Bungacast

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...

On the tourist city, the tourist industry, and its critics. Renowned Italian journalist Marco d'Eramo joins us to talk about his wide-ranging inquiry into the age of tourism, The World in a Selfie. We also discuss how migration is the obverse of tourism, and take a look at Marco's most recent book, Masters, on the neoliberal revolution from above. Why is hating tourists the main characteristic of...

On Julien Benda's famous 1927 work. [ Patreon Exclusive ] We continue on the theme of 'Intellectuals and the Public' by discussing the often cited by little read The Treason of the Clerks . We ask: If Benda was responding to the intellectuals' role in the Dreyfus Affair and WWI, was he already a man out of his time? What are intellectuals' proper role in society? Can they be abstract universalist...

On JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, and arresting decline. [For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast ] We discuss the Netflix adaptation of vice-presidential nominee JD Vance's memoir – and the memoir itself – and what it tells us about the direction of US politics, Trump, and MAGA. We ask: What is Ryan's own anti-hillbilly elegy, drawn from his experience in Central Illinois? How far does the charac...

On emotional capitalism + Israeli politics. Renowned sociologist Eva Illouz joins us to talk about her recent book on the emotions of populism, and her work on the sociology of emotions in general. We discuss: Why have emotions become such a collective obsession? Where can you buy emotional commodities? What are influencers really selling? What emotions accompany victim culture? How is identity an...

On the disaster of the culture wars. [ Patreon Exclusive ] Regular contributor Catherine Liu  is back on to talk about her essay in Damage, issue 2, " Professional Populists in the Culture Wars ". We discuss: What were the original 'culture wars' and how are they different to today? Why are the "academic populists" more elitist than anyone? Was there a need in the 1980s to "disrupt" the humanities...

On the late Dmitri Furman's account of post-Soviet Russia. Patreon Exclusive : for the Reading Club, join for $12/mo and get access to ALL Bungacast content, incl. 4 exclusive, original episodes a month We continue our discussions along this year's themes (rise and fall of nations; Russia past and present) by tackling Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System ....

On your questions & criticisms about fertility, culture war, and more. [ Patreon Exclusive ] In our monthly mailbag episode we take points from the discussion on patreon, including on futuristic music, holocaust movies, german populism, whether culture war can be global, and the link between modernisation, productivity and birth rates.    

On France's surprise parliamentary election. The left-wing 'New Popular Front' came a surprise first, for now putting a halt to expectations that the far-right Rassemblement National would soon enter government. We talk to political scientist and commentator Charles Devellennes, and ask: What was Macron's gamble in calling this early election?  Is becoming Prime Minister actually a bad thing for y...

On Labour's landslide and sandcastle majority. We unpick what happened in the UK's general election, discussing: How did Labour get such a large majority with so little enthusiasm for them? Is the UK now a multiparty democracy, and will there be demands for serious electoral reform? What accounts for low turnout and the fragmentation of the vote (Reform, Greens, Independents, etc)? What is Keir St...

Ukraine, from Maidan to war. [For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast] Berlin-based Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko joins us to talk about his new book, Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War and his dissection of the war and the underlying political crisis in Ukraine. We discuss: class conflict in Ukraine as a legacy of the collapse of the USSR and the stagnation of the Brezh...

On baby bust, feminism and male resentment. [ Patreon Exclusive ] Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips call up Korean sociologist Hyeyoung Woo , director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University, to talk about demography, family and gender in the Republic of Korea. How urgent is the national debate on fertility? What policy measures have been introduced to reverse the...

On the electricity grid and the institutions involved. [ Patreon Exclusive ] 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, "Deinstitutionalized"./ What actually is a utility: is it a question of ownership, struct...

On German political derangement. [ Patreon Exclusive ] 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 the AFD. Meanwhile the German economy is getting squeezed between the US and Russia, and NATO pressures Germany to up its defence spending.   Is German public life remilitarising?...

On the one-year anniversary of the death of our evil patron saint, Silvio Berlusconi, we are re-releasing our audio obituary. RIP Silvio. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi died on 12 June 2023 at the age of 86. In this special episode, we say goodbye to the towering figure of the End of History, and explore how the contradictions he exemplified spoke to our age.  Contributions in ord...

On India's election and a blow for the BJP. Esteemed writer and social activist Achin Vanaik is back on Bungacast to unpick India's monumental, seven-week-long electoral process in which over 600m people took part. How did the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP lose its majority? Is there really a cult of personality around Modi? How does the BJP differ in important ways from Western 'national conservat...