Jacobin Radio

Nusantara is a new Dig series on the history of Indonesia: a hinge in the world system where colonialism and revolution have decisively shaped the trajectory of global history. This episode traces a long period of European plunder and domination that began with the Portuguese and then continued, for centuries, under the Dutch—a story stretching from the murderous mercantilism of the Dutch East Ind...

The US-Israeli war against Iran may have been initiated without any coherently stated goals or popular support, but we can already see that it’s a horrific quagmire. It also doesn’t look like Trump and Israel will get the swift Iranian regime change they hoped for. On the latest episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber is joined by Jason Brownlee, a professor of government at the Universi...

Two weeks into the US-Israeli assault on Iran, every prediction of its architects has collapsed. The regime stands. Protests haven't reignited. Iran’s new Supreme Leader — more hardline than his assassinated father — has vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. And the war began just as negotiations in Geneva were apparently close to a deal. Suzi speaks to UCLA sociologist and Iran expert Kevan...

Historian Nikhil Pal Singh, author of a recent article for Equator, talks about how the Trump regime weaves foreign and domestic policy into a single domain of impunity, Homeland Empire. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

We’ve now entered the second week of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Donald Trump’s War Secretary Pete Hegseth has boasted about the US military machine bringing “death and destruction” to the country. Afshin Matin-Asgari joined Long Reads on Monday, March 9, to discuss the war. Afshin is a professor of Middle East history at California State University in Los Angeles. His most recent book is Axis of...

What are Iranians actually experiencing right now? Suzi speaks with Yassamine Mather, an Iranian socialist who has been in direct contact with relatives, colleagues, and comrades inside Iran throughout the bombing. Yassamine is chair of Hands Off the People of Iran, editor of Critique , and researcher at Oxford's Middle East Centre. She describes near-hourly strikes, hospitals hit, internet cut, a...

Featuring Ben Mabie and Salar Mohandesi on what the war on Iran tells us about US imperialism, and why the US doesn’t have a massive anti-war movement even amid historic anti-war public sentiment. Capitalist states have changed war-making in ways that insulate imperialism against popular resistance. We must make movements that can thrive and win under new conditions. Find Venezuela in Crisis at ha...

Behrooz Ghamari, author of The Long War on Iran , looks at the politics and culture of the country. Anatol Lieven analyzes the effects of the war on Iran on the region and world. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Featuring Geoff Simpson on Justice Democrats’ massive 2026 slate of insurgent House candidates taking on AIPAC/Big Tech money. Also: the history of post-Bernie 2016 primary challenges, the Israel lobby’s legitimacy crisis, radicalizing liberals, and the role of electoral politics in the larger left project. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13...

Why does every new technology seem to make work harder and not easier? In 1974, Harry Braverman published a seminal text Labor and Monopoly Capital to answer that question. Combining a careful study of scientific management and technological innovation with several of Marx’s key concepts, Braverman explained why workers under capitalism are gradually transformed into mere cogs in the machine. On t...

Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the Luddites’ machine-breaking revolt against the enclosure of handicraft production, the central role played by capital punishment in the consolidation of the capitalist state, and remaking the struggle against enclosure for the 21st century. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here: eventbrite.com...

Tessa West, professor of psychology at NYU, examines the social dynamics that kept the Epstein gang together. Nick Srnicek, author of Silicon Empires , discusses AI. And Wanda Bertram breaks down the costs of mass incarceration following a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/money2026.html Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of...

Last October, the war in Sudan took a new turn with the capture of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces. The city in western Sudan had been under siege by the RSF for more than two years before the Sudanese armed forces suddenly withdrew. After taking control of El Fasher, the RSF began to carry out a massacre of civilians. A UN fact-finding mission recently found that the crimes in El Fasher bor...

Suzi speaks to Ukrainian socialist Oleksandr Kyselov, who says the current “peace process” is a dangerous illusion. Russia’s goal, he argues, is not compromise but subjugation — and any ceasefire that doesn’t confront that reality only postpones the next war. We discuss the Witkoff-Dmitriev 28-point plan (critics call it the “DimWit plan”), exhaustion inside Ukraine, and why calls from the Western...

Naomi Hossain analyzes politics in Bangladesh generally and the recent election specifically. Stuart Schrader discusses “authoritarianism from below” — the role of local cops in the Trump crackdowns. Read Stuart’s article: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/02/14/authoritarianism-from-below-trump-city-takeovers-police/ Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and p...

The developments in artificial intelligence appear to promise a radical transformation of modern work. But what happens if AI turns out to be much more like previous waves of technological change? In this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek discuss the history of automation, the effects of technology on employment and wages, and why socialists should want to harne...

Stacy Horn, author of The Killing Fields of East New York , on the damage mortgage fraud did to that neighborhood. David Backer, author of As Public as Possible , on how we finance schools and how we could do better. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Last October, the Trump administration announced a ceasefire deal in Gaza after two years of relentless carnage. Since the deal was announced, Israel has continued to occupy much of Gaza, and its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has launched his so-called Board of Peace to administer Gaza without any input from Palestinians. Having received a blank chec...

Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the long histories of commons and commoning, connections between enclosures in Europe and imperial conquest abroad, and writing history from below. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Engineered Conflict: Structural Violence and the Future of Black Life in Chicago at Haymarketbooks.org Buy Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet at Verso...

When federal immigration raids went from brutal to deadly in Minneapolis, the epicenter of Trump’s escalating war on immigrants and Blue cities, residents responded with coordinated “no work, no school, no shopping” shutdowns that drew tens of thousands into the streets there and around the country. It wasn’t technically a general strike — but it demonstrated how unions, clergy, and community netw...

David Harvey speaks about his new book  The Story of Capital . We hear an excerpt from Mark Carney’s Davos speech.  Adam Federman  discusses Trump’s Greenland obsession. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Trump administration has ramped up its bellicose rhetoric against the Iranian regime after it clamped down on the latest wave of protests. Is the regime teetering on the edge of collapse? In this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek contrast the Iranian Revolution of 1979 with the current protests, and discuss what makes a revolution possible. Join Confronting...

David Austin Walsh, author of Taking America Back , looks at the relationship between the kooks and respectables on the Right. Laura Field, author of Furious Minds , examines the intellectual wing of Trumpism. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Featuring Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, and JaNaé Bates Imari on how Minneapolis achieved its fight back against ICE/Border Patrol occupation. A decade building aligned mass movements has made Minneapolis among the best-organized cities in the country. Those carefully built structures, however, had to be nimble in confronting the federal onslaught. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig L...

As this episode was being finalized, the Trump administration was threatening to attack Iran for the second time in less than a year. The threats come against the backdrop of mass protests inside Iran that appear to have been repressed by the state security forces for the time being. Long Reads is joined by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi. He’s a lecturer on the international politics of the Middle Ea...