Episodes
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On disinformation, NATO vs Russia, terrorism + more.
[Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast]
We look back at a turbulent last month or so with the help of guest and "disinformation bot" Tara McCormack. We put it all in the context of Trump's return, post-neoliberalism and deglobalisation.
00:13:52 – Jacob Siegel talks to Alex about Meta's policy U-turn on censorship and what it means for the public-private partnership on digital surveillance.
00:50:11 – How will European powers react to the US's relative withdrawal of its protection? Will France, Britain and Germany double-down on the Ukraine war?
01:06:21 – Why is Luigi Mangione not understood as 'terrorism' while the Magdeburg Christmas market attack is? What drives terrorism and is that even the right term to understand explosive anomie?
01:15:24 – Letters to the Editors: on the global radical right, and Trump's foreign policy
Links:
/369/ Information-War and War-Politics ft. Jacob Siegel
/34/ War Propaganda ft. Tara McCormack
To the Finland Station, Branko Milanovic, Substack
Trumpism & Geopolitics, Tim Pendry, Substack
Class Patricide, Dustin Guastella, Damage
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On the martial law crisis in South Korea.
For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast
Jamie Doucette, who researches contemporary political economy and Korea's development at the University of Manchester, talks to Alex and George about December 2024's coup attempt and the past 50 years in the Republic of Korea.
Why is South Korea western capitalism's best propaganda tool?
Did Yoon Suk Yeol want to institute a dictatorship? Did he want to militarise all of society, or only politics?
How "unreconstructed" is the South Korean right? Do they dream of dicatorship?
What was the Park Chung-hee regime of the 60s and 70s like? What is authoritarian developmentalism?
Why did S. Korea democratise? Did the workers win it or did elites concede it?
What is the post-developmental state, how neoliberal is ROK, and what does the left-right spectrum look like now?
What was the Candlelight movement of 2016?
Links:
/420/ Fertility Freefall & Gender Strife in South Korea ft. Hyeyoung Woo
The Postdevelopmental State: Dilemmas of Economic Democratization in Contemporary South Korea, Jamie Doucette (OPEN ACCESS)
The Logic of Compressed Modernity, Chang Kyung-Sup
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Missing episodes?
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On Trump's foreign policy, the 2nd time round.
Historian and podcaster Daniel Bessner joins Alex Hochuli and contributing editor Lee Jones to ask how this era of rot and decay will proceed under Trump II, from Ukraine to China and beyond. We discuss:
Will we see "America First transactionalism"?
Does Trump have a capable cadre to bend the state to his will?
What will Trump’s relationship be to the deep state?
How important are generational splits in attitudes to the US empire?
Will there be a peace deal in Ukraine? Where does that leave 'Atlanticism'?
Is confrontation with China baked in?
Is the Middle East the key to world peace?
Links:
Empire’s Critic: The Worlds of Noam Chomsky, Daniel Bessner, The Nation
American Prestige podcast
EU blows hot and cold over Trump, Benoît Bréville, Le Monde diplomatique
America First, Russia, & Ukraine, Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, Fred Fleitz, AFPI
/171/ Fukuyama & the End of History ft. Daniel Bessner
/142/ Dollar Empire (2) ft. Daniel Bessner
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On The Fall of Public Man.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We continue working through the 2024/25 syllabus and the first theme, The Future of Place. We ask is politics possible without a sense of place. Here we discuss chapter 13, "Community becomes uncivilised", and deal with listener questions.
How does the changed relationship between public and private impact notions of community and of place?
How does the maintenance of impersonal relations signify 'civility'?
Is impersonality really the summation of all the worst evils of industrial capitalism?
What is wrong with yearning for community, or specifically “love of the ghetto, especially the middle-class ghetto”
How does "fratricide" become "logical" when people use intimate relations as a basis for social relations? Why is fratricide "system-maintaining"?
Links:
2024/25 Bungacast Syllabus (with links to readings)
Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence, Christina B. Hanhardt
The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café americain
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On President Jimmy Carter's responsibility for neoliberalism.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Writer and historian Tim Barker talks to Alex Hochuli and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about the former president's life and legacy.
What do people get wrong about Carter? Was Carter, not Reagan, the start of neoliberalism?
How is Carter's much-admired 'decency' of a piece with his neoliberalism?
What is 'austerity' and how does it relate to questions of public and private, vice and virtue?
What was the alternative to the neoliberal pivot in the late 1970s?
How did the appointment of Fed chairman Volcker change the entire world?
Did Carter set the script for the Democrats, of being 'noble losers' (but actually on the side of the winners)?
Links:
Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024, Tim Barker, Origins of Our Time
Weapons of the Week newsletter
On neoliberalism and the Cold War: /276/ Broken Promises ft. Fritz Bartel
Other biographical/obituary episodes:
Silvio Berlusconi: An Oral History
/293/ Goodbye 20th Century (RIP Gorby)
/410/ Reading Club: Deutscher's Stalin
/435/ Reading Club: Stalin's General – Winning WWII
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On radical conservatism and global order.
Professor Michael C. Williams talks to George and Alex about his co-authored World of the Right and how the radical right has gone global. We discuss:
Does academia takes the Right as seriously as it should?
What's the difference between the radical right and the far right, the new right, national conservatives, or fascists?
How is the right 'global' – not just through international conferences but by being "co-constituted by its relation to the global"?
Why is the radical right focused on the global liberal managerial elite? What does it get right and what does it get wrong about this stratum?
How did the radical right come to take Gramsci seriously?
Is the radical right just parasitic on the breakdown of liberal universalism?
What does this analysis of the radical right say about the Left – is it the force that protects the status quo of the liberal international order?
Links:
World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and Global Order, Michael C. Williams et al., Cambridge UP
/351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs
/129/ The Right Is Weak ft. Corey Robin
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On Conclave.
In our final episode of the year, we debate Edgar Berger's new film about a Papal election, featuring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci as Cardinals and Isabella Rossellini as a nun.
Is the film about an alien, abstruse process – the conclave – or is it about something familiar and earthly? Is the film about the sacred or the profane? About temporal or holy power?
What does it say about process and neutrality, in times of lawfare and contested elections?
Why is there so much film and TV about the Pope? What is it that appeals today about Papal authority?
The film features a good liberal, a corrupt moderate, a nasty reactionary, a tainted idpol candiate (a homophobic African) – do these politics matter? Why so crude?
Is it mere Oscar bait?
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On Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity
[For access, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast/membership]
We continue working through the 2024/25 syllabus with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Marc Augé's much-referenced 1992 work on 'non-places': airports, shopping malls, corporate hotels, motorways... We discuss:
Are non-places proliferating, and what would this mean for society and politics?
Are non-places the spatial accompaniment to post-politics, to the foreclosure of political contestation?
Is the distinction between non-places and places/spaces useful?
Is there anything to the notion of a hyper- or super-modernity?
Is Augé too deterministic? Does he miss how non-places can be places for culture or politics?
Links:
2024/25 Bungacast Syllabus (with links to readings)
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On immediacy, representation, and anti-politics.
Anna Kornbluh, professor of English and author of Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism talks to Alex about the cultural, political, and economic changes she refers to as 'immediacy'. We discuss:
Is 'immediacy' just a vibe, or is vibe itself non-mediated?
How does anti-representation in film, TV and books relate to anti-representation in politics?
And can we relate culture immediacy to the 'material base'?
How do Fleabag, Uncut Gems, and the turn to memoirs and autofiction exemplify immediacy?
Why does self-disclosure fit so well with the data economy?
In what way is contemporary anti-theory nihilistic and apologetic?
How does the style of immediacy relate to Frederic Jameson's understanding of postmodernism?
Is the desire to put everything private on show a response to alienation?
And is the professionalisation of 'theory' a problem or solution?
Links:
Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism, Anna Kornbluh, Verso
Has culture become pure vibe?, Anna Kornbluh, Spike Art Magazine
The Theory of Immediacy or the Immediacy of Theory?, Jensen Suther, Nonsite
Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves, Todd McGowan, Repeater
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On your questions, comments & criticisms.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We're back with a final letters to the editor episode of 2024 in which we discuss:
the universalisation of 'anti-fascism' as a kind of politics
whether there are any actual 'family abolitionists' out there
humanitarian intervention in Palestine
the hard and less hard facts of US imperial decline
the legitimacy of 'existential' politics
whether anti-corruption politics are good, actually
and why Phil loves Hillary
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On Taiwan, semiconductors, and war.
[Full episode for subscribers only]
James Lin, Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington at Seattle, talks to Phil about Taiwanese politics and the country's place in the world, in terms of the global economy and Sino-American geopolitical rivalry. We talk about Taiwanese history and politics, from Japanese occupation and colonisation across the Cold War, to the present day, including:
Taiwanese politics in the shadow of the geopolitical crisis
The paradox of political divergence and economic convergence between China and Taiwan since the 1980s
How did Taiwan corner the market for manufacturing computer chips?
How successful is the ongoing US reshoring of chip production?
Will there be a Marco Rubio/Elon Musk divide on China in the Trump White House?
How might a war over Taiwan play out?
Links:
In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan, James Lin, UC Press
What Works in Taiwan Doesn’t Always in Arizona, a Chipmaking Giant Learns, John Liu, NY Times
Will Trump take the Musk path or the Rubio path on Taiwan?, Lev Nachman, Nikkei Asia
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On Mothers and the institution of the family.
We're happy to bring you the recording of the launch event for the third issue of Damage magazine, with whom we're partnered. George and Alex were present for the event as part of a sequence of recordings on the future of place that will be released as a docu-series in the New Year.
For now, here is regular contributor Catherine Liu and friend of the pod Dustin Guastella debating the family to a packed-out bookstore at Moma's PS1 in Queens, NY.
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On the End of History and Europe.
[For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
LSE professor Mike Wilkinson talks to Phil and Alex about how the history of European integration fits with constitutional theories and ideas of sovereignty. We discuss:
In what way are the conspiracy theories about the EU true?
What are the origins of European integration in the inter-war crisis?
How did European integration tie into the history of ideas and development of 20th century legal history?
How far does European integration overlap with counter-revolutionary theories and ideas?
And who is the Last European?
Links:
Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe, Michael Wilkinson
Political Constitutionalism in Europe Revisited, Michael Wilkinson, Journal of Law and Society
The Rise and Fall of World Constitutionalism, Michael Wilkinson, Verfassungsblog
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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 can’t shoot straight and the empire isn’t 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 Empire’s Burning Peripheries, Malcom Kyeyune, Compact
/240/ Populist Interventions: Örebro 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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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
It’s Happening Again, Matt Karp, Jacobin
Democrats join 2024’s 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 Israel’s existential fears?
And what’s so “complex” 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 entrepôt 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 Ivanishvili’s 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 MoMA’s 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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