Podcasts about Novara

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2026 is roughly the same as when, in the very, very distant past, the Earth was between 6 and 8 degrees warmer. If the Earth were to reach those temperatures again, the majority of mammals would go extinct. While we're not at those temperatures now, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could cause the climate to accelerate towards planetary conditions that pre-date the dinosaurs. This is the stark warning of this week's guest, Bill McGuire. A geologist and volcanologist by training, he has spent time as an expert and government advisor on extreme weather events, before becoming an author. According to him, there is no plan for the extreme climactic upheaval that is to come.

The genocide of Palestinians, carried out by the Israeli army with backing from the US and the British state, has lead to an almighty breakdown in public trust in the West. Now more than ever, citizens are turning away from establishment media sources in search of journalism that more closely resembles the world as we see it.  This week on Downstream, Ash Sarkar sits down with Amy Goodman, veteran journalist and founder of Democracy Now!, one of the leading independent media organisations in the US. Goodman is the subject of a new film, Steal This Story, Please!, which documents her storied career covering some of the most consequential moments in American living history. She has confronted sitting presidents, bore firsthand witness to 9/11, survived a firing squad in East Timor and exposed major corporate crime in the Niger Delta. What drives Amy to do the work she does – shining light on humanity's darkness, decade after decade? How did her Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn inform her work? What does good journalism look like to her? Why does she believe we all need to re-learn the lost art of disagreement? And does she think American democracy can survive? 

Nadia visits reporter and author Hazel Sheffield in her Hastings beach hut to talk about the coastal communities that are reimagining their economies in the face of government neglect and climate breakdown. They talk about the Hastings Commons project, a constellation of community-owned buildings in a deprived part of the town, and the seaside village in Somerset that built itself a £7m art gallery. Hazel's book, Frontierlands: Britain's Survival in the Making, is available now. Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

The summer of 2026 will go down in history books as the hottest, driest and most deadly set of heatwaves Britain has ever experienced. This weather isn't normal – but it is predictable according to a global consensus of scientists. And yet this summer, according to the science, will be one of the coolest summers we ever have again. Things will only get hotter from here. Beginning his career as an oil-rig engineer before retraining as a climate scientist, Kevin Anderson's career has been an extraordinary journey. On Downstream this week, Aaron Bastani sat down with him to discuss what has become his life's work: sounding the alarm on man-made climate change, and on the fossil fuel industry that gave him his start. Just how much has the planet heated, and why? Is the Paris Agreement's aim of keeping heating to beneath 1.5°C still achievable, or delusional cope? What are the political obstacles to tackling the issue? Having worked with Andy Burnham in Manchester, what does Kevin think he will do on climate, as PM? Is avoiding catastrophe still possible, and if so, how much time have we got to act, before it's too late?

Nadia, Keir and Jem wonder why humans are drawn to the beach in a weird-left conversation that spans geological deep-time, the birth of surf culture, the politics of faded seaside towns and more, plus music from 808 State and The B-52's. Find the music and books mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Follow our playlist on Spotify by searching ‘ACFM’. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

In the years since October 7th, the world has been bitterly polarised over how to make sense of the violence. While polling shows that a majority of people do believe Israel's actions amount to genocide – having witnessed it with their own eyes via their smartphones – it has been woefully hard to find mainstream media outlets in the West prepared to use this language. On Downstream this week, Aaron Bastani sat down with Indian essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra. His most recent book, ‘The World After Gaza' takes stock of a world order shattered by the genocide, and a media class unprepared to recognise the truth. In response to these crises, Mishra and colleagues have just launched Equator magazine, pulling together leading writers from across the globe who are unafraid to tell the truth. When did the so-called West first begin to lose standing in the eyes of the rest of the world? Why is the British media class positioned so uniquely close to power, so delusional, and so compromised over Gaza? Will China replace America, in the coming century, as the new hegemonic power? Has it already?

Joshua Citarella built his reputation by mapping synthetic e-deologies of terminally online politics, expressed in memes, micro-disputes and merch drops. Now the artist, Doomscroll host and Do Not Research founder has come to a blunter conclusion: it’s time to lock in. Behind the seeming diversity of online politics, one ideology has already won: the technolibertarianism of the platforms and supply chains that actually make it all run. So maybe it’s time to get serious, tune out the noise, and get back to basics: workers versus capital. This episode is the finale of Do Your Own Research Series 1. We'll be back soon. Get the map: novaramedia.com/dyor Music by Iglooghost.

Andy Burnham has said he is “on a mission” to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), but has stopped short of pledging a concrete target. Plus: The number of millionaires in Britain is falling, Reform UK appears to be having a complete meltdown,  With Aaron Bastani & Michael Walker.

A new consensus has emerged in Westminster, seemingly overnight: we need more defence spending, and we need it now. But the Ministry of Defence has a record for waste that would put Tony Soprano to shame. £13 billion down the drain, since 2010, at the very least. Aircraft carriers that come in late, overbudget, and beset by mechanical failures. IT systems that cost millions, and are wildly out of date. No other government department could get away with it. But the arms trade spends billions of dollars on greasing the wheels of political consent. They employ armies of lobbyists, print reams of analysis, and bribe politicians the world over to keep the war machine funded. The result isn't just a crisis of corruption. It's a threat to our survival as a species. Andrew Feinstein is a former-minister in the South African government, turned investigative reporter. He is the executive director of Shadow World Investigations, and serves on the board of Declassified UK. And in 2024, he stood against Keir Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras. He joins Ash Sarkar on Downstream to lift the lid on how the arms industry really works, and tell us about his political journey.

The American empire is in crisis – and there is a new generation of more vocal critics coming from the right. So what do JD Vance and Tucker Carlson actually believe about American power? James Pogue has reported on empires and their decline for years, from West and Central Africa, where Wagner Group picked over the corpse of French neo-colonialism, to California’s secessionist fringe and the absurdities of Washington. He also happens to be one of the closest observers of JD Vance, who is just a heartbeat from one of the most powerful positions in the world. The president’s real job is keeping the machine running: asset prices up, markets juiced, the war economy fed. Can anyone actually change that? And would we even want them to try, if it’s as ideologically peculiar and dangerous as Vance? Get the map: novaramedia.com/dyor Music by Iglooghost.

Maurizio Ternavasio "Il futurismo a Torino e in Piemonte"Storia di un'avventura straordinariaNeos Edizioniwww.neosedizioni.it Il 20 febbraio 1909 è una data storica della cultura internazionale: su iniziativa del poeta Filippo Tommaso Marinetti nasce il Futurismo. L'atto è ufficialmente sancito dalla pubblicazione del relativo manifesto sul quotidiano francese “Le Figaro”.Un'avanguardia aggressiva che esaltava la velocità, l'avvento della civiltà industriale e dell'era tecnologica, l'interventismo in ogni ambito. Con la loro furia incendiaria volevano far detonare i castelli chiusi della vecchia arte e le “menti in putrefazione”, mettendo al bando quello che chiamavano “passatismo”, ossia gli stantii romanticismi, l'immobilismo, la retorica accademica e il culto delle cose antiche.Se Milano è stata la capitale culturale del Futurismo, Torino ne ha rappresentato il centro più fervido per quanto riguarda industria e tecnologia, con le sue fabbriche automobilistiche ed aeronautiche, e con il Lingotto della Fiat , “prima invenzione costruttiva futurista” (Marinetti).Maurizio Ternavasio ricostruisce la vicenda del Primo Futurismo (1909-1917) e del Secondo (1918-1939) in Piemonte, in particolare a Torino, soffermandosi non solo su letteratura, poesia, pittura e scultura, ma passando in rassegna tutti gli ambiti della nuova estetica: architettura, grafica pubblicitaria, fotografia, danza, cinema, musica, moda e anche gastronomia (in città c'erano due ristoranti: la Taverna del Santopalato e Il sollazzo gastrico).Torino ha avuto un ruolo di primissimo piano nella diffusione e nell'affermarsi del Futurismo a partire dall'8 marzo 1910, quando al Teatro Chiarella di via Principe Tommaso viene organizzata la grande “serata futurista”: la terza in assoluto dalla nascita del movimento dopo quelle di Trieste e di Milano. Nel cuore del quartiere di San Salvario si svolse un evento sovversivo e sfrontato: performance che rompevano gli schemi con, sullo sfondo, bizzarre scenografie dalle forme geometriche e colori vivaci. I giochi di ombre e luci che si accendevano e si spegnevano a sorpresa davano l'impressione che le opere pittoriche e le sculture mostrate al pubblico galleggiassero quasi nello spazio. Lì venne presentato per la prima volta il Manifesto dei pittori futuristi, firmato anche dal torinese Giacomo Balla.Altro evento fondamentale fu l'Esposizione futurista internazionale, che si tenne dal 27 marzo al 27 aprile del 1922 al Winter Club, elegante e raffinata sala da ballo negli spazi sotterranei del Caffè Romano, in Galleria Subalpina, con esposte le opere di 43 artisti – tra cui Prampolini e Depero – di tutta Italia, accomunati dal voler dipingere, con la loro tavolozza vivace ed enfatica, ciò che si pensa e non ciò che si vede.Se nel 1918 la morte di Umberto Boccioni segna la fine del Primo Futurismo, il 5 marzo del 1923 nasce, in una mansarda di via Sacchi 54, la sezione torinese del Secondo Futurismo, la cui anima guida fu Fillia (al secolo Luigi Colombo, originario di Revello, in Provincia di Cuneo), personalità eclettica e geniale, pittore, poeta, scenografo, brillante animatore culturale, critico d'arte, polemista e autore di romanzi futuristi (La morte della donna, L'ultimo sentimentale e L'uomo senza sesso), nonché ideatore di ben sette riviste tra le quali “La città futurista” e “La Città Nuova”. Intorno a sé riuscì a coagulare un gruppo di artisti, tra cui il bulgaro Nicolay Diulgheroff, lo scultore Mino Rosso (che condivideva con Fillia la soffitta dell'elegante palazzina di via Cardinal Maurizio 30), Pippo Oriani, Ugo Pozzo (le cui opere sono state esposte al Guggenheim di New York e al Pompidou di Parigi), Tullio Alpinolo Bracci (in arte Kiribiri), Farfa (Vittorio Osvaldo Tommasini) e l'architetto Alberto Sartoris. A caratterizzarli fu la capacità di sperimentare forme d'arte diverse e innovative, come l'aeropittura, la moda e l'arredamento, dedicandosi all'inizio degli anni Trenta anche alla cucina. Il Futurismo potrebbe apparire un movimento essenzialmente “maschile” ma così non fu: le donne seppero essere protagoniste e non certo secondarie. Basta pensare a Benedetta Cappa, figura chiave del Futurismo piemontese, moglie di Marinetti e artista che ha saputo interpretare con estrema originalità gli aneliti del movimento, sperimentando pittura (il Tattilismo, evoluzione multi-sensoriale del Futurismo), letteratura e scenografia, e partecipando a ben cinque edizioni della Biennale di Venezia (nel 1930 fu la prima donna ad avere un'opera pubblicata nel catalogo dell'importante rassegna). Ma non solo: Regina, al secolo Regina Cassolo Bracchi, autrice di sculture in alluminio, leggere, geometriche e “aeree”, in perfetta sintonia con il mito futurista della macchina e del volo; Barbara, ovvero la novarese Olga Biglieri, una delle prime aviatrici italiane (aveva conseguito il brevetto a soli diciotto anni dopo aver iniziato a volare all'Aeroclub di Cameri); la pittrice Maria Luisa Lurini, conosciuta con lo pseudonimo di Marisa Mori, allieva di Felice Casorati; la poetessa Térésah, ovvero Corinna Teresa Gray Ubertis, nata a Firenze da una famiglia alessandrina di Frassineto Po, importante figura della vita culturale torinese (fu anche giornalista, pittrice, autrice di teatro); Cesarina Gualino, nata Cesarina Gurgo Salice, ballerina e pittrice, moglie dell'industriale, collezionista e mecenate torinese Riccardo Gualino, la cui scuola di danza consentì di far esibire nel 1926 a Torino i Ballets Russes di Sergei Diaghilev. L'Autore dedica poi capitoli specifici ad ogni arte e ai principali protagonisti di ciascun ambito: la fotografia (i fotomontaggi di Maggiorino Gramaglia); la musica (Alfredo Casella, ricordato da una lapide sulla facciata della casa natale in via Cavour 41); il cinema (l'unico film a tutti gli effetti futurista girato e ambientato a Torino è stato “Velocità/ Vitesse”, scritto e diretto nel 1930 dal pittore Pippo Oriani, con la collaborazione del futuro sceneggiatore di fumetti Guido Martina e dell'attrice nonché pittrice Tina Cordero); la pubblicità, non solo con Diulgheroff (Cordial Campari) e Pippo Oriani (che lavorò per la Leone),  ma anche con Fedele Azari, detto “Dinamo”, aeropittore e aviatore nato a Pallanza (frazione di Verbania, allora facente parte della Provincia di Novara), che sperimentò il volantinaggio aereo (nel maggio 1920 inondò Milano, Torino e Genova con dei manifestini della Fiera campionaria internazionale, sorvolando le città a bordo di un dirigibile).Il 29 febbraio 1920 sul giornale “Roma Futurista” venne pubblicato il Manifesto della moda femminile futurista, firmato da Volt5 (Vincenzo Fani), che intendeva bandire tutto ciò che poteva essere riconducibile alla pura femminilità, inserendo capi tipicamente maschili come la giacca, i cappelli o la cravatta. In conformità alla dichiarazione di Balla, secondo il quale «si pensa e si agisce come si veste», i futuristi rigettavano le vecchie convenzioni sartoriali, optando per abiti anti-borghesi, aggressivi ed eccentrici («Idealizzeremo nella donna le conquiste più affascinanti della vita moderna (...). Faremo dei decolletés a zig-zag, maniche diverse l'una dall'altra, scarpe di forma, colore e altezza differenti»). In ambito maschile, furono lo scrittore Ignazio Scurto e lo scultore e pittore Renato Di Bosso a ideare la cravatta futurista, un grembiulino di metallo appeso ai becchetti della camicia.Il 28 dicembre 1930 sempre Marinetti firma sulla “Gazzetta del Popolo”, insieme a Fillia, il Manifesto della cucina futurista. Dagli stravaganti menù futuristi la pastasciutta è bandita, in quanto vivanda passatista, mentre vengono serviti antipasti intuitivi, aerovivande tattili con rumori e odori, Carne-plastico, Ultravirile, Pollofiat, Dolcelastico…Famoso il banchetto futurista che si tenne l'8 marzo 1931 alla Taverna del Santopalato, in via Vanchiglia 2, ad un passo da Piazza Vittorio. Il menù fu realizzato a mano da Depero, Fillia, Ugo Pozzo, Prampolini, Balla e Oriani, gli arredi color rosso vivo vennero ideati dalla coppia Fillia-Diulgheroff. Oggi al suo posto c'è la Trattoria Toscana, che all'interno conserva gelosamente la riproduzione del menù futurista della serata d'apertura.Maurizio Ternavasio, giornalista professionista che ha lavorato per quindici anni a “La Stampa”, è nato a Torino nel 1961 e abita nel quartiere Borgo Po. Maturità classica e laurea in Giurisprudenza, ha quattro figli. Il primo dei suoi libri, Macario, vita di un comico, è uscito nel 1998. In seguito ha scritto biografie sul mondo dello spettacolo, dell'arte e dell'esoterismo, volumi di cronaca nera e di sport, saggi su Torino e i suoi quartieri, testi su paesi famosi, libri di racconti, romanzi e gialli. In ambito architettonico è stato autore di Carlo Mollino. La biografia (Lindau, 2008) e di Pietro Fenoglio. Vita di un architetto (Araba Fenice, 2014).Diventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/il-posto-delle-parole--1487855/support.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.it/

We live in times of crisis. But perhaps none of the crises affect so many people in the here and now, as the housing crisis. Solving it could provide the skeleton key to unlocking so many of society's problems. Despite this, decades of successive governments in the UK have failed to bring housing under control. The social contract which told us that if we worked hard all our lives, we can own a home and be secure in retirement, has been completely broken. To discuss the crisis in Britain and beyond, Aaron Bastani sat down with Peter Apps. He is an award-winning journalist who knows the field of housing – its failures and its potential fixes – better than almost anyone. He wrote an article about the threat of flammable cladding a month before Grenfell caught fire. How has housing policy shaped Britain in the last 50 years? Who did more to damage the housing system, Labour or the Tories? Is more housing supply always the solution? And why is no one talking about the crisis facing our ageing population, one million of whom will be in housing insecurity and poverty by 2030?

The idea of a wealth tax has never been more popular in Britain, and while many have campaigned for it, none have done more to boost the demand than one man: Gary Stevenson. The former city trader first joined us on Downstream four years ago. A lot has changed since then. This week, after a bruising round of media including attacks from Piers Morgan and the Guardian, Gary sat down to give his side of the story to Novara Media's Aaron Bastani. What are the fair critiques of a wealth tax, and how does Gary engage with them? What would he say to Andy Burnham? What does he think needs to be done to keep out Farage and Reform? And do the recent spate of attacks in the media show that Gary's actually winning the argument?

The Meditations of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius are perhaps the best-selling self-help book of all time. Rooted in the rational philosophy of the Stoics, the 12 books offer a stream of personal musings on everything from cultivating self-discipline to being a successful leader. Following their episode on Resilience, Nadia, Keir and Jem offer a weird-left perspective on the Meditations, looking at their influence on western thought and current popularity among tech bros and the alt-right. Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

AI boyfriends and girlfriends are all the rage – for some. For others, they just inspire rage. So what’s the truth about these seductive machines? Do they open up our erotic potential, or are they just an absurd fantasy? And how are they even made? James Muldoon is the author of Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Our Relationships and co-author of Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI. Put these two books together, and his work takes us along the strange journey of AI from deeply exploited workers in the slums of East Africa to the cores of our deepest desires.

Last year, Zack Polanski's Green Party suggested changes could be made to Britain's prohibitionist approach to drugs – and felt the full force of the mainstream media's indignation. But all over the world, the War on Drugs is shifting shape. Drugs are being legalised and commercialised. America now has its first legal weed-selling billionaire, while others serve out huge prison sentences for possession. Ash Sarkar sat down with Professor Kojo Koram, to discuss his latest book The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs, which travels from a plantation-turned-prison in Louisiana to the psychedelic boom of Silicon Valley. So what does a drug policy fit for the 21st century actually look like?

On episode 301 of EHS On Tap, Caroline Miller, Solutions Engineer at Novara, explains how incident reports can help you spot safety trends and develop prevention strategies. This episode is sponsored by Novara.

Mariana Mazzucato is a towering figure in contemporary economics, best known for her work on the entrepreneurial state and mission-oriented economics. Her congregation is broad, ranging from an ascendant Andy Burnham, to the Pope, to Marco Rubio. Ash Sarkar sat down with her in front of a live audience at EartH Theatre in Hackney to test the ideas in her new book, The Common Good Economy. Support

We need critical minerals for the green transition, the military and the AI boom. In barely a year, lithium and the rare earths have become some of the most fought-over objects on earth. But the scarcity is manufactured — by refineries, choke points and the states that control them. Richard talks to Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, about what these minerals really are, the gutted landscapes the green transition runs on, and the new geopolitics of extraction, from Trumpian state capitalism to Latin America to China.

A weird-left look at the magical properties of resilience, from the colonial legacy of the stiff upper lip to contemporary narratives of trauma and victimhood. Nadia, Keir and Jem wonder whether humans and animals can flourish in the ruins of capitalism, and what a left politics of resilience could look like in an era of constant economic and climate shocks. No tunes in this show, but plenty of ideas from Catherine Liu, Sheryl Sandberg, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and more. Find the books mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Follow our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching ‘ACFM’. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Daniel Levy is a British-Israeli analyst, commentator, and former Israeli government negotiator whose biography reads like a map of the peace process’s rise and fall. Ash Sarkar sat down with him as a new Iran deal is announced, with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz set to reopen and the US-Iran ceasefire extended for 60 days. In this conversation, Daniel picks apart what these peace negotiations are really about. What does Israel really want? Who blinked first, the US or Iran? And how does a ceasefire announcement from the Oval Office differ fundamentally from long and lasting peace? Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Secret backrooms where deals are done in private: the realm of conspiracy theories? Or an increasingly large part of capitalism? Since the financial crisis, some of the big winners have been private equity firms. They've snapped up bargains on everything from high street brands, to care homes and nurseries – and maybe even the house you own. Hettie O'Brien is a journalist for The Guardian and the author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself. She spoke to Richard Hames about private equity's secret influence over the ways we are all born, work, and die – and what it all has to do with the rise of the far right. See the full Do Your Own Research map here: https://novaramedia.com/category/video/do-your-own-research/ Music by Iglooghost.

The War on Terror ended in 2021, with the US and British militaries' catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But the consequences of that decade of conflict in the Middle East continue to play out both overseas and at home. On Downstream this week, Aaron Bastani sits down with investigative journalist and author Matt Kennard, to discuss the updated findings in his book Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals. Matt is the founder of Declassified UK, and an expert on the US and British war machines. What happened to the US military when recruitment standards were abandoned, in the early 2000s? What do Pete Hegseth's tattoos tell us about his fanatical far-right beliefs? How did such a person rise to become Secretary of War (formerly Defense)? What do the Trump administrations’ actions in the Middle East tell us about the status of the US empire? And how has the US government been captured by Netanyahu, in his pursuit of a so-called Greater Israel?

In this episode, Nihal El Aasar returns to this podcast to discuss the competing progressive alternatives in the Arab world prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. Arab attempts to join capitalist systems were obstructed by British and Zionist colonial power, leading to the maintenance of a hegemonic state. We also reference the Union of Arab States and the role of the Zionist entity in hindering regional development. Gamal Abdel Nasser and other leaders in Egypt attempted to create a sovereign economic and political space through nationalist projects. This was actively resisted by Western powers and seen as a threat to imperialist interests. The theory of dependency, as developed by Samir Amin, highlights how underdevelopment in the global South is the result of the expansion of global capital. Nihal argues that while Nasser's project was popular and supported by the masses, his distrust in popular participation and repressive actions against intellectuals helped prevent the project from fully being actualized. The formation of Israel was intertwined with Western efforts to manage the political future of the so-called Middle Eastern region. Israel has hindered the Arab modernization project and has negatively affected the surrounding countries. We discuss how Israel exists in the region to halt the potential of the Arab people as a whole. This is done through repression, impoverishment, and preventing economic prosperity. The U.S. interests in extraction and controlling resources in the region also play a role in this. Apart from that, we meditate on Egypt's early 20th century role as a leader in the Arab world and the expectations placed on its military and economy for stability and development being largely shaped by its history of conflict with Israel and the continued presence of Zionism in the region. The military's control of the economy, rise of religious fundamentalism, and prevalence of conspiracy theories can all be traced back to this relationship. Additionally, Egypt's 20th century development was and continued to be hindered by both structural pressures from outside and its own struggle with overextension as a newly decolonized nation. The working class in Egypt consisted mainly of peasants who were oppressed under the Egyptian monarchy. Land reforms were necessary for progress and industrialization was slowly taking place. From the start, Egyptian nationalism was formed in opposition to Zionism. Nasser faced challenges from the US and its allies and had to build up the Egyptian military in response. We discuss how the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the creation of the United Arab Republic were unprecedented events, but internal struggles and external interference ultimately led to its downfall. The Gulf monarchies have also been deeply intertwined with imperial and capitalist interests since their founding, making them a natural opposition to Arab socialist and progressive projects. The 1973 oil embargo, El Aasar argues, was the last major act of Arab unity but was not an altruistic act of solidarity. The embargo affirmed the importance of the petrodollar for the US and was influential in bringing about the Camp David Accords, which aimed to consolidate the petrodollar and move Egypt fully from the Soviet camp to that of the United States. We meditate on the significance of Camp David and the 1978 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, arguing that it represents a betrayal of Egyptian sovereignty and a move towards neoliberalism and repression. She also highlights how this has instilled a defeatist mindset in Egyptians and led to ongoing struggles with poverty and domestic warfare. She argues that the current regime in Egypt is a continuation of the "Camp David Republic" and that the promised benefits of peace, such as prosperity and political openness, have been left unfulfilled.   If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a Patron. You can do so for as little as a 1 Dollar a month and you will gain access to our Discord.   Nihal is an Egyptian  writer, researcher, political analyst, radio host and DJ. She has written about politics, political economy, culture, literature and music in several publications including The Baffler, The Transnational Institute, Verso, Jacobin, Tribune, Parapraxis, Mundial, Art Review, The Wire, Protean, Novara media, and others, as well as authoring a book chapter about Egyptian political economy and consulting on related issues. "The Condition for Freedom Is for the Egyptian Masses to Take to the Streets"Egypt's Centrality in the Struggle for Palestine" by Nihal El Aasar   Episode artwork includes an artificially colorized version of this photo: "Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin acknowledge applause during a Joint Session of Congress in which President Jimmy Carter announced the results of the Camp David Accords." full credit information here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sadat_and_Begin_clean3.jpg  

The so-called ceasefire in Gaza has not ended the genocide. The bombing runs may be quieter, but the bulldozers roar on. Israel is tearing up homes, orchards, schools and hospitals, then flattening the rubble to erase the memory that Palestinian life was ever there. To understand this architecture of death, Richard Hames spoke to Eyal Weizman, author of Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide and founder of Forensic Architecture. His team builds meticulous 3D reconstructions from the scattered traces of an event – phone footage, survivor testimony, documented shrapnel – to prove what really happened, even when states want it covered up. Their work is rigorous enough to have been submitted in South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ. Get the map here: https://novaramedia.com/category/video/do-your-own-research/ Music by Iglooghost.

It has been a year since Aaron Bastani first met with AI investigative journalist Karen Hao, to discuss her book Empire of AI.  A year is a long time, in the fastest growing sector on the planet. To bring us up to date, Aaron and Karen sat down again to discuss the major shifts in the empire – and their impacts on us all.  Billions of people now use, AI as it has become more integrated into our lives, from chatbots, Google searches, predictive text, and beyond. At the same time, there has been a groundswell of fear and even anger about the arrival of the most disruptive technology of the 21st century: its impact on jobs, its use of resources, and the reckless behaviour of its billionaire founders. What have been the changes at the top of the major AI companies: OpenAI, Google, xAI and Anthropic? As Elon Musk approaches trillionaire status, how is he making this much money? What impact is the rollout of AI at such speed and scale having on the economy? What forms of resistance to this form of AI are emerging?  And why are billionaires all choosing to build their bunkers in New Zealand?

The ACFM crew gather for a close reading of Walter Benjamin’s foundational contribution to 20th century cultural and media theory. Download the short text and follow along as Nadia, Keir and Jem consider The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, published in 1935. Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support