Savage Minds Podcast

Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, discusses his recent report, Academic Freedom in Crisis and the current climate of political discrimination, self-censorship and public punishment ongoing within British academic institutions today. Detailing recent cases of harassment and mobbing such as that of Kathleen Stock at the University of Sussex and his own c...

Vito Gesualdi, comedian and YouTube personality, discusses his participation in the counter-protest against the Netflix employees who staged a walkout outside the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles on 20 October. Discussing how “cancel culture” has affected comedy and screenwriting today, Gesualdi discusses the importance of protecting free speech and how the social media era has spawn social j...

Filmmaker, photographer and film studies scholar Haim Bresheeth-Žabner discusses his latest book,  An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Force Made a Nation (2020) analysing the IDF within the larger project political project of Zionism. Reflecting upon his parents who survived Auschwitz, his birth in Cinecittà in a displaced persons’ camp, to his childhood and formative years in Israel gr...

Michael Hudson, American economist and author of Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1972) discusses the rentier economy that accounts for the growing disparity in wealth due to finance capitalism. Giving a history of the the polarisation of the US economy since the 1960s through the present, Hudson discusses how the high costs of education and housing have led to a growin...

Dee and Marie, two parents of children who have struggled with gender dysphoria, describe their experiences in dealing with the medical system and their children’s mental and physical health in light of the current, quite toxic climate for anyone who questions current orthodoxy and practices that are medicalising gender. Covering their familial situation, the schools and medical practices for gend...

In this episode, Swedish journalist, writer, and activist, Kajsa Ekis Ekman reviews the history of the New Left since 1968 when the values of the oppressed class were highlighted to today where power has adopted the language of the oppressed, what she calls “patriarchy changing clothes” while using feminist language. Discussing the importance of class issues within feminism, Ekman highlights how c...

Helen Joyce, The Economist ’s Britain editor, discusses her newly released book, TRANS: When Ideology Meets Reality (2021) exposing some of the origins of gender identity and its early accommodation within society when the numbers of transsexuals were quite small. Comparing this early demographic to “witness protection,” Joyce explains the many reasons why society accommodated these individuals fr...

Julia Long, a lesbian feminist, writer and activist, discusses the inconsistencies within the feminist and gender-critical movements—from the formation of social media activism groups whereby some women play along with the theatre of the transgender identity from recycling the “preferred pronouns” to the most fundamental illogicity of a movement that claims to be against gender while reinforcing c...

Alan Sokal, Professor of Mathematics at University College London and Professor Emeritus of Physics at New York University, discusses his (in)famous "Sokal hoax" (1996), how the hoax was almost revealed, and the contemporary issues that have followed from his Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture (Oxford UP, 2008). Covering the historical backdrop of the current debates over identity po...

In this episode, former journalist and writer Simon Edge discusses the socio-political situation that inspired his latest satirical novel, The End of the World is Flat (2021). Covering the flatearthery at the heart of the gender debate that involves deliberate confusion and table-turning, Edge discusses how it is vital that we note the tactics employed that cement wider financial interests secured...

Nic Williams, PhD discusses her work as director of Fair Play for Women in providing advice to policy makers on how to fairly balance the rights of women and those who identify as “transgender.” Williams covers the push to keep women's spaces single-sex detailing her work on prisons and sports from the grassroots level, to chatting with Martina Navratilova over the sports debate and to having invi...

Naomi Cunningham, a barrister and director and Chair of Sex Matters, discusses her entry into the gender debate and the wider implications of the Gender Recognition Act (2004). Elaborating the disconnect between the medical and legal frameworks on the subject of gender dysphoria, Cunningham notes how the surge of girls declaring themselves as transgender demonstrates a dereliction of duty by adult...

In this episode, journalist Beatrix Campbell discusses her shift from the Communist Party to the Green Party analysing the horrors of Stalinism, the end of Perestroika in 1991 and the emergence of green politics to which she gravitated. Delving into the transgender issue that has plagued politics in the UK in recent years, Campbell discusses how the Green Party was captured by transgender ideology...

Dr. Thomas Prosser, a Reader in European social policy at Cardiff University, discusses his latest book, What’s in it for me? Self-interest and political difference (2021), highlighting the economic and cultural foundations of different world views and how they relate to tribalism, Brexit and changes in liberal democracies. Analysing self-interest and political partisanship, Prosser discusses with...

James Esses, a former a Criminal Barrister and currently a Trainee Psychotherapist, discusses the current social dilemma at the heart of the gender identity debate where countries are banning “conversion therapy” while dismissing the beneficial uses of therapeutic approaches to gender dysphoria. Analysing the deeper issues central to the refusal to embrace anything but affirmation, Esses points ou...

Working class lecturer and filmmaker Deirdre O’Neill discusses the possibility and potential of working class filmmaking today as she highlights her experiences in the British film industry and the eclipse of the working class behind and in front of the camera. Arguing that “class is not an identity,” O’Neill considers the relationship between the forces of production and the paucity of analysis t...

In this episode, co-founder of Stonewall Simon Fanshawe OBE deliberates his involvement in the formation of Stonewall in 1989 in response to Section 28 of the Local Government Act. Discussing gay rights during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and the stigma of AIDS that would come to mark the 1980s, Fanshawe notes that Stonewall pushed back against Section 28 through an appeal to the rig...

English economics and politics journalist and author Grace Blakeley discusses her latest article, “ How Corporate Welfare Props up the Billionaire Class ” and the larger issues surrounding class politics today and the increase in wealth of the billionaire class is not a fluke but is very much part of the architecture of capitalism and the “direct intervention of capitalist states all over the worl...

In this episode, Laura Dodsworth, author, journalist, photographer and filmmaker, discusses her latest book, A State of Fear: how the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic , addressing how SPI-B (the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour), a team of behavioural scientists working inside Whitehall that advise SAGE and ministers, has worked to create a climate of fear...

In this episode, Susan Evans , a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and Marcus Evans , a psychoanalyst, discuss their latest book, Gender Dysphoria: A Therapeutic Model for Work ing with Children, Adolescents and Young Adults (Phoenix, 2021) wherein they analyse some of the psychoanalytic ideas regarding gender dysphoria and the political and social climate surrounding transgender identity today. Cov...

Lisa Marchiano , a writer and Jungian analyst discusses her book  Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself  (Sounds True, 2021). In this episode, Marchiano speaks with Julian Vigo about employing fairytales in Motherhood to recount Jungian psychoanalysis through stories of descent and emergence from the well, the central metaphor of her book. Outlining Jung’s concept of individuation, the lifelong...

Jo Phoenix, Professor at The Open University, discusses being de-platformed from a 2019 talk at the University of Essex after being accused of “hate speech” and “transphobia.” Addressing the points made in the the Reindorf report released earlier this week which details deeper institutional problems where the ideological capture by Stonewall within university policy, Phoenix and Julian Vigo explor...

Max Blumenthal, editor-in-chief  and founder of The Grayzone and author of The Management of Savagery (Verso, 2019), discusses the shift in coverage of the Middle East within mainstream media over the past two decades and the need for journalism to pay attention to the voices of the people. Drawing from his work in the West Bank and Gaza, Blumenthal scrutinises the disproportionate attacks by Isra...

Cultural and medical anthropologist Alyshia Gálvez discusses her groundbreaking book on changing food policies, systems and practices in Mexico and Mexican communities in the United States, Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies and the Destruction of Mexico , (UC Press, 2018). Elaborating the ways Mexican are impacted by trade and economic policies and the wider public health and cultural implication...

Jay Lalezari, MD is a physician and the Director of Quest Clinical Research who recently penned “ Hope for Critically Ill Covid-19 Patients Within Reach ” wherein he describes the results of a randomised, double-blind study of a drug called leronlimab (Vyrologix or PRO 140) which demonstrates a 82% reduction in the rate of death at Day 14 for patients on a ventilator who received 2 weekly doses of...