PODCAST · education
Macro N Cheese
by Steven D Grumbine
A podcast that critically examines the working-class struggle through the lens of MMT or Modern Monetary Theory. Host Steve Grumbine, founder of Real Progressives, provides incisive political commentary and showcases grassroots activism. Join us for a robust, unfiltered exploration of economic issues that impact the working class, as we challenge the status quo and prioritize collective well-being over profit. This is comfort food for the mind, fueling our fight for justice and equity!
Episodes
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Ep 401 - Why Won't They Say Capitalism? with EJ of NonCompete
**Don't forget Macro 'n Chill, the Zoom gathering where we'll discuss this episode of the podcast and build our community. Tuesday, October 20th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Use this link to register Steve is joined by EJ, host of the NonCompete YouTube channel, editor-in-chief at Banyan House Publishing...
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Ep 400 - The Power of a United Africa with Fadhel Kaboub
** Come to Macro 'n Chill next Tuesday. We'll be discussing this, the 400th episode of our podcast! October 13th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/MKAXG1OQTIq2ly3Pu7B2sQ This is our 19th episode featuring Fadhel Kaboub, so who better to bring back for our...
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Ep 399 - Resistance and Resilience with Pieter de Beer
** Come to Macro ‘n Chill, our community-building online gathering & discussion group. Tuesday, October 6, at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/6VRb9hKDRB2_oCLzzEVquQ If we reject electoral politics as a path to fundamental change, the inevitable question...
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Ep 398 - The National Debt and the $40 Trillion Nothingburger with James Fauntleroy
**On Tuesday, we’ll be discussing this episode of the podcast. You are invited to the online gathering, September 29, at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/DBAHO7wMQamXyN6eykgirQ This episode is a rebroadcast of Steve’s recent appearance on the Jaybefaunt Show,...
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Ep 397 - Sectoral Balances: Predicting the Next Crises with Jim Byrne
Join us on Tuesday. Together we’ll listen to and discuss this episode in our virtual community gathering. Sept 22 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/RuYdM1rUS_esV3lRK9-75A What do government deficits have to do with the money in our pockets? Returning…
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Ep 396 - Recession by Design: Who Pays for the Business Cycle? with John T. Harvey
This week we’re having a long-overdue reunion with John T. Harvey, known to our listeners as the Cowboy Economist because of his plainspoken, accessible way of explaining complex ideas. John talks with Steve about his latest book, US Business Cycles 1954–2020. The conversation challenges…
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Ep 395 - The Red Scare That Stole Critical Thought with Andrew Hartman
** Look forward to an exciting 'Chill' this week! Join our online gathering to discuss this podcast & build community. Tuesday, September 8th at 8pm ET/5 pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nFGkw4EfRUCv9EHxqCFFqg They say the greatest trick the devil ever...
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Ep 394 - The Leviathan that Eats the World: AI's Hidden Hunger for Energy, Water & the Planet with Erald Kolasi
Erald Kolasi returns to the podcast to remind us that AI doesn’t simply exist weightlessly in the ephemeral cloud. Drawing on his research into its global energy and emissions impact, Erald traces AI’s vast material infrastructure, from mining, semiconductors, water, energy, and logistics to data...
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Ep 393 - Money Manager Capitalism: Ponzi Finance in the Shadows with Eric Tymoigne
**Join us on Tuesday to discuss this episode in our online gathering, Macro 'n Chill. August 25, 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/NGxWl6qMTaKXPhR51uHkwA If public power repeatedly stands behind private finance when it fails, shouldn't that same power be...
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Ep 392 - The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism with Daniel Tutt & C. Derick Varn
Daniel Tutt and returning guest C. Derick Varn join Steve to discuss their new book, The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism, whose title states its thesis outright. When the left speaks of a unified people confronting a corrupt elite, it conceals the real stratifications...
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Ep 391 - Towards Palestinian Liberation with Hamza Hamouchene
This week, Hamza Hamouchene returns to the podcast to talk about Towards Palestinian Liberation: Global Perspectives on Anti-Colonial Resistance and Solidarity, the new collection he co-edited with Abi Bae. Palestine, he argues, cannot be understood simply as a “conflict” or humanitarian crisis,...
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Ep 390 - China's Green Development is Both Anti-Imperialist & Socialist with Ashwin Shantha
** Do you want to talk about this episode with us? Come to Macro ‘n Chill, our online gathering. Tuesday, August 4, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nLks4k8gQWKQzTAn0CEsoA Ashwin Shantha joins Steve for a discussion challenging Western narratives on China –...
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Ep 389 - Voices of Political Economy & Struggle with William Thomson
This week we’re releasing an episode from Scotland‘s Political Economy podcast. Host William Thomson invited Steve to join him to compare and reflect on their favorite interviews and the thinkers who most shaped their worldviews – from Clara Mattei and Fadhel Kaboub to Bill Mitchell, Jason…
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Ep 34 - The Legal Nature of Money and the History of the Federal Reserve with Rohan Grey
**Classic episode re-release! Originally published Sept, 21, 2019** Legal scholar Rohan Grey knows how to use analogies to give shape to an idea. He illustrates his points with references to popular films, folklore and lyrical poets. With experience in the realms of music, early childhood...
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Ep 388 - From Theory to Praxis: Lenin's Revolutionary Formula with Breht O'Shea
**We’re listening to and discussing this episode on Tuesday, July 14 at 8pm ET/5pm PT, in our online gathering Macro ‘n Chill. We’ve invited Breht to join us, so bring your questions. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/PXkazv5WTWW7b7kMExA8uw "From each according to their...
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Ep 387 - Judgment of Gender with Allison Butler
**Tuesday evening, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT, we’ll be listening to this episode and discussing it during our online gathering, Macro ‘n Chill. Bring your thoughts, your insights, your questions. July 7th at at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. Use this link to register:...
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Ep 386 - Who Do You Serve: Neoliberalism & Oligarchy Through an MMT Lens with Bill Mitchell
Modern Monetary Theory explains how sovereign currency systems work, but it doesn’t tell us who controls the state or whose interests state power serves. Economist Bill Mitchell suggests that a dialectical understanding of capitalism is essential for answering that question. He and Steve discuss...
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Ep 385 - MAGAcademy: The Hostile Takeover of Higher Ed with Nolan Higdon
** Don't forget about Tuesday’s Macro ‘n Chill, the online gathering where we listen to the podcast together and discuss the issues it covers. Bring your insights, questions, and good-faith disagreements. June 23, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register...
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Ep 384 - Metabolic Rifts: Capitalism's Assault on the Earth System with Ian Angus
** Come to Macro ‘n Chill, the online gathering where we listen to the podcast together and discuss what we learned and where we agree or disagree. Tuesday, June 16, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Qm85bGIOSF2H_uNMwOmWtQ Ecosocialist author, Ian...
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Ep 383 - The Complicit Lens with Robin Andersen
Join us Tuesday, June 9th, at Macro ‘n Chill, the online gathering where we’ll listen to and discuss this episode. 8pm ET/5pm PT. Register with this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/L40tjKhOSCGCJTR-R-QJvw The title of Robin Andersen’s upcoming book (published next week) is The...
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Ep 382 - Yellow Vests & the Battle for Democracy: Beyond the Ballot Box with Ida Susser
**Every Tuesday we hold an online gathering where we listen to and talk about the episode while building community. Share your insights and questions as we educate ourselves and each other. Macro ‘n Chill, June 2, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Register here:...
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Ep 381 - Disinformation Nation with Mickey Huff
**Will we see you at Macro ‘n Chill on Tuesday? You’re invited to join our online gathering where we listen to the episode together and share our insights and questions. May 26 at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UHE6NoSDRbibqXYAeJJ8gQ…
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Ep 380 - Struggle & Resistance: Retelling Vietnam with Luna Nguyen
** This Tuesday, come to Macro ‘n Chill, our online gathering. Bring your insights and questions about this episode. May 19 at 8pm ET/5pm PT Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AIz56SKPT6Gfh0pXhs3PTw You may know Luna Nguyen as Luna Oi, the YouTuber and member of…
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Ep 379 - The Real Cost of War with L. Randall Wray
** This Tuesday, May 12, come to Macro ‘n Chill, our online gathering where we listen to and discuss this episode. Bring your questions and insights. 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/rn_HAqgaSRGdj8W2UX9aKw Did you think we had abandoned MMT? Well,...
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Ep 378 - Revisiting the Stalin Eras Part 2: Context Not Caricature with Jeremy of Proles Pod
** Macro ‘n Chill is our weekly online gathering where we listen to the podcast episode and talk about it among friends. This Tuesday, Jeremy of Proles Pod will be with us to answer questions. May 5 at 8pm ET/5pm PT Use this link to register:...
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Ep 377 - Revisiting the Stalin Eras Part 1: Understanding Democratic Centralism with Jeremy of ProlesPod
** Come to Macro ‘n Chill, our online community gathering, where we listen to and discuss the current episode. This week, Jeremy of Proles Pod will be joining us. If you have questions for him, bring them! Tuesday, April 28th, at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Register here:...
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Ep 376 - Modern Monetary Theory & the Question of Democracy with Jim Byrne
** Questions about MMT? Thoughts about the episode? Come to our online gathering, Macro ‘n Chill. Tuesday, April 21, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/RkspaP0RSNajdc69bqUmkA Jim Byrne of MMT101 is back for a conversation that moves beyond the...
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Ep 375 - (R)evolutionary Struggle with Steve Grumbine
** This week’s Macro ‘n Chill might shake us up. Some of us, at least. Come discuss the episode with the community. Tues, April 14, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/PIf2VnjBS-mwX-Bd4BwWYQ In a solo episode, Steve sets out to describe and explain...
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Ep 374 - Escape From Capitalism with Clara Mattei
Join our community on Tuesday evening as we listen to and discuss this episode. April 7th at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nkkVRy2JQbW2Eh4VDtcNHQ Clara Mattei and her first book, The Capital Order, were hugely important to Real Progressives as…
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Ep 373 - Is There A Path To Fiat Socialism? with Carlos García Hernández
Carlos García Hernández, author of Fiat Socialism: Achieving the Goals of Socialism Through Modern Monetary Theory, joins Steve to revisit their discussion of topics covered in his earlier visits to the podcast. Their dialogue wrestles with a deceptively simple question: if we already have the...
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Ep 372 - Crisis of Hegemony & the Vassalization of Europe with Thomas Fazi
** Tuesday evening, March 24, we’ll be listening to and discussing this episode in our online gathering, Macro ‘n Chill. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/DeGM2oAyRt2O-Xsj1nc4IQ Thomas Fazi joins Steve to dissect the geopolitical and ideological structures that have rendered...
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Ep 371 - You Can't Vote Away Colonialism with Fadhel Kaboub
** Join our community-building online gathering where we listen to the episode together and discuss it in a relaxed, supportive atmosphere. Tuesday, March 17, at 8pm ET/5pm PT. https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/o3miFIPmSAC2d46Vh14iBA One of our favorite guests is back to talk about the...
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Ep 370 - Empire & Exodus with Erald Kolasi
Erald Kolasi is back to attack the bourgeois narrative on immigration, which reduces it to a series of individual choices. He and Steve dig into the material roots of migration, showing how empire, land theft, war, labor exploitation, and capitalist crisis have shaped global migration flows for...
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Ep 369 - Sarah Connor Warned Us with Peter Byrne
While we’re being distracted by chatbots and AI gimmicks, Silicon Valley is quietly embedding its products into surveillance systems, border enforcement, battlefield logistics, and even nuclear command-and-control. The real money isn’t in selfies with AI. It’s in Pentagon contracts and permanent...
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Ep 368 - Socialism Unmade: Confronting Five Centuries of Capital with Ali Kadri
“...Some are dancing, some are drowning, but in the end everybody’s going to go under.” Dr. Ali Kadri (Sun Yat-sen University), author of the Unmaking of Arab Socialism, joins Steve to talk about imperialism, development, and why the Arab world keeps getting put through the capitalist meat…
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Ep 367 - MMT & Marxism: Finding Common Ground with Owen Bennett
Can Marxists and MMTers find common ground, or are they doomed to be strategic enemies? Steve’s guest is Australian labor historian and organizer Owen Bennett, who founded the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union in 2015, and more recently, Unionists for a Job Guarantee in 2024. He and Steve...
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Ep 366 - Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? with Gabriel Rockhill
This week Steve invited Gabriel Rockhill to talk about his new book Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Vol 1 of The Intellectual World War. The war on communism is about protecting imperial super-profits, keeping cheap labor and resources flowing from the Global South to the imperial core.…
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Ep 365 - Funding White Supremacy with Robert B. Williams
Funding white supremacy is a core, not incidental, function of the modern capitalist state in the U.S. It is also the title of economist Robert B. Williams’ 2025 book, Funding White Supremacy: Federal Wealth Policies and the Modern Racial Wealth Gap. Bob and Steve share the fundamental position...
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Ep 364 - State Money, Class Struggle with Anthony Anastasi
We’ve made the case before, but it bears repeating: MMT is a politically neutral, descriptive lens explaining the operational realities of a sovereign fiat currency system where the availability of real resources, not money, are the constraint. And Marxism is an analytical framework for...
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Ep 363 - Venezuela's Unfinished Revolution with Ricardo Vaz
Steve opens in a subdued mood brought on by the dizzying speed of ‘current events.’ For this episode he’s stepping back and looking at Venezuela. News reports are working hard to create confusion. On social media US citizens claim that kidnapping a sitting president is justified if you don’t like...
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Ep 362 - Debunking the Institutional Theory of Economic Development with Erald Kolasi
Steve welcomes back Erald Kolasi, physicist-economist, author, and friend of the podcast. Erald is here to do a demolition job on “institutional” development fables like Acemoglu & Robinson’s Why Nations Fail. He argues that by treating good institutions as the master key (inclusive vs.…
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Ep 361 - Discernment in the Age of Disinformation with Andy Lee Roth & Shealeigh Voitl
Shealeigh Voitl and Andy Lee Roth join Steve to talk about Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2025. The book – an annual publication – compiles the year's most important yet underreported or misreported news stories, which they’ve identified through a student-led research process. Andy...
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Ep 360 - Care Theory of Value with Emma Holten
Let’s face it, even “good” macro talk can fall into the trap of treating the economy like a tidy spreadsheet while real lives get crushed in the margins. To help us peer beneath the covers, Steve invited Emma Holten, a Copenhagen-based political economist to talk about her book Deficit: How...
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Ep 359 - Epstein: Power, Corruption & Media Complicity with Nolan Higdon
For a masterclass in true bipartisanship, look no further than the guest list of Jeffrey Epstein! We all love a good conspiracy story, but it’s often just business as usual for the class in power. Nolan Higdon – lecturer, media critic, and author of The Gaslight Gazette – is back for a deep...
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Ep 358 - Now Is the Time of Monsters: Gramsci on Counterrevolution with Vijay Prashad
Historian and journalist Vijay Prashad talks with Steve about why Antonio Gramsci still matters. Listeners to this podcast know that we have a pretty good grasp of the monetary system. But we’re constantly working to expand our understanding of the systemic underpinnings of real power. How else...
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Ep 357 - Socialism with Chinese Characteristics with Yan Liang
In today’s world, anyone serious about anti-imperialism, global development, and monetary sovereignty needs to break through the well-funded US propaganda machine and develop a fact-based, nuanced understanding of China. To this end, Steve asked Yan Liang to come back to the podcast to look at...
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Ep 356 - Scotland's Economic Suicide Pact? with Will Thomson
Steve and his guest, Scottish political economist William Thomson, use the fight over Scotland’s independence to dissect how class power hides inside “neutral” economic rules. Will, founder of SCOTONOMICS, talks about his journey from neoclassical training to a heterodox, political-economy...
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Ep 355 - Dialectics of Dominance with Aaron Good
“We’re at an inflection point – a civilizational crisis. Western imperial dominance is ending, and its dying spasms are only accelerating the collapse.” Aaron Good Aaron Good, author of American Exception: Empire and the Deep State, is back to talk with Steve about the crisis of the US-led…
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Ep 354 - The Fed As a Weapon of Class Power with L. Randall Wray
Randy: “We’re supposed to believe the central bank manages inflation by using interest rates?" Steve: “It’s ridiculous.” L. Randall Wray, one of the original MMT economists, recently wrote a paper with Yeva Nersisyan entitled, No, the Fed is NOT Independent – It is a Creature of Congress. Steve...
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Ep 353 - Dollars for Oligarchs, Austerity for Argentina with Daniel Kostzer
** Want to take a deeper dive into this podcast? Join us on Tuesday evenings for Macro ‘n Chill, where we listen to the most recent episode together. Ask questions, share your insights, or just hang with us. 8pm ET/5pm PT. Find the registration link at realprogressives.org. And while you’re…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A podcast that critically examines the working-class struggle through the lens of MMT or Modern Monetary Theory. Host Steve Grumbine, founder of Real Progressives, provides incisive political commentary and showcases grassroots activism. Join us for a robust, unfiltered exploration of economic issues that impact the working class, as we challenge the status quo and prioritize collective well-being over profit. This is comfort food for the mind, fueling our fight for justice and equity!
HOSTED BY
Steven D Grumbine
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Macro N Cheese have?
Macro N Cheese currently has 300 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Macro N Cheese about?
A podcast that critically examines the working-class struggle through the lens of MMT or Modern Monetary Theory. Host Steve Grumbine, founder of Real Progressives, provides incisive political commentary and showcases grassroots activism. Join us for a robust, unfiltered exploration of economic...
How often does Macro N Cheese release new episodes?
Macro N Cheese publishes regularly with 300 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Macro N Cheese?
You can listen to Macro N Cheese on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Macro N Cheese?
Macro N Cheese is created and hosted by Steven D Grumbine.
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