Bungacast

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...

On Indonesia's new president and the End of History.   For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast   Michael Vann, Indonesia expert and history professor at Sacramento State, joins us to talk through the election results. How did Prabowo go from wannabe fascist dictator to cuddly populist grandpa? Why is Jokowi "Indonesia's Obama"? What is Indonesia's Trump/Hunter Biden ticket? What's up with the...

On our '1914 vibes'. And your questions & comments.    [ Patreon Exclusive ]   We discuss the parallels between our age (the end of globalisation, the threat of war) with the end of the Belle Epoque in the early 20th century. What might Lenin have to teach us?    We then turn to your questions and comments on: Palestinians as surplus population Peripheral countries as 'imitators' Whether Brexi...

On Indonesia: a country without a Left.   Foremost scholar of Indonesian politics and political economy, Vedi Hadiz of the University of Melbourne, joins us to talk through the country's politics in advance of the elections next week. What was the authoritarian order that followed the 1965 anti-communist massacres? How did the Asian financial crisis lead towards democratisation – and how did the o...

On El Salvador and mass incarceration.    Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, has just been re-elected on a landslide. His trademark policy is a state of emergency and the locking-up of tens of thousands of suspected gang members. He also made Bitcoin legal tender. What is 'Bukelismo', will it last, and will it spread?    First, we talk to Nelson Rauda , an editor at investigative outlet El Far...

On how to respond to conformity.   Lias Saoudi, frontman of the British band Fat White Family , joins us to talk about rock, popular culture and contemporary unfreedom. We discuss: Why are the kids taking less drugs? Can we respond to our nihilistic times with nihilistic art? What is the nature of conformity today? How to challenge conformity without sneering at the masses? Is there a romantic rev...

Double episode! On Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing.   [ Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive ]   We wrap up the 2023 syllabus by taking on the second half of Arrighi's book, in which he analyses the over-reach and decline of the US empire, and whether China's rise and role in world affairs presents a different model, one that might be more peaceful. We discuss: How important was the neo-co...

On Dirtbag and the Millennial Left.   Bungacast regular Amber A'Lee Frost is back to talk about her new book, Dirtbag — part memoir, part critical essays on millennial socialism. In this episode we discuss: Why "millennial"? Does it make sense to talk in generational terms? What are the left's "perversions" as Amber sees them? 'Occupy' was all leaderless, horizontalist crap. Why did Amber stick ar...

On what comes after human rights.   Juliano Fiori, essayist and director of Alameda Institute , joins us to talk about catastrophism and organising around "the end". We discuss: What was humanitarianism, and why was it the "last utopia"? What does humanitarianism look like in an era of multipolarity? Does Western liberal democracy have any gas left in it? What should we defend? What politics are g...

On the missed opportunity of the 2010s.   [ Patreon Exclusive ]   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 capital...

On NATO expansion and the end of neutrality   Previously a Patreon Exclusive. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast   Lily Lynch is back on the pod to talk about Northern and Eastern Europe and growing hawkishness. We discuss: Why did Sweden and Finland give up decades of neutrality - and why now? What happens with an enlarged alliance in light of the conflict in Ukraine? How does...