On political capitalism and social justice.
We continue our interview with Dylan Riley, discussing the limitations of ‘social justice’. Both woke and social-democratic demands today hinge on a notion of fairness. How realistic is it to petition the state to apportion justice in this way?
Together with Robert B...
2023-01-10 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
In honour of the publication of the Italian edition of The End of the End of History, Alex Hochuli will be in conversation with the book's translator, Mattia Salvia (Iconografie).
Join us on Thursday 12 January at 19h00 at Santeri...
2023-01-04 19:58:26 +0000 UTC View Post
On 'degrowth communism'.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Why the rage for degrowth now? With deindustrialisation, energy rationing and severe pressure on standards of living, it looks increasingly like degrowth is official policy.
Yet its advocates, drawing from the work of radicals like Mike Davis, John Bellamy Foster,...
2023-01-03 12:25:53 +0000 UTC View Post
On atomisation and association.
Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone came out 22 years ago and the structural changes he identified then – increasing atomisation – have only worsened. Everyone now blames the internet, and though it may have accelerated some aspects, the problem goes deeper. The social consequences...
2022-12-20 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
On the global left after the Cold War.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Has the left declined, been defeated, or is it dead? Is the continuity with the Old and New Lefts of the 20th century, or should we understand 1989 as marking a definitive break?
We use a long essay by Swedish Marxist sociologist Göran Therborn in ...
On your questions & criticisms.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We debate what kind of work 'shared-labour socialism' would involve in a complex society, and what role 'dispossession' or 'expropriation' has in the contemporary economy. Plus: strategies on Ukraine – backing independence, guerilla warfare, and what an 'an...
2022-12-06 14:26:20 +0000 UTC View PostIt's time for the 2022 Bungacast listener survey. We want to know what you thought about the world in 2022 - and about what we do, so we can improve.
Answer the survey via this link: 2022-12-06 12:42:23 +0000 UTC View Post
On "techno-feudalism".
In the Bungacast Reading Club for patrons, we've been discussing various works on "neo-feudalism" - a thesis that tries to explain capitalist stagnation and inequality by arguing that we are moving beyond capitalism – toward something worse.
In this free episode, we discuss one ...
2022-11-29 13:19:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe next Reading Club in the Techno-Feudalism section will be recorded this Wednesday, 30 November. We will be discussing Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism - focusing on the Introduction a...
2022-11-28 10:39:15 +0000 UTC View Post
On imperial rivalry in the Sahel.
[Patreon Exclusive]
The interview with Yvan Guichaou continues, discussing naturalisation of forever war in the West, and the long-term legacy of French military intervention in the Sahel. What is the situation on the ground for Malians? What has Russia's involvement been, and is ...
2022-11-22 07:05:59 +0000 UTC View Post
On Mali and the Sahel.
French president Emmanuel Macron declared the end of Opération Barkhane on 9 November 2022, bringing to an end to nearly 10 years of French military intervention in Mali. But what is the legacy of the French Forever War in the Sahel, and what happens next?
Sahel expert Yvan Guichaoua ...
2022-11-22 07:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
A special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
Previously released in 2021 only to subscribers, we're now re-releasing the series as a single-episode megamix. (Patreon sets file size limits so this is a lower-quality version. For HQ, get the version on all other platforms)
On your questions & criticisms.
[Patreon Exclusive]
The weakness of anti-EU forces; the implications of defending Ukrainian sovereignty; what should we call the new far-right and what does it *do* in power? And the gravity of nuclear war
Also, is Phil okay?
On nuclear exterminism.
To commemorate our 300th episode, we discuss how the world is closer to a nuclear conflict than at any point since the Cold War. After decades of inconsequential 'permawar' (at least inside the Western bubble), the proxy war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia is suddenly very consequential indeed...
2022-11-02 19:22:26 +0000 UTC View Post
On reclaiming populism.
With only a couple of days to go until the decisive runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro, we continue our Bungazão 2022 series by talking to political scientist Miguel Lago about ho...
On shared-labour socialism.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We continue our discussion, looking at what is behind "bullshit jobs" in the global North and the absence of jobs in the global South; debate whether "shared-labour socialism" would involve commune living; and try to unpick the trickiest aspect of all this: how to di...
2022-10-25 17:27:25 +0000 UTC View Post
On shared-labour socialism.
Political theorist Alex Gourevitch talks to us about his critique of post-work thought, and how it presupposes the very labour it seeks to free us from. We start of by distinguishing post-work socialism (e.g. Fully Automated Luxury Communism) from various propositions for a Universal Basic In...
2022-10-25 17:26:42 +0000 UTC View Post
On corruption & anti-corruption.
When Bolsonaro won in 2018, he rode a wave of anti-corruption sentiment. Now he's doled out billions in pork via a secret budget, but this doesn't seem to bother his supporters. What happened?
Benjamin Fogel, who studies the history of corruption in Brazil, comes on to discuss ...
2022-10-20 21:30:43 +0000 UTC View PostOn Friday 28 October, we'll be recording the first episode of the third and final section of this year's Reading Club.
We'll be discussing Joel Kotkin's The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class and Yanis Varoufakis' article...
2022-10-19 16:20:19 +0000 UTC View Post
On Trussonomics.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Having stumbled upon a successful recipe under Boris Johnson which would see greater state intervention, Britain's Tories then pivoted to a much more pro-market approach. But the markets haven't liked it – they've hated it.
What does this say about neoliberalism a...
2022-10-18 06:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
[Patreon Exclusive]
On who is responsible for prolonging the Ukraine War + your questions & criticisms
We start off by discussing whether the Zelensky tail is wagging the NATO dog, and what possible exits to conflict there might be.
Then, in the main section, we respond to listener comments: we tal...
2022-10-11 06:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[Patreon Exclusive]
On the meaning of Gorbachev.
Mikhail Gorbachev continues to be lauded in Western circles for overseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union without much bloodshed. But given the historic societal disaster that followed, is this status unmerited? How naive was Gorbachev about the wolves at the door...
2022-10-04 06:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
On Brazil's containment of the crisis.
We talk to members of the Unbridled Possibility Collective (Fabio Luis B. Santos | 2022-09-29 16:06:32 +0000 UTC View Post
On the Brothers of Italy
We talk to Mattia Salvia, former Rolling Stone Italia politics editor and author of Interregno, about Italy's election last weekend in the context of a Europe in crisis. The big question t...
On La Macronie, or Macronistan
Is France in perma-crisis? We talk to Nathan Sperber, independent researcher on political economy based in Paris and the author of a recent piece on Macronistan in American Affairs.
Does Macron evince a neo-statist turn, away from the entrepreneurial, neoliberal rhe...
2022-09-27 16:24:14 +0000 UTC View Post
[Patreon Exclusive]
On your questions and criticisms.
We discuss the Chinese Dream, speculation and horizontal politics, foreign fighters and spies, Dune, and killing Phil.
[Patreon Exclusive]
On the death of Queen Elizabeth, a 20th century figure
To our own surprise, we are doing an episode on the Queen of England. How will her death impact the UK when she was basically the only institution that still retained popular trust? Will Britons be made to face up to the question of what ki...
2022-09-13 06:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
On the history of inequality.
In the second part of this episode, we continue our chat with Branko Milanovic. We discuss how inflation is likely to impact inequality, ask Branko what he means by the "paleo-left" as an ideological position and why we should adopt this perspective.
We also look forward to Bra...
2022-09-06 06:03:00 +0000 UTC View Post
On Communism's historic role.
We talk to renowned Serbian-American economist Branko Milanovic about growing up in Yugoslavia and how, in much of the world, History never ended. We then dedicate much of the episode to discussing Branko's claim that communism was essentially an engine of economic convergence, allowing dev...
2022-09-06 06:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[Patreon Exclusive]
On the probability of a coup in Brazil.
Our guest, lawyer and podcaster Alcysio Canette, and Alex, look at Bolsonaro's claims that he will refuse to leave office. What will happen on Brazil's independence day parade on 7 September? Bolsonaro has demanded his supporters take to the streets "for ...
2022-09-05 18:41:33 +0000 UTC View Post
