Politics Theory Other

On the 1st of February, the Burmese military launched a coup d'état against the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy which had been returned to power in November in a landslide victory. Alleging electoral fraud, the Tatmadaw's leader Min Aung Hlaing promised that military rule would last for one year and then be followed by new elections. The coup has perple...

Kate Aronoff joins PTO to talk about what can be expected from the Joe Biden administration in the United States, both domestically and on foreign policy. We discussed the scale and scope of the administration's stimulus package, where the Republican party goes next after its defeat at the polls in November, and we also talked about why - in spite of Biden's impressive rhetoric on climate and the...

With support for Scottish independence at an all time high, and with Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party predicted to win a landslide in May's Scottish parliamentary elections, PTO spoke to Rory Scothorne about whether independence really is inevitable, how the UK government will try to prevent the break up of the union, what the economic argument for Scottish independence looks like p...

Gavin Mueller joins PTO to talk about his new book, 'Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job'. In the first part of our conversation we talk about the history of the Luddites, why their reputation for conservative technophobia is undeserved and how their struggles to resist the imposition of new deskilling technologies are relevant to the contemporary workplace....

With the UK Office of National Statistics reporting that covid-19 related deaths in the UK have exceeded 100,000, PTO spoke to Richard Seymour about why the UK government's covid response has been so disastrous. We also talked about why the UK vaccination has not been characterised by the vacillation and delay that has been associated with so much else of the British government's reaction to the p...

Ravinder Kaur joins PTO to talk about her new book, 'Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India'. We spoke about how in both India, and around the world ethnonationalism in alliance with domestic and international capital seeks to rebrand entire nations as attractive investment opportunities. We talked about who and what is left out of the airbrushed...

Andreas Malm joins PTO to talk about his new book, 'How To Blow Up a Pipeline'. We chatted about why the climate movement is so fiercely committed to nonviolence, how that hinders climate activism, and how the advocates of nonviolence edit the history of popular struggles and liberations movements in order to downplay the importance of the more militant wings of those struggles.

Alison Phipps joins PTO to talk about her new book, 'Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism'. We chatted about the MeToo movement and what it reveals about the mainstream of feminist politics, how violence against women is necessary to the project of capitalist globalisation and how the image of the imperilled white woman has been central to the project of empire both formal and informa...

Jeremy Gilbert joins PTO to discuss why the Corbyn and Sanders projects ultimately foundered. We talked about the significance of personality and strategy versus deeper historical tendencies, and why the Corbyn leadership seemed to prefer a critique of austerity to a broader attack on the neoliberal era. Our discussion was prompted by Jeremy's article in Open Democracy, 'We lost because we weren’t...

In the final episode of the second season of #RedHacks Joana Ramiro speaks to Laurie Macfarlane about the necessity of an economic journalism that challenges the status quo.

Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter join PTO to talk about whether Joe Biden's election victory represents a comprehensive repudiation of Trumpism, what we can expect from the Republican Party after Trump, and we also chatted about the significance of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Marcela Mora y Araujo and Jonathan Wilson join PTO to talk about the late Diego Maradona and the outpouring of grief that greeted his death in Argentina and around the world. We also talked about the darker side of Maradona, his mistreatment of the women in his life in particular and the tangled question of whether one can separate the art from the artist.

Brett Christophers joins PTO to talk about his new book, Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? We chatted about the extraordinary dominance of monopolistic rent-seeking in the UK economy, why the concept of rentierisation is more useful and accurate than the notion of financialisation when talking about the trajectory of the UK and world economies, and we also talked about...

Sophie Lewis joins PTO to talk about her article in The Nation, 'Covid-19 Is Straining the Concept of the Family. Let’s Break It'. We chatted about how the Covid19 pandemic has underscored how dependent the nuclear family is upon the labour of others, and why the family is being called into question by mainstream political commentators. We also talked whether the call for family abolitionism is st...

Adom Getachew and Branko Marcetic join PTO to talk about the US election results, why the 'blue wave' failed to materialise and how Joe Biden will govern with a Republican senate and a republican majority on the supreme court.

Barnaby Raine joins PTO to talk about the EHRC report into antisemitism and the Labour Party, the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the party, and what the affair tells us about the treatment of antisemitism in the UK in 2020.

Grace Blakeley joins PTO to talk about the current state of the UK economy, whether the era of austerity is over, and why even in the face of a no deal Brexit the UK is unlikely to experience an attack of the bond market vigilantes. We also talked about Grace's excellent new podcast, 'A World To Win'.

Owen Hatherley and Kojo Koram join PTO to talk about Owen's essay, 'A Study in the Politics and Aesthetics of English Misery'. In the essay Owen reflects on the generational divides that have emerged over the course of the last two UK general elections by charting the musical evolution of The Smiths. Comparing Morrissey’s political trajectory to those of many voters throughout the North of England...

Lola Olufemi joins PTO to talk about her new book, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power. We chatted about the history of black feminist organising, the problem with mainstream liberal feminism, and the generational divide in feminist circles over trans rights.

Richard Seymour joins PTO to discuss the recent anti-lockdown protests in London, the broader phenomenon of covid denialism, and whether the emergence of anti-political currents - combined with the left's decline with the defeat of the Corbyn project - is laying the basis for the emergence of fascism. We also talked about how Donald Trump's Covid-19 diagnosis might effect his electoral chances.

In a special episode - recorded for The World Transformed festival 2020 - Tobita Chow and David Brophy discuss how the socialist left should think about China, how to characterise China's economy and mode of governance, and what to make of the emerging Cold War between China and the United States and US allies.

Will Davies joins PTO to talk about the possible emergence of a UK equivalent of Fox News, what that might do to UK politics, and why breaking into broadcasting is so important for right wing media owners such as Rupert Murdoch. We also talked about whether in the years preceding the Brexit vote the left should have paid more attention to the ideology and attitudes being fostered by people such as...

Kate Soper joins me to talk about her new book, 'Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism'. We chatted about why a transition to a sustainable, post-growth economy need not mean privation and a reduction of pleasure but instead an increase in human flourishing. We also talked about why consumerism should be seen neither as an expression of sovereign public choice, nor as mere surrender to t...

Nesrine Malik joins PTO to speak about the confected media furore over the BBC proms and what it tells us about the UK's culture wars. We also talked about the trajectory of the right wing press and how the left can best respond to the right's cultural turn.

Bhaskar Sunkara joins me to talk about the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin and collusion between the far right and the police, whether the frightening prospect of a second Trump administration makes a rerun of the 2016 election result less likely - in spite of Joe Biden's underwhelming policy platform - and we also talked about the prospect of the American right breaking from its relative economic...