Jacobin Radio

Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance . Balanced budget conservatism and supply side populism engineered a politics of austerity and budget deficits. Deep cuts to the social wage like welfare reform disciplined labor so severely that Fed chair Alan Greenspan opened the floodgates of easy money confident it would juice the price of assets alone....

In this tumultuous political era, it’s common to hear that the Left needs to rebuild its historic sources of power. But it’s more accurate to say that the Left is essentially in the process of starting over again. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , we share Vivek Chibber’s keynote address at the Jacobin conference, “Socialism in Our Time,” which marked the 15th anniversary of the magazine...

At the end of September, political theorist Ilya Matveev joined the Critique editorial board to present his ideas about imperialism in the 21st century. Suzi Weissman moderated that enlightening discussion and brings it now to Jacobin Radio . Matveev examines the emerging era of inter-imperialist rivalry and asks what’s really driving the strategies of Russia, China, and the United States. China h...

Erin Thompson considers the politics of public monuments as Trump talks of restoring Confederate statues. Mouin Rabbani returns for a look at Trump’s dubious Gaza peace scheme. Ted Hamm, author of Run Zohran Run! , discusses Mamdani’s campaign for NYC mayor. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the g...

This week’s episode of Long Reads is the second in a two-part interview. In our last episode, we spoke to Catarina Príncipe about the politics of Portugal since 2015. Today we’re going to cover developments from 2022 onward. One of the main themes in that period has been the rise of the far right. In 2022, the parties of the radical left, the Communist Party and the Left Bloc, lost ground and were...

Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance . Neoliberalism remade the American economy into an engine for the appreciation of assets stretching from the single-family suburban home to the stock market. This revanchist offensive sought to enforce not only the class order and fiscal rectitude but also gender, sexual, and racial hierarchies. The first...

Thomas Ferguson has investigated money in politics for decades, and he has found, over and over again, that money and election outcomes are directly linked. He joins Suzi to talk about how Silicon Valley, finance, defense, and crypto have fused into what he calls “red tech.” Ferguson explains why the Democrats’ crisis isn’t about messaging — it’s about failing to deliver for working people while c...

Mouin Rabbani explains what is behind all these fresh diplomatic recognitions of Palestine and speculates on the future of Gaza. Ernesto Semán, author of a recent piece for the New York Review of Books , looks at the Argentine situation and the US bailout of the libertarian Javier Milei. Read Mouin’s article “The Meaning of Western Recognition of Palestine” here: https://jacobin.com/2025/09/recogn...

It’s well understood that capitalist economies are a recent development in human history. But there is persistent disagreement on the Left over exactly how and where the transition to capitalism occurred, as well as what role colonial plunder played in enriching the West. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber explains the origins of capitalism, what primitive accumulation means...

The Roberts Court gave Trump sweeping immunity — and he’s using it to intimidate critics, greenlight ICE’s racial profiling raids, extort universities, law firms, corporations, and foreign governments, and crack down on political speech. Pema Levy of Mother Jones joins Suzi to unpack the landmark decision in Trump v. United States, a ruling that didn’t just grant Trump protection for official acts...

Featuring Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader on Trump’s intensification of police, ICE, and military repression. What does this all reveal about MAGA’s fascist and authoritarian project — and about the illiberalism already immanent in the US carceral and imperialist state? This is the second in a two-part series. Call in to leave a question for The Dig ’s mailbag episode: speakpipe.com/ListenerMa...

Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards , speaks about the eugenics/race science tendencies within High Church Neoliberalism. Molly White looks at stablecoins and the Trump–UAE deal. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads spoke to Yanis Varoufakis earlier in the year to mark the tenth anniversary of the Greek referendum on the austerity programs of the European Union. This week, we’re going to be looking at another country that bore the brunt of Euro-austerity after the 2008 crash. Ten years ago, the Portuguese Socialist leader Antonio Costa formed a government with the support of two radical-left partie...

Featuring Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader on Trump’s intensification of police, ICE, and military repression. What does this all reveal about MAGA’s fascist and authoritarian project—and about the illiberalism already immanent in the US carceral and imperialist state? The first in a two-part series. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Call in to leave a question for The Dig’s mailbag episode...

Suzi talks to Sebastian Budgen in Paris about the collapse of Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government and the “Block Everything” mobilization against Macron’s austerity agenda, which brought unions, students, and grassroots activists into the streets. Another national strike is set for September 18. What makes this mobilization different — and what does the crisis mean for the Left, the far ri...

Émile Torres , who co-wrote an article with Timnit Gebru for First Monday about AI, discusses tech moguls’ dreams of transcending the merely human. Daniel Wortel-London, author of The Menace of Prosperity , looks at the fiscal history of NYC, and considers how we could do better than subsidizing the rich. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and the...

Populism is in the air, providing unique opportunities and challenges to the Left. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber discusses how populist sentiment — popular anger at elites and a demand for economic redress — helped socialists reinsert economics back into politics. Recent electoral victories, such as Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City Democratic primary, have show...

John Roosa looks at what’s behind the riots in Indonesia. David Duhalde, author of a paper for the Rosa Luxemburg Stinting, discusses the Democratic Socialists of America in relation to its ancestor, Eugene Debs’s Socialist Party. 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 Ian Gavigan on how the bipartisan neoliberalization of higher education laid the groundwork for Trump’s all-out assault. Workers must unite on every campus, articulate an alternative vision for the university, and fight to win it. Check out HELU higheredlaborunited.org Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Dig 500th Episode Party November 7 in Brooklyn! Emceed by Brace and Liz from TrueA...

Sam Tanenhaus, author of Buckley: The Life and the Revolution that Changed America , on Bill, his thought, and his influence. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Suzi talked to Vermont state senator and democratic socialist Tanya Vyhovsky, just back from several weeks in Ukraine. Senator Vyhovsky traveled from Kyiv to L’viv, Kryvyi Rih, and Dnipro, meeting with trade unionists, feminists, students, and survivors of Russia’s bombardment. Her visit came as Putin sat down with Trump in Alaska without Zelensky at the table. Tanya shares her eyewitness reflecti...

Featuring Robin D. G. Kelley listening back and reflecting upon old tapes of the interviews with sharecroppers he conducted in the 1980s while researching Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression . This is an episode of Signal Hill , a new audio magazine made by friends of The Dig . Produced by Conor Gillies and edited by Liza Yeager and Omar Etman. Listen to Dan’s Dig interv...

Utilizing class analysis is the bread and butter of socialist politics. But understanding how classes are shaped and reproduced has changed over time. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber breaks down how the Marxist tradition has theorized class, the difference between a class in itself and a class for itself, and how class analysis is used within political organizing. The lat...

Labor sociologist Barry Eidlin joins Suzi to discuss the recent Air Canada strike, which has now reached a tentative agreement. The strike began when 10,000 flight attendants, organized in the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), walked off the job on August 16, after months of failed negotiations. The Canadian government responded with its usual move: a back-to-work order under Section 107...

Osita Nwanevu, author of The Right of the People , examines the flaws of US democracy — and some cures. Derek Guy outlines the evolution of upper-class men’s dress over the decades. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.