Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

The Dig: Death and Life Under Capitalism w/ Sarah Jaffe Aug 16, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Sarah Jaffe on her book From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire. The ordinary death of a loved one under a capitalist order that routinely forbids sufficient time off to mourn. Workplace injuries, deindustrialization, police violence, pandemic, genocide, social murder, and how we can make sense of loss through struggle.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dig 500th Episode Party November 7 in Brooklyn! Emceed by Brace and Liz from TrueAnon. Free for Patreon supporters $10/mo and up. Get your tickets here littlefieldnyc.com/event/?wfea_eb_id=1549778040839

Buy Fake Work at Haymarketbooks.com

Get 50% off Fascist Yoga and other books in your first order from plutobooks.com with code DIG50.

Jacobin Radio: A Left Split From Labour w/ Tariq Ali Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

Suzi speaks to Tariq Ali about Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party — provisionally called Your Party — which has surpassed Labour’s membership with over 650,000 sign-ups. Your Party calls for public ownership, redistribution, and a politics rooted in communities, unions and social movements. Starmer’s Labour government has nothing for the population, but billions for war and complicity in genocide. Supporters see a historic opening for the Left; critics warn it could split the vote and hand power to Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK, which has overtaken the weakened Tories. We get Tariq Ali’s assessment of Your Party’s politics, prospects, and perils.

Then Flor Melendrez of CLEAN Carwash, the country’s first car wash worker center, talks to Suzi about the escalating ICE raids on carwasheros across Southern California. ICE uses racial profiling to conduct suspicion-less stops, warrantless home raids, and illegal workplace actions. A new class action lawsuit demands an immediate halt to these violations of the 4th and 5th Amendments of the Constitution. Flor tells us how ICE raids are hitting carwasheros in their workplaces, and how these workers are organizing to defend their jobs and families.

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

Confronting Capitalism: The PMC Isn’t Going Away Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

The “professional managerial class” has become a staple of political debate on the Left.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains why the “PMC” is better understood as a heterogeneous layer within capitalism rather than a distinct class, how and why the middle strata have expanded, and what has pushed so many professionals toward anti-capitalist politics. While skeptical of the PMC as a precise analytical category, Chibber argues that the term still captures something real about one of the most politically influential groups in modern America.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out, and you can subscribe for just $20 using the link below:

https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

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 “Anti-Woke” Culture War w/ Jodi Dean Aug 11, 2025

Show notes

Jodi Dean, author of a recent article about the “classism of defeat,” makes a case for why going anti-woke is very wrong. Emily Jashinsky analyzes Marjorie Taylor Greene’s use of the word “genocide” and other curious developments on the Right.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

Long Reads: Trump’s Gaza Famine w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed Aug 08, 2025

Show notes

Gaza is experiencing a man-made famine as Israel blocks the supply of almost all humanitarian aid. By the start of August, Israeli soldiers had killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians as they were looking for food. Most of the killings happened near sites managed by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the GHF. The GHF was sponsored by the Trump administration earlier this year to replace legitimate aid organizations with a track record of operating in Palestine.

For this week’s episode, we spoke to Akbar Shahid Ahmed of the Huffington Post about the famine and recent massacres in Gaza. Akbar has been a guest on the show several times before. He’s currently working on his book about the Biden administration and Gaza, which will be published next year.

Find Akbar’s previous interviews with Long Reads here: https://jacobin.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmed

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.

The Dig: Chicago’s Left Experiment Aug 05, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Alex Han, Asha Ransby-Sporn, and alderwoman Jeanette Taylor on Chicago’s left political experiment. In the wake of Zohran’s remarkable victory in New York, organizers all over the country are taking a close look at Chicago under Mayor Brandon Johnson. A Chicago Teachers Union leader elected in 2023, Johnson’s win was the culmination of years of militant labor and social movement struggle. But while much has been achieved, Johnson and his allies have also suffered many defeats — and the mayor’s approval ratings are alarmingly low. In this episode, three long-time local organizers, including a socialist member of city council, analyze the state of the Left’s bid for governing power and what broader lessons it holds. Recorded live in Chicago.

Dig 500th Episode Party November 7 in Brooklyn! Emceed by Brace and Liz from TrueAnon. Free for Patreon supporters $10/mo and up. Get your tickets here littlefieldnyc.com/event/?wfea_eb_id=1549778040839

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Get 50% off Coercion: Surviving and Resisting Abortion Bans and other books in your first order from plutobooks.com with code ‘DIG50′.

Buy Fake Work at Haymarketbooks.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: Can Mamdani Reform the NYPD? w/ Alex Vitale Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

Alex Vitale, author of a recent Nation article, discusses Zohran Mamdani, the NYPD, and policing generally. Plus: Dwayne Monroe takes on the latest wave of AI mania.

Jacobin Radio: Israel’s Gaza Starvation Campaign w/ Yoav Peled Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

Suzi speaks to Yoav Peled of Tel Aviv University about the accelerating crisis in Israel and Gaza. Though there is a “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s war, the relentless and devastating destruction of Gaza grinds on with staggering human costs. Gazans are starving and the world is taking notice.

Netanyahu faces growing international condemnation and internal anger. Along with Israeli spokesmen and far right cabinet members, he denies there is starvation, or blames it on Hamas. Polls now show that most Israelis want the war to end and the hostages returned even if Hamas remains in power. Weekly public protests are growing, but haven’t yet matched the pre-war anti-Netanyahu demonstrations.

We explore the broader political implications of the war: the disarray of the opposition, the growing authoritarianism of the state, public awareness and public opinion, and the push to disqualify Arab parties from the slated October elections which Yoav thinks could come earlier.

Can Netanyahu stay in power? Peled says Bibi has worked hard to remove any potential threat or successor, so “there's no government, there's no Israel, there's only Bibi.”

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

Confronting Capitalism: Why the Democrats Can’t Fight for Anything Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

Democratic voters are enraged by their party’s spineless “resistance” to the Trump administration’s draconian agenda. But the party’s dysfunction goes far deeper than just cowardly, uninspiring leaders.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber speaks with Philip Rocco about how the Democrats’ abandonment of organized labor has resulted in a party that is ineffective at fighting the right or putting forward a compelling political vision.

Read Philip Rocco’s essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2025/07/why-the-democrats-are-so-useless

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: Why the US Needs “Better Elites” w/ Samuel Moyn Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute looks at US relations with the world under the Trump regime, specifically Russia–Ukraine, Israel–Palestine, and US self-evisceration. Samuel Moyn, author of an article for Boston Review, talks about democracy, checks and balances, and the need for “better elites.”

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