On the US election, a huge turnout and the end of Trump.
We survey the results of the presidential and legislative elections, peer through the exit polls and discuss some counterintuitive facts: Florida goes Trump but opts for a $15 minimum wage; California goes Biden while Uber gets its way; Trump did protectionism but it didn't help him win the Rustbelt; the Republicans win over more Latinos – but do Latinos even exist?
And the big questions: Will Biden and the Democrats have...
2020-11-07 14:40:45 +0000 UTC
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In this latest Three Articles, we discuss cosmopolitanism, the end of austerity (maybe?) and social control in the pandemic.
The paywalled articles are available as attachments on patreon.com
Readings:
Internationalism used to be a defining characteristic of the Left. Globalism is a defining characteristic of neoliberal capitalism. Both seem to be characteristic of Islamist jihadism. How did Islamist reaction become globalised? How far does Islamist globalism connect to radical legacies of Third Worldism, internationalism and radical solidarity? Political anthropologist Darryl Li, author of The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity joins us to discuss the ...
2020-10-27 07:00:01 +0000 UTC
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We start off by discussing the beheading of a French teacher for having shown his pupils the Mohammed cartoons in a class on free speech. Then we discuss your points, questions and criticisms from September and October (on class politics, antifa, Covid, unemployment and more). Finally, 25 minutes of bonus content from our chat with Sontag biographer Benjamin Moser on the 1619 Project, identity politics, literature, and cosmopolitanism and empire.
For the rest of the original episode wit...
2020-10-22 12:28:09 +0000 UTC
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On the Covid election.
Trump has made himself deeply unpopular while the Democrats have tried to demobilise the electorate. What, if anything, are the two parties selling? Are they coherent entities? And what is likely to happen? Plus: we discuss a potential political realignment in process and what foreign policy is likely to look like under a Biden or Trump presidency.
2020-10-19 23:13:23 +0000 UTC
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On the country of the future.
Italy has stagnated for 30 years, becoming a neoliberal gerontocracy with crumbling infrastructure (sound familiar?). Worse, it's a country without a Left. How did the populist right come to triumph? What is the relationship between high emigration and hostility to immigration? And how were the seeds sown 30 years ago with the collapse of the First Republic, Europeanisation, and Berlusconi's rise? Is there now a possibility of 'Italexit'?
Readings:
2020-10-13 06:01:00 +0000 UTC
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On why anti-fascism is a problem.
The Trump presidency and the current protests in the US have led many to argue this is just like the 1930s. The implication is that fascism is rising and the Left must join up with liberals to oppose this evil. Why is this historical analogy so wide of the mark? Was the Left really culpable for the fascists rise to power? And anyway, our age is vastly different to interwar Europe. So what is the real function of calls to anti-fascism?
Reading...
2020-10-06 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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On Iran at the End of History.
When the US assassinated Iran's 'shadow commander', Qassem Soleimani, everyone thought WW3 would break out. What happened instead? We talk to the author of a new book on Soleimani about the "local boy who made it", and look at how Soleimani masterminded Iran's interventions all over the region.
We also discuss how the Iranian Revolution represented a degradation of universalism, as it marginalised secular nationalism, socialism and communism. W...
2020-09-29 06:00:01 +0000 UTC
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On unemployment.
The Covid crisis has led to millions out of work - but the situation was none too rosy before, either. Post-crisis recoveries seem increasingly 'jobless', while the overall labour force participation rate keeps falling as people drop out entirely.
We interview to Liz Pancotti of Employ America for a picture of what's driving US unemployment.
Then we talk to Aaron Benanav about his new book and learn that it's not robots who are stealing jobs, but rathe...
2020-09-24 06:00:02 +0000 UTC
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On Brexit negotiations and state aid; on pandemic policies and confirmation bias; and on Beethoven and access to high culture.
Readings:
On modernism and its end.
We're joined by 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser to discuss the tensions between hating your national culture and wanting to leave it behind, and the effacement of national culture by postmodern homogenisation.
We talk about his biography of Susan Sontag, plus a range of other questions: Brazil, USA, literature, architecture, sex, imperialism, Freud, the image and representation, and contemporary wokeness.
Moser's Books:
In a change to our usual approach, we're now announcing the upcoming Reading Clubs for the next half-year, so you have time to plan your reading in advance. We've gone for a balance of books and essays - the advance notice should hopefully give you more time to read the books.
We've also selected a mix of new works and 'modern classics', the latter giving an opportunity to reassess influential works in today's light.
As always, Reading Clubs are for patrons $10 and up. ...
2020-09-12 12:48:57 +0000 UTC
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We decided to respond to the many requests we've received over the past years, and set up our own merch shop. We know you were dying to show off to your pals that you're a citizen of the Republic of Bunga ;-)
There's several designs and you can get them on t-shirts, other apparel, and various bits and bobs (mugs, phone cases, etc). The printers are located in Europe (apparel only) and the US (all items), so shipping costs should be reasonable if you live on one of those two continents.&...
2020-09-09 18:43:19 +0000 UTC
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On class.
Class as an idea and an identity is now supposedly redundant. It’s been replaced by conflicts between generations and transcended by more up-to-date identities linking people together through common experiences of victimhood and inequality, rather than along lines related to production or power. Or is it? We discuss these questions with Ben Tippett, author of Split: Class Divides Uncovered to find out whether class still has any place in society and theory (spoiler:...
2020-09-08 06:00:01 +0000 UTC
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On political decline and realignment.
The editor of American Affairs joins us to discuss the decay of conservatism and we ask whether this decay doesn't apply to other parts of the political spectrum too. Is today's 'class struggle' really just between the upper-middle class and the elite? And we discuss the 'late-Soviet' USA - the sense of decline embodied in the gerontocracy of the ruling class.
Readings:
In this semi-regular slot, we respond to your comments and criticisms received over the past month or so.
Discussion features whether we're right about the "end of the End of History", social conservatism, policing in America, British declinism, the use and misuses of Islamism, and more.
2020-08-25 19:49:03 +0000 UTC
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On US foreign policy.
Following on from our episode on the political-economy of dollar hegemony (no. 139), we turn to look at how the dollar underpins American empire. Is 'permawar' a product of structural factors, rather than merely the result of poor policy decisions? And how is this related to the global financial architecture?
We also dis...
2020-08-18 06:00:02 +0000 UTC
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On Lebanon's crisis.
We call up Rima Majed in Beirut to talk us through the aftermath of the enormous explosion and ensuing protests. How has Lebanon's history since the civil war created such a profound, multi-layered crisis? We cover the desperate economic situation and the October 2019 revolt, before going deep on the politics of sectarianism, the regional scenario impacting Lebanon, the legacy of the Arab Spring, and the risks of foreign intervention.
Running Order:
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2020-08-13 06:01:01 +0000 UTC
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In this latest Three Articles, we discuss the durability or otherwise of right-populism in the UK, US and Brazil.
Reading:
Our next Reading Club will be on chapter 8 of The 'Death of the Subject' Explained by James Heartfield. The chapter has recently been republished as "The New Social Movements Against the Old Left" in Damage Magazine. We will be discussing that version, though it's worth noting that the whole book is worth reading/revisiting.
We're recording on Thursday 2...
2020-08-09 14:03:36 +0000 UTC
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On dollar hegemony.
Dutch disease has long been seen as the curse of resource-rich economies in which a currency appreciates and jobs are lost overseas. But what if the greenback is having the same effects on the US economy, the largest in the world? Many historians and economists have studied the global effects of having the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. But what is the effect on the US economy itself? The authors of an influential essay on this question join us to talk abo...
2020-08-04 06:45:01 +0000 UTC
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The protests in the US against police violence - and their globalisation - prompts us to discuss radical proposals for what to do about the police. We look at the US, the UK and Brazil, each in their own national contexts, and debate how policing is structured and what makes realistic responses to state repression a political priority.
Readings:
On British decline.
Much ink has been spilled over the Britain’s fate since the end of its empire. Could it be that decline has been overstated? And what will happen to Britain as it leaves the European Union? We discuss how the history of the Industrial Revolution and Cold War militarism still shapes British politics today, as David Edgerton joins us to talk about the his latest book, 'The Rise and Fall of the British Nation'.
Readings:
Mailbag + bonus content ft. Corey Robin
In this new semi-regular slot, we feature bonus recordings (here, 20mins of additional discussion with Corey Robin from episode 129) and respond to your comments and criticisms received over the past month.
2020-07-14 06:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Our next Reading Club will be on Wolfgang Streeck's discussion of technology, war and the growth of the state, in the New Left Review.
We'll be recording on 22 July, so please send in your points and questions by then.
2020-07-09 21:15:41 +0000 UTC
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The three of us discuss some of the themes that emerged from our interview with Krithika Varagur (ep.133) - the entanglement of the US state with Islamism, the Americanisation of the Middle East, and especially the Gulf States, and Wahhabism as religious justification for the Saudi state project.
2020-07-07 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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On Saudi religious proselytism. Saudi Arabia has actively sought to export Salafism. How has it done this - and what have been its effects, in countries like Indonesia, Nigeria and Kosovo? Why was fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s such a formative experience for jihadists? And why has appeal of secularism faded? Readings:
Aleksandar Vučić's coalition won the recent (21 June) Serbian parliamentary elections amidst a mass boycott. We talk to Balkanist editor Lily Lynch about what Vučić represents - violent ultranationalist or technocratic centrist? We also take time to discuss geopolitical rivalries over Kosovo.
Plus: cigar socialism, Yugoboomers and the enduring appeal of Balkan orientalism. According to Julian Assange, the future always comes to Serbia first - what does this mean?
I...
2020-06-30 09:16:05 +0000 UTC
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On this latest Three Articles, we discuss the global Black Lives Matter protests.
Reading:
On the left case for freedom.
We talk to Corey Robin about how the left has sacrificed the realm of freedom to the right. And why the Left's weakness is also the Right's. Plus, why is it clear that Trump is not a fascist? And insight into the BLM protests in NYC and responses to the pandemic.
Reading:
