Episódios
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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 – 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" Isn’t 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 – not a zany outsider but a competent insider – 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
Slovakia’s 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 – 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 Roberts’ 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 Zhukov’s 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
Putin’s Trump Card: Ukrainian Membership of NATO, Geoffrey Roberts, Brave New Europe
‘Now or Never’: The Immediate Origins of Putin’s Preventative War on Ukraine, Geoffrey Roberts, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
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On the NGO-isation of the state.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Researchers and writers Matthew Thompson and Jonny Gordon-Farleigh join us to discuss their recent Damage article with George Hoare.
Civil society was once occupied by popular forces that could function as a bulwark against both capitalist marketization and state authoritarianism. Today, it has been colonized by the NGO, which, in turn, colonizes our hollowed-out politics. We ask:
What are 'private NGOs', and what are quangos?
How has 'projectification' taken over?
What does the NGOisation of society mean? How does this kill public accountability?
What are concrete examples of this process?
What comes next? Any possibility for resurrecting things like Working Men’s Clubs?
Links:
Bodiless Bodies: The Rise of Para-Institutions, George, Matt & Jonny, Damage
Reconstructing Public Housing: Liverpool’s hidden history of collective alternatives, Matthew Thompson
The NGOization of the West, George Hoare, Café american
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On your questions & criticisms.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We respond with comments on episodes 420 to 432 and various other points you wanted to us to discuss. In this episode:
Does our politics lack self-critique?
When did the breakdown of the UK's political system begin?
How hegemonic is "settler" discourse?
Will there be a coup in France?
Do we need more analysis of the PMC?
How did victimhood become a means for the expression of political demands?
Links:
The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café americain
Vulnerability as Ideology, Peter Ramsay, The Northern Star
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On Naomi Klein & Naomi Wolf and "political diagonalism"
Episode in association with Damage magazine. Patreon Exclusive.
Ben Burgis talks to Alex and George about his review in Damage of Naomi Klein's Doppelgangers. We discuss:
Whether Naomi Klein is representative of the average left-wing position this century
What Klein's trajectory and that of Naomi Wolf tell us about contemporary politics
What is "pipiking" – Philip Roth's term for making everything a farce?
What role do conspiracy theories play for the Right today? For the Left?
What's wrong with the idea of "settlers" and "indigenous", and how does it play out with regard to Jews and to Native Americans?
Are we right to hold up “proper left” and “proper right” as ideals to which the ideological confusion of our times should return?
Links:
Left Identitarianism Is Also A Mirror World, Ben Burgis, Damage
Ben Burgis' columns at Jacobin
What comes after wokeness?, Alex Hochuli, Substack
The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café american
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On the structure of the Chinese state and its external relations.
[Patreon Exclusive: for the full episode, go to patreon.com/bungacast]
We welcome back Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri to reflect on the outcome of the recent plenum of the Chinese Communist Party and to ask who, if anyone beyond Xi Jinping, is calling the shots.
How will the CCP respond to the US election?
Why is China not a monolithic, integrated state in the way some think?
How important is the the Sino-Russian alliance? Does it matter more to Russia or to China?
What happened to "wolf-warrior diplomacy"? Is it still a thing?
What's going on economically with the property bubble, and with Chinese manufacturing over-capacity?
Should we be worried about WWIII over Taiwan or the South China Sea?
Links:
China’s plenum must offer action not rote slogans, Financial Times
Views of China and Xi Jinping in 35 countries, Pew Research Centre
Fractured China: How State Transformation is Shaping China’s Rise, Lee Jones & Shahar Hameiri
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On the tourist city, the tourist industry, and its critics.
Renowned Italian journalist Marco d'Eramo joins us to talk about his wide-ranging inquiry into the age of tourism, The World in a Selfie. We also discuss how migration is the obverse of tourism, and take a look at Marco's most recent book, Masters, on the neoliberal revolution from above.
Why is hating tourists the main characteristic of being a tourist? Why is the tourist/traveller dichotomy a false one?
What is the threshold for a city becoming a place that exists primarily for tourists?
How should we understand tourism economically, and why is the tourist city a mono-industry?
Is the "authentic" travel experience ever possible?
Why do critiques of tourism so often slide into snobbery or outright class contempt?
How is the city changing under the impact not just of "over-tourism" but rising rents, exclusions, and remote working?
Links:
The World in a Selfie: An Inquiry into the Tourist Age, Marco d'Eramo, Verso
Masters: The Invisible War of the Powerful Against Their Subjects, Marco d'Eramo, Wiley
Barbed Wire, Marco D'Eramo, Sidecar
The cost of Europe’s backlash against tourists, Barney Jopson, Financial Times
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On Julien Benda's famous 1927 work.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We continue on the theme of 'Intellectuals and the Public' by discussing the often cited by little read The Treason of the Clerks. We ask:
If Benda was responding to the intellectuals' role in the Dreyfus Affair and WWI, was he already a man out of his time?
What are intellectuals' proper role in society? Can they be abstract universalist moralists?
Benda laments the end of humanism – can we endorse this lament, even if things are too far gone now?
Is Benda a centrist dad, urging us all not to get too passionate or engaged?
How do Benda’s ideas related to Gramsci’s notion of the traditional versus the organic intellectual?
If Benda was critical of the 'realism' of his day – as opposed to the detached ethics of pre-20th century intellectuals – how might we use Benda to critique the cynicism of today?
Readings:
Treason of the Intellectuals, Mark Lilla, Tablet (from preface to new edition)
The Treason of the Intellectuals, Niall Ferguson, The Free Press
Julien Benda’s political Europe and the treason of intellectuals, Davide Caddedu
Edward Said on imperialist hypocrisy on Kosova: The treason of the intellectuals, Green Left
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On JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, and arresting decline.
[For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]
We discuss the Netflix adaptation of vice-presidential nominee JD Vance's memoir – and the memoir itself – and what it tells us about the direction of US politics, Trump, and MAGA. We ask:
What is Ryan's own anti-hillbilly elegy, drawn from his experience in Central Illinois?
How far does the character in the film correspond with Vance’s public persona today?
How do we account for Vance’s political pivot – at least in rhetoric – from “lift yourself up by your bootstraps” meritocracy to pro-labour nationalism?
What will happen to rural/small-town US American life?
Plus: Is reading books gay? Is a "hillbilly" just Hillary + Bill? And what is a horseshoe sandwich?
Links:
The State of Illinois is Killing My Family, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin
An anti-Hillbilly Elegy, Ryan Zickgraf, The Third Rail (Substack)
Hillbilly Elegy Doesn’t Reflect the Appalachia I Know, Cassie Chambers Armstrong, The Atlantic
Why the Left Gets J.D. Vance Wrong, Zaid Jilani, Compact
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On emotional capitalism + Israeli politics.
Renowned sociologist Eva Illouz joins us to talk about her recent book on the emotions of populism, and her work on the sociology of emotions in general. We discuss:
Why have emotions become such a collective obsession?
Where can you buy emotional commodities? What are influencers really selling?
What emotions accompany victim culture?
How is identity and victimhood linked in a way that allow us never to forgive or forget?
Plus:
How has Netanyahu failed even on his own terms?
How has Israeli populism channelled fear, disgust, resentment, and love?
Why have Eva's views on the progressive left changed?
Readings & Links:
The Emotional Life of Populism: How Fear, Disgust, Resentment, and Love Undermine Democracy, Eva Illouz
Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings, Bungacast series
Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism, Eva Illouz
/232/ Reading Club: Cold, Hard / Warm, Soft - on Eva's 'Cold Intimacies'
The Global Left Needs to Renounce Judith Butler, Eva Illouz, Ha'aretz
'Never has peace seemed so necessary and impossible' — Eva Illouz on the horrors of Oct. 7 and its aftermath, Forward
Eva Illouz, sociologist: 'I think that after the terrorist attacks, for Israeli society, Hamas has become the Nazi' Le Monde
Israel Is Facing Existential Threats From Inside and Out. There's One Solution, Eva Illouz, Ha'aretz
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On the disaster of the culture wars.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Regular contributor Catherine Liu is back on to talk about her essay in Damage, issue 2, "Professional Populists in the Culture Wars". We discuss:
What were the original 'culture wars' and how are they different to today?
Why are the "academic populists" more elitist than anyone?
Was there a need in the 1980s to "disrupt" the humanities?
Why does conservatism now need to wear "populist" clothes?
How should we defend the "canon"?
What is the "Catherine Liu Foundation for Attacking Badness"?
Links:
Professional Populists in the Culture Wars, Catherine Liu, Damage
/246/ Why Isn't There Revolution? ft. Vivek Chibber
/67/ Legacies of Postmodernism ft. Catherine Liu
Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature, Janice Radway
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On the late Dmitri Furman's account of post-Soviet Russia.
Patreon Exclusive: for the Reading Club, join for $12/mo and get access to ALL Bungacast content, incl. 4 exclusive, original episodes a month
We continue our discussions along this year's themes (rise and fall of nations; Russia past and present) by tackling Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System.
Why has there been a revival in interest in the late Soviet and early post-Soviet period? And in the global 1990s in general?
What does it really mean to be without-alternative?
Why didn't democracy take hold in Russia? And why did it become an "imitation democracy" and not something else?
How was Yeltsin a disaster? And what was Putin's appeal?
Does 'Putinism' actually exist? Is it interesting or novel in any way?
What happened after Furman's death and Russia's turn to "violent parody of the West"?
Readings:
Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System, Dmitri Furman, Verso
Imitation Democracies: The Post-Soviet Penumbra, Dmitri Furman, New Left Review (pdf)
Imitation Democracy: Perry Anderson writes about Dmitri Furman’s analysis of Russia’s post-communism, Perry Anderson, London Review of Books
Listening Links:
/114/ Reading Club: The Light That Failed - on the end of the "Age of Imitation"
/270/ Russia vs the West ft. Richard Sakwa - on the endgame to war in Ukraine; and /271/ Russia vs the West (2) ft. Richard Sakwa - on the post-Soviet landscape
/410/ Reading Club: Deutscher's Stalin - On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography
/421/ Who Are the Wrong Ukrainians? ft. Volodymyr Ishchenko - on post-Soviet Ukraine, from Maidan to war
Music: Éva Csepregi, "O.K. Gorbacsov", Hungaroton , WEA, High Fashion Music, Dureco
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On your questions & criticisms about fertility, culture war, and more.
[Patreon Exclusive]
In our monthly mailbag episode we take points from the discussion on patreon, including on futuristic music, holocaust movies, german populism, whether culture war can be global, and the link between modernisation, productivity and birth rates.
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On France's surprise parliamentary election.
The left-wing 'New Popular Front' came a surprise first, for now putting a halt to expectations that the far-right Rassemblement National would soon enter government. We talk to political scientist and commentator Charles Devellennes, and ask:
What was Macron's gamble in calling this early election?
Is becoming Prime Minister actually a bad thing for your future prospects?
Is the Left actually 'far left' and the Right 'far right'? Is Le Pen a fascist?
Did the Left actually save Macron? Why not an alliance between Left and Right against the centre?
Will France opt for the undemocratic 'Italian Solution' and appoint an unelected technocrat?
Can Macron's party and his style of rule survive Macron eventually being out of office?
Does the uncertainty mean France is back to the postwar 4th Republic? Is this continuity? Something new?
Links:
The Macron Régime: The Ideology of the New Right in France, Charles Devellennes
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On Labour's landslide and sandcastle majority.
We unpick what happened in the UK's general election, discussing:
How did Labour get such a large majority with so little enthusiasm for them?
Is the UK now a multiparty democracy, and will there be demands for serious electoral reform?
What accounts for low turnout and the fragmentation of the vote (Reform, Greens, Independents, etc)?
What is Keir Starmer's electoral base and how will he govern? What is their electoral programme?
Is Nigel Farage's reform the real opposition now?
Is the Brexit period now definitely over? Will there be a move to rejoin the EU?
Links:
The McSweeney Project, Tom McTague, UnHerd
Debasing Citizenship, Peter Ramsay, TNS
Data on the nationalist right + driving to work in the UK and French train stations
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Ukraine, from Maidan to war.
[For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]
Berlin-based Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko joins us to talk about his new book, Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War and his dissection of the war and the underlying political crisis in Ukraine. We discuss:
class conflict in Ukraine as a legacy of the collapse of the USSR and the stagnation of the Brezhnev regime in the 1970s.
The role of the Ukrainian professional classes in the conflict and oversize influence of relatively small neo-Nazi and far-right movements
The meaning of ‘Soviet Ukrainians’ today and whether a neo-Soviet revival is happening among youth across the post-Soviet landscape
The difference between neo-Soviet revival and Eastern bloc ‘Ostalgie’
The concept of de-modernisation
The vicious post-Soviet cycle of passive revolutions and corrupt oligarchic regimes
Links:
Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War, Volodymyr Ishchenko
The crisis of Soviet Ukraine, Volodymyr Ishchenko, UnHerd
The class conflict behind Russia’s war, Volodymyr Ishchenko, Lefteast
Russia’s War on Ukraine Has Already Changed the World, interview w/ Volodymyr Ishchenko, Jacobin
As Ukraine Expands Military Draft, Some Men Go Into Hiding, NYT
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On baby bust, feminism and male resentment.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips call up Korean sociologist Hyeyoung Woo, director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University, to talk about demography, family and gender in the Republic of Korea.
How urgent is the national debate on fertility?
What policy measures have been introduced to reverse the decline?
How is work organised and how do long hours contribute to the lack of family formation?
What has been the impact of feminist movements in Korea?
Is there a male backlash against feminism underway?
Why is there such a huge gender gap in voting behaviour among the young?
Links:
/394/ Girls, Left / Boys, Right ft. Nina Power
The Real Reason South Koreans Aren’t Having Babies, Anna Louie Sussman, The Atlantic
Foreign maids and no military service: South Korea criticised over ideas to boost birthrate, The Guardian
South Korea's incel election, S. Nathan Park, UnHerd
Why South Korean women aren't having babies, BBC News
This demographic catastrophe will hit us all, Peter Franklin, UnHerd
Korean Families Yesterday and Today, eds. Hyunjoon Park & Hyeyoung Woo
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