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Long Reads: The Crypto Scam Goes Mainstream w/ Ramaa Vasudevan Jul 25, 2025

Show notes

Back in 2023, Long Reads spoke with Ramaa Vasudevan of Colorado State University for an episode about the development of crypto capitalism. Since then, the crypto industry has launched a concerted effort to establish itself at the heart of the global economic system. Just a few days ago, Donald Trump gave his approval for a major bill designed to boost the sector.

Ramaa Vasudevan spoke to Long Reads again about the mainstreaming of crypto and the threat it poses to global economic stability. This conversation was recorded at the end of March.

Read a transcript of the interview here: https://jacobin.com/2025/06/the-crypto-state

And find Ramaa’s essays for Catalyst here: https://catalyst-journal.com/author/ramaa-vasudevan

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: Actual Abundance w/ Isabella Weber, Malcolm Harris, & Paul Williams Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Isabella Weber, Malcolm Harris, and Paul Williams on Abundance. A debate and discussion of: the book; the discourse; the underlying economic and political questions of how we make the affordable housing, green energy, and fast trains we need; and how actual capitalist social relations appear to us in mystified form as “supply” and “demand.”

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Get 50% off A People’s History of Psychoanalysis and other books in your first order from plutobooks.com with code ‘DIG50′.

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

Behind the News: Health Care Havoc w/ Adam Gaffney Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

Adam Gaffney, co-author of a recent article for the New York Review of Books, looks at Trump & Co.’s dismantling of health care and research. Also on the podcast, Alan Beattie of the Financial Times tries to make sense of Trump’s nonsensical trade policy.

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

Jacobin Radio: Russia’s Anti-War Political Prisoners w/ Simon Pirani Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

At the recent Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago, Suzi moderated a panel about political prisoners in Russia and brings it now to Jacobin Radio.

We hear from Ksenia Kagarlitskaya, founder of the Freedom Zone campaign that organizes festivals around the world in support of political prisoners and their families. She plays a recorded message from her father, imprisoned Marxist Boris Kagarlitsky in Penal Colony No. 4. Historian Simon Pirani and exiled scholar Ilya Budraitskis draw attention to the silenced left prisoners of conscience resisting war — both from inside Russia’s prison system and in exile. This is not just about Russia. As authoritarianism surges globally, the criminalization of dissent follows a familiar script.

The day before this panel on July 3, eleven political prisoners, including Kagarlitsky, issued an open letter to world leaders. They called for the mass release of Russian political prisoners and Ukrainian civilian hostages — an estimated 10,000 people — as part of any peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine. As pressure builds for an end to the war, their call must become ours: freedom for all political prisoners!

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

Confronting Capitalism: How Iraq Became the Regime Change Playbook Jul 16, 2025

Show notes

US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last month were a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict with Iran. But while a ceasefire has remained in place, there’s good reason to believe that Iranian regime change isn’t off the table just yet.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber looks back on how the US pursued regime change in Iraq and why that disastrous invasion may wind up being the playbook again in Iran.

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 Case for a Four-Day Workweek w/ Juliet Schor Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

Juliet Schor, author of the book Four Days a Week, looks at experiments in reducing the workweek. Katherine Moos and Noé Martin Wiener, authors of a paper for the The Economic and Labour Relations Review, discuss the issue of overwork among teachers.

The Dig: Notes on the New Regime w/ Aslı Bâli & Gabriel Winant Jul 11, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Aslı Bâli and Gabriel Winant on the emerging conjuncture: the Trump regime’s fascist and authoritarian second coming; the giant vacuum created by the Democratic establishment’s inability to act like an opposition party; and the resurgent dynamism and energy now coming so powerfully from our political forces on the socialist left. Conducted before a live audience at the Socialism 2025 conference.

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

Long Reads: The Legacy of Greece’s Oxi Referendum w/ Yanis Varoufakis Jul 10, 2025

Show notes

It’s now ten years since the people of Greece voted in a referendum on the austerity program of the European Union. The referendum was called by the government of Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza party after months of negotiations with the EU. It brought the attention of the world media to what was happening in Greece after years of economic crisis.

To the surprise of many, there was a decisive 61 percent majority for the “no” side. But then, with bewildering speed, Tsipras signed up to a new austerity program that was more punitive than the one voters had rejected a few days earlier. The U-turn triggered the resignation of the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.

Yanis joins Long Reads for a discussion about the legacy of the 2015 referendum.

You can find a loosely edited transcript of the interview here: https://jacobin.com/2025/07/yanis-varoufakis-on-the-legacy-of-greeces-oxi-referendum

Behind the News: Rule by Private Equity w/ Megan Greenwell Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

Lily Lynch, who wrote about the NATO summit, discusses the event. Megan Greenwell, author of Bad Company, talks about the depredations of private equity.

Jacobin Radio: Mamdani’s Spectacular Victory w/ Alan Minsky Jul 02, 2025

Show notes

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, just stunned the political establishment — defeating Andrew Cuomo to win New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. If elected, he’ll be NYC’s first Muslim mayor and the first democratic socialist to lead a major US city in generations, one that is both the epicenter of world finance and marked by extreme economic inequality. Mamdani’s campaign, powered by DSA activists and 50,000 volunteers, grew from years of organizing among young progressives and working-class immigrant communities long pushed to the party’s margins, and he won across the city in nearly every constituency.

Alan Minsky of Progressive Democrats of America argues that Mamdani’s win is a vindication of Bernie-era politics, the best way to fight the far right, and a challenge to the Democratic Party establishment to open its doors to America's vibrant left.

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

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