Author and journalist John Washington returns to the podcast to discuss The Case for Open Borders, the name and subject of his new book from Haymarket Press.

John Washington places the current political rhetoric and policy fixated on the "border crisis" many Western nations are seemingly facing, particularly the United States, within the historical and material context of what the modern nation-state actually is. Borders are as much about building the infrastructure to prohibit and deter migrants and refugees from entering a territory, as it is a rhetorical weapon deployed by cynical politicians and nativist settlers to reify artificial differences among the human species. Stripping down the hyperbolic and nativist language exemplified across political parties, John makes clear what borders really are, and the violent realities this ever expanding infrastructure imposes on human and non-human life.