Bungacast

Latest Episodes:

/398/ Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings (II) ft. Ashley Frawley (sample) Mar 19, 2024

Show notes

Part II of the series: on therapy and vulnerability. [Patreon Exclusive: subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Sociologist Ashley Frawley (and COO of Sublation Press) is back on the podcast to talk about her new book, Significant Emotions. What is behind the seeming rise of public emotionalism and the focus on mental health?

How was “happiness” a policy concern – and when did it disappear and why?
What’s going on with universities and their focus on the mental health of students?
Is there much emotion about, in a romantic sense of deep feeling?
Or is it emotion ersatz, instrumentalised, superficial, sentimentalised?
How does affect polarise politically Left and Right?
Can we solve the crisis of subjectivity by focusing on the self?
And who is the Big-Ass Subject?

Links:

Significant Emotions: Rhetoric and Social Problems in a Vulnerable Age, Ashley Frawley, Bloomsbury
Sublation Media
Ashley's YouTube channel

/397/ Reading Club: Imagined Communities (sample) Mar 15, 2024

Show notes

On Benedict Anderson's classic Imagined Communities. [Patreon Exclusive. Subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast] Originally published in 1983, Anderson's account of the origins of nations is one of the most cited books in English in the humanities. In what ways does this diverse and inventive book still explain the world?

How is imagined different from imaginary?
Did nations emerge first in Latin America?
Does Anderson's account of print capitalism still apply – and is it more valid than ever?
Are we really in a post-national era?
Does Anderson underestimate the political side – the project of achieving your 'own' state?

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (pdf) The Reading Club this year is dedicated to three themes: the rise and fall of nations; intellectuals and the public; Russia: past and present.

Big news: Bungacast is getting bigger, better Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

Turbulent times, ideological confusion. Politics is back, but it's stranger than ever. All the more reason for unflinching critique of the current moment. That's why Bungacast is expanding.
Regular contributors are coming on-board: Catherine Liu, Amber Frost, Alex Gourevitch, and Leigh Phillips We're partnering up with Damage Magazine There'll be many more exclusive episodes – see patreon.com/bungacast And a new Reading Club, with new themes!

/395/ A Coup From Within the Computer ft. Benjamin Studebaker (excerpt) Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

On media and the Millennial Left. [Patreon Exclusive: for full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast] Continuing the retrospective on the millennial left's failures, we invite political theorist Benjamin Studebaker back on. We discuss:

Was left-populism a media event?
Was the Millennial Left just a moment in internet history?
Having bought into the internet's possibilities, can we abandon it?
Does it make sense to speak of a "millennial" left?
Faced with so many dead ends, do we need to "go monastic"?

Links:

The Millennial Left as a Moment in Internet History, Benjamin Studebaker
Omelets with Eggshells: On the Failure of the Millennial Left, Alex Hochuli, American Affairs. Additional comments on Alex's Substack

UNLOCKED /382/ Death of the Millennial Left ft. Chris Cutrone Feb 27, 2024

Show notes

On the missed opportunity of the 2010s. Chris Cutrone of Platypus joins us to talk about his collection of essays, The Death of the Millennial Left. We discuss:

Why define it as the "Millennial" Left?
Was the anti-Stalinism of leaderless protests a good thing?
Did the talk of "winning" from 2015 onwards represent maturity?
Should the turn to a more public, statist capitalism make us more optimistic?
How will the 'lawfare' used against Trump play out?

Links:

The Millennial Left is dead, Chris Cutrone, Platypus
The Death of the Millennial Left: Interventions 2006-2022, Chris Cutrone, Sublation

/393/ Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings (I) ft. Nina Power Feb 20, 2024

Show notes

On the politics of emotions and emotionalism. Philosopher Nina Power (an editor and columnist at Compact Magazine) kicks off this series by talking to us about anger, hate, and evil.

Do we complain too little or too much? Should we be more repressed?
Political passions were meant to be dead. Has anger overtaken apathy?
Should we hate our enemies? Is that okay?
Has contemporary society become hysterical?
Why does everyone want to be a victim today? How does this relate to self-interest?
Is evil a psychological concept?

For part two, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

Links:

What Do Men Want?: Masculinity and Its Discontents, Nina Power, Penguin Books
Nina's columns at Compact Magazine
Political Ponerology, Andrew Lobaczewski, Red Pill Press (pdf)

/392/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About (II) ft. Michael Vann Feb 16, 2024

Show notes

On Indonesia's new president and the End of History. For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast Michael Vann, Indonesia expert and history professor at Sacramento State, joins us to talk through the election results.

How did Prabowo go from wannabe fascist dictator to cuddly populist grandpa?
Why is Jokowi "Indonesia's Obama"?
What is Indonesia's Trump/Hunter Biden ticket?
What's up with the $32bn new capital being built in Borneo?
What is the Museum of Anticommunism, and how successfully has Indonesia's ruling class rewritten its history?
Plus: why is metal so popular in Indonesia?

Links:

Suharto’s Old Guard Is Still Calling the Shots in Indonesia, Michael Vann, Jacobin
Shadow Puppets and Special Forces: Indonesia’s Fragile Democracy, Michael Vann, The Diplomat (on police v military clashes)
Indonesia state apparatus is preparing to throw election to a notorious massacre general, Allan Nairn, The Intercept
Prabowo's 'fashy' 2014 campaign video
Prabowo's 'cuddly' 2024 persona
/391/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About ft. Vedi Hadiz

Excerpt: /391/ Aufhebonus Bonus - Feb 2024 Feb 13, 2024

Show notes

On our '1914 vibes'. And your questions & comments. [Patreon Exclusive] We discuss the parallels between our age (the end of globalisation, the threat of war) with the end of the Belle Epoque in the early 20th century. What might Lenin have to teach us? We then turn to your questions and comments on:

Palestinians as surplus population
Peripheral countries as 'imitators'
Whether Brexit has led to greater political accountability
Why Ridley Scott sucks
Why contemporary art sucks
Bonapartism and techno-populism
Romanticising dead workers - and old social-democrats
Esoteric knowledge about how the world *really* works

Readings:

Lenin's Lesson for Western Liberals, Philip Cunliffe, UnHerd
Why the Tories Are Blowing Brexit, George Hoare, The Northern Star

/390/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About ft. Vedi Hadiz Feb 09, 2024

Show notes

On Indonesia: a country without a Left. Foremost scholar of Indonesian politics and political economy, Vedi Hadiz of the University of Melbourne, joins us to talk through the country's politics in advance of the elections next week.

What was the authoritarian order that followed the 1965 anti-communist massacres?
How did the Asian financial crisis lead towards democratisation – and how did the old oligarchy manage to retain much of its power?
How has Indonesia become "Islamified", and what is "Islamic populism"?
How do class and ethnicity/religion interact in Indonesia? Who speaks for the "downtrodden"?
Is the upcoming election a contestation between oligarchic populisms?

Links:

/121/ Those Murdering Bastards ft. Vincent Bevins, Bungacast
Marketing Morality in Indonesia's Democracy, Vedi Hadiz, East Asia Forum
The demise of the left and the Islamisation of dissent in Indonesia, Vedi Hadiz, Melbourne Asia Review (video)
Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election Could Be the Last Battle of the Titans, Carnegie Endowment
The Act of Killing, dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012

/388/ Betting on Bukele (I) ft. Nelson Rauda / Juan Rojas Feb 06, 2024

Show notes

On El Salvador and mass incarceration. Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, has just been re-elected on a landslide. His trademark policy is a state of emergency and the locking-up of tens of thousands of suspected gang members. He also made Bitcoin legal tender. What is 'Bukelismo', will it last, and will it spread? First, we talk to Nelson Rauda, an editor at investigative outlet El Faro about the mood in El Salvador, what the state of emergency has been like, who the main gangs are and whether Bukele has secretly been negotiating with them, and what opposition there is to Bukele's subversion of democracy and civil liberties. Then, Juan Rojas, Latin America columnist at Compact Magazine, joins us to discuss why such 'mano dura' (iron fist) policies have failed elsewhere but why they continue to appeal across the region – including among the poor and working class. For part two, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Readings:

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Paradise Is a Mirage, Nelson Rauda, NYT
Behind Bukele's Revolution, Juan Rojas & Geoff Shullenberger, Compact
On Security, Bukele and Petro Have a Problem in Common, Juan Rojas, Americas Quarterly
In response to killings, El Salvador’s bitcoin president attacks civil liberties, Nelson Rauda, LA Times
The Rise of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's Authoritarian President, Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker
Chaos in Ecuador, Guillaume Long, Sidecar/NLR
¡Viva la ‘eficracia’!, Martin Caparrós, El País

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