The global politics podcast at the end of the End of History. Politics is back but it’s stranger than ever: join us as we chart a course beyond the age of ’bunga bunga’. Interviews, long-form discussions, docu-series.
Episodes
Oct 27, 2020
Oct 27, 2020
52 min
Internationalism used to be a defining characteristic of the Left. Globalism is a defining characteristic of neoliberal capitalism. Both seem to be characteristic of Islamist jihadism. How did Islamist reaction become globalised? How far does Islamist globalism connect to radical legacies of Third Worldism, internationalism and radical solidarity? Political anthropologist Darryl Li, author of The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity joins us to discuss the transnational history of jihad over the last 30 years.
Reading:
The Universal Enemy - Book Forum, The Immanent Frame, Various Authors
Oct 13, 2020
Oct 13, 2020
1hr 34 min
On the country of the future.
Italy has stagnated for 30 years, becoming a neoliberal gerontocracy with crumbling infrastructure (sound familiar?). Worse, it's a country without a Left. How did the populist right come to triumph? What is the relationship between high emigration and hostility to immigration? And how were the seeds sown 30 years ago with the collapse of the First Republic, Europeanisation, and Berlusconi's rise? Is there now a possibility of 'Italexit'?
Readings:
First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy, David Broder, Verso
Oct 6, 2020
Oct 6, 2020
7 min
On why anti-fascism is a problem.
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We Don’t Live in Weimar Germany, David Broder, Jacobin
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The Trap The Democrats Walked Right Into, Andrew Sullivan
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The End of Anti-Fascism, David Broder, Jacobin
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What Is Trump?, Dylan Riley, NLR
Sep 22, 2020
Sep 22, 2020
19 min
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Of moonshots and bus subsidies: How state aid became a Brexit deal-breaker, The Economist (attached in patreon)
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Sweden’s Covid-19 experiment holds a worldwide warning, Wolfgang Münchau, FT (attached in patreon)
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Why are we racialising Beethoven, Ralph Leonard, Unherd
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We Need a Radically Different Approach to the Pandemic and Our Economy as a Whole, Katherine Yik & Martin Kulldorff, Jacobin
Aug 11, 2020
Aug 11, 2020
4 min
In this latest Three Articles, we discuss the durability or otherwise of right-populism in the UK, US and Brazil.
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Conservatives’ grip on ‘red wall’ holding firm, Sebastian Payne, FT
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Lawmakers ‘Alarmed’ by Reports U.S. Envoy Told Brazil It Could Help Re-elect Trump, Ernesto Londoño, Manuela Andreoni and Letícia Casado, NYT
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“Imagine the damage a president could cause”: What would happen if Trump refused defeat?, Emily Tamkin, New Statesman
Jul 21, 2020
Jul 21, 2020
1hr 10 min
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
Jun 30, 2020
Jun 30, 2020
1hr 8 min
Aleksandar Vučić's coalition won the recent (21 June) Serbian parliamentary elections amidst a mass boycott. We talk to Balkanist editor Lily Lynch about what Vučić represents - violent ultranationalist or technocratic centrist? We also take time to discuss geopolitical rivalries over Kosovo.
Plus: cigar socialism, Yugoboomers and the enduring appeal of Balkan orientalism. According to Julian Assange, the future always comes to Serbia first - what does this mean?
Intro clip: Vučić's very creepy virtual rally | Outro clip: The Big Z
Readings:
- Abramović, Žižek and Milanović: Yugoslavia’s First and Last Global Public Intellectuals, Srdjan Garcevic, The Nutshell Times
- The Tito–Castro Split and the End of Cigar Socialism, Lily Lynch, Balkanist
- Vucic’s nationalist party wins landslide victory in Serbian poll, Valerie Hopkins, FT
- West is best: How ‘stabilitocracy’ undermines democracy building in the Balkans, Srda Pavlovic, LSE blog
Jun 23, 2020
Jun 23, 2020
4 min
On this latest Three Articles, we discuss the global Black Lives Matter protests.
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The Triumph of Black Lives Matter and Neoliberal Redemption, Cedric Johnson, NonSite
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The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage
May 9, 2020
May 9, 2020
1hr 1 min
- It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage
- Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium
Apr 28, 2020
Apr 28, 2020
11 min
- It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage
- Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium
Feb 7, 2020
Feb 7, 2020
1hr 18 min
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)
Dec 16, 2019
Dec 16, 2019
1hr 11 min
On how Labour lost.
Was it Brexit that did for Labour? In what sense? What now for the British Left - and for democracy?
Running order:
- (02:40) Opening chat
- (05:15) The electoral map, the generational divide
- (21:46) Class
- (33:52) The leadership and the media
- (48:10) Holding our prediction to account
- (53:30) Reaction of various Labour factions
- (01:03:10) Future of left-populism
Readings:
- How class, turnout and the Brexit party shaped the general election result, Financial Times
- The Failure of the Left to Grasp Brexit, Michael Wilkinson, Verfassungs Blog
- Anti-politics & the last gasp of British Labourism, Tad Tietze, Left-Flank
- Hate to say it, but #BrexitWouldveWon, Alex Hochuli
- Don’t blame Corbyn or Brexit: Labour failed to rage against the hated political system, Adam Ramsay, openDemocracy
Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast
Dec 10, 2019
Dec 10, 2019
1hr 44 min
On the 30 years since 1989.
For our 100th episode, we invited our favourite guests to reflect on the question: “What one event, personal or political, most captures for you the past thirty years, since 1989?”
Are we still living in the death throes of the 20th century, or is something new emerging?
Guests:
- (00:07:42) - Maren Thom
- (00:14:14) - David Broder
- (00:21:33) - Ashley Frawley
- (00:26:11) - Catherine Liu
- (00:33:05) - Angela Nagle
- (00:40:49) - Benjamin Fogel
- (00:46:25) - Alex Gourevitch
- (00:51:31) - BungaCast hosts
- (00:59:22) - David Adler
- (01:04:05) - Amber A’Lee Frost
- (01:08:48) - James Heartfield
- (01:16:17) - Anton Jaeger
- (01:23:24) - Leigh Phillips
- (01:30:25) - Lee Jones
- (01:36:03) - Karl Sharro
Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast
Dec 3, 2019
Dec 3, 2019
3 min
UK general election preview.
Go to patreon.com/BungaCast for the full episode
Is is really the Brexit election, if Labour doesn't want it to be? We survey the parties' positions, and promises, and ask some big what ifs. Could there be a major realignment in the offing? And we make some predictions - which you can hold us to account for later on...
Nov 14, 2019
Nov 14, 2019
5 min
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Bolivia: The Extreme Right Takes Advantage of a Popular Uprising, Raúl Zibechi, Toward Freedom (originally in Spanish in Uninomadasur)
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Emmanuel Macron in his own words, The Economist
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A Californian economist loves neoliberalism. When Chileans started protesting it, he opened fire. Teo Armus, Washington Post (also available from SFGate)