Michael Seltzer

Welcome to L. A.—the city of dreams, drama, and just enough dumpster fires to keep you warm at night. Meet Lucious Daren, LAPD’s self-proclaimed top cop, whose “superpowers” only show up when he’s drunk or high. After an embarrassing mishap involving Lucious accidentally shooting his rookie partner, he gets demoted to teaching DARE to high school punks—a fate worse than paperwork. But this isn’t just a story about a rogue cop. Or a morality play on the dangers of codependency. DARE is a balls-to-the-wall comedy-action-romp, blending a cocktail of un-PC humor, good old-fashioned T&A, razor-sharp political commentary, and heart to keep you hooked. As Lucious juggles his nightmare teaching gig with a burning desire to take down his nemesis—the kingpin Marlo—he discovers that his true battle isn’t just against crime but his own chaotic tendencies. Picture Die Hard meets Archer, with a dash of Starsky and Hutch, all wrapped up in a thick cloud of blunt smoke. This period satire flips the buddy-cop trope on its head and takes aim at everything from Nancy Reagan’s war on drugs to modern-day cancel culture all while keeping the belly laughs (and the bullets) flying.

Listening to the Welfare State presents, for the first time in English, central research findings from recent studies of the welfare systems of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. The book’s contributors are leading investigators of face-to-face encounters between welfare professionals and clients in these systems. All have collected their data through ethnographic observations as well as taped recordings of these meetings. By subjecting their data to conversation and discourse analyses, these researchers provide a richly detailed empirical picture of the various forms of talk-at-work constituting the core activity of a variety of street-level bureaucracies. Their findings provide a well-rounded body of knowledge about what happens when professionals meet persons seeking financial assistance, child protection, employment, vocational counselling, treatment, rehabilitation and related services. Essential reading for both professional and students, this book will provide a wealth of insights into and understandings of, the micro-level workings of welfare state systems.

Listening to the Welfare State presents, for the first time in English, central research findings from recent studies of the welfare systems of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. The book’s contributors are leading investigators of face-to-face encounters between welfare professionals and clients in these systems. All have collected their data through ethnographic observations as well as taped recordings of these meetings. By subjecting their data to conversation and discourse analyses, these researchers provide a richly detailed empirical picture of the various forms of talk-at-work constituting the core activity of a variety of street-level bureaucracies. Their findings provide a well-rounded body of knowledge about what happens when professionals meet persons seeking financial assistance, child protection, employment, vocational counselling, treatment, rehabilitation and related services. Essential reading for both professional and students, this book will provide a wealth of insights into and understandings of, the micro-level workings of welfare state systems.