What's Left? With Jovan + Freddie

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content ********************************************** Steve Tsang is a political scientist, Director of the SOAS China Institute and the author of 'Xi Jingping's Political Thought'. On Tuesday 27th Jan...

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft for extended interviews, articles and first look on content! ‘This could be the end for Starmer’. Pundits, sub-editors and political rivals have been drawn to this phrase more than any other over the past 18 months. Evidentially, it seems a spurious claim. The Prime Minister has trudged on, by all accounts unfazed, despite the merry-go-round of self-imm...

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft - Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews - Ask our Guests Questions - LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie - WL Book Club + Community Discussion - Articles + Exclusive Content ********************************************** Now this is cricket. Horatio Gould, comedian + podcast virtuoso (and OG fan of What's Left), joins us in the studio with author James Blo...

*** JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft - Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews - Ask our Guests Questions - LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie - WL Book Club + Community Discussion - Articles + Exclusive Content *** Hey What’s-Leftists, We’re back for season 2 and finally doing paid content so we can keep the lights on. So, if you’re a fan of the show and want early access to ad-free exten...

Finale of SZN 1 w the donny herself, Grace Campbell ❤️!!! This might be our funniest episode yet. Or maybe just the one where we all laughed the most. Recently, I found out a listener had stopped engaging with the pod as he was finding the topics too depressing. I get it. Confronting our myriad crises has been hardly been reassuring. But I'm hoping that this ep could be the antidote that brings hi...

George Gilbert, the Gen-Z Farage fan recently kicked off Big Brother, joins us for a chat on cancel culture, young men and the radical right, with guest host Jordan Stephens! As you know, What’s Left aims to stick its head above the culture wars. But we can’t avoid the magnetic pull from controversial personalities that keep the digital news cycle churning. We’re just as human as you. Following ou...

UK's biggest politics substacker, Sam Freedman, explains the deep rot at the heart of British politics. In this episode we address the big questions: why is Keir Starmer's Labour government failing and what would Reform do differently? After winning a swathe of councils at the last local elections, Reform have struggled with the realities of governing. Indeed, a majority of Reform councils look se...

Jonathan Hall, the Independent Reviewer of Terror Legislation, was in the room when the UK Govt decided it would proscribe Palestine Action as a terror group, alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Since then, we’ve seen anti-war activists, including pacifist priests and grandmothers (even both!) arrested for carrying placards, as the police enforce the letter of the law. A recent Guardian arti...

Miles Taylor, the Trump whistleblower, is now an enemy of the state. Latest WL? dispatch comes from McGill University's conference on big tech's threat to democracy. We’ve stitched together four interviews with leading thinkers on whether the AI bubble will burst and how to confront mass manipulation in the digital age. The first half is a deep cut with Miles Taylor, the author of the explosive NY...

Aaron Bastani, co-bossman ⁨@NovaraMedia⁩ just burnished our leftie credentials!!! Super gassed to share this episode with one of our absolute favourite political commentators. We filmed this on August 20th (2 months before release) so we didn't manage to get into the Your Party in-fighting / capitulation nor the rise of eco-populist Zack Polanski. Sorry about that. But we still managed to get into...

EXCLUSIVE: Oxford Union President wants to make amends for insensitive Charlie Kirk comments. In June, George Abaraonye rose to uni fame as the Oxford student who challenged Charlie Kirk about ‘toxic masculinity’. Just a few months later, his name and face was plastered all over digital and broadcast media as the Oxford Union President who ‘celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s death. What happened? Moments...

Will Ed Miliband take on Richard Tice in a Misfits Boxing Match for the future of Net-Zero? We’ve got the exclusive 🤣 It’s been an exhilarating 10 days of b2b conferences and a huge milestone for What’s Left as we interviewed ex-Labour leader, Energy Secretary of State Ed Miliband and Kamala Harris’ immigration tsar Frank Sharry! In this episode we’ve got something a bit different for you – a buy...

Bill Gates Advisor + LSE academic Hassan Damluji offers us a glimmer of hope to avoid international catastrophe! Expert in global politics, climate change, pandemics and education reform, Hassan spent a decade at the Gates Foundation in charge of the Middle East, Pakistan and East Asia, closely advising Bill Gates and holding discussions with the likes of Saudi’s MBS, UAE’s President MBZ, Pakistan...

We are addicted to ragebait - Jameela Jamil dropped serious bars in the latest What’s Left? pod! Short Form content is information crack. We’re hooked on it, even though doomscrolling leaves us feeling empty. Your da’ gets sunday scaries now - isn’t that mad. But what’s even more mental is hosting Jameela on the podcast discussing what the hell is left?! Thanks for coming Jam 🤝 A legend who has e...

When Britain is shattered who do you need to win the next UK election? Latest What's Left episode with pollster Luke Tryl drops amongst the “OMG this poll has Reform predicted to win 400 seats” hysteria. Chillllll, Winston, we’re still a few years out. Of course, any given poll should be taken with a pinch of salt and a shot of tequila + lime . Politicos are taught not to read polls in isolation -...

Wealth taxes are all the rage as we approach an Autumn budget where money affi make for the Treasury. 75% of the British public want a wealth tax (2% tax on assets over £10 million) according to YouGov polling. Gary Stevenson, Dale Vince and the Patriotic Millionaires crew say it will raise £24 billion - so why doesn't the government just do it... Dan Neidle is the UK's foremost tax expert - head...

New left-wing commentator unlocked!! Tilly Middlehurst a.k.a. BlondePraxis shot to TikTok fame after her debate with Charlie Kirk at the Cambridge Union went viral. Charlie Kirk made a name for himself by turning up on US college campuses to troll leftie students. When he came up against Tilly, a competitive British debater currently in her 2nd year at uni, the chronically online US political scen...

Worried about the Manosphere? We got you w a DLC. We've got two of the world's leading authorities on what is really going on inside the world of the pay-to-play male paranoia. James Bloodworth is a journalist and author, who has recently published 'Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere'. Matt Shea is a former VICE journalist, best known for his series of documentaries on 'you know...

Labour welfare rebel Henry Tufnell is the first MP in the hot seat at WLHQ… 

There’s been no breaks to the psychodrama of UK politics since 2016. We can’t be the only ones who are feeling completely exhausted. This week the government had to climb down from its proposal for welfare reform which targeted the UC + PIP bill (benefits) which has ballooned since COVID and is projected to double over t...

00:00 Intro 1:00 What is online manipulation? 7:00 Censorship and news 12:00 Left-wing politics 18:04 Southport riots 22.30 AI and fake news 26:00 How manipulation brings down governments 33:50 Gaza, traumatic content and Britain’s muslim community 42:06 Radicalisation online 47:01 Why some conflicts are more known than others 52:00 Political unity vs consensus Disinformation is democracy’s krypto...

Matthew Torbitt, a former Labour advisor and now talking head across (mainly right-wing but also centrist) broadcast media is the first guest to grace the hot seat at What's Left HQ. Matt is a rare thing in British politics: a self-proclaimed "gobshite", who has made his way from being a homeless teen with a criminal record to campaigning in Parliament as a leading political commentator on the tel...

In our first podcast episode, Jovan and Freddie sit down to discuss their first film 'Reform UK's Biggest Rally Ever'. As we near the local elections and the by-election result in Runcorn, the question on everyone's lips is whether Nigel Farage's party has the momentum to overtake the Tories and present as the genuine opposition to Labour. The boys give their verdict, while explaining a bit more a...