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.
Fill out our 2022 Listener Survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XNLTVLB

Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
/303/ The Failure of the French Forever War ft. Yvan Guichaoua
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
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Norms, non-combatants' agency and restraint in Jihadi violence in Northern Mali, Yvan Guichaoua and Ferdaous Bouhlel, International Interactions
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The bitter harvest of French interventionism in the Sahel, Yvan Guichaoua, International Affairs

Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Excerpt: /302/ Aufhebonus Bonus (Nov 2022)
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
[Patreon Exclusive]

Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
/300/ Bunga at the End of the World
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
On nuclear exterminism.
To commemorate our 300th episode, we discuss how the world is closer to a nuclear conflict than at any point since the Cold War. After decades of inconsequential 'permawar' (at least inside the Western bubble), the proxy war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia is suddenly very consequential indeed.
How does our situation differ from that of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis? Why might it be more unpredictable? Does today's very different ideological configuration make war more or less likely?
Before that, we reflect on five and half years of Bungacast, how the world has changed over the period, and pick out some of our favourite episode from the past half-decade.
The main discussion begins at 23mins.
Readings:
- Who will stop Putin from going nuclear?, Philip Cunliffe, UnHerd
- How to prevent World War III, Philip Cunliffe, UnHerd
- Notes on Exterminism, the Last Stage of Civilisation, EP Thompson, New Left Review
- The War in Ukraine Could Lead to Nuclear War, Anatol Lieven, Quincy Institute

Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Excerpt: /295/ Aufhebonus Bonus: October
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022

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)

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 16, 2022
/281/ Foreign Fighters, Left & Right (I) ft. Stefan Bertram-Lee
Tuesday Aug 16, 2022
Tuesday Aug 16, 2022
On Rojava and Ukraine.
We talk to Stefan Bertram-Lee, former volunteer fighter for the the YPG in Rojava, about whom a Hollywood movie is being made. We ask him about the type of person who volunteers, and how this compares to those who have gone to Ukraine. How does this stop you "being a teenage nihilist"? And who would win in a fight: ISIS, Azov or the YPG?
Part two of this episode is available at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70597308
Reading:
- Ukraine the Day after Tomorrow, Stefan Bertram-Lee, Sublation
- The Nazification of Ukraine, Stefan Bertram-Lee, Sublation
- ‘Stefan Vs. ISIS’ Pic In Works, Deadline

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 Jul 26, 2022
/276/ Broken Promises ft. Fritz Bartel
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
We discuss Bartel's striking claim that democracies, rather than authoritarian systems, were better able to 'break promises' – that is, impose economic discipline. And we conclude by discussing whether it could have been otherwise, whether neoliberalism and the collapse of the 'really existing socialism' were inevitable.
Readings:
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The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism, Fritz Bartel, Harvard UP
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Democracy and Discipline: Review Essay, Alex Hochuli, American Affairs

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

Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
/254/ Three Articles: Ukraine
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
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A proxy war in Ukraine is the worst possible outcome — except for all the others, Sam Winter-Levy, War on the Rocks
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“Now we're going to f*ck them all.” What's happening in Russia's elites after a month of war, Farida Rustamova, Faridaily
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Zelensky’s muddled neutrality plan is not the answer for Ukraine, James Sherr, FT (attached)

Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
/250/ Oil & Disorder ft. Helen Thompson
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
On energy, the material basis for all our politics?
Helen Thompson, podcaster and professor of political economy at Cambridge and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, joins us to talk about the geopolitics of oil, stretching from the 1956 Suez Crisis to the Fracking Revolution of today. How does US energy independence help explain shifting politics in Europe and the Middle East?
Plus, did the End of History stay afloat on a sea of cheap oil?
Part 2 of the interview, plus our After Party, is here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/251-oil-disorder-64394535
Readings:
- Profits from fossil fuel energy power Russia's war machine, and Ukraine suffers, Helen Thompson, New Statesman
- What Is Fueling Our Century’s Global “Disorder”?, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, The Nation
- How Did Europe Get Hooked On Russian Energy?, Paul J. Davies, Bloomberg

Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Excerpt: /237/ Three Articles: Italy, Ukraine, Matrix
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
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How the EU destroyed Italian democracy, Thomas Fazi & Paolo Cornetti, Unherd
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Boringly postmodern and an ideological fantasy, Slavoj Zizek, The Spectator
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Chartbook #70 Draghi for President?, Adam Tooze, Substack

Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Excerpt: /234/ Three Articles: Restoration?
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
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Millennials Are Supercharging the Housing Market, Nicole Friedman, WSJ (attached)
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A tale of two elites in Washington and Beijing, Gideon Rachman, FT (attached)