Novara Media

Rising unemployment, increased military spending, and a decline in living standards for most people, including the middle class: the description fits both the 1930s and the 2020s. In the 1930s, it was a situation that morphed into the destruction and horror of the Second World War. On Downstream with Aaron Bastani this week is Clara Mattei, professor of economics at the University of Tulsa, and au...

Trillions of dollars of AI build-out. An economy poised on the edge of a giant crisis. Some say it’s a bubble. But what if it’s an entirely new kind of economics? One that has no need of humans at all? Marek Poliks is the co-author with Roberto Alonso Trillo of Exocapitalism: Economies with Absolutely No Limits. Together, they are the co-hosts of the Disintegrator podcast. He speaks to Richard Ham...

The final episode. Back in Westminster, Kojo confronts the human cost of hidden wealth – and asks if change is still possible. Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

In episode three, the dark web of offshore finance connects Britain’s imperial past with its political present. Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

In episode two, the trail leads offshore. From Westminster to the Cayman Islands, Kojo uncovers how tax havens are fuelling London’s housing crisis. Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

A homeless man dies in Westminster surrounded by vast wealth and empty homes. His death sparks a disturbing investigation into how secrecy and evasion have become normalised in the heart of British power. Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

Coming 10th March 2026. Who's hiding behind London's empty mansions? A four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

Moya and Ash wonder what’s attracting young British ex-pats (and influencers) to cities like Dubai and Bali. When did emigration become so aspirational? Plus: a dilemma about being stuck in a dead-end job – or so it seems. Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July! https://crossedwires.live/ Music by Matt Huxley.

The US military is changing shape: it’s increasingly high-tech, intelligence led, and focused on assassinations. In short, the Israeli model. And the changing shape of war means changing flows of money and power. The primes, which have dominated the military industrial for decades, now face competition from Silicon Valley companies like Palantir and Anduril. But does their tech actually work? Or d...

Nearly all of us on Earth live within a 'nation-state'. Nation-states are an invisible and seemingly inevitable and eternal part of the infrastructure that forms our society: the water we swim in. Rarely do we pause to consider how this global system of nation-states came into being, and what might replace it after its gone. But as the United States wages a war of aggression on Iran, in a move tha...

Have the Greens got what it takes to become the main political vehicle of the radical left? Following their Trip episode on Ecology, the ACFM crew take a closer look at Zack Polanski's party as it nudges past Labour in the polls. From the '60s dream of 'steady state economics' to the anarcho-green convergence of '90s rave culture, the Green tendency is mapped out by Nadia, Jem and Keir – with idea...

Ash wants to cultivate a better relationship with nature, but Moya detects a deeper issue around burnout and the lure of the countryside for busy city dwellers. Plus: advice for a listener who’s lost sexual interest in her partner. Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July! https://crossedwires.live/ Music by Matt Huxley.

The notion that the Global South is affected ‘first and worst’ by global shocks they didn’t cause, namely climate change, is one of the cornerstones of leftist thought. But what if it’s not entirely true? What if, contrary to this tenet, it’s wealthy Western nations who have over-developed and lost their resilience in the process? This is the argument made by John Rapley in his latest book ‘Icarus...

Cheap food holds capitalism together. But to get it, we’ve had to cheapen almost everything on the planet: the work of women, nature and colonies. We’ve made strange new ecologies all over the world, and now we’re living in the metabolic shitshow. How will the ruling class keep control? On this week’s Do Your Own Research, Jason Moore tells Richard Hames why the end of cheap nature means the rise...

Contains Wuthering Heights spoilers! What else would two literature lovers (and actual Brontë experts) be talking about this week but the film of the moment. Is Jacob Elordi too white? Is Margot Robbie too old? How much adaptation is too much? Plus: tough love for a special one in a situationship. Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th J...

In 2001, Eric Schlosser published Fast Food Nation: an investigation into the toxic depths of America’s food industry.  Twenty five years later, the book remains an urgent intervention, as much for what it says about workers’ rights as for our agricultural systems and dietary health. On Downstream this week, Ash Sarkar talks to Eric Schlosser about what’s changed since 2001, and what remains unref...

Are humans distinct from nature? Are there natural limits to inequality? Can you have action without effort? Do bacteria have agency? Jem, Nadia and Keir find themselves dwarfed by the concept of ecology in this planetary-scale episode, which touches on cybernetics, systems thinking, ecofeminism and actor-network theory. Their ACFM guide to ecological thinking includes ideas from Rachel Carson, Pe...

It’s a dilemmas special! (Because you lot have a lot of problems.) Ash and Moya answer your emails about: two student housemates who don’t really like each other, a friendship ruined by the return of a toxic ex, a depressed boyfriend who won’t get help, a good friend with a possibly evil job, and a romantic reunion that seems like a good idea… Plus: casting Hollywood stars as Greek gods and mortal...

Just a week ago, the architect of Starmer’s rise to power, Morgan McSweeney, resigned over his connections to Peter Mandelson, after further proof of Mandelson’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein emerged in the newest batch of files released by the US Department of Justice. According to this week’s guest, this scandal isn’t an anomaly, but an inevitable outgrowth of the New Labour politics that hav...

We’re 100 episodes old! To celebrate, our audience of Special Ones ask us anything, from the personal to the political to the completely potty. What do Ash and Moya love and hate about each other? Whose greatest skill is cod psychology? And do they ever get anxious after sharing on the podcast? Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July...

When it comes to the relationship between capitalism and crime, those on the left generally think of exploitation. People often turn to crime, so the thinking goes, because they can’t make ends meet by legitimate means. Whatever your views on that framing, there is also another - far less discussed - connection between capitalism and crime, namely the relationship between elites, the shadow econom...

Recently Moya has been breaking the habit of a lifetime by choosing to stick with her choices rather than quit. She asks Ash how to trust your gut when it comes to leaving or staying, whether it's a job, friendship or romance. Plus: would you use Chat GPT to name your baby? Next week it's our 100th episode – so ask us anything! Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sh...

Over the past three years, the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people has become a flash point for freedom of speech in the West. Expressing solidarity with Palestinians has given Western governments an excuse to crack down on dissenters. There has been intimidation and job insecurity at one end of the scale, through to brutal policing, arrests, and extraditions at the other. Our guest on Down...

Have we become reliant on having our feelings validated instead of taking valid criticism? Ash and Moya offer their own strategies for worrying less about what other people think. Plus: how to deal with an ex who’s found God and turned rightwing but is still hanging around. Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July 2026 – tickets are available from https://crossedwires.live/ now!...

This week, Donald Trump continued his streak of threatening tariffs against any country that opposes him, increasing the odds of an escalating trade war and further destabilising the global economic system. But according to this week’s guest, the system is in desperate need of reform. Indeed, she thinks without a complete structural overhaul, it will soon ‘blow itself up.’ On Downstream this week...