Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

Behind the News: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature w/ Alyssa Battistoni Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, looks at the complications of using lithium batteries to green our future. Alyssa Battistoni, author of Free Gifts, examines the weird relationship between capitalism and nature.

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: NYC and the Hegemonic Project Dec 21, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Sumaya Awad, Sumathy Kumar, and Nathan Gusdorf on building power on the ground as our allies exercise it from above in the service of a larger hegemonic project to transform the United States. As Zohran Mamdani takes office on January 1, it’s time for governance—and all of the opportunities, constraints, and contradictions that entails. A recording of last week’s live Dig in Brooklyn.

Support The Dig (and check out our cool new merch) at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy After Savagery at Haymarketbooks.org

Buy From the Clinics to the Capitol at UCPress.com

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

Long Reads: Western Sahara’s Struggle for Freedom w/ Jacob Mundy (Part 1) Dec 18, 2025

Show notes

The occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco has now lasted for half a century. The anniversary of the invasion passed at the beginning of November. It came just as the Trump administration was working at the United Nations to legitimize permanent Moroccan rule over the land and its people, including the indigenous Sahrawis.

Today’s episode is the first part of a two-part interview on the history of Western Sahara. Part one is going to cover the experience of Spanish colonial rule and the emergence of a movement for independence before the invasion by Morocco in 1975. Part two will carry the story up to the present day.

Our guest Jacob Mundy is a professor of peace and conflict studies at Colgate University. He’s the co-author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution.

Read his piece for Jacobin, “For 50 Years, Morocco Has Denied Western Sahara Freedom”: https://jacobin.com/2025/11/morocco-western-sahara-freedom-colonialism

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.

Jacobin Radio: The Least Unjust Peace in Ukraine? w/ Oleksandr Kyselov Dec 16, 2025

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Suzi talks to Oleksandr Kyselov and Alyssa Oursler about what’s being sold to the world as “peace” in Ukraine, and what it looks like from the standpoint of Ukrainians who are actually living through the war. Trump’s 28-point plan for Ukraine — drafted behind closed doors by his real estate ally Steve Witkoff and a Russian sovereign wealth fund chief — reads less like diplomacy and more like a property deal: Russia gets the land, the US takes its cut, Europe foots the bill, and Ukraine is told to choose between surrendering now or surrendering later — with little input in the process.

Ukrainian political analyst Oleksandr Kyselov argues that what’s on the table is not a just peace but an “imperial carve-up,” and that Ukrainians are forced to fight for “the least unjust peace” that can realistically be won today. Then journalist Alyssa Oursler, reporting from Kyiv, describes how Ukrainians are reacting to the plan — from sudden funerals to conversations with leftists and soldiers who say Trump has prolonged the war and treated Ukraine as a bargaining chip.

We ask what a real peace would look like, why Ukrainians fear being forced into this deal, and what international solidarity from the Left ought to mean now.

Read Oleksandr’s Jacobin article, “Ukraine Faces and Imperial Carve-Up”: https://jacobin.com/2025/12/ukraine-russia-war-concessions-trump

Support for Jacobin Radio comes from The Regrettable Century podcast: https://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523

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: Trump’s Militaristic Master Plan w/ Anatol Lieven Dec 15, 2025

Show notes

Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute analyzes Trump’s official national security strategy. Susannah Glickman, recently interviewed by the New York Review of Books, looks at the transformation of the US government into a private equity firm.

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: Welcome to the Resistance w/ Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, Waleed Shahid Dec 13, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, and Waleed Shahid on the liberal resistance’s sharp left turn since Trump returned to the White House. Libs are voting Zohran at the ballot box, fighting ICE in the streets, and just generally looking favorably upon socialism. This discussion puts the moment in historic context and plots out the strategic exigencies and opportunities ahead.

Rest in power Asad Haider. Check out our 2018 interview with Asad on his book Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump thedigradio.com/podcast/mistaking-identity-politics

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Learning to Live in the Dark at Haymarketbooks.org

Buy Will Work for Food at UCPress.com

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

Confonting Capitalism: Reform and Revolution Dec 10, 2025

Show notes

Social-democratic politics have been part of the socialist movement for over a century. Some features, like the commitment to pursuing economic rights for the working class via the state, have remained consistent over time. But when did social-democratic ambitions to overthrow capitalism turn into efforts to reform the system?

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber takes a broad look at the early agenda of social-democratic parties. Through an examination of their views on the state, class, and socialism, he unpacks social democracy’s relationship to the Left’s politics today.

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.

Behind the News: The Honduran Elections w/ David Adler and Matt Kirkegaard Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

David Adler and Matt Kirkegaard of the Progressive International debrief the Honduran elections. Elfadil Ibrahim examines the Sudanese civil war. And finally Eric Blanc, drawing from Milwaukee’s decades of “sewer socialism,” offers lessons for Mamdani and Wilson.

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: Three Million Doors w/ Tascha Van Auken Dec 06, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Tascha Van Auken on how Zohran’s campaign mobilized an army of 100,000 volunteers to knock three million doors. Van Auken has been an architect of NYC-DSA’s field operation and its general electoral strategy since the beginning. Organizers everywhere have a lot to learn. Guest hosted by Micah Uetricht.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Live Dig episode in Brooklyn on December 10: Zohran and the Return of Municipal Socialism. Navigating opportunities and contradictions of governance with NYC-DSA leaders Sumathy Kumar and Sumaya Awad alongside the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Nathan Gusdorf. Free entry but please RSVP. Party afterwards! eventbrite.com/e/zohran-and-the-return-of-municipal-socialism-tickets-1972951976472

Buy No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine at Haymarketbooks.org

Read the latest issue from The Nation‘s Books & the Arts section TheNation.com/books-and-the-arts

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

The Dig: What’s Left w/ Malcolm Harris Nov 29, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Malcolm Harris on What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis. An open-minded and anti-sectarian discussion about an ecumenical book that plots out three paths forward for the Left — arguing we must embrace all three simultaneously.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Live episode of The Dig in Brooklyn on December 10: “Zohran and the Return of Municipal Socialism.” Navigating opportunities and contradictions of governance with NYC-DSA leaders Sumathy Kumar and Sumaya Awad alongside the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Nathan Gusdorf. Free entry but please RSVP. Party afterwards! eventbrite.com/e/zohran-and-the-return-of-municipal-socialism-tickets-1972951976472

Buy No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine and Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy at Haymarketbooks.org

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

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