Bungacast

On crumbling state authority.   Benjamin Fogel is back on the podcast to talk us through how South Africa has gone from the hopes of post-apartheid to the Durban riots of 2021. How have corruption, criminal networks, Indian oligarchs, and political forces combined to shatter any sense of a national project? We also discuss the role of xenophobia and particularist and racial politics in today's Sou...

[ Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive ]   On neoliberalism and biopolitics.   In the fifth session of the "Emergency Politics & Control" theme of the 2022 Reading Club, we take on The Birth of Biopolitics , Michel Foucault's 1978-9 lectures at the College de France (no's 4-6, 9-10).   How does Foucault trace a line between German ordo- and American neo-liberalism to biopolitics? What role does human c...

[ Patreon Exclusive ]   On the economic drivers and political choices of inflation.   In the absence of workers demanding higher wages, where is inflation coming from? Is there more to it than pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and the Ukraine war? How responsible is Biden's spending package? And how can generations who have never known serious inflation respond?   Three Articles: Chartbook...

[ Patreon Exclusive ] On your comments & criticisms. We tackle ideological realignments over the use of history; conspiracy theorising; a game-show called The Last True Marxist; whether we've had any progress over the last 50 years; and much more. 

On liberals' embrace of the past and history wars. We talk to Matthew Karp about his essay, " History As End: 1619, 1776, and the politics of the past ". It seems as if there's an ideological inversion going on, where liberals see history in terms of original sin and cycles of injustice, or at best, want to relitigate the past in order to fight battles of the present. Meanwhile conservatives have...

[Patreon Exclusive]   We analyse the French presidential election results, the country's geographical and class divides, and what a second term for Macron means for the EU.   Three Articles: Emmanuel Macron Is Forming a New Right-Wing Bloc , Interview with Bruno Amable, Jacobin Why Macron is invincible , Christopher Caldwell, Unherd Le Pen was doomed from the start , Nathan Pinkoski, Compact Other...

[ Patreon Tier 2 Exclusive ] On Frank Furedi's  How Fear Works . Following on from last month's discussion of Corey Robin's Fear, we examine a differing attempt to demystify the politics and culture of fear.  To join a local Reading Club where you are, email info@bungacast.com  

On Marxism & the Left. We talk to Elena & Joshua about their new edited collection, The Conformist Rebellion: Marxist Critiques of the Contemporary Left . Who or what is "the Left" today – merely the left wing of Capital? And what distinguishes a specifically Marxist critique of the Left? How has Marxism and the question of exploitation been sidelined in favour of a libera concern with discriminat...

The second part of our double ep on France's presidential election. Ahead of the second round, we discuss how likely a Le Pen victory could be and the effect of Zemmour’s candidacy – which appears to have made her seem more centrist. We also debate how the French deep state and EU might react to a Le Pen victory. We also ask Chris , co-author of Technopopulism , whether this is a classically 'tech...

On France's presidential elections.   We talk to Charles Devellennes to digest the first round, which saw centre-right Macron and far-right Le Pen come out on top, with leftist Mélenchon missing out. How similar are Macron and Le Pen's proposals actually? And has Macron's attempts to play statesman over Ukraine affected his chances?   With Le Pen and Macron both going after Mélenchon's 20% of the...

[ Patreon Tier 2 Exclusive ] On Corey Robin's  Fear: The History of a Political Idea .  This is March's Reading Club, the third in the Emergency Politics section of the 2022 Syllabus .

[ Patreon Exclusive ]   On US proxy wars, Russia's elite, Ukrainian neutrality.   'Three Articles' aims to provide serious political discussion on current affairs that we feel is lacking elsewhere, drawing out the logical conclusions of the three pieces' arguments.   Articles: A proxy war in Ukraine is the worst possible outcome — except for all the others , Sam Winter-Levy, War on the Rocks “Now...

On the fusion of technocracy & populism. Carlo Invernizzi Accetti talks to us about his book,  Technopopulism , co-authored with Chris Bickerton. This is the "new logic of democratic politics". How are all politicians today effectively technocratic and populist at the same time? How does this distinguish our age from a more ideological age in the past? And what can be done to make politics ideolog...

On energy, the material basis for all our politics? Helen Thompson, podcaster and professor of political economy at Cambridge and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century , joins us to talk about the geopolitics of oil, stretching from the 1956 Suez Crisis to the Fracking Revolution of today. How does US energy independence help explain shifting politics in Europe and the Middle East? Pl...

On the Freedom Convoy, the indigenous question, and 'anti-socialist socialism'(?) Sociologist and commentator Ashley Frawley is back on the pod to talk about the situation in Canada. With family members involved in the protests, we asked her what she made of the truckers and the way demands were framed as 'anti-socialist'. We move on to debate how to understand popular resistance to 'social engine...

In which we respond to listener questions & criticisms. A bumper episode, featuring plenty on Canadian truckers, Swedish populists, ideas of justice, hyperpolitics and much more.  The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

On class & material self-interest. We talk to Vivek Chibber about his new book, The Class Matrix: Social Theory After the Cultural Turn , which seeks to answer why capitalism has proven remarkably stable. Vivek explains why classical Marxism does not need 'ideological supplements' to explain why there hasn't been revolution; instead, structural class theory already provides the answers.  We go bac...

On Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception (2005).  How did a darling of the left during the War on Terror become a resource for the right during Covid? Is Agamben right to blur the boundary between fascism and liberal democracy? And if we are in a 'permanent state of exception', what is the right response? And we discuss your questions. The full episode is for $10+ subscribers. Sign up at patreon.co...

On The End of the End of History On 22 February 2022, at The People's Forum in Manhattan, Alex Hochuli and Adam Tooze were in conversation on the themes of the Bunga book and what comes next. The event was moderated by Christie Offenbacher (Damage Magazine). Buy the book: linktr.ee/bungacast

On the German Greens' shady history.   Journalist Lily Lynch, editor of  Balkanist , joins us to talk about her recent investigations into the Green Party, who are now back in power in Germany.   The 68ers attempted to combat authoritarianism and Nazi legacies through sexual liberation, building on the work of Wilhelm Reich. How did this lead some small groups associated with the Greens to advocat...

On class wars, new and old. Michael Lind, Professor of Practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, joins us to talk about what it might take to restore working class power in Western states. He explains some of the arguments in his book The New Class War (2020) in greater depth, as well as discussing his intellectual debt to the ex-Trotskyist theorist turned Cold War conservative,...

On dovish conservatives, Trumpist coup-mongers and Canadian truckers. - - -  Live debate/book launch in NYC, Feb 22nd: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-debate-book-launch-the-end-of-the-end-of-history-tickets-261000468427 - - -  We examine what arguments 'pro-worker conservatives' are making in an aim to rid the GOP of warmongers and what this says about their vision of politics. In that light we...

The first in an occasional series on new initiatives.  We speak to Malcolm Kyeyune of Sweden's Örebro Party about its origins, analysis and goals. Is a new working class politics to be found in direct opposition to the PMC or the 'transferiat'? How does this local party intend to scale up? What sort of issues are on its agenda? And how does it aim to go beyond the impasses of other populist initia...

On the critique of egalitarian ideology. We talk to writer Ross Wolfe about his essay "Marxism Contra Justice". Given that struggles for justice have been central to all sorts of radical movements, why is it important to cleave Marxist politics away from this notion? How are contemporary notions of 'social justice' already degraded versions of earlier egalitarian ideology on the left? Is it possib...

On Carl Schmitt's Political Theology (1922). We ask why people are scared of sovereignty – as opposed to state power per se, and analyse what is significant about the way in which Schmitt defines sovereignty. And what is the meaning of 'political theology'? And we discuss your questions.  This is an extended excerpt of the first 30 mins of the episode. For the full thing, go to patreon.com/bungaca...