Bungacast

Latest Episodes:

/513/ Global Right: LATAM Division ft. Guilherme Casarões Sep 30, 2025

Show notes

On the Bolsonaros, Milei and MAGA.

Alex talks to Guilherme Casarões, Associate Professor of Brazilian Studies at Florida International University, about Bolsonaro's sentencing, Trump's tariffs on Brazil, and the bailout of Milei.

Is the motivation behind the tariffs on Brazil just partisan interest?
How has Jair Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, become point-man for the Latin American radical right's connection to MAGA?
Is Bolsonarismo the closest to MAGA among the global radical right?
Will a "Populist International Order" follow the Liberal International Order?
Why is the nationalist Trump bailing out the libertarian Milei?

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

Then George, Alex and Ryan Zickgraf discuss the global radical right and whether Charlie Kirk's killing was its "George Floyd moment".

Finally, the boys take listener questions & comments from the past month. (NB recorded 25 September)

/512/ Reading Club: Middle-Class Dreams & Nightmares Sep 26, 2025

Show notes

On Göran Therborn's article, "Dreams and Nightmares of the World's Middle Classes".

The penultimate episode of this block on the middle class, we discuss the differing fortunes and politics of the global North and South middle-classes – as well as ways they may be similar.

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Is the middle-class dream increasingly only a dream?
Can the "ever-rising middle-class wave" in China and India sustain itself?
Is being middle-class defined by one's consumption? By income? By something else?
How have fears changed: from being politically "squeezed" between to proletariat and bourgeoisie, to being economically "squeezed" and fearing falling?
What politics do the middle-classes generate? What kind of populism?

/511/ Britain's Tinderbox ft. Lisa McKenzie Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

On the UK's working-class unrest.

Sociologist Lisa McKenzie talks to Alex and contributing editor Lee Jones about why the country feels like a powder-keg.

What's behind protests like Unite the Kingdom? How responsible are far-right agitators?
Why are threats posed to women and children such an explosive issue?
What is the type of nationalism that is behind the proliferation of English and British flags?
What are Farage's Reform promising and will they deliver? What of the immigration question?
How is Corbyn's "Your Party" going, and why can't the Left seem to speak for or to the working class?

Links:

Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain, Lisa McKenzie, Bristol UP
Lockdown Diaries of the Working Class, Lisa McKenzie
James Treadwell thread on raising of flags, X

/510/ Couch Potatoes to Screen Sausages ft. Ryan Zickgraf Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

On critiques of entertainment.

New contributing editor Ryan Zickgraf joins Alex and George to talk about the history of media critique and contemporary cases.

How does consensus-age comedy like King of the Hill deal with hyperpolitics today?
Is the reliance on archetypes a problem, or inherent to all comedy?
Why is Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death still relevant?
Is the Gen X critique of 'couch potatoes' and TV-watching similar to today's techlash?
Have we become insensible to contradiction?

Links:

We’re still distracting ourselves to death, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd
King of the Hill reboot is ill-suited to the Trump age, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd

/509/ The Revenge of Ethnic Chauvinism ft. Orlando Patterson Sep 09, 2025

Show notes

On slavery, racism, and the politics of freedom.

Renowned sociologist Orlando Patterson talks to contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about themes brought up by his recent The Paradox of Freedom as well as his works as a whole.

Why is the study of slavery too affected by the exceptional US American experience?
In what way is violence a constitutive feature of slave relations that aren’t true of others?
Are we still mired in a politics of ethnic chauvinism?
What does it mean for ethnic minorities to engage in self-criticism?
Is there a politics of freedom that is hopeful today or has it been eclipsed?

RE-RELEASE: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, 5 Sep 02, 2025

Show notes

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

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

RE-RELEASE: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, 3 Sep 02, 2025

Show notes

The third in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict. 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:

/508/ Digesting the Four Ds Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

On disruption, disturbance, decline, decay.

We continue our attempt to conceptualise the present moment by looking at Silicon Valley-style disruption, geopolitical disturbances and 'polycrisis', and decline & decay along two axes: normative vs descriptive, and geopolitical and universal.

Then we deal with your questions and comments over the past month on: religious authority; Russia, imperialism, and the USSR; and the limitations to 'the national interest'.

Subscribe for the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast

UNLOCKED: /201/ Reading Club: The New Class War Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

[Bungacast is on holiday, so we're unlocking/re-releasing a July 2021 episode that was previously only available to higher-tier subscribers]

We discuss Michael Lind's The New Class War.

Lind identifies new lines in the class war, between working class and managerial overclass, between those in the "heartlands" and those in the "hubs". How convincing is this account? What is his critique of technocratic managerialism and its symptom, populism? How convincing - and realistic - is his solution of "democratic pluralism"? And is this only achievable as a result of a new cold war with China?

/507/ Put 'General Will' in Charge ft. Philip Cunliffe Aug 19, 2025

Show notes

On The National Interest.

Aufhebunga Bunga co-founder and contributing editor Phil Cunliffe joins us to talk about his new book about politics after the age of globalisation. We ask questions about his book – and then put him on trial for wrongthink.

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Who is the 'national interest' good for? Is it a domestic or a foreign policy concern?
Why did the 'national interest' disappear from our political vocabulary?
Is the national interest an abstraction anyone can rhetorically claim? Is that not dangerous?
What happens if leading politicians – or elites in general – adopt the national interest? Would this be good or bad?
Will Trump's re-assertion of US interests push others to defend theirs?
Does the national interest stand against class interests? Is this anti-socialist?
Was Stalin-style socialism-in-one-country actually correct? Has Phil come around to supporting Roosevelt-style social democracy?