Jacobin Radio

Anton Jäger joins Long Reads for a discussion about modern Belgium and its recent history. The country's image as a harmonious center of European integration, as host of the European Union and NATO, has given way to talk of outright separation between Flanders in the north, and Wallonia in the south. Anton is a Belgian historian of political thought who’s written for a number of publications, including Jacobin and New Left Review.Read his recent article "From Post-Politics to Hyper-Politics" here: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/from-post-politics-to-hyper-politicsLong Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by Features Editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.

This week, Grace and Alfie Stirling, Chief Economist of the New Economics Foundation, dissect the UK Chancellor’s spring statement. It looks set to contain very few of the measures that would be necessary to tackle the cost of living crisis, which we discussed last week with Gary Stevenson. Rishi Sunak will say there’s no money left to support people forced to choose between eating and heating—but have the Tories grossly underestimated the extent of this crisis, and will it come back to bite them?Check out NEF’s report on the subject here: https://neweconomics.org/2022/03/23-4-million-people-unable-to-afford-the-cost-of-livingA World to Win is a podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

The great Homer Simpson once said, "What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind." In that spirit, we watched Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece SOLARIS (1972), which imagines outer space as a manifestation of our inner life. PLUS: checking in on that most important issue of our time, the Oscars.Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Anthony Flaccavento, Virginia-based farmer, author, and co-founder of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, joins the Jacobin Show to discuss rural America—and why the Democrats lose so consistently in rural elections. Plus: Jacobin editor Seth Ackerman on inflation, the fed raising interest rates, and what this all means for the economy.Subscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYTMusic provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkeyThe Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from March 23, 2022.

The second of our two-part interview with sociologist Ho-fung Hung on Chinese political and economic history. This episode covers the 2008 financial crisis, how China’s response deepened global and domestic economic imbalances and (alongside the US) heightened geopolitical conflict, the current situation—including Russia’s invasion—and a lot more. Listen to part one first if you haven't already.Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Suzi talks to Russian Marxist sociologist, activist, and author Boris Kagarlitsky to get his perspective of Putin’s war from inside Russia. How does he understand Putin's surprising decision—and miscalculation—to invade Ukraine? Kagarlitsky dismisses Putin's declarations about NATO expansion and restoring the Russian Imperium, and says domestic political, economic, and social pressures were the motivating factors. Putin’s prestige and popularity have plummeted along with the prolonged decline in living standards. Kagarlitsky says Putin's hugely unpopular pension reform and other austerity measures were more about the colossal level of corruption than economic policy designed to deal with decline. Public opinion can be seen by the poor showing of Putin's party in the September 2021 election, which was marred by allegations of fraud. We also get a sense of the socio-political divide in Russia between those who support Putin and his war, and those who oppose and defy Putin. As Boris argues, Putin is losing this war, and this has multiple ramifications.

Part one of a two-part interview with sociologist Ho-fung Hung on Chinese political economic history from the 18th century to 2008: why capitalism took off in England and then elsewhere but not in China; and then, how Maoist policy laid the groundwork for China’s ultimate capitalist takeoff and boom. Episode two will focus on the 2008 financial crisis, the deepening imbalances and heightened geopolitical conflict that resulted, and the current situation—including the impact of the crises surrounding Russia’s invasion.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

To start off this week’s Jacobin Show, Jen Pan looks at the discourse around "economic anxiety" as an explanation for voters' turn to Donald Trump and other right wing politicians. Why do mainstream commentators still refuse to see that these voters are, in fact, driven by material interests and not simply "racial resentment"? Next, Jen Pan and Cale Brooks think about how the Left should understand the middle class. What are the best social theories to understand the economic position of the middle class as well as their political interests? Must the Left win over the middle class to gain real power? Finally, we turn to the legacy of Occupy Wall Street. Jen Pan sat down with Ben Fong and Christie Offenbacher to discuss their latest Catalyst article, “Occupy in Retrospect.” While it is common to hear that Occupy was the “rebirth” of Left politics that led to the Bernie Sanders campaign and the rise of DSA, Fong and Offenbacher argue that, in fact, the contemporary Left has found success insofar as it has jettisoned Occupy’s horizontalism, anti-Statism, and refusal to issue concrete policy demands. Read the piece in Catalyst: https://catalyst-journal.com/2022/03/occupy-in-retrospectSubscribe to Jacobin for just $10: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=JACOBINYTMusic provided by Zonkey: https://linktr.ee/zonkeyThe Jacobin Show, hosted by Jen Pan, offers socialist perspectives on class and capitalism in the twenty-first century, the failures of liberalism, and the prospects of rebuilding a left labor movement in the US. This is the podcast version of the show from March 16, 2022.

New show alert! This week, A World to Win is expanding and launching a new format for the podcast. In addition to our regular long-form interviews, every other week Grace will host shorter, more topical discussions with one of a regular group of guests. On this episode, it's Gary Stevenson of Gary's Economics talking about the cost of living crisis—where's it coming from, who is paying for it, and what can we do about it? Check out Gary's articles in openDemocracy, "Who should pay for the COVID crisis?" and "Following the coronavirus money trail." And his YouTube videos, "Inflation - Why We Should Have Seen This Coming" and "How COVID-19 Makes the Rich Richer." Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible. Please excuse some minor issues in our guest's sound due to a technical issue.

She's a Democrat. He's a Republican. They're speechwriters on warring campaigns... But can they fall in love??? That's the premise of the Michael Keaton/Geena Davis romcom SPEECHLESS (1994), which drew inspiration from the real-life romance between Clinton strategist James Carville and Bush advisor Mary Matalin. We discuss a movie that could only have been made in the '90s."John Cleese Had Thoughts on Slavery at SXSW and It Was Super Cringey" by James Hibberd - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/john-cleese-sxsw-panel-1235109668/"Bedfellows Make Strange Politics" by Gore Vidal - https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/18/books/bedfellows-make-strange-politics.htmlMichael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.