Episodes

Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Excerpt: /307/ Aufhebonus Bonus (Dec 2022)
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
On your questions & criticisms.
We debate what kind of work 'shared-labour socialism' would involve in a complex society, and what role 'dispossession' or 'expropriation' has in the contemporary economy. Plus: strategies on Ukraine – backing independence, guerilla warfare, and what an 'anti-NATO' stance actually looks like; and whether the forces exist for exiting the EU.
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Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Excerpt: /302/ Aufhebonus Bonus (Nov 2022)
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
[Patreon Exclusive]

Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Excerpt: /296/ Last-Gasp Neoliberalism (Trussonomics)
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Readings:
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Liz Truss’s Britain Is a Morbid Symptom of the World’s New Era, Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy
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The markets are wrong about ‘Trussonomics’ just like they were about Brexit, Julian Jessop, Telegraph
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Britain's Tory Meltdown Is a Case of Socially Determined Stupidity, David Jamieson, Jacobin
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The economic consequences of Liz Truss, Martin Wolf, FT

Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
Excerpt: /293/ Goodbye 20th Century (RIP Gorby)
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
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Big Man Walking: Gorbachev’s Dispensation, Neal Ascherson, LRB, 2017
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Why Gorbachev Failed, Slavoj Zizek, Compact
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OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 4 (on Gen X, the End of History and Soviet collapse)
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/276/ Broken Promises ft. Fritz Bartel (on the end of the Cold War and the rise of neoliberalism)
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/270/ Russia vs the West ft. Richard Sakwa (on the geopolitics of NATO expansion)

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/

Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
/290/ Cassoulet of Disruption ft. Nathan Sperber
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
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Muddling Through in Macronia: How Populism and the Establishment Intertwine, Nathan Sperber, American Affairs
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Emmanuel Macron announces the “end of abundance”, Katherine Bayford, Unherd

Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Excerpt: /288/ Feudal Limpets (Bunga Goes Royal)
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
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The Revolutionary Monarchy of Elizabeth II, Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg
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The House of Windsor, Tom Nairn, NLR
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'London Bridge is down': the secret plan for the days after the Queen’s death, Sam Knight, The Guardian

Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
/286/ What Was Communism? ft. Branko Milanovic
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
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Capitalism, Alone, Branko Milanovic, Harvard UP
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The Aloofness of Pax Sinica, Branko Milanovic, Global Policy Journal

Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Excerpt: /280/ Three Articles: Liberal Nationalism
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Articles:
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As we unite for the jubilee, let’s believe Britain’s best days are ahead, not behind, Lucy Powell, The Guardian
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The Return of Liberal Nationalism, Sohrab Ahmari, Compact
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What Putin and liberals share, Aris Roussinos, Unherd

Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
/270/ Russia vs the West ft. Richard Sakwa
Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
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Whisper it, but Putin has a point in Ukraine, Richard Sakwa, The Spectator
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The Dual State in Russia, Richard Sakwa, Post-Soviet Affairs
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A Review of 'Frontline Ukraine' by Richard Sakwa, Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday
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Putin Redux: Continuity and change, Richard Sakwa, openDemocracy

Friday Jun 10, 2022
Anti-Politics & Beyond (Munich Book Launch - Audio)
Friday Jun 10, 2022
Friday Jun 10, 2022
If the End of History was characterised by post-politics, and the 'populist decade' of the 2010s dominated by anti-politics, then how should we understand more recent phenomena? Are the following of a qualitatively different nature to anti-politics, namely: the intensification of culture wars, growing polarisation that does not always align neatly with class, of increasingly hysterical and personalised politics, and of the competition between escalating emergency politics?
To commemorate the publication of the German edition of The End of the End of History, co-author Alex Hochuli was in conversation with historian of political thought, Anton Jäger at the Monacensia in Munich.

Friday Jun 10, 2022
Ruling Class Hysteria (Berlin Book Launch - Audio)
Friday Jun 10, 2022
Friday Jun 10, 2022

Tuesday May 03, 2022
Excerpt: /261/ Three Articles: Macronistan
Tuesday May 03, 2022
Tuesday May 03, 2022
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Emmanuel Macron Is Forming a New Right-Wing Bloc, Interview with Bruno Amable, Jacobin
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Why Macron is invincible, Christopher Caldwell, Unherd
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Le Pen was doomed from the start, Nathan Pinkoski, Compact
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Waking Up from Anesthesia: Decline and Violence in France, Alexis Moriatis, Brooklyn Rail
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Macron, Le Pen and France’s long battle between order and dissent, Sudhir Hazareesingh, FT
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Jean-Luc Mélenchon's new supporters: the young, urban working class, Julie Carriat, Le Monde

Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
/257/ How to Boil a Frog (2) ft. Chris Bickerton
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Reading:

Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
/256/ How to Boil a Frog (1) ft. Charles Devellennes
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
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Why the French left keeps failing, Charles Devellennes, spiked
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The Macron Régime: The Ideology of the New Right in France, Charles Devellennes (forthcoming)