#366 | The Case For Open Borders w/ John Washington

Last Born In The Wilderness

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. John Washington is a staff writer at Arizona Luminaria, a community-focused media outlet where he writes about the border, climate change, democracy, and more. His latest book, The Case for Open Borders was published by Haymarket Books in 2024. He is also the author of The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the U.S.-Mexico Border and Beyond, published in 2020 by Verso Books. Washington is also a translator, having co-translated, most recently, The Hollywood Kid by Óscar Martínez and Juan Martínez, and Blood Barrios by Alberto Arce, which won a PEN Translates Award. Episode Notes: - Purchase a copy of The Case for Open Borders from Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/24168/9798888900727 - Subscribe to his newsletter, Lit & Border News: https://johnwashington.substack.com - Read his journalistic work for Arizona Luminaria: https://azluminaria.org/author/john-washington - The song featured is “Deneb” by Nick Vander from the album Kodama (Nowaki’s Selection), used with permission by the artist. Listen and purchase at: https://nickvander.bandcamp.com WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast SUBSTACK: https://lastborninthewilderness.substack.com BOOK LIST: https://bookshop.org/shop/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call [phone] or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior