Bungacast

Latest Episodes:

Excerpt: /154/ A Reasonably Important Election ft. Alex Gourevitch Oct 20, 2020

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

On the Covid election.

Trump has made himself deeply unpopular while the Democrats have tried to demobilise the electorate. What, if anything, are the two parties selling? Are they coherent entities? And what is likely to happen? Plus: we discuss a potential political realignment in process and what foreign policy would look like under a Biden presidency.

/153/ Repubblica di Bunga ft. David Broder Oct 13, 2020

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On the country of the future.

Italy has stagnated for 30 years, becoming a neoliberal gerontocracy with crumbling infrastructure (sound familiar?). Worse, it's a country without a Left. How did the populist right come to triumph? What is the relationship between high emigration and hostility to immigration? And how were the seeds sown 30 years ago with the collapse of the First Republic, Europeanisation, and Berlusconi's rise? Is there now a possibility of 'Italexit'? Readings: First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy, David Broder, Verso

Excerpt: /152/ I Can't Believe It's Not Weimar ft. David Broder Oct 06, 2020

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Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast On why anti-fascism is a problem. The Trump presidency and the current protests in the US have led many to argue this is just like the 1930s. The implication is that fascism is rising and the Left must join up with liberals to oppose this evil. Why is this historical analogy so wide of the mark? Was the Left really culpable for the fascists rise to power? And anyway, our age is vastly different to interwar Europe. So what is the real function of calls to anti-fascism? Readings:

We Don’t Live in Weimar Germany, David Broder, Jacobin
The Trap The Democrats Walked Right Into, Andrew Sullivan
The End of Anti-Fascism, David Broder, Jacobin
What Is Trump?, Dylan Riley, NLR

[UNLOCKED] /146/ Class is Cancelled ft. Ben Tippet Oct 04, 2020

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On class.

Class as an idea and an identity is now supposedly redundant. It’s been replaced by conflicts between generations and transcended by more up-to-date identities linking people together through common experiences of victimhood and inequality, rather than along lines related to production or power. Or is it? We discuss these questions with Ben Tippett, author of Split: Class Divides Uncovered to find out whether class still has any place in society and theory (spoiler: it does). Reading:

Split: What Love Island Tells Us About Culture & Class In Modern Britain, Ben Tippet, The Quietus (Excerpt from book) Split: Class Divides Uncovered, Ben Tippet, Pluto Press

Excerpt: /151/ Reading Club: Full Employment Oct 02, 2020

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Episode for patrons $10+. Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

This month we discuss Polish economist Michal Kalecki's landmark essay, "Political Aspects of Full Employment". This follows on from our recent free episode, 'It's Not Robots, It's Capitalism' (ep 149) focusing on unemployment.

Kalecki anticipated both the Keynesian postwar settlement as well as its undoing, and the neoliberalism that followed. We focus on how Kalecki introduces the question of political authority into economics.

For reference, the next five Reading Clubs have already been announced: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41524278

/150/ Shadow Commander ft. Arash Azizi Sep 29, 2020

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On Iran at the End of History. When the US assassinated Iran's 'shadow commander', Qassem Soleimani, everyone thought WW3 would break out. What happened instead? We talk to the author of a new book on Soleimani about the "local boy who made it", and look at how Soleimani masterminded Iran's interventions all over the region.

We also discuss how the Iranian Revolution represented a degradation of universalism, as it marginalised secular nationalism, socialism and communism. Would the Shia-Sunni conflict, with Iran as leader of the Shia faction, therefore be yet another step away from universalism? And what role did the US play in fomenting sectarian conflict?

Readings:

Book: The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US and Iran's Global Ambitions, Arash Azizi, OneWorld
Qassem Soleimani and How Nations Decide To Kill, Adam Entous & Evan Osnos, New Yorker

/149/ It's Not Robots, It's Capitalism ft. Aaron Benanav / Liz Pancotti Sep 24, 2020

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On unemployment.

The Covid crisis has led to millions out of work - but the situation was none too rosy before, either. Post-crisis recoveries seem increasingly 'jobless', while the overall labour force participation rate keeps falling as people drop out entirely.

We interview to Liz Pancotti of Employ America for a picture of what's driving US unemployment.

Then we talk to Aaron Benanav about his new book and learn that it's not robots who are stealing jobs, but rather capitalism's own stagnation. Why are both radical Keynesian ideas and UBI proposals no real solution? And, finally, what is the working class to do in a world with depressed demand for labour?

Running order:

Liz Pancotti - (04:09)
Aaron Benanav - (53:09)

Readings:

Automation and the Future of Work, Aaron Benanav, Verso
Unemployment Benefit Expansions: A Guide for Policy Responses in the Wake of COVID-19, Elizabeth Pancotti, Employ America
Do not let homeworking become digital piecework for the poor, Sarah O'Connor, FT

Excerpt: /148/ Three Articles (September) Sep 22, 2020

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Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast On Brexit negotiations and state aid; on pandemic policies and confirmation bias; and on Beethoven and access to high culture. Readings:

Of moonshots and bus subsidies: How state aid became a Brexit deal-breaker, The Economist (attached in patreon)
Sweden’s Covid-19 experiment holds a worldwide warning, Wolfgang Münchau, FT (attached in patreon)
Why are we racialising Beethoven, Ralph Leonard, Unherd

Additional referenced pieces:

Anders Tegnell and the Swedish Covid experiment, FT
We Need a Radically Different Approach to the Pandemic and Our Economy as a Whole, Katherine Yik & Martin Kulldorff, Jacobin

/147/ The Past Doesn't Go Away ft. Benjamin Moser Sep 15, 2020

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On modernism and its end.

We're joined by 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser to discuss the tensions between hating your national culture and wanting to leave it behind, and the effacement of national culture by postmodern homogenisation.

We talk about his biography of Susan Sontag, plus a range of other questions: Brazil, USA, literature, architecture, sex, imperialism, Freud, the image and representation, and contemporary wokeness.

Moser's Books: