The Owen Jones Podcast

When Just Stop Oil threw soup at a Van Gogh painting, there was outrage across social media - including from people who considered themselves naturally sympathetic to their cause. So I wanted to find out the truth: as it turns out, the soup was thrown over glass - no painting was harmed in the making of this protest - and Emma Brown from the group joins me, asking what should we really be angry ab...

Liz Truss has already had the most disastrous record of any new British prime minister: after a mini budget which promised a massive raft of tax cuts to the wealthy plunged the economy into turmoil, she's thrown her Chancellor under a bus, u-turned on her policies and appointed Jeremy Hunt. But Hunt is a passionate cheerleader of austerity and has already committed to spending cuts - after years o...

After a disastrous party conference, Liz Truss and the Tories are in polling freefall, and the spectre of electoral calamity now seems increasingly likely. Is it all over? What on earth is Truss doing? Is she an undercover revolutionary socialist on a mission to destroy the Tories? And where is Labour in all this? We are joined by Opinium pollster Chris Curtis, and Guardian columnist Zoe Williams....

Julian Assange faces up to 175 years behind bars if he's extradited to the United States. Why? Because he embarrassed the world's remaining superpower by exposing its war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. His wife, Stella, joins us to explain why what Assange did is so important, why he has suffered persecution, the human impact on both of them - and why everyone should join a human chain around Par...

The Tories under Liz Truss face catastrophe - but sadly, so does the country. I've gone straight to Conservative conference to ask delegates exactly how it's all going. Brace yourselves! Truss's attempt to slash taxes for the rich caused the markets to collapse, and despite a humiliating u-turn on the 45p rate, the government is still set to cut taxes for big business while hacking away benefits f...

Liz Truss' decision to wage class war on behalf of the rich - with a Budget which slashes their taxes - has crashed the British economy, throwing the pound and the markets into turmoil. Why has this happened, what will this for the economy - and what will this mean for you? We're joined by Alfie Stirling, chief economist of the New Economics Foundation. Please subscribe - and help us take on the r...

So, the Tories are in polling meltdown and they've crashed the economy: the election is now Labour's to lose, and here at the annual conference, delegates know it. But is this party still a broad church? Has Keir Starmer abandoned the promises he made to become Labour leader? Has the party finally adopted a bold transformative agenda in this crisis-ridden country? And could Labour really finally b...

Is it all over for the Labour left? Clive Lewis is one of its leading lights, and a tireless fighter for causes such as climate justice and proportional representation. He joined me live at Labour Conference to talk over the Tories' catastrophic implosion - and where Labour goes now. Please subscribe - and help us take on the right-wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Support this show...

The Tories aren't even bothering to hide it: their so-called "mini budget" shovels vast sums of money to the booming 1% while millions are left struggling. This is class war. Just how bad is it, what will it do to the economy, how worried should you be about your own circumstances - and what's the alternative? We're joined by the economist and author Grace Blakeley to unpack it all - plus, former...

As royal fervour grips the media and swathes of the nation following the death of Britain's longest serving monarch - what does this all say about the state of a crisis-ridden country in 2022? Is the monarchy safe for generations to come under King Charles III - or are cracks appearing in the institution? We are joined by Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu to discuss the racist onslaught against Meghan Markl...

A stunning Ukrainian counter-offensive has driven Russian forces out of Kharkov region. Has the war turned? Could Putin be on course for military defeat? Could he resort to tactical nuclear weapons? And how will this really all end? We’re joined by leading war expert Prof. Paul Rogers to tell us exactly what’s happening. Please like, subscribe - and help us take on the right wing media here: https...

The death of Britain’s longest reigning monarch is a cause of sadness for millions. But as a new unelected head of state assumes his role, now is exactly the time to debate the monarchy. Millions support having an elected head of state - but the media largely silences their voices - and even for many who support the monarchy, the passion is no longer there. Among younger voters, more support a rep...

Keir Starmer’s decision to abandon the pledges he made to Labour members to get elected has not gone down well with me. Winning peoples’s confidence through deceit makes you, in my view, well - a conman. Keir Starmer responded to my critique on TV - and this is my response. (Also - I forgot to say in the video - he calls me a cheerleader for Jeremy Corbyn - and yes I did support his leadership - b...

That did not go how the BBC expected. When comedian Joe Lycett appeared on Laura Kuenssberg's new politics show, he refused to play the game and instead used satire to roast our soon-to-be prime minister Liz Truss. By doing so, he punctured the self-important Westminster Bubble that presents itself as sophisticated political commentary but is often the inane and the superficial. That's why - unlik...

Ok, resign yourself to it - Liz Truss is going to be our prime minister. Is she going to bomb at the outset? What do the public think of her? Will she get a honeymoon? What’s she planning? We are joined by Opinium pollster Chris Curtis and Byline Tomes’ Adam Bienkov. Plus - Labour’s internal election results are announced last week. Is it all over for the Labour left - or does it have a future? We...

The launch of 'Enough is Enough' revitalised the anti-Tory movement: within weeks of launching, half a million have signed up as supporters of this campaign to solve the crisis of living, and mass rallies have attracted such numbers that people have been turned away. The Communication Workers Union is one of the driving forces behind the new campaign, and their general secretary Dave Ward talked t...

We all know the economy is broken - but what does that mean in practice and how do we fix it? How did corporations become a threat to democracy? Where does the energy crisis and the disaster of water privatisation fit into this? And more importantly - what we do about it?  I’m joined by two brilliant authors - Adrienne Buller and Mathew Lawrence - who have written a brilliant new book called...

The treatment of Labour MP Apsana Begum should horrify any decent person. A self-identified survivor of domestic abuse, as journalist Rivkah Brown puts it, 'her mental and physical health ravaged by what she called “a sustained campaign of misogynistic abuse and harassment” culminating in a trigger ballot process overseen by friends of her ex-husband, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse was admitted t...

With the war in Ukraine at an apparent stalemate, what happens next? Is the Russian army now so overstretched and demoralised that Ukraine can mount a successful counter-offensive - or does the coming of winter and the growing energy crisis mean that a Russian breakthrough is only a matter of time? And through the fog of war - are there actually tentative signs of hope that are being ignored? We a...

When a caller rang in to denounce young people for not working hard enough - and not owning homes because they demanded fitted carpets - he got a piece of my mind. Please subscribe - and help us take on the right-wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-podcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is difficult to understate the scale of the social catastrophe looming in Britain, with an estimated 45 million people - a large majority of the population - facing being driven into poverty. Just what is the reality of the disaster about to unfold, what will it mean in practice - and can it be stopped? We are joined by Miatta Fahnbulleh, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, and Lew...

Ever since the monkeypox outbreak began in the global north several months ago, there's been misinformation, hysteria and outright lies. Despite all the evidence that the virus is overwhelmingly being spread by sex between men, stating this fact has been widely portrayed online as stigmatising, while false claims that the whole population is at severe risk have spread like wildfire online. Gruesom...

Inflation is soaring, a massive recession is projected, and already squeezed living standards are set to plummet further. The strain placed on households - and society at large - is hard to imagine. Just how bad are things going to get? What impact will the policies of likely Tory leader Liz Truss have? Do Labour's answers square up? And what's the real solution to this calamity? We're joined by e...

These two statistics sum up how broken British society is: while BP are making £6.9bn worth of profits - a 14 year high - typical household energy bills are forecast to hit more than £3,600 a year. We should never have surrendered the natural monopoly of the energy industry to profiteers in the first place. We're joined by the incredible expert Mathew - Lawrence - founder and director of UK-based...

The long awaited Forde report - investigating revelations about the behaviour of Labour staffers under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership which was exposed by a leaked document - was expected to be a whitewash. It wasn't: it exposed horrendous behaviour on the part of Labour officials. What does it tell us about the behaviour of the Labour Right - and the fate which befell Corbyn's Labour party? We are jo...