Episodes
7 days ago
7 days ago
- How does Portugal see itself, with regard to Europe, and its own history?
- How did the right-populist Chega party break through amid high turnout?
- What kind of anti-politics did Chega bring to the table?
- Is there nostalgia for the dictatorship?
- How did immigration become an issue in a country where emigration is the big problem?
- What is going on with Portugal's huge housing crisis?
- Why has the EU disappeared as a political issue, 10 years on from the peak of the crisis?
Bungacast is expanding, with new regular contributors, partnership with Damage magazine and more. Read about it here or see the video.
- In Portugal’s Election, the Center Left Struggles to Hold On, João Murta & Guilherme Rodrigues
- Europe After Brexit, Bungacast live event, ft. Catarina Principe + others
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?
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Suharto’s Old Guard Is Still Calling the Shots in Indonesia, Michael Vann, Jacobin
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Shadow Puppets and Special Forces: Indonesia’s Fragile Democracy, Michael Vann, The Diplomat (on police v military clashes)
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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
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What was the authoritarian order that followed the 1965 anti-communist massacres?
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How did the Asian financial crisis lead towards democratisation – and how did the old oligarchy manage to retain much of its power?
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How has Indonesia become "Islamified", and what is "Islamic populism"?
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How do class and ethnicity/religion interact in Indonesia? Who speaks for the "downtrodden"?
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Is the upcoming election a contestation between oligarchic populisms?
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Marketing Morality in Indonesia's Democracy, Vedi Hadiz, East Asia Forum
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The demise of the left and the Islamisation of dissent in Indonesia, Vedi Hadiz, Melbourne Asia Review (video)
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Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election Could Be the Last Battle of the Titans, Carnegie Endowment
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
/388/ Betting on Bukele (I) ft. Nelson Rauda / Juan Rojas
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
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El Salvador’s Bitcoin Paradise Is a Mirage, Nelson Rauda, NYT
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Behind Bukele's Revolution, Juan Rojas & Geoff Shullenberger, Compact
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On Security, Bukele and Petro Have a Problem in Common, Juan Rojas, Americas Quarterly
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In response to killings, El Salvador’s bitcoin president attacks civil liberties, Nelson Rauda, LA Times
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The Rise of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's Authoritarian President, Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker
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Chaos in Ecuador, Guillaume Long, Sidecar/NLR
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¡Viva la ‘eficracia’!, Martin Caparrós, El País
Tuesday Jan 09, 2024
Excerpt: /382/ Death of the Millennial Left ft. Chris Cutrone
Tuesday Jan 09, 2024
Tuesday Jan 09, 2024
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Why define it as the "Millennial" Left?
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Was the anti-Stalinism of leaderless protests a good thing?
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Did the talk of "winning" from 2015 onwards represent maturity?
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Should the turn to a more public, statist capitalism make us more optimistic?
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How will the 'lawfare' used against Trump play out?
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The Millennial Left is dead, Chris Cutrone, Platypus
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The Death of the Millennial Left: Interventions 2006-2022, Chris Cutrone, Sublation
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
/371/ The Milei Massacre Didn’t Happen ft. Ernesto Seman
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
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What is 'Peronism' and how does it occupy so much political space?
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How does Milei appeal to informal workers using market ideology?
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What is distinct about Latin American populism?
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How is anti-populism used to denigrate the masses?
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What is the role of nostalgia for the golden age in Argentina?
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In Chile and Argentina, anti-populist politics is failing, Ernesto Seman, FT
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Breve historia del antipopulismo (Brief History of Antipopulism), Ernesto Seman
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Ambassadors of the Working Class, Ernesto Seman
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Javier Milei is not done yet, Alex Hochuli, Unherd
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Javier Milei is not a South American Trump, Alex Hochuli, Unherd
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/367/ Don’t Pay Them Back ft. Jerome Roos
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/189/ Pink Tide Paradoxes ft. Fabio Luis
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/93/ Hot Chile and Other Neoliberal Failures ft. Pablo Pryluka
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
UNLOCKED: /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
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Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Excerpt: /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
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Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
Excerpt: /345/ Who Is The New Elite? ft. Matt Goodwin
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
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National Swing Man, the British electorate’s new-old tribe, Bagehot, The Economist
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A decade of SNP one-party rule left Scotland in a state, Matthew Goodwin, The Times
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Sunak’s Tories have lost the Red Wall – and are destined for oblivion, Matthew Goodwin, The Telegraph
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The New Elite is in complete denial, Matthew Goodwin, spiked
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 May 02, 2023
/337/ Nigeria Rising Downwards ft. Sa’eed Husaini
Tuesday May 02, 2023
Tuesday May 02, 2023
On Nigeria's 'end of the end of history'.
Sa'eed Husaini from The Nigerian Scam podcast joins us to reflect on all things Nigeria: oil, debt, corruption and February's election. What was all that hype about the 'outsider' who wasn't much of an outsider? Has the country's populist moment passed?
More Nigerians are falling into poverty due to low economic growth, while the state is due to spend 96% of its income on debt service. How is this sustainable?
We also talk about oil and corruption: the 'resource curse' and the 'survival of the fattest'. And conclude on China's role in the country and Nigeria as a cultural powerhouse.
Links & Readings:
- Buharism is dead, long live Buharism, Sa’eed Husaini, Africa is a Country
- /61/ Making Plans for Naija ft. Sa'eed Husaini
- The Nigerian Scam podcast
- The Oil Thieves of Nigeria, James Barnett, New Lines
- Survival of the Fattest, Paulo Collier, The American Interest
Friday Oct 28, 2022
/299/ Micropower & Transcendence in Brazil (Bungazão 2022) ft. Miguel Lago
Friday Oct 28, 2022
Friday Oct 28, 2022
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Batalhadores do Brasil, Miguel Lago, piauí (in Portuguese)
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The self-help guru who conquered Brazil, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd
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What Lula's Comeback Means, Alex Hochuli, Compact
- Do que falamos quando falamos de populismo, Miguel Lago & Tomás Zicman de Barros, Companhia das Letras (in Portuguese)
- Linguagem da destruição, Miguel Lago et al., Companhia de Letras (in Portuguese)
Listenings:
- On anti-corruption: /297/ Bungazão 2022 (Clean & Godly) ft. Benjamin Fogel (on anti-corruption)
- On the war of all against all: /292/ Bungazão 2022: Unrealistic Pragmatism, ft. Unbridled Possibility Collective
- On the role of the military: /284/ Bungazão 2022 ft. Alcysio Canette
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
/292/ Bungazão 2022: Unrealistic Pragmatism, ft. Unbridled Possibility Collective
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
On Brazil's containment of the crisis.
We talk to members of the Unbridled Possibility Collective (Fabio Luis B. Santos | Thais Pavez | Daniel Cunha) about their intervention, trying to look beyond this week's election in Brazil.
What does establishment support for Lula this time round represent? Is Lula guilty of "unrealistic pragmatism"? How will Brazil react to a potential coup attempt by Bolsonaro?
And we look at the deeper social and structural context: what are the features of the Brazilian "war of all against all"? How does Bolsonaro accelerate these tendencies?
We conclude by looking at the possibility of a new 'Pink Wave' in Latin America and examining the state of the Brazilian left.
Readings:
- After the Election: a Contribution to the Debate, Unbridled Possibility Collective, Damage
- /189/ Pink Tide Paradoxes ft. Fabio Luis
- Brazil's Arrested Development, Alex Hochuli, Jacobin
- Policing Bolsonaro's Brazil, Alex Hochuli, Verso
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
/291/ The Right Timeline ft. Mattia Salvia
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
On the Brothers of Italy.
We talk to Mattia Salvia, former Rolling Stone Italia politics editor and author of Interregno, about Italy's election last weekend in the context of a Europe in crisis. The big question to start: is Meloni a fascist - and will her government be fascist?
With very low turnout, it seems like the working class has deserted politics, with 5 Star being the last gasp of proletarian participation. Does Meloni try to appeal to this constituency at all? Her low-tax anti-welfare policies don't seem like it.
And what of Meloni's pro-NATO politics? And what does this mean for the EU - will a FdI-ruled Italy weaken the union, or strengthen it?
Readings:
- Meet the New Wolf, Giorgia Meloni, Mattia Salvia, Popula
- In Italy’s Deserted Democracy, Far-Right Giorgia Meloni Has Emerged Victorious, David Broder, Jacobin
- Meloni’s victory only strengthens the EU, Philip Cunliffe, Unherd
- What an Italy led by the far-right might mean for Europe, FT
In Italian:
- Coatta Antica, Mattia Salvia, Not Nero
- http://www.iconografie.it/
Monday Sep 05, 2022
/284/ Bungazão 2022 ft. Alcysio Canette
Monday Sep 05, 2022
Monday Sep 05, 2022
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Will Bolsonaro Be Held Responsible for Brazil’s COVID-19 Disaster?, Alcysio Canette, Jacobin
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Cálice podcast, Atabaque Produções (in Portuguese)
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Pro-Bolsonaro Protests Were Supposed to Show His Strength. Instead, They Showed His Weakness, Alex Hochuli, Jacobin (on last year's 7 September protests)
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From Anti-Politics to Authoritarian Restoration in Brazil, Alex Hochuli, Jacobin