Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

The Dig: Minneapolis Fight Back w/ Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, and JaNaé Bates Imari Jan 31, 2026

Show notes

Featuring Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, and JaNaé Bates Imari on how Minneapolis achieved its fight back against ICE/Border Patrol occupation. A decade building aligned mass movements has made Minneapolis among the best-organized cities in the country. Those carefully built structures, however, had to be nimble in confronting the federal onslaught.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Listen to Unruly Subjects, a new podcast from Chenjerai Kumanyika and The Dig’s producer, Alex Lewis https://pod.link/1849696769

Check out equator.org for long-form articles, public events, and reading groups

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

Long Reads: Iran on the Brink w/ Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi Jan 30, 2026

Show notes

As this episode was being finalized, the Trump administration was threatening to attack Iran for the second time in less than a year. The threats come against the backdrop of mass protests inside Iran that appear to have been repressed by the state security forces for the time being.

Long Reads is joined by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi. He’s a lecturer on the international politics of the Middle East at the University of St Andrews. And the author of Revolution and Its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran. Eskandar joined us last summer to talk about the situation in Iran, and we spoke again earlier this week to cover the latest developments. This interview was recorded on Tuesday January 27th.

Read a transcript of this interview: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/iran-protests-authoritarianism-trump-israel

Listen to our interview from last summer here: https://apple.co/4rI5ekr

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.

Behind the News: Israel’s Assault on Lebanon w/ Aurélie Daher Jan 29, 2026

Show notes

David Bier of the Cato Institute looks at what’s behind Trump’s war on immigrants. Aurélie Daher examines the current state of Hezbollah and why Israel is bombing Lebanon.

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: Silicon Empires w/ Nick Srnicek Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

Featuring Nick Srnicek on Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI. A deep exploration of the political economy of AI: the fulcrum of the authoritarian tech oligarchy — and of global contests for economic and military dominance.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Cold War on Five Continents at Haymarketbooks.org

Check out equator.org for long-form articles, public events, and reading groups

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

Jacobin Radio: Trumpism as Counterrevolution w/ Robert Brenner and Dylan Riley Jan 27, 2026

Show notes

Suzi speaks with historian Robert Brenner and sociologist Dylan Riley about the deeper meaning of Trump’s return to power.

Is Trump just a narcissistic strongman — or the carrier of a coherent counterrevolutionary project? Brenner and Riley argue that Trumpism is not a return to the past but an attempt to reorganize society for a future in which capitalism can no longer grow — only command, police, and exclude.

They trace the roots of Trump Two to decades of economic stagnation, the collapse of US hegemony, the failure of Bidenomics, and a deep class split between credentialed and non-credentialed workers.

They describe Trumpism as a reactionary social revolution from above, aimed at dismantling the social bases of liberal democracy. Its pillars include the attack on universities, the expansion of the security state as an ICE jobs program, AI as a form of class warfare undermining credentialed labor, and the dismantling of the international order.

It’s a wide-ranging conversation about empire without growth, class politics under stagnation, and the future of the left in what Brenner and Riley call the wilderness of contemporary capitalism.

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

Behind the News: Venezuela’s Past, Present, and Future w/ Forrest Hylton Jan 22, 2026

Show notes

Forrest Hylton, contributor to the London Review of Books, discusses Venezuela past, present, and future.

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

Confronting Capitalism: Why the US Never Got a Labor Party Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

While European labor movements established foundations for their welfare states in the late 19th century, it was not until the New Deal that the US began instituting policies like unemployment insurance and old-age pensions. But although working-class struggle was also key to this success, several unique factors in American history proved an impediment to more egalitarian policies.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek continue their deep dive into the history of social democracy. Together, they look at the impacts of craft unionism, mass immigration, racial tensions, and employer violence in explaining American exceptionalism.

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.

Jacobin Radio: Iran’s Protest Movement w/ Yassamine Mather and Kevan Harris Jan 20, 2026

Show notes

Over the past several weeks, Iran has experienced its most serious wave of protests since the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022. What began as an economic protest quickly turned political, with chants calling for an end to the Islamic Republic — and the most brutal response of repression in the history of the Islamic Republic, with killings, mass arrests, executions, and an internet blackout.

UCLA historical sociologist Kevan Harris reconstructs the spark that ignited the protests — a technocratic reform perceived as an unjust tax, adding to economic and political grievances that exploded into a broader uprising. Iranian scholar and political activist Yassamine Mather examines the brutal repression that followed and the dangerous media distortions surrounding the uprising as exile groups promote monarchist fantasies and openly flirt with US and Israeli intervention. Mather says Iranian protesters overwhelmingly reject both the Islamic Republic and the shah’s dictatorship — and foreign intervention threatens to crush the very movement it claims to support.

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

Long Reads: Latin America’s State of Siege w/ Tony Wood Jan 17, 2026

Show notes

This is a special, extra episode of Long Reads.

It’s now two weeks since the US attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio made explicit threats to countries like Colombia and Cuba in the aftermath, washed down with the usual fantasies about drug trafficking.

Tony Wood joins Long Reads to discuss the attack on Venezuela and what it means for the Latin American left. How have left-wing governments and parties been reacting, and what are the long-term implications going to be?

Tony is a professor of Latin American history at the University of Colorado Boulder and a regular contributor to publications such as New Left Review, the London Review of Books, and Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/author/tony-wood

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.