Bungacast

/213/ The Leopard Lockdown ft. Adam Tooze

On Covid and the end of the end of history.

Adam Tooze joins us to discuss his new book, Shutdown. In 2020 everything changed... so that everything might remain the same.

What were the reasons behind the global shutdown? Was it a result of over-protection, a policy of repression, or the result of structural tensions? Has China been the winner of the pandemic? How have central banks been victims of their own success? And does this represent the end of neoliberalism?  

The latter part of the interview continues over on patreon.com/bungacast

Excerpt: /212/ Three Articles: Middle-Class Anxieties

On net-zero, CCP nanny state, and optimised dating.

 

We start off discussing the HBO series "The White Lotus" before tackling three articles on middle-class anxieties: climate change and pressures on UK living standards; the Chinese state's crackdown on private tutoring; and women's attempt to avoid crappy men through 'Female Dating Strategy'.

 

The full episode is available to patrons only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

 

Articles:

• Boris Johnson’s push for net zero plunged into chaos, Edward Malnick & Emma Gatten, The Telegraph (attached in patreon)
• China’s nanny state: why Xi is cracking down on gaming and private tutors, Tom Mitchell & Thomas Hale, FT (attached in patreon)
• ‘Sales funnels’ and high-value men: the rise of strategic dating, Katie Cunningham, The Guardian 

 

/211/ Unlocking the Lockdown Left ft. @galexybrane

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

/187/ The Huge Package State ft. Anton Jäger

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

/186/ Aufhebonus Bonus ft. Lee Jones

On Covid state failure + responses to listeners. 

 

The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

 

We start off by discussing listener points and criticisms – e.g. is PMC a useful category? Is a counterculture a terrible idea? Were we wrong on Deleuze? More on the lockdown debate... – before featuring the second part of our discussion with Lee Jones on the coronavirus and state failure (from 45:30).

 

We look in depth at what went wrong in Western state responses to the pandemic, why they didn't follow their own plans, and compare this to South Korea's relative success.

 

Readings:

• How the pandemic has exposed Britain’s failed ‘regulatory state’, Lee Jones, Daily Telegraph
• COVID-19 and the failure of the neoliberal regulatory state, Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, Review of International Political Economy

/185/ Discipline-Flourishing Democracy ft. Lee Jones

On the uprising in Myanmar, plus Covid state failure.

Southeast Asia scholar (and Bunga recidivist) Lee Jones joins us to talk about the coup in Myanmar (and why the word “coup” can be misleading), and explains the nature of the forces opposing the military, in the context of the country’s recent transition to civilian rule.

Then, from 40mins, we discuss how the UK failed in dealing with the pandemic, and how this applies across the West. Lee's recent work looks at the neoliberal "regulatory state" and its incapacities, so we compare the UK's failure with Korea's relative success.

Readings:

• Preliminary thoughts on the Myanmar “coup”, Lee Jones, Medium
• Responding to the Myanmar coup, Crisis Group
• How the Civil Disobedience Movement can win, Aye Min Thant and Yan Aung, Frontier
• How the pandemic has exposed Britain’s failed ‘regulatory state’, Lee Jones, Daily Telegraph
• COVID-19 and the failure of the neoliberal regulatory state (pdf), Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, Review of International Political Economy 

Excerpt: /148/ Three Articles (September)

Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

 

On Brexit negotiations and state aid; on pandemic policies and confirmation bias; and on Beethoven and access to high culture.

 

Readings:

• Of moonshots and bus subsidies: How state aid became a Brexit deal-breaker, The Economist (attached in patreon)
• Sweden’s Covid-19 experiment holds a worldwide warning, Wolfgang Münchau, FT (attached in patreon)
• Why are we racialising Beethoven, Ralph Leonard, Unherd

Additional referenced pieces:

• Anders Tegnell and the Swedish Covid experiment, FT
• We Need a Radically Different Approach to the Pandemic and Our Economy as a Whole, Katherine Yik & Martin Kulldorff, Jacobin

Excerpt: /124/ Three Articles: Money & Power

This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

In this latests Three Articles we discuss power, money and the power of money - in a post-Covid world.

 

Readings:

• The Death of the Central Bank Myth, Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy
• Why the Neoliberals Won’t Let This Crisis Go to Waste, Philip Mirowski, Jacobin
• Plan A for the coronavirus, Curtis Yarvin, Medium

Excerpt: /110/ Three Articles: De-democratising

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

/66/ An Economics for the Many ft. James Meadway

On 'Corbynomics'. We talk to James Meadway, former advisor to the UK's Shadow Chancellor, about what a Corbyn government could and should do. What is the scope for manoeuver of a Left Government in 2019? What does a British 'Green New Deal' look like? And we talk Brexit, because of course.

 

#BungaLive is this Thursday (21 March) in London - reserve your ticket now: bungacast.eventbrite.com

/43/ City Struggles ft. Ben Bradlow / David Adler

In which we ask why the urban question become so pointed today - in the Global North as well as in the South? We look at contestation in urban politics - in São Paulo, Johannesburg, London, New York, and beyond. What are the social movement struggles around housing, rent, transport, and the right to the city? What are the limits to housing & transport politics -- are they just consumer movements at the end of the day?

Guests:

• David Adler talks to us about rent in London and beyond.
• Ben Bradlow joins us to debate the big one: can municipal politics be sexy? And can city politics become national politics?

We conclude by returning to a recurring theme: is the Global North actually becoming more like the Global South? 

 

Readings:

Ben Bradlow, Let Them Occupy: https://africasacountry.com/2018/02/let-them-occupy-housing-struggles-in-brazil-and-south-africa 

David Adler, Generation Rent: https://jacobinmag.com/2016/04/big-short-housing-loans-renters-affordability 

 

Review of Justin McGuirk's 'Radical Cities' https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/11/radical-cities-latin-america-architecture-justin-mcguirk-review

Interview with Raquel Rolnik https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2792-the-complete-subjugation-of-urban-policy-an-interview-with-raquel-rolnik

Steve Graham on vertical cities https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2995-elite-takeovers-of-the-vertical-city 

 

Cover image: 📷Claudio Edinger 

 

/35/ (Dis)Arm the People? ft. Reid Kane

In which we delve into the gun control debate: are guns really essential for democracy? Plus, the 2018 UK university strike.

/31/ Woke Neoliberalism ft. James Heartfield

In which we debate the 'equal opportunities revolution': how race & gender has changed, in the workplace & beyond

Episode 9: An Englishman's Castle: Housing and Protest

Episode Nine: In which we recoil at the horror of the Grenfell Tower Fire and think through its political consequences. Also housing & urban development in Brazil, plus a flashback to the Salad Revolt of June '13

Episode 8: Worst Fuck/Marry/Kill Game Ever

Episode Eight: In which we talk about the generation gap, lying to pollsters, and hot centrists.