Neoliberalism’s victory over Keynesianism wasn’t an intellectual revolution — it was a class offensive. Vivek Chibber unpacks how employers and political elites turned economic turmoil into an opportunity to reshape society on their terms. The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com Con...
Nov 05, 2025•39 min
Jacob Silverman, author of Gilded Rage , examines the rightward move of the Silicon Valley elite. Forrest Hylton conducts a political tour d’horizon of South America. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global....
Nov 03, 2025•53 min
We’re joined again today by Eoghan Gilmartin to continue our discussion about the government of Pedro Sanchez in Spain. Eoghan is an Irish journalist based in Madrid, a regular contributor to Jacobin , and co-host of the Sobremesa podcast about Spanish politics. In contrast with Greece and Portugal, Spain still has a government today headed by the center left. The Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has attracted a lot of interest from the international media for appearing to buck the trend a...
Oct 31, 2025•1 hr 12 min
Featuring Walden Bello and Jane Nalunga on neoliberalism’s defeat of Third Worldist radical projects and the Global South social movement and civil society networks that rose from the ashes to take on neoliberal globalization. A wide-ranging interview with two important, long-standing Global South leaders. Call in to leave a question for The Dig ’s mailbag episode: speakpipe.com/ListenerMailbag Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Dan in the New Yorker newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/03/daniel-d...
Oct 29, 2025•2 hr 9 min
Margaux MacColl, co-author of a series of articles in the SF Standard , discusses Zoomer tech bros. Susannah Glickman, who wrote a recent piece for the New York Review of Books , looks at the new arms makers who want to disrupt the legacy prime contractors. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global....
Oct 27, 2025•53 min
Featuring Alexandra Wandel, Gonzalo Berrón, and Paul Adlerstein on the 1999 mass protest against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and on the giant global justice movement that mobilized unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest advocates, and various radical leftists all over the world. Recorded live in Brussels with the European Trade Justice Coalition. First in a two-part series. Next up: a view from the Global South with Jane Nalunga and Walden Bello. Call in to leave a quest...
Oct 23, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Grab your coffee and your backpack — it's time for Professor Chibber's Office Hours! On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek answers YOUR questions. We received so many interesting and thoughtful emails from listeners, we decided to dedicate a whole podcast to them. Vivek talks about how socialists should confront discrimination in their organizing, the relevance of the concept of monopoly capitalism, and the class implications of home ownership. The latest issue of Catalyst is out and...
Oct 22, 2025•50 min
Suzi talks to Capital & Main reporter Jesse Baum and David Williams, a Dollar General stocker and organizer with Step Up Louisiana, about how workers are fighting for dignity and better working conditions in “right-to-work” states — places where an anti-union climate, legal roadblocks, and intimidation make winning union recognition nearly impossible. Dollar Store workers in Louisiana organized with Step Up Louisiana and won tangible gains despite the system being rigged against them. They u...
Oct 21, 2025•58 min
Ilan Pappé, author of Israel on the Brink , gives an update on the ceasefire and how the deepening crisis of Israeli society could lead to something better. Jennifer Berkshire examines the appalling Trump educational agenda. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global....
Oct 21, 2025•53 min
Long Reads continues our recent focus on the politics of southern European countries over the last decade. This week and in our next episode, we’re looking in detail at what’s been happening in Spain. In contrast with Greece and Portugal, Spain still has a government today headed by the center left. The Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has attracted a lot of interest from the international media for appearing to buck the trend as many European countries shift to the right. He’s been unusua...
Oct 17, 2025•41 min
Jake Werner of the Quincy Institute analyzes Trump’s creeping softness on China, and how that country sees its role in the world. Jeet Heer, author of a recent book review for the Nation , talks about the slick but odious William F. Buckley Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global....
Oct 15, 2025•53 min
Professor Tom Alter, a tenured historian at Texas State University, was recently fired for speaking at an online socialism conference. His remarks were secretly recorded and doctored by a self-proclaimed fascist influencer who launched a smear campaign. There was no due process, a blatant violation of his First Amendment and academic freedom rights. The president of Texas State University upheld the firing of Tom Alter after a court ordered his reinstatement. A broad coalition has formed to “ De...
Oct 14, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance . Balanced budget conservatism and supply side populism engineered a politics of austerity and budget deficits. Deep cuts to the social wage like welfare reform disciplined labor so severely that Fed chair Alan Greenspan opened the floodgates of easy money confident it would juice the price of assets alone. Assets like homes, the value of which spiraled ever upward until the global financial crisis. The c...
Oct 10, 2025•2 hr 18 min
In this tumultuous political era, it’s common to hear that the Left needs to rebuild its historic sources of power. But it’s more accurate to say that the Left is essentially in the process of starting over again. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , we share Vivek Chibber’s keynote address at the Jacobin conference, “Socialism in Our Time,” which marked the 15th anniversary of the magazine. He discusses how capitalism has changed since the turn of the century, how the Left has been neoli...
Oct 08, 2025•35 min
At the end of September, political theorist Ilya Matveev joined the Critique editorial board to present his ideas about imperialism in the 21st century. Suzi Weissman moderated that enlightening discussion and brings it now to Jacobin Radio . Matveev examines the emerging era of inter-imperialist rivalry and asks what’s really driving the strategies of Russia, China, and the United States. China has risen as a manufacturing superpower, with national capital tightly fused to the party-state. Russ...
Oct 07, 2025•1 hr 36 min
Erin Thompson considers the politics of public monuments as Trump talks of restoring Confederate statues. Mouin Rabbani returns for a look at Trump’s dubious Gaza peace scheme. Ted Hamm, author of Run Zohran Run! , discusses Mamdani’s campaign for NYC mayor. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global....
Oct 06, 2025•53 min
This week’s episode of Long Reads is the second in a two-part interview. In our last episode, we spoke to Catarina Príncipe about the politics of Portugal since 2015. Today we’re going to cover developments from 2022 onward. One of the main themes in that period has been the rise of the far right. In 2022, the parties of the radical left, the Communist Party and the Left Bloc, lost ground and were no longer part of the governing majority. In this year’s general election, the right-wing Chega Par...
Oct 02, 2025•54 min
Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance . Neoliberalism remade the American economy into an engine for the appreciation of assets stretching from the single-family suburban home to the stock market. This revanchist offensive sought to enforce not only the class order and fiscal rectitude but also gender, sexual, and racial hierarchies. The first in a two-part series. Call in to leave a question for The Dig’s mailbag episode: speakpipe.com/Liste...
Oct 01, 2025•1 hr 54 min
Thomas Ferguson has investigated money in politics for decades, and he has found, over and over again, that money and election outcomes are directly linked. He joins Suzi to talk about how Silicon Valley, finance, defense, and crypto have fused into what he calls “red tech.” Ferguson explains why the Democrats’ crisis isn’t about messaging — it’s about failing to deliver for working people while catering to donors. We dig into the investment theory of politics, the K-shaped recovery, crypto’s bi...
Sep 30, 2025•48 min
Mouin Rabbani explains what is behind all these fresh diplomatic recognitions of Palestine and speculates on the future of Gaza. Ernesto Semán, author of a recent piece for the New York Review of Books , looks at the Argentine situation and the US bailout of the libertarian Javier Milei. Read Mouin’s article “The Meaning of Western Recognition of Palestine” here: https://jacobin.com/2025/09/recognition-palestine-israel-genocide-zionism Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds ...
Sep 29, 2025•53 min
It’s well understood that capitalist economies are a recent development in human history. But there is persistent disagreement on the Left over exactly how and where the transition to capitalism occurred, as well as what role colonial plunder played in enriching the West. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber explains the origins of capitalism, what primitive accumulation means, and how colonialism actually affected European development. The latest issue of Catalyst is out an...
Sep 24, 2025•54 min
The Roberts Court gave Trump sweeping immunity — and he’s using it to intimidate critics, greenlight ICE’s racial profiling raids, extort universities, law firms, corporations, and foreign governments, and crack down on political speech. Pema Levy of Mother Jones joins Suzi to unpack the landmark decision in Trump v. United States, a ruling that didn’t just grant Trump protection for official acts but armed him with the ability to wield the Justice Department as a personal weapon against politic...
Sep 23, 2025•57 min
Featuring Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader on Trump’s intensification of police, ICE, and military repression. What does this all reveal about MAGA’s fascist and authoritarian project — and about the illiberalism already immanent in the US carceral and imperialist state? This is the second in a two-part series. Call in to leave a question for The Dig ’s mailbag episode: speakpipe.com/ListenerMailbag Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Visit dropsitenews.com/DIG20 for 20% off an annual Drop ...
Sep 22, 2025•1 hr 18 min
Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards , speaks about the eugenics/race science tendencies within High Church Neoliberalism. Molly White looks at stablecoins and the Trump–UAE deal. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Sep 22, 2025•53 min
Long Reads spoke to Yanis Varoufakis earlier in the year to mark the tenth anniversary of the Greek referendum on the austerity programs of the European Union. This week, we’re going to be looking at another country that bore the brunt of Euro-austerity after the 2008 crash. Ten years ago, the Portuguese Socialist leader Antonio Costa formed a government with the support of two radical-left parties, the Left Bloc and the Communist Party. Costa’s government appeared to be a success story for the ...
Sep 19, 2025•44 min
Featuring Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader on Trump’s intensification of police, ICE, and military repression. What does this all reveal about MAGA’s fascist and authoritarian project—and about the illiberalism already immanent in the US carceral and imperialist state? The first in a two-part series. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Call in to leave a question for The Dig’s mailbag episode: speakpipe.com/ListenerMailbag Get your first month free at OVID.tv using promo code DIG25 Buy Lear...
Sep 18, 2025•1 hr 58 min
Suzi talks to Sebastian Budgen in Paris about the collapse of Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government and the “Block Everything” mobilization against Macron’s austerity agenda, which brought unions, students, and grassroots activists into the streets. Another national strike is set for September 18. What makes this mobilization different — and what does the crisis mean for the Left, the far right, Macron’s presidency, and the future of the Fifth Republic? Suzi then talks to Joe Allen about h...
Sep 16, 2025•59 min
Émile Torres , who co-wrote an article with Timnit Gebru for First Monday about AI, discusses tech moguls’ dreams of transcending the merely human. Daniel Wortel-London, author of The Menace of Prosperity , looks at the fiscal history of NYC, and considers how we could do better than subsidizing the rich. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global....
Sep 15, 2025•53 min
Populism is in the air, providing unique opportunities and challenges to the Left. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism , Vivek Chibber discusses how populist sentiment — popular anger at elites and a demand for economic redress — helped socialists reinsert economics back into politics. Recent electoral victories, such as Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City Democratic primary, have shown the success of centering material demands with widespread appeal. While not populist in the classi...
Sep 10, 2025•41 min
John Roosa looks at what’s behind the riots in Indonesia. David Duhalde, author of a paper for the Rosa Luxemburg Stinting, discusses the Democratic Socialists of America in relation to its ancestor, Eugene Debs’s Socialist Party. Behind the News , hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global....
Sep 08, 2025•53 min
