Novara Media

Iran Threatens Retaliation Against Trump’s Criminal Threats

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:49:59 +0000

Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants in an expletive-laden Truth Social Post, and the U.S. account of its rescue of two airmen inside Iran raises more questions than it answers.

With Michael Walker, David Wearing and Daniel Levy.

Downstream: Is Liberalism Finally Waking Up to the Crises it has Caused? w/ Adrian Wooldridge

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 08:54:55 +0000

Liberalism, in one form or another, has been the pervading political ideology of the past 200 years. It has become so pervasive, as an ideology, that it lays claim to the middle ground and common sense itself. But liberalism is a set of dogmas and doctrines like any other political ideology, and unfathomable horrors as well as huge advances have been made in its name.

Today on Downstream, the ideas we call liberal or centrist are up for scrutiny, as Aaron Bastani interviews Adrian Wooldridge. Wooldridge is a liberal insider, having been a journalist at the Economist magazine for thirty years. His new book, Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism is an account of his own sense that liberalism in 2026 is in a state of crisis. It must reinvent itself, he argues, or die.

So what exactly is liberalism, where did it come from, and how can we characterise it today? What was the historical relationship between liberalism and slavery? Why are liberals always so reluctant to acknowledge this aspect of their history? In times of crisis, do liberals always defect to the fascist far-right? And what must centrists do today, if they want their ideas to organise the 21st century?

The Greens WILL Beat Labour w/ Hannah Spencer and Faiza Shaheen

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:40:45 +0000

Last week at EartH Hackney, Dalia Gebrial sat down with Hannah Spencer, the new MP for Gorton and Denton, and Faiza Shaheen, the director of Tax Justice UK. The three women discuss Hannah’s massive landslide victory, her first few weeks in Parliament, and what a wealth tax would actually look like. What approach did Faiza and Hannah take with Reform voters, when out canvassing together? What lessons must progressives learn from past failures? And what are the conspiracy theories swirling about Hannah online?

ACFM Trip 58: Boredom

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 07:00:49 +0000

When was the last time you were bored? Nadia, Jem and Keir wonder if ennui is a feeling that belongs in the past – and what a boredom-free life might be missing.

Is compulsive scrolling a modern symptom of boredom? Why are spiritual practices often based around tedious repetition? Do bored workers make better organisers? What about the “stuckness” experienced by migrants, or the drudgery of housework?

The gang offer their theories of Boredism (and Post-Boredism) in a perfectly mind-numbing Trip, with ideas from Lukács, Gramsci, the Pet Shop Boys and loads of 1970s punk.

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
Follow our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching ‘ACFM’.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Do Your Own Research: Isolated, Scared, and Furious: Welcome to the Age of Hyperpolitics

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:00:13 +0000

In the last decade and a half, society has got vastly more politicised: Occupy, Black Lives Matter, the Me Too Movement and many other movements besides mobilised hundreds of millions of people around the world.

So where are the massive organisations that big mobilisations brought in the 20th century? They don’t exist. For all the increased political activity, society hasn’t become much more organised.

This has produced what Anton Jäger calls ‘hyperpolitics’. He’s the author of Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicisation without Political Consequences as well as a columnist at The New York Times and a lecturer at Oxford University.

He explained to Richard Hames how we got so isolated, why fascism isn’t even the biggest threat right now, and whether the worldwide organising around Palestine, anti-ICE uprisings in the US and the Gen Z Revolutions have already hurtled us into yet another era of political struggle.

Do Your Own Research is a new show from Novara Media about the systems that make the modern world possible.

Music by Iglooghost.

Downstream: The Right Is Winning. Here’s How We Change That w/ Ash Sarkar

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:54:49 +0000

Aaron Bastani sat down with Novara Media’s own Ash Sarkar, to celebrate the paperback release of her bestselling book, Minority Rule. ‘Minority rule’ is the term Ash used to describe the irrational fear that minorities are trying to overturn and oppress majority populations. She revealed how minority elites rule majorities by creating the culture wars that have taken over our politics, stoking fear and panic in our media landscape.

Together before a live audience at EartH Hackney, Ash and Aaron dug into the question of what has changed since the book was published. What can be learned from Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York? Does the left hate Britain? What do we need to do, in order to establish a ‘majority rule’? And is there such a thing as a middle-class dog?

Do Your Own Research: How Musk’s Paranoid Empire Really Works w/ Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 15:00:50 +0000

The most powerful CEO in history is barely a person anymore. But it’s not just his X-addled brain that has transformed him. He has deeply integrated himself in the ‘cyborg collective’ – a world of electrons, brain implants, fantastical promises, financial systems, bots, and memes – he has made for himself.

Henry Ford gave his name to Fordism. According to Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, we’re entering a globe-spanning era of capitalism we might soon call ‘Muskism’.

Those two are the authors of Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. It’s a whistle-stop tour of the world that made Musk, from the fortress futurism of Apartheid South Africa to the financial fabulations of the Bay Area. And, of course, the cyborg world that Musk is now making for us all.

They told me about what they see as Musk’s ongoing land grab in space, about what’s really going on with his plan for brain implants, how our supposed climate saviour became obsessed with prepping for the end of the world, and how Musk came to define an entirely new way of making technology – and not making it, but at least making it seem like you might.

Do Your Own Research is a new show about the systems that make modern life possible.

Music by Iglooghost.

Downstream: The Middle Class Is Collapsing. Fascism Could Be Next w/ Clara Mattei

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 09:55:36 +0000

Rising unemployment, increased military spending, and a decline in living standards for most people, including the middle class: the description fits both the 1930s and the 2020s. In the 1930s, it was a situation that morphed into the destruction and horror of the Second World War.

On Downstream with Aaron Bastani this week is Clara Mattei, professor of economics at the University of Tulsa, and author of ‘Escape From Capitalism: Economics Is Political and Other Liberating Truths’. Mattei’s PhD was on the relationship between austerity and fascism in inter-war Italy, and her book is a comparative study of Britain and Italy in that period.

What, they ask, is the relationship between austerity and fascism – both then and now? Is capitalism a ‘natural fact’, as its proponents would have you believe, or a contingent set of affairs designed and propped up by governments? And if capitalism is in fact a choice, how can we go about building an alternative?

Do Your Own Research: Welcome to the Slavery-Driven Slop Economy w/ Marek Poliks

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:00:15 +0000

Trillions of dollars of AI build-out. An economy poised on the edge of a giant crisis. Some say it’s a bubble. But what if it’s an entirely new kind of economics? One that has no need of humans at all?

Marek Poliks is the co-author with Roberto Alonso Trillo of Exocapitalism: Economies with Absolutely No Limits. Together, they are the co-hosts of the Disintegrator podcast.

He speaks to Richard Hames about the head-spinning world of AI economics, what the left gets wrong about technofeudalism, and what will happen to all of us bags of meat when capitalism can simply run itself.

Do Your Own Research is a new show from Novara Media about the systems that make the modern world possible.

Music by Iglooghost.

Death in Westminster: 4. The Tunnel

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:07:40 +0000

The final episode. Back in Westminster, Kojo confronts the human cost of hidden wealth – and asks if change is still possible.

Join Kojo Koram on 19th March at EartH in Hackney for a live event – Dark Money: How Billionaires Ruined Britain And How To Make Them Pay. Featuring Dalia Gebrial, Peter Geoghegan, Faiza Shaheen and Stephanie Brobbey. Tickets are available from Dice.

Full credits and more information: https://novara.media/westminster
Produced by Planet B Productions and distributed by Novara Media.

Death in Westminster: 3. The City

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:51:18 +0000

In episode three, the dark web of offshore finance connects Britain’s imperial past with its political present. Join Kojo Koram on 19th March at EartH in Hackney for a live event – Dark Money: How Billionaires Ruined Britain And How To Make Them Pay. Featuring Dalia Gebrial, Peter Geoghegan, Faiza Shaheen and Stephanie Brobbey. Tickets are […]

Death in Westminster: 2. The Island

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:35:04 +0000

In episode two, the trail leads offshore. From Westminster to the Cayman Islands, Kojo uncovers how tax havens are fuelling London’s housing crisis. Join Kojo Koram on 19th March at EartH in Hackney for a live event – Dark Money: How Billionaires Ruined Britain And How To Make Them Pay. Featuring Dalia Gebrial, Peter Geoghegan, Faiza […]

Death in Westminster: 1. The Station

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:54:29 +0000

New four-part podcast. A homeless man dies in Westminster surrounded by vast wealth and empty homes. His death sparks a disturbing investigation into how secrecy and evasion have become normalised in the heart of British power. Join Kojo Koram on 19th March at EartH in Hackney for a live event – Dark Money: How Billionaires […]

Downstream: We Are Witnessing the Return of Empires & the End of Nations w/ Rana Dasgupta

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:32:21 +0000

Nearly all of us on Earth live within a ‘nation-state’. Nation-states are an invisible and seemingly inevitable and eternal part of the infrastructure that forms our society: the water we swim in. Rarely do we pause to consider how this global system of nation-states came into being, and what might replace it after its gone. […]

ACFM Microdose: The Green Party

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 07:00:13 +0000

[Audio error updated! Please refresh or re-download if correct episode isn’t playing.] Have the Greens got what it takes to become the main political vehicle of the radical left? Following their Trip episode on Ecology, the ACFM crew take a closer look at Zack Polanski’s party as it nudges past Labour in the polls. From […]

Do Your Own Research: The Israel-ification of the US Military w/ Susannah Glickman

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 15:00:09 +0000

The US military is changing shape: it’s increasingly high-tech, intelligence led, and focused on assassinations. In short, the Israeli model. And the changing shape of war means changing flows of money and power. The primes, which have dominated the military industrial for decades, now face competition from Silicon Valley companies like Palantir and Anduril. But […]

Downstream: The Next Shocks Will Hit Wealthy Countries Hardest. Here’s Why w/ John Rapley

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:46:48 +0000

The notion that the Global South is affected ‘first and worst’ by global shocks they didn’t cause, namely climate change, is one of the cornerstones of leftist thought. But what if it’s not entirely true? What if, contrary to this tenet, it’s wealthy Western nations who have over-developed and lost their resilience in the process? […]

Do Your Own Research: Seed Oils, the CIA, and the Metabolic Shitshow w/ Jason Moore

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:00:38 +0000

Cheap food holds capitalism together. But to get it, we’ve had to cheapen almost everything on the planet: the work of women, nature and colonies. We’ve made strange new ecologies all over the world, and now we’re living in the metabolic sh*tshow. How will the ruling class keep control? On this week’s Do Your Own Research, […]

Downstream: How the Democrats Abandoned Working People w/ Eric Schlosser

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:03:33 +0000

In 2001, Eric Schlosser published Fast Food Nation: an investigation into the toxic depths of America’s food industry. Twenty five years later, the book remains an urgent intervention, as much for what it says about workers’ rights as for our agricultural systems and dietary health. On Downstream this week, Ash Sarkar talks to Eric Schlosser […]

ACFM Trip 57: Ecology

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 08:00:21 +0000

Are humans distinct from nature? Are there natural limits to inequality? Can you have action without effort? Do bacteria have agency? Jem, Nadia and Keir find themselves dwarfed by the concept of ecology in this planetary-scale episode, which touches on cybernetics, systems thinking, ecofeminism and actor-network theory. Their ACFM guide to ecological thinking includes ideas […]

Do Your Own Research: Megafarms and Megafamines: Secrets of the Global Food System w/ Charles C. Mann

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:03:22 +0000

There’s nothing in the world more important than the food system. The twentieth century was scarred by enormous famines – and, like the one in Gaza, they are still deliberately engineered. But since the 1970s, the absolute number of deaths from famine have dropped by over 90%. On a global scale, we now make so much food […]

Downstream: Mandelson & the Perverted Fantasies of New Labour Liberalism w/ Maurice Glasman

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:36:28 +0000

Just a week ago, the architect of Starmer’s rise to power, Morgan McSweeney, resigned over his connections to Peter Mandelson, after further proof of Mandelson’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein emerged in the newest batch of files released by the US Department of Justice. According to this week’s guest, this scandal isn’t an anomaly, but an […]

Downstream: Vape Shops, Crypto and Luxury Watches: How Money Laundering Is Everywhere w/ Oliver Bullough

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:34:39 +0000

When it comes to the relationship between capitalism and crime, those on the left generally think of exploitation. People often turn to crime, so the thinking goes, because they can’t make ends meet by legitimate means. Whatever your views on that framing, there is also another – far less discussed – connection between capitalism and […]

Downstream: China, AI and the West’s Free Speech Crackdown w/ Ai Weiwei

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:03:16 +0000

Over the past three years, the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people has become a flash point for freedom of speech in the West. Expressing solidarity with Palestinians has given Western governments an excuse to crack down on dissenters. There has been intimidation and job insecurity at one end of the scale, through to brutal […]

Downstream: 2008 Whistleblower on the Next Big Crash w/ Ann Pettifor

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 10:45:45 +0000

This week, Donald Trump continued his streak of threatening tariffs against any country that opposes him, increasing the odds of an escalating trade war and further destabilising the global economic system. But according to this week’s guest, the system is in desperate need of reform. Indeed, she thinks without a complete structural overhaul, it will […]

Downstream: Exposing the Lies of the 20th Century w/ Tariq Ali

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:17:35 +0000

Our guest this week was born in 1943, in what was then British India – modern day Pakistan. Unlike most, who have learned history through books and second-hand sources, he has witnessed first-hand a great deal of the 20th and 21st centuries. Tariq Ali founded Verso Books, the leading left-wing publishing house in Britain, as well […]

Downstream: Venezuela, China and the End of the Dollar w/ Glenn Greenwald

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:15:08 +0000

It has been a bellicose start to 2026, with the US army kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and threatening to annex Greenland, putting many more nations, including Mexico and Colombia, on high alert. On Downstream this week is investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who’s best known for helping Edward Snowden’s disclosures about the NSA’s global surveillance […]

Downstream: Exposing the Israeli Capture of British Politics w/ Peter Oborne

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 09:19:27 +0000

After ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ on October 7th, a specific narrative quickly emerged and pervaded the entire Western mainstream media. Namely, that unprecedented horrors were committed against the state of Israel and that whatever way it responded was justified. Any deviation from this narrative was quickly shut down. In the intervening years, the British state has […]

Downstream: 2025: What Actually Happened? w/ Ash Sarkar and Aaron Bastani

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 10:02:35 +0000

Ash Sarkar and Aaron Bastani joined each other on 17th December for a special end-of-year Downstream, wrapping up the year in politics.

Downstream: ‘Gaza Is Over, It’s Gone. There’s Nothing Left’ w/ Norman Finkelstein

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:00:45 +0000

Norman Finkelstein is one of the west’s leading anti-Zionist scholars. The son of Holocaust survivors, he has spent his life studying and critiquing Israel’s assault on Palestine, decades before it became socially acceptable to do so. Yet despite having dedicated his career to it, by the day before Hamas’ attack in October 2023, Norman had […]

ACFM Microdose: The ‘Radical Realists’ of Mainstream, Labour’s New Faction

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 07:00:56 +0000

After a Trip episode about the meaning of mainstream, this time the gang go deeper into ‘Mainstream’ – that is, the new soft-left faction inside Labour. Yes, a festive episode about the inner workings of a political party! Don’t say we don’t spoil you. Jem, Nadia and Keir explain the emergence of Mainstream’s ‘radical realists’ […]

Downstream: The Truth About Hamas, October 7th & Israel’s Ongoing Genocide w/ Tareq Baconi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 11:27:41 +0000

Since Hamas launched its assault on October 7th, 2023, the group has become synonymous with evil in large parts of the Western media. Condemnation has come at the expense of critical engagement with the group’s actions, objectives, and history, leaving a vacuum that has been filled with racist assumptions and conspiracy theories. Tareq Baconi is […]

Downstream: The Plan is to Make the Internet Worse Forever w/ Cory Doctorow

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 11:04:36 +0000

Did you know that the standard of Google searches has actually gotten worse over recent years? Once you think about it, it makes sense. Highly effective search means fewer searches overall. And fewer searches means less ad revenue. The financial basis of Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company, is, of course, digital advertising. Which means […]

ACFM Trip 56: The Mainstream

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 07:00:44 +0000

Jem, Nadia and Keir debate the meaning of ‘mainstream’ – something none of them could ever possibly be, of course. Is ‘woke’ the new mainstream? Can there be a mainstream if we don’t all have access to the same culture? Is Tommy Robinson shifting the Overton Window? Why is nonconformity associated with coolness? And who engineers […]

Downstream: How to Create A Revolution w/ Roger Hallam

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 16:37:47 +0000

Whether you love or loathe his tactics, it’s hard to deny the disruptive impact that Roger Hallam has had on British politics via the activist organisations he has led, Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil. He joins Ash Sarkar fresh from his latest stint in prison, where he wrote a treatise for Your Party that […]

Downstream: Zack Polanski Is Coming for Starmer and Farage

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 10:21:59 +0000

Support for the Green party in Britain has been steadily rising for the past few decades. However, few predicted that when Zack Polanski took office as Green party leader in September, membership would surge from 70,000 to 150,000 members in a matter of months. According to the latest polling, the party’s share of the vote […]

Downstream: Ex-World Bank Insider on Western Decline & the Chinese World Order w/ Branko Milanovic

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:59:13 +0000

At Novara, we focus on the trends that are remaking the world and affecting our lives: technological development and automation, multipolarity, the demise of an American-led world order and the rise of China. On Downstream this week is a man whose work draws together all of these themes: former World Bank macroeconomist and leading expert […]

Downstream: The Dark Truth About Starmer’s Rise to Power w/ Paul Holden

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 13:40:45 +0000

Investigative journalist Paul Holden has spent the last four years digging into the political machinations that brought Keir Starmer’s Labour Party into office – findings that propel his powerful 2025 book, The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Labour Together and the Crisis of British Democracy. He tells Ash Sarkar about the cache of leaked emails that revealed the […]

Downstream: Putin’s War in Ukraine Has Ancient Roots w/ Serhii Plokhy

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 10:34:19 +0000

In 1989, Francis Fukuyama, then a very young political scientist, declared that history was over. He wrote a book with the same title just a couple of years later. The Cold War had finished, the USSR had collapsed, liberal democracy and market capitalism reigned supreme, and it wasn’t going to change. And yet in the […]

ACFM Microdose: What’s Going On With Your Party?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 07:00:40 +0000

After last week’s episode on Parties, this time ACFM exposes the predicament facing Your Party, the new leftwing faction led by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. What expectations do leftwing voters have for Your Party? Does the Corbyn faction distrust the membership? Is Zarah a politician or a poster? And does ‘Yorp’ stand a chance […]

Downstream: The West Misunderstands Iran w/ Vali Nasr

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 09:55:58 +0000

Iran has been in the news a lot in 2025. Over recent decades, it has been a variable in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. But during the Twelve Day War with Israel in June of this year, Iran very much took centre stage. People started asking questions, chief among them being: What does […]

Downstream: Kidnapped at Sea by the Israeli Military. The Full Story w/ Kieran Andrieu

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 07:00:37 +0000

The Gaza Strip, home to 2.2 million people, is a tiny land mass about the same size as the Isle of Wight. Yet in terms of munitions by weight, Gaza has been subjected to more than all of the bombs dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined, over the whole of World War II. Another […]

Downstream: What Really Changed on 7th October w/ Ahmed Alnaouq, Yara Eid and Tareq Baconi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:26:07 +0000

Just over two years after the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, and just days after the announcement of a ceasefire, Aaron Bastani spoke to three Palestinian writers in front of a live audience at EartH in Hackney. Ahmed Alnaouq is the host of Palestine Deep Dive and the co-founder of ‘We Are Not Numbers’, […]

ACFM Trip 55: Parties

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 06:00:25 +0000

Amid the bumpy launch of a new left-wing party and the rise of the Greens and Reform, the ACFM crew turn their attention to parties. Do we still need them? Do parties work by drawing people together, or by excluding the uninvited? And should a political party have anything in common with a dance party? […]

Downstream: Democracy Is Under Massive Threat From AI w/ William MacAskill

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 09:25:54 +0000

Artificial intelligence is set to be one of the most disruptive technologies this century. For some, a machine capable of augmenting its own intelligence is a matter of time — and could even arrive within a decade. This week’s guest is philosopher and author William MacAskill. One of the leading thinkers in the Effective Altruism […]

Downstream: Was the 20th Century a Catastrophe, or a Miracle? w/ Yanis Varoufakis

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:50:19 +0000

Economist, and former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis joins Aaron to discuss his most recent book Raise Your Soul: A Personal History of Resistance, a memoir about the women in Yanis’ family who raised him, and gave him his political conscience. They discuss the Hegelian Master-Slave dialectic, is patriarchy harmful to the perpetrators, as […]

Downstream: The Right Is Stirring up Anti-Muslim Hate – and It’s Getting Worse w/ Myriam François

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 08:33:07 +0000

In the summer of 2024, hotels sheltering Muslim asylum seekers across Britain were attacked by violent mobs. A year later, as the summer of 2025 drew to a close, a far-right demonstration of 100,000 people marched through London, bearing St George’s flags and led by Tommy Robinson. On Downstream this week is Myriam François, a […]

ACFM Microdose: Sci-Fi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 07:00:10 +0000

After last week’s ACFM Trip to the Future, Jem and Keir reconvene to talk about science fiction. Is sci-fi a reaction to the “time-space compression” of the present? Is it inherently progressive? How did dystopian and paranoids visions of the future come to dominate sci-fi? Was Arthur C. Clarke an early acid communist? Find all […]

Downstream: How Brexit Paved The Way For Farage’s Bid for Downing Street w/ Tom McTague

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 14:12:02 +0000

It’s almost 10 years since Britain voted to leave the EU, and we’re still dealing with the consequences. In his new book, Between The Waves, Politico’s chief UK political correspondent Tom McTague argues that the journey to Brexit really began with Enoch Powell, before be taken up by his political heir, Nigel Farage. He talks […]

ACFM Trip 54: The Future

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 08:30:50 +0000

What if we stopped treating the future like a speculative asset and started trying to actually build and prepare? The ACFM gang look to the horizon in this Trip episode. Did young people always worry so much about their futures? Has the currency of emergency been devalued? Does conservatism have an idea of the future? […]

Downstream: The Political Possibilities of the Ancient World w/ Josephine Quinn

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 09:03:06 +0000

What were the ancient alternatives to democracy? Did people in the Bronze Age forget how to write – or deliberately stop? And what’s the use in studying ancient languages? In a Downstream IRL recorded at EartH Hackney, Aaron Bastani speaks to Josephine Quinn, Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge University, about some lesser-known aspects of the […]

Downstream: Are We Living Through the End of an Empire? w/ Lea Ypi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 10:50:52 +0000

What can the collapse of the Ottoman Empire teach us about the danger of the current discourse around migration? ‘Re-migration’ is not a new concept conjured up by the far-right, but rather something that would be familiar to many Europeans of a century ago. What would those involved in these tragedies think of the direction […]

Downstream: Infinite Growth Will Lead to Collapse w/ Jason Hickel

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 08:14:04 +0000

Our politicians don’t agree on much, but one thing most of them agree on is that growth is universally good. Grow the pie, they assure us, and there will be more to go around. Our guest on Downstream this week could not disagree more. Professor Jason Hickel argues that the mindless pursuit of Gross Domestic […]

ACFM Microdose: Gardening

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 07:00:39 +0000

Are gardens a sanctuary or an enclosure? The ACFM gang sketch out a weird-left history of gardening, from the walled gardens of paradise to the tarmacked lawns of suburban Britain. Find the books, music and Dunmore Pineapple mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Downstream: China Is Building While the West Crumbles w/ Dan Wang

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 08:23:04 +0000

Dan Wang is a technology analyst and author whose life experience, spent partly in North America, partly in China, sets him up as an authoritative observer of the differences and similarities between the American and Chinese empires. In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Wang shares his thesis that elite overproduction of engineers in China, and lawyers in […]

Downstream: A Reckoning Is Coming For The Establishment Over Gaza w/ Owen Jones

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 09:42:56 +0000

Owen Jones is a journalist and the author of ‘Chavs’, ‘The Establishment’, and ‘This Land’. He has spent the last 21 months relentlessly reporting and commenting on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. He joins Ash Sarkar to talk about how media bias actually works, the history of the West’s support for Zionism, and how to […]

Downstream: The Ancient Indian History Our Schools Don’t Teach w/ William Dalrymple

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 09:23:00 +0000

Ash Sarkar sat down at EartH Hackney with acclaimed historian and author William Dalrymple. Picking up where they left off last time they spoke on Downstream, Sarkar and Dalrymple had a wide-ranging conversation at the crossroads of empire, resistance, and the long shadows of colonialism. From the rich histories traced in The Golden Road to […]

Novara FM: Where Did Novara Media Come From? w/ Aaron Bastani, James Butler and Ash Sarkar

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 10:15:18 +0000

Novara FM was Novara Media’s first show – it’s now coming to an end. On the final episode, Richard Hames sat down with Aaron Bastani, James Butler and Ash Sarkar to talk about 15 years of Novara Media. What have we learned from a decade and a half fighting a media landscape that insists nothing […]

Downstream: The Real Reason Millennials Are Screwed w/ Eliza Filby

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:12:20 +0000

Dr Eliza Filby is a historian and author of the bestselling book Inheritocracy: It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad. In conversation with Ash Sarkar, Dr Filby draws on her own life story, growing up in South London with parents who went from communists to Thatcherites in the 1980s. She debunks […]

ACFM Trip 53: Growth

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 06:09:02 +0000

Keir Starmer claims that growth is the only cure for a country in decline. But why is it the central obsession of modern capitalist economies? And can we think our way out of it before our planet runs out of resources? Nadia, Keir and Jem offer their weird-left take on growth, degrowth, radical abundance, ecomodernism […]

Downstream: Ash Sarkar meets Gerry Adams

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 10:31:01 +0000

This interview would once have been illegal to broadcast in the UK. For many, Gerry Adams is a peacemaker, but for others he remains inseparable from the violence and trauma of the Troubles. Ash Sarkar travels to the James Connolly Centre in West Belfast to talk to Adams about the slow rise of his party, […]

Novara FM: Does the Palestine Action Ban Signal the Decline of Liberalism in Britain? w/ Simon Childs

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 11:32:06 +0000

Is the UK still a liberal country? With terrorism laws criminalising speech around Palestine Action, it’s a serious question. A growing gulf between public opinion and state policy on Gaza reveals a liberal order in decline. Richard Hames spoke to Simon Childs about where our society is going.

Downstream: India Was the Epicentre of the Ancient World w/ William Dalrymple

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 10:46:52 +0000

The Silk Road has dominated the way we imagine the trading relationship between Europe and Asia to have worked in antiquity. In his new book, The Golden Road, William Dalrymple busts that myth. He sat down with Ash to talk about the origins of algebra, Indian gems in Anglo-Saxon Britain and why Genghis Khan was […]

Downstream: Trump & Musk Could Start a Global Meltdown w/ Michael Lewis

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 06:08:04 +0000

Michael Lewis is an American author, journalist, and former bond trader. His best-known book, The Big Short, explains the 2000s US housing bubble and helped many people understand the 2008 financial crisis. In this interview, Lewis speaks with Aaron Bastani about his latest book, a collection of essays on federal government employees. Lewis finds that […]

ACFM Microdose: Social Reproduction

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 07:00:09 +0000

Following their Trip episode about Cleaning, the ACFM crew take a closer look at the hidden labour that keeps the economy running. Would public canteens solve 80% of our problems? Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Downstream: Masculinity, Modern Love, and Mental Health w/ Blindboy

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:56:45 +0000

Blindboy is an artist, podcaster, and author. His storytelling style weaves anti-colonial histories with perspectives on modern masculinity, politics, and mental health, all cut with an absurdist sense of humour. In public Blindboy wears a mask made from a plastic bag, maintaining anonymity while developing a cult following as a podcaster. In this interview, Blindboy […]

Novara FM: ICE Is Ramping Up. LA Fought Back w/ Harsha Walia

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 08:56:04 +0000

The Trump Administration’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the tune of $45bn – a staggering increasing. But the fight back has already started. The 2025 protests in LA sought to slow down enforcement of increasingly draconian migration rules. Harsha Walia is the co-founder of ‘No One is Illegal’ and […]

Downstream: Exposing The True Costs of AI w/ Karen Hao

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:47:25 +0000

As AI begins to fundamentally alter our lives, we’re in urgent need of expert voices who both understand how the technology works and are capable of scrutinising its effects. In her new book, Empire of AI, tech reporter and former Silicon Valley engineer Karen Hao debunks the myths that surround AI and exposes the true […]

ACFM Trip 52: Cleaning

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 07:00:02 +0000

In the socialist utopia of our dreams, who exactly is doing the cleaning? Nadia, Jem and Keir confront a tricky topic in this ACFM Trip. With music from X-Ray Spex, The B-52s and more, they offer their weird-left perspective on everything from dirty dishes and bodily secretions to circumcision, pollution and the caste system. Find […]

Novara FM: Israel-Iran War, Escalation Pauses w/ Eskandar Sadeghi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 09:37:34 +0000

Escalation towards war with Iran has hit a pause. But for how long? Eskandar Sadeghi is the author of Revolution and its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran. He joined Richard Hames to explain the strategy and history of this conflict – and what it means for the future of geopolitics. And, of course, […]

Downstream: Trump’s Plan is to Make His Friends Even Richer w/ Quinn Slobodian

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 08:38:20 +0000

Quinn Slobodian is a Canadian historian. His new book, Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right is a deep dive into the set of far-right ideologues currently dominating US politics. Slobodian tracks how neoliberal thought has changed since Friedrich Hayek’s vision of unfettered capitalism went mainstream 50 years ago. In this conversation with […]

Novara FM: How BlackRock and Global Finance Stole Your Future w/ Michael A. McCarthy

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 14:02:33 +0000

Got a pension? Or a savings account? Arguably, its purpose is to align your interests with the interests of capitalism: when the market goes up, you benefit too. All this means that the working class actually already owns lots of the assets around us, from companies to houses. But how much control do we actually […]

Downstream: American Democracy Is Collapsing, and This Man Predicted It w/ Joseph Stiglitz

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:16:46 +0000

During the 2008 economic crisis, the Obama administration had an opportunity to enact widespread market reforms. Instead, they bailed out the banks and laid the groundwork for mass inequality and a political culture that has given us a second Trump administration. This week’s guest was in the room where those crucial decisions were made, and […]

Novara FM: How to Redistribute the Globe w/ Jo Guldi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 15:16:40 +0000

Assuming you’re not reading this on your yacht, then the most contentious thing in the world is right beneath you. Since the dawn of agriculture, peasants, farmers, landlords, and states have vied for control of the land. Jo Guldi is the author of the The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights. She […]

Downstream: The IDF Killed My Entire Family, and the British Government Helped Them w/ Ahmed Alnaouq

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 11:41:14 +0000

Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist and author. In October 2023, while he was in the UK, an Israeli airstrike hit his home in central Gaza, killing 21 of his immediate family, including his father, two brothers, three sisters and their children. He joins Ash Sarkar to talk about Israel’s dehumanisation of Palestinians, Britain’s continuing […]

Novara FM: Palantir Technologies and the Age of Automated Genocide w/ Matt Mahmoudi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:00:56 +0000

The genocide in Gaza has been the most automated in history. Systems like ‘Lavender’ and ‘Where’s Daddy?’ reportedly speed up the process of tracking and targeting Palestinians. The genocide’s brutality has been concealed behind the facade of technical neutrality. So why are the companies working with the IDF also working with the NHS? Eleanor Penny […]

Downstream: Britain’s Most Powerful Multi-Millionaire Hippy w/ Dale Vince

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 08:22:35 +0000

Dale Vince is a former new age traveller and the inventor of a string of transformative technologies: the world’s first green energy company, the electric supercar, and the Electric Highway charging network. The last of these got him into in a David-versus-Goliath legal battle with Elon Musk – a battle that he won. Since then, […]

ACFM Microdose: Superheroes

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 07:00:39 +0000

Following the recent Trip episode on Heroes, Keir and Jem return with a Microdose focusing on the masked, the winged and the mutated. Why are superheroes such a cultural mainstay? What psychological and political desires do they fulfil? Are they inherently reactionary? From Superman to Batman, Wonder Woman to 2000AD, it’s a weird left reading […]

Novara FM: How Enoch Powell Explains British Politics’ Rivers of Shit w/ Kojo Koram

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 29 May 2025 07:00:01 +0000

Keir Starmer stands accused of echoing Enoch Powell in his ‘Island of Strangers’ speech. But who was this titanic figure in the history of British racism? And how did he shape the far right’s existential struggle to understand Britain once it ceased to be a formal empire? Eleanor Penny spoke to Kojo Koram about how […]

Novara FM: The New Party, Beyond London w/ Pamela Fitzpatrick, Jamie Driscoll and Shockat Adam

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 27 May 2025 16:05:26 +0000

There will be a new party. And also, there already is one. We put the strategies of Pamela Fitzpatrick, Jamie Driscoll and Shockat Adam head to head: do we need a new party? Should it be led by Jeremy Corbyn, or someone new? Or do we just need more independent MPs? They debate Reform UK, […]

Downstream: How to Be a Morally Effective Person w/ Rutger Bregman

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 26 May 2025 10:37:51 +0000

This week’s guest is best known for hijacking a panel at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos, where he told a room full of billionaires to stop avoiding taxes. He now claims that this form of protest has been proven ineffective in the struggle for progress. The last 25 years have seen some […]

Novara FM: What Communism Actually Is w/ Jasper Bernes

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 22 May 2025 07:00:24 +0000

Communism is a classless, moneyless and stateless society. So far, so simple. And so far out of reach. Or, we could define it differently, as “the real movement that abolishes the present state of things”. That’s how Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels described it in the German Ideology. Jasper Bernes is the author of The Future […]

Downstream: Big Tech Is Making Our Children Depressed and Anxious. Here’s How w/ Jonathan Haidt

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 19 May 2025 15:38:19 +0000

As smart phone use has soared, Generation Z’s mental health has plummeted. But just how bad is this crisis, and who should we hold responsible? In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt sets out his comprehensive diagnosis of the problems caused by the mass integration of smartphones into every aspect of most children’s lives. […]

ACFM Trip 51: Heroes

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 18 May 2025 06:00:40 +0000

The ACFM crew offer a weird-left perspective on the role of the hero (and heroine) in politics and culture. Nadia, Jem and Keir assess theories of Great Men, the myth of the hero’s journey and the lure of the anti-hero with ideas from Weber and Hegel and music from Tina Turner and Sonic Youth. Find […]

Novara FM: Are India and Pakistan Gambling with Nuclear War? w/ Mohamad Junaid

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 15 May 2025 07:00:01 +0000

Last week, a terrorist attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir sparked a rapid military escalation: planes were shot down, thousands were arbitrarily detained, the houses of suspect’s families were blown up. How did we get to a situation in which the safety of the whole world is threatened by the occupation of Kashmir? Richard Hames spoke to […]

Downstream: Why the Left Fails to Connect With People w/ Jimmy The Giant

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 12 May 2025 10:34:53 +0000

Not long ago, Kieren Owen AKA Jimmy The Giant was in the ‘alt right pipeline’. He believed in the tyranny of the welfare system, thought ‘woke culture’ was dangerous for society and that Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment was a result of draconian government censorship. So how did he become one the most incisive commentators of the […]

Novara Debates: Are Labour Doomed?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sat, 10 May 2025 07:00:44 +0000

Ash Sarkar, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani debate: could the Labour Party be heading for a trouncing? Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara Debates: Can Reform Win A General Election?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 09 May 2025 11:30:30 +0000

Ash Sarkar, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani debate one of the most pressing questions of the day: can Reform UK win a general election? Might it even win the next one? Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara FM: A New Era For The World’s Billion Catholics w/ Matthew Sitman

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 08 May 2025 17:54:45 +0000

A new Pope has been chosen by the conclave. But how much can one man, even one appointed by the Holy Spirit, do to transform one of the most powerful institutions in the world? Richard Hames spoke to Matthew Sitman of the Know Your Enemy podcast about what role the church can play in our […]

Downstream: Is Christianity Back? Gen Z’s Search For Meaning w/ Lamorna Ash

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 05 May 2025 07:00:47 +0000

What do Christianity and communism have in common? Are Nuns missing out on their lives, or living their best one? And can attending church once a week provide a more healing alternative to modern wellness culture, not least because you’re forced to turn off your phone for an hour? Seeking answers to all these questions, […]

Local Election Results REACT With Aaron + Michael

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 02 May 2025 16:00:33 +0000

Aaron and Michael share their first thoughts on the 2025 local election results.

Committed: 4. Was Prison Worth It?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 02 May 2025 08:00:26 +0000

Just Stop Oil has ended its campaign of direct action, yet many activists still face years in prison. In the final episode, Rivkah and Clare find out whether their commitment to their cause has wavered. They also speak to veteran climate campaigner Roger Hallam, currently serving a four-year sentence, about his role in sending young […]

Committed: 3. How Does It Feel When They Choose Activism Over You?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:28:23 +0000

In episode three, Clare and Rivkah find out what it’s like to see your loved ones locked up. How do the Just Stop Oil prisoners’ families make sense of their crimes? When your partner is in prison, how can your relationship survive? And what’s it like to know your fiancée would choose activism over you? […]

Downstream: Does International Law Even Work? w/ Kenneth Roth

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 10:56:43 +0000

Today the leaders of Israel, Russia, and Hamas all stand accused of war crimes. Yet it seems doubtful that these men will ever face justice – so what’s the point of international law? For 30 years, Kenneth Roth was the director of Human Rights Watch. In that time, his organisation exposed hundreds of human rights […]

ACFM Microdose: Make Way For Winged Eros!

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 07:00:56 +0000

The ACFM gang gather for a springtime reading of a prototype acid-communist text by Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai. Download the text and follow along as Nadia, Keir and Jem get their teeth into Make Way for Winged Eros! A Letter to Working Youth, published in 1923.Check out the AK-47 podcast mentioned in this show: https://kristenghodsee.com/podcast […]

Committed: 2. How Do Climate Activists Cope in Prison?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:16:51 +0000

Locked in their cells for up to 22 hours a day, how are Britain’s jailed climate activists coping with a life of inaction? In episode two of Committed, Rivkah and Clare follow the Just Stop Oil inmates to find out how they’re adjusting. How does JSO prepare activists for incarceration? What’s it really like inside […]

Committed: 1. What Kind of Person Goes to Prison for Their Politics?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 09:30:56 +0000

In episode one of Committed, Clare Hymer and Rivkah Brown meet the imprisoned Just Stop Oil activists who took direct action against the climate crisis and faced dire consequences. By blocking roads, climbing bridges and throwing soup at paintings, they made headlines – and became national hate figures in the process. We find out how […]

Downstream: Has Israel Become A Fascist State? w/ Ilan Pappé

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 09:40:42 +0000

Aaron Bastani was joined by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé for a live recording of Downstream on 7 April at EartH in East London. They discussed the origins of Britain’s Israel lobby, the indoctrination of Israelis, and whether the recent atrocities committed in Gaza and the West Bank are signs of Israel’s imminent collapse. Help us […]

Committed: A New Series Out Now

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:11:38 +0000

How does a teenage goodie-two-shoes grow up to be a convicted criminal? On Committed, a new four-part series from Novara Media, we go behind bars to find out why dozens of young climate activists are risking prison for what they believe in – and why Britain’s courts are sending more of them to jail for […]

Downstream: What’s The Real Point of Trump’s Tariffs? w/ Slavoj Žižek

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 15:06:51 +0000

Donald Trump has been ripping up the rule book on global trade, implementing huge tariffs and sending markets into a frenzy. But is there any method in his apparent madness? Legendary Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek regales Aaron with his thoughts on US trade policy – not to mention Franz Kafka, fully automated luxury communism and whether […]

Novara FM: How the West Tried to Co-opt Iranian Feminism w/ Bahar Noorizadeh

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 07:00:52 +0000

When you think about neoliberal states, maybe you think of the UK, or Russia in the 90s, or Chile. You probably don’t think about Iran. And yet, argues Bahar Noorizadeh, the Islamic Republic has been, since before the 1979 revolution, a neoliberal state – and an imperial one as well. It has suppressed the Kurdish and […]

Downstream: On Palestine, Prisons and British Vs. American Racism w/ Ta-Nehisi Coates

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 09:53:14 +0000

There are few, true, public intellectuals anymore. But Ta-Nehisi Coates – author of ‘Between The World And Me’ and recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant – is unquestionably foremost amongst them. His new book, The Message, is a sweeping exploration of how stories shape our politics – from the parameters of black struggle to Israel’s […]

Novara FM: How Forensic Architecture Mapped the Gaza Genocide w/ Samaneh Moafi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:16:39 +0000

Forensic Architecture is a research agency that investigates state violence and environmental destruction. It reconstructs events that states worldwide wants obscured, from Israel to the UK and from the Mediterranean to Ukraine. In doing so, they have invented a whole new discipline of investigation. On Novara FM, FA’s Assistant Director of Research, Samaneh Moafi, tells […]

Downstream: This Much We Agree On: Britain Is In Decline w/ Peter Hitchens

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:07:43 +0000

In 2024 the Conservative party suffered their worst defeat in two centuries. But while Labour struggles in office, the Tories are going nowhere fast. Meanwhile Britain shambles on without an economic model, or a wider vision for the future. How long can national decline continue? And when will things come to a head? Aaron Bastani […]

ACFM Trip 50: Fifty Shades of Acid

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 07:00:50 +0000

The gang present a milestone 50th Trip all about acid: a drug, a genre, a political concept, a mental tool and a thought corrosive. Looking back on six years of the podcast, Nadia, Keir and Jem decide if ‘acid’ is still a useful way of thinking about left-wing politics. Find the books and music mentioned […]

Novara FM: Geoengineering is Coming Whether We Like it Or Not w/ Laurie Laybourn

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:59:38 +0000

We’ve entered a new climate reality. The pace of the energy transition has picked up – and so have the impacts of climate change. But has there ever actually been an energy transition? Or do we just use more and more and more of everything? As climate change accelerates, feedback loops in the climate system will […]

Downstream: The British Military is Actively Involved in the Gaza Genocide w/ Matt Kennard

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:08:47 +0000

Investigative journalist Matt Kennard joins Aaron Bastani to discuss Britain’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, following a series revelations published in Declassified UK. In an extensive conversation about the shifting sands of global security, the author of The Racket also discusses the elimination of USAID, America’s U-turn on Russia, and the rearmament of Europe. […]

Novara FM: Is This What Neofeudalism Looks Like? w/ Jodi Dean

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 13:00:04 +0000

After capitalism comes communism, according to Marxist doctrine. But in the meantime, what should we call our increasingly unequal system? Political theorist Jodi Dean posits ‘neofeudalism’ as the best way to describe our growing society of serfs and servants in her new book, Capital’s Grave. She talks to Eleanor Penny about a vision of class […]

Downstream: We Have to Break Up With The USA w/ Angus Hanton

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 10:38:09 +0000

The ‘special relationship’ is central to how Britain conducts its foreign policy and perceives itself as a country. The argument goes: proximity to Washington allows London to maintain a semblance of its former prestige and power. The media and political class can’t get enough of it. But what if Britain’s relationship to the United States […]

Novara FM: Rojava After Assad: Where Next for the Kurdish Struggle? w/ Elif Sarican

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 18:09:02 +0000

In the wake of Assad’s regime collapse and the call for the Kurdish Worker’s Party to disband, Elif Sarican talks to Richard Hames about how to make sense of this new world, and whether or not the Kurdish revolution in Rojava can survive. Comments, corrections, suggestions? fm@novaramedia.com

Novara FM: The Absurdity of Rearmament w/ Khem Rogaly

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:42:03 +0000

The US is no longer supporting Ukraine, and in response, the UK and Europe are rearming. Germany is taking off its hallowed ‘debt brake’ to allow it, while Keir Starmer is talking tough about the capabilities of the British armed forces. In a world still dominated by the American military, what does it matter? And […]

Downstream: Why Don’t We Have Any Hope? w/ Jonathan White

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 11:31:14 +0000

When we talk about politics – whether it’s the climate, the economy or constitutional reform – the thing that’s at stake is an idea of ‘the future’. These days, the idea of imminent societal or ecological breakdown necessarily means adopting the framing of the present as being a ‘state of emergency’. This is an obvious […]

ACFM Microdose: Making Art in a World on Fire w/ Amber Massie-Blomfield

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 08:00:52 +0000

What’s the point of the arts when the world is on fire? To follow the pipeline from creativity to activism and back again, Nadia Idle is joined by Amber Massie-Blomfield, former chief of theatre company Complicité and the author of Acts of Resistance: The Power of Art to Create Better World. They discuss Dan Edelstyn […]

Novara FM: Did Pandemics Make the Modern World?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:34:59 +0000

Lockdown was one of the defining experiences of our lives, but it was far from unique in history. Contagion and confinement are inextricably intertwined, from the plantation to the infirmary, the leper colony to the stay-at-home order. In The History of the World in 6 Plagues, Edna Bonhomme investigates how fear, power, race science and colonial violence […]

Downstream: Everything We’re Told About the History of the West Is Wrong w/ Josephine Quinn

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:21:31 +0000

In 1996 Samuel Huntington published ‘The Clash of Civilizations’. At the time its hypothesis was counter-intuitive. Despite the supremacy of the United States after the Cold War, the ascent of globalisation would not lead to the end of history, but a return to distinctive and competing civilisations. Rather than homogeneity we would see a growing […]

Novara FM: The Decades Long Plan that Made Trump Possible w/ David Adler

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:30:51 +0000

Read any of the mainstream press at the moment and you’ll hear the same thing: unprecedented things are happening in America. But what if this sudden shift was an illusion? David Adler is co-general coordinator of the Progressive International, a group that brings together forces from across the progressive left. He tells Richard Hames that […]

Downstream: Europe’s Political Elite Are Completely Finished w/ Philip Pilkington

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 11:06:21 +0000

For almost six centuries Europe has been at the centre of world affairs. While the days of Empire are long gone, over the last several decades the importance and comparative wealth of Europe has declined at an extraordinary pace. Indeed for many countries, from Britain to Germany and Greece, living standards have stagnated or even […]

Novara FM: The Green Party vs Something New w/ James Schneider and Zack Polanski

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:15:00 +0000

This part two of our discussion about a new left party. You can listen to part 1 here: https://novaramedia.com/2025/01/30/time-for-a-new-left-party/ James Schneider, Jeremy Corbyn’s former Director of Comms, argues for a new party. But who would it speak to? Would it be democratic and in what ways? And what could it actually achieve in the volatile […]

Downstream: This Is Why the Right Are Winning w/ Ash Sarkar

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 09:49:08 +0000

“I’m literally a communist, you idiot”. For almost a decade Ash Sarkar has been one of Britain’s most prominent left wing political journalists. She first met Aaron Bastani in 2010, and was later invited on to the Novara FM podcast. It wasn’t long before she was calling Piers Morgan an idiot on morning TV. Now […]

Novara FM: Against Assisted Dying w/ Ellen Clifford

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:10:47 +0000

Your death should be your own, as much as possible. That’s one of the principles behind the Assisted Dying Bill. It lets adults with less than 6 months to live end their lives. But disability campaigners fear that people who don’t want to die might be pressured to let themselves be killed. Ellen Clifford is […]

Downstream: Elon Musk Wants to Be Napoleon w/ Will Davies

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:58:03 +0000

It’s official – we’re in the middle of an unprecedented vibe shift. Donald Trump’s second term in the White House tips the political balance across the world. So, what happens next? And what defines the era that we’re living in? Ash Sarkar is joined by Professor Will Davies, author of The Happiness Industry and Nervous […]

Downstream: Why Are So Many People Lonely? w/ Shon Faye

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 10:33:08 +0000

Love is supposed to be the most universal human experience after death and taxes. So why do so many people feel like they’re failing in it? Ash Sarkar is joined by Shon Faye, author of the bestselling book The Transgender Issue, to discuss her new book Love In Exile. They talk about how marriage has […]

ACFM Microdose: Making Sense of Sovereign Debt w/ Heidi Chow

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 08:00:09 +0000

After last week’s ACFM on the meaning and morality of personal debt, Keir and Nadia zoom out to the macroeconomics of debt. Joining them to make sense of concepts like sovereign debt, structural adjustment and international ratings agencies is Heidi Chow, executive director of Debt Justice. She explains how and why countries borrow money, why […]

Novara FM: Time for a New Left Party? w/ Oliver Eagleton, Rachel Godfrey Wood and Joe Todd

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 16:37:15 +0000

It’s been five long years since the decisive defeat of Corbynism at the ballot box. How, if at all, should the left reconstitute itself? Should everyone join the Greens? Or do we just need Mick Lynch to start a new party? In this episode, Richard Hames is joined by Rachel Godfrey Wood, Joe Todd, and […]

Downstream: Everything They Tell You About the Economy Is Wrong w/ Gary Stevenson

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 12:30:53 +0000

Fourteen years ago Gary Stevenson was one of Citibank’s best performing traders. The bet that brought him success was one few foresaw: that despite record low interest rates, Britain’s economy would stay in the doldrums. He wrote about that, and his time at Citi, in his bestselling memoir ‘The Trading Game’. In this, his third […]

ACFM Trip 49: Debt

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 08:00:25 +0000

The concept of debt is as slippery as it is powerful. In this Trip episode, Keir, Nadia and Jem explain why debt is more like a belief than a calculation, and wonder how to imagine a society without it. From credit cards to dowries, they discuss the reality and fantasy of debt, with ideas from […]

Novara FM: What Will ‘Technoking’ Elon Musk Do in the White House? w/ Quinn Slobodian

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 18:53:28 +0000

Elon Musk is the most symptomatic capitalist of our era: obsessed with publicity, by many accounts a fanatical workaholic, and increasingly in bed with the far right. But how did he go from Obama-era liberal darling to giving a Nazi salute at Trump’s second inauguration? Historian of ideas Quinn Slobodian has traced the relationship between […]

Downstream: Who’s Behind the Institute of Economic Affairs? w/ Kristian Niemietz

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 11:06:40 +0000

The Institute of Economic Affairs is one of the most powerful and secretive think tanks in the UK, known for promoting free-market Thatcherism as a solution to all of our economic woes. Who’s behind it? This week, Kristian Niemietz, a director at the IEA and a long-time Novara Media hater, sits down with Aaron for […]

Downstream: Woke Capitalism Just Collapsed. Here’s Why w/ Brett Christophers

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:21:44 +0000

Donald Trump is the next president. Meta, Walmart and McDonald’s have forsaken their diversity policies. Elon Musk is demanding that Keir Starmer be removed as PM. Why is this all happening at the same time? And why do progressives have so little to offer when it comes to the economy and people’s everyday lives? Brett […]

ACFM Microdose: The Communist Manifesto

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 11:53:05 +0000

The ACFM gang gather for a midwinter reading of one of the most influential political tracts ever written. Download a version online and follow along as Nadia, Keir and Jem reassess The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm Sign up […]

Novara FM: Why The Left Needs To Care About Crypto w/ Sam Hart

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 06:00:35 +0000

Having long promised to decentralise power, Bitcoin is looking more and more like it will end up as a tool of American power under Trump. But blockchains could also be used to empower local economies. And why should the left stay attached to a money system controlled by the state? Sam Hart is a developer, […]

Novara FM: Love Actually w/ Nathalie Olah

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:14:52 +0000

In Richard Curtis’ Love Actually, a selection of mainly white and middle-class Londoners seem to be living in a parallel universe – one in which the war on terror never happened and the ’90s never ended. What kinds of love are really on offer in this misty-eyed vision of modern Britain? Following Novara FM’s investigation […]

Downstream: 2024 Round Up: Gaza, Starmer and the Death of Woke

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 06:10:03 +0000

On 10 December, Ash Sarkar, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discussed an epoch-defining year and its implications for the future. Is Starmer screwed? Are expansionist wars back? Has ‘woke’ died? Find out in our end-of-year Downstream special. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara FM: Die Hard w/ James Butler

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 12:00:18 +0000

Die Hard is a perennial of festive TV, but is it really a Christmas movie? James Butler and Eleanor Penny explore what the 1988 action comedy reveals about corporate power, class antagonism, mid-century terrorism and women in the workplace. Who is Bruce Willis’ shoeless cowboy cop out to rescue? And what is going on with […]

Downstream: Is Germany’s Economy Heading for Collapse? w/ Wolfgang Münchau

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 17:15:46 +0000

Just two months before a general election, Germany finds itself in a precarious position. The European project is fragile, the country’s manufacturing innovation has stalled, and Germany’s dependence on Russian resources has become, quite obviously, disastrous. So what will happen to this once deeply consequential world power, and what does its story tell us about […]

Novara FM: We Need a New Wikileaks w/ Stefania Maurizi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 14:38:28 +0000

In the 2010s, we found out that we were all being watched. A series of leaks, from Wikileaks and others, revealed that our governments were conducting mass surveillance operations on their own populations. But what were the longer term consequences of those leaks? And why hasn’t something of equivalent size stepped in to replace Wikileaks since? […]

Downstream: The Journalist Who Spent A Year With The Taliban w/ Ibrahim Nash’at

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 17:49:28 +0000

When the Taliban retook all of Afghanistan in 2021, it came as a shock to much of the West. The day after the last American soldier left, journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at flew into Kabul to spend a year filming with the Taliban’s senior military leadership. What he found was a regime drunk on power, […]

ACFM Trip 48: Political Commitment

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 07:00:21 +0000

Which side are you on? Keir, Nadia and Jem consider the ebb and flow of political commitment with ideas and music from Jodi Dean, Gramsci, John Coltrane and the Raincoats. Is cultural production the same as political action? What’s the difference between an ally and a comrade? And why do some communists end up as […]

Novara FM: The New Scramble for Africa in the Vacuum of Empire w/ James Pogue

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 12:29:46 +0000

In 1891, the French drew the borders of what became Mali. Like many colonial borders, they were arbitrary, absurd to the many nomads who supposedly lived within them. Now climate change is ravaging the Sahel region, and many of those nomads are being forced to settle down. And Russia and China have arrived to replace […]

Downstream: Humans Could Become Immortal This Century w/ Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:30:14 +0000

Humanity has long pursued an elixir of youth and dreamed of eternal life. For the Abrahamic faiths, physical immortality was lost in the Garden of Eden, with only the soul remaining of permanence. More recently, futurists and thinkers have speculated about the possibilities of radical life extension. For neuroscientist Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston there is another alternative, […]

Novara FM: Protect or Punish? The Stakes of Sex Worker Activism w/ Laura Watson

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 16:13:52 +0000

Imagine a person arrested for keeping a brothel. Who are they? An abusive pimp? Such people exist, no doubt, but the law isn’t set up just to catch abusers: it also targets sex workers working together to stay safe. With Labour in power, big changes could be afoot, but legalising sex work could harm sex […]

Downstream: Trains Are Better Than Cars. Here’s Why w/ Gareth Dennis

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 10:59:23 +0000

While the first modern trains were built in the early 19th century – more people travel by rail today than ever before. Not only have passenger numbers risen in the UK but the likes of China, Iran and Uzbekistan now have high-speed networks. On this episode of Downstream, Aaron Bastani is joined by author and […]

Novara FM: The New Space Race Is an Arms Race w/ Daniel Deudney

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 13:03:29 +0000

In October 2024, SpaceX caught a rocket. An astonishing feat of engineering, it took humanity one giant leap closer to the era of everyday space travel – and possibly one small step closer to its own obliteration. Despite a long list of treaties attempting to prevent it, space is now a militarised zone. Nuclear-laden ICBMs and […]

Downstream IRL: There’s No Such Thing As Green Capitalism w/ Andreas Malm

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 13:03:44 +0000

Global heating is a serious problem, but the question of just how urgently to fight it is a fraught one. Should 2C or 1.5C of warming be our limit? Or can we blow past these limits now, and come back down to them later, using technology to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere? There’s […]

ACFM Trip 47: Disruption

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 06:00:47 +0000

Disruption is a byword for success in the tech industry, but when it affects people’s daily routines – say, when JSO activists are slow-marching down a road – it becomes nothing short of criminal. On this Trip, Jem, Nadia and Keir unpack the political uses and abuses of disruption and the ‘creative destruction’ inherent to capitalism. […]

Novara FM: How MAGA Went Mainstream w/ Joshua Citarella

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 18:11:32 +0000

In 2016, the alt-right seemed to come from the internet and infest politics. In 2024, the internet and politics have become identical. Are we swimming in the world the alt-right built for us? Perhaps no one knows the world of online politics better than Joshua Citarella, an artist and political theorist whose 2018 book Politigram and […]

Downstream: What the Roman Empire Tells Us About the Collapse of the West W/ Peter Heather and John Rapley

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 15:00:38 +0000

Everyone knows that the Roman Empire rose, then fell. Historians don’t all agree on the reasons for the collapse, but their misunderstandings can shed plenty of light on the current state of the world, according to the authors of How Empires Fall: Rome, America and the Future of the West. Peter Heather, a historian of […]

Novara FM: What’s Next for AI Now It’s Ingested the Entire Internet? w/ Marek Poliks

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 13:26:19 +0000

The rise of artificial intelligence will bring about a planetary-scale shift in human life and politics – and, it seems, a lot of weird social media spam. But for all the grand pronouncements from techno-utopians and pessimists alike, the reality is that there’s still much to be decided about the future that AI portends. At the […]

Downstream: Could Israel Become A Failed State? w/ Ilan Pappé

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:23:53 +0000

War is spreading throughout West Asia, a situation understood by many observers as an outgrowth of Israeli expansionism. In a return visit to Downstream, historian Ilan Pappé provides a century’s worth of context to the unfolding crisis. He talks to Aaron to talk about the lack of a viable left in Israel, why nation-states haven’t […]

Novara FM: How Do We Liberate People From Bad Ideas? w/ adrienne maree brown

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 16:26:36 +0000

In their new book Loving Corrections, adrienne maree brown poses a crucial conundrum for all progressive thinkers: how do we liberate people from bad ideas? One of America’s most energetic thinkers talks to Rivkah Brown about putting the pol back in idpol, understanding the IDF, navigating the US election, and why we might need to […]

Downstream: How War, Trade and Farming Changed the Planet Forever w/ Sunil Amrith

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:47:02 +0000

What if instead of talking about history from the perspective of humanity, we told it from the perspective of the resources that made human expansion possible? Sunil Amrith is a historian and author of The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of The Last 500 Years. He sat down with Ash to explain how a bumper […]

Novara FM: The Age of Disaster Nationalism w/ Richard Seymour

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 11:29:27 +0000

Around the world, far-right movements are mobilising support by placing the blame for real catastrophes – Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, their own riots and insurrections – on entirely made-up enemies, among them Muslims, immigrants and feminists. This is what Richard Seymour, a writer, theorist and founding editor of Salvage magazine, calls disaster nationalism. He joins Richard Hames […]

Downstream: Insects Are Disappearing and We Should Be Very Worried w/ Dave Goulson

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 12:35:29 +0000

From pollinating crops to managing organic waste on a continental scale, insects are vital to life on Earth. They are also disappearing. Dave Goulson is an entomologist and ecologist whose books communicate the majesty of insects and arthropods – along with a grave warning about their demise. He talks to Aaron to Bastani talk about the […]

Novara FM: Understanding Hezbollah, Israel’s ‘Best Enemy’ w/ Elia Ayoub

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 12:05:57 +0000

What does Israel hope to achieve this time, nearly 20 years after its last failed ground offensive in Lebanon? And how should we understand its adversary, a political party that also functions as a fighting force, a historical movement, and a regional power? Richard Hames is joined by Elia Ayoub, a Lebanese-Palestinian researcher and writer […]

Downstream: Do We Really Need to Tax the Rich? w/ Stephanie Kelton

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 06:00:05 +0000

Stephanie Kelton is an author and economist, and subject of the new film ‘Finding The Money’. Her work as a proponent of Modern Monetary Theory and as an advisor to Bernie Sanders has put her front and center of the debate around government debt, taxation and the potential green industrial revolution. She sat down for […]

ACFM Trip 46: Death

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 07:00:32 +0000

Of all the unseen forces that shape human society, could death be the most powerful? The ACFM crew take a leftwing look at mortality in this Trip, asking how capitalism has altered our approach to the inevitable. Jem, Nadia and Keir think about how industrialised workers were taught to prepare for death, why powerful men […]

Novara FM: When Does A Crowd Become A Mob? w/ Dan Hancox

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 14:31:53 +0000

The English language is full of pejoratives for large groups of people: mob mentality. Herd behaviour. Crowd contagion. Much of this apprehension stems from one of the most influential works of psychology ever written, Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. Unfortunately, Le Bon’s big idea – that crowds produce derangement […]

Downstream: Everything You Need to Know About China & Xi Jinping w/ Olivia Cheung

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:50:52 +0000

Xi Jinping is possibly the most powerful person in the world, but what do we know about his origins, ways of thinking and goals for China and the human race in general? To answer these questions and more, Aaron is joined by Olivia Cheung, author of “The Political Thought of Xi Jinping”. They discuss his […]

Novara FM: How the British State Is Trying to Crush the Palestine Movement

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 15:09:40 +0000

The Palestine solidarity movement is the largest movement in British politics for a century. Yet has been vilified and policed as if it were a tiny group of extremists. In this investigative episode of Novara FM, series producer Richard Hames is joined by Simon Childs, commissioning editor at Novara Media, to expose the authoritarian turn […]

Downstream: India Was the Epicentre of the Ancient World w/ William Dalrymple

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:41:22 +0000

Novara FM: Our New Cyberboss Overlords w/ Craig Gent

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 10:10:18 +0000

How can we resist exploitation when the boss has been replaced by a computer? That’s the premise of Cyberboss, a new book by Craig Gent, North of England editor for Novara Media, which explains how “algorithmic management” is being rolled out in the workplace, starting with Amazon packers, Deliveroo drivers and online supermarket shoppers. He […]

Downstream: The UK’s Landowning Elite Are Destroying the Countryside w/ Guy Shrubsole

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:22:10 +0000

Guy Shrubsole is an author and campaigner whose new book The Lie of the Land seeks to expose the history of the British elite’s relationship to the land they own and debunk the myths that they perpetuate. He sat down with Aaron to talk about grouse moors, planning permission and exactly what we should do about […]

Downstream: This Is the Reality for Palestinian Christians w/ Dr. Munther Isaac

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:21:59 +0000

Dr. Munther Isaac is the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, serving a community of Christians that dates back to the time of Jesus. He joins Ash to discuss Israel’s continuing annexation of the West Bank, the role of Christian Zionists, and the origins of western hypocrisy.

ACFM Microdose: The Joy Of Fascism

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 09:00:44 +0000

A month after racist riots engulfed the country, the ACFM crew ask what fascism – and antifascism – look like in Britain today. Do the riots and counter-protests mark a return to “street politics”? Why didn’t the Labour party align itself with opponents of the pogroms? And how popular are extreme rightwing views among Britain’s frustrated […]

Novara FM: Mourn the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living w/ Sarah Jaffe

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:55:08 +0000

“Don’t mourn, organise” were the final words of American labour activist Joe Hill before his execution in 1915. But sometimes our feelings of grief don’t lend themselves to good organising – sometimes we might just want revenge. In her forthcoming book, critic and journalist Sarah Jaffe looks at the many kinds of grief that shape our […]

Downstream: We Have Enabled Putin w/ Anne Appelbaum

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 12:20:16 +0000

Political scientists agree that we are now living in a “multipolar” world, with power contested by multiple states and blocs. But how we arrived at this formation, and whether the newly powerful actors on the global stage are inherently problematic, remain areas of disagreement. Someone with has a distinct perspective on this new world order […]

Novara FM: Motherhood In and Against the State w/ Helen Charman

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 14:28:46 +0000

Motherhood was once at the centre of the feminist movement’s demands, from campaigns for reproductive rights to the mobilisation of anti-nuclear mums at Greenham Common. But in the 21st century, the politicisation of mothering seems to have shrunk in its ambition. In her new book Mother State: A Political History of Motherhood, literary scholar and […]

ACFM Trip 45: Holidays

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 07:00:55 +0000

Everybody hates a tourist, as Jarvis Cocker once pointed out, and the ACFM gang are no exception in this ACFM Trip exploring the allure of holidays. Keir, Jem and Nadia consider all the different ways we avoid work, from holy days and vay-cays to grand tours and gap yahs. Does travel make fools of us all, or […]

Novara FM: Clean Energy Is Already Terraforming the Earth w/ Thea Riofrancos

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 12:33:06 +0000

In 2019, mines expelled 100 billion tonnes of solid waste. Vast and destructive almost beyond imagination, mining is nevertheless essential to the green transition: without the minerals that we pull from the Earth, we cannot wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Thea Riofrancos is associate professor of political science at Providence College and an expert on […]

Downstream: Is Humanity Really Heading for Population Collapse?! w/ Paul Morland

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 16:13:41 +0000

During 1960s, fears of planetary ‘overpopulation’ became widespread. And yet, in more recent years, an altogether different worry has emerged: future population decline. Fertility rates have fallen for decades – and in some places centuries – as humans live in cities, gender equality improves and access to birth control becomes widespread. But, according to some, […]

Novara FM: Fear and Loathing in Silicon Valley w/ Malcolm Harris

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 11:16:55 +0000

People walk around San Francisco in Make America Great Again hats. Major CEOs endorse Trump. JD Vance is a hit among the crypto whales. So what? It’s part, perhaps, of a cultural change in Silicon Valley: a swing decisively to the right in a state famed for its contributions to radical politics, from the Black […]

Downstream: Can The Green Party Keep Winning? w/ Carla Denyer

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 19:59:54 +0000

The Green Party of England and Wales now has four MPs in Parliament, and even more impressively has doubled its vote share to 7%, coming second in 39 other seats. So what happens now? How will the Greens exercise their new agency in government, and how can they navigate a biased media landscape and increase […]

ACFM Trip 44: Humility

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 07:00:12 +0000

What happens when you lose? In this Trip, the ACFM crew explore the role of humility – and humiliation – in politics. Should we cultivate humility to cope with political weakness? Is fear of humiliation a product of patriarchy? Can humility help us be better political thinkers and organisers? And who’s the humblest ACFM host of them […]

Downstream: Arab Jews, The Hidden History w/ Avi Shlaim

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 12:19:40 +0000

A foundational principle of the state of Israel is that it keeps Jews safe. This principle has been profoundly challenged in the last nine or so months. But what if Israel never really had the will or capacity to keep all Jews safe and, in fact, has made them less safe? Avi Shlaim is a […]

Pro Revolution Soccer 2.6: The Misfit Visionaries Who Invented Modern Football

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:44:36 +0000

It’s part of the national myth: the English invented football and to England it will return (next time!). But if football is part of what makes England England, it’s equally part of the story of how Europe became Europe. In this Pro Revolution Soccer season finale, Tom Williams and Juliet Jacques tell this story of […]

Downstream: Party Politics is Broken w/ Jeremy Corbyn

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 13:06:13 +0000

Jeremy Corbyn was a Labour MP for almost four decades – and led the party at two general elections. This year however, and despite still being a party member, Corbyn was blocked from standing again in his seat of Islington North. As soon as Rishi Sunak declared a snap general election, and the Labour leadership […]

Novara FM: Macron’s Own Goal w/ Olly Haynes

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 12:29:41 +0000

The French left have played a blinder. Or, at least, the centre-right chaos agent and French President Emmanuel Macron has played it for them. Macron called snap elections, hoping to crush both the left and right. He failed. Instead, the far right briefly surged, coming top in the first round before a newly cohesive French […]

Pro Revolution Soccer 2.5: Can Football Be Part of Political Resistance?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 07:00:14 +0000

Tom and Juliet expose the surprisingly rich history of football as a wing of political resistance, from Algeria to Palestine to the growing power of the grassroots game in Britain. They also process England’s shock win against Switzerland, TV pundits’ criticism of Southgate, and the silence around Cristiano Ronaldo. Music by Matt Huxley. Help us […]

ACFM Microdose: Election ’24 Vibecheck

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 10:01:06 +0000

The ACFM crew offer their first reactions to Labour’s landslide election win. Can Starmer’s government rescue the public sector? Where will the money come from? And can they make it to a second term? Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. Help us build people-powered media: […]

Downstream: Here’s How America Really Runs Britain w/ Angus Hanton

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 09:18:40 +0000

The United States’ impact on British culture and foreign policy is obvious. But its influence on our domestic politics, business, and daily lives warrants closer examination. To discuss this, Aaron is joined by Angus Hanton, author of ‘Vassal State: How America Runs Britain’.

Novara FM: Britain is Broken. Can Anyone Fix It? w/ Dom Davies

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 10:33:07 +0000

Asked in a recent poll to summarise Britain in a word, ‘broken’ was the people’s top choice. This brokenness is concrete stuff: crumbling bridges, sewage-filled rivers, failing computer systems, cancelled rail projects. But it’s also bundled with the collective stories we tell about what it means to be a nation, and who belongs in it. […]

Pro Revolution Soccer 2.4: In the Iron Grip of the Big Five

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 10:14:46 +0000

Tom and Juliet are joined by Keir Milburn to take the long view on the Premier League. Juliet explains how ’80s hooliganism and stadium disasters led to the formation of a new top flight, boosted by Rupert Murdoch’s TV empire and resulting in the iron grip of the Big Five clubs today. Are we stuck […]

Downstream: This Is How Propaganda Actually Works w/ Matt Kennard

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 13:51:49 +0000

If you want to understand how power works in our society, you can’t just examine what journalists say – you have to pay attention to what they’re silent about. To discuss the world of corporate media, secret intelligence services and the problem with liberal think tanks, Ash is joined by Matt Kennard, head of investigations […]

Novara FM: Britain At A Crossroads w/ James Butler

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 16:56:05 +0000

This time next week, Keir Starmer will likely be settling into No 10 with a thumping majority. Yet Labour has largely avoided the question of what they’re going to do with all that power once they get it, and the political media has barely posed the question. Meanwhile the Conservative party as we know it […]

Pro Revolution Soccer 2.3: Who Runs Football? w/ David Goldblatt

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 12:32:57 +0000

This week Tom and Juliet are joined by David Goldblatt, author of The Ball Is Round, to answer a seemingly simple question: who runs football? David explains why billionaires and foreign investors love sinking their money into football, and what accusations of “sportswashing” leave out. Plus, we talk about what’s going on with Southgate’s strategy. […]

Downstream: The Israel Lobby Is Real. Here’s Exactly How It Works w/ Illan Pappé

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 06:30:55 +0000

If you mention the Israel lobby in the mainstream media then, more often than not, you’ll face accusations of antisemitism. There are of course people who talk about the Israel lobby in antisemitic terms, but that doesn’t undermine the fact that it exists, and has existed for well over a century. This week’s guest is […]

Downstream: ‘We Have to Vote Labour’ w/ Mick Lynch

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:02:03 +0000

Mick Lynch is the General Secretary of the RMT. He joined Ash Sarkar to discuss leveraging Keir Starmer, the importance of council housing and why it’s vital that people vote for the Labour Party.

Downstream: The Tories Are Done and They Won’t Be Coming Back w/ Peter Oborne

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 14:38:11 +0000

Former chief political correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and self proclaimed conservative, Peter Oborne, speaks to Aaron Bastani about the collapse of the conservative party. Support Novara Media: https://novara.media/support

Novara FM: How Labour’s Left-Wing Firebrands Fought Back w/ Andy Beckett

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 10:14:58 +0000

It’s easy to think that the Labour left is gone for good. But it’s not so certain. From the 80s to the 10s, the Labour left endured almost three decades of isolation and exile. The difference this time is that their ideas are still popular. Will they be back once more, or have they now […]

Novara FM: Where Will Labour Invade This Time? w/ David Wearing

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:48:46 +0000

Was the Iraq War the exception or the rule? Throughout the twentieth century, Labour governments have been involved in some of Britain’s most disastrous colonial acts: the partition of India, the counter-insurgency in Malaya, and the Nakba. So, what can we expect this time? Eleanor Penny asks David Wearing, author of AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth […]

Pro Revolution Soccer 2.2: Can Football Explain the Far-Right Resurgence in Europe?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 14:47:51 +0000

As Euro 2024 gets underway, election results show a surge of support for the far-right across Europe. Can football help us make sense of it? This week on Pro Revolution Soccer, Juliet Jacques and Tom Williams look at the connections between football and fascism, and explain how the same forces that allowed a tiny elite […]

Novara FM: Whatever Happened to the Israeli Left? w/ Noam Shuster-Eliassi and Haggai Matar

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:59:55 +0000

What’s it like to be left-wing in an aspiring ethnostate? Israel has swung hard to the right in the last few decades, with self-described fascists now in government. But a left remains, calling not just for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, but for the end to the apartheid regime as a whole. What […]

Pro Revolution Soccer 2.1: Euro 2024 Reboot

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:27:30 +0000

Novara Media’s football podcast returns for another crack at the silverware! Every Wednesday until the Euro 2024 final, Juliet Jacques and Tom Williams provide political and tactical analysis of the tournament in an episode of two halves. This week: the strange spectacle of politicians pretending to like football, the changing status of women and LGBT+ […]

ACFM Microdose: Notes on Camp

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 07:00:38 +0000

After investigating the politics of cool on the last Trip episode, the crew turn their attention to another distinctly modern sensibility: camp. Digging into Susan Sontag’s formative 1964 essay on the camp aesthetic, Nadia, Keir and Jem think about how elements of the artificial, the theatrical and the sentimental come together in camp objects, from […]

Downstream: Everything You’re Told About Green Capitalism is Wrong w/ Brett Christophers

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 09:39:01 +0000

Renewable energy technology is only getting cheaper. And yet it hasn’t increased its share of the energy mix for two decades. So what explains this paradox: cheap green energy with incredibly slow adoption? According to Brett Christophers, there is a straightforward explanation for this seeming paradox: the capitalist need for profits. And green energy projects […]

Novara FM: The Right Is Getting Real On Climate. Can We? w/ Ajay Singh Chaudhary

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 30 May 2024 14:54:39 +0000

The right have ditched climate denial and found something worse. They’re doubling down on the exhaustion of people and planet alike, making us run ever-faster just to stay in place. Can we turn our collective exhaustion into a climate politics of rest and recuperation? That’s the urgent question Ajay Singh Chaudhary asks in The Exhausted of […]

Downstream: Is India Really a Democracy? w/ Alpa Shah

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 27 May 2024 09:42:37 +0000

The Indian election will be one of the largest the world has ever seen, with almost 1 billion people eligible to vote. It’s often said that India is the world’s biggest democracy. But what if that isn’t quite true? What if Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister for the last decade, has undermined the very building […]

ACFM Trip 43: Cool

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 26 May 2024 07:00:17 +0000

What exactly is cool? Well, if it was that easy to describe, it obviously wouldn’t be cool. In this Trip, Keir, Jem and Nadia wonder if cool can ever be politically useful, and what happens when cool is used as a disciplining force. With ideas from Pierre Bourdieu, Norman Mailer and Paul Gilroy, and music […]

Novara FM: How Trans Misogyny Works w/ Jules Gill-Peterson

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 23 May 2024 09:54:39 +0000

The difference between sex and gender is fundamental to how we talk about trans people. But what if it obscures the richness of life outside of gender norms? There is so much more to gender non-conforming people than this academic, middle-class, distinction – so says Jules Gill-Peterson, a historian at Johns Hopkins University and the author […]

Novara Live: Rishi Sunak Announces July General Election

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 23 May 2024 06:30:18 +0000

In the pouring rain and 20 points behind in the polls, Rishi Sunak has announced that a UK general election will take place on 4 July. Michael Walker and Moya Lothian-McLean report. Plus: Ireland, Spain and Norway have announced their intention to recognise Palestine as a state. Follow our election coverage on Novara Live every […]

Downstream: The Truth About Incels w/ William Costello

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 20 May 2024 10:34:51 +0000

The involuntary celibate community (aka ‘incels’) are often thought to be rightwing, white supremacist, and prone to violence. But how much of that is true? Ash Sarkar is joined by William Costello – a researcher whose work focuses on the psychology of incels – to discuss what we get wrong about incels, what incels get […]

Novara FM: Living Through the Chinese Miracle w/ Yuan Yang

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 16 May 2024 11:38:05 +0000

No country has ever changed so fast as China. From the west, we see only the dazzling headline figures – 15% growth in some years. But it’s on the ground, in the huge shifts in the patterns of daily life, where the story comes alive. Journalist Yuan Yang’s first book Private Revolutions provides just that insight, […]

Downstream: Individualism is Destroying Our Freedom w/ Grace Blakeley

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 13 May 2024 09:49:59 +0000

Common sense tells us that free-market economies maximise freedom and that planned economies, typically found under socialist governments, curtail it. But what if this is completely the wrong way around? On this episode of Downstream, Aaron is joined by economist and author Grace Blakeley to discuss Henry Ford, Boeing and the nature of democracy. You […]

Novara FM: Know Your Enemies w/ Matthew Sitman & Sam Adler-Bell

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 10 May 2024 12:03:28 +0000

George Bernard Shaw once joked that the US and the UK are “two countries divided by a common language.” Can the same be said of their conservatives? As we brace for a joint election year, Eleanor Penny talks to Sam Adler-Bell and Matthew Sitman, two expert guides to US conservatism via their podcast Know Your […]

Downstream: George Galloway’s Plan to Destroy the Labour Party

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 05 May 2024 17:44:32 +0000

George Galloway has been elected as a member of parliament for four separate constituencies – with only Winston Churchill beating him. Perhaps more remarkably still, he won on three of those occasions while not being a member of a major political party. Most recently, he became the MP for Rochdale in the north of England. […]

ACFM Microdose: Reactionary Democracy w/ Aaron Winter & Aurelien Mondon

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 05 May 2024 05:00:56 +0000

How do mainstream politicians and pundits contribute to the normalisation of far-right ideas, even as they claim to reject racism and populism? That’s one of many vital questions asked by Aaron Winter and Aurelien Mondon in their book, Reactionary Democracy. Following ACFM’s recent Trip about Fascism, Keir and Jem speak to Aaron and Aurelien about […]

Novara FM: Your Neighbour Kills Puppies w/ Tom Harris

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 02 May 2024 13:59:22 +0000

In the ’00s, animal rights protestors nearly won their battle to ban vivisection in the UK, shutting down multiple breeding farms that were supplying laboratories with cats, dogs and guinea pigs. But at the last moment, the government made a dramatic U-turn, blocking their attempt to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences and throwing activists in […]

Downstream: How Austerity Harms Britain’s Most Vulnerable Children w/ Teresa Thornhill

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:40:08 +0000

Teresa Thornhill is an author and former child protection lawyer. Throughout her long career, working for both local authorities and advocating on behalf of parents, she has been a first hand witness to how the system fails parents, social workers and, most importantly, children. Teresa sat down with Aaron to talk about the untrained volunteers […]

Novara FM: Read Some Effing Jameson! w/ Sianne Ngai and Matthew Beaumont

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 14:10:10 +0000

The exhortation to “read some effing Orwell!” is an old chestnut of the online left, whether ironic or sincere, or somewhere in between. But if we’re looking for a writer whose body of work truly anticipates the world we live in now – globalised, postcolonial, postmodern – we might instead turn to the American Marxist […]

Downstream: This Is How Israel Controls Palestinians w/ Eyal Weizman

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 09:59:18 +0000

It’s not what you know; it’s what you can prove. For years, Forensic Architecture has exposed state crimes against civilians, nature, and humanity. This week on Downstream, Ash Sarkar meets its director Eyal Weizman to discuss Israel’s settler colonial project, the police killing of Mark Duggan, and how the testimony of blindfolded torture victims helped […]

ACFM Trip 42: Fascism

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 08:00:09 +0000

A lot of people are saying that fascism is on the rise. But what are we pointing to when we call a system, or a person, fascist? On this Trip, Nadia, Keir and Jem map out a complicated ideology, from its roots in 19th century industrialisation to its resurgence in ethnonationalism and eco-apartheid. Exploring how […]

Novara FM: London’s Endless Appetite w/ Jonathan Nunn and Amardeep Singh Dhillon

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 12:41:28 +0000

London is a foodie metropolis: undoubtedly one of the best places to eat in the world. But eating in London is also, like everything else in the city, shaped by its history as the capital of a globe-spanning empire. How did the contraction of this formal empire change infamously terrible British cuisine? How did multiculturalism […]

Novara FM: Colonial Capitalism Has Made Us Sick w/ Rupa Marya & Raj Patel

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:09:54 +0000

Centuries of colonial capitalism have reordered life on the planet and inside our bodies, from industrial farming and the uneven advances of modern medicine, to night shifts, chronic stress and inflammation. Has the system made us sick? That’s the concern of Rupa Marya and Raj Patel, who join Eleanor Penny to talk about the history […]

Downstream: Israelis Want Genocide w/ Abby Martin

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 08:34:11 +0000

Abby Martin is an American journalist and activist, host of the interview series The Empire Files, and a co-founder of the citizen journalism website Media Roots. She joins Ash Sarkar to discuss her political journey after 9/11, working for the state broadcaster Russia Today, how Israelis really talk about Palestinians, and why she believes the […]

Novara FM: What’s Really Causing the Housing Crisis? w/ Nick Bano

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:32:05 +0000

Why is it so expensive to rent in the UK? In a divisive new book, barrister Nick Bano places the blame squarely on price-gouging landlords, rejecting the conventional wisdom that calls for more new housing as a solution to the crisis. He goes head to head with Novara Live’s Michael Walker to explain the thinking […]

Downstream IRL: This Ideology Threatens Our Fundamental Freedoms w/ Judith Butler

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 13:16:29 +0000

For a special edition of Downstream IRL, Ash Sarkar is joined by philosopher, author, and one of the world’s most cited academics, Judith Butler. Their new book, ‘Who’s Afraid of Gender’ charts how a transphobic moral panic morphed into an all-our war on so-called ‘gender ideology’. Together, Ash and Judith explore how Britain became TERF […]

Downstream: We Are Getting Foreign Policy Very Wrong w/ Steve Coll

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 11:57:24 +0000

With hindsight, the wars waged by the US and Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq look like terrible failures, both strategically and politically: the Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, and living standards are worse in Iraq than they were before Saddam Hussein. In his new book The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States […]

Novara FM: Critical Theorists Hate This One Weird Trick w/ Anna Kornbluh

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000

We’re living in a world of hurry and shortcuts, of intimacy on tap and just-in-time production. Immediacy, according to Anna Kornbluh, is the link between flow-states and Fleabag, between food delivery apps and a mistrust of political systems. She joins Richard Hames to explain the thinking behind her new book – Immediacy: Or, The Style […]

Downstream: On Gaza, Grammar Schools and British War Crimes w/ Peter Hitchens

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:39:23 +0000

Peter Hitchens is an author and journalist whose contrarian takes on drug policy, education and foreign policy have found him occupying a singular place in the British media – with his brand of conservatism often angering audiences who would consider themselves staunchly conservative. He sat down with Aaron to discuss grammar schools, Gaza and Britain’s […]

ACFM Trip 41: Trust Your Gut

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 08:30:27 +0000

From fecal transplants to the yoghurt-industrial complex, we’ve never been more absorbed in the workings of our gut. But can we trust it? Nadia, Jem and Keir investigate the mysterious connections between mind and body, reason and instinct. How did capitalism separate our minds from our bodies? Is a belief in intuition filling the gap […]

Novara FM: The Untold Histories of Black Gay Britain w/ Jason Okundaye

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 13:40:41 +0000

Researching Black British history “often feels like a rescue effort, a race against time,” writes Jason Okundaye. In his first book, he narrates the mingled histories of seven astonishing lives in the Black gay community of South London during the 1980s. The narrative he pieces together from oral history, archival research and even gossip (a […]

Downstream: Retired Major-General on Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan w/ Charlie Herbert

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:10:30 +0000

Major General Charlie Herbert has stood out in recent months for his vociferous condemnation of Israel’s war on Palestinians. His media appearances have proven vital in synthesising a moral and strategic critique of war in which civilians are treated in a manner he characterises as unprecedented. He sat down with Ash to talk about serving […]

Novara FM: Not Westminster’s Whipping Boys w/ Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 11:55:04 +0000

Less than 20% of the promised levelling-up projects for England have been completed. The problem lies not only with the current government, but with the whole way the UK’s political system is set up, with its whips and Lords and not a constitution in sight. So say Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, the mayors of […]

Downstream: Britain’s Economy Will Only Get Worse Forever w/ Gary Stevenson

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:47:19 +0000

Gary Stevenson went from being Citibank’s most profitable trader to one of the world’s most incisive critics of the financial system. Gary sat down with Aaron to discuss the lightbulb moment that led him away from trading, why economists can’t predict anything and why the UK middle class is doomed.

Novara FM: Russia After Navalny w/ Tony Wood

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:33:19 +0000

As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, the question of what Russia is really thinking remains as crucial, and mysterious, as ever. To paint a picture of the current political climate, Richard Hames talks to Tony Wood, author of Russia Without Putin and an assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado […]

Downstream IRL: We Are in a New Cold War w/ Yanis Varoufakis

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:20:58 +0000

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and author who served as Greek Finance Minister in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crash. Since then, he has become one of the most sought after public speakers on the left. He joined Aaron Bastani for an IRL edition of Downstream at EartH in Hackney, North-East London to […]

ACFM Microdose: Aliens On Screen

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 08:00:32 +0000

Last time on ACFM, the gang explored the impact of UFOs on politics, from deep-state conspiracies to the Posadists. But to really understand how aliens influence our thought – and what our belief in E.T. says about ourselves – we have to go to the movies. In this Microdose, Keir, Jem and Nadia sweep through a […]

Novara FM: The Nasty Noughties w/ Owen Hatherley & Ash Sarkar

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 12:00:25 +0000

The 2000s in Britain was a decade of education, regeneration, falling inequality and Dizzee Rascal. But beneath the fleeting prosperity lurked a culture of cruelty. It was palpable in politicians’ disdain for single mothers, in the media’s vilification of chavs, and in TV producers’ obsession with pointing and laughing at just about everyone – but don’t […]

The US Must Stop Funding Israel | Bernie Sanders meets Ash Sarkar

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 12:13:14 +0000

Bernie Sanders needs no introduction. Ash caught up with the senator to talk about his new book ‘It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism’, the speed of political change and whether what is happening in Gaza constitutes a genocide.

Downstream: Israel Will Never Be Safe While Occupying Palestine w/ Yousef Alhelou

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:39:40 +0000

Yousef Alhelou has spent the four or so months since October 7th covering the Israeli assault on Gaza through his Instagram account. In that time, his audience has grown by hundreds of thousands. Aaron sat down with Yousef to talk about international law, the genocide in Gaza and Britain’s complicity in it.

Novara FM: Can International Law Protect Gaza? w/ Rob Knox

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:16:20 +0000

As Israel extends its bombardment of Gaza into Rafah – a supposed safe zone where 1.7 million Palestinians are seeking refuge – the limits of the “laws” of war seem horribly apparent. Following South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ last month, legal scholar Rob Knox joins Eleanor Penny to offer an urgent account of […]

Novara FM: How To Be Honest About Empire w/ Sathnam Sanghera

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 15:03:29 +0000

Certain historians and politicians like to claim that the British Empire was “on balance” a good thing. Slavery was evil, they admit, but abolition was good. Racism was wrong, but free markets are desirable. In his new book Empireworld, journalist and historian Sathnam Sanghera rejects this “balance sheet” reading of history in order to wrestle […]

Downstream: Why No One Should Have More Than £10 Million w/ Ingrid Robeyns

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 15:12:55 +0000

Should there be a cap on how much wealth one person can have? If we’re serious about tackling poverty, the answer can only be yes, says Ingrid Robeyns, author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Robeyns tells Ash Sarkar what a wealth cap could do for the world, how the global north is living […]

ACFM Trip 40: UFOs

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 13:25:23 +0000

Should the left care about the existence of aliens? The ACFM gang explore the impact of UFOs on political thought in this Trip. Keir, Jem and Nadia discuss the connections between UFO conspiracies and right-wing thought, why some communists think aliens will bring about world revolution, and whether Fermi’s paradox means we’re not alone, with […]

Downstream: Would the World Be Better Without Religion? w/ Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:11:37 +0000

Twenty years ago, it was taken for granted that on average, people globally were shrugging off the shackles of organised religion. The world was destined for secularism. But with demographics trends in many countries pointing towards a growing religious population and with secular liberal politics failing to offer solace from falling living standards, we should […]

Novara FM: Who Dares To Rewrite 40,000 Years of History? w/ David Wengrow

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 12:24:48 +0000

This episode was first released in November 2021. In the bestselling book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, archaeologist David Wengrow and the late anthropologist David Graeber offer a radically different story of our social evolution. Drawing on groundbreaking research gathered over a decade of collaboration, the book challenges just about everything […]

Downstream: Everything You Know About The Global Economy is Wrong w/ Philip Pilkington

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 12:29:11 +0000

We are in a drastically different world from the one most of us grew up in. This has been proven by the rapid escalation in the events in the Middle East over the last six weeks. No longer are we in a world where, essentially, the US run the show. And this has huge global […]

ACFM Microdose: Plugged-in Protest w/ Jeremy Gilbert

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 08:00:36 +0000

Music has the uncanny power to stir up big feelings, which makes it an obvious vehicle for political statements of hope, anger, despair, or how to cast your vote. In this Microdose episode to accompany ACFM’s recent Trip on Protest, Jem takes us through 60 years of plugged-in protest music – no strumming folkies or […]

Novara FM: The Novels That Inspired Class War w/ Mark Steven

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 08:50:35 +0000

What role does literature play in revolution? If the question seems bizarre to you and the answer obvious, you’re not alone. Yet some of the most important revolutionaries in history have turned to literature in times of crisis. Mao Zedong started writing poetry during the Chinese Red Army’s retreat, adopting traditional Chinese forms to do […]

Downstream: We Are in the Post-Climate Change World w/ Gaia Vince

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 17:50:22 +0000

Discussion of climate change mainly focuses on mitigating rising temperatures, de-carbonising and getting to ‘net zero’. Author and broadcaster Gaia Vince argues that we also need to focus on how we’ll deal with with’s already happening and about to get much much worse: huge swathes of the planet becoming uninhabitable and 2 billion people needing […]

Novara FM: Escaping the Tourism Trap w/ Dean MacCannell

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 15:49:51 +0000

January is historically the busiest month of the year for holiday bookings. But if you’ve ever felt uncomfortable with the idea of being a tourist, you’re not the first. Back in 1976, anthropologist Dean MacCannell theorised both our drive to see the world and its manipulation by capitalism in his book The Tourist: A New […]

Downstream: White Holes and Radical Politics w/ Carlo Rovelli

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 09:00:20 +0000

From his radical youth in 1970s Italy to his research as one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli is as comfortable talking politics as he is explaining quantum theory. He sat down with Aaron to talk about the future of Europe, his theory of white holes, and why we’re not actually living in […]

Novara FM: The People Vs Football w/ Juliet Jacques & Tom Williams

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 12:30:43 +0000

Is football the place for political struggle? Is there a limit to the success of fan-owned clubs? How disappointed can we be when pundits and players turn out not to be comrades? Cultural critic Juliet Jacques and Pro Revolution Soccer host Tom Williams unite for a conversation inspired by Mickaël Correia’s book, The People’s History […]

Downstream: 2023 Year in Review

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 08:00:53 +0000

For this end-of-year edition of Downstream, the Novara Media team look back on the biggest stories of the year. Ash Sarkar is joined by Moya Lothian-McLean, Michael Walker and Owen Jones to talk about the Labour Party, the climate crisis, the rise of AI and the war on Gaza. From clouds brightening to prospects dimming, […]

ACFM Microdose: A Festive 50 For 2023

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:00:31 +0000

The ACFM gang get together for the last time this year to deliver a Festive 50. Keir, Jem and Nadia select the best bits of culture and politics from 2023, from music, films, books to games, strikes and actions. Unwrap to find sci-fi blaxploitation, comedy history, gobby glam-punk, Judge Dredd analysis, a fresh angle on Silicon […]

Novara FM: It’s A Wonderful Life w/ James Butler

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:16:39 +0000

Released in 1946, Frank Capra’s fable of Christmas despair in small town America has become – rather improbably – a staple of festive television. Starring Jimmy Stewart as virtuous everyman George Bailey, It’s A Wonderful Life is not just a feelgood tale of moral redemption, but a clue to the shifting social terrain of post-war America. Is […]

Downstream: The Plan To Privatise Everything w/ Brett Christophers

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 12:05:43 +0000

Asset management companies like Blackrock, Vanguard and Macquarie have avoided real scrutiny for decades, but their secretive activities are starting to attract attention from political researchers and academics. What do these companies do, and what risk do they pose to society? Author and academic Brett Christophers sets out to answer this question in his new […]

ACFM Trip 39: Protest

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 08:00:57 +0000

Millions have protested against the bombing of Gaza by taking part in marches, boycotts, sit-ins and other demonstrations. But what difference does it make, either to the world or to ourselves? The gang confront a contentious topic in this Trip. Do “A to B” marches ever achieve anything? What about joining hands around an RAF […]

Novara FM: Palestine 2048 w/ Basma Ghalayini

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 14:51:56 +0000

Science fiction isn’t a mode usually associated with Palestinian literature, perhaps because dreams of the future seem like a luxury when you can barely hold onto your past, or even present. In 2019, translator and editor Basma Ghalayini asked 12 Palestinian authors to imagine their world in 2048 – a century after the Nakba that […]

Downstream: This Damage Cannot Be Reversed w/ Daniel Levy

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 10:19:10 +0000

Daniel Levy has had a front row seat at some of the most consequential peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine in the last two decades, as president of the U.S./Middle East Peace Project and as an adviser to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. He sat down with Ash Sarkar to talk about the failure […]

Novara Live Extra: Israel’s Illegal War w/ Norman Finkelstein

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 12:58:20 +0000

On Novara Live this week, Michael Walker spoke to renowned political scientist and activist Norman Finkelstein about Israel’s assault on Gaza and the collapse of the ceasefire. In this extended interview, they discuss the relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah, the use of human shields, and whether US pressure can restrain Israel’s “high-tech massacre”. Subscribe to […]

Downstream: We Don’t Understand History w/ Blindboy

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 10:58:07 +0000

Blindboy Boatclub is the Irish broadcaster, author and musician behind The Blindboy Podcast, a massively popular podcast mixing short fiction, comedy and interviews. His new short story collection, Topographia Hibernica, is inspired by the human, animal and emotional geography of Ireland. Blindboy sat down with Ash for a freewheeling discussion about everything from Eminem’s ’90s […]

Novara FM: Fascism Is Not The Exception w/ Alberto Toscano

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 12:46:22 +0000

In recent years we’ve spent a lot of time arguing about fascism – what it means, what it looks like, and how we would know if it had returned. That typically brings us back to the European fascism of ’30s and ’40s, with its uniforms, symbols, marches and camps. But the philosopher Alberto Toscano, currently teaching […]

Downstream: The History of Israel’s War on Palestine w/ Rashid Khalidi

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 19:26:01 +0000

To really understand what’s going in Israel, you need to get your history straight. Rashid Khalidi is one of the foremost historians of the Middle East and the author of several books on the region’s history, including The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine. On the day of the ceasefire in Gaza, he guides Ash through […]

Novara FM: New Cities, Old Scams w/ Quinn Slobodian

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 12:46:14 +0000

Business is booming for architects and property investors right now, with masterplans being unveiled for dozens of new cities around the world. The hi-tech promise of NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s proposed new desert metropolis, is only the most discussed of these visions – others are being drawn up in Indonesia, China and Senegal. What sets these […]

Downstream: Does the Labour Party Care About Palestine? w/ Zarah Sultana

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 13:18:49 +0000

Zarah Sultana is one of the youngest MPs in Parliament and has faced intense hostility from the right of the Labour Party since Keir Starmer’s ascent to leader. The MP for Coventry South sat down with Ash Sarkar to talk about the reality of being a Muslim woman in the Labour Party, her interactions with […]

Novara FM: Why Posh People Have Bad Taste w/ Nathalie Olah

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 18:03:49 +0000

Dolly Parton was right, as usual, when she revealed that “it costs a lot of money to look this cheap”. But who decided rhinestones were tacky in the first place? Style is a matter of taste, yet taste itself is a a matter of money, morality and identity, as the writer and critic Nathalie Olah […]

Downstream: The Future of Money w/ Brett Scott

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 12:22:34 +0000

We’re heading towards a cashless society. With the dominion of Visa and Mastercard showing no sign of shrinking, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to scrutinise what this shift towards virtual money really means. Brett Scott is an author and former banker who is deeply committed to evaluating the dangers of removing cash as a payment system. […]

Novara FM: Engine of Immortality w/ Jeff Jarvis

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 17:16:53 +0000

For 500 years, societies have been shaped by the authority and permanence of the printed word. What do we have to lose – or gain – when the internet renders print culture obsolete? Jeff Jarvis thinks we should look to the early print era, when Johannes Gutenberg’s invention caused a moral panic across Europe, for clues […]

Downstream: We Must Get Ready For An Emergency w/ Slavoj Žižek

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 13:13:23 +0000

Slavoj Žižek is perhaps the most famous living Marxist philosopher. This year he will publish three books on topics ranging from the nature of freedom to his deeply pessimistic view of the future. Slavoj sat down with Aaron for a typically provocative, freewheeling and humorous conversation spanning ideas from Stalinism to Zionism to Eurocentrism. He […]

ACFM Trip 38: Movement and Stillness

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 05 Nov 2023 08:30:30 +0000

Ever feel like there’s too much change these days? Don’t worry, you’re not (necessarily) becoming more conservative. On this Trip, Nadia, Jem and Keir think about the ebb and flow of political currents, social movements and our inner lives. What’s the difference between being still and being stuck? When does a campaign turn into a […]

Novara FM: In Search of Red Africa w/ Kevin Okoth

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:37:24 +0000

In the second half of the 20th century, revolutionaries across Africa were striving towards a decolonised future that never fully materialised. Folding together Marxism and Black radicalism, the global project of Third Worldism envisaged complete liberation, not only from colonial powers but from every kind of oppression. Kevin Okoth, a political theorist who grew up […]

Downstream: How Protest Movements Fall Apart w/ Vincent Bevins

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:13:49 +0000

The 2010s were a time of mass protest, from the Arab Spring uprisings to Occupy Wall Street, Euromaidan and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. Many of these movements shared a ‘horizontalist’ or leaderless approach, and most of them ended in failure. Why? American journalist Vincent Bevins talks to Ash about the pitfalls of protest and what […]

Novara FM: Emergency Brake! On The Road With Just Stop Oil

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:42:23 +0000

Just Stop Oil is a group focused on climate change. So what were they doing blocking the path of a coachload of migrants last week? It all has to do with the effects of a warming world and predictions about the displacement of millions of people. In this episode, Richard Hames follows JSO activists as […]

Downstream: Philosophy’s Biggest Pessimist w/ John Gray

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 11:50:18 +0000

John Gray’s writing on political philosophy is not easily pigeonholed. Over the last half century he has explored ideas that span the whole political spectrum, and pissed off just about everybody with his central thesis that growth and progress are not inevitable. In his latest book, The New Leviathans, his attention turns to the changing […]

Novara FM: Truth That Only Fiction Reveals w/ Pankaj Mishra

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:09:24 +0000

After 9/11, the writer and essayist Pankaj Mishra found himself losing faith in journalism’s ability to convey the complexity and nuance of the situation. Much of what he knew of the world, he realised, from history to political psychology, had originally been gleaned from fiction. Since then, Mishra has published several novels – including last year’s Run […]

Downstream: The Left Is Traumatised w/ Gary Younge

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 12:48:13 +0000

From his early career following Nelson Mandela on the campaign trail to his stint as US correspondent for the Guardian, Gary Younge has long been one of the most thoughtful and compassionate voices on the British left. He joins Ash Sarkar to discuss his eventful career in journalism, his experiences of reporting in Soviet Russia, […]

Novara FM: Crossing the Class Divide w/ Lynsey Hanley

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 12:41:43 +0000

Born and raised on an ‘overspill’ estate in Birmingham, the writer Lynsey Hanley has experienced what a politician would call social mobility. In her books on housing estates and the British class system, she uses her own life to think through the psychosocial dimensions of crossing the class divide. In the third episode of our […]

Downstream: Europe Is Over w/ Yanis Varoufakis

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 09:31:36 +0000

In his new book, ‘Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism’, Yanis Varoufakis explores how giant tech firms, both in the US and China are expanding their control over the planet. His analysis is that, whilst material resources certainly matter, the real battle ground is over digital real estate. Aaron sat down with Yanis to talk about how […]

Novara FM: Trillions of Tiny Flying Particles w/ Jay Owens

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 11:53:28 +0000

Last month it was revealed that 98% of Europeans are breathing toxic air. We’re slowly realising that the modern world is covered in the dust of environmental devastation, from particle air pollution to nuclear fallout and dried-up lakes. And as life on Earth gets hotter and drier, it’s going to get even dustier. As Jay […]

Downstream: Into The Mirror World w/ Naomi Klein

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 20:30:24 +0000

When we were in lockdown, conspiracy theorists went on the march. The emergence of anti-vaccine scaremongering coupled with virulent antisemitism was disconcerting for all of us. But it was even more nuts for renowned journalist and author Naomi Klein, who noticed that she was being constantly getting mixed up with another author: Naomi Wolf. Klein […]

Novara FM: The Other Enlightenment w/ Kenan Malik

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:30:35 +0000

For the second episode of our series on class, writer and broadcaster Kenan Malik takes us through three centuries of thought to explain the origins of identity politics. It all starts with Haitian Revolution and its contribution to the radical Enlightenment – a movement that sought to overcome the racism inherent in the other, liberal […]

Downstream: Big Pharma’s Secrets w/ Nick Dearden

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 12:49:24 +0000

Nick Dearden has been an economic justice campaigner for over 20 years, and his attention was on the pharmaceutical industry when Covid-19 hit. But as the world began to sing the praises of pharmaceutical companies, Nick saw an unprecedented PR coup. Giant corporations capitalised on the crisis, tightening their stranglehold over the health of the […]

Novara FM: Is It Time For Post-Doom Politics? w/ Jem Bendell

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 12:18:53 +0000

The politics of ‘deep adaptation’ is as intriguing as it is controversial. Jem Bendell, a former professor of sustainability leadership, launched the Deep Adaptation movement in 2018 by claiming that social collapse is not just a plausible outcome of climate change, but an extremely likely one. He sat down with Richard Hames in Berlin to […]

Downstream: Empire, Austerity and Why Corbyn Was Right About Iraq w/ Rory Stewart

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 12:11:28 +0000

Rory Stewart has led a colourful life: diplomat in Indonesia, governor in post-invasion Iraq, founder of an NGO and a Member of Parliament. He’s also run for London Mayor and leader of the Conservative Party. But his latest occupation is podcaster, hosting ‘The Rest is Politics’ with Alastair Campbell. Rory sat down with Ash Sarkar […]

Novara FM: What Does Class Mean Now?

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 07:21:24 +0000

We’re going back to basics on Novara FM this autumn with a series about the big one: class. What does it mean to look at the world through the lens of class in the 2020s, an era of precarious work, rising inequality and elusive social mobility? Three classy thinkers join FM to investigate: political researcher […]

Downstream: Here’s How Power Really Works w/ Grace Blakeley

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 11:57:07 +0000

Most people know that the game is rigged. Those who set the rules – win the game. Grace Blakeley has made a career of studying the rules, exposing the exploitative ways in which powerful institutions govern our lives and figuring out ways in which we can beat the banker and resist the game itself. Grace […]

Downstream: Oligarchs Are Ruining This Country w/ Sam Bright

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 15:53:48 +0000

Who exactly is the ruling class? The conspicuous top hat and tailed Bullingdon Club still exert dominance, but their era is waning. There are new folks in town. They can’t beat the obscene wealth of petrostate oligarchs, so they’ve joined them in ransacking the country. Ash is joined by Sam Bright, author of Bullingdon Club […]

ACFM Trip 36: Festivals

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 07:00:44 +0000

Festivals. The perfect embodiment of the ACFM aesthetic, and even social politics… or are they? As the season comes to a close, Nadia, Jem and Keir ask themselves what festivals are really about. Is it music? Camping? The breakdown of everyday hierachies? Or is it just 20,000 people standing in a field? With help from […]

Novara FM: Will We Still Be Mad After Capitalism? w/ Micha Frazer-Carroll

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 13:34:39 +0000

Mental illness is endemic to life under capitalism, yet it’s still largely talked about as a personal and medical issue. But what if we ditched the campaigns to “raise awareness” and instead turned our attention to criticising the systems that make us mad? Micha Frazer-Carroll is a journalist and the author of Mad World: The […]

Novara FM: The Art of the Psyop w/ Trevor Paglen

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 16:56:40 +0000

We live in exciting times for ufology. We’re also coming to realise that many of the modern-day myths around visiting spacecraft were in fact planted by our own intelligence services. But how to tell fact from fiction? Trevor Paglen is an American artist known for investigating the invisible through the visible. His practice has taken […]

Novara FM: The Oxygen of Democracy w/ Amy Goodman

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 09:43:16 +0000

“Democratic media is the oxygen of democracy.” That’s the maxim that motivates Amy Goodman, award-winning American journalist and longtime host of Democracy Now!, the daily news show that has blazed a trail for alternative media in its nearly three decades on air. Whether reporting on East Timor’s independence movement or following the pipeline protests at […]

Downstream: A History of Sex Scandals w/ Steven Methven

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:05:42 +0000

The media and the public seem to be fixated on sex scandals this year, from household names in the headlines to salacious rumours spread on social media. But haven’t we always been intrigued by the private lives of those in power? Ash Sarkar is joined by Novara Live researcher Steven Methven to delve into the […]

ACFM Trip 35: The Internet

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 09:00:44 +0000

In this bumper Trip, the gang survey the totalising modern phenomenon that is The Internet. Nadia, Keir and Jem dredge up their early interactions with a primitive web and explain how the dream of free and open communication was displaced by closed networks of e-commerce and data harvesting. Following Keir’s recent Microdose episode with Malcolm […]

ACFM Microdose: Californian Capitalism w/ Malcolm Harris

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:39:08 +0000

Ahead of an ACFM Trip about the internet, Keir Milburn is joined by Malcolm Harris to talk about the unique political history of his hometown of Palo Alto, the intellectual laboratory for a century of American hegemony. The Kids These Days author tells a story that connects the founding of California, the violent removal of its […]

Downstream: Social Mobility Is A Lie w/ Dan Evans

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 17:18:47 +0000

Has the left misunderstood the state of our nation? Sociologist and trade unionist Dan Evans thinks so. He talks to Aaron about the unexpected power of the petty bourgeoisie – the insecure class between the working class and the bourgeoisie – and how its Thatcherite values of home ownership and entrepreneurialism have reshaped British politics in the last […]

Novara FM: The Empty Promise of Ethical Meat w/ Amber Husain

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 10:04:40 +0000

The global meat industry has grown fivefold since the 1960s and is still growing. Yet sales of vegan and so-called ‘plant-based’ alternatives are soaring, as more of us question our relationship with meat and our attitudes towards animal life and the planet’s health. In her provocative new book Meat Love, writer Amber Husain plucks examples […]

Downstream: Going Undercover With Extremists w/ Julia Ebner

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:43:14 +0000

Since 2016 we’ve seen mainstream politics take a turn for the weird, epitomised by the surprise success of populist projects like Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Since then, fringe views have continued to muscle into the middle ground, with conspiracy theories and far-right talking points trickling into political discourse. Julia Ebner has been […]

Novara FM: We Were Promised Robot Butlers w/ Helen Hester & Nick Srnicek

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 07:49:41 +0000

Once upon a time we dreamed of a world free from household drudgery, helped by robot butlers, self-cleaning appliances and “smart” homes that saved energy and tidied after themselves. Yet despite decades of high-tech innovation in the home, we’ve barely reduced our workload – and no one’s managed to automate the folding of laundry. So why […]

Downstream: What Have We Got Wrong About Antiracism? w/ Arun Kundnani

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:57:40 +0000

After the summer of 2020, the liberal consensus was that in order to tackle racism, white people would have to look inside themselves and ‘do the work’. In 2023, this idea has spread from well-meaning allies on Twitter to the HR departments of corporate behemoths – all while the institutions that consolidate and expand systemic […]

Novara FM: Revenge of the Commoners w/ Jon Moses

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 09:05:50 +0000

Several years ago, Jon Moses realised that the stunning nature he could see from his house in rural Herefordshire was inaccessible to him. From the nearby riverbanks to the local oak woodlands, the countryside revealed itself to be a private fortress. Now, as an organiser of the Right To Roam campaign, he’s leading the call […]

Downstream: Is It Time for a Universal Basic Income? w/ Will Stronge

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 08:52:33 +0000

Most people’s lives are defined by the exchange of labour for a wage. But what if the state gave us all a regular wage, with zero strings attached, to spend as we wish? That’s the core idea behind universal basic income, or UBI. With England’s first UBI pilot programme now underway, Aaron talks to Will […]

Downstream: Leaving London’s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community w/ Izzy Posen

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 12:04:47 +0000

Izzy Posen grew up in London’s Hasidic Jewish community in Stamford Hill, receiving the bare minimum of secular education in a school that still practiced corporal punishment. Even with the strictures of this insular community, he developed an acute curiosity about the world, resulting in him teaching himself English and eventually leaving the community to […]

Downstream: Can The Green Party Transform British Politics? w/ Zack Polanski

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 16:48:23 +0000

The Green Party of England and Wales has made extraordinary gains in the last two decades, especially in the last round of local elections. As well as its one MP – Caroline Lucas – the Greens are also the biggest party on several councils and have a majority on Mid Suffolk District Council. Aaron is […]

ACFM Trip 34: The Outdoors

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 08:00:03 +0000

As the longest day arrives in the northern hemisphere, Jeremy, Nadia and Keir ponder our obsession with the great outdoors. How did parks become political? Why do we seek out the strenuous discomforts of hiking, camping and cold water? And what does Jem have against music festivals? They look back on a century of changing […]

Downstream: How To Predict the Future w/ Peter Turchin

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 09:38:06 +0000

History is not just one thing after another. Historians spend lifetimes figuring out how X event in medieval France impacted Y event in 20th century Polynesia, but none of them have truly ‘done the math’ like this week’s guest. Coming from a background in applied mathematics, Peter Turchin has gathered an unprecedented amount of historical […]

Novara FM: Let’s Go Outside

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 15:42:01 +0000

There are few ideas for addressing climate change more alluring than rewilding: the idea that nature, gently supported at first and then left more or less alone, might be able to heal itself and save us from our planetary woes at once. But even in such verdant visions of the future, the old question of […]

Downstream: The British Media Is Broken w/ Moya Lothian-McLean & Michael Walker

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 15:05:03 +0000

For a Downstream family special, Ash Sarkar is joined by Moya Lothian-McLean and Michael Walker – both contributing editors at Novara Media – to discuss their lives as journalists, the combustion of media companies Vice and gal-dem, the scandal surrounding Nick Cohen, and why Novara is taking on the mainstream media in the UK.

Novara FM: Wave of Automation w/ Aaron Benanev

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 08:42:35 +0000

We’re living through a rapid acceleration in AI capability, a development that feels as scary as it is stunning. At the end of 2020, James Butler was joined by writer and researcher Aaron Benanev, author of Automation and the Future of Work, to talk about the current wave of automation in the context of a long […]

Novara FM: The Mute Compulsion of Capitalism w/ Søren Mau

webmaster@novaramedia.com (Novara Media) — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 14:53:44 +0000

Capitalism’s power over us can feel mysterious, abstract. Not only is it baffling that a system rocked by crises can be so robust, but the terms used to describe it in Marxism can also be convoluted. Søren Mau, a young communist philosopher from Denmark, has set out to solve both problems: cutting a clean path […]