Bungacast

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 th...

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 PM...

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...

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 "up...

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...

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), spe...

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 pol...

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...

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...

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 mu...

On revolution, epic poetry, John Milton, and freedom. George and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch talk to Orlando Reade, who teaches English at Northeastern University London.  We discuss Orlando’s new book What In Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost and the history of readings of John Milton’s great epic poem. Is Paradise Lost a poem about darkness? What does a poem written in...

On Erdogan's World and the revolt against it. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ] Historian Djene Bajalan joins George and Alex to review the past month – ceasefires in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, winning and losing US patronage, Trump's inconsistent strategy and leaks, and the gold rush. We then turn to a country exemplary of the contradictions of the end of the En...

On critical theory and autonomy. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ] Jensen Suther, a junior fellow at Harvard working in philosophy and literature, talks to Alex H and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about art, culture, and socialism. He also offers a riposte to previous guest Anna Kornbluh's discussion of immediacy, and its cultural forms such as autoficition. What do...

On class formation, fragmentation, pessimism and optimism. George and contributing editor Leigh Phillips talk to Dan Evans, a writer and academic based in South Wales. We discuss his piece in the New Socialist, ‘Is the Working Class Back?’ and themes emerging from it. How important are definitions of class? If the working class remains weak and fragmented, and its politics increasingly chaotic, wh...

On cities and the politics of development. [For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ] Ben Bradlow, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton, talks to Alex about his book Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg . If our future is urban – and it is – why is it different to what we imagined? Are Johannesburg and São Paulo rep...

On Embracing Alienation. Todd McGowan is back on the pod, talking to George and Alex about his book, Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try To Find Ourselves . Why is alienation good actually? What does it give us? How is alienation related to subjectivity and freedom? What is the problem with anti-alienation politics of Left and Right? What happened to the 1960s concern with alienation, where...

On Trumpworld: Vance in Munich; Musk in South Africa. [This contains only the interview on South Africa – for the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ] Alex, George and Ryan Zickgraf round up events in Germany: first the elections, then US Vice-President JD Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference where he called out Western elites' hypocrisy on liberalism and democracy. Then A...

On Gramsci in the 21st century. [ Patreon Exclusive ] Sociologist Nathan Sperber and our own George Hoare talk to Alex H and Lee Jones about the new edition to their book, An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy , which includes a new chapter on Gramsci's relevance to contemporary politics and events and a new section on Gramsci's influence on the New Right. We discuss: Ho...

This episode, originally published in June 2024 only for subscribers, is crucial backdrop to this Sunday's (23 Feb 2025) snap elections in Germany.  For more like this, join us at patreon.com/bungacast On German political derangement. Independent researcher and writer Gregor Baszak joins us to talk about German centrism being squeezed under pressure from both left and right — Sahra Wagenknecht and...

On the world under Trump, and British responses.  Tim Pendry, author of the Unstable Times  substack, as well as an international affairs consultant, talks to Alex H and Lee Jones about the world under Trump II, the massive shifts underway, and his own policy work with the Workers Party of Britain. How has intra-bourgeois struggle shaped the past decades in politics? What is "American imperial nat...

On European decline and inertia. [For full episode: patreon.com/bungacast ] Anton Jäger is back, talking to Alex and George about Belgium's new right-wing government, American hyperpolitics, and the lack of a European future. The radical right has prevailed in Belgium, despite having factors that should impede this, like higher union density, lower inequality and so on. Why? Why is the US particul...

On David Harvey's The Condition of Postmodernity (1989). [Patreon Exclusive - subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ] We focus in particular on Part III: The Experience of Space and Time – and reflect on the general themes of this section. The central question is: How do we rescue a sense of ‘place’ – in a political, forward-looking and future-oriented way – after the age of globalisation? The age of...

On Syria, the fall of Assad, and nationalism in the Middle-East. [ Patreon Exclusive ] Historian Djene Bajalan  talks to Alex about a major rearrangement in the Levant. We discuss: Who are Syria's new rulers HTS, and what is their vision – if any? Did geopolitics really determine the fall of Assad and the Ba'ath Party? How HTS's victory is so profoundly different from Islamism in Iran 1979 Why 202...

On disinformation, NATO vs Russia, terrorism + more. [Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast ] We look back at a turbulent last month or so with the help of guest and "disinformation bot" Tara McCormack. We put it all in the context of Trump's return, post-neoliberalism and deglobalisation. 00:13:52 – Jacob Siegel   talks to Alex about Meta's policy U-turn on censorship and...

On the martial law crisis in South Korea. For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast Jamie Doucette, who researches contemporary political economy and Korea's development at the University of Manchester, talks to Alex and George about December 2024's coup attempt and the past 50 years in the Republic of Korea.  Why is South Korea western capitalism's best propaganda tool? Did Yoon Suk Yeol want t...