Bungacast

Latest Episodes:

/565/ New Right Modernizers? ft. Orlando Lima [in Portuguese] Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

On Brazil and national reconstruction.

In our first ever episode in Portuguese, Alex speaks to Orlando Lima (editor of Valete, in-house magazine of new right-wing party, Missão) about the party and how Orlando came to be a "right-wing Zizekian".

Video with English subtitles and AI dubbing available at YouTube

Are left and right still meaningful identifiers?
Is Brazil actually "pre-modern"? What does modernization entail?
What is patrimonialism and how can it ever be good?
How can a War on Crime not lead to repression and gangsterism?
What about inequality?
How is Missão similar or different to radical-right parties in Europe or North America?

Links:

Can Anyone Save Brazil, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd
The Duck-Billed Platypus, Chico de Oliveira, NLR
The Brazilianization of the World, Alex Hochuli, American Affairs
Valete magazine
/461/ Welcome to the World of the Right ft. Michael C. Williams
/532/ Is This a Paleocon Foreign Policy? ft. JF Drolet

/564/ The Wealth of Those with No Wealth ft. Joscha Abels Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

On infrastructure – who owns and who controls it.

Scholar Joscha Abels talks to Lee and Alex about global infrastructure, from satellites to cloud computing to undersea cables.

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What, actually, is infrastructure
How has public versus private provision of infrastructure changed?
How much do tech oligarchs actually control the infrastructure we depend upon?
Are we leaving neoliberalism behind? Have state and corporations fused into one?
How vulnerable is global infrastructure to sabotage?

/563/ Kingly Contradictions in Morocco ft. Merouan Mekouar Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

On migration, monarchy, and legitimacy.

Merouan Mekouar, professor of development studies at York University in Toronto, gives Alex and Lee an in-depth view of a country at the centre of multiple tendencies.

–> Subscribe for more like this, at patreon.com/bungacast

What actually happened with the stream of migrants at the Moroccan border with Ceuta (Spain)?
How much of a pressure valve does outward migration provide in Morocco?
What does Moroccan neoliberalism look like? What is elite cooptation?
How has Morocco avoided mass protest ,and what does the monarchy's legitimacy rest on?
How it Morocco pursuing "polyalignment", between China, US, EU...?
What's up with the massive infrastructure push ahead of the 2030 World Cup which Morocco will co-host?

Links:

Beyond the Model Reform Image: Morocco’s Politics of Elite Co-Optation, Merouan Mekouar, GIGA
Doing Research as a Native: A Guide for Fieldwork in Illiberal and Non-Democratic States, Kira D. Jumet and Merouan Mekouar (eds), OUP

/562/ No More Populist Shortcuts? ft. Daniel Tutt & C. Derick Varn Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

On dead ends and new beginnings.

Socialist writers, teachers and podcasters, Daniel Tutt and C. Derick Varn, talk to Alex and George about their pamphlet, The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism, which came out this year.

Is left populism not dead and buried?
What's wrong with trying to unite people against the elite?
What is the 'populist method' of class analysis?
Are professionals and managers a class, and are its interests always opposed to the working class?
Where did post-Marxists go wrong?

Links:

The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism, Revol Press, 2026
Varn Vlog
Emancipations podcast

/561/ Who Actually Rules Brazil? ft. Juliano Fiori Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

On sovereignty and Brazil's election.

Juliano Fiori, Alameda Institute director, talks to Alex about Lula versus (Flávio) Bolsonaro through the lens of internal and external threats to sovereignty.

Is this an election about nothing? What is at stake?
How did the Left reappropriate the defence of Brazilian interests?
What's behind US interference in Brazil? Is it economic or political?
How does the state reflect social fragmentation?
Does Brazilian territory suffer from a deficit or an excess of sovereignty?

For the full episode, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast

Links:

Sovereigns of Brazil, Juliano Fiori, Alameda
Soberanos de um Brasil fragmentado, Juliano Fiori, piauí
At the UN, Brazil's Lula warns against foreign interference in upcoming election, Reuters

Nowhere Everywhere? Place in a Digital World. Part four. Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

A docu-series from Bungacast.

This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century.

In part four, we finish off by digging into New York itself to look at the great contradictions of modernism. We conclude by asking what the capital of the 21st century is, and who, if anyone, is planning it.

This fourth episode features:

Catherine Liu, Professor of Film & Media Studies, UC Irvine
Damage summit participants
Nick Burns, writer, editor
Miodrag Mitrašinović, Professor of Urbanism and Architecture, The New School

This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

Nowhere Everywhere? Place in a Digital World. Part three. Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

A docu-series from Bungacast.

This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century.

In part three, we explore the political economy of place: what produces the city, and what the city produces. We also ask whether place-based cultural scenes are still possible.

This third episode features:

Christie Offenbacher, psychologist
Greg Gabrellas, psychiatrist
Damage summit participants
Pierre d'Alancaisez, critic and curator
Matthew Gasda, playwright

This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

Nowhere Everywhere? Place in a Digital World. Part two. Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

A docu-series from Bungacast.

This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century.

In part two, we explore "non-places", and ask whether their proliferation presents a challenge to the development of democratic politics. We also inquire into junk spaces and hyper-places. And ask what kind of politics and ideologies a digital life throws up.

This second episode features:

Amber Trotter, psychologist
Damage Summit participants
Alex Gendler, writer
Joshua Citarella, artist, writer, host, Doomscroll

This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

Nowhere Everywhere? Place in a Digital World. Part one. Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

A docu-series from Bungacast.

This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. Over this multi-part documentary, we examine public space and non-places; privatisation, gentrification and digitalisation; the role of rent and of local scenes. The ultimate question is, is politics possible without a sense of place?

This first episode features:

Richard J Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures, University of Edinburgh
Miodrag Mitrašinović, Professor of Urbanism and Architecture, The New School

This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

/560/ Indonesia's Putin ft. Vedi Hadiz Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

On oligarchy and the end of reform.

Vedi Hadiz is back on to talk to Lee and Alex about Indonesia, amidst severe economic instability in the country.