People Just Do Something

This week we explore the nuts and bolts of international solidarity. Cuba Solidarity Campaign director Rob Miller delivers a crash course on the country’s revolutionary legacy, blockade politics, and what meaningful global resistance actually looks like.  The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative . 

In this episode, Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins speaks to a former NHS data analyst about Palantir’s growing role in the NHS. We learn why Health Workers For A Free Palestine are campaigning against the software company, its links to military surveillance, and concerns about private-sector control of NHS data and what it could mean for patients. The episode also explores the influence of Palantir co-found...

Para equestrian Tegan Vincent-Cooke first began riding at the age of four as part of her physiotherapy for quadriplegic cerebral palsy. In this episode, Tegan tells Priyanka Raval how she quickly fell in love with riding, her journey to finding a horse of her own, and how alongside her mum she’s broken barriers in equestrian sport. Having previously represented Team GB, Tegan now rides for Jamaica...

This week we’re throwing the doors of City Hall wide open with Carnival executive director LaToyah McAllister-Jones. In this episode, LaToyah discusses the Citizens of Culture community-first arts initiative, and answers the questions your MP has been dodging. We hear how communities can build campaigns together that have real influence, and the cultured life that exists beyond what institutions c...

Bristol-based activist Ben Trowell has just returned home after being detained by the Israel Defence Forces in international waters near Crete. In this episode, Ben speaks to Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins about the training he underwent before joining the Global Sumud Flotilla, daily life on board, and what happened when the IDF boarded the boat 600 nautical miles from Gaza. From dealing with land sickne...

The team from Life of the Party join us for a live recording in conjunction with our friends at Bristol Transformed. In this episode, Jonas and Joe tell us what really went wrong with Your Party, reflect on the historical moment of Momentum, and explain why the Green Party might be a limited project. We also discuss the differences between Zack Polanski and Jeremy Corbyn, and how no party can keep...

Journalist and author Sarah Jaffe joins us for a live recording at Jikoni East Africa where we chat about commodified connection, manufactured isolation, and how we create true relational care under capitalism’s intimacy-crushing yoke. In this episode, Sarah Jaffe answers our live audience’s questions on everything from how can we make straight men better, how to tell your partner they’re bad at s...

Activist scholar and lecturer at the University of Essex, Nicholas Buret joins us for a live podcast recording at the Cube. With a focus on justice labour rights and ecological politics, Nicholas tells us why the green transition was doomed from the start and how unions have a contradictory relationship with it. Nicholas tells us how there’s been a shift away from the power of disruptive action, w...

Special guest Mathilda Mallinson discusses her time on board the historic Global Sumud Flotilla where she was reporting for Middle East Eye. The 42-strong pro-Palestinian flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces between October 1-3 while attempting to break Israel’s siege on Gaza. We hear about the psychology training Mathilda underwent ahead of departure, how the boat dealt with everything from...

As co-director of Adfree cities, Veronica Wignall and her team campaign to reclaim public spaces from corporate advertising. During a live podcast recording at the Cube, Veronica tells us how our brains subconsciously register advertising, why billboards are often placed in the poorest parts of the city, and how the companies which can afford to advertise are often the ones that only widen issues...

Award‑winning playwright, poet, and artist Ros Martin shares stories from a lifetime of resistance. From her London childhood, to her work as a social worker and how she ended up taking on one of the world’s largest toymakers, LEGO! Since moving to Bristol, Ros tells us how she draws on her Quaker roots to speak out on injustice, from anti-racism work, to responding to the Colston statue toppling...

Isaac finds himself at the Green Party conference in Brighton. The main interview is with the co-founder of Greens Organise, Steve Jackson. GO are organising the left within the Greens at a moment when the party is surging in the polls under the left populist leadership of Zack Polanski, whose leadership campaign Steve was part of. The interview discusses the dangers of being a jaded ex-Corbynista...

As Pride becomes more visible each year, it risks leaving behind the very people who helped build it. Too often, Pride ignores the deep inequalities within its own institutions and sidelines the queer voices of the Global Majority. Mose-Issie , Lisa Inneh , and Teena Lashmore discuss the intersection of being a member of the Global Majority and queer, being capable of speaking truth to power, and...

So, this is a bit of a break from the usual, but we figured the lessons we can learn from radicals 200 years ago are every bit as relevant as those from today. Isaac is back out exploring, and this time he's in a Hotwells building that was once ground zero for radical science and politics in England: The Pneumatic Institute. This place was a hotbed in the late 1700s, right around the time of The F...

[TRIGGER WARNING: Communism] This episode comes from our last live show where we had international super comrade, professor Jodi Dean , blessing us with a discussion focussed on Communism in the modern age. As an outwardly left wing academic residing in the U.S.A, Jodi is often at the sharp end of the discourse, and she eloquently describes the importance of building a solidarity movement in tough...

Number one Potter fanboy (joking please no more libel) Ethan Shone gives us a whistle stop tour of the sketchy world of The Dark Arts, aka secretive political lobbying. How is Bristol MP Darren Jones connected to a globally influential organisation set up by MI6 operatives? Why has Starmer's Labour party been described by former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy as "the first private sector govern...

Annie McGann aka The People's Lobbyist , graced us with her presence at the last PJDS live event to talk about her favourite topic, night-life. Her campaign group Save Bristol Nightlife has been pivotal in supporting the city's night-time economy, acting as a resource hub as well as a go-between for industry workers, Bristol City Council representatives, property developers and more. She calls it...

"Tommy Robinson's worst nightmare" is how Taj Ali described his experience at Uni. He came to town for PJDS live to talk about the past, present, and future of trade unionism and activism in the UK. Drawing from his time as an industrial correspondent and his upcoming book on British South Asian resistance, Taj connects the dots between working-class history, racial identity and common struggle. H...

The queue for the women's toilet was tiny at the Reform UK rally according to Sian Norris , our guest this week. She's a journalist who has used undercover reporting to lift the lid on on the rise of right-wing populism and misogyny, particularly in relation to reproductive rights. She's a Senior Reporter at openDemocracy and has written several books, most recently Bodies Under Siege: How the Far...

We sent Isaac to Cribbs Causeway to meet the organisers of a local iteration of the international protest movement dubbed Tesla Takedown. The movement has been calling for Tesla owners to sell up and boycott the company in response to owner Elon Musk's involvement in Donald Trump's extremist government. This week, Tesla announced record losses with sales dropping 71%. Can the Tesla Takedown moveme...

Content warning: descriptions of violence and war "The belief in one's rights is more important than anything else. If I am confident about my rights, nothing will make me despair...When you resist an Israeli soldier by peaceful means, their weapons become irrelevant." - Iyad Burnat Iyad Burnat is a Palestinian activist involved in non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation in the West...

Crypto is everywhere just now, after reinstalled President Trump’s recent pronouncements on the subject – including launching his own meme coin, which has soared in value. That’s great, because it gives PJDS a rare aura of being bang on the news agenda, as we sit down with Joshua Dávila, author of Blockchain Radicals, How Capitalism Ruined Crypto And How We Can Fix It. Join ‘crypto-naive’ Priyanka...

Gen Z listeners, do you actually know what a strike is? If not, we’ve got just the episode for you. PJDS this week features Bristol teacher Nik, National Education Union rep and co-host of the Requires Improvement podcast, who joins Isaac with his feet still freezing cold from standing on a picket line in January. So how does one go about organising workers? What is the point of industrial action...

“I’m definitely not an activist,” says Jake Hanrahan at the start of this week’s episode, pushing back hard on People Just Do Something’s tagline of being about people who might identify as one. Either way, Jake, who founded grassroots conflict media organisation Popular Front, is a fascinating character. What led him in his twenties to decide to be a war reporter? What does he see as rotten in th...

Content warning: This episode tackles issues to do with sexual violence. Burned out and disillusioned by their experience of working in mainstream charities for women who have survived sexual violence, Megan and Bryony took some time out before deciding they could do better. So they set up SLEEC (Survivors Leading Essential Education & Change), a radical support organisation that seeks to chan...