Culture, Power, Politics » Podcast

Alan and Jem discuss the implication of the Green Party’s historic win in last week’s Gorton and Denton by-election. We cover the meaning of Manchester, making Britain normal and the ordinary charisma of new Green MP Hannah Spencer. Finally we ask – what are the strategic implications for the Labour left and the broader, multi-party left of a possible Green wave sweeping away a large section of the Parliamentary Labour Party? or more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.orgYou can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

This is a recording of an online seminar with philosopher Katja Diefenbach . It forms part of our ongoing series, From Marx to Spinoza: Affect, Ideology, Materiality. This is a more specialist seminar than much of what you will find in this podcast feed, so check out some of the introductory sessions in that series if this material is interesting but new to you. With respect to contemporary Marxism or Post-Marxism , Spinoza is one philosopher, infinite interpretations: Louis Althusser, Antonio Negri, Pierre Macherey, Etienne Balibar, Gilles Deleuze, and Alexandre Matheron all draw from Spinoza, but in fundamentally different ways. Althusser’s use of Spinoza to develop a theory of ideology as the imaginary representation of the relationship to their real relations is fundamentally different from Negri’s use of Spinoza to construct a theory of the multitude as the political subject, which is in turn different from Deleuze’s examination of the affective dimension of politics. Up until now no one has really examined these different interpretations in relation to each other, investigating how they emerge from tensions within Spinoza’s work. Katja Diefenbach’s Spinoza in Post-Marxist Philosophy is the first book to appear, at least in English, that examines the different and diverse strands of Spinozist Marxism, examining how they overlap and diverge from each other.  On this recording, you will also hear the voices of seminar participants John Protevi, Kimberly DeFazio and the hosts Jason Read, Andrew Goffey and Jeremy Gilbert. For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.orgYou can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

In this episode, Jeremy is joined by Dr. Jilly Kay of Loughborough University to discuss her fascinating and crucial research into new forms of reactionary feminism. Why do Catholic traditionalists and pessimistic dating-influencers all now want to call themselves ‘feminist’?  This is part 2 of 2: the start of the conversation is the previous episode in the feed.  For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.orgYou can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

In this episode, Jeremy is joined by Dr. Jilly Kay of Loughborough University to discuss her fascinating and crucial research into new forms of reactionary feminism. Why do Catholic traditionalists and pessimistic dating-influencers all now want to call themselves ‘feminist’?  This is part 1 of 2: the rest of the conversation is the next episode in the feed.  For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.orgYou can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

Jem and Alan get deep into the historical significance of Peter Mandelson, his career and his recent fall. What has the Epstein case revealed about the ideology of our ruling elites? Why did Mandelson achieve the complicated status that he did, and was his reputation ever deserved? Why did Starmer and his advisors cling to this relic of the New Labour era? With him gone, is the long ’90s finally properly over? And would we literally rather be ruled by Darth Vader than by these people? For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.orgYou can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

In this actual emergency podcast, Alan and Jem  give way to overwhelming public pressure to respond to a recent decision taken by Labour’s National Executive Committee. The NEC have voted to block popular Mayor of Manchester (and former cabinet minister and MP) Andy Burnham from even having a chance of being selected by the local party to be Labour’s candidate at a forthcoming by-election in the Manchester area. If that all sounds tediously technical, don’t worry, it is. But we also talk about why this incident, and the cancellation of upcoming local elections, is symptomatic of the increasingly entrenched and ever-more explicitly anti-democratic ideology of the managerial class, why various centrist and centre-right commentators should not be employed by nominally centre-left publications, and why maybe we should just let Wes Streeting sail the Labour ship straight into the iceberg that he’s had his gaze so firmly fixed on since he was a student. And in case you are wondering, yes we have already released a very long podcast TODAY. But this is an emergency, and our public needs us. For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.org If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

In this episode, Alan and Jem go deep and long on the concept of nationalism and its implications for UK politics, at a time when nationalist parties are making significant gains across the country. Where do ideas of nation and nationalism come from? Is the break-up of Britain inevitable or desirable? Is England an incorrigibly conservative concept? Was the British nation state a purely Fordist phenomenon? For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.org If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

Why was One Battle After Another the biggest film of 2025? What does it have to do with Zohran and Trump? How can Anna Kornbluh’s concept of ‘immediacy’, Raymond Williams’ idea ‘structures of feeling’ and Lawrence Grossberg’s analysis of Trump’s chaotic politics help us understand these signs of our times? Jem tackles all this single-handed, in under an hour. You can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics.  For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.org If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

Alan Finlayson is back to discuss with Jem the key developments in UK politics since the last time they talked about it. Covering the Labour deputy leadership, the politics of the Budget and of immigration, the origins of Britain’s bargain-hunting austerity mindset, Starmer on Tik-Tok, the Green Party surge, whether Blue Labour actually exists, whether Your Party actually wants to be a party, the glorious triumph of of Andrea Egan (new General Secretary of Unison, the country’s biggest union) and whether Britain is in fact finally entering a pre-revolutionary phase. (For people who come to this podcast for cultural studies, political philosophy and critical theory rather than straight commentary on UK politics – don’t worry, the Autumn drought is nearly over, and we will have plenty of of that coming for you very soon). You can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics.  For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.org If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf

This is actually an episode of the Compass podcast, ‘It’s Bloody Complicated’, that featured me (Jeremy Gilbert) and Alan Finlayson being interviewed by Compass director, Neal Lawson. I’ve recorded a ten-minute introduction explaining who and what Compass is. Most of the recording is an excellent discussion of the history of factionalism in the Labour Party, with particular reference to the right-wing tradition that currently dominates it. You can subscribe to this podcast in any app by searching for Culture, Power, Politics. For more information about Culture, Power, Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.org If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here. Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf