Novara Media

Latest Episodes:

Novara FM: Die Hard w/ James Butler Dec 19, 2024

Show notes

Die Hard is a perennial of festive TV, but is it really a Christmas movie? James Butler and Eleanor Penny explore what the 1988 action comedy reveals about corporate power, class antagonism, mid-century terrorism and women in the workplace. Who is Bruce Willis’ shoeless cowboy cop out to rescue? And what is going on with Hans Gruber’s accent?

Comments, questions, corrections? fm@novaramedia.com

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

Downstream: Is Germany’s Economy Heading for Collapse? w/ Wolfgang Münchau Dec 16, 2024

Show notes

Just two months before a general election, Germany finds itself in a precarious position. The European project is fragile, the country’s manufacturing innovation has stalled, and Germany’s dependence on Russian resources has become, quite obviously, disastrous.

So what will happen to this once deeply consequential world power, and what does its story tell us about the future of Europe and the upending of global power in the 21st century?

Wolfgang Münchau has a thorough understanding of this story. A writer for the FT on European and German matters for over 20 years, his new book Kaput tells us an awful lot about why Germany is in the state it currently is.

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

Novara FM: We Need a New Wikileaks w/ Stefania Maurizi Dec 13, 2024

Show notes

In the 2010s, we found out that we were all being watched. A series of leaks, from Wikileaks and others, revealed that our governments were conducting mass surveillance operations on their own populations. But what were the longer term consequences of those leaks? And why hasn’t something of equivalent size stepped in to replace Wikileaks since?

Stefania Maurizi is a journalist who worked with Wikileaks and Glenn Greenwald on the Edward Snowden revelations. She’s also the author of Secret Power: Wikileaks and Its Enemies.

She sat down with Richard Hames to explain how Wikileaks achieved so much, how the state tried to destroy them, and how they fought back and won.

Comments, questions, corrections? fm@novaramedia.com

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

Downstream: The Journalist Who Spent A Year With The Taliban w/ Ibrahim Nash’at Dec 09, 2024

Show notes

When the Taliban retook all of Afghanistan in 2021, it came as a shock to much of the West. The day after the last American soldier left, journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at flew into Kabul to spend a year filming with the Taliban’s senior military leadership. What he found was a regime drunk on power, in control of far more territory and with better weaponry than ever – courtesy of the Americans, who left it all behind.

Ibrahim joins Ash to talk about the making of Hollywoodgate, which is currently available to watch in the UK on BBC iPlayer as part of the Storyville series.

People-powered media needs people to power it. Please consider supporting Novara Media by donating an hour’s wage per month, or whatever you can afford. Head to https://novaramedia.com/support

ACFM Trip 48: Political Commitment Dec 08, 2024

Show notes

Which side are you on? Keir, Nadia and Jem consider the ebb and flow of political commitment with ideas and music from Jodi Dean, Gramsci, John Coltrane and the Raincoats.

Is cultural production the same as political action? What’s the difference between an ally and a comrade? And why do some communists end up as right-wing turncoats?

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

Novara FM: The New Scramble for Africa in the Vacuum of Empire w/ James Pogue Dec 05, 2024

Show notes

In 1891, the French drew the borders of what became Mali. Like many colonial borders, they were arbitrary, absurd to the many nomads who supposedly lived within them.

Now climate change is ravaging the Sahel region, and many of those nomads are being forced to settle down. And Russia and China have arrived to replace the long tail of French colonial domination. As has Al-Qaeda.

So what does this all have to do with the far-right anti-imperialism of Steve Bannon?

James Pogue is a journalist with an extraordinary range. He has reported from Mauritania and the Central African Republic, from the private gatherings of JD Vance and the militias of Oregon.

In this episode, he tells Richard Hames about how violence, money, racism weave together at the end of an empire – and perhaps the beginning of another.

Downstream: Humans Could Become Immortal This Century w/ Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston Dec 02, 2024

Show notes

Humanity has long pursued an elixir of youth and dreamed of eternal life. For the Abrahamic faiths, physical immortality was lost in the Garden of Eden, with only the soul remaining of permanence. More recently, futurists and thinkers have speculated about the possibilities of radical life extension.

For neuroscientist Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston there is another alternative, however. He believes that the human brain could be fully mapped and digitally reproduced – with the first part of that process possible within a century. He talks to Aaron Bastani about living forever.

People-powered media needs people to power it. Please consider supporting Novara Media by donating an hour’s wage per month, or whatever you can afford. Head to https://novaramedia.com/support

Novara FM: Protect or Punish? The Stakes of Sex Worker Activism w/ Laura Watson Nov 28, 2024

Show notes

Imagine a person arrested for keeping a brothel. Who are they? An abusive pimp? Such people exist, no doubt, but the law isn’t set up just to catch abusers: it also targets sex workers working together to stay safe.

With Labour in power, big changes could be afoot, but legalising sex work could harm sex workers as well.

That’s the view of the English Collective of Prostitutes, one of the leading sex worker right organisations in the UK. Their new report ‘Proceed Without Caution’ shows how the law keeps women in sex work, and keeps punishing them for being there.

Their spokeswoman Laura Watson joined Eleanor Penny to discuss poverty, power, whether sex work can ever be abolished, and the case for decriminalisation.

Downstream: Trains Are Better Than Cars. Here’s Why w/ Gareth Dennis Nov 25, 2024

Show notes

While the first modern trains were built in the early 19th century – more people travel by rail today than ever before. Not only have passenger numbers risen in the UK but the likes of China, Iran and Uzbekistan now have high-speed networks.

On this episode of Downstream, Aaron Bastani is joined by author and railway engineer Gareth Dennis. They discuss the rationale behind HS2, why Hyperloop was always destined to fail and the real reason Britain has so many potholes. Plus: does every major city really need a tram system? And how come Britain is so bad at building new infrastructure?

Novara FM: The New Space Race Is an Arms Race w/ Daniel Deudney Nov 22, 2024

Show notes

In October 2024, SpaceX caught a rocket. An astonishing feat of engineering, it took humanity one giant leap closer to the era of everyday space travel – and possibly one small step closer to its own obliteration.

Despite a long list of treaties attempting to prevent it, space is now a militarised zone. Nuclear-laden ICBMs and weapons systems on satellites are just the tip of a secretive iceberg of new risks, whose enormous power threatens us all. And next year Elon Musk, avatar for this new era of space expansion, will take up a key position alongside the Trump administration.

Eleanor Penny sat down with Daniel Deudney, author of Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity to talk about the perils, promises and progress of our expansion out into our vast and indifferent universe.

Comments, questions, corrections? fm@novaramedia.com

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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected