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Novara Media

Novara Medianovaramedia.com
Novara Media is an independent media organisation addressing the issues—from a crisis of capitalism to racism and climate change—that are set to define the 21st century.

Episodes

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

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 […]

Apr 03, 202556 min

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

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 […]

Mar 31, 20252 hr 37 min

ACFM Trip 50: Fifty Shades of Acid

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 […]

Mar 30, 20252 hr 38 min

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

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 […]

Mar 27, 20251 hr 16 min

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

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. […]

Mar 24, 20252 hr 26 min

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

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 […]

Mar 20, 20251 hr 7 min

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

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 […]

Mar 17, 20252 hr 34 min

Novara FM: The Absurdity of Rearmament w/ Khem Rogaly

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 […]

Mar 11, 20251 hr 18 min

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

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 […]

Mar 11, 20251 hr 29 min

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

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 […]

Mar 09, 20251 hr 10 min

Novara FM: Did Pandemics Make the Modern World?

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 […]

Mar 06, 20251 hr

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

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 […]

Mar 03, 20252 hr 51 min

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

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 […]

Feb 27, 202556 min

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

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 […]

Feb 24, 20252 hr 37 min

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

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 […]

Feb 21, 20252 hr 34 min

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

“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 […]

Feb 17, 20252 hr 41 min

Novara FM: Against Assisted Dying w/ Ellen Clifford

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 […]

Feb 13, 20252 hr 36 min

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

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 […]

Feb 10, 20251 hr 10 min

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

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 […]

Feb 03, 20251 hr 10 min

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

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 […]

Feb 02, 20251 hr 9 min

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

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 […]

Jan 27, 20252 hr 36 min

ACFM Trip 49: Debt

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 […]

Jan 26, 20252 hr 52 min

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

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 […]

Jan 23, 20251 hr 14 min

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

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 […]

Jan 21, 20251 hr 23 min

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

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 […]

Jan 16, 20252 hr 30 min

ACFM Microdose: The Communist Manifesto

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 […]

Jan 03, 20252 hr 32 min

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

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, […]

Jan 02, 20251 hr 13 min

Novara FM: Love Actually w/ Nathalie Olah

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 […]

Dec 24, 202458 min