Bungacast

On the US midterms and the beginning of the end of Trump. Ryan Zickgraf talks to Alex about an election of real import, and whether it is an endorsement of the Democrats or mere anti-incumbency. --> Subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast How much was this about affordability? The Iran war? Is woke coming back? What will happen to the Trump administration in its final two years? Will MAGA fragment or will someone assume leadership over it? Will the Democrats move "left" and what would that mean? Is this a win for the DSA? Was this the first ever election over Artificial Intelligence? Links: Get ready for Left populism: Democratic centrism just died, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd  America turns on Donald Trump’s tech cheerleaders, FT Identity Politics Have Entered a New Phase, Jia Lynn Yang, NYT /558/ Sewer Socialism, or Left in the Toilet? ft. Ross Barkan

On the pupils' protests and wider riots. Charles Devellennes, author of books on Macron and French protests, is back on the pod, talking to Alex about a month of insurrection in France. –> For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Why are these types of revolts so common in Macron's France? Are things that bad – or do the French have higher standards? Why did the secondary school pupil's protests explode into something bigger? Are the demonstrations "anti-French"? Even anti-civilisation? Can the radical left profit or is it Le Pen's presidency to lose? Links High school protests met with unparalleled repression, Charles Devellennes substack The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract, Charles Devellennes France: between the bond market and the barricades, FT France's riots: revolution without utopia, Muriel Zagha, Engelsberg Ideas France’s long history of revolt, Julian Jackson, Engelsberg Ideas

On Brazil and national reconstruction. In our first ever episode in Portuguese, Alex speaks to Orlando Lima (editor of Valete, in-house magazine of new right-wing party, Missão) about the party and how Orlando came to be a "right-wing Zizekian". Video with English subtitles and AI dubbing available at YouTube Are left and right still meaningful identifiers? Is Brazil actually "pre-modern"? What does modernization entail? What is patrimonialism and how can it ever be good? How can a War on Crime not lead to repression and gangsterism? What about inequality? How is Missão similar or different to radical-right parties in Europe or North America? Links: Can Anyone Save Brazil, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd The Duck-Billed Platypus, Chico de Oliveira, NLR The Brazilianization of the World, Alex Hochuli, American Affairs Valete magazine /461/ Welcome to the World of the Right ft. Michael C. Williams /532/ Is This a Paleocon Foreign Policy? ft. JF Drolet

On infrastructure – who owns and who controls it. Scholar Joscha Abels talks to Lee and Alex about global infrastructure, from satellites to cloud computing to undersea cables. --> For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast What, actually, is infrastructure How has public versus private provision of infrastructure changed? How much do tech oligarchs actually control the infrastructure we depend upon? Are we leaving neoliberalism behind? Have state and corporations fused into one? How vulnerable is global infrastructure to sabotage?

On migration, monarchy, and legitimacy. Merouan Mekouar, professor of development studies at York University in Toronto, gives Alex and Lee an in-depth view of a country at the centre of multiple tendencies. –> Subscribe for more like this, at patreon.com/bungacast What actually happened with the stream of migrants at the Moroccan border with Ceuta (Spain)? How much of a pressure valve does outward migration provide in Morocco? What does Moroccan neoliberalism look like? What is elite cooptation? How has Morocco avoided mass protest ,and what does the monarchy's legitimacy rest on? How it Morocco pursuing "polyalignment", between China, US, EU...? What's up with the massive infrastructure push ahead of the 2030 World Cup which Morocco will co-host? Links: Beyond the Model Reform Image: Morocco’s Politics of Elite Co-Optation, Merouan Mekouar, GIGA Doing Research as a Native: A Guide for Fieldwork in Illiberal and Non-Democratic States, Kira D. Jumet and Merouan Mekouar (eds), OUP

On dead ends and new beginnings. Socialist writers, teachers and podcasters, Daniel Tutt and C. Derick Varn, talk to Alex and George about their pamphlet, The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism, which came out this year. Is left populism not dead and buried? What's wrong with trying to unite people against the elite? What is the 'populist method' of class analysis? Are professionals and managers a class, and are its interests always opposed to the working class? Where did post-Marxists go wrong? Links: The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism, Revol Press, 2026 Varn Vlog Emancipations podcast

On sovereignty and Brazil's election. Juliano Fiori, Alameda Institute director, talks to Alex about Lula versus (Flávio) Bolsonaro through the lens of internal and external threats to sovereignty. Is this an election about nothing? What is at stake? How did the Left reappropriate the defence of Brazilian interests? What's behind US interference in Brazil? Is it economic or political? How does the state reflect social fragmentation? Does Brazilian territory suffer from a deficit or an excess of sovereignty? For the full episode, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast Links: Sovereigns of Brazil, Juliano Fiori, Alameda Soberanos de um Brasil fragmentado, Juliano Fiori, piauí At the UN, Brazil's Lula warns against foreign interference in upcoming election, Reuters

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. In part four, we finish off by digging into New York itself to look at the great contradictions of modernism. We conclude by asking what the capital of the 21st century is, and who, if anyone, is planning it. This fourth episode features: Catherine Liu, Professor of Film & Media Studies, UC Irvine Damage summit participants Nick Burns, writer, editor Miodrag Mitrašinović, Professor of Urbanism and Architecture, The New School This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. In part three, we explore the political economy of place: what produces the city, and what the city produces. We also ask whether place-based cultural scenes are still possible. This third episode features: Christie Offenbacher, psychologist Greg Gabrellas, psychiatrist Damage summit participants Pierre d'Alancaisez, critic and curator Matthew Gasda, playwright This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. In part two, we explore "non-places", and ask whether their proliferation presents a challenge to the development of democratic politics. We also inquire into junk spaces and hyper-places. And ask what kind of politics and ideologies a digital life throws up. This second episode features: Amber Trotter, psychologist Damage Summit participants Alex Gendler, writer Joshua Citarella, artist, writer, host, Doomscroll This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. Over this multi-part documentary, we examine public space and non-places; privatisation, gentrification and digitalisation; the role of rent and of local scenes. The ultimate question is, is politics possible without a sense of place? This first episode features: Richard J Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures, University of Edinburgh Miodrag Mitrašinović, Professor of Urbanism and Architecture, The New School This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

On oligarchy and the end of reform. Vedi Hadiz is back on to talk to Lee and Alex about Indonesia, amidst severe economic instability in the country. What does the ascendancy of Prabowo Subianto represent? What is going on with the erratic economic policymaking? How is Prabowo bullying other oligarchs, and is it working? What similarities are there between Prabowo and Putin, or even Trump? – For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Oligarchy and the End of Reformasi in Indonesia: Power Reorganised, Vedi Hadiz & Richard Robison Prabowo’s Clampdown on Indonesian Tycoons Fuels Capital Flight, Bloomberg /391/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About ft. Vedi Hadiz

On the complex connections between globalisation and political Islam. The OG Bunga Boys reflect on the quarter-century since that spectacular terrorist attack, and talk about Phil's recent essay on the waning of Islamism. Whatever happened to 'solving' Islamic radicalism through moderate conservatism? Is the end of globalisation also the end of global jihad? Why? Why did Islamism fail in pursuit of state power? Will the Left back 'Islamopopulism'? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The Man Who Was Friday: Global Islamism after Unipolarity, Philip Cunliffe, American Affairs The Interventionist Future of the DSA, Philip Cunliffe, Compact NOW UNLOCKED: /355/ F***ing and shooting are not the same

On Zohran Mamdani. Writer Ross Barkan, author of The Revolutionary on the New York mayor, talks to Ryan Zickgraf and Alex Hochuli about what Mamdani means for the Left. How did Mamdani mute cultural progressivism to focus concentrate on rent, transport, childcare and food? Is municipal socialism part of a strategy to rebuild national power, or is it a retreat to the cities after the failure of Bernie? Is the New York strategy replicable elsewhere in the US? How is Mamdani different from AOC? Is Mamdani a populist, not a socialist? Is the rentier, rather than the worker, the subject of politics? Links: Zohran Mamdani and the Remaking of American Politics, Ross Barkan Ross Barkan on Mamdani and where DSA goes from here, Current Affairs The New Socialist Revolution, Ross Barkan NYC-DSA endorsement and platform overview How Mamdani used social media to build a movement, The Washington Post Brandon Johnson: Sewer Bill socialist, Ryan Zickgraf

We deal with your questions, comments and criticisms from the past month. Key issues: How big a deal, historically, is the US's failure in Iran? Is populism rooted in resentment and/or cynicism? Why is fascism not the right label for Trump? How to debate immigration? Are NGOs and international organisations actually relevant? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: /152/ I Can't Believe It's Not Weimar ft. David Broder Debating the F-Word, Bunk History The National Interest in Women’s Freedom, The Northern Star The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe, Dylan Riley

Taking a short break – back in late August.

On politics and football. Alex is joined by Karl Sharro, Juan David Rojas, Tim Abrahams, and Euan Marshall to pick over the stories of this World Cup. If the World Cup is a branding exercise for the hosts, what exactly is the USA selling here? And Mexico? Canada? Are conspiracy theories good, actually? Is Argentina evil? Should you support the global South against the colonisers? Are evangelicals responsible for Brazilian failure? Do you need central planning to become good at football? When 23% of players at the WC are foreign born, how can globalisation be ending? >> For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast << Links: Football won’t rescue the nation, Alex Hochuli, Africa Is a Country Note to Leftists, Do Not Squander The World Cup!, Juan Rojas, Substack Blood ties and opportunity: Why more World Cup players than ever are not representing their birth nations, BBC

On 'imperialist realism'. Daniel Bessner, historian, is back on to discuss the relation between US foreign policy and ideology. He talks to Alex and Lee about his forthcoming book and other writings. Why has acceptance of imperialism accompanied declining support for empire? What is the US's sense of mission and how does this coexist with cynicism? Is US politics stuck between liberal guilt and conservative suprematism? Does nothing ever actually change? Is the US even a democracy? What would an effective anti-imperialist politics look like? The full episode is for subscribers only, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Power without Ideology, Daniel Bessner, The Ideas Letter Imperialist Realism: Politics and Culture at the End of the American Century, Daniel Bessner, Zer0 Books /464/ Decline Under The Donald ft. Daniel Bessner

On Roland Barthes' Mythologies. (This is an unlocked episode from our Reading Club. Subscribe for more like this.) Alex, George, and contributing editor Catherine Liu delve into Barthes' 1957 classic to understand the form of ideology critique it proposes – and particularly as it relates to left and right. If the bourgeoisie generates myth, is revolution a cathartic act that gets us beyond myth? Is the direct producer also unable to speak myth, or is this a romanticisation? What are predominant left-wing myths today? Is "left vs right" a myth of sorts? Is the critic of myths condemned to live a "theoretical sociality"? Should people just be allowed to enjoy things?

On writing the history of capitalism. Political theorist Corey Robin talks to Alex H and Alex G about what is wrong with Sven Beckert's monumental new Capitalism: A Global History. Have historians returned to writing about big themes and grand narratives? Why does Beckert date capitalism's emergence to 12th century Arabia? Is capitalism essentially about free markets and free trade – or about the state, coercion, violence? If capitalism has no beginning and no end, then does that mean we're still at the end of History? Links: The Long Revolution, Corey Robin (review of Sven Beckert), The Nation /481/ Everything is Plausible: Oligarchy – or Worse ft. Corey Robin

On global shortages and their political consequences. Benjamin Bradlow, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton, talks to Alex and Lee about the world-historic impact of the Hormuz Strait closure. How will shortages – beyond oil and gas – reverberate through global supply chains? Why are markets so sanguine about all this? Are financial economic elites too insulated from consequences? Will China be the big beneficiary as more countries turn to importing its tech for renewables? Do countries want to trade dependency on the Middle East or US for dependency on China? Would a world of energy autarky be more or less peaceful? Are "electrostates" a thing? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The Winners and Losers of the Iran Energy Shock, Benjamin Bradlow, Foreign Affairs The energy crisis may just be starting, Martin Wolf, FT

Audio from the live event held at Verdurin, London, on 28 May 2026. The OG Bunga Boys - Alex, George, and Phil - present their takes, followed by responses from contributing editor Lee Jones and friend-of-the-pod Nina Power - and audience questions.

On Roland Barthes' Mythologies. Alex, George, and contributing editor Catherine Liu delve into Barthes' 1957 classic to understand the form of ideology critique it proposes – and particularly as it relates to left and right. If the bourgeoisie generates myth, is revolution a cathartic act that gets us beyond myth? Is the direct producer also unable to speak myth, or is this a romanticisation? What are predominant left-wing myths today? Is "left vs right" a myth of sorts? Is the critic of myths condemned to live a "theoretical sociality"? Should people just be allowed to enjoy things? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

On world money and war. Costas Lapavitsas, professor of economics at SOAS, London, talks to George and Alex about financialisation, arrested development, and the Strait of Hormuz. What is the state-led stabilisation of finance capital? How does today's imperialism differ from prior versions – even if they also inhibited development outside the core? What is the "liquidity tribute" that developing countries must pay? How is the war on Iran a perfect case of dollar imperialism: "the dollar and the F35"? Why is the talk of "colonialism" today a distraction? London event: History's Back, Baby! Links: A Topography of the New Dollar Imperialism, Costas Lapavitsas, NLR Trump’s Chaotic Imperialism: Economic Warfare, Geopolitical Truculence and Domestic Authoritarianism, Costas Lapavitsas, Socialist Register For forthcoming Monthly Review article, see here /139/ Dollar Empire ft. Yakov Feygin & Dominik Leusder /142/ Dollar Empire (2) ft. Daniel Bessner

History’s back, baby!  Thu 28 May, Verdurin, London Tickets: https://verdur.in/store/historys-back-baby-admission/   It is obvious today that the “end of history”, postulated by Francis Fukuyama in 1992, is over. Liberal democracy as the final form of human organisation? Pah! The arc of history tending towards justice? Pah!  Will the end of twentieth-century modernity be the start of something new? The building blocks of the past – political parties, ideologies, and institutions – are decaying around us, and nothing new emerges to take their place.  Yet history now has new protagonists: states, corporations, and oligarchs, often acting in synthesis. What if history’s back but not as we wanted it? The stakes are high: the sunset of the US hegemony is in sight and even Fukuyama now agrees on the impending primacy of the “Chinese model”. Yet even such geopolitical shifts aren’t leading to the creation of a new hegemony – disorder is the order of the day.  Five years on from the publication of The End of the End of History, its authors and hosts of Bungacast reflect on a world in a state of accelerated decay, with responses from guests Lee Jones and Nina Power. They say that “nothing ever happens”. Pah! Something ever happens.

On angry young women. Ashley Frawley, sociologist and senior editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to delve more deeply into young people's political polarisation on gender lines. Why is there a lack of mutual understanding or goodwill between young men and women when we have never been more equal? Why do differing political views on anything from Israel/Palestine to Donald Trump cause such interpersonal rancour? Young women are centrally concerned with pain, trauma, and empathy – and see men as lacking. What's behind this? How is the conservative explanation (bad lefty ideas) just as faulty as the lefty one (patriarchy)? What will the political consequences be of gender polarisation? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Revealed: the new radicalism among young women, Scarlett Maguire, New Statesman Meet the Angry Young Women, Emily Lawford, New Statesman Why young women are so angry, Pippa Bailey, New Statesman Don’t panic about “Angry Young Women”, Jack Davey, The Critic Magazine Why do young women hate men?, New Statesman, YouTube /394/ Girls, Left / Boys, Right ft. Nina Power (see for additional links) Girls and Boys are becoming very different, Alex Hochuli, Substack

On the gig economy, big tech, and ideology. Sociologist Will Charles talks to Alex about a form of social organisation that has stopped trying to justify itself. How should the gig economy work and how does it actually work? Is any worker in this economy a 'true believer'? Why isn't digital sophistication a proof of economic efficiency? What's the relationship between secular stagnation, value capture, and rentierism? Do workers hold to a latent moral economy that could provide the basis for revolt? Full episode for subscribers only. Sign up: patreon.com/bungacast Readings: Muskism and the Myth of Productive Revolution, Will Charles Post-Legitimate Society, Will Charles & Ryan Gunderson Muskism Is the Specter Stalking Our Present, Alex Hochuli, Jacobin Relevant episodes: /538/ Muskism ft. Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff  /522/ At the Bottom of the Tar Pit ft. Benjamin Studebaker /540/ Welcome to the Apolar and Post-Multilateral World ft. Tom Chodor /546/ Reading Club: Are We All Post-Liberal Now? ft. Geoff Shullenberger /547/ What Are the Politics of Stagnation? ft. Dylan Riley

On political capitalism and divided workers. Sociology professor at UC Berkeley, Dylan Riley, talks to Alex and Lee about economic stagnation, the state propping up capitalism, and class politics. What is "political capitalism"? And is it true that plunder and predation matter more now than exploitation? Why hasn't the ruling class purged the system through mass bankruptcies and unemployment? How does Chinese state capitalism fit into the story of stagnation and excess capacity? What is the difference between economic interests and class interests? How is the working class divided today? Is there a way out of the impasse? What possibility is there of a pro-growth politics? –> For more like this, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast <– Links: Relevant Episodes /312/ Consolation-Prize Marxism & the Bunga-Bunga State ft. Dylan Riley /515/ State Capitalism Is Now ft. Ilias Alami Riley & Brenner Seven Theses on American Politics, New Left Review, 2022  The Long Downturn and Its Political Results, New Left Review, 2025 Some Key Responses Reflections on Political Capitalism, Lola Seaton, New Left Review, 2023 Notes on ‘Political Capitalism’, John Ganz Seven Theses on Brenner and Riley's "Political Capitalism", Tim Barker Robert Brenner’s Unprofitable Theory of Global Stagnation, Seth Ackerman, Jacobin From Politics to Theory and Back, Benjamin Fong, Damage  Notable pieces in Sidecar by Dylan Lenin in America First Principles Contra Arendt

On postliberalism, MacIntyre and Gray. How was the 1950s "end of ideology" (Bell, Lipset) different from the Fukuyaman 1990s "end of history"? Is John Gray correct in his characterisation of Alasdair MacIntyre as a prelapsarian? Does hyperliberal individualism lead to a search for meaning, and thus to communitarianism?  Is the competition between liberalism and post-liberalism now our political spectrum?  Is contemporary liberalism now reducible to professionalisation of the state and civil society? If liberalism has failed – a basic point of this podcast from the start – has post-liberalism now also failed? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The End of History and the End of the End of History, Alasdair MacIntyre How to Save British Liberalism, John Gray, New Statesman What ever happened to post-liberalism, Nicolas D Villarreal, Substack /533/ Reading Club: Illiberalism?

On Hungary's elections. Hungarian political analyst and editor of Partizan, Szilard Pap, talks to Alex about the end of 16 years of Fidesz in government. What is the scale of Fidesz’s wipeout? Who is Péter Magyar, and is he actually to the right of Orban? What was Orban’s rule built on, and what parts of it have been rejected? Does Orban mark a shift from national-populism to radical conservatism? From anti-politics to hyperpolitics? What is the impact on global radical right? Was there a global Orbanism, and is it over? How will this impact European “unity” and will Orban's defeat lead to escalation in Ukraine? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The Mittel Man, Ivan Krastev, Equator Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian Model Has Collapsed, David Broder, Jacobin

On the brave new world we have entered. Historian Arash Azizi is back on the pod, talking to Alex H and Lee Jones about the ongoing war. We try to draw out some firm consequences, beyond the immediate situtation. Why did Trump go to war? Is this Netanyahu's war? And will he continue it regardless of the US? Will the Islamic Republic become more conservative now?  What has the war revealed about asymmetric warfare? About US vulnerability? What is the state of the Hormuz weapon now? For more like this, join us at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Arash Azizi: Reasons to be Hopeful in Iran, Arash Azizi, The Atlantic /24/ #IranProtest ft. Arash Azizi /150/ Shadow Commander ft. Arash Azizi /444/ Opportunism & Revenge in the Middle East ft. Karl Sharro & Arash Azizi Analyses: How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, NY Times Netanyahu’s Iran War Is Also the War of Global Neocon Elites, Nimrod Flaschenberg, Jacobin Trump's War, Daniel Luban Dissent Magazine The world energy shock is coming, Isabella Weber and Gregor Semieniuk, New Statesman One battle after another: Netanyahu’s new security doctrine, FT  /532/ Is This a Paleocon Foreign Policy? ft. JF Drolet Atlas Shrugged: Decoding Trump's National Security Strategy, Lee Jones, American Affairs

On abolishing queer theory. Ran Heilbrunn talks to Lee Jones and Alex Hochuli about his chapter, "Abolish Queer Theory!" in the edited collection Inversion: Gay Life after the Homosexual. What is queer theory and why should it be abolished? What is the meaning behind the shift in terms: invert, to homosexual, to gay, to queer? How does queer theory politicise sex and why is this bad? Do our libidos care about social inclusion? Can they? Is identity okay but identity politics bad? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Inversion: Gay Life after the Homosexual, Aman Namaman and Pierre d’Alancaisez (eds.), Verdurin, 2025

We deal with your questions, comments and criticisms from the past month. Key issues: The difference between radical conservatism and the far right Racism in class society in decomposition Tech bro übermenschen (or just Uber men) Who is doing the work of justifying this order? And Ursula, the villainous Cecaelian sea witch, about whom songs must be sung For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: To Keep and Bear Arms, Garry Wills, The New York Review David Graeber vs. Peter Thiel: Where Did the Future Go? /495/ Heritage America vs the World? ft. James Pogue

On Amazon, labour & logistics, and trains. Benjamin Fong, of ASU's Center for Work and Democracy, as well as an editor at Damage and co-author of the substack On The Seams, talks to Alex and George about organising workers in locations of corporate vulnerability. We also preview the forthcoming print issue of Damage, Trains, by discussing modernity and its avatars, and development and de-development in Brazil. Why target Amazon above all else? What are the "seams" and why are they important? Can labour still "go after the big targets"? Do these still exist given the dispersion of production and distribution? How much public appetite is there for blockages at pain points? Links: On the Seams, Substack The Labor Movement Must Go All In on Organizing Amazon, Benjamin Y Fong, Jacobin Organizing Logistics Chokepoints: Hitting Them Where It Hurts, Benjamin Y Fong, New Labor Forum The Apotheosis of Point of Sale Data, Benjamin Y Fong, Phenomenal World

On "non-hegemony" and world disorder. Tom Chodor, IR & politics scholar at Monash University, joins us to talk about a world that still retains the formal shells of multilateral institutions but whose contents have been hollowed out. What is "multilateralism"? Why is it an important concept to capture the US-led order that is now falling apart? If multilateralism was always in crisis, what is new today? Is the emerging (dis)order multipolar or apolar? What's the difference? Is multilateralism the historic exception that we wrongly take to be the norm? Why is there no going back to the post-1945 – or post-1991 – order? What are the prospects for a new hegemonic order? Isn’t prolonged chaos and decay more likely?  The full episode is for subscribers. Join at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Non-Hegemony, Tom Chodor, Jack Taggart and Ilias Alami, Phenomenal World /377/ The Locked-Up Country ft. Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor /357/ Lucky, Meaty Nations ft. Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor

On the slowing rate of technological progress. Alex, George and contributing editor (and science writer) Leigh Phillips discuss David Graeber's 2012 essay, Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit. This builds on two of this year's themes: state capitalism (how planning and growth – or their absence – intersect with technology) and the pre-political (how technology shapes •⁠  ⁠Were we right to expect jetpacks? And are we looking in the right place for technological advances today? •⁠  ⁠⁠Has technical progress actually slowed in the way Graeber says?  •⁠  ⁠⁠Are the explanations he gives for slowdown correct? •⁠  ⁠⁠What political tasks does this reality impose on us? •⁠  ⁠⁠What is the role of geopolitics and war in the rate of technological development? Links: Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit, David Graeber, The Baffler Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck, Patrick Collison & Michael Nielsen, The Atlantic /59/ Übermenschen of Capital Pt. 3 ft. Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski Progress is in the balance between innovation and implementation, Phil Bell, LSE Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction (On Robert C. Allen) Engels’s Second Theory: Technology, Warfare and the Growth of the State

On the operating system of the 21st century. Historian Quinn Slobodian and tech writer Ben Tarnoff talk to Alex Hochuli and Alex Gourevitch about their new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, and why we should ask "what is Musk a symptom of?" If Fordism characterised the mid-20th century, are our times those of Muskism? What are the touchstones of Muskism that the authors identify: fortress futurism, financial fabulism, state symbiosis? Who is the real Musk, that of vehicles, energy, infrastructure, or that of the post-industrial stuff of social media, finance, AI? What does Muskism promise people? How does it legitimise itself – if at all? Is the state actually dependent on Musk, or is Musk dependent on the state? How much of Musk's right-wing turn is necessary to Muskism, and how much is contingent? Is the racial component central? Links: Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff, Harper Collins /57/ Übermenschen of Capital Pt. 1 ft. Alex Gourevitch

We deal with your questions, comments and criticisms from the past month or so. Key issues this month are: What are the wrongs of the postmodern right – aand left? Will the civilisational paradigm become hegemonic? Is Trump's foreign policy techno-populist? Whether, and how, to protest anti-immigration policing To defend or to smash the professions? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

On anti-racism, communism, and philosophy. Alex Gourevitch talks to political philosopher Paul Gomberg about his original and deep Marxist arguments for what makes racism wrong, why racism cannot be eradicated without overcoming capitalism, and the limits of many contemporary anti-racist arguments. What does it mean to "alienate" race? What is the harm in racism? How does it harm everyone, not just its obvious victims? Why does Gomberg argue that can racism cannot be overcome in capitalist society? Has official racism been replaced by official anti-racism in the neoliberal era? What does it mean to understand anti-racism as communism? How did Gomberg's communist militancy impact his philosophy? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Anti-Racism as Communism, Paul Gomberg, Bloomsbury How to Make Opportunity Equal: Race and Contributive Justice, Paul Gomberg, Blackwell

On postmodern conservatives. Matt McManus talks to Alex and George about a Right increasingly shaped by the parameters of postmodern culture – and his Damage article on this. Who are the key thinkers of postmodern conservatism? Does truth matter anymore? Is "flooding the zone" an act of post-truth politics? Does all that is solid melt into advertising – and is it Charlie Kirk's fault? Is postmodern conservatism an adequate response the dissolution of the traditional “sources of the self”? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Conservativism as Postmodernism, Matt McManus, Damage Why only Socialism can redeem Conservatism, Maurice Glassman, Together For The Common Good

On Trump and Rubio, Venezuela and Cuba. Writer Juan David Rojas talks to Alex and Lee about the abduction of Maduro, what next for Venezuela, and Trump's "hemispheric" foreign policy. What is the Trump administration's policy toward Latin America? Is the attack on Venezuela a war for oil? Or a war vs 'narcoterrorism'? What are the internal divisions in Venezuela, and could it fall into civil war? What are the armed groups in the country? Who's calling the shots in Washington: neocons or paleocons? Is the US open-border policy for Cubans going to cause a rift within the Trump admin? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: How Maduro Sealed His Own Fate, Juan David Rojas, Compact Atlas Shrugged: Decoding Trump’s National Security Strategy, Lee Jones, American Affairs From Rogue State to Failed State?: The Perils of Intervention in Venezuela, Juan David Rojas, American Affairs Trump’s Venezuela Actions Are About More Than Oil, Matt Huber, Jacobin

On "thin ideologies" in a postmodern age. The Reading Club kicks off with an exploration of illiberalism, a "new ideological universe" that exists in "a permanent situational relation to liberalism." For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast/membership What are examples of this backlash against liberalism? How is illiberalism different from populism, conservatism, or the far right? What is a thin versus a thick ideology? Are we condemned to a 21st century of only thin ideologies? Is 'illiberalism' a useful term to describe what is going on in politics today? Is liberalism versus illiberalism just a terminal culture war? Links: Illiberalism: a conceptual introduction, Marlene Laruelle, East European Politics (2022) /114/ Reading Club: The Light That Failed | Patreon

On Trump & radical right ideology. Jean-François Drolet, a leading researcher into the 'World of the Right', talks to Alex and Lee about Donald Trump's coveting of Greenland, and puts the move into its ideological context. What is the paleoconservative worldview, how is it different from the neoconservative one, and which is more influential in the Trump regime? How does paleoconservatism translate into actual foreign policy? What's in Trump's new National Security Strategy? Are we back to a 19th century-style 'spheres of influence' arrangement? Does the radical right's foreign policy lead back to a populist kind of isolationism – or to a 'civilisational nationalism'? Will Trump solidify the transatlantic alliance, or generate a rift? Links: /461/ Welcome to the World of the Right ft. Michael C. Williams World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024). International Relations and the Geopolitics of the European New Right, European Journal of International Relations, JF Drolet From Critique to Reaction: The New Right, Critical Theory and International Relations, Journal of International Political Theory, JF Drolet & Michael C. Williams Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy: Goodbye, Liberal International Order; Hello, Radical Right, Lee Jones, American Affairs (forthcoming

On ICE, Minneapolis – and your questions & comments. Contributing editor Ryan Zickgraf is back from Minnesota and tells us what is happening on the ground. We also discuss: If this was Trump picking a fight, why Minnesota? Do the slayings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti mark a step-change in who can be killed in the US with relative impunity? What are the implications for the 2nd Amendment and will this divide MAGA World? Does a hard border necessarily entail a hard, militarised society too? Is the interiorisation of the border inevitable? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast We then discuss listener questions on: What is important that Bungacast cover? The benefits of citizenship Capitalists paying themselves for labour The post-doomer personality Readings: South Minneapolis has had enough, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd Enforcement Regime, Michael Macher, Phenomenal World  Minneapolis Is a Second Amendment Wake-Up Call, Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic ICE unloads, Ken Klippenstein, Substack

On the social turn in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysts Christie and Ricky talk to Alex and George about their article in issue #5 of Damage, on ill-fated attempts at solving social problems through therapy. What is the 'social turn' and is it another case of immediacy? Why are the social problems to be dealt with treated as both urgent and impossible to resolve? Is this a case of hyperpolitics? Is psychoanalysis actually white supremacy? Do the professions need defending? Do they need to accept their limitations? Subscribers to this podcast get 15% off print subscriptions to Damage magazine – and access to to this episode. Go to patreon.com/bungacast Links: The Regression in Psychoanalysis’s “Social Turn”, Christie Offenbacher & Ricky Levitt /210/ Reading Club: Psychoanalysis & Spirit of Capitalism

On Southeast Asia's scam compounds. Mark Bo, organised-crime researcher and co-author of Scam, talks to Alex and Lee about his book, his experiences and why this fusion of gangsterism and speculation has taken root in the contemporary economy. What is the scale of the scam industry? How do scams like pig butchering, fish butchering, or law-enforcement impersonation work? How does organised crime structure itself on corporate lines? How does this fit with modern slavery? Do illicit zones signal the coming of a kind of "compound capitalism"? Is scamming a symptom of the death of the developmental state? The full episode is only available to subscribers. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds, Ivan Franceschini, Ling Li, and Mark Bo, Verso

On the making of independent India – and its lessons. Assistant professor of politics at The New School, Sandipto Dasgupta, talks to contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about this new book, Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony. Why was the postcolonial movement insufficiently anti-colonial? What is the difference between the legal and political meaning of popular sovereignty – and why does it matter? What was the hidden, repressive element to the Indian Constitution? Did post-colonial leaders create something novel, even heroic? Or did they fail even on their own terms? Where do the democratic and counter-revolutionary aspects of the Indian revolution express themselves? How do symbolic substitutes for genuine popular participation play themselves out in Modi's India? Links: Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony, Sandipto Dasgupta, Cambridge UP /198/ Universal India ft. Achin Vanaik /417/ Has India passed peak Modi? ft. Achin Vanaik

On the collective subject at the end of the End of History. Panagiotis Sotiris, Historical Materialism editorial board member and assistant professor at the University of the Aegean, talks to Alex and Lee about class and the "national-popular". Is the way to recover popular sovereignty to "return" to the nation? Is there a contradiction between this and declaring oneself to be "in favour of open frontiers for migrants and refugees"? What is the meaning of citizenship in this case? What's the difference between Gramsci's conceptions of people-nation and nation-rhetoric? Does the radical right's "civilisational nationalism" offer the left an opportunity to reclaim a popular notion of nationhood? Links: Rethinking the “We” of Emancipation, Panagiotis Sotiris, Communis /471/ Reforming the Deformed ft. Nathan Sperber & George Hoare

On US derangement on screen. The OG Bunga boys get togther for the annual end-of-year film episode. We discuss Ari Aster's Eddington, as well as a bit of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia: the three films that together marked 2025, and which deal with paranoia, conspiracy, disinformation and unmoored political activity. Is this hyperpolitics on screen? Do these films serve any critical purpose? Is Eddington a faithful depiction of the society of immediacy or is it guilty of immediacy itself? Are we all fkin r*****ed? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: /520/ Conspiracy Culture & Paranoid Styles ft. Catherine Liu Hell in Ari Aster, Tara Heffernan & Felix McNamara, Corporate Total Art /458/ The Society of Pure Vibe ft. Anna Kornbluh (on 'immediacy') America’s Unraveling on Screen, Monica Marks, New Lines Magazine

On homoploutia and national market liberalism. Branko Milanovic, Research Professor at City University of New York, talks to Phil and Alex about his most recent book, The Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World. What unites the political trajectories of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump? How is global inequality, growth and political conflict evolving in the aftermath of globalisation? How are hierarchies of global income shifting as the world rebalances towards East Asia? What kind of political theories can we use to model the emergence of this new multipolar world – Adam Smith, Lenin, Luxembourg or John Rawls? And what is Homoploutia?  Links: The Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World, Branko Milanovic Global Inequality 3.0 and More, Branko's substack An Economist’s Case for Open Borders, Branko Milanovic, Dissent Magazine The ‘homoploutic’ elephant, with Branko Milanović, FT

On overmedicalisation and the crisis of authority. Amber Trotter, practicing psychologist and an editor at Damage magazine, and George Hoare tell Alex about their co-written article in the print issue of Damage on "the pre-political". What is driving the explosion in mental health diagnoses? Why are people seeking diagnosis? How is it the product of the subjective and the purely scientific? Does capitalism make us ill? Is blaming 'capitalism' abstractly part of the problem? What is the crisis of authority? Whose authority? Can we solve pre-political problems with politics? And political problems with pre-political approaches? Damage, Issue 5: The Pre-Political

On post-woke strategies. Ryan Z is back on, talking to Alex and George about the US Democrats' attempt to respond to Trump/MAGA. In association with Damage magazine. Can the Democrats escape the shadow of woke? Is Big Woke dying? Everywhere? Who are the groups and think-tanks pushing for a reorientation, and what are they proposing? Will the Dems adapt to Trump’s challenge or pretend nothing is happening?  We then take listener questions and comments on transport infrastructure, left-wing gatekeeping, and the crisis in education everywhere, high and low. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Can the Democrats Escape the Shadow of Woke?, Ryan Zickgraf, Damage Inside the Democratic identity crisis, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd

On legitimacy and chronic crisis. Benjamin Studebaker talks to Alex and Lee about his book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracy – and why the absence of the threat of revolution makes the crisis drag on. What's wrong with 20th century accounts of legitimacy crises? What's changed? Why is contemporary politics so stuck? Is it inescapable? How does the breakdown of consensus make the emergence of a social majority so difficult? Is there no common programme we can agree on, focused on bread-and-butter issues? Do we need to stare despair in the face? Is catastrophe the only way out? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Legitimacy in Liberal Democracy, Benjamin Studebaker, Edinburgh UP UNLOCKED: /361/ A Nightmare on the Brains of the Living ft. Benjamin Studebaker Debilitated democracy: When the legs get ripped off, Dirk Jörke and Benjamin Studebaker, European Journal of Social Theory

On the crisis in literacy. Poet, podcaster and teacher, C. Derick Varn – who has taught in Mexico, Korea, Egypt and the US, at various levels – joins Alex and George to interrogate the coming "post-literate society". What do we mean when we say 'post-literate'? This seems a global problem – so is it a problem of the education system? Is it as simple as blaming smartphones? How else has education become degraded? How have progressives and conservatives combined to do this? Are we becoming on oral culture again? What are the consequences? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Are we becoming a post-literate society?, Sarah O'Connor, FT Have humans passed peak brain power?, John Burn-Murdoch, FT Visible Learning (synthesis of meta analyses), John Hattie Why Knowledge Matters, ED Hirsch, Harvard Seven Myths about Education, Daisy Christodoulou Insensitivity Readers!, Nina Power

In this special episode, we present talks given by contributing editor Catherine Liu and co-host George Hoare on the paranoid style at a recent conference at UC Irvine, co-hosted by the Palm Springs School for Social Research. 00:01:23 – Catherine Liu: Opening Remarks, on Richard Hofstatder’s classic essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” 00:12:18 – George Hoare: The Paranoid Style in British Politics 00:36:06 – Catherine Liu: "Zombies Clowns and Gangsters" For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

[We are unlocking this episode from the Bungacast Reading Club, originally released Nov 2025, which is normally available only to Reading Club subscribers. If you'd like to join, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast] On the middle classes and cultural compression. For the concluding episode of the 2024/25 Reading Club, we discuss C. Wright Mills' White Collar, plus some additional short texts on what mass culture is like today. credit: Ryan Zickgraf, based on The Wilson Quarterly/Russell Lynes 1949 Does Mills' account of the “economic psychology” of the White Collar worker still ring true today? What about their "political psychology"? What is the state of White Collar trade unionism today? Is there no possibility of the middle class leading a political movement? Do the distinctions of high- middle- and low-brow still make sense today, in our era of levelling-down and slop? Should we defend democracy in the economy and elitism in culture? Readings: White Collar: The American Middle Classes, C. Wright Mills, 1951 (esp final two chapters) Highbrow, Middlebrow, Lowbrow, Russell Lynes, Wilson Quarterly, 1976 reprint of 1949 article (pdf attached) Post-Mass Culture, Dylan Riley, Sidecar Unionizing the “Cultural Apparatus”, Nelson Lichtenstein, Jacobin

On technology, transhumanism, and progress. James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and contributing editor Leigh Phillips. What is wrong with the acronym TESCREAL? Why is it wrong to worry about future transhumanism when we need to grapple with the technologies of now? What are the limits of bourgeois futurism? What is an alternative futurism? Has AI changed everything? Will it? Are we actually living in an age of rapid technological advance? Links: Conspiracy Theories, Left Futurism, and the Attack on TESCREAL, James Hughes & Eli Sennesh /306/ AI Capitalism: Inhuman Power /335/ AI & the End of the End of History /446/ The Techno-Fantasy of Perfect Freedom ft. Amber Trotter /488/ Homo-Techno, Homo-Solo ...Post-Homo? ft. Alex Gendler The Obama-to-Yarvin Pipeline, Geoff Schullenberger, Compact Substack

On free speech, the tech right, and politicisation. Geoff Shullenberger, managing editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to talk about Peter Thiel, René Girard, victimhood and the antichrist. Does it make sense to talk of "right-wing cancel culture"? Is it different from the left's? Is countercultural trolling in tension with "defending Western civilisation"? What does René Girard argue about mimesis and scapegoating? Why have his theories become popular? Is right-populism still politicising? How does it relate to libertarian anti-politics and hard-right militarisation? How has Silicon Valley libertarianism adapted to the new state-capitalist disposition? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: René Girard and the Rise of Victim Power, Geoff Shullenberger, Compact The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession, Laura Bullard, Wired The Faith of Nick Land, Geoff Shullenberger, Compact

On places of ritual. Architect Pier Paolo Tamburelli talks to Alex about his project to catalogue modern wonders – structures that are very big, that pretend to be ancient, and are mostly ugly. For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast How has architecture lost its ritual dimension? Why are these "modern wonders" kitsch? And why are they found the world over, from Munich to Malaysia, South Dakota to Dakar? Do 'wonders' speak to a world where places remain distinct, and where conflicts and history seem to have returned? Are disillusioned and cynical postmodern subjects searching for wonder? Can architecture rebuild society? Links: Wonders of the Modern World, Arch+, issue 259 Wonders of the Modern World: Notes for a Research Programme, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Arch+ (pdf attached in patreon) What's wrong with the primitive hut?, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, San Rocco (pdf attached in patreon)

On 20 years since the 2005 riots. Fred Lyra, philosopher and musicologist based in Paris, joins Alex to talk about France through 4 moments: 1995 – the last moment of classic class struggle; 2005 – riots in the banlieues; 2015 – Islamist terror; 2025 – government collapse. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast How were the riots normalised? And what was the state's response? Why did the riots prompt debates about "models of integration"? Why is there an "excess" of state in the banlieues, and an absence of state in left-behind smaller cities? How did France go from the Nuits Debouts protests to the Gillet Jaunes – and how did they differ? What about Bloquons Tout protests and the repeated fall of governments today? Links: The Peripherisation of France, Fred Lyra, A Terra É Redonda Two, Three, or More Fractures in French Society?, Fred Lyra, A Terra É Redonda Bonapartist Solutions, Dylan Riley, Sidecar Nuits Debout: Up All Night, Fred Lyra, Lavra Palavra

On the weakness of state and capital – and their fusion. Ilias Alami joins Alex and Lee to talk about his essential co-authored book, The Spectre of State Capitalism. Why is state capitalism not just a China story, but is global? What does the rise of state capitalism tell us about the health of contemporary capitalism? How did globalisation and stagnation combine to give birth to it? Is this an extension of neoliberalism or something new and different? Does this represent a 're-politicisation' of the economy – and does it open up more hopeful political futures? Links: The Spectre of State Capitalism, Ilias Alami & Adam D Dixon, Oxford UP [OPEN ACCESS]

On living with modernity. Richard J Williams talks to Alex and George about his new book, The Expressway World and how cities have adapted to the infrastructural legacies of the mid-20th century. We talk about New York, London, São Paulo, Madrid, Glasgow and Seoul. Why do people hate expressways – and who actually loves them? What are Big Man cities? How do expressways bring together populism, authoritarianism, and capital? Why is the antidote to 20th century car-centricity always gentrified and sanitised public space? What are the class struggles that emerge over the expressway world? Is there a basic lie behind many "ecological" infrastructure projects? Links: The Expressway World, Richard J Williams, Polity Intersections, Owen Hatherley, Sidecar /113/ Globoville ft. Richard Williams

On the Bolsonaros, Milei and MAGA. Alex talks to Guilherme Casarões, Associate Professor of Brazilian Studies at Florida International University, about Bolsonaro's sentencing, Trump's tariffs on Brazil, and the bailout of Milei. Is the motivation behind the tariffs on Brazil just partisan interest? How has Jair Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, become point-man for the Latin American radical right's connection to MAGA? Is Bolsonarismo the closest to MAGA among the global radical right? Will a "Populist International Order" follow the Liberal International Order? Why is the nationalist Trump bailing out the libertarian Milei? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Then George, Alex and Ryan Zickgraf discuss the global radical right and whether Charlie Kirk's killing was its "George Floyd moment". Finally, the boys take listener questions & comments from the past month. (NB recorded 25 September)

On Göran Therborn's article, "Dreams and Nightmares of the World's Middle Classes". The penultimate episode of this block on the middle class, we discuss the differing fortunes and politics of the global North and South middle-classes – as well as ways they may be similar. Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Is the middle-class dream increasingly only a dream? Can the "ever-rising middle-class wave" in China and India sustain itself? Is being middle-class defined by one's consumption? By income? By something else? How have fears changed: from being politically "squeezed" between to proletariat and bourgeoisie, to being economically "squeezed" and fearing falling? What politics do the middle-classes generate? What kind of populism?

On the UK's working-class unrest. Sociologist Lisa McKenzie talks to Alex and contributing editor Lee Jones about why the country feels like a powder-keg. What's behind protests like Unite the Kingdom? How responsible are far-right agitators? Why are threats posed to women and children such an explosive issue? What is the type of nationalism that is behind the proliferation of English and British flags? What are Farage's Reform promising and will they deliver? What of the immigration question? How is Corbyn's "Your Party" going, and why can't the Left seem to speak for or to the working class? Links: Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain, Lisa McKenzie, Bristol UP Lockdown Diaries of the Working Class, Lisa McKenzie James Treadwell thread on raising of flags, X

On critiques of entertainment. New contributing editor Ryan Zickgraf joins Alex and George to talk about the history of media critique and contemporary cases. How does consensus-age comedy like King of the Hill deal with hyperpolitics today? Is the reliance on archetypes a problem, or inherent to all comedy? Why is Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death still relevant? Is the Gen X critique of 'couch potatoes' and TV-watching similar to today's techlash? Have we become insensible to contradiction? Links: We’re still distracting ourselves to death, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd  King of the Hill reboot is ill-suited to the Trump age, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd

On slavery, racism, and the politics of freedom. Renowned sociologist Orlando Patterson talks to contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about themes brought up by his recent The Paradox of Freedom as well as his works as a whole. Why is the study of slavery too affected by the exceptional US American experience? In what way is violence a constitutive feature of slave relations that aren’t true of others? Are we still mired in a politics of ethnic chauvinism? What does it mean for ethnic minorities to engage in self-criticism? Is there a politics of freedom that is hopeful today or has it been eclipsed?

The fifth and final part of a series on generational consciousness and conflict. In this episode, we examine the Millennials and Generation Z. Uniquely, generation war today seems to be a conflict over resources more than over values. Is there any basis for this, and what do Millennials actually want? With generational and class conflict seemingly bound together today, we analyse 'Generation Left' and 'Millennial Socialism'. And we ask what the effect of the pandemic may be on the creation of a Gen Z consciousness. Guests include: Paul Taylor, former director, Pew Research Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative Clive Martin, journalist who has written for VICE Magazine Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow Jennifer Silva, assistant professor in sociologist, Indiana University Original music by: Jonny Mundey Additional music: Cacti / I Will Be Waiting / courtesy of epidemicsound.com Filthy the Kid / Vampire / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

The third in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.   In this episode, we examine the Baby Boomers – myth and reality. The revolt of the '60s has been misunderstood in many dimensions. Was it betrayed or did it always express capitalist ideology? Were the Boomers the ones who really did the 1960s anyway? And what world have the Boomers created as they passed through life – and institutions?   Guests include: Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow Jeffrey Alexander, professor of sociology at Yale University Holger Nehring, chair in contemporary European history at the University of Stirling Kristin Ross, professor emeritus of comparative literature at New York University Original music by: Jonny Mundey   Additional music: Medité / A Change in My Heart / courtesy of epidemicsound.com Ondolut / Blumen / courtesy of epidemicsound.com Elliott Holmes / Bull Chase / courtesy of epidemicsound.com Kick Castle / Kick Down / courtesy of epidemicsound.com T. Morri / Nuthin' but Nuts / courtesy of epidemicsound.com Other Clips: American Pastoral Trailer © 2016 - Lionsgate Mai 1968 © France 3 Paris Ile-de-France Imitation de Daniel Cohn-Bendit © C'est Canteloup Baader Meinhof Complex © 2008

On disruption, disturbance, decline, decay. We continue our attempt to conceptualise the present moment by looking at Silicon Valley-style disruption, geopolitical disturbances and 'polycrisis', and decline & decay along two axes: normative vs descriptive, and geopolitical and universal. Then we deal with your questions and comments over the past month on: religious authority; Russia, imperialism, and the USSR; and the limitations to 'the national interest'. Subscribe for the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast

[Bungacast is on holiday, so we're unlocking/re-releasing a July 2021 episode that was previously only available to higher-tier subscribers] We discuss Michael Lind's The New Class War. Lind identifies new lines in the class war, between working class and managerial overclass, between those in the "heartlands" and those in the "hubs". How convincing is this account? What is his critique of technocratic managerialism and its symptom, populism? How convincing - and realistic - is his solution of "democratic pluralism"? And is this only achievable as a result of a new cold war with China?

On The National Interest. Aufhebunga Bunga co-founder and contributing editor Phil Cunliffe joins us to talk about his new book about politics after the age of globalisation. We ask questions about his book – and then put him on trial for wrongthink. SUBSCRIBE: PATREON.COM/BUNGACAST Who is the 'national interest' good for? Is it a domestic or a foreign policy concern? Why did the 'national interest' disappear from our political vocabulary? Is the national interest an abstraction anyone can rhetorically claim? Is that not dangerous? What happens if leading politicians – or elites in general – adopt the national interest? Would this be good or bad? Will Trump's re-assertion of US interests push others to defend theirs? Does the national interest stand against class interests? Is this anti-socialist? Was Stalin-style socialism-in-one-country actually correct? Has Phil come around to supporting Roosevelt-style social democracy? Links: The National Interest: Politics After Globalization, Philip Cunliffe, Polity

On image-enhancing drugs. Jason Myles of This Is Revolution is back on, talking to George and Alex H about his article in Damage on increasing steroid use. What does the discourse around 'fake natties' tell us about authenticity? Do SSRIs provide "fake happy"? If steroids are a short-cut, how do we understand the "work" in "working out"? Is the taboo on drug use completely gone? Are we medicating to counter the side-effects of other meds? How do issues such as steroids and trans reveal contradictory attitudes to the body? Have the links between body, image, sex, and eroticism been erased? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Self-Catfishing with Steroids, Jason Myles, Damage  Shedeur Sanders and the Marketization of College Sports, Jason Myles, Damage  /359/ Apollo Gets High ft. Benjamin Fong

On Franz Jakubowski's Ideology and Superstructure in Historical Materialism. We focus on a very short section from Jakubowski's 1936 book, and delve into wider questions regarding ideology, social totality, and the middle classes. Is ideology “false, partial consciousness”? Is Jakubowski right that capitalism is the least ideological social form so far? Is it true that the middle classes only come into contact with the commodity when it is in circulation? How is the middle class' social position reflected in its worldview? How has this changed over 100 years? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Ideology and Superstructure in Historical Materialism, Chapter: “Ideology and the Classes of Bourgeois Society” (pp. 49-52) OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations (FULL) The Middle-Class Leviathan: Corona, the "Fascism" Blackmail, and the Defeat of the Working Class, Elena Lange & Joshua Pickett-Depaolis The Rise of the Professionals, George Hoare, Compact

On resistance and reform in southeast Asia. Historian Sean Fear talks to Alex H and Lee Jones about Vietnam on the 50-year anniversary since the end of the war. How is Vietnamese identity wrapped up with the notion of resistance? Is Chinese influence as great as resistance to China? How is the ‘American War’ thought about in Vietnam today? How similar is Vietnam to China: defying Fukuyama’s thesis by retaining a state-socialist political system while adopting capitalism? Why has Vietnam achieved rapid growth and development while neighbours have failed? How is Vietnam reacting to being at the centre of Trump tariff disputes? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building, Sean Fear, Tuong Vu (eds.), Cornell UP /115/ Singapore Shangri-La ft. Lee Jones Post-Cold War Vietnam: stay low, learn, adapt and try to have fun – but what about the party?, Adam Fforde

On the end of the end of history and what comes next. Phil is back on the pod, talking with George and Alex about the big themes of the podcast. In particular, we look at a recent essay in Foreign Policy by historian Christopher Clarke called "The End of Modernity". To what extent was the 1989 moment as significant in Beijing as Berlin? Is Trump actually Stalin (but in a good way)? Is Russia the revisionist power? And if so, in what regard and what are the consequences? Who says the choice is between "liberal democracy" and "authoritarian populism"? Then, we take your questions and comments from the past month. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The End of Modernity, Christopher Clarke, Foreign Policy The End of the End of History: Politics in the Twenty-First Century, Bungacast, Zer0 Books Into the Abyss, Ed McNally, Tribune

On the "return of religion" in Britain. [Patreon Exclusive] Journalist Lamorna Ash talks to George and Alex about how and why young people might be turning to religion today. Have things moved on from the New Atheists and their critique of religion? What are the divides in Christianity today? How do culture wars over sexuality play out? Why do ritual, quiet, and the 'new monasticism’ hold appeal today? Is Gen Z's pessimism a type of apocalyptic thinking? Is it related to environmentalism? The After Party, following the interview, is at 00:51:30. Links: Don't Forget We're Here Forever, Lamorna Ash, Bloomsbury The Tyranny of Structurelessness, Jo Freeman, Damage Reading Club on Martin Hägglund’s This Life: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

On Arno Mayer's "The Lower Middle Class as Historical Problem". We kick off the third block of the 2024/25 Reading Club, which is dedicated to the question of the middle class: The abatement of class struggle between workers and owners has shone a light on the role of the middle classes. Beyond the resurgence of the debate around the much-maligned professional-managerial class (PMC), what is the true role of the middle class in politics and society? Who rules today – and how would we go about answering that question? In this episode we discuss: Is the lower middle class still the main recipient/consumer of popular culture? Is the condition of the lower middle class in fact universalised across society today? Is the lower middle class a "classless class"? Is this class united or in fact divided? Is is the main site of political contestation today? Of culture wars? For access, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The Lower Middle Class as Historical Problem, Arno Mayer Regime Crisis: The Persistence of Arno J. Mayer, Verso Books blog

We celebrate 500 episodes of Aufhebunga Bunga with a cold, hard look at the decay around us. Alex and George plus contributing editors Lee Jones and Alex Gourevitch wrangle with four principal questions: What does it mean to say our era is one of decay or decline? How does this relate to the non-death of neoliberalism – its intellectual destitution, its practical weakening, but also its mutation and perpetuation? How does neoliberal decay relate to the decline of a unipolar world under total US hegemony, and the decline of the liberal globalist order? To what extent is the decay of representative democracy cause or consequence of the above? And finally, as we have been asking since we started this podcast in 2017: what comes next? For all Bungacast content, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast, and for our monthly newsletter, click here. Readings: Geopolitics at the End of the End of History, Lee Jones, The Northern Star Technofeudalism vs Total Capitalism, Alex Hochuli, American Affairs  Regime Change in the West, Perry Anderson, London Review of Books Changing the Regime, Building the Nation, Phil Cunliffe, The Northern Star An Audacious Book, Roberto Schwarz (review of Robert Kurz's 1991 Collapse of Modernisation), Meditations Journal The new historical simultaneity, Robert Kurz, Libcom Past landmark episodes 100: What was the end of history?  200: Which country crystallises world-history from 1900-2020? 300: The threat of nuclear annihilation 400: The political oppositions of the next decade

On shame, guilt and responsibility. Taylor Hines, an editor at Damage magazine, talks to George and Alex about his essay "Fool Me Twice" in Issue 4 of the magazine, which deals with the theme Responsibility. Remember, subscribers to Bungacast get a complimentary online subscription to Damage! We discuss: Why is Robert Eggers' Nosferatu about shame? What about the Rape of Lucretia? What can Frédéric Gros’ A Philosophy of Shame tell us? What's the difference between shame and guilt? Do psychoanalytic thinkers like Christopher Lasch and Melanie Klein clarify the matter? Why do we need to Make Guilt Great Again – but not as affect, as a sense of responsibility? For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Fool Me Twice, Taylor Hines, Damage Issue 4: Responsibility, Damage Do you often feel ashamed? Maybe you should, Nina Power, Daily Telegraph

On Iran and its Axis of Resistance. Historian Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi talks to Alex about the leadup and aftermath of the so-called "12-Day War between Iran and Israel and the US. Hamas and Hezbollah have been humbled, Assad is gone from Syria – how weakened is Iran? Did the 12-Day War actually happen? What prevented it becoming a wider war? What is the meaning of Israel's maximalist aims of regime change and regional dominance? Why is Iran now leaning into Iranian nationalism, even using pre-revolutionary symbols? Is a nuclear Iran now inevitable? What lessons will it draw? How has the region been reconfigured over the past two years? What about Saudi and the Gulf states? Subscribe to this podcast at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Iran and the ‘Axis of Resistance’: A Brief History, Eskandar Sadeghi, Jadaliyya Culmination, Eskandar Sadeghi, Sidecar The Failson and the Flag, Golnar Nikpou & Eskandar Sadeghi

On technology, transhumanism, and progress. James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and contributing editor Leigh Phillips. What is wrong with the acronym TESCREAL? Why is it wrong to worry about future transhumanism when we need to grapple with the technologies of now? What are the limits of bourgeois futurism? What is an alternative futurism? Has AI changed everything? Will it? Are we actually living in an age of rapid technological advance? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast   Links: Conspiracy Theories, Left Futurism, and the Attack on TESCREAL, James Hughes & Eli Sennesh /306/ AI Capitalism: Inhuman Power /335/ AI & the End of the End of History /446/ The Techno-Fantasy of Perfect Freedom ft. Amber Trotter /488/ Homo-Techno, Homo-Solo ...Post-Homo? ft. Alex Gendler The Obama-to-Yarvin Pipeline, Geoff Schullenberger, Compact Substack

On the war on Iran that wasn't (yet). Alex and George review the past month in the world and on Bungacast: The crazy will-they-won't-they of a potential US war on Iran The ex post facto justifications on all sides Where does "sanewashing" come from Ways to understand and not understand US political polarisation And we deal with your questions and comments from the past month: Woke Dungeons and Dragons Being Safe versus Feeling Safe More on victimhood, authenticity and the PMC [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Links: Trump’s Tariff Gamble and the Decay of the Neoliberal Order, Lee Jones, American Affairs Sanewashing, and how Defund The Police stopped meaning Defund The Police, Inverse Florida, Substack Did Iran win the 12-day war?, Sohrab Ahmari, UnHerd  A Comprehensive History of Woke D&D, Mark of the Weather-Sun, Substack

On land conflicts, MAGA , and the frontier. Journalist James Pogue talks to George and Alex about his book Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West. The book concerns the events surrounding the 2016 armed occupation of the Oregon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge led by the rancher Ammon Bundy. We discuss: Why were these 2016 events so important and so telling? Is the Jacksonian concept of America still relevant? Does knowing how these people think enable you to predict what Trump – or JD Vance – will do? How is Mormonism the encapsulation of a certain America? Is the division on the Right about 'winners' versus 'losers' (or lost-causers)? Is this story also America First versus Globalists? How unique is the US's forms of political polarisation?

On the dual crisis of the world. Wolfgang Streeck, renowned economic sociologist, is back on to talk to us about the crisis of capitalist growth and of democracy. We focus on the solutions proposed in his brilliant new book, Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism. Then, Lee and Alex discuss three key themes emerging from the interview: federalism and small states; the national interest; and the redefinition of democracy. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] With Streeck we discuss: Why is the revival of nation-state democracy "possible, although not very probable"? Have Europe’s right-wing populists given up on restoring governance to the national level? Why are Europe's globalists turning towards a militarised bloc with securitised external economic relations? Why haven’t left-wing populists been able to exploit the "dual crisis"? How has democracy been redefined to mean a set of discursive and moral principles rather than power struggle? Can we have an orderly de-globalisation? Links: Taking Back Control?: States and State Systems After Globalism, Wolfgang Streeck, Verso Notes on the political economy of war, Wolfgang Streeck, Review of Keynesian Economics /218/ Stability Über Alles ft. Wolfgang Streeck & /219/ Stability Über Alles pt. 2 ft. Wolfgang Streeck /160/ Enemies of the People (Large & Very Small) ft. Wolfgang Streeck /170/ Reading Club: Streeck's Critical Encounters

On the right to protest. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Contributing editor Alex Gourevitch talks to Alex H and George about restrictions on speech and protest at US universities and beyond – particularly with regard to Palestine solidarity demonstrations. How have uni administrators not just undermined by seemingly attacked the right to protest? Why is Trump going after the universities this way? How have progressives undermined the right of protest by talking up the role of 'harm'? How have pro-Israel groups been complicit in treating political speech as an attack on identities? Why have so many authorities chosen the defence of Israel as their hill to die on? Links: The Right to Be Hostile, Alex Gourevitch, Boston Review /409/ Palestine, Protest, Repression: The Wider Context

On Poland's election, its history, its self-conception. Philosopher Maciej Szlinder joins us to talk about Polish politics, society and history. Maciej is a member of the general council of the left-wing political party Razem ("Together"), as well as the president of the Polish Basic Income Network, so we discuss these matters as well as the general context. How did Poland represent a beacon of neoliberal democracy to Western liberals in the 80s and 90s – and what happened next? What does Poland represent, to Poles and to the rest of Europe, today? Is the political duopoly of the centrist Civic Platform and the right-wing Law and Justice falling apart? Why is political turnout up – and what anti-establishment parties are the young voting for? Why is Poland the most pro-American country in Europe, and how does Trump affect that? What is Poland's huge economic success felt like on the ground? How does precarious employment and emigration impact Polish politics? Links: In the Polish Mirror, Gavin Rae, New Left Review In Poland, Presidential Hopefuls Battle for Young Voters Who Don’t Like Them, NY Times

On the former Yugoslavia and the ethnography of anti-nationalists. [For the full episode, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast] [Reading Club LIVE: Sat 14 June, 9am LA, 12am NY, 5pm London, 6pm Berlin] In the third installment of this block on inter/nationalism in the 21st century, we take a look at the other side of nationalism, through scholar Stefaan Jansen's “Anti-nationalism: Post-Yugoslav Resistance and Narratives of Self and Society”. Who are the Somewheres and Anywheres in post-Yugoslavia? How does Jansen understand the marginalisation of anti-nationalism in Serbia and Croatia? Is understanding nationalism and anti-nationalism as discursive practices a useful lens for understanding post-Yugoslav identities? Why is the act of forgetting or misremembering significant in the context of post-Yugoslav anti-nationalist narratives? How did the contrast between pre-war Yugoslavia and post-war realities shape anti-nationalist identities? Must individuality be anti-nationalist? Reading Club 2024/25 Syllabus: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRn6kWzICbqUBo64Jp-c8TS0K4axTy3M/view

On the end of the (very) long 1960s. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Contributing Editor Lee Jones joins Alex and George to talk through the themes and stories of the month, including MAGA's war on universities, right-populists in power, and culture war. Plus we deal with your questions and comments on: lawfare, video games, and the 'new class'. What is TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out)? How should we respond to rightist attempts to rewrite the past? Why are Angela Merkel and Donald Trump representative of the age, in similar and different ways? Are people sick of subversion and just want order? What happens as the Boomers leave public life? Can we bracket 1960-2020? When should we throw the book at politicians? Links: Trump’s Tariff Gamble and the Decay of the Neoliberal Order, Lee Jones, American Affairs The Techno-Populist Convergence, Alex Hochuli, Compact How Labor won the preference war (and screwed the Greens), Financial Review Saving Britain’s Universities: Academic Freedom, Democracy and Renewal, Lee Jones and Philip Cunliffe, Cieo

On tech and the last hu-men. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Writer Alex Gender is back, talking to Alex and George about his recent essay, "Homo Algorithmicus", as well as reflecting on how incel culture has widened and deepened in the past five years. How does healthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione exemplify a “rationalist” worldview? What is "TESCREAL" and how are those distinct ideologies underpinned an anti-human rationalism? Is "tech" or Silicon Valley split between liberal effective altruists and neo-reactionary libertarians? Is tech moving from trying to escape the state to trying to capture it? What is it about “Gen Z boss and a mini” that generated such ire among "masculinists"? What is to be done about the Man Question? Links: Homo Algorithmicus, Alex Gendler, The Point Magazine /215/ Organize the Incels?! ft. Alex Gendler The perennial surplus, Alex Gendler, Substack The New Legislators of Silicon Valley, Evgeny Morozov, The Ideas Letter

On what is next for 'PMC theory' [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] The social media avatar known as Christopher Lasch's Angry Ghost joins us to unpick the conjuncture: as the Trump administration makes cuts and seeks to do away with progressives in bureaucracies, where does that leave the left-wing critique of the PMC? What would Lasch's ghost be telling us now? Is the PMC a class? Is it distinct people? Or is it more like procedures, and ways of thinking? Is woke over? Will the MANGOs (media, academia, NGOs) carry on? Can the PMC still advance oppositional politics or it hopeless compromised? What will be the effect on AI doing away with professional class jobs? Is vice-signalling replacing virtue-signalling? Links: Death of a Yuppie Dream, Barbara Ehrenreich, RosaLux (pdf) It’s Our Fault, Dustin Guastella, Damage Trump’s purge of the professionals, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd This obsession with a ‘new elite’ hides the real roots of power, Kenan Malik, The Guardian The Techno-Populist Convergence, Alex Hochuli, Compact

On Romania's annulled election – and the repeat. Academic and housing activist Enikő Vincze talks to Alex about why December 2024's election result was annulled, and how Romanian politics is following the script of European politics: lawfare, misinformation, techno-populism, and "sovereigntists" who provide the same neoliberal solutions. Who are the contenders in the May 2025 election and what do they represent? To what extent do Simion and AUR represent an 'anti-system' candidacy? How do they compare to other European radical rightists? Is Romanian politics really torn between Brussels and Moscow, or is something else at play? How is the Ukraine War, and EU militarisation, playing out in Romania? Why does the Right's promise of sovereignty only provide new capitalist alternatives to neoliberal globalism? What is the state of the Left and of struggles over housing in Romania? Links: Romanian elections and the agony of neoliberalism: militarization and austerity, with or without “sovereigntists”, Enikő Vincze, Internationalist Standpoint Fractured Romania, Costi Rogozanu, Sidecar Romania Redivivus, Alexander Clapp, New Left Review

On the promise of videos games. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Pawel Kaczmarski – a literary critic who teaches modern and contemporary Polish literature at the University of Wrocław – talks to George and Alex about his piece in Damage, "The Promise of Video Games". How are things gearing up for Poland's election later this month? Are video games moving culturally "upstream"? How does a game like Helldivers 2 promise to teach us agency but fails? Is the problem with video game criticism, and literary criticism, not so much their difficulty but rather that they are boring today? Has anyone managed to write a good "novel of the internet"? Links: The Promise of Video Games, Pawel Kaczmarski, Damage /162/ Gaming & Politics ft. Jonas Kyratzes Gospels of the Flood

On the charges against France's Marine Le Pen. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Alex and George discuss some main stories from the past month. After the death of Pope Francis, what's behind left-wing sympathy for the late Pope – and more widespread appreciation for Catholicism? Why do we want a progressive Pope, and would a reactionary one be better for us? Why is the US deporting people to Nayib Bukele's Salvadorian prisons, and what makes this so dystopian? Then Alex calls up Jacobin's Europe editor David Broder to understand the charges against Marine Le Pen. Is Marine Le Pen a victim of lawfare, or has she been hoist by her own petard? What are the consequences for the Rassemblement National, and for French politics? What has the European radical right's response been to Trump II so far? And we respond to your questions and comments from the past month on: Holding politicians to account on free speech Listening to poetry Redistribution as the obvious solution to the crisis Clientelism and hyperpolitics

On the mass-production of loyalty. *** We are exceptionally making this episode of the Reading Club freely available. See the full syllabus here: 2024/25 Reading Club. If you'd like to join, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast/membership. *** The second reading in this block on Inter/Nationalism in the 21st Century is The Invention of Tradition (eds. Eric Hobsbawm & Terrence Ranger, 1983), specifically Hobsbawm's chapter "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe 1870-1914". How much did ordinary people buy into invented national traditions? Why did industrialisation allow for mass-producing traditions? Does the sense of belonging fostered then still exist today? If nation-states don't require active participation any more, what does this mean for the mass-production of loyalty? Are things like social media campaigns, national holidays for diversity, or even global events like the Olympics the new “mass-produced” traditions?

On Filipino politics and geopolitics. Renowned public intellectual Walden Bello talks to Alex and contributing editor Lee Jones about his recently published memoirs, former president Rodrigo Duterte's arrest, warring political dynasties and more. What's behind Duterte's arrest? Is it lawfare? How did the Philippines comes to be an ‘anarchy of families’? What are the barriers to doing left-wing political work in the Philippines? How has Walden been involved with the social-democratic party Akbayan? What does China's rise mean for developing countries and the global South? What are Walden's key lessons for the ‘end of the End of History’? Links: GLOBAL BATTLEFIELDS: Memoir of a Legendary Public Intellectual from the Global South, Walden Bello, Clarity Duterte Is Right to End the U.S.-Philippine Military Exercises, Walden Bello, NYT /52/ Duterte’s Despotism ft. Nicole Curato /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs

On Trump's government, his motives and his modus operandi. Political theorist Corey Robin talks to Alex H and contributing editors Lee Jones and Alex Gourevitch about Trump II from a domestic perspective. We look at the three main things he's done so far: cutting the civil service, imposing economic sanctions domestically, and his immigration terror politics. Is Trump a strong president? Does the reliance on executive orders indicate weakness? What happened to the #Resistance? Why has the tariff issue, instead of uniting Republicans as in the 19th century, divided them? Is the bond market the main force limiting Trump's agenda? Has Bernie Sanders' prediction come true – this is now an oligarchy? Does Trump just represent patrimonialism and even gangsterism? A degradation of democracy? What does reaction looks like when there’s very little left to react against? Links: /129/ The Right Is Weak ft. Corey Robin | Bungacast Notifications, Corey Robin, Sidecar (on Trump & tariffs) Corey Robin's facebook posts The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics, Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld, Princeton UP

On Perry Anderson's "Internationalism: A Breviary". [For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] We kick off the second block/theme of the 2024/25 Reading Club on Nations & Internationalism in the 21st Century by looking at a 2002 essay which charts nationalism against internationalism from the Atlantic revolutions through to the age of globalisation. It is particularly apposite to revisit this text in light of an acceleration in de-globalisation brought on by the second Trump presidency. What are the cultural aspects of "internationalism"? While nationalism can be good or bad, internationalism is usually seen as positive. Is this still the case? How has internationalism accompanied, seperated from or stood against nationalism throughout the latter's history? How is internationalism different from cosmopolitanism today, if at all? How could we update Anderson's charting of internationalism along 5 coordinates: capital, geography, philosophy, nation-definition, and class relations? Internationalism: A Breviary, Perry Anderson, New Left Review

On Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs and the end of globalisation. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Contributing editor Lee Jones talks to Alex about the tariffs, as they try to reconstruct the Trump admin's thinking, and consider avenues and consequences. Why is this a retro-80s moment, and how much does China take the role that Japan used to in Trump's thinking? How much strategy is there to this? Is it possible to disentangle the competing logics? Is this a return to the 19th century: small state, no income tax, high tariff walls? How credible an attempt at reindustrialising the US is this? Is Trump trying to weaken the dollar? What store to put in the Mar-a-Lago accord? Do Europeans kick the can down the road and hope for the best? Is this a global restructuring or just a reset in terms more favourable to the US? The end of neoliberalism or a new iteration on it? Links: Will anybody buy a ‘Mar-a-Lago accord’?, FT A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System, Stephen Miran, Hudson Bay Capital  Is Trump 2 the End of ‘Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome’?, Lee Jones, TNS  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Breaks Down Trump's Tariff Plan and Its Impact on the Middle Class, Tucker Carlson, YouTube Back to the ’80s?, Andrew Liu, n+1 MAGA and the Fragmentation of Europe, Tim Pendry, Substack