Art of Citizenry

With a sharp focus on culture, economics, and politics, Art of Citizenry explores how historic oppression persists and evolves, confronting the colonial legacies that shape our systems today. With an emphasis on intersectional justice, this podcast challenges listeners to unlearn and consider more restorative, community-centered approaches. Join us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives with nuanced perspectives.Support our work: https://www.artofcitizenry.com/support

Art of Citizenry is a society podcast hosted by Manpreet Kaur Kalra, with 54 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Manpreet Kaur Kalra hosts Art of Citizenry, a society show with 54 episodes published.

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  Episode #52

  Influencer Recession and the Attention Economy

  Oct 1, 202641 min

  The creator economy promised an alternative to the traditional 9-to-5 that offered fame, autonomy, and money (lots of it). But the usual barriers to success never really disappeared, they simply changed. Now, content creators depend on algorithms and advertisers that determine who gets seen, who gets paid, and increasingly, how much of yourself you have to give away to stay relevant. Manpreet sits down with New York Magazine features writer Rebecca Jennings to unpack what she calls the “influencer recession” and the increasingly complicated economics of making a living online. We talk about the power of social media algorithms, AI and manufactured virality, shifting ideals of desirability, rage bait content, and the growing pressure for creators to turn more and more of their lives (and themselves!) into content.  In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, we discuss:  The “influencer recession,” particularly why so many influencers are struggling even as influencer marketing continues to grow as a brand strategy Who holds power in the creator economy (spoiler: it’s not just the platforms!)  The commodification of the self and what we give up when our bodies, relationships, identities, and private lives become content in exchange for attention. AI generated content and how it is intensifying competition despite being sloppy and problematic Manufactured virality and clipping (the marketing campaigns behind moments that have felt organically viral). What is up with all the rage bait content these days.  Shifting standards of beauty, femininity, and desirability, from GLP-1s and declining opportunities for plus-size creators to tradwives, Love Island, and the Bop House. These stories reveal so much more about society and how political ideas (particularly conservative ideology) can spread through lifestyle content without presenting as explicitly “political” (aka everything is political!) At the center of everything is arguably the world’s most scarce and valuable commodity: our attention. Rebecca Jennings is a features writer at New York Magazine covering internet culture. Previously she worked at Vox, where she covered social platforms and the creator economy with a focus on how social media is changing the nature of fame, fashion, money, and human relationships. Her work has explored everything from the joy of reality television to the rise of TikTok and why it feels like suddenly everyone’s an influencer now. She is the author of Be the Bombshell: What Love Island Teaches Us About Dating . Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. Contribute via PayPal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal Become a Paid Subscriber on Substack: https://artofcitizenry.substack.com/ Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofcitizenry Follow Manpreet on Instagram: https://instagram.com/manpreetkalra For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

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  Episode #51

  Private Equity Playbook: Deportation Flights and Omni Air International

  Sep 17, 202657 min

  Detaining and deporting immigrants has become a lucrative business, and private equity is financing the infrastructure behind it. In this episode, Manpreet Kaur Kalra and Anna Canning follow the money behind Omni Air International, a charter airline operating ICE deportation flights, and Stonepeak, the private equity firm that owns it. In true Art of Citizenry fashion, we trace Omni’s role in long-haul deportation flights linked to gross human rights violations, pulling back the curtain on Stonepeak’s acquisition, how public pension funds financed the deal, and why voluntary ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) commitments can fall apart when there are no meaningful mechanisms for accountability. We explore: How Omni Air became part of the U.S. deportation infrastructure, including its role in unlawful ICE removals. The human rights abuses linked to deportation flights, including prolonged restraint, torture, denial of due process, and violations of the principle of non-refoulement (learn more in the episode). Stonepeak’s acquisition of Omni Air’s parent company and how much private equity can profit from privatizing government functions (including our waterways!). How public pension funds in progressive states like Washington, Oregon, California, and New York helped finance Stonepeak’s investment in Omni Air – despite their public commitments to immigrant and human rights. Why layers of contractors, corporate ownership, private equity funds, and voluntary ESG commitments can obscure accountability even when the underlying harm is well documented. Tune in as we examine the various ways state violence gets obscured by layers of contracts and ask a larger question: when governments outsource state power, who is ultimately responsible for the harm? Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of immigration detention and deportation, torture, physical restraint, solitary confinement, self-harm, and other forms of physical and psychological mistreatment. Please listen with care. About the Series Private Equity Playbook is a series by Art of Citizenry that examines how private equity is reshaping our everyday lives. In each episode, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra and long-time collaborator Anna Canning investigate private equity in another corner of everyday life, digging into where it’s headed and what that means for us. Suggested Listens and Reading: Art of Citizenry Podcast Episode 34 – Big Beautiful Bill - How Private Equity is Profiting from Immigrant Detention Mother Jones – ICE Deportation Flights Are Getting Longer and Crueler Art of Citizenry Podcast Episode 19 – Profiting From Detention and the Criminalization of Immigration UW Center for Human Rights – Abuses in the Air: Sports Travel and the Deportation Industry Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. Contribute via PayPal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal Become a Paid Subscriber on Substack: https://artofcitizenry.substack.com/ Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofcitizenry Follow Manpreet on Instagram: https://instagram.com/manpreetkalra For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

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  Episode #50

  Supreme Court Protects Corporate Impunity: Gutting the Alien Tort Statute

  Sep 3, 202654 min

  For much of U.S. history, people harmed abroad by American corporations have had few meaningful pathways into U.S. courts. Wage theft, child labor, trafficking, land grabbing, union busting – corporate impunity has long been insulated by the complexity of global supply chains. Even when the company was headquartered in the U.S., profited in the U.S., or made decisions in the U.S., the law often treated the harm as too distant, too foreign, or too complicated. In this episode of Art of Citizenry , host Manpreet Kaur Kalra speaks with Charity Ryerson, Executive Director and Founder of Corporate Accountability Lab. Together, they examine the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) , a single sentence passed in 1789 that became one of the few legal pathways for people harmed by corporate impunity abroad to seek accountability in U.S. courts. Over the past two decades, the Supreme Court has narrowed the ATS case by case. Then, in June 2026, the Court closed the door even further in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I , a case alleging that the U.S. tech giant helped build a surveillance system used to identify, track, detain, and torture Falun Gong practitioners in China. This episode traces the history of the ATS and examines what its further narrowing means for corporate accountability in an era of globalization and outsourced harm. We look at how corporations use subsidiaries, suppliers, contractors, and jurisdictional complexity to deflect responsibility, and we ask what pathways remain when one of the few tools for transnational accountability is closed even further. We explore:  The origins of the Alien Tort Statute and why a single sentence from 1789 became so important to modern human rights litigation. The Supreme Court’s gradual narrowing of the ATS (and why we shouldn’t be calling this an originalist interpretation) What Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I means for aiding-and-abetting liability and claims against U.S. corporations accused of enabling human rights abuses abroad. Why aiding-and-abetting liability matters in cases where corporations may not directly commit abuses but allegedly provide the money, technology, logistics, security, or market pressure that makes those abuses possible. The limits of the Torture Victim Protection Act, especially after Cisco , and what possibilities remain for holding individual corporate actors accountable. Where advocates, lawmakers, communities, and movements can go from here. At its core, this is a conversation about power: who gets access to justice, whose suffering is recognized by the courts, and what happens when corporations can profit across borders while accountability stops at the border. Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives through accessible, nuanced perspectives. Contribute via PayPal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal Become a paid subscriber on Substack: https://artofcitizenry.substack.com/ Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofcitizenry Follow Manpreet on Instagram: https://instagram.com/manpreetkalra For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

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  Episode #48

  Patagonia and the Commodification of Nature

  Jun 18, 202648 min

  Patagonia is a vast region spanning southern Chile and Argentina. It is also the name of a multibillion-dollar outdoors company that has spent more than 50 years turning the region’s landscapes and mythology into a symbol of wilderness and adventure. Now, Patagonia Inc. is suing drag queen and climate activist Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement and dilution. But beneath all the legal questions lies a more complicated one: How did a U.S. corporation acquire the power to control the commercial meaning of a geographical area in the first place? This episode is an invitation to think beyond whether Pattie Gonia’s name is too similar to Patagonia’s trademark and to instead delve deeper into who defines the meaning of a place and what happens when that power becomes privately owned. In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by Professor Alexandra Roberts, a scholar of trademark law at Northeastern University, to unpack the legal questions at the center of the case and the deeper ethical questions hiding beneath them. Together, they examine the mechanisms that underpin trademark law, the colonial logic of commodification, corporate personhood and what it would mean if nature were to be granted similar rights. In this episode, we explore: What Patagonia must prove in its trademark infringement and dilution claims against Pattie Gonia Why the “duty to police” argument is often overstated in trademark disputes How a company can acquire trademark rights in a geographic name and reshape public meaning The colonial mythology of Patagonia as an empty wilderness and the Indigenous histories obscured by that narrative What Rights of Nature and corporate personhood reveal about whose interests the law recognizes Potential reforms to better protect geographic, cultural, and Indigenous terms 📌 Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives through accessible, nuanced perspectives. Contribute via PayPal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal Become a paid subscriber on Substack: https://artofcitizenry.substack.com/ Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofcitizenry Follow Manpreet on Instagram: https://instagram.com/manpreetkalra For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

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  Episode #47

  The Private Equity Playbook: Instant Pot

  May 28, 202649 minS0

  <p>Instant Pot didn’t just go bankrupt, it became another casualty of private equity’s complex financial maneuvers. In this episode of our series The Private Equity Playbook, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra and collaborator Anna Canning trace how one of the most beloved kitchen gadgets of the 2010s became a textbook case of everything private equity does to the things we own, the places we live, and the communities we call home.</p> <p>From its origins as an internet phenomenon to its collapse under millions in manufactured debt, the Instant Pot story hits every ingredient of the private equi...

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