Paul Rogers returns to PTO to talk about Iran's attack on Israel on the 13th of April - the first such direct operation carried out by Iran. We discussed whether the operation was a failure or a qualified success, and the role of the United States, Britain, France, and Jordan in the downing of Iranian missiles and drones. We also talked about the progress of Iran's programme and how the attacks on the 13th may have distracted attention from the IDF's failure to defeat Hamas in Gaza. Book your sp...
Apr 23, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since October 7th Israeli politicians, spokespeople, and Israel's supporters have mobilised feminist narratives in defence of the state's genocidal actions in Gaza and sought to portray Palestinian resistance to Israel as suffused with religiously inspired misogyny. In a recent article in Salvage, Sophie Lewis wrote about the way in which Zionist feminists have worked to defend the settler colonial project and how it places them in a long lineage of self-described feminists who have been enthusi...
Apr 17, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In part one of a two-part episode Richard returns to give his thoughts on an apparent turn against Israel on parts of the American right, the significance of the protests against Netanyahu within Israel, the role of students in the Palestine solidarity movement, and his view of post-Marxist thought. To get access to the full episode become a £5 PTO supporter on patreon.com/poltheoryother
Apr 11, 2024•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yanis Varoufakis joins PTO to discuss his book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. We discussed why Yanis believes capitalism is no longer the appropriate term to describe contemporary economic and social relations. We also talked about the financial crisis, the Covid19 pandemic, and how central bank responses to both crises served to build the power of the tech giants. Finally, we also briefly discussed the situation in Gaza and why Yanis believes reports of the decline of US global hegem...
Apr 04, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you'd like to hear the rest of this episode of PTO Extra! Please consider becoming a £5 supporter at patreon.com/poltheoryother Richard Seymour returns to discuss the likelihood of Israel launching its assault on Rafah (in the context of Israel's deliberate starvation of the Gazan population). We talked about the position of the United States and its recent resolution at the United Nations security council and the extent to which - if at all - it represents a shift away from unequivocal suppo...
Mar 26, 2024•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast The 1970s is often depicted straightforwardly as the moment when the radical movements of the 1960s fractured, failed, and radicalised in ways that were self-destructive. In The Subversive Seventies Michael Hardt argues that not only is that a much too simplistic understanding of the decade, but that it serves to prevent us from drawing important lessons and inspiration from the radical movements of the 1970s. We talked about popular misconceptions about the movements of the 70s, how to understa...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thirteen years have passed since the Arab Spring and the great hopes aroused in 2011 have been overwhelmed by counter-revolution and civil war. And yet, the region is anything but restabilised: Instead of the events of 2011 heralding a brief period of democratic transition akin to earlier developments in East Asia and Eastern Europe they instead, Gilbert Achcar argues, inaugurated a long-term revolutionary process, based in a deep-rooted socioeconomic crisis that is far from played out. In this ...
Mar 06, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the latest PTO Extra! Richard Seymour returns to answer your questions on the impact of the Gaza protest movement, Israel's eroding international support, what a Trump presidency might lead to in US domestic politics, and where the late Christopher Hitchens' would have positioned himself in the current conjuncture. To listen to this episode become a £5 patron at patreon.com/poltheoryother
Feb 25, 2024•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Naomi Klein joins PTO to talk about her book, 'Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World'. In the first part of our conversation we talked about why at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, parts of the anti-vaccine movement started to adopt the garb and the language of participants in struggles against racism and the historic crimes of settler colonialism. In the second part we talked about Israel and Palestine and how the notion of 'doppelganger politics' can be applied to the way Israel views...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast In today's episode of PTO Extra! Sai Englert, author of Settler Colonialism: An Introduction returns to the show to answer listeners' questions. We talked about whether Zionism is distinct from other forms of settler colonialism, how struggles against settler colonial projects can tie together with socialist demands for the democratisation of the economy, and we also discussed the ruling of the ICJ and the effort to delegitimise and destroy UNRWA, - led by Israel but aided and abetted by the Uni...
Feb 03, 2024•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Palestinian-American legal scholar Noura Erakat joins PTO to discuss South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice and the utility of international law in struggles for global justice. With its roots in providing justification for European settler colonialism in the Americas, can International law ever serve the cause of liberatory movements? Is there a danger that in winning legal victories in forums such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, that radical cau...
Jan 24, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Seymour returns to answer listeners' questions on the history of Yemen and the emergence of the Houthi militia, comparisons made between Israel's actions in Gaza and the Nazi Holocaust, and on the way in which the Trump presidency has influenced the current situation in the Middle East. Listen to the full episode by becoming a £5 patron at https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Jan 20, 2024•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Seymour on the possibility of Israel's assault on Gaza leading to broader escalation in the Middle East. We talked about the strategic calculations of Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthi militia, and Israel, the possibility of the United States increasing its involvement on Israel's side, and whether the attack on Gaza might destabilise Egypt. And finally we talked about the proceedings at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has asked the ICJ for an urgent order declaring that...
Jan 11, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Israel's assault on Gaza has led to a huge upsurge in discussion of settler colonialism and the extent to which the term accurately describes the Zionist project in Palestine. In Settler Colonialism: An Introduction, Sai Englert provides an authoritative overview of the history of settler colonialism and resistance to it, from the South African anti-Apartheid struggle to campaigns against pipeline construction in North America. In the interview we discuss the history of settler colonialism, from...
Jan 02, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Around 2010 I became somewhat obsessed with Japanese pop and ambient music of the 1980s - in particular the Yellow Magic Orchestra, the solo records of the members of the group: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi and music by Akiko Yano, Yasuaki Shimizu and Hiroshi Yoshimura amongst many others. Last year I discovered that this was an enthusiasm shared with architectural historian, and very occasional pop music writer, Owen Hartherley who has since written an article partial...
Dec 23, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard returns to answer listener's questions on the situation in Gaza, the extent to which Joe Biden's support for Israel is about electoral calculations, the anti-Deutsch tendency and the pro-Israel current on the German left, and the threat of a global war, amongst other topics. Thanks as ever for your continued support for PTO.
Dec 14, 2023•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Palestinian writer and academic Leila Farsakh joins the show to talk about the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the parallels Leila sees between the current situation and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. We also talked about the revival of the idea of the one state solution and why Leila believes a two-state resolution to the conflict is no longer feasible. In the interview we touch on Leila's article in The London Review of Books, ‘The Refugee Problem’ and on her book, 'Rethinking Statehood...
Dec 05, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Seymour responds to the arguments of Jonathan Freedland and other liberal Zionists who, despite the marginalisation of the liberal Zionist tradition within Israel itself, continue to produce talking points for supporters of Israel and the Western media in their coverage of Israel-Palestine.
Nov 28, 2023•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast A 'start-up country', the world's first 'AI superpower', an 'innovation nation', those are some of the breathless descriptions used by Israeli politicians, security officials, journalists and business leaders to hail Israel's high-tech industry and its synergy with the Israeli military. But on October 7th, Israel's obsession with what Sophia Goodfriend describes as 'techno-solutionism' came back to haunt the country as Hamas succeeded in breaching the Gaza barrier at eighty different points and ...
Nov 23, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast A 'start-up country', the world's first 'AI superpower', an 'innovation nation', those are some of the breathless descriptions used by Israeli politicians, security officials, journalists and business leaders to hail Israel's high-tech industry and its synergy with the Israeli military. But on October 7th, Israel's obsession with what Sophia Goodfriend describes as 'techno-solutionism' came back to haunt the country as Hamas succeeded in breaching the Gaza barrier at eighty different points and ...
Nov 18, 2023•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Palestinian writer Amjad Iraqi joins the show to talk about where Israel's assault on Gaza is going. We talked about Israel's professed goal to wipe out Hamas in the Gaza strip and what Israel intends to do with the territory and its population after the end of Operation Iron Swords. We also discussed how seriously to take the statements of Western governments who profess to support a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel, and we spoke about how liberal Zionism is a phenomenon that exists mo...
Nov 08, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kevin Ochieng Okoth joins PTO to discuss his new book, Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics. We talked about the concept of Afropessimism and why Kevin believes it relies on a fundamentally parochial, US-centric understanding of Blackness and we discussed how it's leading theorists mischaracterise the work of thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, to advance the idea of the impossibility of solidarity between Black and non-black people. We went on to discuss Kevin's idea of Red Africa - a...
Nov 01, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Description: Richard returns to answer questions sent in by listeners on Gaza, Israel and the broader ramifications of the ongoing crisis. Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra! - https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Oct 24, 2023•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace joins PTO to discuss the dire situation in Gaza and the West Bank, and the dramatic escalation of islamophobia and anti-Arab racism in the United States. In the second half of the episode, international security expert Paul Rogers joins the show again to talk about how Israel is likely to approach its attempt to destroy Hamas, and the risks of regional escalation. If you've been finding PTO useful please do consider becoming a supp...
Oct 17, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Seymour returns to PTO to discuss the crisis and background to the crisis in Israel-Palestine. A little over a week ago US national security advisor Jake Sullivan, speaking at the the Atlantic festival, rattled off a list of positive developments in the Middle East which he argued had allowed the Biden administration to focus on issues elsewhere in the world. Referencing the truce in Yemen, a decline in hostility in the US's relationship with Iran and what he characterised as America's s...
Oct 12, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Seymour returns to PTO to discuss the crisis and background to the crisis in Israel-Palestine. A little over a week ago US national security advisor Jake Sullivan, speaking at the the Atlantic festival, rattled off a list of positive developments in the Middle East which he argued had allowed the Biden administration to focus on issues elsewhere in the world. Referencing the truce in Yemen, a decline in hostility in the US's relationship with Iran and what he characterised as America's s...
Oct 11, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Owen Hatherley joins the show to discuss his love of 1980s Japanese pop and ambient. Although much of the episode is on the music itself, we do touch on the politics - particularly how these artists were influenced by and reacting to the culture of the 1960s New Left, during the extraordinary economic boom of the 1980s, and how some of these musicians reintegrated the memory of 20th century Japanese imperialism in Asia into their music. Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this and all oth...
Sep 26, 2023•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1999 in the wake of the Kosovo conflict Gilbert Achcar published a book titled 'The New Cold War: The World After Kosovo'. At the time, describing tensions between the United States, Russia and China in terms of "a cold war" seemed to many to be outlandish hyperbole, or very premature at best. Now, of course the use of the term to describe the global situation is increasingly commonplace, but if we are indeed in a cold war - the question arises - when did it begin? Should it be dated in Russi...
Sep 14, 2023•2 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Adam Tooze returns to PTO to respond to the many excellent questions sent in by listeners. Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to this and other episodes of PTO Extra! Go to patreon.com/poltheoryother to sign up. We talked about Perry Anderson's take on Adam's work in the New Left Review, why Adam - despite his engagement with Marxist thought and frequent appearances in left media and events - defines himself as a left liberal rather than a socialist. We also talked about his view of ...
Sep 05, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Adam Tooze returns to PTO to respond to the many excellent questions sent in by listeners. Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to this and other episodes of PTO Extra! Go to patreon.com/poltheoryother to sign up. We talked about Perry Anderson's take on Adam's work in the New Left Review, why Adam - despite his engagement with Marxist thought and frequent appearances in left media and events - defines himself as a left liberal rather than a socialist. We also talked about his view of ...
Sep 02, 2023•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
