Bungacast

On your questions & criticism regarding pro-Palestine protests.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   In this episode we focus on the discussion generated by our episode that came out in early May on the protests on US campuses. We discuss the issues along a few axes: How do ideas of victimhood relate to the material reality of international politics? What really are the aims of the protesters and how lik...

On MORENA and Claudia Sheinbaum's huge victory. Mexico has elected its first woman president, tasked with extending the hugely popular AMLO'S legacy. What are her prospects and challenges? We ask: What was the effect of NAFTA on Mexico, and particularly manufacturing? How is US-China competition playing out in Mexico? Why did Trump and leftist AMLO get along? What about Scheinbaum and Trump? How d...

On Zone of Interest and Holocaust film.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   We discuss the winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film – one that split opinion, among critics and on the pod too! How does the film fit in the pantheon of Holocaust films? Is it a Holocaust film? How well does it deal with its obvious subject matter: the banality of evil? Is the film neutral and detached or preachy,...

On Mexico's elections.   [Full episode at patreon.com/bungacast]   Mexico goes to the polls this Sunday with the ruling centre-left MORENA party holding a commanding lead. Anthropologist Roger Lancaster joins us to preview the election and look at outgoing President AMLO's record. What are the stakes in this election? Has Mexico bucked the trend of class realignment? Where is the 'Brahmin Left'? W...

On Futuromania and closing and opening of musical horizons.   We talk to renowned music critic Simon Reynolds about his new book. A counterpart of sorts to his famous Retromania (2011), Futuromania looks at the exciting futuristic music of the past and present. We discuss its themes to try understand whether the culture is still about to throw up something new. Is talk about popular music stuck be...

On Alex Garland’s new film, Civil War.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   The boys discuss a film that seems designed to say something in the context of a US election year. But what? We ask: What kind of film is this: a dystopian fantasy, a war movie, a road movie? Why the focus on the media? Does the film celebrate or satirise journalists? Does Garland’s dystopia tell us anything about the landscape of US...

On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography.   [ Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive ]   We start off dealing with your questions from the first two Reading Clubs of the year, before Phil takes us through the famous biography of the Soviet leader. We discuss: Deutscher's work in historical context Stalin’s parents' experience as serfs and the significance of his boyhood education in...

On US campus protest, the brutalisation of Gaza, and whether this is an age of war.   Join us: patreon.com/bungacast   Bunga boys Alex, George and Phil debate the matter of the day. We ask: Is the police repression and associated censorship (the anti-semitism bill) a reflection of the fact the content of the protest unsettles the establishment? Why? Why is the Left breaking with Biden and the Dems...

On the earth-shaking events of the 20th century, through a personal lens.   Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch sits down with political scientist Peter Gourevitch to talk about their shared family history. Why did their grandparents/great-grandparents become Mensheviks? How did one half of the family leave the USSR and the other half remain? What was life like in exile in Berlin before the Nazis...

On saving society from the antisocial-ists. In partnership with Damage  magazine.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   Trade unionist and researcher Dustin "Dino" Guastella joins us to talk about the deficiencies of a libertarian or antinomian approach to social problems. We start off with Dino telling us about the Teamsters union, before moving on to: How have American cities developed such problems? What a...

On Euro censorship + your comments and criticisms.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   We discuss censorship in Brussels and Berlin, and put it in the context of the incorporation of right-populism. How will European politics come to look as national-conservatives become part of the establishment? What's up with these "sovereigntists" who are unserious about sovereignty?   Also we discuss your comments: If...

On the Big Hard Dick industry.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   Clinicians and Damage authors & editors, Christie and Benjamin, tell us why the market for penis enlargement and hardness has exploded. What is the "penis anxiety industry" How does it serve individual, cultural and unconscious demands? How does 'Big Hard Dick' provide a brittle solution to a deep social problem? Is the Freudian analysis...

On melodrama and the bourgeois subject.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   We're back with the next installment of our series on the "emotional turn". Alex talks to Catherine Liu about whether politics is staged in a "melodramatic" fashion today. What is the bourgeois subject, why was it good, and where did it go? What is melodrama? Does public crying make us feel connected? Is it all Oprah's fault? Why is...

On President AMLO and the rebuilding the working class.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   We continue our discussion with anthropologist Roger Lancaster who has lived and researched in Mexico for decades, on the past and present of Mexican radicalism. How has popular conservatism served as a boost for radicalism and revolution  Is there any basis for a 'romantic' anti-capitalism, in Mexico, or in the Glob...

On A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics   [ Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive ]   Continuing our theme of "the intelligentsia & the public," we discuss German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas's 2023 book, asking what sort of political culture is required for democracy. What role do the institutions of the public sphere and the media have in producin...

On Mexico, class, and sexuality.    We welcome anthropologist Roger Lancaster onto the pod to talk about his new book, The Struggle to Be Gay – in Mexico, for Example .     We discuss: How much is being gay tied to being modern? And conversely, how much of globalized culture is itself "gay"? Do you need to be middle class to be gay? Why did neoliberalism provide more sexual freedom than corporatis...

On Portugal's elections, 50 years since the revolution   Catarina Príncipe, a long-time activist on the Portuguese left and a doctoral student of political economy, is back on the podcast to talk through what happened as Portugal went to the polls. How does Portugal see itself, with regard to Europe, and its own history? How did the right-populist Chega party break through amid high turnout? What...

On what comes next: in politics, ideas, economy, subjectivity   To commemorate seven years of the podcast and four-hundred episodes, we got all our new Contributors in to examine the oppositions and tensions that we think will characterise the next decade. We say hello to Amber A'Lee Frost, Alex Gourevitch, Catherine Liu, and Leigh Phillips.   For all Bungacast shows, including our Contributors, t...

On the withdrawal from hyperpolitics and hypermodernity.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   What comes after a decade of populism? Alex Hochuli talks through his new essay in Damage, issue 2. This is episode is the third part of our Emotion Sickness series on the politics of feelings. Click here for part 1 and part 2 . If we are disengaging from politics, what is the associated feeling - resentment or resi...

Part II of the series: on therapy and vulnerability.   [Patreon Exclusive: subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ]   Sociologist Ashley Frawley (and COO of Sublation Press) is back on the podcast to talk about her new book, Significant Emotions. What is behind the seeming rise of public emotionalism and the focus on mental health? How was “happiness” a policy concern – and when did it disappear and w...

On Benedict Anderson's classic Imagined Communities.   [Patreon Exclusive. Subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast ]   Originally published in 1983, Anderson's account of the origins of nations is one of the most cited books in English in the humanities. In what ways does this diverse and inventive book still explain the world? How is imagined different from imaginary? Did nations emerge first in Latin A...

Turbulent times, ideological confusion. Politics is back, but it's stranger than ever. All the more reason for unflinching critique of the current moment. That's why Bungacast is expanding. Regular contributors are coming on-board: Catherine Liu, Amber Frost, Alex Gourevitch, and Leigh Phillips   We're partnering up with Damage Magazine   There'll be many more exclusive episodes – see patreon.com/...

On media and the Millennial Left.   [ Patreon Exclusive : for full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast ]   Continuing the retrospective on the millennial left's failures, we invite political theorist Benjamin Studebaker back on. We discuss: Was left-populism a media event?  Was the Millennial Left just a moment in internet history? Having bought into the internet's possibilities, can we ab...

On the missed opportunity of the 2010s.   Chris Cutrone of Platypus joins us to talk about his collection of essays, The Death of the Millennial Left. We discuss: Why define it as the "Millennial" Left? Was the anti-Stalinism of leaderless protests a good thing? Did the talk of "winning" from 2015 onwards represent maturity? Should the turn to a more public, statist capitalism make us more optimis...

On the politics of emotions and emotionalism.   Philosopher Nina Power (an editor and columnist at Compact Magazine) kicks off this series by talking to us about anger, hate, and evil. Do we complain too little or too much? Should we be more repressed? Political passions were meant to be dead. Has anger overtaken apathy? Should we hate our enemies? Is that okay? Has contemporary society become hys...