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On the maelstrom of the metropolis.
[Full episode only available to subscribers. Join at patreon.com/bungacast]
We kick of the 2024/25 syllabus with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Georg Simmel's short essay "Metropolis and Mental Life" and Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air (chapter 5, on New York).
How does Simmel relate the metropolitan condition to a historical passage from the 18th century to the 19th?
Is city life intellectual and blasé, versus small town emotionality?
Is narcissism built into modernity? Is there an aristocratic individualist revolt in evidence today?
Do we need places to hang out in before we can do political organising?
Are we nostalgic for top-down modernisation?
Readings:
"Metropolis and Mental Life"
All That Is Solid Melts into Air (chapter 5, on New York)
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On the military decline of the American empire.
[Patreon Exclusive]
The Swedish writer Malcom Kyeyune talks to Phil about what happens to the evil empire when the stormtroopers canât shoot straight and the empire isnât producing enough star destroyers. They discuss:
What happens to international politics in a world of new geopolitical rivalries?
How does American industrial decline affect US military capacity and strength?
Why is America unable to produce enough ships?
Why is the US unable to do conscription anymore?
Who would win in a showdown between China and America?
Links:
America will have to dodge the draft, Malcom Kyeyune, UnHerd
The Houthis now rule the Red Sea, Malcom Kyeyune, UnHerd
The West can no longer make war, Malcom Kyeyune, New Statesman
The American Empireâs Burning Peripheries, Malcom Kyeyune, Compact
/240/ Populist Interventions: Ărebro Party ft. Malcolm Kyeyune | Bungacast
Facing war in the Middle East and Ukraine, the US looks feeble. But is it just an act?, Adam Tooze, The Guardian
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Fehlende Folgen?
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On pro-family politics, and the US election and labour.
[Patreon Exclusive - in association with Damage magazine]
Dustin Guastella talks to Phil and Alex about what the election of Trump will mean for US labour organisations. We then move on to Dustin's proposal for progressive pro-family policies.
What actually is "the family" today?
Social democrats are proud of policies but wary of encouraging family growth. Why?
What would pro-family policies look like, what would they do, and what might their negative effects be?
Is the family not a pillar for the reproduction of authoritarian norms?
How do we explain the fertility crisis in global terms?
How do we confront the growing marketisation of everything?
Links:
Damage issue #3 - MOTHERS - Bungacast subscribers get free access
NY live event: issue launch - Family Trouble
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On Trump's return and the end of the End of History (still!)
Historian and Jacobin contributing editor Matt Karp joins us to extract the true meaning of the US election. We discuss:
How Trump's victory explodes so many Democrat assumptions about demography and identity
How this election re-writes the past ten years' history
Whether Trump still retains an anti-political or anti-establishment charge
If the Democrats are preponderant in leading sectors of the knowledge economy, is this a political rejection of its assumptions?
How to place this election in the sweep of the global anti-incumbency wave
What the relationship is between inflation, labour and legitimacy
Links:
Power Lines, Matt Karp, Harper's
Itâs Happening Again, Matt Karp, Jacobin
Democrats join 2024âs graveyard of incumbents, John Burn-Murdoch, FT
/262/ The Useless Past ft. Matt Karp
/447/ Brunch Back Better ft. Ryan Zickgraf & Amber A'Lee Frost
/445/ How I Hacked the US Election ft. Alex Gourevitch
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On your questions, comments, criticisms.
[Patreon Exclusive]
It's our letter to the episode show where we have a chance to answer you, the listener. We discuss:
Has Bungacast gone eco-austerian?
Are Marx and Freud in conflict?
Is abortion about healthcare or about freedom?
Why has the left abandoned liberty?
Did we underestimate Israelâs existential fears?
And whatâs so âcomplexâ about the Arab-Israeli conflict anyway?
Links:
2024/25 Reading Club on Place, Nation, Class
Direct link to the syllabus PDF
Our substack newsletter
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On Georgia's pivotal elections and its post-Soviet history.
[Full episode only for patrons]
Hans Gutbrod, who has been working in the Caucasus region since 1999 and now teaches at Ilia State University in Tblisi, talks to Alex about Georgia's choice between the EU and Russia. We discuss:
Who is Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is equal to 1/4 of GDP?
What is the ruling Georgian Dream's pitch to voters, and how has it turned 'rightward'?
Did Georgia witness the end of history, or merely the de-development of the post-Soviet years?
How has civil society become dominated by NGOs, and is this a problem?
Can Georgia flourish in a multipolar world, acting as an entrepĂŽt between East and West?
Links:
In Georgia, a National Election Is a Geopolitical Struggle, Bryan Gigantino, Jacobin
Telling Time the New Way: 17 Years of Reform, Hans Gutbrod, Civil Georgia
Macbeth in the Caucasus: Omnipotence and Loneliness - Bidzina Ivanishviliâs Georgian Dream, Hans Gutbrod (PDF)
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On the US election, messaging and learning stupid lessons.
[Full episode only at Patreon]
We welcome Amber A'Lee Frost (California via Indiana and New York) and Ryan Zickgraf (Pennsylvania via Illinois and Georgia) to preview the US election. We discuss:
Why the campaigns have been so focused on micro-targeting demographics
Whether Russians or Brits are illegitimately swinging the election
How the Democrats have gone back to being smug
Why it feels like Pennsylvania is the only state voting (and not even there!)
Whether the US is going back to a pre-2016 period
How each side will react if they lose
Damage Magazine will hold a launch of its third print issue, "Mothers," in NYC on 23 November at 4-6pm at MoMAâs PS 1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens 11101. Catherine Liu will be in conversation with Dustin Guastella on the question of the family.
Links:
The Battleground State that Isn't, Ryan Zickgraf, Compact
The Gospel According to Elon Musk, Ryan Zickgraf, Compact
To win, Harris should talk more about working-class needs and less about Trump, Dustin Guastella, The Guardian
Obviousness, Scorn, and Losing Ground, Benjamin Fife, Damage
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On egg-freezing, 'having it all', and neoliberal liberty.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We welcome Damage editor and practicing psychologist Amber Trotter on to talk about "Frozen Freedom", Amber's piece on artificial reproductive technology and different kinds of freedom. Alex and George ask her about:
How empowering is female emancipation from biological limitations and compulsions?
Can women now "have it all"?
Do men feel the contradictions of this type of freedom too?
Is a proliferation of individual choice making us all neurotic?
The childhood fantasy of adulthood is of omnipotence â where did it come from?
What is the relationship between commitment, responsibility, collectivity, the individual, and freedom?
Links:
"Frozen Freedom", Amber Trotter â Damage issue #3
/440/ Dear Tradmother, Why Are You Sad? ft. Amber A'Lee Frost
/210/ Reading Club: Psychoanalysis & Spirit of Capitalism
/235/ Reading Club: Freedom â on mortality & freedom
Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dustin Guastella, Damage
Damage issue #3 launch event in NYC: Saturday 23 November, MoMA PS 1 Bookstore
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On the left-wing case for freedom.
Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch is back on to talk about how the Democrats are approaching the US presidential election. Alex talks us through an influential and widely-read article that he wrote in 2020 with Corey Robin on how the left needed to reclaim freedom as its own.
We discuss:
Why is the left suddenly talking about freedom?
When did it abandon freedom in favour of human rights, welfare, or identity?
What are the consequences of leaving "freedom" to the libertarians and oligarchs?
How would one critique what the Democrats are doing today from this perspective?
Plus: we hear about Alexâs debate with Tyler Cowen on whether capitalism is defensible.
Links:
Gaining freedom by escaping the unfreedom of the workplace - PNHP
Freedom Now, Alex Gourevitch & Corey Robin, Polity: Vol 52, No 3
The US presidential race will be fought over competing definitions of âfreedomâ, Eric Foner, The Guardian
The Story of American Freedom, Eric Foner
/298/ Working For Freedom ft. Alex Gourevitch
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On Israel's invasion of Lebanon and beyond.
Karl Sharro (Lebanese-Iraqi architect and satirist @KarlreMarks) and Iranian writer and historian Arash Azizi join us to discuss war in the Middle East. We ask:
Is Israel finally waging the great war that will rid it of all enemies?
Does Israel have any real plan? What motivates its actions in Gaza and Lebanon?
What is the impact on Hezbollah of losing its leadership layers?
How will Iran respond and what is the balance between moderates and hardliners there?
If Hezbollah is severely weakened, what happens to the Lebanese state?
What should we make of the global culture war around Israel, Palestine and the rest
Links
Lebanon in the heart of the storm, Akram BelkaĂŻd, Monde Diplo
Israel is not âsaving western civilisationâ. Nor is Hamas leading âthe resistanceâ, Kenan Malik, The Guardian
Iran Is Not Ready for War With Israel, Arash Azizi, The Atlantic
/225/ Wokeistan & Lebanonworld ft. Karl Sharro
/141/ Oh Lebanon, What Now? ft. Rima Majed
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On Nations & Nationalism since 1870.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We start by dealing with your questions regarding last month's RC, on Stalin, Zhukhov and WWII.
Then we read and discuss Eric Hobsbawm's classic work in which he emphasises that nations are exclusively modern constructions. We discuss:
How succulent Hobsbawm's account is
Whether he was wrong about globalisation eclipsing nationalism â and why he argued this
Whether the revolutionary-democratic aspects of nationalism can be rescued from its later ethnic-particularist elements
What the relationship is between citizenship, patriotism and nationalism
How nationalism intersected with revolution - and fascism
And whether the nation is any more solid an exit from our political vacuum than whatever other postmodern BS
Links:
Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality, Eric Hobsbawm
Film: Eric Hobsbawm: The Consolations of History, LRB
Some reflections on 'The Break-up of Britain', Eric Hobsbawm, New Left Review (pdf)
/421/ Who Are the Wrong Ukrainians? ft. Volodymyr Ishchenko
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On France's permacrisis.
[Patreon Exclusive]
French sociologist Nathan Sperber talks to George and Alex about his new essay in the New Left Review, "The French Crisis: Organic or Conjunctural". We catch up with what has happened in France since Macron gambled and called impromptu elections in the summer. We discuss:
Why does France always seem to be more in crisis than its neighbours?
How has France ended up with hollow "leaderist" parties?
Is Macron a true neoliberal or a reactive emergency politician?
Did the left-wing France Insoumise miss its shot?
How inevitable is a Le Pen government, and will it be co-opted by the French bureaucracy?
What's the difference between an organic and a conjunctural crisis â and which one is France in?
Readings:
The French Crisis: Organic or Conjunctural?, Nathan Sperber, New Left Review (pdf attached)An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy, George Hoare & Nathan Sperber, Bloomsbury (Feb 2025) -
On liberal takes on the end of the End of History.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We start by discussing Yasha Mounk's dismissal of an end to the End of History. Does he underestimate liberal democracy's inability to legitimise itself anymore? Is the talk of populism a way of deflecting from liberalism's undoing?
We then deal with your comments and questions [for patrons only, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
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On tradwives, influencers, and boys.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Amber is back on the pod, talking to Alex and George about her forthcoming piece on neo-traditionalism and women, in Damage issue 3, which will be on Mothers. We discuss:
What are the models of 'tradwives' out there?
If homemakers make homes, do tradwives make content?
Does the tradwife phenomenon speak to sense of exhaustion with being a neoliberal girlboss?
When does internet crap start being real? Do influencers actually influence?
What is the political upshot of all this?
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On "eco-modernism".
Ted Nordhaus, co-founder and executive director of the Breakthrough Institute, talks to Leigh and Alex the 20th anniversary of "The Death of Environmentalism" and the 10th anniversary of "The Ecomodernist Manifesto". We discuss:
The fundamental philosophical differences between "building-out" and "restraint".
Whether industrial policy like the Inflation Reduction Act is in line with the ecomodern approach
Why environmentalism differs in the US versus Western Europe
Why modernisation gets lost in discussions on the environment
What techno-optimism and what techno-fixes are
What the Abundance Agenda is
Links:
The Death of Environmentalism, Breakthrough Institute
An ECOMODERNIST MANIFESTO
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On the US culture wars, then and now.
Historian Andrew Hartman, author of A War for the Soul of America, talks to Alex about how US Americans have been sorted into cultural camps over the past fifty years. We discuss:
Who started it? And who perpetuates it?
What is the "culture" in the culture war? And is it a war, or a series of skirmishes?
Is there something particularly American about culture wars?
The culture wars have followed the breakup of liberalism â so, what comes next?
Do culture wars necessarily presuppose identity politics?
Links:
A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, Andrew Hartman, UC Press
The Culture Wars are Dead, Andrew Hartman, The Baffler
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On disinformation, misinformation and the popular will.
Holly Jean Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo, joins us to talk about her recent pieces arguing that the climate movement's focus on disinformation is misguided. We discuss:
What is disinformation and misinformation in the climate context?
Are there parallels to be drawn with anti-disinfo campaigns on vaccines during the pandemic?
How is the deterioration in trust in elites and scientific institutions to be responded to?
What do Holly's focus groups tell her about popular views on climate politics?
Does the return to industrial policy mean we should focus on "people who know how to make and run stuff"?
And what is solar radiation management, carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide removal, and related technologies?
Links:
Obsessing Over Climate Disinformation Is a Wrong Turn, Holly Jean Buck, Jacobin
A Climate Disinformation Focus Takes Us the Wrong Way, Holly Jean Buck, Jacobin
Of Course "Misinformation" Isnât the Cause of Climate Change, Alex Tremblath, Breakthrough Institute
Books:
After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration, Holly Jean Buck, Verso
Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is Not Enough, Holly Jean Buck, Verso
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On corruption, charisma, populism & assassination in Slovakia.
Slovak sociologist Dominik Zelinksy joins us to discuss Slovakia's positioning between East and West. We discuss:
Why was Prime Minister Robert Fico a target of an assassination attempt?
Whether Fico â not a zany outsider but a competent insider â is a "populist"
Why Slovaks are not so anti-Russian, and why they are sceptical of NATO
How has anti-corruption politics played a role
What is "charismatic mimicry" and why have Western leaders aped Ukraine's Zelenskyy?
Links:
Slovakia's election: "more than a fight between democracy and autocracy", Dominik Zelinsky, LeftEast
Assassination Attempt Prompts Soul-Searching in Slovakia, Jakub Bokes, Jacobin
Slovakiaâs Election Result Is About Declining Living Standards, Not Just Ukraine, Jakub Bokes, Jacobin
Charismatic Mimicry: Innovation and Imitation in the Case of Volodymyr Zelensky, Paul Joosse & Dominik Zelinsky, Sociological Theory. Thread on Twitter/X about the article
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On the electricity grid and the institutions involved.
[Episode originally released only to subscribers on 20 June 2024. Join us at patreon.com/bungacast]
Fred Stafford, a STEM professional, a writer on energy and power, and an editor at Damage, talks to Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips about the utility of utilities and his recent essay in the second print issue of Damage, "Deinstitutionalized"./
What actually is a utility: is it a question of ownership, structure, purpose..?
How did the 70s energy crisis, neoliberal economics, and environmentalism create a perfect storm that broke up regulated utilities?
How does the regulatory regime on energy in the US actually work?
Why have environmentalists been so keen to line up with neoliberal deregulation and to attack utilities â in Europe as well as the US?
Why should the left think about a restoration of the investor-owned utility model, and not just jump straight to public ownership?
Links:
The Utility of Utilities, Fred Stafford & Matt Huber, Damage
Big Public Power from the Atom, Matt Huber & Fred Stafford, Damage
Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System, Richard F Hirsch
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On Geoffrey Robertsâ 2013 biography of Field Marshal Zhukov.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Who was the Soviet general and architect of Soviet victory on the Eastern Front during the Second World War? We discuss:
What does Zhukovâs life tell us about modern warfare?
What can we learn about the life and fate of the Soviet regime?
How should we view the Ukraine war and renewed geopolitical rivalry between the West and Russia today?
What are the popular perceptions and folk memories of world war?
Links:
Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, Geoffrey Roberts
Saving Private Ivan, Mike Davis, The Guardian
Negotiate Now, or Capitulate Later: Ten Incentives for Ukraine to Make Peace with Russia, Geoffrey Roberts, Brave New Europe
Putinâs Trump Card: Ukrainian Membership of NATO, Geoffrey Roberts, Brave New Europe
âNow or Neverâ: The Immediate Origins of Putinâs Preventative War on Ukraine, Geoffrey Roberts, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
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