Bungacast

/409/ Palestine, Protest, Repression: The Wider Context

On US campus protest, the brutalisation of Gaza, and whether this is an age of war.

 

Join us: patreon.com/bungacast

 

Bunga boys Alex, George and Phil debate the matter of the day. We ask:

• Is the police repression and associated censorship (the anti-semitism bill) a reflection of the fact the content of the protest unsettles the establishment? Why?

• Why is the Left breaking with Biden and the Dems over this and not before?

• How do these student protests compare to BLM? And how do they compare to those of the late 60s and Vietnam?

• What should those in Western countries do in response to Israel’s war?

• Is the Palestinian struggle dead?

• What are the risks of regional war? And does Israel's assault on Gaza presage a new era of warfare?

 

Links:

• The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage

• Like it or not, the politics of war is upon us, David Jamieson, Conter

• Express Train to Nowhere: Class and the Crisis of the Modern Jewish Soul, Samuel Biagetti, American Affairs 

• Is this How We Can STOP Genocide Joe?, Doug Lain interviews Dr. Elektra Kostopoulos & Dave Fox, Sublation Media

• The Left Cannot Make Use of the Gaza War, Benjamin Studebaker, Sublation Media

• Meet the new Left, who think Hamas are good and that Swastikas are woke, Ryan Zickgraf, Telegraph

• Their Fight, Not Ours, Alex Gourevitch, The Northern Star

/408/ Was It Raining When You Fled Paris? ft. Peter Gourevitch

On the earth-shaking events of the 20th century, through a personal lens.

 

Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch sits down with political scientist Peter Gourevitch to talk about their shared family history.

• Why did their grandparents/great-grandparents become Mensheviks?

• How did one half of the family leave the USSR and the other half remain?

• What was life like in exile in Berlin before the Nazis took power? And how did the family know to flee?

• What was distinctive about fascism and the terroristic assault on democracy?

• How was the escape from Paris just like the film Casablanca?

• What happened to those who remained in the Soviet Union and how did one member meet death via torture?

• What is the legacy of Menshevism – and what is the relationship between socialism and democracy?

Links:

Who Lived, Who Died? My Family's Struggle with Stalin and Hitler, Peter Gourevitch, Dio Press

 

Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast. Members who sign up for $7/mo get 4 original paywalled episodes a month and a free subscription to Damage magazine.

/407/ Beyond Bare Life ft. Dustin Guastella

On saving society from the antisocial-ists. In partnership with Damage magazine.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

Trade unionist and researcher Dustin "Dino" Guastella joins us to talk about the deficiencies of a libertarian or antinomian approach to social problems. We start off with Dino telling us about the Teamsters union, before moving on to:

• How have American cities developed such problems?

• What are the pros and cons of the 'Portuguese Model' of drug decriminalization?

• What is the problem with harm reduction, and how does it connect to notions of 'bare life'?

• How are insecurity and precarity changing people's political demands and expectations?

• Is there something to be learned from the Christian tradition? Should we all be reading Alasdair MacIntyre?

• How do we build a politics of human flourishing?

Links:

• Making the Present the Enemy of the Future, Dino Guastella, Damage
• Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dino Guastella, Damage
• Christianity, Morality, and Socialism, Dino Guastella, Jacobin
• The left must embrace law and order, Slavoj Zizek, New Statesman
• After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Alasdair MacIntyre

/406/ AufheBonus Bonus (sample)

On Euro censorship + your comments and criticisms.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

We discuss censorship in Brussels and Berlin, and put it in the context of the incorporation of right-populism. How will European politics come to look as national-conservatives become part of the establishment? What's up with these "sovereigntists" who are unserious about sovereignty?

 

Also we discuss your comments:

• If cultural production is already monopolistic, can it be democratically planned?

• Should we problematise "mental health"?

• Is love a dangerous political emotion?

• What happens if you leave the left?

• How do we kill the ghosts of the 20th century?

• Is a generational analysis of left-populism wrong?

• How do we get beyond a world of media and images?

Links:

• NatCon: are centrists the real threat to free speech?, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd

 

/405/ Size Queen Nation ft. Christie Offenbacher & Benjamin Fife (sample)

On the Big Hard Dick industry.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

Clinicians and Damage authors & editors, Christie and Benjamin, tell us why the market for penis enlargement and hardness has exploded.

• What is the "penis anxiety industry"
• How does it serve individual, cultural and unconscious demands?
• How does 'Big Hard Dick' provide a brittle solution to a deep social problem?
• Is the Freudian analysis passé? Is it phallus-obsessed?
• Does a making your penis bigger and harder help deal with imposter syndrome?
• Does neoliberal capitalism make us feel "small"? Does the liberal elite want you to accept your smallness?
• How might we be big – make ambitious, large-scale change – without falling for fake solutions?

Links:

• Size Queen Nation, Christie Offenbacher & Benjamin Fife, Damage
• /215/ Organize the Incels?! ft. Alex Gendler
• The New Superfluous Men, Alex Gendler, American Affairs
• On masquerade vs imposture: How Should a Woman Look?: Scopic Strategies for Sexuated Subjects, Jennifer Friedlander
• Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday Life, Mari Ruti, Columbia UP

/404/ Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings (IV) ft. Catherine Liu (sample)

On melodrama and the bourgeois subject.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

We're back with the next installment of our series on the "emotional turn". Alex talks to Catherine Liu about whether politics is staged in a "melodramatic" fashion today.

• What is the bourgeois subject, why was it good, and where did it go?
• What is melodrama?
• Does public crying make us feel connected? Is it all Oprah's fault?
• Why is psychoanalysis the solution to, not the cause of, therapy culture?
• How is indignation used today? Is the political scene just villains and victims?

Links:

• Emotion Sickness I ft. Nina Power
• Emotion Sickness II ft. Ashley Frawley
• Emotion Sickness III ft. Alex Hochuli
• Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery, Eva Illouz
• Interview with Christine Gledhill, from the book Melodrama After the Tears 

/402/ Revolution and Conservatism, e.g. in Mexico ft. Roger Lancaster (sample)

On President AMLO and the rebuilding the working class.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

We continue our discussion with anthropologist Roger Lancaster who has lived and researched in Mexico for decades, on the past and present of Mexican radicalism.

• How has popular conservatism served as a boost for radicalism and revolution 
• Is there any basis for a 'romantic' anti-capitalism, in Mexico, or in the Global North?
• Is President AMLO synthesising a new politics? 
• Has he “ended neoliberalism” or on the way to it?
• How socially conservative is AMLO really?

/403/ Reading Club: Habermas on Social Media (sample)

On A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics

 

[Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive]

 

Continuing our theme of "the intelligentsia & the public," we discuss German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas's 2023 book, asking what sort of political culture is required for democracy.

• What role do the institutions of the public sphere and the media have in producing, sustaining or undermining this culture?

• How does Habermas' account contrast with B. Anderson on print capitalism?

• Is 'deliberative' democracy a trap? Who sets the rules of deliberation?

• Is a good media structure a 'constitutional imperative'?

• How do interests fit into Habermas' model? Do we need to leave our interests at the door?

 

Links:

• A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics, Jurgen Habermas
• Jürgen Habermas is a major public intellectual. What are his key ideas?, Duncan Ivison, The Conversation
• /362/ Life Doesn’t Have to Zuck ft. Cory Doctorow - on social media

/401/ Modernity is Very Gay ft. Roger Lancaster

On Mexico, class, and sexuality. 

 

We welcome anthropologist Roger Lancaster onto the pod to talk about his new book, The Struggle to Be Gay – in Mexico, for Example.  

 

We discuss:

• How much is being gay tied to being modern? And conversely, how much of globalized culture is itself "gay"?

• Do you need to be middle class to be gay?

• Why did neoliberalism provide more sexual freedom than corporatism in Mexico? 

• How was Mexico ahead of the US in introducing ‘progressive neoliberalism’?

• Is now a time of freedom, or should we think of it differently?

In part two, we discuss AMLO's "synthetic" presidency, and the way peasant conservatism in central America has traditionally provided a boost to radicalism – and ask whether this is still the case.

 

Only available at patreon.com/bungacast.

 

See also: /180/ Bunga Bunga (but Gay) ft. Mark Simpson & River Page

/396/ Enough Carnations? Portugal Decides, ft. Catarina Príncipe

On Portugal's elections, 50 years since the revolution

 

Catarina Príncipe, a long-time activist on the Portuguese left and a doctoral student of political economy, is back on the podcast to talk through what happened as Portugal went to the polls.

• How does Portugal see itself, with regard to Europe, and its own history?
• How did the right-populist Chega party break through amid high turnout?
• What kind of anti-politics did Chega bring to the table?
• Is there nostalgia for the dictatorship?
• How did immigration become an issue in a country where emigration is the big problem?
• What is going on with Portugal's huge housing crisis?
• Why has the EU disappeared as a political issue, 10 years on from the peak of the crisis?

Bungacast is expanding, with new regular contributors, partnership with Damage magazine and more. Read about it here or see the video.

Links:

• In Portugal’s Election, the Center Left Struggles to Hold On, João Murta & Guilherme Rodrigues
• Europe After Brexit, Bungacast live event, ft. Catarina Principe + others

/400/ The Political Oppositions of the Next Decade ft. Frost, Gourevitch, Liu, Phillips

On what comes next: in politics, ideas, economy, subjectivity

 

To commemorate seven years of the podcast and four-hundred episodes, we got all our new Contributors in to examine the oppositions and tensions that we think will characterise the next decade. We say hello to Amber A'Lee Frost, Alex Gourevitch, Catherine Liu, and Leigh Phillips.

 

For all Bungacast shows, including our Contributors, the Damage magazine episode, Reading Club and more, go to patreon.com/bungacast

 

 

Politics

• Right-populism: insurgency or incorporation
• The Left: engagement or reclusion
• Multipolarity: opportunity or restriction
• War: inertia or action

Industry & Economy

• Work: precarity or militancy
• Green Capitalism: industry or austerity
• Tech: exhaustion or enchantment

Ideas & Art

• Truth: the image or the word
• Belief: reason or romanticism

Individual & Society

• Subjectivity: vulnerability or resilience
• Sex: liberation or puritanism
• Sociability: virtuality or embodiment

/399/ From ADHD to Let Me Be (Emotion Sickness, pt III) [sample]

On the withdrawal from hyperpolitics and hypermodernity.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

What comes after a decade of populism? Alex Hochuli talks through his new essay in Damage, issue 2. This is episode is the third part of our Emotion Sickness series on the politics of feelings. Click here for part 1 and part 2.

• If we are disengaging from politics, what is the associated feeling - resentment or resignation?

• Why are our times "hypermodern" – and why is this exhausting?

• What can the examples of the 'great resignation', 15-minute cities, and postliberalism all tell us about the ways people are withdrawing from modernity?

• Why do we need to decelerate to save modernity?

• How might we gain control of time?

This episode is in partnership with Damage. Bungacast subscribers ($7+) automatically get a digital subscription to the magazine. Go to patreon.com/bungacast.

 

Links:

• From ADHD to Let Me Be: Taking Control of Time, Alex Hochuli, Damage

• Damage issue 2: "Deinstitutionalized" (subscribe for Alex's essay + more)
• /365/ It’s So Over (Again) ft. Ryan Zickgraf (see also the links in show notes)
• Hypermodern Times, Gilles Lipovetsky
• Social Acceleration, Hartmut Rosa
• Scorched Earth, Jonathan Crary

/398/ Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings (II) ft. Ashley Frawley (sample)

Part II of the series: on therapy and vulnerability.

 

[Patreon Exclusive: subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

 

Sociologist Ashley Frawley (and COO of Sublation Press) is back on the podcast to talk about her new book, Significant Emotions. What is behind the seeming rise of public emotionalism and the focus on mental health?

• How was “happiness” a policy concern – and when did it disappear and why?
• What’s going on with universities and their focus on the mental health of students?
• Is there much emotion about, in a romantic sense of deep feeling?
• Or is it emotion ersatz, instrumentalised, superficial, sentimentalised?
• How does affect polarise politically Left and Right?
• Can we solve the crisis of subjectivity by focusing on the self?
• And who is the Big-Ass Subject?

Links:

• Significant Emotions: Rhetoric and Social Problems in a Vulnerable Age, Ashley Frawley, Bloomsbury
• Sublation Media
• Ashley's YouTube channel

/397/ Reading Club: Imagined Communities (sample)

On Benedict Anderson's classic Imagined Communities.

 

[Patreon Exclusive. Subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast]

 

Originally published in 1983, Anderson's account of the origins of nations is one of the most cited books in English in the humanities. In what ways does this diverse and inventive book still explain the world?

• How is imagined different from imaginary?
• Did nations emerge first in Latin America?
• Does Anderson's account of print capitalism still apply – and is it more valid than ever?
• Are we really in a post-national era?
• Does Anderson underestimate the political side – the project of achieving your 'own' state?

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (pdf)

 

The Reading Club this year is dedicated to three themes: the rise and fall of nations; intellectuals and the public; Russia: past and present.

Big news: Bungacast is getting bigger, better

Turbulent times, ideological confusion. Politics is back, but it's stranger than ever. All the more reason for unflinching critique of the current moment. That's why Bungacast is expanding.

Regular contributors are coming on-board: Catherine Liu, Amber Frost, Alex Gourevitch, and Leigh Phillips

 

We're partnering up with Damage Magazine

 

There'll be many more exclusive episodes – see patreon.com/bungacast

 

And a new Reading Club, with new themes!