Episodes
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Excerpt: /241/ Three Articles: Peace & Social War in North America
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
On dovish conservatives, Trumpist coup-mongers and Canadian truckers.
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Live debate/book launch in NYC, Feb 22nd: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-debate-book-launch-the-end-of-the-end-of-history-tickets-261000468427
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We examine what arguments 'pro-worker conservatives' are making in an aim to rid the GOP of warmongers and what this says about their vision of politics. In that light we also look at the Trumpist wing and ask what they might have in common, if anything, with the former. And we debate the Canadian protests against vaccine mandates and the left's response to it so far.
Three Articles:
- Hawks Are Standing in the Way of a New Republican Party, Sohrab Ahmari, Patrick Deneen, Gladden Pappin, NYT
- The second coming of Donald Trump, The Economist
- As Workers Resist, the Left Recoils, Edwin Aponte, The Bellows
Tuesday Jan 11, 2022
/235/ Political Ritalin ft. Anton Jäger
Tuesday Jan 11, 2022
Tuesday Jan 11, 2022
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How the World Went from Post-Politics to Hyper-Politics, Anton Jäger, Tribune
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Introduction from The End of the End of History, Bungacast, Merion West
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Did the culture wars ever end?, Q&A with Andrew Hartman, Illinois State
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)
Tuesday Nov 23, 2021
Excerpt: /226/ Science Says: No Woke
Tuesday Nov 23, 2021
Tuesday Nov 23, 2021
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Full report (pdf)
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
/225/ Wokeistan & Lebanonworld ft. Karl Sharro
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
On sectarianism & identitarianism.
Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) is back on Bunga to talk to us about his essay "The Retreat from Universalism in the Middle East and the World".
Lebanon has been used as a model for other Middle Eastern countries, even though its confessional system is a disaster. But Lebanese-style sectarianism isn't a form of 'feudal' backwardness – in fact it represents a precursor of the multicultural and identitarian politics in the West.
Who are the enemies of universalism today, East and West? And what sort of political projects are capable of rejuvenating secular universalism?
See also:
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Buy our book: The End of the End of History
Subscribe to the podcast: patreon.com/Bungacast
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Excerpt: /224/ Three Articles: Labour Revolts?
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
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Wages are surging across the rich world, The Economist
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The Revolt of the American Worker, Paul Krugman, NYT
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US Workers Are in a Militant Mood, Alex N. Press, Jacobin
The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
Excerpt: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 3
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
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Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
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Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative
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Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
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Jeffrey Alexander, professor of sociology at Yale University
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Holger Nehring, chair in contemporary European history at the University of Stirling
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Kristin Ross, professor emeritus of comparative literature at New York University
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Medité / A Change in My Heart / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
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Ondolut / Blumen / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
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Elliott Holmes / Bull Chase / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
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Kick Castle / Kick Down / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
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T. Morri / Nuthin' but Nuts / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
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American Pastoral Trailer © 2016 - Lionsgate
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Mai 1968 © France 3 Paris Ile-de-France
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Imitation de Daniel Cohn-Bendit © C'est Canteloup
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Baader Meinhof Complex © 2008
Friday Sep 24, 2021
Excerpt: /217/ Reading Club: Intersectional Stalinism
Friday Sep 24, 2021
Friday Sep 24, 2021
Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
/211/ Unlocking the Lockdown Left ft. @galexybrane
Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
On lockdowns, education, and the left.
California middle-school teacher and social critic Alex Gutentag (@galexybrane) joins us to talk about the depredations of lockdown in California and the wider world.
How has lockdown affected different segments of society, and how damaging have school closures been on education? Why has the professional middle class been so in favour of widespread restrictions – and how did the left go from backing Medicare 4 All to cheering on lockdowns in the space of a few months?
Readings:
- The War on Reality, Alex Gutentag, The Tablet
- The Great Covid Class War, Alex Gutentag, The Bellows
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
/187/ The Huge Package State ft. Anton Jäger
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
On cash welfarism and state investment. Plus regionalism in Belgium & the UK.
Anton Jäger is back on the pod to discuss the emerging 'transfer state'. We examine Biden's massive trillion-dollar spending plans and ask if this means we're leaving neoliberalism. What are the limitations to the 'cashification of welfare'? Also comparisons with cash transfers or lack thereof in the UK, Brazil and Belgium.
Plus Anton talks us through recent Belgian history and why its immobilism and bureaucracy has actually prevented a full-on neoliberal assault.
[Part 2 available at patreon.com/bungacast]
Readings:
- “Welfare without the welfare state”: the death of the postwar welfarist consensus, Anton Jäger & Daniel Zamora, New Statesman
- Joe Biden Is a Transformational President, David Brooks, NYT
Tuesday Feb 16, 2021
/176/ The Worst Class ft. Catherine Liu
Tuesday Feb 16, 2021
Tuesday Feb 16, 2021
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Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional-Managerial Class, Catherine Liu, University of Minnesota Press, 2021
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Moral Minoritarianism from the Ashes of Left Populism, George Hoare, Damage
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Saving Britain's Universities report, Lee Jones & Phillip Cunliffe, Cieo
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
/174/ Social Ungluing ft. Benjamin Fong
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
On American breakdown.
Editor of Damage Magazine, Benjamin Fong, joins us to talk about the lack of shared narratives in contemporary America. We discuss QAnon and conspiracy theories, Biden's authoritarian liberalism, and "pro-worker" conservatives.
We also interrogate the use of psychological analyses of politics and reaffirm the value of psychoanalysis, in a preview of a more detailed forthcoming discussion on our patreon.
Readings:
- The Siren Song of “Pro-Worker” Conservatism, Benjamin Fong & Dustin Guastella, Jacobin
- Unpacking the Left's Culture Baggage, Benjamin Fong, Damage
- Therapy Without Therapists, Briana Last, Damage
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
On the Biden administration and Trumpist reaction.
We discuss the riot at the US Capitol and why it was not a (failed) coup attempt. How serious was the event, and what next for Trumpist reaction - will it lead to a split in the Republican Party?
Our guests - journalist Amber Frost and political science academic Daniel Bessner - help us preview what the Biden administration has in store for the US. With Democratic control of both houses, it should be able to pass legislation - but does it have any substantial plans to do so? In foreign policy, we can expect more foreign adventurism and at home, an ominous anti-domestic terrorism bill. Does the alliance of the Democrats with an increasingly domineering Silicon Valley signal the coming-out moment of authoritarian liberalism?
Readings:
- Riot on the Hill, Mike Davis, NLR Sidecar blog
- Render unto Ourselves, What is Ours—or Caesar Will Seize It, Alex Hochuli, Damage
- What Experts on Extremism Want From the Biden Administration, James D Walsh, NYMag
- Morbid Symptoms Can Persist for a Long Time, Barry Eidlin, Jacobin
- Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Aftermath, Glenn Greenwald, Substack
- The revenge of the blob, Alex Ward, Vox
Saturday Nov 07, 2020
/159/ Biden Time ft. Amber A'Lee Frost & Alex Gourevitch
Saturday Nov 07, 2020
Saturday Nov 07, 2020
On the US election, a huge turnout and the end of Trump.
We survey the results of the presidential and legislative elections, peer through the exit polls and discuss some counterintuitive facts: Florida goes Trump but opts for a $15 minimum wage; California goes Biden while Uber gets its way; Trump did protectionism but it didn't help him win the Rustbelt; the Republicans win over more Latinos – but do Latinos even exist?
And the big questions: Will Biden and the Democrats have any authority now that they don't have anti-Trumpism to drive them? Is a Biden administration to be a Silicon Valley dictatorship? And will the GOP be Trumpism without Trump?
Readings:
- Are the Democrats losing on purpose? Amber Frost & Daniel Bessner, Jacobin
Monday Nov 02, 2020
UNLOCKED /152/ I Can't Believe It's Not Weimar ft. David Broder
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Monday Nov 02, 2020
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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