Jacobin Radio

Nicholas Mulder, economic historian of sanctions; Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, policy expert on Gulf economics; and Aslı Bâli, international law scholar. They probe economic warfare around the US‑Israeli conflict with Iran. They trace sanctions historically, analyze choke points like Hormuz, discuss asymmetric tactics, countermeasures such as de‑dollarization, and the geopolitical and humanitarian fallout.

Hilary Goodfriend, a UNAM postdoctoral researcher who writes on Salvadoran politics, unpacks Nayib Bukele’s rise. She discusses mass arrests and the state of exception. She explores Bukele’s economic plans like Bitcoin City and prison labor. She connects US ties, deportations, and regional hard-right trends.

Nancy Fraser, feminist philosopher and critical theorist, outlines the three faces of labor and argues for a class politics that centers race and gender. Natalie Moore, Chicago journalist, recounts federal layoffs hitting Black women and the struggle to translate public-sector skills. They discuss hidden reproductive labor, racialized job restructuring, and building cross-movement solidarity.

Made Supriyatma, researcher on Indonesian politics and civil-military relations, and Rihanna Subianto, communication scholar of Indonesian left history, trace centuries of Dutch corporate and state domination. They discuss VOC brutality, monopoly spice wars, cultivation systems, plantation and oil expansion, racial legal hierarchies, and the bureaucratic roots of Indonesian nationalism.

Jason Brownlee, professor of government at UT Austin and scholar of regime change, discusses U.S.-Iran tensions. They examine the shaky justifications for the attack and why regime-change aims trump security claims. Conversation covers how U.S. pressure drives Iranian militarization, historical failures of imposed leadership, and why fragmenting Iran risks chaos rather than control.

Kevan Harris, UCLA historical sociologist and Iran expert, maps Iran’s protest cycles and political economy. He unpacks sanctions-driven industrial decline, the IRGC’s corrupt empire, and how repression reshaped dissent. He warns bombing will not spark revolution and outlines regional escalation risks while urging urgent anti-war organizing.

Nikhil Pal Singh, historian and NYU professor who directs a prison education program, explores how the Trump regime fuses foreign and domestic policy into a unified model of coercion. He examines spectacle, racial and nativist imagery, mass deportation plans, expanded detention and paramilitary policing, and how settler fantasies shape aggression abroad and at home.

Afshin Matin-Asgari, a Middle East history professor and author on Iran–US relations, joins to unpack the recent US–Israeli war on Iran. He traces how the campaign breaks historical patterns. He describes civilian devastation, information blackouts, leadership turmoil, diaspora politics, and competing war aims. The conversation probes what survival or collapse would mean for Iran and global consequences.

Yassamine Mather, Iranian socialist activist and scholar who chairs Hands Off the People of Iran, speaks from contacts inside the country. She describes relentless bombings, hospital hits, internet blackouts, and conflicting media narratives. She discusses shifting public reactions, the impact of Khamenei’s death on IRGC behavior, Netanyahu’s aims, regional fallout, and a new solidarity initiative called NUR.

Salar Mohandesi, teacher and writer on emancipatory politics and red internationalism, and Ben Mabee, organizer and labor and imperialism analyst, discuss U.S. imperialism, shifting war-making tactics, and why strong anti-war sentiment has not produced mass movements. They cover historical roots, state complexity, offshoring violence to proxies, and strategies for rebuilding anti-imperial leverage.