you think about college? People have straight up asked me at talks

being like, should I drop out of college? And I've been like, look, I have no regrets about the fact that I dropped out of college. I cannot recommend in good conscience one way or the other what people do with their lives around that kind of stuff. Because one, it's like this feeling of weight where I'm like, I don't know what you're dealing with. Well, if you're just screwed with a bunch of debt,

maybe you should finish and get the degree at this. You know, who knows, right? It's going to be different for everyone. I'm still grateful for the decisions I made, but also I've got a lot of dead friends. I was like, oh, I'm going to go off and live this adventurous, risky life. And a bunch of the people around me died in their 20s. Yeah. I think all the time about the line from A rainy night in Soho, one of Shane McGowan's great songs. We watched our friends grow up together and we saw them as they fell. Some of them fell into heaven. Some of them fell into hell.

And it's, it's one of those slides that a few times a year I'll get news about somebody. Yeah. And that will just ring like a bell in my heart. God, he was a real one. Yeah.

Yeah, man, he was a real one. Yeah. Yeah, man. He lived it. You know, he died a little bit young, but he died a lot later than I think he thought he was gonna. For Shane McGowan, he died ancient. I'll say that. I'll say like... Yeah.

It's not saying I don't wish he had a healthier life, but he did pretty good living the life Shane McGowan lived. One of the things I really like about this story is the two characters balancing that, right? Both of them are going to do the Communist Party. And one of them is going to go to community college on loans that she knows are dangerous. And one of them is going to go off and join a revolution that's dangerous. And for anyone who wants to know more about how that goes, I really highly recommend Walk Away by Cory Doctorow. Great book. One of my favorite sci-fi books of a long time, it feels like.

Yeah. I liked it a lot. I like that depiction of revolution. We talk a lot about what I think is going to happen and the process of happening, which is not the full-scale collapse of the United States or kind of any other massive nation-state because the apparatus of physical control is so good. But the apparatus of physical control is also extremely expensive. And one of the things I like about Walk Away is it depicts the revolution being a thing that builds in areas where the And one of the things I like about Walk Away is it depicts the revolution being a thing that builds in areas where the direct ability

of the state to exert control has crumbled because it's not profitable for the state to control that. And the state is effectively so corporatized that you actually get, in some ways, a preferable situation to a traditional authoritarian state where there's some sort of ego thing behind the people running it of like maintaining a certain level

of geographical control as opposed to we're going to hold on to what makes a profit. And in the areas that are no longer profitable for us, I think is where you're going to see new ways of life explored. And people will figure out what survival looks like, you know,

in the world that is being created by climate change in those areas, right? Part of why I liked walk away so much and what I thought was so believable about walk away is because when I was in Northeast Syria in 2019, I mean, that's what Rojava essentially is. It's an area where because of a variety of reasons, and it was not profitable or feasible for the state to continue to exert its control, and so people got to try something new. And WalkAway kind of reimagines that, but as like a social movement, as like a trend almost. A subculture in a way, yeah. based around dropping out and building something new at the margins that you know grows in the way that i think we all hope something will one day in like the cracks it does well enough that it

pushes them wide or open until the whole thing falls apart which is i think a more realistic version of a good future than we'll finally figure out how to do a 1917 again but this time it'll work better totally it'll work forever instead of falling apart like 80 years later in a really embarrassing way. This wheel is so much rounder. Like it is a hundred percent rounder than the previous wheel. Yeah. Yeah. I know that most of the people who are prominent in the movement right now are some kind of grifter or con man, but that will magically not happen when we get it together well enough to do a revolution. Prove me wrong, kids.

Prove me wrong. No, absolutely. Please, no, like I'm desperate to be proved wrong. I will eat my words. I will print them out on a piece of paper and eat them. Oh, man, if you guys want me to get up in front of the revolutionary committee every day and be like, wow, I fucked up.

Yeah, do it and make a really good future for everybody. I would love that. Well, that's it for this week's Cool Zone Media Book Club. And you can check us out next week when we'll have more fiction. And I can't tell you what it is because I don't know what it is yet. Yeah, that's right. Until next time, folks, stock up on shopping carts. Yeah. or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources.

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