Bungacast

Latest Episodes:

Excerpt: /224/ Three Articles: Labour Revolts? Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

On rising wages after the pandemic. Workers are quitting their jobs and not going back. Restricted supply is seeing wages go up. Does this signal a new militancy, or are workers just deciding to make do with less? How has the pandemic shaped people's outlooks? Articles:

Wages are surging across the rich world, The Economist
The Revolt of the American Worker, Paul Krugman, NYT
US Workers Are in a Militant Mood, Alex N. Press, Jacobin

The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

/222/ Nukes 4 Kids ft. Emmet Penney, pt. 1 Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

On the global energy crisis. Nuclear energy advocate Emmet Penney (@nukebarbarian) joins us to discuss the growing energy crunch in Europe, the US and beyond. Nuclear power is opposed by an unholy alliance of environmentalists and neoliberals - yet it seems the best solution for providing plentiful, reliable, and clean energy. As a demand, it seems an open goal for the left - so why are so many resistant? Part 2 is available here for patreon subscribers. Links & Readings:

Nuclear Barbarian - pro-nuclear podcast & newsletter
ex.haust - Emmet's other, co-hosted pod
Undeveloping America, Emmet Penney, The American Conservative
Political Life in the Lottery of Babylon, Emmet Penney, The American Conservative
How we happened to sell off our electricity, James Meek, LRB
A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, Robert Bryce, Public Affairs (book)

Excerpt: /221/ Reading Club: Truth About Class Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

This month we discuss GM Tamas' essay "Telling the Truth About Class" published in the Socialist Register. Is Tamas' division between Marxist and Rousseauian socialism useful? Does it help us to understand the Left today? And is Tamas right that "authentic proletarian revolution... has never occurred in its anti-capitalist purity anywhere"? Reading Clubs are for patrons $10+, sign up at patre on.com/bungacast Additional readings:

Why the left must abandon the myth of British decline, David Edgerton, New Statesman
Ellen Meiksins Wood on the Nairn-Anderson thesis and the Bourgeois paradigm, Verso Books blog

Excerpt: /220/ Aufhebonus Bonus Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

Responding to your questions, comments & criticisms. It's a big mailbag this time round, including plenty on Covid (lockdowns, vaccines, etc), incels and dating culture, breaking out of neoliberalism's clutches, and much much more. –– Bungacast will be live in New York on 19 November. Come see Alex Hochuli in conversation with Adam Tooze & Amber A'Lee Frost. Tickets at Eventbrite –– The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

Excerpt: OK Bunger! The Problem of Generations, pt. 5 Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

The fifth and final part of a series on generational consciousness and conflict.

This is an excerpt. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

In this episode, we examine the Millennials and Generation Z. Uniquely, generation war today seems to be a conflict over resources more than over values. Is there any basis for this, and what do Millennials actually want? With generational and class conflict seemingly bound together today, we analyse 'Generation Left' and 'Millennial Socialism'. And we ask what the effect of the pandemic may be on the creation of a Gen Z consciousness.

Guests include:

Paul Taylor, former director, Pew Research
Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative
Clive Martin, journalist who has written for VICE Magazine
Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
Jennifer Silva, assistant professor in sociologist, Indiana University

Original music by: Jonny Mundey

Additional music:

Cacti / I Will Be Waiting / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
Filthy the Kid / Vampire / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 4 Oct 12, 2021

Show notes

The fourth in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict. In this episode, we examine Generation X – the generation of the End of History. How was this generation overshadowed by the Boomer's failures? In the Eastern Bloc, the fall of Soviet regimes was a traumatic moment – how did this shape consciousness? And how did the Iranian Revolution – and subsequent war – shape the political perspectives of Iranians? Guests include:

Maren Thom, film scholar
Alexei Yurchak, professor of anthropology at Berkeley
Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
Arash Azizi, historian of Iran at New York University
Felix Krawatzek, political scientist at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin

Original music by: Jonny Mundey Additional music:

Kit Kruger / Freakin' Freefall / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 4 Oct 12, 2021

Show notes

Maren Thom, film scholar
Alexei Yurchak, professor of anthropology at Berkeley
Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
Arash Azizi, historian of Iran at New York University
Felix Krawatzek, political scientist at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin

Original music by: Jonny Mundey Additional music:

Kit Kruger / Freakin' Freefall / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

Excerpt: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 3 Oct 05, 2021

Show notes

The third in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict. This is an excerpt. For the full 1h40min episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast In this episode, we examine the Baby Boomers – myth and reality. The revolt of the '60s has been misunderstood in many dimensions. Was it betrayed or did it always express capitalist ideology? Were the Boomers the ones who really did the 1960s anyway? And what world have the Boomers created as they passed through life – and institutions? Guests include:

Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative
Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
Jeffrey Alexander, professor of sociology at Yale University
Holger Nehring, chair in contemporary European history at the University of Stirling
Kristin Ross, professor emeritus of comparative literature at New York University

Original music by: Jonny Mundey Additional music:

Medité / A Change in My Heart / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
Ondolut / Blumen / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
Elliott Holmes / Bull Chase / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
Kick Castle / Kick Down / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
T. Morri / Nuthin' but Nuts / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

Other Clips:

/218/ Stability Über Alles ft. Wolfgang Streeck Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

On German's elections – and the costs of stability.

Wolfgang Streeck is back on the podcast to round-up Germany's elections last Sunday (26 September). What's behind the emphasis on continuity and competence? Is Germany stuck in the 2000s?

We also discuss the importation of US-style culture wars into Germany, the country's role in the Eurozone, and strategic relations with France.

The second part of the conversation – where we debate the end of neoliberalism and capitalist crisis – is over at patreon.com/bungacast.

Readings:

Will it Be Enough?, Wolfgang Streeck, Sidecar
“Order” Prevails in Berlin, Gregor Baszak, The Bellows
Things Can’t Go on Like This for the German Left, Alexander Brentler, Jacobin

OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 2 Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

The second in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we look at the emergence of 'youth' as political concept in the age following the French Revolution, and its shifting meanings. How important was generational consciousness in the Young Italy movement and its imitators in the 19th century, and how should we understand the so-called 'Lost Generation' of 1914?

Guests include: