Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

Behind the News: Homeland Empire w/ Nikhil Pal Singh Mar 16, 2026

Show notes

Historian Nikhil Pal Singh, author of a recent article for Equator, talks about how the Trump regime weaves foreign and domestic policy into a single domain of impunity, Homeland Empire.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: Trump’s Nation-Breaking War w/ Afshin Matin-Asgari Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

We’ve now entered the second week of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Donald Trump’s War Secretary Pete Hegseth has boasted about the US military machine bringing “death and destruction” to the country.

Afshin Matin-Asgari joined Long Reads on Monday, March 9, to discuss the war. Afshin is a professor of Middle East history at California State University in Los Angeles. His most recent book is Axis of Empire: A History of Iran–US Relations.

Read Afshin’s coverage of the protests from January: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/iran-protests-khamenei-trump-israel

And an edited transcript of this podcast interview here: https://jacobin.com/2026/03/trump-iran-regime-war-israel

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.

Jacobin Radio: The US-Israeli Attack on Iran w/ Yassamine Mather Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

What are Iranians actually experiencing right now? Suzi speaks with Yassamine Mather, an Iranian socialist who has been in direct contact with relatives, colleagues, and comrades inside Iran throughout the bombing. Yassamine is chair of Hands Off the People of Iran, editor of Critique, and researcher at Oxford's Middle East Centre.

She describes near-hourly strikes, hospitals hit, internet cut, and a propaganda war in which state TV claims nothing happened while satellite channels say nothing is left. She explains why Trump’s promise to 'liberate' Iran has had opposite effects: People who were in January’s anti-regime protests are now joining pro-government demonstrations — not for the regime, but out of rage at foreign attack. She assesses Khamenei's death, the removal of his brake on IRGC adventurism, Netanyahu’s real objective (to destroy Iran as a country, not just its nuclear program), and why this war makes 2003 look well planned. She also addresses dangerous illusions some on the Left hold about Russia or China as potential saviors. She closes with a new initiative: Nur, a project for regional solidarity across Iran, Palestine, and the Arab world, launched with veteran socialist Moshé Machover.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The Dig: Anti-War w/ Ben Mabie & Salar Mohandesi Mar 10, 2026

Show notes

Featuring Ben Mabie and Salar Mohandesi on what the war on Iran tells us about US imperialism, and why the US doesn’t have a massive anti-war movement even amid historic anti-war public sentiment. Capitalist states have changed war-making in ways that insulate imperialism against popular resistance. We must make movements that can thrive and win under new conditions.

Find Venezuela in Crisis at haymarketbooks.org

Find Anti-Eviction at UCPress.edu

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dig party in London with Equator magazine this Friday March 13. Tickets all claimed but sign up for the waitlist and you can probably come anyhow. Info here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561?

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: The Decades-Long War on Iran w/ Behrooz Ghamari Mar 09, 2026

Show notes

Behrooz Ghamari, author of The Long War on Iran, looks at the politics and culture of the country. Anatol Lieven analyzes the effects of the war on Iran on the region and world.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

The Dig: Primary Strategy w/ Geoff Simpson Mar 05, 2026

Show notes

Featuring Geoff Simpson on Justice Democrats’ massive 2026 slate of insurgent House candidates taking on AIPAC/Big Tech money. Also: the history of post-Bernie 2016 primary challenges, the Israel lobby’s legitimacy crisis, radicalizing liberals, and the role of electoral politics in the larger left project.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561?

Subscribe to Heat the Ground Up from Haymarket Originals: tinyurl.com/heatthegroundup

Find Leave if You Can: Migration and Violence in Bordered Worlds at UCPress.edu

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: How Work Got So Bad Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

Why does every new technology seem to make work harder and not easier? In 1974, Harry Braverman published a seminal text Labor and Monopoly Capital to answer that question. Combining a careful study of scientific management and technological innovation with several of Marx’s key concepts, Braverman explained why workers under capitalism are gradually transformed into mere cogs in the machine.

On the latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek discuss the process of managers breaking down workers’ skills and why work under capitalism tends to degrade rather than fulfill us.

Join Confronting Capitalism for a live recording in Brooklyn on April 6! Find more details and RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jacobin-who-speaks-for-the-working-class-majority-tickets-1984301239423

TICKETS: $10 solidarity rate. $20 standard entry. Seats are first come, first served.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

The Dig: Breaking the Machine w/ Peter Linebaugh Mar 03, 2026

Show notes

Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the Luddites’ machine-breaking revolt against the enclosure of handicraft production, the central role played by capital punishment in the consolidation of the capitalist state, and remaking the struggle against enclosure for the 21st century.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561?

Find Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy at Haymarketbooks.org

Find Revolutions: A New History at Versobooks.com

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Behind the News: The Psychology of the Epstein Gang w/ Tessa West Mar 02, 2026

Show notes

Tessa West, professor of psychology at NYU, examines the social dynamics that kept the Epstein gang together. Nick Srnicek, author of Silicon Empires, discusses AI. And Wanda Bertram breaks down the costs of mass incarceration following a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/money2026.html

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Long Reads: The Sudanese Catastrophe w/ Joshua Craze Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

Last October, the war in Sudan took a new turn with the capture of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces. The city in western Sudan had been under siege by the RSF for more than two years before the Sudanese armed forces suddenly withdrew. After taking control of El Fasher, the RSF began to carry out a massacre of civilians. A UN fact-finding mission recently found that the crimes in El Fasher bore “hallmarks of genocide.”

The Sudanese catastrophe is all the more depressing because it comes after a brief moment of greater political openness and optimism after the ousting of a dictator in 2019.

Joshua Craze joins Long Reads to discuss the evolution of the conflict in Sudan and its likely future. Joshua has written many articles about the politics of Sudan and South Sudan for publications such as the New Statesman, the New York Review of Books, and Jacobin.

Read Joshua’s 2023 essay for Jacobin, “Only You Can Save Darfur”: https://jacobin.com/2023/07/only-you-can-save-darfur

And find other work on his personal website: https://www.joshuacraze.com/essays

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.

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