Novara Media

Since 2016 we’ve seen mainstream politics take a turn for the weird, epitomised by the surprise success of populist projects like Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Since then, fringe views have continued to muscle into the middle ground, with conspiracy theories and far-right talking points trickling into political discourse. Julia Ebner has been charting this shift through her undercover work for years, infiltrating neo-Nazis, jihadists and Covid-sceptics to find out how ideas spread, as detailed in her books Going Dark and, most recently, Going Mainstream. She joins Aaron to talk about how sceptics become extremists, the rise of Andrew Tate, and what it was like to be on the receiving end of Tommy Robinson’s hate campaign.

Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek discuss the challenges of automating care work, the changing dynamics of domestic work between genders, the privatization of social reproduction in the neoliberal era, the history of collective laundries, the concept of a post-work society, the redistribution of necessary labor, and the steps towards a post-work world.

After the summer of 2020, the liberal consensus was that in order to tackle racism, white people would have to look inside themselves and ‘do the work’. In 2023, this idea has spread from well-meaning allies on Twitter to the HR departments of corporate behemoths – all while the institutions that consolidate and expand systemic racism go largely unchecked. It’s almost as if the liberal answer to racism actively distracts from doing any real good. To discuss the evolution of antiracism, Aaron is joined by writer Arun Kundnani, author of What is Antiracism: and Why it Means Anticapitalism. They talk about the linguistic roots of racism, the misunderstood legacy of Enoch Powell, and the challenges of bringing white people into a coalition against racism.

Several years ago, Jon Moses realised that the stunning nature he could see from his house in rural Herefordshire was inaccessible to him. From the nearby riverbanks to the local oak woodlands, the countryside revealed itself to be a private fortress. Now, as an organiser of the Right To Roam campaign, he’s leading the call for free and fair access to land and water throughout England, via political advocacy and planned trespasses on private estates. Jon tells Eleanor Penny about the traumatic history that separated commoners from the land, the dangers of a rural monoculture, and why the left needs to get comfortable with ideas about place and belonging.

Most people’s lives are defined by the exchange of labour for a wage. But what if the state gave us all a regular wage, with zero strings attached, to spend as we wish? That’s the core idea behind universal basic income, or UBI. With England’s first UBI pilot programme now underway, Aaron talks to Will Stronge, director of research at the Autonomy think tank, about what UBI could achieve and how it might help us rethink the stories we tell ourselves about work.

Izzy Posen grew up in London’s Hasidic Jewish community in Stamford Hill, receiving the bare minimum of secular education in a school that still practiced corporal punishment. Even with the strictures of this insular community, he developed an acute curiosity about the world, resulting in him teaching himself English and eventually leaving the community to study physics and philosophy. Ash talks to Izzy about the history of this religious enclave, whether the state should interfere with child rearing, and the correct way to cut your nails in the eyes of the Lord.

The Green Party of England and Wales has made extraordinary gains in the last two decades, especially in the last round of local elections. As well as its one MP – Caroline Lucas – the Greens are also the biggest party on several councils and have a majority on Mid Suffolk District Council. Aaron is joined by deputy leader Zack Polanski to hear why the Greens are the only true opposition to centrism, why nuclear power is backwards and why Keir Starmer is a cynical middle manager.

As the longest day arrives in the northern hemisphere, Jeremy, Nadia and Keir ponder our obsession with the great outdoors. How did parks become political? Why do we seek out the strenuous discomforts of hiking, camping and cold water? And what does Jem have against music festivals? They look back on a century of changing attitudes to the outdoors, from radical Edwardian cyclists and the woo-woo ways of the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift to the modern obsession with lidos and wild swimming. Plus, pastoral music from Peter Gabriel, Arthur Russell and Bow Wow Wow. Books: Robert Blatchford – Merrie England / Richard King – The Lark Ascending Music: Shonen Knife – ‘Cycling Is Fun’ / Ewan McColl – ‘The Manchester Rambler’ / Peter Gabriel – ‘Solsbury Hill’ / Kate Bush – ‘Running Up That Hill’ / Vaughan Williams – ‘The Lark Ascending’ / Muckers – ‘Out Of County’ / Bow Wow Wow – ‘Wild In The Country’ / Blur – ‘Parklife’ / The Small Faces – ‘Itchycoo Park’ / Pink Floyd – ‘Grantchester Meadows’ / Arthur Russell – ‘Let’s Go Swimming’ / Mark Stewart & Maffia – ‘Jerusalem’ Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

History is not just one thing after another. Historians spend lifetimes figuring out how X event in medieval France impacted Y event in 20th century Polynesia, but none of them have truly ‘done the math’ like this week’s guest. Coming from a background in applied mathematics, Peter Turchin has gathered an unprecedented amount of historical data that he believes gives him a better chance than most of predicting how societies slide into grave crises. He’s been proven right too: in the early 2010s, he predicted that 2020 would see a global rise in instability. Aaron Bastani finds out how he did it. End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political Disintegration is available from Penguin.

There are few ideas for addressing climate change more alluring than rewilding: the idea that nature, gently supported at first and then left more or less alone, might be able to heal itself and save us from our planetary woes at once. But even in such verdant visions of the future, the old question of politics – who benefits – refuses to disappear. In the UK, rewilding has become more and more the preserve of the rich and powerful. And yet radical communitarian projects and visions remain. In this episode, Richard Hames goes in search of the rewilding’s radical promise – of a nature restored to be more than just another form of exclusion. This episode complements Aaron Bastani’s interview on Novara FM with Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese about their book Half-Earth Socialism.