Episodes
Friday Feb 16, 2024
/392/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About (II) ft. Michael Vann
Friday Feb 16, 2024
Friday Feb 16, 2024
- How did Prabowo go from wannabe fascist dictator to cuddly populist grandpa?
- Why is Jokowi "Indonesia's Obama"?
- What is Indonesia's Trump/Hunter Biden ticket?
- What's up with the $32bn new capital being built in Borneo?
- What is the Museum of Anticommunism, and how successfully has Indonesia's ruling class rewritten its history?
- Plus: why is metal so popular in Indonesia?
-
Suharto’s Old Guard Is Still Calling the Shots in Indonesia, Michael Vann, Jacobin
-
Shadow Puppets and Special Forces: Indonesia’s Fragile Democracy, Michael Vann, The Diplomat (on police v military clashes)
-
Indonesia state apparatus is preparing to throw election to a notorious massacre general, Allan Nairn, The Intercept
Friday Feb 09, 2024
/390/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About ft. Vedi Hadiz
Friday Feb 09, 2024
Friday Feb 09, 2024
-
What was the authoritarian order that followed the 1965 anti-communist massacres?
-
How did the Asian financial crisis lead towards democratisation – and how did the old oligarchy manage to retain much of its power?
-
How has Indonesia become "Islamified", and what is "Islamic populism"?
-
How do class and ethnicity/religion interact in Indonesia? Who speaks for the "downtrodden"?
-
Is the upcoming election a contestation between oligarchic populisms?
-
Marketing Morality in Indonesia's Democracy, Vedi Hadiz, East Asia Forum
-
The demise of the left and the Islamisation of dissent in Indonesia, Vedi Hadiz, Melbourne Asia Review (video)
-
Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election Could Be the Last Battle of the Titans, Carnegie Endowment
Tuesday Nov 28, 2023
/377/ The Locked-Up Country ft. Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor
Tuesday Nov 28, 2023
Tuesday Nov 28, 2023
-
Was the pandemic another success for the 'lucky country'?
-
How was the Australian state transformed from the 1970s to the 2020s?
-
Why was Australia's pandemic planning inadequate?
-
What was up with the hotel-based quarantines?
-
Why did the public largely support these measure?
-
And what can the rest of the world learn from the experience?
Tuesday Nov 07, 2023
/374/ You’re Gonna Need Representation ft. Vincent Bevins
Tuesday Nov 07, 2023
Tuesday Nov 07, 2023
-
Why were protests in places that were so different all look so similar?
-
Why was there such a focus on spontaneity, leaderlessness, peformativity, and horizontalism?
-
What are some examples of the ways protests rejected representation?
-
Was class or generation more important in driving these protests?
-
Why did media becomes so important in pursuing political change?
-
How can we avoid a repeat of the failures of the 2010s?
-
If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, Vincent Bevins, Public Affairs
-
The mass protest decade: why did the street movements of the 2010s fail?, Vincent Bevins, The Guardian
-
The End of the End of History: Politics in the 21st Century, Bungacast authors, Zer0 Books
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
/367/ Don’t Pay Them Back ft. Jerome Roos
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
-
Memoria del saqueo (Social Genocide), film on 2001 debt crisis and uprising in Argentina (many versions available online)
-
/83/ Now It’s Syrizous (episode on Syriza's defeat in Greece)
-
The World in One Country: Greece, Jonas Kyratzes (part of ep.200)
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
UNLOCKED: /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
-
Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
/357/ Lucky, Meaty Nations ft. Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
- Australian Labor’s hollow victory, Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor, UnHerd
- Jacinda Ardern still haunts New Zealand, Tom Chodor, UnHerd
- /136/ Banana Monarchy ft. David Edgerton
Tuesday Jul 18, 2023
Excerpt: /352/ Cold War Marxism, East & West ft. Sean Sayers
Tuesday Jul 18, 2023
Tuesday Jul 18, 2023
Professor Emeritus and one of the founders of ‘Radical Philosophy’, Sean Sayers, joins us to talk about Marxist philosophy, how it’s developed and changed over the course of the twentieth century and into this one. We talk about Sean’s background and experience in the radical academy of the 1960s, and how the New Left fed through into the founding of ‘Radical Philosophy’, and more recently, the Marx and Philosophy Review of Books. Sean talks about what’s happened to academic philosophy, and what it might take to defend the humanities in the modern Western academy.
Readings:
- Radical Philosophy turns 50, Jonathan Rée, Sean Sayers, Christopher J. Arthur, Kate Soper, Diana Coole, Stella Sandford
- Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America (review), Ruth Kinna, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
- Marx and Progress, Sean Sayers, International Critical Thought (pdf)
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Excerpt: /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
-
Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato
Wednesday May 10, 2023
/339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu
Wednesday May 10, 2023
Wednesday May 10, 2023
On Turkey's elections.
Alp Kayserilioglu joins us to talk about a crucial election. Erdogan’s rule is seriously threatened for the first time, with high inflation biting into living standards.
Who are the main candidates and do what they propose? Where does AKP draw its support from, and what has sustained its legitimacy? We discuss the supposed supposed culture war between conservative Islamic values and secular liberal ones. And ask how Erdogan has managed the economic crisis of the past few years.
We conclude with Alp trying to place Erdogan in longer historical context: 2023 marks 100 years of the Turkish Republic. Does Erdogan represent a radical break, or nationalist continuity?
Readings:
- Turkey’s Statequake, Alp Kayserilioglu, Sidecar
- Goodbye Erdoğan?, Alp Kayserilioglu, Sidecar
- Alp's writing at Jacobin
Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
/228/ Three Articles: Popular Backlash in Chile, India, Europe
Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
On people power on three continents.
We discuss Chile's landmark elections, the first after the uprising of 2019-20, which see a face-off between left and far-right; Modi's repeal of controversial laws that provoked a huge mobilisation of farmers in India last year; and protests and riots against new lockdowns and vaccine mandates across Europe.
Articles:
- Has the Backlash to Progressivism Come to Chile?, Lili Loofbourow, Slate
- In Rare Show of Weakness, Modi Bows to India’s Farmers, Various, NYT
- Violence in Belgium and Netherlands as Covid protests erupt across Europe, Jon Henley, The Guardian
Other relevant episodes
- /93/ Hot Chile and Other Neoliberal Failures ft. Pablo Pryluka
- /198/ Universal India ft. Achin Vanaik
Tuesday Aug 31, 2021
Excerpt: /212/ Three Articles: Middle-Class Anxieties
Tuesday Aug 31, 2021
Tuesday Aug 31, 2021
-
Boris Johnson’s push for net zero plunged into chaos, Edward Malnick & Emma Gatten, The Telegraph (attached in patreon)
-
China’s nanny state: why Xi is cracking down on gaming and private tutors, Tom Mitchell & Thomas Hale, FT (attached in patreon)
-
‘Sales funnels’ and high-value men: the rise of strategic dating, Katie Cunningham, The Guardian
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Excerpt: /209/ Aufhebonus Bonus + Kabul Falls
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at pateron.com/bungacast for access.
Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
/205/ The World In One Country: The Final ft. Many Guests
Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
What country best captures 20th and 21st century history?
For our 200th episode special, we posed the question: "If you had to study the history of only one country from 1900-2020, and thereby understand the history of the whole world, which would you pick?"
You voted on the ten submissions and now we invited the top 3 back on the pod to discuss in more depth: Dominik Leusder on Germany; David Broder on Italy; and David Adler on India.
Then Phil and Alex choose a winner (it's a "managed democracy").
Buy our book! Links to retailers
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
/204/ Three Articles: People's Republic of Fleeing
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
On Chinese investment, Swiss democracy, and fleeing from Afghanistan.
In this Three Articles, we discuss flight or departure in various ways: China opening the gates for its huge savings to spill onto world markets; Switzerland leaving (or remaining outside) the EU; and the US's sudden departure from Afghanistan, without telling anyone.
'Three Articles' episodes are normally for subscribers only - but this one's free. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast for regular access.
London book launch/bunga party: Register here
Articles:
- What happens if Chinese household wealth is unleashed on the world?, Thomas Hale and Tabby Kinder, FT (pdf in patreon)
- Swexit, Wolfgang Streeck, Sidecar-NLR
- US troops abandoned Bagram airport base in the dead of night..., various, Daily Mail