
video game producer, terminal lurker. maybe cohost will unleash the peast (posting beast)
Covert health supremacism can be more slippery and take many forms. It can come in the form of institutional discrimination, exclusion, covid minimising, and micro-aggressions. Think of the public health officials who presented as positive and reassuring the observation that those who got seriously ill or died from covid are mostly those with pre-existing health conditions — as if the illness or death of a person would somehow matter less, just because they had diabetes? Or think of voices that say “If you haven’t had covid by now, you don’t have any friends” — presupposing that anyone trying to avoid getting infected with a SARS is a social outcast.
Other examples of covert health supremacism: when an employer forces their employees to come into the office without measures to protect against infection. When a volunteer group is unwilling to facilitate alternative forms of access to its monthly meetings. When a friend circle drops you because your insistence on masks and meeting outdoors is ‘no longer fun’. Or what about the general vibe that the pandemic is over, even though we know that transmission is high, long covid is rife, that vaccine efficacy seriously wanes over time, and that treatment for long covid is currently still unavailable. All of these tacitly, but unmistakably, communicate a clear health supremacist sentiment: ‘If you think you might not be able naturally to withstand covid, perhaps you should not be here at all.’
In accordance with SAG-AFTRA's new guidelines for podcasts, Export Audio will not be covering any struck work until the strike is over. Their new FAQ about podcasts has a lot of great information and I encourage you to read it, but the gist is that podcasting about struck work promotes that work and "Streaming services are putting performers’ work on their platforms to exist there forever without letting the performers share in the revenue they are receiving as a result of having an endless supply of content that performers like you made possible." Obviously on our shows, we tend to cover older work rather than the latest hotness, but such coverage still drives listeners to whatever streaming service hosts that older work.
It's hard for me to say right this moment what the podcasts will look like in the near future. Some shows, like Coffee & Comic Books or Anomalous Readings, will be minimally affected. Other shows like Ornate Stairwells will be affected a great deal. We are talking about everything and not rushing into any decisions. I'm not even back from my podcast break for 6 more days, so I can kick this down the road somewhat.
Bottom line, we support the strike and striking workers. We are going to do whatever we can to do show that support.
edit: I'd be remiss not to mention that our sibling networks Audio Entropy and Abnormal Mapping are doing the same!
we're also doing this! we're taking stock of exactly what is effected and what replacements to do but no studio movies or anything that promotes streaming services until the union demands are met!!!