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
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
UNLOCKED: /373/ Take a Stand: Be Neutral! ft. Lily Lynch
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
- Why did Sweden and Finland give up decades of neutrality - and why now?
- What happens with an enlarged alliance in light of the conflict in Ukraine?
- How does the current moment compare to the apogee of the Non-Aligned Movement?
- Why were the realists right?
- How is tech mythology helping to build 'digital nationalism'?
- Why is there beef over grain between Poland and Ukraine?
- And what the hell are the "skin suit of social democracy" and the "Waluigi of neutrality"?
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Joining the West, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
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The realists were right, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
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The EU’s great power delusions, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
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Guns, grain, and history, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
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Tech-Mythologies, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
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Imperfect Unity, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
[FROM THE VAULT] /44/ Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome (N.O.B.S.)
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
FROM THE VAULT: ALEX'S PICK (1)
In which we lay the liberal establishment down on the shrink's sofa. It's a systematic analysis of liberal derangement: of the inability to accept, explain, or respond to the breakdown of the current order. Why can't the liberal establishment accept that the 2008 crisis would eventually have political consequences? Why can't liberals explain why they keep losing? Why can't they offer anything but more of the same?
Symptoms:
- Incredulity and denial of political change
- Unwillingness to take responsibility
- Moralisation
- No belief in political causation (things just happen)
- Fetishising disinformation
- Elite persecution complex
- Hysteria & catastrophism
- Nostalgia for a very recent past & rewriting history
- Repetition compulsion
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
[FROM THE VAULT] /136/ Banana Monarchy ft. David Edgerton
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
FROM THE VAULT: PHIL'S PICK (1)
On British decline.
Much ink has been spilled over the Britain’s fate since the end of its empire. Could it be that decline has been overstated? And what will happen to Britain as it leaves the European Union? We discuss how the history of the Industrial Revolution and Cold War militarism still shapes British politics today, as David Edgerton joins us to talk about the his latest book, 'The Rise and Fall of the British Nation'.
Readings:
- A misremembered empire, David Edgerton, Tortoise
- Britain’s 20th-century industrial revolution, Colin Kidd, New Statesman (review of Edgerton's book)
- Britain's persistent racism cannot simply be explained by its imperial history, David Edgerton, The Guardian
Tuesday Dec 12, 2023
Excerpt: /380/ Josephine’s Body Count
Tuesday Dec 12, 2023
Tuesday Dec 12, 2023
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Why did Scott choose to focus on Napoleon's relationship with Josephine?
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What is Scott trying to say, if anything, about Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars?
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Where are the depictions of youth, revolution and modernity?
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Are there any redeeming aspects to the film?
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What do we make of Phoenix's portrayal?
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Are we seeing the return of films about Great Men of History?
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
/379/ Sexy Pictures of Taylor Swift (Not Brexit)
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
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Why all the fuss for Brexit, when things have ended up the same as they were before?
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Why Brexit when the same politicians are still in charge?
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Why was no section of society able to lead Brexit with a positive vision of the future?
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Did Brexiteers need a more concrete proposal beyond "democracy"?
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What lessons can be learned from Brexit by others in the EU?
Tuesday Nov 07, 2023
/374/ You’re Gonna Need Representation ft. Vincent Bevins
Tuesday Nov 07, 2023
Tuesday Nov 07, 2023
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Why were protests in places that were so different all look so similar?
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Why was there such a focus on spontaneity, leaderlessness, peformativity, and horizontalism?
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What are some examples of the ways protests rejected representation?
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Was class or generation more important in driving these protests?
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Why did media becomes so important in pursuing political change?
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How can we avoid a repeat of the failures of the 2010s?
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If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, Vincent Bevins, Public Affairs
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The mass protest decade: why did the street movements of the 2010s fail?, Vincent Bevins, The Guardian
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The End of the End of History: Politics in the 21st Century, Bungacast authors, Zer0 Books
Tuesday Oct 31, 2023
Excerpt: /373/ Take a Stand: Be Neutral! ft. Lily Lynch
Tuesday Oct 31, 2023
Tuesday Oct 31, 2023
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Why did Sweden and Finland give up decades of neutrality - and why now?
-
What happens with an enlarged alliance in light of the conflict in Ukraine?
-
How does the current moment compare to the apogee of the Non-Aligned Movement?
-
Why were the realists right?
-
How is tech mythology helping to build 'digital nationalism'?
-
Why is there beef over grain between Poland and Ukraine?
-
And what the hell are the "skin suit of social democracy" and the "Waluigi of neutrality"?
-
Joining the West, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
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The realists were right, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
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The EU’s great power delusions, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
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Guns, grain, and history, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
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Tech-Mythologies, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
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Imperfect Unity, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
/367/ Don’t Pay Them Back ft. Jerome Roos
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
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Memoria del saqueo (Social Genocide), film on 2001 debt crisis and uprising in Argentina (many versions available online)
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/83/ Now It’s Syrizous (episode on Syriza's defeat in Greece)
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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
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Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato
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
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Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Silvio Berlusconi: An Oral History
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
RIP Silvio
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi died on 12 June 2023 at the age of 86. In this special episode, we say goodbye to the towering figure of the End of History, and explore how the contradictions he exemplified spoke to our age.
Contributions in order of appearance:
- Mattia Salvia
- Alice Oliveri
- Nadia Urbinati
- Carlo Invernizzi-Accetti
- Paolo Gerbaudo
- Thomas Fazi
- Pier Paolo Tamburelli
- The Bungacast Boys: Alex, George, Phil
Music:
- Bunga theme tune: Nous Non Plus / Bunga Bunga / courtesy of Sugaroo
- Rune Dale / Tell You Something / courtesy of http://www.epidemicsound.com
Monday Jun 12, 2023
UNLOCKED: /87/ Berluscoming
Monday Jun 12, 2023
Monday Jun 12, 2023
Silvio Berlusconi is no more. In mourning of our evil patron saint's passing, we're unlocking this previously paywalled episode in which we discuss a cinematic depiction of the big man.
Keep an eye out for more on Berlusca coming out from us in the next days!
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We discuss Paolo Sorrentino's "Loro" (2018), a dreamlike cinematic depiction of Silvio Berlusconi. Does the film succeed in capturing Silvio, or does it glamourise him? What explains the appeal he had - and why was the left never able to properly dethrone him? What does it say about 2000s Italy, and its relevance to our times?
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