Novara Media

Latest Episodes:

Downstream: Infinite Growth Will Lead to Collapse w/ Jason Hickel Sep 01, 2025

Show notes

Our politicians don’t agree on much, but one thing most of them agree on is that growth is universally good. Grow the pie, they assure us, and there will be more to go around. Our guest on Downstream this week could not disagree more.

Professor Jason Hickel argues that the mindless pursuit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth isn’t just a bad thing, but is leading humanity to catastrophe. He is an expert on what climate collapse actually means, as well as the solutions available to us that could mitigate the crisis.

He and Aaron Bastani discuss where the current growth forecasts will lead humanity, and the planet we live on. How does Palestine fit into the broader geo-political picture? Is green growth a plausible economic strategy, or just a greenwashed version of capitalism? And does degrowth need a re-brand?

ACFM Microdose: Gardening Aug 31, 2025

Show notes

Are gardens a sanctuary or an enclosure? The ACFM gang sketch out a weird-left history of gardening, from the walled gardens of paradise to the tarmacked lawns of suburban Britain.

Find the books, music and Dunmore Pineapple mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters

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Downstream: China Is Building While the West Crumbles w/ Dan Wang Aug 25, 2025

Show notes

Dan Wang is a technology analyst and author whose life experience, spent partly in North America, partly in China, sets him up as an authoritative observer of the differences and similarities between the American and Chinese empires. In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Wang shares his thesis that elite overproduction of engineers in China, and lawyers in America, can explain the traits of each empire as they face down the 21st century, from high speed rail and housing, to lockdown policy and manufacturing strategy.

Why has China been able to roll out high speed rail while America hasn’t? Why does so much of the anglophone world appear to be living in the ruins of industrial society? How did the one child policy come into being and has there been any reparation for the atrocities committed in its name? And is China today fundamentally left or right wing?

Downstream: A Reckoning Is Coming For The Establishment Over Gaza w/ Owen Jones Aug 18, 2025

Show notes

Owen Jones is a journalist and the author of ‘Chavs’, ‘The Establishment’, and ‘This Land’. He has spent the last 21 months relentlessly reporting and commenting on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

He joins Ash Sarkar to talk about how media bias actually works, the history of the West’s support for Zionism, and how to deal with the weaponisation of antisemitism when it’s done to support a genocide.

Downstream: The Ancient Indian History Our Schools Don’t Teach w/ William Dalrymple Aug 11, 2025

Show notes

Ash Sarkar sat down at EartH Hackney with acclaimed historian and author William Dalrymple.

Picking up where they left off last time they spoke on Downstream, Sarkar and Dalrymple had a wide-ranging conversation at the crossroads of empire, resistance, and the long shadows of colonialism.

From the rich histories traced in The Golden Road to the urgent realities of Gaza and the deeper fault lines of South Asia’s past, this was a discussion that cut across centuries—and continents.

Dalrymple brought his signature insight into how East shaped West, asking us to reimagine our sense of where power lay in the ancient world.

Novara FM: Where Did Novara Media Come From? w/ Aaron Bastani, James Butler and Ash Sarkar Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

Novara FM was Novara Media’s first show – it’s now coming to an end.

On the final episode, Richard Hames sat down with Aaron Bastani, James Butler and Ash Sarkar to talk about 15 years of Novara Media.

What have we learned from a decade and a half fighting a media landscape that insists nothing can ever change?

A new product will launch next month. Animated by the same complexity and depth as Novara FM, it will be available both on this podcast feed and YouTube.

Downstream: The Real Reason Millennials Are Screwed w/ Eliza Filby Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

Dr Eliza Filby is a historian and author of the bestselling book Inheritocracy: It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad. In conversation with Ash Sarkar, Dr Filby draws on her own life story, growing up in South London with parents who went from communists to Thatcherites in the 1980s. She debunks the common myths we tell ourselves about class and meritocracy, and in doing so, shines a light on the root cause of so much inequality: inherited wealth.

Is it really true that the Baby Boomers stole the next generation’s future? Why do housing deposits fall out of the sky for some people when they turn 30? Is it a good thing that the middle classes are now being screwed over, too? And is class ultimately about identity, or access to money?

ACFM Trip 53: Growth Aug 03, 2025

Show notes

Keir Starmer claims that growth is the only cure for a country in decline. But why is it the central obsession of modern capitalist economies? And can we think our way out of it before our planet runs out of resources?

Nadia, Keir and Jem offer their weird-left take on growth, degrowth, radical abundance, ecomodernism and personal productivity, with ideas from Kate Soper and Kohei Saito and music from Minnie Riperton, 7 Samurai and Joanna Newsom.

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
Follow our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching ‘ACFM’.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Downstream: Ash Sarkar meets Gerry Adams Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

This interview would once have been illegal to broadcast in the UK. For many, Gerry Adams is a peacemaker, but for others he remains inseparable from the violence and trauma of the Troubles.

Ash Sarkar travels to the James Connolly Centre in West Belfast to talk to Adams about the slow rise of his party, Sinn Féin, the emotional demands of leading a political movement, and his responsibility to the victims of IRA violence.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara FM: Does the Palestine Action Ban Signal the Decline of Liberalism in Britain? w/ Simon Childs Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

Is the UK still a liberal country? With terrorism laws criminalising speech around Palestine Action, it’s a serious question.

A growing gulf between public opinion and state policy on Gaza reveals a liberal order in decline.

Richard Hames spoke to Simon Childs about where our society is going.