Episodes
Tuesday Feb 25, 2020
/109/ Bunga Goes Ballard ft. Simon Sellars
Tuesday Feb 25, 2020
Tuesday Feb 25, 2020
On Applied Ballardianism.
Is it J.G. Ballard's world? Bunga talks Ballard with Simon Sellars, author of a new book on the great British sci-fi novelist J.G. Ballard. Urban decay, social breakdown, consumerism as social control and the Interzone.
Opening passage is taken from Ballard's 2000 novel 'Super-Cannes'.
Reading:
Applied Ballardianism, Simon Sellars, Urbanomic
Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
/108/ Coronageddon? ft. Mark Honigsbaum / Lee Jones
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
On pandemics, panics, and China.
The 2019 Novel Coronavirus is yet another new epidemic to appear on the scene this century. What accounts for their increasing frequency, and who decides if an epidemic is classed as a pandemic? More importantly, what governs that choice? The WHO and the whole intergovernmental management of health has 'securitised' these questions. Are they privileging the free flow of capital over public health? And what of China's draconian response and lockdown of Wuhan - is it effective? And who will bear the blame if things go wrong? Might Coronavirus become a threat to Xi Jingping and the Chinese regime?
Readings:
- ‘Rumormonger’ Doctor Who Raised the Alarm Says He Has Coronavirus, Sixth Tone
- 'Hero who told the truth': Chinese rage over coronavirus death of whistleblower doctor, The Guardian
- The Free Market Isn’t Up to the Coronavirus Challenge, Leigh Phillips, Jacobin
- Locked-down Wuhan and why we always overplay the threat of the new, Kenan Malik, The Guardian
- Coronavirus: nature fights back, Michael Roberts blog
Guests' books:
Mark Honigsbaum: The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris
Lee Jones (& Shahar Hameiri): Governing Borderless Threats: Non-Traditional Security and the Politics of State Transformation
Running order:
- (00:44) Introduction
- (06:21) Mark Honigsbaum
- (38:48) Lee Jones
Friday Feb 07, 2020
/107/ Ireland’s Return to History ft. Colin Coulter
Friday Feb 07, 2020
Friday Feb 07, 2020
On Ireland's elections.
With Sinn Fein riding high in the polls, are we looking at an upset? Is this a populist upsurge in Ireland, finally, more than a decade after the start of the crisis? We discuss what Ireland's 'end of history' was like and how the 'Celtic Tiger' economy sustained it; and look at how the country was the EU's "model prisoner" of austerity. Are there new stirrings? And what are the prospects for unification?
Readings:
- Mary Lou McDonald could take Sinn Féin into the political mainstream, Jason Walsh, The New European
- This Month’s Elections in Ireland Are a Historic Opportunity, Michael Taft, Jacobin
- The End of Irish History, Colin Coulter et al., Manchester UP (Edited book; pdf)
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
Excerpt: /106/ The Endless Scrolling of Cinema ft. Maren Thom
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020