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Long Reads: Decoding the French Left w/ Sebastian Budgen (Part 1) Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

Two years ago, the French president Emmanuel Macron called snap elections for the National Assembly. The far right was widely expected to win and form a government for the first time since the fall of the Vichy regime, but things didn’t work out that way. The New Popular Front, a left-wing electoral alliance, won a surprise victory.

Sebastian Budgen, senior editor at Verso, joins Long Reads to discuss the state of the French left. Daniel and Sebastian look in particular at La France Insoumise, which has been one of the most successful parties of the radical left in any European country since the start of the decade.

This is a two-part interview. The first part is going to focus on events between the election in 2024 and the start of this year. In our next episode, we’ll be looking at this year’s election results and looking forward to the presidential contest in 2027.

Read the article from Politico that Daniel and Sebastian discuss in the interview: https://www.politico.eu/article/french-left-new-popular-front-alliance-uk-labour-party-raphael-glucksmann-jean-luc-melenchon-jeremy-corbyn/

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.

Behind the News: Venezuela After Maduro w/ Gabriel Hetland Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

Gabriel Hetland, author of a recent article for the Intercept, looks at what’s been happening in Venezuela since the kidnapping of Maduro. David Griscom, author of The Myth of Red Texas, discusses that state’s forgotten radical history.

Read Gabriel’s article: https://theintercept.com/2026/03/31/trump-iran-war-venezuela-maduro/

Find David’s book: https://orbooks.com/catalog/the-myth-of-red-texas/

And catch The Jacobin Show with David Griscom Fridays at 3pm on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@JacobinMag

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: This Century’s Biggest Labor Battle Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

Our modern economy is now dominated by massive mega-companies like Amazon and Walmart, with operations spanning many different sectors and employment types. With the US labor movement at historically low levels of unionization, bold strategies are necessary to protect the working class.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek speak with ASU professor Benjamin Fong about the challenges and opportunities that organizing Amazon presents to the labor movement.

Ben has recently published an essay collection, co-edited with Paul Prescod, on civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. You can find a link to the book and its description here: https://www.damagemag.com/p/rustins-challenge

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.

Behind the News: Complications of the Iran War w/ Mouin Rabbani Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

Mouin Rabbani talks about the Iran war and its many complications. Helen Yaffe talks about Trump’s oil embargo on Cuba — its effects and how Cubans are reacting.

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: Economic Warfare w/ Aslı Bâli, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Nicholas Mulder Mar 28, 2026

Show notes

Featuring Aslı Bâli, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, and Nicholas Mulder on the economic warfare unfolding with the US-Israeli war on Iran — and beyond.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Find Ethnic Studies at the Crossroads at UCPress.edu

Buy Cold War on Five Continents at Haymarketbooks.org

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

Long Reads: El Salvador’s Jailer in Chief Mar 27, 2026

Show notes

Donald Trump is a huge fan of Nayib Bukele, the current president of El Salvador. Last April, Bukele visited the White House and offered to help with a campaign of domestic repression in the United States. In El Salvador, which relies on US support, Bukele’s government has detained tens of thousands of people in mass arrests. Hundreds have died inside their notorious prison system.

Our guest today for a conversation about El Salvador under Bukele is Hilary Goodfriend. Hilary is a postdoctoral researcher at UNAM in Mexico City and she writes about Salvadorean politics for Jacobin.

Read Hilary’s article “An Infinite State of Exception in Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador” here: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/el-salvador-us-bukele-trump-authoritarianism

Behind the News: Beyond Debates of Class vs. Identity w/ Nancy Fraser Mar 24, 2026

Show notes

Nancy Fraser goes beyond the class/identity disputes. Natalie Y. Moore, who wrote a recent article for Hammer and Hope and EHRP, looks at effects of federal layoffs on black women.

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: Nusantara Ep. 1 — The Long Arc of Dutch Colonialism Mar 23, 2026

Show notes

Nusantara is a new Dig series on the history of Indonesia: a hinge in the world system where colonialism and revolution have decisively shaped the trajectory of global history. This episode traces a long period of European plunder and domination that began with the Portuguese and then continued, for centuries, under the Dutch—a story stretching from the murderous mercantilism of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) seeking to monopolize the spice trade to a modern colonial administration profiting from plantations, petroleum, and countless commodities. The first installment features Rianne Subijanto and Made Supriatma. Other scholars of the archipelago will join us in the episodes that follow.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Find Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Writers 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: Trump’s Historic Blunder in Iran Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

The US-Israeli war against Iran may have been initiated without any coherently stated goals or popular support, but we can already see that it’s a horrific quagmire. It also doesn’t look like Trump and Israel will get the swift Iranian regime change they hoped for.

On the latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber is joined by Jason Brownlee, a professor of government at the University of Texas Austin, to discuss the history of regime change wars, the geopolitical interests in the Middle East, and Trump’s further descent into the neoconservative blob.

Read Jason’s most recent Catalyst essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/03/shadow-wars-and-corporate-welfare

Interested in attending our live show? Sign up 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.

Jacobin Radio: 2003 All Over Again w/ Kevan Harris Mar 17, 2026

Show notes

Two weeks into the US-Israeli assault on Iran, every prediction of its architects has collapsed. The regime stands. Protests haven't reignited. Iran’s new Supreme Leader — more hardline than his assassinated father — has vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. And the war began just as negotiations in Geneva were apparently close to a deal.

Suzi speaks to UCLA sociologist and Iran expert Kevan Harris on Day 14 of Operation Epic Fury. We examine Iran’s domestic political economy, the corrupt economic empire of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), and the regime's brutal repression after the January uprising.

On the fantasy of regime change by bombing, Kevan says, “There are zero historical cases of air power bombing a country into revolution from below. Zero." Every US intelligence agency told the White House this. They went ahead anyway. It’s 2003 all over again.

Kevan describes Israel’s war strategy as a widening gyre with no limit and no endpoint — one likely to produce another war on Iran within two years. That's why, Kevan argues, building an anti-war movement the Left’s most urgent task. "We might have a hot summer in the United States."

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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