Episodes
Friday Oct 23, 2020
Friday Oct 23, 2020
On the Covid election.
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Excerpt: /154/ A Reasonably Important Election ft. Alex Gourevitch
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On the Covid election.
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Excerpt: /152/ I Can't Believe It's Not Weimar ft. David Broder
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
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
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
/145/ The End of Conservatism ft. Julius Krein
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
On political decline and realignment.
The editor of American Affairs joins us to discuss the decay of conservatism and we ask whether this decay doesn't apply to other parts of the political spectrum too. Is today's 'class struggle' really just between the upper-middle class and the elite? And we discuss the 'late-Soviet' USA - the sense of decline embodied in the gerontocracy of the ruling class.
Readings:
- The Real Class War, Julius Krein, American Affairs
- America’s Unhealthy Gerontocracy, Julius Krein, American Affairs
- Conservatism Is A Collection Of Losers. It Doesn’t Have To Be. Julius Krein, The American Conservative
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Excerpt: /140/ Three Articles: Right-Populism
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
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
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Excerpt: /130/ Three Articles: BLM
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
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
Monday Jun 22, 2020
/129/ The Right Is Weak ft. Corey Robin
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Monday Jun 22, 2020
On the left case for freedom.
We talk to Corey Robin about how the left has sacrificed the realm of freedom to the right. And why the Left's weakness is also the Right's. Plus, why is it clear that Trump is not a fascist? And insight into the BLM protests in NYC and responses to the pandemic.
Reading:
- What People Power Looks Like in a Pandemic Democracy, Corey Robin, NYRB
- Symposium on the Challenges Facing Democrats: Freedom Now, Corey Robin & Alex Gourevitch, Polity
- If authoritarianism is looming in the US, how come Donald Trump looks so weak?, Corey Robin, Guardian
Tuesday Jun 09, 2020
Tuesday Jun 09, 2020
This is a sample. For the full episode go to patreon.com/bungacast
Bonus content (always the best stuff) from our interview with Angela and Michael (episode 126).
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
/126/ Mr Bunga Goes to Washington (3) ft. Angela Nagle & Michael Tracey
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Why did Bernie Sanders fail?
In the third in an occasional series on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Angela Nagle and Michael Tracey about their analysis of Bernie Sanders' campaign. We put to bed some bad arguments as to why Bernie didn't win the nomination, and examine some better ones: was the campaign was too establishment-friendly? too "left"? too middle-class? too anti-nationalist?... or are structural factors to blame instead?
And we ponder the end of the union of Old and New Lefts, of cultural liberalism and socialism. And the most worrying of all: was Bernie just a blip?
Reading:
- First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Collapse of the Sanders Campaign and the "Fusionist" Left, Angela Nagle & Michael Tracey, American Affairs
Tuesday May 19, 2020
/123/ Mr Bunga Goes to Washington (2) ft. Nicholas Kiersey
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Tuesday May 19, 2020
In the second in an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nicholas Kiersey, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in Texas and host of the Fully Automated podcast. What were things like on the campaign trail, and what went wrong for Bernie? Will Biden go the distance, and are there more shenanigans in store?
Readings:
- Like It or Not, If We Run Third Party, We Will Lose, Dustin Guastella, Jacobin
- The Tyranny of Decorum Hurt Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Prospects, David Sirota, Jacobin
- ‘Life After Bernie’: The Young Left Braces for Disappointment in 2020, Tim Alberta, Politico
- The Left Can’t Just Dismiss the Anti-Lockdown Protests, Ben Burgis, Jacobin
Saturday May 09, 2020
UNLOCKED /120/ Damaged Beyond Repair? ft. Anton Jäger
Saturday May 09, 2020
Saturday May 09, 2020
- It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage
- Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Excerpt: /120/ Damaged Beyond Repair ft. Anton Jäger
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
- It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage
- Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
/116/ Mr Bunga Goes to Washington (1) ft. Nick Frayn
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
In the first of an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nick Frayn, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in New England. How have things gone on the campaign trail? What is next for the Democratic primaries delayed by the corona outbreak? Can Bernie regain ground in the primaries against Joe Biden? How will the corona crisis impact the Democratic primaries?
Readings:
Tuesday Mar 03, 2020
Excerpt: /110/ Three Articles: De-democratising
Tuesday Mar 03, 2020
Tuesday Mar 03, 2020
In this latest Three Articles, we discuss American democracy and those who pretend to save it or undermine it.
Sign up for access to the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast
Readings:
- It’s time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president, Julia Azari, WaPo
- Michael Bloomberg: Smirking Id Of America’s Elites, Matt Purple, The American Conservative
- Bernie Sanders Was Right to Talk About Wage Slavery. We Should Talk About It, Too., Alex Gourevitch, Jacobin
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
[UNLOCKED] /77/ CaliBunga: Tech, Drugs & Capitalist Soul, Pt. 2
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
On drugs and mental health.
In part two, we chat about recreational drugs and mental states in a Hollywood bar with friends of the podcast, Amber A'Lee Frost and Alex Gendler. But mostly, we delve deeper into capitalism and depression with the 'States of Wellness' group at UC Irvine (Catherine Liu, Thomas Williams, Michael Mahoney, Benjamin Kruger-Robins).
#CaliBunga is a special multipart series on the Californian Ideology: the seemingly paradoxical hybrid of New Left and New Right ideas - the synthesis of hippies with yuppies, all tied together with the promise that technology might liberate us.
Thanks to UC Irvine School of Humanities for sponsoring this series.