Paul Holdengräber is joined by filmmaker Astra Taylor for a two-part conversation on episode 159 of The Quarantine Tapes. Astra talks with Paul about her work around issues of debt. They start by discussing Astra’s own history with organizing around debt.

Astra tells Paul about her childhood and her relationship to education. She identifies a disconnect between education and the structures of schooling, as well as issues with our current system of student debt. In this episode, Paul and Astra have a generative and thoughtful conversation about the importance of listening, the challenges of technology that values efficiency above all else, and the need for solidarity to change our current system of indebtedness.

You Are Not A Loan, a documentary directed by Astra Taylor and produced by Onassis LA, in collaboration with UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy and the Debt Collective, about student loan debt is available to watch here: https://theintercept.com/2021/01/25/student-debt-you-are-not-a-loan-film/

For more information about Astra Taylor’s work, visit https://www.whatisdemocracy.info

Astra Taylor is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and political organizer. She is the director, most recently, of “What Is Democracy?” and the author of “Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone.” Her previous work includes The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, winner of a 2015 American Book Award. She is co-founder of the Debt Collective.

Credits:

Paul Holdengraber - Co-Creator, Host, OLA Director
Anthony Audi - Co-Creator, Researcher, OLA Director
Alejandro Cohen - Co-Creator, Producer, Composer
Christian Pitt - Production Coordinator 
Erin Cooney - Copy, Production
Dublab Team