Bungacast

On the End of History and Europe. [For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ] LSE professor Mike Wilkinson talks to Phil and Alex about how the history of European integration fits with constitutional theories and ideas of sovereignty. We discuss:  In what way are the conspiracy theories about the EU true? What are the origins of European integration in the inter-war crisis? How did Eu...

On the maelstrom of the metropolis. [Full episode only available to subscribers. Join at patreon.com/bungacast ] We kick of the 2024/25 syllabus  with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Georg Simmel's short essay " Metropolis and Mental Life " and Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air  (chapter 5, on New York). How d...

On the military decline of the American empire. [ Patreon Exclusive ] The Swedish writer Malcom Kyeyune talks to Phil about what happens to the evil empire when the stormtroopers can’t shoot straight and the empire isn’t producing enough star destroyers. They discuss: What happens to international politics in a world of new geopolitical rivalries?  How does American industrial decline affect US mi...

On pro-family politics, and the US election and labour. [ Patreon Exclusive - in association with Damage magazine] Dustin Guastella talks to Phil and Alex about what the election of Trump will mean for US labour organisations. We then move on to Dustin's proposal for progressive pro-family policies. What actually is "the family" today?  Social democrats are proud of policies but wary of encouragin...

On Trump's return and the end of the End of History (still!) Historian and Jacobin contributing editor Matt Karp  joins us to extract the true meaning of the US election. We discuss: How Trump's victory explodes so many Democrat assumptions about demography and identity How this election re-writes the past ten years' history Whether Trump still retains an anti-political or anti-establishment charg...

On your questions, comments, criticisms. [ Patreon Exclusive ] It's our letter to the episode show where we have a chance to answer you, the listener. We discuss: Has Bungacast gone eco-austerian? Are Marx and Freud in conflict? Is abortion about healthcare or about freedom? Why has the left abandoned liberty? Did we underestimate Israel’s existential fears? And what’s so “complex” about the Arab-...

On Georgia's pivotal elections and its post-Soviet history. [ Full episode only for patrons] Hans Gutbrod, who has been working in the Caucasus region since 1999 and now teaches at Ilia State University in Tblisi, talks to Alex about Georgia's choice between the EU and Russia. We discuss: Who is Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is equal to 1/4 of GDP? What is the ruling Georgian Dream's pitch to...

On the US election, messaging and learning stupid lessons. [ Full episode only at Patreon ] We welcome Amber A'Lee Frost (California via Indiana and New York) and Ryan Zickgraf (Pennsylvania via Illinois and Georgia) to preview the US election. We discuss: Why the campaigns have been so focused on micro-targeting demographics Whether Russians or Brits are illegitimately swinging the election How t...

On egg-freezing, 'having it all', and neoliberal liberty. [ Patreon Exclusive ] We welcome Damage  editor and practicing psychologist Amber Trotter on to talk about "Frozen Freedom", Amber's piece on artificial reproductive technology and different kinds of freedom. Alex and George ask her about: How empowering is female emancipation from biological limitations and compulsions? Can women now "have...

On the left-wing case for freedom. Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch is back on to talk about how the Democrats are approaching the US presidential election. Alex talks us through an influential and widely-read article that he wrote in 2020 with Corey Robin on how the left needed to reclaim freedom as its own. We discuss: Why is the left suddenly talking about freedom? When did it abandon freedo...

On Israel's invasion of Lebanon and beyond. Karl Sharro (Lebanese-Iraqi architect and satirist @KarlreMarks ) and Iranian writer and historian Arash Azizi  join us to discuss war in the Middle East. We ask: Is Israel finally waging the great war that will rid it of all enemies?  Does Israel have any real plan? What motivates its actions in Gaza and Lebanon? What is the impact on Hezbollah of losin...

On Nations & Nationalism since 1870. [ Patreon Exclusive ] We start by dealing with your questions regarding last month's RC, on Stalin, Zhukhov and WWII. Then we read and discuss Eric Hobsbawm's classic work in which he emphasises that nations are exclusively modern constructions. We discuss: How succulent Hobsbawm's account is Whether he was wrong about globalisation eclipsing nationalism –...

On France's permacrisis. [Patreon Exclusive] French sociologist Nathan Sperber talks to George and Alex about his new essay in the New Left Review, "The French Crisis: Organic or Conjunctural". We catch up with what has happened in France since Macron gambled and called impromptu elections in the summer. We discuss: Why does France always seem to be more in crisis than its neighbours?  How has Fra...

On liberal takes on the end of the End of History. [ Patreon Exclusive ] We start by discussing Yasha Mounk's dismissal of an end to the End of History. Does he underestimate liberal democracy's inability to legitimise itself anymore? Is the talk of populism a way of deflecting from liberalism's undoing? We then deal with your comments and questions [for patrons only, subscribe at patreon.com/bung...

On tradwives, influencers, and boys. [ Patreon Exclusive ] Amber is back on the pod, talking to Alex and George about her forthcoming piece on neo-traditionalism and women, in Damage issue 3, which will be on Mothers . We discuss: What are the models of 'tradwives' out there? If homemakers make homes, do tradwives make content? Does the tradwife phenomenon speak to sense of exhaustion with being a...

On "eco-modernism". Ted Nordhaus, co-founder and executive director of the Breakthrough Institute, talks to Leigh and Alex the 20th anniversary of "The Death of Environmentalism" and the 10th anniversary of "The Ecomodernist Manifesto". We discuss: The fundamental philosophical differences between "building-out" and "restraint". Whether industrial policy like the Inflation Reduction Act is in line...

On the US culture wars, then and now. Historian Andrew Hartman, author of A War for the Soul of America, talks to Alex about how US Americans have been sorted into cultural camps over the past fifty years. We discuss: Who started it? And who perpetuates it? What is the "culture" in the culture war? And is it a war, or a series of skirmishes? Is there something particularly American about culture w...

On disinformation, misinformation and the popular will. Holly Jean Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo, joins us to talk about her recent pieces arguing that the climate movement's focus on disinformation is misguided. We discuss: What is disinformation and misinformation in the climate context? Are there parallels to be drawn with anti-disinfo...

On corruption, charisma, populism & assassination in Slovakia. Slovak sociologist Dominik Zelinksy joins us to discuss Slovakia's positioning between East and West. We discuss: Why was Prime Minister Robert Fico a target of an assassination attempt? Whether Fico – not a zany outsider but a competent insider – is a "populist" Why Slovaks are not so anti-Russian, and why they are sceptical of NA...

On the electricity grid and the institutions involved. [Episode originally released only to subscribers on 20 June 2024. Join us at patreon.com/bungacast ] Fred Stafford, a STEM professional, a writer on energy and power, and an editor at  Damage , talks to Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips about the utility of utilities and his recent essay in the second print issue of Damage, "Deinstit...

On Geoffrey Roberts’ 2013 biography of Field Marshal Zhukov. [ Patreon Exclusive ] Who was the Soviet general and architect of Soviet victory on the Eastern Front during the Second World War? We discuss: What does Zhukov’s life tell us about modern warfare? What can we learn about the life and fate of the Soviet regime? How should we view the Ukraine war and renewed geopolitical rivalry between th...

On the NGO-isation of the state. [ Patreon Exclusive ] Researchers and writers Matthew Thompson  and Jonny Gordon-Farleigh  join us to discuss their recent Damage article with George Hoare. Civil society was once occupied by popular forces that could function as a bulwark against both capitalist marketization and state authoritarianism. Today, it has been colonized by the NGO, which, in turn, colo...

On your questions & criticisms. [ Patreon Exclusive ] We respond with comments on episodes 420 to 432 and various other points you wanted to us to discuss. In this episode: Does our politics lack self-critique? When did the breakdown of the UK's political system begin? How hegemonic is "settler" discourse? Will there be a coup in France? Do we need more analysis of the PMC? How did victimhood...

On Naomi Klein & Naomi Wolf and "political diagonalism" Episode in association with Damage magazine. Patreon Exclusive . Ben Burgis talks to Alex and George about his review in Damage of Naomi Klein's Doppelgangers. We discuss: Whether Naomi Klein is representative of the average left-wing position this century What Klein's trajectory and that of Naomi Wolf tell us about contemporary politics...

On the structure of the Chinese state and its external relations. [Patreon Exclusive: for the full episode, go to patreon.com/bungacast ] We welcome back Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri to reflect on the outcome of the recent plenum of the Chinese Communist Party and to ask who, if anyone beyond Xi Jinping, is calling the shots. How will the CCP respond to the US election? Why is China not a monolith...