Episode 151[1/2]: Five Torrens graduate students reminisce about the first year.

Activist #MMT - podcast

Welcome to episode 151 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with five of my Torrens classmates about our first year in the new graduate program – its importance, some fond memories, and a few improvements we hope to see. In part two we discuss the job guarantee from a now-much more educated point of view.

(Here's a link to part 2. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found right below.)

My guests are Gabie Bond who, along with Professor Steven Hail is the program's administrator, and all-around wonderful person. Susan Borden is the student-matriarch who is taking classes faster than anybody else, and may very well be the first graduate of the Master's program, in a class, literally, all by herself. Tom Foster is an insightful classmate who convinced me to change a major aspect of my view of the job guarantee, as discussed in part two. John Haly is a classmate and very good friend with whom, along with Susan, I've spent many a virtual hour talking and just quietly getting work done. Jackson Winter is a longtime collaborator on many different projects, from audio production to administering the primary private social platform (Discord) for our Torrens classmates, and creating major resources for current and future classmates to take advantage of. He's also a former guest on my podcast.

This episode was recorded in late July of last year. Its release was delayed by my taking a demanding course at Torrens, switching careers, and by having to prioritize the release of the Steve Keen and Maren Poitras episodes. Thanks to all my guests for their patience.

And now, onto our conversation.

Audio chapters

• 2:40 - Hellos
• 5:38 - Susan first impressions
• 8:17 - What have you taken? What will you take? starting with Tom
• 11:35 - John
• 12:20 - Conflict between microeconomics and ecological economics
• 16:06 - John's classes
• 17:31 - Jackson classes
• 19:49 - Susan classes and response to John
• 23:18 - Susan and micro response, upcoming classes
• 23:57 - Steven and Gabie visiting the US
• 25:37 - Gabie's perspective of the first year as administrator.
• 28:17 - When will the final class of the initial set begin?
• 30:22 - Considering project-oriented electives
• 31:32 - The extra-curricular activities taken on by Torrens students (download directory, framing discussions)
• 37:27 - Framing discussions
• 38:42 - Between-trimester ideas
• 40:03 - Download directory, ramping-up advice, modern money lab resource repository
• 42:45 - Susan: Framing, messaging, and etc.
• 47:29 - Susan: Integrating Mazzucato's "Mission"
• 48:33 - Gregory Hayden's taxonomy
• 53:36 - Hayden's taxonomy final point
• 54:00 - Tom: more interactivity with classmates
• 55:34 - Final thoughts
• 57:09 - John: final thoughts
• 1:01:42 - Duplicate of introduction, with no background music (for those with sensitive ears)