Jacobin Radio

Vivek Chibber, sociologist and editor of Catalyst, explains Soviet-style centralized planning and its limits. He contrasts market signals with top-down directives. He explores information bottlenecks, misaligned incentives, soft budgets, reform attempts, and why market socialism may avoid key failures.

Nikhil Pal Singh, NYU historian who studies Black radicalism and prisons, and Greg Grandin, Yale historian of U.S. empire and hemispheric history, discuss ruptures in U.S. imperialism. They explore Trump's shift to overseas adventurism, settler‑colonial frontiers and militarism, the domestic fallout of economic restructuring, and possibilities for building international solidarity.

Alina Shen, Organizing Director at CAV who builds tenant and youth power in NYC. Fahad Ahmed, executive director of DRUM, a grassroots organizer mobilizing low-income South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers. They discuss organizing neighbors into Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, neighborhood outreach tactics, building mass organizations, navigating power after a win, and the central contradictions around the NYPD.

Ervand Abrahamian, historian of modern Iran, offers analysis of Iran’s politics and the war. Dylan Gottlieb, historian of urban culture and author of Yuppies, traces how yuppie culture transformed New York’s finance, law, dining and politics. They discuss financialization, gentrification, U.S. policy toward Iran, regional consequences, and how elite recruitment reshaped urban power.

Denys Pilash — Ukrainian frontline editor and activist. Aleksandra Zapolskaya — Russian anti-war coordinator and exile journalist. Frieda Afary — Iranian-American socialist feminist and writer. Ashley Smith — socialist organizer focused on imperialism and labor solidarity. They debate imperial strategy, repression and propaganda, feminist and labor resistance inside Iran, linking struggles in Ukraine and Russia, and building internationalist solidarity.

Vivek Chibber, NYU sociology professor and editor of Catalyst, outlines modern models of socialism. He explores market socialism, democratic control of firms, limits on wealth and inheritance, and which sectors should be public versus market-run. He discusses planning where feasible, safeguards to prevent capitalist restoration, and how markets might coexist with democratic guarantees.

Paul Heideman, historian and author of Rogue Elephant, explains the GOP’s slide into chaos. He traces party organization, business influence, insurgencies from Gingrich to the Tea Party, and how weak U.S. party institutions let outsiders like Trump reshape power. Short, incisive takes on money, factionalized capital, and what that means for future Republican turmoil.

Ben Tarnoff, tech journalist who writes on tech, labor, and political economy, and Quinn Slobodian, historian of global political economy, unpack Elon’s world. They trace Musk’s sci‑fi branding, founder-as-king culture, and the hype that turns attention into stock value. They probe SpaceX’s bets, Neuralink’s cyborg ambitions, and how tech, state power, and memes reshape politics.

Sébastien Boudgin, senior editor at Verso and analyst of French politics, walks through recent clashes around the far right, media campaigns targeting La France Insoumise, and local anti‑fascist organizing in cities like Lyon. He breaks down municipal election mechanics, LFI’s mixed gains, legal pressures on activists, and the tactical dynamics that could shape the 2027 presidential race.

Janice Yue, a clinical occupational therapist and organizer; Sanjay Madhav, an engineering professor and former games-industry developer; and Kate Levin, a writing professor and prison-education co-director. They discuss a faculty union drive at USC, the rise of non-tenure precarity, USC’s legal attack on labor rights, and how organizing across disciplines could reshape academic labor nationwide.