Aufhebunga Bunga

On Poland's election, its history, its self-conception. Philosopher Maciej Szlinder joins us to talk about Polish politics, society and history. Maciej is a member of the general council of the left-wing political party Razem ("Together"), as well as the president of the Polish Basic Income Network, so we discuss these matters as well as the general context. How did Poland represent a beacon of neoliberal democracy to Western liberals in the 80s and 90s – and what happened next? What does Poland represent, to Poles and to the rest of Europe, today? Is the political duopoly of the centrist Civic Platform and the right-wing Law and Justice falling apart? Why is political turnout up – and what anti-establishment parties are the young voting for? Why is Poland the most pro-American country in Europe, and how does Trump affect that? What is Poland's huge economic success felt like on the ground? How does precarious employment and emigration impact Polish politics? Links: In the Polish Mirror, Gavin Rae, New Left Review In Poland, Presidential Hopefuls Battle for Young Voters Who Don't Like Them, NY Times

On the former Yugoslavia and the ethnography of anti-nationalists. [For the full episode, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast] [Reading Club LIVE: Sat 14 June, 9am LA, 12am NY, 5pm London, 6pm Berlin] In the third installment of this block on inter/nationalism in the 21st century, we take a look at the other side of nationalism, through scholar Stefaan Jansen's “Anti-nationalism: Post-Yugoslav Resistance and Narratives of Self and Society”. Who are the Somewheres and Anywheres in post-Yugoslavia? How does Jansen understand the marginalisation of anti-nationalism in Serbia and Croatia? Is understanding nationalism and anti-nationalism as discursive practices a useful lens for understanding post-Yugoslav identities? Why is the act of forgetting or misremembering significant in the context of post-Yugoslav anti-nationalist narratives? How did the contrast between pre-war Yugoslavia and post-war realities shape anti-nationalist identities? Must individuality be anti-nationalist? Reading Club 2024/25 Syllabus: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRn6kWzICbqUBo64Jp-c8TS0K4axTy3M/view

On the end of the (very) long 1960s. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Contributing Editor Lee Jones joins Alex and George to talk through the themes and stories of the month, including MAGA's war on universities, right-populists in power, and culture war. Plus we deal with your questions and comments on: lawfare, video games, and the 'new class'. What is TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out)? How should we respond to rightist attempts to rewrite the past? Why are Angela Merkel and Donald Trump representative of the age, in similar and different ways? Are people sick of subversion and just want order? What happens as the Boomers leave public life? Can we bracket 1960-2020? When should we throw the book at politicians? Links: Trump's Tariff Gamble and the Decay of the Neoliberal Order, Lee Jones, American Affairs The Techno-Populist Convergence, Alex Hochuli, Compact How Labor won the preference war (and screwed the Greens), Financial Review Saving Britain's Universities: Academic Freedom, Democracy and Renewal, Lee Jones and Philip Cunliffe, Cieo

On tech and the last hu-men. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Writer Alex Gender is back, talking to Alex and George about his recent essay, "Homo Algorithmicus", as well as reflecting on how incel culture has widened and deepened in the past five years. How does healthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione exemplify a “rationalist” worldview? What is "TESCREAL" and how are those distinct ideologies underpinned an anti-human rationalism? Is "tech" or Silicon Valley split between liberal effective altruists and neo-reactionary libertarians? Is tech moving from trying to escape the state to trying to capture it? What is it about “Gen Z boss and a mini” that generated such ire among "masculinists"? What is to be done about the Man Question? Links: Homo Algorithmicus, Alex Gendler, The Point Magazine /215/ Organize the Incels?! ft. Alex Gendler The perennial surplus, Alex Gendler, Substack The New Legislators of Silicon Valley, Evgeny Morozov, The Ideas Letter

On what is next for 'PMC theory' [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] The social media avatar known as Christopher Lasch's Angry Ghost joins us to unpick the conjuncture: as the Trump administration makes cuts and seeks to do away with progressives in bureaucracies, where does that leave the left-wing critique of the PMC? What would Lasch's ghost be telling us now? Is the PMC a class? Is it distinct people? Or is it more like procedures, and ways of thinking? Is woke over? Will the MANGOs (media, academia, NGOs) carry on? Can the PMC still advance oppositional politics or it hopeless compromised? What will be the effect on AI doing away with professional class jobs? Is vice-signalling replacing virtue-signalling? Links: Death of a Yuppie Dream, Barbara Ehrenreich, RosaLux (pdf) It's Our Fault, Dustin Guastella, Damage Trump's purge of the professionals, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd This obsession with a ‘new elite' hides the real roots of power, Kenan Malik, The Guardian The Techno-Populist Convergence, Alex Hochuli, Compact

On Romania's annulled election – and the repeat. Academic and housing activist Enikő Vincze talks to Alex about why December 2024's election result was annulled, and how Romanian politics is following the script of European politics: lawfare, misinformation, techno-populism, and "sovereigntists" who provide the same neoliberal solutions. Who are the contenders in the May 2025 election and what do they represent? To what extent do Simion and AUR represent an 'anti-system' candidacy? How do they compare to other European radical rightists? Is Romanian politics really torn between Brussels and Moscow, or is something else at play? How is the Ukraine War, and EU militarisation, playing out in Romania? Why does the Right's promise of sovereignty only provide new capitalist alternatives to neoliberal globalism? What is the state of the Left and of struggles over housing in Romania? Links: Romanian elections and the agony of neoliberalism: militarization and austerity, with or without “sovereigntists”, Enikő Vincze, Internationalist Standpoint Fractured Romania, Costi Rogozanu, Sidecar Romania Redivivus, Alexander Clapp, New Left Review  

On the promise of videos games. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Pawel Kaczmarski – a literary critic who teaches modern and contemporary Polish literature at the University of Wrocław – talks to George and Alex about his piece in Damage, "The Promise of Video Games". How are things gearing up for Poland's election later this month? Are video games moving culturally "upstream"? How does a game like Helldivers 2 promise to teach us agency but fails? Is the problem with video game criticism, and literary criticism, not so much their difficulty but rather that they are boring today? Has anyone managed to write a good "novel of the internet"? Links: The Promise of Video Games, Pawel Kaczmarski, Damage /162/ Gaming & Politics ft. Jonas Kyratzes Gospels of the Flood

On the charges against France's Marine Le Pen. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Alex and George discuss some main stories from the past month. After the death of Pope Francis, what's behind left-wing sympathy for the late Pope – and more widespread appreciation for Catholicism? Why do we want a progressive Pope, and would a reactionary one be better for us? Why is the US deporting people to Nayib Bukele's Salvadorian prisons, and what makes this so dystopian? Then Alex calls up Jacobin's Europe editor David Broder to understand the charges against Marine Le Pen. Is Marine Le Pen a victim of lawfare, or has she been hoist by her own petard? What are the consequences for the Rassemblement National, and for French politics? What has the European radical right's response been to Trump II so far? And we respond to your questions and comments from the past month on: Holding politicians to account on free speech Listening to poetry Redistribution as the obvious solution to the crisis Clientelism and hyperpolitics

On the mass-production of loyalty. *** We are exceptionally making this episode of the Reading Club freely available. See the full syllabus here: 2024/25 Reading Club. If you'd like to join, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast/membership. *** The second reading in this block on Inter/Nationalism in the 21st Century is The Invention of Tradition (eds. Eric Hobsbawm & Terrence Ranger, 1983), specifically Hobsbawm's chapter "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe 1870-1914". How much did ordinary people buy into invented national traditions? Why did industrialisation allow for mass-producing traditions? Does the sense of belonging fostered then still exist today? If nation-states don't require active participation any more, what does this mean for the mass-production of loyalty? Are things like social media campaigns, national holidays for diversity, or even global events like the Olympics the new “mass-produced” traditions?

On Filipino politics and geopolitics. Renowned public intellectual Walden Bello talks to Alex and contributing editor Lee Jones about his recently published memoirs, former president Rodrigo Duterte's arrest, warring political dynasties and more. What's behind Duterte's arrest? Is it lawfare? How did the Philippines comes to be an ‘anarchy of families'? What are the barriers to doing left-wing political work in the Philippines? How has Walden been involved with the social-democratic party Akbayan? What does China's rise mean for developing countries and the global South? What are Walden's key lessons for the ‘end of the End of History'? Links: GLOBAL BATTLEFIELDS: Memoir of a Legendary Public Intellectual from the Global South, Walden Bello, Clarity Duterte Is Right to End the U.S.-Philippine Military Exercises, Walden Bello, NYT /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato /351/ Eating the Left's Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs

On Trump's government, his motives and his modus operandi. Political theorist Corey Robin talks to Alex H and contributing editors Lee Jones and Alex Gourevitch about Trump II from a domestic perspective. We look at the three main things he's done so far: cutting the civil service, imposing economic sanctions domestically, and his immigration terror politics. Is Trump a strong president? Does the reliance on executive orders indicate weakness? What happened to the #Resistance? Why has the tariff issue, instead of uniting Republicans as in the 19th century, divided them? Is the bond market the main force limiting Trump's agenda? Has Bernie Sanders' prediction come true – this is now an oligarchy? Does Trump just represent patrimonialism and even gangsterism? A degradation of democracy? What does reaction looks like when there's very little left to react against? Links: /129/ The Right Is Weak ft. Corey Robin | Bungacast Notifications, Corey Robin, Sidecar (on Trump & tariffs) Corey Robin's facebook posts The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics, Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld, Princeton UP

On Perry Anderson's "Internationalism: A Breviary". [For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] We kick off the second block/theme of the 2024/25 Reading Club on Nations & Internationalism in the 21st Century by looking at a 2002 essay which charts nationalism against internationalism from the Atlantic revolutions through to the age of globalisation. It is particularly apposite to revisit this text in light of an acceleration in de-globalisation brought on by the second Trump presidency. What are the cultural aspects of "internationalism"? While nationalism can be good or bad, internationalism is usually seen as positive. Is this still the case? How has internationalism accompanied, seperated from or stood against nationalism throughout the latter's history? How is internationalism different from cosmopolitanism today, if at all? How could we update Anderson's charting of internationalism along 5 coordinates: capital, geography, philosophy, nation-definition, and class relations? Internationalism: A Breviary, Perry Anderson, New Left Review

On Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs and the end of globalisation. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Contributing editor Lee Jones talks to Alex about the tariffs, as they try to reconstruct the Trump admin's thinking, and consider avenues and consequences. Why is this a retro-80s moment, and how much does China take the role that Japan used to in Trump's thinking? How much strategy is there to this? Is it possible to disentangle the competing logics? Is this a return to the 19th century: small state, no income tax, high tariff walls? How credible an attempt at reindustrialising the US is this? Is Trump trying to weaken the dollar? What store to put in the Mar-a-Lago accord? Do Europeans kick the can down the road and hope for the best? Is this a global restructuring or just a reset in terms more favourable to the US? The end of neoliberalism or a new iteration on it? Links: Will anybody buy a ‘Mar-a-Lago accord'?, FT A User's Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System, Stephen Miran, Hudson Bay Capital  Is Trump 2 the End of ‘Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome'?, Lee Jones, TNS  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Breaks Down Trump's Tariff Plan and Its Impact on the Middle Class, Tucker Carlson, YouTube Back to the '80s?, Andrew Liu, n+1 MAGA and the Fragmentation of Europe, Tim Pendry, Substack

On revolution, epic poetry, John Milton, and freedom. George and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch talk to Orlando Reade, who teaches English at Northeastern University London.  We discuss Orlando's new book What In Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost and the history of readings of John Milton's great epic poem. Is Paradise Lost a poem about darkness? What does a poem written in the seventeenth century have to tell us about the age of Trump and the contemporary Right? What can we learn about freedom today from the rebellious Satan in the poem? Or the disobedient Eve? What did Malcolm X get from the poem and why is Jordan Peterson so hot on epic poetry? Links: What In Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost, Orlando Reade, Penguin John Milton's Paradise Lost Mourned a Revolution Betrayed, Orlando Reade, Jacobin Why Is the Right Obsessed With Epic Poetry?, Orlando Reade, The Nation

On Erdogan's World and the revolt against it. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Historian Djene Bajalan joins George and Alex to review the past month – ceasefires in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, winning and losing US patronage, Trump's inconsistent strategy and leaks, and the gold rush. We then turn to a country exemplary of the contradictions of the end of the End of History: Türkiye. And finish by answering your questions and comments on internationalism, free speech, Die Linke, anti-immigration, and domination. What's driving the protests and how do they compare to past revolts against Erdogan?    What is the meaning of charges – corruption & terrorism – against Istanbul mayor and potential opposition leader İmamoğlu? Who is the opposition? What has sustained Erdogan's rule – repression, conservatism, modernisation, growth? Why is Erdogan one of the winners of the past 20 years, and how is he a world-historic figure?  Links: Erdoğan's new world order, Lily Lynch, UnHerd /339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu Kultur Kampf TR, Selim Koru, Substack

On critical theory and autonomy. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Jensen Suther, a junior fellow at Harvard working in philosophy and literature, talks to Alex H and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about art, culture, and socialism. He also offers a riposte to previous guest Anna Kornbluh's discussion of immediacy, and its cultural forms such as autoficition. What does Suther think Kornbluh gets wrong – and right – in her critique of contemporary culture? How autonomous is art from society and the economy? To what extent can we tie cultural forms to deep changes in the economy? What is the right response to the historical defeat of the working class? What does it mean for critical theory? What is the difference between immanent critique and critique from the outside – and how dow this relate to freedom? And what does it matter if you read Hegel right? Links: The Theory of Immediacy or the Immediacy of Theory?, Jensen Suther, Nonsite.org /458/ The Society of Pure Vibe ft. Anna Kornbluh /473/ Make Alienation Great Again ft. Todd McGowan (features a different response to the question about critical theory after the defeat of the working class) Jensen's thread on X on capitalist totality and the end of the working class Jensen's thread on X on the return to Hegel, against economic determinism

On class formation, fragmentation, pessimism and optimism. George and contributing editor Leigh Phillips talk to Dan Evans, a writer and academic based in South Wales. We discuss his piece in the New Socialist, ‘Is the Working Class Back?' and themes emerging from it. How important are definitions of class? If the working class remains weak and fragmented, and its politics increasingly chaotic, what is to be done? How does Gabriel Winant's pessimism about the industrial working class compare to Evans'? What are the class contradictions of the contemporary Left? Who is the real oppositional class today? Should we be more positive about the petite bourgeoisie? Links: Is the Working Class Back?, Dan Evans, New Socialist A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie, Dan Evans, Repeater Books /349/ The PMC & Their Politics ft. Dan Evans & Catherine Liu

On cities and the politics of development. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Ben Bradlow, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton, talks to Alex about his book Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg. If our future is urban – and it is – why is it different to what we imagined? Are Johannesburg and São Paulo representative of what is going on in cities? How did democratic promise and neoliberal disappointment go together in the 1990s, through to today? What has been the role of social movements (e.g. for housing) in transforming cities and municipal government? Is the radical right in the global North and South fundamentally different? What is the urban dimension? What does China's lead in industries like electric vehicles mean for countries like Brazil? Is industrial upgrading possible under post-neoliberalism? Links: Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg, Benjamin Bradlow, Princeton UP A processual framework for understanding the rise of the populist right: the case of Brazil (2013–2018), Tomás Gold and Benjamin Bradlow, Social Forces Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation, Peter Evans, Princeton UP

On Embracing Alienation. Todd McGowan is back on the pod, talking to George and Alex about his book, Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try To Find Ourselves. Why is alienation good actually? What does it give us? How is alienation related to subjectivity and freedom? What is the problem with anti-alienation politics of Left and Right? What happened to the 1960s concern with alienation, where did it go? Why is an embrace of the public realm, against therapy culture, the right response? What is the task of critical theory today? Links: /167/ The Kingdom of God Is on Main Street ft. Todd McGowan Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try To Find Ourselves

On Trumpworld: Vance in Munich; Musk in South Africa. [This contains only the interview on South Africa – for the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Alex, George and Ryan Zickgraf round up events in Germany: first the elections, then US Vice-President JD Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference where he called out Western elites' hypocrisy on liberalism and democracy. Then Alex speaks to Will Shoki, editor at Africa Is A Country, about what Musk wants from South Africa, why the global radical right has fixated on land reform in South Africa, and what is really at stake for South Africans. We round out by taking your questions and comments – and by welcoming in carnival by discussing drinking & socialising, and its anti-social enemies. Running Order 00:03:10 – German elections 00:08:20 – Vance's Munich speech 00:26:00 – Will Shoki on South African politics 01:04:55 – Musk and the global radical right 01:13:20 – Letters to the Editors 01:23:10 – Carnival and social drinking Links: Trump's Tool: The Limits of Bannon's Postmodern Nationalism, Alex Gourevitch, The Northern Star Make Afrikaners great again! National populism, democracy and the new white minority politics in post- apartheid South Africa, Danelle van Zyl-Hermann, Ethnic and Racial Studies  Why Trump loves corrupt Democrats, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd The Case for Social Drinking, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin The Hangover and Life as a Commodity, George Hoare, Damage Segregation Is Still Alive in Mardi Gras's Birthplace, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin

On Gramsci in the 21st century. [Patreon Exclusive] Sociologist Nathan Sperber and our own George Hoare talk to Alex H and Lee Jones about the new edition to their book, An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy, which includes a new chapter on Gramsci's relevance to contemporary politics and events and a new section on Gramsci's influence on the New Right. We discuss: How does this book differ from other introductions to Gramsci? What is wrong with the post-Marxist, post-colonial or culturalist version of Gramsci? What are Gramsci's top 3 insights into politics? How has Gramsci been taken up by the political Right? How has Gramsci been used and abused by the Left? What to make of the post-Marxist radical democracy of Laclau and Mouffe ("left-populism")? Why is the concept of the "national-popular" that Gramsci takes from the Jacobins so important to rediscover?

This episode, originally published in June 2024 only for subscribers, is crucial backdrop to this Sunday's (23 Feb 2025) snap elections in Germany.  For more like this, join us at patreon.com/bungacast On German political derangement. Independent researcher and writer Gregor Baszak joins us to talk about German centrism being squeezed under pressure from both left and right — Sahra Wagenknecht and the AFD. Meanwhile the German economy is getting squeezed between the US and Russia, and NATO pressures Germany to up its defence spending.   Is German public life remilitarising?  What are the prospects for Sahra Wagenknecht's new ‘left-conservative' politics?  What was the original political vision behind the Nordstream 2 pipeline?  Why are Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni trying to carve the AFD out of pan-European national-populist cooperation?  Where does Germany now stand in relation to the Ukraine War?  Links: Europe After America, Gregor Baszak, The American Conservative  What's the Matter With Germany?, Gregor Baszak, The American Conservative The Left-wing maverick who could stop the AfD For many, Sahra Wagenknecht is a tribune of the people, Gregor Baszak, UnHerd

On the world under Trump, and British responses.  Tim Pendry, author of the Unstable Times substack, as well as an international affairs consultant, talks to Alex H and Lee Jones about the world under Trump II, the massive shifts underway, and his own policy work with the Workers Party of Britain. How has intra-bourgeois struggle shaped the past decades in politics? What is "American imperial nationalism (MAGA)" plus a "real-estate negotiation style"? Who are the winners & losers of a "rational" return to classical great-power, sphere-of-influence politics? Why are the UK's tensions and problems an extreme version of what may soon apply to any ostensible American ally? What is the Workers Party of Britain's pitch and strategy? Are the bulk of British people really "left on economics, right on culture", and how does the WPB try to appeal to workers? What are the practical challenges of building and organising a new party? Links: Manifesto – Britain Deserves Better, Workers Party of Britain The Foundations of the Liberal Polycrisis, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry Taking Trump Seriously, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry Trumpism and Geo-Politics, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry

On European decline and inertia. [For full episode: patreon.com/bungacast] Anton Jäger is back, talking to Alex and George about Belgium's new right-wing government, American hyperpolitics, and the lack of a European future. The radical right has prevailed in Belgium, despite having factors that should impede this, like higher union density, lower inequality and so on. Why? Why is the US particularly 'hyperpolitical'? Are those who say hyperpolitics is over correct? Why is Europe now a pale imitation of authoritarians in the East and the unbridled capitalism to its West? Is it Europe's capitalists – not its workers or pensioners – who are in need of strict market discipline? Links: Things Are Terrible in Europe, and They're Only Going to Get Worse, Anton Jäger, NYT Goodbye, ‘Resistance.' The Era of Hyperpolitics Is Over, Ross Barkan, NYT My Country Shows What Europe Has Become, Anton Jäger, NYT Hyperpolitics in America, Anton Jäger, New Left Review  Is Trump 2 the End of ‘Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome'?, Lee Jones, The North Star /454/ The Last Man at the Euro Tango ft. Michael Wilkinson

On David Harvey's The Condition of Postmodernity (1989). [Patreon Exclusive - subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] We focus in particular on Part III: The Experience of Space and Time – and reflect on the general themes of this section. The central question is: How do we rescue a sense of ‘place' – in a political, forward-looking and future-oriented way – after the age of globalisation? The age of globalisation generated and emphasised placelessness. But if oppositional struggles need to start from a definite place, where is that? And how do they not get restricted by that same sense of place – that is, not becoming particular, nostalgic or backward-looking? And if walls are now being put up, halting globalisation, then does this provide a more propitious scenario for struggle?

On Syria, the fall of Assad, and nationalism in the Middle-East. [Patreon Exclusive] Historian Djene Bajalan talks to Alex about a major rearrangement in the Levant. We discuss: Who are Syria's new rulers HTS, and what is their vision – if any? Did geopolitics really determine the fall of Assad and the Ba'ath Party? How HTS's victory is so profoundly different from Islamism in Iran 1979 Why 2025 finally closes the book on the Arab Spring – and on secular Arab nationalism Were the Kurds wrong to rely on US protection? And in the full episode we continue by discussing... Is Turkey the big winner of the decade? What the Left gets wrong on nationalism Civic versus ethnic nationalism, revisited What was democratic, liberal and revolutionary about nationalism – and whether it can be again How conservatives recuperate left-wing ideas, which were always conservative from the start Links: Djene's writing at Jacobin /95/ The Fall of Rojava? ft. Dani Ellis / Alexander Norton

On disinformation, NATO vs Russia, terrorism + more. [Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast] We look back at a turbulent last month or so with the help of guest and "disinformation bot" Tara McCormack. We put it all in the context of Trump's return, post-neoliberalism and deglobalisation. 00:13:52 – Jacob Siegel  talks to Alex about Meta's policy U-turn on censorship and what it means for the public-private partnership on digital surveillance. 00:50:11 – How will European powers react to the US's relative withdrawal of its protection? Will France, Britain and Germany double-down on the Ukraine war? 01:06:21 – Why is Luigi Mangione not understood as 'terrorism' while the Magdeburg Christmas market attack is? What drives terrorism and is that even the right term to understand explosive anomie?  01:15:24 – Letters to the Editors: on the global radical right, and Trump's foreign policy Links: /369/ Information-War and War-Politics ft. Jacob Siegel /34/ War Propaganda ft. Tara McCormack To the Finland Station, Branko Milanovic, Substack Trumpism & Geopolitics, Tim Pendry, Substack Class Patricide, Dustin Guastella, Damage

On the martial law crisis in South Korea. For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast Jamie Doucette, who researches contemporary political economy and Korea's development at the University of Manchester, talks to Alex and George about December 2024's coup attempt and the past 50 years in the Republic of Korea.  Why is South Korea western capitalism's best propaganda tool? Did Yoon Suk Yeol want to institute a dictatorship? Did he want to militarise all of society, or only politics? How "unreconstructed" is the South Korean right? Do they dream of dicatorship? What was the Park Chung-hee regime of the 60s and 70s like? What is authoritarian developmentalism? Why did S. Korea democratise? Did the workers win it or did elites concede it? What is the post-developmental state, how neoliberal is ROK, and what does the left-right spectrum look like now? What was the Candlelight movement of 2016? Links:  /420/ Fertility Freefall & Gender Strife in South Korea ft. Hyeyoung Woo The Postdevelopmental State: Dilemmas of Economic Democratization in Contemporary South Korea, Jamie Doucette (OPEN ACCESS) The Logic of Compressed Modernity, Chang Kyung-Sup 

On Trump's foreign policy, the 2nd time round. Historian and podcaster Daniel Bessner joins Alex Hochuli and contributing editor Lee Jones to ask how this era of rot and decay will proceed under Trump II, from Ukraine to China and beyond. We discuss: Will we see "America First transactionalism"? Does Trump have a capable cadre to bend the state to his will? What will Trump's relationship be to the deep state? How important are generational splits in attitudes to the US empire? Will there be a peace deal in Ukraine? Where does that leave 'Atlanticism'? Is confrontation with China baked in? Is the Middle East the key to world peace? Links: EU blows hot and cold over Trump, Benoît Bréville, Le Monde diplomatique America First, Russia, & Ukraine, Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, Fred Fleitz, AFPI Empire's Critic: The Worlds of Noam Chomsky, Daniel Bessner, The Nation /171/ Fukuyama & the End of History ft. Daniel Bessner  /142/ Dollar Empire (2) ft. Daniel Bessner

On The Fall of Public Man. [Patreon Exclusive] We continue working through the 2024/25 syllabus and the first theme, The Future of Place. We ask is politics possible without a sense of place. Here we discuss chapter 13, "Community becomes uncivilised", and deal with listener questions. How does the changed relationship between public and private impact notions of community and of place? How does the maintenance of impersonal relations signify 'civility'? Is impersonality really the summation of all the worst evils of industrial capitalism? What is wrong with yearning for community, or specifically “love of the ghetto, especially the middle-class ghetto” How does "fratricide" become "logical" when people use intimate relations as a basis for social relations? Why is fratricide "system-maintaining"? Links: 2024/25 Bungacast Syllabus (with links to readings) Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence, Christina B. Hanhardt The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café americain

On President Jimmy Carter's responsibility for neoliberalism. [Patreon Exclusive] Writer and historian Tim Barker talks to Alex Hochuli and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about the former president's life and legacy. What do people get wrong about Carter? Was Carter, not Reagan, the start of neoliberalism? How is Carter's much-admired 'decency' of a piece with his neoliberalism? What is 'austerity' and how does it relate to questions of public and private, vice and virtue? What was the alternative to the neoliberal pivot in the late 1970s? How did the appointment of Fed chairman Volcker change the entire world? Did Carter set the script for the Democrats, of being 'noble losers' (but actually on the side of the winners)? Links: Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024, Tim Barker, Origins of Our Time Weapons of the Week newsletter On neoliberalism and the Cold War: /276/ Broken Promises ft. Fritz Bartel Other biographical/obituary episodes: Silvio Berlusconi: An Oral History /293/ Goodbye 20th Century (RIP Gorby) /410/ Reading Club: Deutscher's Stalin /435/ Reading Club: Stalin's General – Winning WWII

On radical conservatism and global order. Professor Michael C. Williams talks to George and Alex about his co-authored World of the Right and how the radical right has gone global. We discuss: Does academia takes the Right as seriously as it should? What's the difference between the radical right and the far right, the new right, national conservatives, or fascists? How is the right 'global' – not just through international conferences but by being "co-constituted by its relation to the global"? Why is the radical right focused on the global liberal managerial elite? What does it get right and what does it get wrong about this stratum? How did the radical right come to take Gramsci seriously? Is the radical right just parasitic on the breakdown of liberal universalism? What does this analysis of the radical right say about the Left – is it the force that protects the status quo of the liberal international order? Links: World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and Global Order, Michael C. Williams et al., Cambridge UP /351/ Eating the Left's Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs /129/ The Right Is Weak ft. Corey Robin

On Conclave. In our final episode of the year, we debate Edgar Berger's new film about a Papal election, featuring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci as Cardinals and Isabella Rossellini as a nun. Is the film about an alien, abstruse process – the conclave – or is it about something familiar and earthly? Is the film about the sacred or the profane? About temporal or holy power? What does it say about process and neutrality, in times of lawfare and contested elections? ⁠Why is there so much film and TV about the Pope? What is it that appeals today about Papal authority? The film features a good liberal, a corrupt moderate, a nasty reactionary, a tainted idpol candiate (a homophobic African) – do these politics matter? Why so crude? ⁠Is it mere Oscar bait?

On Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity [For access, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast/membership] We continue working through the 2024/25 syllabus with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Marc Augé's much-referenced 1992 work on 'non-places': airports, shopping malls, corporate hotels, motorways... We discuss: Are non-places proliferating, and what would this mean for society and politics? Are non-places the spatial accompaniment to post-politics, to the foreclosure of political contestation? Is the distinction between non-places and places/spaces useful? Is there anything to the notion of a hyper- or super-modernity? Is Augé too deterministic? Does he miss how non-places can be places for culture or politics? Links: 2024/25 Bungacast Syllabus (with links to readings)

On immediacy, representation, and anti-politics. Anna Kornbluh, professor of English and author of Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism talks to Alex about the cultural, political, and economic changes she refers to as 'immediacy'. We discuss: Is 'immediacy' just a vibe, or is vibe itself non-mediated? How does anti-representation in film, TV and books relate to anti-representation in politics? And can we relate culture immediacy to the 'material base'? How do Fleabag, Uncut Gems, and the turn to memoirs and autofiction exemplify immediacy? Why does self-disclosure fit so well with the data economy? In what way is contemporary anti-theory nihilistic and apologetic? How does the style of immediacy relate to Frederic Jameson's understanding of postmodernism? Is the desire to put everything private on show a response to alienation? And is the professionalisation of 'theory' a problem or solution? Links: Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism, Anna Kornbluh, Verso Has culture become pure vibe?, Anna Kornbluh, Spike Art Magazine The Theory of Immediacy or the Immediacy of Theory?, Jensen Suther, Nonsite Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves, Todd McGowan, Repeater

On your questions, comments & criticisms. [Patreon Exclusive] We're back with a final letters to the editor episode of 2024 in which we discuss: the universalisation of 'anti-fascism' as a kind of politics whether there are any actual 'family abolitionists' out there humanitarian intervention in Palestine the hard and less hard facts of US imperial decline the legitimacy of 'existential' politics whether anti-corruption politics are good, actually and why Phil loves Hillary

On Taiwan, semiconductors, and war. [Full episode for subscribers only] James Lin, Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington at Seattle, talks to Phil about Taiwanese politics and the country's place in the world, in terms of the global economy and Sino-American geopolitical rivalry. We talk about Taiwanese history and politics, from Japanese occupation and colonisation across the Cold War, to the present day, including:  Taiwanese politics in the shadow of the geopolitical crisis The paradox of political divergence and economic convergence between China and Taiwan since the 1980s How did Taiwan corner the market for manufacturing computer chips?  How successful is the ongoing US reshoring of chip production? Will there be a Marco Rubio/Elon Musk divide on China in the Trump White House?  How might a war over Taiwan play out?  Links: In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan, James Lin, UC Press What Works in Taiwan Doesn't Always in Arizona, a Chipmaking Giant Learns, John Liu, NY Times Will Trump take the Musk path or the Rubio path on Taiwan?, Lev Nachman, Nikkei Asia

On Mothers and the institution of the family. We're happy to bring you the recording of the launch event for the third issue of Damage magazine, with whom we're partnered. George and Alex were present for the event as part of a sequence of recordings on the future of place that will be released as a docu-series in the New Year. For now, here is regular contributor Catherine Liu and friend of the pod Dustin Guastella debating the family to a packed-out bookstore at Moma's PS1 in Queens, NY.

On the End of History and Europe. [For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] LSE professor Mike Wilkinson talks to Phil and Alex about how the history of European integration fits with constitutional theories and ideas of sovereignty. We discuss:  In what way are the conspiracy theories about the EU true? What are the origins of European integration in the inter-war crisis? How did European integration tie into the history of ideas and development of 20th century legal history? How far does European integration overlap with counter-revolutionary theories and ideas? And who is the Last European?  Links: Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe, Michael Wilkinson Political Constitutionalism in Europe Revisited, Michael Wilkinson, Journal of Law and Society The Rise and Fall of World Constitutionalism, Michael Wilkinson, Verfassungsblog

On the maelstrom of the metropolis. [Full episode only available to subscribers. Join at patreon.com/bungacast] We kick of the 2024/25 syllabus with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Georg Simmel's short essay "Metropolis and Mental Life" and Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air (chapter 5, on New York). How does Simmel relate the metropolitan condition to a historical passage from the 18th century to the 19th? Is city life intellectual and blasé, versus small town emotionality? Is narcissism built into modernity? Is there an aristocratic individualist revolt in evidence today? Do we need places to hang out in before we can do political organising? Are we nostalgic for top-down modernisation? Readings: "Metropolis and Mental Life" All That Is Solid Melts into Air (chapter 5, on New York)

On the military decline of the American empire. [Patreon Exclusive] The Swedish writer Malcom Kyeyune talks to Phil about what happens to the evil empire when the stormtroopers can't shoot straight and the empire isn't producing enough star destroyers. They discuss: What happens to international politics in a world of new geopolitical rivalries?  How does American industrial decline affect US military capacity and strength?  Why is America unable to produce enough ships?  Why is the US unable to do conscription anymore?  Who would win in a showdown between China and America?  Links: America will have to dodge the draft, Malcom Kyeyune, UnHerd The Houthis now rule the Red Sea, Malcom Kyeyune, UnHerd The West can no longer make war, Malcom Kyeyune, New Statesman The American Empire's Burning Peripheries, Malcom Kyeyune, Compact /240/ Populist Interventions: Örebro Party ft. Malcolm Kyeyune | Bungacast Facing war in the Middle East and Ukraine, the US looks feeble. But is it just an act?, Adam Tooze, The Guardian

On pro-family politics, and the US election and labour. [Patreon Exclusive - in association with Damage magazine] Dustin Guastella talks to Phil and Alex about what the election of Trump will mean for US labour organisations. We then move on to Dustin's proposal for progressive pro-family policies. What actually is "the family" today?  Social democrats are proud of policies but wary of encouraging family growth. Why? What would pro-family policies look like, what would they do, and what might their negative effects be? Is the family not a pillar for the reproduction of authoritarian norms? How do we explain the fertility crisis in global terms? How do we confront the growing marketisation of everything? Links: Damage issue #3 - MOTHERS - Bungacast subscribers get free access NY live event: issue launch - Family Trouble

On Trump's return and the end of the End of History (still!) Historian and Jacobin contributing editor Matt Karp joins us to extract the true meaning of the US election. We discuss: How Trump's victory explodes so many Democrat assumptions about demography and identity How this election re-writes the past ten years' history Whether Trump still retains an anti-political or anti-establishment charge If the Democrats are preponderant in leading sectors of the knowledge economy, is this a political rejection of its assumptions? How to place this election in the sweep of the global anti-incumbency wave What the relationship is between inflation, labour and legitimacy Links: Power Lines, Matt Karp, Harper's It's Happening Again, Matt Karp, Jacobin Democrats join 2024's graveyard of incumbents, John Burn-Murdoch, FT /262/ The Useless Past ft. Matt Karp /447/ Brunch Back Better ft. Ryan Zickgraf & Amber A'Lee Frost /445/ How I Hacked the US Election ft. Alex Gourevitch

On your questions, comments, criticisms. [Patreon Exclusive] It's our letter to the episode show where we have a chance to answer you, the listener. We discuss: Has Bungacast gone eco-austerian? Are Marx and Freud in conflict? Is abortion about healthcare or about freedom? Why has the left abandoned liberty? Did we underestimate Israel's existential fears? And what's so “complex” about the Arab-Israeli conflict anyway? Links: 2024/25 Reading Club on Place, Nation, Class Direct link to the syllabus PDF Our substack newsletter

On Georgia's pivotal elections and its post-Soviet history. [Full episode only for patrons] Hans Gutbrod, who has been working in the Caucasus region since 1999 and now teaches at Ilia State University in Tblisi, talks to Alex about Georgia's choice between the EU and Russia. We discuss: Who is Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is equal to 1/4 of GDP? What is the ruling Georgian Dream's pitch to voters, and how has it turned 'rightward'? Did Georgia witness the end of history, or merely the de-development of the post-Soviet years? How has civil society become dominated by NGOs, and is this a problem? Can Georgia flourish in a multipolar world, acting as an entrepôt between East and West? Links: In Georgia, a National Election Is a Geopolitical Struggle, Bryan Gigantino, Jacobin Telling Time the New Way: 17 Years of Reform, Hans Gutbrod, Civil Georgia Macbeth in the Caucasus: Omnipotence and Loneliness - Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream, Hans Gutbrod (PDF)  

On the US election, messaging and learning stupid lessons. [Full episode only at Patreon] We welcome Amber A'Lee Frost (California via Indiana and New York) and Ryan Zickgraf (Pennsylvania via Illinois and Georgia) to preview the US election. We discuss: Why the campaigns have been so focused on micro-targeting demographics Whether Russians or Brits are illegitimately swinging the election How the Democrats have gone back to being smug Why it feels like Pennsylvania is the only state voting (and not even there!) Whether the US is going back to a pre-2016 period How each side will react if they lose Damage Magazine will hold a launch of its third print issue, "Mothers," in NYC on 23 November at 4-6pm at MoMA's PS 1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens 11101. Catherine Liu will be in conversation with Dustin Guastella on the question of the family. Links: The Battleground State that Isn't, Ryan Zickgraf, Compact The Gospel According to Elon Musk, Ryan Zickgraf, Compact To win, Harris should talk more about working-class needs and less about Trump, Dustin Guastella, The Guardian Obviousness, Scorn, and Losing Ground, Benjamin Fife, Damage

On egg-freezing, 'having it all', and neoliberal liberty. [Patreon Exclusive] We welcome Damage editor and practicing psychologist Amber Trotter on to talk about "Frozen Freedom", Amber's piece on artificial reproductive technology and different kinds of freedom. Alex and George ask her about: How empowering is female emancipation from biological limitations and compulsions? Can women now "have it all"? Do men feel the contradictions of this type of freedom too? Is a proliferation of individual choice making us all neurotic? The childhood fantasy of adulthood is of omnipotence – where did it come from? What is the relationship between commitment, responsibility, collectivity, the individual, and freedom? Links: "Frozen Freedom", Amber Trotter – Damage issue #3 /440/ Dear Tradmother, Why Are You Sad? ft. Amber A'Lee Frost /210/ Reading Club: Psychoanalysis & Spirit of Capitalism /235/ Reading Club: Freedom – on mortality & freedom Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dustin Guastella, Damage   Damage issue #3 launch event in NYC: Saturday 23 November, MoMA PS 1 Bookstore

On the left-wing case for freedom. Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch is back on to talk about how the Democrats are approaching the US presidential election. Alex talks us through an influential and widely-read article that he wrote in 2020 with Corey Robin on how the left needed to reclaim freedom as its own. We discuss: Why is the left suddenly talking about freedom? When did it abandon freedom in favour of human rights, welfare, or identity? What are the consequences of leaving "freedom" to the libertarians and oligarchs? How would one critique what the Democrats are doing today from this perspective? Plus: we hear about Alex's debate with Tyler Cowen on whether capitalism is defensible. Links: Gaining freedom by escaping the unfreedom of the workplace - PNHP Freedom Now, Alex Gourevitch & Corey Robin, Polity: Vol 52, No 3 The US presidential race will be fought over competing definitions of ‘freedom', Eric Foner, The Guardian The Story of American Freedom, Eric Foner /298/ Working For Freedom ft. Alex Gourevitch

On Israel's invasion of Lebanon and beyond. Karl Sharro (Lebanese-Iraqi architect and satirist @KarlreMarks) and Iranian writer and historian Arash Azizi join us to discuss war in the Middle East. We ask: Is Israel finally waging the great war that will rid it of all enemies?  Does Israel have any real plan? What motivates its actions in Gaza and Lebanon? What is the impact on Hezbollah of losing its leadership layers? How will Iran respond and what is the balance between moderates and hardliners there? If Hezbollah is severely weakened, what happens to the Lebanese state? What should we make of the global culture war around Israel, Palestine and the rest Links Lebanon in the heart of the storm, Akram Belkaïd, Monde Diplo Israel is not ‘saving western civilisation'. Nor is Hamas leading ‘the resistance', Kenan Malik, The Guardian Iran Is Not Ready for War With Israel, Arash Azizi, The Atlantic /225/ Wokeistan & Lebanonworld ft. Karl Sharro /141/ Oh Lebanon, What Now? ft. Rima Majed  

On Nations & Nationalism since 1870. [Patreon Exclusive] We start by dealing with your questions regarding last month's RC, on Stalin, Zhukhov and WWII. Then we read and discuss Eric Hobsbawm's classic work in which he emphasises that nations are exclusively modern constructions. We discuss: How succulent Hobsbawm's account is Whether he was wrong about globalisation eclipsing nationalism – and why he argued this Whether the revolutionary-democratic aspects of nationalism can be rescued from its later ethnic-particularist elements What the relationship is between citizenship, patriotism and nationalism How nationalism intersected with revolution - and fascism And whether the nation is any more solid an exit from our political vacuum than whatever other postmodern BS Links: Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality, Eric Hobsbawm Film: Eric Hobsbawm: The Consolations of History, LRB Some reflections on 'The Break-up of Britain', Eric Hobsbawm, New Left Review (pdf) /421/ Who Are the Wrong Ukrainians? ft. Volodymyr Ishchenko  

On France's permacrisis. [Patreon Exclusive] French sociologist Nathan Sperber talks to George and Alex about his new essay in the New Left Review, "The French Crisis: Organic or Conjunctural". We catch up with what has happened in France since Macron gambled and called impromptu elections in the summer. We discuss: Why does France always seem to be more in crisis than its neighbours?  How has France ended up with hollow "leaderist" parties? Is Macron a true neoliberal or a reactive emergency politician? Did the left-wing France Insoumise miss its shot? How inevitable is a Le Pen government, and will it be co-opted by the French bureaucracy? What's the difference between an organic and a conjunctural crisis – and which one is France in?   Readings: The French Crisis: Organic or Conjunctural?, Nathan Sperber, New Left Review (pdf attached) An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy, George Hoare & Nathan Sperber, Bloomsbury (Feb 2025)