Podcasts about novarafm

We’re reaching an eschatological tipping point, says Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat. Can humanity turn back from the brink? Joining Eleanor Penny on NovaraFM, the author of After The Apocalypse explains how the end of the world has been normalised and commodified. What we can do to break the spell of end-times nihilism, “ruin porn” and […]

At the beginning of the century, as Russia's economy stabilised under Vladimir Putin, a once-great power began to engage in military conflicts abroad: Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014, and now in 2022, the invasion of Ukraine. This renewed assertiveness and expansionism is the product of more than just one irascible leader, however. Russia's political […]

Is there a politics of sex? One hundred years of feminist thought has shown that this question can give us a close-up view on the issues that shape our lives: power, equality, ownership, justice and the way we organise our societies. As part of Doing It Right: Sex on the Left, Novara Media’s exploration of […]

Missing from a lot of leftist discussions of sex work are sex workers themselves. When it comes to developing a radical politic of sex work, this invisibility makes it difficult to adhere to the principle of “nothing about us, without us.” So for this episode of #NovaraFM, we decided to do something at once out-of-the-ordinary […]

Who dares to rewrite 40,000 years of history? Archaeologist David Wengrow and the late anthropologist David Graeber offer a radically different story of our social evolution in their new book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Drawing on groundbreaking research gathered over a decade of collaboration, their mighty 700-page tome upends just […]

Just like COVID-19, climate breakdown is an anthropogenic crisis that requires an anthropogenic solution, according to Benjamin Bratton, author of Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World. In a conversation touching on Foucault, eschatology, China’s future and the archetypal “Karen”, Bratton tells Aaron Bastani why we need a new, positive biopolitics on a […]

Log on to any social media and you’ll be plunged into a whirlwind of demands for recognition, each voice trying to shout louder than the others. And for decades, political theorists have thought that the demand for recognition is one of the most powerful forces driving popular discontent – on right and left. But what […]

#ACFM host Keir Milburn takes #NovaraFM producer Chal Ravens on a tour of Leeds, one of northern England’s historic epicentres of industry, trade and capital. From trouble at the flax mill to face-offs with fascists, Keir maps out a working class history that's as much about violence as it is about solidarity. We meet Chartists […]

The cycle of struggle that erupted in 2011 – from the Arab Spring to the movement of the squares to the anti-austerity demonstrations in Britain – was characterised by stress on horizontalism and decentralised leadership. But as that movement grew and changed, it found itself running into the limits of that form, and entered into […]

Desire. It takes a young, working-class man out of the car factory, through the academy, and out of it again. It takes him through nightclubs and seminar rooms, cruising grounds and bathhouses, through intense relationships – both enduring and transient – and into a restless, enduring inquiry into human life as condensed in our greatest […]

Why is it so hard to imagine a world without coppers? In this special episode, Novara Media reporter Rivkah Brown examines how the blue tentacles of police power creep into our daily lives and invade our minds. We hear the shocking stories of Bea, a left-wing activist who discovered her ex was a police spy, […]

In the next decade, all politics will be climate politics. But climate politics isn’t always progressive. In the US, outright pseudoscientific denialism has been replaced by a softer, economist-led denialism: there might be a problem, but we just can’t afford to do anything serious about it. And there are darker possibilities lurking in the shadows. […]

What if everything you thought you knew about freedom was wrong? For generations of political activists, revolutionaries, utopians and dreamers, freedom has been the watchword of political struggle. People have stood on barricades and in front of tanks demanding it, wasted in prisons in defence of it and stood in front of firing squads for […]

Who decides how we’re governed? What can’t a government do? And who gets to vote – or who doesn’t? And where is it all written down? In a constitution, of course. At the end of the 18th century, in a time of war and revolution, a spate of constitution-writing broke out across the globe. They […]

Blue Devils! A little band of tyrants! A plague of blue locusts! So the Northern radical press reacted to attempts to impose a new police force in the 1840s. But today that tradition of scepticism and hostility to the police is largely forgotten. As new movements against racist violence in the US raise the slogan […]

At the birth of industry in England, a movement of weavers gathered together to resist the imposition of technologies which threatened their way of life. Their actions – which ranged from petitioning government to direct sabotage and destruction of the new weaving frames – were done in the name of their fictional leader, the ‘mass […]

150 years ago this week, workers and the poor of Paris seized control of the city and established a popular, elected municipal government: they took over great buildings, wiped out debts, instituted free education – and inspired countless radicals worldwide. The Commune lasted only 72 days before being drowned in blood. But each of those […]

We all dream of a better world. In fact, all politics of emancipation – all serious politics of the left – is rooted in claims about a better world and a vision of the future. Why, then, do so many leftists disdain “making recipes for the cookshops of the future”? Did Marx really think we […]

Following the headlines of recent years, you might be forgiven for thinking the problem of sex and power can be solved just by thinking about consent. But what if consent was only the beginning, not the final answer, to the question of desire? What would it mean to face the intractability and difficulty of sexual […]

Once, it was enough just to work. Now everyone – from self-help gurus to employment counsellors, from superstar artists to glassy-eyed Silicon Valley CEOs – tells us we have to love it as well. Why? When did this change happen? And what should we love, if not work? Sarah Jaffe has reported for years on […]

Every election we hear of the “care crisis” as if it’s about to explode. But care affects us all, and not just in election cycles. And rather than an explosion, the reality of care in the UK looks more like the slow and gradual erosion of the fabric of social provision. But why is care […]

2021 marks a decade since Aaron Bastani and James Butler started the radio show which would eventually become #NovaraFM, and which would give birth to Novara Media. To mark the start of the new year – a year in which all the crises which prompted the show’s creation are more visible and more pressing than […]

Everyone’s heard about the rise of the robots: they’re going to put us out of jobs, Skynet is going to usher in a miserable dystopia, or a friendly AI will automate everything we hate, freeing us to live a life of luxury. But what if both of these accounts are wrong? A deeper look at […]

What would it mean to take climate change as seriously as it demands to be taken? What kinds of political action are adequate to the climate crisis? Why are states acting so slowly, and so inadequately? And why is the climate movement so wedded to a near-absolute pacifism? Andreas Malm, author of one of the […]

What is it to live a good life? Does it mean endless consumption? More air travel to farther places, fast food and faster fashion, and an endlessly expanding market? And if so, doesn’t climate change mean an end to anything like a good life? The philosopher Kate Soper doesn’t think so. She joins Clare Hymer […]

In the jungles of Jharkhand and Bihar, armed Maoists continue their decades-long insurgency against the Indian state. Sparked off by a rebellion in Naxalbari in 1967, after taking to the jungles, the Naxalites encountered and recruited from Adivasi populations, often living in resource-rich areas eyed by mining and extraction companies. Alpa Shah, who teaches anthropology […]

London is red. In both 2017 and 2019, the capital city went overwhelmingly red – a story repeated in other English cities, but especially pronounced in London. Yet the left has rarely had much interest in London’s socialist story, preferring to deride the capital as a decadent seat of power or a parasitical drain on […]

You’re probably tired of hearing about ‘fake news.’ You probably think everything that needs to be said about it has been said. What if you were wrong? What if those arguments had barely scratched the surface? James Butler is joined by Marcus Gilroy-Ware to delve behind the facade of fake news and uncover what lies […]

The votes are still being counted, but it now looks certain that Joe Biden will be the next president of the USA. Despite the predictions of liberal pundits, though, the Biden landslide didn’t emerge. Why? What does the US look like after four years of Trump? Has American political culture changed – and is it […]

What is it to face reality as it really is? The alt-right claim that means seeing through democracy, equality and human rights as cons, and exploit the crumbling foundations of liberalism’s worldview. Hari Kunzru‘s new novel, Red Pill, explores the crisis-upon-crisis cataclysm of the contemporary world, as it tells the story of a writer’s catastrophic […]

‘Freedom is always and everywhere the freedom of dissenters.’ So said Rosa Luxemburg, champion of revolutionary democracy and icon of socialist struggle. Since her murder in 1919, she has been discovered anew: as a champion of freedom of thought, a socialist martyr, a pioneer in ecological awareness, a brilliant economic thinker, an icon for feminists […]

There are few sectors as broad and diffuse as the care sector, and there are few forms of work that have to struggle so hard for recognition – leaving some workers “tired from the heart”. We ask: why do political responses to care work seem to fall short? How should the needs of support workers […]

Democracy has triumphed: even authoritarians and dictators now clothe themselves in the rhetoric of democracy. And our basic vocabulary for politics – including the word itself – is derived from ancient Greek. But to ancient eyes, what we call ‘democracy’ would look very odd indeed. And to many of the thinkers of the ancient world, […]

Elitism? Surely that’s a dirty word? Just about every side of the political spectrum claims to hate the elite – though no-one can agree exactly who they are. But is the left just playing by the right’s rules? Could there ever be such a thing as a ‘good elitism’? Haven’t elitists hated democracy since its […]

The pandemic has brought a sudden stop to some of the fundamentals not just of neoliberalism, but economic activity itself. What might this ‘holiday of exchange value’ tell us about the system we live in? Can economics be a ‘moral science’? And what next for the world system? James Butler is joined by Will Davies, […]

James Butler is joined by James Meadway to discuss the brewing economic crisis. With unemployment claims surging to 3.2 million in the US, and forecasts of global contraction, how serious could it get? What might the world look like on the other side of the pandemic? And how will it feed through into politics? https://novaramedia.com/?p=18713

James Butler is joined by Paolo Gerbaudo, head of the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s, to draw up a balance sheet of left populism over the past five years: its successes, its failures, and what’s yet to come. Plus, a discussion of the politics of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Italian lockdown, and what that […]

James Butler is joined by Owen Hatherley, culture editor of Tribune Magazine and prolific author on housing, cities and architecture. We often talk about housing in the abstract – estates, regeneration, expenditure. But what about the kinds of houses people live in? Is there a politics of architecture? Plus, we ask: does culture matter to […]

James Butler is joined by Owen Jones to take stock as the Left faces 2020. What will five years of Boris Johnson bring? Are the far right emboldened – and can they be defeated? And is it right to complain about the British press? https://novaramedia.com/?p=17343

James Butler is joined by James Schneider, until recently Jeremy Corbyn’s Head of Strategic Communications, to discuss the aftermath of Labour’s defeat, the Corbyn period, and the next steps for the left. https://novaramedia.com/?p=17184

One month after Labour’s catastrophic defeat, James Butler is joined by Richard Seymour to dig into attempts to understand the loss, and how the left moves on from it. https://novaramedia.com/?p=16881

James Butler is joined by Ann Pettifor, author of The Case for the Green New Deal, to discuss the relationship between ecology and economics, to explore Keynes’s proto-localism, and discuss what the latest batch of economic figures tell us about the UK. https://novaramedia.com/?p=15811

James Butler is joined by Anna Minton, author of Ground Control and Big Capital. Drawing from her work encompassing the decline of council housing, the rise of capital-led ‘regeneration’ and growing precarity and homelessness, they ask: could this be a housing election? http://novaramedia.com/?p=15640

James Butler is joined by Richard Seymour to discuss his book ‘The Twittering Machine’. Are we all digital narcissists now? What has the rise of the social industry done to our politics? And can we break free of its emotional lures? http://novaramedia.com/?p=15280

James Butler is joined by Callum Cant to discuss his new book Riding for Deliveroo, which draws from his experience as a worker militant in the gig economy, and discusses the implications of new forms of work for worker resistance. http://novaramedia.com/?p=15232

James Butler is joined by Jack Shenker to discuss his new book, Now We Have Your Attention. They explore the new politics birthed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, from grassroots trade unionism to migrant solidarity, and the gradual transformation of the Labour Party. http://novaramedia.com/?p=15154

James Butler is joined by James Meadway and Adrienne Buller to break down the outcome of Labour Conference: will radical policy translate to radical action? And what next for the Green New Deal? http://novaramedia.com/?p=15082

James Butler is joined by political theorist Lea Ypi (LSE) to discuss socialist internationalism in the 21st century: from the democratic tensions of Brexit in the UK, to the roots of the EU in the 18th century, through to the virtues of partisanship. http://novaramedia.com/?p=14973

James Butler and Aaron Bastani look back over the summer’s political drama, and discuss the ideological transformation of the Tory Party, the constitutional crisis and the forthcoming Labour Party conference. http://novaramedia.com/?p=14780

On #NovaraFM James Butler and Aaron Bastani contemplate the future under Boris Johnson. Johnson rode into Downing Street on the passions of the Tory base. Now in power, he has installed a hard-right cabinet, but confronts serious obstacles for his vision of Brexit and desire to remake the country. How will he govern? http://novaramedia.com/?p=14057

Ash Sarkar is joined by Michael Walker and James Meadway to discuss the future of the Labour Party – in government, in the EU, and on the global stage.

US war drums beat for Iran: but what drives politics inside the Islamic Republic? James Butler is joined by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, author of ‘Revolution and its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran’, to discuss Iranian politics and history: from British and American imperialism and the coup against Mossadegh, to the political theology of the […]

James Butler is joined by Geoff Mann, co-author of Climate Leviathan, to discuss the political consequences of climate change. In a warming world, fundamental political assumptions change profoundly: what kind of global order will be brought about by those changing priorities? Is a ‘Green New Deal’ sufficient to deal with the challenges posed by climate […]

In light of Labour’s evolving Brexit stance, James Butler is joined by Richard Seymour to take a broad look at Brexit politics. What did we miss last time? Was the outcome predictable? Will the Tory party tear itself apart – and was this inevitable? And how is Britain’s class structure reflected in its politics? http://novaramedia.com/?p=13819

James Butler is joined by Quinn Slobodian, author of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. Where does neoliberalism come from? What did the original neoliberals really think about the world? Is the European Union really a ‘neoliberal project’ – and what would it mean if it were? http://novaramedia.com/?p=13736

James Butler is joined by Bhaskar Sunkara, founder of Jacobin, to discuss the past and future of socialism. From the travails of German Social Democracy, through the Bolshevik insurrection to the Meidner plan, what does the history of the socialist movement have to teach the movements behind Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders? http://novaramedia.com/?p=13666

Immediately in the wake of Theresa May’s resignation speech, James Butler is joined by Aaron Bastani and Michael Walker to talk about the wake of the European elections, the rise of the Brexit Party and the decline and fall of Theresa May. http://novaramedia.com/?p=13547

James Butler is joined by Paul Mason to discuss his new book, Clear Bright Future. In a time of political repression and looming technological dystopia, can resistance be found in a renewed understanding of humanity itself? Can the left talk about what it means to be human – and should it? And what does it […]

James Butler is joined by Cat Hobbs of We Own It and Andrew Towers of the CWU to discuss public ownership in the 21st century. ‘When We Own It’ can be found on the We Own It website.   http://novaramedia.com/?p=13461

James Butler is joined by Keir Milburn to discuss his new book ‘Generation Left’. Why has age become a predictor of political preference? What does it mean to talk about generations in a political context? Do they detract from a class analysis? What happened to the generation of 2011? Where does conservatism come from? And […]

James Butler is joined by Novara Media’s own Craig Gent to discuss the rise of the algorithm, the new workplace under algorithmic management, and the scope and practice of workers’ resistance to new techniques of domination. http://novaramedia.com/?p=13112

As Jeremy Corbyn meets Theresa May for negotiations over her Brexit deal, this week’s #NovaraFM asks: will it work? James Butler brings you updates on the meaning of the Newport West by-election, the consequences of a newly strong parliament, and Michael Walker speaks with Owen Jones and Sienna Rodger on Labour’s Brexit strategy. http://novaramedia.com/?p=12990

On #NovaraFM, James Butler is joined by Will Stronge, director of the think tank Autonomy, to discuss the future of work. Is a post-work politics truly plausible? Does technological change drive politics? And why, after a century of predictions of a post-work society, does it seem no closer? http://novaramedia.com/?p=12921

James Butler is joined by Dawn Foster and Michael Walker to break apart the week’s parliamentary manoeuvrings on Brexit and the politics of the negotiations. Is No Deal off the table? Can Labour hold together its coalition? And is the Conservative party irretrievably fractured? http://novaramedia.com/?p=12760

James Butler is joined by James Meadway, former advisor to John McDonnell, to discuss the economics of Corbynism: the roots and aftermath of the 2008 crash, the new policy horizons of the Labour left, and a socialist economics for the 21st century. http://novaramedia.com/?p=12543

On #NovaraFM James Butler is joined by Paolo Gerbaudo to discuss his new book ‘The Digital Party’: from hyperleaders to superbases, the end of the cadre and the effect of the internet on how people think about politics. http://novaramedia.com/2019/02/15/log-on-the-rise-of-the-digital-party/On #NovaraFM James Butler is joined by Paolo Gerbaudo to discuss his new book ‘The Digital Party’: […]

Brexit dominates political discussion, and with good reason. But sometimes it seems like it sucks all the political oxygen out of the room. James Butler is joined by Michael Walker and Ash Sarkar to discuss where Corbynism came from and the promise it still might hold. http://novaramedia.com/?p=12320

James Butler is joined by David Graeber to talk through the meaning of direct democracy, the ennui at the heart of neoliberalism, and examine the relationship of political thinking to political practice. http://novaramedia.com/?p=12278

On #NovaraFM, James Butler is joined by Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy and author of ‘The Lure of Greatness’, to discuss the national politics driving Brexit, Britain’s broken constitutional order, and ask what, exactly, is the problem with the English? http://novaramedia.com/?p=12194

After May’s Brexit deal fell apart in parliament this week, James Butler is joined by Richard Seymour to pick apart the politics of Brexit: what is state power? And is sovereignty an illusion – or an indispensable part of politics? And why is the British state so scared of Jeremy Corbyn? http://novaramedia.com/?p=12140

For the first #NovaraFM of 2019, James Butler is joined by Aaron Bastani to look ahead at what 2019 offers: from Brexit to Mueller, from financial crisis to copyright expiration – what does the year ahead hold in politics? http://novaramedia.com/?p=12081

On the final #NovaraFM of 2018, James Butler is joined by Michael Walker and Dawn Foster to look back over the highs and lows of the year as we consign it to its political grave. http://novaramedia.com/?p=12059

On #NovaraFM James Butler is joined by leading theorist of populism Chantal Mouffe. Her new book ‘For a Left Populism’ declares that populist strategy is the only way for the left to properly articulate progressive demands against a burgeoning right – but is it really the only game in town? http://novaramedia.com/?p=11723

On #NovaraFM, James Butler is joined by Tony Wood to discuss his new book Russia Without Putin: from the continuities with Yeltsin’s disaster capitalism, the rise of the oligarchs to Putin’s ‘vertical of power’ in the post-Soviet state – what future is possible in Russia? http://novaramedia.com/?p=11676

For a special #NovaraFM, James Butler is joined by Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar to discuss the schisms in the government, the politics of the Brexit offer, what no deal would look like – and what opportunities, if any, the situation presents for the left. http://novaramedia.com/?p=11596

What is gentrification? How far are artists complicit - wittingly or not - in processes of social cleansing? What can artists do to fight it? Juliet talks to artist-academic Alberto Duman (http://www.albertoduman.me.uk/main.htm) and 'Savage Messiah' author/artist Laura Grace Ford (http://lauraoldfieldford.blogspot.co.uk/) about gentrification, and the role of artists within it. WORKS REFERENCED Colouring in Culture - http://colouringinculture.org/ #NovaraFM on decapitalism - http://novaramedia.com/2017/12/17/nina-power-decapitalism/ Agit-train (Dziga Vertov & Aleksandr Medvdkin) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agit-train Archigram, Plug-In City - https://www.archdaily.com/399329/ad-classics-the-plug-in-city-peter-cook-archigram Walter Benjamin Embassy Court (Brighton) - http://www.embassycourt.org.uk/ Mark Fisher (k-punk) on rave - http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/009782.html RICHARD FLORIDA, The Rise of the Creative Class (2002) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_class Walter Gropius Stewart Home - 'Keep Hackney crap' - http://www.uncarved.org/blog/2009/08/keeping-hackney-crap/ ANTHONY ILES & J. BERRY SLATER, No Room to Move: Radical Art and the Regenerate City (2009) - http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/no-room-to-move-radical-art-and-regenerate-city JANE JACOBS, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) Fredric Jameson Huw Lemmey - https://www.theguardian.com/profile/huw-lemmey GAVIN MUELLER, 'Liberalism and Gentrification' - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/09/liberalism-and-gentrification/ DOUGLAS MURPHY, Last Futures (2016) - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/13/last-futures-douglas-murphy-review ALISON & PETER SMITHSON, Robin Hood Gardens - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH5thwHTYNk John Wild - http://www.codedgeometry.net/johnwild/