Downstream – Novara Media Podcasts

The Silk Road has dominated the way we imagine the trading relationship between Europe and Asia to have worked in antiquity. In his new book, The Golden Road, William Dalrymple busts that myth. He sat down with Ash to talk about the origins of algebra, Indian gems in Anglo-Saxon Britain and why Genghis Khan was scared of India. You can see Ash and William live in conversation at EartH Hackney on t...

Michael Lewis is an American author, journalist, and former bond trader. His best-known book, The Big Short, explains the 2000s US housing bubble and helped many people understand the 2008 financial crisis. In this interview, Lewis speaks with Aaron Bastani about his latest book, a collection of essays on federal government employees. Lewis finds that many of these workers are actually doing a goo...

Blindboy is an artist, podcaster, and author. His storytelling style weaves anti-colonial histories with perspectives on modern masculinity, politics, and mental health, all cut with an absurdist sense of humour. In public Blindboy wears a mask made from a plastic bag, maintaining anonymity while developing a cult following as a podcaster. In this interview, Blindboy delves into the historical con...

As AI begins to fundamentally alter our lives, we’re in urgent need of expert voices who both understand how the technology works and are capable of scrutinising its effects. In her new book, Empire of AI, tech reporter and former Silicon Valley engineer Karen Hao debunks the myths that surround AI and exposes the true costs of this global industry. She speaks to Aaron about Sam Altman’s ori...

Quinn Slobodian is a Canadian historian. His new book, Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right is a deep dive into the set of far-right ideologues currently dominating US politics. Slobodian tracks how neoliberal thought has changed since Friedrich Hayek’s vision of unfettered capitalism went mainstream 50 years ago. In this conversation with Ash Sarkar, Slobodian talks about...

During the 2008 economic crisis, the Obama administration had an opportunity to enact widespread market reforms. Instead, they bailed out the banks and laid the groundwork for mass inequality and a political culture that has given us a second Trump administration. This week’s guest was in the room where those crucial decisions were made, and argued that financial institutions should not be able to...

Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist and author. In October 2023, while he was in the UK, an Israeli airstrike hit his home in central Gaza, killing 21 of his immediate family, including his father, two brothers, three sisters and their children. He joins Ash Sarkar to talk about Israel’s dehumanisation of Palestinians, Britain’s continuing support of Israel, and what lessons can...

Dale Vince is a former new age traveller and the inventor of a string of transformative technologies: the world’s first green energy company, the electric supercar, and the Electric Highway charging network. The last of these got him into in a David-versus-Goliath legal battle with Elon Musk – a battle that he won. Since then, Vince has funded Just Stop Oil, become a major donor to the Labour Part...

This week’s guest is best known for hijacking a panel at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos, where he told a room full of billionaires to stop avoiding taxes. He now claims that this form of protest has been proven ineffective in the struggle for progress. The last 25 years have seen some of the biggest protests in history, yet we’ve seen wars erupt and inequality widen. With his n...

As smart phone use has soared, Generation Z’s mental health has plummeted. But just how bad is this crisis, and who should we hold responsible? In The Anxious Generation , social psychologist Jonathan Haidt sets out his comprehensive diagnosis of the problems caused by the mass integration of smartphones into every aspect of most children’s lives. In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Haidt takes sq...

Not long ago, Kieren Owen AKA Jimmy The Giant was in the ‘alt right pipeline’. He believed in the tyranny of the welfare system, thought ‘woke culture’ was dangerous for society and that Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment was a result of draconian government censorship. So how did he become one the most incisive commentators of the online left? In conversation with Ash Sarkar, Jimmy The Giant discusses...

Ash Sarkar, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani debate: could the Labour Party be heading for a trouncing? Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Ash Sarkar, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani debate one of the most pressing questions of the day: can Reform UK win a general election? Might it even win the next one? Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

What do Christianity and communism have in common?  Are Nuns missing out on their lives, or living their best one? And can attending church once a week provide a more healing alternative to modern wellness culture, not least because you’re forced to turn off your phone for an hour? Seeking answers to all these questions, Ash Sarkar sits down for a conversation with Lamorna Ash, journalist an...

Today the leaders of Israel, Russia, and Hamas all stand accused of war crimes. Yet it seems doubtful that these men will ever face justice – so what’s the point of international law? For 30 years, Kenneth Roth was the director of Human Rights Watch. In that time, his organisation exposed hundreds of human rights abuses and pressured governments to cease committing them. On Downstream, Kenne...

Aaron Bastani was joined by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé for a live recording of Downstream on 7 April at EartH in East London. They discussed the origins of Britain’s Israel lobby, the indoctrination of Israelis, and whether the recent atrocities committed in Gaza and the West Bank are signs of Israel’s imminent collapse. Help us build people-powered media: http://novara.media/support

Donald Trump has been ripping up the rule book on global trade, implementing huge tariffs and sending markets into a frenzy. But is there any method in his apparent madness? Legendary Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek regales Aaron with his thoughts on US trade policy – not to mention Franz Kafka, fully automated luxury communism and whether he’s a “GILF”. Žižek’s new book,...

There are few, true, public intellectuals anymore. But Ta-Nehisi Coates – author of ‘Between The World And Me’ and recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant – is unquestionably foremost amongst them. His new book, The Message, is a sweeping exploration of how stories shape our politics – from the parameters of black struggle to Israel’s imposition of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. He and Ash Sarkar...

In 2024 the Conservative party suffered their worst defeat in two centuries. But while Labour struggles in office, the Tories are going nowhere fast. Meanwhile Britain shambles on without an economic model, or a wider vision for the future. How long can national decline continue? And when will things come to a head? Aaron Bastani speaks to author, and Mail on Sunday columnist, Peter Hitchens. They...

Investigative journalist Matt Kennard joins Aaron Bastani to discuss Britain’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, following a series revelations published in Declassified UK. In an extensive conversation about the shifting sands of global security, the author of The Racket also discusses the elimination of USAID, America’s U-turn on Russia, and the rearmament of Europe. Downst...

The ‘special relationship’ is central to how Britain conducts its foreign policy and perceives itself as a country. The argument goes: proximity to Washington allows London to maintain a semblance of its former prestige and power. The media and political class can’t get enough of it. But what if Britain’s relationship to the United States was, in fact, deeply damaging to its interests – and the li...

When we talk about politics – whether it’s the climate, the economy or constitutional reform – the thing that’s at stake is an idea of ‘the future’. These days, the idea of imminent societal or ecological breakdown necessarily means adopting the framing of the present as being a ‘state of emergency’. This is an obvious way for political actors to attempt to generate consensus – but does this osten...

In 1996 Samuel Huntington published ‘The Clash of Civilizations’. At the time its hypothesis was counter-intuitive. Despite the supremacy of the United States after the Cold War, the ascent of globalisation would not lead to the end of history, but a return to distinctive and competing civilisations. Rather than homogeneity we would see a growing emphasis on difference, rather than unhindered free...

For almost six centuries Europe has been at the centre of world affairs. While the days of Empire are long gone, over the last several decades the importance and comparative wealth of Europe has declined at an extraordinary pace. Indeed for many countries, from Britain to Germany and Greece, living standards have stagnated or even declined. Now, in what seem like the final months of the war in Ukr...

“I’m literally a communist, you idiot”. For almost a decade Ash Sarkar has been one of Britain’s most prominent left wing political journalists. She first met Aaron Bastani in 2010, and was later invited on to the Novara FM podcast. It wasn’t long before she was calling Piers Morgan an idiot on morning TV. Now she has written her first book, ‘Minority Rule’. It chronicles the rise of identity poli...