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 Ash Sarkar, Slobodian talks about the reasons behind the new far-right’s obsessions with collapse, race, gold, and IQ. Who are the cur...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 19 min
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 have? Michael A. McCarthy is the author of The Master’s Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It). He spoke to Eleanor Penny about how we take back control ...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 17 min
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 argued that financial institutions should not be able to escape the consequences of their recklessness. Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winning economist a...
Jun 16, 2025•56 min
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 spoke to Eleanor Penny about the history of that struggle, and how the struggle over the most basic condition of life is evolving now....
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 18 min
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 support of Israel, and what lessons can be drawn from the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Alnaouq’s book, We Are Not Numbers: The Voices of ...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 25 min
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 spoke to Matt Mahmoudi about the broken promises of big tech and war in the age of AI.
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 17 min
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, Vince has funded Just Stop Oil, become a major donor to the Labour Party, and bought Forest Green Rovers, the world’s first vegan football club. His next project? Creating...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 41 min
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 of superheroes and comic book culture. Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people-powered media – pledge your...
Jun 02, 2025•2 hr 1 min
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 to understand his influence in a renewed moment of national decline, and how his ideas poisoned the very political waters we swim in.
May 29, 2025•1 hr 13 min
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, attacks from the mainstream media, and what class politics means now. You can listen to the previous episodes in this series in this podcast feed.
May 27, 2025•1 hr 20 min
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 of the biggest protests in history, yet we’ve seen wars erupt and inequality widen. With his new book, ‘Moral Ambition’, Rutger Bregman lays out a history of how societal change actually happens...
May 26, 2025•1 hr 24 min
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 of Revolution , a book that aims both to clarify our ideas and to reignite our determination to make a fundamentally new kind of society. He spoke to Richard Hames about the...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 24 min
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. In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Haidt takes square aim at Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok, the three companies he believes are wrecking childhood. They...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 16 min
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 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 “ACF...
May 18, 2025•1 hr 50 min
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 Kashmiri scholar Mohamad Junaid about the brinkmanship of India and Pakistan, what daily life is like under endless occupation, and, of course, The British Empire...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 32 min
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 online left? In conversation with Ash Sarkar, Jimmy The Giant discusses how he escaped the alt-right pipeline, why the establishment are so afraid of Gary Stevenson and wh...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 41 min
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
May 10, 2025•1 hr 5 min
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
May 09, 2025•1 hr 9 min
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 crisis-ridden age, and the contradictions of being a gay – and socialist – convert to Catholicism.
May 08, 2025•1 hr 29 min
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, Ash Sarkar sits down for a conversation with Lamorna Ash, journalist and author of ‘Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever’. They explore whether it’s true that the younger generation i...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Aaron and Michael share their first thoughts on the 2025 local election results.
May 02, 2025•40 min
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 activists to prison. CN: This episode contains mention of suicide. For support with your mental health, contact samaritans.org. Read Clare’s story about right-wing j...
May 02, 2025•49 min
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? Final episode coming on 2 May. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Apr 29, 2025•44 min
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 abuses and pressured governments to cease committing them. On Downstream, Kenneth Roth told Ash Sarkar how human rights law actually works on the ground, and how exposure, shame, and th...
Apr 28, 2025•1 hr 9 min
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 Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people-powered media – pledge your support from as lit...
Apr 27, 2025•1 hr 43 min
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 Britain’s prisons? And what do the guards and other inmates think of Just Stop Oil activists’ crimes? Episode 3 coming on 29 April. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.m...
Apr 24, 2025•51 min
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 four ordinary young people ended up as convicted criminals, at the sharp end of the government’s crackdown on protest. Episode 2 coming on 24 April. Help us build p...
Apr 22, 2025•43 min
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 build people-powered media: http://novara.media/support
Apr 21, 2025•1 hr 14 min
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 longer. Committed begins on 22 April in this podcast feed. Help us build people-powered media: novara.media/support
Apr 18, 2025•2 min
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 he’s a “GILF”. Žižek’s new book, Zero Point, is out now on Bloomsbury. Help us build people-powered media: http://novara.media/support
Apr 16, 2025•2 hr 6 min
